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Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

Ganna.com

Gaana.Com – Success And Transformation of India’s Largest Music Streaming Service

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Listening to music is a major part of our daily lives especially when it comes to Gaana.com. We don’t specifically schedule a time for that but throughout the day we just keep the music on. From traveling to working late on a Monday evening, music is our constant companion.

Previously we use to share music videos through apps like Xender and Shareit. But, the unlimited source of data has made our lives easier. Nowadays, we prefer listening to music online and kudos to online music streaming platforms.

Gaana.com is India’s largest commercial music streaming service. It serves users worldwide with currently 150 million active users.

History of the Founding Team

Until 2013, Avinash Mudaliar was the head of Gaana.com and a part of the founding team as well. After he left the company in 2013, Pawan Agarwal became the new business head of Gaana.com. This year, hiring some senior-level positions took place which included the VP of marketing and ad tech as well.

Avinash Mudaliar
Image Source: Google Images

Satyan Gajwani served as the CEO of the company and the services escalated after the formation of a new team. Though the company started its platform since 2010, in 2013 the company released mobile apps for Android, iOS, BlackBerry and J2ME devices.

Journey since the beginning

In April 2010, the launch of Gaana.com took place as a music streaming platform. Gaana.com provided both Indian and international content from the beginning. In 2005, the registration of the domain name, Gaana.com took place. But, the company emerged under Times Internet since 2010.

The company gained huge momentum from the very beginning and the success of the company was jaw-dropping.

The New Era

The company made a new management team in 2013 and since then a lot has been changed. Gaana.com came into a partnership with the South Indian Music Companies Association in 2013. It gave the company rights and access to 79 different labels of music. This enriched the content of Gaana.com and undoubtedly attracted millions of customers.

In October 2015, Micromax acquired a stake at Gaana.com. And, in 2016, a serial entrepreneur, Prashan Agarwal became the CEO of the company. Before joining Gaana.com, Prashan founded PropTiger.com (2011) and 19miles.com (2015). He has a Bachelor’s degree from IIT Kanpur and an MBA from the Indian School of Business.

Under Prashan’s leadership, Gaana.com has transformed completely. After he joined the company, the company’s market grew seven times its size. He has truly given more meaning to India’s digital music platform.

Under Prashan’s leadership

Previously, the internet wasn’t available to every corner of India. But now with the appearance of the digital era and on top of that, the 4G network played ace for Gaana.com. Due to the high-speed internet, the rural population for the first time got to use a music platform like Gaana. This helped the company to reach every part of the country and gain users rapidly.

Currently, Gaana.com offers music from twenty-one different languages, but consumers prefer English and Punjabi songs mostly. Prashan predicts that within the next two years the monthly users might hit 400 million. The consumption of regional music has also grown twenty-five times in India.

It’s not only about Bollywood

Gaana.com is not only about promoting songs from Bollywood movies. Many independent artists are emerging these days and Gaana.com provides them a platform to nurture their talents. Not only has it helped the artists to gain recognition but also how to understand their fan-base.

Gaana has released a new feature called Artist Dashboard. Through this feature, artists can understand the kind of music their fans like to listen to.

And then there is Artificial Intelligence

I can think of no such fields where the application of AI is not possible. After Prashan joined the company in 2016 he has focused on AI.

To become a great musician you have to be a great music mixer as well. And, software based on AI and ML has made it a lot easier. So basically if one can master the art of programming he or she can just grab the best award for music composition. This is no joke.

The exact concept is what Gaana trying to implement in its platform. Through the tools based on AI, it is easy to understand the personal taste of music. And once that is achieved the platform can provide music recommendations accordingly. This is a boon for both the provider and the user as well.

So, this is the next big plan of Prashan thus driving a massive profit and success for the company.

MoneyGram

Pam Patsley – A Billion Dollar Company Chairman And An Inspiration for Every Women Entrepreneur

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The start-up culture has spread like a wildfire in recent years. With many potential entrepreneurs in the run, an American businesswoman is creating big news. Well, it is transparent to the world that female participation is comparatively lesser in the business world. Undoubtedly there are many women out there struggling hard to break the walls of patriarchy and emerge out. But, the world needs more such passionate women.

Pam Patsley famous as the Chairman or I would rather say Chairwoman of MoneyGram is a powerful American businesswoman. She is known as one of the highest-paid woman executives around the world.

