Transcript of a YouTube interview (host Sridhar of Unique Solutions of Advanced Technologies) with entrepreneur Sunny Reddy. Sunny describes arriving in the U.S. with $1,000, earning a master’s in chemical engineering from Wayne State University, working for companies including Chrysler and several telecom firms, and founding IT and VoIP businesses (IT company ~1996; VoIP company ~2004, celebrating ~20 years). He discusses product features (mobile app, EMR integration), training/teaching programmers, community service including COVID donations, advice for new entrepreneurs (use trusted networks to build credibility), and his unpaid candidacy for the Wayne State Board of Governors focused on affordability and technology/STEM integration.
Questions this video answers
$1,000
Wayne State University (master’s in chemical engineering)
Around 1996 (about 35 years ago from the interview)
He said he jumped into VoIP in 2004; the VoIP company is celebrating its 20th year (as of the interview).
He said the position is unpaid and voluntary.
Chapters
Hello everybody, this is Sree from Unique Solutions of Advanced Technologies. I am coming back to you with a great entrepreneur in local market here in Michigan and aspiring political leader Sunny Reddy. Sunny Reddy has been an entrepreneur for over 35 years. A wonderful success story that more or less an American dream, you can say. He came to United States for doing his master's in Wayne State University and then became a serial entrepreneur and established multiple businesses and contributed a great deal of effort to the benefit of the community. Sunny has been a great contributor during the COVID particularly in making a huge donations and a lot of efforts rallying on helping those who are in need and who are challenged, especially during the COVID period. And Sunny, he's been always a leader in the community and he goes, Sunny, please share some of your experiences here.
Good morning Sridhar and thank you for giving me an opportunity and taking your time to talk to me this morning.
Thank you for joining us.
Yep, it's my pleasure. It's my pleasure to talk to you everyone. So my name is Sunny Reddy again as Sridhar said, I have a master's from Wayne State University in chemical engineering. And after that I worked for several companies including Chrysler, then several telecom companies. And that's how I ended up starting my own telecom company.
Yes.
So from the day one, the way I look at is if I whatever I look at it, I said, you know what, can I make it easy to do it? Can I automate this process?
Right.
That's what I do. So when I was working for telecom company, I said, you know what, let's make it easy for the companies. Especially you know what with the Internet the world came together.
Yes.
No matter where you are, the world came together. So I said, you know what, why not make this Internet useful for the telecom world. So that's when I think the wipe VoIP started getting into the market and that's when I jumped in 2004. By the way, you know what this, we are celebrating our 20th year this year my company.
Congratulations. Congratulations. 20 years of journey on VOIP office and providing telecom services to all your customers and particularly small businesses in America.
Right, right, right. That's on the telecom side. But my IT company has about 35 years. I started in back in 1996, close to 35 years right after my college.
Congratulations.
Thank you, thank you. And I, I, you know, I like to teach also love to teach. So that's how I started teaching programming languages for the people who are like kids who are looking for a job. They are not even it Background. So we used to take and I start training them from the basics to make them programmers, persons. That's how I started. And the companies, I don't run the company, but still is there my partners. Yeah, but I'm proud of what I did and you know, moreover, my contributions to the society, I love to work with them. That's my hobby. When I saw someone is in trouble, I put myself into it. I said, you know, how would I do it? What do I expect? What do I expect right from the friends or from the community. So when I saw those kind of situations, I always jump in and try to do as much as I can.
So in your entrepreneurial experience, what have you find yourself in a difficult moment and how did you come out of it? Purely in a business and entrepreneurial experience.
Okay, the business side mean obviously, you know what, when you started as a small business, getting business is tough. You have to establish the trust.
True.
So just to give you an example, when I started my company I was going to, you know, talk to my friends. But in the back of my mind, back of my mind, hey, you know what? I'm just starting a business if my friends trust me. If I don't deliver, if I don't deliver, what's my situation is going to be in the society? My friend circle and I, there used to be a fear, always used to be a fear behind my back. But that's the difficult time. And you know what? Thanks to my friends in the community, in the school, in the industry, they are the one helped me to get started. That was my difficult time when I started business. Getting into the market, market yourself or establish a trust in the market, that's the most difficult. I'm glad.
So if I rephrase it, that you took the leverage of the existing trust with your friends and business acquaintance to create a trusted company in the market and thus you were able to progress on the development of business. Wonderful. Thank you very much. That's a great tip for the future. Communities, business community. So what is the, what is that you solve as a problem for your customers?
So the main thing is, you know, today's world, Today's world is a phone is not just the phone. Yes, phone is your life actually. Indeed pretty much everything in there.
The phone moved from being need, being into a need position.
That's right, that's right. So I said, you know what, make, let's make use of the technology what we have. So with my background, my background, I want to make it easy for my customers to do their job.
Yeah.
No matter where they are. No matter where they are. Make the give them a tools to make their life easier in their business.
So if I take that by bringing the mobile app as part of the wipe office service, you are actually eliminating additional hardware needed on the desk in order to have a communication with the rest of the world. Is that a fair statement?
It is. In addition to that. It is that. That's one of them. In addition to that, you know what, the phone goes with you. No matter where you are, you're available, you're making, you're making yourself available to your prospects and your customers and to your customer.
So that.
And your employees are always available to you. And you know, yesterday I was talking to one of the customer and I asked him what tell me name the one feature you like about our service.
Yeah.
