Naveen Jain: Czar of Information Commerce
What makes Intelius CEO and President Naveen Jain a czar of information commerce is his keen understanding of technology’s role in society as well as his expert knowledge in developing technology products and services to achieve this purpose. In the digital era of the Information Age, Jain became one of the trailblazers who first recognized the overwhelming potential of the Internet to create not only value but a medium that can cater to real-life needs of individuals and businesses.
For almost two decades, the India-born engineer has been at the helm of some of the most exciting companies to ever emerge out of the information commerce industry. His first firm, InfoSpace, was built in 1996 shortly after he resigned from Microsoft. InfoSpace came to being as a result of Jain’s observation that the Internet, though brimming with information, was not providing the kind that real people needed. InfoSpace created content such as directories, stock quotes, and weather forecasts for Web properties so that ordinary people can access them at real-time. InfoSpace was a revolutionary idea — when the dot com era peaked, the firm was worth $31 billion and gathered investments from the likes of Paul Allen. For InfoSpace, Naveen Jain became regarded as “smarter than Bill Gates” and gained entry to the high-profile scene of the IT world.
His second firm, Intelius, was built in 2003 after Naveen Jain resigned from InfoSpace. The concept driving the firm is predictive intelligence. By making public records available online, individuals and businesses are empowered to make more intelligent decisions. Today, the firm is a leading provider of background checks, identity theft prevention products, employment screening technology, and people searches. With industry honors from the American Business Awards, citations as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Albert Einstein Technology Medal Winner, Naveen Jain truly is an information commerce czar.
