Varun Kanotra
Entrepreneur In Residence at The Ohio State University
Varun Kanotra
Entrepreneur In Residence at The Ohio State University
Chicago, Illinois
Overview
Work Experience
Startup Advisor/Angel Investor
2017 - Current
Investor and Advisor to software tech startups.
Entrepreneur In Residence
2019
Working as a business leader/advisor helping researchers advance their technology projects across the 13 colleges at OSU with the intent of taking it to market.
Managing Partner
2017 - 2020
Techgrind has developed the first all inclusive tech incubator in South East Asia which includes an 18 month startup incubator, co-working spaces, an angel syndicate, and and Events company that brings together startups together to help grow the ecosystem.
Corporate Strategy/M&A
2010 - 2019
Delivering continuous value by advising and implementing strategic initiatives at AT&T. Some of our projects include: Migration of telecom network functions (routing, switching, firewall) to the Cloud Development of software based network functions (VNFs) that help businesses add flexibility to their existing network infrastructure by virtualizing all capabilities into the cloud, reduce Total Cost of Ownership by 50%. Billing application consolidation Cost savings - $200M over 5 years (Project size: $80M Time frame: 2 years) Developed architecture vision to consolidate various legacy billing systems and migrate over a million customers to a more robust platform. The conversion allowed for better customer engagement, self-service activities, and online bill pay thereby reducing call center load by 15% and reduction in maintenance costs by over 20% Business divestiture - M&A (Project size: $12M Time frame: 14 months) Completed an M&A project to divest AT&Ts wire line business for the state of Connecticut to Frontier Communications as part of a $2 billion cash sale which included 430 sites transferred, 900,000 phone lines, 415,000 broadband connections, 180,000 uVerse video customers, and 2700 employees. Small Business Sales platform development Order to Cash (Project size: $350M Time frame: 3 years) End to end engagement to develop a technology platform (using Design Thinking) for 5 million potential small business customers across 22 states that scaled to over a billion dollars in sales for the company. Developed the technical architecture that will build a platform for on-boarding small business customers purchasing solutions such as uVerse, broadband MIS, and other bundled packages using market research. The product was rolled out in 22 states and was part of a $3.5B marketing pipeline.
CEO
2006 - 2010
Acquired a distressed business and turned it around. Improved back-office operations by streamlining Ordering, Procurement, Sales, Marketing and day to day operations. Cost savings of 30%. Built an online presence and improved revenues 200% over 4 years. Expanded business and developed a B2B distribution network spanning 20 cities across Western Europe and Southeast Asia.
Futures Trader
2009 - 2009
- Traded US equity futures (S&P, DOW, RUSSELL) at the Chicago Board of Trade using index arbitrage strategies.
Co-Founder
2007 - 2008
- Electronic trading of equities and futures markets long/short, trading equity derivatives (options) including spread trading - Managing investments using long only strategies based on fundamentals - Portfolio management/structuring based on directional risk in the market (delta) - Development of trading systems to generate high probability (asymmetric risk/reward) setups in stocks, bonds, futures, and currency markets.
Partner
2003 - 2007
Acquisition and development of various residential and commercial construction projects. Involved in site due diligence, risk assessment, and development of apartment complexes, condo conversion projects in both Phoenix & San Diego Involved with site planning, end to end project planning for multi-million dollar homes in Paradise Valley, AZ & Temecula wine country
Lead Strategist
2002 - 2004
Technical project consultant for implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions that included A/R, A/P, G/L, Billing, Procurement planning. Developed custom software solution using PeopleSoft's proprietary development language (PeopleTools) to migrate existing infrastructure to the new platform. Developed integration solutions to providing end-to-end workflow from Order to Cash processes.
Education
Entrepreneurship/Venture Capital
2017 - 2018
Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
2000 - 2003