Bhavin Turakhia
Encyclopedia
Bhavin Turakhia is an India
n Internet entrepreneur
, CEO and Founder of Directi
, a web products company he started in 1998. Directi is a technology
conglomerate and the parent company of ResellerClub
, LogicBoxes
, Skenzo
, CodeChef,. pw and WebHosting.info
.
Turakhia is responsible for the vision, strategy, engineering and operations of all these businesses. From founding Directi in 1998, he has grown the company to include 6 businesses, more than 20 products and more than 600 employees. He is a well-respected and influential figure in the Indian technology landscape and is a frequent speaker at various seminars, technology conferences and colleges.
The products and services of these business units deal with communication
, collaboration
and mass market
web presence solutions.
and grew up there. His mother is a lawyer
by education while his father is a Chartered Accountant
by profession.
high school in Mumbai
.
He was first exposed to computers in 1986 when he was in the 6th grade. He used to spend countless hours in the school’s computer lab exploring BASIC
and other programming languages on his own. Through experimentation and reading various manuals and books, he taught himself programming languages. By grade 9, he was taking extra classes for students after school hours. While still at school, he worked on several projects writing advanced code in the then popular GWBASIC
. By grade 10, he had coded a stock market simulation game built to track stock prices and a business simulation game which was designed to replicate the running of a real business.
in Mumbai, where he completed his junior college and finished his senior college from Sydenham College
where he enrolled in a Bachelors of Commerce
course. In 1996 – 97 while still in college he discovered his entrepreneurial zest, and started ‘Bits and PCs’ which dealt with computer hardware sales and Web Spinners, a consulting company. Both ventures did not succeed.
s and business school
s across the country.
As of April 2010, Directi’s business units feature amongst the top 5 or 10 world-wide in their respective business segments.
Turakhia is an avid follower of technology and a passionate programmer as well. He often writes about a myriad of tech topics on his blog at bhavin.directi.com.
Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2005.
In 2009, Turakhia was covered in a mini-autobiography by a team of students from the Indian School of Business
.
Bhavin Turakhia honored as the Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum in 2011.
, Online Advertising
and Web Analytics
at the Indian School of Business as part of their educational initiative.
budget proposed for the year 2004-2005. As per the budget, the yearly fee charged to registrars could increase from $5000 to $24000 yearly putting many small and mid-sized registrars out of business.
Through the initiative, Turakhia proposed an alternative budget which would benefit registrars and ICANN. This plan was partially accepted by ICANN and middle ground was reached by taking into account the interest of both parties.
to the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell of Mumbai, a job which he has been discharging for many years.
His presentation at Proto – The Startup Event in 2009 titled The Game of Business was well received. Through his presentation he speaks about how principles of sport can be effectively used in creating a successful business. He has also contributed to independent portals related to the internet industry.
Turakhia has been featured extensively in the Indian media by mainstream newspapers like the Hindustan Times
, Education World, The Sunday Guardian, The Times of India, Kolkatta Mirror
, The Financial Express
and Forbes
India.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n Internet entrepreneur
Internet entrepreneur
An Internet entrepreneur is an entrepreneur that applies innovation to create new businesses on the Internet.Internet entrepreneurs are part of the more general category of digital entrepreneurs...
, CEO and Founder of Directi
Directi
Direct is an internet domain registrar and web hosting company, and was the first ICANN-accredited registrar in India. Directi was started by Bhavin Turakhia and his brother Divyank Turakhia in 1998...
, a web products company he started in 1998. Directi is a technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
conglomerate and the parent company of ResellerClub
Directi
Direct is an internet domain registrar and web hosting company, and was the first ICANN-accredited registrar in India. Directi was started by Bhavin Turakhia and his brother Divyank Turakhia in 1998...
, LogicBoxes
Directi
Direct is an internet domain registrar and web hosting company, and was the first ICANN-accredited registrar in India. Directi was started by Bhavin Turakhia and his brother Divyank Turakhia in 1998...
, Skenzo
Directi
Direct is an internet domain registrar and web hosting company, and was the first ICANN-accredited registrar in India. Directi was started by Bhavin Turakhia and his brother Divyank Turakhia in 1998...
, CodeChef,. pw and WebHosting.info
Directi
Direct is an internet domain registrar and web hosting company, and was the first ICANN-accredited registrar in India. Directi was started by Bhavin Turakhia and his brother Divyank Turakhia in 1998...
