Bangalore boy Suhas Gopinath launched Globals Inc at 14.

Today, his
firm is a 60-member strong with all of them aged 17 to 22 years.

Son of a defence scientist MR Gopinath, he belonged to a middle class

family. He learnt to be a web developer at a cyber cafe in Bangalore. At
the age of 14, he was already offering software services online.

It was Catch-22 with a heartbreaking twist. Even before the first faint
stubble had darkened his chin, Suhas Gopinath bagged a major
outsourcing project that many others would have given their right hand
for. But only to be told that the law said he was too young to sign on the
dotted line.

That’s the story of this 17-year-old Bangalore boy wanting to be another

Bill Gates. He had launched his own firm at the ripe old age of 14 years.
Today, his firm, Globals Inc, is 60-member strong with representatives in
the US, the UK, Canada and India—all of them aged 17 to 22 years.
None of the members have had any formal computer education.
Incidentally, Globals’ young CEO had originally wanted to be a
veterinarian, until he was in Class IX and the cyber bug bit him.

‘‘I had no knowledge of the Internet. But when I was browsing the
Internet in a cyber cafe I stumbled on a source code of a web site. I was
fascinated and thought long and hard. I soon launched my own website,
www.coolhindustan.com,’’ says Gopinath, fingering his navy blue blazer
and battling a pronounced stammer, at the Bangalore IT.COM 2003
venue. That had happened when he had still not crossed 14 years.

A week later, recognition came when Network Solutions Inc, owned by

Nasdaq-listed New York-based Verisign Inc gave him the certificate of a
professional web developer. He was invited to Network Solutions
headquarters and even asked to maintain their web site. Now hold your
breath: ‘‘I declined because I was not interested in serving a US
company.’’

Gopinath says it was the attachment to his family and the ambition to
start his own organisation that brought him back to India.
Gopinath founded Globals when he was 14 from a cyber cafe in
Bangalore. As Indian laws did not allow a minor to start a company, he
was forced to register the company at San Jose, California in 2000. An
American friend helped him with this. He continues to operate out of
Bangalore. The average age of employees at Globals is about 25 years
today. By the time he was 16, he was recognised as the world's youngest
CEO by the world media including BBC, Washington Times and the
Limca Book of Records.
Meanwhile, the reputation of Globals continues to grow as a
multinational IT company with representation in at least 11 countries
and serving more than 200 clients including the Government of India,
UNICEF and the European Business School in Germany. More from
Gopinath in an exclusive interview at the Vienna Hilton with Hardnews

Having passed Class XII in computer science, his veterinarian dream has
faded off, but he loves spending his free time with Bushy, his pet dog. ‘‘I
don’t have girlfriends,’’ the tiny CEO tells you with a straight face.
Globals Inc took shape initially with only four members, and Network
Solutions helped him to incorporate the company in the US. ‘‘I was told
that in India, you need to pay sales tax and also have an infrastructure
before you can register a firm. But all our members work from home or
from a cyber cafe,’’ he says.

Gopinath’s company is into web-based and software solutions, mobile

and e-commerce solutions—besides making web sites for corporates,
advertisers and educational institutions. But Gopinath doesn’t get carried
away with the pricing part. ‘‘We even have a client in Frankfurt for
whom we made a corporate website. In the last two years, we have been
able to generate a revenue of Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000. We charge only Rs
200-Rs 300 for making a website,’’ he says.

Gopinath had never thought of himself and his team as being far too
young in their highly competitive domain, until a Singapore-based
business process outsourcing (BPO) company, SingT Inc, approached
them. ‘‘They wanted to outsource their projects to us. Everything fell into
place, until the moment I found that the law wouldn’t allow me to sign
the contract because I was not 18 yet.’’

Not that it has been too much of a dampener. He is now waiting to have
the necessary infrastructure in place so that he can incorporate his
company in India. ‘‘At any cost, ours will be a purely Indian company.’’
Not just that. Globals Inc has approached the University of Michigan for
building a message board that can be a forum for students. ‘‘We also
approached the Karnataka Government for projects, but they said the
Government projects are given out only to big companies. But we too
will be a CMM Level 5 company soon,’’ says a confident Gopinath,
straightening his blazer.

