congrats to desimartini.com

the mint, a daily business periodical in india, carried a story today that reported indian social networking site desimartini.com has been acquired by hindustan times media (ht media) for “under $10MM” as was quoted by an ht executive. i was honestly left a bit speechless, but i tip my hat to vivek pahwa and the team for pulling this off. after reading the paper, though, i tried to see if anything had changed at desimartini since the last time i visited the site, and i found this:

wow…hmmm…*cough*….$10MM….yeahhhhh………..

no time for “strategizing”

over the course of these tumultuous 20 months of doing burrp.com, we’ve certainly grown in every aspect of the word. what we have not done, and very consciously mind you, is switch our focus from being a hands-on, execution-oriented team, to something more abstract. i’ve shamelessly copied/pasted a few excerpts from an excellent blog post on successful startup entrepreneurs, and why staying away from the “strategery”, as our good friend mr. bush calls it, is the only way to go. read a snippet below…

Execution Counts More Than Strategy: In a big company, managers can often overly focus on strategy. They plot big, company-changing things. They think out-the-box. They pontificate on what they think will drive innovation, quality, service, sales, or whatever it is that they happened to be focused on. This is all fine and good, but it takes a while to measure whether a given manager’s strategy was actually “good” (i.e. effective). At startups, managers are more often than not measured by less lofty things: like what they get done, or help get done. Nothing wrong with strategic thinking, but I’ve never read a Dlibert cartoon where the pointy-haired boss actually did something useful and productive. He’s usually doing something “strategic” (and lame).

who’s your wall?

after months and months of doing the startup thing, i’m ready to expose one of the primary reasons behind even the mildest of successes – my wall. what is a wall? simply put, our wall is that one pillar of strength in our lives. a lot of what entrepreneurs need during the course of a startup is a strong stomach and a lot of positive motivation. during these usually incredibly trying and testing times, nothing is more important than having the support and full understanding of your wall. admittedly, startup entrepreneurs devote most of their time and attention to their businesses, so it becomes that much more important for their walls, their significant others, those closest to them, to not only understand, but to positively reinforce and motivate them to go the distance. my wall is my fiance, without whom i could not even imagine stomaching my time with burrp! she’s much smarter than i, and even so, she’s there for me, backing me up, making sure that i don’t give up. whether it’s your mother, your girlfriend, your wife, your kids, whoever – if they’re not bought in to your efforts, i don’t see how any level of success can be meaningful. so who’s your wall?

f*cked business (for now)

i sat down on saturday with a very respectable, senior leader in the media space. this guy really “gets it” and i respect him for that, so it was a treat to pick his brain. one thing he asked me that caught me off guard: “do you know you’re in a fucked business?” i thought to myself, man, bad first impression, this guy really doesn’t like what we’re doing. but he wasn’t talking about a particular business. he mas making a comment on the space. “you’re in a fucked business, and as long as you know that and you can stomach that for the next few years, you’ll do fine.” he also made a funny comment about vcs, one that i thought was worth passing on to ya’ll: “there are two scenarios under which a vc won’t trouble you – if you’re company is going gangbusters; & and if you’re company is totally up shit creek. in the former, well, it goes without saying. in the case of the latter, they’ll run for the hills, i.e. prepare for the write-off.  it’s when you’re performing at about the expected or average level when they really come and fuck you in the head with their own ideas.” i couldn’t keep myself from laughing after he recited this to me. we shared a good laugh about it.

coming back to the original point, a valuable takeaway for me was in learning how to not only understand and accept reality, but also realizing how this understanding and acceptance in itself is a big competitive advantage. you’d be amazed at how many people, when realizing that reality will break the constructs of their safe little engineered concept of how the world works, will still fail to take the necessary steps to prepare themselves for ground level realities. i’ll borrow a great analogy from mr. nassim taleb – the turkey who is fed like a king for 364 days of the year can either believe that there is no reason for him to think the 365th will be any different; or he can learn about the important role the turkey plays in the great tradition of thanksgiving. wake up and smell the f*cking coffee, people.

local merchants: the longtail of advertising?

so i think it’s safe to say that monetizing local merchants through new media advertising has been a global challenge. no matter how mature or savvy the local merchant market may be, local merchants are just not hopping on the new media advertising boat in a big way. either they don’t get it (“what’s internet advertising?”); they don’t need it (“you’ll increase footfalls? i’m packed every night, thank you”); or they can’t afford it (“umm, i list in the yellow pages for $5/month – what can that buy me?”). you see, i believe local merchants have different objectives when it comes to outreach. mainly, i believe they just want to build goodwill with customers. larger players do need to worry about brand management, awareness, customer acquisition, footfalls, etc. the local guy just wants the customer to like their stuff, tell other people, and come back. it’s all about womm, baby. so is there an opportunity for a player to become the clearinghouse for local advertising dollars on new media? perhaps, but not without a much deeper understanding of how one can change the answers to the three questions above. ’nuff said.

grapes are candy…

i just returned from a trip to bangalore, where i was asked to meet some senior level dudes from nokia corporate and help them understand what would make mobile internet tip in india, i.e. what localization features, both physical and at the application level, would make sense for indians? see, nokia is now positioning themselves not as a handset manufacturer, but as an internet company that focuses on products and services. with their insane mobile device market share in india, they’re really feeling the pressure to crack this nut. a small group of smart startup dudes, each representing their own space, made solid cases for applications that could help tip the market – everything from data collection apps, to spatial traffic updates and governance apps, to local listings information and of course, mobile social networking. i then took a shot at elevating the conversation to a more macro level – what is mobile internet? what does mobile internet mean for indians? more importantly, what does mobile internet mean on an entry level phone vs. an e-series or an n-series nokia?

