This is the second innings of my life and nothing is holding me back. So bring it on: Sudheer Koneru,
founder and CEO, Zenoti
At 40, Sudheer Koneru was feeling liberated. In 2008, the IIT grad from Madras proudly proclaimed his retirement. “I am hanging my boots,” he declared to his family and friends. “I am done working.” For somebody who started his illustrious professional career at Microsoft and worked with the American software giant at Seattle for eight years, quitting at 40 made sense.
A successful professional, and a winning entrepreneur, Koneru founded two companies in the US and exited the last one—HR software solutions firm SumTotal—when it was around $100 million in revenue in 2007. In a short span, he had abundantly amassed all the material things in life—name and fame—which usually take decades. It was time to move away from the fast lane, and gravitate towards mental and physical wellness. And he did that by focusing on yoga, art of living courses, meditation, and self-realisation classes.
(This story appears in the 17 December, 2021 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)