"How I Did It": VSS Mani- "Founder Of JustDial.com"

"My story isn’t glamorous. It started as a way of survival and making ends meet,” warns VSS Mani as he settles down to talk about how he used an initial investment of Rs 50,000 to build a business with an annual turnover of Rs 91 crore. Just Dial, however, is his second venture. The first one did not survive. But it did provide Mani the impetus to give his phone-based information services idea a final try. And he sure dialled the right numbers this time – the 36-year-old first-generation entrepreneur is now busy executing an international rollout.


I was born in Jamshedpur and brought up in Calcutta in a traditional middle class “Tam Bram” (Tamil Brahmin) family. My future career had been chalked out for me right from my childhood – try and get into IIT or at least become a chartered accountant. Being an entrepreneur was unheard of and, even today, I am the only person in my family who has even attempted to do something on my own.

By 1987, I needed to get a job and contribute to the family income. I could not continue doing my CA articleship, which I had been pursuing along with my graduation degree. I took up a sales job with a yellow pages company called United Database India (UDI). While I was worked there, I kept wondering if it was possible to

"My story isn’t glamorous. It started as a way of survival and making ends meet,” warns VSS Mani as he settles down to talk about how he used an initial investment of Rs 50,000 to build a business with an annual turnover of Rs 91 crore. Just Dial, however, is his second venture. The first one did not survive. But it did provide Mani the impetus to give his phone-based information services idea a final try. And he sure dialled the right numbers this time – the 36-year-old first-generation entrepreneur is now busy executing an international rollout.

I was born in Jamshedpur and brought up in Calcutta in a traditional middle class “Tam Bram” (Tamil Brahmin) family. My future career had been chalked out for me right from my childhood – try and get into IIT or at least become a chartered accountant. Being an entrepreneur was unheard of and, even today, I am the only person in my family who has even attempted to do something on my own.

By 1987, I needed to get a job and contribute to the family income. I could not continue doing my CA articleship, which I had been pursuing along with my graduation degree. I took up a sales job with a yellow pages company called United Database India (UDI). While I was worked there, I kept wondering if it was possible to offer a service like this over the phone. Unlike the West, Indians always had the habit of banking on friends, relatives and neighbours for information in their everyday life. So I thought, why not launch a service to cater to this need?

In 1989, I got some like-minded people to start a company called “Ask Me”. This were days before the telecom boom. Very few people owned telephones then. The idea was well appreciated but with the downward trek of the economy, we became easy victims. When I look back at what went wrong, I realise we were much ahead of the times. In early 1992, I walked out of this venture. But I promised myself that one day I would start the service again and make it a huge success.

Between 1992 and 1995, I worked on different ideas to survive and also save some money to give my phone directory business one more shot. In 1995, I landed in Mumbai with Rs 50,000 with which I had to find a house and an office space. What I did find were some generous relatives who offered me an empty flat for a nominal rent in one of Mumbai’s far-flung suburbs. I then managed to rent a two-seater office in Mumbai’s financial district, Nariman Point, for Rs 5,000 a month.

I had learnt from my “Ask Me” days that I had to have a phone number for my service that was very easy to remember. In 1996, the Kandivili Telephone Exchange in Mumbai was coming out with its new 888 series. I thought 888 8888 would be the easiest to remember. I spoke to the general manager and told him about my idea. He liked the presentation and assigned me the number. That was a huge leg up for me.

In those days, a phone line used to cost Rs 15,000 under OYT, or else, you had to wait for a few years. I didn’t have Rs 15,000 so we applied by paying Rs 3,000 and we got the number a year later! When I got the number, I didn’t have enough capital to start. We finally started Just Dial in a small 3x5 feet garage, with the number 888 8888, some borrowed furniture, rented PCs and a capital of Rs 50,000!

While I was waiting for my magic number, I had begun collecting names and telephone numbers of small and medium-sized companies through a team of data collectors. There was a lot of raw data available but this needed to be validated. I got a team of telemarketing executives to validate this data. I managed to convince some establishments to be my sponsored clients by paying a flat fee.

As time went by, the number of sponsored clients multiplied. That model then gave way to a premium fee model where sponsored clients paid a sum according to the category of their products and services. We then introduced lead-based payments, where a client pays according to the number of customers he gets through Just Dial. Today Just Dial draws from a database of three million establishments - of which 100,000 are sponsored - to feed information to callers. Even though we make money based on leads, we have never ever given out our database to telemarketers.

