From Mannarakoil To CEO Of Global Scholar: Kal Raman’s Journey (Part 7)

Sramana: Global Scholar was funded by [Michael] Milken, so why did you decide to sell the company last year?

Kal Raman: As passionate as I am about the vision, I am equally passionate about the business. Every company is up for sell at the right price. In 2010, I was missing two modules for a complete ERP solution. One was for special education needs and the other was adaptive testing. I happened to find the two companies that I liked, and both were owned by Scantron. I went to them inquiring about purchasing two companies from them and explained my vision.

They responded by telling me that they had the same vision but were unable to build it. They then proposed to buy Global Scholar. They offered to provide the capital necessary to provide good growth and provide a good return on investment to my investors. I felt that was a fair deal.

Sramana: You have purchased several companies to date and brought them into Global Scholar. How did you find them?

Kal Raman: I buy companies for their customer base and revenue or for their intellectual property. The reason I purchased those four companies was for their IP and I accepted whatever revenues that came with them. The last company I bought focused on creating individualized learning plans for students without requiring a lot of manual input from teachers or students. That company’s name was Global Scholar, and I liked that name so much I took it for my company.

The second company allowed for students and teachers to be geographically separated. I found ClassOf1, a small company with good IP in this space. As I built out the modules, I knew that student information systems and more important the adaptive-based scheduling, would be very important. I purchased the third company, ExLogica, who had excellent IP in that space.

Sramana: Were all of the companies that you acquired private companies? Were they venture-funded or bootstrapped companies?

Kal Raman: All of them were bootstrapped companies. All of them were founded by people who wanted to make a difference in education. We bought them for combinations of cash and stock. The one thing that helped me was that I had clarity regarding the vision I had. All of the companies that I purchased had a desire to get big but did not have the resources to get there. They all realized that I had those resources. I had the backing of Milken and access to capital.

Sramana: What has been your experience working with Milken? He has been investing in education for a long time.

Kal Raman: Lots of people build companies. Mike builds industries. He takes time to pick the individuals he wants. He looks for will, passion, and expertise. He does not care about how much he is investing. He is a financial-driven person, and is very shrewd, but he is definitely not shortsighted.

As long as you have vision and clarity, and have the ability to explain it to someone in the street in two sentences or less and get them to pay money for that vision, your vision has legs. All you need at that time is willpower to sustain yourself. For every success you get, you will have 100 failures. Nobody will be with you when you are failing, but they will be there when you succeed.

Sramana: Thank you for sharing your story with us.

This segment is part 7 in the series : From Mannarakoil To CEO Of Global Scholar: Kal Raman's Journey
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