In 2003, when Facebook and Twitter were mere words, an Indian, born and brought up in Chicago, started a social networking site that would show all the future Zuckerbergs how it is done. Ramu Yalamanchi, son of Indian immigrants, is the founder of hi5, the ninth largest social networking site at the moment. While studying for a B.Sc in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Ramu helped launch Sponsornet, internet’s first auction website for online advertising. After graduating, Ramu worked at CMGi and eGroups, where he picked up product management and skills to start his own firm. Ramu, who says he has inherited his entrepreneurial chops from his father, launched a series of companies that failed to take-off. Undaunted, in 2003, he launched a dating website to compete with match.com which also failed. By then though, Friendster, an early social networking site was trying to take off, but kept making mistakes in the process. Ramu, who assessed Friendster’s mistakes as an outsider, launched his own, avoiding those mistakes and called it hi5. Within a month, it acquired a million users, and within a year became profitable. Today, hi5 is the No 1 social website in many Spanish-speaking countries, while Ramu is working as its Chief Product Manager, responsible for developing its social entertainment services.