“Work on a single path at a time in a startup. Spend much needed time in planning and market validation to prevent execution detours.”
As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Deep Nayar, Founder & CTO of IoT83.
Deep Nayar has over two decades of experience in technology and entrepreneurship, particularly in engineering top-tier solutions for the IoT space. His profound understanding of the industry culminated in the creation of Flex83, the flagship Flex83 platform powering bespoke IIoT solutions for Industrial OEMs’ crucial business model transition. His innovative approach to problem-solving drives the creation of cutting-edge, customizable IoT solutions. Deep’s visionary leadership continues to push the boundaries of the IoT industry.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I think paths naturally develop and evolve. During middle and high school, we did a few projects in Telecommunications which evoked early interest in the field. Engineering further helped nurture it as we started to understand signal processing better. Then post-graduation specific in the field of Telecommunication gave more breadth to the subject from regulation, law and technology spanning wired, wireless, microwave to satellite. Initial jobs with likes of Nortel and Siemens honed the scalability, robustness and feature richness of field. The working in multiple starts up trying to build products in VoIP domain, in Voice signal processing and Voice to Text continue to give a wider view of shaping an idea to a meaningful product. Along the lines we got to participate in shaping Primarily hardware centric solutions in Networking, Enterprise and Industrial Security, to software driven solutions. By this time, we have worked and managed across all continents, have handled public and private companies, having worked from Startups to Big conglomerates and have worked on, conceived, developed and deployed multiple products in different Industries globally. Interworking multiple dimensions to create better solutions started to firm up as a calling. Launching 83incs in 2015 as an incubation started to give shape to next phase of life’s journey. We started dabbling in Enterprise Productivity, and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) with solutioning in Building Management and Fleet Management. The short-term goal was to build and sell a solution so we can fund the long-term path of building a common middleware to serve multiple lines of businesses. As Covid hit, solutioning took a back seat and middleware and middleware solutions got market resonance, so we doubled down in building the middleware which is our flagship licensed product. The product is embraced by multiple OEMs. IoT83 focus is investing in the growth phase of the startup. We hope for a warm embrace by the market.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Multiple local and geopolitical events have shaped our eight years of journey as 83incs and six (6) years as IoT83. As we started, demonetization hit starving offshore funding opportunities, so our US plans needed to be put on hold as we diverted funds. Early success of our IoT83 portfolio got us into Black. As we entering deep waters, covid hit, revenues dwindled but we continued investing and came out of covid with a richer product giving us a strong product-market fit. As we finalized our Go-To-Market validation and started investing in growth strategy, supply chain issues pushed out and the recent uncertainty around tariffs have OEMs — our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) worried pushing our their Industrial IoT plans. We have adjustments along the way, weathered the storms and have geared up to do the same with this one.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
Our premise was very simple that as all markets have moved to software driven by as-a-service models. We have participated in transforming Telecom, Networking and Security, and have helped may companies do that for Enterprise IT, e-commerce and Enterprise Productivity. We believed that the same will happen to Enterprises who run the Business namely Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Industry 4.0 and Industrial IoT was already emerging as game changers then w/ AI-ML and LLM, Block Chain, Crypto, Web 3 and Quantum Technologies coming off age to completely rewrite the Business Equation. We also fundamentally believed that existing IIoT Platforms and Low Code Platforms won’t be able to provide enough Control so OEMs can run their Business because running a Business for OEMs will be more about the Data; it will be driven by Applications they conceive to run their Business and in single word “unique”. We also believed that OEMs engineering teams will try to do it themselves and it will be very costly and time consuming. Our solution was simple that decoupled the complexity of an application and reimagined it as a business agnostic middleware with exemplary ease to compose any Business Applications on top. It took us a good over 4–5 years to get the APIs right and today we are on version 6 of the middleware where this middleware is driving multiple products in field. We see our product adoption growing and hope to become one of the key drivers of not just driving but fueling successful Business Transformation of OEM into the Connected Product World.
How do you think this might change the world?
Interconnectivity is vital. Clean inter connectivity creates lasting stronger bonds. We believe we have given a market struggling with Business Transformation a viable path forward. In a lot of ways, we believe our product helps adopters start the football game at the 83rd yard line. The middleware simply changes the time to market and total cost of ownership for the connected asset world.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?
We as middleware providers are enablers of technology adoption and with any technology adoption comes its own set of challenges. Our aim is simple that technology should be available to all — it should be leveler not a cause of divide. Hence in some way we are flattening the field so players can focus on creating true end value.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
The tipping point is yet to come. We believe we are getting close it with every ounce of energy we put in the product.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
Education that such a solution exists in market and is viable and is legit is major challenge. We see our competitors pivoting in our direction. We see big OEMs validating our path. We see marketing companies started to see our path as a disruptor. We see adoption times getting reduced. We feel we are nearing the tipping point.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
We are following standardized multichannel B2B — Account Based Marketing technique.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
No man is an island. Each and every interaction past and present has shaped our journey.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Your every interaction presents you an opportunity to do good. If you are able to do that, then that in itself is success.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Make technology ingrained / invisible; technology most often comes in its own way of adoption.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Play the game as the game is worth playing as the game is what actually has the most impact.
Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
We are disrupting $1T OEM Business Transformation Connected Asset Market by giving them a new software paradigm “platform in a box” to build upon. We have proven the Tech, have early adopters managing more than 65M Assets; you have Capital and Network reach to make maximum impact — fast.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Website: https://www.iot83.com/
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deep-nayar-b10694/
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
