The road to the "Year of the Dragon"

It generally starts with an idea!

My mother-in-law is Chinese and she believes that this year - the year of the Dragon - is going to be good for us and our friends. So I started to think, how I got here and where am I going!

I really started thinking seriously about becoming an entrepreneur when I was 18years old. I wanted to start a company, so I asked around the family and discovered that no one, absolutely no one had started a company in our very big family. And only two cousins were studying business and everyone was focussed on becoming a doctor, professor, civil servant, lawyer, engineer and following other traditional paths. Since my parents were both doctors and both my grandfathers were in education, I was expected to follow a structured path.

Anyway, to make a long story short - I waited for many, many years before becoming an entrepreneur. I travelled, studied and worked around the world. To be honest, I had to be pushed. That push came two years ago in February 2010. As I picked myself up, I realized that the traditional corporate career had actually turned out to be a good thing as I could be my own Venture Capitalist. I could follow my dream. And that's exactly what I have done in the past two years. 

First approach was to build an Internet Access company (a Super ISP) that was going to provide free access to the bottom of the pyramid (the bottom 20% by wealth) in the world and make money by providing enhanced services to businesses. However this required major capital investment and I failed to secure the necessary partnerships and funding. What I learned was that I needed to first build a brand, a team, and then go for the big idea.

The second approach was to build a Social Currency Network that focusses on supporting people who are doing good. Although the capital required to kick start the venture was limited, but I still needed co-investors. So I searched almost a year going from pillar to post and struggled to find people you really believed in me and my ideas. Yes, after a hundred rejections I started to find other like minded people.

Support came from the most unlikely of sources. The Vaud state (one of the most open minded state in Switzerland), where we have lived for the past eight years, decided to give us a product development grant. However, the amount was very limited compared to the Silicon Valley standards and that also turned out to be a good thing. Because we were forced to find people who really, really, really believed in us and were not just in for the money. You can see the team at - http://www.majamba.me/about-us/

Once we finally completed the development of the core platform in October 2011 and I thought I will tell all my friends and the website will do viral. Big mistake! Because we found out that people like the concept BUT there were 3 things missing:

1. Instant Gratification: A PhD candidate at EPFL came to our stand on the Startup Day and said - great concept but you are missing the ONE reason for people to join and continue to visit the site again and again. He was right as this message has echoed! 

2. Credibility: After many face to face meetings, we were able to build trust but we found it difficult to get trust from strangers (for an Internet company to succeed, this is crucial).

3. Viral Hook: People are very, very busy - if they do not understand the concept in a few seconds and cannot see the benefit they will not share it with their friends.

Then we went back to the drawing board to focus on the one thing to focus on. We tested with some amazing and kind people and together we have finally found the confidence to launch our first marketing campaign. The current thinking is that we will start with the launch in mid-February 2012.

Looking forward to sharing the super duper new majamba.me with you!