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In Episode 2 of Mic'd Up With India's Defencepreneurs, host Adith Charlie sits down with Rohan Gala, Co-Founder & CEO of Sanlayan Technologies, to explore the innovations shaping India’s defence sector. From cutting-edge electronic warfare solutions to AI-driven technologies, this episode gives you an insider’s look into the world of defence startups.

Highlights from the episode:
- Journey of Sanlayan Technologies and its vision.
- Key electronic warfare and radar tech insights.
- Role of AI in modern defense solutions.
- Tips for aspiring defense entrepreneurs.

Watch the #FullEpisode to get the complete story behind India’s rising defence startups, and #StayTuned for more episodes of Mic'd Up With India's Defencepreneurs!

00:00 - Show Theme
01:10 - Host Introduction to Mic'd Up with Defencepreneurs
02:00 - What is Sanlayan Technologies?
03:18 - Why Enter Defense Tech Sector?
06:02 - Defense Product Areas & Electronic Warfare Focus
07:20 - Impact of Operation Sindoor on Defense Reforms
09:12 - Key Products & Defense Deployment
10:20 - Dexel's Role in Avionics & AI Integration
11:20 - Changing Defense Procurement & Private Participation
14:32 - Products Used During Operation Sindoor
15:07 - Challenges in Attracting Defense Tech Talent
17:16 - Integrating Acquired Subsidiaries & Culture
19:16 - Role of AI in Products & Design
21:19 - Prioritizing Opportunities & Company Strategy
23:33 - Product Charter & Key Technology Areas
24:30 - Customers & Market Focus
25:27 - Future Plans & International Expansion
26:02 - Focus on Capability Development Over Growth
26:33 - Why Engineers Should Join Sanlayan
27:38 - Hiring Veterans & Team Growth
29:24 - Advice for Defense Tech Startups
30:40 - Maintaining High Quality & Testing Standards
31:35 - Message on Building Indigenous Defense Tech
32:25 - End

#MicdUpWith #DefenceTech #AtmanirbharBharat #SanlayanTechnologies #RohanGala #AdithCharlie #StartupSuccess #MilitaryTech #AsianetNews #india

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Transcript
00:00Our Sena has been given for good training in Bharaath.
00:07Rohan, what's the best part about building for Bharaath?
00:10The strategy is basically what not to do.
00:16Multiple of our products have been commissioned that actually saw light of day during Operation Sindhin.
00:21Some of our products were on the aircrafts that were used, on the Agash anti-aircraft system,
00:27on the D4 counter drone system that was widely spoken about.
00:31Some of our subsystems have been used, including power, including some of our digital subsystems.
00:37So what's happening is there is a lot of backfilling of orders
00:40and a new opportunity for companies to actually bring in new technologies
00:44because there is just so much requirement.
00:46The armed forces or the end users are actually looking to try out new technologies,
00:50try out new products because of the just large requirement that has actually come up.
00:54That has opened up doors for companies like us.
00:57One of the largest areas that we are trying to solve for is on the electronic warfare side of things
01:02and that's where we feel there is a large scope of bringing in new solutions
01:06because most of the existing solutions that we have are getting outdated as you can see across wars.
01:11Hello and welcome everyone. My name is Adit Charlie. I am going to be your host.
01:30And in Season 1, I am going to bring you up close and personal with the men and women
01:35who are making Atmanirbhar Bharat a reality in the defense space.
01:40We are going to be talking about stories of resilience, entrepreneurship and first principles thinking.
01:46So let's get ready to meet India's defensepreneurs.
01:49Rohan Gala, CEO and founder of Sunlion Technologies.
01:53Welcome to the show. Thanks so much for joining in.
01:55Thanks for having me over, Adit. Pleasure to be here.
01:58So first things first, the name of the company that you run is very intriguing to my mind.
02:05Tell us a little bit about the choice of this name.
02:08And with this name, what is it that you are trying to project to your biggest customer,
02:12which I assume is the government of India?
02:14Yeah, so very interestingly, we are three founders who started this company.
