And I lasted a full six months and decided that I didnt want to be a professional accountant. : Really interesting here. Sanjay Shah, welcome to the DealMakers show today. Sanjay Shah (CEO, Vistex) talks about recasting their pitch after having grown to over 1,600 employees and 20+ years in the business. : What was essentially the idea so that people listening get it? What were some of the early days like? Dubai Police arrest hedge fund trader Sanjay Shah over $1.7bn Danish tax fraud case British financier previously denied charges and said he was working within Danish law British financier Sanjay Shah was arrested in Dubai by police with an international warrant. What type of selling skills do you need? That really has helped us grow because we started out with SAP North America first. Sanjay Shah: 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. Fast-forward to today. 00:00:00 00:37:40. Sanjay Shah is a tech entrepreneur, Founder, CEO & Chief Architect of enterprise software company Vistex. Sanjay Shah in 2020. . Sanjay Shah: Im happy to say that over the past 20 years of our existence, weve always grown every single year despite having been through two recessions. So I decided to explore. I wanted to get some operational experience and work on the operational side of things, operation supply chain, different terms. : All right, Sanjay. We are trying to develop what I call a hybrid model. Youve been with SAP for six years. Would you mind expanding a bit more on that, Sanjay? Person A said I should do this, and Person B said I should do this. So General Motors in Canada was willing to wager a bet on me. It has 360-degree views of the city. : 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. I didnt want to give up much equity. Recently the company raised $65 million from Accel-KKR. All of my family and extended family lived in a one-mile radius. Out of this journey, what would you say has been the bumpiest part of it, and how did you get back up and keep running as a breakthrough from the breakdown of whatever dark days you were dealing with? I think private equity can offer a lot of operational expertise and a lot of go-to-market expertise. So I decided to explore. My first two hires are still with me and still with the company. I believe that if anything, you should know that you should always learn to learn. As part of Vistexs corporate social responsibility initiatives. Those are the revenue streams for us. I look forward to seeing the final product. How was the growth of revenue overtime during those years? We found a great partner in Excel KPR. What did you experience? This is only one story. Everybodys journey is unique, and everybodys circumstances are unique. Sanjay Shah is a tech entrepreneur, Founder, CEO & Chief Architect of Vistex, making sure it all adds up for our customers. But there was fun in that challenge as well. Listen to what everybody has to say. 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. The movie won six Filmfare Awards and was critically acclaimed at the Austin . For 20 years, Vistex has achieved unprecedented year-over-year growth without outside funding. Its important to stay grounded and be a good listener. They might not have been born here, but they were raised here and they are very productive. I think sometimes, even when entrepreneurs reach a certain level of success, they feel that theyve mastered their domain, or they know what they need to do. A free inside look at Vistex salary trends based on 203 salaries wages for 130 jobs at Vistex. 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. Alejandro: Absolutely, and well talk about your bootstrapping experience in just a bit. 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. Alejandro: Alrighty. I was one of the spearheads of that. I think sometimes, even when entrepreneurs reach a certain level of success, they feel that theyve mastered their domain, or they know what they need to do. With all this, the list was small, and we found a great partner who we signed up with. 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. But the reality now is different. We are a software company run by engineers, not marketers. What was the next thing that youve learned? Lets just say that. We license our software. We have people all over the globe, Vistex employs all over the globe and selling in virtually every geography. When I decided to sever my ties with SAP, my wife was six-months pregnant with our second child. Vistex also sells its applications to customers who aren't SAP customers. I was able to sell my services and sell my time. A: Yes, but Chicago is my favorite city in the world and it will always be. Alejandro: Very nice. I love Chicago and this property provided me the vantage point to take in the city. I wanted to give up a very small portion of it while drawing on their expertise. If you engineer good products and show value, then customers will come your way. They want to outsource everything and just consume a service. As I have grown both personally and professionally, there are a couple of important lessons. My Name is sanjay shah. Its important to stay grounded and be a good listener. : Correct. We were looking for a partner that has the chops, that has the history and the stripes to help us with our cloud journey. Thats our vision. I decided to come 10,000 miles away to go to business school. 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. 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. 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 . What kind of marketing do you need to be able to sell effectively? 