Simarprit’s Weblog

Business synergies are critical. Small business doesn’t make sense for anyone anymore, more so for those who have other assets and businesses to handle.

Compare Infobase now owns over 1600 websites and portals, I remember at the best the names or existence of about 200 of them, as Compare’s business is to develop and sell websites, selling a website is a business transaction. Whenever we sell an Internet site which is known, we are asked don’t you feel bad after selling the site? My answer is we loved developing it and owning it and we love the act of selling it, this is our business. The second part of my answer actually is not palatable to people, “We make effort to sell to a buyer who would do justice to the site”. Most of the people find the answer a guilt cover, which it is not as selling is a pleasure and not a guilt. The new owner group of http://www.diwalimela.com(Diwali Mela) are well established players, they understand sites as much as we do and they desire to pursue e-commerce business. Dinesh Aggarwal is a dear friend and an old business associate, Dinesh is more known for India Mart however he also owns Intermesh Shopping Network which has bought Diwali Mela and its stablemate http://www.virtualrakhi.com  (Virtual Rakhi).

Diwali Mela was born as a concept of holding a global Diwali Mela or an Exhibition on the Internet. We used it like that for few years, but somehow we always felt that our job was not to manage a business of the site, we were comfortable managing and developing the site. With Diwali Mela and Virtual Rakhi (Our site for the festivals of Raksha Bandhan and not a virtual Rakhi Sawant… LoL) sold we exit from one of the business lines which we were reluctant players in.

Diwali Mela and Virtual Rakhi leave behind fond memories and great learning experience, we wish both the sites best of luck and great success with their new owners.

Thank you Rajiv. You made my day. It felt very good to be associated with a site which is seen as “the Face of India”. I thank your school going daughter Nona for bringing it to your notice, and I thank you for bringing it up with me.

I would like to take this opportunity to write “The Story of Maps of India”, why we made it and why it is loved..

It all started in April of 1996 when I was searching for a Map of India on Yahoo! of course Google was not a known word then. There were quite a few Indian Maps available on the internet but not one I would have liked to use. Each one of them had a truncated Kashmir depending on cartographers free will. Some maps had no North East of India, and most had no Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep Islands.

That’s not what we were taught India looks like. It was full Kashmir a defined North East and the islands, all had to be there. It remained a thought. When I started Compare Infobase and we started working on our first website IndiaProfile.com the thought got translated to a web presence. We created a section in IndiaProfile.com called Maps of India. India had the correct face on the Internet. I was happy. But the page won’t show on Yahoo!

Why Sun rises from the east?

Why the date line is where it is?

Why England is in the center of the world?

Why Dollar is the currency of many countries?

Why English despite so few “English Men & English Women” is the most widely spoken language? Why? Why?

Many questions, one answer?

Dominance. Britishers domainated the world during those centuries and they made everyone see, believe, follow and accept what was right for them or as per them.

So, as Sun “rose” from East of the England, it bacame Sun rises from the East. The biggest Universal lie in the world. It remains a tough challenge till date to explain that the Sun never rises and the Sun never sets, it only appears and disappears from those directions.

Dominance. Dominance. Dominance.  Quality domainance. Universal domainance. Consistent dominance. Omnipresnt domainance.  Taking a leaf out of the World History, Indiaprofile created a folder http://www.Indiapofile.com/Maps and titled it Maps of India. The folder which started with 5 maps became a website in less than three months as http://www.mapsofindia.com and had 50 maps to begin with. With the correct map on the net every one started logging on to Maps of India. The maps were: Quality Maps; in multiple subjects; they were always present in terms of zero downtime, you could get them when you wanted them. Number 50 became 250 and 250 became 500 and 500 became 1000 all in less than one year.

The Face of India was born. Mapsofindia.com was established as the site which displayed the face of India, the correct face of India. The quest continued. Mapsofindia.com became the place to get The Map of India, any time every time.

