22-05-2014, 03:16 PM
THE WAVE RIDER
THE WAVE RIDER.docx (Size: 14.17 KB / Downloads: 11)
ABSTRACT
Ajit has shared his experience of establishing Rediff and some of the challenges that he faced while setting up the business. From winning over skeptical investors to proactively launching products to meet customer needs to successfully listing the company in Nasdaq. But the book also goes beyond rediff to understanding Online Business in India, Politics to experiences that shape Ajit's journey. At one time, Rediff (www.rediff.com) was a popular web address in India. Started by Ajit Balakrishnan, Rediff was the Indian Yahoo, offering search, email and daily information on cricket, music, politics, Bollywood, etc. Balakrishnan was already famous for having successfully set up and grown Rediffusion, an advertising agency, with two other partners. Riding the dotcom wave of the late 1990s, Rediff.com also was one of the first Indian companies to get listed on the NASDAQ. Balakrishnan sets out on this enterprise, a path that takes him through the world’s financial centres of London, Hamburg, New York, Boston and San Francisco.
Balakrishnan recounts his first tryst with a computer, then called “Unit Record System”, in IIM-Calcutta in 1970; the history of the “domestication” of computers as we know it today; the financial crashes of 2000 and 2008; the New York September 11 terror attacks and the class action lawsuits filed against him in lower Manhattan.
The book works on multiple levels: as a historic reference point, it gives insight into an era where the concept of internet was still alien in India; as a guidebook for entrepreneurs looking to step into unchartered territories; as a chronicle of important technological milestones; and more importantly as a looking-glass into the world of Ajit Balakrishnan as an entrepreneur, and as a man.