Manish Maheshwari

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Manish Maheshwari
मनीष माहेश्वरी
Head and shoulder photo of Manish Maheshwari in blue collared t-shirt
Maheshwari in 2023
BornJanuary 1977
Tatanagar, Bihar (prior to 2000), Jharkhand (post 2000), India
EducationMBA, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Alma materShri Ram College of Commerce
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Occupation(s)Co-Founder of Fanory.ai
President of JetSynthesys
Founder and former CEO of Invact Metaversity
Former Head of Twitter India
Former CEO-Digital of Network18
SpousePriya Maheshwari

Manish Maheshwari is an Indian technology entrepreneur and executive. His technology ventures have focused on building solutions that improve the lives of the masses in emerging markets. He is co-founder of Fanory.ai, an AI-enabled "Shopify for creators",[1] with majority investment from JetSynthesys and backed by the family offices of cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar, Serum Institute's Adar Poonawalla and Infosys co-founder, Kris Gopalakrishnan.[2][3][4]

Maheshwari was the former head of Twitter India.[5] Prior to Twitter, he was the CEO of Network18 Digital.[6] He has also worked with Intuit, Flipkart, Procter & Gamble, and McKinsey.[7] He founded Invact Metaversity to bridge COVID-induced digital divide in education by leveraging the Metaverse technology.[8]

Maheshwari was elected to the Governing Council of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in 2017. He additionally served on the Executive Council until 2019 as a Treasurer, a role of significant national responsibility.[9]

Early in his career, he, along with Intuit's founder, Scott Cook and Intuit engineers Manish Shah and Clinton Nielsen, co-founded txtWeb.[10] txtWeb was an emerging markets-focused mobile platform for citizen journalism, for which the founders hold a patent issued by United States Patent & Trademark Office.[11] txtWeb was recognised by GSMA as a global case study on empowerment through access to information.[12] Snap's founder, Evan Spiegel, briefly worked as an intern on the txtWeb team.[13] India Today magazine recognised Maheshwari as one of India's Top 10 Innovators in 2014.[14]

After earning an MBA with honours from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, supported by a Ford Research Fellowship, Maheshwari briefly worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he advised the Government of India on higher education system reforms.

Maheshwari is a TEDx speaker,[15] an active MENSA member, and a PADI-certified diver who speaks five languages.

Early life and education[edit]

When he was an infant, his family migrated to Nepal in search of economic opportunities. He completed his primary schooling in a local Nepali school in Biratnagar and later attended Modern India School in Kathmandu. In the year 1990, when he was 13 years old, there was a political upheaval in Nepal. The reigning monarch King Birendra, lifted the ban on pro-democracy political parties after more than a year of nationwide protests.[16] This ultimately paved the way for establishing a multi-party democracy in Nepal.[17] However, since his family was not ethnically Nepalese and had no voting rights, they had to leave Nepal. He completed the rest of his schooling on scholarship at Maheshwari Public School, a community-run school in Jaipur.

For his undergraduate education, he went to Shri Ram College Commerce at the University of Delhi. There, he served as editor for the college magazine. He won the student body elections and served as the president of the History & Political Science Society. He has also won the Principal Madan Mohan Medal.[18]

In 2004, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania accepted him into the two-year full-time MBA program. There he was elected co-president of the Asia Club, one of the largest student-run clubs on campus. During the summer break, he volunteered in East Timor under Wharton International Volunteer Program.[19] East Timor had recently gained independence in 2002, and the task that lay ahead was that of nation-building. There he worked with executives of international organisations such as the United Nations (UN), The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and local government bodies. He graduated with honours while also winning the Shils-Zeidman Award, the highest award for entrepreneurship at Wharton.[20]

Career[edit]

Maheshwari began his career in 1999 with Procter & Gamble (P&G) in Mumbai[21] where he worked on the business of Vicks brand.[22] After a year, he was promoted and sent from India to Asia-Pacific regional headquarters.[20]

At McKinsey & Company in New York, United States, he advised Fortune 500 companies on new market entry and growth strategies for emerging markets.[20][22] He then moved to the Bay Area and joined Intuit, a consumer software company headquartered in Mountain View, California.[22] There he worked with Intuit's founder, Scott Cook and Intuit engineers, Manish Shah and Clinton Nielsen to explore a text-based mobile platform for news and information. In 2011, he, along with Scott Cook, Manish Shah and Clinton Nielsen, co-founded txtWeb, an app development platform.[20] Snap's founder, Evan Spiegel, briefly worked as an intern on the txtWeb team.[13]