.
Turakhia is responsible for the vision, strategy, engineering and operations of all these businesses. From founding Directi in 1998, he has grown the company to include 6 businesses, more than 20 products and more than 600 employees. He is a well-respected and influential figure in the Indian technology landscape and is a frequent speaker at various seminars, technology conferences and colleges.
The products and services of these business units deal with communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
, collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
and mass market
Mass market
The mass market is a general business term describing the largest group of consumers for a specified industry product. It is the opposite extreme of the term niche market.-General:...
web presence solutions.
Early life
Turakhia was born in MumbaiMumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
and grew up there. His mother is a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
by education while his father is a Chartered Accountant
Chartered Accountant
Chartered Accountants were the first accountants to form a professional body, initially established in Britain in 1854. The Edinburgh Society of Accountants , the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries and the Aberdeen Society of Accountants were each granted a royal charter almost from...
by profession.
School
Turakhia completed his schooling from Arya Vidya MandirVile Parle West
Vile parle West is a suburb Of Mumbai with Cosmopolitant Population, Mainly Gujaratis near the Station Areas.Following is the list of schools in Vile Parle West.Some of the lanes of Vile Parle west are Bajaj Road, Dadabhai Road,...
high school in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
.
He was first exposed to computers in 1986 when he was in the 6th grade. He used to spend countless hours in the school’s computer lab exploring BASIC
BASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
and other programming languages on his own. Through experimentation and reading various manuals and books, he taught himself programming languages. By grade 9, he was taking extra classes for students after school hours. While still at school, he worked on several projects writing advanced code in the then popular GWBASIC
GW-BASIC
GW-BASIC was a dialect of the programming language BASIC developed by Microsoft from BASICA, originally for Compaq. It is compatible with Microsoft/IBM BASICA, but was disk based and did not need the ROM BASIC. It was bundled with MS-DOS operating systems on IBM PC compatibles by Microsoft...
. By grade 10, he had coded a stock market simulation game built to track stock prices and a business simulation game which was designed to replicate the running of a real business.
College
Turakhia joined DG Ruparel CollegeRuparel College
The D.G. Ruparel College of Arts, Science and Commerce is a college in Matunga, Mumbai, India. It is run by Modern Education Society, Pune and is affiliated with the University of Mumbai, and has been referred to as "prestigious" by the Times of India....
in Mumbai, where he completed his junior college and finished his senior college from Sydenham College
Sydenham College
Sydenham College or Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics is the first college of commerce in Asia.It is an institute in Mumbai , affiliated to the University of Bombay, and offering undergraduate degrees in commerce and undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in management...
where he enrolled in a Bachelors of Commerce
Bachelor of Commerce
A Bachelor of Commerce is an undergraduate degree in commerce and related subjects. The degree is also known as the Bachelor of Commerce and Administration, or BCA...
course. In 1996 – 97 while still in college he discovered his entrepreneurial zest, and started ‘Bits and PCs’ which dealt with computer hardware sales and Web Spinners, a consulting company. Both ventures did not succeed.
Early years
Turakhia started Directi when he was 18 years, along with his brother Divyank Turakhia. He borrowed Rs 25,000 from his father to purchase the company’s first server which he repaid in the first month itself. The initial team worked out a 630 square feet (58.5 m²) space in Andheri, Mumbai and consisted of 4 members.Present
The company now operates out of its 6 offices, and is head quartered in Mumbai at 7 storey, 120000 square feet (11,148.4 m²) headquarters which houses 500 of the company’s 600+ employees. Directi is amongst the leading technology companies in India and an active recruiter at all of the premier engineering collegeEngineering college
Engineering colleges generally refer to institutes of higher education which offer an engineering course at degree level. The duration of the course is four to five years depending upon the university to which the college is affiliated. The students learn little of basic science concentrating...
s and business school
Business school
A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in Business Administration. It teaches topics such as accounting, administration, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems, marketing, organizational behavior, public relations, strategy, human resource...
s across the country.
As of April 2010, Directi’s business units feature amongst the top 5 or 10 world-wide in their respective business segments.
- LogicBoxes is an industry leader in providing technology and consulting solutions to domain registrars globally.
