Rengan Rajaratnam is one of those founders who has probably seen it all (or a lot of it!) and done a lot. Recently, we spoke with him about his well-traveled journeys, from working with traditional institutions to starting new ventures in digital wellness, as well as his work with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and supporting their critical mission. Read on for a glimpse inside the life of Rengan.
JL
Rengan, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us about your story. Let’s start from the beginning. Can you tell us a little about your background, where you’re from and your training, and a bit of your career trajectory?
RR
I was born in Sri Lanka. My father raised himself from poverty to become a senior executive at a US company, which meant a lot of moving around. I spent my childhood all over the world: Singapore, the United States, India, and Thailand. When I was 12, I was sent to boarding school in the U.S., and eventually studied English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, I went to work for Mercer Consulting, followed by Morgan Stanley, and then went on to Stanford Business School. After graduating from Stanford, I worked in the technology M&A group at Robertson Stephens until I was recruited to become the CEO of Artinsider.com, a start-up that sold art online. In 2000, the dot-com bubble burst and along with it our dreams of internet success. I refused to shut down the company before the investors were made whole, and we were finally able to sell the company.
After a six-month break to travel and reflect, I returned to the United States I had planned to come back on Sept 14, 2001 for a series of job interviews, however, the attacks of 9/11 changed that and brought my career prospects to a screeching halt. Low on funds, I took a job at Galleon, the hedge fund my brother had founded. I ran the small cap technology portfolio. In truth, I was more interested in being an entrepreneur or cutting my teeth working with companies as a VC; but running a public market portfolio had its own rewards. Despite being a complete unknown, I had the opportunity to sit across the table from industry titans and ask questions about their businesses and how they succeeded. I eventually left Galleon to work at SAC Capital, and then started my own hedge fund, Sedna Capital.
JL
Tell us about making the shift from working with storied, established institutions to building your own hedge fund and investment firm. What was most exciting and what was most challenging?
RR
I sort of stumbled my way into the world of hedge funds. Once there, though, I loved that they were almost completely meritocracy based. It’s all about your track record. Very little weight is given to how well anyone navigates internal politics. As an immigrant who wasn’t entirely comfortable in his own skin, that was incredibly appealing. But working for someone has its own sets of rules, structures, and hierarchy, too. I also hadn’t lost my desire to be an entrepreneur and always dreamed about opening up my own shop. Partnering with my officemate from Galleon, I started Sedna Capital. Our idea was to build a portfolio that was highly concentrated in 15 to 20 small cap names that were not really followed by Wall Street, and to focus on returns three to five years out. We knew it would be a volatile and unpopular strategy with investors, but we firmly believed it was the right way to build outsized returns over the long haul.
We didn’t realize exactly how unpopular our strategy would be with investors. Despite getting commitments for over $50+ MM for our launch, when it came time for people to actually write checks, we were only able to launch with $7 MM of investor money and pretty much all of our life savings. My partner and I agreed to give it a run for two years, and we set aside just enough money for basic living expenses. I downsized to the cheapest, dingiest apartment I could find. A two percent management fee on $7 MM made it extremely difficult to pay for our office space, our trader, and our one analyst, but we somehow found a way to power through and eventually grew the fund to over $100 MM inside our two-year deadline.
JL
That is an incredible achievement, Rengan! Let’s move on to some of your more personal projects; projects close to the heart. You regularly work with and support the widely acclaimed non-profit, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. Tell us about their mission, how you began working closely with them, and then how you eventually became a board member and treasurer for the Mid-Atlantic region.
RR
The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (MAIP) works to prevent and correct the conviction of innocent people in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and we have one of the highest success rates in the country for exonerating those who have been wrongfully accused. Most people, especially those low-income and minority populations, don’t have the resources, knowledge, or support to mount even the most basic defense. I realized from my criminal case the difference good counsel can make, or the ability to have dependable scientific evidence, so I wanted to dedicate part of my life to helping other people who are less fortunate.
I really wanted to work with MAIP but was concerned that my own legal troubles, despite being found innocent in my criminal case, would preclude me from being part of the team. So, I started volunteering to screen cases even though MAIP typically does not use non-lawyers. After two years of screening and earning the trust of the organization, I was invited to the Board in 2016, then elected Treasurer and Head of the Audit and Finance Committee in 2019. In 2020, I was invited to join MAIP’s Executive Committee, to help plan its long-term strategic roadmap and vision of helping to prevent and correct the conviction of innocent people in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Since 2000, MAIP has helped secure the release or exoneration of 42 people in the region.
JL
What do you think is the most important thing people should know about the Innocence Project? Are there any misconceptions? They also work closely to implement policy changes on the ground floor to try to futureproof and minimize wrongful convictions. Tell us about that.
RR
The biggest misconception is that we are not THE Innocence Project but, rather, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, an independent 501(c)(3) organization. The Innocence Project is the headquarters of the Innocence Network, a coalition of 68 independent innocence organizations dedicated to combating wrongful conviction in all 50 states and 12 countries. In total, they have exonerated 625 people since 2005.
