From Startup to US IPO in 5 Years: Kanwal Rekhi’s Historic IPO of Excelan

Kanwal Rekhi first came to the US in the 1960s. He took his company public on Nasdaq in 1987. As a young Indian in the US, he was laid off from his first three jobs. That experience pushed him towards entrepreneurship. At the time, Indians were known and hired for technical and mathematical skills, not as founders building companies on US soil. But Kanwal and his co-founders decided to bet on themselves. They faced rejection from nearly 50 investors before one VC agreed to invest $2 million for 50% of the company. In just five years, the company went public. From being appointed CEO overnight to being removed by the board two months before the IPO for a more “wall street-acceptable” CEO, this is a story of many firsts. After Excelan, Kanwal co-founded TiE in 1992 and has mentored tens of thousands of entrepreneurs. Beyond a personal story, Kanwal Rekhi is a turning point in how Indian founders came to be seen in Silicon Valley. 0:00 – Trailer 01:11 – How TiE was formed 07:11 – DoT Hatao, Desh Bachao 11:31 – Career opportunities in the 70s 13:41 – When Indians weren’t trusted to build companies 15:44 – Pioneers in computer networking 16:51 – Finding an Investor after 50 rejections 20:31 – Becoming CEO overnight 23:29 – Spare the story, show the numbers 24:17 – The “Wall Street acceptable” CEO for IPO 27:30 – Founders have to be financial thinkers 28:14 – How Excelan could go public in just 5 years 29:27 – Cost is unrelated to pricing in software 31:12 – Do Indian companies need Americans to lead? 34:05 – Benefits of registering in the US 36:53 – $1 trillion to solve India’s problems 40:49 – Policies for India’s startup ecosystem 42:01 – Enabling entrepreneurs in villages 44:41 – India in the 80s v/s today 50:36 – US vs India vs China 01:04:52 – How did IITs start allowing donations? 01:07:25 – AI investments of Silicon Valley Quad 01:18:29 – What Kanwal Rekhi looks for in founders? ------------- India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it. This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India. What is Neon Fund? We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.

You can listen to From Startup to US IPO in 5 Years: Kanwal Rekhi’s Historic IPO of Excelan online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

From Startup to US IPO in 5 Years: Kanwal Rekhi’s Historic IPO of Excelan is an episode from 100x Entrepreneur by Siddhartha Ahluwalia.

This episode is 78:15 long.

This episode was published on Jan 22, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from 100x Entrepreneur when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.