This year in September, police arrested a student from Vadodara for illegally using credit cards of three American nationals to book air tickets. 
 
In March 2013, two top officials of an online shopping portal were arrested after almost 200 complaints were received from customers who said they paid for things they never ordered or received. 
 Like these, there are numerous examples to highlight a growing trend of frauds and scams related to online transactions, which are generally done by credit or debit cards. As per the ASSOCHAM-Mahindra SSG Report-2015, the number of cyber crimes reported in 2011 was 13301, which shot up to 300,000 in the year 2015. Of the reported cyber crimes, credit and <keyword id="3171349" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="debit-card-frauds">debit card frauds</keyword> topped the list and saw six-fold times increase over last three years. 
 
What should an online shopper do now? Stop shopping? Online shopping is very convenient but when we use are credit card online we expose ourselves to potential frauds. Here are some ways you can safeguard yourself from online frauds 
 
1. Choose your credit/debit card wisely: While choosing a card, it is important that you focus not only on the fees, credit limit, reward structure etc, but also on the security features of the card. Although the RBI has rules in place, it is important to be sure that your credit card issuer is also committed to customer’s safety. Often hackers hack into a bank’s website and steal customer’s card details to make fraudulent transactions. If the card company does not have proper security systems in place, it makes you vulnerable to frauds. 
 
2. Never store your credit card number on a website: Storing your credit/debit card number on a website exposes it to a lot of potential threats. Hackers try to use the information stored on the website. Typing same information again and again is a tedious task, especially for a website that you use regularly, but it is better safe than sorry. 
 
3. Use secure websites: There are numerous websites available for shopping. Before getting lured by special discounts, trendy designs and fast delivery promises, check for the security features of the website especially when making a transaction on a new website. Check the website URL, it should begin with “https” and there should be some indication on the website to ensure that it is a secure one, like the sign of a lock or a Verisign website. Generally all website mention the recommended security guidelines, mode of payment to be used etc, for the safety of the use. Read these carefully before using. 
 
4. Be careful with names: Do not follow a link that is sent to you in a promotional email. Often, miscreants create websites that have similar names with similar web-design and layout to trick consumers. The difference in name of the website can be minimal to notice and you may end up buying stuff from a dummy website. Type the name of the website yourself. 
 
5. Avoid public terminals: Using public terminals or transacting over a WI-FI network makes the user more vulnerable to credit card misuse. You can never be sure about the safety of a public terminal, if they have required safety features (spyware or malware) and who will use it after you. The information you enter can be hacked into and may also be available to other people using the terminal. 
 
6. Never enter Pin Number: Apart from having requisite safety guards on your computer/phone to prevent hacking, extra caution is required when using phones for online shopping. Never enter your PIN for online shopping. Online shopping requires CVV number and the transaction password that is sent to your phone. Be vary of sites that ask your PIN number. 
 
Whether it is the virtual world or the physical one, using your credit card with a few precautions go a long way in keeping it safe. Be cautious and do not become a statistic in the growing credit card fraud! 
 
(Rajiv Raj is the Director and Co-Founder of www.creditvidya.com) 
 
(Image: ThinkStock)

Here are 6 ways to protect yourself from credit card frauds

<div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/risa-turken-reads-the-new-york-times-with-an-article-about-news-photo/53212041#">Mario Tama/Getty Images</a></div></div>At this point everyone has heard about the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/th3-pr0-says-sea-attacked-twitter-ny-times-2013-8">compromising the websites</a> for the <keyword id="53556" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="New-York-Times">New York Times</keyword>, Twitter, and Huffington Post UK.
Lesser known, though, is that potential New York Times readers found themselves redirected to a site laced with malware.
<a href="http://threatpost.com/registrar-hack-at-root-of-ny-times-and-twitter-attacks/102123">From Threatpost:</a>
[The SEA was] then able to change the records so that rather than pointing to nytimes.com, for example, the Times’ name servers pointed to a domain controlled by the attackers. Officials at CloudFlare, a cloud hosting provider that was involved in the effort to counter the attack, said that the domain to which visitors were redirected was serving malware.
Threatpost — a cybersecurity website — noted that Tech company Cloudflare ended up helping the New York Times sort out the mess, which started when MelbourneIT, the registrar the Times, was compromised.
Matthew Prince, CEO of CloudFlare, wrote in an <a href="http://blog.cloudflare.com/details-behind-todays-internet-hacks">analysis of the attack</a> and its aftermath. In it, he describes how tech professionals recognized the malware-laden redirect site and revoked the domain, stemming the tide of exposed users.
From Cloudflare:
Since the cache [Time To Live] on the domain was relatively short, shortly after the domain was revoked traffic largely stopped flowing to the malware infected sites.
And here's Prince's <a href="http://blog.cloudflare.com/details-behind-todays-internet-hacks">brief explanation on</a> "cleaning up the mess:"
At the registry, Verisign rolled back changes to the name servers and added a so-called registry lock to NYTimes.com. This prevented further changes even if initiated by the registrar. While quick action by OpenDNS and Google limited the impact on their customers, web surfers using other recursive DNS providers continued to be served hacked results. Unfortunately, because recursive DNS servers cache results for a period of time, even after the records were corrected, many name servers were still pointing to the incorrect locations for affected domains.
The registrar of the primary domain the Syrian Electronic Army was using as a name server for the domains they hacked revoked the domain's registration this afternoon. Since the cache TTL on the domain was relatively short, shortly after the domain was revoked traffic largely stopped flowing to the malware infected sites. That did not mean all hacked sites came back online. In some places, DNS recursors continue to have the cached bad records. They will expire over the next 24 hours and traffic to sites will return to normal.
The latest New York Times attack is one in a long string of media-related hacks on behalf of the SEA. Consequently, the SEA has vowed more attacks following any American attack on <keyword id="6354913" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Syria">Syria</keyword>.
And as if to characterize their prowess, Prince notes that the Times' registrar MelbourneIT is not the easiest target.
"This was a very spooky attack," Prince writes, "MelbourneIT is known for having higher security than most registrars. We are hopeful that they will post the details of the attack as they are discovered so organizations can understand the threat and how to better protect themselves."

