VCCircle

Mohit is currently a Managing Director with Sequoia Capital India and serves on the board of Prizm Payments, Comviva, Ujjivan Microfinance, IMI Mobile , Ideacts, Knowlarity Communications and Micromax Mobile. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital, Mohit served as the Senior Vice President at Bharti Airtel where he helped scale the business from a few states operation into a leading national wireless carrier. Earlier, Mohit co-founded Bright pod, a wireless start-up in the US, by orchestrating a spin off from Ericsson Mobile Systems. Mohit has received an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill and an MSEE from Virginia Tech.

Nitish Mittersain, CEO and promoter of Nazara Technologies, is one of the young achievers, who embarked upon his entrepreneurial mission of building an online venture when he was merely out of college. He managed to raise Rs 20 lakh from a few willing investors, to incorporate Nazara Technologies. Nazara was an online gaming website equipped with localized content that was aimed at the Indian user market. He soon decided to capture the mobile market which was which was on an upswing and made his move quickly and Nazara entered the wireless entertainment sector.

Today, Nazara is a leading mobile content and application developer providing products to mobile operators globally. It’s partners in India are Airtel, Spice, Idea, Vodafone, BPL, Tata Indicom, Reliance India Mobile and Cellebrum.
     
Nitish is also the chairman of the mobile vas committee at IMC. He has been the recipient of several awards including the Young Achievers Award by the Indo-American society and has also held the post of Co-Chairman of the National I.T. committee at the Indian Merchants Chamber in recent years.

Swapnil Shinde leads the overall Product Vision, Engineering & Operations for Dhingana.

In the past he was the Sr. Product Manager and Engineering Lead for Yahoo!'s Exceptional Performance Team. At Yahoo! Swapnil has worked in the field of Web Performance Optimization for 4 years and drived the overall vision for Yahoo!'s core performance products. His team at Yahoo! was the center of expertise for Performance within Yahoo! and evangelized best practices, conducted research and built tools to improve the web performance across all Yahoo! products worldwide.

Swapnil has a Masters in Computer Science from USC and a Bachelors in Computer Engineering. He has more than 10 years of professional experience working with companies like Yahoo!, Symantec & IBM Software Labs.

Rishi Khiani, CEO of Times Internet Limited, carries with him an exceptional track record of industry expertise and management experience. Prior to joining Times Internet Limited, Rishi launched Urban Eye Media in 1998. Urban Eye media focused on creating high end custom design and development solutions for many leading brands and companies the world over such as US Army, Nike, FIFA 2006, Universal Music, Samsung and CNBC – TV18. He was Chief Executive Officer for 'sidewalks of the world', an online store dedicated to offering customers unusual art and home décor products around the World.

Rishi joined Web 18, the online division of Network 18 Group as Chief Operating Officer, after it acquired Urban Eye Media in 2006. Rishi is a graduate in Fine Arts from school of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (U.S.A.).

Shashank has over 20 years of professional experience in the areas of IT and ITES, Outsourcing, Transition and Management consulting. He has been a pioneer in the successful execution of merchant Cash Advance and Merchant Processing businesses through the offshore route. He started his career in 1992 with a computer software and hardware business and set up India’s first computer retail outlet in 1994. Since 2000, he has been involved with IT enabled services viz, medical transcription, international & domestic call centre and outsourced accounting. Shashank has cross-border global experience of more than six years in "Simplifying Payments". His vision is that of "Simplifying Payments" while his Goal is to bring the convenience of Simplified Mobile Payments to every mobile subscriber in India. Shashank holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. He has been a motivational trainer and has addressed public seminars with over 700 people in attendance. He has been the Managing Director at Prospectbase IT Services Pvt Ltd, Prospectbase Inc and Pbpayments Inc with offices in Los Angeles, California.

Harinder Takhar is the CEO of Paytm Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd. At 34, he brings over a decade of rich strategy and product management experience.

While graduating in engineering from DCE, Harinder founded an internet services company, Xs Corps, which was sold in 2000. Harinder then worked with One97 Communications Limited, before going on to complete his MBA from INSEAD.

He moved to Finland subsequently, joining the business development team at Nokia. Some enriching years later he joined RIM in Canada, gaining insights in product management.

His true calling – the growing arena of eCommerce has brought him back to India.

Harinder now owns strategy and direction at Paytm, the growing online destination for prepaid recharges.

His other keen interests include star-gazing and Origami.