Early Life

Born into a family of schoolteachers, Pam turned her ordinary life into something beyond challenging and thrilling. In 1957, Pam was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She went to the University of Missouri to complete her graduation. Pam was determined to contribute to the financial world and so she acquired a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Early Career

Pam’s career officially started in 1979 in Dallas, Texas. This year, she joined KPMG as an accountant. Once she stepped into the financial world, she realized money wasn’t everything that pulled her into it. Money was a big factor but accepting the challenge and building a team became bigger.

After serving KMG for six long years, Pam started working as the chief financial officer of First USA Inc. Success started accelerating and she became the president and CEO of Paymentech. In 1999, First Data Corp acquired the company which led Pam to become the president of First Data International. She left the company in October 2007.

Something Bigger

After she left First Data in 2007 she wasn’t much engaged in the acreage of the financial domain. She fled to Paris and took a semi-leave from the corporate world. Pam was working on some of her own business when something way better landed right in front of her.

Thomas Lee Partners (investor of MoneyGram international) and Goldman Sachs offered Pam to take full control of the empire. In 2007, MoneyGram went through some serious financial crisis right after which THL and Goldman Sachs became the company’s investors. They found Pam well-fitted for the job and offered her the helm.

In January 2009, Pam joined MoneyGram as the chairman of the company. After a few months, she became the CEO of the company as well. MoneyGram is the world’s one of the largest non-banking money transfer company. After Pam joined the company, she rolled over its future completely.

Success of MoneyGram

After Pam started leading the company, the headquarters shifted to Dallas, Texas. Initially, the company’s future seemed bleak. But, it all changed with time. In the year 2010, the company’s annual revenue summed up to $1.17 billion. This helped it repay some of the debts.

After a couple of years, it lost a few partnerships; shares fell about 70% and had to close some call centers. So, the company finally decided to restructure itself to cut costs. In 2015, MoneyGram created a widespread agent network in Africa. MoneyGram reached 25,000 new locations. By this time, MoneyGram’s services reached to 191 countries.

Pam’s views on Indian Market

Pam Patsley
Image Source: Google Images

Since the day Pam started working for MoneyGram, she wanted to expand the network. According to her, a giant network can assure a more efficient transfer of money. Pam, in an interview, said that she has seen great potential in the market of Middle-East and Asian countries.

Pam said India provides one of the biggest markets for MoneyGram. She also said that in terms of recipients no other country has beaten India so far. India is a unique country and MoneyGram would focus more on building a strong agent base.

Why outside the US?

Well, according to Pam it is all about the senders and the recipients. So, why not expand to countries which have a potential of becoming the largest markets for MoneyGram. Pam saw Malaysia as a great start for the expansion business which eventually led her to the Asian market.

Saudi Arabia became the second largest sent market just within two years of doing business there. Apart from India and Malaysia in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka proved to be of great importance.

Personal Life

Pam married Gary who is a retired chief financial officer of First USA Bank, Texas. They have a son, Philip. Pam has no trouble balancing her personal and corporate life as her husband takes care of the family very well.

Packard bell

Billionaire Beny Alagem’s Computer Company Acquired By Pbx Holding

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Winners are rarely asked how they did it. It is one perfect and clean strategy that takes a company to the top. In the entrepreneurial world, everything is all about smooth tricks and excellent business deals. The story of Beny Alagem from Packard Bell is among one of them.

Once a company goes public or launches a new product, it makes a thousand competitors. But, at the end of the day, it is for the customers to decide whose products are better than others. The scenario might look simple but it is always not. Confusions, unclear advertisements and the blurred line between distinguishing companies can often play an ace.

Beny Alagem’s computer hardware company, Packard Bell used alike strategies. In 1986, Beny along with Larry Metz founded the company.

The Story Behind the Name

Does the name Packard Bell ring a bell in your mind? You might have been just going in the right direction. The name Packard Bell came from the American radio set manufacturing company, Packard Bell Corporation.

In 1986, Beny along with some Israeli investors bought this company from Teledyne. The main goal behind forming this company was to provide personal computers at an affordable rate.

The company Packard Bell Corporation was actually founded by Herbert A. Bell and Leon S. Packard in 1933.

Beny Alagem

Beny Alagem
Image Source: Google Images

Born into a family in Israel this entrepreneur was a former tank driver. Beny went to California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He showed a very interest in computers from a young age and it grew once he attended college.

In his university, he met Jason Barziley and Alex Sandal with whom he planned to open a start-up. The plan worked well and in 1983 they established Cal-Abco. It was a company that exclusively dealt with wholesaling computer hardware.

This gave Beny a clear idea about taking the next big step. And in 1986 he founded the big company. Cal-Abco didn’t go out of business then and the two companies came into some kind of business deal. He served as the Chief Executive and the President of the company for twelve long years.

