While the business circuit was getting the hang of entrepreneurship, this man was way ahead. A great athlete, a war hero, and a coachâBill Bowerman a man of the ages. His contributions were pivotal in the sports industryâs progression. Bill Bowerman is a perfect idol for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to get ahead of the race.
Bill Bowerman, the Founder of Nike net worth had been $400 Million, when he passed away on December 24, 1999.
While studying at the University of Oregon, Bowerman played football and through the recommendation of longtime track coach Bill Hayward, he joined the track team. He led Medford to a state title win in the year 1935. Bill was associated with the United States Olympic Track Programme where he trained athletes in high altitude environments. His running program in Eugene was later on recognized as a national model for fitness programs. Apart from being a coach and a war hero, he published a book titled âJoggingâ; million copies of this book were sold in that era.
The above-mentioned qualities donât completely define Bowerman as his entrepreneurship skills are equally commendable, if not more. He co-founded a company that athletes like Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, and Anderson Silva wear on their sleevesâNike, one of the biggest brands in the sports industry. Founded in 1964 through co-operation with his student Phil Knight, it was initially known as Blue Ribbon Sports and provided sports equipment for the brand now called ASICS.
There sits an old iron waffle at Nikeâs main headquarters in Beaverton. This waffle signifies the steppingstone of the billion-dollar athletic empire. Bowermanâs willingness to create a better atmosphere for sportsmen along with his student Phil Knightâs dedication was the motive behind Nike. Although Knight was not the best runner, Bowerman chose Knight for testing out their products. Knight was Bowermanâs guinea pig, not in the wrong sense. Light and comfortable equipment is what any sportsperson seeks. In order to create comfortable shoes, Bowerman used rattlesnakeâs skin, kangarooâs skin, and even crab skin to make the shoes lighter. Bowerman even used different types of metals and plastics to create spikes for those shoes.
A 40 year old Nike internal memo penned by its first marketing head Rob Strasser titled âPrinciples”
Bill Bowerman – The First Nike Shoes
Bowerman unveiled Nike during the 1972 U.S. Olympic Trials. The first shoes were called Nike âMoon Shoeâ. The swoosh logo Nike is known for was made by a college student for just 35 dollars. A great entrepreneur is the one who finds inspiration from everywhere. In an era when startups werenât a craze like they are today, Bowerman thought of one by seeking ideas from nature and people. The waffle iron is a testimony to Bill Bowermanâs eagerness to learn. He asked his wife to come up with an idea for the pattern on the soles. âTurning the waffles upside down where the waffle part would come in contact with the track on which the athletes ranâ is what his wife recommended him to work on. He later went to his lab, prepared urethane and poured them into the waffle iron. In excitement, he forgot to spray the nonstick substance and when he was unable to open it, he went on to find new waffle irons.
Nike Cortez, designed for runners at the 1972 Olympic Trials became a top seller and stills hold its place as one of the most iconic Nike shoes to date. Imagination prompted Bowerman to his show unique ideas. After running through his wifeâs marriage gifts, he got the idea for âWaffle Trainerâ in 1974. This enabled Nike to become a household name. If we talk about ownership, Bowerman wasnât too involved in claiming rights. Initially having a 50-50 partnership in the brand, he later changed it to 51-49 with his student Knight having the greater share. The main reason behind this was to avoid a potential logjam between the two.
Bill Bowerman – Legacy
Bowerman was an inquisitive entrepreneur. While redesigning the shoes, he worked in a small room with no proper ventilation. The glue and toxic chemicals hindered his health and gradually damaged his nerves. This prevented him to run in the shoes he gifted the world. He gained respect from fellow co-owner of Nike and student, Knight. Knight quoted, âIf the coach isnât happy, Nike isnât happy.â
Nike which Bill Bowerman co-founded with just $1200 has now net worthof $35 billion (2021). The net worth of Nike was $29.6 billion in 2020. A clear vision and willingness to draw inspiration from everything put Bowerman into the list of one of the best entrepreneurs the world has seen. âJust do itâ, the tagline of the mega-brand, was inspired by none other than serial killer Gary Gilmore who said âLetâs do itâ moments before his execution. Talk about taking notes, utilizing resources and catchphrases, Nike is the best in business.
Nike and Phil Knight Relations
Philip Knight
As of April 2020, Philip Knight directly owns 29,154,487 shares of Class A and 11,385,687 shares of Class B Nike stock, i.e. 9.3% of outstanding Class A shares and 0.9% of outstanding Class B shares. He owns 2.6% of all outstanding shares as of April 2020. Knight co-founded Blue Ribbon Sports, later renamed to Nike, with Bill Bowerman. He and his family are ranked 25th on the Forbes list of billionaires, with a net worth of $39.3 billion
Nike AirForce, Nike Phantom, Nike Zoom Heritage, and Air Jordan are products that everyoneâright from ordinary people to celebrities and superstarsâadore and endorse. With quality products and equipments, Nike is one of the most sought-after sporting brands. The fact that over 3900 employees undertake the job of teaching children, that too in a professional capacity, demonstrates the companyâs vision for the betterment of the society. With continued dominance in lifestyle branding even though decades have passed since its inception, Nike wonât go anywhere soon!
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
How and when was Nike created?
Nike was founded on 25 January 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight in order to create light and comfortable shoes for sportsmen.
How much is Nike worth in 2021?
Nike’s net worth is $35 billion in 2021.
How much is Phil Knight net worth?
Phil Knight’s net worth is $50 billion (2021).
What was Bill Bowerman, Nike owner’s net worth?
At the time of his death in 1999, the net worth of Bill Bowerman was $400 Million.
What was the first Nike Shoes called?
Bowerman unveiled Nike during the 1972 U.S. Olympic Trials. The first shoes were called Nike âMoon Shoeâ.
If one considers the late nineties and early years of 21st century, one giant ruled the internet segmentâYahoo! Be it search engine, online tabloid, finance reports, or anything else, Yahoo! was the go-to solution for online needs, a powerful mega web service provider. While the brand may not be as powerful as it once was, it still wields influence even in the presence of competitors like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others. 26 years and still counting!
Yahoo! was founded in the year 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo. An electrical engineer by profession, Filo co-founded Yahoo! at Stanford University. Initially, the duo called their venture, âJerry and Davidâs guide to the World Wide Webâ.
After launching Yahoo!, Filo recognized the potential of this website and subsequently launched âYahoo! Inc.â. What started out as a web portal soon turned into something larger. Yahoo! became popular and started acquiring online gaming websites like ClassicGames.com, thereby releasing Yahoo! Games. Due to its partnership with multiple websites, Yahoo! enjoys considerable web traffic. By November 1994, its popularity sky-rocketed and 170,000 unique visitors were accessing the site every day.
Soon, more than a million web users were visiting Yahoo! daily. While David was operating Yahoo! alongside Jerry for enjoyment, they were revolutionizing the world wide web. Companies like Microsoft and Prodigy approached Jerry-David to buy Yahoo!, but they simply refused.
David Filo – Problems With Stanford University
Yahoo Founders- David Filo and Jerry Yang
Success stories and struggles go hand in hand. The story of Yahoo! was no different. While at Stanford, David and Jerry faced infrastructure issues. They were using the servers provided by Stanford and when the company was expanding, the systems regularly crashed. The Stanford University administration asked the duo to take their venture off-campus. However, this move encouraged the team at Yahoo! to take it to the next level, from a college experiment to the full-fledged business unit.
After funding from known sources was secured, the pair of Filo and Yang took a leave of absence from Stanford. They then hired school friends and interns to work for their company. Tim Koogle, former president of Motorola Inc., was roped in to add experience to the emerging team.
By 1995, Yahoo! had become a formidable company. An alliance with the famous Reuters boosted its popularity as users could access news headlines with a click.
