A Technology Entrepreneur’s Journey with Sunny Dronawat, CEO of Samiteon

Episode 28:  Today, podcast producer Jim Ray interviews Dr. Sunny Dronawat, Executive Chairman and Global CEO of Samiteon.  Based in Louisville, Samiteon is a technology process and people innovation company, founded in 2006.  They’ll discuss how the company began and how it is growing in the US, India and the UAE.

Jim Ray: Welcome back to the podcast. I'm very excited today to talk about a technology entrepreneur’s global journey with Dr. Sunny Dronawat. Dr. Dronawat, how are you today?

Sunny Dronawat: Good afternoon, Jim. I'm doing great. You can just call me Sunny instead of Dr. Dronawat.

Jim Ray: Fantastic. I look forward to it. So, you are the Executive Chairman and Global CEO of a company called Samiteon. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Sunny Dronawat: Yes. Samiteon is a technology and process and people innovation company. We started our company in 2006 in Louisville, Kentucky. The genesis of this company was based on some of the technology, the processes, and the people issues that companies were having. And I thought this was the right opportunity to start a company that would help businesses across the world with these three challenges. Sometimes there are two challenges, there are many challenges. So you bring them together to solve a problem. And I started this by quitting my job as a CTO for a Fortune 500 company where I learned a lot and started applying some of the learnings I've had in my education, my career, to help other companies.

Jim Ray: Now speaking of your career, if I understand this right. You started off as a chemical engineer, later went on to earn your MBA and then went on to a CTO position and now a CEO position. You want to tell us a little bit about that path?

Sunny Dronawat: Absolutely. A lot of people think chemical engineering has got to do with chemistry. It's the oldest of all the engineering and if you go back and look at the history of engineering, chemical engineering was the first engineering and it was basically developed to solve problems. So now you can see the genesis of the company where solving problems

Jim Ray: It's a complete paradigm, right? It's a mindset.

Sunny Dronawat: And it's a mindset. So chemical engineers are trained to solve problems. If you look at from Apollo 13, the people who solved the problem of the air were these chemical engineers on the ground. If you look at CEOs of multiple companies, like Hartford Life, their CEO is a chemical engineer.

Jim Ray: For a life insurance company?

Sunny Dronawat: Yes.

Jim Ray: Interesting.

Sunny Dronawat: Yes. And because they're good problem solvers. You give them any problem, they'll solve it either using a process or a technology or people. So they solve problems. That's it.

Jim Ray: Which is a lot of, as you said from the outset, what you're doing today with your company. So you have founded and scaled a couple of other companies in the meantime with all of your free time, I guess you were at POS on Cloud and then you were serving as the CTO of Pluto Shift. Do you want to talk about that a little bit and how did that experience really kind of shape your global perspective because I know that's where we're going to end up in this conversation. 

Sunny Dronawat: Correct. We started POS on Cloud again looking at a problem for the retail and restaurant industry where they were not secure. Target had this problem where their CEO had to resign because they had a POS system where, you know, transactions happen.

Jim Ray: Which is a point of sale?

Sunny Dronawat: Correct and the thieves got into the server room at the back and put a thumb drive in there and they were tracking all transactions.

So we said, well, why are we keeping all the transactions through one single point of failure? We call it point of failure. It could be point of hacking too.

Jim Ray: Exactly. Exactly

Sunny Dronawat: So we said, why don't we have each station be independently talking to the cloud?

Jim Ray: Interesting. So if you hack one, you've just hacked one, not the entire system.

Sunny Dronawat: Not the entire system.

Jim Ray: Okay. Fantastic.

Sunny Dronawat: So that was the genesis of the company and we were very successful. We deployed the system in all the state parks of Kentucky and it's still used.

Jim Ray: Wow. 

Sunny Dronawat: And we believe in building robust systems. It was used by Atria Healthcare for all their locations and many more companies use them. I can name a lot, but the good thing about our system was whenever we build system, we build them to last and we build them not to fail. So I can proudly say that the POS system was first built in 2010 and since then there has been only 20 minutes of downtime and that was not our fault. It was AWS had a DNS error.

