Ankur Gattani: Living life’s a job

Ankur Gattani has again turned his back on big bucks to pursue his dream.

The 23-year-old is the only student in the 2006-08 batch of the postgraduate programme of IIM Calcutta to have opted out of the final placement.

Gattani has started a portal, lifeinlines.com, as a first step on his entrepreneurial journey. He is the founder-CEO of Onelife Knowledge Services, which runs the portal.

“You can record little moments of your life on Lifeinlines. The writings will be stored privately or shared with select people,” said the IIT Bombay alumnus. The portal is now being tested.

Gattani had opted out of placements at IIT Bombay in 2006 and the summer placements at IIM Calcutta last year.

In 2007, he had interned with Educomp Solutions, where he got initiated into the “high-action world” of Internet business and developed a marketing plan for an e-learning website.

“The idea of the portal came up while I was doing my internship. I always wanted to start an entrepreneurial venture,” said Gattani, who has been actively involved with the entrepreneurship club of the Joka institute.

Commenting on the choice of name for the company, Onelife, he said: “You live only once and must pack all that you want to do into this one life”. He has not yet approached any investor and is loaning the initial fund from his mother.

“I will launch lifeinlines before my convocation on April 5. It will give me a fulltime job before most of my friends on the campus join their jobs,” smiles Gattani.