Managing Risk: MetricStream Chairman Gunjan Sinha (Part 7)

Sramana: I am aware of the complexities involved with risk management systems. There have been several instances where I have encountered the issue. It involves a highly specialized area of expertise. How did you build knowledge of the overall risk domain?

Gunjan Sinha: That brings up good lesson for entrepreneurs. You need to find a problem you are passionate about. When you build your team, you need to have a team that is also passionate about the problem and fully understands the domain. It is not necessary for everyone to be a domain expert, but you need to have enough of that DNA in your company to ensure that everyone can learn from each other. Your company needs to be the subject matter expert in that field. You need people who are passionate about the domain, you need people who are subject matter experts in the domain, and you need people who can incorporate the subject matter expertise into the domain.

Sramana: Who are your domain experts and how did you find them?

Gunjan Sinha: We hired people in the U.S. and India who have worked in banks and energy companies so that we could leverage their expertise. We have also hired through ComplianceOnline.com, which allows us to find domain experts whose expertise we can tap into.

Sramana: Any organization needs to have an anchor of domain expertise. Who were those key people for MetricStream?

Gunjan Sinha: That domain expertise was initially found in people like Shellye Archambeau, who ran the public sector division at IBM. Gaurav Kapoor spent 10 years at Citigroup before he joined MetricStream. He was the power behind ComplianceOnline.com. We had expertise from various sides of the marketplace to give us excellent footing.

Sramana: Their experience does not necessarily translate to mastery of risk or GRC topics.

Gunjan Sinha: It did provide them with enough of a background. Couple that with the expertise we were able to leverage through ComplianceOnline.com, and we were able to get enough GRC DNA to build our company.

Sramana: What has happened with MetricStream since 2008?

Gunjan Sinha: The company is growing nicely. We are getting customers around the world. We need to keep driving growth for the foreseeable future. Our customers are counting on us to deliver. This is a very early market, and we are one of the market leaders. We are defining this industry. We are well above $5 million in revenue.

Sramana: You have built a nice company in a very difficult area. Planning and building a product around risk management is not an easy task.

Gunjan Sinha: This company has been a serendipitous discovery of good things. A lot of times success depends on that. I think if entrepreneurs follow their passion, they are going to find their serendipitous discoveries.

Sramana: Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Managing Risk: MetricStream Chairman Gunjan Sinha
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