Narayana Murthy explains why he founded Infosys: ‘experiment in entrepreneurship’

Narayana Murthy, Founder of Infosys, will appear on the first-ever episode of 3one4 Capital's The Record

When Narayana Murthy set up Infosys in 1981 with six other engineers, he perhaps had no inkling of the success he would go on to taste with the IT firm. Infosys was, in his own words, an “experiment in entrepreneurship” – a company of the professionals, for the professionals and by the professionals.

That, at least, is what Narayana Murthy told TV Mohandas Pai of venture capital firm 3one4 Capital in an episode of The Record. The VC firm today released a trailer of its upcoming webseries ‘The Record’, where industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and change makers are invited to share their insights.

Murthy, himself a limited partner in the Bengaluru-based early-stage VC firm, will appear in the first episode of The Record in conversation with its chairman Mohandas Pai. A trailer of the episode was released today and it shows Murthy, 77, explaining why he decided to set up Infosys.

“When I founded Infosys, it was to conduct an experiment in entrepreneurship,” he explained. “I wanted to create a company of the professional, for the professional and by the professional.”

Murthy also offered his insights on technology, calling it a “great leveller.”

“There is no democracy in execution. A committee cannot make a decision. It is the architect who uses creativity to design a building, but a bricklayer cannot say I will lay one brick like this, another one like this – it doesn’t work,” the billionaire entrepreneur told Mohandas Pai, former CFO and board member of Infosys.

Launched with an initial capital of $250, which its seven co-founders mostly borrowed from their spouses, Infosys is today India’s second-largest IT firm.