Jim Ray: Unbelievable. 

Sunny Dronawat: It's had zero downtime.

Jim Ray: That's amazing. Now, now what was Pluto shift and how did you make that transition? 

Sunny Dronawat: So once we sold POS on Cloud, I had a non-compete. I couldn't go into the same area. So a friend of mine was starting an AI company and he said I need a CTO and a partner. I'm the business guy and I need a CTO and partner who can build this cutting-edge new AI systems for the industrial world. So we were not doing AI for the insurance company or banks or anything. We were doing it for physical systems.

When I talk about physical systems, it could be making beer, that's a physical system. Cleaning water is one. Making potato chips is one. We worked with all kinds of company from Unilever to Proctor and Gamble to PepsiCo to XYLM that makes chemicals for water utilities. So we worked with all these companies in developing AI systems that would improve processes or do predictive maintenance or predict something in the future that would happen to a process.

Preparing for Business on a Global Scale

Jim Ray: And now coming from that background to the global scale that you have now. How did that begin to shape that global perspective you bring to the conversation?

Sunny Dronawat: So, I'll give you an example. When we started working with ABNB, which is Budweiser, they're a global company and they work in water sensitive areas too. So, when they make beer, they make beer in 50,000 gallon waters, but you have to clean water before that. So, you may use 100,000 gallons of water to make 50,000 gallons of beer.

Jim Ray: Okay.

Sunny Dronawat: So, they were under pressure all over the world to save water. And that's where I got the global sense of how an AI developed for one plant in US could be now applied across globally. So, they started applying it to all their 80 plants worldwide and just their largest plant we were able to save them 924 million gallons of water in a year.

Jim Ray: By using AI. Wow. And it's a finite resource for many people depending on where they're located. And with these plants being hyper-consumers, that kind of savings had to be phenomenal. Not only for the local environment, but also financially. 

Sunny Dronawat: Correct. And financially in terms of using less energy, because if you have to pump more water, use more energy. If you have to separate the waters using membranes, or filtration or evaporation, you have to use more energy. So, less energy, less water usage, and more savings for the company. 

Jim Ray: It's ultimately more revenue. More profit, not revenue, profit. Yeah, that makes sense. So, I learned that you're a Kentucky Colonel, which is a special designation here in Kentucky. But you also were named an outstanding immigrant through a Mosaic Award. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

Sunny Dronawat: Yeah, the Mosaic Award is given by the Jewish Community Foundation of Louisville. Every year they have an event, beautiful event, and they reward five immigrants who have made a difference in the community. It's all given to folks from Louisville and so I was honored to be selected one of them in I think 2008. 

Jim Ray: Congratulations.

Sunny Dronawat: And then of course Kentucky Colonel is a great honor too. I've lived in Kentucky for 34 years. My wife, my kids are born here. They went to school here. So, it's an honor and I love our state. So, it was an honor to get the title of Kentucky Colonel. In fact, one of the things other is not listed is I was also awarded the alumni of the year for the University of Louisville, the engineering school in 2015.

Jim Ray: Congratulations.

Sunny Dronawat: So, 

Involvement with the World Trade Center Kentucky

Jim Ray: That's some stiff competition to be named the alumnus of the year. That's outstanding. So, let me ask you this. Let me transition the conversation a little bit to your involvement with the World Trade Center Kentucky.

Sunny Dronawat: Yes. 

Jim Ray: And what was it about, I guess World Trade Center, that drew you into that? What was the thing that caught your attention?

Sunny Dronawat: Well, as you know, the whole global economy is intertwined. You have companies like UPS here, which, you know, it's the air hub for the whole world.

Jim Ray: Right. Right.

Sunny Dronawat: We have bourbon, and that is worldwide. So, and Kentucky is also known for manufacturing aircraft parts. That's our largest export.

Jim Ray: Yeah, aerospace. It surprises a lot of people. They don't realize Kentucky is that deep in aerospace.

