Thank you - Smart Joules

Today is a special day. Not only is it the last day of my 26th year on this planet, but is also the last day of my 3 and a half year journey at Smart Joules. What an amazing journey it has been. I remember back in October 2016 when I first decided to join the organization. It was a lot smaller. It was then when I first saw the challenges of HVAC and energy efficiency. I thought I'd seen it all and proposed architecture of AI & IoT led cyber-physical system that would potentially revolutionize the space. Boy was I wrong! Every day, I learned a dimension or two about the dynamics of the energy efficiency, electronics, computers, data and the most peculiar of all, the people. But we kept strong. As the challenges grew, so did my team. And soon we were a team of over 20 amazing, insatiable, young, talented and driven individuals. The product development team. To be honest, it's the highest of all honours, to get an opportunity to learn from, lead and mentor such an amazing team. 3 years later from that day, we were already in 10 cities with many clients, doing things that were next to magic a decade ago. DeJoule, JouleMind and the controllers that power it all became a reality. From managing the HVAC system to the people, to the systems that manage the technology that manages these systems. You'd think it'd be amazing getting an opportunity to do that. But you have no idea of 'how amazing', till you get an opportunity to spend every day and night with a family away from family, working on these problems. It challenges every notion you have had when you choose to go against the status quo. Takes every last drop of your blood, thoughts, sweats and emotions to get to where we have.

But this doesn't just happen. You need to trust. You need a bond. You need a competency. And you need to believe. The last one is probably the most significant of them all. Arjun P. Gupta, believed in my team and I. The rest was history. We all had our ups and downs. Things got ugly, then got pretty, then got uglier before got any prettier. But we kept going at it. More than talent, you need balls of steel to be able to say yes to any challenges in the face of adversity. We have had our fair share of them. I am waiting for the day there's a friggin' documentary on every channel about Smart Joules - The vision that managed the most Joules efficiently in India, The mission that is eliminating the energy waste through innovations in continuous optimizations, The team that beat all odds and made it through.

One of the most amazing thing that came out of our culture was a university outreach program called JouleLabs. Today, we are already in 5 universities, upskilling the students; hoping to position India as a leader in technological innovations. But we haven't even scratched the surface yet. More 99% of our journey remains. It's a long road and having walked on it, I know what leadership is about, a bit better than what I knew yesterday.

But my path diverges at this junction. Having spent over 7 years in this space from my college days to today, I have some conjectures that I need to explore around the fundamental nature of causality and entropy. There are many limiting factors in the organizational, governmental and people frameworks that pose a great challenge for humanity to grow sustainably. It's my belief that a better understanding of these two faces of existence has the potential to solve many of these challenges. I am yet to explore many of these facets, and a team of this calibre needs someone with absolute focus, leading the head of the spear. So much has happened in this little time, and so much is yet to happen. I have to make this part of my journey, away from Smart Joules.

So as our path diverges, I leave my family with memories in my bag and hope in my eyes. I want to thank you all for this amazing opportunity, I am greatful for all the memories I collected. I met a lot of amazing people and was lucky to have mentors like Ganesh sir, Srivats sir and Arjun sir. I'd like to believe we made our little dent in the ecosystem and that you guys are gonna conquer the decade of sustainability. To one hell of a team! I'll miss the energy :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7yjT_OpcoR/ - Love you guys!

Sustainably