Meet Vinoth Gopinathan, The Newest Member Of The Team

About a week ago we added Vinoth Gopinathan to our team as a super-intern, so I thought that it was only appropriate to interview him so that all of you could get to know him a little bit better. One thing that I learned about Vinoth after reading his answers to my questions was that he’s freakin’ hilarious, which you’ll soon find out as well.

1.  Hey Vinoth, I’m glad that I could drag you away from your laptop for a couple minutes so that we could officially introduce you to the world. Speaking of the world, where are you from anyways? Give us a link to Google Maps if you can – we’re all pretty last these days.

Hey Hup! I’m natively from Chennai, India but moved to Singapore for my 6th grade. Just for your information and for others who are unaware, Singapore is NOT part of China! Its a tiny country south of Malaysia.

Now a junior at the National University of Singapore doing Computer Engineering.

2. Can you tell us all a little bit about what it was like growing up there? I know that you haven’t been in town for too long, but what would you say are the biggest differences (besides the fact that you can now eat at IN-N-OUT Burger anytime you want)?

Well Singapore is a privileged country – safe and prosperous. So all I have to care about was to study and have fun (while my dad funds it). Singapore has a very unique culture since people from different races and religions are living there. Chinese, Indians, Caucasians, Malaysians. Had loads of friends in the 10 years I was there and had different gangs for shopping, eating out, movies or just chilling out.

If you ask me about differences, I would say the culture. Singaporeans, though modern, are still conservative. The first thing I noticed about the people in the valley is that they are so friendly! I always have random chats with people on buses and trains! (Once on the train I met this Vietnamese man who had fled his country during the Vietnam war and entered the US illegally!) Its definitely an interesting and fun experience.

P.S. YEAA I LOVE IN-N-OUT BURGERS! Oh wait, doesn’t my religion forbids me from eating beef?

3. How did you end up here at isocket? Meaning, how did you find us and how did we find you? I know that you’re pretty tall, but I’m sure that it took more than that for us to find you, right? Side note: exactly how tall ARE you?

I would say it was an “accident”. Really!

I am under a scholarship program by my university back in Singapore, where entrepreneurial students are sent to California, Pennsylvania, Sweden or China for a year long stint at a startup company. We work full time and in my case, take evening classes at Stanford University. Cool right?

So I had applied for this program, got through and was waiting for calls from the top 3 companies I had chosen. One fine day I get an email from my coordinator saying I was offered an interview with this company called isocket. I had NO clue about isocket then, but I decided to accept the interview. Did a bit of research to find out more about the company and I was really impressed by the founders’ background and their recent round of funding. Spoke to Zak over the phone and I was the chosen one! Now you’ve got to ask the guys how they found me and their side of the story.

I am 6’4” btw. I am sooo tall back in Singapore that I trip over children, unintentionally miss my not-as-tall friends who walk past me, ram into the hand grabs and doors of buses and trains, etc.

4. Considering that you’re now working with us, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that that you were attracted our vision for what the future of the advertising world looks like. What would you say gets you the most excited about what we’re doing?

I think the idea and concept behind the company is great! But even before I got interested in the whole idea behind the startup, what really got me excited was the passion John and Zak had. I had not met them in person other than a few Skype chats, but their achievements over the past couple of years was what really attracted me to join isocket in the first place. It gave me the confidence that my time at isocket wont be “just another internship”.

5. If you were to arm wrestle our CEO John Ramey, who would win? (hint: these 3 words will help you out – OVER THE TOP)

He’s my height and twice my size! I might end up breaking a bone or two!

Update: Looks like Vinoth was right (although he didn’t end up breaking any bones). See the video below or over here on YouTube.

6. Name 3 things that you definitely want to do/see/experience in the Bay Area before you head back home and why.

I’ve got more than 3! But well here are the top 3:

• Meet a lot of interesting people and learn from them the culture of the Bay Area. I particularly like how willing they are to share knowledge and how open they are to failure!
• Go for Megadeth, Metallica concerts and Russell Peter’s show \m/. I love Indian and rock music. And of course Metchul \m/ I used to be a drummer for one of my University bands.
• Oh yea I almost forgot. Help isocket make a great product that everyone loves and I am proud of.

7. Ok, last question – tell us one thing about you that most people would think is weird. For instance, if I were to answer this question I would say that I have to talk to other people in elevators, even it does seem slightly awkward.

I can’t think of anything weird but I have crazy ideas all the time! Which means I love playing pranks on people. Once during the exams period I told my close friend that I was going out with this pretty girl in college. He, wanting to come to the restaurant and surprise me, took a cab from his room and rushed to the restaurant in 30 minutes, only to find out I had decided to go somewhere else. He then took a cab to the new place but couldn’t find me there as well. He wasted 3 hours that day.

I was actually just Face-tubing in my room. (playing on YouTube and Facebook)

8. Anything that I missed? Feel free to tell us anything else (within reason).

Since I am from Singapore, let me give you a crash course on Chinese.

Zai Jian!! (pronounced sai as in pie and chi-en)

It means bye bye!