Some disagreements with the other major stakeholders of the company led him to step down from his post. A year after he left the company he was given the right to AST Research name from Samsung. Resigning from Packard Bell paved his way to something bigger and he started serving as the Chairman of Alagem Capital Group. In December 2003, Beny bought Beverly Hilton Hotel for $130 million and since then his name has been popping up in the business magazines regularly.

Bell Packard’s strategy

An idea is all it takes to unleash your power and sit on top of the world. The motive to build low-cost personal computers was certainly a good one. But, the brand name was certainly better. In the 1990s, Bell Packard earned much profit by playing along with the misconception of customers.

Many companies like Pacific Bell and Bell Laboratories were in business at the same time and this created brand confusion. Instead of being concerned about it the company just went with the flow. Well, we have to admit it was a clever trick.

Growth and Expansion

Once the computers hit the market, the consumption grew exponentially. But, the happy phase didn’t last long. In 1995, another computer company, Compaq sued Packard Bell on the grounds of reusing internal computer parts.

In the same year, the company made an acquisition of Zenith Data Systems from Groupe Bull. But, Groupe Bull and NEC, on the other hand, acquired a bigger stake of Packard Bell. It summed up the company’s value to $4.5 billion.

After a point of time, it seemed like the company strived hard to maintain its position. Because suing by Compaq created a bag image for the company and it was well-exposed not being the chameleon anymore.

The Downfall

Compaq acquired the company in 1996. Packard Bell announced that the losses it faced summed up to $1 billion between 1997 and 1998. NEC tried its best to have the back of the company but it finally decided to cease the company’s U.S market.

Not going too far

The company thought to stay in the market by selling computers at cheap prices. But, they needed to use reused parts and when they did so they lost the reputation for its quality.

In October 2016, a company called PBX Holdings acquired the Packard Bell trademark. And in June 2017 JCPenney announced that it would be selling laptops in the name of Packard Bell as a part of their expansion. But, the company didn’t make a breakthrough yet.

Southwest-logo

Southwest Airlines – Flying High Since 1971

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To build a business career in the airline is a very sensible choice. Anything can go wrong anytime. Well, every business has some of the other risks it takes. But, airline companies need a lot to think through, for example, low fare, high capital investment, high maintenance, etc.

And, speaking of low fare, Southwest Airlines is the world’s largest low-cost carrier. Herb Kelleher established the company in 1967, but the operations finally started in 1971. Initially, the name of the company was Air Southwest Co. On 29th March 1971, Herb and the rest of his team renamed the company to Southwest Airlines Co. with headquarters based on Dallas.

Herb Kelleher

Herb Kelleher served as a lawyer in his early career. Later, he turned out to be one of the billionaires of New Jersey.

Herb Kelleher
Image Source: Google Images

Herb was born on 12th March 1931. Born and brought up in New Jersey, Herb completed his schooling from Haddon Heights High School. He went to Wesleyan University and later to New York University and acquired his law degree from there. After graduating, Herb worked at the New Jersey Supreme Court. But, the job was short-lived.

Herb fled to Texas as he had something bigger in mind. He wanted to start a law firm of his own or start a business. Though the idea of the business was little blurry, he started planning with Rollin King and John Parker. Rollin was a Texas businessman and John was a banker.

After talking about many potential business aspects, the trio finally came up with the idea of airlines. There’s a myth that the founders wrote the plan of Southwest Airlines on a cocktail napkin. But, Herb always declined this.

The take-off

The services of Southwest started from 1971 with two routes: from Dallas Love Field to Houston Intercontinental Airport and from Dallas Love Field to San Antonio. Within a year, the company made it to 100 take-offs each week leaving the Saturdays.

Southwest Airlines have taken ideas and inspiration from what made Pacific Southwest Airlines famous and successful. In 1978, the Airline Deregulation Act enacted and Southwest started planning expansion. The company declared that it would soon start its interstate service to New Orleans.

By the 1980s, Southwest started expanding to many new cities and routes which included Oklahoma City, Cleveland, Denver, Nashville, etc. In 1994, Southwest acquired Morris Air and that began services to Pacific Northwest.

Gaining Momentum

In 1985, the company made a huge acquisition for $60.5 million. It acquired Muse Air and renamed it as TranStar Airlines. During the early 1990s, Southwest had only 650 employees working at the headquarters and it grew twice in number by 2006.

Since the internet was gaining popularity at this time, Southwest planned to reach customers through the web. In 1995, the company created its first website where users could view the schedules, maps and about the company. By this time, Southwest became famous all over the world. The main reasons were low price, effectively combating fuel price fluctuation and strategic ways of making huge profits.

