A common saying in the startup world goes “you can mine for gold or you can sell tools miners need to mine for gold,” referring to the California gold rush of 1848. Surprisingly, the great businessmen who emerged out of the gold rush were not the miners digging for gold, but were tycoons like Levi Strauss and Samuel Brannan who sold tools all miners required such as jeans, shovels and pickaxes.
Following in the same footsteps, eGrabber, led by CEO Chandra Bodapati, sells Internet research tools that enable companies to grow their business. Bodapati says, "Every company, no matter what they sell or the technologies they use, will need to acquire customers and find employees. They use our tools to do just this". Just like the miners who needed pickaxes to move ahead.

Having started his entrepreneurial career in 1992, and having witnessed the Silicon Valley move from fruit orchards in 1975 to semiconductor chips, Bodapati is a true veteran in his entrepreneurial space.


He emphasizes on the importance of hard work at team meetings and family dinners. During his son’s Stanford graduation this June, Bodapati recollects a part of the commencement speech given by Michael Bloomberg, Mayor & Founder of Bloomberg LP “Get a job where you are the first inside the office, and the last out of office and you enjoy every bit of it”. This is something that the CEO of eGrabber has been following throughout his illustrious entrepreneurial career spanning over 30 years and something he encourages all future leaders and entrepreneurs to follow. Since his school days, he always had the fire and immense aspiration to begin his own company.

Striving To Be Something More Than an Engineer