Raj Singh
Raj Singh, is the young man who once contemplated dedicating his life to the Indian Navy and is now a partner with Redwood Venture Partners. With the sale of his companies Siara, Cerent and Startum One, Singh made close to $ 300 million in 1999.
He was born in a small village Idreshpur near Bhola Ki Jhal in Meerut. Since upbringing as the son of a farmer could explain his hard - driving yet simple and down - to - earth philosophy on life and his considerable successes. His background may have also taught him something about risk.
After completing his engineering education from Roorkee University,in 1968, he began his career as an engineer for the Libyan Electricity Corp. In 1980, he moved to the United States to study computer technology at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Then in 1981, he moved where everyone would be technology moghul should : Silicon Valley. In December of that year, he joined several startups, one of which was NexGen, a microprocessor company later purchased by Advanced Micro Devices.
It was not until 1996, however, that he founded the company that would catapult him to his greatest success to date- Fiberlane Communications. By focusing on wide area network, Singh addressed a crucial niche, ensuring that the company that was started with $250,000 from Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers caught the eye of other investors, like Advanced Fibre Communications and Integral Capital Partners.
In 1998, Fiberlane was split into two separate entities. One, Cerent Corp., would focus on TDM multiplexors, and the other, Siara Systems, would add IP routing capabilities for those multi-plexors.
This busy father of three children is poised to take another company to the top. His latest venture is Roshni Corp., whose focus is the optical networking market. His busy and highly successful career might be the reason behind his saying that he has little free time. When he is able to spare time, he likes to spend it in socializing with friends.
He gives credit of his success to his habit of taking risks and working with people who are smarter than him and by "not micromanaging but empowering your subordinates."
Raj Singh is also a film producer in Hollywood and he has released a couple of movies.
He is the first Jat Venture Capitalist and film producer director in USA.