A great entrepreneur knows how to pump customers with exciting offerings. Filo added new sections such as quotations, weather, and sports scores to the website. Extensions like âMy Yahooâ and âYahooligansâ, a special version of the website for children in the 8-14 age group, were released. By 1999, the company was making a profit from the advertisements displayed on the website and related pages. Yahoo! Inc. also made special co-op deals with online retailers all over the world.
David Filo – Simplicity
Even after achieving success and becoming a sensation, Filoâs lifestyle didnât see changes. As usual, he went to office in a junk-filled Datsun, and his office desk was still surrounded by litter cans all around.
Coming Up With The Name Yahoo!
David Filo- Co-founder of Yahoo
The name Yahoo! is an urban legend. It stands for âYet Another Hierarchic Officious Oracleâ. The name became popular overnight courtesy of Filo and Yangâs brilliance.
Yahoo’s Connection With Netscape
Yahoo! and Netscape, two of the most popular websites, have some common elements. In return for a graphical link on Yahoo!âs homepage, Netscapeâs founder gave the required equipment to keep the website running. A directory button was later added on the Netscape website which led to Yahoo!âs homepage. However, this didnât go on for long and Netscape ditched Yahoo! for another website which offered a larger sum. Betrayals are inevitable.
Yahoo!âs Decline
According to many sources, Yahoo!âs decline began in 2000 when its search engine was powered by Google. After an all-time low value of the stocks at 4.40 USD, its popularity decreased and Google took over as the dominant player. Yahoo!âs rigidness in keeping up with evolving trends (much like Nokiaâs debacle) was the salt rubbed into the wound.
Filo transformed his hobby into profession. His work went on to leave a drastic mark on the World Wide Web. Although itâs Google that is the big shot at present, one cannot overlook Yahoo!âs dominance in the 20thcentury and early 21st century.
David Filo’s net worth is 350 crores USD as of 2021. Filo is one of the early men to have realized the potential of the world wide web. His initiative came at a time when the internet segment was in its infancy. Innovation drove Yahoo! to prominence. What started with providing weather forecasts, match scores, and quotations is a behemoth today.
David Filoâs story should compel you to explore those untouched opportunities in the digital world and fill in gaps yet to be identified!
David Filo is a tech entrepreneur and businessman who co-founded Yahoo! with Jerry Yang in the year 1994.
What is Yahoo?
Yahoo! is one of the Internet’s leading search engines and web portals.
Who is the founder of yahoo?
Jerry Yang and David Filo are the founders of Yahoo.
What is Yahoo used for?
It is a web portal that provides news, entertainment, and sports information. The portal also gives users access to other Yahoo services including Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! Finance.
What is Yahoo founders’ net worth?
Jerry Yang’s net worth is $240 crores and David Filo’s net worth $350 crores.
What is the difference between google and yahoo search engine?
Google is a company with an array of products that all integrate with search, the search engine being the flagship product. And Yahoo is not a search engine at all, but a web portal with a search engine powered by Bing.
Social media is a platform dominated by various countries. The most prominent ones are based out of the United States, with China at second. However, weâve seen a thing or two from the Indian sub-continent as well. Hike is the most popular one amongst the few Indian startups that have left a dent on the social media circuit. The Hike messaging is an Indian app and was developed by Kavin Bharti Mittal.
Kavin Bharti Mittal is the son of Bharti Mittal, one of the richest Indians. Kavin charted out his own path despite a solid business background. He grew up in a family where business was omnipresent.
Kavin found it much easier to set foot in the startup circuit when compared to his father due technological advancements. Moreover, entrepreneurship has undergone drastic changes after the nineties.
Entrepreneurial Ambitions
Apps, both mobile and web, are the basis for several ventures today. The introduction of the iPhone paved way for development of new segments hitherto unknown. Kavin Mittal picked up the basics of entrepreneurship from his dad. The father-son relationship was also a mentor-mentee relationship that helped groom the lad in various ways.
Kavin witnessed the launch of applications like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube while in college. These platforms and the digital world in generalâinspired Kavin to launch his first venture, Appspark. He saw an iPhone during his internship at Google in New York and was in awe of the deviceâs potential to change lives of people. Appleâs App Store was still in infancy, and Kavin thought of launching one idea every month, thereby creation and launch of eight apps on the App Store in eight months. This dream remained elusive as Kavin witnessed the hurdles transforming an idea from a figment of imagination to reality. After eight months of struggle, Kavin created his first app, Movies Now. It was the first-ever movie reservation app on the App Store. It allowed users to stream trailers both in HD and SD prints. Since the number of competing apps was negligible, Movies Now never received real competition.
The introduction of the iPad saw Movies Now improvise and get enhanced. It functioned much better than the earlier versions. While Movies Now was popular, it wasnât an actual money spinner. Kavin had to think of another way to prove himself as a successful entrepreneur.
After returning to India, Kavin was living a normal life in New Delhi, the nationâs capital. He saw majority of the people in Delhi own the iconic Nokia 1100, the phone which set the ball rolling for the technology revolution in India. However, the phone had its limitations since it could only send SMS and be used for normal calls. Internet access was impossible. This limitation spurred Kavinâs willingness to bring Indians and internet closer, and inspired him to create a messaging platformâHike. His team received funds worth $7 million from Bharti SoftBank, a collaboration between Bharti Enterprises and SoftBank, a Japanese telecom company.
After a series of developments, Hike was officially launched in the year 2012. Within two years, Hike Messenger became the most downloaded application on the App Store (in India) and the Play Store(in India).
Kavinâs smartness and strategy had a major hand to play in this achievement. After launching the app, he introduced the concept of âstickersâ. This concept was recently implemented by WhatsAppâanother messaging platform. The stickers in Hike were catchy and innovative, and attracted the youth. Thus, these stickers were imperative for surge in Hikeâs popularity. While the platform was gaining prominence throughout India, Hike tied-up with Airtel and launched a policy in which if a user had an Airtel postpaid connection, the service provider gave free mobile data for 3 months to use Hike.
To keep up with the trend, Hike also launched unique two-way chat themes that were liked by many Hike users and attracted several new customers. This proved to be a master strategy since the company got a solid 15 million users strong base by the end of its first year. Hike gave stiff competition to other messaging apps like WhatsApp.
According to Kavin, an entrepreneur must have a clear idea about their field of work. They need to decide between offline and online space. Finalizing the idea of the startup is one of the most important aspects for creating a business, Kavin mentions.
Failures and mistakes accompany growth. Learning from mistakes is the most important quality an entrepreneur should possess. As errors are an inevitable part of business, one should be ready to withstand them and grow as a leader.
Another important mantra is to strive to achieve oneâs goals. Despite failures, an entrepreneur should work on improvement and not stop until the target is achieved.
The fourth mantra of success according to Kavin is passion. No one can become successful without having a passion about something. Thatâs the key to making it big.
The fifth of his mantras is patience. Patience has taken successful entrepreneurs to unfathomable levels of prosperity. Success is never achieved overnight; one has to wait for the right moment and work tirelessly to achieve fame.
FAQs
Who is Kavin Mittal?
Kavin Bharti Mittal is an Indian internet entrepreneur. He is known for having founded and led Hike Messenger, a now-defunct platform that was once the world’s sixth-largest mobile messaging application.
Quite often you would come across motivational and awe-inspiring posts about how Jack Ma dealt with his struggles. Jack Ma Yun, the well-known Chinese business magnate, investor, and philanthropist, is popular not only with entrepreneurs, industrialists, billionaires, and business professionals but with many other individuals as well, students or otherwise.
Jack Ma’s net worth is $26 billion. Ma was once hailed as the richest man in China and currently features in the top 10 list of China’s richest men, with the richest man currently in China being Zhong Shanshan. Besides, Jack Ma was also listed second in the “Word’s 50 Greatest Leaders” by Fortune in 2017. Â Â
Starting his career as an English teacher, he co-founded one of the largest e-commerce websites that are in existence today, Alibaba, and is also counted amongst entrepreneurs with mind-boggling rags-to-riches backstories.
