UNUSUAL ENTREPRENEURS—TRAIL BLAZERS
UNUSUAL ENTREPRENEURS—TRAIL BLAZERS
Work wide web
http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=1&task=view&id=21129§ionid=34&issueid=82&latn=2
Sanjeev Bikhchandani is the quintessential posterboy for Indian entrepreneurship. Starting with tooling around in a garage or, in his case, a servant’s quarter in his parent’s backyard, he came up with a killer application, scaled up with the help of venture capital and went to market with immediate success.
What’s more, once his company went public he became a crorepati.
Of course Bikhchandani has earned himself a formidable resume, but it did not come easy. While working for Glaxo Smith Kline (then Hindustan Milkfood Marketing) in the late 80s, the IIM-A graduate noticed that his colleagues would devour the jobs section in the business magazines—“a voyeuristic tendency”—as none of them was looking to switch. With frequent calls from headhunters, he sensed big opportunity in the jobs database market.
With an initial investment of Rs 2,000, Bikhchandani started Info Edge from his father’s house in east Delhi in 1990. He lived off his wife Surabhi, an executive with Nestle, while teaching at management schools over the weekends and working part-time with a newspaper.
The biggest roadblock, says Bikhchandani, was the lack of capital. This led to a string of insecurities, “including that of having to go back to a job because one’s business failed”.
In 1997, he discovered the potential of the Internet and launched Naukri.com, an online database for job seekers and employers.
There were only 14,000 Internet subscribers in the country, yet within a year, Naukri managed revenues of Rs 2 lakh, which zoomed to Rs 18 lakh the following year. In mid 1999, he roped in Hitesh Oberoi, a Hindustan Unilever executive, on board.
In April 2000, the company got a funding of Rs 7.3 crore from ICICI Venture for a 15 per cent stake, which all came crashing down with the dotcom bust in May. “We had only Rs 4 crore left in our bank and were losing Rs 25 lakh a month,” he says.
But Bikhchandani managed to steer his ship through troubled waters and diversified into becoming an Internet classifieds company.
The company launched portals such as Jeevansathi.com (matrimonial site), 99acres.com (property), Shiksha.com (education), Allcheckdeals.com (brokerage) NaukriGulf.com (caters to the Middle East market), Quadrangle (executive search firm), Asknaukri.com (career guidance) and Brijj.com (professional networking site).
Info Edge’s big moment, however, came in November 2006, when it went public and raised Rs 170.3 crore. Today, Naukri.com has over 15 million registered users, which is 1.5 per cent of the total Indian population.
So, what’s Bikhchandani’s advice to rookie innovators? “It’s a great time to be an entrepreneur in India,” says the Delhi-based jobs mogul. Never mind what’s happening in the rest of the world.
The white tigerhttp://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=1&task=view&id=21160§ionid=34&issueid=82&latn=2
Dream weaver
Success mantra: If you partner with customers in resolving their problems, business will do well automatically.
Role model: "My father is my role model as he has always encouraged me in everything I have done."
Turning point: In 1998, when Welspun got its first order of $1 million from the US retail major WalMart for terry towels.
reddy2007
