Pratima Rao is the CEO and founder of Compellink, an on demand extranet platform that allows organizations to link to each other for collaboration and secure sharing of information, forming a network of organizations. Pratima’s 20+ years of work experience ranges from corporate finance in PepsiCo, public accounting in three of the big four firms including Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young to software sales and consulting in Oracle products.  Pratima holds leadership positions in several networking organizations.  She is the President of TiE Dallas, Vice President of Ascend in Dallas and plays an advisory role in several other nonprofit organizations.  Pratima is a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Accountant and holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Finance & Accounting from Calcutta University.

We were young and wanted to explore the world.  We came here thinking it would be just for three or four years to get a masters degree from a US university, work for a couple of years and then return to our homeland.  But once we joined the workforce the job satisfaction and the recognition came quickly.    I loved the work environment, the recognition for good work and the fact that women were not a minority in the work place.  It was a delight to work at Deloitte, Rochester. We decided to settle in the US.

It was really the opportunities that presented before me that motivated me to take the leap of faith.  I moved from public accounting to software sales consulting during the dotcom boom getting software pre-sales experience which I otherwise would not have gained. With the busting of the dotcom bubble I went back to my roots in finance at PepsiCo.  Along with my demanding sales finance job I was also the leader of the PepsiCo Asian Network, an Employee Resource Group, in Dallas and it is then that I realized that as the leader of the organization I could think outside the box, create new strategies and find new ways to execute these strategies to achieve organizational goals.  Soon I had to make some work-life choices as we had decided that our tweens needed more attention than we were able to give them with our respective corporate jobs and I had to do something differently to make that happen.  That is when I decided to give up my corporate job.  Being an entrepreneur was a natural progression from that point onwards. I had multiple ideas.  I started two businesses but did not succeed.  By that time I had already caught the entrepreneurial bug!  Then I started a third time and I am confident that this will be successful.

Compellink is a new concept.  It is a cloud based on demand extranet platform.  Companies or associations can use this platform to collaborate with their partners, affiliates, channel or peer companies or associations, using the latest social business technologies. We connect organizations and diverse social platforms for enterprises.  The mission of Compellink is to change how organizations interact with each other.    

The big opportunity we are trying to capitalize on is collaboration between groups of people.  There are many platforms for people to collaborate within a group but not between groups.  Organizations cannot survive without collaborating with each other.  We offer the perfect platform to meet this need whatever be the nature of the organization.

I realized that one of my strengths is to motivate and inspire people.  When I was introduced to TiE in Dallas there were hardly any women entrepreneurs in the organization.  So I took the initiative to start TWINE, TiE Women’s Initiative for Networking and Entrepreneurship.  This became a brand by itself at which point I was requested to take over the chapter as its president.  Being an entrepreneur this was exciting because I could create my own team, which I have - a board of 16 people, set my own strategies and determine ways to execute them.  It is the satisfaction of seeing so many people benefit from the organization that has inspired me to lead the chapter.  Also this role gives me tremendous opportunity to network globally.

Women entrepreneurs must make a greater effort to network and assume leadership positions if possible.  This requires commitment but will position them well to succeed quickly.  Secondly, seek out mentors who will be their champions.  This is not easy and more often than not this happens only if one networks heavily. Having a champion will open doors that one would not have dreamed of!

As former GE CEO Jack Welch mentioned there is no such thing as work-life balance.  There are work-life choices and you make them, and they have consequences.  

When I was leading the ERG in PepsiCo in addition to my full time demanding job in Sales Finance it enhanced my career but I had less time to devote to my family.  When I decided to give up my corporate job and focus on my children this sacrifice definitely benefitted my family.  When you try to do both there is always a trade-off.  As an entrepreneur I work harder than ever before and there are still trade-offs but I am in control of my own time.  My only advice is that while making the tradeoff one must take into account what stage of life one is at and be prepared for the consequences.

Thank you