Manmohan Shetty – Entrepreneur, Founder of Adlabs Films Ltd

Manmohan Shetty is an Indian entrepreneur, film producer and founder of Adlab Films Ltd, one of India's largest media and entertainment firms known for highly acclaimed movies such as Ardh Satya, Chakra, Hip Hip Hurray, Holi etc. Masoom became the first processed movie under Adlabs.  It took Manmohan Shetty four years and Rs 1650 crores to unveil India’s first theme park Adlabs Imagica at the Mumbai-Pune Expressway which opened its gates to public on April 18 2013.

He was born and schooled at Mangalore, Karnataka and further went on to study Arts at Mumbai’s famous Somaiya College. After completing his education he founded Adlabs Films, as a film processing company in 1978 which went ahead into film production and distribution. His other film production house named Entertaintment One had delivered hits like Gangajal, Dev, Bluffmaster, Waqt, Inteha and Munnabhai MBBS. He entered television space by establishing Walkwater Media in 2007, producing the hit serial Pratigya on star plus.

Adlabs Films Ltd (now Reliance MediaWorks) went on to win several national awards for its contribution to the Indian cinema. But by 2007, as Anil Ambani’s Reliance Entertainment bought him and his partner out for Rs 360 crore, The Company however evolved into one of the biggest media conglomerates and launched India's first and largest IMAX dome in Mumbai before introducing the multiplex culture to India. Adlabs had close to 100 screens and a market capitalization was approximately $ 1 billion, when Manmohan Shetty resigned as Chairman in 2008. Hence he is widely credited with being the pioneer of the multiplex revolution in India. His wealth of experience in the entertainment and media sector is unparalleled.

The fascination of setting up a different business struck Shetty and he wanted to do something “different”. Adlabs Imagica spread across 300 acres of land has been strategically located at Khopoli off the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, comfortably within the driving distance of Mumbai, Nasik and Pune and is to be rolled out in three phases – Theme park, Water Park and a three-star hotel.

The theme park has 21 international standard rides (can be taken unlimited number of times); the country’s biggest roller coaster Nitro and 4D simulation rides. Manmohan Shetty has thoroughly researched the functioning of an amusement park, seen all major parks around the world but has customised Imagica according to Indian habits, culture and choices. As he has noticed Indians majorly dislike walking and waiting in queues for rides, he has taken care by building carriages that operate within the park and air-conditioned waiting rooms as well as VIP tickets for the extremely impatient thus getting access to shorter queues! His future plans are to tap the other regions of India where people have stronger spending power such as Hyderabad and the capital city Delhi. Too early to say but if there is an opportunity I would do it,” he says.

Manmohan Shetty has two daughters, Pooja Shetty-Deora and Aarti Shetty. Pooja is the joint Managing Director of Walkwater media is married to Mumbai based politician Milind Deora. Aarti is the Creative Head of Walkwater Media's Film Production Division. Both them produced the 2010 hit film 'Tere Bin Laden.'

Jan Koum – CEO & Co-Founder, WhatsApp

“We do have a manifesto opposing advertising. We’re proud of that. Who likes advertising? We’re so bombarded with ads so much in our daily lives and we felt that Smartphone’s aren’t the place for that.”

Jan Koum's meteoric rise has been nothing short of amazing. Seven years ago he was unemployed, traveling across South America with his future business partner, Brian Acton. The pair, founded WhatsApp in 2009, and just six years later, became billionaires overnight when Facebook purchased their start-up for what ultimately amounted to nearly $22 billion of cash and stock. The 38 year old CEO and Co founder of WhatsApp has now to his name $7.4  billion.  Koum is now one of the directors of Facebook.

Born in Ukraine in 1976, Koum moved to the US with his family when he was sixteen years old. Koum and his mother did odd jobs to make ends meet. They survived on food stamps as well. At the age of 18, he learnt computer networking. Soon after that, he joined a hacker group and over there, he got an opportunity to chat with Napster co-founder Sean Fanning. He was studying in San Jose University and simultaneously working at Ernst & Young as a security tester. In the year 1997, he joined Yahoo. He dropped out of San Jose University because a situation arose in Yahoo where the entire team of server engineers was required to resolve an issue. He was in class when the call came from David Filo (Yahoo’s co founder), who asked him to leave for office immediately. He worked with Yahoo for nine years. Initially he worked with the systems security and then in infrastructure engineering. In 2007, he left Yahoo and took a year off. He spent the whole year (2008) sightseeing and enjoying in South America with his friend and colleague at Yahoo Brian Acton (also the Co-Founder of WhatsApp).  Both of them applied to work for Facebook, but they had to taste failure.

WhatsApp, the brain child of Koum and Acton was actually launched with the motive of generating service where reaching family and friends around the world can be done on any type of Smartphone. In January 2009, the apps in his recently bought iPhone caught his attention and he realized the potential of apps. Soon after, he spoke with his friend Alex Fishman about his idea of a particular app. Immediately after that, he selected the name WhatsApp because it sounded like What’s up. On Feb. 24, 2009, on his birthday, he incorporated WhatsApp Inc. in California. Initially, Koum and Acton worked for free. At that point, their highest cost was sending verification text to users. This drained Koum’s bank account. Eventually, in 2010 WhatsApp brought revenues, approximately $5,000 per month. Now and then, the founders had to switch their app from ‘free’ to ‘paid’ to justify their expenses. Koum’s upbringing in Ukraine gave him an appreciation for tight friend groups rather than the sprawling social networks that Americans often develop. He also gained an aversion for advertising there, and has consistently railed against its use as the monetization engine of the Web. According to a Wired profile, he has a sign in his office from his co-founder that reads “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!”

Koum believes that the collaboration of WhatsApp with Facebook will not change the primary objective of WhatsApp. He still runs WhatsApp on a day-to-day basis. It's part of Facebook, but an independent entity. Koum owes his distaste of advertising also to his childhood experience where he saw that his parents avoided phone conversation for the fear of their conversation being tapped. A sober and humble individual, Koum does not want a WhatsApp sign for his new building. “I can’t see a reason for there being a sign. It’s an ego boost,” he scoffs. “We all know where we work.”

Sources

Manmohan Shetty’s Adlabs to build Rs 1.6k-crore theme park near Mumbai

Adlabs Imagica: India's most elaborate theme park opens on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

For Adlabs, a lot rides on new theme park

Manmohan Shetty

Adlabs Imagica: Will it be a Roller Coaster for Manmohan Shetty?

Tea with BS: Manmohan Shetty

Walkwater Media

Adlabs’ Shetty is back in the game with a theme park

Who is WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum?

RAGS TO RICHES: WhatsApp Co-Founder Jan Koum Once Lived On Food Stamps

Exclusive: The Rags-To-Riches Tale Of How Jan Koum Built WhatsApp Into Facebook's New $19 Billion Baby

How WhatsApp founder Jan Koum crashed Zuckerberg’s dinner with wife

Meet WhatsApp founder & CEO Jan Koum

Six quotes explain why WhatsApp’s CEO is now a billionaire and you’re not

What is Jan Koum's Net Worth?