Today - Nov 7 - The Jumbo Shrimp

I wake up at 6am and check my Blackberry. Disaster! A reporter who is supposed to hold our news under embargo has released the story. I call Lisa and Laura at our PR firm and they call the reporter. I call Azhar and tell him if the news breaks we will need to launch early. It is awful, I had to wake him up after a few hours of sleep due to this reporter. After a few minutes the reporter manages to take it down quickly. Wheeeeuuu.... that was close. I drive to the city to meet with a reporter. After two additional meetings I go to the Web 2.0 conference to talk to a few more folks.

After 8 months of effort we seem to be getting very positive feedback. Scoble tells me this that our new service is the most interesting new thing he has seen today. This is great, however, I care more about if people use it over and over. Of course we still get a curve ball at the last minute.

Burak and team have found a bug which is going to cause worse results in our local search for shoes. We can't fix it in time. Do we launch or do we delay?

Just before a launch we all get myopic. It is usual for folks to think that last bug has to be fixed (at a cost of a delay) and forget just how significant what they are already launching is (even with the bug). I call this the Jumbo Shrimp problem. You lose perspective on if fixing this bug is important or not. Some bugs should be fixed and some shouldn't, but you can no longer tell. In Riya 1.0 I think we spent an extra month or two on items like this.

Forunately, Azhar and Dan can still keep perspective. They balance out Burak and Baris at this time and tell us to just get it out. At 1:30pm we do a call to discuss the last few issues. The conclusion - we won't fix much and the site will go out.

At 7pm I go to a Web 2.0 dinner with Tami Zhu and the AOL team. Seems they have invited a few CEOs of startups to meet with the team. I think our new product would be a good partnership with AOL.

I drive to the office at 10pm. The whole team is there. The environment is festive. The bubbly is chilling, the cake is ready, etc.

At 10 we have an our final company wide staff meeting. This is a go/no go meeting. This is tradition at Riya. Before a big launch all employees have to say yes or no. We need 75% of the people to vote for the launch for the product to go out. All employees have 1 vote regardless of if they are the CEO or not.

We go around the room here and in India. One by one people say their name and their vote. We are all a go!!!!

I use this meeting to really thank the team. I am truly proud of this product and of this team. The new product isn't perfect but it is quite revolutionairy and it is all because of the people who work for Riya. I am very very very proud of our team. I have never worked with a better and smarter team.

I also use this meeting to set expectations correctly. I think it will take some time after our launch for this to take off and for our monetization to take off. I think there will be much optimization. I think we will need to get more inventory into the service. I think we will all need to be patient.

We pop the bubbly - take a group photo and eat cake. To be honest I think we are all excited, relieved, happy, and exuberant!

I really love these folks. They are just super!

Ben, Andy, and Ginto - prepare the 1000 CPUs for launch - only a few hours to go....

Comments

[Andrew Hitchcock]

I like how you've timed these blog posts. One a day before launch was great because I could follow the story, have the previous episode fresh in my mind, and not have to wait too long for the follow up.

Give yourselves a pat on the back, from the sound of these posts, it seems like you've deserved it. Again, good luck tomorrow!

[Sudhir Jha]

Congrats Munjal! Good luck with the launch tomorrow. I am sure all of your 1000 CPUs will be tested tomorrow!

Sudhir

[Puneeth]

Frankly speaking, this is seeming to me like a thriller movie, gradually unfolding the mystery. Good going and all the best for your launch.

[Andrew Hitchcock]

It's midnight, has it launched? :)

[Robert Scoble]

Congrats, this absolutely rocks!

http://scobleizer.com/2006/11/08/riya-reborn-is-really-cool-way-to-search/ is my report (and links to my videos).

[Andrew Hitchcock]

Hehe, sorry for spamming your blog. I agree with Robert, this is really cool. For one, I like how all the images are very clean and it is easy to see the product (because they are on white backgrounds).

Personally, I'm waiting until you get more clothing on the site, because I'm not so interesting in shoes, handbags, or jewelry, but when you get men's fashion on there... oh boy, watch out :)

BTW, I waited for confirmation from the big bloggers (Scoble and TechCrunch before digging or deliciousing it (hope I wasn't too early)).

Andrew

[Jared Kim]

Congrats Munjal! This looks amazing!

[David Kaspar]

Congratulations on the launch and best wishes with the product!

[Adam Lindemann]

Munjal. I was wrong you were right. You kept the core technology of Riya 1, improved it and implemented a completly new idea that focussed that new technology on a fantastic new application and a massive market. You are a rock star entrepreneur, and you obviously have a terrific team and a wonderful family - you will deserve all the success that comes your way. Brilliant!

By the way. I am based in Japan and if you would be interested in building your business here quickly, my company would be very interested in some kind of partnership where we would invest in the business development over here in terms of site localisation and/or deals with women sites and camera phone operators.

[Raj Bala]

This is itchin' for a browser plug-in that allows you to be on any site and find like items.

[Jinal Shah]

I love the new service. Absolutely love it. This is revolutionary and definitely, as you further develop it, will pose a threat to shopping magazines. I can see it how as well. I worked at Lucky and each month, we'd receive about a thousand emails from readers that mostly complained and asked us to include more affordable items.
If Like.com - can create a feature that displays 'similar items' under $100 or less, I gaurantee you it will be a superhit.

Congratulations!!