Mahesh Murthy

Mahesh Murthy is an Indian marketer and investor. He is the founder of digital agency Pinstorm.

Mahesh Murthy
Mahesh Murthy in February 2015
Born (1965-09-11) 11 September 1965
OccupationInvestor, marketer, writer, speaker, entrepreneur, columnist
Notable work
Columns in WSJ,[1] Businessworld, Business Today[2]
TelevisionBusiness Baazigar,[3] The Pitch[4]

Early life and education

Murthy was born and raised in a Tamil Brahmin family. His father was a Colonel in the Indian Army.[5][6] and was accepted into Osmania University[7] to study chemical engineering,[8] from where he dropped out at age 17.[9]

Career

After dropping out of college, he worked as a vacuum cleaner salesman for Eureka Forbes and subsequently founded his first company, a cleaning service called Vaclean.[8]

He worked for FCB (advertising agency) (then FCB/Ulka) and Grey Advertising (then Trikaya Grey) in India.[10] He then moved to Ogilvy & Mather, Hong Kong.[11] In 1994, he directed a set of six films for MTV with Shashanka Ghosh,[12] for which they won the New Directors Showcase award at the Cannes Lions.[13][14]

He then moved to CKS Partners, Portland[15] where he worked on Yahoo!,[11] and on Amazon's 'Earth's Biggest Bookstore' campaign.[16]

He then went on to work in the e-commerce domain, as vice president of marketing for iCat,[17] a publisher of e-commerce software that was acquired by Intel.[18]

Murthy then ran an Indian music television channel- Channel V – as acting GM for India, and helped launch its website, vindia.com.[19]

In 2000, Murthy founded angel fund Passionfund[9] which funded companies such as Compassbox, Tulleeho, WebDunia, Geodesic, EBSDirect[20]

He founded digital marketing firm Pinstorm in 2004, and in 2006 co-founded early-stage fund Seedfund which funded and advised companies.[21][22]

Pinstorm
Pinstorm
IndustryOnline advertising
FoundedMay 2004
FounderMahesh Murthy
Headquarters
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
ProductsIntegrated digital advertising on a pay-for-performance basis, involving SEM, SEO, SMM, Display, ORM, Email, SMS, mobile marketing
Number of employees
120
Websitepinstorm.com

Pinstorm is a digital advertising firm headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi, Bangalore, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Zurich and Santa Clara. The company was founded by Mahesh Murthy [23][24].[25]

In March 2008, Pinstorm announced a non-equity partnership with the Lintas Media Group in India.[26] [27][28]

Murthy claims that Pinstorm was among the world's first advertising firms to implement pay for performance advertising.[29]

Controversy

There have been multiple sexual harassment allegations against Murthy, dating back as early as 2003.[30] A year after the first allegations of sexual misconduct came up against Murthy, nearly half a dozen women, one of them alleging rape, filed written complaints before the National Commission for Women (NCW).[31]

In late 2017, the Mumbai police registered a case of sexual harassment against Murthy after India's National Commission of Women wrote to them about complaints they received from various women. Murthy has denied the allegations.[32] In 2020, the Delhi HC reversed its gag order on publishing sexual abuse allegations against Mahesh Murthy. It also rejected the contention that the accusers were “disgruntled” as Murthy had rejected their business proposals, calling it a “bald plea”.[33][34]

References
  1. "Mahesh Murthy News - India Chief Mentor". The Wall Street Journal.
  2. "Business World". Business Today. 2004.
  3. "City youth in Zee?s Business Baazigar". Hindustan Times. 5 April 2006.
  4. "The Pitch on Bloomberg TV India". Bloomberg TV.
  5. "Is Mahesh Murthy a self-made millionaire? Does he come from a millionaire family background? Which startups did he found? – Quora". quora.com. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  6. Naidu, Viren (1 August 2006). "35 and burnt-out? Retire and re-retire". The Economic Times. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  7. "These 13 Successful Indian College Dropout Entrepreneurs Prove That College Is Not Necessary For Success – Inc42 Media". inc42.com. 2 July 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  8. "Mahesh Murthy – Pin Drop Storm". CrazyEngineers. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  9. Dubey, Tanya. "Exclusive: Mahesh Murthy's Unique Art of Survival- From Being a Vacuum Salesman to an Ace Investor". Business Insider. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  10. Goyal; Sandeep (2004). The Dum Dum Bullet. Popular Prakashan. ISBN 9788179915837.
  11. Communication Arts: Advertising annual. Coyne & Blanchard. 1995.
  12. "Shashanka Ghosh Alumni of Air Force Bal Bharati School, New Delhi Alumni – Bafians". bafians.com. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  13. "25 years of Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase". Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  14. "New Directors' Showcase : Saatchi & Saatchi". Saatchi & Saatchi. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  15. Communication Arts. Coyne & Blanchard. September 1995.
  16. Saunders, Rebecca (31 December 2001). Business the Amazon.com way: secrets of the world's most astonishing Web business. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781841121550.
  17. "Speed: The E-Commerce Mantra". WIRED. 29 April 1998.
  18. "Intel To Acquire iCat".
  19. Inc, Nielsen Business Media (7 August 1999). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.
  20. "'If you do a typical MBA, you'll never be a successful entrepreneur'". Rediff. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  21. "It's Not About The Money".
  22. Nadhe, Shivani Shinde (5 February 2014). "Seedfund: India's 'desi' fund plans a third offering". Business Standard India. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  23. "Mahesh Murthy " India's Largest eCommerce Platform". etailingindiaexpo.com. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  24. Search engine marketing Business Standard, Leslie D'Monte, Mumbai 28 September 2006.
  25. Indian Companies in Asia's Top 100 Techtree News Staff, 15 September 2005. Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  26. "Lintas and Pinstorm tie up for digital advertising". Mint. Pinstorm and Lintas Media Group have announced a significant non-equity partnership. Designed to push clients to performance-driven media choices, the alliance between the two leading firms in the offline and online worlds will put further pressure on traditional agencies and media houses. This move is being seen in media circles as a positive step towards a more evolved phase in digital advertising.
  27. "India Inc all a Twitter". Business Standard. 21 October 2009. Archived from the original on 22 October 2009. With the help of Mahesh Murthy, founder and CEO of search engine marketing firm Pinstorm, and his team, this private bank monitors around 1,600 tweets or conversations a day.lt Relationship Management'
  28. "Mahesh Murthy's Presentation at 140Conf". Archived from the original on 7 September 2012.
  29. "Pinstorm's pay-for-performance philosophy".
  30. "Mahesh Murthy in new sexual misconduct charges; Seedfund says had heard other rumours". FactorDaily. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  31. "Complaint before NCW against Mahesh Murthy alleges rape; new harassment cases emerge". FactorDaily. 1 March 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  32. https://www.hindustantimes.com/business-news/vc-investor-mahesh-murthy-arrested-in-mumbai-on-charge-of-sexual-harassment/story-4CPwI7guzRdJECBowXLi9K.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  33. M, Apoorva; hani (8 July 2020). "Delhi HC reverses its gag order on publishing sexual abuse allegations against Mahesh Murthy". ThePrint. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  34. "No Escape for Mahesh Murthy, the VC Who Went to Court to Stop Sexual Harassment Allegations Against Him". in.news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
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