Mahesh Murthy

Current

Managing Partner at Seedfund
Founder & CEO at Pinstorm
Founder & Principal at Passionfund

Co-founder and Director at Geodesic

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Past

Country Head at Channel V
Vice President, Marketing at iCat
Partner, General Manager and Creative Director at CKS

Associate Creative Director, Copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather
Creative Supervisor, Copywriter at Grey
Copywriter at FCB / Ulka Advertising

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3 more...

Education

Osmania University
Kendriya Vidyalaya

Recommended

11 people have recommended Mahesh

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Marketing and Advertising

Mahesh Murthy’s Summary

Mahesh Murthy has 25 years of marketing and advertising experience, of which 14 are in online marketing.

After dropping out of college, Mahesh sold vacuum cleaners from door to door, worked with Grey in India and Ogilvy in Hong Kong, where he won notoriety and awards as a creative director on HP, The Economist, Pepsi and MTV - for whom he wrote and directed a spot voted “Asia’s best commercial of the decade”.

He then moved to a Silicon Valley firm, CKS Partners (later, USWeb/CKS) as Creative Director, General Manager and Partner – where he helped launch the first commercial version of Yahoo in 1995 and the Earth’s Biggest Bookstore campaign for Amazon.com in 1997. After a successful NASDAQ IPO, Mahesh moved to head marketing at iCat, an e-commerce firm in Seattle subsequently acquired by Intel.

Mahesh then returned to India to run Channel V, a rival to MTV, till its sale to Newscorp in 2000 and then founded Passionfund to invest in startups. Some of his investees include Geodesic (a 300-bagger), Compassbox – acquired by Careerlauncher, Cypherix, Indiaproperties, EBS and Webdunia. Mahesh penned a reasonably infamous column in Business Today and Businessworld, and played the Donald Trump-equivalent role in Business Baazigar, a game show similar to The Apprentice, involving entrepreneurs and business plans.

While running search marketing campaigns for his favourite charity in 2003, Mahesh believed there was a need for a pay-for-performance online marketing company - and set up Pinstorm in Bombay. With over 120 people across 7 offices in India, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Europe and the US, Pinstorm is today among the world's leading digital marketing firms.

Mahesh has a passion for early-stage investing and teamed up with Pravin Gandhi and Bharati Jacob (ex-Infinity) in 2006 to set up Seedfund, today a leading early-stage venture capital fund in India. Seedfund already has 10 investments, including Carwale, Printo, RedBus, AFAQs and Vaatsalya.

Mahesh Murthy’s Specialties:

Marketing, business strategy, marketing strategy, internet marketing, pay-for-performance advertising, digital marketing, venture capital, startups, angel investments, mentorship, media, search engine marketing, SEM, SEO, television, early-stage investments.

Mahesh Murthy’s Experience

Managing Partner

Seedfund

(Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

April 2006 — Present (3 years 4 months)

After the successes of Passionfund (www.passionfund.com) and Infinity Ventures (www.infinityventure.com), the promoters of both have come together to create what they believe will be the leading venture firm for early-stage technology startups out of India.

Mahesh Murthy is Managing Partner of Seedfund, along with Pravin Gandhi and Bharati Jacob.

As of August 2008, Seedfund had 10 investments, including sector leaders like AFAQs, Printo, Carwale, Vaatsalya and RedBus.

Interested entrepreneurs can submit their plans to info@seedfund.in
Founder & CEO

Pinstorm

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

May 2004 — Present (5 years 3 months)

Advertising is a $600 billion industry - and Pinstorm hopes to change it forever.

Ad agencies work on a commission system - where they get a part of the money they spend for their clients. Which pushes them to spend more and not earn more for the client. Or, they work on retainers - which gives them no incentive either way. So the client isn't served.

Pinstorm is among the first pay-for-performance ad firms in the world. We pay for creative, strategy and media - and clients just pay for the results of this investment - either in terms of measured brand impact, or in terms of visits, views, leads or even sales.

This bold approach has made Pinstorm one of the fastest growing multinational ad firms in the world - and the first headquartered in India. With over 120 people across 7 offices in USA, Europe, China, Singapore and Malaysia - and clients like HSBC, Microsoft, Disney, Yahoo and HP.

For more information, visit www.pinstorm.com or email info@pinstorm.com
Founder & Principal

Passionfund

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

January 2000 — Present (9 years 7 months)

Passionfund is among the very, very few year-2000 investment funds that has shown a positive return. With successes like a 300-bagger in Geodesic, a commuications software company; Compassbox - sold to CareerLauncher and other startups that have survived and thrived like Cypherix, Webdunia, EBS Worldwide, Indiaproperties and the like, the fund is living proof of staying true to its maxim of "spend a little money and a lot of time on your startups".