Did you know that Jack Ma, the owner of this multi-billion dollar online retail portal was rejected by Harvard university 10 times?
âI applied for Harvard, for 10 times, rejected,â Jack said. Therefore, he was not unknown to rejections and disappointments that plagued his journey to stardom. Nevertheless, the man wasnât one to cave in so easily. While Jack wasnât a hardcore techie himself, he did an amazing job in taking Alibaba to where it stands today.
Here’s the Jack Ma success story for you, if you are curious to learn about Jack Ma, how he founded Alibaba, and his journey! Â
Jack Ma wasnât born into old money, he is a self-made billionaire. He had a modest childhood and grew up while communist China was transitioning into a superpower. Jackâs parents werenât earning enough to consider themselves middle-class. It was Richard Nixonâs visit to China in 1972 that changed Jackâs childhood. President Richard Milhous Nixonâs trip to Jackâs hometown saw tremendous growth in tourism, converting Hangzhou into a tourist mecca. As a kid, Jack wanted to learn English and he used to provide tour guide services to foreigners for free. He used this as a medium to improve his English. Subsequently, Jack became an English teacher.
After graduating with a bachelorâs degree in English, he worked as a teacher at Hangzhou Dianzi University on a salary of 12 USD per month.
Jack Ma Story
Rejections and Jack Ma went hand in hand. After failing in his primary school exams multiple times, and failing his middle school exams thrice, those around him labelled him a failure. He was rejected every time he applied to Harvard University. He had ten rejections by Harvard University!
Disastrous results continued even after graduation. Multiple job rejections graced his journey; during the recruitment by KFC, he was the only one among 24 applicants not to be selected.
His initial ventures saw similar results, they plummeted. But, the stumbling didnât deter him; he was adman to make a mark in the e-commerce segment.
Startup Ideation
Jack Ma visited the United States for a project on building of highways. His stay in the United States was an exposure to the world of computers. The people in China werenât that exposed to the technology sector and hence, the usage of computers amongst Chinese was almost negligible. Services like e-mail and the internet werenât a common occurrence.
When Jack used the search engine Mosaic, the first word he searched was beer. The search results quickly flashed on the screen. But when he searched for China, there were no search results. This infuriated Jack Ma, and he took the onus of bringing China on the internet radar.
Jack Ma’s Alibaba Conceived
Jack Ma’s Alibaba
After approaching his friends, seventeen agreed to join him for an e-commerce startup, and named it âAlibabaâ. The company was created in his apartment. Alibaba was struggling to survive initially as it did not receive a single penny in investment. The investments of 20 Million USD form SoftBank and 5 million USD from Goldman Sachs in 1999 saved Alibaba from falling apart.
The biggest challenge for Alibaba was to gain the trust of the Chinese which it succeeded at in the end. Jack Ma motivated his team In times of difficulty by telling them they were a young team still learning. A leader was about to change the face of e-commerce.
Once Alibaba was in the picture, it faced stiff competition from eBay in China. To defeat eBay, Yahoo came to assistance. The company invested 1 billion USD in Alibaba. In exchange for the investment, Yahoo gained a 40% stake in the company. This was fruitful for both the companies as Alibaba became a household name in China and Yahoo gained 10 billion USD through Alibabaâs IPO.
Jack Ma stepped down as the CEO of Alibaba in 2013. However, he continued as the executive chairman. The company created history as its 150 billion IPO was the largest offering of a US-listed company in the New York stock exchangeâs history. By virtue of this IPO, Jack became the richest man in China.
Apart from serving people and bringing revolution through Alibaba, Jack supports environmentalism. He is a member of the global board of The Nature Conservancy. Jack has also funded a 27,000-acre nature reserve in China.
The Alibaba group conducts various annual talent shows in order to engage with their customers. Jack is known to be a natural entertainer. During one such event, he performed wearing a punk costume in front the audience.
A Lesson to Learn from Jack Ma
Coming across challenges, stumbling forward and then rising up sums up Jack Maâs journey. To many, he is the ideal entrepreneur. Alibaba has given a face to many small and medium sized businesses across the globe. The world shall remember Jack Ma as a visionary who gave it the behemoth, Alibaba.
Rankings In Various Lists
Jack Ma is ranked 1 in the China Rich List, 2019.
He is ranked 21 in the Billionaires List, 2019.
He is ranked 7 in the Richest In Tech, 2017.
He stands in the 21st position in the Most Powerful People List, 2018.
Jack Ma Yun is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the founder of the E-commerce giant Alibaba and is a stakeholder at Alipay, its sister company, which is an e-payment portal.
SSK Capital is a private investment fund driven by Ecommerce investments. Unlike VCâs or an Angel fund, SSK capital is smaller and invests in early-stage startups looking for Digital Expertise and Capital to scale not start. Sahaan Suman K is the Director of SSK Capital an E-Commerce driven investment fund with current investments in 5 companies. With his expertise in business and entrepreneurship, he is the CEO of a boutique digital agency âBubble Networkâ set up in London and Bangalore.
Sahaan is a 24- year old entrepreneur and is the Director of SSK Capital an E-Commerce driven investment fund with current investments in 5 companies. He started his first actual venture at the age of 18, though he failed multiple times testing small business ideas with little or no money during college. Learning cheaply from his own early days, he made his own mark with a boutique digital agency âBubble Networkâ set up in London and Bangalore, which today has serviced over 250 brands including names like Flipkart, CoWrks, Oberoi and Olive Group!
With the expertise, Sahaan gathered from there and his Alma Mater, Warwick Business school in England, he started SSK CAPITAL an investment fund on Ecommerce as he saw the fruits of being in that space and also where his expertise lied. Sahaanâs journey has been difficult and exciting as he built the entire company with no initial capital to a team of 20 completely bootstrapped from his college dorm at Warwick when he started.
These are three qualities Sahaan have always associated to the most: Ambition, Persistence and Discipline. In time, he also learnt that these traits only got stronger and became the core of my belief system today. In todayâs world there are âDreamersâ and âDoersâ, he has always been a part of the latter, as they say âIf opportunities donât come knocking, build your own door.â
Sahaan Suman K- Job Responsibilities Over Time
Structure is Key. Sahaan has always been an entrepreneur first and investor second, at this age he has yet so much to learn however the fact that he started early gave him a head start to learn faster and think smarter. Running a business is very different from running an investment fund as your working not only with employees but also other entrepreneurs who are partners, each partnership works differently and makes it critical to clearly etch out your role in each company and not interfere in day to day operations as the entrepreneur running it knows what they are doing.
His value add has always been his own network and digital expertise, time and again via his agency Sahaan has scaled multiple Startups from 0 to 6 figures within 6 months, learning from that, Sahaan and his team know where to add value and where to not interfere.
A quick run-through of his conventional day would be waking up at 7 am followed by meditation and grace, post which he plans all his calls and meetings for the day, so he knows how much time he has to divide that across the businesses that need his attention. He has an internal team called at 10:30 and 11:00 to delegate and monitor work post which he jumps in with the activities of the day.
Sahaan loves what he does even though it’s long hours, multiple deadlines, stressful days, and many times firefighting. He takes Power naps very often along with short breaks to either read or simply relax, which helps him recharge and increase productivity.
Sahaan Suman K- Investment Journey
While running his digital agency Bubble Network, he focused on only working with Ecom & B to B clients. After working with over 250 of them, he and his team got really strong with Performance ads and data tools which helped them to scale sales online really fast. That is when Sahaan started investing in companies and stayed actively involved with them as using these skillsets helped him reap the direct benefits of their expertise.
However, coming from a lineage of business families, he believes that business comes to him naturally as he grew up in an environment where Sahaan saw this around himself every day.
Sahaan Suman K- Investing in Startup
SSK Capital is a private investment fund driven by Ecommerce investments. Unlike VCâs or an Angel fund, SSK capital is smaller and invests in early-stage startups looking for Digital Expertise and Capital to scale not start. They invest in more product-driven startups rather than services and a critical check box for them is that the product must be scalable online as their expertise lies there.
