Youngest CEO

CEO at 17

AT AROUND the end of 1999, a guy called Suhas Gopinath set up an "online" IT firm specializing in web design, web-based application and chat engines. Suhas has partners around the world who work and communicate through e-mail or video conferencing, which is what makes the firm online. On November 2, 2003, at the Bangalore IT.com, we got to know that Suhas Gopinath, CEO of Globals Inc (http://globalsinc.com) launched his company's latest venture — an online School Management System. All by a guy 17 years of age, the youngest entrepreneur this country has produced.

Setting up a company at the age of 14, and turning CEO at 17, is no child's play. Today, Globals Inc is a 60-member team of 14 to 17-year-olds from India, Germany, and the U.S., who work from cyber cafes or from computers at home to produce source codes and websites for clients. "Initially, people did not take me seriously. When they saw our initiatives, they were impressed," says this Bangalore lad who finds Bill Gates inspiring. The team is so far generating turnover in the range of Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 50,000 every year.

Suhas and friends also host another web page, www.coolhindustan.com catering to NRIs.

Globals Inc is open to anyone in the age group of 17 to 22 provided they bring relevant skills and they can apply online.

The concept of Student Management Software is relatively new in India, with the exception of a couple of high-end capitation colleges in Bangalore. "We essentially approached schools. We proposed that Globals Inc would design a customised website for every school. The website would provide access to the student's attendance status and marks, and admission modules. We even mooted the idea of a virtual notice board," Suhas explains. When Globals Inc attempted to sign an agreement with a Singapore-based company, Smith and Gale, his offer was turned down on the ground that he was under 18 years of age, legally not qualified to enter into a contract. 

Sold on the Web 

For a student of class X, young Vishnu Prasad’s understanding of the Internet is amazing. Listen to him for five minutes and you realise that the lad aims to emerge a business tycoon in the not too distant future.

Prasad, however, has had no formal education in .Net technology or networking techniques. He hails from a middle-class family. His father is a Central Government employee while his mother is a homemaker. Prasad himself is a product of a State Board institution in Coimbatore.

The family bought a computer when the lad was studying in class VIII. “I had always yearned to make money online. I surfed the Net, gathered information and created my first blog ‘dvishnu123.blogspot.com.”

“I was enthused by the number of visitors to my blog. I went ahead and registered in social networking sites such as Orkut and managed to reach out to a wider group. That was in January 2008. Around that time I first got the feel of earning online from the Ads on my Web site, www.dvishnu.com. I earned $60,” recalls Prasad.

Today, when most youngsters in his age group think of relaxing a bit after writing the Class X examination, he is busy giving tips to bloggers on how to make money, how to get traffic to one’s site, and so on.

At 15, he owns around 50 Web-based businesses, Web sites and domain names. “I am a domain reseller. I understand SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). I have 10 sites to manage,” says Prasad.

(SEO is the practice of optimising a Web site to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines).

But at 15, can a minor start a company in his own capacity, eWorld asked him. Prasad replies promptly that he is being helped by a third-year engineering student, his Orkut friend, from Kumbakonam. Also, his maternal uncle (a retired headmaster) is the guiding hand behind the show.

“My dream is to enable worldwide users benefit from my service,” he says, and cites Wikipedia as an example.

He has floated a company Silver Star Solutions and established offices in Kumbakonam, Hyderabad, Chennai and Tiruchi. He has provided employment to 12 persons.

Over the past eighteen months, Vishnu’s turnover has crossed the Rs 7-lakh mark. “I’ve managed this by selling Ads links in my site, sold a single link for $200 and so on.”

How exactly does this happen? Prasad explains that the shopping advertisements on dvishnu.com attract those visiting his site. When they shop online, he gets paid a certain amount.

Has the meltdown affected his earnings? “Definitely. For an SEO, a client paid $25,000 last year, but he is offering only $4,000 this year.”

He has created www.5co.in, which is similar to blogger.com. The beta version is up and running. “It is a site for creating blogs, optimising template.”

Asked about the need for creating a similar site, Prasad says, “I want to be the first to create the world’s smallest ID.

‘in.com’ is the smallest ID at present. To beat this, I bought ‘in.vg’. My plan is to launch the world’s smallest e-mail ID, the world’s smallest Web blog and largest online portal. The deadline for this project is April 1, 2010.”

Intrigued, eWorld looked up Prasad’s Web sites and spoke to the third-year student who helps him.

His friend, Vijayakumar, has hosted riaon.com, a site that offers tips on the latest applications and services on the Net such as twitters and knoppix.

We asked how he handles the money being generated by the business. As with other questions, Prasad has a prompt reply: he reinvests the money in establishing offices at different places, in buying domains and in paying the employees.