Hailing from a middle-class, partition-affected household, reaching the USA solely with eight {dollars} in his pocket, constructing a multi-billion greenback enterprise because the ‘Father of the Pentium Chips,’ Vinod Dham—an Indian-American engineer, entrepreneur, and enterprise capitalist—continues his fearless journey. In a dialog with Sudeshna Das, consulting editor at EFY, he shares the story of his life.
Born in Pune, Maharashtra, Vinod Dham comes from a partition-affected, middle-class household. His mother and father shifted to India with three sons and one daughter from Rawalpindi, now in Pakistan, to flee the post-partition disaster. Vinod was the fourth son, who was born in free India, in 1950.
Vinod’s father was a civilian within the Military, in-charge of the availability chains, reminiscent of spare components for military tools. His mom was a homemaker.
Vinod’s siblings have been additionally properly established of their skilled life. His eldest brother did his MBA and was a banker in Delhi. He retired as GM at Union Financial institution of India. His second eldest brother was a doctor and retired as Air Marshal within the Indian Air Pressure. He additionally served because the dean of the Armed Forces Medical Faculty, Pune. Vinod’s third brother was an accountant and his sister had a grasp’s diploma.
Vinod mentions his mom as an enormous inspiration. He explains how supportive his mom was in encouraging him to greater examine within the USA even after the loss of life of his father. Vinod recollects asking her, “Would you like me to go?” She replied with out blinking, “You need to go. It’s your future. It’ll ‘make’ you. I’ll handle. Don’t fear about me.” It was a strong message for Vinod. “She might have stopped me and I’d have stopped in a second, however she didn’t,” he explains.
“My mom was the largest hero in the entire household in my thoughts. She was the glue that saved the household collectively, nurturing, loving, confidence-building, believed in religion and due to this fact taught us that and a few nice values which have turn out to be useful all my life. After I look again and attempt to decide an individual who has impressed my life, it invariably comes all the way down to my mother.”
—Vinod Dham
Trying again on the early years
Vinod recollects himself as a “fairly a fearless individual” since his faculty days. His faculty was distant from dwelling, and he used to take a practice to go to high school alongside together with his sister. He would invariably attempt to step into the practice whereas it had already began shifting. He vividly remembers how fellow passengers saved him as soon as when he was virtually going to fall via the tracks. Maybe, that is a sign of his risk-taking nature. The identical nature led him to discover and attain new heights in life, be it within the type of shifting to a brand new nation with eight {dollars} in his pocket or taking the danger of main some big tasks.
Vinod Dham ranked sixth among the many Prime 25 Executives in computing business
Whereas describing his faculty days, Vinod recollects, “Not solely was I fearless, but additionally fairly outgoing and extrovert. I had the status of a troublemaker. I bought into hassle fairly just a few instances with the principal—even for issues I had not finished. As soon as, any person had put some black coal tar on some spots on a statue. It was a horrific factor and your complete faculty was shocked. I used to be not concerned in that exercise, however any person talked about my identify because the offender. I couldn’t persuade my lecturers about my innocence, so I used to be pressured to apologise in entrance of the entire faculty for one thing which was finished by another person. I needed to even persuade my sister, who was a pupil of the identical faculty, about my innocence. This incident left a deep scar on my thoughts.”
This terrible expertise helped Vinod be taught one thing essential for the remainder of his life. He took the lesson to be honest with any criticism made to him. He makes it some extent to evaluate a scenario fairly patiently and empathetically than being judgmental rapidly.
There’s an attention-grabbing anecdote about Vinod’s choosing an engineering course after finishing his twelfth customary in CBSE in 1966. He narrates, “ I actually had little interest in engineering in any respect. I did properly in my greater secondary CBSE examination and was taken with physics, as a result of again within the mid-60s, there was lots of discuss area programmes.