A lot of things have to go wrong for an innocent person to be convicted and to remain in prison for the decades that most of our clients spend there. A failure of this magnitude is tragic, but it also presents a tremendous opportunity to learn. We work hard to learn from these failures so we can try to prevent wrongful convictions and make them easier to correct.
Over the past 22 years, we’ve helped pass 19 laws that would prevent or make it easier to correct wrongful convictions. The issues we’ve tackled include eyewitness errors, videotaping police interrogations, better tracking of jailhouse informants, problems in forensic science, and laws that allow innocent people to get relief in courts. In the next few years, we hope to advocate for laws that would improve police interrogations, further regulate the use of informants, and would reduce legal barriers that have nothing to do with guilt or innocence.
JL
How do they choose who to work with, with so many open cases that could be revisited due to lack of sufficient evidence, new DNA testing techniques, and more?
RR
We receive about 300 requests per year from prisoners claiming innocence, and work to isolate the cases with plausible innocence claims and with the potential for evidence to prove innocence. Throughout our multi-stage screening process, we work to ensure that we treat all of our applicants with dignity and give their cases a thorough review, while also making sure we aren’t needlessly deploying resources on meritless claims.
Our process starts with reviewing an applicant questionnaire and appellate briefs. From there, we begin reviewing documents like trial transcripts, police reports, and lab reports, which can be time-consuming because it often involves public-information requests. The most promising cases are assigned to our legal team for a full investigation, which can involve tracking down reluctant witnesses, talking to experts, and even more documents. Only the cases with compelling evidence of innocence are litigated.
JL
We absolutely support MAIP and the critical work it does on behalf of those they work with. We’re excited by the prospect of working more closely with the organization in the future, too. It must be an incredible feeling when following anyone’s story who is eventually exonerated. Can you expound on that?
RR
It’s an incredible privilege to work with wrongfully convicted clients. It would be so easy for them to give up hope in a system that offers so little reason for hope, but our clients don’t. Working with people who are that courageous and strong cannot help but make you a better person.
Walking an innocent client out of prison is one of the most powerful experiences I can imagine. They’re able to hug family members for the first time in decades and can plan whatever meal they want. At the same time, it’s bittersweet to think about what they’ve lost. Watching them meet grandchildren or nieces and nephews for the first time can be painful, but little moments like watching them re-learn how to cross a street are just as powerful.
Because of that, it’s critically important that we also find ways to support them after release. We’re proud that we’ll soon be hiring our first employee who is solely dedicated to supporting exonerees, and we’re looking forward to expanding that program even more.
JL
How can people best support MAIP and those organizations throughout your network?
RR
This work is time and resource intensive, so we are always grateful for contributions of any size. More broadly, we think it’s important to educate yourself about these issues and cases and get involved in these issues on a local level, as voters and jurors. There are incredible books, movies, TV series, and podcasts that can help teach anyone about the causes and consequences of wrongful convictions. It’s crucial to learn these lessons because we’re all potential jurors, and most of us have the opportunity to vote for local district attorneys and state attorneys general.
JL
You also now find yourself working in the digital wellness space. How did you come to this area of practice? Tell us about how your company, Healplace.com, is innovating the health and well-being of those in need.
RR
The trial and the subsequent years during which I was trying to rebuild my life were filled with a great deal of stress. Even though my doctors recommended medications, my wife was firmly against it. As a physician herself and the Chief Medical Officer of a local hospital, she believes that most pharmaceuticals have side effects that can often be worse than the symptoms they are trying to alleviate. I started to explore more holistic alternatives such as meditation, breathwork, reiki, ayahuasca, acupuncture, psilocybin, etc
Although not every therapy was effective, overall the journey proved to be extremely helpful; though finding these providers proved difficult and was typically done by word of mouth or through personal connections. Some were even based in Asia, which made coordinating calendars, video calls, and payments quite hard.
At the same time, during the peak of Covid, my wife was noticing the elevated stress her doctors, nurses, and patients were experiencing. She was convinced that the next pandemic was going to be a mental health crisis. But not only are licensed therapists in short supply, not every problem requires a licensed mental health professional.
We decided to build a remote healing and wellness website that will connect clients with best-in-class complementary, alternative, and holistic health practitioners. Unlike telemedicine platforms, Healplace.com will not focus on primary medical care. Instead, we’ll promote the preventive care that reduces costs and suffering, and improves patient outcomes. Our international focus enables us to provide wellness services at price points previously inaccessible to Western consumers. We have bootstrapped the business for the last two years and will be going to beta launch this Summer (stay tuned!), with formal fundraising shortly afterwards. For more information head to www.heaplace.com.
JL
Thank you so much for your time and candor, Rengan. To learn more about the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, their vital mission and ways you can contribute, please log on to exonerate.org