From a boarding school in Raipur to doing pioneering work on the world’s first Verilog simulator, laying the groundwork for electronics product development in India, and building a company valued at over ₹200 billion, Sanjay Nayak’s journey rivals the drama of a Bollywood film, with its many twists and turns. EFY’s Yashasvini Razdan traces this remarkable tale of resilience and optimism, beginning in the town of Raipur, where it all began.
The fifth of the Nayak children and the first son of a state government engineer and a traditional homemaker, Sanjay Nayak grew up in Madhya Pradesh. In an upper-middle-class household that placed great importance on education, Sanjay’s father worried about the effect of frequent transfers on his children’s schooling. To avoid constant changes, he enrolled Sanjay in Rajkumar College, a boarding school in Raipur, when he reached fifth grade. “He was building dams, which meant we often lived in areas with limited infrastructure,” recalls Sanjay.
Eight years at the boarding school fostered Sanjay’s independence and excellence in both academics and extracurricular activities, while also shaping his appreciation for family. The long months with limited contact with his elder sisters or younger brother heightened the value of family relationships whenever he returned home during holidays.
“Boarding school, with opportunities for extracurricular activities like debates and extensive sports facilities, taught me early on to be independent and well-rounded,” he shares.
Sports stuck with him throughout his life and the lessons he learnt on the field influenced his career. “I have been an avid sports person all my life, playing cricket, tennis, and now golf. Most sports are team sports, where you win together. Sports also teach you that you win some and lose some. You can have a great day one day and a bad day the next, but you start again with hope and aim to improve. Sports provides a fantastic perspective on life and valuable lessons that you won’t learn anywhere else,” he declares. Later, Sanjay made it a priority to ensure sports played a central role in his children’s lives.
The gold medal of an almost IITian
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A nonchalant all-rounder, young Sanjay was poised to enter the next stage of life with his sights set on the IITs. However, life had other plans. Due to a mix-up, he arrived an hour late for the second paper of the IIT exam, which impacted his overall performance despite a strong showing in the first paper. “Although I did well in the first paper, it affected my overall performance. Nevertheless, I got into other institutes and eventually went to Birla Institute of Technology (BIT) in Ranchi,” he says.
This setback did not deter Sanjay. Determined to make the most of his situation, he found that with effort, he could excel. “In the first semester at BIT, I realised that with some effort, I could excel,” he says. Guns, swords, gangs, fights—Bihar in the early 80s was quite turbulent after the JP movement, but for Sanjay, academics and sports kept him going. “It was like the Wild West where you saw and experienced things that toughened you up—nothing in life could scare me after that. Despite the chaos, the academic environment was supportive, and the whole experience at BIT was very holistic, combining academics with sports and other activities,” he recalls with a secret smile.
By the time he graduated, he was the gold medallist of the institute, having achieved the highest marks across all branches by a significant margin. This experience strengthened his confidence in the fact that he could excel wherever he was, “even if I didn’t get into IIT,” he shares.
Instead of opting for a conventional job, Sanjay sought broader horizons and pursued an MS in computer engineering at North Carolina State University, Raleigh. Adapting to a new cultural and academic environment, he faced initial challenges but gradually gained skills and confidence. “I figured that I had to learn a lot in a short time. To do that I needed to make smart decisions, optimise my time, and plan my study, to input maximum knowledge in the least time. I managed to crack the time management code and was able to tackle new challenges, figure things out independently and excel academically,” he shares. Years later, it was a pleasant surprise for Sanjay when North Carolina State University decided to induct him into their ECE Hall of Fame in 2018.
Attributing his success to his late father, Shiv Shankar Nayak, a very bright and accomplished man for his generation, Sanjay acknowledges that he supported him in all his decisions. “In the 80s, if someone in your family worked a government job, the family could push you in the same direction. However, I wanted to go to the US, and my father supported me in that decision. He was my first role model,” he shares.
