Failing to Succeed: The Story of India’s First E-Commerce Company

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:6.829986572265625pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:#231f20;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">You can get things right and yet go wrong.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.4438665866851805;margin-top:6.99700927734375pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:#231f20;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">In 1999, when hardly anyone in India transacted on the Internet, K. Vaitheeswaran co-founded&nbsp; India’s first e-commerce company. Yet, years later, when e-commerce was exploding in India— despite enjoying first-mover advantage—Indiaplaza shut down. What went wrong? Lack of&nbsp; funding? Wrong strategies? Or was it ‘something else’?&nbsp;</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.4438665866851805;margin-top:5.167999267578125pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:#231f20;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">For the first time ever, Vaitheeswaran reveals that it was </span><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:#231f20;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">indeed something else</span><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:#231f20;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">—a set of inexplicable&nbsp; events that destroyed what could have been a profitable business (an extreme rarity among&nbsp; technology start-ups). He bares his extraordinary trials and tribulations while dealing with business&nbsp; failure and the impossible pressures that can threaten entrepreneurs in India. Coming at the&nbsp; back of stories of young start-ups raising billions of dollars in funding and creating unicorns in&nbsp; just a few years, as well as the recent setbacks in the e-commerce industry, </span><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:#231f20;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Failing to Succeed </span><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:#231f20;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">delves deep into the dark side of starting up and its myriad pitfalls.&nbsp;</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.4438665866851805;margin-top:5.167999267578125pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:#231f20;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Filled with interesting anecdotes, tongue-in-cheek observations, amazing customer insights, hard hitting predictions and behind-the-scenes industry happenings, this book is an extraordinary&nbsp; unravelling of the challenges facing technology start-ups in India. It is a must-read for aspiring&nbsp; entrepreneurs, investors, industry professionals or business school students, and anyone interested&nbsp; in India’s start-up ecosystem.&nbsp;</span></p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-9bf58320-7fff-52a8-2554-b153023af1fd"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.4438665866851805;margin-top:5.167999267578125pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:#231f20;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">A powerful narration, </span><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:#231f20;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Failing to Succeed </span><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:#231f20;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">is eventually about finding ways to move forward and&nbsp; succeed despite failures...&nbsp;</span></p>