I don't consider my competition to be companies but entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is the freedom to take your own decisions, and that's what we offer.
— Naveen Tewari
For me, my career and passion is InMobi. So I hardly get stressed working for it.
Bengaluru's traffic does not allow scope for cycling regularly, but I brave the roads occasionally and take the cycle out to work.
Good people do fundamental work because they believe in the work.
Anything edgy won't see instant success. That's why one will have to learn to wait. You're going to see a lot of failures.
I realized that the journey of entrepreneurship can often be a lonely one. Not everyone wants to believe in or support your vision, and every entrepreneur faces this moment of truth. It's hard to walk away but harder to persevere.
InMobi will play a critical role in shaping the future.
Just do what you love.
Of the three largest Internet markets - the U.S., India, and China - you will increasingly see Indian and Chinese companies partner.
We knew we had to think global and think big. Most companies that are emerging don't do that.
I realized that if I had to work with others, I had to align with their vision.
The world has many very smart people who are doing interesting and different things, and there is no better way to learn than to interact with them.
I know, it sounds generic and is a cliche, but coming from a middle class family in Kanpur, it was always the neighbourhood opinions which mattered.
Drying up of capital has different consequences in different environments.
The Internet eco-system should be such that users should not pay for Internet connection, content, or anything that is basic.
A lot of coordinated approaches are required to make a global operation work.
I eventually think its going to be the consumer who controls his own data.
PC Internet advertising and mobile advertising - there are some key differences. One, the ability to target is phenomenally high in the mobile space because the information... that one has about the kinds of things that you're doing on the phone is better.
For most people, hobbies are not something we can take up full-time.
In a market where funding is hard to come by, if you're scaled already, then you are in a brilliant position because nobody is going to catch up with you.
As long as you're a company that makes profits, all's good.
As long as you're clear about your goal, failures don't mean it's not going to work.
As technologists, we all write code.
We were told that building a product company in India is impossible, as there wasn't enough talent available. But we survived, thrived, and grew despite a whole lot of frowns and thumbs down.
Nasscom has a big mandate - a lot of things come under their umbrella.
NestAway is a disruptive product creating a win-win opportunity, not just for direct stakeholders like owners and tenants but for the society at large by making cities safer, especially for young women.
As an Indian company, to go outside India and motivate people, have them align to our vision, and get them excited about what an Indian company can do was a hard thing to pull off.
For a company to be successful, it's not just about ideas. It's also about luck. And everything else coming together.
In my viewpoint, experience is grossly overrated.
When I started InMobi, I was on the road raising funds. I faced 20 rejections. But when I got the funds, they came from best venture capitalists.
Capital will follow where great talents go.
You get to learn so much while working in another country.
However hard you might try, you can never understand a market like a local person would.
If you look at the direction that the world is taking from an advertising and marketing point of view, it is significantly becoming a world that's all about video and all about doing things programmatically. Now what AerServ has is best in-class technology in the form of video programmatic... our acquisition of them gives us that capability.
In 2007, I was living in San Francisco. I came out of business school, and I was very keen on doing something with a small company. I felt that the market, in general, in mobile phones was just going to explode.
Team sports is the best for bonding. These sports lessons are also true for startups. You want to be at the top of every endeavour, but you win some and you lose some. As a team, however, you always pump each other up and move forward.
We started paying everyone 100% bonuses. We removed any sort of performance management system where you put down your goals for the quarter, or the year, then try measuring against those goals because when you are dealing with innovation, that has no meaning.
Bubbles are created when something positive is happening. People get over-enthusiastic about it and take the tide higher than it should go. The reality is bubbles are required to create an industry.
As an entrepreneur, you're going to get 100 rejections and one yes. That one yes will give you enough and more kick in life to continue and remain motivated.
When we failed and pivoted our business from mKhoj to InMobi or when we did not get any trained people with the required skillsets, as we were the first in the industry, and on many such instances in our journey, we would think of giving up every other day.
I have the same breakfast I have been having for many years - oats with fruits and dry fruits.
For me, whether I have money or not, it is far more important that there is an intent behind a cause that's pure and can change the lives of certain people. If that's there, then you will be able to get all the resources required.
I always believe in backing up a team that is super passionate and loves to work with each other.
One of the challenges of having exceptionally high quality talent is that they're constantly restless, and they're constantly on the lookout for opportunities.
The primary motivation for me is to learn.
The most important lesson to remember is that failure is inevitable, but so is success, so rebound.
After multiple failures, when I tasted success, I was at my creative best - the 'jugaadu'-best.
Access to Internet and content should be free for users which can get accommodated by advertisements.
Our offices across the globe may not be very similar in terms of the way they look, but they are very similar culturally.
Advertising has to be contextual, as the potential in 'push' marketing is fairly limited and is largely viewed as spam. Thus there is a need to get into 'permission' marketing and 'pull' marketing to deliver value to marketers.