People Who Tried To Connect To Downed New York Times Site Were Exposed To Malware

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mark-Shuttleworth-Ubuntu-fr-Karmic.jpg">Wikipedia/Nitot</a>Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth</div></div></div>Canonical is a 650-employee software company best known for its version of the Linux operating system. Now its rich-and-famous, dare-devil founder, Mark Shuttleworth, is trying to re-create Canonical into the next Apple, knocking Google Android out along the way.
Shuttleworth made his money in 1999 when he sold his first company, Thawte, to VeriSign for <a href="http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/266911">a reported $570 million</a>. He gained worldwide fame 2002 when <a href="http://www.markshuttleworth.com/biography">he paid to fly into space</a> with the Russian cosmonauts. (Rumor is, it cost him $20 million.)
As of 2013, he's guided Canonical into <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/01/ubuntu-maker-boosted-revenue-in-2013-but-doubled-loss-to-21-million/">a $66 million private company</a> mostly by selling its flavor of Linux software and its version of cloud computing software to enterprises.
But it's known in the Linux world for its PC software, called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is an easy-to-use Linux alternative to Mac or Windows popular with those who want to use free and open-source software, but don't want to hack everything together on their own.
For the past few years, Canonical has been trying to expand its desktop operating system into phones, tablets, and internet TV. Shuttleworth <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-shuttleworth-turning-ubuntu-into-the-next-apple-2012-4">first discussed his vision with Business Insider in 2012</a>, shortly after announcing a cloud service intended to compete with iTunes and Dropbox called Ubuntu One. People could use it to buy music and store documents.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Silber">Wikipedia/Canonical UK</a>Canonical CEO Jane Silber</div></div>But it's harder to compete with Apple than it seems.
In April, Canonical <a href="http://blog.canonical.com/2014/04/02/shutting-down-ubuntu-one-file-services/">CEO Jane Silber</a> announced that she was shutting down Ubuntu One, saying that "the free storage wars aren't a sustainable place for us to be."
Despite the death of its music and cloud storage service, Silber tells us that Canonical is still full-steam ahead with its devices, and will <a href="https://insights.ubuntu.com/2014/02/19/canonical-announces-first-partners-to-ship-ubuntu-phones-around-the-globe/">launch its first crop of smartphones this year starting with Asia and Europe.</a> Eventually, it plans to offer tablets and internet TV devices, too.
We talked with Silber and asked her about the company's plans.
BI: So your big initiative is smartphones, tablets, and internet TV devices. Why would you want to take on companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google?
Jane Silber: If you look at the phone industry five years ago you would said the same thing about Nokia and BlackBerry. They're big. Their dominant. They've been largely displaced.
I don't think the status quo is permanent. And I don't think the status quo is desirable, either for end users of the industry. People find it increasingly hard to participate in the Android eco-system. Google is the only one that will make money off of Android.
That leaves a lot of pent-up unfulfilled needs of operators and OEMs who do need an alternative and can't participate in the Apple or Google eco-system.
BI: So this is about making app developers happy?
JS: Our product is better designed to meet the needs of users. We are building a great device, mid-to-high-end range. It is a unique experience. The competition is grids of icons. We think that's outdated.
For years we've talking about convergence. The division between phones, tablets, desktops, TVs are becoming blurred. Our vision is happening. There is room in the industry for options.
Here's what the new Ubuntu phone looks like:
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">UbuntuUbuntu phone</div></div></div>

This Feisty Linux Company Has An Interesting Plan To Topple Android

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/anirudhkoul/4646989519/sizes/o/">Flickr/Anirudh Koul</a></div>"<keyword id="1761501" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Shadow-IT">Shadow IT</keyword>" is the latest buzzword for when employees buy their own <keyword id="6354741" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Apps">apps</keyword> and use them at work.
In a 2012 survey, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that as much as one-third of the money companies spent on technology was for these "shadow IT" apps.
Sometimes employees buy apps to get their work done faster. Sometimes the apps are really for fun, but they've loaded them on their PCs, smartphone, or tablets connected to corporate networks.
A startup that launched last week, <a href="http://www.skyhighnetworks.com/news/press_releases/11/detail/">Skyhigh Networks</a>, helps IT departments discover these shadow apps so IT departments can stop or control them. It's been in beta with a handful of Fortune 2,000 companies like Cisco and General Electric.
Based on the scans it's done with its beta customers, <keyword id="1761502" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Skyhigh">Skyhigh</keyword> came up with a list of the top 50 shadow IT apps that employees use at work. Most of these we've heard of, but a few surprised us.
Here they are, in order of how many people use them.
<ol>
<li>Facebook</li>
<li>Dropbox</li>
<li>Google Mail</li>
<li>Apple iCloud</li>
<li>LinkedIn</li>
<li>Disqus (an app for leaving comments on Web sites)</li>
<li>Salesforce</li>
<li>Amazon Web Services (Amazon's cloud that hosts files and apps)</li>
<li>Hotmail</li>
<li>Box</li>
<li>Amazon S3 (Amazon's storage cloud)</li>
<li>Google Apps</li>
<li>Evernote (note taking app)</li>
<li>Twitter</li>
<li>Microsoft Office 365 (Microsoft's cloud version of MS Office)</li>
<li>4shared (file sharing)</li>
<li>RightNow (Customer support app bought by Oracle in 2011)</li>
<li>Mozy (Online backup and storage)</li>
<li>AOL</li>
<li>Sourceforge (a site that stores and shares open-sourced apps)</li>
<li>Netsuite (cloud ERP app)</li>
<li>Marketo (manages marketing campaigns)</li>
<li>Flickr</li>
<li>VeriSign Geotrust (<keyword id="6355300" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="security">security</keyword> app that ensures a Web site is safe)</li>
<li>Google Analytics</li>
<li>YouSendIt (file sharing)</li>
<li>New Relic (troubleshoots problems with Web apps)</li>
<li>Taleo (HR cloud app bought by Oracle in 2012)</li>
<li>Slideshare (Powerpoint presentations online)</li>
<li>Workday (HR app)</li>
<li>Carbonite (automatic, secure backup and storage)</li>
<li>Docusign (electronic signatures for legal, business documents)</li>
<li>Prezi (online presentations)</li>
<li>Typekit (adds fancy fonts to a website)</li>
<li>Skype</li>
<li>Sliderocket (online presentation tools)</li>
<li>Github (open-source projects and job site for developers)</li>
<li>Cloudfiles (file sharing)</li>
<li>SugarSync (file sharing)</li>
<li>PagerDuty (texting app for IT emergencies)</li>
<li>Bitbucket (stores open source projects)</li>
<li>Intuit Quickbase (creates custom business apps)</li>
<li>Constant Contact (email marketing)</li>
<li>Xobni (connects your Inbox to your social networks)</li>
<li>Snapfish (web photo printing)</li>
<li>Spiceworks (social network for IT professionals)</li>
<li>Olark (adds chat to your website)</li>
<li>Symantec Brightmail (email spam/security)</li>
<li>Addthis (adds social features/buttons to Websites)</li>
<li>Screencast (cloud storage)</li>
</ol>

