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[EO New Delhi] How To Thrive Consistently in the Technology Industry

Phillip BaltazarShamit Khemka is the Founder and CEO of SynapseIndia, a premier IT outsourcing company based in India. Focusing on open-source frameworks and e-commerce, SynapseIndia provides software development and custom web mobile applications, primarily working with customers in the USA, UK, Australia, and Canada. Over the last 23-plus years, the company has delivered over 10,000 projects for clients such as the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), Steve Madden, IBM, 3M, and Johnson & Johnson.

A commerce graduate in finance and economics from St. Xavier College, Shamit was resolute about launching a business right after college. He has comprehensive business expertise in technology businesses, including executive management, business ownership, international business relations, project management, consulting, and e-business. He is also a member of EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) and YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) in New Delhi, India.


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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

  • Shamit Khemka talks about how SynapseIndia started
  • How Shamit recovered when his company went under
  • The evolution of the services SynapseIndia offers
  • How Shamit overcomes the stigma around using Indian-based companies
  • How to recruit, hire, and retain your talent
  • Shamit shares his experience working with big brands
  • Common mistakes people make with their Shopify or e-commerce site
  • Shamit’s advice for growth-minded leaders

In this episode…

Technology is constantly evolving. As an IT company, how can you stay ahead of the game and provide end-to-end solutions to your clients?

Shamit Khemka has been in the technology industry for decades and has gained a wealth of knowledge and experience working with large organizations. He has successfully run his company SynapseIndia since 1999. He says that for IT companies to excel, they need to be innovative, be on the lookout for technological advancement, and know their clients’ needs.

Tune into this episode of the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast with host Dr. Jeremy Weisz as he welcomes the Founder and CEO of SynapseIndia, Shamit Khemka. Shamit talks about SynapseIndia, the evolution of its services, how he overcame the stigma around using Indian-based companies, and how to recruit, hire, and retain top talent in the IT space.

Resources mentioned in this episode

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Episode Transcript

Intro 0:02 

Welcome to the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast where we feature top founders and entrepreneurs and their journey. Now let’s get started with the show.

Jeremy Weisz 0:13 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, founder of inspiredinsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today is no different. I’ve Shamit Khemka of SynapseIndia. And Shamit before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other great episodes of the podcast. And since you’ve been in EO for many, many years, you’ve headed up some of the actual city in it for EO, and been, the president. So there’s some other EO packets to check out. I’ve Mat Zalk who is an EO Tulsa, I had Orrin Klopper, who is an EO, South Africa, I had Ethan King, the co-founder of Zeus’ Closet EO Atlanta, and it’s all over the world all over the country. And David Anderson of Off Madison Ave, just a few of the I can go on and on. But all of them are amazing interviews, and they talk about their journey and some great business lessons there. So check those out. And this episode is brought to you by Rise25 and at Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream 100 relationships. And how do we do that we actually help you run your podcast, we’re an easy button for a business to launch around their podcast, we do strategy, accountability, and full execution of everything. So Shamit, for me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. And I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships. And I found no better way to do that than to profile the people and companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you’ve thought about podcasting, you should go to rise25.com You have questions? Email us. And actually, that’s what first, Shamit and I met through EO and someone was looking for recommendation, and I went out searching in my EO network, who would be good to refer. And that’s how we met and so hopefully, I was able to refer him some business if that happens, or maybe in the future, regardless. So, just formally introduce Shamit Khemka the founder of SynapseIndia is a premier IT outsourcing company, and SynapseIndia provides software development and custom web mobile applications. They have customers throughout the world with most in the USA, UK, Australia and Canada, their focus is open-source frameworks and e-commerce. They’re also a Microsoft Certified Gold partner. And over the last 23 plus years, the company has successfully delivered over 10,000 projects with such clients as 3M, Steve Madden, IBM, Johnson Johnson and of course, EO and Shamit. Thanks for joining me.

Shamit Khemka 2:58 

I’m looking forward to it. Jeremy,

Jeremy Weisz 3:00 

You have an incredible journey, and we’re going to talk about it because we even talked before we hit record of you starting an email service back in, I think it was, was it 93. What year was it?

Shamit Khemka 3:16 

Yeah. 94.

Jeremy Weisz 3:17 

So we’ll go back to, you’ve always been ahead of your time here. But talk about SynapseIndia and what you do a little bit first?

Shamit Khemka 3:26 

Sure. So we started this journey SynapseIndia in 1999. This was born out of a failed dot com that was called samplet.com. So we tried to replicate one of the real estate models that we’ve seen in the US successful models in the US in India, but it was far ahead of its time, especially for our country at that point. And it sort of went belly up within a few months. And then, we had some computers left some great programmers, and we said, what can we do? And I had done some websites for companies, corporates in east of India before moving to Delhi. So, let’s give this a try. Let’s do website, let’s do web-based software. And that’s where SynapseIndia really took off. And, you know, we had slow organic growth for the first few years. But it was fun, it was always cash positive. So, we never had to, you know, reach out and borrow any money, which was a great. I like to fund myself as much as I can. So that was good. And then I joined EO after crossing that 1 million threshold that EO requires in the year 2006. And from there, we just grew very rapidly very, very quickly, very rapidly. And I think if there’s One thing in EO that really helped, that was the MIT program, which was early called Birthing of Giants now called Entrepreneurs Master’s Program. So I attended that program for three years, and then came back and actually tried to replicate that program in India, with the Indian School of Business. We ran that for three years as well. Almost 60 people in each batch. And these six years were very instrumental in growth.

Jeremy Weisz 4:23 

We’ll talk about the evolution of your services for a second, but I want to go back to because you kind of casually say, we went belly up. And at the time, it’s traumatizing, I’m sure. Looking back, you can kind of go oh, we’ve grown so much. But at the time, you say we went belly up? You could have just gone out and gotten a job. But it sounds like, I don’t know, what was your mindset and thinking around that? How you just bounced the like, hey, we’ll use our stuff and what we have, and we’ll start again, right, what were you thinking of the time when it went under essentially?

Shamit Khemka 6:12 

So I think age is always a huge factor. I was young, I was I think 26 at that time. So it was easy. And it was a risk worth taking. So that’s one, second, like you mentioned, I’ve been in technology since the year 1994. So I did have the confidence that we can try and build something afresh and bootstrap technology companies. So that definitely played in the mind. And luckily for us, while we were running the dot com, we still had a lot of inquiries coming our way. So this was nascent days of internet commerce in India. So we had a lot of inquiries coming our way. While can you help us with website, can you help us with setting up some sort of a commerce online, so things like that. So we knew that there was a demand, we knew that there is a growing set of engineers in India? So that’s something that we can create and take it further. So that’s what we did.

Jeremy Weisz 7:16 

Is there something that you think about internally to bounce back, because even though you’re seeing inquiries, you’re seeing some positive responses, when you say belly up, how do you bounce back? Maybe today? I mean, maybe there’s still things that happen in the business, how do you kind of just get past those things in your own mind?

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