Snapdeal founder's silver linings playbook'

Kunal Bahl, the co-founder and chief executive of Indian e-commerce titan Snapdeal, is a big believer in finding the silver lining in every cloud. It is this optimism which has guided the 31-year-old entrepreneur's journey into big business.

Bahl had wanted to join high school buddy Rohit Bansal, now the co-founder and chief operating officer at Snapdeal, in receiving higher education at the prestigious Indian Institute of Information Technology, but was unsuccessful. So he left for the United States, where he obtained an engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Wharton.

Soon after, Bahl found an opportunity to work at Microsoft and get involved in the software company's business development operations for emerging markets. That career path was cut short when his application for a US work visa was rejected.

"It was the catalyst for me to start thinking about doing something in India with my best friend," he told the South China Morning Post. "I saw the silver lining."

The new entrepreneurs, however, had to endure a rocky start. They created an offline, daily-deals coupon business called Money Saver in 2008 that led to a mobile coupon service, a discount card business and then morphed into a Groupon-like operation under the Snapdeal brand in 2010.