The Top 50 Apps Employees Sneak Into Work

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">Sean Gallup/Getty Images</div></div>Uncovering the <keyword id="38879" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="NSA">NSA</keyword>'s <keyword id="6354565" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="surveillance">surveillance</keyword> programs has highlighted exactly how little privacy Internet offers - a fact that some attribute to the lack of international online privacy laws, not to mention weak domestic laws.
Fearing people would lose faith in the Internet, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/sep/14/news.google">Google asked the U.N. to address world's online privacy rights back in 2007</a>.
The company's privacy chief Peter Fleischer told <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/sep/14/news.google">The Guardian</a> this lack of confidence could hamper the Internet's development.
"Three quarters of the countries in the world have no privacy regimes at all and among those that do have laws, many of them were largely adopted before the rise of the Internet," he said. "It's said that every time you use a credit card, your details are passed through six different countries. We're talking about this to help set the framework for the Internet of the future."
Six years later, the lack of worldwide privacy rules still remains a real problem, and the main culprit is the U.S. Now, cracks are beginning to appear in the global network.
Following reports that the NSA has spied on Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/25/4769534/brazil-to-build-internet-cable-to-avoid-us-nsa-spying">Brazil announced plans to create an undersea fiber-optic cable,</a> which would funnel Internet traffic between South America and Europe.
Germany's largest telecom provider, <a href="http://rt.com/news/deutsche-telekom-internet-spies-176/">Deutsche Telekom, seeks to implement a rerouting plan</a> aimed at avoiding foreign spies. Germany later went even farther, <a href="http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20131014-52385.html">promising to use domestic-only connections</a> to protect the privacy of citizens from the NSA.
U.S. domination of Internet management poses another concern for foreigners. ICAAN, a non-profit established in 1998 by the Clinton administration to handle Internet management, rarely awards domain names (like .net or .com) to companies outside the U.S. In fact, VeriSign, a Virginia-based tech group, currently handles the coveted .com domain, according to <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/10/global-net-infrastructure/">Wired.</a> Another company in Virginia manages the .org name.
Even the U.N. has admitted that no single country or organization should control the Internet, Wired reported. But <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/12/13/canada-joins-western-countries-rejecting-un-internet-treaty-over-fears-of-government-control/">U.S. delegates have said the same</a> about the U.N.'s attempts to take the reins. The U.S. and other Western countries admit they would reject a U.N. Internet treaty.
Meanwhile, <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword>'s own position on online privacy has become complicated as the company has faced criticism for sharing some information with the NSA, as well as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-is-being-sued-for-reading-email-to-target-ads-2013-9">scanning user data to target ads</a> and for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/awkward-google-street-view-photos-2013-9">taking pictures of people for Google Maps</a>.
One of the biggest advocates for worldwide Internet regulations today is a U.S.-based non-profit called <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/internet-and-surveillance-UN-makes-the-connection">The Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>. Its privacy goals are described as follows:
"Respect for individuals' autonomy, anonymous speech, and the right to free association must be balanced against legitimate concerns like <keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Law">law</keyword> enforcement. National governments must put legal checks in place to prevent abuse of state powers, and international bodies need to consider how a changing technological environment shapes security agencies' best practices." 
By the end of 2013, about <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2013/10/internet-progress-vs-privacy-20131099128723975.html">40% of the world's population</a> will have Internet access. Clearly, the issue is becoming more important than ever.

Google's 2007 Warning About Online Privacy Is Coming True

<table class="image-container float_right" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div>QualysPhilippe Courtot, CEO of Qualys</td></tr></table><keyword id="1765168" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Qualys">Qualys</keyword> founder and CEO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-ceo-just-spent-a-half-million-of-his-own-money-to-make-the-internet-safer-2012-3">Philippe Courtot</a> has been leading companies to multimillion-dollar exits for decades.
He just did it again in September when he took Qualys public, <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1107843/000119312512407520/d355355d424b4.htm#rom355355_13">raising $72 million for the company.</a>
But along the way, as he's invested in <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword> and advised their founders, he's seen entrepreneurs continuously making the same mistakes that crash their companies, he says.
Courtot's first big exit was cc:Mail, an early email program sold to Lotus in 1991 for $55 million. He took his next company public, Signio, and also sold it to VeriSign for $1.3 billion. Including his angel investments, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Courtot">he's been involved with 10 startups</a> during his decades in the Valley, he says.
He shared his insights with Business Insider in a recent interview:
Mistake No. 1: Not picking one goal—to sell or IPO.
"Some companies make the mistake of a dual strategy thinking, 'We are going to go public or sell the company,'" he says.
You've got to choose, he says. If you'll sell, don't waste money on marketing and sales.
"Build your technology and find customers that are relevant and that's a good time to sell your company."
Mistake No. 2: Impatience. 
Courtot always believed in <keyword id="6373689" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Cloud-computing">cloud computing</keyword> and the software-as-a-service business model. But Qualys struggled in its early days. Its customers—IT personnel—didn't trust cloud computing back then. At best, they thought it wasn't reliable enough for their important applications. At worst, they thought it would put them out of a job.
 "I asked [Salesforce.com CEO Marc] Benioff in 2001, 'You guys are skyrocketing, you are going to the moon, what's your secret? We have resistance from customers,'" he recalls.
Benioff told him that he sidestepped IT and sold to the sales department. They "had the budgets" and "could override" a veto from the IT department.
Since Courtot's customers were always going to be the IT professionals, he couldn't do that. So he waited 14 years to take the company public, until cloud computing was as hot as he envisioned it would be.
Mistake No. 3: Infighting.
Obstacles are inevitable.
"The market changes, you start to despair," he says. Changing directions isn't a failure, it's a necessity.
The founders need to always have faith that the company will "find a solution" and to bring people along when changes are made. "If you don't have the team with you, you will be divided by inside politics and be hurt from within."
Mistake No. 4: Not being choosy enough with your venture-capital investors.
"Once you've taken money, you have made commitments," he says. "You have to be sensitive" to your investors "and be aligned with them." If you aren't, find a way to buy them out.
In 2001, Courtot did exactly that, investing $7.5 million of his own money in Qualys to cash out an investor who wanted the company to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/19/qualys-saas-mitra-tech-intel-cx_sm_0219qualys.html">retreat to the old enterprise-software model</a>. Ultimately, he invested over $20 million himself and made sure subsequent investors were on board with his vision.

