Seven Friends and Ten Thousand Rupees

In the summer of 1981, a young engineer in Pune came home and told his wife that he wanted to leave his steady job and start a software company with some friends.

There was one problem. None of them had any money.

His wife, Sudha, was an engineer too. She had been quietly saving from her own salary for emergencies. She gave him ten thousand rupees, all she had put aside, and told him to go ahead.

A failed first try

N. R. Narayana Murthy was the son of a schoolteacher in Karnataka. He had studied electrical engineering and then computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, and had worked on computer systems in Paris.

He had already tried running a company once, and it had not worked out. He had learned that a good idea was not enough. Now he was working at a software firm in Bombay and Pune, where he had met a group of bright younger colleagues.

There were seven founders in all: Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, S. Gopalakrishnan, S. D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh, N. S. Raghavan and Ashok Arora. They were in their twenties and thirties, mostly from ordinary middle-class families. On 2 July 1981 they registered their company, Infosys Consultants, with its office in the Murthys' small flat in Pune.

The hard years

India in the early 1980s was a difficult place to start a technology business. The government controlled imports closely, and almost everything needed permission.

Getting a telephone connection could take a very long time. Importing a computer meant months of applications, letters and trips to government offices in Delhi. Travelling abroad to meet clients required permission and scarce foreign currency.

The founders worked very long hours. Their first major client was in the United States, so some of them spent long stretches away from their families, living frugally and working on site. Those who stayed at home did the same. Sudha Murty, meanwhile, agreed that she would not join the company herself, though she was as well qualified as any of the founders. She took on most of the care of their two young children so that her husband could give everything to the work. It was a sacrifice she later spoke about openly.

In 1983 the company moved to Bangalore. It was still small, and money was always tight.

The night they nearly gave up

By 1989, eight years after starting, Infosys was still a modest company. A partnership with an American firm had just ended. One of the founders, Ashok Arora, decided to leave. The others were tired. They had young families, and they had seen friends in other jobs earn far more money with far less worry.

The founders met to talk about selling the company or closing it. Several were ready to stop.

Narayana Murthy listened. Then he told them that if they wanted to leave, he would buy their shares and carry on alone. He still believed in what they were building.

In the end, the others decided to stay.

A share for everyone

The years of patience began to pay off in the 1990s. In 1991 India began to open up its economy, and many of the old restrictions were lifted. Suddenly, a software company could import computers, hire more easily and work with clients around the world.

In 1993 Infosys offered its shares to the public in India. It also did something unusual at the time: it gave shares to many of its own employees, not just its founders and managers. When the company grew, thousands of ordinary engineers, secretaries and even drivers found themselves owning something valuable.

In 1999 Infosys became the first Indian company to be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the United States. It grew into one of the largest technology companies in India, employing hundreds of thousands of people.

What they kept

The founders became known as much for how they behaved as for what they built. They tried to run the company openly and honestly, publishing their accounts in great detail and refusing to pay bribes. Narayana Murthy was famous for living simply.

Sudha Murty went on to lead the Infosys Foundation, which supports schools, hospitals, libraries and people in need, and became a much-loved writer of stories for children and adults.

Many people now remember the ten thousand rupees. The founders tended to remember the friendships, the long nights, and the moment they nearly walked away.

Want to read more?

Narayana Murthy's A Better India: A Better World collects his talks and reflections on work and values. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's An Uncommon Love tells the story of Sudha and Narayana Murthy's marriage and the early years of Infosys.