SSK Capital tends not to make irrational optimistic forecasts by hoping the startups turn profitable a few years later, they rather invest and work on businesses with lean financial models where these startups are already profitable operationally, however, need assistance to scale. These startups have running operational costs that are minimal and are directly proportional to growth, ensuring the burn rate is low and helps them spend more money on Ads, PR, and Production making it easier to scale.
Sahaan Suman K- Investment Mantra
There are certain KPIâs they look at before investing, a few primary pointers would be:
Who is the entrepreneur and what has their track record been?
Vision alignment between the entrepreneur and us.
Do they need money to start or scale?
What is the current burn rate?
Are they profitable and what are the margins in that industry?
How huge is the market potential, competitors and are there any opportunities for a blue ocean in that space?
Can the business be scaled online?
Will our expertise and network add in a significant value to the brand allowing it to grow?
ROI Period and equity ratio
He does not invest in any business and does not understand irrespective of the profitability as he loves being personally involved and match the passion of the entrepreneur.
Sahaan Suman K- Few Signs to Trust a Founding Team
Education is the least of their concern. Sahaan believes anyone who can start and showcase a positive track record is great. They tend to look at numbers and facts, profitability, and vision alignment between him and the founder is critical. Post that, they also look at the synergy they bring together, if one plus one is three when they work together thatâs a win-win for both.
Sahaan Suman K- Aid to Startups
Sahaan does not consider himself to be a mentor, he never can, as he believes there is no end to learning, as a peer entrepreneur he only helps or assists others in any way he could. Primarily, he has helped many entrepreneurs start their journey and also help them avoid making the mistakes he made when he started.
Sahaan also consults startups on their digital strategy allowing them to understand what to look at while scaling online and what markers to look out for while doing so. He is also humbled to have been invited as a keynote speaker at multiple schools, and platforms such as AIESEC India and the Youth Forum.
Sahaan Suman K- Learning Hacks
As they say an idiot with a plan can beat a genius without one. With time they all get complacent and tend to just wing their day to day activities. Post a certain period this is not possible; it becomes critical to have a routine and plan your activities to ensure higher productivity.
Sahaan Suman K- Right Time To Invest in A Startup
Sahaan is a strong believer in starting small and raising funds only to scale a company and not to start. Funds, many a time, give the entrepreneur a deluded or a faux sense of progress and with that mindset, many loopholes get left uncapped and lead to problems in the long run which can only be solved with more funds and the loop continues crippling the company.
Every investor looks at two primary aspects. Firstly, they want to know who you are, what is your track record, your passion and hunger towards the business, and also how invested you are in what you are doing. Remember Investors invest in the entrepreneur more than just the business. Secondly, they want to know raw, real, and true facts of the company, how much has been invested, are you currently profitable, if not what is your burn rate and near-future forecasts.
Fundamental things a pitch should contain:
What is the problem your business is solving
Product/Service offering â A quick brief on the company
Vision of the company
A little about the founders
Past Track Record
Market Size
Current sales & projected sales
Profitability & Burn rate
Contingency plan
Current Equity break up and what do you want from the investor.
Take any successful entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, Jack Ma, Mark Cuban, we will see a majority of them start very small and test the market-product fit. Only once they see, learn, adapt, and finesse the product they would start scaling the brand and pulling in investment. If one wants to build a clothing empire start by selling one T-shirt not build a showroom.
Spend less and get the business to an operational breakeven so market validation alone will bring in the investors, money and so on.
Sahaan Suman K- Best Way To Divide Equity Among Founders
This depends from business to business however he looks at three aspects while looking at equity break up:
Funds one brings in
Value (Network or Technical expertise)
Active involvement in the business
Sahaan Suman K- Early Movers vs Late Movers
Sahaan believes if positioned strategically this can actually be a pro rather than a con. âLate Mover Advantageâ can be a way of looking at the early movers and learning from their mistakes and hurdles and launch a product filling in these gaps.
On a strategic note, one can add multiple value propositions to stay ahead, for instance, if Apple and Samsung launch a smart watch first, brands like Fossil and Titan can understand the market gap and take advantage of it, maybe add feature consumers wanted, sell it a different price point, make adaptations to product design based on consumer reactions and so on.
Sahaan Suman K- Retaining Equity While Negotiation
Primary mistake early stage entrepreneurs make is give out too much equity too early in the business as during these nascent stages the growth potential may be high however company valuation is still low due to smaller turnovers. During these stagesâ investors would ask for a larger chunk of equity to hedge their risk.
If it is the right time and a founder wants to raise funds look at hybrid deals such as either debt + equity or royalty + equity, so this helps hold on to more equity while negotiating.
Sahaan Suman K- 3 Private companies To Invest in
Sahaan Suman K comes from a tech and digital background, looking at the market today and how this space is growing rapidly all three of his investments would be in this space.
Fiverr(Global Freelancer Platform)
Masterclass(EdTech platform)
Urban Clap (Services on Call)
Sahaan Suman K- Indian Startup Ecosystem
In regard to Indian Entrepreneurs, due to the cultural and demographic stigma, people many times tend to build castles in the air. For instance, they get deluded by forecasts and market size to an extent where they lose sight of being rational and realistic with numbers, which eventually cripples the company. As they say, it is best to think like a global firm but work like a startup.
With VCs, they can see great progress in the number of amazing Indian VC funds coming up along with supporting accelerators and incubators, so they only sees an upside to the startup ecosystem if this growth continues.
Sahaan uses Google Calendar to set meetings and calls, Calendly to schedule my calls, Trello to monitor the companyâs activities, Monday.com as a productivity tool and daily task manager. These tools really help bring in a sense of clarity and direction when there are many brands and many tasks which need attention.
Mark Zuckerberg is famous for Facebook. He was one of the youngest self-made billionaires just at the age of 23. In 2020, in the month of August, he came under the centibillionaire list. He’s an American media magnate, internet businessman, and philanthropist. He serves as Facebook’s president, chief executive and controlling shareholder. He is also co-founder of the Groundbreaking Starshot Solar Sail Spacecraft Production Project and serves as one of its board members.
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg – Biography
Name
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg
DOB
14 May, 1984
Nationality
American
Occupation
Internet Entrepreneur
Title
Founder & CEO of Facebook, Inc and Co-founder of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York. His parents are Karen, a psychiatrist, and Edward Zuckerberg, a dentist. He along with his three sisters, Randi, Donna, and Arielle, were brought up in Dobbs Ferry, New York, a small Westchester County village about 21 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. His ancestors hailed from Germany, Austria and Poland and Zuckerberg was raised in a Reform Jewish household. At the age of 13 he had a Star Wars-themed bar mitzvah.
Mark Zuckerberg – Education
Zuckerberg excelled in classes at Ardsley High School. He transferred to the private school Phillips Exeter Academy after 2 years. He won prizes in mathematics, astronomy, physics, and classical studies. In his youth, he has also attended the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth summer camp. Zuckerberg stated that he could read and write French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek on his college application. He is not just a nerd and was the captain of the fencing team.
Mark Zuckerberg – Beginning of Facebook
Zuckerberg had already gained a “reputation as a programming prodigy” by the time he started classes at Harvard, and he studied psychology and computer science. He was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi and of Kirkland House. He wrote a software he called CourseMatch, which enabled users to make class selection decisions based on other students’ choices. After a short time, he created a new software that he originally called Facemash, allowing students to pick the best-looking individual from a collection of images. According to Zuckerberg’s roommate, Arie Hasit, at that time, “he built the site for fun.” Hasit explains:
We had books called Face Books, which included the names and pictures of everyone who lived in the student dorms. At first, he built a site and placed two pictures or pictures of two males and two females. Visitors to the site had to choose who was “hotter” and according to the votes there would be a ranking.
