(Image: Google)
Sanjeev Bikhchandani never wanted to be called as failed entrepreneur and that is the reason what kept him going with no salary for six years before even naukri.com was born. That mental frame of never giving up led to light at the end of the tunnel and now one out of every five Indians find their job in naukri.com.
The Founder: He gave up the seat of IIT-M, a passport to a great future because he was not passionate about engineering. Instead he did BA Economics from St. Stephen’s college. With his hard work he got admission to IIM-A. At 26, he realized entrepreneurship is his call. Despite he faced many challenges since none of his family member and extended family was in business, he somehow managed to convince them and create something of his own.
The Idea: Entrepreneurship was his dream and his first business with his partner was a market study on salaries provided to management graduates. In IIM-A he was in placements committee helping placement officer for getting the best in class for the corporate. He witnessed a cutthroat competition in the class among the participants. Under his study he found that if he could aggregate the salaries offered he would make money so initially he collected 135 offers and mailed it to around 700 companies. Contacts of companies were collected through the newspaper ads. He got good response and many companies expressed interest in his data.
The Team: He and his partner spilt due to some differences in 1996 and go their own way.
The Product: Visiting Pragati Maidan IT Asia was like a spark for naukri.com where he found that internet could connect the world through computers so he wanted to build a website. For that he offered his brother a deal, 5 percent of his company as he paid $25 to get a server for his website in US. Still he was not earning, he asked two data entry people in his office to collect all Delhi newspapers and enter all the jobs offered for example position, experience, salary etc on a computer. He took the data in the floppy to his friend who was not well and confined to room for programming. His friend was good in programming but didn’t know how to develop a website. Within a week after reading about the website he was ready to go. Sanjeev offered him 7% stake in his business. Another hitch was the server he took was a Linux server and that’s why compatibility issues cropped up. His friend helped him and naukri.com was up.
The Growth: Initially naukri.com ads were free but later a subscription model of Rs 350 per ad or Rs 6000 annually for unlimited ads was put in place. Sales boomed and investors showed interest in his company and by the time other rivals was also born and he was convinced that it was not a small business any more. Further ICICI offered $1.7 million for 17% stake in his company which he took into his pockets. Sanjeev carefully spent the money on field staff, ads and office. He spent Rs 5 crores and rest in bank. Hitesh now a partner and CEO of InfoEdge joined Sanjeev in 2000 and drove the sales immensely thereby multiplying revenues. Rest all is history.
So, according to Sanjeev, the ideas should constantly be tested irrespective of outcome and never give up for the sake of money. And always find a way out and solve the unsolved problem.
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