Sindhu Joseph
CEO of CogniCor Technologies
Breaking the glass ceiling, this woman entrepreneur from Wayanad sheds light on her startup journey in a tete-a-tete with Pramod Thomas. Her company’s Digital Assistant is now making waves in artificial intelligence and neuro-linguistic programming. But Sindhu Joseph says that the other side of the startup journey has not been a bed of roses...
The entrepreneurial life of Sindhu Joseph, Co-founder and CEO of CogniCor Technologies, can be summed up with her journey from Wayanad to the US. Born to teachers in Wayanad, her success has seen her company collect several laurels, including the crown of the most innovative startup in Europe in 2012. Ask Joseph, and she describes her startup journey as “both sweet and bitter”
CogniCor, Joseph’s firm, offers advanced customer service technology. Its Digital Assistant has been pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence and neuro-linguistic programming but Sindhu Joseph says that the journey has not been a bed of roses.
“Once I had to attend a few meetings in New York. I was thrilled when I found a single room for $18 per night with bare minimum facilities. The reception area was open and all kinds of people walked in and out. Towards evening, I began to feel itchy all over, but I ignored it. When I came back to the hotel, I could stand no longer, and as soon as I entered the reception, I removed my coat and there was not a single place in my body that was not bitten by bugs. When I showed this to the girl at the reception and she just handed me a $10 bill and asked me to buy a lotion from a nearby pharmacy. I spend the next night sitting on one stool. My husband has lived an entire month in our office because we thought we could save on rent,” she points out.
“I just wanted to highlight the other side of the startup journey. We lived a very precarious life,” she adds.
CogniCor got its first break in 2012, when it was selected as the top startup out of 350 startups for the accelerator program of Telefonica, one of the largest telecoms in Europe. Soon came the European award which eventually led to $1 million in seed funding in 2013. Now, the company has presences in three continents, Europe (Barcelona), Asia (India) and the US.
“The Indian startup life these days is glorified. Young college students listening to such hype think that it is the easiest and fastest way to make money. From our experience, it is a hard life. Only someone with motivation greater than making quick bucks or looking for a path to glory will persevere in such situations,” she signs off.
http://www.newindianexpress.com/business/news/Life-is-all-about-motivation-not-making-quick-bucks/2016/07/03/article3510859.ece
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