Jadavpur University Entrepreneurship Cell is proud to present Debu Chatterjee in this edition of Entrepreneur Speaks !!

Debu Chatterjee joined ServiceNow in 2017 when his business decisions company DxContinuum, was acquired by ServiceNow to seed the AI roadmap. He currently heads the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Engineering at ServiceNow. Fully integrated DxContinuum engine, powers AI products of ServiceNow. 

Prior, Debu was a key member of Oracle Database in various roles, and later he led Healthcare Fraud Analytics at FICO. His enterprise experience spans the areas of machine learning, predictive analytics, metadata services, distributed systems, databases, big data, systems management and fraud detection. 

He has a BS from IIT Kharagpur, MS from UNC Chapel Hill, and an MBA from Wharton. He holds 27 patents, and also contributes his time to various Silicon Valley professional and cultural organizations.


 Q1. Why entrepreneurship? What made you realize that's what you want to do?

DEBU – I was always interested in building products. That’s why I chose engineering over medicine very early in my life. I harbored a very independent streak, and often contrarian. Naturally I gravitated to entrepreneurship, a path less traveled and fiercely creative.


Q2. What helped you come up with the idea for your start up?

DEBU – I had spent 15 yrs at Oracle in their flagship database group. It inculcated a tradition of state of art product building mind set. Towards the end of my Oracle run, I finished my MBA at Wharton. I realized there that most of the quantitatively anchored courses were anchored around use of data and statistics. Fast forward to FICO, an institution spearheading AI and machine learning, but poor in building products. Marry the challenges in AI product building with Oracle experience and you have now birthed your company.


Q3. How did you actualize your idea?

DEBU – All successful product building are helmed by great teams. Great companies are not built on the shoulders of one but a core group of founders and founding team members. I convinced a few folks with whom I had worked in the past the merit of this venture to join me on this journey. I have always believed that my legacy will be my team’s success, and that held true to the end. Without this core band of performers, DxContinuum would not have hit all the high notes precisely. While I spent the time selling the idea to investors and customers, they operationalised it.


Q4. A turning point in your success journey which you would like to share with us?

DEBU – Hindsight 2020, the turning point of my career was 2007. An organizational change in Oracle made my job redundant. And that made me think how I should shape the next leg of my journey after 15 yrs in the best enterprise company in the world. A bend in the hockey stick 🏑 point re calibrating where I want to be.


Q5. How did you handle adversity and doubt?

DEBU – Believing in one self and in my team, dogged persistence in the vision, and strong friend and family support helped us overcome the set of challenges we faced on our way. Couldn’t have done without our angel investors, advisors, friends and family who believed in us, and helped us push through.


Q6. Your message for the struggling entrepreneurs out there?

DEBU – Entrepreneurship is not a struggle; it’s a journey. Journey on a path less traveled or sometimes never traveled. Three points I can mention: 

1. Believe in your vision and mission, 
2. Always have a plan A and a plan B and 

3. Always think of exit strategies because your team and benefactors need to be rewarded for their contributions to your success.

 "Its not about ideas. Its about making ideas happen." Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks, and living your passion. We hope this edition of Entrepreneur Speaks inspired all the budding entrepreneurs amongst our readers. Keep dreaming, keep believing!!