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AMBARISH MITRA WAS living in Munirka, a slum in the southwest corner of Delhi.
He’d been there for seven months when he spotted an ad in the newspaper for an “e-business” competition – what they were calling internet businesses in 1997, he explains.
The 17-year-old applied to the business plan contest, submitting his idea to empower women by connecting them to the internet for free. His return address was in the slum, near the water tank, he says.
Mitra did not know that this ad would be his exit route.
With one IPO under his belt, Mitra now has a billion-dollar augmented reality advertising company, Blippar.
He has been photographed with the British royal family. His newest phone was personally delivered by Xiaomi VP Hugo Barra, who arrived in a Tesla being driven by an Uber driver.
Mitra’s long past the slums, thanks to the “e-business” ad he spotted that put it all in motion. But in 1997, with that application floating somewhere in the mail, Mitra’s focus was on one thing: surviving.
Captivated by the internet
Mitra grew up in a normal Indian middle class family, which prioritised education over wealth. His mother was a homemaker, a singer, and a painter.
Mitra’s older sister took after her and went to study the arts at university. She now runs a successful Indian dance school in an Atlanta, Georgia suburb.
His father used to hand Mitra copies of Business Week and Forbes magazines. He was an inventor in his own right, having found a way to reuse coal slurry in one of the largest Indian coal mining towns, and wanted Mitra to follow in his footsteps to study engineering.
Mitra, though, was captivated by the internet – and not very great at school.
While the drawers of his desk were filled with Backstreet Boys and heavy metal cassette tapes, business books piled up next to his computer. His two favorite books his father ever gave him were on the collapse of IBM and a book on controlling your destiny.
After witnessing the birth of the internet, Mitra idolised Bill Gates. He read “Business the Bill Gates Way” and Gates’ “The Road Ahead.” Next to his computer, he kept a framed photo pulled from Fortune Magazine, showing Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.
“I was beginning to worship people like Bill Gates, like hardcore idolised him,” Mitra said.
I actually had an image of him on my study table while people had Madonna and Samantha Fox and all these people in that generation. I had a picture of Bill Gates.”
A rebel
The lure of the internet put Mitra at odds with his father, who wanted him to study engineering. He had a great childhood and a totally functional, fun-loving family, he says, but he was also a bit of a rebel and wanted more out of his life.
My parents wanted me to be an engineer, and I wasn’t interested in that. It became so hectic that one day, I just ran away from home and started living in the slum in Delhi,” Mitra said.
Living in the slums, Mitra went door-to-door in the city selling magazine subscriptions by day — a lesson in handling rejection, he says now. At night, he worked in a tea stall.
The two jobs netted him around $1.50 a day. He stayed in touch with his sister so she could tell his parents he was alive. Otherwise, he was on his own.
“I became a man as a boy very quickly,” Mitra said.
One quality that I acquired, which runs directly in the DNA of Blippar, is that I became completely fearless. Nothing scares me. When you go through violence like I did, and you come out the other side, it makes you stronger.”
A ‘noble topic’
Seven months into his life as a runaway, Mitra noticed the newspaper ad. He applied to the contest, submitting his plan to connect everybody with the internet to empower women.
It was a “noble topic” for a young person, Mitra said, but it had deep roots in his upbringing.
His grandmother and her four sisters had all received college degrees and rode scooters through the crowded Indian streets. They were a rare sight for 1920s India, but Mitra had grown up realizing how education empowers women. The internet was an extension of that.
Three months later, Mitra found out that his plan to connect the world won.
“Absolutely to my shock and surprise and delight,” Mitra said. “It was life-changing.”
He won some money and borrowed the rest from a friend’s dad who was a banker. Mitra then launched his internet portal: Women Infoline.
The company gave free internet access to women with low wages, and subsidised it with ads.
It soon took off as the tendrils of the tech boom made its way to India. By 2000, a 20-year-old Mitra had grown his company from its newspaper ad start in the slums to an IPO in India.