He immediately jumps, he jumped on and he said, you know, I do have a warehouses. One of the things I like about is I am on the road all the time and if I'm trying to reach any of my employees, if they don't pick up, I can directly jump onto my overhead speakers from my cell phone and pace to ask them to pick up. Is a. That's the feature. I loved it.
So you are suggesting that applying this technology on the business is a more of a must than of desire anymore. Am I correct?
That's right. That's right. It's becoming a necessity now.
Right. So what, what kind of application that the new phone systems are helping the small businesses? Give me a couple more tips as to how a small business should look at phones as being a productive equipment opposed to simply a phone which doesn't have value in the past.
Sure, sure. Let me start with an example. Actually a small business, a doctor's office. Doctor's office. And we do have a lot of medical customers and one of our, most of our doctors use our integration capability. So our system is capable of integrating into their EMRs medical system, patient tracking systems. So when they get the call, they not only addressing by name because the information already popped up on the screen, they can see who's calling. They can also talk about the family, their kids. Their kids. That brings them the relationship. That brings them establish a close relationship. The patient, their customers are patients. Things that, oh my God, you know, when they remember my name, they talk about my family.
Right.
That brings, that brings the relationship closure.
Gotcha. That's a very highly valuable feature for keeping and continued relationship with the customers for any business. Thank you very much. That's a great suggestion on how a Foam technology can be applied on small business. Just one example speaks volumes. Thank you very much. And so my follow up questions with you is like, you have been a serial entrepreneur, you have been established several businesses and you've been in the market and helping communities several ways. So a new entrepreneurs or young students from the school coming out, they have a challenge that I don't know how to start a business. And that, that fear of failure or fear of not knowing in starting the business drives them towards finding a job. And obviously job market has its own volatile volatility and competition in the job market also pose a challenge. So a young person, a student coming out of university, what do you suggest to them? How do you suggest them that they can start a business?
Sure, sure. Just want to let you know, you know what, this country is a land of opportunities. It really, it is actually just my.
You are one of the, you are one of the best examples of it, right?
I mean I, like many, many, many of the immigrants, I landed in this country with a thousand dollars in my hand, right. And it took me six months to send the thousand dollars back to my dad and establish my life here. One of the things, one of the, one of the thing is I had a drive. I want to succeed. In fact, actually my mom said, no matter what you do, you need to succeed. Don't come back, don't come back, don't be a loser. So back of my mind, it was a drive and I said no matter what I do. So when I'm starting, it's a survival, part of my survival. I worked everywhere, you name it, I worked. Yeah, you call it as a restaurant, whether you call it as a gas station.
Right, right, right.
That's, that's part of my, that's beginning of my journey. When you starting your business? As I said again, when I start my business, I did use my resources. My resources are my friends. My resources are people I know in the industry. Okay?
Right.
They are the one, they are the one knows you personally. Use them for having whatever the business you start, work with them, start beginning with them. You need to establish, you need to establish a trust in the market. So until you develop the trust, nobody's going to give you business. I would like the jobs too. You know what? Every job you people are looking for, oh, you need to have experience. Correct. Where did you get the experience? They have to start somewhere. Same thing with business too. They have to start somewhere. I think suggestion, my suggestion. You know what? Be confident. Be confident. Don't hesitate to talk, don't Hesitate to ask.
Right.
You have to ask people you know. You have to ask and try to start establishing, you know, the trust. Establishing the trust with your friends, the people you know and they trust you and start with them, show them the value.
Right?
Okay. So they are in turn basically once they, once they start having trust in you, they start selling your product. You don't have to do it. They are the one with this.
Thank you very much, Sunny. That's a great suggestion for the young entrepreneurs coming into the market so they don't have to be afraid and they just have to trust. Establish the trust by using their friends and help leveraging their third party endorsement in creating the trust for their service and product offerings into the market and thus they can kickstart the business. That's a great suggestion. Thank you very much for joining us today and helping us learn from your experience and sharing your thoughts and suggestions to the business community in the market. And I wish you good luck on your race for being governor at Wayne State University in upcoming elections. I support you and I greatly appreciate you taking time in being part of this democratic process in this great country.
Thank you. Sridhar. Just want to say before we leave, this is my second life. I started my second chapter in my life actually.
Right.
I want people to know that this position I'm running for, Ben State is a, it's unpaid, it's a voluntary job.
True, true, true.
And it's coming from my heart. I want to help the students. I want to help the next generation. And colleges are lacking certain things when it comes to technology. College needs to be an affordable. It's no longer affordable. Common person, common student cannot afford the college. And that's my focus. And I learned in my business in how to cut the cost, how to control the cost while passing the benefits to the students. So my main goal is make the tuition affordable. You know what I gone through the hardship. I know what the hardship is.
Correct.
So I want to make sure that the tuition is affordable for the students, bring the new technology, bring the STEM education into the college and you know, have the partnership like a business. People outside like myself, actually universities needs to utilize the industry leaders. I want to make sure our students at Wayne State get benefit with my background, my knowledge, and that's why I'm running for the Wayne State Board of Governors.
I am really hoping that you will win into the position, Board of Governors position and bring your creative thinking, creative ideas from the business experience into the college and help the students be able to get through the college studies without having to have a great deal of financial burden on their shoulders. I wish you good luck.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Sunny for joining us today.
Looking forward to. Looking forward to seeing you in the future again. Thank you, Sridhar.
