Dr. Prahlad, an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore, the founder director and chief mentor to an entrepreneurial start-up, Robhatah Robotic Solutions at Singapore and Bangalore. He is also is the founder secretary of the Federation of International Robot-soccer Association (FIRA - www.fira.net) and currently its General Secretary. He is also actively involved in various technical forums including conferences, symposia and robotic competitions. He has been featured in several prominent newspapers and TV shows in India, Singapore, USA, Korea, Spain and France.

Company: ROBHATAH PTE LTD Address: #02-12-b, 4 Engineering Drive 3 Singapore Website: http://www.robhatah.com/ Interview with Dr Prahlad Vadakkepat by Kriti Arora on 09-Mar-2009. Student can be reached at kriti.arora.2005@smu.edu.sg   Business Profile: Robhatah Private Limited is a robotic technology consulting and consumer product manufacturing company. It identifies markets for intelligent robotic applications, designs innovative solutions for the markets, and implements the solutions with excellent craftsmanship.   Interviewer's Comments: Dr. Prahlad Vadakkepat is an extremely down-to-earth character. He is a passionate and committed individual and has opened up my eyes on the definition of success. Throughout the interview, he came forth as a sincere, full of zest kind of person, willing to share his personal thoughts, experiences and business philosophy.   1. What is the nature of your business? Mobile Robotic Products and Consulting Services   2. When and why did you decide to become an entrepreneur / take over your family business? NOTE: If it is not a family business, ask: Do your parents have their own businesses too? Have they inspired you in one way or another? (Select appropriate question according to the entrepreneur being interviewed.) My forefathers were in business. I believe Singapore provides a good atmosphere for startups and entrepreneurs. In early 2000, our robots were winning consecutively in international arena. There was an order for our humanoid robot in 2003. Along with the students and researchers the company was formed in 2004. Janesh Janardhan, currently, CEO of Robhatah and ex-NUS student, has helped me throughout in running the business.   3. What are your reasons for choosing to do business in this particular industry? Some of the reasons include that this industry is young and there is emerging space as well as a lot of potential for growth. I have been researching in this field for much over a decade. I believe that there is a lot of value to be added in this industry.   4. How did you put together all the resources needed to start your business? For example: getting the start-up capital, hiring staff, doing sales and marketing, advertising, etc. I have participated in a lot of start-up events and competitions, before starting Robhatah. I have also interacted with a lot of entrepreneurs, listened to their stories and drawn inspirations from their challenges and how they overcame it. As for the start-up capital, we received a small seed fund from NUS and also generated some profits through the sale of humanoid robots.   5. What are some interesting stories you have about your first few customers/first few years in business? I started with a sale of a humanoid robot MaNUS. I had won FIRA Austria 2003, and there was an order to deliver. So I set off to bag the order, and started the company. Some other customers followed. The initial team was pretty large - 7 people, but there was not enough money to pay such a big team in the beginning. Also it took time to refine the value proposition. But our robots kept doing well on the international arena, and we kept winning awards and recognition. We were also one of the finalists at Startup Singapore 2006 and the hope was kept alive.   6. What are some of the challenges you faced when you first went into business? Robotics industry and hardware companies in general had a tough time as the manufacturing costs and inventory costs would not appeal much to investors looking for scalable growth without high COGS (Cost of goods sold) for every unit sold. Software, Bio, Nano, Mobile etc were the preferred space for a lot of Venture Capitalists. So, it was hard attracting investors.   7. How did you overcome these challenges? Please share some specific examples of the action you took to overcome the challenges. The dream of a robotic future was certain. We stuck to our dream, tried looking for funding from every sources possible. We have even presented to DFJ and KPCB (Venture Capitalists) in the United States. Finally we received a reasonably large order and almost at the same time found two investors from the valley, and from India - who found us as an interesting company.   8. How do you manage your time between teaching and running the company? Teaching and research was of course the primary job, and still is. We found time during the evenings, and weekends for interactions on refining the business, and stretching the dollar.   9. What are some of your proudest business achievements to date? ii. And why are they so important and meaningful to you? We were able to attract 13 of India's most powerful businessmen to believe in the Robotic future, and share our dream. More than a validation of our dream, it was a triumph of our years of hard work and emotional and monetary investments in Robhatah.   10. What have been some of the main technological innovations in your business? There are many. Robhatah has over 15 patents in Robotics Navigation and interaction. The number will be close to 40 by end 2009. We own a lot of IP in robotic navigation and interaction, which power our product and service offerings.   11. How many employees do you currently have and how do you motivate them? We have about 20 employees. They are highly self motivated and deeply passionate about Robotics. All we try to do are to channel and align their individual motivation to do astounding work in Robotics with the company philosophy and goals.   