Russia had despatched a cosmonaut into area in a spacecraft. America was making an attempt to take a step additional and land a person on the Moon. On weekends, I’d go to Connaught Place (in New Delhi) and decide up previous books on physics, area science, and so on, from the booksellers promoting on the ground of the hall between the internal and outer circles of Connaught Place. They used to promote these books at a value as little as one rupee to 5 rupees. These have been the one books that I might afford to purchase then. Nonetheless, I developed my curiosity in physics by studying these books and enrolled in Delhi College to pursue commencement with Physics Honours. My brother, a doctor, satisfied me to grow to be an engineer as a result of he thought an engineering diploma would possibly lead me to a extra rewarding profession than a Physics Honours diploma. So, I turned an unintentional engineer. Trying again, I’m glad that I’m, as a result of I bought sure alternatives. I discovered my ardour in semiconductors, which can also be associated to physics. I got here to America and did my grasp’s diploma in strong state physics, which was principally the physics of semiconductors. So, ultimately, I ended up doing what I needed to. Although itt took a bit little bit of a detour for me to get there.”
Given the delay within the determination to pursue an engineering diploma, solely a handful of schools have been out there for admission. Ultimately, Vinod bought admitted to the Delhi Faculty of Engineering for a BE diploma in Electrical Engineering. “I felt fortunate to get admission in electrical engineering, however I didn’t significantly care about electrical engineering. I didn’t discover the course attention-grabbing as a result of there was not a lot physics to speak about. Nonetheless, within the fourth and remaining 12 months, the faculty determined to begin instructing electronics as an elective. Luckily, I used to be among the many thirty college students who have been chosen for this new course. A professor from Illinois got here to show electronics engineering, and topics reminiscent of communications, microwaves and associated stuff have been taught and I discovered them very attention-grabbing. I completely loved these final two years of my faculty and actually realized lots,” Vinod explains.
“I believe entrepreneurship might be probably the most difficult job, as there are 9 hundred and ninety-nine causes for failure. In the event you nonetheless need to succeed, it’s a must to be a bit bit loopy to do that. However for those who succeed, it’s very exhilarating and rewarding. Upon getting tasted the fruits of entrepreneurial success, you’ll by no means return to being anyone however your personal boss, pursuing new concepts, and backing modern startups.”
—Vinod Dham
Being a part of an engineering institute, the place college students boasting a lot greater grades got here in from everywhere in the nation, Vinod felt misplaced within the preliminary days. On the finish of the primary 12 months, there was a standard examination for all the brand new college students to pick those that would qualify for a advantage scholarship. Vinod determined to not take that examination, for worry of not doing properly.
Vinod says, “Subsequently, on the day of the examination, I made a decision to skip faculty. My father requested me why I used to be not going to varsity. I informed him I didn’t need to embarrass myself as a result of the opposite college students have been anticipating very excessive scores. Because the examination was non-obligatory, he urged me to take it as there was no draw back. When the outcomes got here out, I used to be pleasantly stunned to outdo these I used to be afraid have been approach forward of me. This helped construct my confidence sky-high. I felt I might climb the ladder of life as efficiently as anyone else. That was actually a recreation changer for me!”
Intel CEO Andy Grove with Vinod Dham who lead Intel to the highest together with his management on 486 and Pentium processors
Vinod broke the stereotype of an excellent pupil repeatedly all through his academic life. For instance, he didn’t attend courses that weren’t attention-grabbing sufficient for him. He remembers one occasion the place his professor made a joke of him by saying, “Mr Dham, you’re early for the following class,” when Vinod tried to enter the category in the direction of the top.
