Lack of women techies burst the Net bubble: Hotbar head
by Arnab Ray Ghatak, New Delhi
In these times where most web-based companies are going down or thinking
of "cost cuts" and "streamlined business models," Hotbar.com's fortunes
are looking up.
While most companies' coffers are drying up, Hotbar recently raised
$14.5 million from investors.
Hotbars are the Net's eighth most downloaded application today. It has 12
million users and a list of clients that includes CNN, CNBC and some of the
Net's biggest players.
And the biggest surprise about Hotbar is that it is not the baby of some
management/technology hotshot.
At the helm at Hotbar is a practising psychologist, accidental entrepreneur,
a woman who has shattered the stereotypes that cyberspace has thrown at
her - its president Gabriella Karni.
indya.com e-Mailed questions to Karni on her life as a woman in the IT world,
and she provided some valuable tips on achieving success online.
Excerpts:
Women aren't all that visible in IT or anything to do with computers and
the Internet. Obviously, Hotbar is an exception. Was it difficult getting
to where you are now? Did it require a lot of convincing,
shattering stereotypes...?
There are two ways you can look at the difficulty factor of being a woman
and being visible in IT. Inside the company, I didn't face any difficulty
gaining visibility. I have worked with my co-founder and business partner
Oren (Dobronsky, Hotbar CEO) at our previous start-up.
We have always fostered an incredible creative working relationship
and we were always bouncing ideas off each other for the next
undertaking.
When we came with the idea for Skins, wanting to make the Internet
surfing experience a more personalised one, it was clear to us that
we are going to build this start-up together. Our ideas created
a personalised browser that took off like wildfire.
I faced difficulties of being a woman and being visible in IT when
I had to meet with investors, lawyers, bankers and high tech men
and women who didn't quite understand what a common human being
who is not a software engineer, who is above 25 years old and who
happens to be a woman was doing there. There were certain stereotypes
that needed to be put to rest but I think that I have shattered
most of them.
Are you a software lady by profession?
I have to admit that I did not in a million years think I would become an IT person.
I have a very varied background: I hold a Masters degree in educational
psychology and was a practicing psychologist for a number of years.
I taught psychology in a college, I started my PhD in History,
I dealt with real estate, I have served as the CEO for an
advanced computerised medical company, and was the vice-president
of Business Development in Oren's previous start-up. All those diverse
experiences gave me an interesting perspective on the psychology angle
in business.
I feel that if you have courage, self-confidence, a high degree
of tenacity and if you're confident enough to let life lead you,
life will take you to the most incredible places, places you have
never dreamed of. You just have to have the courage.
What were the early days like at Hotbar?
Hotbar began with just Oren and I, with partial help from an
out-sourced software engineer. For the first ten months we were
operating out of a garage. Only when the first round of funding
arrived did we start building the company.
We have two offices today (in New York and Israel) complete
with technical and sales teams and a research & development centre.
How do you think women can make a difference in IT?
What elements can they contribute to the growth of e-commerce?
I truly believe that one of the reasons that the Internet bubble has
burst is due to the lack of women in the tech sector. And here's why:
more than 99.5 per cent of the tech sector and web developers are
men - but more than 50 per cent of surfers are women. The web was
built by techies for techies, and the scales were not balanced.
Research on web behaviour has shown that women's needs on the
Web are differ from that of men's needs. Most applications don't
address women's needs.
Early on, Oren and me knew it was imperative to make Hotbar
accessible to everyone, both men and women from all over the world.
My role in the company, while not in a direct technological capacity,
is to continually maintain Hotbar as a non-gender specific service.
From a psychological standpoint, I understand our users and what
they want from our service, and I think that is one of the
reasons Hotbar is successful.
What are the key qualities that aspiring Netpreneurs should try and develop?
I wouldn't say that Netpreneurs need completely different skills from our offline
counterparts - quite the contrary. A Netpreneur must have the same skills but
they have to be magnified 100 times. In any business one should work hard
in order to succeed.
In the Internet, however, one should work all-day and everyday. You
must be 100 per cent committed to your business. As a matter of fact,
a start-up is like a baby, and one must treat it as such. You have
to constantly watch its growth and wellbeing. It's a 24-hour a day job.
If there is only one word to describe the Internet, I would say it is velocity.
The Internet has literally changed the concept of time and a Netpreneur
has to work, solve problems, change, and create at a high speed not known
at the offline economy.
On the Net everything moves so fast that it's hard to
keep up sometimes.
The ability to move quickly, constantly adapt, and change is what
makes, in my opinion, a successful Netpreneur. And of course, as
in any other business, courage is key. The courage to try new
things, the courage to make mistakes, the courage to continue
trusting yourself when you make the mistakes, and the courage to
stay humble when you succeed.
Internet start-ups are notorious for long working hours, zero social
life and e-isolation. How do you balance your professional and
personal lives? How tough is it?
It's extremely tough. I have been in New York for 11 months, and outside
the people in the office I didn't make any acquaintances because I don't
have time to invest in human relationships. When the evening comes,
I have absolutely no energy to do anything but put my feet up for
a few minutes and then go to bed. Yes, it is tough, and I wish there
were more hours in the day.
However, when I created Hotbar and watched it take-off, I knew the
amount of work it would require, the long hours and the like,
and I have no regrets. I am helping to create a service that
people all over the world enjoy, and that, to me, is everything.
The work is long and can be exhausting, but for me is like creating
art, and an artist is always in love with art, so when you create
something out of love everything is okay.
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