Pepper was purpose built with the goal of satisfying the complex needs of private equity funds and to easily handle the complex needs of secondary funds.In an interview with Express Computer, Pulak Sinha, CEO of Pepper, shares his view on the huge opportunity for his firm
Can you tell us a bit about your company Pepper?
Pepper is the culmination of many strands of experience I had in both the technology and the financial spaces. We are a cloud-native data platform for alternatives and asset management; Pepper at once solves the enterprise complexity and data siloing that characterizes asset management and simultaneously helps the asset manager optimize portfolio decisions and new investment strategies.
What is your sweet spot in terms of customer focus?
We are deployed in several large asset management offices but if I had to suggest a sweet-spot it would be firms with $500M-$10B Assets under Management (AUM). For us, this gives us the ability to hone the engine and the architecture on those use cases.
Tell us how your background led you here?
I have two strands in my education and experience that I wanted to bind together into the DNA of a company. First, my time at IIT and then at Columbia University gave me the technical confidence and chops to know that I could help build my dreams and the financial acumen to make those dreams practical. Second, my time at firms like Blackstone and Citi opened my eyes to enterprise complexity and to the notion that even the venerable firms can improve and be optimized.
You have left some of the best companies in the world to do the risky “start-up” thing. Can you tell us about that process and your current thoughts?
Look, there are good and bad parts to every decision. Large companies help you understand scale and strategy in addition to developing people skills. Startups are more direct in terms of your ability to create immediate connections between your thoughts and the products and services you offer your customers. The exhilaration of connecting to customers and having them use and benefit from your creation is beyond measure. That’s how it is with Pepper.
What are the three aspects of Pepper that will help you win the market and be successful?
First is our incredible team. Second is our thoughtful and intelligent customers. The third one appears cliché but is really important- this is the only really cloud-native player in our space. That allows us enormous flexibility in serving customer needs.