SM: When did you actually open India Community Center? GG: India Community Center opened up in February of 2003. We did not know what to expect. We had a small membership fee which would never cover the cost of the center. We dreamed up various programs which we hoped would resonate. When we opened the
SM: When did you return to the US? GG: I returned in the middle of 2001. My brother and I wanted to take on another project, but there was a distinct sense that we did not want to do another Internet startup or anything technology related. We started looking into all kinds of other projects.
SM: Your work at AtWeb concluded in 2000. What came next? GG: At that time I really had a sense that I wanted to do something else. For me personally, and for a lot of the folks who had experienced the run-up of the internet, there was confusion about what to do at that time.
SM: Did you raise money to start this venture? GG: We did, but we did it backwards. We poured in our life savings to start the company. We worked out of our house for 9 or 10 months and got the company to be profitable while taking minimal or no salaries.
There are plenty of job search engines out there. So what makes this one an interesting story? It’s their innovation (the first to use the new LinkedIn API), their ability to reach localized job markets (over 30,000 cities), and all while delivering a customized user experience. This is the direction that successful vertical search engines
SM: Could you describe how you go about putting together a team? BT: In my two prior ventures I built strong management teams, sometimes through trial and error. This time I knew what I was looking for in terms of not only experience and background, but in character and personality. You can have the best
SM: Where are you at now in terms of revenue, profitability, and traffic? BT: The Mobissimo.com site has been operating for three years. We’ve been open to the public since November 2004, and we’ve generating revenue and been profitable since June 2005.
SM: What is your TAM and how do you calculate it? BT: According to Henry Harteveldt Forrester Research’s travel expert, the online travel market represents the highest growing proportion of the overall travel market. Online travel is also the most lucrative. PhoCusWright says that online travel spending reached nearly $100 billion in 2007.