From the start, three things worked in our favour. First, we kept our prices low for our sponsored clients. Second, though we couldn’t pay our staff well at that time, we evolved a performance-based incentive scheme to keep morale high. Third, callers were happy since their calls generated quick response.

It is important to constantly upgrade services and explore new mediums. In 2007, we launched justdial.com, which now registers more than 185,000 hits a day. We send close to six lakh SMSs every day and 15,000 messages through WAP. Today, this pan-India service receives over 200,000 calls every day from 240 cities in India. All this mad rush for information is tackled by eight call centres spread across the country.

I have been thinking of taking the service global for some time. Right now, I’m working on the launch of Just Dial in North America.

My dream is to make Just Dial as omnipotent as Google. When I look back at the last few years and think of the challenges I have overcome, I wonder if my venture could have been timed better. But I think we benefited from being the first mover. I also wonder if the venture could have grown faster if I had some more capital, but again you need more than capital to start something on your own - you need creativity and gumption.
offer a service like this over the phone. Unlike the West, Indians always had the habit of banking on friends, relatives and neighbours for information in their everyday life. So I thought, why not launch a service to cater to this need?

In 1989, I got some like-minded people to start a company called “Ask Me”. This were days before the telecom boom. Very few people owned telephones then. The idea was well appreciated but with the downward trek of the economy, we became easy victims. When I look back at what went wrong, I realise we were much ahead of the times. In early 1992, I walked out of this venture. But I promised myself that one day I would start the service again and make it a huge success.

Between 1992 and 1995, I worked on different ideas to survive and also save some money to give my phone directory business one more shot. In 1995, I landed in Mumbai with Rs 50,000 with which I had to find a house and an office space. What I did find were some generous relatives who offered me an empty flat for a nominal rent in one of Mumbai’s far-flung suburbs. I then managed to rent a two-seater office in Mumbai’s financial district, Nariman Point, for Rs 5,000 a month.

I had learnt from my “Ask Me” days that I had to have a phone number for my service that was very easy to remember. In 1996, the Kandivili Telephone Exchange in Mumbai was coming out with its new 888 series. I thought 888 8888 would be the easiest to remember. I spoke to the general manager and told him about my idea. He liked the presentation and assigned me the number. That was a huge leg up for me.

In those days, a phone line used to cost Rs 15,000 under OYT, or else, you had to wait for a few years. I didn’t have Rs 15,000 so we applied by paying Rs 3,000 and we got the number a year later! When I got the number, I didn’t have enough capital to start. We finally started Just Dial in a small 3x5 feet garage, with the number 888 8888, some borrowed furniture, rented PCs and a capital of Rs 50,000!

While I was waiting for my magic number, I had begun collecting names and telephone numbers of small and medium-sized companies through a team of data collectors. There was a lot of raw data available but this needed to be validated. I got a team of telemarketing executives to validate this data. I managed to convince some establishments to be my sponsored clients by paying a flat fee.

As time went by, the number of sponsored clients multiplied. That model then gave way to a premium fee model where sponsored clients paid a sum according to the category of their products and services. We then introduced lead-based payments, where a client pays according to the number of customers he gets through Just Dial. Today Just Dial draws from a database of three million establishments - of which 100,000 are sponsored - to feed information to callers. Even though we make money based on leads, we have never ever given out our database to telemarketers.

From the start, three things worked in our favour. First, we kept our prices low for our sponsored clients. Second, though we couldn’t pay our staff well at that time, we evolved a performance-based incentive scheme to keep morale high. Third, callers were happy since their calls generated quick response.

It is important to constantly upgrade services and explore new mediums. In 2007, we launched justdial.com, which now registers more than 185,000 hits a day. We send close to six lakh SMSs every day and 15,000 messages through WAP. Today, this pan-India service receives over 200,000 calls every day from 240 cities in India. All this mad rush for information is tackled by eight call centres spread across the country.

I have been thinking of taking the service global for some time. Right now, I’m working on the launch of Just Dial in North America.

My dream is to make Just Dial as omnipotent as Google. When I look back at the last few years and think of the challenges I have overcome, I wonder if my venture could have been timed better. But I think we benefited from being the first mover. I also wonder if the venture could have grown faster if I had some more capital, but again you need more than capital to start something on your own - you need creativity and gumption.

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