Usha Vidyasagar who currently heads the Maps of India project within Compare Infobase and Ajay Saxena our ex-colleague played a significant role. Usha with her Masters in Business Economics background started marrying data to maps. Demographic, Economic, Industrial, Political the list just won’t stop. I remember in one of those meetings in our second floor 125 sq. ft. office, I showed Usha my Readers Digest  -The Great World Atlas, I also shared with Usha an India Atlas bought by my father in 1948. The dream Mapsofindia.com should have Maps of such high quality with data of such high credibility. Ajay was Masters in Geography, he became the corner stone for quality and consistency of Maps. Ajay led the cartographic initiative, Usha the Atlas initiative and your’s truly kept on coming up with “we need”.

Mapsofindia.com started growing. It grew steadily initially and slowly started picking up speed. Number of users which were 7 the first day the site went live, went up to 1,000 a day by the time site completed one year. At 100,000 users a day for a thematic mapping site, I am pleased. The steady climb of Mapsofindia.com would ensure that the site starts hitting a million users a day  in next five years. For a thematic mapping site on a specific geography it is a great aspirational figure. Mapsofindia.com remains the best mapping site on India despite numerous challenges to its dominance. Interestingly the next three  most popular mapping sites on India are all stable mates of Mapsofindia.com; http://www.maps-india.com (Maps India) focuses on maps for travel and travel information; http://www.indiamapstore.com (India Map Store) is an estore for focuses on sale of printed maps and travel books; http://www.Mapsofworld.com (Maps of World) now a legend in its own right has a detailed India section which is growing steadily.

Much More to come…

I am screaming blue murder again. In last one hour I have recieved 6 emails from this company. I am of course taking it seriously. I plan to sue them and have told that no one in our company should deal with them. All those who also feel thatthey need to be pulled up, let’s join hands.

“Dear Madam/Sir

This mail is from “MyStyleJob Associates “   {Placement Consultants}

MyStyleJob Associates is a premier Placement Consultant. By virtue of vast experience of partners in a very short span of time carved a niche for itself in its field of operation and owing to its commitment to excellence and professionalism has earned a prominent position in India.

We are based in central location of New Delhi and are having our Network of Associates. MyStylejob Associates have developed a comprehensive database of highly qualified applicants for numerous industries. The result of our efforts has created a loyal client base that utilizes our services on a continual basis.

Mission

MyStyleJob Associates  mission is to provide diverse Staffing services to software and product development houses thereby achieving client and candidate satisfaction consistently.

We charge one month Full Salary for our services. Service charges must be given in favour of M/s MyStyleJob Associates by cheque. In case the candidate left within three months we will provide free replacement.

We will be glad to assist you for your manpower requirements.

Waiting for your association in anticipation.

Sincerely Yours

Desk: 011-45062937″

At 11:30 PM walking on 7th Avenue my daughter Avval playfully asked me to take her to M&M, M&M to me was only those colored Dime size or smaller chocolates, what were clothes doing out there, a peep inside and we decided to make it one of our must see destinations for tomorrow.

There is a lot said about brand extensions, but this flavor of brand extension I had never seen and had no clue. When we landed up at M&M’s World - Flagship Store at 1600 Broadway New York, NY 10019 there, three of us had three distinct objectives, Avval to spend her pocket money, Mini to buy gifts, and self to understand the business logic behind all this. To me M&M had always been a Fun Chocolate Brand, essentially aimed at kids; it had effective last minute purchase strategyacrossthe world airports; it had a smiley with legs and boots as its brand ambassador; it was a company which had pursued its China manufacturing strategy aggressively to develop a range of packaging for its chocolates.

One visit to the M&M’s World store and I have started looking at the whole concept of chocolate retailing differently.