02:20And when we were thinking about what we were trying to do,
02:24I think a recurring theme to us was trying to merge our experiences,
02:30trying to merge our learnings from different sectors.
02:34And that's where, you know, a theme of fusion actually was something that was very central to us.
02:40Sunlion actually means fusion in Sanskrit.
02:43And that's how, you know, on one train ride, one of us actually came up with the name and it stuck.
02:50Because that's kind of what we are trying to do with this approach in building the company.
02:56We are trying to merge, you know, the old with the new,
03:00bring in first principles thinking, behave like a startup, move quickly,
03:05but also respect the traditions and the kind of gravitas that is needed
03:11to actually build something in something as strategic as a defense.
03:15So that's kind of where we come from.
03:18You know, I understood why defense tech, right?
03:20Like I'm sure a couple of years back when you thought about donning the entrepreneur's hat,
03:25there were many sectors that were ripe for disruption.
03:28Why defense tech, which is in many ways a closed space, regulations are strong,
03:33purchase cycles are longer.
03:35Why would you enter into, you know, that kind of a space at this point in your personal career journey?
03:41So all three of us were at a manufacturing company before this.
03:48And when we were transitioning out thinking about, you know,
03:51what would be the next challenge to kind of take on a couple of things were very clear to us that
03:56India was looking like it was ready for disruptions across multiple large spaces.
04:02You know, whether it's consumer tech, which has already happened, autos, which happened much earlier.
04:07We all felt that defense was a space that was underrepresented in startups and actually becoming a need of the hour given,
04:16you know, what's been happening on a global stage since 2020, 2021, where you have more and more disruption,
04:22more wars breaking out across the globe.
04:25Right.
04:26And so it made a lot of sense for us to look at defense as an area to apply our brains,
04:31apply our minds and actually do a little bit of problem solving so that, you know,
04:35the nation can actually reap rewards of what we've been able to do.
04:39But was there a specific aha moment, a point in time, an event that really, you know, structured or crystallized this thinking?
04:47So when we started doing our primary research, going out and talking to, you know,
04:51potential customers from multiple sectors, defense was always one of them because my co-founder, Abhijit,
04:59spent almost the last two decades working in the defense sector, you know, working across large companies.
05:06Right.
05:07And so when we were talking to users, what stood out to us is that there was a clear lack of,
05:13you know, very high quality talent in defense.
05:16There are, of course, thousands of MSMEs who've been at it, but there was a clear need from the end users,
05:23a clear need from some of the large DRDOs and DPSUs to actually bring in high quality talent,
05:29the kind that, you know, tech was able to attract over the last 10 or 15 years in India.
05:34And so that became something of an aha moment to us where it seemed very clear to the end user
05:41that if there was great talent available, there were plenty of problem statements that they had.
05:46And they all wanted solutions to that, you know, as of yesterday.
05:49Right.
05:50And that, you know, urge and that burning desire kind of translated to us going deeper into seeing how we could get this across the line.
06:00Fascinating.
06:01You talked about problem statements, right?
06:04Defense is a large space.
06:07Solutions were needed as of yesterday in some of the, you know, major areas.
06:11So what problem statements have you identified and how does that sort of translate into the kind of products that you are building for this space?
06:18So currently, Sunlion is, you know, we are a part conglomerate with multiple companies.
06:24We've acquired a couple of old companies on the way.
06:28In terms of the broad technology areas, we are mostly into defense electronics.
06:33And within that, you know, we straddle between digital electronics, which would be mostly around FPGAs, software, hardware solutions, avionics, power electronics.
06:43And then most recently, we've also started our, you know, radars and electronic warfare part of the business.
06:50So these are largely the technology areas we're in.
06:53With respect to problem statements across all of these, I think there are multiple areas that we're trying to solve.
06:58But one of the largest areas that we are trying to solve for is on the electronic, you know, warfare side of things.
07:05And that's where we feel there is a large scope of bringing in new solutions because most of the existing solutions that we have are getting outdated, as you can see across, you know, wars across the globe.
07:18Interesting.
07:19Rohan, to my mind, Operation Sindur was a watershed movement in India's history.