Nonetheless, the influence of not attending courses went far past the joke as Vinod needed to face the identical professor within the remaining examination. Despite all his solutions being right, he acquired poor marks. The professor defined that Vinod didn’t deserve good marks due to his poor attendance. He says, “See, I used to be not judged on advantage or information, I used to be judged primarily based on my lack of self-discipline for not attending courses. So, this has caught with me and I truly use it as a lesson in my life.“
Quickly after finishing his engineering diploma in 1971, Vinod started his skilled journey. He mentions, “Imagine it or not, not one of the massive Indian corporations like TCS or Wipro—or comparable multinationals like Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, and Intel—providing hundreds of jobs in electronics at the moment, existed in India at the moment. The phrase startup didn’t even exist within the vocabulary of India. The few corporations that existed on this sector have been both Philips, which was principally promoting radios in India, or Televista, which used to make tv, or one or two comparable ones. So, I had just a few choices. Nonetheless, an invisible hand has at all times guided me in my life. Someway, I met a younger man who was my brother’s good friend. He really helpful my identify to his firm and, lastly, I bought a job.”
Vinod started his profession with Delhi primarily based semiconductor (transistors and diodes) producer Continental Gadgets India Restricted, considered one of India’s solely personal silicon semiconductor corporations at the moment, who had collaborated with Teradyne Semiconductor Firm, USA. The corporate was established in 1969 by Gurpreet Singh, an alumnus of the London College of Economics.
Whereas remembering Gurpreet Singh, Vinod mentions Singh’s internet hosting Robert Noyce, the co-founder of Intel, at his dwelling. He recollects, “The saddest story Sardarji informed me was that he took Intel founder in 1969-70 to the then Division of Electronics, Authorities of India, as he needed to begin constructing chips in India. Nonetheless, the Indian authorities informed Bob Noyce that he might construct solely 200,000 chips per 12 months. Everyone knows, {that a} fab produces hundreds of thousands of chips per 12 months! Furthermore, it’s ridiculous to place a restrict on chip manufacturing, as a result of the extra you make, the cheaper you make, and the higher you make.
“Bob Noyce went to Hong Kong to construct a manufacturing facility and India missed the semicon alternative simply due to the license raj or an inappropriate regulatory surroundings in India. We missed the bus in an enormous approach, for a very long time. I used to be harm to be taught this little-known tidbit about how we missed a possibility. Had we capitalised on it then, it will have put India forward of Taiwan and China, and we might have been one of many foremost international locations together with the US.”
Intel CEO Andy Grove with the Pentium Staff key contributors lead by Vinod Dham
Constructing knowledgeable life
At Continental Gadgets, Vinod was part of the early workforce that put collectively a facility in Naraina Industrial Space, New Delhi, and labored there for 4 years. Whereas he labored at this firm, his love for semiconductors grew additional. He discovered the topic fairly attention-grabbing and felt that he wanted a deeper understanding of the physics behind the conduct of the semiconductor units. This quest for studying prompted him to pursue greater research.
In 1975, Vinod left Continental Gadgets to pursue an MS diploma in solid-state physics from the College of Cincinnati, in Ohio. This determination was prompted by the suggestion of S.S. Madan, the then basic supervisor of Continental Gadgets. He was a semiconductors professional who had returned to India after spending a few years working for Philips Semiconductors in Holland. “This turned out to be the second game-changing determination of my life,” Vinod explains.
Again in 1975, the federal government of India used to permit solely eight {dollars} as international foreign money to the Indians going to the USA. As a pupil, Vinod might get a further twenty {dollars} for books after approval of the Reserve Financial institution of India. He remembers ready at Reserve Financial institution’s Parliament Avenue workplace in New Delhi for 2 days with none fruitful consequence.
Then his elder brother, the banker, supplied assist for arranging that cash. Nonetheless, Vinod refused that assist after realizing that his brother needed to method the approving officer. He says, “I used to be offended that I wanted his assist to get a easy job finished, that I used to be fairly entitled to. However India these days was extra about whom you knew and never what you knew.”
“So, I truly reached America solely with simply eight {dollars} in my pocket. After reaching there, I went to the international college students’ workplace. There was a pupil counselor who had been corresponding with me for a 12 months. She requested what she might do for me. I requested about my analysis assistant job. That was speculated to get me 325 {dollars}. She mentioned I wouldn’t get that cash till I did a month’s work. I informed her I wanted a minimum of 75 {dollars} for hire and 15 {dollars} for medical health insurance, despite the fact that I wanted some more cash for meals. She went to a room and got here again with 125 {dollars} in money. It was a misery fund. Later, I paid it again at zero % curiosity at about 25 {dollars} a month, after getting my wage.
