Gundaiah Sridhar
Founder and CEO, Yulop.com

Gundaiah Sridhar may be only 25 years old but he is already a CEO. And no he didn’t inherit the business, he set it up from scratch. Sridhar is the founder and CEO of Yulop.com, which supplies mobile users information about shops and restaurants closest to them.

If you are new to Bangalore, hungry and want to know where the nearest restaurant is, you just have to send an SMS. The people at Yulop figure out where you are and SMS you the address of the closest restaurant from their huge listing (15,000 odd at last count, they say).

How did Sridhar hit upon this interesting idea of mobile search in the first place? “When I was doing my masters in London, I found that whatever I needed to know could be found online — from buying a Tube ticket to where to go shopping to bus timings — and this made life much easier. I wanted to provide the same sort of service to the people of my hometown.”

But everyone in Bangalore doesn’t have a PC; most, however, have a mobile. So that is the platform Sridhar worked on. And all his fellow Bangloreans pitched in. “The trouble that people took to keep the information portal updated was an inspiration.” Sridhar was over- whelmed by the interest in his start-up.

Sridhar had a pretty normal childhood. Apart from his parents, his teachers had the most influence on him, encouraging him to take up new things. Sridhar believed that this is what taught him to think outside the box.

After finishing school, Sridhar joined the B.N.M. Institute of Technology in Bangalore for his BTech degree. He also started working part-time for the city-based Prolnt Software that built bespoke software applications for investment banking solutions. “Gautham Moorthy was then vice-president at Prolnt and it is to him that I owe my technical expertise,” says Sridhar.

After completing his degree, he headed to the University of Greenwich for an MS in Internet technologies and e-commerce. He then worked for a time with the San Francisco office of Electronic Data Systems as senior developer of web-based applications. This experience came in handy when he was setting up Yulop.

He isn’t the only one to provide mobile search service; Google also offers it — but there is a difference. Google uses GPRS technology so only high-end mobile phones with GPRS can take advantage of it. Yulop can provide the service to any cellphone because of the simple and inexpensive technology it uses.

Was starting his own company tough? Well, it was actually leaving his highly-paid job that was difficult, says Sridhar. “Deciding to quit was a major issue, convincing my family that I was doing the right thing was an even bigger one,” he says. Then he had to build his team. “Team management is crucial to success,” he says. And just when things were going his way, nearly half his team members quit. “No matter what happens, an entrepreneur must never lose focus,” advises Sridhar.

And where does he plan to take Yulop? “Into every small town in India, localising the technology and building up a mutually profitable network. With Internet and mobile penetration surging all the time, I have a feeling that this will be the next hotbed of technological innovation.” The competition in this field is very tough but that is what motivates Sridhar to innovate and stay ahead in the game.

To handle stress, he depends on meditation. “It is important to keep fit, physically and mentally, to take on the rigours of modern life,” he says. The quintessential Indian, he is also into philanthropy on a small scale. “My family runs a free school in Bangalore and I am the one who ensures that there are funds to keep it running,” he says.

And what is the secret of his success? “Believe in what you do and focus on local aspects,” he says. “As I always say, surviving is instinct but living takes guts.” So did gambling on Yulop.

Based on a conversation with Paromita Sen in Calcutta

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

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