The site went up over a weekend. But the college turned it off by Monday morning, because its popularity overwhelmed one of Harvard’s network switches and stopped students from accessing the Internet. A lot of students complained at that time that their photos were being used without permission. But Zuckerberg publicly apologized, and articles were run in the student paper saying his platform was “absolutely unacceptable.”
Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website the following semester, in January 2004. Â On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched “TheFacebook,” which was originally located at thefacebook.com. When he launched Facebook, three of his seniors (CÄž Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra) in Harvard after 6 days accused him of purposely misleading them into thinking that he would help them create a social network called HarvardConnection.com, while instead using their ideas to develop a rival product.
The three protested to The Harvard Crimson, and in response, the newspaper launched an investigation. Those three filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg after Facebook was launched officially. It resulted in a settlement. They agreed a settlement for 1.2 million Facebook shares.
In his sophomore year, Zuckerberg had dropped out of Harvard to complete his thesis. In January 2014, he recalled:
I remember really vividly, you know, having pizza with my friends a day or two afterâI opened up the first version of Facebook at the time I thought, “You know, someone needs to build a service like this for the world.” But I just never thought that we’d be the ones to help do it. And I think a lot of what it comes down to is we just cared more.
Zuckerberg received an honorary degree from Harvard on May 25, 2017. He gave a commencement speech on the same day at Harvardâs 366th commencement Day.
A month after Zuckerberg launched Facebook in February 2004, there was launch of i2hub, another campus-only service created by Wayne Chang. The i2hub focused on sharing files peer-to-peer. At the time, both i2hub and Facebook gained media attention and were rising exponentially in users and advertising. In August 2004, Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Adam D’Angelo and Sean Parker founded a rival peer-to-peer file sharing service called Wirehog.
Platform, Beacon, and Connect
Zuckerberg unveiled on May 24, 2007 the Facebook Forum, a forum for programmers to create social applications within Facebook. A lot of applications were developed within weeks and some already had millions of users. It has expanded to more than 800,000 developers around the globe developing Facebook Platform applications.
Zuckerberg revealed on November 6, 2007 Beacon, a social advertisement system that allowed people to exchange information with their Facebook friends based on their surfing habits on other pages. For instance, eBay sellers might automatically let friends know what they’ve got for sale via Facebook news feed as they list items for sale. The software was under investigation due to concerns regarding the privacy of groups and individual users. Zuckerberg and Facebook failed to respond quickly to the complaints and Zuckerberg published a blog post on Facebook on December 5, 2007, accepting responsibility for Beacon ‘s issues and offering users a simpler way to opt out of the service.
In 2007, Zuckerberg was named to the TR35 list by MIT Technology Review as one of the world’s top 35 innovators under 35. Zuckerberg revealed on 23 July 2008 Facebook Link, a user-friendly version of the Facebook Site.
Critics say that, Facebook bought Instagram because it was scared of Twitter and Google+. Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012. Today Instagram has over 1 billion users. Instagram contributes $20 billion to Facebook annual revenue. Facebook purchased Whatsapp– the messaging sevice, for $19 billion in February, 2014.
The 3 main social networking sites owned by Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg – Controversies
Saverin lawsuit
A complaint brought against Facebook and Zuckerberg by Eduardo Saverin was settled outside court. While settlement terms were sealed, the firm confirmed Saverin ‘s role as Facebook’s co-founder. After the settlement Saverin signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Pakistan criminal investigation
Pakistani Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Azhar Sidiqque initiated a criminal investigation into Zuckerberg and Facebook co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes in June 2010, following a Facebook hosting of a “Draw Muhammad” contest. The investigation identified the German woman who produced the contest as anonymous. Sidiqque requested police from the country to contact Interpol to have Zuckerberg and the other three arrested for blasphemy. Facebook’s website was briefly blocked in Pakistan on May 19, 2010, before Facebook removed the contest from its website in late May. Sidiqque also demanded that its UN representative discuss the issue with the UN General Assembly.
Cambridge Analytica Data Breach
Zuckerberg appeared before Congress in April 2018, after it was reported that the company had exchanged consumer data with Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm.
Forbes has attributed the dramatic decline in the stock price of Facebook following the company’s July warning investors of slowing growth and profit margins to the increasing effect of the battle between profit and privacy, citing the story of Cambridge Analytica and the rising inability of Facebook to protect users from harmful misuse and misinformation.
Palestinian terror attacks
Israeli cabinet minister Gilad Erdan accused Zuckerberg of having some responsibility for Palestinians’ deadly attacks on Israelis on 2 July 2016.[93] According to him, the social network was not doing enough to ban posts on its site that encourage violence against Israelis. “Sure of the blood of the victims is on the hands of Zuckerberg,” Erdan said.
Hawaiian land ownership
Zuckerberg filed eight “quiet title and division” lawsuits against hundreds of Hawaiian natives in January 2017 to buy small tracts of land which they own. This land is located within the 700 acres of land which Zuckerberg had purchased in 2014 on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. After learning that Hawaiian land ownership law differs from that of the other 49 states, he dropped the lawsuits.
Paul Ceglia
Paul Ceglia, owner of a wood pellet fuel business in Allegany County, upstate New York, filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg in June 2010, alleging 84 percent Facebook possession and demanding monetary damages. According to Ceglia, on April 28, 2003, he and Zuckerberg signed a contract for an initial fee of $1,000 entitled Ceglia to 50 percent of the website ‘s sales, as well as an additional 1 percent stake in the company every day after January 1, 2004, until completion of the website. At the time, Zuckerberg was creating other ventures, including Facemash, Facebook’s precursor, but the domain name thefacebook.com was not licenced until 1 January 2004. Facebook spokesperson Barry Schnitt told a reporter that Ceglia ‘s lawyers had unsuccessfully pursued a settlement outside court.
On 26 October 2012, federal prosecutors arrested Ceglia, charging him with mail and wire fraud and “tampering, damaging and manipulating evidence in a conspiracy to defraud the Facebook founder of billions of dollars.” Ceglia is accused of creating emails in order to make it appear that he and Zuckerberg exchanged specifics of an early version of Facebook. Before it was launched, some law firms withdrew from the case, and others after Ceglia ‘s arrest.
Zuckerberg contributed an undisclosed sum to Diaspora- a personal open-source Web server that operates a distributed social networking programme.
Zuckerberg founded the Start-up: Education foundation.
Zuckerberg had donated $100 million to Newark Public Schools, the public school system of Newark, New Jersey on September 22,2010.
Zuckerberg, along with Bill Gates, and investor Warren Buffett signed “The Giving Pledge” on December 9, that year, in which they vowed to devote at least half of their wealth over time to charity. They also invited others among the wealthy to donate 50 percent or more of their wealth to charity.
2012
In December, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced that over the course of their lives they would give the majority of their wealth to “advancing human potential and promoting equality” in the spirit of The Giving Pledge.
Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg
2013
On December 19, Zuckerberg announced a donation to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation of 18 million Facebook shares, to be completed by the end of the month. Based on the valuation of Facebook as of then, the value of the stock was $990 million.
On December 31, the donation was recognized as the largest charitable gift on public record for 2013.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy put Zuckerberg and his wife at the top of the 2013 annual list of the magazine’s 50 most generous Americans.
2014
Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated US$25 million to fight the Ebola virus disease, specifically the West African Ebola virus epidemic on October.
2015
On December, Zuckerberg and Chan pledged to transfer 99% of their Facebook shares, (then at US$45 billion) to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the organization that focuses on health and education. Instead of the funds transferring immediately, it transfers over the course of their lives.
Instead of creating a charitable organisation to donate the value of the stock to, as did Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and other billionaires, Zuckerberg and Chan opted to use a limited liability company ( LLC) structure. Some journalists and academics have even come to say that, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative conducts philanthrocapitalism.
2016
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative gave $600 million in 2016 to establish the tax-exempt charity Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a collaborative research facility near the university in San Francisco’s Mission Bay District from California, San Francisco, with the goal of promoting cooperation and collaboration between UCSF, University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University scientists. The developed intellectual property would be jointly owned by Biohub and the house institution of the discoverer. Unlike foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that give up all research that is funded to free public access and reuse, Biohub maintains the freedom to sell any research that it supports. Inventors will have the option of making their findings open-source, with permission from Biohub.