A Famous Angel Explains The Four Biggest Mistakes Startups Make

A bevy of money management <keyword id="6354741" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Apps">apps</keyword> have flooded the smartphone market over the last few years. 
The tricky part is picking which ones work for your needs, so we did some digging to find the best of the bunch. 
Here's what we came up with: 
1. Mint Quickview
Mint made the Mac App Store's Best of 2012 list for a reason. This simple, clean app shows how much you are <keyword id="31669" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="spending">spending</keyword> in each category of your <keyword id="6358021" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="budget">budget</keyword> by monitoring all of your transactions. We love signing in and getting a quick, dirty rundown of where our money has gone over the last week, and using their personalized budget tools to stay on track. We highly recommend adjusting your budgets for summer months. You might spend less on transportation when the weather is nice, and chances are you could use that extra cash to flesh out that restaurant tab, right? 
Price: Free
Available for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mint-quickview/id533491939?mt=12" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mint&amp;feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5taW50Il0." target="_blank">Android</a>.
2. Manilla
This is the all-in-one financial organizer. Manage all of your accounts, from credit cards to magazine subscriptions, in one place and even make custom accounts for your rent or cleaning service. Get reminders for bill payments, and monitor all of your travel reward points, too. You'll always know what you owe, how much money you have and can plan for upcoming bills and expenses without having to sift through tons of paperwork. 
Price: Free
Available for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bills-accounts-manager-documents/id439937940?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manilla&amp;feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd" target="_blank">Android</a> devices.

3. DailyCost 
If you want to isolate the expense tracker function of Mint in a super simple day-to-day app, then DailyCost is a great buy. A wide variety of categories lets users input all of their daily expenses. Holding your phone horizontally, you will be able to see graphs and statistics on your spending. The app also tracks your weekly and monthly spending by category and can be backed up to iCloud for Mac users, so you'll never lose your data.
Price: $1.99
Available for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dailycost-simple-elegant-intuitive/id566587079?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> only.

4. Toshl Finance
If you're a heavy traveler, Toshl is an excellent expense and budget tracker. It works with any currency and lets you separate your travel budget from your day-to-day expenses. It comes with all the trappings of a regular money management app, too, such as bill organizer and alerts, and can be synced across all your devices.
Price: Free
Available on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toshl-finance-save-money-budget/id384083725?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thirdframestudios.android.expensoor&amp;feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS50aGlyZGZyYW1lc3R1ZGlvcy5hbmRyb2lkLmV4cGVuc29vciJd">Android</a> devices.
5. Tricount
Next time you organize a group activity, Tricount will split up the expenses for you. Create the expense report on your phone and organize by person, how much they owe, and then share via email so everyone knows their share. With options for expenses, balance, share, and configuration, the app does all of the math for you.
Price: Free
Available for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tricount/id349866256?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tribab.tricount.android&amp;hl=en" target="_blank">Android</a> devices.
6. Check Never miss a bill payment again. This app reminds you when your payments are due, and lets you pay on the spot from a bank account or credit card, or you can schedule a payment for the future. Connect all of your accounts to the encrypted app and then view them all in one place for easy access and payment options. You'll never overdraft or miss a payment again.
Price: Free
Available on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/check-bills-money/id285056092?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netgate&amp;feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS5uZXRnYXRlIl0." target="_blank">Android</a> devices.
7. Venmo
Make and share payments with friends. This app uses the same technology to pay as LivingSocial, Uber and Airbnb. Pay with your debit card or transfer funds from a linked bank account, right to a friend's Venmo account. It is Verisign Certified.
Price: Free
Available on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/venmo/id351727428?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.venmo&amp;feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS52ZW5tbyJd" target="_blank">Android</a> devices.

