Prof Dhruv Nath is a prolific author, an angel investor, a mentor to startups, and a Director With Lead Angels Network. Earlier, he was a Professor at MDI. Gurgaon, and a Senior Vice President at NIIT Ltd. As an angel investor. he has invested in over twenty startups and mentored a few hundred of them.
Prof Nath has been a consultant to the top management at Glaxo, Gillette, Nestle, Indianoil Corporation. RITES, Thermax. Bajaj Auto, IL&FS. Air India among others, as well as to the Prime Minister of Namibia and the Chief Minister Of Delhi. As part Of his stint at NIIT Ltd.
He also launched the highly successful institute NIS (later renamed NIS Sparta). which prepared people for a career in sales, Subsequently. NIS Sparta was acquired by the Reliance ADAG group.
Prof Nath has had a stellar academic record all along. He was awarded a medal for obtaining the first position in India in Physics in the All-India Higher Secondary exam, 1972.
In the same exam, he stood 6th in the merit list in India. Subsequently, he did his B Tech in Electrical Engineering (First Class with distinction). from IIT Delhi. He capped his qualifications with a PhD in Computer Science, with a thesis in the area of VLSI Networks, once again from IIT Delhi. He has published several research papers in prestigious internal journals such as the IEEE Transactions on Computers.
Dr Nath has written seven books so far. including the best-selling
- Funding Your Start-up: And Other Nightmares
- The DREAM Founder
He has also dabbled in humour. with Welcome to Aaraampur. a book of humorous short stories about life in the hills of India, All three Of these books have been published by Penguin Randomhouse India. Earlier he had written the well-known • Nuts and Bolts” series with Tata McGraw-Hill. which simplified IT technologies for the non-techy.
His latest book is,” The EARN ICORNS: Stories Of Rare. Profitable Unicorns” . once again published by Penguin Random House India.
The inspiration for this book came from the fact that most unicorns (start-ups that have crossed a valuation of a billion dollars) are loss making.
And they continue to be loss making. because investors have been happy to pump money into them, as long as they are moving towards market leadership in the internet world. However, there are those rare founders who dared to be different, and created market leaders in their respective spheres, while remaining profitable.
Prof Nath has coined an interesting term for such business: He calls them EARNICORNS. or unicorns that have been earning money — in other words, those that are making a profit. And that forms the basis for his latest book.
The book talks about four such Earnicorns, namely Naukri.com (along with its parent company, Info Edge), Zerodha, Dreaml1, and Zoho.
Along With their wonderful founders. Sanjeev Bikhchandani and Hitesh Oberoi Of Naukri. Nithin Kamath Of Zerodha. Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth Of Dream 11, and Sridhar Vembu Of Zoho. Each Of these companies has been a clear leader in its chosen space, and has been profitable for years.
Read More :From Sangli to Cricket Glory: Smriti Mandhana’s Inspiring Journey
