Cover girl Sumithra Jagannath is role model for female entrepreneurs
By Peter Nguyen
Cover girl Sumithra Jagannath seems to have it all: beauty, brains and a business that’s flourishing. Yet, the young entrepreneur from India is constantly striving to aim higher.
Ironically, her business venture, CloserLook Search Services, will help her reach higher goals by... digging deeper.
Indeed, her company, located in downtown Montreal, specializes in search engines for the invisible Web.
“What we call the invisible Web – the databases underneath Web sites – is at least ten times bigger than the visible Web,” she said.
“Typical search engines only scan static HTML pages like corporate Web sites.”
CloserLook, the company’s flagship search engine, helps companies such as credit agencies, law firms and private investigators verify multiple Web sites simultaneously. Result? Lots of money and time saved for users.
Not surprisingly, Dun & Bradstreet has already signed up as a client. Other clients include legal information search houses like Oncorp Direct Inc., law firms and various businesses in other sectors.
A typical CloserLook application is a background check using only a person’s name and address, and searching simultaneously a variety of public- and private-domain databases.
“Software like Google can direct you to a travel Web site, but it cannot search what’s inside. The user has to do that. Our software takes you inside the databases.”
It all started when Sumithra arrived in Montreal in 1990, from Madras, her native town in India, to do a Master’s degree in computer science. In 1992, she graduated and began to work for CRIM, the Centre de recherche en informatique de Montréal.
In 1996, she launched CloserLook Search Services, a firm developing solutions to help the collection department of companies like Bell Canada.
In 1998, she developed CloserLook, which was marketed in 2001.
During its first year of commercialization, CloserLook already generated sales approaching $800,000.
“I’m confident in our future,” said the soft-spoken cover girl, who exudes a non-assuming, quiet air of self-assurance.
With so much pressure to perform, how does she relax?
“I’m very spiritual,” she said.
“I do meditation and yoga, to break from the stress. Otherwise, it’s too intense.”
But Sumithra concedes that the entrepreneur’s life is not easy.
“I always have doubts, I don’t think there’s a human being who doesn’t. But you have to believe in yourself first. Even with all the doubts, you have to stand very firm. And then other people will see that strength and will derive strength from it.
I realized that you can’t get confidence from other people. You have to get your own confidence, and then you exude that confidence. Other people will, in return, give you more confidence back. It’s kind of a weird reciprocating process going on,” she remarked.
To Sumithra, the key to success is “to really do what you enjoy, to figure out what it is you enjoy doing.”
“You have to believe in it and give it everything you got. 200% is not enough,” she said, half-joking.
One book that has made an impression on Sumithra is The Celestine Prophecies, a book on spirituality by James Redfield.
Another source of strength and relaxation is her classical Indian dancing, called Bharathnatyam.
It took her nine years of disciplined, intensive training to master Bharathnatyam.
She actually performed that classical dance in a movie called Tell Me It Isn’t True, in which she starred as the heroine.
The 80-minute, independent film was shown last year in various film festivals. The story revolves around an Indian girl who comes to Canada and has to deal with the problems her family is going through, back home in India, due to religious strife and violence.
Even though Sumithra admits she won’t move to Hollywood any time soon, there is little doubt that she has already proven to be a stellar performer in business, as well as a balanced, talented and worthy role model for young women.
Cover girl Sumithra Jagannath seems to have it all: beauty, brains and a business that’s flourishing. Yet, the young entrepreneur from India is constantly striving to aim higher.
Ironically, her business venture, CloserLook Search Services, will help her reach higher goals by... digging deeper.
Indeed, her company, located in downtown Montreal, specializes in search engines for the invisible Web.
“What we call the invisible Web – the databases underneath Web sites – is at least ten times bigger than the visible Web,” she said.
“Typical search engines only scan static HTML pages like corporate Web sites.”
CloserLook, the company’s flagship search engine, helps companies such as credit agencies, law firms and private investigators verify multiple Web sites simultaneously. Result? Lots of money and time saved for users.
Not surprisingly, Dun & Bradstreet has already signed up as a client. Other clients include legal information search houses like Oncorp Direct Inc., law firms and various businesses in other sectors.
A typical CloserLook application is a background check using only a person’s name and address, and searching simultaneously a variety of public- and private-domain databases.
“Software like Google can direct you to a travel Web site, but it cannot search what’s inside. The user has to do that. Our software takes you inside the databases.”
It all started when Sumithra arrived in Montreal in 1990, from Madras, her native town in India, to do a Master’s degree in computer science. In 1992, she graduated and began to work for CRIM, the Centre de recherche en informatique de Montréal.
In 1996, she launched CloserLook Search Services, a firm developing solutions to help the collection department of companies like Bell Canada.
In 1998, she developed CloserLook, which was marketed in 2001.
During its first year of commercialization, CloserLook already generated sales approaching $800,000.
“I’m confident in our future,” said the soft-spoken cover girl, who exudes a non-assuming, quiet air of self-assurance.
With so much pressure to perform, how does she relax?
“I’m very spiritual,” she said.
“I do meditation and yoga, to break from the stress. Otherwise, it’s too intense.”
But Sumithra concedes that the entrepreneur’s life is not easy.
“I always have doubts, I don’t think there’s a human being who doesn’t. But you have to believe in yourself first. Even with all the doubts, you have to stand very firm. And then other people will see that strength and will derive strength from it.
I realized that you can’t get confidence from other people. You have to get your own confidence, and then you exude that confidence. Other people will, in return, give you more confidence back. It’s kind of a weird reciprocating process going on,” she remarked.
To Sumithra, the key to success is “to really do what you enjoy, to figure out what it is you enjoy doing.”
“You have to believe in it and give it everything you got. 200% is not enough,” she said, half-joking.
One book that has made an impression on Sumithra is The Celestine Prophecies, a book on spirituality by James Redfield.
Another source of strength and relaxation is her classical Indian dancing, called Bharathnatyam.
It took her nine years of disciplined, intensive training to master Bharathnatyam.
She actually performed that classical dance in a movie called Tell Me It Isn’t True, in which she starred as the heroine.
The 80-minute, independent film was shown last year in various film festivals. The story revolves around an Indian girl who comes to Canada and has to deal with the problems her family is going through, back home in India, due to religious strife and violence.
Even though Sumithra admits she won’t move to Hollywood any time soon, there is little doubt that she has already proven to be a stellar performer in business, as well as a balanced, talented and worthy role model for young women.
posted by Super Peter at 1:01 PM
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