7 Apps That Manage Your Money For You

A bevy of money management <keyword id="6354741" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Apps">apps</keyword> have flooded the smartphone market over the last few years. 
The tricky part is picking which ones work for your needs, so we did some digging to find the best of the bunch. 
Here's what we came up with: 
<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image">iTunes App Store</div></div>1. Mint Quickview
Mint made the Mac App Store's Best of 2012 list for a reason. This simple, clean app shows how much you are <keyword id="31669" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="spending">spending</keyword> in each category of your <keyword id="6358021" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="budget">budget</keyword> by monitoring all of your transactions. We love signing in and getting a quick, dirty rundown of where our money has gone over the last week, and using their personalized budget tools to stay on track. We highly recommend adjusting your budgets for summer months. You might spend less on transportation when the weather is nice, and chances are you could use that extra cash to flesh out that restaurant tab, right? 
Price: Free
Available for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mint-quickview/id533491939?mt=12" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mint&amp;feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5taW50Il0." target="_blank">Android</a>.
<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image">iTunes App Store</div></div>2. Manilla
This is the all-in-one financial organizer. Manage all of your accounts, from credit cards to magazine subscriptions, in one place and even make custom accounts for your rent or cleaning service. Get reminders for bill payments, and monitor all of your travel reward points, too. You'll always know what you owe, how much money you have and can plan for upcoming bills and expenses without having to sift through tons of paperwork. 
Price: Free
Available for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bills-accounts-manager-documents/id439937940?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manilla&amp;feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd" target="_blank">Android</a> devices.
<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image">iTunes App Store</div></div>
3. DailyCost 
If you want to isolate the expense tracker function of Mint in a super simple day-to-day app, then DailyCost is a great buy. A wide variety of categories lets users input all of their daily expenses. Holding your phone horizontally, you will be able to see graphs and statistics on your spending. The app also tracks your weekly and monthly spending by category and can be backed up to iCloud for Mac users, so you'll never lose your data.
Price: $1.99
Available for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dailycost-simple-elegant-intuitive/id566587079?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> only.
<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image">iTunes App Store</div></div>
4. Toshl Finance
If you're a heavy traveler, Toshl is an excellent expense and budget tracker. It works with any currency and lets you separate your travel budget from your day-to-day expenses. It comes with all the trappings of a regular money management app, too, such as bill organizer and alerts, and can be synced across all your devices. 
Price: Free
Available on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toshl-finance-save-money-budget/id384083725?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thirdframestudios.android.expensoor&amp;feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS50aGlyZGZyYW1lc3R1ZGlvcy5hbmRyb2lkLmV4cGVuc29vciJd">Android</a> devices.
<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image"><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tricount/id349866256?mt=8">iTunes App Store</a></div></div>5. Tricount
Next time you organize a group activity, Tricount will split up the expenses for you. Create the expense report on your phone and organize by person, how much they owe, and then share via email so everyone knows their share. With options for expenses, balance, share, and configuration, the app does all of the math for you.
Price: Free
Available for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tricount/id349866256?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tribab.tricount.android&amp;hl=en" target="_blank">Android</a> devices.
<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image">iTunes App Store</div></div>6. Check Never miss a bill payment again. This app reminds you when your payments are due, and lets you pay on the spot from a bank account or credit card, or you can schedule a payment for the future. Connect all of your accounts to the encrypted app and then view them all in one place for easy access and payment options. You'll never overdraft or miss a payment again.
Price: Free
Available on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/check-bills-money/id285056092?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netgate&amp;feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS5uZXRnYXRlIl0." target="_blank">Android</a> devices.
<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image">iTunes App Store</div></div>7. Venmo
Make and share payments with friends. This app uses the same technology to pay as LivingSocial, Uber and Airbnb. Pay with your debit card or transfer funds from a linked bank account, right to a friend's Venmo account. It is Verisign Certified.
Price: Free
Available on <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/venmo/id351727428?mt=8" target="_blank">Apple</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.venmo&amp;feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS52ZW5tbyJd" target="_blank">Android</a> devices.