The Uniqueness

In 2008, the company started using the Ecopower water pressure washing system. It cleaned the turbine blades which turned out to improve fuel efficiency by 1.9%. In 2008, Southwest acquired some major assets of ATA Airlines for $7.5 million.

Southwest is also known worldwide for the cultural aspect. The employees are very welcoming which makes customers pay for Southwest’s services all the more. Herb, in one of his interviews, said that people from around the world showed interested to know how Southwest hired employees. From the first round to the kind of training the employees to undergo fascinates and challenges every other airline out there.

The Smooth Landing

In 2011, Southwest completed the acquisition of AirTran Airways. This broadened the area of Southwest’s business thus getting international access to Atlanta. Fortune magazine featured Southwest for ten consecutive years and ranked it 3rd among America’s Top Ten most admired corporations.

In May 2012, the company received permission for carrying out international services from William P. Hobby Airport. In 2014, the company decided to rebrand itself and created a new logo. After a couple of years, the company was granted approval for its services to Cuba. This became a great deal for Southwest as USDOT chose it as the sixth ever airline to initiate services in Cuba.

From 100 departures a week the company now commences 4000 departures every single day. According to 2018, the company’s annual revenue summed up to $21.965 billion. Southwest is planning to expand its services to Hilo in 2020.

Coinbase Logo

Applications Of Cryptoassets Led Coinbase To The Unicorn Club

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We talk about a new era of technology where the Internet has made our lives pretty easier. The modern technologies and types of equipment have been beneficial to our medical, educational and industrial systems as well. But, it is high time we put a little attention to our financial system.

The world is changing but the subject, that is, mankind is constant. Since time immemorial humans have improvised the world. Speaking of the modernization in our financial system, the major population is not familiar with the concept of cryptoassets.

Defining cryptoassets is similar to introducing one to a whole new financial world. They are nothing but digital assets with the implementation of cryptographic techniques. There are no central parties to monitor any transaction. Coinbase is a company based on such digital assets which made billions over the span of seven years.

Coinbase

Currently, Coinbase is the United Nation’s largest crypto assets exchange. In June 2012, Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam founded the company. Within five years the company hit annual revenue of $ 1 billion. The company’s headquarters is based in San Francisco California.

The main products of Coinbase are Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum and exchange of digital assets. The bitcoin transaction of Coinbase takes place in more than 190 countries worldwide.

Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong
Image Sorce: Google

Brian Armstrong completed both his Bachelor’s and Masters from Rice University. While he was an undergraduate student in Computer Science he worked as an intern for IBM. He also worked at Deloitte & Touch for five months.

In August 2003, Brian co-founded UniversityTutor.com and in 2011 he joined Airbnb.com as a software engineer. He resigned when he decided to build Coinbase.

Fred Ehrsam

Fred went to Duke University and has a B.S degree in both Computer Science and Economics. He also carried research on Self-assembling DNA Nanostructures from Duke University.

Fred Ehrsam
Image source – Google

He started off his career as a Trader on GoldmanSachs and worked there for a couple of years. In 2012, he co-founded Coinbase with Brian Armstrong and now serves as the Board of Directors. Fred also co-founded Paradigm in June 2018. He also appeared in Forbes 30 Under 30.

Early History

Back in June 2012, Ben Reeves, co-founder of Blockchain.info was also a part of the founding team of Coinbase. But, due to mismatching of future plans, he left shortly. The company wasn’t in its full form back then. After it participated in the Y Combinator startup incubator program it finally started providing services from October 2012.

Initially, the company launched the service buying and selling bitcoin but who knew it would be a scope of investment in the near future. Once the company sees through it never really had to turn back.

Investments, Growth, and Expansion

The company’s Series A round took place in May 2013. Coinbase raised a funding of $5 million from venture capital firm Union Square Ventures. After a few months, the company again received a funding of $25 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures and Ribbit Capital.

The next year Coinbase hit a million users. It also implemented a lot of new things in their systems. Some of them were a vault system for secure bitcoin storage and secured insurance for the bitcoin stored in the company’s server.

In 2015, the company received a funding of $75 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, New York Stock Exchange, etc. 2017 was a big year for Coinbase as it received the BitLicense. The company was given legal permission to trade in Ethereum and Litecoin. On 5th April 2018, the company formed Coinbase Ventures to invest in companies with similar grounds of interest.

Coinbase Ventures made its first investment on May 20 on Compound Labs.

