The Riches of Naveen Jain
Naveen Jain’s life is a classic study of defying racial barriers. With sheer determination, he was able to migrate to the US, where he ended up becoming richer than its native citizens. From living the poverty-stricken life in India, he now lives the glorious life in Washington.
He is rich enough to channel thousands of dollars to nonprofits and charities in his adoptive country. In fact, Forbes magazine listed him in 2000 as one of the US’ richest persons.
Born Naveen K. Jain in Uttar Pradesh, India, the businessman worked at Microsoft Corporation from 1989 through 1996 before launching two stellar companies himself. InfoSpace debuted in 1996, Intelius in 2003.
InfoSpace developed software and web content and was among the first to market wireless application services. It served clients like Lycos, Disney, AOL, NBC, and MSN, of which he was one of the managers.
Financially, InfoSpace was a winner. When it debuted on NASDAQ in late 1998, the company drove more than 20 acquisitions.
Naveen Jain has since moved on with Intelius. Launched in 2003, Intelius is in the business of personal public intelligences: information on other people extracted from public documents like tax filings, dockets, real estate deeds, telephone listings, and the like. More than eight million customers have used Intelius’ intelligence reports, ultimately designed for people and companies to make informed decisions.
Intelius bested many other firms in the 2006 American Business Awards to win Best New Company. Moreover, Deloitte listed Intelius as the 8th fastest growing company in Washington, 127th overall in North America. The company also ranks in Inc. Magazine’s yearly list of the 500 fastest growing companies in America. Plus, Washington CEO Magazine proclaimed it among the state’s top 150 companies.
Naveen Jain is a member of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE) and is a former owner of the NBA’s Seattle SuperSonics. He has three children with wife Anu, one of whom founded Kairos Society.
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