Sabeer Bhatia
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I am sure – if you have been listening to the news with apt attention during the late 1997 or early 1998, you would not have missed the news of Microsoft taking over HoTMaiL. In this article I give a brief introduction of the co-founder of the HoTMaiL. The co-founder of the now famous HoTMaiL is none other than our very own Bangalore lad – Sabeer Bhatia.
Sabeer was born in 1969 at Chandigarh to Balev Bhatia & Daman Bhatia. Balev Bhatia served the Indian Ministry of Defence while his mother Daman Bhatia worked as a senior official at a State Bank.
Schooling:
His parents placed great value on education. Sabeer grew up in Bangalore and had his early education at Bishops Cotton’s School in Pune, and then at St. Joseph‘s Boy’s High School in Bangalore. He did his Pre-University in St. Joseph‘s College Bangalore.
Some of the memorable incidents during his school life are here – “On parent-teacher days they would just say ‘Sir, why did you come? You don’t have to come! We tell Sabeer to solve the questions on the blackboard for us,’” says Bhatia senior. Once, Sabeer came home crying after an exam. He had not done badly; he just hadn’t had time to write down everything he knew.
He started his undergraduate education at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani. In 1988 Sabeer won a full scholarship to the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech), in Pasadena. After graduating from Caltech, Sabeer went to Stanford to pursue his MS in Electrical Engineering. At Stanford, he worked on Ultra Low Power VLSI Design.
Career:
At Stanford, he was inspired by entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and Scott McNealy eventually deciding to become one himself. Instead pursuing a PhD after his Masters, he decided to join Apple computers.
Sabeer briefly worked for Apple Computers as a hardware engineer -he lasted nine months there, after that he joined a start up company called Firepower Systems Inc, where he spent two years.
The new dawn:
In his cubicle, he read about young men starting up for peanuts and selling out for millions. Sabeer pondered what the Net could do for him, and what he
could do for the Net. Then he had an idea.
It was called Javasoft – a way of using the Web to create a personal database where surfers could keep schedules, to-do lists, family photos and so on. Bhatia showed the plan to Jack Smith, an Apple colleague and they got started. One evening Smith called Bhatia with an intriguing notion. Why not add e-mail to Javasoft? It was a small leap with revolutionary consequences: access to e-mail from any computer, anywhere on the planet. This was that rare thing, an idea so simple, so obvious; it was hard to believe no one had thought of it before. Bhatia saw the potential and panicked that someone would steal the idea. He sat up all night writing the business plan. “Then we wrote down all variations of mail – Speedmail, Hypermail, Supermail.” HoTMaiL made perfect sense: it included the letters “HTML” – the programming language used to write Web pages. A brand name was born.
In order to attract attention, the e-mail service was provided for free and revenue was obtained through the advertising on the website. Bhatia had $6,000 to his name. It was time to find investors. By the time he reached the offices of venture capitalists Draper Fisher Jurvetson, 19 doors had slammed behind him. Steve Jurvetson and his colleagues quickly saw the potential and put up $300,000. Bhatia and Smith stretched the money all the way to launch day, July 4, 1996. By year-end they were greeting their millionth customer. When Microsoft came knocking, 12 months later, they’d signed up nearly 10 million users.
Selling HoTMaiL to MS (Microsoft):
But what were 10 million subscribers worth? Was it $160 million as Microsoft said? More? Less? Sabeer polled his investors. Doug Carlisle, whose firm Menlo Ventures had pumped $1 million into Hotmail, guessed $200 million. Sabeer chided him for giving the lowest estimate and joked that he might hold out for a billion. Carlisle promised that if Sabeer made $200 million he would erect a life-size, bronze statue of him in Menlo Ventures’ foyer.
Sabeer didn’t know how to sell a company. But he did know how to buy onions. “In India you’ve got to negotiate for everything,” he says. “Even buying vegetables, you’ve got to negotiate.” When the bargaining started, Sabeer felt right at home. “They came in low with $160 million, so I came in at $700 million! And when they said: ‘That’s ridiculous! Are you out of your mind,’ I knew it was just a ploy.”
Sabeer wouldn’t budge, and Microsoft’s representatives kept walking out, or rather storming. And shouting and swearing and hurling insults. But the Hotmail team had been warned of Microsoft’s tactics. “It was like a record being played,” says Jurvetson, “which we thought was pretty funny. It gave us a real sense of strength.” During the negotiations, he had bumped into a British backpacker in Prague. Sabeer asked him how he kept in touch with family and friends – Hotmail, of course. Sabeer went back and told Microsoft: “If that is the brand we have built in one and a half years, imagine what it will be in 20 years. Hotmail will easily be bigger than McDonald’s.”
At $200 million, Doug Carlisle started looking for a sculptor. At $350 million, Hotmail’s investors agreed: Sell. Sabeer returned to the table, alone, and once more said: “No.” The contract was inked on Dec. 30, 1997, Sabeer’s 29th birthday. The price: some three million Microsoft shares – worth $400 million at the time and twice that now. Today Hotmail users are signing up at the rate of 250,000 a day, and the firm is valued at some $6 billion. “I’m pretty sure Sabeer and Jack regret selling,” says Jurvetson. “Who knows what might have been?” Sabeer shrugs: “When we sold, it was considered an outrageous amount. In hindsight, yes, we sold too low. But I don’t regret it because at that time it was considered a great deal.”
After the Sale (New day!!!):
After selling Hotmail, Sabeer worked at Microsoft for about a year and in April 1999, he left the company to s
tart another website, Arzoo Inc, which was shut down when the dot-com bubble burst. In 2006, he re-launched Arzoo as a travel portal.
He started a new website trying to capitalise on the emerging blogosphere – BlogEverywhere with co-founders Shiraz Kanga and Viraf Zack.
He also pushed for a project enabling access to the internet through cable television in Indian homes. However, due to bureaucratic problems it is very unlikely that this will reach completion.
Further future plans of his include the development of a new city in India by the name of Nano city. The aim of Nanocity is to replicate the vibrance and eco-system of innovation found in the Silicon Valley.
Recognition:
Sabeer’s success has earned him widespread acclaim;
1. The venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson named him ‘Entrepreneur of the Year 1997’,
2. MIT chose him as one of 100 young innovators who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology and awarded ‘TR100’,
3. San Jose Mercury News and POV magazine selected him as one of the ten most successful entrepreneurs of 1998 and
4. Upside magazine’s list of top trendsetters in the New Economy named him ‘Elite 100’.
5. Named by TIME as one of the “People to Watch” in International Business (2002)
Src:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabeer_Bhatia
http://www.pathfinder.com/asiaweek/technology/990625/bhatia.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1402270.stm
http://www.webindia123.com/personal/abroad/sabeer.htm
http://www.indobase.com/indians-abroad/sabeer-bhatia.html
http://www.engology.com/eng5bhatia.htm