Meet WhatsApp’s first business person, Neeraj Arora

BANGALORE: Neeraj Arora, 35, is vice president at WhatsApp , the company that Facebook acquired for $19 billion. But “Business Guy” is what he calls himself on his LinkedIn profile. He was the first business person in WhatsApp , joining the company in 2011 to help the founders, who were primarily engineers, set up the business. Arora did engineering from IIT, Delhi, and MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. He worked in Times Internet, part of the Times of India Group, and joined Google in India in 2007. Two years later, Google moved him to the US. TOI had an interview with the Delhi-bred Arora on what else, but WhatsApp.

How do you feel about the deal with Facebook?

Everyone at WhatsApp is excited and focused on the mission on hand.

Do you stay on with WhatsApp?

Everything stays as it is.

Did you own shares in the company?

Yes, own shares. Most of the employees at WhatsApp do.

Many want to know how much money you made in the deal?

Personally, I care more about making sure that we stay focused on our mission and keep delighting our users.

Are there other Indians in WhatsApp?

Yeah, there are three more, two engineers and one office manager.

What made you leave Google and join WhatsApp?

Google is a great company and I really enjoyed my four years there. But I was looking for a place where I could have a real impact on the company and stay very close to the end users . Knowing about WhatsApp’s mission, culture and the team convinced me that this was the right opportunity for me. I joined as their first business person to help the founders run the non-engineering parts of the company-—business development, finance , marketing, operations.

What do you see as the highlights of your stint with WhatsApp?

I would say the partnerships with carriers. My team closed more than 50 partnerships with carriers in different parts of the world. These partnerships make mobile data very affordable for the end users and further our mission to connect everyone in the world.

How has India been for WhatsApp?

India is one of the top countries for us. We are humbled and excited by our growth there and will continue to make sure that every Indian who has a data enabled smartphone continues to enjoy using WhatsApp. We have more than 40 million monthly active users in India now.

Why is WhatsApp so much more successful than other messaging services?

We always focused on building a product that is simple, reliable and real time. A lot of small things went into making us the best product out there.

How will Facebook help?

We will stay autonomous and continue to execute on our mission. Nothing will change in the product. Facebook brings a lot of expertise to the table that we can use to help further our mission.

How was your stint with Times Internet?

I learnt a lot about the Indian mobile and internet industry. TIL is like a breeding ground for future leaders.

Satya Nadella just became CEO of Microsoft. What do you feel about Indians in US techdom?

Very proud of all the work that all of us are doing here.