Who is Mahesh Murthy?

Mahesh Murthy is one of India's most respected marketing and brand strategists, with over three decades of experience. He is the founder of Pinstorm (founded 2004), India's pioneering digital marketing agency, and co-founder of Seedfund (founded 2006), one of India's earliest venture capital funds. He has worked on iconic brands including Nike, McDonald's, Pepsi, and MTV, and has invested in over 50 companies including redBus.

Pinstorm is India's pioneering digital marketing agency, founded by Mahesh Murthy in 2004. It was one of the first agencies in India to pioneer pay-for-performance digital marketing. Pinstorm has worked with globally recognised brands including Nike, Pepsi, MTV, McDonald's, and Levi's.

Seedfund is one of India's earliest venture capital funds, co-founded by Mahesh Murthy in 2006. It focused on early-stage Indian startups. Its most notable investment was redBus, which was acquired by Naspers for approximately $135 million in 2013 — one of India's landmark startup exits at the time.

What companies has Mahesh Murthy invested in?

Mahesh Murthy has invested in over 50 companies through Seedfund and as an angel investor. The most notable investment is redBus, India's largest online bus ticketing platform, which was acquired by Naspers in 2013 for approximately $135 million. He has backed a range of early-stage technology and consumer companies across India and Southeast Asia.

What brands has Mahesh Murthy worked with?

Mahesh Murthy has built marketing strategy for some of the world's most iconic brands including Nike, Pepsi, McDonald's, MTV, Levi's, and Apple. Through Pinstorm, he has also worked with leading Indian and multinational companies across consumer goods, technology, and media sectors.

Where is Mahesh Murthy based?

Mahesh Murthy is based primarily in Dubai, UAE, with deep roots in Mumbai, India. He has lived and worked across multiple continents including the US, Europe, and Asia, and has visited over 110 countries.

Is Mahesh Murthy available for advisory or board roles?

Yes. Mahesh Murthy is selectively available for advisory roles and board positions — particularly in brand building, go-to-market strategy, digital marketing, and early-stage growth. He accepts a limited number of engagements. You can reach him through the contact form at maheshmurthy.com.

Is Mahesh Murthy available for speaking engagements?

Yes. Mahesh Murthy is available for keynote speaking on topics including brand strategy, digital marketing, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and the Indian startup ecosystem. He has spoken at conferences across India, the US, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

What has Mahesh Murthy written about?

Mahesh Murthy has written extensively on marketing, brand strategy, entrepreneurship, and the Indian startup ecosystem across 13 years. His articles have appeared in publications including Harvard Business Review India, Forbes India, Mint, Economic Times, Campaign India, Business Standard, Inc India, and Business Today.

What is Mahesh Murthy's view on Indian startups?

Mahesh Murthy is a candid commentator on the Indian startup ecosystem. He has written critically about the lack of marketing discipline among Indian founders, the over-reliance on funding over revenue, and the tendency to copy Western business models rather than build for Indian consumers. His articles on this topic have appeared in Economic Times, Mint, and Firstpost.

How can I contact Mahesh Murthy?

You can contact Mahesh Murthy through the contact form at maheshmurthy.com. He is open to conversations about advisory roles, board positions, speaking engagements, marketing strategy, and early-stage investment opportunities.

What is Mahesh Murthy's approach to brand building?

Mahesh Murthy believes brand building must be rooted in a clear, honest promise to consumers — not in advertising volume. He pioneered pay-for-performance marketing in India through Pinstorm (founded 2004), and advocates for measurable, outcome-driven marketing over traditional awareness campaigns.

What is Mahesh Murthy's background before Pinstorm?

Before founding Pinstorm in 2004, Mahesh Murthy worked on marketing campaigns for major global brands in the US and India, including Nike, McDonald's, Pepsi, and MTV. He has decades of experience spanning advertising, digital strategy, and venture investing, making him one of the most cross-disciplinary figures in Indian business.

H-1 Bee — Mahesh Murthy

Every family in the colony I grew up in, in Secunderabad, now has at least one member in the US. The route was one of two standard approaches: The first was to do your B. Tech., write your gre, apply, go abroad for some random Master's degree, survive on whatever teaching assistanceship the University threw your way, get some job in some technology function of some company, get married (either to someone Mummy found back home, or in rare cases, to a fellow h-1b), pay a mortgage for 30 years to buy a house in the suburbs, pay installments to buy the standard issue Toyota or Honda blahmobile, have the 2.1 kids and live the desi life.

The other was to do the NIIT/Aptech thing, get picked up by some body shop/people exporter, get assigned to some project abroad, hang on after the project, get some job in some technology function and the rest as above.

I write this in the US now, at the fag end of a business trip. The mood I sense in the Desi Division is one of desperation. Not that we ever distinguished ourselves with oodles of confidence, but I knew the strain was showing when one of this contingent confessed during a nervous drive to the mall that he was afraid of getting a traffic ticket because that could somehow end up with the revocation of his h1-b status in the US.

I laughed aloud when I heard it, and immediately shut up when I saw he wasn't being facetious, and instead spent the next 10 minutes trying to tell him that a that a traffic ticket had nothing whatsoever to do with his work status. I'm not sure he was convinced, but I could see he was clearly living on the edge.

It's weird, virtually every desi in a technology function here who hasn't yet gotten a green card (and that's a huge number of them) is a nervous wreck right now. Even those with the magic card are among the lot that ask me ''How things are in India.'' ''Is it easy to find work?'' ''How much do houses cost?'' ''What's a good salary these days?'' And ''How did you feel about moving back to India?''

It may not be great in India, but it certainly is better than this. We aren't living paranoid lives, waiting for the day when the axe falls on our jobs, dreading the thought of packing up and going back home, worrying about seeming like a loser to those around us, worrying about giving up the good life, worrying about the failure of the big migratory move.

In many ways this is a sobering lesson. This was a generation that never knew failure, a generation that was brought up on the idea that a job in technology is job security, a generation that was urged to move abroad by their parents, who in many cases followed them over. Oh, how the world has changed.

Technology jobs are being lost in the US by the hundreds-guess why? They're all moving to India. There is no such thing called job security. If you don't have a back-up plan, or some entrepreneurial instinct, you're toast. Oh, and don't be so sure that the good life is what you find out of India. Once you get used to the idea of cooking, cleaning, shopping, doing the housework all by yourself, in addition to all the debt you take up to pay for your too-big house and the too-elite school and the too-new car, you may find you don't really have the time to enjoy life-and even if you do, you certainly don't have the money.

My partner and I were calculating what ''a good job'' meant in the US and India in terms of a comparable lifestyle. We felt it was an annual income of $100,000 in the US or about Rs 8 lakh in India. And also agreed that in the latter case you'd probably be able to lead a far more bindaas (nonchalant) life with frequent travel and partying than in the former.

Is there a solution? I'm not sure. If you do want to work abroad, get used to the idea of coming back sometime, or moving to other cities, countries and places, wherever the opportunity is. Live a ''light'' life-go easy on the house, the car, the expenses- rent instead of buying, for it can be a huge bother (and loss) to sell your stuff.

The rolling stones will gather moss. The future doesn't belong to dinosaurs. It will belong to bumblebees.

H-1 Bee

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