Sunny Dronawat: Yes. And we have a good manufacturing base. So, when the World Trade Center Kentucky was formed, Omar was elected the president, and I got to know him. And when he started talking about the mission and what we were trying, it got my attention because now I could apply my skills of problem solving to globally.

Jim Ray: Wow. Well, let me ask you this then from your perspective. What do you think are some of the more significant challenges or maybe even the opportunities that Kentucky businesses directly need to think about, need to understand when they're looking at entering the global market?  I know that's a very broad question.

Sunny Dronawat: Well, Kentucky businesses have first a disadvantage. When you talk about technology in Kentucky, nobody believes you. Even people in US don't believe you, right?

Jim Ray: But if you're a Silicon Valley company, people will talk to you.

Sunny Dronawat: And I have some friends in Silicon Valley. They said Kentucky, you guys are in Kentucky. And they can't believe that there is so much innovation happening in Louisville and Kentucky. And so I think the biggest challenges are just letting the world know that Kentucky has a lot of innovation going on.

Jim Ray: Kentucky has the capability, the interest, the desire, and the people.

Sunny Dronawat: And Louisville is such a beautiful city. Lexington is such a beautiful city and the two universities are doing a lot of research.

Jim Ray: So there's innovation happening, research happening, companies are, I mean, if you look at innovation, you can go to the UPS hub and see the innovation, how they have automated things.

Sunny Dronawat: I just drove past the airport the other day and I was just amazed at just the scale of operations out there and we're only seeing a little bit of it, but it's just amazing. We're very, very fortunate to have the world hub.  What's inside it is amazing.

Jim Ray: Exactly. In previous episodes, we've had a nice team here from UPS and you'd mentioned bourbon. We've had a couple of episodes dealing specifically with the bourbon industry and that's always been very, very amazing at how Kentucky, to your point, how Kentucky is making inroads into global markets like that. Just people don't really think about it.

Sunny Dronawat: And you know, even the University of Louisville had so many research like the first artificial heart was done here. If you look at the vaccine at the Brown Cancer Center for herpes invented here, so there is a lot of innovation happening in Louisville.

Jim Ray: Well, let me ask you this. Do you have an example maybe through your experience where you've seen the World Trade Center Kentucky kind of assist a local company because it seems like such a big step to go from your local community, your local environment, to a global environment. There's a lot to think about.

Sunny Dronawat: Well, I can take an example of our own company, right? And through Omar's help and his introduction, when we were in GITEX last year in 2024.  It was in Dubai at the huge show and Omar was able to introduce us to some of the technology companies in Dubai and now we currently work with a company called Sega Drone out of Dubai where they are using drone to track assets and we're working with them. So where we found a customer through Omar and we're exporting to Dubai. 

Jim Ray: That's fantastic. I mean that's really what it's all about. I'm amazed at the quality of the connections. It's not necessarily about the number of connections. It's the quality of connections where you can sit down and really have a substantive conversation with another business leader that leads to some ongoing discussions. You see it happen with all of these trade missions. Somebody's going to come back with a terrific story. 

Sunny Dronawat: Yes. And not just me. Last year we had a company Good Maps go with us.

Jim Ray: We did an episode with it, right?

Sunny Dronawat: Yes, and she's very smart and she's developed a great product with the American Printing House and mapping for the blind. And I'm sure she was able to get a lot of attention there from the airports where, you know, she can map those insides of the airport. I mean, if you look at the Dubai airport, there's such a big airport, you need Google Maps for the airports themselves, right?

Jim Ray: Well, if I remember during the episode, Teresa pointed out that Google's done a terrific job of getting you from wherever you are to your end location. But if that's a building, nobody has mapped inside the building. So, if you're visually impaired, trying to navigate that internal inside the building is yet another unique challenge that most of us who are sight enabled, we don't think about it.

Sunny Dronawat: Yes. And there are so many companies like that in Louisville. We work with a company called Occam Design with Vasiliy Abramov who is the CEO of the company and they're developing this peptide machine that can combine all the amino acids and create new peptides which could lead to new drug discoveries and they're building that machine right here in Louisville.

