February 26, 2012: When Indian-American Navroop Mitter responded to the White House Twitter challenge on what one can buy with USD 40, little did he know that his reply would give him the honour of sharing the dias with the US President and the Vice President.
"@Whitehouse #40dollars pays for the coffee an entrepreneur needs to keep going so he/she can deliver those jobs we need!" Mitter had tweeted, which attracted the attention of the White House first.
It was Twitter again, through which the White House found him, even though he lives in the suburb of Washington DC, and also received the invitation to attend the event with Obama's policy speech on pay roll tax cuts.
"It's only after I reached the White House, that I was told that I would be standing along with the President. I had the opportunity to meet President Obama too," Mitter told the media in an interview.
The Indian American Sikh said he shook hands with Barck Obama and Joe Biden and took pictures with them.
"We got to share very briefly about ourselves. I had seen President Obama speak at the DNC (Democratic National Convention) in 2004 when he was making his first national introduction speech.
This is for the first time that I got to meet the President," he said.
Mitter, who recently launched his own start-up GryphCo, sported a pink turban, which he said matched his pink tie for the once-in-a-life time occasion.
"It was a great honour," he said. With his family coming from Amritsar, Mitter praised Obama for taking several initiatives for the minority communities in the US during his administration, including the White House observing the Guru Nanak birth anniversary.
"The President and this Administration has done a great job in minority outreach, but also it has celebrated the diverse population. He has done a great job in integrating the minority in the eyes of the others," Mitter said.
Though his tweet was about payroll tax cut extension, Mitter says he doesn't draw the salary anymore after he launched his own startup.
Launched in August, his company, Gryphn, seeks to provide security and privacy to mobile phone users.