Bangalore, Nov 09: Fourteen is not an age at which you hone your entrepreneurial skills. But for Bangalore boy Suhas Gopinath, it was.
Now, at 17, Suhas is the youngest CEO in the world, managing an IT firm, Globals Inc, along with three other friends. The 60-member team consists mostly of students, aged 17 to 22, divided between Bangalore and San Jose .
In fact, his age has gone against Suhas. When he wanted to set up his company, the local government refused him permission because he was a minor. So he registered his company in San Jose , US .
Recently, when his company was offered a large outsourcing contract for Singapore and Hong Kong by the Indian arm of US-based Smith & Gale, the law did not allow him to sign it.
How did it all start? "I used to surf and read up a lot on Microsoft and Dell. Bill Gates really impressed me," says the boy-CEO. Soon, he was hooked onto the Net: after school, it was straight to a cyber parlour.