Excellence is not innate, but absorbed and learnt, till it becomes a habit. For Sanjay, absorbing this habit came from watching his father’s attention to detail. “My dad was passionate about everything he did. His handwriting was almost like calligraphy. He wrote beautifully, even for mundane tasks, like making a shopping list, demonstrating a culture of excellence. Whether it was practising yoga or his profession, he excelled at everything,” he recalls fondly.
Sanjay grew to pass on this heirloom to his children. “They always strive to do their best and set high standards for themselves,” he states proudly.
The three Vs—Verilog, VHDL, VLSI
Life after college for many involves precise decision-making, lots of ifs and buts, hits and misses. For Sanjay, life put him in the right place, at the right time, and he used that to his advantage to do the right things, never missing to excel in an opportunity that knocked his door.
After completing his post-graduation in 1987, he joined a startup, Gateway Design Automation (GDA), in Boston with less than 20 people. “People talk about startups in 2024, I started my career from a startup in 1987!” he exclaims.
This team at GDA was the same team that had invented the first language in the world that would allow hardware to be described in software—Verilog. GDA opened its Verilog language to IEEE, making it industry’s first hardware description language standard. For two years, Sanjay worked on developing the Verilog simulator with the team. Around the same time the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the US had started developing VHDL as a language and Sanjay worked on developing one of the world’s first VHDL simulators.
“The first seven years in my career, from 1987 to 1995, involved working on cutting-edge technologies in electronics design and automation (EDA), which was a sunrise industry then. Gateway Design Automation was acquired by Cadence in 1989 for $80 million, which was a very big deal at that time,” he recounts.
He went on to move to India and helped in the establishment of Gateway Design Automation in India, which later became Cadence Design Systems in Noida/Delhi, the second of the only two companies involved in deep tech product development in India, along with Texas Instruments in Bengaluru during the 1980’s.
“It was a time when the exhaustive coursework of electronic design automation and VLSI did not exist in most IITs or other colleges. We ended up helping set up coursework at IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi to train students in this field, and worked with other educational institutes to give them the latest trends in semiconductors and EDA. We also had training courses and engaged on projects with faculty,” he recalls.
The family man
Along with laying the foundational stones of the electronics ecosystem, Sanjay started building a life with Anju, in 1989. “I have been very lucky to have her as my wife. To support my ambitions and dreams, she chose to be a homemaker, all her life, despite having a masters’ in economics,” he shares. The couple has two sons—Shravan and Anmol—who are now 31 and 29. Both have followed in the footsteps of their father and taken up engineering as a profession.
Growing up, Sanjay’s mother, a traditional homemaker, made sure that her children were instilled with spiritual values. “My mother always kept the family together and instilled strong values in us.” Leaning on the same values, Sanjay always made family his priority.
After a brief stint of two years in the US from 1995-1997, Sanjay decided to move back to India in 1997 and founded Viewlogic India, which was later acquired by Synopsys India, where he served as the managing director. The first thing he did after moving to Bengaluru was to buy a house in Koramangala, near the local club to gain access to tennis, swimming, and all kinds of sports. “Sports as a lifestyle was instilled right from the start, and I wanted my kids to adopt it as well. Every morning, I would walk to the club to play tennis, and my kids used all the club facilities as well,” he shares.
Proud of his boarding school heritage, Sanjay wanted his children to gain the same exposure as he did and made it a point to travel extensively together. A strict vegetarian, a lifestyle passed down from his parents, Sanjay and his family enjoy various global cuisines, his favourite being Italian and Thai.
“Despite being in a startup and having a very intense job with lots of business travel, I don’t think there was ever an instance when my children wanted me to be with them, and I wasn’t there. It all boils down to prioritisation and efficient time management,” he says.
For Sanjay, parenting has been less about giving instructions and more about setting an example. “I have let them observe and learn from experience, because actions speak louder than words. Children emulate what they see and internalise the value system around them without any lectures,” he says.
Controlling the controllables
From a boy who couldn’t get into IIT, to an industry leader who helped design the electronics curriculum for IITs and other leading engineering institutions in India, Sanjay Nayak has not just created an example for his children, but also every engineer who aspires to take on the world.
