New Delhi, Dec. 20 -- The running joke in Kiran Mani's family is that pitching business ideas is simply his way of getting new jobs. The chief executive officer at JioStar, heading oversight of digital platforms (JioHotstar and Cricinfo) and outcomes (consumer, content and revenue), has examples to illustrate this. At two crucial points in his life, what was supposed to be a pitch for an entrepreneurial venture he planned to start turned into job opportunities.

The first was in 2010 when he pitched Fosbury Flop, an ad-tech platform for last-minute media buying and crowd-sourcing marketing solutions that he had co-founded, to Google. The technology company, in turn, offered him a role as head of sales for India, which he accepted. The sec...