BT dot.com: Cover Story: Tale From The Dotcom Trough

BT DOTCOM: COVER STORY
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Tale From The Dotcom Trough

Nearly 16 months after the great crash, a poster boy of the dotcom revolution is still afloat and hiring. And how does he pay those global-roaming bills?

By Roshni Jayakar


THEN: September 1999. Brandishing guns and gimmicks were common. Sales calls for his online games took him to Borivili.	NOW: August 2001. The guns are gone. The games are headed for wireless devices, and sales calls extend to London.

I am in Singapore,'' says the excited voice at the other end of the cell phone. ''I'll be back in Mumbai on Sunday and we could meet on Monday (pause); I should be again travelling from Tuesday, this time to Dubai.''

How does Vishal Gondal, former dot-com poster boy, do it? Gondal, 24, started indiagames.com on September 1, 1999, in an age that now seems jurassic-of brash, 20-something CEOs, short on experience, long on wild ideas.

Gondal brandished guns, surrounded himself with mock body guards and hammed his way through the boom. He also created a variety of popular online games for a host of clients, like Pepsi, Jockey and BCCI. The gimmicks are gone, his business model has changed. But he's adding names like AOL and Sprint to his client list.

The Net now contributes to only a fifth of his revenue and the portal is mainly a shop front. It's the growing offline work, especially game licences to overseas markets, that is hauling indiagames towards the long, black line. Gondal says he has orders close to $1 million in the pipeline from Europe alone. The game market in Europe is $ 9 billion; it's $ 10 billion in Japan.

The podgy Gondal is setting his own trend. He's been travelling the world for 13 of the 16 weeks since May, 2001, busy expanding his overseas operations-Europe, South East Asia, Middle East and the US.

''About two years back I used to chase clients from Churchgate to Borivili. Last year, it was from Chennai to Delhi,'' says Gondal. A pause. A grin. ''This year it's Switzerland, Paris, Singapore, Dubai!'' Three months ago, Ninad Chhaya, one of the co-founders, moved to London to set up the first overseas office. Indiagames.com began with $1 million in early 2000 from Infinity and IL&Fs venture corporation. And Gondal hunkered down during the early days of the bust, broke even in March 2001, and hopes to make profits by 2002. How does he do it? A week in his life holds some answers:

Monday, 20 August: It's 10.30 a.m. Gondal walks into his modest Bandra office cabin. There's a noisy grey-market airconditioner, a desk, three chairs, a whiteboard, and a stuffed bird.

In the neighbouring room, some of his 40 young 'uns are already at work-it's early for this all-nighter office-writing story boards, designing backgrounds and writing code for a variety of platforms: CD-Roms, PCs, handhelds, 3G, cellphones etc. Indiagames has an inventory of 120 games and develops five to 10 new games every month.

Gondal begins a series of meetings with his project managers and team leaders. Later with VCs and consultants, who help him professionalise. The last few months have been a time of great learning in organisation building.

His VC, Pravin Gandhi, director, Infinity Investments, believes Gondal is a good leader who's put together a good team.

2 p.m. The meetings go on. Gondal has two mini meals-a soup, fried rice and chicken for Rs 75.

His laptop pings every few minutes. He's got mail. Many from job seekers buffeted by the dot com maelstrom trying to find shelter in Gondal's safe harbour. At least three applicants write in every day.

Its 8.30 pm. Time to call it a day. Gondal drives his Honda City home, where he gets back on the Net. ''Now,'' he explains, ''we work in three time zones.''

Tuesday, 21 August: 7 a.m. Gondal is online. Singapore's day has begun, and he must talk to Kiran Nayak, senior project manager (multimedia) who's been in the city-state for the last two months. They're currently making business plans for the European market.

10.30 a.m. Office again. Today, interviews. As dotcoms fold or cut back, Gondal is recruiting. He intends to add 20 people by December 2001. One attribute they must have: a passion for games.

Wednesday, 22 August: It's Ganesh Chaturthi. But no holiday for this Maharashtrian. He has meetings lined up. A visitor from the US, and meetings with consultants.

Thursday, 23 August: It's 5.30 a.m. Gondal eases his car onto the Pune-Mumbai expressway. With him is Rajesh Bhatia of IL&Fs, one of his VCs. Gondal is one of the speakers at a seminar in Pune. At 1 p.m. he starts back-for more meetings with consultants.

Friday, 24 August: He's leaving again, on a jet plane. Gondal is headed for Dubai, with a halt in London, where he intends to attend the biggest gaming show in the World. No, indiagames will not have a stall. Perhaps next year-if those profits come in.

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