This CEO rides mountain bikes, drives start-ups

MUMBAI: A lone biker s t r e a k s across the stark, rugged Himalayan under-reach of Myanmar, an esoteric monk as pillion. He seeks the answer of a riddle.
In another place and time, the guy surveys the blue night sky on the glass facade of Silicon Valley corporations through his office blind. He is seeking out the many riddles of business buried here.Bay Area’s enterprise guru Randy Komisar is a wanderer, CEO and teacher rolled into one. He is currently in India in his last-mentioned avatar, searching for enterprise in the ash heap of dotcom burnout, watering incipient ideas, offering his experience to build a stronger foundation of entrepreneurship here.
And he is pleased with what he has seen in the Indian Institute of Technology and some other places. “I am very impressed by the kids at IIT. They are streetwise about enterprise,’’ says Mr Komisar, author of ‘ The Monk And The Riddle’, a New Testament for start-up pilgrims. “India has all the ingredients for enterprise except one. It needs more catalysts who will guide people with ideas to create successful organisations.’’
In India, he is picking up interesting business plans by mostly youngsters, fine-tuning them with his expertise, and trying to move these ideas closer to funding. He says he has come across a range—from robotics to chips to video technology. However, his current engagement is mainly focussed on social entrepreneurship. The ex-CEO of LucasArts, George Lucas’ video game business, and mentor to WebTV, TiVo, MondoMedia, Full Audio and Many Futures, is helping the Wadhwani Foundation, which promotes social enterprise in the country. He commends projects like Childline, a distress call service for the city’s destitute children.
A close associate says Mr Komisar is not on a spree to hand out cheques.He is being circumspect and is restricting himself to mentoring. “Enterprise is more about pursuit of opportunities than generating profit,’’ says Mr Komisar, looking more like a monk on a Vogue cover with his clean-shaven pate and short khaki jacket. He a consulting professor of entrepreneurship at Stanford University and subject of Harvard Business School case study on innovations in building new businesses. “If enterprise is to work,we got to accept business failure without penalising the entrepreneur.
Fortunately, I see happening in India,’’ he says. The compulsive traveller and biker-on-the-loose emphasises the thrills of the journey in business without bothering too much about the destination. The key, he says, is to tap into one’s passion.
“I have a strong bias for innovation and creativity in business.What matters more is the romance, not the finance,’’ he says. The Californian climbs an average 15,000 feet in his bike every week. He has ridden across the U.S, Myanmar, Bhutan, Vietnam and other nations. “Travelling is a responsibility. You got to understand the world better, and it applies especially to Americans in the present context,’’ he says.
He takes time off for some cooking, writing and jazz sessions. One thing other than enterprise that he has been hunting in India is tickets to tabla or sitar concerts.Adventure capitalists invest in more than cold equity, after all.