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. Perhaps it should be neither, and I should do what Sanjay said would work better. These folks are a part of the fabric of the country. I didnt want to give up much equity. You spend time in classrooms learning about things, but spending time on the shop floor learning how actually products are put together, how they are transported, how the logistics work in terms of the distribution networks of large companies. Get a custom action plan and all the help that you need to start raising more capital. : Then, all of a sudden, the idea of perhaps starting your own business starts to become more tangible and have more color. I think you have to be your own advisor and your own decisionmaker. Growth is hard, [laughter] to say the least. : Why did you go about bootstrapping rather than perhaps taking a look at financing the operation? (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune). : 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 . A: Lee Iacocca. The first type of software in supply chain that was the first of its kind back then. Lets just say that. People used to have only accounting software back then, but MRP was the first-ever software that was used by large companies. "Our relationship with . As of January 2023, Shakti Kapoor's net worth is estimated to be roughly $30 Million. Sanjay Shah: Correct. And overnight, they literally go belly-up. And you need professional sales help. You need a lot of focus and dedication and a lot of persistence. What does the future look like for Vistex? PHOTO VIA VISTEX. Alejandro: Yeah. Tell us, after this presentation then you speak with your wife or with your family, and you still have to think about the idea of going at it. : Absolutely, and well talk about your bootstrapping experience in just a bit. I did have a word with her, and she thought Id lost my mind because as you can imagine, being one of the first employees of SAP, I had a very good package with them including some stupendous stock options, which I would have to get rid of or liquidate. I was fascinated and intrigued by the software. Sanjays approach to building it and letting them come, The fun and challenges of bootstrapping your startup, How to grow yourself as a leader every day, : Alrighty. Thats the degree I had. Alejandro: And you went to Canada. A dark tale about the nature of stories themselves. : You guys were bootstrapping this. Once you have built a platform already, how do you accelerate growth versus venture capital is, Do you believe in my potential? Thats our vision. Thats quite a significant amount of employees. Sanjay Shah formed the Vistex Foundation, which provides grants to non-profits focusing on health, education and basic needs programming, as well as Vistex Endeavor, an employee-focused charity focused on volunteerism. 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.. : I think the advice I would give to my younger self is, dont follow any advice. Right after Pricewaterhouse, you went to General Motors. I come from a family of traders and accountants. So those are the challenges. 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. 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. We were able to land a couple of accounts in the year 2001. "We are delighted to welcome the highly talented team to Vistex, and to bring their intellectual property into our portfolio," said Sanjay Shah, Vistex Founder and CEO. For a winning deck, take a look at the pitch deck template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) that I recently covered. Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Mr. Shah owns over 4,833 units of Beyond Meat Inc stock worth over $1,242,588 and over the last 3 years he sold BYND stock worth over $4,445,039. According to Dubai Police, British national Shah was arrested in. To this day, continue not to be addressed adequately in the ERP System. He gets a salary of around 72 Thousand Rs. Under Sanjay's leadership, Vistex has grown into a global organization dedicated to transforming how businesses across multiple industries bring their products and services to market by taking control of mission-critical Sanjay Shah: Yes. A: It's the pinnacle of all properties in Chicago. Sanjay Shah: Correct. Brazil, South Africa, all countries in Western Europe, Asia, etc. Employees at Boomerang Commerce rate Guru Hariharan higher than employees at Vistex, Inc. rate Sanjay Shah What were the immediate steps to bring this to life? SAP was then making a foray into the U.S., into North America. : I think in 2001, I was able to land our first customers. Alejandro: So this was a private equity financing. Alejandro: You brought this up to 250 million in revenue without taking any type of investors. CEO, and Chief Architect, Sanjay Shah, is the WINNER of the 2019 Ernst & Young (EY) Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Midwest Award. We are trying to develop what I call a hybrid model. But you should seek input and feedback from everybody. The number of players has increased, and the customers buying skills have increased tremendously. : Thats a good question. (Vistex Foundation) A South Barrington resident, Sanjay Shah recently. So I ended up taking a job at Pricewaterhouse as a staff auditor right after I graduated from grad school. The whole business paradigm has changed as I described. And in general, when youre bootstrapped, youre going to be very stingy with your marketing budgets and your sales budgets. : Again, finding the cheerleaders for you is a huge challenge. For Sanjay Shah, who made headlines for buying the Trump Tower penthouse in a record deal in Chicago in 2014, life has come a full circle. sanjay shah vistex net worth. I wanted to give up a very small portion of it while drawing on their expertise. You and your wife are aligned. But there was fun in that challenge as well. There are so many constituencies both from a product standpoint, from a technology standpoint, and from a go-to-market standpoint. Then from what I hear, it seems it was more you build it; you build something great and something that people would like to use, and then theyre going to come. Vistex.com specialises in information technology and services, computer software. 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. Shah bought the 14,000-square-foot penthouse for. 