Taj Pabari, Australia

Australia's Young Taj

One of Australia’s youngest and most successful social entrepreneurs, Taj Pabari is CEO of The ASE Group and Co-founder of Fiftysix Creations. 

An inventor, entrepreneur and educational pioneer, Taj Pabari is passionate about providing inspiration to all regardless of age to discover and embrace the world of entrepreneurship through technology and innovation. The world of business always captivated him. From selling items during his free time and lunch breaks at school, he made his official entrepreneurial debut at the age of eleven by founding his first business: an electronic blogging site for children. After publishing around 300 articles, the blog was sold, and subsequently he stepped into his next venture.

Just out of his teens, Taj Pabari of Indian descent was born in the UK but later migrated to Australia with his family. He is the co-founder of The ASE Group, a social enterprise that helps develop the life and entrepreneurial skills of Australians. One of Australia’s youngest and most successful social entrepreneurs, Taj Pabari is the CEO of The ASE Group. He is also the co-founder of Fiftysix Creations. 

Taj Pabari's Early Days

Born in London, UK, Taj Pabari's family moved to Brisbane, Australia, when he was an infant. He studied at John Paul College. He was frequently suspended during school for his lack of interest in studies. However, his interest was in business, which prompted him to eventually start his first online business at the age of 10.

Taj launched Fiftysix Creations in 2014 by selling do-it-yourself electronic tablets for kids. In 2016, the firm began running digital literacy programs for indigenous students in Australia. Subsequently, Taj was appointed by Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk to the Queensland Plan Ambassadors Council in 2017 and the Premier's Anti-Cyberbullying Task Force.

In 2020, Taj co-founded The ASE Group. The organisation is engaged in education, entrepreneurship and employment programs with the Queensland Government and the Government of Australia.

Fiftysix Creations 

Founded by Taj Pabari, Fiftysix Creations specialises in designing and delivering unique, interactive and educational events. Besides, it organizes custom workshops for all age groups in Australia. Since 2014, Fiftysix Creations has educated more than 51,000 young and older Australians. It had the privilege to organise and coordinate the Minister's Climate Challenge for the Queensland Government in partnership with the Australian School of Entrepreneurship. This  statewide program featured esteemed US vice-president Al Gore. The team coordinated the educational program, orchestrated a VIP "meet and greet" for Queensland students. 

Fiftysix Creations has empowered over 1000 seniors through the Senior Startup Programs. Combining private mentoring and small group workshops, the team equips individuals aged above 50 years with essential technology skills for personal business, boosting their confidence in the digital realm. The program's curriculum also includes vital education in business and financial literacy, thereby helping participants to consider starting their own business from home. By fostering a supportive and dynamic learning environment, it is proud to celebrate the seniors' progress and achievements as they embrace new opportunities for growth.

The ASE Group 

The ASE Group is a community-led and purpose-driven business, which delivers life skills education, entrepreneurship and employment programs to Australians. With the mission to equip every Australian, regardless of age, the skills, resources and mindset required to set up a business or seek employment.

The ASE Group, run by a panel of educators and professionals, is committed to driving innovation and positive transformation in education, entrepreneurship and employment. With a unique combination of extensive hands-on experience and business acumen, it brings a fresh and insightful perspective to industry challenges by understanding the issues affecting the Australian community. Taj created his business on the belief that children need to have an alternative way of learning. He recognised that as we enter the workforce of the future, the skills that will be useful are soft skills and people skills.

Taj has appeared in various television shows, including, The Today Show, CNBC, and the ABC. He was the speaker at two TEDx talks, as well as at the World Science Festival alongside Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt. Also, he was featured in The Australian, Channel Seven, Channel Nine, and Channel Ten. He was lauded for his exceptional work by the Prime Minister of Australia. 

Awards And Recognitions

In 2014, Taj won The Australian Young Innovator of the Year Award, an award given to the most exciting innovator and emerging talent. In 2017, he bagged the Queensland Young Australian of the Year Award in Brisbane, Australia. In 2020, he was on the Courier Mail Logan 50 Most Influential People list. In 2021, he was listed in Asialink's the 40 Under 40: Most Influential Asian-Australians. In 2023, he was listed in the Courier Mail Top 30 Young Entrepreneurs Under 30 list.

Taj Pabari is also the author of the bestseller, Young, Dumb and Financially Independent: What School Didn't Teach You About Money. The book provides practical guidance on saving, investing and understanding the different aspects of tax and stock markets, empowering readers to take control of their finances. It was featured on ABC News Breakfast and The Australian.

(Photo: Courtesy The ASE Group)

Prabhakar Sharan

Costa Rica's Indian Star

Prabhakar Sharan's success story of achieving stardom will inspire many ambitious youth. He gave one of the biggest hits in 2017. He has been involved in promoting Bollywood films in Costa Rica and the rest of Latin America.

Spanish conquistadors who first explored Costa Rica in the early-1500s aptly named the land "The Rich Coast." It is richly endowed with natural beauty, with lush sprawling rain forests, beautiful flora and fauna, cascading waterfalls and enchanting landscapes. It's also a place of misty mountains, rumbling volcanoes and pristine beaches. Thanks to its bio-diversity, eco-tourists are flocking to the land from all corners of the world attracted by its guided animal tours.

Most of the Costa Rican cinemas show Hollywood productions, but in recent years the number of movies produced in this Latin American country has increased in recent years. These range from horror and comedy movies, focused on entertainment value to art cinema. The country's art movies are often character studies, focusing on aesthetics and narrative and less on political issues. Costa Rica's top successful directors in the international art movies circuit include Paz Fábrega and Isthar Yasin Gutierrez.

Costa Rica's National Film Council started submitting entries for the Oscars since 2005. A new National Cinematheque building is being constructed in San Jose to support screenings and educational programs.

Perhaps, the first Indian who has achieved extraordinary success in Latin America's entertainment industry, Prabhakar Sharan wanted to become an actor in Bollywood, but landed in Costa Rica while wanting to migrate to the US back in the 2000s. Hailing from Bihar, India, Prabhakar Sharan's success story of achieving stardom will inspire many ambitious youth. He is a well-known star in Costa Rica, who gave the local film industry one of the biggest hits of 2017, "Enredados: la confusion" (Entangled: The Confusion). It is  the first Latin American film made in typical Bollywood style, with songs and dance. It was picturized in the magnificent Costa Rica, besides Panama and Mumbai. Prabhakar played the lead role opposite Nancy Dobles, a popular Costa Rican television hostess. The movie, a box-office success, was distributed by Cinepolis in Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and San Salvador. The movie was an attempt at creating a bond between Indian and Costs Rican communities. 

Indian Roots 

Born in Bihar's Motihari, Prabhakar Sharan initially went to Costa Rica for studies and to pursue an acting career. His parents Prabhunath Sharan and Subhadra Prasad are retired bankers from Motihari, Bihar. He was born in Patna and did his schooling from Bhurkunda and Ramnagar, which are now in Jharkhand. He went to Rohtak for his college education. He later moved to Costa Rica for further studies. After moving to the country, he gradually opened a chain of Indian clothing stores and restaurants in 2010. He studied at Costa Rica's Universidad Panamericana in 2000. During his tenure in the university, he became the president of the university. 

Six years later, Prabhakar Sharan decided to bring Bollywood movies to theatres in Costa Rica. Subsequently, he started movie distribution, production and a chain of different businesses. He was the first to bring Bollywood movies commercially to Central America. While he lived in Costa Rica, he married a local woman. However, things didn't work for him professionally and personally. He moved back to India and even divorced his wife. In 2014, he decided to move back to Costa Rica once again and make a movie. Teresa Rodriguez Cerdas, a university owner, educationist and philanthropist, helped him to achieve his ambition of producing a movie. 

