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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (5518)	8/8/1999 10:48:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 12475

Teen 'tycoon' has his Eyepiece set on the future Eyepiece Network eyepiece.com eyepiece.com Shalini Singh MEET Sumir Meghani, NRI, and CEO of The Eyepiece Network, an on-line publication geared towards young adults between 17 and 25. So what, you may ask; there are lots of them around. But Sumir, you see, is only 18 years old. Yes, 18. And his flourishing business enterprise (he doesn't discuss financials, though) was incorporated when he was all of 16. In August 1997, to be precise....... But when he talks, he talks business, displaying a maturity that doesn't quite go with his looks. ? It's a very profitable enterprise. The cost structure is very low,? he says with a confident twang. ? We don't need an office or a printing press because we publish electronically, and there are also no distribution costs.? And this CEO is no autocrat either. ? I give the staff considerable input, although everyone has substantial decision-making power. It's been a humbling experience. I've matured with the business and learnt to be a good leader as well as a good team player.? Considering he leads a team whose age varies between 16-40, that's saying quite a lot. But Sumir's age is only a legal barrier (his mother incorporated the business and held it for him till he turned 18), quite obviously not a practical one. ?We started with five to six people, mainly in editorial positions,? he reveals. ?But now we have grown to about 15 people and that includes people for marketing and public relations.? Sumir comes from a regular (read conservative) Gujarati family ? even though his business card gives a Michigan address. His grandfather was a writer and their family owns a bookstore and printing press in Gujarat. His father runs a travel agency in West Bloomfield while his mother is in the medical supplies business. Entrepreneurship quite obviously runs in the family. So much so that Sumir doesn't appear to feel starting a business at 16 is a big deal. In fact, his path is all mapped out. ? I've finished high school and will be attending Stanford next month to do a bachelors in Economics and computer science,? he says, adding for good measure, ?A good education is really important.?.... economictimes.com