07:24A lot of change is expected over the next five years or so in terms of defense procurement.
07:29Already the Ministry of Defense has said that 2025-26 is going to be the year of reforms.
07:35How do you look at some of these developments?
07:37The Operation Sindur obviously has brought a lot of the conversation around, you know, being resilient and having, you know, supply chains that are very strategic to be self grown, home grown.
07:50And this has become a dinner table conversation.
07:53But this is something that we actually realized when we started the company a couple of years back in terms of, you know, having the ability to have our own indigenous technology because you can't always be, you know, you can't always have your supply chains that are risked by some of the global economies.
08:10What has happened since then and because of Operation Sindur is that a lot of the systems and kind
08:17of weaponry that was manufactured over the last so many years are actually gone into active duty,
08:23you know, because we haven't seen war at the kind of scale since that time.
08:28And so what's happening is there is a lot of back filling of orders and a new opportunity
08:33for companies to actually bring in new technologies because there is just so much requirement that,
08:39you know, the armed forces or the end users are actually looking to look, you know, try out new technologies,
08:45try out new products because of the just large requirement that has actually come up since Operation Sindur.
08:50So that has opened up doors for, you know, companies like us and many others.
08:55Fascinating.
08:57In 18 months of being in business, you've made the right kind of moves.
09:01You've got in marquee investors on board and I'll come to that in a second.
09:05But among your product suite, right, which is that one or two products that you are most excited about?
09:11And if you could tell us some information on how these have been deployed, maybe on the front lines,
09:16maybe at the back end, that would be very useful.
09:20So like you said, right, it's only been 18 months and we're literally on day one of, you know,
09:25building out what we intend to build, you know, in terms of indigenous tech stack.
09:30But some of the very interesting problem statements that we're going after and especially the challenging ones are on radars and electronic warfare.
09:38We're essentially trying to build a tech stack that, you know, goes from concept design all the way to actually having our own software algorithms.
09:46And, you know, at the heart of it is about data security, not being dependent on, you know, foreign OEMs.
09:53And this is something that we are solving at mission critical speed because we understand as, you know, warfare and combat evolves at the rate that it's evolving.
10:04This would become one of the largest areas of deterrence and actually having military strength to be able to ensure that, you know,
10:13the stockpiles and the kind of technology we have ensures we don't have war rather than actually going to war.
10:19Tell us a little bit about Dexel as a company, which is the primary space in which they play?
10:26And what are the kind of orders that you're seeing for Dexel, especially post acquisition?
10:33So Dexel has been around for 25 years and they've worked on multiple platforms.
10:37But one of their biggest strengths is on the avionics side.
10:40We're also expecting them to get a large order for one of the fighter fleets very, very soon.
10:46And because of this rich avionics experience, what we are now able to do is provide, you know,
10:54solutions that actually embed things like AI quantum computing into newer platforms, into some of our legacy platforms,
11:03which give us an edge and, you know, are creating a large path for more and more products to kind of get into the fleets that we have.
11:13I've been a journalist for nearly two decades now.
11:16And from the very beginning, I've covered companies, especially IT services companies who, you know,
11:21work in India and work with, you know, PSUs and government organizations.
11:25One common refrain has always been that, you know, procurement cycles are longer.
11:30You know, RFPs tend to focus a lot on the L1 aspect, the lowest bidder possible.
11:37And therefore, it has never been a very lucrative sort of space for a lot of, you know, Indian IT services companies.
11:45Has that changed?
11:46If yes, then what has really been the, you know, push factor?
11:50I think there's multiple angles to look at this.
11:54One, at the end of the day, you have to deliver products to the end user.
12:00And so it's not as, you know, as fast moving as, let's say, IT services company would expect.
12:07Right.
12:08But having said that, a lot of new reforms that have come through, you know, starting 19, you know, 2020, 2021,
12:16have been towards ensuring that there's more private participation, ensuring that barriers for smaller companies are being removed fundamentally.
