Manoj Bhargava, CEO of 5-Hour Energy to give Keynote Address at TiEcon 2013.

“Is it useful?  If not, it better be entertaining.  Else, it goes into the basket called useless”.  With this simple mantra and simple philosophy for life, Manoj Bhargava, possibly the wealthiest Indian in America, leads 5-Hour Energy, the company that makes tiny bottles, packed with nutrients.  Most of the company meetings last 30 seconds to a minute, says Bhargava, who leads the $1 billion+ company, with a lean, non hierarchical staff, of 60 people.  “We are not efficient, we just don’t do useless stuff”, he says.  Good advice!  I can see how my efficiency would get a boost, if I stop doing useless stuff on my blog, twitter, facebook and take a big gulp of the 5-hour energy drink!

5-Hour-Energy (Photo credit: NathanaelB)

 

Bhargava’s approach to marketing and advertising is just as simple.  With the belief that one may not be thirsty and need the energy jolt at the same time, tiny 2 oz. energy bottles packed with functional nutrients, B vitamins and amino acids, are strategically designed to be placed at the check-out counters and at easy point-of-sale locations; and are believed to have covered 90% of the energy shot market.  Explaining one of their first ad that was nominated as one of the worst ads on TV, he says, “we don’t tell a joke and then name our product; our approach is to tell what it is”.   This ad increased sales by 50% in 3 months.

 

Bhargava started plastics raw material company in 1990 that grew to $20 million in sales, before he sold it to a private equity firm.  He then started a consumer products company, Living Essentials, out of which came 5-Hour Energy.  His stake in Living Essentials is over $3 billion.  Bhargava is as generous a philanthropist, as he is successful at entrepreneurship.  He has contractually pledged a billion dollars to charities that fund medical research.  Bhargava was awarded “2011 Newsmaker of the Year” award and was named Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year for 2012”.

 

TiEcon is around the corner.  Register before the event is sold out at www.tiecon.org.

TiEcon 2013 Overview – Focus on Big Data, Mobile, SDN & Entrepreneurship

TiEcon 2013, the biggest conference of its kind, with a mission to nurture entrepreneurship, has an impressive lineup of excellent speakers and panels, in the hottest industry segments of Big Data, Mobile, Software Defined Infrastructure, and in Entrepreneurship.

Big Data track will feature speakers that include, Dr. D J Patil http://bit.ly/YYyOxd, data scientist at Greylock Partners, and Rayid Ghani, http://bit.ly/16Ys2iI , Mr. Obama’s Chief Scientist who converted vast amount of data collected through large commercial databases, boutique lists, voter files, and social media sites, into a source of valuable data that galvanized the election campaign and the rest is history.

Mobile track will hold panels on “mobile ecosystems” to “where they are VCs investing”, in this fast growing market.  The track will feature top notch speakers like Anand Chandrasekhar http://bit.ly/10zEJks, Senior VP and CMO at Qualcomm.

With data centers of the future defined by Software Defined Infrastructure, efficiency is bound to get a boost, as resources get divided.  This track will feature speakers like Dr. Guru Parulkar http://bit.ly/10MyHYw, Executive Director at ONRC and Consulting Professor at Stanford University, with discussions around how OpenFlow might enable networks to evolve by giving power to the remote controller, to modify the behavior of network devices.

Entrepreneurship track has some of the biggest names of inspiring self made entrepreneurs, including famous Ronnie Screwvala http://bit.ly/160LYQB, Syntel’s Bharat Desai http://bit.ly/13HmSrQ, Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics http://bit.ly/ZxDn3f, and Manoj Bhargava  http://bit.ly/17KV6dc, CEO of 5-Hour Energy, possibly the wealthiest Indian entrepreneur, in USA.

Vinod Khosla (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Entrepreneurship is not just a buzzword at TiEcon.  Here future successful entrepreneurs will be showcasing their companies, will get access to mentors like Vinod Khosla and Kanwal Rekhi, and get countless opportunities to network.  The participants will likely include professionals from some of TiE’s 500+ startups and 150+ angel investors.  Come and get energized, in an environment where failures are merely stepping stones to success.

Last few days to register for tiecon, before it is fully sold out – http://www.tiecon.org.