[Goanet-News] The man who built a $1bn firm in his basement

[Frederick FN Noronha फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या *فريدريك نورونيا]

The man who built a $1bn firm in his basement
By Will SmaleBusiness reporter, BBC News

   - 10 July 2017

   - From the sectionBusiness 


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[image: Carl Rodrigues]Image copyrightSOTIImage captionMr Rodrigues says he
wanted to do something for a living that he really liked

Carl Rodrigues says that his family and friends all thought he had lost his
mind.

"Everybody thought I had gone completely nuts," he says. "They were saying
'what's wrong with this guy? Is he having a hippy moment?'."

Mr Rodrigues, a successful IT consultant, had woken up one day and decided
to quit the day job.

Instead of doing lucrative work for other people, he was going to retire to
his basement and develop a best-selling computer product.

The significant problem was that he didn't have any ideas. But to the worry
of his wife, and scorn of his mother-in-law - who lived with them - he was
undeterred.

So back in 2001 he shut himself away beneath his house in the Canadian city
of Mississauga, and started to try to dream up something.

"My goal was that I wanted to see what I could produce if I did something I
really liked," he says.

"I didn't know what I was going to do, but I thought I would give it a
shot."

After a month of working "crazy hours", Mr Rodrigues had come up with his
first fully formed idea - a software system that allowed the user to
control his or her mobile phone from their laptop.
[image: Carl Rodrigues]Image copyrightCARL RODRIGUESImage captionMr
Rodrigues squirreled himself away in his basement

Naming his company Soti, sales of the system started to grow slowly, until
12 months later Mr Rodrigues got a phone call out of the blue from one of
the UK's largest supermarket groups.

The firm didn't want to sell the system to its customers, instead it wanted
to incorporate it into its operations, so staff could better communicate
and pass on data and other information.

Mr Rodrigues, now 55 and Soti's chief executive, says: "I was still in my
basement when I got a call from the company, saying they would like to
place an order.

"I don't think they realised that they were talking to just one guy in a
basement, so when the person asked to speak to someone in sales I came back
on the phone with a slightly different tone."

The little ruse worked, and the UK firm placed a "huge order" for 20,000
units.
[image: Man using Soti software]Image copyrightSOTIImage captionThe firm
specialises in mobile technology software systems

Soti has never looked back; and while most people have never heard of the
firm - because it sells its mobile technology software systems to companies
instead of consumers - it today has annual revenues of $80m (£62m).

This is despite Mr Rodrigues not needing any external investment. The
business remains 100% owned by him and his wife.

Continuing to turn down numerous takeover bids, including an undisclosed
offer from Microsoft in 2006, the Canadian business leader instead says he
wants Soti to "become as big as they get" in the computer world.

Born in Pakistan to a Roman Catholic family that had its roots in the
former Portuguese colony of Goa on India's west coast, Mr Rodrigues
emigrated to Canada with his parents and four siblings when he was 11.

The decision to leave Pakistan was Mr Rodrigues' mother's. He says she was
increasingly concerned at political and social instability in the country
in the early 1970s.

He says: "Dad was happy in Pakistan, but mum wanted us kids to have a nice
safe place to grow up in, and have a good education."
[image: Carl Rodrigues and his family]Image copyrightCARL RODRIGUESImage
captionCarl (the youngest of the two boys) and his family left Pakistan in
the early 1970s

As the family spoke English at home, Mr Rodrigues says he had no problem
settling in Toronto. He even liked the significantly colder weather.

"I was dying to see snow," he says. "This magical thing I had never seen."

After "doing enough at school to go to university", Mr Rodrigues did a
degree in computer science and mathematics at the University of Toronto.

He then spent a number of years working as a consultant, before launching
Soti in 2001.

Today the company is valued at more than $1bn (£770m), and has 17,000
business customers around the world, and 700 employees across 22 countries.

Instead of still being based in Mr Rodrigues' basement, its headquarters is
split across two buildings in Mississauga, which borders Toronto in the
Canadian province of Ontario.
[image: Soti staff at work]Image copyrightSOTIImage captionThe company has
700

[Goanet-News] Boletim da Casa de Goa -- June-July 2017

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا]

Boletim da Casa de Goa -- June-July 2017

Editorial ………pág. 3
International Conference ….…….pág. 4/16
Terá Goa uma Cultura Sustentada no Século XXI? …..……..pág.17/18
Entrevista: Maria Virgínia Brás Gomes …..pág. 19/20
Quem é Henrique Machado Jorge ……….pág. 21
Discurso do Sr. Primeiro Ministro Dr. António Costa ………..pág. 22/25
Entrevista: Ana Paula Guerra ….pág. 26/27
Intolerância Crescente na Índia e Também em Goa ………..pág. 28/29
Goa Índica e Lusófona .pág. 30/31
Uma Pedrada no Charco ……….pág. 32/33
Sete “Goas”, Sete Vidas .……….pág. 34/37
Espaço dos Jovens …….……….pág. 38/39
10th Know Goa Programme ……….……..pág. 40
Aconteceu ……….…….pág. 41/43
É Preciso ter Memória…….……..pág. 44
Agenda .……..pág.45/46
Anúncios …….….……..pág. 47

SEE FULL TEXT online here: http://docdro.id/Sk2lIZM
Or get your own copy from diasval...@gmail.com (Dr Edgar Valles)
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