When this happened, I did this peace treaty with my father,” Mitra said. “I said, I will come back, but I will do whatever I want. They were very proud of me behind the scenes.”
Mitra won’t reveal how much money he made in the IPO — it’s insignificant in today’s world, but a lot of money for the year 2000 in any country, he allowed. His resignation shortly after the IPO helped him get out before the tech boom collapsed a year later.
London bound
At the age of 20, pockets flush from the IPO, Mitra was lured to London by the glamour of British life and its culture.
Four days after arrival, Mitra started working as a retail associate at the Top Shop clothing store on Oxford Street. Then he spent some time helping the British government build out its intranet, and tried his hands at another couple of startups.
But in 2008, as the financial crisis hit worldwide, Mitra was almost bankrupt. He found himself having to get a “proper job,” as he calls it.
He joined Axa, an insurance company, working his way up to become head of innovation, but continued to hang out with Omar Tayeb, a friend from a previous startup.
They were at a pub when they made a joke about having the Queen come to life on a pound note, and Tayeb, who was thankfully sober, remembered it, Mitra says.
They turned it into a party trick, where a photo scan on the phone would turn the Queen on a £20 pound note into an animated photo of their friends.
Mitra’s “eureka moment” came when he realised that they shouldn’t be obsessing over a bank note. Any image could become animated.
Tayeb and Mitra came up with $200,000 to launch, investing all of their money in the new startup, which they called Blippar.
It worked, and the company’s latest $45 million (€40.75 million in today’s money) round of funding in March 2015 has catapulted the company to a $1.5 billion (€1.36 billion) valuation.
Never sell
To say Mitra is bullish on Blippar is an understatement. He said he’ll never sell to Google or even his idol, Bill Gates and Microsoft, because what he is doing “is bigger than the internet itself.”
It’s not running away as a teenager, though, that brought him the success — it’s the relationships he’s formed since and the timing.
You can never fire a missile from a kayak. I think I found my warship. I had the right people and the right mix to build this business,” Mitra said.
While the teenage runaway college dropout is a great archetype of tech entrepreneurs, Mitra doesn’t recommend it — and wouldn’t make the choice again.
For one, he knows that the decision hurt his mom a lot.
“It’s a human behavior to celebrate success coming out of tough environments because it gives us hope. But at the end of the day, the majority of the time when you make decisions like this, things will go wrong,” Mitra said.
It’s not important to be smart. It’s about building relationships around you. It goes along way in life if you actually truly care about your immediate environment and people who care about what you do.”
While Mitra has cycled through wearable devices, there’s one bracelet he’s never taken off. A random priest with a long beard gave it to him on the street and told him it was for happiness and prosperity.
He has worn the same copper bracelet that’s carved into snake heads every day since he was 12.
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We say we want to change the situation about mental health. But in my experience – most people who aren’t affected by it rarely go beyond token gestures.
The sad reality for most people struggling is that they’ll receive apathy from their doctor, and a bottle of pills. If you’re lucky and have money, you’ll be able to afford a good counsellor who will help you with the likes of CBT. For others, they could be waiting a while to see a counsellor – and even at that, it’s still never enough to combat this illness. Most people struggling with depression feel lost, and they don’t really know what to do about it.
Yeah, you can tell people to go to support groups – but for a lot of people, the mere idea of sitting down with strangers is a horrifying experience. It just isn’t that easy when you feel uncomfortable in your own skin. And so many people who have depression, don’t even know it. I thought it was normal to feel down and empty. Just “one of those days”, which came around far too often for my comfort. It was an endocrinologist who told me I needed to get help. Not my GP, not the array of health specialists I’ve see in the past decade. An endocrinologist.
All the support and pills in the world still won’t end the pain for so many people. Until we take mental health as serious as physical health, we’ll never really overcome it. I’m only 33, and I know way too many people who have taken their own life at my age than I should. I’ve watched the system fail people, and fail them horrifically.