- Skenzo is a world leader in the domain advertising and monetization business
- CodeChef is the largest coding and programmingComputer programmingComputer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
competition in India with over 30,000 users.
- WebHosting.info is the largest provider of statistical data in the web services industry. Its patent pending algorithm monitors 1.3+ million DNS servers, 35+ million domain names and approximately 2 billion IP addressIP addressAn Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
es.
- ResellerClub, the registrar arm of Directi is the 8th largest domain registrar in the world.
Interests
Turakhia is a passionate traveler and adventure sports enthusiast. He enjoys sky diving, scuba diving, zorbing and frequently extends business trips to pursue these passions. He also owns a Cessna Stationair which his brother Divyank Turakhia is licensed to fly.Turakhia is an avid follower of technology and a passionate programmer as well. He often writes about a myriad of tech topics on his blog at bhavin.directi.com.
Recognition and Achievements
Turakhia won the BhartiBharti Enterprises
Bharti Enterprises is an Indian business conglomerate headquartered in New Delhi, India, operating primarily across India and in some other countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Jersey, Guernsey and Seychelles with expanding operations across Africa in Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville,...
Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2005.
In 2009, Turakhia was covered in a mini-autobiography by a team of students from the Indian School of Business
Indian School of Business
The Indian School of Business is a business school in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. It offers a Post Graduate Programme in Management , a Fellow Program in Management, and a Post Graduate Programme in Management for Senior...
.
Bhavin Turakhia honored as the Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum in 2011.
CodeChef
In 2009, Turakhia started and spearheaded the CodeChef initiative which is a non-commercial coding and programming competition to challenge and engage the developer community in India. It is a byproduct of Turakhia’s own passion for programming and also works to foster a stronger developer community through the Campus Chapters and User Groups efforts.Online Marketing Course
In 2010, Turakhia announced that Directi would conduct courses on Social MediaSocial media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
, Online Advertising
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...
and Web Analytics
Web analytics
Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage....
at the Indian School of Business as part of their educational initiative.
Industry Involvement
Turakhia is an active participant in the Registrar space and has been a vocal supporter of the domain registrar community.ICANN Budget 2004
In 2004, he started icannbudget.org with the support of 76 ICANN accredited registrars in response to the ICANNICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
budget proposed for the year 2004-2005. As per the budget, the yearly fee charged to registrars could increase from $5000 to $24000 yearly putting many small and mid-sized registrars out of business.
Through the initiative, Turakhia proposed an alternative budget which would benefit registrars and ICANN. This plan was partially accepted by ICANN and middle ground was reached by taking into account the interest of both parties.
Registrar Constituency
Turakhia was also the youngest and former chairman of the Registrars Constituency. He was elected for two consecutive terms in 2004.ICANN Meets
Turakhia is a regular attendee, supporter and sponsor at ICANN meets across the world through the business units LogicBoxes and Skenzo. Directi has been a prominent sponsor for ICANN meets like Delhi, Paris, Cairo, Mexico and Brussels.Cyber Crime Cell
Turakhia also serves as a technical advisorTechnical advisor
A technical advisor is an individual who is expert in a particular field of knowledge, hired to provide detailed information and advice to people working in that field...
to the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell of Mumbai, a job which he has been discharging for many years.
Media Participation
Turakhia is a respected figure in the web 2.0 landscape and is a frequent speaker at colleges, entrepreneur and technology conferences across India. He has graced the podium at events like Web Innovation, The Great Indian Developer Summit, HeadStart and Compute, Management Conclave, Broadband Tech India, SiliconIndia Start Up City and at the Indian School of Business.His presentation at Proto – The Startup Event in 2009 titled The Game of Business was well received. Through his presentation he speaks about how principles of sport can be effectively used in creating a successful business. He has also contributed to independent portals related to the internet industry.
Turakhia has been featured extensively in the Indian media by mainstream newspapers like the Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement of the period ....
, Education World, The Sunday Guardian, The Times of India, Kolkatta Mirror
Kolkata Mirror
Kolkata Mirror is a city specific website owned and operated by the Times Group, the publishers of The Times of India newspaper. The website is solely devoted to Kolkata and its people...
, The Financial Express
Financial Express
The Financial Express is an Indian English-language business newspaper. It is published by the Indian Express group since 1961. The FE specialises in India and international business and financial news....
and Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
India.