I am Suraj Arukil
Philosopher Technologist | Happy Entrepreneur | Super Cool Mentor
Suraj – Journey to Entrepreneurship
My journey to entrepreneurship started in the year 2000. As a fresh college pass out, I worked with a group of friends to launch a portal that could connect industrial businesses with customers abroad. Unfortunately, the product never took off, but I learned a lot of valuable lessons. I understood the roles played by Co-Founders, Target Market Research, Cash Flow, Initial Investment, Burn Rates and MVP in building a business. I learned that the best of products with zero monetary gains is a hobby and the worst ideas that brought in money is a business.
This is the lesson that still helps me look into the eyes of aspiring entrepreneurs and help them understand where they stand and what they could do differently to scale their operations.
The Nuvento Ride
In 2007, I worked as a consultant for a leading Insurance Company. Data was then thought of as the greatest by-product of all organizational operations. But in it I saw an opportunity and realized that organizational data was an ever-expanding goldmine. I started Nuvento that year and grew it to one of the fastest-growing digital technology firms specialized in Data Platforms, User Analytics and Product Engineering. Nuvento today has 400 employees across the US, India and Canada.
EduHealth
EduHealth is a project that is close to my heart. It is an electronic health record system for schools that helps to build a safe learning environment that ensures quality care for students and staff members.
I founded EduHealth in 2019 and today, it has over 80,000 students on the platform. EduHealth enables schools to address issues of medical safety, mental health and bullying that happens in schools. It helps school health administrators track and administer medical needs of their students, while also managing their mental and emotional wellbeing. EduHealth was Angel Funded by me and we would be doing our Seed Funding round of $2 million in 2022.
Volunteering
Children’s empowerment through education and building sustainable entrepreneurship are two causes that are very special to me.
I am the advisor and donor at Insights for Innovation – an NGO based out of Kerala, India, that helps children from rural and disadvantaged communities gain quality tutoring in Mathematics and English.
I believe in using my expertise to build the next generation of entrepreneurs. And I currently run a program to mentor inexperienced as well as underprivileged founders of India. I also volunteer as an advisor to a Mizone Incubation Center based out of a small town in Kannur, Kerala, India.
Early Life
I was born in Kannur, Kerala.
During my childhood days, I traveled across India and did most of my schooling in Bengaluru, India. I completed my engineering education as well in Bengaluru, where I also worked for a few years and then moved to the US in the year 2003 as a consultant.
One of the first things that excited me about the new country was the number of startups and people from startups that surrounded me. Each day began with some new startup making it big and to the news. I then spent my next 3 years learning more about startups and launched Nuvento in 2007.
I hold an MBA degree from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Bangalore University.