12:24You have things like TDF, IDEX, you have multiple reforms on the DCP, DAP kind of things, which are ensuring that companies with the right products,
12:36companies that are answering the problem statements of the end user actually get an opportunity to present those products,
12:43actually get the funding, get the backing that is required to, you know, deliver products into the hands of the end user.
12:49Right.
12:50I would say that things are moving at a very rapid pace.
12:54The way the government is buying, the way the government wants to include participation from private companies is evolving very, very rapidly.
13:01Yeah.
13:02Are we there yet?
13:03Probably not.
13:04But are we moving in the right direction?
13:06I would say 100%.
13:07And I think the Ministry of Defence has called out 2025-26 as the year of reforms and the year of theatrization.
13:15Are these opportunities that you're looking forward to?
13:18Absolutely.
13:19I mean, these are things that would, you know, just multiply the kind of opportunities that are available to everyone who's kind of a participant in this larger ecosystem.
13:29We're also looking forward to, you know, being a beneficiary of all the reforms that are going on.
13:34And along with our subsidiaries, we feel very confident that because of our, you know, relationships, because of the products that we've already delivered, and because of the vintage of, you know, what we've been doing, our understanding of the entire ecosystem, we, you know, stand to gain very handsomely from the reforms that will be coming up.
13:52Any of your products are presently in active deployment?
13:54A lot of our products, at least from the subsidiaries, are actively deployed, have been deployed for the last two or three decades across multiple, you know, platforms, whether it's air, land, sea, space.
14:07Some of them being, you know, fighter aircrafts, battle tanks, missile launchers, missiles, naval ships and submarines.
14:17So, we have our products across all of the battle fronts.
14:21So, did any of your products actually see active duty during Operation Sindhur?
14:26Yeah, multiple of our products have been commissioned that actually saw light of day during Operation Sindhur.
14:32So, some of our products were on the aircrafts that were used.
14:36Some of our products were in the, you know, anti-aircraft guns and missile launchers that were used.
14:42And specifically, could you call out what products these were?
14:45So, on the Akash anti-aircraft system, on the D4 counter-drone system that was widely spoken about,
14:54some of our subsystems have been used, including power, including some of our digital subsystems.
15:00Right.
15:01So, yeah.
15:02Okay, let's shift gears a little bit and talk about, you know, entrepreneurship in defense tech.
15:08Now, this is a space that is getting a lot of action.
15:11The right kind of capital is chasing startups in this space.
15:15But in terms of attracting talent, how's the journey been so far in your 18 months as a company?
15:21It's not the same as attracting talent for, you know, B2C, which was much easier.
15:27And people have seen, you know, how some of these companies have grown.
15:32I think there's two parts to this, right?
15:35People who are building in defense tech understand that this is not something where there's quick gratification,
15:41instant gratification.
15:43First of all, it requires people to have a passion for the industry.
15:48Second of all, because of the longer product cycles, it's important that people come with that background of, you know, persisting through challenges.
15:57And rightfully so, right?
15:59When you're talking about mission critical products and services that will be used by the Triforces in defending the sovereignty of India,
16:08you need to have the highest standards of quality, the highest standards of technology.
16:13Right.
16:14And so it requires a different kind of mental makeup in terms of, you know, how you build products.
16:19But having said that, given what has been transpiring over the last few years on the global stage,
16:25and also how policy is driving all the action and defense like you mentioned,
16:30there is a lot of great talent now that's looking to really build hardware solutions,
16:35that's looking to work in mission driven, mission oriented companies like ours.
16:40And so it's about, you know, finding the right match, looking at people who come with that integrity,
16:46that passion to, you know, deliver on a mission and have what it takes to actually, you know, build heads down.
16:54You talked about your subsidiaries.
16:57I think VersaBite and Dexel are the two companies that you have acquired.
17:02And both of these companies come with rich legacy, 25 plus year old companies, both of them.
17:09Tell us a little bit about the integration, because as they say, culture eats strategy for breakfast.
17:15And generally, when you have companies that are at very different, you know, stages of their life,
17:21from what I've heard and from what I've covered, integration does become a challenge.
