Conversation with Sabeer Bhatia,founder of Hotmail
By Robyn Logan
Director of Strategy
ICAA couple of weeks ago I was invited to join a small group of people to hear Sabeer Bhatia, the founder of hotmail, speak on the unique nature of online business development. It was an amazing session, it only went for about 45 minutes, but every minute was memorable as this man spoke from the heart as well as the head, about his incredible journey.
Sabeer Bhatia launched a pioneering free e-mail service in 1996, with a friend and former colleague at Apple, after raising $300,000 in investments. Within two years he had sold the service, Hotmail, to Microsoft for a reported US$400 million, boasting 22 million subscribers.
Here, in no particular order are the things I found most interesting:
According to Sabeer, the really great ideas in technology do not often come from big companies. World-shifting innovation more often comes from the classic Silicon Valley start-up - “a handful of guys in a garage.” (I think he means ‘girls’ too )
It is a mark of Google’s genius, and a key to its success, that it encourages its engineers to spend 20 per cent of their time, one day a week, thinking outside the box, on any idea that interests them. As a result, they are keeping future, would-be entrepreneurs in-house and innovating within Google.
Take outsourcing seriously. Sabeer talked about the 5 projects he currently has in development - all of them using software engineers from India. He said for him it is a question of having 1 project in development using IT people from Silicon Valley, or having 5 projects in development using people from Bangalore.
The final snippet I want to leave you with in this newsletter is an anecdote Sabeer told about the sale of Hotmail to Microsoft. Initially when he first began talking to Microsoft they were looking at a partnership, that was until Microsoft read his business plan more fully and realised that actually in 3 - 5 years the two companies would be in competition. Microsoft suggested a take over. Negotiations then began, with the final sale taking 20 months from woe to go. Sabeer tells how in the final weeks Microsoft rang with an offer of $350 million. he turned it down, he was holding out for $450 million. At that time he had $5,000 in his bank account, his staff at Hotmail wouldn’t speak to him and his parents screamed at him over the phone “You idiot, we can’t even fit that amount in ruphias on the calculator, what are you waiting for?” A week later he sold for $400 million - looks like he was waiting for $50 million!
For me this was the most telling anecdote of the day. Time and time again I read accounts of successful business people saying the most important thing is to believe in yourself and your product. This story of Sabeer’s was for me a moment of Trust over Doubt. Trusting that you are on the right path, that what you have is valuable and that you are going to make it!
Read our next newsletter for Part 2 of this article where I outline Sabeer’s advice on product development and business success for start ups!
ICA has a module called Trust vs Doubt in the Certified Professional Coach Program
Read more about our Certified Professional Coach Program