I get tired posting about this issue, because every year that passes – we’re still not making any progress.
Some advice. Don’t tell someone to cheer up. We can’t flick a switch. Don’t say stupid things like “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem”. Depression isn’t a temporary problem, it’s a life-long problem.
Text a friend if they’ve been awol for a few months. If they don’t leave their house much, it’s for a reason.
And most importantly – be kind.
Sean..thank you.
Thank you Sean o Brian because you understand. People try their best but don’t get it.
Very well said. For all the empathy at best, and the disregard at worst, the situation can only hope to change when mental health is considered as important as physical. Unfortunately certain preconceptions continue to ensure that will not happen anytime soon
That’s stigma Suzanne. A person can have a masters degree in science but if they have anxiety or depression and is struggling then they are mentally weak.
“We don’t even know who our enemy is” what a powerful statement.
When the people you vote for, end up not representing you….the feeling of betrayal and powerlessness is bitter.
Well said Al
When you have a dysfunctional political system, which we have, we end up with dysfunctional all the way through our services.
Dysfunctional Police Service – Check (despite some excellent guards)
Dysfunctional Health Service – Check
Dysfunctional Legal Sector – Check (hence all the people with multiple convictions)
Dysfunctional Transport System – Check
Dysfunctional Education System – Check (too many students in portocabins)
We also have an unhealthy wealth divide, which is at its most obvious in Dublin/Cork and Limerick.
It’s no wonder we are in the middle of a suicide epidemic.
God that’s a depressing assessment. He’s right though their 20′s have been robbed. I’m kind of lucky in that when I went to college there was an unbelievable buzz around the country. The youth of this country have been well and truly sacrificed
The right wing of Goldman Sachs et al: the European Peoples Party (EU) Fine Gael, Labour, Fianna Fail and a few Independents are the enemy of the ordinary people
Willie O Dea!
Well… one major enemy of the ordinary citizens, and especially our youth, are the charlatans of the mainstream macro economics academe who have presided over a system which is guaranteed to produce economic instability and mass unemployment. (Most especially in the Eurozone, with around twice the unemployment of any comparable economies.)
Essentially, pandering to intellectual fraud and taking over where religious orders left off.
Let me just explain one thing….
In a system that uses a fiat currency, produced from thin air, by definition, there can NEVER be a shortage of *finance* to stimulate economic growth and provide (near) full employment.
The ONLY constraint, to avoid an inflationary spiral, is that there must be sufficient available real resources – labour and materials – at the moment of the transaction (spending).
Which means, by definition, there need NEVER be anyone unemployed, who need not be. A – strictly voluntary (no slave labour coercion) – Job Guarantee, at the bottom of the ‘market’, with one weekly weekly ‘minimum wage’ rate, working at social and community tasks, could be available to any who want it.
This would be especially beneficial to the younger people who disproportionately bear the brunt of job losses in an economic downturn.
And not just at ‘no cost’ to a anyone, but in fact with a two fold benefit to all of us.
The economic stimulus effect of new spending into a recessionary part of the economic cycle, which will help to restore ‘normal’ private sector activity and jobs. (In the macro economics jargon, an ‘automatic stabiliser’ effect.)
Secondly, a social benefit of the JG labour giving a helping hand to community projects that we might not consider ‘affordable’ during periods of strong ‘normal’ private sector labour demand.
There is only one reason this sensible recognition and use of the actual monetary and macro economic system (with fiat money), that we already have, is not utilised in this way – POLITICAL WILL. There is no other barrier.
And that lack of political will is born of a deeply fraudulent system of ‘democracy’ that instead of representing the majority interests of the citizens – the labour class – actually exclusively represents the interests of the minority Capital owning class.
A Capital owning class who have moved mountains in order to keep the masses from realising that *money* in a system of fiat, free floating currencies, created by governments’ decree on Central Bank computers, can NEVER be in short supply. EVER.
