May - 2005 issue > Feature

By Harish Revanna

Jai Shekhawat left McKinsey & Company to start his own firm. His friends needled him about leaving a job at the prestigious consulting firm, pointing out that he had a new child.

Shekhawat’s peace of mind was disrupted by late night mulling—not over his soon-to-be-former job at McKinsey, but by the half formed business plans playing around in his mind.

Every time someone questioned him on the risk he was about to take he reminded himself that entrepreneurs were made, not born. “I took time during a trip to India to think about the risks that an entrepreneur faces and tried to categorize them. I came up with four types of risks—financial, career, social and psychological. Once I was comfortable with my personal risk profile, I was ready to face the rigors of starting a business,” he says.

The entrepreneurial journey for Shekhawat began in the birthing room at Edward Hospital in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago. While visiting his newborn son at the hospital, good friend Udai Kumar approached him with an idea for a company. Things developed quickly and IT20 (now known as Quinnox following a merger), an application outsourcing company, was established within months.

Another close friend, Anil Kumar, soon joined as a co-founder. While the business grew, Shekhawat and his partners sensed another market opportunity in providing a platform to help large customers improve their buying of services from their suppliers. Maintaining a seat on the board of Quinnox, Shekhawat left the company to start Fieldglass in 2000. His partners took board seats in Fieldglass and Kumar provided the seed investment.

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