One of the key factors in a country's economic success is how conducive the overall environment is to entrepreneurship. This includes the regulatory, financial (credit availability), and social environments that influence how many entrepreneurs are created, and how many of them are successful. One of the most heartening things that has happened in the past few years, not just in India, but other Asian countries, has been the number of young entrepreneurs coming up.
Businessweek.com recently selected 20 of these young capitalists as part of a special report and has a competition going where you can login and vote for your favorite candidate, who will win the best Asian entrepreneur of the year award. Here are my favorites (disclaimer: I have a bias against scions of business houses):
- Arif Ayub, Softflux, Pakistan. Offers all sorts of software development, management consultancy and then some, with 70 employees and targeted revenues of $120 million by end of the decade. Ooh boy. The dude also has a private equity fund Saltflow!
- Sasikanth Chemalamudi, Habits, India. Is a creative learning company, and is also involved with projects in rural India to promote self-employment. Probably the only chap on the list with a strong social entreprenuerial streak.
- Mao Kankan, Majoy Entertainment, China. Tthis guy takes online gaming to a whole new level. Players actually play from the same physical location, and games involve players shooting each other with infra-red pistols. Bring it on, I say!
- Kentaro Iemoto, Clara Online, Japan. This guy is simply amazing. Battles and survives brain tumor at 14, launches his company at 16, and now manages six data centers.
- Victor Lang, Global Futures, HK and Chicago. This is one of the most unique ideas I have come across. Provides educational material for those interested in learning about international conflict resolutions and diplomacy. They also host simulated UN conferences!
- Hendy Setiono, Baba Rafi, Indonesia. I am a foodie, so this choice is now biased. This guy runs a chain of fast food outlets from portable booths to shopping center outlets.
PS: Of course, I would've qualified too, except that I'm 26. Anyone doing an under-30 list?
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9 comments:
Now that you list the younger entrepreneurs AND your age, 26 does seem quite old!nice post btw...
Sparsh: No kidding! Sometime it does feel as if time is running out :) Some of these chaps are barely out of their teens. And thanks!
Hi
This is really a nice blog,I come accross,as I am intersted in entrepreneurship,I find this blog so intersting one.
biot2020: Thanks! If you need any specific info, let me know.
I would like to bring a few things to the notice of this blog. Arif Ayub for one, was 28, NOT 23 when he appeared in businessweek. He falsely misrepresented his age, and his company is somewhat of a well put togther scam. He has had one client in 5 years, Meezan Bank, which had a one time contract with him. If you see his offshore facility in Pakistan where he claims to have 60 + employees, you'll find that none of them are professionals, except for 3 or 4. Thats because Arif hires internees, and freelances the work that he needs to get done.
Reason? so he can project how big his company is, and how much growth there is. They dont have a single project, and have 60 people on the payroll, which is taken care of by so called 'investors' in the US. Ask yourself this. A company that's been around for 5 years, has had one a time contract from one client, where is it generating revenues from?
He is either money laundering or something even worse. There are a lot of good scams out there, he is one of them.
He fires 40 people at a time for no reason, then rehires more people. I'd like to see who his real clients are. This guy should be investigated by the SEC or some governing body.
Businessweek should rectify its mistake by featuring him and launching an investigation into his real age at the time he was featured. Arif comes from Pakistan, where getting an fake id card made isnt too big a deal. Would help to check his date of birth from Wharton School of Business which he attended.
Here is another link where he has been accused by someone, and very rightly : http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/385/RipOff0385118.htm#358540
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