17:24So how did you go about that aspect of, you know, getting culture co-homent, culture fitment,
17:30and how do you make sure that, you know, the people are all aligned and directed towards a single mission?
17:35This is actually something that we thought about a lot when we started the company.
17:39Given, you know, we had a clear focus and mandate to go out and, you know, partner with companies,
17:45partner with MSMEs who were already present.
17:49We had a playbook in mind in terms of saying that, how do we actually acquire?
17:53How do we look at these companies?
17:54How do we integrate?
17:55And so a couple of things that really stood out for us from the get go was that,
18:00first of all, we had to all be mission aligned.
18:03It becomes very easy to cut out the noise when, you know, the end goal is the same for both the parties.
18:09Secondly, also becomes very important that the traditional ways of thinking, you know,
18:14there's an acquirer and an acquiree is replaced by a more, you know, partnership model where we bring something to the table as a,
18:23you know, young startup who brings a lot of energy, that ability to move very quickly, velocity,
18:28and ability to, you know, bring in talent that typically older companies are not able to do, both talent and capital.
18:36And then of course, the older companies, you know, they bring in their relationships,
18:39they bring in their proven products, they bring in that metal of understanding how the ecosystem works,
18:46you know, the sheer experience that cannot be solved because you can't really go against the physics of time.
18:52And that really helps solve a lot of, you know, debates or discussions where at the end of the day,
19:00you have to sit across the table, hear each other's views and then arrive at something that benefits one,
19:07the customer and two, the company.
19:09And so once these goals are aligned, I think it becomes very easy to, you know,
19:13maneuver some of the difficulties that come with, you know, these two opposite worlds clashing.
19:18I think the broad expectation is that, you know, future wars will be AI powered, AI enabled,
19:23both from a defensive as well as an offensive capability standpoint.
19:28How are you thinking about AI both at a product level and as well as at a backend level in terms of,
19:33you know, streamlining functions in terms of how the day-to-day at the company works?
19:38Yeah, I mean, it's the buzzword of, I think the century, but how we look at AI largely in two buckets.
19:47One, you know, how does it affect our users and what can I do to make the user's life simple?
19:54So it's not very, you know, simple to understand from outside,
19:59but when you are deploying at the edge, right?
20:02And by the edge, it could be a border.
20:03It could be an aircraft.
20:05It becomes very difficult for us to be sitting remotely and do things that might seem simple.
20:10Otherwise, you know, configuration management edits to the kind of functionality that you can provide.
20:17But with AI, with the kind of self-learning that is possible with AI,
20:21what we're able to do is learn from operational scenarios and actually, you know,
20:25create updates that don't need to be pushed by a team that is sitting so far away from the action.
20:30And so this significantly empowers the user.
20:35And secondly, we look at it from a design point of view as to how we can make our products better,
20:40even before we ship to the user.
20:42And that's where some of the global libraries, machine learning data that we get from,
20:48you know, having so many years of experience actually comes in,
20:51where we are able to design products much better, much faster.
20:55We're able to do iterative prototyping that helps us take products to market much faster.
21:00So I think these are large use cases that we are going after right now as a company,
21:04but the space is evolving very, very rapidly as you already know.
21:07Right.
21:08And so we are always, you know, ears on the ground trying to understand where we could deploy some of these advanced solutions.
21:14Fascinating. As a defense preneur, someone who's at the forefront of innovation, what keeps you awake at night?
21:23I think just the sheer fact that we have so many things to solve.
21:29It's a long, long road ahead.
21:31India has been a country that typically imported most of their defense supplies,
21:37bears, ammunition. So I think the scale of the opportunity and just how much there is to do,
21:45actually keeps our entire team awake at night and, you know, keeps on powering us.
21:51So how do you prioritize which opportunities to go after?
21:54Because in my mind, strategy is also about subtracting and strategy is a lot about focusing on, you know,
22:01key action items, key focus areas and, you know, sort of making sure that the noise around is kind of subdued.
22:08So how do you make sure in a highly competitive environment where there is transformation happening across the board,
22:14which opportunities do you actually go after as a small company?