Some Observations:

1. In New York; In Manhattan; On Broadway
2. Three side open
3. Three levels
4. Decent size mouth but huge belly. The ground floor is the smallest, IInd Floor is the biggest, third floor is also decent in size.
5. Washrooms are on third floor.
6. Chocolate walls on IInd floor.
7. Impulse buying; Impulse buying and Impulse buying.
8. “We know how to loosen your purse strings.” Money upfront approach to business.
9. It is a destination.
10. No samples.
11. No one checks you if you taste from the wall.
12. We are a destination, 10 - 12 strategic placed photo opportunities.
13. If Disney has, we have.
14. Of course they know Hershey’s is next door, and they need to hold to parents.
15. Deal corners for parents to “balance out”.
16. No M&M employee should be without a product ever, displaying utility.
17. Buy and close approach to selling, strategically located check outs.
18. Ground floor has some of all.
19. A child is encouraged to have “everything M” footwear, clothes, linen, cutlery, crockery.
20. The huge Neon Poster wall outside ensures that everyone watches the commercial fully at least once.

Some times great ideas can be raped by quick grow strategy. Since past seven days, I’ve been getting regular spam mail which  goes like this…

“

http://www.youmint.com/network-Ashish777777

- Ashish Goel”

It comes with a noreply@youmint.com address. What did Youmint.com gain by encouraging email spamming like this, and what did Mr. Ashish Goel get by becoming a hardcore spammer disturbing peace and adding to email overload. At-least they lost me as a supporter to their concept and created a bad mouth. I have seen many sites indulge in unethical practices like this and have always thought of creating a post or a blog to take care of them. I was never troubled enough to get into it seriously, but You Mint and Ashish Goel have succeeded in ensuring that. 

The promoters of You Mint should be aware that gentleman  like Ashish Goel can get them into serious trouble, Unsolicited mails are not done, and that also on all possible IDs you could be using. I am of course contemplating writing to you Mint to hand me over personal details of Mr. Ashish Goel to me, so that joint action against them and Mr. Goel can be initiated. I am sure You Mint is too busy minting money to bother about problems they are creating for others.

If there are others who are suffering from this aggressive Youmint.com supported and promoted spamming please feel free to post your views.

My phone rang during the meeting, Mini in a very calm voice announced; Simar, we are outside Universal Studios and it is on fire. I understood everything in that one sentence.  Very measured sentence, spoken very aptly, created no panic and answered all concerns. Without asking. That was the best way to inform, it generated concern and managed anxiety instantly.

 Hundreds of questions were in their head, what they saw got gutted, or what they had to see got gutted. They know King Kong ride is gone, and that is what they had missed two days back, rest they are still discovering.

I am not feeling good about it. I thought these things are fool proof. The very fact that my family was moving on its own, in a new country, in a new city with no one known was a statement of my confidence on the systems. It gave me tense moments on this account, “what if” has been troubling me. What if? What if? What if if they were inside? What if, if they were on the ride? What if, if my my phone was in no signal zone? All planning suddenly looks like a very risky preposition. On second thoughts, maybe I should have not sent them alone.

Way back in 1999, I was not taken seriously on my attempts to develop a Christmas site. What does a “Sardar” (Sikh) know about Christmas, and what are his credentials. Of course I knew just a little better than nothing about Christmas and had never been to a Church except as a tourist, so I had no credentials, per se.  I knew something about sites, and that got me going. Nine years of profitable ownership later, http://www.christmascarnivals.com is sold. Sold to Side Show Ventures, I am sure Jimmy Sutton  would be a far better owner-manager to my absentee landlord approach. 

Jim, congratulations on your acquiring Christmas Carnivals, it is a good site which offers lot of information on Christmas. It has been very close to my heart , and I would add a lot about the site to this post in next few days.

Let us have a farewell Q & A.

Q: What was the need to design and develop  a website for Christmas? 

