Saturday, July 26, 2008

Bhatia and his ideas

Post Hotmail and Arzoo.com, will Sabeer Bhatia succeed with Sabsebolo.com?

Hailed a demi-God who has seen tomorrow, Sabeer Bhatia’s story is inspiration to millions and especially the blue eyed college going ilk of which he once belonged. And for a man who made a quick buck of perhaps the world’s shrewdest businessman, Mr. Hotmail is definitely ‘hot’ in terms of whatever he touches with even the ‘old school brick and mortar money lender’ ready to dole out his stacked stash into his ventures.

Thus it was post the golden winters of ’97 that Bhatia evolved into a serial entrepreneur, his ‘hottest’ bet now being the newly launched conference calling solution that claims to be ‘specially developed for the Indian market’ and called SabseBolo.com. “SabseBolo.com is a great service for SMEs who can use audio conferencing without investing in expensive infrastructure. We are targeting small & medium enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs. But anyone can use this facility. It is absolutely free,” spoke Bhatia on SabseBolo.com. However, on the announcement, what lacked along with Sabeer’s proclamation were spirited gestures by common folks and analysts in whose eyes Bhatia’s earlier ‘hot’ achievements seem to have withered away or rather marred with all his ventures going kaput, save the free email service that now sits atop Redmond’s chart-topping menu, thanks to its image overhaul.

“Audio conferencing does have scope, however it very much depends on the kind of audience Sabeer Bhatia is targeting,” says a skeptical Diptarup Chakraborti, senior analyst with Gartner India research, on the driving idea behind SabseBolocom. “Since his prime audience are generally the SMEs and entrepreneurs, it remains to be seen as to how much are they willing to use something like an audio conferencing… therefore it is required of Bhatia to create a need for such facilities.”

But it is also for Mr. Bhatia’s insatiable thirst for enterprising ventures that keeps his boat afloat. “I think the soul of an entrepreneur is to keep trying until you find the successful idea,” he had once remarked. Perhaps his soul found resonance with Hotmail and is taking much time to come back. As was evident with the shutters coming down on his real-time technology consultancy service, Arzoo.com. Others like apnacircle.com & blogeverywhere.com also are names mostly unheard of. The only consolation being in the revamping of Arzoo.com as a one stop travel portal catering to Indian shores. But since a travel shop is an idea much dug up, it compares to selling rum when one, originally, thought of promoting exclusive single malts. “I think Arzoo.com was initially launched well ahead of its time. Too much money was spent developing the product and trying to enhance the concept and service,” said Bhatia earlier.

Indeed Bhatia is a man brimming with ideas. Put him in a corner office and see him getting fidgety and itching to go out. And further, he has been a consistent newsmaker with launching newer projects. In all probability, all he needs is just another spark to set his entrepreneurial tack back to where it belongs. After all it’s very difficult to predict ideas.

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Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008

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