About the Authors

Our combined experience includes working for large companies such as eBay, Microsoft and Google; and for startups ranging from single-person bedroom ventures to 100-employee internet companies.

Looking for personal help and advice?

Don’t have the time to setup and optimize your AdWords account and landing pages? We would be glad to help. By leveraging our years of experience you can get a head start. Just email us at mike AT mindvalley.com to learn more.

Michael P. Reining

Before MindValley, Mike worked at eBay, the world’s largest eCommerce company, where he served as Senior Manager of New Venture Strategy and was one of the leading players that drove eBay’s expansion into the person-to-person classifieds and communications space.

Mike’s accomplishments include driving eBay’s entry into the local classifieds space with a 25% investment in Craigslist, and the acquisitions of Rent.com, GumTree, Loquo, and Opusforum combined with the launch of Kijiji.com – eBay’s international network of nearly 50 classifieds websites, its biggest expansion since its 10 year old auction business.

Yet Mike’s biggest accomplishment at eBay was a wild idea called Skype. Mike conceived of the idea and strategy that led to the acquisition of Skype by eBay for $4.2 Billion in 2005.

Mike also served as an Associate Consultant for the prestigious Boston Consulting Group for two years in Chicago. Mike received a BBA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Stanford.

Vishen M. Lakhiani

Before founding MindValley, Vishen was the Director of Sales for a San Francisco-based dot-com providing lawyer-client matching services, and headed their New York expansion. He served both as Business Development Manager and New York Director of Sales and served the company as it grew from a small operation in a San Francisco apartment to a 100 employee business within 2 years.

Unsatisfied with the corporate world, Vishen started his first ecommerce site as a hobby at the age of 27 and 2 years later, found himself making $250,000 a year working from his bedroom in New York. He quit his job to devote himself full-time to his online business and later used the funds to found MindValley.

Vishen’s international background also includes serving as a web developer at Microsoft and Vice-President for AIESEC USA, a non-profit based in New York. He is also the co-inventor of several Web 2.0 technologies including BlinkList and BlinkLife.

Vishen has a BS in Computer and Electrical Engineering from the prestigious University of Michigan School of Engineering.

Anita Patwardhan – Co-Author and Researcher

Anita’s marketing experience was groomed at Silicon Valley firms including Google, Applied Materials, and CASEMaker. Her experience spans optimizing pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, increasing customer acquisition efforts, and managing affiliate marketing programs. She is also responsible for updating and contributing to MindValley’s knowledge bank of ecommerce and online marketing resources.

Anne Dubelaar – Co-Author and Editor

Anne holds a Master’s Degree in International Business from the University of Maastricht. She is the Senior Editor and Manager of Operations at MindValley. Prior to MindValley, Anne worked in the NGO sector for organizations such as the United Nations and AIESEC. Anne has lived and worked all over the world. From New York, to France, The Netherlands, Malaysia and Guatemala.

Research and Analytics

Ng Khai Lee – Writer and PPC Analytics

Adelle Magsombol – Researcher and Customer Support

Haresh Tilani – Research

Technology and Site Design

Wan-Leong Jiangti – MindValley Chief Technology Officer

Dani Kahlil – Site Design, CSS and Graphics

Hannu Nikupeteri – Database Design and Checkout Cart Programming