Four Truths of Entrepreneurship
Jason Kothari |
TEDxYouth@CAJCS
• September 2018
Jason Kothari is an entrepreneur and business leader that is known as a specialist at turning around companies and strategic deals.
Starting his journey while a college student at Wharton, he became the co-founder & CEO of superhero character company Valiant Entertainment, where he led the acquisition out of bankruptcy and turnaround of the company resulting in a record return in the industry and a sale for $100 million to Hollywood & China-based DMG Entertainment. The Company was named Publisher of the Yearand completed a five-movie partnership with Sony Pictures and Original Film (Fast and the Furious franchise) with the first movie “Bloodshot” currently in production with Vin Diesel in the starring role.
Following this, he took over as CEO of Softbank-backed troubled online real estate company Housing.com, where he led the turnaround of the company and merger with News Corp’s PropTiger to create India’s largest online-to-offline real estate services company valued in aggregate at $350 million. The Company’s revenues increased by 400%, costs reduced by 80%, and Housing.com became the most popular platform for buying and selling homes in India.
Subsequently, he was the Chief Strategy & Investment Officer of Snapdeal, where he led the turnaround of the Company with the founders. He led the creation of Snapdeal 2.0 and the restructuring of the Company, which resulted in a revenue increase of 15% while cash burn reduced from $20 million per month to zero or cash flow break-even, a first for a consumer e-commerce company in India. In addition, he led the sale of non-core assets, which generated $100 million for the Company. He was also the CEO of digital payments company FreeCharge and led the Company from a position of distress to a sale to Axis Bank, a key strategic deal in the space.
Recently, he became President of leading B2B e-commerce company Infibeam Avenues, which offers end-to-end e-commerce technology and payment solutions to businesses and the government. It is India’s only publicly listed e-commerce company valued at over $1.5 billion.
He is also on the Board of Directors of Emaar India, one of India’s largest real estate developers, and has been an advisor to various companies, including Softbank, the largest technology investor, and Noon.com, a new Middle East e-commerce company that raised $1 billion.
He holds a B.S. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.