Be it unconventional choices like beginning his career in a startup in the US instead of any big MNC, or coming back to India after studying in the US, to leaving his cush job as MD at Synopsys to jump back into the startup life—Sanjay Nayak has never said no to a challenge.
“I was very comfortable at Synopsys but, somehow, I was craving adventure and felt that I needed to do something on my own to fully realise my potential. I wanted to do something path breaking that could set an example for building a deep-tech product company from India. The startup life was beckoning me. That is when I met my second role model, Dr Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande, a successful serial entrepreneur,” he recounts as his eyes light up with admiration on mentioning his name.
Sanjay met Dr Deshpande through a mutual acquaintance and came to know that after the successful IPO of Sycamore Networks, the latter wanted to build something in India. “Speaking to him was like talking to a legend, since at that point in time, he was the richest Indian in the world! I expressed my desire to start a new venture and become an entrepreneur like him. Despite my lack of telecom equipment experience, he assured me we could figure it out,” he says, the smile never wearing off from his face.
For someone who had spent 13 years in electronic design automation, Sanjay saw potential in the telecommunications sector and decided to venture into it. “Despite not knowing the field, I was confident I could figure it out,” he says. The confidence, along with support from Dr Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande, propelled him to set up Tejas Networks in 2000 along with his two co-founders Arnob Roy and Dr Kumar Sivarajan.
The startup faced numerous challenges. Product development in India was unprecedented, funding by VCs in product startups was difficult, and customers such as BSNL were sceptical, since they felt safer buying from established foreign equipment suppliers. Despite these challenges, Tejas Networks successfully raised US$100 million of VC funding, built world-class optical networking products and saw exponential financial growth from inception till 2007 and was readying for IPO. The company faced their first headwinds when the financial markets froze after the 2007-2008 financial crisis and its IPO plans were shelved. To make matters worse, competition from the state-backed Chinese companies, who undercut prices, was brutal. This was followed by a series of unexpected external challenges that pushed the company to the wall. Its largest international customer Nortel filed for bankruptcy in 2009, the 2G scam in India in 2010 froze the buying of all telecom equipment, and a natural calamity—cyclone ‘Thane’ in 2012—submerged their manufacturing facility located in Pondicherry under six metres of water.
Sanjay pauses to take a breath while recalling every hurdle and then with a solemn smile says, “From a peak of `6 billion in 2006, our revenues plummeted to `2 billion by 2012-2013. Yet, we kept our heads down, preserved cash, and continued to invest in R&D, even when it seemed insane.”
One would think that the cyclone was the final blow, but would be wrong. Sanjay goes on, “We moved to a new office on the way to Electronic City in Bengaluru, occupying three floors in a multi-storied building. Three months later, another office in the same building caught fire and soon the whole building, including our offices and R&D labs, was ablaze. I just stood there wondering, what else could go wrong NOW!”
For anyone else, this would have been the end, but for Sanjay, who knew how to find the silver lining behind every cloud, this couldn’t be the end. “I’m not saying I didn’t feel tired, low, or frustrated. Of course, I did, but I had two things—the support of my family and my team, and a good night’s sleep. Every morning, I woke up and reminded myself that for every problem there is a solution,” he shares.
Being a leader, Sanjay never lost hope and helped rebuild the team’s confidence. He and his co-founders ensured that no junior employees’ salaries were cut, while the senior executives took salary cuts. “The infrastructure could be rebuilt but the team members and their knowledge were priceless, and we did everything we could to keep the team intact. Apart from a six-day delay after the fire, all salaries were issued on time,” he states proudly. “We managed to salvage some equipment from the fire. We also had to fight to get our claims from the insurance company, since there weren’t many similar precedents of insurance claims of damaged high-tech equipment,” he adds.