my ex-boss was a very fit and health-conscious dude. he raised his kids the same way, and at very early ages, would refuse to expose them to traditional candy, such as chocolates, gum, etc. mostly all kids have a sweet tooth, and he understood this, so fruit was the default “candy” of choice, especially grapes. he would tell us that when his kid saw grapes, he would start jumping up and down with joy, as if someone handed him a kit-kat. you see, grapes were candy to that little kid. and who’s to tell him that it’s not?

similarly, the big boys who have a chance at making a big impact in india with respect to mobile internet, whether it’s nokia, reliance or even google, will have the monumental task of defining the internet for each segment of mobile device users. my guess is that the guys flaunting the blackberries, e-series nokias, et al will expect a pc-like internet experience. how about the guy with the dinky black-and-white nokia with the tiny screen? what is his internet? maybe it’s just pre-specified content pushed via sms. i don’t know, but what i do know is that his needs are different, his form factor is smaller, he’s probably not rich, and he may have more or less time than others – these are all major factors in how we experience the internet.

i’m looking forward to continue helping nokia figure this out – i think they have a great opportunity to be the catalyst – but they have to understand, grapes are candy.

oh, they’re SO not the same…

brijj.com is sanjeev “naukri.com” bikhchandani’s new linkedin wannabe. check out the logo comparison below. i’m not saying anything – just merely thought it would be a productive use of my time to put these two very different logos side by side….righhhhttttt…..

vs.

the fallacy of the me-too mashup

india today is like wild west of the internet startup days of yore, but with a lot less innovation, creativity and substance. sorry for the sudden shocking dose of reality, but the truth of the matter (at least in my eyes), is that nobody is really making cool shit. what very few smart teams are doing is brilliantly executing a strategy of concept arbitrage, localizing with a high degree of sensitivity, and being nimble enough to adapt to market and user needs (i see the first phase of burrp! fit into this category, although i daresay we’re certainly innovating for the future – more to come on that). even this is very risky, since a). nobody copies shitty products, hence, a high bar has already been set and b). an upfront assumption is made that the concept being “borrowed” cures a pain point that exists in this market as well.

internet companies in india are now starting to borrow concepts not from abroad – oh no, that’s so last year – but rather other indian consumer-facing internet companies. not only that, they are starting to pick and choose what products to mash up, as if they were in some peach orchard, and then serving up what they think is a delicious peach cobbler. unfortunately, it tastes more like shit cobbler. see, the fallacy of the me-too mashup is that it becomes exponentially harder to “succeed”, whatever the definition for success might be (page views, ad revenue, registered users, etc.) since theoretically, the product now copies two or more existing respectable products (respectable enough for you to copy, anyways).

let’s take an arbitrary example of an indian consumer-facing internet company that was recently funded $10MM by a reputable VC firm. they have a blogging platform, a yellow-pages section, a social network, a classifieds section, a local section, and a travel section. what this means to me is that for this application to be compelling enough for me to use, the blogging platform should be better than or equal to wordpress; yellow-pages section should be better than or equal to justdial; the social network should be better than or equal to facebook; local section should be better than or equal to burrp!; and the travel section should be better than or equal to tripadvisor. now, i’d even go as far as to say that i’d be willing to consider this application if these products were even slightly less qualified than their models, given some benefit i’d theoretically receive from having these products under one domain – but with services like pageflakes, netvibes, igoogle, etc., even this is questionable.

so a word of caution – the goal for an entrepreneur playing this game should either be to aim for a strong # 2 position, but with the ultimate goal of making a product better than the one you copy. if this isn’t manageable, start innovating.

my visit to iim calcutta

yesterday, the entrepreneurship cell at iim calcutta invited me to be a part of a panel and give a lecture on how to create buzz about your startup in the early stages, as well as to discuss various potholes (and mitigation strategies) for startups in india today. the euphoria in the market is such that a lot of smart people from prestigious institutions are seriously considering giving up seven figure salaries to dive into the unknown. across the panel, whether other entrepreneurs were focused on b2b enterprise products and services or true consumer-facing internet products such as ours, a common thread could definitely be inferred:

• your product must speak for itself – no amount of marketing can save a shitty product. eventually, it will die.
• set a high bar with technology – build the best technology possible within your domain. for us, it just means that all of our features work, and work brilliantly and better than anyone else. setting up a front-end marketing and sales function while outsourcing all of your technology in the early stages is most likely doomed to fail.
• invest in the best team – build the best team you can, don’t lower your expectations bar, and create a collaborative, fun environment that will foster loyalty to the organization.

many thanks to ankur gattani and the entire entrepreneurship cell at iim calcutta – truly a very kind, generous and hospitable group of people that are well on their way to achieve big things. remember, it’s harvard mbas that tick me off, not iim calcutta mbas!

my favorite musical artist

some of the hardest questions friends always ask you are the types that require you to narrow down your personal preferences to the one supreme all-mighty; such as “what is the best book you’ve ever read?” or “what is your favorite movie ever?” i always have a hard time answering these and usually respond with a laundry list, broken down by segment.

i’m happy to report that i do have a favorite musical artist who is so talented and special, that i can definitively say he is my favorite across all types of music. his name is miles davis. for those who don’t know, get knowing. the man is an artistic genius in every sense of the word.

hope i can turn you onto him…