A: I don’t need to develop websites, and surely not for a living. To me developing a website is picking up a canvas and letting it known as a painting. On a more serious note, way back in 1999 there were many sites on Christmas, but there was a need for the site on Christmas. Christmas Carnivals was developed to cover that niche. Christmas Carnivals was also developed as a spoke, to the hub and spoke model of  http://www.dgreetings.com. DGreetings, at that time had no significant section on Christmas and Christmas Carnivals acted as a spoke. It was you scratch my back, I scratch yours.  Having said that, Christmas Carnivals is very close to my heart, and would remain so. Every year, the site had a new look and a new treatment, we kept on changing the site

 More to come…

There are authors, there are books, and then there is me. I must be the third most seen and noticed in this largely “white American” show.  So what is this turban doing amongst all this? MapXL Inc, the holding arm of Compare infobase for mapping business in the US decided to participate in this Book Expo; Mani felt that my being “Local” could be of “help.” I would wait for the verdict.

I drove south from San Jose on I-5 and covered the distance in 6 hours with three breaks. The journey was fine, and the Garmin Nuvi knew where I had to go, exactly.

1. Pre arrangements and communications - 9/10
2. Official hotel selection - 9/10
3. Website: 9/10
4. Shuttle service to the venue 10/10
5. Information in rooms: 0/10
6. Exhibition venue and guidance: 6/10 - technlogy is absent, signage is inadequate, the exhibition - it looks like hasn’t grown.
7. Cooling: 8/10, Could have been a bit cooler
8. Particpants :10/10 you name it and the publisher is there
9. Authors: 9/10 Very Good book signing activity
10. Walking area: 9/10 Plenty
11. Food: 9/10 Plenty
12. Restrooms: 4/10 -No good

After checking with a few regulars, I conclude there is a significant recession rub-off. High gas prices have also contributed in lesser footfalls.

I am glad we had prefixed appointments before coming here.

Thank you GPS. I was driving back from Sacramento to San Jose with Mini and Mishti and we needed to go to restroom and some coffee. I didn’t want to go to Starbucks. All Food option on my GPS had the first listing as Coffee Co., my first thought was maybe Starbucks has not paid to Garmin for branding so they have just mentioned as Coffee Company, I was wrong. This is not Starbucks and it is Coffee Company, which serves Coffee with coffee. LoL.

Where? Coffee Company, 5424 Sunol Blvd. #7, Pleasanton, CA. (925) 462 5567

What we had? House Blend, Coffee with Coffee, Caffe Latte - House Blend, Apple Juice (bought out product),  Blueberry Bran and Walnut Banana Cake

How was it? Great, Fabulous, Outstanding

Ambiance & Decor: Has a distinct feel and the soul of the shop reflects. Place to go for a leisurely cup of coffee with your loved ones.

When to go? When you want coffee and not Starbucks.Cakes were good, you actually eat the cake and not the sugar… LoL..

Service: Very personalized and very warm. You just don’t want to leave.

Fresh: Absolutely fresh coffee and freshly baked cakes/ muffins.

Do we recommend? Yes. You must go if you are in Pleasanton and what you need is a cup of coffee.

When not to go?  If In hurry, this place may not work well. If you want a process based, factory experience of having Coffee, this would not work  atall.

Recommended for: Those who want to have a leisurely cup of coffee over a chat.

More to come…

Today Mini & seltf invited our fiends over for a Dinner. It was tough to choose from the seven eating places which are always talked about - Rajjot, Amber, Shagun, Dasaprakash, Tandoori Oven, Sarvana Bhawan and Udipi. My selection process worked like this:

Rajjot - Great food, but you just can’t take anyone there, it remains the most famous hole in a wall.

Amber - Continues to be the best brand for Indian food, with nothing authentic Indian about it - American Indian is the closest you can put it.

Shagun - Great ambiance, unpredictable food quality - too risky.

Sarvana Bhawan - I’ve not been there but drilling down revealed major service time issues.

Udipi - Becomes too noisy, doesn’t represent India in true light.

Tandoori Oven - No table orders, place order at the counter takes formal dinning pleasure away.

Dasaprakash - Best choice scenario. By course serving would have been a better format, but they are not staffed adequately for that so they get everything together.

Thanks Romit for introducing me to Dasaprakash and encouraging me to try them even on a weekend. Dasaprakash I conclude, is the best case scenario despite the fact that it has no drinks and no meat. 

More to come…