With little savings and few assets, Singh worked all day as a university professor and switched hats at night to an entrepreneur starting a business.  Though he had a formal engineering education, he learned how to start a business the hard way - through the hard knocks of the marketplace.  A MUST read, Singh shares his success story from education to exit and imparts invaluable advice to new ventures!
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Entrepreneurs know that they get one chance to make a first impression.  And if they didn’t know that going into their investor presentation, they knew it on their way out the door. Jim Poage, President and CEO of SATAI, shares stories of others’ mistakes, so you don’t make them!  No, they aren’t made up!
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As the founder and CEO of Karta Technologies, Inc., G.P. Singh developed products and solutions that saved lives, comforted injured military personnel, prevented environmental disasters, and provided high paying jobs for many engineers in the city.

In 1986, Singh gave life to his engineering and computer software company from his family's two-car garage while working as a professor at the University of Texas San Antonio, financing his startup with the few thousand dollars he had in savings. 

He built a sizeable military and federal government portfolio and contracted with corporate clients such as Southwest Airlines, AT&T, Kinetic Concepts, Inc, and others. 

In 2007, with $60 million in annual revenue and 400 employees, Singh sold Karta for $64.8 million to Reston, Va.-based NCI Inc.

Today, he serves on the boards for Trinity University, the San Antonio branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and NCI.  He also sits on the boards of two nonprofit organizations that he co-founded – the Sikh Research Institute and the Sikh Foundation.

Singh moved to San Antonio 30 years ago to work as a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute, after finishing his Ph.D. in mechanics from Drexel University in Philadelphia.  While his education in engineering had been elite, Singh learned about business administration through the knocks and frustrations of the marketplace.

As an active contributor to SATAI, Singh counsels young technology entrepreneurs on the lessons he learned during his more than two decades nurturing Karta.  In this interview, he discusses how he started and grew his business and what he would do differently.

Q: You worked fulltime as an engineering professor while starting up Karta. For how long did you do that and what was your schedule like? Do you recommend starting a business while employed?

GPS:  "I did that for two years, working at UTSA and having just started my business.

My schedule was pretty grueling.  And we had little kids.  I did an 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. type of job and came home, spent a little time with the kids.  They went to bed at 8:30 or 9 p.m. and then the work day started over again, and I worked in the garage until 1 or 2 in the morning every day, plus on the weekends.

When you're working for an employer, they're paying your salary, so you have to do a good job for them.  But then there may also be some conflicts.  Starting a business can create some conflict of interests.

When I was starting my company, I didn't have any money.  We had no safety net.  Nobody was going to bail me out if I failed.  So one of the promises that I made to myself was that I would quit my job when I had three contracts, worth three times my salary.  And so that way, I had a cushion.  If one customer didn't want to continue for whatever reason, I'd have at least two to fall back on."

Q: How did you get your first contract?

GPS:  "I was doing work out of UTSA with a power plant company out of Palo Alto, Calif.  They had sponsored a project at the university.  And when I decided that I wanted to form my own company, I went back to them.

I had a software idea related to power plants, and I suggested this idea to them and said, ‘I can do this.' They asked me ‘Why would you do this on your own and not through the university?'  My basic answer was that I could hire people and keep them if they did a good job.  If they didn't do a good job, I could hire somebody else.  I said, ‘I am responsible for delivering a quality product to you.'

So, because of my relationship with them and what I had done previously for them, they really trusted me enough to say, ‘OK, you have a good idea.  Let's see what you can do with it.

I got my first big military contract in 1994. Half of the business was military and half was with commercial clients.  We learned from our military work and we took that knowledge to our commercial clients.  We learned from our work with commercial clients and took that to the military clients.  So it was a really good mix for us."

Q: Did you obtain loans to start your company up?

GPS:  "I had gone to the banks and asked for a loan and I was told that I was not bankable, because I did not have any assets.  That's what the first banker told me.

We eventually did have to borrow money when we built our own building."

Q: What are the most important lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

GPS:  "You have to be conservative.  Whatever you think it will cost you to do something, you better have two to three times the budget to do it.   And the same thing applies to time.

Your survival and growth depends on you doing a superb job, not a mediocre job, not a grade-A job, but absolutely the best that you can do.  And when you do that, they will want to come back to you.

I set up my board of advisors in 1995 and 1996.  And I tell you, I should have done it 5 to 10 years before, because it was a transformational event for me.  Things started to really change when I set up my board."

Q: But if you're a young entrepreneur and you don't have any assets, just a great idea, how do you approach experienced professionals to help you?

GPS:  "I think you would find that there are a lot of people in this town, who are very helpful. This is the beauty of this town."
 

G.P. Singh is a founding member of SATAI, which he said is helping to build San Antonio's technology economy.  Entrepreneurs seeking to jump-start their technology businesses can come to SATAI to get that boost. 

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I see a lot of entrepreneur pitches every month.  I don't know what the perfect pitch is, how the perfect pitch is organized, or how long the perfect pitch is.  There is no perfect pitch "template" because every deal is unique.  If the pitch achieves the objective of getting an investor to take the next step, it has fulfilled its purpose.  My objective is to provide as much coaching as I can to improve the probability that this objective will be met.

That being said, when I reflect on the hundreds of pitches that I have heard, I can't help but smile (and in some cases wince).  All of the following have really occurred and several have multiple shots on goal.  All names have been changed.  Read and heed from the mistakes of others (and me).

