In March 2013, TiE and Canaan Partners pulled together an invitation-only mentoring camp for India’s most promising early-stage founders. On the mentor list: Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip, Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm, Saurabh Srivastava of Indian Angel Network — and me. This is the story of that day, the friendships behind it, and why Su-Kam ended up owning the room in a way that surprised even me.
In 2011, Livemint invited a panel of industry veterans to share their thoughts on public speaking. I was among them. Here are the golden rules I gave the paper that day — the three-minute rule, why I still refuse to speak in English if the audience understands Hindi, and why I sometimes throw out my prepared speech sitting on the dais.
The story of Su-Kam Solar in 2018. Solar was still a luxury. Every big Indian brand was reselling Chinese inverters with a fresh sticker. And the Chinese manufacturers were entering India directly. This is what we chose to do about it — and why I wrote about it in The Economic Times.
The Start-Up Summit was delayed by heavy rains. Some of us reached early, some were stuck. And in that unplanned green-room conversation, a thought I had lived by inside Su-Kam for 25 years quietly became a keynote — the one ET EnergyWorld would cover the next morning.
I went to IIM Ahmedabad in March 2017 to deliver the ‘Power-Up with Kunwer Sachdev’ keynote at TiECON. The bigger discovery came in a quiet conversation with the professors before the talk — my Su-Kam story was already being taught to their MBA students. Here’s what that reframed for me.
Nine published books — IIMA, HarperCollins, Springer, Rashmi Bansal, Harsh Pamnani, Disha, ProjectX Digest — have profiled Kunwer Sachdev and Su-Kam Power Systems. Here are the covers, the references, and what each one captured.
From dealers in Lagos and Kabul to solar villages in Gabon and Rwanda, Su-Kam took Made-in-India power to 90+ countries. Kunwer Sachdev on the export journey and why an Indian brand standing on the world stage mattered.
Before Indian businesses used Facebook, Kunwer Sachdev turned it into Su-Kam’s nervous system — connecting factories, R&D and service teams across 70+ countries. The story of an early bet, what was lost, and keeping the heritage alive.
In November 2012 Su-Kam staff uploaded the Technovations deck on SlideShare — 47 slides on Chic plastic inverters, tractor charging, sine wave, Home UPS, telecom, Solar PCU, Brainy, and megawatt projects. Kunwer Sachdev walks each slide.
On 24 September 2011 Kunwer Sachdev presented at eRevolution, Hotel Marriott Chandigarh — 70 slides on Su-Kam R&D, six factories, 10,000 dealers and exports to 71 countries. Original conference slides and founder story.