22:18Well said. I mean, something that we keep, you know, saying in our boardroom is that strategy is basically what not to do.
22:26Right.
22:27And so I think there's a couple of factors that we look at when we think about building long term and then balancing the short term.
22:36Right.
22:37So given that opportunity space is transforming so rapidly, it's always tempting to go after multiple things.
22:44But every company, no matter the size, right, and us as a small company, you know, someone who's been around only 18 months,
22:51it becomes even more important to ruthlessly prioritize and say no to so many things.
22:56So what keeps us going is that we've got a, you know, medium term kind of goal in terms of where we want to be as a product company.
23:03And so there's a clear product charter of how we want our product and technology to move.
23:08But we are always very, very close to the ground and always listening to what the user is saying so that we're able to manage that gap between what's going to happen two years from now
23:19and what we can do today to either, you know, accelerate, decelerate or change the direction in which we are going.
23:25So that is something that, you know, the leadership at the company is always thinking about, always talking about, debating and discussing, you know, on a day to day basis.
23:34Let us in on the product charter and what the pipeline looks like.
23:38What products are you most excited about?
23:42Multiple products.
23:43So from a Dexel point of view, we are looking at multiple new avionics solutions that will completely transform some of the largest fleets that we have in terms of their capabilities and how good they become because of these upgrades.
23:57From a VersaBite point of view, there's a bunch of high power applications that we're looking at and some of them will be able to address the evolving threat of, you know, drones and swarm of drones.
24:10And from a Sunlion point of view, we're, like I said, you know, building on the radars in the EW side, we're building a bunch of radars that will have multiple applications going from Army, Navy and Air Force.
24:24So these are largely areas that I think are big bucket items in terms of the company strategy.
24:30Got it.
24:31And who would your top customers be within this framework?
24:34So our top customers are everyone.
24:36At the end of the day, it's the Government of India and the Triforces that we supply to.
24:40But essentially, we want to work with, you know, large private system integrators.
24:44We want to work with the Triforces directly because that's where the most amount of learning is.
24:49And then we want to work with all the design agencies, the DRDOs, you know, space agencies because a lot of action is now happening on the defense space side of things.
24:59So that's largely, you know, the width of our customers.
25:03Got it.
25:04As a company, where do you see yourselves in, say, five years time frame?
25:08Is international expansion on the cards as well or would you be an India focused startup for the near term?
25:15I think very near term, we're looking at just the opportunity space in India and looking to double down on what, you know, we've been doing and what our subsidiaries have been doing.
25:25We have a lot on our plate.
25:26But given India's ambitions from a global stage and given the kind of technology that we are able to develop, given the kind of cost advantage that India has.
25:38We're definitely looking at some of the export markets to kind of see how our technology and applications can find use for some of the friendly countries that we export to.
25:49Right.
25:50And in terms of the company's financials, what are you chasing more at this point?
25:54Is it growth or is it growth backed by profitability?
25:57See, I think none of those we're actually chasing capability development, you know, at the end of the day, we're 18 month old company.
26:06We've got our eyes set at a very, very large mission, which is to, you know, build radars for the country.
26:12Right.
26:13And so capability building is actually the forefront of what we are looking to do.
26:17But having said that and very contrarian to most startups, we are actually profitable given we have given our subsidiaries.
26:27And so we are looking to grow sustainably and ensure that, you know, we're not just a flash in the pan.
26:33Interesting.
26:34If I am an engineer in the manufacturing space, why should I join a company like Sundayan?
26:42Very interesting.
26:43This is something that we picked up, you know, from some of the people that have joined us, something that we wanted to project when we started the company.
26:51So couple of things.
26:53One, we are completely mission driven.
26:55And so if there is that passion that one has in terms of doing something at scale, you know, for people who are out there at the front lines,
27:07there is nothing that could be as rewarding as working for a company like ours.
27:11Right.
27:12And secondly, when you are at a company that's growing quickly, a startup in a space that has all the tailwinds, you know, that are there, where, you know, government reforms are coming year on year.
