Gour Lentell
| Gour Lentell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Education | Churchill Boys High |
| Alma mater | Lancaster University |
| Occupation |
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| Parent(s) | John Lentell (father), Sylvia (mother) |
| Website | lentellsoup |
Gour Lentell is a Zimbabwean born entrepreneur, CEO and co-founder of biNu.
Background
Gour was born in Zimbabwe in the early 1960s. His mother was a teacher of biology and his father was a businessman. After the completion of his studies, he migrated to the United Kingdom to stay with his father so that he could avoid being conscripted into the Rhodesian army.[1]
Educational Background
Lentell did part of his education in Zimbabwe, attending Churchill Boys High between 1973 and 1978 before going to the United Kingdom where he graduated with a BSc Hons in Operational Research in 1985 at Lancaster University.[2]
Career
biNu
Lentell co-founded biNu with David Turner which is basically a mobile app that lets people with low-end feature phones access applications that are meant for high-end smartphones at fast speeds for less money. The got its funding from Savannah Fund which is a venture capital outfit established by Erik Hersman, Paul Bragiel and Mbwana Alliy. biNu is said to have received funding amounting to $2 million with some of the investment also coming from Tomorrow Ventures established by google's executive Eric Schmidt and other investors.[3]
24/7 Real Media, Inc
At 24/7 Media, Gour worked for the company for a year[2]
Decide Interactive
It took a while for Lentell and partner Dave Turner to reorganise and setup another company, Decide Interactive. The company also performed very well and before long the company had an offer presented to them by 24/4 Media.[1]
Sabela Media
Lentell's first company was an ad serving startup called Sabela Media. The company performed quite well and was on the brink of being sold for profit when another company called DoubleClick claimed that it owned intellectual property rights to ad serving technology that was being used by Sabela Media and demanded that it ceases and desist its business.[4] DoubleClick eventually offered to buy Sabela Media and Lentell was prepared to sell the company but got an even better offer from 24/7 Media offered to buy the company at 40% more than what was being offered by DoubleClick.[4] Although the company was sold for a figure around 100 million, the shares that Lentell got from the sell lost value in a very dramatic way and they lost it all
OzEmaiL
Lentell worked for the company for two years from 1996 to 1998.[2] Arguably the best part of his career was when he and David were tasked to develop live ASX quotes on their website which they completed in about four days. The first version was called Stockwatch which racked up 90 000 hits within 24 hours of release.
Oracle Inc
Gour Lentell joined Orcale Inc in 1992 working as a consulting industry manager up until 1996.[2]
PricewaterhouseCoopers
After finishing university, he joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in London as a consultant before moving to Australia with the same company.Lentell also had a four year stint with a business software maker, Oracle where he was to meet to Turner. He worked for the company from April 1987 to June 1992[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 BRIAN CORRIGAN Why Google’s Eric Schmidt backs this Australian start-up, Financial Review, Published: Agust 25, 2012, Retrieved: March 12, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 LinkedIn, Published: No Date Given, Retrieved: March 12, 2015
- ↑ Mfonobong Nsehe Africa's Savannah Fund And Google's Eric Schmidt Invest In Binu Mobile Via $2 Million Round, Forbes, Published: August 20, 2012, Retrieved: March 12, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 HAMISH MCKENZIE Boom, crash… what? A dotcom train wreck finds a remarkable second coming, Pandodaily, Published: April 25, 2013, Retrieved: March 12, 2015