In such a system, the constraint is always REAL RESOURCE availability for purchase. Nothing else.
For those interested, this is explained by MMT economics, with a body of academic development work going back many decades, as far back as the 1920s at least. (Tho’ ‘free floating’ fiat currencies were not adopted in US and Europe etc. until the Bretton Woods post war fixed exchange rate treaty collapsed in 1971.)
This guy’s walking down a street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep, he can’t get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up, “Hey you, can you help me out?” The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along, and the guy shouts up “Father, I’m down in this hole, can you help me out?” The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. “Hey Joe, it’s me, can you help me out?” And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, “Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here.” The friend says, “Yeah, but I’ve been down here before, and I know the way out.”
OMG that’s so deep. I kried xoxoxo
Hmm!
Frontrowbrian, for a moment I thought you were being sincere, until I found an earlier one of your posts I thought I’d seen in another article.
I realise that you are just another keyboard knob.
Sadly Brian, for some the only way out is down and out, either literally or figuratively.
Excellent Dave. Thank you!!
Its pretty sad that on the centenary of the Rising a comedian has to go on Channel 4 to highlight suicide in Ireland.
He didn’t have to. The brits are paying him top dollar so he said he might as well. Kinda a 1up on them for hundred years ago.
It’s nothing new, sure when Vincent Brown was tearing Mario Draghi a new one over the bailout in Dublin a few year ago RTE felt what whole country really needed to see and hear was Dobbo (on €195,000 per year!) back in Donnybrook studios, meanwhile anybody that have a damn about the truth had to switch from OUR national station we’re ALL supposed to pay €160 a year for (even if we don’t own a fuppin TV!) and instead tune into the BBC news live to catch the awkward squirming Draghi insult us all on our soil!!
Great point. I was watching that and noticed how rte just pulled the plug. Was strange so switched to sky news and saw the rest of it
It’s not only young people taking their lives it’s older men who make up the biggest group to take such an awful decision. Please focus on all victims of this epidemic not just one age group
Every life is equally important but the reason people focus on younger males is because most statistics show that they are the higher risk and the most likely to commit suicide.
No they’re not …older men are
Blindboy is very intelligent,insightful and funny thats why the rubberbandits are on channel four.
i also blame people, society, begrudgers, competitive streak grown from recession is worse now. theres some amount of bullying going on in this country, for men, women, young and old, not just child bullying. they have no idea the affect they have on people with their behaviour. what counsellor or pill resolves that when theres nothing done about it for adults but just laughed at or avoided?
Defiantly agree with this. Its a real problem in big town communities and Small towns. The Adult bulling thats around is crazy. People can just gang up on someone and there could be a host of vicous rumers going around about them in no time at all. So childish but it affects people in terrible ways.
The man speaks well. Simple and effective. Bag gives a sense of mystery. Channel 4 can’t get enough.
Investing in Mental health will only cost the government money there is no means to profit from it hence a delayed uninterested reaction. Road deaths allowed there to be a measurable income via penalty points system and NCT and improving car worthiness and it has been successful in decreasing deaths massively while turning a profit..need to accept mental health is simply something you have to give up and offer
What a load of complete waffle..keep the bag on..suicide was around long before the celtic tiger..
But it’s increased which may be the point you are missing or deigning……
Really? Tell me more you complete and utter troll
Kerry has it..it’s just spoken about more.
There are more suicides than car accidents now. Accidents just happen..but our own taking their own lives, that does not just happen. We need to be more open about this. We need to stop it
It sure was Sparky. Nothing was done about it then and nothing is been done about it now. Speaking about it is a good thing. Maybe you think we should just be Men about it and dig our heads in the sand is it?
No not at all Vincent. But they related suicide to the celtic tiger in this article. That’s my point..it’s deeper than that .
