And here comes the next Gadfly…
February 13, 2017
Travel, Travail & Trivia
April 18, 2017
Almost 3 years ago, Guna and I quit our corporate jobs and decided to begin the GadflyZone adventure. Just like running shoes would tell the adventures of a marathon runner, if only they could talk (well, they have tongues, don’t they?), the GadflyZone journey has several stories to tell. These stories fall under every genre imaginable – with taglines such as "Coming Together", "Uniting Vision", "Aligning Values", "Assimilating New Members", "Rough and Tumble", "Building our Solution", "Delighting Customers", "Cracking hard Problems", "Tough Times", "Comical Times", "Fun Times", "Frustrating Times", "Hysterical Times" – I probably need to look up the Oscar categories to see what I am missing. One theme has been steady - The journey has been meaningful and purposeful.
I was in Asia recently to meet with the team and to spend time with customers. It was such a pleasure to hang out with our wonderful team. Transition from conversations on our macs, to real conversations on the lawn, under trees and in office settings, was smoother than I had thought. We did bask in the lawn after a good lunch celebrating a wonderful customer review.
Coming back to quick updates, we are continuing to expand our team, driven by customer growth and commitments. The latest to join us is Manas Sharma.
Manas is a born Bangalorean, with all his schooling from The Valley School, KFI, Bangalore. He went to the UK to do an integrated masters course in Chemical Engineering from the University of Bath, UK. Mathematical side of chemical engineering interested him the most, especially working on developing mathematical models for enzymatic biofuel cells that could be used to power a pacemaker and working on PID controllers to be used on reactors. Applications of membrane bioreactors in water treatment, especially making the processes lot more compact and efficient fascinated him. He has also been drawn to the environmental side of chemical engineering as well, with applications in WtE (waste to energy) and water footprint of various products.
Post his engineering, he decided to go back to the school he studied at for 12 years and teach there! As the class teacher for 1st grade kids Manas taught them everything, apart from learning a lot from the toddlers. Being a sportsman himself, Manas conducted various games classes for senior and middle school graders, apart from teaching a bit of chemistry at seniors' school. After this teaching stint, Manas spent 11 months at an up-stream oil and gas company that catered to detailed design of FPSOs (Flotation Production Storage Offloading) vessels where he worked as a process engineer, with focus on firewater and deluge based calculations. He was also an intern with Harman as an environmental consultant for the whole smart city initiative in India.
Manas is super passionate about photography, trekking, cycling (his primary mode of transport for the last 3 years), running and playing football. He is always on the look-out to travel, be it the Himalayas or some place over a weekend. Weekends are often spent on the saddle, cycling around Bangalore, running, spending time with friends at places that serve fermented beverages, or exploring parts of Bangalore with his camera. Given his passion and varied interests, I am convinced Manas will bring fresh thoughts, perspectives and a great attitude to our team. So glad to have him on-board starting today!
Phrases like growing pains, teething pains and steep learning curve are scary terms that get thrown at entrepreneurs. We are fully aware of the challenges of an entrepreneurial journey. Could we squeeze an ounce of pleasure and learning from these learning opportunities? We are delightfully and sincerely committed to doing so. In there lies the fun.
