10 Things You Didn’t Know about Vineet Jain
Vineet Jain is the CEO of Egnyte. It would be inaccurate to call the latter a start-up. After all, it has been around for more than a decade, meaning that it isn’t exactly what most people would consider to be a newcomer to its chosen field. However, Egnyte has managed to attract a lot of attention in recent times because it has been seeing impressive growth, so much so that it could be headed towards an IPO.
1. Went to the Delhi College of Engineering
Jain was born and raised in India. There, he went to the Delhi College of Engineering, which is now called Delhi Technological University. The name change happened in 2009 because the school was granted university status. Something that can sound strange until one realizes that colleges and universities aren’t necessarily one and the same in every post-secondary education system.
2. Became an Engineer
Unsurprisingly, Jain’s education meant that he became an engineer. He decided that the Silicon Valley would be the best place for him to pursue his chosen career. As a result, Jain headed over to the United Kingdom. After spending just a single year in said country, he then headed over to the United States.
3. Worked at Bechtel and KPMG
There, Jain built up experience by working for Bechtel and then KPMG. For those who are unfamiliar, Bechtel is the single biggest construction company that can be found in the United States. However, it isn’t restricted to construction, seeing as how it is involved in engineering, procurement, and project management as well. Meanwhile, KPMG can claim the distinction of being one of the biggest professional services networks in the entire world. In particular, it is famous for being one of the Big Four of accounting organizations.
4. Egnyte Isn’t His First Time As an Entrepreneur
After building up expertise and experience, Jain became an entrepreneur. His first company was Valdero, which was involved in providing supply chain solutions to interested individuals. Jain seems to have found at least some success with this matter, seeing as how he was eventually able to sell Valdero.
5. Co-Founder of Egnyte
Following Valdero, Jain became an entrepreneur once more. This time around, he co-founded Egnyte, which offers a cloud-based platform that helps out interested parties with collaboration as well as governance. As mentioned earlier, the company has been around for some time. However, what makes it eye-catching is that it seems to have taken off. For context, Egnyte took 12 years to grow to the point of having $120 million in annual recurring revenue. Subsequently, it took just two additional years to reach $150 million in annual recurring revenue. Now, Egnyte seems as though it could hit $200 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2022, which explains a lot about why people are now thinking about an IPO.
6. Intent On Doing an IPO
An IPO is pretty much guaranteed to happen at some point in Egnyte’s existence. The company has attracted a lot of attention, so it should come as no surprise to learn that it has received offers to turn it into a public company through some other method. However, Jain isn’t interested in those offers because he is determined to turn Egnyte into a public company through an IPO. Apparently, his background as an immigrant is one of the main reasons that he wants to do an IPO. Essentially, he wants to go public with his company because he sees that as a huge personal milestone.
7. Doesn’t Guarantee that an IPO Will Happen Soon
Having said that, it is important to note that Jain hasn’t guaranteed that an IPO will happen soon. It could happen as early as 2022. However, the actual timing of the IPO will depend on the state of the market. After all, it wouldn’t make much sense for Egnyte to go public when the market is bearish, seeing as how even the best performance in the world would still be dragged down by general sentiment. Instead, Jain will wait for the right time to do an IPO, which to be fair, is the most sensible option.
8. Takes Pride in Running a Fiscally-Responsible Company
Indeed, one could say that Jain takes pride in being sensible. This can be seen in how he specifically chose to build up Egnyte in a slow and steady manner even though that meant taking more time rather than trying to grow it as fast as possible. Jain says that investors are coming around to his chosen approach, which is connected to the increasing volatility of the market. As for why this is important, well, the gist of it is that a lot of investors are more interested in short-term performances even if that comes at the cost of long-term prospects. Due to this, it isn’t uncommon to see companies pursuing the maximization of the current period’s profit with either no or next-to-no regard for the future. Something that can be extremely damaging in the long run. Of course, people can see this, which is why there are also people who have been pushing for a more long-term perspective on such matters.
9. Has a Multinational Workforce
Tech companies are very reliant on their human talent. However, it is interesting to note that Egnyte has a multinational workforce recruited from more than one country. Unsurprisingly, the United States is one of these countries. Last year, Egnyte made a decision to focus on recruiting from India as well.
10. Has Said that Silicon Valley Workers Are Entitled
This was presumably an extension of Egnyte’s already existing policy of hiring from outside of Silicon Valley. In 2017, Jain said that Silicon Valley workers were entitled. Essentially, they want both good pay and good benefits. If Silicon Valley workers don’t have those things, they are quite willing to head somewhere else. Something that is facilitated by the fact that there are plenty of other tech employers in the tech hub.
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