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. I think you have to be your own advisor and your own decisionmaker. Just navigating the politics and creating and developing the value, etc. : Of course. Today, we have someone that has done something remarkable, which is bootstrapping from nothing to 250 million. Theres not always just one decisionmaker in such a large company, especially when we rely on them as our go-to-market partner. So I grew up in a very close family both literally and figuratively. 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. Alejandro: Who were these people that you hired? Sanjay Shah: Initially, for the first year, and a little over a year, it was just me by myself. 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. But there are a lot of players out there. London's High Court had previously dismissed a claim by Skat, Denmark's tax authority, to hear the case in the UK on the grounds it was . I was changing my disciplines significantly. We didnt have any salespeople on board, so we were engineers doing all of the selling ourselves. As per reports from several media portals, Boney Kapoor's net worth rocketed after he produced Company, which was directed by Ram Gopal Varma in the year 2002. When you continue to deliver value for your customers, then they see it. 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) . He funnelled his wealth into property across London, Hong Kong, Dubai and Tokyo, Shah said, amassing a portfolio that he put at about 70 million pounds. Alejandro: Of course. 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. Alejandro: What have you learned about growth, Sanjay? Global titans like Apple, Walmart, 3M, Turner, Dell and Bayer rely on Vistex to manage the full life cycle of programs through strategy, software, implementation, execution and analytics. I did have a word with her, and she thought Id lost my mind because as you can imagine, being one of the first employees of SAP, I had a very good package with them including some stupendous stock options, which I would have to get rid of or liquidate. We have a relatively flat organization. Alejandro: How big was the business when you joined them? Once you have built a platform already, how do you accelerate growth versus venture capital is, Do you believe in my potential? WLS CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago-based entrepreneur Sanjay Shah, founder and CEO of Vistex, Inc., which is based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., purchased the penthouse of Trump International Hotel and. Sanjay brings a high level of passion, energy and skills to address complex business processes for global organizations. What was going on through your mind? New video: https://vistex.link/2EQs - SAP's Tom Roberts and Vistex Inc CEO & Founder, Sanjay Shah, discuss today's announcement that #SAP has made a strategic investment in Vistex. Thats when I decided to expand the hiring for the organization. It was a German software company that had been around for 20 years already by the time they came to North America. 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. Exactly, especially if you intend to bootstrap, I think you have to have a good accounting streak in you. That has been the biggest bump. Especially, the larger the organization that you sell to, the more durable and the more persistent you need to be. They want to outsource everything and just consume a service. Would you mind expanding a bit more on that, Sanjay? Were going to be learning a lot about building, scaling companies, and also about financing and then venture capitalist versus private equity firms, and also about building super-strategic relationships with larger players. Sanjay Shah: Thank you. Then slowly over the years expanded to other regions of the globe. 1. Sanjay. Sanjay Shah On Going From Zero To $250 Million In Revenue Without Taking Any Outside Investment. Is that right? I would like to describe it as a bit chaotic, but a very functional democracy. : What have you learned about growth, Sanjay? So walk us through the process of how you came up with this idea, and how did you incubate it all the way to fruition? Fortunately, I had a view from the inside as well, having been one of the earliest employees of SAP. Alejandro: Very cool. Employees at Vistex, Inc. rate Sanjay Shah higher than employees at Innovative Interfaces rate James Tallman : What have I learned about myself? Sanjay Shah (born September 11, 1970 in London) is a Dubai-based British businessman. Q: After you graduated college in India, you decided to move to the U.S. for graduate school and to pursue your career. : Very cool. Thats quite a significant amount of employees. Contact: Mr. Alex Dehnert Communications Manager Vistex, Inc. 2300 Barrington Road, Suite 550 Hoffman Estates, IL 60169 Phone: 847-490-0420 alex.dehnert@vistex.com SOURCE Vistex, Inc. In the 1980s and 1990s, he teamed up with Asrani and Kader Khan as the comical team in over 100 films. Oh, he went to Lehigh.. I was an SAP loyalist. Your email address is 100% safe from spam! 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? Alejandro: 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? : Did you recruit other people like talking of bootstrapping and especially in the early days, who were the initial people you got around you to help you out? That helped definitely. As a business owner that helps you, serves you, and it never hurts to be fluent with numbers. How do you build and scale a cloud business? Sanjay Shah, the unemployed trader who's now worth $700 million but is wanted for 'fraud' Sanjay Shah and Solo Capital Partners LLP are central figures in the Danish Cum-Ex scandal that helped investors to rapidly sell shares and claim multiple refunds on dividend taxes. There are many paths to progress and success. Sanjay Shah: I think in 2001, I was able to land our first customers. 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