Gopinath has already put the management structure in place. There is a

chief operating officer, chief information officer, chief technology officer
and vice-president (Human Resources)—all teenagers. But with only a
modest Rs 40,000 revenue to be shared among the members yet, the firm
has not yet thought of a chief financial officer. ‘‘Members who use cyber
cafes are given some extra money to cover that charges,’’ adds Gopinath.

The boy CEO has now applied to Stanford University and is eagerly
waiting for the result. But he has not let go his entrepreneurial spirit. ‘‘If I
get into Stanford, I will get business from the US too,’’ he enthuses. His
ambition is to found another Microsoft. ‘‘Initially, when my mom used to
scold me, I used to give her Bill Gates’s example. He is my role model.’’

Joining Globals Inc is simple, provided you are in the 17-22 year age
group. ‘‘The membership is free of cost. Once you fill up the form and
enter your skill set, we will assign a project. And you become a part of
our family,’’ he says.

For, this 17-year-old believes that academic skill sets are not the end.
‘‘We need more of personal skill sets to achieve goals,’’ he quips sagely.

Along with his professional activities, he has also volunteered as the

Brand ambassador of PeTA and also the Youth Ambassador for Indo-Pak
Leadership Program organized by School of Leadership, Pakistan. He
will also be the Key Ambassador for the 12th World Business Dialogue,
Germany.
This year on December 2, 2007, The European Parliament and
International Association for Human Values conferred "Young Achiever
Award" to Mr. Suhas Gopinath at the EU Parliament, Brussels, and he
was also invited to address the European Parliament and other Business
dignitaries assembled in the EU Parliament.

Mr. Suhas Gopinath was recently announced as one of the "Young Global
Leaders" for 2008-2009 by the prestigious World Economic Forum,
Davos and he became the youngest member ever in the World Economic
Forum's history. His co-members include US Governor Bobby Jindal,
Hollywood Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Musician A.R.Rahman, Prince of
Brunei, etc. As the Young Global Leader from India, he will be involved
in development programs across the world including leadership program
at the Harvard University.

In July 2008, his detailed biography was featured in the renowned

Current- Biography Book published in New York along with Hollywood
Actor George Clooney, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Governor
of New York David Paterson, and other eminent personalities.

His love for Mozart is not the only reason that Suhas Gopinath keeps
returning to Vienna. Apart from turning over every stone here in his
search for more music by Mozart, the 23-year-old, who is one of world's
youngest CEOs, also looks upon Austria as a very special work
environment that Indians have yet to discover.

Gopinath was back in Vienna recently to receive the Make a Difference

award from Brainswork, a Viennese consultancy boutique that celebrates
individuals whose unique talent and creative ideas have made a positive
contribution to the world.

After several visits to Vienna and after much thought, Gopinath chose
Maya India, an Austrian IT consultancy company, as the local partner
for Globals that has been providing software solutions to clients since
2000.
The Globals Advantage

Our excellence in technical stewardship and service-offering expertise

has facilitated our clients ranging from individual entrepreneurs to
Fortune Global 500 - to explore new business opportunities, reduce their
operational costs significantly, cut down carbon emissions and boost their
revenues. Today, Globals enjoys a strong position in the industry as a
high-performing leader through its technology innovation and remarkable
domain expertise. We have adopted Total Quality Policy to ensure
highest customer satisfaction with our world class quality solutions.

We have always placed quality over quantity, mind over machine and
unity over uni-opinion. There is a lot of enthusiasm among our people to
perform and this enables our work more streamlined and solutions meet
the prescribed time boundary. Even in a period of substantial economic
turbulence, Globals shows this is a time for Innovation. We have evolved
various innovative strategies for our business partners to boost their
revenue, enhance their market credibility, and to seamlessly adopt their
cost cutting strategies.

VISION STATEMENT OF GLOBALS

“To be a world class IT solution provider and to become one of the most
preferred IT partner
in the world.”