The GITEX Experience

Jim Ray: Well, let me ask you this. You mentioned GITEX and you mentioned Dubai. We talked about a little bit. Do you have any idea why it's such an important aspect of the overall, I guess, the overall value that the World Trade Center Kentucky brings? I mean this is a key initiative to us. Can you talk a little bit about what makes that, what makes Dubai and GITEX such a critical part of that overall mission?

Sunny Dronawat: GITEX is two parts. One is GITEX and the North Star is a part and they happen simultaneously. So when you go to GITEX, you actually go to both the conferences.  This is in Dubai, and it's the largest global IT expo because Dubai is such a central hub to the east and the west. You have companies from all over the world. There are companies from India, China, Malaysia, there are companies from Europe, US, and the big names are there. And it's just one place where you can meet companies from all over the world, learn about innovation happening.

And innovation is just not happening in Kentucky or US, it's happening globally. And some of that innovation can help our country, our state, our city. And that's why I like to go is I like to learn what's going on in the world.

Jim Ray: Well and that led right into my next question which was why is it such a strategic hub for Kentucky businesses, but that's it. The big players are at GITEX, they're at the North Star. This is the place to go to get those introductions, to meet those people and experience the culture in ways you may not have done before.

Sunny Dronawat: Yeah. And at Expand North Star there are startups. I mean thousands of startups from different countries. The last time I went there were startups from Iran, there were startups from Egypt, there were startups from Israel, there were startups from Africa. But they were all in the world, in small countries where people don't think that there is a startup environment. But when you see them come up with innovative solutions using technology, it's amazing to see that because we can use some of those innovation here in US and Kentucky.

Jim Ray: No, that makes perfect sense. Well, now you have a pretty good direct role, if I will, in the planning and the execution of that Dubai trade mission. Could you tell us a little bit about your involvement?

Sunny Dronawat: Yeah, I mean I'm always there to support Omar. So I'm speaking on his behalf. I'm recruiting others to go there. There are companies like there is a company here called Zena Intelligence. They help companies sell their products on Amazon and they're going this year. So I was able to recruit that company to go to GITEX this year. I think once they go there, they will have met all these bigger companies who may become their clients.

Jim Ray: I attended in 2023 and it's also the networking you do within your own group. So, the people who are leaving here and going over and experiencing all that together.

Sunny Dronawat:  Yes, we get to meet all the other people, but the people in the group, you get to know them fairly well.  In fact, a lot of great networking. This morning, I had a call from Dr. Kate who went with our group last year, and she lives in Lexington, and she called me this morning and she said, "Sunny, I need your help with something." And it was amazing that we had built this camaraderie when we were there last time because you're there for a week and you're eating dinner, you're eating lunch, you're eating breakfast and you're at the conference with them. You're side by side or you're walking the floors together and you build this camaraderie and friendship with other companies and learn about their struggles, their innovations, their way of approaching business which you can't get that from any MBA.

Jim Ray: Right. It's not theory at that point. This is practical. No, I love that. If you were speaking to another business owner in Kentucky, what would you say are some of the primary benefits beyond the networking? I know we just talked a little bit about that, but some of the other benefits and more importantly, what should they do to prepare if they decide, you know what, I'm going on this year's Dubai trip?

Sunny Dronawat: I think just understanding the scale of the show. It's huge. As I said, you can't do everything there. You cannot walk every booth, every lane. The convention center is huge. And when you go to the North Star side, again, there are levels, different levels, different areas. You can do that physically. I would leave my hotel at 8:00 a.m. and not come back till 11 and do that for next five days. Repeatedly.

Jim Ray: And still probably not see all of it. I mean, the scale of this show is amazing. And with two of them running simultaneously in roughly the same area, it's amazing. 

Sunny Dronawat: My advice for people who go there is go to the website, find out which companies are going there, which sectors you want to go into, and which booths you want to visit and which companies you want to talk to, and then make use of Omar and tell him that I want to meet with this company and Omar can make that happen.