There are lots of people battling with depression for many reasons sparky and believe me I know suicide was around long before the celtic tiger, but maybe he is just expressing the circumstances that he sees contributing to young people’s reasons for losing a sense of any kind of hope or chance for them in the future? In honesty I’m not sure he is right as I really think that each and every person has specific reasons and it isn’t necessarily to do with a national outlook or economical situation. Though the national economical situation has certainly played a part in denying people the help they need to battle it. Or rather now our society has an economical excuse to ignore people who need help. I’ve lived with this condition for as long as I remember but for the first 25 years or so I assumed all people felt this all consuming emptiness and bleakness that I felt so strongly that I could barely function. I’ve found ways to manage it, sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, when they don’t I just battle on knowing that everything changes, even this and so this too shall pass.
Look, pea brain ‘sparky’, there exists a century or more of research data that ALL shows a substantial increase of all social ills resulting from the pressures of economic recession/depression, including suicides.
Those are the facts.
Does suicide exist at other times – yes it does. Is it increased by poverty level economic pressures? Yes, absolutely.
So who’s agenda are persuing here trying to tell people lies? Or are you just stupid and couldn’t be bothered to look for any evidence about it before commenting?
“We don’t even know who our enemy is”… The problem of today’s young people, the legacy of corruption.. Brilliantly put.
We are the enemy. We are the ones who vote for politicians incapable of doing the job they put themselves up for. A decade of bad polices implemented by incompetent politicians.
@John Kinsella: Then run for election. You have that right.
People say it’s our fault for voting them in, it’s other people’s faults for not voting. Voting genuinely makes no difference any more. The game is rigged against us. There’s only two ways to go, if you ask me. Either we accept the reality of this new kind of feudal system, or we take it down. People are too afraid of the chaos and economic ramifications there would be in the aftermath, but you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. It’s high time we grew balls and ovaries, and pulled the plug.
We have Blindboy, Brezzie, and so many others talking about suicide and mental health… but nothing really changes in terms of services in Ireland for young people with mental health issues.
It’s a ****ing disgrace.
Blind Boy says nothing to me about my life. A total charlatan.
Wow,that’s not self certification tried at all
Reported my own comment for autocorrect errors. Meant to call you self centred
Myself and 12 lads are driving g 5 landrover defenders from galway to Norway for pieta house idonate to galwaytonorway if you can thx
This insane plastic Supervalu bag over the head is utterly ridiculous and always has been, just take it off and have yourselves taken more seriously on sensitive topics like suicide.
No, because the “insane plastic bag” allows him to decide when he talks. If he didn’t have the bag he’d be pestered morning, none and night. It’s like the old school ‘on air’ sign at a radii station. Also it’s quite possible that he has anxiety issues.
I didnt notice the bag, I was listening to what he was saying …
As a twenty something I’ve had 5 former classmates take their own lives and half of those left emigrated. Many others vanished off the radar, I wonder how many are struggling with depression. It was always something I accepted as a normal part of growing up though hearing the likes of blindboy raising it helps me realise how the experience of this generation has been anything but and it shouldn’t be so readily accepted by society.
…”we don’t see a future and we don’t even know who our enemy is.”
.. ‘enemy’ .. how about “apathy” – ticking the wrong box in the Polling Booth or not even arsed to go and vote – 40% dont! Ireland is not a functioning Democracy (100 yrs later) evidenced by repeated crashes and 300,000 thrown overboard to OZ, Canada etc. Next time bring your brains to the Polling Booths.
Ireland GDP €203 billion – 4.6 million supported by wealth created.
Portugal GDP €203 billion – 10.3 million supported by wealth created.
Have to say I was away for the hype and their musical
Start but have listened to a few of his interviews, most notably with Scroobius Pip and his take on Irish society is bang on the money
More suicides here in a few years compared to the conflict in N. Ireland and the government only says yes to Merkel, Troika and the IMF, WHY IS THE GOVERNMENT IGNORING THIS???
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