Founder of Convergytics & Blik.ai. I build startups and analytical products, mentor young entrepreneurs and love writing.
My Bio
Hi! I’m Randhir Hebbar. Welcome to my About Me story!
The first thing you’re probably wondering is, “How do you say his name?” If we were introducing ourselves to each other in person, you’d probably perk your ears up and listen intently to how I’m saying my name. But since we’re doing this over the internet, I’ll spare you the embarrassment of potentially butchering my name and let you google it! Just kidding, it’s pronounced “RaN Dheer” with an emphasis on the letter “N” and the “h” making it sound different to Deer.
But I guess, you came here to learn more about me! Well, I’m a 42-year-old entrepreneur from India. I have lived in India for most of my life. But I have also spent three years in Columbus, OH, USA (2004 and 2006) and two years in Hong Kong doing my MBA at HKUST (2007–09) and few weeks months on business/pleasure in Canada, UAE, UK, Netherlands, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka among other countries. My goal is to travel (for fun) to 100+ countries before I turn 50 and spend a couple of weeks in each country.
I was born in Udupi, a Temple Town on the Western Coast of India, raised and now live in Bengaluru (The Silicon Valley of India they call it) with my three kids (Prerana — 8-year-old daughter and Vihaan & Vivaan — 5-year-old Twin Boys) and my beautiful wife, Bhagyasri and we’ve married now for nearly 11 years.
Click here for more stories from me!
My Experience & Background
I grew up in an upper middle-class family. My parents worked hard without compromising an inch on ethics and morality — working nearly 15+ hours every day for 25+ years and made sure that we went to the best school and got the best education and got everything we ever asked for, before we could ask for it twice. Naturally, they instilled those same values of working hard and doing the right thing in both of us and we continue to try and do the same for our kids.
I did my Computer Science Engineering from Bangalore University and did my Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology where I majored in finance and entrepreneurship.
I had two offers before I graduated in 2001, just after the dotcom bust of 2000s and ended up with one of them getting rescinded and the other getting suspended indefinitely. After 8 months of interning at a startup, working in a call-center and doing some freelance gigs which later became the foundation stone for my startup life, I joined Infosys (the company that had suspended the joining date) as a Software Engineer, and my career finally took off.
My immediate manager saw potential in me after a few months and helped me get into a challenging project at one of the world’s largest retailers and got to work with some of the most amazing team members and clients for the next 4 to 5 years initially in Bangalore and then in Columbus, OH too. While I do regret not staying in touch with many of the wonderful clients I worked with, I hope to get back in touch some day and pick up the friendships where we left it off.
After spending a ton of time on the tech side, I decided to expand my horizon and went in for my MBA at HKUST where I majored in Finance and Entrepreneurship. While Finance was one area which I felt was the core of any business succeeding, entrepreneurship was the passion that drove me to go in for an MBA in the first place. Post my MBA, I switched careers to Analytics Consulting and after a stint at a leading analytics consulting company and then in the digital analytics team of one of the world’s largest technology companies, finally decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge in 2012–13 and started Convergytics.
At Convergytics, we have had a wild ride and have grown the company into a reasonable success story with over 80+ employees and valued at over US$ 12 to 15M. I will be sharing what I learnt in building this company, the mistakes we and in particular I made and the things we (I) did well to achieve what we set out to achieve (even if at a slightly slower pace than we originally planned).
Cheers!
- Randhir
My Posts by Topic
Updated 8/25/2021
BitClout — The Leading Decentralized Social Media Platform that I am now active on since April 2021.
· BitClout — Scam or the Next Big Decentralized Social Media Platform: My first post on BitClout, how I found out about it, my experience and some tips for new people joining BitClout
· Five Rules for Investing in (BitClout Projects) Startups: Learn more about BitClout projects and my rules for investing in these projects?
· 6 Reasons to join BitClout and 6 Reasons not to: BitClout is a great platform, but it has its flaws. In this post, I go through the pros and cons of the platform.
· Building Deeper Connects in Life and on BitClout: A take on what it takes to build great connections and a network on BitClout and in life.
Analytics — Retail Analytics, Omni-Channel Analytics, Marketing & Digital Analytics
· Data is the New Oil, but are we making the most of it: Quick Take on how Data is the New Oil and how we can make the most of it as an organization.
· How Decision-Making is Changing due to COVID-19?: My take on how COVID-19 is changing the way decisions are being made in organizations.
· Workforce Optimization through Analytics and AI: My take on how workforce is getting optimized using analytics and AI especially given the pandemic.
· 5 Critical Mistakes in an Analytics Project: What are the mistakes that can lead to the failure of an analytics project? My take on helping many a project succeed and also being part of many a failure too.
How to contact me?
Don’t be shy! I love connecting. Here are the all the ways you can reach me.
Subscribe to my Email List!
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Other Social links here.
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Send me an Email: arhebbar@gmail.com
