VCCircle

Sanjay has over 15 years of entrepreneurial, business development, management consulting and operations experience. He spent 7 years between PwC Consulting and IBM Global Services' Silicon Valley offices, advising and working closely with leading high tech clients like HP/ Compaq, Sun Microsystems, Intel and AT&T. Before his return to India in 2010, he co founded and ran a Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) company. Sanjay has been a member of the Mumbai Angels, one of India's leading angel groups, since its inception in 2006. He has made 8 investments across mobile, online travel, software, healthcare. Sanjay was an early investor in InMobi (formerly mKhoj), one of India's best known angel-funded success stories.    

In the US, Sanjay was a Principal with IBM Global Services and earlier a Consultant with PwC in a similar role. One of his key global, transformational projects was the HP/Compaq merger, where he advised and closely worked with senior executives and managers on a global scale.Early in his career, Sanjay supported the initial growth of Kanbay which had a successful IPO on the Nasdaq in '04, and was then acquired by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young for $1.25 billion in 2006.

Pranay Gupta as the Joint CEO at the Center for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, Pranay has been leading the IIM Ahmedabad's incubator to become the foremost organisation in early stage incubation in India. He has been instrumental in setting up and scaling various programs at CIIE, including iAccelerator. During his tenure, CIIE has incubated more than 20 startups and has raised funds to the tune of $2mn.

He is a board observer to more than 10 startups, where he helps them with setting up internal processes, deciding their business startegy, networking, and reaching out to the right kind of people. Apart from helping startups, Pranay enjoys creating opportunities for students to get involved in entrepreneurship - be it through the various courses and projects that CIIE provides to IIM students, or through internships for others.

Previously, he has worked with Lehman Brothers and Nomura, leading Investment Banks and helped them set up their India equity practice. He has also worked on shorter stints with promoters in a variety of fields including data analysis, luxury adventure tourism and educational magazine.

He is passionate about building organisations from ground up, and is currently getting his highs through his work with startups and by building CIIE & CIIE Initiatives.

At The Morpheus Sameer works with portfolio companies on things like – strategy / product / sales / marketing / boot strapping  / plumbing   & what ever else is required to make the startup kick ass.

Sameer co-founded Madhouse Media in 2004, India’s first organized movie rentals company, which was acquired by Seventymm in 2007. Post acquisition he was Vice President – Corporate Strategy, Seventymm.  In his pre-madhouse avatar he was a hacker for startups like Sonim Inc, Telephia and worked across India, US and Europe.

Sameer is also an independent film maker with film festivals movies to his credit. He loves meeting people, traveling and reading.  Sameer managed to get a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Thapar University, India

Kunal manages the strategic vision, key business relationships, fundraising and growth plans for Snapdeal. An engineer from University of Pennsylvania, with a business degree from The Wharton School and an executive marketing program at Kellogg School of Management, Kunal has a variety of entrepreneurial experiences. Prior experiences also included product management and business development with Microsoft's emerging markets group, and at Deloitte Consulting as a consultant in the company's telecom practice in New York and Pennsylvania. Outside of Snapdeal.com, Kunal has a passion for financial markets, cults and politics.

Kartik has financial advisory and investment management experience in India, Asia, US and Europe. He invested money for the Ziff family and thereafter for Europe's leading hedge fund, TCI Fund Management, which managed money for wealthy families, institutions and endowments. Before investing, Kartik worked as a mergers and acquisitions banker at James D. Wolfensohn, Inc. in New York.

Kartik managed the operations for India's largest theatre company, Stagedoor, and helped grow the troupe into a pan-India presence. He holds a B.A. from Delhi University, an LL.B. from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard.

Bijaei has a strong leadership and management background, with unbridled passion and innovative ideas for Consumer Loyalty & Relationship management businesses. Bijaei earned his business management education as a part of the Founding Class of the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad.

Bijaei earned his Bachelor's Degree from Loyola College and Master's Degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Subsequently, Bijaei worked in the advertising industry in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman and with McCann Erickson Worldwide (FP7) in Dubai, UAE before returning to India to pursue his business management studies at the ISB.