Jim Ray: It's amazing how well connected he really is and the World Trade Center Dubai does a great job of fostering some of those introductions. I mean there's such a great network throughout this whole system that's been put together. There are over 300 World Trade Centers and they network very well together. But I know he has a close working relationship with the World Trade Center Dubai, which again just opens up additional doors. 

Sunny Dronawat: Oh, yeah. Probably one of the best meetings we had last year was just meeting with the staff of the World Trade Center Dubai and 

Jim Ray: I thought so too in ‘23. I thought the same thing. 

Sunny Dronawat: And meeting with the sheik who runs that organization. Amazing organization. Amazing what I call logistics of supporting such a large show and it was great just learning about that was just an eye opener for me. 

Jim Ray: Well, let me ask you this. Beyond the Dubai trade mission, do you think there are other trade missions being developed? I mean, do you have any insights at this point?

Sunny Dronawat: So, there are other trade missions that happen. The US trade sends out. There is an office here, Mona Musa. 

Jim Ray: Yeah. Right. We've had her on an episode as well from the US Commercial Service.

Sunny Dronawat: And you can reach out to her and she's a great resource, great person, always willing to help and she can introduce you to many of those events happening worldwide. The World Trade Center of Kentucky also puts together a certification program so you can learn about how to trade internationally. How to work with EXIM bank. We were introduced to the EXIM bank last time.

Jim Ray: Right.

Sunny Dronawat: So, it's just not one just the trade missions, the World Trade Center, Omar, Susan who lives in Jordan, she helps out, who works with Omar. You have Mona Musa who helps from the World Trade Center here. And they all do an amazing job helping companies succeed in the Middle East or worldwide. 

Critical Skills and the Right Mindset for Global Business Success

Jim Ray: Let me come back to your entrepreneurial experience. Are there some critical skills or mindsets that an entrepreneur really needs to adopt or really needs to prepare in order to be successful in the international environment?

Sunny Dronawat: Yes. One, go with an open mind and listen to their problems, their solutions. Look at their solutions. Look at how they're solving different problems. I learned from GITEX last year about this payment system that India is using. They have totally eliminated the fees in commerce.

Jim Ray: Wow.

Sunny Dronawat: So for businesses that's three or four percent of margin that drops directly to the bottom line.  So I was like, why aren't we adopting that here? So just keeping that open mind that an innovative solution can come up from any country, any person, and going with that mindset and then going with the mindset that you're going to meet a diverse group of people. And just listening to them, listening to their struggles, their innovative ideas just gives you more neuron connections in your brain that you can now think and apply it here.

Jim Ray: Yeah. The wheels spin and you start realizing, although there are differences, there are a lot of similarities.

Sunny Dronawat: Yes.

Jim Ray: And there are a lot of preconceived notions that may just be misconceptions as opposed to being factual. And it's a great time to really break down some of those walls and open some doors.

Sunny Dronawat: And just meeting all these entrepreneurs. So much energy, so much passion. It kind of invigorates your own passion and your own energy. You're like, you're walking the halls 8 to 11 and meeting people late at night, but they're all working hard. It gives you that energy.

Jim Ray: Yeah, I think so because again, you're running with a crowd that's kind of energized. Now, for those listening going, I don't know if I could do that, you don't have to stay there until 11:00. You can get back to the hotel or wherever you need to go to wind back down, but the opportunity is there.

Sunny Dronawat: Yeah. I can tell you the real business happens during dinner and drinks.

Jim Ray: Absolutely. Absolutely it does. Well, in looking at your background, you've got such a diverse background from technology to real estate to healthcare. How do those principles of global trade really differ or remain the same in these different industries? I mean it seems like they're vastly different but yet there's an overlap. I would imagine.

Sunny Dronawat: There is definitely an overlap like you said. There are similarities between technology and healthcare. If you look at AI that is going into everything now. You have AI agents for finding what's the best Medicare plan for me. There's a company we work with called My Silver Surfer here. They're trying to help seniors with AI and find the best plans because you may think you're getting the cheapest plan, but it may only give you doctors who are out of your network. So, you'll never get an appointment.

Jim Ray: Exactly. Exactly.