“My first wage within the USA was USD325,” Vinod recollects. “Luckily, inside 9 months of being there, the dean supplied me a short lived instructing place to show within the semiconductor lab, because the professor chargeable for instructing in that lab was on a year-long sabbatical. Since I used to be the one pupil who had a semiconductor background and understood how chips are made, packaged, and examined, and your complete gamut of issues, I used to be supplied the job. Initially, I used to be fairly reluctant to simply accept it as I had by no means taught earlier than and was not assured that I might actually stand in entrance of individuals and educate. Nonetheless, my advisor inspired me and I accepted. I very a lot loved my instructing project and the perks that got here with it. I additionally felt like a king as my wage was raised to 625 {dollars}, the largest leap I ever had,” he says.
Vinod believes in studying by doing. He adopted the identical precept in his instructing as properly. The college compiled a e-book primarily based on his lectures. “I bought to find out about that e-book from the scholars who joined Intel after graduating from that college. They used to inform me that that they had studied my e-book. I used to be stunned as I’d by no means written a e-book; I’d solely compiled my lectures. It seems the varsity had taken these and made a e-book out of them, and so they have been charging them 20 or 25 {dollars}. After discovering this out, I known as my professor and jokingly mentioned that that they had not paid me royalty for my e-book. He simply laughed off. They have been great individuals,” he says with a smile.
Vinod loved his examine days within the USA completely. “I believe training in America is a completely pleasurable expertise. Particularly for the Indians, it’s a piece of cake. That’s why all of the Indians who come right here simply fly excessive,” he opines. In India, I felt the professors have been discovering causes to filter you out; right here they have been genuinely making an attempt that can assist you be taught. He accomplished his grasp’s diploma with ease.
Nonetheless, even earlier than finishing the identical, he bought an opportunity to expertise the “true American lifestyle,” as he describes, via an invite from considered one of his fellow college students. “It was the primary American home that I ever went to. I used to be blown away as a result of I had at all times been staying in an house, sharing a small room with one other pupil. However this fellow who invited me had a correct home with many bedrooms, stuffed with music and enjoyable.” That have allured him to style such a life.
Vinod Dham, Founder & MD, Indo US Enterprise Companions, known as on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on January 16, 2016
“I keep in mind going again to my advisor and telling him that I would favor to not do a PhD. He bought very upset with my determination as a result of he had gotten some grants from NASA for my analysis work. I made a decision to proceed analysis as per his want as I knew that I wouldn’t get letter of advice for a job from him, if I offend him. There was no idea of an H1-B visa then. Your professor needed to write a letter of advice so that you can go to an organization to get sensible coaching. So, I went again and began engaged on the PhD once more. However my advisor got here again to me even earlier than I completed my work. He requested me to go for interview with NCR Microelectronics, which was an enormous sponsor of his semiconductor lab. NCR had reached out to him for a skilled useful resource to resolve some points of their essential undertaking and, once more, my identify confirmed up on the prime as a result of I used to be the one pupil with work expertise in semiconductors. He promised me that even when I didn’t get chosen, he would let me go after my grasp’s diploma. Since I didn’t have a automotive, he drove me for the interview. Luckily, I bought chosen and accepted the job,” Vinod says.
Whereas working with NCR, Vinod got here throughout an individual from Bell Labs, which is taken into account the Mecca of analysis within the USA. “That individual had a fantastic liking for me. He taught me every thing about analysis, invention, and innovation. Collectively, we created a forefront non-volatile reminiscence, the precursor to at the moment’s flash know-how used for storing photographs in iPhones. We co-authored papers and patents,” Vinod recollects.