2020
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Zuckerberg donated $25 million to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is a foundation that is searching for treatments for the disease. He announced $25 million in grants to support local journalism that was impacted by the pandemic. And $75 million in advertisement purchases in local newspapers by Facebook, Inc., where Facebook will market itself.
Mark Zuckerberg – Awards and Achievements
A film entitled ‘A Social Network’ was released in 2010, focused on the life of Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook founding years. The film has received eight  academy award nominations.
In 2010 he won ‘Person of the Year’ by ‘Times’ Magazine.
‘CEO of the Year’ at 6th Annual Crunchies in 2013.
He was also named on Time 100 list four consecutive times between 2009 and 2012. Time 100 is a list of around the world’s 100 most influential individuals.
He was also the youngest self-made billionaire just at the age of 23.
August, 2020 he was able to come under the “centi-billionaire” list.
Mark Zuckerberg – FAQs
Who Mark Zuckerberg?
Mark Zuckerberg is an American media magnate, internet businessman, and philanthropist. He is the founder of Facebook and serves as Facebook’s president, chief executive and controlling shareholder.
What is Mark Zuckerberg age?
As of 2021, his age is 37.
What is Mark Zuckerberg net worth?
As of May 2021, according to Forbes, the net worth of Mark Zuckerberg is $115 Billion.
How old was Mark Zuckerberg when he became a billionaire?
Mark Zuckerberg was just 23 years old when he became a billionaire.
Neil Patel is a New York Times bestselling author. He is well known as a Digital Analytics Expert. Neil Patel is the co-founder of the marketing agency NPDigital, where they aid various companies to get more traffic and sales. He has been an entrepreneur for the last 19 years. He is an author and blogger as well. He is also a prominent figure as an Angel Investor. He co-founded many companies and most of them were software arena, especially web analytics sector like Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and KISSmetrics.
Neil Patel- Biography
Name
Neil Patel
Born
24 April, 1985
Age
35 (2020)
Birthplace
London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality
British
Hometown
London, England, United Kingdom
Education
Yale University, California
Profession
Entrepreneur
Known for
Co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and KISSmetrics
Neil Patel was born in London, UK. He was born on 24 April, 1985 and is 35 years old today. He was brought up in La Palma, California, and Settle. He was born to Indian parents. When Neil was two years old, the family shifted to Orange County, California. His mother joined as a teacher in a non profit gig and his father joined the family business in California. Currently, Neil resides with his family in London, UK. He is married and the couple has a child as well.
Neil Patel’s You Tube Channel vlog
Neil Patel- Education
Neil Patel completed his primary education at John F. Kennedy High School, California. He pursued graduation from Yale University, California. He was business-minded since childhood, he used to think of ventures that would make profit. He was on a quest of profitable business ideas since his early childhood period.
Neil Patel- Early Life
Neil Patel always aimed at achieving something big in life. He wanted to upgrade his lifestyle. With entrepreneur buns in his family, he always thought of establishing a business. However, he did not evolve with great ideas until he saw his cousin selling burned music CDs. At first, Neil found it interesting and he too joined hands with his cousin. No sooner he did realized that this is not going to work.
He knew that he has to establish a business where he could gross profits. Soon, he started selling black boxes to the school students and their parents as well. Neil was recognized as the student who used to sell black boxes at John F. Kennedy High School. However, he did not continued to sell the black boxes further as it would lead him to face legal troubles. As soon as he learnt about this, he left it and invested his ideas to built a business, which would be legal officially.
Later, when he was just 15 years old, he noticed that the students would get their cars fixed with the aftermarket parts. He broke with an exclusive idea. He took the permission of State Board Equalization for resellers. He then started his own business by selling car parts at discounts. Though, this idea hardly gained him any profits.
Neil Patel once accorded that Entrepreneurship ran in his blood en-route to his family business. His maternal uncles ran several successful businesses. He grew up watching them and vividly got inspired from them. He dreamt of becoming an entrepreneur since his childhood days.
Today, he is a successful entrepreneur and businessman. Apart from that, he is recognized as the Digital Marketing Expert. Moreover, he is an Angel Investor and invested in many start up companies. He is a prominent author and blogger, he publicizes various blogs related to SEO, marketing and so on. He has helped various companies to grow their revenue including, Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom.
Neil Patel has faced a tough time while searching for a job. He has worked in Knott’s Berry Farm, where he used to clean washrooms and evacuate garbage bins. After three months, he left this job and joined the same organization as a seller. His job was to sell vacancies by roaming and displaying demo at the doors of different houses. On selling a item, he used to get a hundred dollars. Soon, he realized that the job is not what he is seeking for.
He further explored many opportunities. There was a time when he was introduced to the Oracle’s consultant. He got to know how the latter used to make money for $250 in an hour. He started his research about the Oracle company at Monster.com. Eventually he started studying about Monster.com itself and researched on how the company is making money online. He was highly inspired and launched a similar website called Advice Monkey.
Neil Patel- Digital Marketing Expert
Before starting his general education at college, he got admission in Cyprus Community College while he was just 18. He has improved many of his skills, especially in search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing. He worked as a consultant in Elpac Electronics and got a deal of $3500 per month. Neil was then highly motivated and passionate to start his own internet marketing company. He partnered with his sister’s boyfriend and they both together started a new internet marketing company.
Neil Patel Digital also known as NPDigital is an online analytics agency that connects brands with their customers via digital marketing. It displays Neil Patel’s passion for online marketing. The agency aids several companies with their data-backed strategies power exponential growth and unfair advantage. It basically assists various companies to build audiences through their digital marketing strategy.
Neil Patel- Angel Investor
Neil Patel has invested in many start up companies. Many of the companies did really well while some of them lagged behind. He has been an Angel investor since a decade. An Angel investor is a person who invests capital in start up companies in exchange for part ownership of those companies. Neil launched The Startup Investor to let everyone access the same playing field- not just the high society people.
Neil Patel- Honors
Neil Patel is regarded as a top influencer on web by The Wall Street Journal. According to the Forbes, he is one of the top 10 marketers. Entrepreneur Magazine regards him as the person who created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. Moreover, he was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by Ex-President, Barack Obama. He has also been recognized among the top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by United Nations.
Neil Patel- FAQ’s
Who is Neil Patel?
Neil Patel is the Co-founder of the marketing agency NPDigital, where they aid various companies to get more traffic and sales. He has been an entrepreneur for the last 19 years. He is an author and blogger as well.
How much is Neil Patel worth?
Neil’s estimated net worth is between 7-10 million USD and he has over a decade of success working in digital marketing. While most recently Neil has enjoyed a great deal of success with his own personal consultancy blog where he tends to share his wealth of knowledge with his huge fan-base.
Which companies has Neil Patel founded?
He co-founded many companies and most of them were software arena, especially web analytics sector like Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and KISSmetrics.
What is Neil Patel Education?
Neil Patel completed his primary education at John F. Kennedy High School, California. He pursued graduation from Yale University, California.
Neil Patel- Conclusion
Neil Patel created his first website at a very young age. He also paid marketing firms to help him out which turned out pretty bad. He was left with no choice but to learn marketing, and he eventually got good at it. This learning journey of Neil has made him what he is today. He is considered as the best among his peers and called the Digital Marketing Expert. People who are starting out recently in the field of digital marketing must have come across his notes on SEO and his blogs. He is a popular figure in the field of digital marketing.
Balkrishna is positioned as the Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the consumer goods company Patanjali Ayurved. He is an Indian Businessman and generally goes by the name Acharya Balkrishna. He basically works for producing multiform swadeshi and ayurvedic goods. According to the Forbes report, he has a net worth of 220 crores USD Â as of 2021. He is 99.6% owner of Patanjali Ayurved and heads 34 companies and trusts associated with Patanjali.