Here Are 7 Apps That Manage Your Money For You

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>
It sounds impressive when a founder sells a startup for tens of millions of dollars.
But it sounds really impressive when a company sells it for hundreds of millions of dollars.
As a founder, which option is better? For many, a smaller exit should be the desired outcome.
The short reason: lower-valued startups take less time to scale and less venture capital to fuel, which means founders will likely own higher percentages of their companies when they sell.
There are also fewer acquirers as the price of your company increases. And when an acquirer does come along, there's more due diligence which means sealing the deal can take much more time.
Unless you have a hot company like Instagram. Then you can forget all of that and close a billion-dollar acquisition in 48 hours. 
Let's look at some examples.
<ul>
<li>Bleacher Report sold to Turner for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/turner-is-close-to-buying-bleacher-report-for-200-million-2012-6">a little more than $200 million</a> five years after it was founded. But between four founders and more than $40 million raised, each was diluted to 5-10% stakes. That means <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bleacher-report-founder-im-starting-another-company-2013-3">each founder</a> walked away with about $10 million after the sale.</li>
<li>Arianna Huffington, Ken Lerer and Jonah Peretti also sold their startup, The Huffington Post, to AOL six years after it was founded. Their price was a lofty $315 million. Each owned different percentages, with Ken Lerer earning significantly more than Huffington. Huffington reportedly owned less than 14% of the company and took home an estimated $18 million.</li>
<li>But look! <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/its-official-aol-acquires-techcrunch-2010-9">Michael Arrington sold TechCrunch to AOL</a> for about $30 million five years after he founded it. He reportedly owned 80% of the company when he sold it because he never raised any venture capital. That means he took home about $24 million before taxes - more than Arianna Huffington.</li>
<li>For a non-media example, there's ThinkNear, a TechStars company founded by Eli Portnoy. It <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/techstars-biggest-exit-yet-thinknear-gets-acquired-for-225-million-2012-10">sold to Scout Advertising for $22.5 million</a> 18 months after its launch. It had raised $1.63 million. At the time of its acquisition, it had a Series A term sheet for $4 million. If ThinkNear had turned down the acquisition and taken the Series A investment, Portnoy says his share of the company would have been diluted an additional 25-30%.</li>
<li>Jeff Richards, who is now an investor at GGV Capital, tried both kinds of companies. Early in his entrepreneurial career, he founded a company that was valued at $250 million but Richards says he walked away with nothing. In 2003 he started another company, R4. Two years later he sold it to VeriSign for less than $20 million. That time, Richards says both the founders and investors were "thrilled" with the outcome. </li>
</ul>
So who would you rather be, a Portnoy and an Arrington? Or a Huffington? All made roughly the same amount of cash but for Portnoy and Richards, the smaller exits took significantly less time.
The decision to go big or stay small is one entrepreneurs shouldn't take lightly.
Arrington says he nearly accepted VC money for TechCrunch four times. He initially didn't raise money because it wasn't an option. In 2005 investors were less willing to write checks. 
"When I started my first company, Achex, we raised $18 million in venture capital in 2000 from DFJ," Arrington wrote to Business Insider in an email. "The company later sold for $32 million, but due to a 2x liquidity preference (common in those days), the founders essentially got nothing, just a few hundred thousand dollars to not block the deal."
Arrington says he raised so much then because it was nearly impossible to build that kind of business without a lot of capital. "These were the days when you had to buy Oracle database stuff, and there were no easy hosting options like Amazon and Google offer...Today, most startups don't have multi-million dollar infrastructure costs just to get the service launched. So there is less need for capital to get to market."
Raising a lot of money at a high valuation has its benefits. It can mean overtaking competitors, which are prevalent in early stages (GroupMe had to battle Fast Society before selling to Skype, Foursquare had to beat Gowalla, etc). It can also make a difference in hiring. 
It's easier to attract engineers and other talent when you have brand-name investors tied to your business and you can offer attractive salaries. Arrington recalls his difficulty luring his business partner, Heather Harde, away from News Corp where he says she was making $1 million. All he could offer was a $150,000 base and stock options. 
Arrington sometimes wonders how much further he could have taken TechCrunch had he taken funding. "I often wonder if we could have grown faster, expanded in other ways, if we had raised money and were less frugal," he wrote. 
For Portnoy, the pros of staying small and selling early outweighed the risk of raising a lot.
Portnoy had a family to support and no nest of cash to fall back on. An acquisition would make his financial situation much more comfortable. In addition, one of his board members had run a company that took a lot of funding and eventually went public. Even though that board member's company had an exit 30 times larger than Portnoy's, he ended up with about the same amount of cash.
Lastly, Portnoy knew most entrepreneurs only get one shot at a startup. If they fail, it's the end of the road. But if they're able to get an exit under their belts quickly, more opportunities present themselves later. Investors are eager to back founders who have successful track records. And obtaining personal wealth means a different, sometimes bigger mindset the next time around.
It's important to note that while smaller exits may benefit entrepreneurs, it doesn't always benefit investors.
"As a VC, I am now investing in companies shooting for outcomes &gt;$200M, but it's not the right model for every entrepreneur or every company," Richards says. 
Arrington, another entrepreneur turned investor, referred to a startup his firm CrunchFund backed that sold early against investors' wishes.
(Side note: When an investor's and entrepreneur's exit plans don't align, investors occasionally offer to let founders take money off the table. Then, even if they go for a big exit and the company fails, the founders have a financial cushion. Snapchat's founders just did that; <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchats-founders-pocket-10-million-in-addition-to-the-60-million-round-2013-6">each was given $10 million</a> in addition to the $60 million their startup raised.)
Although Arrington doesn't see himself founding another company, he says he'd always opt to raise as little money as possible. "In general I'd only raise venture capital if I absolutely had to. I'd raise it opportunistically based on market conditions to take as little dilution as possible. And I'd spend that VC money the same way I spend my own money in business - extremely frugally," he said. 
Jonah Peretti, who co-founded The Huffington Post and now runs another high-valued company BuzzFeed, offers different advice.
"My advice is you shouldn't do a startup for financial reasons," he wrote via email. "Most startups fail and there are easier ways to make money with less risk...And if a company is successful, which is very hard to achieve, the money comes whether you build a fat company or a lean one. Mike [Arrington] and Arianna [Huffington] both did great financially. So did Mark Zuckerberg and Kevin Systrom. How many yachts can you water ski behind?"

Why Selling A Startup For $20 Million Can Be Better Than Selling It For $200 Million

