Gunjan Sinha


Gunjan Sinha is an Indian-American entrepreneur and business executive. He is the Executive Chairman of MetricStream. He is also best known as the founder of WhoWhere?, an internet search engine he sold to Lycos in 1998. He is also the co-founder of customer engagement software provider eGain Corporation. He has served on the board of numerous Silicon Valley startups including Regalix.

Early life and education

Sinha attended the Indian Institutes of Technology where he earned a B.Tech. in Computer Science. He went on to attend the University of California, Santa Cruz where he obtained a M.S. in computer science. He added an M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University prior to launching his entrepreneurial career.

Career

Prior to founding numerous companies, Sinha spent time as a hardware developer at Olivetti Advanced Technology Center as well as an industry advisor for inDplay, Inc. One of his first business ventures was Parsec Technology Pvt. Ltd., a company he co-founded in 1994. He launched one of the first internet search engines in 1995. Known as WhoWhere?, he served as the company's president until he sold the company to Lycos in 1998 for $133 million in stock. At the time of the sale, Lycos was the 4th most popular website behind American Online, Yahoo, and MSN.
After WhoWhere?, Sinha went on to co-found eGain Corporation, a provider of customer engagement software. He took the company public on the NASDAQ in 1998 and served as the company's president until 2003 when he joined MetricStream where he still serves as the Executive Chairman. Sinha is on the board of LearnStreet, an online education website for computer programmers. Launched in 2012, the company is backed by Khosla Ventures.
Sinha has served on numerous boards, including for various non profits. He serves as Chairman of SiliconIndia Inc., Regalix, and previously for arcadiaOne, Inc. He was appointed to the board of the Indo-US Science & Technology Forum and previously served as a trustee for the University of California Santa Cruz Foundation. He is also a frequent speaker at Horasis, an independent think tank organization based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Awards and recognition

In 2007, Sinha was one of 13 Indian Americans to be named to the list of Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business. He was also featured as one of the 50 Most Successful Immigrant Entrepreneurs by Silicon India.