Basavaraj Sharanagowda Patil: Setting the Bar too High with Futuristic Innovations Date:   Thursday , February 09, 2017 \"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measures,\" noted Marianne Williamson in her book \'A Return to Love\'. Coming from a rural town in the northern part of Karnataka, Basavaraj Patil who is passionate about the research continued his education after bachelor\'s degree in Electronics Engineering upto Ph.D in Computer Science and Engineering. After pursuing his Doctorate degree from Kuvempu University in Computer Science and Engineering, he worked as a consultant for several companies and even served as the Vice President of Research for HSBC. Being a gifted innovator, Basavaraj always wanted to turn innovative ideas into business but found it very inexpedient to move his disruptive ideas into execution in formally structured organizations. With innovation in his DNA, it was just inevitable for Basavaraj to quit his job and start his own business to realize the postulated ideas. Finally after making up his mind to chase old dreams, he quit his position and started Predictive Research in 2011. \"Most often we feel it\'s better to settle down on some cool job and live happily. However it\'s your instinct which keeps you alive and your zeal which keeps you moving irrespective of all odds on the path,\" asserts Basavaraj, Chief Data Scientist and CEO, Predictive Research. Basavaraj\'s innovative niche products and services took no time to attract huge attention from the market and several investors. However, Basavaraj always believed in a self-sustaining model and chose not to raise any funds. \"We re-invested our practice revenues in product and thus managed capital. So far so good, we are managing without raising a fund in both India and U.S. We have seen many companies in the last five years which were born, even raised funds and eventually died. We are successful in sustaining ourselves during our bad times,\" he adds. Despite being very successful in the U.S. market, the products and practices seemed to be too advanced for Indian market and failed to attract customers initially due to their higher pricing model. Play Hard Like a Sport Having closely experienced the development of startup ecosystem in India and the U.S., Basavaraj feels the pace of Indian ecosystem meandering when compared to the Silicon Valley, but expresses his optimistic views on the recent developments in the ecosystem. \"We find good valuations for IT Companies in Silicon Valley whereas I strongly feel valuations in India are much lesser and also the Investors risk appetite is very less compared to that of U.S.,\" elucidates Basavaraj. To power the growth of data analytics related startups in India, his team has launched a platform called \'data science research institute\' which is a data science incubator that provides a helping hand for entrepreneurial community in the Data Science space. Basavaraj believes entrepreneurship as the only way to accelerate the growth of the nation and encourages talented young people to pursue entrepreneurship, and advices them to \'Play like GAME\' \'Play HARD and NEVER GIVE UP\'. Being an entrepreneur, he enjoys the eternal feeling he gets from creating job opportunities for youngsters. \"Creating job opportunities and enabling someone make a career out of it provides utmost satisfaction. It is a feeling that even money cannot buy,\" believes Basavaraj. The Founder\'s Data Scientist Perspective Entrepreneurs face a tough time to choose between innovating and managing their ventures; being a Ph.D holder in Machine Learning, Basavaraj\'s heart races to be an innovator but his job as a CEO demands him to be a full time businessman. Therefore hitting the right balance always becomes challenging. \"This has become both my strength and my weakness as I am less of businessman and more of a Data Scientist,\" asserts Basavaraj. He credits his success as an entrepreneur to the compromises and the sacrifices of time made by his wife and two sons. \"I should give all the credit to my wife and co-founder who were always supportive and never had a doubt that I will fail, even at my worst times,\" adds Basavaraj. He also remembers the involvement of his research scholars in the process. Though the business gobbles most of his time, Basavaraj manages to carve out enough time in between to travel to his native and spend time with his parents. Even after nibbling the burgers and pizzas of U.S., Basavaraj\'s tongue still craves for authentic North Karnataka Roti and tamarind chutney with ghee. As a proud father of two sons, he gives complete freedom to grow on their own ideas. His elder one shows interest to become a computer engineer, while the younger one is already showing signs of interest to start up at the age of 16. Basavaraj spends his free time writing humorous articles for Kannada periodicals and has even published a book named \'Rangana Rasakshanagalu\' at age of 21 and still continues to pen his thoughts whenever he can.