Most stories of the American dream end when the unlikely entrepreneur has achieved astronomical success as the CEO of a billion-dollar company. Hari Ravichandran's tale, however, only began a new chapter.
After growing a web hosting startup he founded in the 1990s to an international powerhouse worth more than $3.5 billion, he circled back round to his roots and launched an internet security startup, Aura, in 2017. Today, it has achieved unicorn status, with $2.5 billion in value.
Here's the story of Hari Ravichandran, and of the lessons he learned along the way.
A College Dropout Finding Startup Success
Ravichandran was born in India, and he fell in love with technology the moment he first got his hands on a 8085 microprocessor at age 10.
To pursue this passion, he moved to the US in 1990 and earned a degree in computer engineering at Mississippi State University.
When he moved on to study electrical engineering at Stanford, however, he discovered that it was not just a love for tech that drove him, but also one for entrepreneurship.
In 1997, he dropped out of grad school and embarked on an entrepreneurial journey that has since lasted decades. He began by founding BizLand, a company with the mission to help small businesses get online. It took off.
Navigating the Dot-Com Crash, Growing Endurance to $3.5 Billion
BizLand's client base grew fast, as did its staff. Then, the dot-com crash struck and Ravichandran had to adapt.
He had to scale back his staff from 250 to 14 and convert his large base of free customers to paying ones. A fraction of them stayed, and his staff worked around the clock for weeks, without break.
It paid off. BizLand, appropriately renamed Endurance International, emerged from the dot-com crash leaner and stronger than ever. It continuously grew its customer base, remained dedicated to agility, but also added strategic acquisitions to the mix.
By the time Ravichandran left the company in 2018, it was worth more than $3.5 billion. With the success he experienced, most entrepreneurs would kick back and retire.
Ravichandran, however, had a new project lined up. This time, it was based on a personal experience.
Experiencing Identity Theft and Finding Inspiration for Aura
In 2014, Ravichandran applied for a mortgage. And was denied. It took him weeks to figure out the reason his credit had tanked. The issue: Someone had hijacked his identity.
Trying to both solve the problem and find a way to keep his online data safe in the future, he discovered that there were no comprehensive solutions. He had to juggle eight different subscriptions to get all the features he needed to safeguard himself and his family from cyber crime online.
It was this experience that inspired him to found Aura.
Aura offers comprehensive cybersecurity protection. It comes with antivirus, VPN, a password vault, as well as identity theft and financial fraud protection.
Since its launch in 2018, it has amassed a massive number of subscribers as well as high-profile funding from General Catalyst, Warburg Pincus, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, among others. In total, the company's value has now skyrocketed to $2.5 billion, giving it unicorn status.
Looking Forward, on a Mission to Make the Internet a Safer Place
Going forward, Ravichandran plans to harness the lessons he learned during his journey with Endurance to help Aura fulfil its mission and combat cyber crime.
Building products that have a tangible value for customers, keeping an open mind, and learning from everything around him - these are the entrepreneurial principles that have helped Ravichandran build not just one, but two billion-dollar businesses.
