The next couple of minutes, you will read about the man behind Naukri.com. This website was one of its kind back when it started and I’ll take you through the journey from Inception through its hardships to where it stands today.
To bring in structure, the article is written for you to jump into specifics of the journey without losing much context.
This is not a typical biographical recording where I talk in excess about the man; it is an attempt to pick up on key attributes of a successful entrepreneur and hopefully learn a thing or two from his experiences.
In the spirit of trying to learn; at the end of each sub-section, I will highlight the key take aways.
Note: This and all foreseeable articles under this subdivision aims to promote, educate and motivate young entrepreneurs. Happy Reading.
Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
Who is the Man?
Sanjeev Bikhchandani, the founder of Info Edge; an entity which owns Naukri.com and few other known entities in India; more on this later.
An alumnus of IIM-A (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad), a very prestigious business school in India; the man always had a propensity to business and an entrepreneurial drive, as they call it. Fairly clear with what he wanted, he started with an undergraduate degree in economics along with a few years of work experience before coming in for his business studies.
He was not a business tycoon right off the bat; he started off as a marketing executive with HMM (now known as GlaxoSmithKline) before he founded two companies with his partner.
Key Takeaway: Self Made, learn along the way, passion, vision.
Was he a basement man?
Yes, as the story turns out; he was a basement man.
What is a basement man? Ever since Steve Jobs and other eminent personalities started their companies in sheds, garages and other off beat places; I believe basement man could be a term (on a lighter sense); a place to start something worth trillion dollars maybe.
He started both his businesses in his parent’s house; paying a modest rent of INR 800 to begin with.
Key Takeaways: Resilient, made it work anyway, Action Speaks louder than words.
Eureka Moment
His Eureka moment was when he was in office and saw people flipping through the job listings in the newspaper. Yes, even though they had jobs; people back in the late 90s did this to stay up with the trending job market.
His vision was to create a master data base for everyone to look up jobs; A job portal if you will. Back in the day, India did not have such platforms and thus became one of a kind when it finally went online. It was around the time Internet became a thing and conveniently it bolstered their cause.
Was the ship always smooth sailing?
Nothing is as easy as it seems; with technology being a new thing in India, it wasn’t as easily available at the time. (The short version of the story) He reached out to his brother who lived in US to rent servers for his business venture. Upon understanding the capacity of what the internet could do, Sanjeev started recruiting people to fulfill his business needs.
It turned out to be a game changing moment. It seems about right to have picked up resourceful people, people who could do certain things better than he could.
This was pivotal, many more instrumental people were pulled in to run the show and to continue growing the business. Which according to him, was the only logical way forward.
Key Takeaway: Collaboration, Believe in your idea.
Touch Down
Investment Bankers took notice, VC’s (Venture Capitalists) got involved; the potential was realized and money started pouring in; They decided to invest in the company. The company was soon listed public and it started showing good profit numbers after tax.
Today, Sanjeev owns similar entities like naukri.com such as 99 Acres.com (for property), jeevasathi.com for matrimonial and a few more, which ran on similar fundamental principles.
In addition,He also owns Ashoka University in Delhi, India; ultimately owning more than one business.
Sanjeev’s Quotes
“We knew how difficult it was to make money on the internet. We knew the value of money because we had always been short of money”
“When I am talking to entrepreneurs, I always say base your business on deep customer insights, the way Naukri was formed”
My Source
I read quite a bit about him in the book “Stay Hungry Stay Foolish”, written by Rashmi Bansal.
Most of what I’ve written here is an abridged version of his story from this book.
I recommend you reading the book if entrepreneurship is your thing; but I believe I have summarized it as best as I can here 🙂
Mr. Sanjeev Bikhchandani’s advice to young entrepreneurs
The ones I most like
“Do not exaggerate in your business plan. Under commit and over deliver.”
“If you are starting a business to make money, don’t do it.” He says, do something you enjoy, something you truly believe.
Please note, this isn’t an article accounting historical accuracy; it merely summarizes his journey and my takeaway from his journey.
Take Aways
- Entrepreneurship is about taking a leap of faith in what you believe.
- Having a vision for what you want out of the transaction is supremely important.
- When times get tough, stay put! He did that and he is now rewarded; I took some information off of Forbes ?
- Complete conviction in one’s own idea. From his story, I learnt, it is important to stand by your idea.
- Collaboration is the only way to success. One cannot do everything alone; in order to succeed, one needs to collaborate and pick up good people in the journey..
Hope you learnt a thing or two in this read, stay tuned for more such Eureka moments; I now understand how important it is to add these eureka moments; to give yourself a new scope, a scope that can just about be the game changer for you.
Thanks for reading.
Please comment what you think about this man down in the comment section.