27:24The kind of career progression, the kind of exposure that you get is actually something that can, you know, completely change the trajectory of your career.
27:31Right.
27:32And so for an engineer joining us, I think the sky is the limit in terms of both where the career can go, what kind of technologies they can see and just what impact they can make on a day to day basis.
27:42Interesting.
27:43Are you also actively looking to hire veterans?
27:46Yeah.
27:47You know, given the kind of deep interaction we have with end users, we do have a veteran program.
27:54We have a few veterans already working with us, you know, both from an advisory and a full time position.
28:00And we're always looking to, you know, hire people who bring that lens of understanding very deeply the operational challenges, understanding what it takes for products to really work out there, where, you know, lab simulations are one thing.
28:14Yeah.
28:15And then working at 5,000 meters altitude is a completely different thing.
28:18And so that is, again, part of that fusion that we speak about.
28:22Right.
28:23We have engineers who are fresh out of college, who are, you know, kind of experienced maybe a few years.
28:28And then we have people who have 30 years of experience serving in the armed forces.
28:32And that exchange that happens, you know, with both of these groups is actually what moves the company forward day on day.
28:39So what's the hiring roadmap like given the kind of trajectory and given the kind of opportunities that are there?
28:45How many people are you planning to hire say over the next 12 months or so?
28:50Look, we're constantly hiring.
28:51I mean, we've already tripled our number of employees in the last six odd months, and we're looking to further double from here.
29:00And across the group, we're already 300 plus people.
29:03So it's a fairly large team.
29:06But we're always looking for people, like I said, who are mission aligned, who understand the kind of challenges,
29:13who understand the operating requirements.
29:15And that's both a mix of veterans and a mix of, you know, energetic engineers who will come in and solve the problem at hand.
29:23Got it.
29:24For someone who's interested in defense tech as a space, what would be your top advice?
29:30Especially someone who's just starting up and, you know, bustling with ideas in terms of what should be done, what problem statement they should be looking at.
29:36For someone new entering the space, I think there's two parts, right?
29:41One is ideas are great.
29:43And I think the entire machinery and ecosystem is primed to accept ideas today.
29:50But also what one needs to realize is that the product lifecycle from idea to concept to actually mass manufacturing is going to be a long and lengthy one.
30:03You're going to be serving mission critical applications and products that need to undergo the highest level of testing stringent quality norms.
30:12Some of these products will be in active duty commission for 10, 20, 25 years.
30:17Right.
30:18And so persistence is the name of the game.
30:21You need to be completely aligned to the mission.
30:25You need to be listening and hearing from the grounds up.
30:29And you need to ensure that you are completely clued in to the ever evolving needs and serving some of these products and services to the nation.
30:39Since these are all mission critical systems that we are speaking about, how do you keep the bar on quality and testing really high?
30:46See, at our company, this is something that's very, very core to us.
30:51It's, you know, one of our clearest cultural and, you know, philosophical values that we need to have a very, very high bar for quality.
31:00And it starts, you know, right from hiring the kind of people we would like to associate with, the kind of products, the kind of systems that we have in the company, the kind of rigorous documentation that follows the kind of internal reviews and stage gates that we have to ensure that nothing but the best or nothing but the right quality actually goes to some, you know, some of our customers.
31:25And then, of course, we work with the customers to ensure that final fine tuning, the final quality bars are actually passed along with the customers.
31:34To all our viewers who are watching right now, is there any message that you would like to leave them with?
31:40See, defense as a space and the ecosystem is evolving very rapidly.
31:47I think it's very critical that we have homegrown technologies, very critical that we have a supply chain that's completely indigenous to ensure that the sovereignty of the country is not under any doubt.
32:00And I'm very happy to say that I can see that sea of change around me.
32:07I'm very excited building in the space that I'm building and would urge any entrepreneurs or people who are thinking about taking this leap to actually take that leap because this is something that is extremely energizing and deeply fulfilling.
32:22That's it, folks, for this episode. Thank you so much for joining in. If this episode resonated with you, do share in your networks.
32:29And we'll be back soon with another inspiring story of a defensepreneur that is building for India.

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