After ISB, Bijaei joined Jet Airways, India’s largest airline and worked as the Head of its Loyalty Program - Jet Privilege (JP). While at Jet, Bijaei led the conversion of JP from a domestic loyalty program into a global loyalty program, and recalibrated the fundamental structure of the Program. He also created a host of global partnerships for JP with companies such as Shangri La, Lufthansa, HSBC, Qantas, Raffles, and Hertz, and made JP a decisively revenue-generating and profitable department for the airline. The program won the Freddie award, based on consumer votes for the first time under Bijaei’s leadership.

Post Jet Airways, and before joining Loylty Rewardz, Bijaei worked with MasterCard Worldwide as Associate Vice President & Account Head, responsible for MasterCard’s relationship with State Bank of India, India’s largest bank with over 33 million Debit Cards. While at MasterCard, Bijaei was twice conferred with the MasterCard SAMEA Star Award (South Asia, ME & Africa) & once with the APMEA Star Award (Asia Pacific, ME & Africa) for his achievements for MasterCard businesses worldwide.

Bhavish drives the company's vision and manages customer and partner relations. He graduated with a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2008 and worked at Microsoft Research for 2 years after that. He had a wonderful time there, filing 2 patents and publishing 3 papers in International Journals. But the entrepreneurial itch was too hard to resist and he decided to quit his job in August 2010 and moved to Mumbai to start Olacabs!

When not talking to Cab operators and customers, He loves cycling and playing squash and most recently spent a whole week cycling in the beautiful Nilgiris! He also enjoys photography and maintains a photoblog here

Ambarish has global work experience in business strategy, marketing, technology and organizational effectiveness. Ambarish developed Go-to-market strategies for Fortune 10 Technology and insurance companies of the world while working for McKinsey & Company in US. Earlier he worked at Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics, Germany as researcher in the area of Artificial Intelligence and as a Systems developer in US. He is passionate about the strategic application of technology as a tool for total business transformation.

Ambarish graduated from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur with degree in Computer Science in 2000. He received his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, USA in 2007.

Amol Arora B.E. (Delhi College of Engineering), MBA (University of California, Irvine, USA) Doctoral Researcher in Education Leadership & Management (University of Nottingham, UK) is the dynamic Vice Chairman & Managing Director of SHEMROCK & SHEMFORD Group of Schools and Member of Managing Committee, DPS Pinjore. As the MD of the Group, he has played a major role in the franchising and growth of the School Chains. He is also known for introducing pioneering concepts and integration of technology in School Education in India. As recognition to his leadership role in the Indian School System, he was nominated as the Chairman of the 2006 conference of Independent Schools of India. In addition, he has also been awarded the “Young Entrepreneur of the year 2006” by the Governor of Delhi. He was also felicitated by the “Independent School Federation of India” in 2007 for his contribution to School Education in India. Under his leadership, the group received 'Franchisor of the year in Education: Preschool' Award by Franchise Plus Magazine, and has been amongst the “Top 100 Franchise Opportunities” by The Franchising World Magazine, for two consecutive years. His outstanding management was also recognized by Business Sphere Magazine with 'Excellence in School Management' Award at their 9th Annual Awards Function, recently.

Swapnil is a B.Tech from IIT Bombay & M.S. from Chicago. Prior to Vriti, he founded SeekNet Technologies, a San Francisco based desktop search company which went through a successful acquisition. Swapnil has worked with Epiphany, San Francisco & Motorola Research Labs, Chicago in his previous life. He is an avid sports enthusiast.

Pradeep Gupta is the Chairman of the CyberMedia Group, South Asia's first and largest specialty media house, with 15 publications, 12 websites, 100+ events and weekly TV programs in the infotech, telecom, consumer electronics & biotech areas. CyberMedia’s brands include Dataquest, PCQuest, Voice&Data, BioSpectrum, DARE, MIT’s Technology Review, CIOL.com and Global Services. The group's media services include market research (CMR) and content outsourcing (Content Matrix Inc). CyberMedia is a public company.

