An Engineer at heart, it is Hariharan Bojan’s love ‘to create cool technologies and more importantly make it available to people at affordable price points so that countries like India can have access to a good technology early’, led him to co-found Libre Wireless Technologies and start his own venture Sirena Technologies.
Prominent entrepreneur, Hari always followed his dreams and this belief in himself has helped transform the dreams in the form of these great organizations creating smart products
Sirena Technologies is the first company in the world to make Humanoids at price points that nobody ever believed was possible – making Robots mainstream. It is the first company in the history of technology to build a complete humanoid robot out of India (100% design, development and manufacturing done in India – 100% made in India). Additionally, it is the first company in the world to engage schools to educate kids on Humanoids & Robotic technologies. While that in itself is a lot of value, Sirena is also the first company in India to deliver “real” IOT/Smart-Home end products, including multi-room audio & smart LED light products.
While sharing how the idea of Sirena Technologies hit Hari, he elaborates – the idea came from a simple curious fact that ‘if every kid out there gets a chance/gets access to play & learn with Humanoid Robots, then perhaps they would grow up and create a much better & smarter world through better technologies’. Dwelling on the idea, Sirena Technologies has created the most affordable, feature rich & yet simple Humanoid Robot in the world and the complete ecosystem around it, focusing on improving education through collaboration with Schools & Research Institutes.
Hari further adds, “While Robotics is one of the key focus areas for the company, we have also created the most affordable smart-home products in the world, the Choral series – smart wifi speakers, wifi Speakers with LED lamps with multi-room audio & lights capabilities, which are currently open for pre-orders in India.”
Inspired by smart living, the Choral Lifestyle Series is designed to make every home smarter with connected synchronous multi-room audio & must–room lights and everything controlled seamlessly by a single mobile app – Sirena app, creating “Symphony at home”.
Libre Wireless, Justifying being a Unique & Smart Platform
At Libre Wireless, Hari and his team, about 100 people, create technology platforms & solutions for streaming audio. He adds, “This is something we have been doing even before we founded Libre Wireless as part of our earlier ventures for over 8 years now. The idea was to put all that experience together and create the most unique & smart platform in the world.”
They worked and continue to work with the best companies around the world, including Apple and Google while providing their solutions to best of the audio companies in the world. To put it in simple terms, ‘Hari’s team has played (and continues to play) a major role in the revolution of shifting traditional audio systems to connected systems that is changing the way the world listens to music’.
Leaps taken in the Journey
Though both the companies are a ‘big hit’, still it was not all that easy for Hari to go on with defeating every single challenge. As he explains that it’s always about being able to convince your team, the ecosystem and most importantly the investors that your solution is going to work and getting their support.
Hari asserts, “The biggest lesson I’ve learnt is that, it’s all about the people/team. My team has been working together for a long time now delivering great products and we’ve almost zero attrition ever since. We’ve one of the best hardware & software teams in the world. It’s not easy to put a team that understands end-to-end product development in a country where the DNA is purely engineering services. I’m glad I have a great team.”
At the end of the day, for the success Hari is experiencing, he gives the credit to the people, his team thoroughly. He adds, “Every person in the team works for every other person in the team.”
Unique Seven-Day Weekend Culture
There is some uniqueness Hari is maintaining in the companies that he has been creating. They have an open and flat organizational structure with almost zero HR policy and bureaucracy, where there are not many managers. People come to office because they want to and not due to the enforcement of some leave policy. They hire selected set of freshers, train the people in a manner that would be life-changing for each of the new hires, ensuring that every new hire plays a significant role in taking the organization to the next level.
Hari’s simple advice for Starters
Just follow your gut and do what you feel is right! Your dreams are far more important than what others around you think about you. That does not necessarily guarantee success, but certainly the experience would be totally satisfying and ensures that you’ve no regrets. Failure is just part & parcel of being an entrepreneur, just accept it, move on and keep trying!
A person who is not afraid of following his/her dreams, doesn’t settle down for mediocrity and can carry a lot of load along the way, while lifting his/her team up all the time can potentially become a great entrepreneur and has a very high chance of success.
Hariharan Bojan: Technocrat with a Zeal for Innovation