Balkrishna was born on 4 August, 1972 in Haridwar, Uttar Pradesh. His parents were Nepalese immigrants from Syangja, Nepal. His father, Jay Vallabh Subedi was employed as a security officer in an Ashram in Uttarakhand. Balkrishna received his primary and secondary education in Kalwa Gurukul situated at Haryana. After completing his studies, he traveled across India to study plants and their medicinal values. During the early days of the year 1990, he met Baba Ramdev at Tripura Yoga Ashram, Kankhal, Haridwar. They both gradually became friends. Balkrishna got along well with Baba Ramdev, and went to the Himalayas in 1993. Both of them soldChyawanprash on the streets of Haridwar during 1990s.
He is known to maintain a low profile. He is always dressed in white to embrace the aura of spirituality.
Balkrishna – Professional Life (Ayurveda)
People urged Balkrishna to sell medicine for common problems owing to his immense knowledge of herbs and Ayurveda. Gradually, he developed an organisation of ayurvedic medicines and treatment. Along with Baba Ramdev, Balkrishna established a trust called Patanjali Divya Yoga Mandir in Haridwar. They also developed a component “Divya Pharmacy” to manufacture ayurvedic medicines.
Balkrishna – Patanjali
Patanjali Logo
In 2006, both the partners founded a consumer goods company Patanjali Ayurved Limited. The company is widely admired in India and grossed huge profits. The company got really well in India and became the fastest-growing FMCG ( Fast Moving Consumer Goods) in 2010. He holds 98% stakes in Patanjali Ayurved. The company also, entered the Hurun India Rich List 2017 worth INR 25,600 crore. He is also the chairperson of Patanjali Yogpeeth. Inspite of his position in the company, he does not take any salary. In 2018, the company came up with a Patanjali Food and Herbal Park in Uttarakhand.
Though Ramdev Baba is the brand ambassador of Patanjali, the job of making decisions related to marketing strategy and advertising is left to Balkrishna. From hiring senior management staff to dealing with advertisers, he manages to do all the work single-handedly.
The partnership of Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna had shown a remarkable journey of the consumer goods company, Patanjali Ayurved. They have worked together phenomenally to make Patanjali a brand. They achieved this remarkable position with their appropriate marketing strategies. For example, they sell their products at lower prices than other FMCG brands, which entices Indian customers.
Balkrishna – Literary Career
He wrote more than 120 books and 100 research articles based on Yoga and Ayurveda. Moreover, he edited more than 25 unpublished ancient Ayurveda manuscripts. His most recent literary work of the year 2020 is Kumaramritam, Laghu Nighantu, Saushrut Nighantu, Siddhasara Samhita, Ashtang Nighantu, Hansraj Nidanam, Ajirnamrtamanjari. He serves as the Chief Editor of a “Yog Sandesh” magazine, which promotes yoga and Ayurveda. He has written 41 research papers with the help of his co-authors, and these are related to yoga and Ayurveda.
Balkrishna – Awards
Balkrishna receiving UNSDG Health Award
He received certificates of appreciation during a Yoga camp in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. On that very day, he was honoured by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. (2004)
He was honoured by the Government of Nepal for his research in Ayurveda and Culture. (2007)
He was awarded with the Sujana Shri award by Veeranjaneya Foundation for his spectacular contribution in herbal plants and yoga. (2012)
He was honoured by the former Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi (Present Prime Minister Of India). The ceremony held at an Ayurveda Summit held at Gujarat. (2014)
He received more awards like Bloomberg Special Recognition Award, Felicitation by Canada India Network Society, Felicitation in Nepal’s Cabinet, Bharat Gaurav Award. He got 13 awards and titles till 2016.
He was named among the world’s 10 influential people by the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG). He also received the UNSDG Healthcare Award in Geneva, Switzerland. (2019)
Moreover, his supporters celebrate his birthday as “Jadi Booti Diwas” (Herbs Day) owing to his deep knowledge of the herbal plants.
In 2011, he was charged with forgery for obtaining fake degrees to acquire an Indian passport. His academic degree as well as the Sanskrit degree from Sampurna Nand Sanskrit University were found missing from the official records. The CBI probed and investigated that the educational degrees he was having were falsifying. Thereafter, a big question mark was put on his Indian citizenship. Owing to the lack of evidences, the case was closed after two years.
The most recent controversy arose when Balkrishna launched a self proclaimed medicine Coronil, which will cure coronavirus in just 14 days. The chaos ran during the lockdown season as no other country had come with an aid to coronavirus. People were looking forward to buy Coronil. No sooner, it was declared that the claims are false and it is not a necessary aid to coronavirus. Netizens trolled Balkrishna and Ramdev Baba for such kind of marketing strategy. While Balkrishna claimed that the company has conducted a clinical research on corona positive patients, and they effectively got recovered in 14 days with the help of Coronil. Although, there is no scientific research that claims that the medical science of ancient India may cure coronavirus.
Balkrishna – FAQs
Who is Balkrishna?
Balkrishna is the Doctor of Medicine (MD) and CEO of Patanjali Ayurved. He is an Indian Businessman with vast knowledge on ayurveda.
What is the nationality of Patanjali owner?
Balkrishna, the patanjali owner nationality is highly debated on as his Indian passport was obtained with falsified degrees. His parents are Nepalese immigrants.
Who owns Patanjali?
Balkrishna holds 98% stakes in Patanjali Ayurved.
What is Balkrishna Net worth?
As of 2021, the net worth of Balkrishna is estimated to be around 220 crores USD.
Dr. Aniruddha Malpani is an IN Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) specialist, patient advocate and angel investor. He is the Founder and Director of the angel investment firm Malpani Ventures, which helps Indian entrepreneurs by investing in new startups. He is famous for his IVF centre, Malpani Clinic located in Mumbai. He is also a board member of IKS Health. He is the Medical Director (MD) of HELP.
He was born and brought up in Mumbai, India. He is married to Anjali Malpani, who is the co-founder of HELP. He has two daughters, namely Sanjana Malpani and Natasha Malpani. He has shared his routine in an interview, where he revealed his everyday activities. He tends to sleep late at night as he feels that some people are owls while some are night angels. It all depends on the circadian rhythm. Everyday he gets up at 8.00 am to play tennis, which counts as his major physical activity. He conferred that, being an IVF specialist, people take appointments and there is no emergency. Thus, he spends rest of his day without much physical activity.
Aniruddha Malpani – Education
He graduated from University of Mumbai. During his academic career, he won around 20 gold medals. He has established various websites for people to visit and counsel themselves through his blogs. He is highly passionate in his quest to empower patients. He believes that patients are the prime healthcare resources. He feels that the patient power should be used to heal our sick healthcare system. Moreover, he is an avid reader and a prolific writer.
Aniruddha Malpani – Professional Life
As an IVF expert, he has been invited to appear on the number of national and international  TV channels like BBC, CNN, CBS and ABC. He has a Malpani Fertility Clinic in Mumbai. While he has also developed a website www.drmalpani.com, which attract patients around the globe. He has proliferated over multiple websites and used the innovative technology to educate infertile couples through cartoon films, comic books, and e-learning on his website www.ivfindia.com.
He is a prolific writer who expresses his views on a wide range of topics. He has authored four books:
How to Get the Best Medical Care
Successful Medical Practise
How to have a Baby
Using Information Therapy to Put Patients First
His write-ups are published in newspapers and magazines, including Times of India. He also writes for a number of websites. He is also the author at TheHealthsite.com.
Aniruddha Malpani – HELP Library
He believes that every doctor must have their own website. He himself came up with his own website called Health Education Library for people (HELP) (www.healthlibrary.com). He publishes various articles streaming on the issues of improving doctor-patient relationship. The website is absolutely free, people can counsel themselves through these blogs, without squandering any money. Aniruddha believes the fact that awareness empowers people and improves public health through prophylactic medicine has contributed to the foundation and growth of the library. HELP is India’s first Consumer Health Education Resource Centre. The library today swanks a large collection of educational books, magazines, journals, CDs and videos circumscribing all aspects of health appealing to all levels of society. It has become world’s largest patient education library. HELP has been a recognition for Aniruddha Malpani, which helped him secure the position of Board of Director in IKS Health.