Pradeep is also an Angel investor and a mentor to a number of entrepreneurs. He is the co-founder of Indian Angel Network. He is the Chairman of the Board of Advisors of IIT Alumni Trust. He is the President of the Association of Indian Magazines. He is also on the Board of UTI, IIT Mandi, TiE Global, PanIIT India and Kaleidoscope Entertainment.

He is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni award of IIT Delhi and the Helen Keller award for working in the disability sector.

Pradeep is an Engineer from IIT Delhi (1975) and an MBA from IIM Calcutta (1977).

Anupama is an investor, serial entrepreneur, business executive, technologist, and mentor.    

As an entrepreneur she founded and led 3 companies in India and Silicon Valley.  Before starting on the entrepreneurial career, Anupama led many Software Development and Architecture initiatives at Lucent Technologies and Synoptics / Bay Networks.

Anupama is National Vice Chairman of CII – Yi (CII – Young Indians); Member of the CII National MSME Council and Chairperson CII MSME Sub Group on Technology and Innovation; Co-founder and Board Member of The Hatch Incubators; Board Member of Angel Investors Consortium; and, Board Member of Athena Foundation – an international organization  focused on women leadership.

Rahul Khanna has over fifteen years of investing and operating experience in ICT across India and the U.S. Having returned from Silicon Valley in 2005, Rahul has played a key role in the development of the venture ecosystem in India and is well recognized as an active investor in several high growth companies.

Prior to joining Canaan India in early 2011, Rahul was the founding director of Clearstone Venture Advisors, a firm that manages investments in India for Clearstone Venture Partners. At Clearstone, Rahul was responsible for building the platform that would focus on early stage investments in verticals like financial services, telecom, media and education. While at Clearstone, he served on the Boards of Billdesk and Games2Win.

During his time in Silicon Valley, Rahul was Area Director Asia-Pacific at Sonim Technologies. Having joined Sonim during its inception, he was responsible for the company’s global marketing and sales initiatives including key markets like China and India. Prior to spending time in the Valley, he was part of the team that launched Hutchison Telecom’s mobile operations in India during the mid-nineties.

Rahul earned an MBA in 2000 from the Kellogg Graduate School at Northwestern University. He also serves on the Investment Committee of SONG, a social impact fund sponsored by the Soros Economic Development Fund, Pierre Omidyar and Google.

Ravi Kiran is a career business builder, a growth advisor and an active angel investor. He is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Friends of Ambition, arguably India’s first growth advisory company focused on helping scale ambitious enterprises in Middle India - India’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns.

The former CEO -South East & South Asia and Emerging Market Leader-Specialist Solutions for Chicago headquartered Starcom MediaVest Group, in turn owned by Paris based Publicis Groupe, he opted out of his full time position in end 2010, in order to explore alternative business possibilities.

Of his twenty year long corporate career, he spent eight years at Lintas India and Initiative Media and twelve years at Starcom MediaVest Group. He has had divisional, country and regional leadership roles, based in Delhi, Mumbai and Singapore. He has built teams and product portfolio, grown businesses and stature for the company, mentored peers in the Middle East, Mexico, Russia, Poland and elsewhere on creating new lines of business.

He also served on SMG’s Global Product Committee and Global Management Group, the company’s apex product and leadership groups respectively.

Kiran holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from University of Kashmir and a Business Management degree from Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. He lives in Mumbai with his wife Shalini. His interests include technology, behavioral sciences and philosophy.

Anand is the founder, Chairman and CEO of Rave Technologies. Since Rave's inception in 1987, Anand has guided Rave from a small company to a medium sized organization providing software solutions with offices across Europe, USA and India. Anand started his career in designing controller chips with Advanced Micro Devices in Silicon Valley as a Senior Systems Engineer. After two years at AMD, he joined a start-up company, Clarity Systems, Inc., as an Applications Engineer developing CAD tools for VLSI semiconductor devices. Upon Anand's return from the US, he founded Rave Technologies. Anand holds both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, graduating with distinction.