<div class="image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><keyword id="475179" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Michael-Arrington">Michael Arrington</keyword> (left) actually made more money on his $30 million exit than Arianna Huffington (center) did on her $315 million exit.</div></div></div>It sounds impressive when a founder sells a startup for tens of millions of dollars.
But it sounds really impressive when a company sells it for hundreds of millions of dollars.
As a founder, which option is better? For many, a smaller exit should be the desired outcome.
The short reason: lower-valued <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword> take less time to scale and less <keyword id="6357097" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="venture-capital">venture capital</keyword> to fuel which means founders will likely own higher percentages of their companies when they sell.
There are also fewer acquirers as the price of your company increases. And when an acquirer does come along, there's more due diligence which means sealing the deal can take much more time.
Unless you have a hot company like Instagram. Then you can forget all of that and close a billion-dollar <keyword id="30334" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="acquisition">acquisition</keyword> in 48 hours. 
Let's look at some examples.
<ul>
<li>Bleacher Report sold to Turner for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/turner-is-close-to-buying-bleacher-report-for-200-million-2012-6">a little more than $200 million</a> five years after it was founded. But between four founders and more than $40 million raised, each was diluted to 5-10% stakes. That means <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bleacher-report-founder-im-starting-another-company-2013-3">each founder</a> walked away with about $10 million after the sale.</li>
<li>Arianna Huffington, Ken Lerer and Jonah Peretti also sold their startup, The Huffington Post, to AOL six years after it was founded. Their price was a lofty $315 million. Each owned different percentages, with Ken Lerer earning significantly more than Huffington. Huffington reportedly owned less than 14% of the company and took home an estimated $18 million.</li>
<li>But look! <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/its-official-aol-acquires-techcrunch-2010-9">Michael Arrington sold TechCrunch to AOL</a> for about $30 million five years after he founded it. He reportedly owned 80% of the company when he sold it because he never raised any venture capital. That means he took home about $24 million before taxes – more than Arianna Huffington.</li>
<li>For a non-media example, there's ThinkNear, a TechStars company founded by Eli Portnoy. It <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/techstars-biggest-exit-yet-thinknear-gets-acquired-for-225-million-2012-10">sold to Scout Advertising for $22.5 million</a> 18 months after its launch. It had raised $1.63 million. At the time of its acquisition, it had a Series A term sheet for $4 million. If ThinkNear had turned down the acquisition and taken the Series A investment, Portnoy says his share of the company would have been diluted an additional 25-30%.</li>
<li>Jeff Richards, who is now an investor at GGV Capital, tried both kinds of companies. Early in his entrepreneurial career, he founded a company that was valued at $250 million but Richards says he walked away with nothing. In 2003 he started another company, R4. Two years later he sold it to VeriSign for less than $20 million. That time, Richards says both the founders and investors were "thrilled" with the outcome. </li>
</ul>
So who would you rather be, a Portnoy and an Arrington? Or a Huffington? All made roughly the same amount of cash but for Portnoy and Richards, the smaller exits took significantly less time.
The decision to go big or stay small is one entrepreneurs shouldn't take lightly.
Arrington says he nearly accepted VC money for TechCrunch four times. He initially didn't raise money because it wasn't an option. In 2005 investors were less willing to write checks. 
"When I started my first company, Achex, we raised $18 million in venture capital in 2000 from DFJ," Arrington wrote to Business Insider in an email. "The company later sold for $32 million, but due to a 2x liquidity preference (common in those days), the founders essentially got nothing, just a few hundred thousand dollars to not block the deal."
Arrington says he raised so much then because it was nearly impossible to build that kind of business without a lot of capital. "These were the days when you had to buy Oracle database stuff, and there were no easy hosting options like Amazon and Google offer...Today, most startups don't have multi-million dollar infrastructure costs just to get the service launched. So there is less need for capital to get to market."
Raising a lot of money at a high valuation has its benefits. It can mean overtaking competitors, which are prevalent in early stages (GroupMe had to battle Fast Society before selling to Skype, Foursquare had to beat Gowalla, etc). It can also make a difference in hiring. 
It's easier to attract engineers and other talent when you have brand-name investors tied to your business and you can offer attractive salaries. Arrington recalls his difficulty luring his business partner, Heather Harde, away from News Corp where he says she was making $1 million. All he could offer was a $150,000 base and stock options. 
Arrington sometimes wonders how much further he could have taken TechCrunch had he taken <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword>. "I often wonder if we could have grown faster, expanded in other ways, if we had raised money and were less frugal," he wrote. 
For Portnoy, the pros of staying small and selling early outweighed the risk of raising a lot.
Portnoy had a family to support and no nest of cash to fall back on. An acquisition would make his financial situation much more comfortable. In addition, one of his board members had run a company that took a lot of funding and eventually went public. Even though that board member's company had an exit 30 times larger than Portnoy's, he ended up with about the same amount of cash.
Lastly, Portnoy knew most entrepreneurs only get one shot at a startup. If they fail, it's the end of the road. But if they're able to get an exit under their belts quickly, more opportunities present themselves later. Investors are eager to back founders who have successful track records. And obtaining personal wealth means a different, sometimes bigger mindset the next time around.
It's important to note that while smaller exits may benefit entrepreneurs, it doesn't always benefit investors.
"As a VC, I am now investing in companies shooting for outcomes &gt;$200M, but it’s not the right model for every entrepreneur or every company," Richards says. 
Arrington, another entrepreneur turned investor, referred to a startup his firm CrunchFund backed that sold early against investors' wishes.
(Side note: When an investor's and entrepreneur's exit plans don't align, investors occasionally offer to let founders take money off the table. Then, even if they go for a big exit and the company fails, the founders have a financial cushion. Snapchat's founders just did that; <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchats-founders-pocket-10-million-in-addition-to-the-60-million-round-2013-6">each was given $10 million</a> in addition to the $60 million their startup raised.)
Although Arrington doesn't see himself founding another company, he says he'd always opt to raise as little money as possible. "In general I'd only raise venture capital if I absolutely had to. I'd raise it opportunistically based on market conditions to take as little dilution as possible. And I'd spend that VC money the same way I spend my own money in business - extremely frugally," he said. 
Jonah Peretti, who co-founded The Huffington Post and now runs another high-valued company BuzzFeed, offers different advice.
"My advice is you shouldn't do a startup for financial reasons," he wrote via email. "Most startups fail and there are easier ways to make money with less risk...And if a company is successful, which is very hard to achieve, the money comes whether you build a fat company or a lean one. Mike [Arrington] and Arianna [Huffington] both did great financially. So did Mark Zuckerberg and Kevin Systrom. How many yachts can you water ski behind?"

Why It's Better To Sell A Startup For $20 Million Instead Of $200 Million

No matter how successful you become, no matter where your career takes you, everyone starts somewhere. We asked six hugely successful tech CEOs to tell us about their humble beginnings.
We got some great stories, written by the CEOs themselves, about their first jobs and their oddest jobs.
These include tales of being held up at gunpoint, working at a nasty pollution control plant, measuring electricity output from manholes, and hauling people's belongings around for a moving company.
Read on ...

<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:300px"><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/video/74612483-palo-alto-networks-ceo-on-hack-attacks.html">Bloomberg TV</a></div></div>Mark McLaughlin, <keyword id="456992" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Palo-Alto-Networks">Palo Alto Networks</keyword> CEO: flying Cobra helicopters at age 22</h3>
McLaughlin leads Palo Alto Networks, an IPO darling of 2012, currently valued at $3.3 billion. He is the former CEO of Verisign, which sold to Symantec in 2010 for $1.2 billion.
What was the first job you ever had?
Many jobs. Mowed lawns starting at 12. Pumped gas at 15 (and got held up at gunpoint one night).
Worked 2 jobs at from 16 to 18. McDonald's after school during the week and bagged groceries at Acme on weekends. I grew up in Philadelphia, working class neighborhood, so this was not unusual.
What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had?
<div>
I started off my career flying Cobra helicopters because my first job was as an attack helicopter pilot for the US Army. I was 22 years old and was enlisted for two years, then heading off to law school. 
</div>
Note: In his time in the US Army, Mark earned an Army Commendation Medal and Airborne Wings.

<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:300px"><div class="image on-image"><keyword id="1754170" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="DataGravity">DataGravity</keyword></div></div>Paula Long, CEO, DataGravity: Pickin' tobacco </h3>
DataGravity is a storage startup still in stealth mode, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exclusive-paula-longs-new-42-million-startup-is-an-ingenius-way-to-do-big-data-2013-3">that's raised $42 million of investment.</a> Long previously co-founded EqualLogic, a storage company bought by Dell for $1.4 billion in 2008.
What was the first job you ever had? 
Working on a shade tobacco farm in Connecticut (a tobacco grown under shade in the Connecticut River Valley, used primarily for binder and wrapper for premium cigars.). I was 14 and I did it for two summers. 
What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had? 
[I worked on ] artificial intelligence and engineering robots. I learned [about] moving robot arms on an assembly line using gears, servo-motors and cables.