Bringing Bollywood To Latin America 

Indian actor, producer and screenwriter Prabhakar Sharan, who is the owner of the Pacific Investment Corporation (PIC), observed:  "There is no other person or other production company that does the work I have been doing...I have worked with Panama and Costa Rica to bring Bollywood, the world’s largest film industry, to the region." Also, he signed an agreement with a major production company in India, with the backing of the Panama Film Commission of the Ministry of Commerce, to make the first Bollywood film in this country.

Prabhakar Sharan has plans to produce further movies in Panama with Bollywood producers on Costa Rica's indigenous communities, such as Ngäbe chieftain, Urracá, from the central province of Veraguas, who fought against the Spanish conquistadors. Latin America-based top Indian diplomats have praised Prabhakar for his efforts in promoting Indian films.

Currently, Prabhakar Sharan is further exploring the possibility of promoting Bollywood movies in Latin America. He visited India last year, and met with some movie producers and marketing companies to pursue his passion for  quality movies, with the objective of entertaining movie buffs. 

(Photo: Courtesy PIC)

Chandrika Tandon

Artistic Genius

Chandrika Tandon who first came to the US at a young age for a job at McKinsey & Company went on to become a partner in the firm and later an independent businesswoman. Her passion for music got her the prestigious Grammy Award in 2025.

Indian-American businesswoman and musician Chandrika Tandon grabbed the headlines recently for bagging the coveted Grammy Award at the 67th award function. She won the Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album category for her album, Triveni. 

Chandrika has won several awards and received accolades for her integrity and leadership. The prominent awards she has received are the Gallatin Medal, the Walter Nichols Medal, and the Polytechnic Medal. Besides being a businesswoman, she is a composer and a vocalist. She studied  Hindustani, Carnatic, and Western music.  Soul Call (2009), her first studio album, was nominated for Best Contemporary World Music Album at the Grammys in 2011.

Born in 1954 in Chennai, India, Chandrika Krishnamurthy Tandon is a well-known businesswoman. She has the distinction of being the first Indian-American woman to be elected partner at McKinsey and Company. In 2015, along with  her husband, Ranjan Tandon, donated $100 million to the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering. The institution has since been renamed the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. It is still the largest donation made by an Indian-American in the US. 

Chandrika Tandon was a trustee to New York University, NYU Langone Health, and American India Foundation. Also, she has served as a member of the President's Council on International Activities at Yale University, besides as the President's Advisory Council at the Berklee College of Music. Moreover, she has been on the Board of Governors for the New York Academy of Sciences.

Being a music composer and vocalist, and a trained Carnatic and Western musician, Chandrika Tandon has held many benefit concerts and performances across the globe. Some of her well-known concerts were held in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, Olympiastadion, Lobkowicz Palace, and National Mall for the World Culture Festival.

Family And Education 

Chandrika Tandon is the elder sister of Indra Nooyi, the erstwhile CEO of PepsiCo. The latter has consistently ranked among the world's 100 most powerful women. Besides, she was associated with the boards of Amazon and the International Cricket Council. Chandrika was born into a conservative Tamil Brahmin family alongside her sister Indra and a brother. Her father was a bank officer while her mother was a musician. As their first daughter in the family, her parents planned for an arranged  marriage at eighteen, but at the influence of her grandfather, she pursued a higher education at Madras Christian College. When her mother initially refused to let her attend college, she persuaded her by going on a hunger strike. Eventually, the headmistress of Chandrika's convent school convinced her mother about the benefits of higher education.

Inspired by her grandfather, who was a judge in Chennai, Chandrika initially desired to go to law school on completion of her education at Madras Christian College. However, one of her professors motivated her to join the IIM-Ahmedabad and pursue a career in business. 

After her graduation from IIM-Ahmedabad in 1975, she secured employment as an executive at Citibank in Beirut, Lebanon. Later, at age 24, she was offered a position at McKinsey and Company in New York City, US. She holds the distinction as the first Indian-American to become a partner in the company. 

Tandon Capital Associates

In 1992, Chandrika formed Tandon Capital Associates and has since worked as a consultant to many clients. As per sources, she has advised over 40 big financial companies how to improve their overall efficiency and performance. Some of the top companies she offered her expertise include Chase Manhattan Corporation, Comerica, Unibanco (Brazil), Suncorp-Metway Ltd. (Australia), Fleet Financial Group, Bank of America, Rabobank, and ABN Amro.

Chandrika Tandon currently resides in New York with her husband and businessman Ranjan Tandon. She is the chairperson of Tandon Capital Associates and Krishnamurthy Tandon Foundation. Ranjan, a Harvard Business School graduate, holds a degree from the IIT-Kanpur, India, in Chemical Engineering. He has held several top positions, including in DCM, India, and Halliburton, Europe. Also, he was associated as a CFO of Intermarine in Texas, US, and a financial Executive with Merrill Lynch. He later became an investor and advisor. Being on the board of the Krishnamurthy-Tandon Foundation, he has provided leadership and management advices to the Harvard Business School and Yale University.

"Music is love, music is light and music is laughter. And let's all be surrounded by love, light and laughter. Thank you for the music and thank you to everyone who makes the music," said Chandrika Tandon in her Grammy-winning speech.

(Photo: Courtesy Grammy)

Simmarpal Singh, Corporate Leader

Strategic Growth Through Innovation 

Simmarpal Singh moved to Argentina to work in Olam International in 2005. As the country head he transformed it into a major global player in agri-business. Post Olam he offers his expertise to entrepreneurs and startups.

Argentina's economy is one of the most powerful in South America, though ranching and agri-business were dominant during the 19th and 20th centuries. Despite the robust growth of services and manufacturing industries in the 21st century, it still produces more grain than any other country in Latin America. 

While it is the second-largest in cattle raising next only to Brazil, its income from tourism is the second-highest after Mexico. In the past, the country withstood a number of economic downturns. It weathered high inflation and unemployment during the late-20th century and a major financial crisis in the early-21st century. Argentina's GDP in 2024 is estimated at $1.721 trillion, according to World Economics. 

Argentina has vast natural resources, including energy and agriculture. Within its 2.8 million sq. km. territory, it is endowed with extraordinary fertile land, gas, and lithium reserves. Besides, it has great potential for renewable energy. Thanks to its large-scale agricultural and livestock industries, the country is one of the biggest food producers globally. Moreover, it has significant opportunities in manufacturing sectors and innovative services in high-tech industries. In 2024, Argentina began a process of stabilizing its macroeconomy. Its economy is expected to grow by 5% in 2025, driven by improved weather conditions, investments in the energy sector, and normalization of agricultural production.

Argentina has a small Indian community comprising immigrants and their descendants. Sikhs are a religious minority, with estimated 300 Sikhs living in the country. Among the immigrants Simmarpal Singh is a well-known and successful Sikh Argentine businessman. He is fondly called the 'Peanut Prince of Argentina'. 

Simmarpal Singh's Olam Journey 

Born into a Sikh family, Simmarpal Singh studied in St. Xavier’s School in Durgapur and earned a degree in B.Sc. Agriculture Sciences from Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, India. His passion for agriculture led him to pursue further studies at Institute of Rural Management Anand in Gujarat, India's western State. Initially, he worked for the National Dairy Development Board and Amul. Later he found a job in Olam International in Mozambique, Africa, as a branch manager. This set the ball rolling for his international ventures, which took him subsequently to Ivory Coast and Ghana, and eventually to Argentina in 2005 as the company's country head.

