On
October 22, 1999 Sycamore Networks made history. This highly regarded
company with less than 200 employees was listed on the New York
Stock Exchange. It had made an initial public offering of 7.5
million shares for $38 a share. On that trading day the company's
share shot up to $250 before closing at $ 185. At that price the
company Sycamore Networks was valued at $ 18 billion and its chairman
and largest shareholder with 21% of the holding, Gururaj Deshpande,
became the richest Indian in the world with a personal wealth
of $ 3.7 billion.
This
success at the stock market made him an instant icon in the eyes
of many Indians who were trying to make their mark in the technology
sector. However, for those who new him well, were not at all surprise
at his success. Deshpande was always known for 'hits'. According
to the highly regarded Red Herring magazine Gururaj Deshpande
"built an entrepreneurial resume that borders on the spectacular."
This
overwhelming opinion on Deshpande came after the success of his
second start-up, Cascade, a broadband switchmaker whose switches
were so successful that 70 per cent of all Internet traffic was
routed through them at one time. Cascade started in 1990 was a
two-man operation with just $ 125,000 in seed money. When Gururaj
Deshpande sold the company in 1997, its worth was $ 3.7 billion
with 900 employees. Later on the buyers Ascend Communications
sold Cascade for $ 21 billion to Lucent Technologies.
The
key feature of the Sycamore technology is that it allows fibre
optic networks to offer much greater bandwidth than earlier possible
at lower cost. According to Fortune magazine Sycamore is one of
the 12 "coolest companies" of 1999.
A
graduate from IIT, he left for Canada where he went on to acquire
a doctorate in data communications. He started his career by teaching
in Queens University. In 1980 he gave it up to join Codex Corporation.
In the middle he changed to bigger and better jobs until, he returned
to India briefly to consider starting a business there. However,
he went back to launch Cascade and the rest, as they say, is history.
Gururaj