Dilip is a new generation tech entrepreneur who has been spearheading mobility innovations.

Dilip started his career in the early 90s, working closely with McKinsey to restructure Group businesses. With an eye on the future, he led the entry of his
Group into the sunrise telecom sector in 1995 by creating Modi Telstra, India’s first mobile service provider. He rose to become its Chairman in July 1999 before its successful divestment from the Group in 2000.

Dilip is currently the Managing Director of S Mobility Limited, the emerging digital innovation company offering mobile internet products and services across India, ASEAN and parts of Africa. He is also on the board of several other Spice group companies including Spice Global, Spice Finance & Spice Enfotainment, in addition to being the executive Vice Chairman of Spice I2I.

He is the youngest ever President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce (ASSOCHAM), the oldest chamber of India. Dilip holds a First Class Bachelor of Science Degree in Management Technology from the Brunel University, London, UK. He has also done his Masters in Business Administration from the Management School at the Imperial College, London, with a specialization in Finance.

Sandeep Goyal is the Vice Chairman of The Mogae Group. A well-known name in the world of media & communication, Sandeep was the Group Chairman of Dentsu’s India operations from 2003 to 2011. He was earlier Group CEO of Zee Telefilms & is a former President of ad agency Rediffusion DY&R. Sandeep remains Founder Chairman of Dentsu India, and is Chairman of Mogae Media.

An MBA (FMS Delhi ’84) and an Honors graduate in English literature (gold medalist) from Panjab University, Sandeep did his schooling & college in Chandigarh.

Sandeep has been on the governing bodies of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and the US-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences of (NATAS), over the years.

The first Indian on the global jury of the Emmy Awards (2002), Sandeep wrote ‘The Dum Dum Bullet’, a bestseller on the business of advertising in 2003. The book was published by Penguin. A regular contributor to The Economic Times, Financial Express, Business Standard, Hindu Business Line, Business World and other publications of repute, Sandeep is a much sought after speaker in industry forums.

A business professional with over 24 years of varied business experience, Shailendra Nath Rai, or 'SNR' as he is popularly known, is a Mechanical Engineer, Six Sigma Green Belt, and is considered one of the leading professionals in Supply Chain Management in India today. SNR has been a part of a sponsored research project of "Perpetual Supply-Demand Balancing" with the Indian School of Business (ISB) which is a partner of the Kellogg Institute of Management.
SNR is recipient of various awards which include "Best Supply Chain Manager" by IIM Bangalore and Price Waterhouse Cooper UK, in 2003. And "Top 6 Supply Chain Process Company in India" by SP Jain institute of management and IIM.

SNR has also co-promoted Pacetel, a leading OEM supplier to Bharti, Reliance, Tata, Hutch, ZTE and other telecom majors.

Founder & CEO, is focused on building a dynamic organization dedicated to innovation and excellence for customers and end users. That means finding the best people possible to join the team and getting out of their way!

Valerie most recently served as Head – Strategic Initiatives at mChek, a mobile payments startup in Bangalore, and before that she worked at eBay in California. Valerie earned both her Bachelors and Masters degrees from Stanford University.

Nitin is responsible for the payment solutions business for ibibo. He started his career as an investment banker with Lehman brothers in their London office. He was in the Fixed income division working across asset classes - ABS, Rates, FX and Commodities - both in structuring and sales. He also later setup a similar desk for them in Mumbai. He then founded and ran one of the largest couponing companies in India, www.khojguru.com, which was the only profitable couponing company in India in 2010. He is a Computer Science Engineer from IIT Delhi and a MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.

Badri Sanjeevi is the Chief Financial Officer of People Group and Chief Executive Officer at Mauj Mobile and Mobango – a part of People Group, which owns interactive websites such as Shaadi.com, Fropper.com, Makaan.com and Astrolife.com. Mauj provides world class mobile internet platforms and content distribution services to Indian and International Telco's and Media companies.

As CEO, Badri leads the Mauj Mobile and Mobango teams on their strategic growth path, both in domestic and international markets, addressing telecom operators, media companies, agencies and brands as primary customers. With an experience of over 18 years, Badri has advised several leading media and telecom companies on developing corporate strategy and driving business performance.

Badri has acquired his bachelor’s degree from Madras University. He is a Chartered Accountant, having cleared all exams in All India rank-holders list and a Cost Accountant. He has also completed his MBA from INSEAD Business School in Fontainbleau, France. He started his career with Arthur Andersen in India and went on to work with leading organizations like Deutsche Bank, T-Mobile UK Limited and Deloitte MCS ltd in UK.