Acquisitions and Partnerships

Coinbase made its first acquisitions in 2014. It acquired Blockr, blockchain explorer service and Kippt, a web bookmarking company. In the same year, the company came into joint ventures with Overstock, Dell, Expedia, etc. The company also made a deal with PayPal, Braintree and, Stripe which allowed users bitcoin payment.

Recently, Coinbase has acquired a company called Neutrino. The company was acquired for an undisclosed amount. A lot of questions have been coming up since then. Some information came up regarding Neutrino’s founders having a connection with the Hacking Team. Hacking Team is a Milan based company that sells information to the government and clearly has a poor human rights record.

In August 2019, the company announced a hacking attack. A questionable acquisition followed by a hacking attack has clearly put the users in a dilemma. But, Coinbase declared that nothing was compromised and everything is secure.

Kraken-logo

Kraken, One Of The World’s Oldest And Largest Cryptocurrency Exchanges

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With the arrival of the twenty-first century, everything around us has been transforming at light speed. The progress in every field is astounding. With every nation striving hard to build a fantastic economy, the founders of digital currency exchanges are raising a toast.

The digital currency has shown a whole new side of a financial system. It is not only for transferring assets but cryptocurrency provides a huge opportunity for investment. The value of crypto assets has been increasing with every passing day. And, speaking of digital currency the companies transferring and trading with such assets are becoming billionaires.

Kraken is one such digital currency company based in San Francisco, California. In July 2011, Jesse Powell established the company.

Jesse Powell

Jesse Powell completed his education from California State University-Sacramento. He is a well-known entrepreneur who did more than just founding Kraken.

Jesse Powell Kraken
Image Source: Google

His entrepreneurial life started with co-founding Lewt, Inc in 2001. In July 2006, he co-founded Internet Ventures & Holdings and also served as the CEO. He founded Verge Gallery and Studio Project in June 2007. This start-up of Jesse gave a lot of opportunities to the potential artists out there. It ale became Sacramento’s largest commercial fine arts gallery.

Jesse seems to have a soft corner for arts. In April 2010, he co-founded Verge Center for the Arts and after a year he co-founded Kraken.

The Beginning

Mt. Gox was the world’s largest bitcoin exchange. In 2010, Jed McCaleb founded the company. It was just a year before Kraken came up. But, who knew that the world’s leading digital currency platform would go out of business within four years.

In 2011, when Jesse started working on Kraken he suspected the downfall of the company. And, it happened in 2014. A company that carried out 70% of the world’s bitcoin transaction suddenly went bankrupt. Today, the company is still struggling hard to get back on track.

This was the golden hour for Kraken. Jesse worked on his company for two long years. And, after several tests and developments, Jesse launched Kraken in September 2013. The platform initially allowed exchange via bitcoin, Litecoin and euro trades.

Jaw-dropping Success

In July 2013, Kraken became a part of the Digital Asset Transfer Authority (DATA). The company’s trade began escalating since the very year of its launching. It came into a partnership with Fidor bank.

The company’s funding started in 2014 with a massive amount of $5 million in Series A funding. The funding round was led by Hummingbird Ventures. Just a year after its formation, Kraken became the first-ever digital currency exchange to be listed on Bloomberg Terminal.

In May 2015, Kraken launched the beta version of margin trading and later that year it opened the dark pool.

Expansion

In 2016, Kraken expanded its service to thirty-seven other states of the U.S. and all Canadian residents. In the same year, Kraken came into a joint venture with SynpasePay and Vogogo. Kraken completed its Series B funding this year. SBI Investment led the investment round.

Kraken acquired CleverCoin and Glidera in the same year. 2016 proved to be a very vital year of Kraken. Though it expanded gigantically the alleged crimes pulled down its face value.

The Turmoil

In July 2016, news spread out through media about the stolen funds of Kraken. Tension grew among customers when they heard accounts were compromised as well. The investigation went on for one long month. And, finally, the FBI informed that Kraken was safe and no such attack took place.

It took time for Kraken to build up the reputation. Because no matter a company has been under serious threats or attacks, once the word goes out it tends to fall apart.

Present Day

It is a platform that allows both the exchange of digital currency and exchange between digital currencies and normal currency like USD.

In March 2017, they acquired both Cryptowatch and its founder. Kraken also witnessed 50,000 new users signing up every day.

In April 2018, Kraken put an end to its business in Japan. The company announced that after four years of doing business in Japan suddenly the expenses started rising and they have to cease the business.

In February 2019, company received $100 million at a valuation of $4 billion. Though the company is making pocket-full for itself investigation continues.