Aniruddha Malpani – Angel Investor
The doctor soon turned to be an Angel investor. He believed that whatever he read, it gave him ideas to invest in start ups. He feels sterile if he does not use his knowledge that he gained by reading several books. He confessed that he does not measure on the return of the investments in startups as it has already been 10-15 long years as an angel investor. He discerns that its high time and Indian entrepreneurs should evolve with their innovative capabilities in front of the world.
Aniruddha Malpani – Malpani Ventures
Malpani Ventures Logo
Malpani Ventures is an angel investment firm that provides funds to the early start-ups. Aniruddha Malpani is the Founder and Director of Malpani Ventures. The venture provides investment to the diverse sectors of early stage start-ups, including Healthcare, Financial Technology, SAAS, Consumer Technology and Education Technology.
His venture invested for healthtech start up like Plus91, an EMR and digital marketing provider. It is basically an Indian market leader for creating digital media for patient education. It is presented on the board of Inventurus Knowledge Solutions, a healthcare BPO which provides RCM solutions for the US market. AllizHealth, Video streaming VdoCipher, and language learning platform MultiBhashi are also among the health-awareness technologies invested by Malpani Ventures.
Malpani Ventures also invested in Bibox and Avaz. Â Bibox makes science fun to learn for kids. It is basically a startup that creates educational robotics kits for Atal Tinkering Labs in schools. Avaz is yet another startup which develop apps for autistic kids.
Aniruddha Malpani – Controversies
Dr. Aniruddha Malpani on the Byju’s controversy
He was banned by LinkedIn for speaking up on the Byju’s controversy. He expressed his views on the working culture of the edtech Byju’s. He criticised the work culture, business model of the edtech. He published various posts of the unhappy user experiences. He was then banned by LinkedIn for posting defamatory content. Thus, his LinkedIn account was permanently restricted by the professional network. While Malpani conferred that he has no direct conflict of interest with Byju’s as he only wrote his opinions about the misleading sales tactics of the edtech company.
Aniruddha Malpani – FAQs
Who is Dr. Aniruddha Malpani?
Dr. Aniruddha Malpani is an IN Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) specialist, patient advocate and angel investor.
What books has Dr. Aniruddha Malpani written?
Dr. Aniruddha Malpani has written
How to Get the Best Medical Care
Successful Medical Practise
How to have a Baby
Using Information Therapy to Put Patients First
Is Dr. Aniruddha Malpani banned from LinkedIn?
Yes, due to his views on Byju’s work culture, he is permanently banned from LinkedIn.
Malini Agarwal is the Founder and Creative Director of MissMalini Entertainment. She is an Indian digital influencer, TV host, entrepreneur and best-selling author under the pseudonym of MissMalini. Her blog MissMalini.com was founded in 2008 covering all the inside and outside gossip of Bollywood. Before founding MissMalini Entertainment, she used to work as a Radio Jockey on Mumbai’s Radio One (India) and served as the Head of Digital Content for Channel V India. She has authored a book named To The Moon: How I Blogged My Way To Bollywood, where she describes her fortunate journey so far.
Malini was born in Prayagraj, India. Her parents worked with the Indian foreign service, that is why she grew up in various countries. She currently lives in Mumbai. She is married to Nowshad Rizwanullah, who now serves as the CEO of MissMalini Entertainment.
Malini Agarwal – Education
Malini completed her graduation Maitreyi College, Delhi University. She pursued Bachelor of Arts specialized in English Literature. After completing her education, she moved to Mumbai, where she currently lives.
Malini Agarwal – Professional Life
Malini was a fluent dancer, she worked as a Professional Dancer at Ronica and The Planets from August 1995 to December 2000. She later shifted her professional background by working as a Copywriter at 1D8 Technologies Mumbai.
From 2000 to 2003, She worked as a radio jockey and cordially hosted her radio shows. She juggled with a full-time day job. At the same time, she has been contributing to a newspaper column and a blog, MissMalini.com.
She then joined Channel V to become their digital content head while continuing with her previous works at the same time. Soon, she decided to quit all her jobs and focus on her blog indeed. The blog eventually grew, she was inspired from international sites such as Perez Hilton, a celebrity American blogger, and Refinery29, a lifestyle portal for the youth.
Malini Agarwal- Radio Jockey
Malini’s radio career started as a Radio Jockey with WIN 94.6 in Mumbai, which was later named Go 92.5 and then Radio One 94.3. She hosted some shows like, Horn OK Please, 225, Tiger Time With Malini, Overdrive and Malini till Midnight.
She was eventually promoted as a Programming Director and later decided to shift to digital TV after becoming the Head of Digital Content of  Channel V, India.
Although, she does not hosts her show currently but continues to be a part of it, through a weekly call-in with the BBC Asia Network. This is how she continues to serve as a regular contributor to radio shows.
Malini Agarwal – Success story
Malini founded her MissMalini.com blog in 2008, which was initially a hobby blog. Eventually it became a gossip column, which were solely written by Malini. These columns were published in a morning daily Indian compact newspaper, a Mumbai tabloid Mid Day. Â
One of her friend, Mike Mell who is currently her blog partner, initially offered help to Malini after checking on the business potential of blogging.
With an eye to make her blog more interesting and captivating, she left her job at Channel V and focused only on how to promote and grow her own blog. It drew inspiration from top international websites like PerezHilton and PopSugar and covers all aspects of Bollywood and celebrity life.
MissMalini’s blog also covers the Indian and International fashion trends, with lifestyle content such as Travel, Food, and Nightlife. The blog no longer was just a” desi girl’s diary” rather it became more diverse in its topics and arenas.
Malini’s decision to quit all her previous jobs to focus on her own creative blog proved to be worthwhile. The office of MissMalini Entertainment is based at Santacruz, Mumbai. She serves as the Founder and Creative Director at the company and her husband serves as its CEO.
In 2012, Malini with her team of 47 Â (13 of them were bloggers) decided to raise a small angel funding round to transcribe their hobby blog into a professional one. The funds were used to elevate their content and marketing operations.
The turning point came when the team decided to shift their focus from writing on basic topics to Bollywood gossip, events, fashion and lifestyle. This eventually took the blog to another level. People found it much interesting and this helped Malini to grow her blog by touching every aspects of Bollywood events and relations.
The MissMalini’s blog became popular in the year 2014, grown out with new revenue streams like TV shows and awards. The blog displayed a growth by a CAGR of more than 100% over 5 years. In the year 2017, she took private funding. The website today has 4 million visitors a month.
Malini has also a connect with her show named Inside access with Miss Malini where she meets various celebrities and does fun stuff & gossip. The show has successfully completed Season 1 and Season 2 is in progress, telecasted on channel vh1.
She has also guest anchored various television shows like, UTV Bindass’ Style Police and CNN-IBN’s Tech Toyz. She has also completed two seasons of MissMalini’s World, telecasted on TLC. Malini and her team is also planning to launch a huge show called Not Size Zero.
Malini Agarwal – Blogging Partner
MissMalini.com is also the official blogging partner for the famous fashion events in India like, Lakme Fashion Week, Blender’s Pride Fashion Tour, and India Resort Fashion Week. Moreover, the blog has also covered international events such as Cape Town Fashion Week 2012.
These blogs are also featured in the prominent digital and print fashion and lifestyle publications on a regular basis. Some of them include, Femina (India), Elle, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Grazia, Glamrs.com and many others.
Malini Agarwal – FAQs
Who is Malini Agarwal?
Malini Agarwal is the Founder and Creative Director of MissMalini Entertainment. She is an Indian digital influencer, TV host, entrepreneur and best-selling author under the pseudonym of MissMalini.
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