Hotmail.com co-founder Sabeer Bhatia said he would launch a new internet related product  for mass use in Mumbai on Wednesday.

“It will be a global launch. The product has the potential to surpass the success of even Hotmail. About 100 technologists have been working on the product for months at a start-up in Bangalore,” Bhatia told reporters on the sidelines of a Nasscom function here Monday.

Earlier, delivering the keynote address at the Nasscom product conclave, Bhatia said there was no hard and fast rule for innovation to take place and it could begin informally even with an idea.

“Innovation many a time happens informally, even over a coffee table,” Bhatia told entrepreneurs, setting aside a popular notion that innovations take place at serious business meetings or conclaves of researchers and round-table conferences.

Recalling his own tryst with Hotmail.com, Bhatia said innovation did not require a large workforce and could happen with a few individuals thinking over a solution.

“For instance, i-Pod was conceived as an idea by a group of five bright people. Many a time, great products are those that are developed by a start-up,” Bhatia recalled.

“Don’t be afraid of taking risks because behind every successful product there could be many failures, as evident from the history of product development in the Silicon Valley,” Bhatia said, asserting that a single success story could turn the tide.

Sabeer Bhatia was born in Chandigarh, India in 1968. His father, Baldev Bhatia, started as an officer in the Indian Army and later joined the Indian Ministry of Defence, while his mother, Daman Bhatia, was a senior official at the Central Bank of India.[1] Bhatia was schooled at the St. Joseph’s Boys’ High School in Bangalore. He started his undergraduate education at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, BITS, Pilani and transferred to Caltech after two years at BITS. After graduating from Caltech, Sabeer went to Stanford to pursue his MS in Electrical Engineering. At Stanford, he worked on Ultra Low Power VLSI Design.

At Stanford, he was inspired by entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and Scott McNealy eventually deciding to become one himself. Instead of pursuing a PhD after his Masters, he decided to join Apple.After a brief stint at Apple, Sabeer joined a startup company called Firepower Systems Inc, where he spent two years. At this point, Sabeer started working on new ideas for the Internet and he teamed up with Jack Smith, a colleague from Apple Corporation.

The two came up with the concept of a web-based database entitled Javasoft. While pursuing this idea, they subsequently realised the potential of a web-based e-mail system and thus decided to create one called HoTMaiL (the uppercase letters spelling out HTML - the language used to write the base of a webpage).In order to attract attention, the e-mail service was provided for free and revenue was obtained through the advertising on the website. Draper Fisher Ventures invested $300,000 on the project and the service was launched on July 4, 1996.

In less than six months, the website attracted over 1 million subscribers. As the interest in the web-based email provider increased, Microsoft eventually took notice and on December 30, 1997, Hotmail was sold to Microsoft for a reported sum of $400 million.

Well, Bhatia, The internet world is waiting for your  product launch…

Popularity: 8% [?]