He is a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, a CFA and a Serial Entrepreneur. He has also worked at C-level for two corporates with $70B in annual revenue as well as for the prestigious Fortune 100 companies. Having great experience in the world of entrepreneurship, with strong academic background did not mean that he did not go through struggles. There might have been constant hurdles but the other constant was the determination to get through them and rise. Dr. Srinivas Kilambi’s journey of to flout the odds has been a colorful one!
Dr. Srinivas began his career in late 80s as an entrepreneur with the vision to introduce India’s first biochemical plant and received the country’s best entrepreneur award for this project. He then moved to the US to pursue MS and Ph.D. in chemical engineering. Two of his Ph.D. patents have been acquired by NY based private equity firm and both companies went IPO in 1996 and 1997. He got married to Jaya Kilambi, was the turning point in his life. His wife supported him to complete his CFA, MS, and Ph.D. and helped him to start the companies, taught him the greatest virtue of patience and love. In 2014, Dr. Srinivas started DXI along with Dr. David Dodds.
How He Started Out DXI
Dr. Srinivas talks about some important aspect of DXI’s inception, “The Company was founded more by accident or necessity than choice. The two of us were working on a renewable materials project and were looking for some equipment and materials on many online sites. We never could find what we were looking for and even though we searched extensively”. He continues, “However, no sooner had we exited the site in sheer frustration, we received several calls and survey questionnaires asking us to inform the sites as to how we felt. We were shocked, and we realized that the sites had no clue about our experience and satisfaction levels and they assumed that since we spent a lot of time on site, we were quite satisfied, and we were a step away from buying online.”
This is how he decided to find a better way to understand user experience (UX) rather than through surveys. After six month’s intensive brainstorming they started ambitious project to mathematically convert a very subjective ‘Consumer Engagement and Experience’ into an objective number. DXI’s mission and capabilities have evolved over a period of time. It has moved from initially an UX/DX tool kit for digital experience to an UX/DX Solution to a Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) solution to now as a being benchmark index for ‘Consumer User Experience’.
Moreover, the company has also applied the underlying technology engine into verticals like manufacturing productivity index, HR attrition index, healthcare predictivity index, airport customer satisfaction index etc. In summary, the company offers two distinct products namely a ‘Consumer Intelligence Index’ and ‘Business Intelligence Index’.
An Avid Learning Attitude
Dr. Srinivas is inspired by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who have not just achieved excellence in their chosen professions but have also been chosen to give back most of their wealth to noble causes and improvements in global human life standards. He looks at life from a very holistic position and excels as an individual in multiple disciplines namely entrepreneurship, innovation, and philanthropist.
He has been recognized and honored with several prestigious awards. He has won ‘TAG 2011 award’, ‘TiE Global Award in 2010’, ‘TiE Southeast Entrepreneur award in 2009’, ‘Frost & Sullivan Most Innovative Green Technology in 2010’ and more. He was one of the WEF 2010 finalists for the most innovative technology. Moreover, he has been recognized as ‘Youngest CEO of Reliance India’. During his academic journey, he has accomplished some significant places by securing second rank in CFA India and did one of the fastest PhDs in UTK.
His Definition of Success
Effective execution of plans is the most important part to achieve the goals. According to him, a great idea is necessary for successful startups but success of the business totally depends on the execution of that idea. A great idea is only worth 10-20%. Success is 90% execution of a great idea. His approach for accomplishing goals in life is to follow and execute the fundamentals very closely. Breaking down goals into simple fundamentals enables a much easier execution.
He asserts, “Success always is a corollary and follows excellence like a shadow. I believe in measuring success through quantifying the level of excellence you have enabled in others’ lives or to the environment or humanity and not just in monetary terms of revenue generated.”
His advice to the budding entrepreneurs is, to follow your dream from a holistic purpose, chase excellence as success will definitely follow and be 100% innovative. Finally, entrepreneurship is 100% full time effort and passion and is not a part time hobby.
Srinivas Kilambi
