Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and managing director of One97 Communications, can be called an early starter. A child prodigy, he passed Class XII at the age of 14 and started his first business venture in his third year at engineering college. But in 1999, his company, Xs! Corporations, was sold to Lotus Interworks. After working with Lotus for a year, Sharma founded One97 in December 2000, a company which provides a platform for delivering mobile value-added services (VAS). Sharma, however, likes to position One97 as a mobile Internet company that is sitting on Rs 100 crore of cash and is looking to raise around Rs 100 crore more via private equity after dropping plans for an Indian public listing. In an exclusive video interview with VCCircle, he talks about his entrepreneurial journey, the highs and lows of starting up and valuations in the e-commerce space. Edited excerpts: