Celebrating our eighth anniversary we bring you the eighth edition of si100, an annual listing of the top 100 technology companies founded and managed by Indians in the U.S. The listing not only represents the continuing rise and glory of the Indian entrepreneur in high-tech but also identifies companies that have made the VCs open their exchequer and the analysts scratch their heads by spearheading change and impacting the market place.

As is the routine in the industry many of our last year’s si100 companies have been acquired, giving room for new ones. A recent news item suggested that Cisco Systems, the world’s top networking vendor has acquired over half a dozen Indian-founded technology companies in less than a year. The deal size works out close to $780 million.

The biggest acquisition was that of Ajay Mishra’s Airespace for $450 million earlier this year.

Be it Akamai Technologies’ acquisition of Ajit Gupta’s Speedera Networks for $130 million or Qualcomm’s acquistion of Rajiv Laroia’s Flarion for a whopping $805 million, Broadcom’s acquisition of Chandrashekar Reddy’s Athena Semiconductors or Avid’s acquisition of Ajay Chopra’s Pinnacle Systems for $310 million or Hewlett Packard’s acquisition of Bala Parthsarathy’s Snapfish, Indian entrepreneurs in Valley and beyond are observing the M&A exit mode. Indeed the year 2005 has been a great year for Indian entrepreneurs in the U.S. Lucky ones had their pockets full as they prepared themselves for new ventures.

This might sing a happy note. But it would have been more melodious to see an Indian-founded company going IPO, especially now when the market is much more stable than the recent past.

Let’s face it, Indian entrepreneurs do not stay as CEOs for long. Indian founders are almost four times less likely to remain as CEOs when compared with non-Indian founders. As we said last year in our si100 issue, an Indian founder being replaced as the CEO only reflects the lack courage among the breed.

Indian entrepreneurs in the U.S. need to emerge straight from the gut, fight to remain in charge to see their ideas grow to become great companies.

With an ever-optimistic hope that few of this year’s si100 companies will reach the pinnacle at the Nasdaq we present the si100 2005.
In May 2005, we celebrated the success of Indian entrepreneurs. A new breed of entrepreneurs—second generation—creating success stories. Some of them have made it to this year’s si100 list.

As we talk about the rise of Indian entrepreneurs, let’s not forget the contribution of Indian professionals to the American economy. Whether it is Shantanu Narayen’s rise to President and COO of Adobe Systems or Ajay Banga’s appointment as CEO of Citigroup’s international operation, only re affirms the growing clout of Indians in the American corporate.

One among Corporate America is GDA Technologies spearheading the Electronic Design Services industry. While GDA took 10 years and a set of very seasoned professionals to create a market segment, two young entrepreneurs Kalyan Reddy and Raj Kosaraju are steering the Knowledge Process Management services through their company Maxil Technologies. The duo is also looking for a portion of the pie in the global game.
We look forward to your feedback to this exciting edition.

Pradeep Shankar
editor@siliconindia.com