In addition to just my personal beliefs, it also affects (Vistex). I guess I'm a small example of that. Chicago filmmaker Jennifer Reeder looks at the awards season nominees so far where did all the women go? Sanjay Shah: Yes. Plus it has very high ceilings, anywhere from 16 to 21 feet. This is around $20 million. Shah, 49, Vistex's founder and CEO, recently gave $5 million to his business school alma mater, Lehigh University's College of Business and Economics, with the goal, he said, of helping it better compete with other top business schools. The company was bootstrapped to $250 million in revenue without outside investment. In my early days, I used to be confused. Of course, thats important because it establishes a benchmark of sorts, but also to provide us with the expertise that we need. Its long. Why would you want to unnecessarily tinker with a program that is working so well for the country? : Some of it was a bit of craziness, I guess. : Wonderful. I was changing my disciplines significantly. Your email address is 100% safe from spam! I would like to describe it as a bit chaotic, but a very functional democracy. Sanjay Shah: Its interesting. : Very cool. Spotlight Directory Sanjay Shah '89 MBA, Founder, CEO & Chief Architect, Vistex, Inc. Sanjay Shah is a tech entrepreneur, Founder, and CEO of enterprise software company Vistex. Sanjay Shah is an avid licensed pilot, is multi-lingual and holds multiple professional certifications and degrees. Sanjay Shah (CEO, Vistex) talks about recasting their pitch after having grown to over 1,600 employees and 20+ years in the business. : Yeah, exactly. Its important to stay grounded and be a good listener. [Laughter] Be a good listener. So General Motors in Canada was willing to wager a bet on me. I think weve just begun to scratch the surface of how our products and solutions can help customers and help our customers succeed even more. : So originally, Sanjay, you were born in Mumbai, India. So General Motors in Canada was willing to wager a bet on me. RECOMMENDED FOR YOU The party's over for tech startups A fiber-optic network now links Argonne. : To expand on the listening, before we go to the second one, on the listening, how do you, for example, like with employees or when youre going out to fundraise, what is the process of first in-taking the information and then being able to digest and react proactively about it? Its important to stay grounded and be a good listener. Fortunately, I had a view from the inside as well, having been one of the earliest employees of SAP. And with a deeply rooted passion for lifelong learning, Sanjay Shah is a proud supporter of his alma mater donating $5 million to Lehigh University and creating the Vistex Institute for Executive Learning and Research. Sanjay Shah's email address: xxxx@xxx.com | Find Sanjay's Email, Social Profiles, and Mutual Contacts both you and Sanjay know . I believe that if anything, you should know that you should always learn to learn. And overnight, they literally go belly-up. So I ended up taking a job at Pricewaterhouse as a staff auditor right after I graduated from grad school. The number of players has increased, and the customers buying skills have increased tremendously. To this day, continue not to be addressed adequately in the ERP System. Our customers tend to be larger companies, so perhaps we sold to one division, and then another division comes across, another geography for the company comes along. Alejandro: Wonderful. The privately held company's annual revenue totals $220 million, according to Shah, who is perhaps better known for his 2014 purchase of the $17 million, 14,000-square-foot penthouse atop the Trump International Hotel and Tower. Sanjay Shah: What happened after that was because I was a very marketable resource at SAP, I helped start what is called the highest echelon of professional services at SAP. What type of product features and functions do you need in order to be successful in the Cloud? So without further ado, Id like to welcome our guest today to the show. Then the logical progression was to work in accounting. A: Yes, but Chicago is my favorite city in the world and it will always be. Thank you, Alejandro. : Really interesting here. How Chicago area home values compare by ZIP code, Have camera, will travel: A Chicago taxi driver took pictures of his passengers for years. Never one to accept the status quo. But there are a lot of players out there. : What were some of the key ingredients that you were looking for in a partner? : Very nice. You need to find cheerleaders in an organization such as SAP if you want to rely on them to be your go-to-market partner. The average being 2 1/2. Brazil, South Africa, all countries in Western Europe, Asia, etc. Vistex founder Sanjay Shah talks about his love of flying, how work got in the way, and how he hopes to dust off his wings. Just enter your email below. : Yeah. : Very cool. : Its interesting. When the leadership tea. We've always had a few ideas about what we want to do with the space, but