Maheshwari (left) with Intuit founder, Scott Cook (middle) during early days of TxtWeb in 2011
Maheshwari (left) with Bill Gates (right) at TED (conference), c. 2011

At its peak, txtWeb had over 11 million users using one or more of the 3500 active apps built by developers and businesses across India.[23] It grew to 1 billion transactions by 2014.[24][25] It was recognised by GSMA as a global case study on empowerment through access to information.[12] It helped voters make an informed decision in the Indian general election in 2014.[26] txtWeb went on to win many innovation awards. Notable among them were mBillionth Award South Asia[27] and NASSCOM Innovation Award Runner-up in 2013.[28] India Today magazine recognised Maheshwari as one of India's top 10 innovators in the year 2014.[14]

Maheshwari was then hired by Flipkart to set up and grow Seller Ecosystem for Flipkart's marketplace.[29][30] Under him, between February 2015 and February 2016, Flipkart's seller base grew tenfold.[31] He worked on making selling online a mass movement in India by training sellers in areas such as the functioning of the market place, cataloging, order management, promotion of products and providing quality service to customers.[32] He started initiatives such as ‘Flipkart Seller Campus’ and ‘Flipkart Helping Hands’ to empower and prepare small sellers during the peak festive demand season by creating a pool of trained manpower across the country who can be deployed under the plug-and-play model.[33] He also pioneered global brand licensing for Indian sellers.[34][35]

In April 2016, Maheshwari joined as the CEO of Network18 Digital to grow its online offerings which included Moneycontrol.com, Firstpost.com, News18.com, CricketNext.com, CNBC-TV18.com, Yatra.com, Homeshop18.com and BookMyShow.com.[20][36][37] He pushed the group beyond just web to encompass a gamut of digital services enabled by mobile, machine learning, programmatic ad buying, Augmented reality (AR), and Virtual reality (VR).[38] The group became the most visited and viewed media network on YouTube as per Vidooly's News Network Report for September to November 2017.[39] Moneycontrol also launched India's first smartwatch application to have voice search for stocks enabled on the Apple watch.[40] Maheshwari is credited with the regional expansion of the group through growth in 13 Indian languages resulting in a three-digit increase in traffic across platforms with corresponding growth in revenues.[38] He pioneered a subscription model for Moneycontrol wherein subscribers paid a small premium for business research and stock reports.[38] In two years after his joining, the company crossed the threshold of 100 million unique digital visitors per month with well-diversified revenues encompassing advertising, subscription, branded content, and syndications.[41]

In April 2019, Maheshwari joined as the head of Twitter's India business to oversee Twitter India's teams in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.[42][43] He worked with a cross-functional team amidst COVID-19-related operational challenges.[44] When the coronavirus pandemic ravaged India, Twitter became the virtual helpline to organise and manage relief operations across the country.[45] He pushed for localising the product for India and adding a preferred Indian language option on the platform, which helped algorithms surface content in that language to the user. Non-English tweets in India grew to 50% of overall tweets.[46] India became one of the fastest-growing audience markets for Twitter globally and saw its fastest revenue growth in India in five years.[46][47]

Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey (left) with Maheshwari (right) in 2018

Significant user growth amplified the importance of the content being shared on Twitter in India. This surge in user activity led to increased attempts by various groups to influence the public discourse by manipulating trending topics on Twitter.[44] As the head of Twitter India, Maheshwari found himself at the forefront of these challenges, facing pressures from multiple directions, including receiving death threats, as he navigated the complex landscape of social media governance and free speech in India. Twitter's global leadership team concluded that it had become “very, very dangerous for him and his family” to stay in India and decided not to have Country Director role in India.[48][49] In August 2021, Maheshwari was promoted and relocated to Twitter's San Francisco headquarters as Senior Director for Revenue Strategy and Operations, focusing on new markets worldwide.[50][51][52]

In December 2021, Maheshwari announced his intention to leave Twitter and launch an EdTech startup.[53] In January 2022, he left Twitter and founded Invact Metaversity, a startup at the intersection of education and the metaverse.[54] In May 2022, he took a break to pursue new opportunities.[55]

Following the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk in 2022, Maheshwari has been vocal about his concerns with respect to significant layoffs in India, change in verification policy, and its detrimental impact on the two-sided network effect, which made Twitter influential in India.[56][57] He is an expert commentator on latest developments in the area of digital technology, digital content and social media. His articles are featured in leading publications and he is invited for interviews and panel discussions on technology trends by top media outlets such as CNBC, The Indian Express and The Economic Times.[58][59][60]

