As other highly hyped Indian dotcoms such as Chaitime.com and eIndia.com raised tens of millions, flared to high fame, burned through all the money and just as quickly went under, one small startup operating on a shoestring budget but with unflagging passion, unexampled resolve and incredible hard work has survived and is succeeding. Succeeding in creating something that is sociologically pioneering, technically outstanding and commercially remarkable. Succeeding not just in creating the most popular online community for Indians worldwide but also in crafting a viable revenue model for a lasting business enterprise. Where others went after quick fame and fast money, this company operated in stealth mode for 3 years with its nose to the grindstone, painstakingly constructing an innovative, self-regenerating web platform that today attracts hundreds of thousands of Indians from over 50 countries and boasts of over half a million pages of vibrant and rich content.

How did Sulekha.com succeed in attracting such a vast and loyal global audience where others have failed? How did it manage to win unanimous praise from the media -- e.g.: "One of the finest Indian websites", says The Times of India -- when others earned its scorn for their senseless spending and lack of innovation? How is Sulekha building a strong and vibrant brand at such a low cost when others couldn't manage the same no matter how much they spent? How has it fashioned itself into the biggest online ticketer for Indians events and movies in US without losing its community focus?

PROFILE OF SATYA PRABHAKAR

Satya Prabhakar is originally from Machilipatnam, a small seaside town in AP, India. After earning his Bachelor's degree in Electronics from Regional Engineering College, Trichy, he accomplished the rare grand slam feat of securing simultaneous admissions to all four prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Schools, including the one in Ahmedabad that was recently identified as the toughest school in the world to get into. Having scored 99% + in GRE and getting assist ships to several US universities for MS programmes in computer science, Prabhakar spurned the IIMs to get his MS and MBA degrees from US. After stints at Philips and Honeywell as an engineer and as an executive in charge of Internet initiatives and ecommerce at SBC, Prabhakar, in collaboration with Sangeeta Kshettry founded Sulekha.com in 1998. They both left their jobs to work on the concept and it was almost a year before they were able to get some outside investment. "Sometimes you have to do what life is saying you ought to. I feel it is our Dharma, in a way, to risk something so we can find out who we truly are." Prabhakar presents a rare amalgam of philosophical insight, technical expertise and business savvy. He typically wakes up at 3 am in the morning and works 16 to 17 hours a day. "Running a start up is highly demanding and the only way to survive the constant strain is if you love what you are doing deeply and yet can retain a sense of detached calm." Prabhakar, whose interests include Zen Buddhism, investing, martial, tennis, cheese and film writing, says "My only regret in this whole thing is that I don't get to spend enough time with my two children, Divya and Priya."

Mantra of contributed content

And letting people free Sulekha definitely did. What is remarkable, innovative and unique about Sulekha.com is that almost all of its content is contributed for free by tens of thousands of Indians from around the world. What started three years ago as a home spun hobby with modest content: four articles by friends, to be precise, Sulekha.com has now spread its wings to a bevy of successful services, all involving, as Prabhakar emphasizes "expression and interaction" and a host of powerful partnership with the likes of Penguin, India Today, Indian Express and B4U.

Can content contributed by amateurs have sufficient quality to attract readers? You bet. In fact, the content was so good that Penguin, the world's most highly regarded publisher, chose to publish Sulekha's collection of selected articles and the book is shooting up Amazon.com's South Asian bestsellers list.

In the summer of 2001, Sulekha.com made a pioneering print debut with Sulekha Select. Selected by the Sulekha community from over 1200 published articles, stories and opinion on Sulekha, this is a collection of 42 diverse and delightful pieces written by Indians from around the world and from various walks of life: IT professionals, bankers, entrepreneurs, students, film makers, advertising professionals, and of course, writers. Almost all then are non-professional writers who write just for the love of it. Yet, Sulekha Select won high praise from the likes of Amitav Ghosh (impressive), Dilip Padgoankar (uplifting), Pritish Nandy (magical), and Shyam Benegal (fascinating), in addition to winning near unanimous acclaim from the media such as the Times of India, Indian Express, and the Hindu.

More importantly, Sulekha Select caught the eye of Penguin India and its CEO, David Davidar. Penguin secured the rights and republished the book as 'Black, White and Various Shades of Brown: the Best of Sulekha.com' across the entire Indian sub-continent and Singapore. Davidar, the author of the recent critically acclaimed 'The House Of Blue Mangoes', praises Sulekha: "We are excited about this partnership with the hugely popular Sulekha.com and we see this as just the beginning of a series of such exciting books, inspired and enabled by this great new interactive medium of the internet."

Sulekha Select quickly shot up the sales charts of Amazon.com and is among the top 10 most popular South Asian books.

"We placed an early bet that the people's need to express themselves and interact with their peers could result in a 'sticky' site that will pull them back regularly and voluntarily. This, in turn, would present itself as a very attractive audience for advertisers," says Sangeeta, co-founder and head of content and community of Sulekha. Srinivasan, Sulekha's head of product development says, "Sulekha is designed to be an interactive platform that is regenerative in the sense that the site updates and refreshes itself without any manual intervention as new content is added by visitors day in and day out."

