--- title: Father of the bride date: "2023-11-01T14:55:01Z" lastmod: "2023-11-01T14:55:04Z" categories: - how-i-do-things - interesting-experiences wp_id: 3460 description: "The acquisition of Gramener by Straive is framed as a founder's emotional handover: part gratitude, part grief, part growth, and part renewed curiosity about the next chapter." keywords: ["Gramener", "Straive", "acquisition", "founder", "career transition", "gratitude"] --- ![Father of the bride](/blog/assets/DALL·E-2023-11-01-10.46.45-Photo-of-a-middle-aged-man-in-a-sharp-suit-symbolically-handing-over-a-miniature-corporate-building-to-a-younger-individual.-Both-stand-in-a-setting-.webp) In 2012, I [started Gramener with half a dozen friends](/blog/the-next-chapter-of-my-life/). This week, we were acquired by [Straive](https://www.straive.com/), a part of [Barings Private Equity Asia](https://www.bpeasia.com/). ### How do you feel? I feel like the **father of the bride**. Gramener was registered on 26 Feb. A day before my daughter's birthday. I've spent more time with Gramener than my daughter. That makes Gramener my elder child. Who's moving into a new household. Along with me. (I feel like [சகலகலா சம்மந்தி](https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AE%9A%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%B2%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%B2%E0%AE%BE_%E0%AE%9A%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%AE%E0%AE%A8%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%BF).) I feel **grateful**. I'm not good at business. But when my cousin remarked, "Anand, you're now giving a livelihood to over 250 people!" I was stunned. My co-founders, colleagues and clients built a thriving business and put **me** (of all people) as CEO in the middle of it. How do I even go about saying "Thanks"? It feels like **joining college**. New people. Larger group. New ways of working and learning. Lots of topics to explore. Exciting and scary. ### What was it like? Fundraising was rocky.\ We started in 2019. [COVID struck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19). We paused.\ We resumed in 2021. [Russia invaded Ukraine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine). We paused.\ We resumed in 2023. The [Israel - Hamas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war) war started. Luckily, the deal was nearly done.\ I'm grateful [Naveen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/naveengattu/) ran the entire process like clockwork, taking all the stress. I'm the happy free-rider, as usual. Starting up was **not** that rocky.\ We're **many**. With half a dozen co-founders, there are enough shoulders to cry on. That counts.\ We're **steady**. We didn't know how to blitz-scale, but we knew not to blitz-fail. Survival counts for a lot.\ We're **lucky**. This is basically the "I have no idea why we succeeded" category. Serendipity counts for a lot, too.\ [Ganes](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gkesari/), [Mayank](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayankkapurofficial/?originalSubdomain=in), [Naveen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/naveengattu/), [Ram](https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-ramachandran-2b51019/), [Ravi](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ireddy/), [Vengatesh](https://www.linkedin.com/in/c-r-vengatesh-240126117/) -- yeah, it was fun. Not every day. But most of the time. It was fun. ### What will you do? I'm part of Straive's data, analytics & AI business. Straive extracts and analyzes all kinds of data. Financial. Legal. Research. Education. Pharmaceutical. There's a fair bit of converting unstructured data to structured. Exactly the kind of thing I love doing. So, I'll be doing what I've been doing the last decade -- extracting insights from even more data and telling better stories from those. I joined Gramener as "Chief Data Scientist". Now I'm debating "Data Storyteller", "Data Detective", "Data Psychologist", and a [few other evil titles](https://chat.openai.com/share/dc7ea33d-fef3-4035-a1ba-7cdd70225b75). --- Wish me luck! --- ## Comments - **Bhanu** _1 Nov 2023 8:44 pm_: Congrats on the acquisition, Anand! We will look for your contributions under the moniker "Nefarious Root Node". - **Matt** _4 Nov 2023 6:00 pm_: Anand, all the best for your future endevaours. I am sure you would contribute well in Straive. So would Gramener still exist with its brand or from today it is Straive? - **[My Year in 2023 - S Anand](/blog/my-year-in-2023/)** _31 Dec 2023 8:38 pm_ _(pingback)_: […] Straive acquiring Gramener. […]