Sunny Dronawat: They're trying to solve that problem where if you're a senior, you get the doctor you want, you get the pharmacy you want, the lowest payment premium you want. So AI can help and it's helping each of those segments and also AI can learn from different areas of the world. I'll give you an example. We work with a client who came to us and said, "We need Google ads for 4,000 hotels in Europe in five different languages. Can you create them for us?" I was like, how do you create 4,000 ads for 10 different keywords for five languages and you start multiplying and you realize that you have to make more than 200,000 ads. If you are going to write or type them out,

Jim Ray: Forget it.

Sunny Dronawat: You can't. So we had to develop an AI agent for them and now they can create half a million ads in hours.

Jim Ray: Wow.

Sunny Dronawat: In any language you want. It's unbelievable. I mean, what AI is doing for us is just I sit back every day and I'm watching, I'm listening, I'm diving in, I'm using it, and I'm just very amazed at the capabilities, and we're just scratching the surface, which is the very interesting part about AI.

Misconceptions about Global Trade and International Business

Jim Ray:  Could I ask you this from your perspective, do you think there's a common misconception that people have about global trade that maybe you could put some rest to?

Sunny Dronawat: I think the biggest misconception is that global trade will lead to job losses in US. But I think it's quite the opposite. It makes us more robust. It makes us more efficient and actually creates more jobs in US. If you look at the jobs that are created when we export things, are always immense. They're not prone to any recession in US. You're trading with, it's like putting your eggs in different baskets and not one basket. If you're trading only in US and there is a recession, so there might be a less demand environment for your product, then you're hurting, you're laying off. But let's say if you're trading in another country and you could now offer the same service or product to that country and they are booming, then it hedges against the recession here.

Sunny Offers Advice for Those Thinking about International Business

Jim Ray: It's the common principle of diversification that makes a lot of sense. Well let's leave the listeners with this one final question. If someone were interested in pursuing their own global trade adventure, what is one piece of advice you might offer to them?

Sunny Dronawat: One is, make sure that you understand which country you are going to work with and understand their culture, their history, their way of doing business. And if you can understand that, it makes it much easier to do business with that country. And now there are tools. For example, let's say you're trying to sell your products and services in Middle East, why not build a website in Arabic? 

Jim Ray: The most basic of things.

Sunny Dronawat: Doesn't cost you much to get it translated and put it out there, but guess what, that investment can pay off tenfold and it also makes you look global.

Jim Ray: Well exactly, exactly. The simple communication, so much of this really comes down to the very basic fundamentals and it starts with communication. Can you read about me? Can I read about you? Can I understand this? Can we interact in a meaningful way? And sometimes it's really basic things. It's sharing a meal together. It's shaking hands together. It's having a conversation. And things like the global trade mission absolutely affords that opportunity.

The different perspectives that you're going to come away with, but also just the ongoing involvement with the World Trade Center Kentucky can really help. There are so many resources on the website that we've listed out that are available to individual entrepreneurs, individual companies, whether they're doing business locally or maybe they already have a large footprint. World Trade Center Kentucky offers a tremendous amount of resources there that I hope people will definitely take a few minutes to look at, consider, and investigate.

I think that's where it starts. You have to act, and part of that is just getting involved. Dr. Sunny Dronawat, I want to thank you for your time. I know you're extremely busy. Thank you for turning off your phone when you came in. It's amazing how many calls you're getting. You're an important guy and you gave us 30 minutes here in the studio. So, I really want to thank you for your time and your perspective today.

Sunny Dronawat: Jim, it was a pleasure knowing you and talking to you and you make this very easy with your questions. So, thank you.

Jim Ray: You're very welcome. It's been my pleasure as well. So, from all of us at the World Trade Center Kentucky's This Global Trade Adventure podcast, remember, when you're ready, we connect businesses globally.

To Learn More: 

Website:  www.Samiteon.com

Upcoming WTCKY EVENTS:

• 11/05/25 – Tariff Strategies for Your Global Supply Chain
• 11/11-13/25 – International Trade Certification Program

 

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