Naga Kataru created Google Alerts. Now he's an almond farmer . Kataru grew up in Gampalagudem, a farming village in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
In 2008, he bought a 320-acre farm in Modesto, California. It was only meant to be a diversified investment.
But the farm reminded him of his life in India. "I missed the way the fruits and flowers smelled differently in India," he said.
Instead of selling the money-losing farm, he converted it into an almond farm, which required one-third the labor.
"I didn't know anything about farming. But I love education and I taught myself," he said.
Today the farm, which also grows apricots, is profitable and has eight employees. It generates $2.5 million in annual revenue.
Kataru still isn't resting on his laurels. He's working on two degrees at Stanford -- an MBA and an MS in Environment & Resources -- to prepare him for his next challenge: making farming more tech-savvy.
When Naga Kataru first pitched the idea of Google Alerts, it was immediately rejected.
"My manager didn't like it," said Kataru. "He said Google makes money when people come to us. If we set alerts, then we're losing money because we're sending people away from Google."
Kataru trusted his instincts anyway.
"I went to Sergey Brin and Larry Page. I said I had a cool prototype with a simple user interface to show them," he said.
The Google founders tested it right away, said Kataru. In fact, the first keywords ever used to test Google Alerts were '"Google" and "Larry Page," he said.
"They both loved it," said Kataru, who is listed on three patents for Google Alerts.
Google (GOOGL, Tech30) launched Google Alerts in 2003. It's become one of its most useful tools, with hundreds of millions of people using it to monitor the web for specific content.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/04/smallbusiness/naga-kataru-google-alerts/
__._,_.___
Posted by: Ravi Narasimhan <ravi.narasimhan.in@gmail.com>
| Reply via web post | • | Reply to sender | • | Reply to group | • | Start a New Topic | • | Messages in this topic (1) |
Have you tried the highest rated email app?
With 4.5 stars in iTunes, the Yahoo Mail app is the highest rated email app on the market. What are you waiting for? Now you can access all your inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, AOL and more) in one place. Never delete an email again with 1000GB of free cloud storage.
KERALITES - A moderated eGroup exclusively for Keralites...
To subscribe send a mail to Keralites-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Send your posts to Keralites@yahoogroups.com.
Send your suggestions to Keralites-owner@yahoogroups.com.
To unsubscribe send a mail to Keralites-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Homepage: http://www.keralites.net
To subscribe send a mail to Keralites-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Send your posts to Keralites@yahoogroups.com.
Send your suggestions to Keralites-owner@yahoogroups.com.
To unsubscribe send a mail to Keralites-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Homepage: http://www.keralites.net
.
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment