Jit Saxena, CEO and Co-Founder of Netezza , is one of the top twenty five finalists for the 2005 Mass Technology Leadership Awards

Prior to founding Netezza, Saxena was founder, chairman and CEO of Applix Inc., a leading provider of analytical CRM software that he took public in 1994. While at Applix, Saxena guided the company to a leadership position in the CRM market and achieved an eight-fold increase in market value subsequent to the IPO. Through his vision, the company was continually an innovator in new high growth markets.

 Prior to founding Applix, Saxena was a senior director at Data General where he was responsible for the development of the company's software products. At Data General, he held several other senior management positions and built a successful development organization that introduced industry-leading software in many categories.

Saxena earned an MS in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University, an MBA from Boston University and a B. Tech (EE) from the Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai). In July 2003, he was named an Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year.

One of the first Indian Americans to take a company public in New England, Saxena talked to Lokvani about  his company and his passion for entrepreneurship.

You founded Applix in 1984 when starting a software company was unheard of. What motivated you to take such a bold step?

I used to work for Data General. In those days the major players in the high tech world were companies like Data General, DEC and Wang who were primarily hardware companies. When I socialized the idea of software development independent of hardware, it was something that was not entertained at Data General. It was a paradigm shift that did not work well with their business model.  I strongly believed that this was the way of the future and hence decided to start Applix. It was very successful and we took it public in 1994.

 You now seem to have gone full circle and started Netezza where you now create appliances that integrate hardware and software. Why?

It does seem like I am always going against the current, doesn’t it? I think the next wave in business is about understanding data at a much more granular level.  The data could be customer related data for companies or it could be intelligence data for the government.  I felt there is great need to create a low cost high performance unit that will allow people  to collect, analyze and mine data on the fly. This can be done by integrating hardware and software which is what we have done with Netezza Performance servers.

In an environment where corporate decision making is based on massive data-driven analyses, the Netezza Performance Server® (NPS®) system delivers 10-50 times the performance—at half the cost—of traditional data warehouse systems from Oracle, IBM, Teradata and others. With Netezza, companies are gaining real-time insights into their data and fundamentally changing the way they leverage their data warehouses and make decisions

 The appliance we have created stores, filters and processes terabytes of records within a single unit, analyzing only the queried data for each query. Netezza has placed the processor power next to the data, allowing the NPS system to speed through processes that would occupy most data warehouse systems for hours, or even days.  Since we do the analysis at the point where the data is collected, there is no shuttling of large files – a process that is often the bottleneck for high performance.

Our servers enable dramatic increases in productivity across the organization. Our appliance is built using commodity hardware and software that keeps the cost low. Our unique algorithms can tear through terabytes of data and provide valuable information to the users on the fly.

What edge does a small company like yours have over giants like IBM, Terradata and others who can commandeer a lot of resources? What strategies do you employ to fight them?

Big companies may have large resources but they have also big problems. The have their commitment to existing customers and to existing products. They cannot easily introduce dramatically new architectures or a dramatically different price point.  If we have to survive we have to be leaders in the field. We are constantly innovating so that we can stay way ahead of the pack so that the gap is so large that it is not easy to catch up.

Is there an advantage to partnering with the giants? Would you consider that for Netezza?

We are always on the look out for opportunities that add value to our business. Partnering with big companies allows us to access their distribution channels which can have a huge impact for us. We are building a business and we will do whatever makes most sense to add value to our employees, customers and our shareholders.

Is Netezza successful?

We are doing very well. We signed 14 new deals, including nine new customers, in the first half of 2005. Among our new customers are American Red Cross, Bank of America, Catalina Marketing, Neiman Marcus and European mobile communications retailer The Carphone Warehouse. We have secured substantial repeat business from existing customers including Epsilon and Premier, Inc. Netezza’s momentum in the US market, combined with global expansion in the United Kingdom and Asia Pacific has resulted in consistent growth and momentum in 2005. We are now expanding to Australia. The Netezza Performance Server® system has been deployed by leading companies across several industries. These customers are using the NPS® system to harness information located in terabytes of data in order to lower costs, reduce risk and fraud, strengthen customer relationships and keep pace with ever-changing market trends.  Our customers are from a variety of sectors including, Telecom,Retail/E-Business,Outsourced Analytics,Financial Services,Bioinformatics and  Government

Worldwide spending on data warehouse systems was $15.5 billion last year, according to market researcher IDC. I hope my sales will grow 150% in 2005, to $100 million. I'm sure we can become a $1 billion company

That is wonderful. Now that you have moved out of Applix, in retrospect do you think Applix was a success? Any thing you would do differently?

Well it depends on what you mean by success. We did very well for many years. We had a billion dollar payroll for nearly 20 years.  Perhaps if we had anticipated and understood the shift in the market from workstations to PCs, we could possibly have built a better business.

Do you think it is a fun to be an entrepreneur? What advice would you give to people who may be considering becoming and entrepreneur?

I love entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs can take an idea and build something of value for employees and investors. There is no joy that is comparable to that.  For those considering entrepreneurship I would say that if you are person who thrives on taking an idea and doing something with it, do go ahead and become an entrepreneur. This could be in the area of for-profit or social entrepreneurship. Many people often regret not acting on their ideas. So to all I would say go and live your dream.

To what do you think you owe your success?

I think I owe a lot of my success to my Indian roots. I think most Indian Americans are very fortunate to have a strong family support structure. I think I do owe my success to the support I received from my family.Indians value education and  I was blessed to have a good education.

I also believe the Indian way of thinking is not rigid. Our religion and our philosophy are very open and thus it allows us to experiment and think out-of –the box which is critical for successful entrepreneurship.

Besides entrepreneurship is there anything else that interests you? Do you have hobbies?

 I love music. I am an avid golfer, though sometimes it means waking up at 5:00 am to pursue this passion. I also like to read. I find books on alternative thinking like those written by Deepak Chopra and others to be very interesting.

What kind of a legacy do you hope to leave behind?

I do not think in those terms. I just like to live in the present moment and do the best I can. I hope to live a decent life and pursue my entrepreneurial passion. I would like to help all those I can in the best possible manner and hopefully do the right thing at all times.

Thanks you very much for your time.

Thank you.

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