we never really started anything in earnest. Thats what explains our existence and our success. : Sanjay, what is the way that you guys make money with this? : Very cool. That has served us well. : I was there for roughly two and a half years. Thats when I decided to expand the hiring for the organization. : I think the next thing Ive learned is always to learn to learn. I think Im a good listener over the years. Alejandro: So originally, Sanjay, you were born in Mumbai, India. Vistex Hoffman Estates IL 60010, United States Get Sanjay's Email (it's Free) Takes 5 seconds to join, no credit card required. The Vistex management team includes Sanjay Shah (Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Architect), Christopher Cutro (Senior Vice President of Marketing and Customer Success), and Arun Roy (Chief Financial Officer) . Enterprise sales require a lot of persistence and a lot of fortitude to stay in the race for the longer term. Supply chain is a more recent term, but back then, it was operations. Alejandro: And you went to Canada. So in your case and in your journey because in entrepreneurship, theres no such thing as a straight line. Some of it was just this level of fierce independence we wanted to have that I think we can pull this off because what we did during the day was highly marketable. That really has helped us grow because we started out with SAP North America first. Alejandro: Wonderful. He was a pioneer and how he went to Congress and convinced them that they should rescue this American icon (Chrysler). The Vistex Foundation is a private foundation launched in 2012 through the support of Sanjay Shah, the founder of Vistex, Inc. We are committed to addressing the root causes of poverty by partnering with organizations whose programs provide education and health services to communities in need. There are so many constituencies both from a product standpoint, from a technology standpoint, and from a go-to-market standpoint. We were able to get into new industries and even upsell to our existing customers. SAP was then making a foray into the U.S., into North America. Alejandro: Even though you didnt want to be a professional accountant, Im sure that having a good grasp on the numbers has made a difference for you. View Sanjay Shah's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. I look forward to seeing the final product. If youd like to do it, you can do it, but our R&D is in Germany, and youll have to do it here. And I wanted to move back to the U.S. My family wanted to move back to the U.S. You need a lot of focus and dedication and a lot of persistence. When we say we listen, listening not just to our employees who are the closest to our customers and have the best product ideas, but also to our customers. What kind of teams do you need? What were some of your biggest takeaways because now, you have your own company, but I think that being able to work with such a massive player and understanding the dynamics and how they worked, Im sure that many of those lessons youve applied to how youve built and scale your own business. It turns out that it was a great time to liquidate my stock options because I did that in 99, just before the big crash following. That is more than a fulltime job in and of itself. As part of Vistexs corporate social responsibility initiatives. But there was fun in that challenge as well. All of my family and extended family lived in a one-mile radius. As we would bootstrap, I think it was important I realized that having because we are not spending as much on sales and marketing. This whole Cloud Revolution, we feel that we are a bit behind in this regard in terms of being out there and being perceived more as a company that can do equally well with our cloud offerings. Lets just say that. Fast-forward to today. Once you have built a platform already, how do you accelerate growth versus venture capital is, Do you believe in my potential? We provide the technology that helps customers take their products and services to the marketplace. There are so many different stakeholders. They decided to hire me, but they said, The only position we have open for you in Operations is in Canada. I said, Ill take it.. : Correct. If you can leave a review as well, that would be fantastic. So our focus is, how can we help our customers succeed even more with our products and offerings? They were engineers. But you should seek input and feedback from everybody. Person A said I should do this, and Person B said I should do this. Alejandro: How many employees do you guys have today, Sanjay? A few weeks ago, the Indian-American CEO of Vistex donated $5 million to his alma mater, Lehigh University, in Pennsylvania, from where he completed his MBA 25 years ago. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. We consider ourselves fortunate in having been able to arrive some of that. The first type of software in supply chain that was the first of its kind back then. Vistex Inc., the global leader in pricing, trade, royalties and incentives management solutions, announces the acquisition of Webdata Solutions GmbH's assets and team, a leading technology . Supply chain is a more recent term, but back then, it was operations. GALLERY; ABOUT US; CONTACT US; Menu Menu; sanjay shah vistex net worth August 30, 2021 / 0 Comments / in Jumping Ballons / by / 0 Comments / in Jumping Ballons / by It has 360-degree views of the city. Sanjay Shah is a former Kenyan national. Sanjay Shah: I hired people that had the technical skills to help me write the software. Then there is annual maintenance tied with it. An Indian immigrant, Sanjay Shah bootstrap story began when he left Mumbai, India to attend Lehigh Universitys business school, earning his MBA in 1989 at the age of 21. I think that has been a bit of a challenge for us having built a business on licensing software and all the follow-on revenue that comes as a result of that has been a bit of a bump for us. These are not quick sales. Photo: Antonie Robertson/The National. Alejandro: Then after this, you join probably one of the companies that has had the major and probably the biggest impact on you as an employee and also as a founder SAP. Thats something that I believe has sold people as well that I always wake up every day worrying about what is it that I need to learn more, and not bask in the success of what I have learned and what Ive achieved. : Even though you didnt want to be a professional accountant, Im sure that having a good grasp on the numbers has made a difference for you. This is pretty cool. Thats how I ended up working for them. I think that has been a bit of a challenge for us having built a business on licensing software and all the follow-on revenue that comes as a result of that has been a bit of a bump for us. : It wasnt the money or the capital. I did not know there are a few folks that work at Vistex (who) are affected by this directly. Sanjay Shah: Yes. Sanjay Shah: Initially, for the first year, and a little over a year, it was just me by myself. : Correct. And in general, when youre bootstrapped, youre going to be very stingy with your marketing budgets and your sales budgets. And if you got any value either from this episode or from the show itself, share it with a friend. Exactly, especially if you intend to bootstrap, I think you have to have a good accounting streak in you. : Absolutely, and well talk about your bootstrapping experience in just a bit. So without further ado, Id like to welcome our guest today to the show. You hear all these nightmare stories of startups that are doing very well, but theyre not able to project or manage the cash flows and their budgets accordingly. : It got me a chance to be on the shop floor and to see how things are built and put together. What have you learned about yourself as a leader? Theres always some business to be had with on-prem software, but were also getting more aggressive and investing heavily to grow our business in the Cloud as they say; to sell our software as a subscription. I come from a family of traders and accountants. Thats how I was able to bootstrap. But I quickly realized that confidence is good; over-confidence is not so good. : Yeah. Indeed. Those are the revenue streams for us. Perhaps it should be neither, and I should do what Sanjay said would work better. What kind of teams do you need? In many instances, its like a 24-month sales cycle. : Our first challenge was when the dotcom crash came up. I think private equity can offer a lot of operational expertise and a lot of go-to-market expertise. A dark tale about the nature of stories themselves. : So, she was a little consumed. I believe that if you engineer great product, and then dovetail or piggyback on top of a huge, successful go-to-market organization like SAP has globally, then that would be the recipe for success. Enterprise sales require a lot of persistence and a lot of fortitude to stay in the race for the longer term. Vistex is the established industry leader with nearly $250 million in revenue in 2018, and despite two recessions, has expanded its operations globally and its portfolio across 14 industries. Alejandro: Sanjay, in terms of the early employees that you got, those were engineers, or what were some of these people because you were saying that this was . There are so many different constituencies at SAP to find the right balance to bring all of these together for hem to cheer for you. Sanjay Shah Friday June 3 2022 Edit Shah charged that its steering is in the hands of AIMIM leader Asaduddin. Once you have built a platform already, how do you accelerate growth versus venture capital is, Do you believe in my potential? You shouldnt necessarily follow somebodys footsteps, but just take inspiration and then chart your own path. Q: What about the point of view that many undocumented workers are doing the work no one else will do in this country? : Okay. : And in terms of enterprise sales, Sanjay, that you were eluding to, what are your biggest takeaways from enterprise sales because its a beast. Sanjay Shah is the founder and