Some people you meet at networking events and forget by the time you reach the buffet line. And then there is Kishore Natarajan.
I first bumped into him at an event in the US in 2023. His company, Hyperverge, had just crossed $2 million in revenue from India, and he was beginning to think seriously about scaling into the US market. The networking session was buzzing, the kind where conversations start and end before they begin. Kishore and I didn’t quite bond that evening. But I felt something when we spoke. A quiet spark. His energy was different from everyone else in that room.
We spent some time together during the event, and he claims I said something that stayed with him. Years later, he still refuses to divulge what I told him on my second drink. But if you know Kishore, you’ll understand why this is entirely on brand. He absorbs things quietly, processes them, and acts. He rarely makes a fuss about the input. He just shows you the output.
When we met again, he opened up about his journey, and I started to see what I can only describe as a force of nature. I was humbled. Not by the numbers, though Hyperverge’s story is remarkable, but by the person behind it.
After that trip, I began meeting him once a quarter whenever I was in Bangalore. Every time, the conversation would drift beyond work. He would ask about me. Not the SaaSBoomi-me, but the person behind the role. That is rarer than it sounds.
The more I learnt about how he was building Hyperverge, the more impressed I was. The team reflected the man: grounded, sharp, and possessed of a work ethic I rarely see. I suspect it is the Chennai-IIT Madras influence, a culture that quietly values rigour over recognition.
There is a type of person who comes to a meeting with opinions. And then there is Kishore, who comes with a laptop, takes meticulous notes, listens carefully, and two days later sends you a two-pager. The best notes from every Caravan session and roundtable he has attended have been his. He picks up details that others miss, sits with them, and returns with something considered and structured. Give him a problem, and he gives you a document. Give him a cause, and he offers you his team.
There are volunteers who come for the network, some for visibility, and a rare handful who come purely for the love of giving back. Kishore belongs to that last category and takes it further than most. “No, Boss, keep me out of the spotlight,” he once told me. It wasn’t just humility. It was philosophy. In English, we always capitalise the “I” when referring to ourselves. Kishore wants to lowercase it. His attention is on us, not “I”.
This showed clearly when Hyperverge hosted our hackathon in Bangalore. Hosting is harder than it looks: you are volunteering space, managing logistics, and handling 50 people across a full day. Many founders understandably shy away from it. Kishore didn’t just step up. After the event, his only question was whether he could have done it better. Could there have been more space? Was the experience right? And then, almost as an aside: if you’re ever in HSR, come work out of our office. New ideas come when people come together.
He is not building goodwill. He is building something larger than himself.
There is a moment I keep returning to. We were playing Mafia at the AI Bootcamp in 2024. Every round, someone would point at Kishore. He was too quiet, too deliberate. Surely the villain. Every round, the group would realise they were wrong. He was never in the Mafia. He was just reading the room, waiting for the right moment.
That is the skill of a leader. And that is Kishore Natarajan.
Thank you, Kishore. SaaSBoomi is fortunate to have you, even if you’d rather we not talk about it.
