Guts, instincts, brilliance – That’s what sums up Sramana Mitra, a strategy consultant, entrepreneur of three ventures, Forbes columnist, and author of four books including a series on Entrepreneur Journeys. Sramana found her dreams come true in the Silicon Valley.

She wants to leave a footprint, as evident by her final remarks in this interview. Sramana also writes extensively in her blog and loves interacting with entrepreneurs to know their stories and inspiration. She inspires and motivates entrepreneurs through her blog and books.

YourStory spoke to Stewart Townsend, Manager Startups and Emerging Markets EMEA at  Sun Microsystems about SSE and tech startups in general. He shares his views on entrepreneurship and talks about his involvement with www.thealternativeschool.co.uk a not for profit alternative education provider

I started life as a steel salesman, cold calling engineering firms and selling them rolled flat steel, it was a lesson in not taking things personally, but I decided after a while that it wasn't challenging and went to University at night and gained a degree in Business and Information systems, which meant I could get a job in IT....Sun recruited me as a graduate in 2001 and it's been a rollercoaster since, as a systems engineer, Solaris porting and migration, business development, marketing and recently running the Startup Essentials programme for EMEA.

Hemu Ramiah (the Landmark founder), now a management consultant and venture capitalist) redefined the business landscape with her own rules. Growing a bookstore business into a comprehensive store for books, accessories, music albums, and much more, she showed us the possibilities.