Ever tried Excel? – I'm amazed each time a slide is presented where the column total of numbers is wrong.  Sorry but a little bell goes off in my mind that something is out of whack.  I observe investors turning off with this simple error, when it could easily have been avoided.

Uh, you are on the wrong note card – It was bad enough that the presenter was using note cards, but when she got out of sync with the slide being presented, she didn't notice, we did, and the downhill sled picked up speed from there.

The dead guy – During the presentation of the Management Team slide, the entrepreneur elaborated down to about the third or fourth name and then added "We are so sorry, but Charlie passed away a couple months ago".  He was presenting a slide with a dead management team member.  It was a good thing that my teeth are all my own.

Wake me when it's over – A VC friend of mine, Larry, was famous for his out-of-the-box questions, antics, and responses.  When asked a fairly straightforward question, the entrepreneur's answer went on and on and on.  I saw Larry slowly leaning forward until his chest and face were flat on the table, eyes closed.  When the answer was finally over, Larry jerked upright and asked "What did I miss?  Can someone summarize"?  Someone else quipped "The answer was "No".

Whose gonna tell him? – The CEO introduced the Chief Scientist who got up to speak.  I swear, not only was his fly open, but a corner of his white shirttail was peeking out.  I couldn't look at him and I cracked up each time I looked away.  I haven't a clue as to what he said.

Don't need no stinkin pictures (subtitle:  I know you can't read this, but …) - A picture is worth a thousand words, so if you don't have pictures, fill your presentation with a couple thousand words in small fonts.  Unfortunately I see several of these a month.

What is the product? – This question comes after the end of the pitch, after a rather pregnant silence.  You know it is not going to be pretty from here on out.

How do you/we make money? – Oops.  Forgot that small trick of empathizing with my investor audience. 


It really pains me to see a presentation go awry for reasons that can be avoided.  The above are but a fraction of the wrecks that can, have and will happen.  Investor presentations are all about creating credibility, confidence and trust.  All three are very fragile.  Unfortunately, small items like the above can derail the continuity of a presentation, and even if the train gets back on the track, the confidence may have been eroded past the point of recovery.  There are hundreds of good reasons investors don't invest in deals.  Make it hard for them to find one.

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The Texas Emerging Technology Fund is a unique financial catalyst available now for Entrepreneurs who may be having difficulties raising capital.  In addition to being the South Texas portal to the Emerging Technology Fund, the STRCIC, hosted by SATAI, has entrepreneurial services, industry mentors, and a vast referral network to help entrepreneurs in any industry at any stage of their business.  The STRCIC also offers educational events and workshops such as the quarterly New Venture Forum.

I am asked daily about the Texas Emerging Technology Fund and how entrepreneurs can tap into the $200 million fund.  Below is a list of responses to frequently asked questions:

1. How much money can I get from the ETF? 

There are no legal upper or lower limitations on the amount; however, most applications tend to range from $250K to $3.5M.  The ETF publishes a list of the amounts of all deals awarded on its website at 
ETF Dashboard.

2. How does the ETF define ‘emerging technology’?

Section 490.153 of the enabling legislation defines ‘emerging technology’ and may be found at 
ETF Legislation.  Some of the technologies listed in the link in FAQ#1 are MedicalDevices, Energy, Software/IT, Biopharmaceuticals, Semiconductors, and others.

3. What is meant by ‘university collaboration’?

Acceptable collaboration occurs two ways.  The venture licenses from a Texas university some intellectual property developed by that university; or, the university and the venture enter into an agreement by which the venture contracts with the university to co-develop some intellectual property or to perform some contract services for the venture, e.g. develop a manufacturing prototype.  It is important to remember that the contractual relationship must be with the university itself and not an individual faculty member acting as an independent consultant.

4. Can I apply anywhere or only in South Texas?

You should apply in the region where your company is headquartered.  The ETF website contains a map of all local ETF Regional Centers for Innovation & Commercialization ( RCIC) and their geographic footprints  ETF Map.

5. Does my company have to be a Texas corporation?

No, your venture does not need to be incorporated in Texas but needs to be headquartered in Texas.  It should be a ‘C-corporation’ and properly registered with the Texas Secretary of State and other appropriate state and local agencies.

To learn more about the ETF and the STRCIC visit: www.strcic.com

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"To err is human, to fully disclose is ________ "  Fill in your own ending, "painful, hilarious, educational, enlightening, ...  The following are partial excerpts from the Bessemer Venture Partners website.  It is very illuminating, and entertaining.

Jim Poage
___________________
"Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) is perhaps the nation's oldest venture capital firm, carrying on an unbroken practice of venture capital investing that stretches back to 1911.  This long and storied history has afforded our firm an unparalleled number of opportunities to completely screw up. 

Over the course of our history, we did invest in a wig company, a french-fry company, and the Lahaina, Ka'anapali & Pacific Railroad.   However, we chose to decline investments in each of the following, even though we had the opportunity, and each of which later blossomed into a tremendously successful company. 

Our reasons for passing on these investments varied.  In some cases, we were making a conscious act of generosity to another, younger venture firm, down on their luck, who we felt could really use a billion dollars in gains.  In other cases, our partners had already run out of spaces on the year's Schedule D and feared that another entry would require them to attach a separate sheet. 

Whatever the reason, we would like to honor these companies -- our "anti-portfolio" -- whose phenomenal success inspires us in our ongoing endeavors to build growing businesses.  Or, to put it another way: if we had invested in any of these companies, we might not still be working.

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