4B 101 One Hundred & Business Hall of Fame Pacific Coast Business Times April 22 - April 28, 2016 April 22 - April 28, 2016 101 One Hundred & Business Hall of Fame Pacific Coast Business Times 5B

By Philip JoensStaff Writer

Anant Yardi stood in the lobby of Yardi Systems’ Go-leta office April 7 taking pictures with about 20 execu-tives at his company.

Between pictures, a faint smile of pride lingered. When a Business Times Reporter complimented Yardi on building a great company, he shrugged it off.

“Not sure how to respond, but if that’s what you think,” Yardi said.

Yardi started the property management software company in 1984 to make a modest living. Thirty-two years later, the company employs 4,800 employees in 34 offices worldwide. In an interview, the humble founder said with wonder that the company grew faster than he ever imagined.

Yardi Systems is one of the largest property man-agement software companies in the world. Since Yardi founded the company, it’s gone from creating software for the Apple 2 computer to developing apps for Apple and Android devices.

More than half of the top 50 property managers in the U.S. now use Yardi software. According to the com-

pany’s website, iconic buildings like the Empire State Building, Freedom Tower and Dubai World Trade Cen-ter use Yardi software. Closer to home, housing authori-ties in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Bernardino manage properties using Yardi software.

“It’s been completely unanticipated,” Yardi said. “The company continues to grow 15 to 20 percent quar-ter over quarter.”

Despite his success, he’s uncomfortable bragging about himself. He’s notorious for being a quiet leader that rarely gives interviews. Early in the conversation, he begins to tell the story of how he got admitted to UC Berkeley in 1968 but hesitates and then glosses over details.

“It was just one of those strange things that happened and I ended up at Berkeley, too,” Yardi said quickly.

“I think that story is worth telling,” Gordon Morrell, Yardi Systems executive vice president, told him.

“You think that story---““It’s a great story.”“Okay,” Yardi said, reluctantly.His American dream began as a young man in New

Delhi. At age 22 and with a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, he contemplated going to America for grad school.

His friends Ashok and Ohm were both admitted to

Berkeley, but Yardi was not. Ohm planned to attend grad school in New York though, so Ashok told Yardi to write the Berkeley dean of engineering and tell him he was just as good as Ohm. Yardi hesitated.

“Ashok said ‘If I write the letter will you sign it?’ I said ‘sure.’ Low and behold, 10 days later I had my admission.”

Yardi arrived to a campus in turmoil, caused by years of protests over free speech, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Vietnam War. Still, he was amazed by the liberal thoughts of his peers, able to think freely for the first time.

“Americans tended to be far more inclined towards independent thought,” Yardi said. “That was not the case in India. In India, we were just told by the elders what to do. Everybody here had opinions.”

Yardi’s American journey took him out of California but only briefly. After graduating from Berkeley with a master’s degree in engineering, Yardi took a Detroit job at Burroughs — a manufacturer of computer equipment. Burroughs soon moved Yardi to a Goleta factory, but the factory closed in 1981.

By this point, Yardi had become disillusioned with corporate America and its rigid bureaucracy. So he

Anant Yardi Business Hall of Fame

Anant Yardi“The company continues to grow 15 to 20

percent quarter over quarter.”

see YARDI on page 5B

decided to try something that might enable him and a handful of employees to make a modest living.

“I don’t think I’m a real entrepreneur,” Yardi said. “Entrepreneurs are ambitious. They have plans. They want to make a big difference. My plans were to make enough to pay three salaries.”

Yardi owned a few properties at the time, so he de-cided to create property management software. In 1984, the first floppy disk program came in a plain brown box labeled only “property management.”

He had a goal to hit $200,000 in revenues in 1984. It happened. Yardi felt lucky.

His next goal was $400,000 in 1985. It happened. Yardi still felt lucky.

Revenues increased to $800,000 in 1986. Yardi always looked over his shoulder, thinking something funny was happening, but in the 32 years Yardi Systems has been in business, revenues only decreased in 2000 because of fears related to Y2K.

More than that, the company has always been profit-able. Yardi never took outside funding, afraid he would mismanage other people’s money or simply not do a good job.

“If you don’t have outside funding then you have to cover the costs,” Yardi said.

Years later, after reaping rewards from years of suc-cess, Yardi realized he still didn’t want the hassle of dealing with investors. Yardi did not disclose current revenues, but said the company is on track to eventually have more than $1 billion in annual sales. With revenues like that, many have speculated for years Yardi Systems could go public. But that will never happen.

“Not while I’m around,” Yardi said.

Now 70 years old, Yardi has settled into his humble life at the top. A wall in the lobby is covered with let-ters from charities Yardi Systems has donated money to. Morrell said the company donates over $1 million to charity each year.

Yardi drives a Lexus, but it’s 10 years old. He lives in the same house he moved into with his wife in 1978. His sons, Jason and Kevin, both work for the company.

Jason went to Claremont McKenna College, bounced around a few startups and came back to the company 10 years ago.

Kevin went to Colby College in Waterville, Maine and worked as a Washington D.C.-based consultant for IBM and Deloitte. He moved back to Santa Barbara in 2013 to serve as the director of Yardi’s Consulting Practice.

“If Anant wanted to take all that money and live in a mansion and buy himself a brand new Lexus, we might not be able to do the kinds of things we have,” Morrell said.

YARDI Continued from page 4B

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S Left, Anant Yardi flips through the manual for Yardi’s original Apple 2 program. Top, Yardi started his property management company in 1984 and has now grown the company to 4,800 employees in 34 offices across the globe. Bottom left, the original Apple 2 computer still sits in the Yardi headquarters. Below, a look back at Yardi Systems in 1987.