Our Founders on Bloomberg
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L5 co-founders Bipin Paracha and Anu Bulusu on building L5, featured on The American Dream on Bloomberg TV.
Chapters 0:00 Two engineers from India 0:58 Chasing the American dream 2:19 Building the product 4:09 Betting on people and outcomes
Full Transcript 0:02 Bipin Paracha and his wife Anu first met as teenagers pursuing engineering degrees in India. 0:08 So we were 17. We were going to the same tutoring for a common exam. So there were still teenagers working together, competing with each other. 0:18 Went to different colleges actually, but stayed in touch through the years and dated on and off and decided to get married at the ripe old age of 21. 0:25 So we got married, got on a plane, came here and joined school in Lubbock, Texas. 0:31 The two came to Texas to attend graduate school and despite the initial culture shock, 0:36 fell in love with the country and the people there. 0:38 Walked into Lubbock, amazing university, terrific campus. 0:43 Some of the best people we ran into and Texans, great folk. 0:47 Everybody made us really comfortable. 0:49 And that was very quick for us. 0:50 Like within the first six months we felt like we belonged. 0:52 While in school, Bippen took a job and came to be friends with several people he worked with. 0:58 So when they left to build a startup, Bippen asked to come along. 1:02 They raised about $72 million. We were hiring a lot of people. 1:05 This was the dot-com era. 1:08 So we went there and had a great amount of time working. 1:13 We enjoyed working from 6 in the morning to midnight and then coming back there 1:18 or spending time in the office playing Xbox all night and then working. 1:22 So it was true startup culture like they show in the movies. 1:26 Unfortunately, the project wasn't viable. 1:30 Business didn't run, so we had to shut that down. 1:33 The startup had failed, but both Bipin and Anu had learned a lot from the experience 1:38 and it reaffirmed a longtime dream of theirs. 1:41 And one of the things that Bipin and I always knew we were going to do was be entrepreneurs. 1:45 We always knew we would want to work for ourselves. 1:48 We could see how possible it was. 1:52 was a land of dreams, but we could actually see people doing it. Now we know what we are 1:57 doing, now we know how to talk to large businesses, now we have the credentials, we have the ability 2:03 to gain trust, and if we've done it for others, we can do it for ourselves. That was the big 2:07 motivator. Their other motivator? The opportunity to be truly innovative. True innovation comes 2:14 from the field, from what our customers tell us. And so we decided to focus on our customers, 2:19 focus on what they were telling us. 2:21 You don't just want to work for a paycheck at the end of the day. 2:23 You want to feel like you stand for something that you have some values that you believe in. 2:27 And for us, the value is definitely client enablement. 2:30 And thus, Inry was born, a company that would develop very specific software 2:35 to make any given company truly efficient. 2:38 For example, one of our clients is a retail business. 2:42 They have a lot of retail employees. 2:43 They may not even have access to a computer, right? 2:46 But they have like a bunch of different things that crop up at the retails. 2:49 location like, you know, my cash register isn't working, my, you know, my chair broke or, you know, 2:57 my paycheck didn't arrive on time. Somebody slipped outside and is threatening to sue us. 3:03 Now imagine if you had to pick up your phone and call 15 or 20 different numbers to get the support 3:07 you needed for each of those problems. And these could all happen within a day for them. So the 3:13 idea was how do you get to that one number, that one location, that one application that you could 3:19 on your phone, not even maybe get to a computer, 3:22 but just use it on your phone and be able to register, 3:25 you know, whether it's an incident for a chair, 3:28 broken chair or a customer that's threatening to sue us 3:31 or, you know, all of these different things. 3:33 So we built this one system of work, 3:36 one portal where somebody can log in 3:38 and basically within three to four clicks, 3:41 get to the solution they need, get to the person they need. 3:43 But even with their background and that approach, 3:46 those first few clients were taking a risk as well. 3:49 And the first project that we got, the sponsor there knew we were only four employees, 3:55 but she still agreed to give us a pretty large project. 3:58 So they were willing to work with us and knowing that we would be able to deliver. 4:03 So I don't call it a challenge, but it was a lot of responsibility. 4:09 There's all these people who are believing in us, who are putting their careers on their line. 4:13 and I don't know if they realize it as much as we do, 4:16 but a couple of our sponsors and our first client, 4:21 they helped build this big business. 4:23 Those risks clearly paid off. 4:25 Inry has grown considerably in the years since then 4:28 and built a name for themselves, 4:30 both for the service they provide 4:31 and the culture they have developed within the business. 4:34 Last I checked, we're 80, 90 employees 4:37 looking to break 100 now. 4:39 We've seen impressive year-over-year growth 4:41 throughout the organization. 4:43 People say it looks like we are having fun. 4:46 So it's not just Anu and I, but our team seem to be having fun. 4:49 They're working hard because they are enjoying what they're doing. 4:53 So that kind of passion, that kind of emotional involvement shines through. 4:58 I think that they set a good example when it comes to working hard, 5:02 because it's not like they're just handing things off to us and 5:05 sitting back and watching it happen. 5:07 They're kind of leading, they are leading by example. 5:10 That example shines through, especially when meeting others who want to start their own business. 5:15 We hear a lot of people who talk about wanting to start their business. 5:20 Talk is just talk. Unless you start doing things, nothing moves. 5:23 And if you fail, what's the big deal? I mean, most entrepreneurs fail. 5:28 Almost everyone gets it right the second or third time, very rarely the first time. 5:32 So you shouldn't be afraid of failure. You just have to go out there and you have to be on the trenches doing things. 5:41 you
Building L5: The Founders' Journey L5 co-founders Bipin Paracha and Anu Bulusu joined The American Dream on Bloomberg Television to talk about building L5. The conversation covers why they founded the company in 2023, the case for operating AI on purpose-built service management platforms, and what it takes to reach more than 600 customers in two years.
Bipin Paracha is CEO. Anu Bulusu is Chairman. Both built and scaled service management practices before L5, including helping define HR Service Delivery at INRY on ServiceNow.
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