Vamshi leads Apalya's efforts in Corporate Strategy and Business Development. Over the years, Vamshi has garnered a lot of respect in the Mobile TV space in India helping make Apalya synonymous to Mobile TV in India. Prior to starting Apalya, Vamshi worked at Cisco Systems in Information Technology management in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior stints include AT&T, USA and Ernst and Young, USA

Specialist at starting & building new, innovative & high growth ventures across sectors!

As a Private Equity professional, Rajesh  has helped entrepreneurs build exponential growth, scalable businesses, using a unique combination of Business growth, Capital Markets & Brand Creation tools.

He started his career as an entrepreneur, setting up own ventures in Media & Advertising, Education, Textiles & Tea.  Over the last 17 years he has worked  across industries ranging from Media, Private Equity, Consulting, Research and Analytics, E-Commerce,  IT/ITES helping companies like Times Group, Crisil (S&P), Kotak Mahindra, NIIT etc to set up new, innovative and high growth businesses.

He was instrumental in building up India’s first Online Information Services & Internet business, www.indiainformer.com (Matrix Information Services Ltd) in 1998, much before the dotcom boom .

At Brand Capital, he currently heads Market Development, the team responsible for incubating and funding, entrepreneurs to create new, path breaking, innovative businesses of the future.  

Dev joined Lightspeed Advisory Services India in 2011 and invests primarily in the Internet and mobile sectors, including areas such as business software & services, commerce, financial services, location, marketing and social media.

Previously, Dev was at Venrock, a leading Silicon Valley-based venture firm, where he served on the boards of Aha Mobile (acquired by Harman), Appia, Lavante, Slideshare (acquired by LinkedIn) and Turnhere. He also was board observer and supported investments in Aria Systems, Asoka, BillFloat, CoreTrace, FutureDial, INRIX and Redbeacon (acquired by Home Depot).

Prior to Venrock, Dev led market development at Symbol Technologies’ Mobile Software Division (now part of Motorola). In 2003, Symbol acquired Covigo, a Silicon Valley-based mobile application software company that Dev co-founded in 1999. Prior to Covigo, Dev worked in product management at CrossWorlds Software and Aditi Technologies as well as in corporate finance and private equity at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Jefferies & Company.

Dev has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a BS in Economics from Wharton and a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He currently sits on the advisory board of the Wireless Communications Alliance.

Subrat has over 18 years of experience primarily in retail banking and consumer goods. Subrat always enjoyed working on new business opportunity and has been associated with many brands in their early stage. He has set up business from scratch and had variety of roles in sales & distribution, alliances, marketing, CRM, product & portfolio management. Subrat has worked with Godrej-GE, Arvind Mills, SBI-GE, ICICI Bank & Kotak Mahindra bank in the past.

Anisha Singh is Founder and CEO of mydala.com, India's first and largest group-buying website and today one of the country's leading online selling portals. Anisha began her career on Capitol Hill working with the Clinton administration helping women entrepreneurs raise funding for innovative women-led businesses. She then worked at Centra Software in Boston before returning to India and setting up, Kinis (Software) Solutions, a provider of customized e-learning solutions. She is currently of the board Indus Women Entrepreneurs, a platform for South Asian women leaders in the US.

Anisha has a Masters degree in political communication, as well as an MBA in Information Systems from American University in Washington DC.

As Founder and CEO at hoppr, Imthiaz focuses on building an organization of world class people from diverse backgrounds. His belief in the potential of mobile services in India has led to the formation of hoppr, which he strongly believes will contribute immensely to the growth of the mobile ecosystem of India and ensure that there is never a dull moment in the life of a mobile phone user.

Prior to starting up hoppr, Imthiaz has worked with Bharti Airtel for close to 7 years, playing a pivotal role leading Value Added Services and New Business Incubation, as well as stints in Sales and Marketing. An MBA from IMT, Ghaziabad, Imthiaz also has experience in managing brands outside the telecom space, specifically with UB Group and Pizza Corner.

Vivek Paul’s current portfolio is Director Digital and New Business, Sony Music Entertainment India with a special focus on Incubations, New Business Areas, Joint Ventures and Product Development.

