Just Dial: poster boy of Indian e-com story

It is quite a story. More so when Venkatachalam Sthanu Subramani, 49, tells it his way, in a sing-song voice, with a slight foreign accent, keeping the suspense alive all the time. He speaks of a time when Just Dial Ltd (JD), the company he founded, was doing well. Of a time when almost every Internet start-up in India was doing well. He speaks of 1999. "So one of the consulting firms approached us," says Mani. "And said, look we can help you raise money. And you just need to have an Internet story to your business model. You know, for valuation." "I wasn't interested much but anyway, an Indian entrepreneur, who had a successful company listed on NASDAQ, approached us to buy a stake in our company. I was surprised; I'm not going to give you a name. So he came to buy. First, the entire company; and then, part of the company. And he was giving me dotcom stocks, you know, swapping. And I was, like, 'Sorry buddy. I'm not interested'. But at every meeting, he would say, 'Hey, the stock is worth 2X and then 3X'. Anyway, I didn't want any of it. I was like, 'Give me hard cash and I may give part of my company to you'." Eventually, that's what some investors did-offer him cash. "So I went to my chartered accountant and asked him, what is my company worth? You know what he said?" No. What? "15-20 lakh, or something like that. I was embarrassed. I was like, 'How am I going to approach these guys and tell them that I am valued at ₹20 lakh?'. Why would anybody buy any stake at all? So I told them, 'Why don't you guys throw a number, of what you are willing to pay.' And you know what they came up with?" He pushes on without stopping. "A couple of million dollars. And I said, 'What's that? Aa..aa..aa, come again, please'. I couldn't breathe. And then I went back and asked them for $2.5 million, almost close to $3 million and I actually got it. And I was a millionaire. In 1999. In dollar terms. I had the money in my bank; can you believe it? In just three years, from where I had no money to buy telephone lines, I had become a millionaire." "Now, why am I telling you all this?" he continues. "Because, these are times like that. There is a lot of glamour associated with the Internet these days. There is noise, media, valuations; but you know, in life, it is not easy to make money. To run a successful organization is not easy. You can't throw money at a problem and run a successful organization. This whole Internet thing should not pollute young minds where they think, 'I will come out of college, come out with an app and become a millionaire'. It doesn't happen that way." It would be fair to say that Mani knows what he is talking about. In the start-up world of private valuations, JD is a publicly listed company. As on 30 July, its market capitalization was ₹7,600 crore. Along with his brother and wife, Mani holds 32.6% of the company's equity, which is valued at almost ₹2,500 crore. As of July 2015, JD employed over 10, 879 people. In 2014-15, it had a revenue of ₹590 crore, up 27% over the previous year. The company turned in a profit of ₹139 crore. Importantly, JD has been in business for quite a while-19 years, to be exact. All of which means that Mani has seen India change. And there is only one way to put it; that when Mani started out, it must have been a pretty bleak world. No phones. No Internet VSS Mani was born at the Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur in 1966. Growing up in Calcutta (as the city was known back then),