Mission Statement of Globals

“At Globals, we aim to offer cost effective world class quality IT

solutions to every customer and to translate our solutions into value for
our customers. We are also committed to conduct our business in a fair,
ethical and legal manner at every level of our organization.”
 SERVICES OFFERED BY GLOBALS
Web Solutions
Globals offer a spectrum of web solutions that includes high quality Web
Designing,
Integration and Implementation Content Management Systems, E-
Commerce Solutions, Web 2.0 Solutions, Customized Portals, Hosting &
Maintenance, and Development of customized web applications,
including customization of Open Source applications.
We have been successful in making our Business Partner’s internet
presence successful by adopting the methodology expressed below:
• Requirement Gathering
We work closely to define and understand your
business requirements, which is a key to project
success. This will help us determine the overall scope
or vision of your project.

• Content gathering
We will collect information that will be incorporated
to your project such as text, additional graphics,
database information, etc.

• Site Layout/Navigation
We will work with you to define a blueprint of the
layout to determine how your application will flow
together, define site layout, and overall structure of
your project.

• Review/QA
You will be able to test your entire application in our
development environment before it goes into
production and make any last minute changes.
E-Commerce Solutions
Leveraging the unique combination of technical competence and business
knowledge Globals delivers integrated B2C (business-to-customers) and
B2B (business-to-business) e-commerce solutions. Our solutions
designed to serve our clients business needs ensuring streamlined
operations, improved customer service, brand awareness, connection with
business partners and prospects.

From e-commerce strategy consulting, solution development and

application integration to solution deployment and post-implementation
support our business analysts and technical experts can help you
implement a dependable solution that will maximize your competitive
advantage and organizational productivity.
We have a wealth of experience building and maintaining both retail and
B2B e-commerce solutions.Globals e-commerce solutions allow you to
start trading online quickly and cost effectively. Your website handles the
entire sales workflow fast and securely. Orders are processed via a web
based back office, automatically updating all records and generating the
required sales, invoicing, customer and supply-chain documentation.
Globals’ e-Commerce solution includes a complete lifecycle of
integrating and implementation of e-Commerce based services our end
user. The following is a typical e-Commerce model with various entities
and third party systems like Shipping, Payment Processing, Security,
Merchant Notification, etc for which Globals has remarkable expertise.
Your website has easy-to-use customer relations management tools and
your website content is quick to update; making it simple to buy and sell
online. Globals delivers high-performance ecommerce solutions helping
business partners maintain a competitive edge including multiple features
that facilitate connect a customer to complete transactions. End-users will
have the ability to place real-time credit card transactions in a secure
mode, and the complete order process from a client viewpoint can be
completed in a matter of minutes. Our e-commerce solutions also
seamlessly incorporate the web store into the current store operations
using such tools as order fulfilment and management system, integration
with several shipping gateways, and extension to POS/Accounting
and other legacy systems.
CLIENTS OF GLOBALS INC.
Mr.Suhas lowered the bar for ‘young’ achievers, when at the age of 14
he started his company, Global Solutions Inc. Today, at 20, he has set
high standards for India’s up and coming, raring-to-go entrepreneurs.

Youngsters must work together sans barriers. When I went to

Islamabad, I delivered a lecture to 1,000 students. Other speakers were
40-45 years old, and I was 20. The students were so responsive; there
were no barriers between us at all.

Never be arrogant and never underestimate anyone. I was nervous

before delivering my first lecture at IIM Ahmedabad… the students were
older to me. But they listened to me patiently and had no ego hassles. I
had a misconceptions about them. I even asked them for suggestions to
improve the organization and my managerial skills.

Be humble. When I met Bill Gates some years ago and we spoke for a
few minutes, I never expected him to be so humble. He said, ‘ I started
my company at 20, you started yours at 14, I should be afraid of you!’

Be involved and sincere. When I met the president, Dr. APJ Abdul
Kalam, it was because my visa application had been rejected and I had to
go to the Young Leaders’ conference in Islamabad. I felt like I was
speaking to my teacher; not the president. He said that he would look into
the flaws in our education system, and that we must start a single-window
entrepreneurship cell.

Be considerate. The president also said that we should have a school

management system by which an SMS would go to parents if their child
bunked school. He said that this would be more advisable than have the
teacher call out to the defaulter and embarrass him / her in front of
everyone.