Sony Music India is one of the Major Labels with repertoire spanning across Film Soundtrack-Bollywood, Indie-Pop, Regional Languages, Classical and International Music. Besides, the Recording Business, Sony Music India administers: Sony ATV Publishing and IODA’s interests and has its foot print across Indie-Artist Segment (Day 1), Live Music and Talent Management. Sony Music India is a 100% owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation America.

Before Sony Music, Vivek was Founder/Owner : Paul Consulting, a boutique Advisory and Consulting firm, engaged in bringing together : VC Funding and Digital Businesses across various verticals (Media & Entertainment, Movies, Education, Talent, Live Music & Technology) and created a 8MN$ pool across 5 Business Plans.

Prior, was Soundbuzz India (a digital music distribution business model across SEA, Australia and India), since its inception in the Indian business and formed part of the management team, which was then acquired by Motorola in 2009. Soundbuzz was an early adopter of Digital Music Distribution business model and pioneered the effort across the region.

1996-2000 was managing Promotions and Marketing efforts of Channel V (24x7 Music Channel) including multi-artist/multi-city tours :  Channel V Live, Channel V Music Awards, Dance Music, VJ campaigns, Music Merchandising, Branding and On Ground Activation. Conceived and executed the biggest Viewers Choice Campaign in India under The Music Awards Category – 3 years in succession. Involved with Channel V’s acquisition by Star TV India - the launch of Star Gold (24 Hour Retro Film Channel) and web business.

Started career in FMCG, with the biggest Pepsico Franchise in India. 5 Years in the business and was engaged in the Cola Wars, Pepsi Rebranding, Consolidation of Cola Segment, Competing Coke’s India Entry and roll-out of home delivery,  PET, Cans, 500ml and 1 Lt bottles. Besides setting-up the MIS system for the Bottling Plants. In addition, executed over 500 College Music Fests and worked as Marketing & Production Crew at Yanni Live at Taj, One Day International – India/Aus and WWE.

In the last 2 decade Vivek Paul has engaged multiple diverse industries with Music/ Entertainment business and infused innovations for the entire eco-system and its value chain.

Salman has over 10 years experience in the mobile media space. He runs business development and strategy in India for Vuclip. Prior to Vuclip, he worked for Verisign, Al Ebda IT, and Electronics for Imaging.
 
Salman holds a BS from Aligarh Muslim University.

Upasana is fiercely passionate about how payments should work for consumers & businesses. Upasana spent her formative professional years as a product manager at PayPal, San Jose. She started her startup journey with MobiKwik, where she figured out the online payment problems web businesses in India face. She hopes that payments will soon become an enabler rather than a deterrent for eCommerce India. Upasana often tells us tales about doing triathlons & riding motorcycles & traveling solo in the Amazon but we find them extremely hard to believe

Karan currently serves as a Director on the boards of Vserv and Ozone Media and as an Observer on Brainbees (Firstcry.com) and Kreeda Games

Prior to joining IDG Ventures India, Karan worked with QVT Finance LP, a US based hedge fund and was a founding member of their Asia-Pacific practice. Karan earlier worked in the technology banking group at Jefferies & Company (formerly Broadview International) in Silicon Valley, where he helped several emerging technology companies in capital raising, mergers & acquisitions as well as strategic partnerships. Later, he helped start the India office where he advised and executed financing strategies for companies in the Technology, Media, Telecom, CleanTech and Education sectors. He has successfully completed over 20 transactions covering M&A and capital raising for corporates across India and the US.

Karan holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration (BBA) from the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and an EMBA from INSEAD, where he was the youngest graduate in the program's history.

Vikas Jain serves as Business Director and Promoter of Micromax Informatics Limited. He has over 14 years experience in international business and planning and the information technology sector. He has previously served with Daewoo Motors engineer (QC approval) and GE Motors as a co-op student. He holds a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Jamia Millia Islamia University.

As Sales Director, Rajat Tandon leads Sales & Business Development activities of Nokia, Location & Commerce in India. Rajat joined Nokia, Location & Commerce in November 2008. He brings with him approximately 18 years of telecom industry experience spanning across products and managed services and a client base covering Service Providers, Enterprises, SMBs and Partners.

Prior to joining Nokia, Location & Commerce, Rajat was with Nortel where he served on various roles for 13 years and was leading the customer relationship with one of India’s largest service providers. Before Nortel, he was with Siemens Ltd in Sales & Marketing where he was responsible for large strategic accounts like the Indian Railways.

Rajat holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics & telecommunication from University of Poona and Masters in Business Administration from IMT Ghaziabad.