When Simmarpal Singh arrived in Argentina, Olam International was primarily a trader and processor. Its peanut business was well-established through long-standing contracts with local farmers. Thanks to his business acumen, Simmarpal realised soon that established farmers already had tie-ups with other companies, and hence procuring large quantities of peanuts was a challenging task. Thanks to his credo of seeking an opportunity in the midst of challenges, he hit upon a novel idea. Instead of being dependent solely on local farmers for peanuts, he chalked out an ambitious plan to cultivate peanuts.

Although Olam International had never ventured into large-scale farming earlier,  Simmarpal’s vast experience and expertise in the agricultural industry gave the company management confidence in his venture. initially, he began by leasing 700 hectares of land as a pilot project. The success of the project helped him to scale up the operations. He began to cultivate peanuts in 39,000 hectares of land, thereby transforming Olam International into a major player in Argentina’s peanut industry. The company initially made a foray into raw crop farming. As per sources, it currently cultivates 40,000 hectares of crops in various regions of the country. 

Olam International 

Olam International is an agri-business company that has operations in 60 countries. It supplies food and industrial raw materials to more than 21,000 customers globally. It is the world's largest supplier of cocoa beans, coffee, cotton, and rice.

Olam International has organised its diverse portfolio into two operating groups: ofi (Olam Food Ingredients), and  Olam Agri. The rest of the businesses of Olam Group, comprising Nupo Ventures, Mindsprint, and Olam Global Holdco, are focused on driving their respective strategic growth by leveraging their own competitive strengths.

Olam International was founded by Kewalram Chanrai Group in Nigeria in 1989. Olam Nigeria Plc. was established as a non-oil based export company to secure hard currency earnings to meet the foreign exchange requirements of the other group companies operating in Nigeria. After achieving successful results, Olam established an independent export operation. The group's agri-business, operated under the name, Chanrai International Ltd., was headquartered in London until 1996. Thereafter, it began export of cashews from Nigeria, which later expanded into exports of cotton, cocoa, and peanuts.

During 1993-95 the business of Olam grew into multiple operations beginning not only within West Africa but also expanding to East Africa and India. Subsequently, Olam International Ltd. was incorporated in Singapore in 1995 as a public limited company. In 1996, Olam relocated its entire operations from London to Singapore.

Beyond Olam

After over a decade of international exposure, particularly his extraordinary success in Olam’s peanut operations in Argentina, Simmarpal Singh returned to India with a wealth of global expertise and knowledge. His experiences in Latin America and Africa equipped him with confidence and expertise to manage complex agricultural operations, growth strategies, and navigate multicultural environments. On returning with vast agri-business knowledge to his native land, where the agricultural landscape has its own challenges, he wanted to take up the leadership position in a large agri-business. Eventually, he took the reins of Louis Dreyfus Company to oversee its $1-billion business and later COFCO International India. Last year, he joined Terviva, an innovation company in the US, as Chief Operating Officer. 

Simmarpal Singh's expertise extends far beyond corporate boardrooms. He is also a mentor for entrepreneurs and an investor in startups, including Knocksense and Snackamor. The power of innovation has been driving his work with these startups. He is a member of the National Council for Agriculture Committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and the Sustainable Agriculture Task Force of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI). He is committed to tapping the potential in agri-business keeping pace with advances in agriculture in India.

(Photo: Courtesy Company)

Clubhouse App, US

Rohan Seth's Winning Streak

Rohan Seth, along with Paul Davidson, founded Clubhouse, a radical app that revolutionised audio communication globally. Since the app's exponential growth in the early 2000s, it has evolved over the years. The duo's emphasis on diversity and accessibility is the platform’s greatest asset.

Technopreneurs stand out through absorption of the right technical knowledge and its implementation. While they keep in mind their own interest, they also use their capabilities for the welfare of society at large. By using technological solutions to revolutionize traditional practices, they bring about change in the business field. It is all about using creativity and innovation to revolutionize business productivity through modern-day practices. 

In recent years, a person of Indian descent revolutionised the way people communicate through audio. Technopreneur Rohan Seth was born in 1982 in Patna, India. Prior to finding enormous success in the US, he tried his hand at building websites for different purposes in India. However, in 2002, he began his Bachelor's degree at Stanford University, US. Later in 2006, he pursued studies in Management Science and Engineering. While he was studying at Stanford he took up a job at Google and spent the following six years working on user location technology and other products. While at Stanford as an intern he designed and developed a video bookmarking app for Stanford Online's distance learning and offline class interactions. Today, he lives with his family in San Francisco, US. He is married to Jen Fernquist, a Canadian-American whom he met while working at Google.

Technopreneur Rohan Seth 

Rohan Seth has always been a person who enjoyed creativity and loved scaling the heights of success. His first foray into the world of entrepreneurship was through a mobile app developer, Memry Labs. The co-founder of Clubhouse, began his career at Google and was associated with the firm from 2006 to 2012. While at Google, he was an early member of the company's mobile team, working on product and engineering efforts for Android, Google Maps and the location platform. He was the co-founder of a start-up unit within Google using machine learning on location, social and search signals to immensely tweak content targeting. Along with another Indian-American, Rohan Dang, who was an alumnus of Modern School, Delhi, co-founded Memry Labs in 2014. The firm developed mobile social apps, including KIT Bot (messaging bot), Phone-a-Friend (mobile app), #hashtag (interest-based communication) and Goofer (chrome extension). Memry Labs was eventually bought by Open Door, a digital real estate platform, in 2017. However, Seth remained with the firm until 2019. 

True to the old adage, "Failures are the stepping stones to success," Rohan Seth and his business partner Paul Davidson, the co-founders of Clubhouse, had not less than nine unsuccessful apps between them, including Talkshow, which was their first collaboration and the predecessor to Clubhouse. In 2019, Clubhouse started as a social media startup. The original app, Talkshow, was rebranded as "Clubhouse" and initially released for the iOS operating system in March 2020. In less than a year, an Android-compatible app was also launched. Thanks to Clubhouse's rapidly gaining popularity, it was valued at $100 million after receiving funding from notable angel investors, such as Ryan Hoover, Balaji Srinivasan and James Beshara, among several others. The funding was also received from venture capitalist firm, Andreessen Horowitz, for a $12 million Series A investment. 

Clubhouse's Exponential Growth

Clubhouse gained popularity during the early phase of the global pandemic. The app developed a unique way for users to listen to live conversations with expert panelists while giving the opportunity to have their own views heard, too. It was a radical idea that combined intimacy and innovation. By the close of 2020, it had 600,000 registered users. In early 2021, Paul Davison, Seth's business partner, announced that the app's active weekly user base was about 2 million individuals. The company started working on an Android version of the app scheduled for launch by mid-2021.  Meanwhile, Clubhouse became widely popular in Germany after German podcast hosts, Philipp Klöckner and Philipp Gloeckler, started an invite-chain over a Telegram group. It soon brought German influencers, journalists and politicians to the platform. By the end of the year, Clubhouse raised the Series B funding at a $1 billion valuation.

Clubhouse, which had an estimated 3.5 million downloads on a global level in early-2021 grew rapidly to 8.1 million. The enormous growth in popularity was due mainly to celebrities, such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, who made appearances on the app. A year after the app's release, the number of weekly active users was over 10 million. However, its user base dropped 21% during three weeks from late-February to early-March 2021. During its initial roll-out, the app was accessible by invitation only. The invitation codes on eBay were reportedly sold at $400.

