Rakesh Mathur is one of the many high-flying Indian entrepreneurs who grace the Silicon Valley landscape.
The 43-year-old graduate of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, left Intel to strike out on his own in the early 80s. His most successful venture, a comparison-shopping service called Junglee, was acquired by Amazon in 1998 for $241 million.

When he's not founding companies, Mathur is busy investing in the IT economy back in India. From funding an incubator at his alma mater to setting up a venture fund for Indian companies, Mathur hopes to lay the foundation for a brighter future for his homeland.

Wired News: In India, entrepreneurship is usually an inherited trade. Your parents were both professors. How did you end up as a businessman?
Mathur: I think I picked up some of that spirit as a kid in the U.S. I came here when my father was doing his post-doctoral degree in University of Illinois. And I decided I needed a paper route. It bothered my parents and really embarrassed my grandparents. They were very annoyed with my parents for letting me sell newspapers. So I've always had that drive. Even when I was at IIT, I knew I would do something on my own.
 

WN: You went from IIT to an American graduate school and then on to Silicon Valley. This seems very typical of Indian engineering students.
Mathur: Yes, we've patented that route. Students at IIT have it down pat. It's very much a cooperation-driven system. Almost everyone in your class is in the 99th percentile in the GRE. So U.S. schools looking to differentiate end up having to rely on GPA for the IIT folks.
You know which schools to apply to [based on your GPA] because the [alumni] who applied before you. You don't undercut each other by applying to same place. You also make sure that other people ranked lower than you have places they can go to.
So you always knew based on where you stood in your class which universities to apply to, where the scholarships were. I'm sure it's now gone one step further. By now, people know which classmates are working for which group in Microsoft.
 

WN: You decided to leave Intel and start out on your own, it was pretty rare for Indians to do something risky like that back then. What problems did you face?
Mathur: It was rare. It was very difficult to convince ex-classmates of mine to leave what they were doing and come join me. Twenty years ago, a 22-year-old with a job at Intel called up his father and said, 'I'm going to leave and start a company with Rakesh Mathur.' The response would be: Are you crazy?
And when I was looking for investors back then, even raising money was difficult. People didn't know who you were. They were more skeptical about your idea, your ability to manage people as a business. Probably because it hadn't been done [by an Indian] before.
People always need examples. Now there are so many Indians that have created companies more than once. One of the most awesome things I'm aware of is the chairman of Citibank is Indian. Isn't that huge?
Today, the process of starting a company has become much easier for not just Indians, but people from diverse backgrounds.
 

WN: You have been investing in various projects in India, including an incubator at IIT, Bombay. What are you trying to achieve through these investments?
Mathur: A lot of huge economic growth comes out of nuclei. Silicon Valley, for example, is a nucleus, and the heart of that nucleus is Stanford. A lot of these companies have been born out of Stanford. And as a result of these ideas flowing out and becoming companies, we've got this powerhouse called Silicon Valley.
It's literally got a trillion-dollar market cap. The entire Indian economy is probably 200 to 300 billion. So you have a nucleus with a very short history, and very much tied to an institution of academic excellence. My vision is to replicate that in IIT. I'm much less interested in funding a building.
 

WN: Is there a broader vision about India as a country?
Mathur: Yes, absolutely. Let's say in 20 years, there are a billion jobs in information technology. And we fine-tune India to focus only on information technology -- which will take a lot of doing, especially in the field of literacy. Let's say we are able to focus India on just one thing. It should be possible, given our advantages in this field, that 4 million of those jobs should be occupied by India.
This is the fastest chance for India to become a super power. It requires extreme focus. I would look very hard at investing in any other industry. The idea is to become an IT Japan.
 

WN: And what happens to the poor?
Mathur: (laughs) The poor are going to be writing code in C++. Decades from now, the virtual economy is going to be as important as the real economy. Two-hundred years of industrial revolution has given an advantage to developed countries in terms of the real economy. The virtual economy has no natural leader yet. So don't mess around with yesterday's industrial revolution. Occupy the top spot of the next one.
 

WN: The Indian community in Silicon Valley is very closely knit. How has that translated into an effective business network?
Mathur: Networking, which is a great American concept, is something we've embraced and extended. The Indian network has two components. One being people from the same school. The IIT, Bombay network is very similar to the, say, Harvard University network.
The larger Indian network is based on the notion that you can connect more easily with these people. You can understand them and isn't it cool to give [an advantage to] some people who haven't had an advantage in the past? Isn't it cool to add luster to India's reputation in America?
There's a greater immediacy of the relationship because you both got off the "boat" together. You're always going to be tightly knit to your classmates. You're always going to gravitate toward Indian friends. Although I think for the health of the community, we better integrate.
 

WN: The Indian community can sometimes seem a little insular. They're also less vocal and visible than other minorities. Why do you think this is?
Mathur: As immigrants, there's so much to accomplish, where is the time to be involved in local politics? I bet it changes in one generation. I agree we need to do what we can do to become more powerful. But I can't really say I've faced racism.
Personally, I don't think I'm insular. Right from the time I came to the U.S., I've tried very hard to have friends from all over the world. That's very important, to not get into the mode of watching cricket all the time, seeing Indian movies, eating Indian food, hanging out with same bunch of people.
It's very easy to do. But it's a trap. If you want to live here, you better be a citizen of that place. Although I still have my Indian passport. I've been too lazy to do anything about it.
 

Source:  Lakshmi Chaudhry, Wired Digital Inc. , Apr. 4, 2000