The Net Visionaries

Three professionals - Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Anupam Mittal and Deep Kalra - chucked their cushy jobs and changed the way Indians around the world find jobs, marry and travel

The priest who solemnises marriages at an altar is often single. So is the case with Anupam Mittal, the man whom over 1.4 million couples can thank for scripting their happily-ever-after stories by having dreamt up Shaadi.com. But at 37, after rewriting the rules of how marriages are arranged in India, Mittal is ready to arrange his own. He has done what 20 million others have done on his website - he has uploaded his profile on Shaadi.com, hoping to click with a partner online.

It is a well-earned privilege - your very own matrimonial website to choose a partner from over 20 million registered members. In the end, it'll be an expensive wedding, with even the name of the platform - Shaadi.com - where Mittal could meet his potential bride, not coming cheap. "The website was originally called Sagaai.com, but I wanted something that was easy to spell and easily recognisable. In 2003, I spent $25,000 (Rs 11 lakh at the present exchange rate) of the company's savings renaming it right after the dotcom bust. Everyone thought I was crazy," reminisces Mittal.

But then, it does take a generous dose of craziness to get great ideas executed, and turn a moment of epiphany into an entrepreneurial phenomenon. For Mittal, it was about going from a germ of an idea that originated with a chance encounter with a matchmaker - who he suspects his family had sent across to him - to launching India's first matrimonial website. "The matchmaker travelled to 40-50 families every month with the bio-data of 40-50 people. It seemed an awfully limiting factor to me that the choice of finding a life partner should be confined to the number of resumes he could carry and the distance he was prepared to travel. If we uploaded these resumes online, a lot of geographical and spatial constraints would be taken care of," says Mittal of how he got his million-dollar idea.

His investors today include Sequoia Capital, Intel Capital, Silicon Valley Bank and Citibank. Besides Shaadi.com, Mittal has also started a friendship and dating site, Fropper.com; the wireless value added services provider, Mauj Mobile; the film studio, People Pictures; and the real estate portal, Makaan.com.

In the case of Naukri.com, founder - CEO Sanjeev Bikhchandani, taking the leap of faith meant moving from his Eureka moment of seeing former colleagues at Hindustan Lever read Business Today from back to front for recruitment ads to starting a company with a budget of '2,000 with a partner from the annexe above the garage in his father's Swasthya Vihar house in east Delhi.

It was a daunting task: Bikhchandani got into the dotcom business without an Internet connection of his own, lived off his wife, scrambled to pay employees at the end of the month, and did not pay himself a salary for six years.

But it's an effort that's paid off. Launched in 1997, Naukri.com earns over Rs 270 crore today. In 2006, it became the first Internet company to be listed on the stock exchange. Bikhchandani picked up several awards along the way, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2008, along with Naukri.com CEO Hitesh Oberoi.

Info Edge, Naukri.com's parent company, now also runs an array of other web portals today - including the matrimonial site Jeevansathi.com; the real estate portal 99Acres.com; the Gulffocused job search site, NaukriGulf.com; and the higher education portal, Shiksha.com.

"From an early age, I had it in my head that I have do something on my own," says Bikhchandani. The biggest obstacle to his dream coming true was the lack of capital - and Naukri.com went through its bootstrapping phase for three years between 1997 and 2000. Nothing, though, beats the thrill of having the first-mover advantage. "As an early mover, you are doing something new and risky. But it is cheaper to make mistakes when you enter early," says Bikhchandani, who has stepped down as Info Edge CEO to focus on the company's international investments.

Meeting Bhikchandani, a senior from IIM-Ahmedabad and St Stephen's, was the "big trigger point" for another aspiring web entrepreneur. Deep Kalra, former vice-president for business development of GE Capital.

Deep is famous today for launching India's largest online travel agency, MakeMyTrip.com, but it didn't happen overnight. Kalra's entrepreneurial dream began to take shape after he met with a venture capitalist friend at a Mumbai mall - the two drew up an ambitious business plan on a paper napkin.

Taking the road less travelled was no easy task for Kalra. Soon after he launched the website in 200 the market crashed 9/11 happened and SARS dealt a crippling blow to the tourism business. But Kalra was steadfast and went without his salary for 18 months. When he announced a 40 per cent pay cut in the company, 17 of his employees left. But as they say, tough times don't last, tough people do. MakeMyTrip.com ended the last financial year with sales of Rs 2,200 crore, and went on to be on the NASDAQ, which, in turn, has catapulted its valuation to $800 million (Rs 3,545 crore).

Known to hire employees who he believes are smarter than him, Kalra attributes his customer base of 3.5 million to his happy employees. "MakeMyTrip enjoys a 40 per cent repeat purchase rate and over 3.5 million delighted customers," he says. "It has happened because I believe work is a fun way to meet challenges and create history."

For Mittal, Bikhchandani and Kalra, there is little room for complacency, though Mittal does admit he doesn't have the same energy levels as he did when he started out. He candidly admits: "The energy level you have when you start off and have nothing to lose is very difficult to maintain when you have built something and have lots to lose."

Still, he is a powerhouse of energy, with a work day that stretches over 12 hours. The ever-expanding portfolio of the People Group, which Shaadi.com is part of, has won it the Deloitte Fast 500 India Award for three consecutive years and the Deloitte Fast 500 Asia Award. Just the first few of many milestones to come for the suitable boy who dared to dream big on the World Wide Web. As Bikhchandani and Kalra will both tell you, the Web is where it pays to dream big and not give up till you make it the reality.

QUICK FACTS

ANUPAM MITTAL, CEO, PEOPLE GROUP

Education: MBA (Operations and Strategic Management), Boston College.

Work Ex: MicroStrategy Inc's internet division, Startegy.com, in the US.

Eureka! Moment: Meeting a matchmaker in 1996. He would travel to 40-50 families every month carrying the 40-50 resumes in his bag. "If we uploaded these bio-data online," Mittal reasons, "a lot of geographical and spatial constraints would be taken care of." Shaadi.com was born soon after - as Sagaai.com in 1996.