Meet Philip Samuelraj

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Philip Samuelraj. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Philip below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Philip with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

From my maternal grandfather, Chelliah. He moved to my hometown of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, India with nothing and worked incredibly hard to provide a good life for my mom and her siblings. He lived the life of a provider and hardly spent on himself. Growing up, I saw him work 20-hour days across his various businesses, which launched the careers of hundreds of other people in Coimbatore. He had a candy business, an insurance business, a stamp business, he was into real estate… everything. Chelliah worked until the last week of his life. Worked on a Monday, got sick, and passed away six days later on Sunday. I adopted my “a rising tide lifts all boats” mentality from him. Success means lifting up your immediate and extended family, your friends, your community, and whoever is around you. One of my proudest moments was opening a Techjays office in my hometown — the same city where my grandfather originally moved to with nothing. I wish he was here to see it.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Techjays helps companies solve their problems by building incredible software and AI at a fraction of the time and cost. Personally, I just love helping people solve business problems. After 2 decades building software and tech consulting, I founded Techjays on this passion for solving business problems. Our products are designed to meet our clients’ most aspirational goals, while also handling the tasks that they don’t have the capacity to do. Aside from the cutting-edge software and AI we build, we also provide a premium technology consulting experience that’s typically out of the price range of most mid-market companies. Techjays is global. We run consulting out of the USA, UK, and Canada, where our customers are. Our engineering team is largely distributed across India and Bangladesh, where we’ve created opportunities for hundreds of talented people to work, lead, and realize their full potential through developing incredible products. We’re deep into AI right now and are excited about its limitless potential in every sector of business and beyond. We’re very close to releasing an AI product set to solve all different types of business problems.

Regarding my background, I grew up in India. After graduating from engineering school, I worked for a number of different software development and service companies. When I moved to the USA in 2010, I realized that I am really good at building great software. I kept doing that for other companies like Cognizant, and spent significant time at Google. At Techjays, we started off with a single employee in 2020 and are now a team of over 150. It all comes from a commitment to building incredible software while providing a delightful experience to our clients.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

From a skill perspective, number one has to be having people skills. You need to understand people and have the ability to work with them — to group them into teams and motivate them to solve a common problem. You also absolutely need to be kind to people, to care about them, and to take care of them. Companies thrive under good leadership that genuinely and actively cares about the wellbeing of its team. If you’re early in your journey, my advice for you is to go out and meet people. Be genuinely inquisitive and learn as much as you can from who you meet. Build authentic friendships and relationships, and learn how to build things together.

Switching to areas of knowledge, number two is problem solving. My engineering background really steered my business to be rooted in solving problems. Today, I set up my teams to be led by the best critical thinkers in the company. You all can improve by auditing how you solve problems right now. What new techniques can you glean from what you’re studying/reading/observing? Does your current methodology solve problems effectively and efficiently, or do you need to refresh your approach?

As far as qualities go, number three is grit, which life will naturally instill in you if you let it. Challenges are part of every founder’s journey, and the way that you rise above those challenges determines your level of success. Challenge yourselves by taking on projects that are beyond what you’re comfortable with and be cognizant of your emotional response to situations that are difficult and unexpected. True grit and toughness come from being challenged and pushing through.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

Honestly, I’ve been extremely blessed to have so many people around me who have guided me in my journey. There’s my grandfather, who modeled hard work and grit. My father gave me great life advice, how to be a man of faith and showed me what it means to have intrinsic goodness. My team keeps me grounded and motivated to build as much as possible. I’ve also been fortunate enough to have great teachers who taught me effectively. Great bosses trusted and empowered me to solve problems. I truly believe that, in order to gain the knowledge needed to be successful, you must surround yourself with good people and be genuinely inquisitive in your interactions with them.

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Resilience
Portraits of Resilience

Sometimes just seeing resilience can change out mindset and unlock our own resilience. That’s our

Productivity
Perspectives on Staying Creative

We’re beyond fortunate to have built a community of some of the most creative artists,

Confidence
Kicking Imposter Syndrome to the Curb

This is the year to kick the pesky imposter syndrome to the curb and move