<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:300px"><div class="image on-image"><keyword id="155272" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="CA-Technologies">CA Technologies</keyword></div></div>CA Technologies CEO Mike Gregoire: A dirty job fighting pollution</h3>
CA Technologies is a 37-year-old <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Enterprise">enterprise</keyword> software company with $4.6 billion in revenue. Prior to CA, Gregoire was CEO of Taleo and sold it to Oracle in 2012 for $1.9 billion.
What was the first job you ever had?
I delivered furniture for a furniture delivery service on Saturdays and sometimes after school. I was 15 and they went out of business after about a year.
What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had? 
I was a general laborer at a pollution control plant. Lots of nasty stuff can happen at a place like that. It was a unionized shop and the other student that worked and I were only supposed to cut the grass and do outside work. But when there were really nasty things to clean, [we] students often got the privilege of a hard day's work.
I learned that I was not well suited to not having any control over my work product. I like things that are more creative and the day-in day-out. Where everything is the same sounds comforting, but just did not work for me.

<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:300px"><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidberlind/3328976161/">Flicker/dberlind</a></div></div>Jayshree Ullal, <keyword id="356018" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Arista-Networks">Arista Networks</keyword> CEO: working with manholes </h3>
Ullal is the "Marissa Mayer" of the enterprise network industry. Arista is a hot startup taking a bite out of Cisco and on track for a 2014 IPO with a $2.5 billion valuation. Prior to Arista, Ullal ran Cisco's bread-and-butter routing, switching business, leading it to $10B in annual revenue. 
What was the first job you ever had?
Cashier at Woolworths, also duplicating keys, catching fish from the tank and making pizzas! I was 16 and I did for three years as a student.
What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had?
I was an electrical engineer intern at PG&amp;E. My job was to measure and verify the power current and voltage ratings at every manhole to right size the electrical grid for the (then) new Moscone center in San Francisco.
The odd thing was, because it was unionized, I was escorted and driven from manhole to manhole every 100 yards in a PG&amp;E truck!
Then I would go down the steep ladder into the dingy manhole with my hard hat and flash light encountering cobwebs along the way.
I learned that engineers are free spirited and not as structured as 9-5 employees governed by unions.

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:300px"><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Julie Bort<keyword id="593275" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Infor">Infor</keyword> CEO Charles Phillips</div></div>
<h3>Charles Phillips, Infor CEO: Hauling refrigerators up stairs</h3>
Phillips runs Infor, an enterprise software company challenging SAP and Oracle with about $3 billion in revenue. Before that, he was the No. 2 guy to Larry Ellison at Oracle.
What was the first job you ever had?
My first job was at age 13 going door to door with my dad's lawn mower and cutting grass. My dad made me pay him back for the gas he bought for me to teach me about the cost of goods sold.
I finally figured out that most customers had their own lawn mowers with gas already paid for sitting inside of it.
So I would offer to use their lawn mower if they preferred which most did and that saved me the gas money and I didn't have the push the mower around town.
What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had?
Working for a moving company at 16 was my worst job. People tell you they have a few small things that could fit in half a truck and then you arrive and they have two refrigerators up two flights of stairs.
Or you'd drive 5 miles only to learn they changed their mind and want to move tomorrow or their roommate was claiming half their stuff and you can't figure out what to load until they work it out or not. 
I learned to qualify prospective customers over the phone quickly and estimate how much stuff a family would have depending on how many kids, how many rooms, and where they lived. Early predictive analytics.
Then I got job at 17 to develop an application for printing debit memos for a retail branch of a bank. That was my first job in the computer industry.
But the most exciting and different job was of course the Marines. It was the first job I had where every single person had an insanely intense focus on doing their job well mainly because they didn't want to endanger their teammates.
That's where I learned that getting people to inspire each and peer reinforcement is actually more powerful than one general barking commands.

<div>
<h3><keyword id="183644" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Jim-Whitehurst">Jim Whitehurst</keyword>, <keyword id="183292" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Red-Hat">Red Hat</keyword> CEO: fixing an airline on 9/11</h3>
Whitehurst is running Linux software company Red Hat, which generated $1.3 billion in revenue last year on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/red-hat-is-still-on-target-to-hit-3-billion-in-revenues-by-2016-ceo-says-2013-3">track to be $3 billion by 2016.</a> Before Red Hat Whitehurst was COO of Delta Airlines.
What was the first job you ever had?
Within months of getting my driver's license, I got my first job as a part-time computer programmer for a stockbroker.
It is easy to forget that in the 1980s, computers and programming were not nearly as pervasive (or popular) as they are today. I had been interested in computers for a couple of years by then.
My prized possession was my Kaypro II with 64K RAM and dual floppies. I was tasked with building a computer program that would perform contact management, tracking interactions with potential and current clients. I wish I understood the value of such a system back then. Good thing Marc Benioff did. (Thank you, Salesforce.com.)
I still keep in touch with my first boss, Murray Solomon.
What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had?
While not necessarily the strangest or oddest job, one worth mentioning would be becoming "Acting Treasurer" of Delta at noon on 9/11, when I was still a partner at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The CEO of Delta at the time called me and said "we need you now". That was definitely jumping into the deep end. I knew very little about treasury.
I remember going over to the Treasurer's office - which was empty because it was an open position at the time - pulling the dust cover off the desk, sitting down and thinking "what have I gotten myself into"?
My key lesson out of doing that over the next couple of months - I officially joined Delta in January - was that it's OK to admit that you don't know things. I said "I have no idea" almost daily. 
Too many people worry that saying "I don't know" is a weakness. It's not - pretending you know when you don't is the weakness.
(Here's the full story of how <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-red-hats-ceo-owes-his-career-to-911-2012-2">Whitehurst changed his career on 9/11</a>)
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