Sanjay took on the role of keeping the team motivated, with his infectious optimism, and eventually overcame the obstacles to grow revenues and profits, and reignited the dream to take the company public. Tejas Networks launched an IPO in 2017, making it the first deep-tech electronics product company in the country to go public. Today Tejas Networks is valued at over `200 billion. Its products are deployed in all telecom networks in India, and across more than 75 countries globally.
Despite these wins, Sanjay’s desire to make a world-renowned product development company still felt incomplete. He realised that to make Tejas a global leader, the company needed a bigger balance sheet and a stronger brand to expand its international business. So, when Tata Sons approached Tejas in 2021, to make a strategic investment and take a controlling stake, Sanjay saw the opportunity to fulfil his dream and make Tejas Networks a legacy product development company, with a global footprint. Sanjay and a few senior executives worked with Tata Sons in confidence and pulled off this deal within three weeks of shaking hands.
“I feel happy that I got multiple opportunities to work and develop cutting edge technologies during my career,” he says but cautions against the unexpected challenges. “It’s about controlling the controllables. When you do something about your situation, there’s a sense of accomplishment. You claim little victories, and those successes give you strength. The next day, you’re better off than you were yesterday,” he explains.
After serving as the founding MD and CEO for 23 eventful years, and securing an order book of nearly `100 billion, Sanjay felt that it was time to pass the baton to the Tatas, who would ensure the success and growth of the company for several years to come. He had set an example that an Indian electronics product development company from India could take on global behemoths and be well poised for long-term success. The challenge that he had undertaken was now resolved and he decided to step down from his role to take sail through a bigger challenge—to help build an electronics product nation.
| Less known facts about Sanjay Nayak |
| Favourite Movie: Anand Favourite Actor: Aamir Khan Favourite Actress: Madhuri Dixit Favourite Food: Italian, Thai Favourite Drink: Fresh-lime soda Favourite Travel Destination: Italy Favourite Book: The one I am reading now! Real Life Role Model/Inspiration: Dr Gururaj Deshpande (Co-founder, Tejas Networks), Late Shiv Shankar Nayak (Father) |
Aboard a new challenge
In 2008, the Prime Minister formed a task force which set the agenda for the ESDM (electronics system design and manufacturing) industry to formulate the National Electronics Policy and the Semiconductor Policy. The task force, which was the first to coin the term ESDM, included names such as Dr Ajay Chowdhry, Dr Ajay Kumar (then Joint Secretary, later Defence Secretary), and Sanjay Nayak, among others. “We coined the term ESDM to emphasise the integration of hardware, software, systems, design, and manufacturing,” he recalls. The group projected that by 2020, imports of electronics would surpass those of oil, which indeed came true, galvanising the government and industry to focus on domestic electronics production, design, and manufacturing.
In 2024, Sanjay joined a task force with Dr Ajai Chaudhary, Dr Satya Gupta and others to create a blueprint for making India an electronics product nation. This task force has proposed an investment of `44,000 crores (approximately $5 billion) for this effort, and many specific recommendations, based on a practitioner’s perspective on the challenges and opportunities for India to develop world-class product companies.
Even with all his achievements, never once does Sanjay take credit, all throughout narrating his story in third person. “Solving any big problem is not something one can do alone. I’ve been privileged that at every point in my career, I was surrounded by mentors from whom I learned a lot. I was also surrounded by my colleagues and co-founders, who are outstanding people, and we always complemented each other in whatever we did,” he shares.
Sanjay’s life has been dominated by the principles he imbibed on the sports field. “A great sports person never gives up after a bad day. They always come back with the hope of doing better. This optimism has been a strength in my career,” he states.
Like the protagonist of his favourite movie Anand, Sanjay’s optimism is not exclusive to realism. Instead, it is a fire that burns bright, keeping him and his team warm during the storm. Sanjay believes “Optimism is essential for an entrepreneur. It keeps you motivated and happy.”
Sanjay’s co-founders and mentors continue to be amazed by his optimism, noting that they have yet to encounter anyone more hopeful. For Sanjay Nayak, there is always a path forward, and his journey stands as a testament to resilience, determination, and the enduring power of optimism.