Sulekha.com is a structured, yet somewhat chaotic, community. The homepage is teeming with articles, columns, pictures and photographs that are contributed by a variety of people from around the world; there is a section for news with a unique twist: people contribute the news stories that they deem most interesting so it is not a run-of-the-mill 'news archive'; then there is the Coffeehouse, a discussion board that is constantly bubbling with opinions from people who visit the site regularly and then there are city hubs with their own services such as ticket sales.

THE BUSINESS MODEL

Expressional interactions are nice ideas, but how does Sulekha make money? Prabhakar answers, "Sulekha is a funded company with investors. Our goal is not just to be a happening website but to be a profitable business enterprise. We derive revenues from three sources: one, advertising and sponsorship revenues; two, online event promotion and ticketing and related transaction services for membership processing and fund-raising; three, sales and syndication of content. All three revenue streams benefit from our unique combination of global presence and local reach. My immediate goal is for Sulekha to earn one cent more than it spends and we expect to do this in the next 9 - 12 months." Sulekha enjoys a low cost structure as all of its content comes for free plus it enjoys a strong word-of-mouth promotional boost.

While Sulekha continued to strengthen its global platform for Indian expression and interaction, it built the first network of over 26 Indian city portals for Indians in the US. Navin Sigamany, manager of city portals, says, "Most of the commerce, discussions and creative expression pertain to Indians in that metropolitan area. Sulekha actively promotes the events it is ticketing in these city portals on the city email lists."

In addition, Sulekha is moving to create an online bookstore, branded as Epress, for selling valuable content for a fee. Plus it is syndicating targeted content to respected companies like India Today and Indian Express. Says Lata Sundar, Sulekha's Director of Content, "The comprehensive services and content database built up over three years is paying dividends now through online and offline syndication opportunities. Similarly, Sulekha Epress provides end-to-end solutions to writers, offering them a revenue-bearing window of opportunity into the world of publishing through the Net."

BOLLYWOOD BOUND?

In keeping with its history of 'first', Sulekha.com announced the first ever 'movie idea contest' in conjunction with B4U, a popular entertainment channel. The 'Write Angle' contest has generated tremendous publicity because of its unique concept. The notion that a website like Sulekha.com can team up with an entertainment industry to generate content for Bollywood is indeed a thought to contend with.

The contest with attractive prizes including a free trip to Bollywood is simple: Write a five-page movie idea at www.sulekha.com/b4u. Sulekha.com and B4U might even make the movie idea into a full-length picture.

Ravi Gupa, CEO of B4U said, "In partnership with Sulekha.com, we are revolutionizing the way ideas and content are generated for the Indian TV and movie industry." Shyam Benegal (Manthan, Zubedia), Javed Akhtar (Sholay, Deewar), Mahesh Bhatt (Arth, Saaransh), Meera Nair (Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding), Honey Irani (Kaho Naa Pyar Hai, Masoom), Tanuja Chandra (Zakhm, Sangharsh), John Matthew Mathan (Sarfrosh), and Farokh Dhondey (Salaam Bombay, Bandit Queen) will be judging the contest.

R. Parameshwaran, Chairman of Smart Information Worldwide said, "Write Angle is about two idea innovators, Sulekha.com and B4U, creating a platform to harness the amazing and diverse creative powers of Indians by bringing together the power, reach and allure of the Internet, TV and Bollywood."

DOMINATING A DIFFERENT KIND OF E-COMMERCE

It is almost a given for any Indian content site to add an e-commerce component selling CDs, DVDs, gifts, pickles, clothing, groceries, and the like. Sulekha however chose to avoid throwing its act into the fray, striking itself instead into advertising e-commerce sites such as E-shakti.com. Prabhakar says, "It is a conscious decision on our path to stay away from such e-commerce for three reasons: lack of product differentiation, difficulty of fulfillment and service and current business potential. Overall, we lack the passion for selling CDs, phone cards, groceries. It's just not our game and we avoid areas where we cannot excel and dominate."

Is Sulekha going to skip the e-commerce revolution in its entirety ? Far from it. Sulekha, aided again by strategic thinking, educated risk-taking and sheer resolve has emerged over the last 6 months as the biggest online promoter and ticketer for Indian events and movies all across US. Vineet Pabreja, the Director of Business Development of Sulekha.com said, "We have successfully ticketed and promoted for the mega star show, Craze 2001 featuring Amir Khan, multi-city concert series like the Amjad Ali Khan series and smaller community parties and events. Plus we do online ticketing in the movie theaters in over 17 cities. It is a very difficult business operationally and margin wise but the need for such a product is definitely there. Sulekha is really the only show in town when it comes to online event promotion and online ticketing." Vasu Neerukonda, a film distributor and exhibitor agrees, "Online ticketing on Sulekha for our movies has vastly improved our customer satisfaction. Sulekha's services are outstanding."

In December, Sulekha further extended its lead in this virtual transaction space by adding integrated membership processing and fundraising services for hundreds of Indian community organizations such as Asha for Education, a global volunteer, and Bay Area Telugu Association, a large social organization.

Whither Sulekha?

Where is Sulekha headed? Prabhakar concludes, "We simply want to be the most popular and influential web community for Indians worldwide. Our goal is to be profitable by getting the best out of Indians and Indian organizations and helping them succeed and we are filled with resolved to get there."