There's Something About InMobi

I recently completed five exhilarating years at InMobi and the company incidentally just completed 7 years of its existence last week. While it has been a phenomenal journey in helping build InMobi to what it is today, I must admit that it is never easy. When you are part of a startup with hyper growth ambitions, playing a global game, in a massively dynamic ecosystem, there needs to be a compelling set of reasons that makes you look past the pain.

There's something about InMobi that makes it worth the pain -

- Because you are part of something that's THINKING BIG and sometimes get goose bumps imagining the audacity of what you are trying to build and how this could impact the world.

- Because we are fortunate to have marquee investors, who backed and built epic companies, believe in our story early on. From Ram Shriram (who backed Google in their early days) to KPCB (of John Doerr fame) to Masayoshi Son (SoftBank Japan), the visionary who bet on Alibaba, Tencent, Sprint, Supercell, (and InMobi way back in 2011)!

- Because we were the first independent mobile advertising platform (after Google), that built out a global business and operations spanning 165 countries with teams in almost 25-30 countries.

- Because we have set out to fundamentally disrupt the world of advertising by delivering a compelling user experience through a combination to Art and Science; by balancing the Yin (of leveraging our deep user/audience understanding for better targeting, prediction and optimization) and the Yang (of beautiful/compelling ad experiences that users love).

- Because we are proudly mobile-first. Ever since we started 7 years back, we are 100% mobile-first. With a technology team of almost 400-500 PMs and engineers working on mobile-first advertising and delivering ROI to our customers.

- Because we have brick-by-brick laid the foundation of an everlasting company through a fundamentally strong product and technology backbone, solid business execution and financial acumen, driven by some of the smartest and most passionate people on the planet!

- Because we are in it for the long haul. We have been fortunate to witness and sustain seismic shifts in the post-PC, mobile era - from feature phones to smartphones to tablets and now wearables and yet remained relevant all through.

- Because we have evolved our value proposition with each wave of advertisers on mobile - from Content partners(ringtones, wallpapers) way back to App Developers to Brands/Agencies and now Programmatic buying & Commerce as we go forward.

- Because we are humbled by how Google and Facebook have built extraordinary technology businesses over the years. And yet we dare to dream to compete against them.

- Because we are proud of being able to learn, iterate and unlearn from our mistakes; very fast; without any egos; given we fundamentally believe that 'no one knows the right answers since the mobile economy itself in its infancy’.

- Because we thrive not just in hiring rock stars as much as possible but more so in getting extraordinary outcomes from ordinary people. That, to me, is the sign of true leadership at InMobi!

- Because we are “Made in India; For the World”.

I could go on but I wouldn't want to inflict my passion on your patience. Suffices to say, this is my way of saying thank you to my team, our customers, our investors and ecosystem partners for fostering and moulding InMobi into what it is today. I often tell my wife, if we can raise our children the way InMobi is shaping up, we’ll have done well, very well. Here’s to yet another very successful year ahead for InMobi!