Mahesh has largely ceased new investments from Passionfund - is managing his current portfolio there and is looking at new investments through his new investment vehicle, Seedfund (www.seedfund.in).
Co-founder and Director

Geodesic

(Public Company; 51-200 employees; GEOINFO; Computer Software industry)

April 1999 — Present (10 years 4 months)

Mahesh founded Geodesic with his partners Kiran Kulkarni, Pankaj Kumar and Prashant Mulekar as one of the first product-focused companies out of India - which was largely till then known for labour-arbitrage driven software services companies.

Mahesh has helped drive the product and marketing strategy at Geodesic and has helped oversee the growth of the company from an idea to a business and stock market success, with a current market cap of over US$250m.

Geodesic recently acquired Picopeta, developer of the Simputer. Mahesh sits on the board of the company and currently oversees product, marketing and M & A initiatives.
Country Head

Channel V

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Broadcast Media industry)

January 1999 — July 2000 (1 year 7 months)

Mahesh was recruited from the US to turn around an ailing music television channel in India - set up as a rival to MTV.

Within a period of less than two years, Mahesh was able to cut losses from 90% to less than 10%, increase revenues significantly, re-position the brand from a music focus to a youth focus, oversee the production of a few dozen new shows and launch an online community for youth, vIndia.com as a sister concern that received a high valuation from merchant bankers.

Mahesh stayed on till the channel was acquired for a tidy sum by Newscorp - Star TV - and he still enjoys a close rapport with the movers and shakers of the Indian media and entertainment industry.
Vice President, Marketing

iCat

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

October 1997 — November 1998 (1 year 2 months)

Mahesh was hired by his client at CKS: iCat (Interactive Catalog Corporation) to help build its brand of e-commerce solutions for brick-and-mortar companies wishing to sell online.

From a portfolio of a few hundred customers, Mahesh helped promote a skunkworks product iCat Commerce Online that allowed customers to build stores online with no knowledge of programming necessary - and helped the company gain over 5,000 users in a period of 6 months.

The company was acquired by Intel in late 1998, at which time Mahesh left to pursue other options.
Partner, General Manager and Creative Director

CKS

(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; CKSG; Marketing and Advertising industry)

April 1994 — October 1997 (3 years 7 months)

Mahesh was hired from Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong to bring a consumer focus to this technology-savvy company that till then largely concentrated on business-to-business communications.

Mahesh started by helping a fledgling portal called Yahoo in early 1995 with its first graphic UI and branding, then helped create and launch the "Earth's Biggest Bookstore" campaign for Amazon.com in 1996.

He helped change the perception of the agency from a tech-only shop by leading the effort to win its first beer brand: Widmer, and followed up with well-awarded work on brands like Nike, Coca-cola, MCI, Microsoft and even Jim Henson's Muppets.

Mahesh grew in responsibilites too, quickly, starting as a Creative Director, growing to General Manager of the Pacific Northwest region based in Portland, Oregon and then making it to Partner in the firm, which also went through a successful NASDAQ IPO.
Associate Creative Director, Copywriter

Ogilvy & Mather

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

April 1990 — April 1994 (4 years 1 month)

Mahesh moved from India to his first regional position in Hong Kong, handling marketing communication for brands like Microsoft, Intel, Pepsi, The Economist, Conrad Hotels, American Express, Hennessy Cognac and Heineken across 40 countries from Vietnam to Hong Kong at the regional HQ of Asia's largest ad agency.

Mahesh headed a multinational, multi-cultural team that was tasked with the more difficult global projects - and with SWAT-team assignments on tough nuts to crack. The team consistently brought revenue and creative growth - winning pitches and awards across the region.

During this period, Mahesh also consulted for MTV Networks to launch their channel across Asia and specifically, India. His promos for them won numerous awards including a "Best Commercial of the decade" for a spot he wrote, produced and directed.
Creative Supervisor, Copywriter

Grey

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

January 1987 — March 1990 (3 years 3 months)

Mahesh blazed a trail at this Indian creative hotshop, then called Trikaya Grey, in Bombay and New Delhi, winning awards and growing sales for his work on computers and office equipment for HCL (later Hewlett-Packard) and other brands. Several of his campaigns made it to the syllabus of marketing courses at b-schools in India, where they are to this day.
Copywriter

FCB / Ulka Advertising

(Marketing and Advertising industry)

1986 — 1987 (1 year)

Mahesh Murthy’s Education

Osmania University

B. Tech. , Chemical Engineering , 1982 — 1983

Dropped out after 3 semesters.

Activities and Societies:

Part of the Quiz, Debate, Elocution, Table tennis team.
Kendriya Vidyalaya

Class X, then MPBC for XI and XII 1979 — 1982

Additional Information

Mahesh Murthy’s Interests:

Early-stage investing Converging and interactive media Changing the world

Mahesh Murthy’s Groups:

President, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), Bombay, 2004-2005
Board Director, The Indus Entrepreneurs, (TIE), Bombay, 2005 - current
Board Director, Internet and Mobile Association of India, 2006 - current
Board Advisor, SINE, Incubator at IIT Bombay

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