When Srini Rajam told his friends in 2001 that he was quitting his job as the managing director of Texas Instruments India, they were very concerned.
Why would he want to give up a good salary and a comfortable pension?
But Srini Rajam was a man with a mission.
He wanted to prove that Indian companies could compete globally, not just in IT services, but in developing software for consumer electronics products.
It was not an auspicious time to start an IT company, in India or anywhere else.
The dotcom bubble had just burst, and finding start-up venture capital, especially in India's cautious market, was tough.
He named his new firm "I Think Therefore I Am" (Ittiam), after a phrase by the famous French philosopher Descartes.
But in just a few years, Mr Rajam's company has succeeded beyond even his expectations.
"We were lucky to start at the bottom of the dotcom boom," he told BBC News.
"We had nowhere to go but up, and it was cheaper to recruit people."
©bbc 2006