In the first quarter of 2021, Clubhouse partnered with Stripe to launch its first monetizing feature, Clubhouse Payments. The firm rolled out the functionality to another 60,000 users in the US. Eventually in mid-2021, it launched a beta version of the Android app for users in the US, and shortly thereafter the app became available worldwide for Android users. Soon thereafter the company added new features known as Wave, and Replays and Clips. However, by early-2023, it began to reduce its staff by half by citing a "resetting" due to post-pandemic market shifts.

Of all the apps that were launched during the pandemic lockdown, Clubhouse has survived the shift back to normality. The audio-chat social network, which works like a live podcasting app, saw a substantial surge in growth since 2021, adding two million new users by 2024.

Through Clubhouse’s remarkable journey, its key differentiator has remained inclusivity. Twitter Spaces and Discord may offer a similar technological service, but Seth-Davison’s direct emphasis on diversity and accessibility is perhaps the platform’s greatest asset.

(Photo: Courtesy Company Site)

Loom, Inc., US

Vinay Hiremath's Tryst With Fortune

Vinay Hiremath is a Loom  Inc. Co-Founder from the US. He reportedly sold his startup to Atlassian for $975 million in 2023. The 33-year-old entrepreneur is an Angel Investor who has funded Enterpret Company, as well as AI and ML, Data and Analytics, and Software. 

Today, many young tech wizards are revelling in their success, thanks to their winning technological innovations. They aspire to be entrepreneurs and build business models or startups that can fetch them a fortune. Many are supported financially by their families and hence they can have the luxury to take the plunge. Perhaps, their biggest aspiration is to have full control over the destiny: they wish to call the shots as entrepreneurs. Also, creating their own startup would give them the opportunity to have full freedom over their lives. They wish to become role models for their families and friends by building a successful business. They realise that their success can serve as motivation and inspiration to others. Moreover, they get an adrenaline rush when faced with new challenges on their path that keep them on their toes.

Acquisition of enormous wealth is seen as the ultimate success. People tend to think that they want this kind of lifestyle where they are on vacation for the rest of their life. But many who have grown rich through successful entrepreneurship would disagree with this view. Most lose their sense of purpose once they have achieved their financial goal, which often leads to boredom. This is precisely what has happened to Vinay Hiremath, the co-founder of Loom, Inc., US. In several interviews he gave to the media, he expressed his insecurities, which he has been experiencing after becoming rich. The Indian-origin entrepreneur made a fortune after selling Loom, Inc. to Atlassian for $975 million in 2023.

Born in 1991, Vinay Hiremath discontinued his studies after two years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. However, his talent helped him transition from a small town in Illinois to Palo Alto, California, to pursue his passion for entrepreneurship. Initially, he worked as a software engineer at Backplane, a reputed Silicon Valley startup that focused on creating online communities. 

In the early days of Loom, Inc., which he co-founded, it faced a financial crisis. However, as the co-founder, he helped raise $200 million in funding, scaled the team from zero to 250 employees, and increased the user base to more than 30 million worldwide.

Loom, Inc.

Loom, Inc., founded by Vinay Hiremath, along with two of his friends, Shahed Khan and Joe Thomas in 2015, is a technology company specialized in providing video communication software for work. The technology involves screen and camera recording, and video editing and  transcription, with the capability to share the recorded video link with others.

In mid-2016, the company released Loom Chrome Extension for recording a user's screen and face, which provided a link for the video. Subsequently, it closed its seed round with $600,000 of the lead investor, 1517 Fund. In 2018, it launched the Loom Desktop app (which was later followed by apps for iOS in 2020 and Android in 2021). Later in the same year, Loom launched a software developer kit, beta version, which allowed companies to add a Loom-powered video record button to their own applications. Subsequently, the firm surpassed 14 million users and 200,000 businesses across 230 countries globally. In the following year, Loom released Loom HQ as the next iteration of the company’s platform for corporate teams.

In 2019, Loom received nearly $11 million in a Series A round funding led by Kleiner Perkins. By the end of 2019, its video messaging platform raised $30 million in a Series B round from venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital. In 2020, Loom closed a $28.75 million second Series B by Sequoia Capital and Coatue. The investments valued the company at an estimated $350 million. In 2021, the company received $130 million in a Series C round of funding from Andreessen Horowitz, securing the company's status as a "unicorn" and a $1.53 billion valuation. In 2022, Forbes valued Loom, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, at $1.5 billion, after the firm raised a fund to the tune of $200 million led by Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, ICONIQ, Coatue, and Kleiner Perkins. In 2023, the company was acquired by Atlassian for $975 million.

Vinay Hiremath's New Life

Since Loom, Inc., has been bought by Atlassian for a large sum of money, co-founder Vinay Hiremath has been struggling with the loss of purpose as a result of his newly gotten immense wealth. In his own blog he reflects on different aspects of his new purpose, ambition and life, sharing his journey from building Loom, his aspiration to be like Elon Musk, though cringing over such a thought, and exploring physics as he cools his heels in Hawaii while waiting for his next entrepreneurial break.

Vinay Hiremath found himself lost and bored by his new-found fortune. He finds himself in a position that gives him a feeling that he never had to work again. He finds himself self-satisfied that he feels he does not  have the former drive in him to make money or gain status. In spite of the infinite freedom that money has brought him, he does not seem to know what to do with it. He reminisces about the employment offer, with a pay package of $60 million that he declined. He cited the reason for rejecting the offer as justifiable, saying that it would not be wise to be employed in the same firm he started but is acquired now by another. 

Being away from any engagements does not  mean that he has no plans for new ventures in the future. He says his next startup might not be as grand as Loom, but he hopes to find answers to several questions that have been niggling his mind.

(Photo: Courtesy Company Site)

Upcover, Australia

Anish Sinha: Insuring Small Businesses 

Founded by Anish Sinha, COO, and Skye Theodorou, CEO, Upcover is Australia's award-winning online business insurer. It is well-known across the country for its quick, jargon-free insurance that is affordable and accessible, as well as for offering specifically tailored insurance cover for Australian small businesses.

Insurance industries globally have been disrupted in recent years. But we see emerging optimism largely driven by a focus on innovation that has been driving industry growth and consumer interest. The Australian insurance industry offers a broad range of property and casualty, life, and health insurance coverage to both individuals and businesses. It acts as an important buffer that softens the financial impact of events on the public finances.

Australia's insurance market structure comprises general insurance, life insurance, non-life insurance, health insurance, motor vehicle insurance, property insurance, general liability insurance, and legal insurance. Most large insurers have been focusing on only one type, though in recent times several of these companies have broadened their insurance cover into more general financial services having faced competition from banks and subsidiaries of foreign financial conglomerates. These provide disability insurance, income protection and even funeral insurance, thus stepping in to fill the gap where people may have otherwise been in need of a personal or signature loan from their financial institution.

Despite the resurgence of the insurance industry, it faces uncertainty in the face of a widening trust gap in an increasingly digital and AI-driven world, climate risk and a focus on sustainability. Today, it is facing notions of trust and societal purpose more than ever before. Hence, insurers are reassessing the future and reimagining their place in the market. 

However, Australia's insurance industry is projected to reach a market size (gross written premiums) of $85.10 billion in 2024. Among the different segments, non-life insurances segment dominates the market, with a projected market volume of $62.07 billion in 2024. On average, each person in the country is expected to spend $3190 on insurance in 2024. Australia's insurance market is experiencing a rise in demand for cyber insurance, due mainly to the increasing frequency of cyber attacks.

Enter Upcover

Founded by Anish Sinha and Skye Theodorou, Upcover offers solutions for products liability insurance, professional indemnity insurance, and property damage insurance, among others. The company offers solutions for small businesses, startups, freelancers, and online businesses and associations. Also, it offers claims assistance solutions.

Anish Sinha is Co-Founder and COO of Sydney-based Australian InsurTech UpCover. The insurer bridges the protection gap for the fastest-growing workforce in the country by offering the self-employed and independent contractors insurance protection and benefits. Anish and his Co-Founder and CEO of UpCover, Skye Theodorou, built a tech platform that creates personalized insurance cover. Being Australia’s fastest-growing insurance for small business owners, Upcover has expanded its footprint across the continent.

Anish is an alumnus of BITS Pilani, India’s prestigious engineering institution and the oldest business school XLRI (Xavier School of Management), Jamshedpur. He was associated with the equities division of Goldman Sachs for three years. For most immigrants the logical first step would be to join an organisation that would help them to not only learn the ropes but also earn a living. However, Anish's enterprising spirit drove him instead to be entrepreneur. Within a year after migrating to Australia he co-founded a startup.

Upcover’s mission is to simplify and democratise the heavily regulated but stagnant insurance industry in Australia. Its quick, jargon-free insurance is designed to be affordable and accessible, and also specifically tailored for Australian small businesses. Apart from its Optus and Medibank, it also has launched Cyber and Privacy Liability Insurance to protect small businesses from cybercrime.

Anish looks up to Upcover's co-founder Skye Theodorou who, according to him, has immense knowledge about the Australian insurance space while he brings to the table his experience in building and scaling a business. In India, he was part of the leadership team of Nearbuy, which had offices in eight Indian cities and had grown to 10 million users. At Nearbuy he had led product development, analytics, and operations to onboard more than 80,000 partners. 

Upcover's Insurance Products

Being on a mission to transform Australia's small business insurance landscape, Upcover has been providing tailormade insurance products to small businesses, startups and independent contractors working with enterprises. Besides, the company enables any online business, brand or marketplace to become distributors of insurance products by offering market-leading cover.

Upcover offers insurance cover to fitness trainers and coaches, beauty professionals and services, therapist and healing professionals, e-health, general practitioners and private clinics, nursing, aged care and residence care, healthcare support, construction firms and traders, cleaning services and landscaping services, retailers, accountants and tax agents, real estate agents, and consultans and engineers, among others. 

Upcover has raised a total funding of $2.8 million over three rounds. Its first fund raising round was in August 2019. It has revolutionized insurance for gig economy workers by offering flexible, comprehensive coverage tailored to their specific needs. The company’s customer-centric approach and innovative products have given it a significant position in a market that is often underserved by traditional insurers. By focusing on a niche market and offering tailored solutions, Upcover differentiates itself from traditional insurers while it appeals directly to the needs of gig economy workers.

Social Activities 

During the global pandemic, an Upcover volunteer group of 25 people across India, Australia and the UK raised $2 million through friends and networks. The company made commendable efforts by delivering oxygen concentrators and BiPaP ventilators to about 80 districts in India, including many parts of the northeast, which were facing logistical issues in getting supplies. 

Anish Sinha has been inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, while In the field of business, he looks up to industrial icons, such as J. R. D Tata and Steve Jobs. According to him, there is no quick recipe for success, but it is important to always seek out people who are dissimilar to you, from whom you can draw inspirations and gain perspectives.

(Photo: Courtesy Upcover)

Manju Malhi, Culinary Impresario

Symphony Of Taste

Manju Malhi, the culinary impresario, has made a mark on the UK's dining landscape through her unique and aromatic preparations that have added to the rich tapestry of flavours and traditions of Indian food. 

For the uninitiated Indian cuisine mostly conjure up the image of the spicy curry. However, it's much more than that. Indian dishes are made from vegetables, lentils, meat and spices. Indian cuisine has become diners' delight across the globe. What makes Indian cuisine so special? It's the unique blend of spices that make Indian recipes specially delicious.

The Indian subcontinent's every region has its own delicacy and speciality, with each of them using a distinct style of preparation of foods. In fact, more than 30 prominent dishes are internationally acclaimed for their popularity. Known for its most diverse cooking style, Indian cuisine encompasses over 2000 dishes, all loved for their richness, tastes and flavours. Another factor that sets Indian dishes apart from others is the perfect blend of ingredients that do not overlap in flavour. Also, what makes Indian food distinct from those from other countries is its tantalizing aroma. Moreover, traditions and customs have played a key role in the passing down of the recipes through generations.

Flavours, traditions and cultural richness have made Indian cuisine a global sensation. A fusion of spices, herbs and aromatics together creates a symphony of taste in every dish. Indian food is not only loved by the Indians, but it is also increasingly being embraced, adopted and appreciated worldwide. Food lovers are drawn to the authenticity and history that Indian food brings to the table, creating a sense of nostalgia and connection. Indian food offers a variety of choices for vegetarians, vegans and non-vegetarians.

A number of prominent chefs both in India and abroad have worked relentlessly to bring Indian dishes into the realm of haute cuisine with their beautifully crafted and complex dishes. The food prepared by them is served in critically acclaimed restaurants in the Americas, the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Manju Malhi, a celebrated culinary impresario, has captivated the hearts and taste buds of food lovers. She has curated an unforgettable culinary journey through her unique and aromatic preparations that have added to the rich tapestry of flavours and traditions of Indian food. The Indian-origin chef, who lives in London, creates fusion dishes that highlight the connection between Indian and British cultures.

Manju Malhi's Passion For Food

Born in 1972 in the UK, Manju Malhi specialises in Anglo-Indian cuisine. She grew up in North-West London, which predominantly had an Indian culture, traditions and lifestyles. Her parents hailed from Punjab and Maharashtra. Her household’s culture borrowed inspiration from both Britain and India. Her childhood days were filled with tales of her grandmother’s culinary antics. She had frequent visitors at home who included family friends of her grandfather's British colleagues from the Indian Railways. Sharing food was part of her family's ethos. 

Challenges And Opportunities 

Moving from India to Britain in the late 1960s brought its own share of challenges to the family. Without wheat flour for preparing chapati and a belan (rolling pin) to flatten the dough into a flat bread, Manju's mom initially had to make do with plain flour while a bottle doubled up as the rolling pin. Meanwhile, as Manju grew up she faced some racial discrimination in school, which made her seek solace in learning Indian cooking and culture. 

Although cooking has been Manju Malhi's passion from her school days, her professional foray into the culinary landscape began by her participation in a BBC competition. As part of her competition, along with other participants, she was required to send in a video demonstrating her culinary skills. She prepared a coriander chutney outdoors in a garden, which set her apart from others. The simplicity of choice got her the winning prize, and thereafter, as they say, there was no looking back. 

Spicing Up Indian Dishes

Being a trained, skilled and seasoned chef Manju Malhi has experimented with a variety of Indian spices. She uses only the best quality and handpicked ingredients in her dishes. About the spiciness of Indian foods, which the Britons find too hot, she recommends the use of Kashmiri chilli powder. According to her, it has a warm flavour, besides it gives a rich colour to tandoori dishes. She has been using rolled oats for dishes, besides mixing oat flour into chapati flour to make unleavened flat bread. Spices have long been integral to the UK’s culinary landscape, from the pungent aroma of cumin in Indian curries to the warmth of cinnamon in British desserts. 

Manju Malhi has crafted numerous recipe videos for people from a cross generational landscape in London and the British Isles. They are well-researched, and tried and tested recipes for eating a balanced diet. Her Simply Indian series was telecast on the Taste Network in early 2001. She has authored an award-winning debut book, Brit Spice, in 2002. She has also made guest appearances on several TV programmes, such as ITV's This Morning, Channel Five's Open House, and The Terry and Gaby Show, Sky One, UKTV Food’s Great Food Live, and the BBC's Saturday Kitchen. In the subsequent years, she published two other books, India With Passion, which covers regional Indian home cuisine, and Easy Indian Cookbook. She is reportedly engaged in a 40-part series on British food for Indian broadcaster NDTV.

