Manas Kumar

I grew up in India which is where he completed the majority of his education. At the age of 14 went to South Africa to play professional cricket for four years before returning to India to complete a BA majoring in Economics and Maths and then moved to New Zealand in 2001.

I set up my own web company in November 2003 at the age of 23.

Genesis Web Strategies was founded in 2003– the core business was website development. As our client base grew, I realized that technology could help me run the business more efficiently. I quickly became disenchanted by the poor range and exorbitant price tags associated with business software systems. Naturally, the only choice was to create my own.

In 2007, I decided to move away from websites and start focusing on developing and monetizing simplified cloud based technologies to assist small businesses. Maxmail and Dimension CRM were the first two to emerge with several others that followed soon thereafter.

Earlier this year, we rebranded ourselves as Optimizer HQ, delivering simplified technologies to small businesses that help them FIND, WIN, KEEP and GROW great customers. Our flagship product is their cloud based email marketing application Maxmail, which is unique in its ability to provide email marketing, SMS marketing, Surveys and Social Media integration in a single platform.

What I'm thinking about these days:

O2O - It is about building a solid bridge between Offline and Online marketing, by using one to leverage the other businesses can have better reach into the global market, gain great insights into their customers, and talk to their customers in a way that is more targeted, specific and relevant than ever before.

Update: October, 2012

On October 23rd, Optimizer HQ brought a revolution to New Zealand in the form of a simplified payment processing solution - Swipe HQ, making it Asia-PAcific's first truly mobile credit card processing solution.

Update: December, 2011

On December 1, 2011, I took the company public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange making me the second youngest CEO ever to achieve a public listing on Frankfurt.