12. Has India been a hard market to crack for your business? Every market is hard or easy depending on our understanding of the market and the importance of our value proposition to the consumers of that country. Our products are well received in India - which is one of our primary big-markets. We will be expanding to other countries shortly.   13. Is this fiercely comparative business that you are in? How do you overcome this competition? If a space has money to be made, competition will follow. It is a positive thing - for one, it tells you that others also believe in your market - which is good. Second, it forces you to innovate, thereby delivering better products and services for the consumer.   14. How involved are NUS students with this venture? We are an NUS startup and had been previously funded by NUS. NUS students and staff are very supportive in our venture. We are sure that the relationship is valuable to both NUS and Robhatah. We are positive that the relationship will continue for a very long time.   15. How much have your business grown since you have started? In terms of $ revenue, customers base, number of employees and number of branches? (rate of growth in percentage or numbers) What do you see for your business in the next 2 to 5 years amid the current market condition in 2009, and does it include any plans for expansion? It took us some time for the business to pick up. We have had ups and downs till 2008. In 2008, we signed a major contract - worth almost S$ 42 Million over 3-5 years. We will be looking forward to 2-3 similar contracts over the next few years growing at a150% year-on-year rate. We have offices in Singapore and India now. We intend to expand our business to more locations in SE Asia, US, Europe and Dubai in the coming few years.   16. How has the recent global financial crisis affected your business? Effect of the financial crisis will be felt by every company. Cash is in extremely short supply and comes at very high premium. Consumers are wary of spending, and companies are cutting additional costs and expenses. For companies, it is necessary to survive on shorter supply of cash, and stretch the dollar till the economy becomes stable and consumers are willing to purchase again. We see a decrease in spending on luxury items, but there are other relatively downturn-proof segments like educational robotics products that are doing OK.   17. What do you see for your business in the next 5 years, and does it include any plans for expansion? Certainly - the world is shrinking, and global customer needs have to be addressed. This would mean expansion along different product segments, and different geographies. In 5 years, Robhatah would be present in most of the developed and developing world - providing technologies to businesses and consumers - for production of a new generation of smart machines.   18. Can you give a few suggestions to a naive robot enthusiast? Robotics is the way of the future. Do not be afraid to try out new things - it is only through experimentation and constructive failure that innovation happens.   19. What does entrepreneurship mean to you and In your opinion, what other qualities does a person need in order to be successful in business? And why? (Educational qualification, work experience, attitude) Technology entrepreneurs are those with enough appetite (boldness or foolishness or both) to try out things that sometimes even large companies cannot set out to do. They are people who wish to achieve 10 times the things that others would normally do with 1/10th the money. For every successful entrepreneur, there are thousands of failures - and it is necessary to have an atmosphere that encourages a constructive look at failure - and at things learnt through failure - to ensure that the climate of entrepreneurship continues to survive. Qualities required are an extreme belief in his or her vision, recognition of gaps that he needs to fill to take his company to the next level, a solid team or the ability of the entrepreneur to attract a solid team, a fundamentally strong value proposition, and the flexibility to adapt to changing market conditions or consumer expectations.   20. Where or who do you get your business ideas or inspiration from? From Constructive debates and discussions primarily. I also have a keen ear and watchful eyes to identify and try to address opportunities.   21. In your opinion, what does it mean to have the "spirit of enterprise"? A constructive outlook towards failure would be the core of the spirit of the enterprise. A lot of successful entrepreneurs will tell you their own failures and how they learnt from it before they created winning businesses and respectable companies. You might get lucky, but to me, entrepreneurship is a never say die attitude with a persistent hunger to change the world, and have a positive impact on everyone around you.   22. In your opinion, do you think that age constitutes a challenge for young entrepreneurs? Yes and No. It also depends from cultures and business outlooks. Young entrepreneurs have tremendous energy and extremely contagious business vigor - which is necessary to have winning companies of this decade. They are also unaware of the thousand things that could possibly go wrong - which is a good thing, because they have the courage to go out and try them without being bogged down. I think a good combination would be a constructive and equally inspired team of young and experienced entrepreneurs who back each other along the journey.   23. What are the three important lessons you believe that young entrepreneurs of today should learn through your experience? Keep checking and rechecking your value proposition to see if it makes sense and adapt or morph it if required. If your beliefs are strong, then you need a never-say-die attitude to survive the hundreds of presentations and pitches that you will make before you find a right group of people as potential partners or investors. Do not be afraid to go out and try things that you believe would change the world.   24. A final word? Keep a lookout for Robhatah's products :-)