Manju Malhi contributes articles and columns regularly to Indian newspapers and magazines. Moreover, she has provided voice-overs for BBC News 24, BBC World, and the BBC Asian Network. She has been associated with the VSO charity to promote their annual programme, Big Curry Night.

Manju Malhi's site

(Photo: Courtesy Company Site)

VeerOne, Hong Kong (SAR)

Gurbaksh Chahal: Leveraging The Net

After an illustrious career spanning over 25 years in the Internet and tech industry, and successfully launching four startups, Gurbaksh Chahal founded VeerOne in 2023. He heads the latest venture as its Chairman and CEO.

Gurbaksh Chahal's success story isn't only about building companies, but it is also about daring to dream big and chasing it relentlessly with courage. He has scaled the heights in the US as an immigrant entrepreneur. He has successfully founded Internet advertising firms, managed them well and also sold a few of them at huge profits. 

At age 16, Gurbaksh Chahal founded his first advertising network firm. He subsequently sold it to ValueClick for $40 million, thus becoming a young millionaire. Thereafter, he co-founded BlueLithium, which became the fifth-largest Internet advertising network company in the US.  However, he sold the company to Yahoo for $300 million in 2004. Since then he has founded other Internet-based companies, including RadiumOne, Gravity4, and BNN Breaking. 

In  2010, Gurbaksh Chahal figured in Bloomberg Businessweek's list of the 15 Best Young Entrepreneurs of the Year. In 2011, Men's Health named him one of "The World’s Richest and Fittest Guys." In the following year, he was listed among the 25 Richest Entrepreneurs Under 30 by the Complex magazine. Also, he was listed among Ernst & Young's Entrepreneurs of the Year.

Amritsar To San Jose

Hailing from Tarn Taran Sahib, Amritsar, India, Gurbaksh Chahal is the youngest child of a Sikh family. His father Avtar Singh was a police officer, while mother Arjinder Chahal was a nurse. His parents immigrated to the US in 1985 in the height of the Khalistani insurgency. Gurbaksh was taken care of by his grandmother until he immigrated the following year at age four. Initially, his parents lived in San Jose, California. His father secured a job in the Postal Service and his mother found employment as an assistant nurse. He has three elder siblings, two sisters and a brother. Although all are devout followers of Sikhism, and men are expected to wear a turban as part of their religious practice, Gurbaksh abandoned it while growing up in the US after being subjected to systemic racial bulling.

In spite of his parents' encouragement to pursue medicine, Gurbaksh, who was an average student, dropped out of Independence High School in 1998 at age 16. He wished to pursue a career in Internet advertising much to the chagrin of his parents. In his teens he was a computer nerd and while still in high school, he had taken college-level computer courses in Evergreen Valley College. He soon launched a digital advertising company, ClickAgents. In the latter years, he thought it was the riskiest decision he ever made in his career. In order to support his parents, Gurbaksh started buying and reselling printers on eBay, after being turned away from a job at McDonald's. 

After the successful launch and sale of ClickAgents, he founded BlueLithium in 2004, a company that specialized in behavioural targeting, a technique whereby web users' online habits are tracked to show customized ads. By 2006 it expanded operations to other countries after acquiring AdRevolver, and the company received the title of Top Innovator of the Year in the same year. In 2009, Gurbaksh launched gWallet, a venture in partnership with brand and game developers to bring users virtual currency offers. The startup worked directly with brands, which precluded the possibility of using any affiliate model. Disney, Best Buy, K-Mart, Nestle, and The History Channel used their video campaigns on the social network. In the following year, he launched RadiumOne, another online ad company but of a slightly different genre. It garnered a reputation for its patented ad-technology, which was valued at $500 million, which poised him to be a billionaire. It was purchased by RhythmOne, a public company on the London Stock exchange, for $22 million in 2017. Earlier in 2014, Gurbaksh had launched Gravity4, whose main area of business was gathering customer data about user experiences to allow marketers to improve their ad targets.

In 2019, Gurbaksh launched TaaraLabs, an incubator that helps companies to address problems involving artificial intelligence, IoT, and data sciences. The lab is connected to over 7 billion IoT devices globally. In the same year, he founded RedLotus in Hong Kong, which specializes in AI-based targeted advertising. This service was provided mainly in the form of customer engagement through this AI platform. In 2020, ProcureNet was founded, a supplier of pharmaceutical materials and vaccines consumables and a subsidiary of VendorCloud. The subsidiary uses machine learning to design, develop, market, sell, identify high-demand products via existing B2B and B2C marketplaces. He also set up RedLotus that utilizes branded content to create outcome driven advertising through AI. In 2022, he founded the now-defunct news website and aggregator BNN Breaking in Hong Kong. The website faced several controversies and hence was discontinued. 

VeerOne

Gurbaksh Chahal founded VeerOne in 2023. He heads the latest venture as its Chairman and CEO. VeerOne is an enterprise intelligence platform, which redefines how organizations harness collective knowledge. The name 'Veer' represents both "brave" in its pioneering spirit and "best friend" in its role as a trusted digital companion.

VeerOne's revolutionary approach to enterprise intelligence delivers extraordinary results. It is not only 65% faster but has research capabilities, 50% enhanced decision-making speed, and 60% more efficient in reporting. Through its suite of state-of-the-art features, including AI-powered Threads for intelligent research, SmartVue for dynamic visualizations, and SmartBriefs for automated document creation, VeerOne has been transforming how enterprises turn scattered data into actionable wisdom. He has been shuttling between the US and Hong Kong managing his businesses.

Gurbaksh Chahal set up the Chahal Foundation in 2012, and since then he has been its chairman. The foundation supports the families of hate-crime victims, provides educational scholarship, combats child trafficking and helps in disaster relief efforts in India.

(Photo: Courtesy VeerOne)

The Live Green Co.

Priyanka Srinivas: Going Green

Priyanka Srinivas, along with Sasikanth Chemalamudi, set up The Live Green Co. in Chile, South America, a firm that uses artificial intelligence to make healthy, 100% plant-based and environment-friendly food. The company  is committed to improve food and price security, consumer health, and pursue the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Chile, the longest and narrowest country in the world, lies stretched between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Its customs are as diverse as its landscapes, ranging from the world's driest desert to magnificent glaciers. The cultural and climatic contrasts have also marked the identity of the country and its people. Chileans share a love for their land and a heart to build bonds beyond distances.

Despite being located in a secluded corner of South America, far from Silicon Valley and other global markets, Chile's startup revolution has been drawing entrepreneurs and businessmen from far afield as India. Many Indian entrepreneurs arrive on the Chilean shore, attracted by its favourable business environment, technological expertise and government support.

Chile offers entrepreneurs and businessmen a stable and smaller market to start a pilot project, test the waters, and grow new products and services. Thanks to Chile's  business-friendly environment and competitive consumers, Indian startups from IT to manufacturing industries have been established in recent years. Moreover, Chile is an ideal model market to test products and services and thereafter to expand the business to more lucrative US or other Latin American markets.

Among several Indian-origin entrepreneurs  who sought their fortune in Chile include Priyanka Srinivas and Sasikanth Chemalamudi,  who together founded in 2018 The Live Green Company (LGC), a foodtech startup with an aim to create healthy, plant-based foods using artificial intelligence, biotechnology and machine learning. 

