Umang Gupta, a Silicon Valley executive who helped drive two trends in business software while paving the way for Indian-born entrepreneurs, died on Tuesday at his home in San Mateo, California. He was 73 years old.
More than two years after learning about terminal cancer, Gupta killed himself with prescription drugs permitted by California law, as he wrote in a farewell letter to friends and family shared with the New York Times. I chose to take it away.
Gupta arrived in Silicon Valley in 1978. At that time, computing chores were typically performed on large machines running programs provided by manufacturers. He was one of a new kind of entrepreneur who helped build an independent software industry, such as Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Oracle’s Larry Ellison.
The industry expanded with the advent of personal computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s. PCs gradually took over many business tasks and exchanged files over larger machines and networks in an industry trend called client-server computing.
Gupta admitted that he had a ringside seat as one of Oracle’s early employees and created Oracle’s first formal business plan in 1981. In 1984, he launched a competitor, Gupta Technologies. A programming tool that allows companies to write applications to run their businesses in a client-server style.
“Umang was a true pioneer in the client-server world,” said former rival Mitchell Kertzman, managing director of venture capital firm Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.
In 1993, Gupta opened the company. This is a breakthrough in software concerns led by Indian executives. Many of his compatriots play a major role in launching and leading tech companies.
However, Gupta Technologies became more and more competitive with Oracle, Microsoft, and Kertzman’s Powersoft, and eventually the company declined. Mr. Gupta left the company in 1996. Later, the company name was changed, and after several owners, it became less noticeable.
In a recent interview, he called his departure “the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.”
But Gupta reinvented himself in time for the rise of the Internet, the next major wave of technology. He invested in 1997 and later became Chief Executive Officer of Keynote Systems. KeynoteSystems has developed software that businesses use to monitor the efficiency of their websites.
Unlike most other companies at the time, he chose to run the software online and sell it as a subscription service. This is the business model that currently dominates enterprise computing.
“He was ahead of the curve in thinking about where things were going and what would happen next,” said Mohan Gani, a longtime keynote member and friend. I did.
Mr. Gupta published his keynote speech in September 1999. In early 2000, he raised an additional $ 350 million in secondary offerings. This allowed the keynote to survive the immediate high-tech bust.
In 2013, he retired from business software by selling Keynote to private equity firm Thomas Bravo for $ 395 million. However, he gained attention as a philanthropist and, in collaboration with a group representing Indian Institutes of Technology graduates (he attended the Kanpur campus), Kanwal Rekhito, a veteran technical executive and investor in Silicon Valley. Mr. Reki said. Gupta Technologies Board of Directors.
Members of the IIT group include people from industry, academia, and the investment community who often disagree with each other on various topics, said Amritt, a consultancy who helped lead the group with Gupta. Gunjan Bagla, Chief Executive Officer, said. ..
“Uman was an excellent leader who could calm the group out of the turmoil,” he said.
Umang Gupta was born on August 3, 1949 in Patiala, Punjab, northern India, to Ved Prakash Gupta and politician Ramnika Gupta, who worked for the Ministry of Labor of India. Uman’s parents were various caste socialists who met at the funeral of Mohandas Gandhi, a break from the traditional parental jib marriage.
The couple later broke up and Uman grew up with the help of his grandparents.
He spent four years in a military boarding school and was expected to attend the defense academy, a tradition of his mother’s family. Instead, he chose IIT Kanpur and received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1971. The campus is home to some of India’s first IBM computers, where Gupta also acquired programming skills.
He then went to the United States to earn an MBA from Kent State University. He said this is the only place that offers him a position as a teaching assistant. After earning his degree in 1972, he worked for a steel company and then as an IBM salesman.
Mr. Gupta considered returning to India. But in 1975 he met his wife, the Briton Ruth Pike. He decided to move to Silicon Valley, where he worked for a short time at an IBM competitor called Magnason Computer Systems, where he failed in trying to raise money for his company. He joined Oracle in 1981.
His wife survived him, and his daughter Anjali Claire Gupta also survived. And his son Kashi Christian Gupta. Another son, Raj Gupta, died at an early age. In honor of him, Umang and Ruth Gupta helped establish Raji House, a weekend rest home for children with developmental disabilities associated with the organization Partners & Advocates for Remarkable Children & Adults.
Over the years, Mr. Gupta encouraged his colleagues to challenge his ideas, said another former keynote speaker, Raymond Ocampo.And he fused the leadership traditions of India and the United States.
“The way he guided people was based on basic Indian family-owned values rooted in loyalty,” said Vik Chaudhary, Meta’s Product Management Director, who competed with Oracle’s Gupta Technologies. , Joined the company and later gave a keynote speech. “But the way he did business was about fierceness and competition.”
Even after almost retiring in 2013, Gupta helped develop a free smartphone app called Reading Racer that uses voice recognition technology to improve children’s reading ability.
In a farewell letter to friends and relatives, Gupta said that taking the drug for more than two years after the cancer was diagnosed made him feel much more comfortable. But the pain eventually got worse.
“Why shouldn’t I go out with dignity?” He wrote, “when I can still stand on my feet, barely?”