Arjun Sethi
Even as the app stores and our phones are filled to the brim with messaging apps, some of the formerly glorious tech corporations that are trying to stay relevant are choosing to release even more of them. Microsoft does that. AOL does that. And now Yahoo is doing it. Its newest app Livetext is a classic example of a messaging app that is truly innovative to the point of being baffling. This ‘audio-free video messaging’ app lets you make video calls albeit without sound so your contacts can only look at your video feed and talk with you using good old chat messages and emojis. The man behind this unique idea is the senior director of Product Management at Yahoo, Arjun Sethi. He has a BA from the University of Maryland and is a serial entrepreneur who has founded many startups in the last seven years. When his first startup Roflplay was acquired by Lolapps in 2009, Sethi went on to become the CEO of the social games maker behind such Facebook hit games as Ravenwood Fair. After stints as the chief product officer at companies like app maker 6waves and the app monetisation company Tapjoy, Sethi then co-founded and acted as the CEO of MessageMe, a chat app that combined audio, video and doodles. MessageMe proved to be so popular that it caught Yahoo’s eye, which acquired it for around $30 million and hired Sethi to lead its messaging products.