Whereas presenting such a piece paper on the novel non-volatile reminiscence on behalf of NCR Microelectronics at an IEEE workshop in Monterey, California, Vinod met Invoice Johnson, a director at Intel. Invoice was fairly impressed together with his presentation. He supplied Vinod a job at Intel and the remaining is historical past.
“I’m fairly impressed with the imaginative and prescient Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modiji has set for the expansion of the Indian electronics business. Ashwini Vaishnawji, Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Info Know-how in authorities of India, and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Info Know-how of India are fairly severe and have the area information to steer this effort for finishing up Modiji’s imaginative and prescient. It actually evokes me to be a part of the workforce to make this essential mission succeed. It’s a strategic crucial for India. It’s not simply good to have or good-to-have, it’s a must-to-have,“
—Vinod Dham
Turning into ‘Father of the Pentium Chip’
In 1979, Vinod started his journey at Intel as an engineer within the non-volatile reminiscence workforce to co-invent Intel’s first flash reminiscence (ETOX) together with different two workforce members he lead. Nonetheless, his aspiration was to grow to be a basic supervisor fairly than proceed with R&D work. Thus, he moved to Intel’s enterprise facet by becoming a member of a activity drive to fabricate Intel 386 microprocessors. Sadly, Intel 386 was yielding a mere half an excellent die per wafer with a possible of fifty dies on the 15cm (6-inch) wafer. This situation was an enormous menace to Intel, since its competitor Motorola was already in excessive quantity manufacturing.
Vinod labored as part of the duty drive beneath Craig Barret, who later went on to grow to be CEO and Chairman of Intel. The duty drive efficiently identified flaws in the way in which the silicon course of was architected. Vinod’s contributions to this essential success in enabling ramp up of Intel 386 catapulted him to handle Intel 386 compaction, a comply with on to Intel 386, after which take over Intel 486 design mid-stream and make it one of the vital profitable merchandise, placing Intel on the highest.
Vinod helped constructed a multi-billion-dollar enterprise for Intel as the final supervisor of Intel 486 product line, earlier than being requested by then CEO, Andy Grove, to step out to begin main the next-generation Intel microprocessor, internally often known as P5—till it was named ‘Pentium’ at its launch. Vinod is called the ‘Father of the Pentium Chip’ for his contribution to the event of Pentium and making it the most well-liked microprocessor on the planet! Thus, a pacesetter was born.
Vinod mentions, “I realized management from Andy Grove, who was the chief of Intel. I truly realized from him by watching, observing, and asking. Then, I utilized the educational in my very own management fashion.
“Although I didn’t should create a imaginative and prescient, I noticed individuals like him and Gordon Moore creating the imaginative and prescient for the corporate after which articulating it in a really clear, easy approach, that even a safety guard would know as to what was essential for achievement of the corporate at any given level.”
Whereas describing his success in main Pentium, Vinod says, “It was extraordinarily difficult, very fulfilling, and game-changing in some ways for me. Not solely it gave me worldwide visibility, however it additionally helped me subsequently in lots of issues that I’ve finished since. It gave me huge confidence to cope with very complicated tasks and conditions. This stuff are essential for locating your personal self, and to know what you’re able to.”
As a pacesetter, Vinod prefers to be very crisp and clear together with his workforce about what they need to accomplish. Then he develops a technique for conducting the identical, places collectively a plan to assist the technique, and divides the plan into actionable goals on month-to-month and quarterly foundation. He ensures all workforce members are on the identical web page and marching all the way down to the identical objective.
Nurturing household life and entrepreneurial dream
Vinod started his household life concurrently together with his journey at Intel. He bought married in 1980, simply six months after becoming a member of Intel. It was an organized marriage. His spouse is from Chandigarh. She was doing her PhD earlier than their marriage. Vinod says, “Since we bought married inside three weeks of getting met one another, she didn’t get time to complete her PhD, as an alternative she acquired her grasp’s of Philosophy in English.
