So what happens when you put a serial entrepreneur, an escapee from Microsoft, and a raving technocrat, into the same room?

Well, for starters, you get the core team behind asklaila.com.

Everything you wanted to know about them, but were afraid to ask, is now just a click away

Kiran Konduri (Co-Founder)

Kiran is what is known as a serial entrepreneur.
(He founds start-ups, the way most of us change underwear.)

First, he was co-founder and CEO of Zephyr Software in 1997, one of the web's earliest community services providers for the Indian diaspora.
The company was purchased by Infospace in 1999.

Then, he co-founded Cogniti, a provider of business intelligence and analytics solutions to the retail industry.
(Always busy, our Kiran.)

He is one of the pioneers of the hybrid model for a start-up,where an offshore development center and back office operations are established in India, business operations, conducted in the US. And, he's a Charter member of TIE.

Before accepting The Economist as his personal saviour,Kiran made a lot of money for other people, at Microsoft and Wipro,in business development, account management and partner management.

For some inexplicable reason, Kiran spends all his time between start-ups,discovering new Andhra and Indo-Chinese restaurants.

Shriram Adukoorie (Co-Founder)

Shriram spent the past 10 years, with Microsoft. And survived.
(Several EU nations have nominated him for their medals of gallantry.)

He launched MSN in India, and then went above and beyond the call of duty, by serving as its Country Manager from 1999 to 2003.
During this time he was extensively involved with growing the Internet and mobile data services industry in India.

He was instrumental (with a few colleagues from the industry)in founding the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
(So now we know who to blame!)

He then led a hardcore team of meta-humans with mercenary zeal, and launched MSN in Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia.

While at Microsoft, Shriram admits to also managing the Telecom and ISP business for India.

Shriram loves photography.
A hobby he perfected over years of intercontinental travel funded by Microsoft, as the corporation strove to keep the airlines happy.

Bal Krishn Birla (CTO)

Birla is a senior techno-business leader with over 12 years of experience in software industry.
(Which is why he gets the cool, acronymic designation.)

Birla is a man who's been there, done that, and most definitely, unarguably, got the t-shirt.
In fact, Birla's t-shirt collection reads like the Who's-Who of the IT world.

He was responsible for managing Amazon Associates group in Bangalore, where he drove the Amazon Context Links and Amazon Omakase program, across various markets, from conceptualization to roll-out phase.

He was involved in building large scale internet distributed systems, text/data mining solutions, and learning systems.

And he got his first t-shirt, at Infosys, where he was responsible for building solutions for companies ranging from small startups to large organizations.

Birla holds a computer science degree from IIT Kanpur.
And if all that isn't enough, Birla, is a restaurateur.

Aravind Sampathkumaran (Chief Product Officer)

James Dean, was born to be wild.
Salman Khan, was born to be jailed.
And Aravind, was born to break records.

It's a habit he first formed as a toddler, when he fell in love with the sound of a Sonny & Cher LP shattering on a mosaic floor.

In 1992, Aravind began his career by joining Wipro, and dropping Right Said Fred cassettes from Utility Building's 23rd floor.
(He also won 3 Wipro performance awards, over the next 5 years.)

In 1997, he moved to Microsoft Corporation India, where he experimented with rolling CDs of Aqua's Barbie Girl single, under BMTC buses.

By the way, during his stint here, he went on to win:
Going the Extra Mile Award - MS India Top performer Award - Dec 2000;
Top Contributor Award by Bill Gates in July 2001;
Innovasia Award (presented by Mehdi, VP, MSN) in July 2002;

2003 saw Aravind move to the Microsoft Corporation offices in Redmond WA, to the accompaniment of a Celine Dion compilation disc meeting an SUV.

(And a few years later, in 2005, he won the Moving Mountains Award for driving Distribution Strategy Review with MSFT leadership, along with another Gold Star award.)

Aravind finally decided to stop contributing to Bill Gates' wallet, and worry about his own bank account, for a change. So he's packed his duffel bag, trusty 8 lb. sledge, and his impeccable taste in music, and joined us here, at asklaila.com

(As per contract, we have a whole storage closet full of Hanson albums ready and waiting for him.)