CEO of Vistex which is an enterprise software company, providing solutions to drive customer growth and partner relations. Then to ensure that they continue to receive value as they expand their portfolio of products. We have people all over the globe, Vistex employs all over the globe and selling in virtually every geography. For the people that are listening, Sanjay, what is the best way for them to reach out and say hi? Its also massively matrixed. We dont have venture funding or angel funding to go launch ourselves in a big fashion to let the world know that were out there. Sanjay Shah, welcome to the DealMakers show today. Sanjay Shah: The biggest bump in the journey has been this whole Cloud Revolution that customers no longer want to buy software and then run it themselves in their IT shops. These are not quick sales. Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS | More. They want to outsource everything and just consume a service. So I ended up taking a job at Pricewaterhouse as a staff auditor right after I graduated from grad school. Sanjay Shah is a tech entrepreneur, Founder, CEO & Chief Architect of Vistex, making sure it all adds up for our customers. They're Americans, for all practical purposes, short of a piece of paper that says they are. : Initially, for the first year, and a little over a year, it was just me by myself. It was a German software company that had been around for 20 years already by the time they came to North America. : Why did you go about bootstrapping rather than perhaps taking a look at financing the operation? So I was introduced to software quite early on. Going back to what you were saying that you were bootstrapping this and doing a couple more shifts that you used to do, at what point do you say, Now, I can finally jump on this fulltime? What have you learned about yourself as a leader? Punjab National Bank. Alejandro: Yeah. How would you differentiate a private equity profile from the venture capital that perhaps the earlier-stage guys that are listening are probably looking at? You cant just shove things down their throat and hope that they use it. A lot of our revenue also comes from upselling. In total, he gets Rs 84.5 thousand per month.) Sanjay Shah: It wasnt the money or the capital. Shah bought the 14,000-square-foot penthouse for. Overview Company Overview Top Contacts Sanjay Shah overview Vistex overview Vistex top contacts Try the contact number finder tool for free,get started in seconds No Credit Card Required We found a great partner in Excel KPR. That is more than a fulltime job in and of itself. Everything was very hunky-dory. : Thats right. : Of course. Vistex also sells its applications to customers who aren't SAP customers. So our focus is, how can we help our customers succeed even more with our products and offerings? What kind of marketing do you need to be able to sell effectively? Have you completed it? So, life was great. Customers are getting smarter, especially in enterprise software, which is where we play. Interesting. So again, working with SAP, such a gigantic organization has its set of challenges, and there have been several lessons learned. The companies'. You need a lot of patience as well when youre selling into the enterprise. Customers are getting smarter, especially in enterprise software, which is where we play. Sanjay Shah: I think the advice I would give to my younger self is, dont follow any advice. Sanjay Shah: Correct. So again, working with SAP, such a gigantic organization has its set of challenges, and there have been several lessons learned. Sanjay Shah: I think in 2001, I was able to land our first customers. : I would love to say that I came up with this fantastic idea, and I had this great vision, and so on, but the reality is that I was a company loyalist. So lets continue. Expenditure allowance: Rs 4,000. Sanjay has been instrumental in creating an entirely new category of business software called "Go-to-Market" programs and has charted a visionary path for Vistex that transcends the "business as usual" mindset. : I think in 2001, I was able to land our first customers. My advice is, dont follow any advice. It was the appetite for companies to spend on enterprise software, which took a nosedive in 2001, 2002 was the first challenge. And I lasted a full six months and decided that I didnt want to be a professional accountant. Do you believe that Im working on something that has a great potential? Private equity, which is more how do you help accelerate growth, which was more our case. I think private equity can offer a lot of operational expertise and a lot of go-to-market expertise. Different propositions, private equity being a different proposition as innovated. I think thats when I felt that we were onto something. Fortunately, I had a view from the inside as well, having been one of the earliest employees of SAP. I think getting the firsthand experience was critical. We are a software company run by engineers, not marketers. 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