Vinod Dham with household
They’ve two sons. The elder son is an entrepreneur, making a go of his startup. The youthful son is a enterprise capitalist; he was lately featured within the ‘40 Underneath 40’ listing. Vinod is a cheerful grandfather with one granddaughter and one grandson.
Together with dwelling a cheerful household life, Vinod continues nurturing his entrepreneurial aspirations. He left Intel in 1995 and joined the microprocessor startup Nexgen as COO. Vinod’s perception helped Nexgen in profitable acquisition of the corporate by Superior Micro Gadgets (AMD), an rising chief within the semiconductor computing business.
Regularly, his curiosity shifted past microprocessors. After spending one 12 months in AMD, he began the communications processors startup Silicon Spice and labored as its CEO and President. His management helped develop the primary multichannel Voice over IP (Web protocol) chip, a part of an eco-system that permits functions like WhatsApp utilized by billions all over the world to make telephone calls. In 2000, Vinod offered Silicon Spice to Broadcom for $1.2 billion in an all-stock deal.
A few of Vinod Dham’s favourites:
• Favorite present. Indian Idol. His spouse and he pre-record it and watch it each week. They discover it heartening to see the gifted children sing so fantastically. Indian music is an enormous unifier for us Indians, in line with them.
• Favorite music. Sufi music that connects him with the everlasting. He finds superb Sufi songs on Coke Studio.
• Favorite meals. Homecooked rajma-chawal, the standard Punjabi meals, which his mother used to cook dinner on Tuesdays.
• Favuorite movie. Three Days of the Condor, a 1975 American political thriller movie with Robert Redford because the lead actor. It exhibits that governments might sacrifice just a few of their very own for a bigger goal of serving to their nation.
• Favourite pastime. Studying concerning the universe, the place we got here from, and the way it began.
• Favorite e-book. The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Trendy Physics and Japanese Mysticism, a 1975 e-book by physicist Fritjof Capra.
Giving again to India
“After making two profitable makes an attempt as an entrepreneur, first at NexGen after which at Silicon Spice, I used to be continuously pondering of the methods I might assist India create comparable successes for gifted Indian engineers, like Silicon Valley did for me. This led to my maiden try at organising NewPath Ventures, a cross-border incubator for a handful of excessive tech entrepreneurs, the place we primarily did R&D in India and enterprise, gross sales, and advertising from the USA,” tells Vinod.
Subsequently, Vinod turned one amongst a handful of early pioneers who arrange early-stage enterprise capital funds on the bottom in India, round 2005-06, which laid the muse of a silicon valley fashion startup eco-system, catapulting India to the third largest startup system on the planet, with scores of unicorns within the pipeline. He informs, “I based Indo-US Ventures, an early-stage VC fund. We raised near $200 million and invested in a rating of corporations and have been lucky to have a few of the profitable Indian startups in our portfolio,” Vinod says whereas discussing his India-centric initiatives.
He believes that integrity and fireplace within the stomach are an important standards for choosing a budding entrepreneur for offering enterprise capital. Despite having a wonderful product thought, and an enormous market alternative, a startup might not achieve an enormous approach and not using a founder who has fireplace within the stomach to succeed and has excessive integrity. Even when the unique thought doesn’t work, a pushed founder will work out a solution to pivot and make success out of it.
Vinod and his spouse Sadhana are donors to many charities within the US and India. He has been a trustee of the American India Basis since 2001. In 2006, Vinod was appointed Chair of the Digital Equalizer (DE) Program with a mission to offer underprivileged youngsters in India with the chance to boost their studying via the usage of digital know-how in a scalable and sustainable method. As Chair of the DE Program, he led this system’s strategic path and progress.
Vinod wish to dedicate the following 5 years of his skilled life to laying the muse for the Indian semiconductor mission. “It will be difficult for India to enter the sector of semiconductors after 50 years because the chip business began taking off. One in all our largest challenges goes to be skilling home expertise for this sector,” he opines.
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