Bhavin Turakhia
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| Bhavin Turakhia | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 21, 1979 Mumbai |
| Residence | Mumbai, India |
| Occupation | Owner of Directi |
| Website | |
| Bhavin Turakhia | |
Bhavin Turakhia (born December 21, 1979) is an Indian Internet entrepreneur, CEO and Founder of Directi, a web products company he started in 1998. Directi is a technology conglomerate and the parent company of ResellerClub, LogicBoxes, Skenzo, CodeChef,.[1] pw and WebHosting.info.[2]
Turakhia is responsible for the vision, strategy, engineering and operations of all these businesses. From founding Directi in 1998, he has grown the company to include 6 businesses, more than 20 products and more than 600 employees. He is a well-respected and influential figure in the Indian technology landscape and is a frequent speaker at various seminars, technology conferences and colleges.[3]
The products and services of these business units directly deal with communication, collaboration and mass market web presence solutions.
Early life
Turakhia was born in Mumbai and grew up there. His mother is a lawyer by education while his father is a Chartered Accountant by profession.[4] Turakhia completed his schooling from Arya Vidya Mandir high school in Mumbai.[5]
He was first exposed to computers in 1986 when he was in the 6th grade. He used to spend countless hours in the school’s computer lab exploring BASIC and other programming languages on his own. Through experimentation and reading various manuals and books, he taught himself programming languages. By grade 9, he was taking extra classes for students after school hours. While still at school, he worked on several projects writing advanced code in the then popular GWBASIC. By grade 10, he had coded a stock market simulation game built to track stock prices and a business simulation game [5] which was designed to replicate the running of a real business.[6]
Turakhia joined DG Ruparel College in Mumbai, where he completed his junior college and finished his senior college from Sydenham College where he enrolled in a Bachelors of Commerce course.[5] In 1996 – 97 while still in college he discovered his entrepreneurial zest, and started ‘Bits and PCs’ which dealt with computer hardware sales and Web Spinners, a consulting company. Both ventures did not succeed.[7][6]
Directi
Early years
Turakhia started Directi when he was 18 years, along with his brother Divyank Turakhia.[8] He borrowed Rs 25,000 from his father to purchase the company’s first server which he repaid in the first month itself.[9] The initial team worked out a 630-square-foot (59 m2) space in Andheri, Mumbai and consisted of 4 members.[8]
Present
The company now operates out of its 6 offices, and is head quartered in Mumbai at 7 storey, 120,000-square-foot (11,000 m2) headquarters[10] which houses 500 of the company’s 600+ employees. Directi is amongst the leading technology companies in India and an active recruiter at all of the premier engineering colleges and business schools across the country.
As of April 2010, Directi’s business units feature amongst the top 5 or 10 world-wide in their respective business segments.
- LogicBoxes is an industry leader in providing technology and consulting solutions to domain registrars globally.[11]
- CodeChef is the largest coding and programming competition in India with over 30,000 users.[12]
- WebHosting.info is the largest provider of statistical data in the web services industry. Its patent pending algorithm monitors 1.3+ million DNS servers, 35+ million domain names and approximately 2 billion IP addresses.[13]
Personal life
Interests
Turakhia is a passionate traveler and adventure sports enthusiast.[15][16] He enjoys sky diving, scuba diving, zorbing and frequently extends business trips to pursue these passions. He also owns a Cessna Stationair which his brother Divyank Turakhia is licensed to fly.[17]
Turakhia is an avid follower of technology and a passionate programmer as well. He often writes about a myriad of tech topics on his blog at bhavin.directi.com.
Recognition and Achievements
Turakhia won the Bharti Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2005.[18]
In 2009, Turakhia was covered in a small biography by a team of students from the Indian School of Business.[19]
Bhavin Turakhia honored as the Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum in 2011.[20][21]
Educational Initiatives
CodeChef
In 2009, Turakhia started and spearheaded the CodeChef initiative which is a non-commercial coding and programming competition to challenge and engage the developer community in India.[22] It is a byproduct of Turakhia’s own passion for programming and also works to foster a stronger developer community through the Campus Chapters and User Groups efforts.[23]
Online Marketing Course
In 2010, Turakhia announced that Directi would conduct courses on Social Media, Online Advertising and Web Analytics at the Indian School of Business as part of their educational initiative.[24]
Industry Involvement
Turakhia is an active participant in the Registrar space and has been a vocal supporter of the domain registrar community.
ICANN Budget 2004
In 2004, he started icannbudget.org with the support of 76 ICANN accredited registrars in response to the ICANN budget proposed for the year 2004-2005. As per the budget, the yearly fee charged to registrars could increase from $5000 to $24000 yearly putting many small and mid-sized registrars out of business.
