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In order to make all of this happen, the time had come to think of a second round of funding, and we set up an internal team to work on the same.

Meanwhile, it was decided that the best person to spearhead our transformation from being an e-business company in to a full-fledged enterprise solutions provider was KK.
So, he returned from the US and started the process along with the charter to set up Europe and Asia Pac. My wife Mita was just about getting comfortable in our newly constructed house in Bangalore but she did not even flinch when I came in one evening and said that we were to pack our bags and move to New Jersey. For her it was the twelfth such move since we married 23 years ago. For all our corporate bravado, where would we be without our spouses!

All this while, not a week passed without a globally recognized merchant banker calling on us to offer money. We were seen as the next great investment opportunity. For us, getting the second round funding was not the issue. Who to choose and how much to raise were the issues. We were confident that we would get a fair valuation.

The process of getting the entire thing sorted out took longer than what we had thought it would. Though we began giving out the statement of interest in January of 2001, by the time we settled on the lead investor - The Capital Group and the co-investors that included Franklin Templeton and the first round investors - it was already summer. Lawyers worked through the summer and finally the money hit the bank account in August 2001. During this time period, the stock market started declining and people began to talk about an impending global economic slowdown.

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Subroto Bagchi is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer for MindTree Consulting (P) Ltd. The "Making of the MindTree" is told in the first person by Subroto Bagchi. In condensed form, it was published by Business World, filmed by InfiniTV, and aired on CNBC, IT Hour. Websites: www.mindtree.com & www.mindtree.com/subrotobagchi