Sabeer Bhatia

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Sabeer Bhatia (सबीर भाटिया) is a co-founder of Hotmail and an entrepreneur.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Founder of Hotmail 3 Other ventures 4 Awards 5 External links

[edit] Biography

Sabeer was born in Chandigarh, India in 1969 to typical middle class parents. His father, Balev Bhatia, worked in the Indian Ministry of Defence while his mother, Daman Bhatia was a senior official at a state bank. ^[1] Bhatia was schooled at the St. Joseph's Boys' High School in Bangalore. He started his undergraduate education at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, BITS, Pilani and transferred to Caltech after two years at BITS. After graduating from Caltech, Sabeer went to Stanford to pursue his MS in Electrical Engineering. At Stanford, he worked on Ultra Low Power VLSI Design.

At Stanford, he was inspired by entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and Scott McNealy eventually deciding to become one himself. Instead pursuing a PhD after his Masters, he decided to join Apple computers.

[edit] Founder of Hotmail

After a brief stint at Apple, Sabeer joined a startup company called Firepower Systems Inc, where he spent two years. At this point, Sabeer started working on new ideas for the Internet and he teamed up with Jack Smith, a colleague from Apple.

The two came up with the concept of a web-based database entitled Javasoft. While pursuing this idea, they subsequently realised the potential of a web-based e-mail system and thus decided to create one called HoTMaiL (the uppercase letters spelling out HTML - the language used to write the base of a webpage). In order to attract attention, the e-mail service was provided for free and revenue was obtained through the advertising on the website. Draper Fisher Ventures invested $300,000 on the project and the service was launched on July 4, 1996.

In less than six months, the website attracted over 1 million subscribers. As the interest in the web-based email provider increased, Microsoft eventually took notice and on December 30, 1997, Hotmail was sold to Microsoft for a reported sum of $400 million.

[edit] Other ventures

After selling Hotmail, Bhatia worked at Microsoft for about a year and in April 1999, he left the company to start another website, Arzoo Inc, which was shut down when the dot-com bubble burst. In 2006, he relaunched Arzoo as a travel portal.

He started a new website trying to capitalise on the emerging blogosphere - BlogEverywhere with co-founders Shiraz Kanga and Viraf Zack.

He also pushed for a project enabling access to the internet through cable television in Indian homes. However, due to bureaucratic problems it is very unlikely that this will reach completion.

Further future plans of his include the development of a new city in India by the name of Nano city. The aim of Nanocity is to replicate the vibrance and eco-system of innovation found in the Silicon Valley.

[edit] Awards

1. "Entrepreneur of the Year," Awarded by the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (1997)
2. Named to the "Elite 100," Upside magazine's list of top trendsetters in the New Economy
3. Recipient of the "TR100" award, presented by MIT to 100 young innovators who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology in the next few years
4. Selected by the San Jose Mercury News and POV magazine as one of the ten most successful entrepreneurs of (1998)
5. Named by TIME as one of the "People to Watch" in International Business (2002)

[edit] External links

• Interview in the Business Standard March 14, 2006

• P O Bronson's Book Nudist On the Late Shift . contains a fascinating chapter on Sabeer Bhatia's life in silicon valley and his story of funding, bootstrapping & selling Hotmail to Microsoft.