{"id":281,"date":"2017-06-21T15:01:35","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T15:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/?p=281"},"modified":"2024-09-11T16:22:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T15:22:47","slug":"from-claverton-down-to-silicon-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/2017\/06\/21\/from-claverton-down-to-silicon-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"From Claverton Down to Silicon Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alumnus Amit Kothari is the CEO of a business process automation software startup called Tallyfy. This is a story of how he got there, starting with his wonderful years at University of Bath<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Life as a student<\/strong><\/p>\n

My start at the University of Bath \u2013 in the year 2000, was ridiculously mad and exciting.<\/p>\n

I missed the entire dot-com-boom-and-bust. Social networks were huge at the time, and I hadn\u2019t even heard of business process automation. I had wonderful housemates \u2013 we lived in Eastwood 44 on campus \u2013 which must have changed a lot now.<\/p>\n

Freshers week was a blur, and all I remember is destroying a perfectly good bowtie and tuxedo in that first week, and 'Game On' nights on campus. It was truly awash with glittering eyes that (like me) - realised \u201cI\u2019m at university now!\u201d<\/p>\n

One of my housemates set up the kickboxing club as a university society, and despite my frame, I joined. I set up the creative writing society. Let\u2019s say the two didn\u2019t really mix. That\u2019s when I got my first taste of \u201csetting my own thing up.\u201d<\/p>\n

People don\u2019t realise, but it only takes a bit of personal pride in something you created which other people also want to be part of, to smell the coffee and go on adventures that can lead anywhere. A university society is one of those things.<\/p>\n

The societies that were more fun to talk about went on big benders in the beginning. The picture below is from an \u201cinitiation\u201d in 2001 for the kickboxing club.<\/p>\n

\"Personal
Personal photo shared by Amit Kothari, taken in 2001<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I really feel for the non-university residents of Bath - they had to put up with our madness and energy. It often ended up at The Huntsman, which if I remember - was open late. Or some club - wandering around and crashing into mirrors. Then clambering into whatever vehicle looked orange and large - back up that hill and into bed. Daytime was no better. I hope nobody is still putting washing-up liquid into the fountain at Laura Place?!<\/p>\n

All this aside (which is more a rite-of-passage I guess!) - I had an absolutely tremendous time at Bath. I took a year off in my degree - and eventually made it to the Abbey for graduation, a proud moment. I\u2019ll be honest and tell you that I felt very uncertain at graduation. The \u201cstructure\u201d of the past was being left behind - with the Big Wild West ahead.<\/p>\n

Life after Bath<\/strong><\/p>\n

What ensued over the next 15 years was a life worth living (at work) - and it kept me glued to a mission of growing and scaling my own business in the area of workflow management and process automation.<\/p>\n

I spent my first two years after graduation at a large consultancy firm. I realised quickly that what people called a \u201ccareer\u201d in some firms is really just a lock-in to maximise revenue from selling young people at a large daily rate and then slowly increasing their salaries to make them feel like they\u2019re making progress.<\/p>\n

I guess I was trying to fit into a hole that wasn\u2019t for me - but I wasn\u2019t cynical. I have progressed from being a rebel-without-a-cause to a balding 35 year old who knows when to feel, when to think and when to act. In my focus area - business process automation - experience is mandatory.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t enjoy shuttling around various hotels and cities doing anonymous things I didn\u2019t really care about. I left that first role, and then joined a very small firm in London that was thinking about the future of collaboration software<\/a> in large companies. Facebook was just taking off in general in the consumer world, so this was fairly cutting edge.<\/p>\n

I was there for six years, and it was awesome. I learned a lot, and met some of the edgiest minds in collaboration and workflow automation. I launched my first startup, which failed. I learned one specific thing - don\u2019t change a formula that\u2019s already working just because \u201cit might scale.\u201d Get in touch<\/a> if you\u2019d like details.<\/p>\n

My second startup also failed, but I really put myself on the line on that one. I learned about product\/market fit and moved up the learning curve.<\/p>\n

Startup Success with Business Process Automation<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2014, my wife and I pitched an idea to Startup Chile<\/a> - which funds any scalable idea with equity-free grants. The catch? You have to move to beautiful Santiago, Chile for at least six months. My wife and I left London, but there was still no company. Tallyfy had not yet been born.<\/p>\n

After some experimentation, we realised that some large forces were at play that we could easily ride for natural momentum in Tallyfy:<\/p>\n