Ep 65: Naveen Tewari on building Glance, India’s latest unicorn

**Naveen Tewari** (0:00)
The fact that we have gotten something right does not make me take my eyes off it anymore. That's because you want to make sure that what's there is not going to remain that.

**Shradha Sharma** (0:15)
Yeah.

**Naveen Tewari** (0:15)
We'll wait on that also. And the constant innovation is the only strategy we have.

**Shradha Sharma** (0:32)
Thank you You know, Naveen, I've been just going through your Twitter handle, and there's so many people from the ecosystem, everyone congratulating you. From Cesar Sengupta of Google saying that he's looking forward to working with you, to Mohandas Bhai saying you're a star, and congratulations. Because besides all the good, positive vibe, the news of Glance becoming a unicorn and raising money right now, I think what is very significant is that to us, to all of us in India, you also represent an entrepreneur who stood his ground.
For all young Indians, you're the first unicorn the country saw InMobi, everyone looks up to what you built with InMobi, and now you've done it again with Glance as we end the decade. Tell me, what does this mean to you, to InMobi, to you as an entrepreneur, and to what you study of the Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem?

**Naveen Tewari** (1:31)
First of all, I have to thank all of those people because I think they've been very generous with their comments and gratitude. I would say a few things. I think one is entrepreneurship, and any of such fields is always about constant innovation, and not just the innovation on the product or the business, the market, but also about yourself. And I think it's a constant, it's unlike sports, for example, where you peek and then you go away.
In entrepreneurship, you can continue to, and you have seen, you're some of the best examples in the country. Reliance in itself is the biggest example of that. So it's created a very, very large, was one of the top three companies in the world. InnoVated itself got into digital in a big way. And so you follow those examples, and that's true. For a period of five to six years, there was not too much conversation, noise around what Geo is thinking about, or what Reliance is doing. So you have this period where things kind of look lulled because someone is creating the new things and they come out with something which is very, very good. Those are examples that I really like, by the way, because they're led from innovation, they're led from a principle of rethinking a space, and of course, we can't do it at the same level as that of a geo, but we think we are also trying to do that in the space of digital, which we think we understand quite well.
And to me, this was a case of innovation, and even what we started off with InMobi was at that point of time was relatively very, very new, not many, maybe a couple of companies here and there were even attempting it. So we do like to believe that we take the road slightly less traveled at times when it comes to picking on ideas, and for a while it will seem that look, it's pathetic, it's bad. And so a part of all of this is to be able to not let those messages and voices impact you. And so that takes a lot. But I think, in the larger scheme of things, the message that we at least hope with this is going out there is that if you do fundamental innovation in any country, in any space, you would be able to see some things come out very large and different and even the likes of the big companies and the most innovative companies in the world would look up and take notice. So that's the most important thing that I think we would look at.
On a very slightly different dimension, I would also add that all of these things are not possible because a one person wanted to do it. And I'm very clear on that.
I get significant disproportionate portion of the coverage just because I'm the head of the organization. But I think the organization is the one that actually build these things. And we have stayed true and together, true to our philosophies and values and culture, and true to our thesis of people through the goods and the bands. And to me, people do say culture eats strategy for breakfast.
And of course, we also believed in that, but we now see it. To believe in it, to agree to it, to believe in it, then to see it. Those are different things, and we're seeing it. And the success of both InMobi and ForGlanceNow, both are very predicated on the fact that we have a very dedicated set of people who love the company, and we love them, and it's a family, and we are all together, and truly believe in that. And we would want to take it forward with that, because look, the strategies will change, the markets will change, something else will come up, but this is something that will not change. So what's constant is only this one. Everything else is transient and temporary, and we'll keep running through that.