A true leader does not follow trends, he initiates them. Dj Das, CEO, Third Eye Consulting Services and Solutions personifies this fact. Armed with strong foresight that Big Data technologies would be the next frontier for innovation, competition and productivity, he took up the charge to fuel the Big Data fire in the tech world. The world took some time but finally came up to speed with Dj's strong belief in Big Data technologies being the future. Today he is a known evangelist for Big Data; runs a much followed meetup & blog named BigDataCloud, (a not for profit organization for evangelizing & training around Big Data) and overlooks the Big Data consultancy, products and training services offered by Third Eye Consulting Services & Solutions LLC, headquartered in Santa Clara, CA. He is a multitasker by choice and a contrarian by chance.

The Initiation
A decade before beginning Third Eye, Dj's career in the US began with working on the design and development of the core functionalities of MS Works 95, the first Windows 95 based product of Microsoft. After Microsoft, he worked for Siebel Systems developing new products that made $100+ million in revenues. In 2000, Dj set foot into the VC ship and started his own investment firm in the form of Das Capital, an early stage tech funding VC firm. In 2003 he, through Cambrian Ventures, made a very early stage investment in Aster Data, a Big Data Analytics database company. It was one of the earliest databases that had massively parallel processing data architectures. "I got the opportunity to realize the uniqueness of this product, coming from a software development background helped me to understand that products like this can be the solution for the impending data tsunami that would engulf the world in the very near future. So that is how I was hooked onto the Big Data phenomena," says Dj.

Inspired by the Big Data phenomenon, the tech evangelist started his first venture towards building apps and platforms for software firms in February 2003. One specific product designed by Dj strongly mimicked today’s Google’s online offerings, a good 13 years ago. Such was the expertise that Dj possessed in the field. Through continuous processes of trial and error and after conquering the shores of a VC, marketing expert, senior level technologist and a CEO, Dj has come a long way since Zytes, a product development shop which was his first entrepreneurial mission.

Being an Entrepreneur and a VC
Armed with just a Bachelors degree in Electronics Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, India, and not having any particularly strong alumni, professional or personal network, - there were a few unsuccessful seasons to start with. However, these taught Dj his first big lesson of being an entrepreneur, to sell first and build later. Working on a business case that has confirmed buyers is always the first step in being an entrepreneur.