The duo found a number of favourable factors in Chile to start the company. Priyanka Srinivas put succinctly the reason for her decision to set up shop in Chile as the country’s many free trade agreements and the retail market that behaves similarly to the US.

The Live Green Company 

Priyanka Srinivas and Sasikanth Chemalamudi together set up The Live Green Company, a firm that uses artificial intelligence to make healthy, 100% plant-based and environment-friendly food. They arrived in Chile in 2018 to start their business venture considering that the country enjoys stable political and economic conditions, and has free trade agreements with over 60 countries. Also, Chile offers significant support for foreign entrepreneurs through the "Start Up Chile" program. InvestChile, which facilitates the work of investors, and ProChile, which helps to introduce products outside Chile. According to Priyanka Srinivas, Chile serves as a platform for expanding her company to other countries in the region.  

Priyanka and Sasikanth, along with a team of engineers and biotechnologists, created a software program called Charaka. It has a database of about 1000 plants and their properties, which provides recommendations for replacing preservatives and chemical additives with 100% plant-based ingredients. Currently, the company is developing products, such as hamburgers, pancake mix and ice-cream, in its factory located in Chile’s O’Higgins Region.  

The Live Green Company has also begun marketing its products in other Latin American countries. As per Priyanka Srinivas, it is easy for a company to expand its business after starting in Chile. The company has expanded its footprint to Peru and the US. Also, it has begun operations in Mexico, selling its products in the country's markets. Since inception the company has been focused on using the latest technologies. Its primary objective is  to make food more sustainable, healthier and tastier, and also to replace commonly consumed food products with plant-based alternatives. It offers vegan and gluten-free products that have minimally processed ingredients.

The Live Green Company uses its Artificial Intelligence-Machine Learning platform, Charaka, to identify plant components with specific properties. Thereafter, it propagates these properties in engineered microbes for consumer packed goods units to produce plant-only products.

Priyanka Srinivas' Sustainable Practices

Priyanka Srinivas has been in touch with sustainable practices from her childhood days. She observed in her young days how her parents were reusing utensils and carry-bags days on end at home until they wore out, carrying home-cooked meals while traveling, or stitching pillow-covers and doormats out of old clothes. After working for over 12 years in retail outlets, such as Calvin Klein and Target Corporation, she hit upon the idea of a startup, Live Green, to channel her lifelong passion for sustainability. Along with Sasikanth, she bootstrapped the company through savings, grants from accelerators, and Demo Days (events where startup founders present their business ideas, products, etc.), she successfully built a solution to usher in the paradigm shift from 'plant-made' to 'plant only'.

Clear Vision And Pupose

Priyanka Srinivas set out with a clear vision and purpose, which helped her find all the support she required in terms of talent, clients and investors. According to her, you have to ensure that your skills are aligned with what you wish to do and take the leap of faith. The most difficult decision she had to make with regard to the business was starting out with her husband. She was not sure how it would work out between them. Hence, they decided to put the equation to a little test by investing in a dark kitchen, wherein they set up a food delivery or takeout unit, though it was not open to the public. They worked together on the dark kitchen while  working part-time on a couple of projects for a short period. It turned out to be the best decision she made, because together they could bring unique and different skill sets and a lot of synergies to the table, building a great team in a startup.

The Live Green Company has used Chile as a platform for developing its products and exporting them to the rest of the region. In recent years, it has witnessed exponential  growth. In January 2022, the start-up secured a Pre-Series A financing round, in which it raised $7 million, led by investment funds from the US, Canada, Mexico and Argentina. Shortly thereafter, the company announced the acquisition of five other Chilean start-ups in the farming, food and manufacturing industries: Terrium, Aztlan Dulcería, Gibit, Regional Food and EcoKetrawe. It had several rounds of fund-raising for further development of the business over the years.

In 2024, The Live Green Company unveiled two active functional ingredients developed with precision fermentation: GreenTAGs, an analogue of human breast milk fat known as OPO, and GutRevyv, a post-biotic for gut health.

The Live Green Company has operations and offices across Chile, Singapore, the US and India. It is committed to improve food and price security, consumer health, and pursue the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It's at the forefront of replacing not only animal ingredients but also additives, including gums and fillers.

(Photo: Courtesy Company Site)

Techmart

Madhu Sharma: Retirement Reinvention

Madhu Sharma dared to dream at 57 after he stepped down as President of Jumbo Electronics, a leading company in Dubai. Today, two decades after his retirement, he is reaping the benefit of the dream that he turned into reality.

Each phase of life has its own share of charms and challenges. Life is a rollercoaster ride for most people, with ups and downs, and also occasional thrills that leave them exhilarated. Retirement is considered the time to bid farewell to the fast-paced life that one has led for a few decades and to embrace a new quiet journey ahead. However, we need to have an optimistic attitude towards life. As per the latest scientific studies, everything depends on our thought process and mindset. The adage, 'age is just a number,' cannot be dismissed any longer as balderdash. 

As Madhu Payan Sharma, a 78-year-old businessman living in Dubai, would have us believe that retirement is the time to reinvent and rebuild. He dared to dream at 57 after he stepped down as President of Jumbo Electronics, a leading company in Dubai. Today, two decades after his retirement, Madhu Sharma is reaping the benefit of the dream that he turned into reality. The septuagenarian avers that one must enter retired life with optimism. Our independence should be our new identity. We should welcome the retired life with open arms as a host of good things await us to pursue, including dreams and interests, to which we could not pay adequate attention.

New Journey 

During his tenure at Jumbo Electronics, Madhu Sharma had  acquired a thorough business knowledge and built an extensive network. Given the fact that he did not come from a business family and did not work for himself, his enterprising spirit was appreciated by his family members. The experience he gained at Jumbo Electronics gave him the confidence to set up his own distribution company, Techmart, in 2002, thus becoming an entrepreneur at the age of 57. 

After the completion of higher secondary education in 1962 from Amritsar, India, Madhu Sharma earned his Master's in Mechanical Engineering, with distinction in 1967 from BITS Pilani. Thereafter, did his MBA from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India. He has been a sports aficionado and took keen interest in sports and games. In 1961, while at  the higher secondary, he represented his school in District Badminton Tournaments. In 1972, he represented the erstwhile Bombay Gymkhana and played for the Indian Rugby Team. He was passionate about Golf, and he takes pride as he had the honour of making four 'Hole in One' on Dubai's Majlis Course in Emirates Golf Club.

Prior to establishing his firm, he undertook a survey to assess the economy and the viability of his business goals. At the time his wife was associated with a leading company in a senior capacity in Dubai, which provided him the buffer against any business failure. It gave him the much-needed confidence to start his own business. However, what drove him relentlessly forward was his passion and ambition to try setting up a business, wherein he himself had adequate experience. He had a strong determination to succeed and to learn, venture out and grow. Today, Techmart has expanded its footprint to six countries and has around 250 employees. Also, it has tie-ups with several leading technology brands.

Madhu Sharma was instrumental in setting the retirement age at 55 years at Jumbo Electronics when he served as its president. This was done with a well-meaning aim to help retirees. Retiring from full-time work at the age of 55, according to him, gives the retiree an opportunity to explore future prospects with a clear mind. Hence, upon completion of 55 years he tendered his resignation, though it was not accepted initially by the company management. 

After retirement, he engaged himself in providing management consultancy services. Since he was a retired person, with an extensive management knowledge, some of his friends sought business and management advice from him. This prompted him to set up a management consultancy, Mars International Holdings. The consultancy work prodded him try something further and higher, which subsequently led him to establish a technology distribution company. 

