The Contester Blog

Entrepreneur Naveen Jain designed Intelius as a data broker, such that it monetizes public and state records regardless of whether or not they are found in the Internet. The ramifications of these to plain customers are aplenty, including increased measures of security and safety. Capitalizing on the fact that public records can be used to create profiles on individuals, Naveen Jain co-founded Intelius. Using such information database, consumers can check the backgrounds of people in their circles — from the nanny to the nurse — against criminal records, liens, and other publicly available documents. Intelius’ data also includes the person in question’s address, age, and such. Intelius is not Naveen Jain’s first business. When he resigned from a seven-year stint at Microsoft Corporation in 1996, he lost no time creating the company named InfoSpace. InfoSpace had arguably grander ambitions to boot. With it, Naveen Jain promised to make the Internet accessible to mobile phone usersin the 1990s. It led Information Week to distinguish Naveen Jain as someone who would “change the net.” For better or worse, Naveen Jain took InfoSpace public in December 1998 amidst a growing dot-com stock bubble. Probably the biggest dot-com at the time, InfoSpace was once worth $31 billion, its stock prices rising as high as $1,305. It was, for a time, a Wall Street celebrity. Each company has its own merit in making Naveen Jain who he is today. For sure, Naveen Jain is here to stay with Intelius. The serial entrepreneur has already filed for Intelius’ IPO in January 2008. Naveen Jain founded Intelius in January 2003. Since then, Intelius’ customer base has expanded to seven million. The large amount of hits on Intelius.com has registered positively on comScore’s media metrics too. Intelius is based in Bellevue, Washington, just a short distance from InfoSpace’s offices.