From Zero To Unicorn Startup Twice In A Row - The Stand-Out Business Journey Of Hari Ravichandran

Most aspiring entrepreneurs spend their lives chasing business success. Few ever manage to turn a startup into a unicorn with a valuation exceeding 1 billion. 

Hari Ravichandran managed this - twice in a row. 

Here’s the story of how an immigrant kid became a two-time billion-dollar business success, and is now on a mission to make the internet a safer place. 

From India to Silicon Valley in the 1990s 

Ravichandran was born in India and fell in love with technology the first time he got his hands on an 8085 microprocessor at age 10. 

His parents were entrepreneurs themselves, running a small publishing company. The first turning point in Ravichandran’s life came when his father, who was also a professor, went to the US as a Fulbright scholar and saw the wealth of opportunities available to young people who worked hard. 

In 1990, he helped his son move to the US to pursue a degree in computer engineering at Mississippi State University. Later, he went on to pursue a graduate degree in electrical engineering at Stanford. 

It was here, in Silicon Valley in the late 1990s, that Ravichandran found his calling in entrepreneurship. Surrounded by other founders and visionaries, he launched his first business - BizLand, a web hosting company. Its mission? To help businesses get online. 

Finding Initial Success and Weathering the Dot-Com Crash 

In the euphoric atmosphere of the dot-com boom, BizLand took off. Soon, Ravichandran and his partners had over a million clients and a team of over 200. Thrilled by their success, they were already toying with the idea of retiring early. 

That’s when the dot-com crash hit. Almost overnight, investors dropped out and the economic climate changed entirely. 

Instead of letting his business go under, like many of his competitors, Ravichandran was determined to fight. He scaled his staff back to a mere 14. Together they worked around the clock to transform the company’s business model - converting customers who’d been using ad-supported free services to a subscription scheme. 

It paid off. BizLand emerged on the other side of the crash with a smaller but loyal customer base, an agile team, and stronger than ever. Appropriately, the company renamed itself - to Endurance. 

Finding Billion-Dollar Success With Endurance 

Capitalizing on its new set-up, Endurance grew fast throughout the 2000s. Part of Ravichandran’s strategy during this period was to continuously expand the company’s customer base. To do so, he focused on products that provide long-term value. 

Another essential element in Endurance’s success was a series of mergers and acquisitions. Ravichandran himself oversaw more than 40 of them, many in the billion-dollar realm, as well as the international expansion of the company. 

By 2018, Endurance - now Endurance International Group (EIG) - was one of the largest web hosting providers in the world, worth more than $3.5 billion. 

At this point, many entrepreneurs would rest on their laurels and retire. Ravichandran, again, decided to take a different route. He started all over with a new mission, and a new startup. 

Starting All Over With Internet Security Inspiration 

Looking back, Ravichandran says he enjoyed the cushy corner office of a CEO, but it wasn’t where his true passion lived. That still lay in entrepreneurship and tech. 

Following his time at EIG, he pursued a new business path, one inspired by painful personal experience. 

In 2014, Ravichandran had his identity hijacked by cybercriminals. It was only when he saw his credit rating mysteriously decline that he realized what was happening. Even then, it took months and incredible administrative and legal effort to straighten things out. 

In the aftermath, Ravichandran went on a quest to find a solution that offered comprehensive online identity protection for himself and his family. He came up blank. 

That was when the inspiration for Aura was born. 

Founding a Second Unicorn: Aura 

In 2018, Ravichandran launched Aura, an intelligent digital safety company with a straightforward business model. In return for a monthly subscription, it offers customers all-around digital security for families powered by artificial intelligence.

They are spared the effort of cobbling together a patchwork of protection from different services. Aura provides a one-stop solution that includes standard tools like antivirus and VPN, but also identity theft monitoring, parental controls, financial fraud protection, and more. 

The concept instantly resonated with both customers and investors - more so than ever when the pandemic hit and cybercrime skyrocketed in 2020. 

Since its launch, Aura has grown a massive customer base and attracted a wide range of high-profile funding, including Jeffrey Katzenberg, General Catalyst, and Warburg Pincus.

By late 2023, the company’s value surpassed $2.5 billion, making it the second unicorn success of Ravichandran’s career. More importantly, though, it has stayed on track to fulfill his vision: Aura is continuing to expand its range of products and capabilities to provide comprehensive digital protection to consumers and their families.

 

This post was authored by an external contributor and does not represent Benzinga's opinions and has not been edited for content. The information contained above is provided for informational and educational purposes only, and nothing contained herein should be construed as investment advice. Benzinga does not make any recommendation to buy or sell any security or any representation about the financial condition of any company.