Neil Sharma, Techmart's New President 

Recently, Madhu Sharma's son Neil Sharma has taken over the reins as President of Techmart. Neil is proud of his father's resolve to start a business after retirement. The father-son duo has been working together since Neil joined the family business in 2009. After completing his under-graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University, and earning a Master's in Business Administration at Cornell University’s Johnson School, he worked for Cisco for eight years in the US. He joined Techmart, as the business was growing, and he wanted to assist his ageing father. Therefore, he decided to move back to Dubai and joined as Techmart  Vice-President. In 2018, after learning the business, he was appointed President of the company.

Archie, Madhu Sharma’s wife, is proud of her husband's achievements. According to her, Madhu Sharma has been such a kind and generous person who believes in helping people. Her son Neil concurs with the view by saying that his father has been a leader in all aspects of business and life. This, according to him, makes him a good leader. Madhu himself is highly appreciative of his wife Archie, son Neil and his spouse Ahiya, and daughter Arti, and grandchildren. He opines that they have been his source of strength and attributes all that he has achieved to their love and support.

(Photo: Courtesy Techmart)

Bloomreach, Eightfold.ai

Ashutosh Garg: High-Impact Solutions 

Leveraging Cloud e-Commerce and Talent Intelligence technologies, Ashutosh Garg, with expertise and support from partners, founded two startups. Today, Bloomreach and Eightfold.ai specialise in providing state-of-the-art products and services globally. 

Rapid growth of e-commerce has been drawing physical and online retailers towards modern solutions to simplify, secure and streamline digital transactions. Currently, many cloud e-commerce services are available, including IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, each with varying levels of resource requirements. Cloud-based e-commerce helps manage and scale data storage, hosting and digital commerce applications, such as virtual payments, inventory management and product information management. Often, cloud e-commerce is associated with e-commerce platforms, such as Fabric, Shopify Plus, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Currently, cloud-based solutions for e-commerce allow retailers to manage customer data, product data, inventory data, website hosting, digital transactions and other e-commerce needs. Based on the degree of involvement on behalf of the retailer, these solutions include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS).

Meanwhile, with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the recruitment process has not only become simplified but also can provide both candidates and organisations the right choices. Recruitment being a resource and time-intensive process, it is  often fraught with challenges. Recruiters have to go through the rigmarole of sourcing and screening candidates to conducting interviews and assessing talent. They have to navigate a wide range of tasks to find the right fit for a company’s needs. Through AI the arduous task can now be simplified, saving hiring managers, time and resources.

Leveraging Cloud e-Commerce and Talent Intelligence technologies, Ashutosh Garg, with expertise and support from partners, founded two startups. Today, Bloomreach and Eightfold.ai specialise in providing top-of-the-line products and services globally. 

Ashutosh Garg, the co-founder, was associated with Bloomreach, a cloud marketing platform, as its CTO. Since founding BloomReach in 2009, he, along with other co-founder Raj De Datta, grew the company from a single product and a single client to more than 50 clients and three products. These together generate revenue to power Bloomreach's growth into a multi-billion dollar company. Its state-of-the-art products adapt clients' websites to display information relevant to customers, boosting organic search traffic by 80%. Bloomreach helps company websites market the right products to the right people by utilizing big-data analysis technology in innovative ways.

Ashutosh Garg was brought up in a small town in India. He realised early the importance of education. Since the country spawned a crop of IT professionals, he wished to study Computer Science, but financial constraints drew him away and towards electrical engineering. After his undergraduate education, he wrote a thesis on machine learning applications in office environments. He secured a job in the VLSI CAD (Very Large Scale Integration Computer-Aided Design) field for one year and thereafter at Synopsys. During this period he applied for higher education in the US. He secured admission at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), which helped him further pursue machine learning, computer vision, and the qualities in VLSI. After the completion of PhD, he joined IBM, though he worked for a short period of time at the firm, which led him later to Google. He joined Google's small research team, which, according Ashutosh, then consisted of smart and hardworking people. He was associated with Google for four years.

Bloomreach, Inc.

Ashutosh Garg, a US entrepreneur of Indian descent, worked as a research scientist after earning his Master of Science and PhD from Illinois, US. Initially, he worked at Google as a research scientist. 

Thereafter, he started Bloomreach in 2009, along with his partner, Raj De Datta, with the vision of making the web more relevant to consumers. In 2013, the firm, which is headquartered in California, US, bought big-data content optimization SaaS to mobile devices to add smart product recommendations, predictive search, a trending section and cross-device personalization. It acquired Hippo CMS, an open-source Web Content Management company in 2016, creating a digital platform that combines content, search and merchandising. Bloomreach acquired Exponea in 2021, a customer data and experience platform. It received a $150 million investment in the same year from Sixth Street Growth, which took the company's valuation to $900 million. In less than two years it announced $175 million in fresh funding, thereby more than doubling its valuation to $2.2 billion.

The company’s primary products are Bloomreach Engagement, Bloomreach Discovery, and Bloomreach Content. Bloomreach Engagement is a marketing automation software that finds applications in building and personalizing email campaigns, SMS messaging, mobile app usage and other marketing channels. Bloomreach Discovery uses Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to provide customers relevant and accurate search results and product recommendations. And Bloomreach Content is a headless Content Management System (CMS), which allows the creation and management of content for websites.

Bloomreach employs around 850 people and serves many  brands, including Albertsons, Bosch, Puma, FC Bayern München, MandM Direct, and Marks & Spencer. The company was listed in the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America, and the Best In Business honoree in 2022. Also, it bagged the MarTech Breakthrough Award for Best Overall Marketing Automation Platform. It has received a number of distinctions from technology analysts and review platforms, including Forrester, Gartner, and G2.

Today, Bloomreach under Raj De Datta, Co-founder and CEO, has become a global player serving clients in more than  155 countries, in 28 languages and across 19 industries. 

Eightfold.ai, Inc.

In 2016, Ashutosh Garg, along with Varun Kacholia, founded Eightfold.ai, a talent intelligence company, with the aim to help people secure the right employment and choose the appropriate career path. Today, the company, helmed by Ashutosh Garg as its CEO, is valued at over $2 billion. Being a talent-intelligence platform, its services are availed of by Fortune 100 companies worldwide to hire, retain and grow diverse workforces.

Inspired by Buddhism's eight practices that guide an individual to wisdom and nirvana, Eightfold.ai's mission is to empower everyone to discover and pursue the right career path. The company through its recruiting software helps prospective candidates to showcase their skills, take pride in their work, enjoy their careers and help others along the way.

Also, the company brings to table the world’s best and brightest in artificial intelligence and human resources to help its customers to create and build their ideal future workforces. Its recruiting software and expertise in machine learning, artificial intelligence, search, personalisation and  enterprise solutions are designed to deliver technology at scale to support its mission. 

Research shows that about 80% of people apply for wrong jobs and hired for roles they may not be ideally suited. Talent intelligence is the engine that works to pair both internal employees and external candidates with the best roles for them. It helps talent and business leaders to understand what people are actually capable of accomplishing as employees while providing a deeper understanding of what skills they can develop. 

Deep-learning AI talent intelligence can define roles, besides integrate internal company data and external data to help talent leaders make better decisions. It self-learns and evaluates skills within organizations and in the larger market to provide the human resources and business leaders a full and current view of the skills they require. Briefly, Eightfold.ai helps organisations to hire and develop top talent - from sourcing to promoting. The AI platform provides a comprehensive talent search for bespoke needs of customers. 

Ashutosh Garg's journey has been marked by hard work, dedication and determination, which have helped him lay a strong foundation for the company. He is  a prolific writer and has written a book on machine learning and also over 30 papers. Besides, he has more than 50 patents to his credit.

(Photo: Courtesy Eightfold.ai)

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