Through the initiative, Turakhia proposed an alternative budget which would benefit registrars and ICANN. With partial acceptance from ICANN, both participants reached an intermediate solution.[25][26][27][28][29]
Registrar Constituency
Turakhia was also the youngest and former chairman of the Registrars Constituency. He was elected for two consecutive terms in 2004.[30][31][32]
ICANN Meets
Turakhia is a regular attendee, supporter and sponsor at ICANN meets across the world through the business units LogicBoxes and Skenzo. Directi has been a prominent sponsor for ICANN meets like Delhi, Paris, Cairo, Mexico and Brussels.[33][34][35][36][37]
Cyber Crime Cell
Turakhia also serves as a technical advisor to the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell of Mumbai, a job which he has been discharging for many years.[38]
Media Participation
Turakhia is a respected figure[according to whom?] in the web 2.0 landscape and is a frequent speaker at colleges, entrepreneur and technology conferences across India. He has graced the podium at events like Web Innovation,[39] The Great Indian Developer Summit,[40] HeadStart and Compute,[41] Management Conclave,[42] Broadband Tech India,[43] SiliconIndia Start Up City[44] and at the Indian School of Business.[45]
His presentation at Proto – The Startup Event in 2009 titled The Game of Business was well received.[46] Through his presentation he speaks about how principles of sport can be effectively used in creating a successful business.[47] He has also contributed to independent portals related to the internet industry.[48]
Turakhia has been featured extensively in the Indian media by mainstream newspapers like the Hindustan Times, Education World, The Sunday Guardian, The Times of India, Kolkatta Mirror, The Financial Express and Forbes India.[49]
References
- ^ Codechef - India's first non-commercial multi-platform coding competition
- ^ List of Directi business units
- ^ Profile of Bhavin Turakhia and a summary of his role at Directi
- ^ Ref: It all started here - Divyank Turakhia covered by Andhra Funda
- ^ a b c 2007 interview with Express Computer
- ^ a b Bhavin's first hand account of his journey as presented at the Indian School of Business
- ^ Powerpoint of Turakhia's ISB presentation
- ^ a b The Directi Story - Covered by rediff in 2007
- ^ Divyank Turakhia interviewed by Ron Jackson for the DNJournal Cover Story
- ^ PPX International's Executive Chairman Gregg McNair writes about his visit to the Directi headquarters in Mumbai
- ^ LogicBoxes Corporate Profile
- ^ CodeChef financial Page, Ref: Registered users
- ^ Ref: WebHosting.info About Us
- ^ As listed on RegistrarStats on May 2010
- ^ Turakhia shares his travel trips for Cairo on Business.in.com
- ^ Turakhia covered by ET High Flier
- ^ The Turakhia brothers with their Cessna StationAir
- ^ Bharti Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiatives (BCEI)invites nominations for Bharti Entrepreneur of the Year Award - Past winners include Turakhia
- ^ Case Study of Bhavin Turakhia's Entrepreneurial Journey by students of the Indian School of Business. Also availabale on bhavin.directi.com
- ^ The forum of Young Global Leaders talks about the selection process
- ^ The Coverage Received in Business Standard Congratulating Bhavin
- ^ More about CodeChef - India's first country-wide coding competition
- ^ Turakhia on why he started CodeChef
- ^ Directi announces Social Media course at ISB, Hyderabad
- ^ The Lowdown on ICANNBudget.org
- ^ CNET's coverage of the ICANN Budget impasse
- ^ CNET's coverage of the ICANN Budget resolution
- ^ ICANN Works To Split from Commerce Department - Ecommerce Times
- ^ Proposed ICANN Fees Generate Heat, But Not Price Hikes - Netcraft
- ^ ICANN Wiki - Bhavin Turakhia
- ^ Registrar Constituency Workshop on Re-registration of Deleted Domain Names chaired by Turakhia
- ^ Registrar Constituency Statement by Chairman Bhavin Turakhia
- ^ Bronze Sponsors at the Mexico meet
- ^ Directi participates as Silver Sponsors
- ^ Silver Sponsors again in Paris
- ^ Sponsors and hosts at the ICANN meet in New Delhi
- ^ Bronze Sponsors for the June 2010 meet
- ^ Turakhia lends his thoughts on online security
- ^ Web Innovation 2008
- ^ The Great Indian Developer Summit 2008
- ^ HeadStart and Compute 2008
- ^ Management Conclave 2009
- ^ Broadband Tech 2009
- ^ SiliconIndia Start Up City 2009
- ^ Indian School of Business 2010
- ^ Bhavin Turakhia - The Game of Business
- ^ "Bhavin Turakhia on the Game of Business - Proto.in | The Startup Event". Proto.in. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
- ^ Turakhia's blog article gets picked up by CircleID
- ^ "Media Coverage". Directi.com. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