In early 2023, Maheshwari came out of stealth mode with an AI-enabled copilot for creators, called Fanory.ai.[1] It enabled creators to generate incremental revenue in addition to what they can continue to earn via brand endorsements and advertising.[61] Fanory.ai received a majority investment from JetSynthesys and was backed by the family offices of cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar, Serum Institute of India's Adar Poonawalla and Infosys Co-founder, Kris Gopalakrishnan.[3][4] As part of the investment transaction, Maheshwari was appointed President of JetSynthesys.[62][63] In November 2023, Fanory.ai started offering budding content creators a guaranteed hourly monetization rate, which is more than double of what such creators make on social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitch and YouTube.[1][64]

Elected positions held[edit]

Awards and recognition[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Lohchab, Himanshi (November 29, 2023). "AI startup for creators Fanory offers guaranteed hourly monetisation rates". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  2. ^ www.ETBrandEquity.com. "JetSynthesys acquires majority stake in Fanory - ET BrandEquity". ETBrandEquity.com. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Sindhu Hariharan (January 25, 2023). "JetSynthesys acquires majority stake in Fanory - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Jetsynthesys acquires majority stake in Fanory, hires former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari". The Economic Times. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  5. ^ Chaturvedi, Anumeha. "Twitter India: Twitter appoints Manish Maheshwari as new India MD". The Economic Times. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  6. ^ Jalan, Trisha (April 22, 2019). "Network18 Digital CEO Manish Maheshwari joins Twitter India as MD". MediaNama. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  7. ^ "Former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari quits co to join education venture". The Indian Express. December 15, 2021. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  8. ^ Bureau, BL Bengaluru (February 21, 2022). "Former Twitter India Head Manish Maheshwari's Invact Metaversity raises $5 mn". www.thehindubusinessline.com. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  9. ^ "JetSynthesys acquires majority stake in Fanory - Exchange4media". Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  10. ^ Abrar, Peerzada. "Startup txtWeb may cross 1 billion Indian users in 5 years". The Economic Times. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  11. ^ US 8566408, Shah, Manish R.; Nielsen, Clinton & Maheshwari, Manish et al., "Method and system for providing a stateful experience while accessing content using a global textsite platform", published 2013-10-22, assigned to Intuit Inc. 
  12. ^ a b "TextWeb". Mobile for Development. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  13. ^ a b Desk, Newsmen Business (September 19, 2022). "Evan Spiegel: Know the co-founder and CEO of Snapchat". thenewsmen. Retrieved November 25, 2022. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  14. ^ a b @manishm (August 15, 2021). "Register" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  15. ^ Maheshwari, Manish Maheshwari, Priya (June 1, 2020), Taking the Path Less Travelled, retrieved November 25, 2022{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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  17. ^ "Nepalese force king to accept democratic reform, 'Jana Andolan' (People's Movement), 1990 | Global Nonviolent Action Database". nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
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  22. ^ a b c "Network 18 ropes in Flipkart's Manish Maheshwari as CEO Web 18 - Exchange4media". Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  23. ^ PTI (March 4, 2014). "txtWeb partners Bharti Airtel to launch text-based app store". Business Standard. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  24. ^ Narkhede, Nikhil (May 13, 2014). "txtWeb crosses 1 Billion transactions -". Technary. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  25. ^ Bisinfotech (May 7, 2014). "txtWeb ascents fresh heights, sledgehammers one billionth mark". Bisinfotech. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  26. ^ "txtWeb: SMS services for voters to make an informed decision". www.indiainfoline.com. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  27. ^ "Mbillionth Award for Mobile Innovations in South Asia, DEF | txtWeb". Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  28. ^ "Intuit's txtWeb adjudged runner-up of NASSCOM Innovation Awards 2013". www.indiainfoline.com. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
  29. ^ "Flipkart creates new leadership positions". TJinsite. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  30. ^ Eshwar, Bart (April 1, 2016). "Flipkart's Head Of Seller Ecosystem Manish Maheshwari Quits Company". OfficeChai. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  31. ^ "Manish Maheshwari leaves Flipkart, to be the new CEO of Web18". The Economic Times. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  32. ^ Bureau, BW Online. "Aptech Collaborates With Flipkart To Train Its Sellers". BW Businessworld. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  33. ^ Varshney, Rashi (October 9, 2015). "Flipkart's Big Billion Days sale from Oct 13-17, prepares sellers". Express Computer. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  34. ^ "Flipkart unveils global brand licensing for Indian sellers". India.com. December 28, 2015. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  35. ^ "Flipkart unveils global brand licensing for Indian sellers". Hindustan Times. December 28, 2015. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  36. ^ BS Reporter (April 1, 2016). "Flipkart loses one more top executive". Business Standard. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  37. ^ sundarajan, Priya (March 31, 2016). "Network18 appoints Flipkart's Manish Maheshwari as CEO of Web18". www.thehindubusinessline.com. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  38. ^ a b c "BUILDING NETWORK18 DIGITAL IN 18 MONTHS". Impact is weekly print magazine publishing information on Advertising and Ad Marketing news specifically targeted towards Agency & Business Managers. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  39. ^ Editorial (January 8, 2018). "Network18 emerges as the most viewed news network on Youtube in India". MediaNews4U. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  40. ^ Bureau, Adgully (November 14, 2017). "Network18 Digital launches India's first voice enabled smart watch app". www.adgully.com. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  41. ^ KVN, Rohit (April 22, 2019). "Who is Manish Maheshwari? Twitter India gets new MD". www.ibtimes.co.in. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  42. ^ "Twitter appoints Manish Maheshwari as Managing Director of its India operations". Business Today. April 22, 2019. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  43. ^ "Twitter appoints Manish Maheshwari as India MD". mint. April 22, 2019. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  44. ^ a b "What could have prompted Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari to exit the role? Here is the timeline of events". Moneycontrol. August 13, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  45. ^ Kalra, Aditya; Ghoshal, Devjyot (April 21, 2021). "Twitter becomes platform of hope amid the despair of India's COVID crisis". Reuters. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  46. ^ a b Mandavia, Megha; Krishnan, Raghu. "'Non-English tweets are now 50% of the total': Twitter India MD". The Economic Times. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  47. ^ "Setting Sail season 2 Ep.2 | Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari explains how India is one of the fastest growing audience market globally". Moneycontrol. June 22, 2020. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  48. ^ "How India tamed Twitter and set a global standard for online censorship". Washington Post. November 9, 2023. Archived from the original on November 9, 2023. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  49. ^ "Twitter decides not to have country director in India; Manish Maheshwari gets new role in US". India Today. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  50. ^ "Former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to quit role, launch edtech start-up". Deccan Herald. December 14, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  51. ^ "Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari to be relocated to US as Senior Director". The News Minute. August 13, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  52. ^ www.ETBrandEquity.com. "Twitter moves Manish Maheshwari to US in new role - ET BrandEquity". ETBrandEquity.com. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  53. ^ "Former Twitter India boss Manish Maheshwari confirms exit, will launch edtech start-up". Moneycontrol. December 14, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  54. ^ "Former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari's Invact Metaversity raises funds at $33 million valuation". The Economic Times. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  55. ^ Bureau, BW Online. "Manish Maheshwari Steps Down As CEO And Director of Invact Metaversity". BW Businessworld. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  56. ^ "If Twitter does not preserve its two-sided network effect between creators and consumers, it can't remain powerful and influential as it is now". cnbctv18.com. November 17, 2022. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  57. ^ "elon musk: Morning Brief Podcast: Twitter tales: What next after Elon Musk's firing spree left 20% staff in India | The Economic Times Podcast". The Economic Times. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  58. ^ "ChatGPT for Creators — Get ready for a bumpy ride". cnbctv18.com. February 21, 2023. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  59. ^ "Former Twitter India head writes: Why love-hate relationship between journalists and social media needs regulation in the age of Elon Musk". The Indian Express. December 11, 2022. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  60. ^ "Twitter's best chance to become decentralised is with Elon Musk. But will he act on it?". The Economic Times. December 8, 2022. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  61. ^ "Fanory.ai Guarantees Higher Hourly Income For Creators with AI". startup.outlookindia.com/. December 1, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  62. ^ "JetSynthesys buys majority stake in Fanory, ropes in ex-Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari as president". Moneycontrol. January 24, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  63. ^ Ahaskar, Abhijit (January 24, 2023). "JetSynthesys acquires former Twitter India head's creator monetization platform". mint. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  64. ^ "AI startup Fanory offers assured hourly monetisation to online creaters". Financialexpress. November 30, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
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