The Wave Rider: A Chronicle of the Information Age

by Ajit Balakrishnan

Ajit Balakrishnan is quietly experimenting with the new and fascinating technologies of the Internet in 1995 when the dot-com fever grips the world. Venture capitalists, investment bankers and lawyers pound at the doors of his tiny office in a low-rent area of Mumbai, urging him to take his company public on New York’s NASDAQ stock market. Balakrishnan sets out on this enterprise, a path that takes him through the world’s financial centres of London, Hamburg, New York, Boston and San Francisco.

This story recounts how he battles adversaries many times his size; fends off avaricious lawyers who try to extort money through class action suits in the tough courts of lower Manhattan; rebuffs investment bankers who try to engineer the sale of his company; and tries to make sense of a world where technology and business models change every few months.

He steers his company through the financial crashes of 2000 and 2008; watches in awe as terrorists bring down New York’s World Trade Centre towers; puzzles over the decline of once famous names such as AOL and Netscape and the rise of new behemoths like Facebook and Google; wrestles with India’s legal system; and pushes to bring Rediff into the new world of the Internet. Gradually, he realizes that the battles he is part of are not just business battles – they signal the dawn of the Information Age.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2012

Reviews

[Prasun Sengupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ajit Balakrishnan sets out his journey to establish and successfully list rediff.com and desribes the "wave" of Information Technology (with examples of how waves of technology has impacted business in the past). There is an immense amount of information and refernce material

The style is easy to read for those who are not familiar with IT or finance.

However, the book does not satisfactorily interwine two themes. Personally I would have liked more of his own beliefs and more details of how he founded rediff and the risks he took.as well benchmark with other IT start ups in the India or by Indians.

A sequel describing the future waves would be welcome!

[Divik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rediff.com was one of the most sort after portal and email in late 1990s and early 2000s and man behind it was Ajit Balakrishnan , India’s pioneer dotcom entrepreneur who rode on the initial dotcom wave and then somehow survived dotcom burst and till today is somehow managing to keep Rediff.Com Up and Going. This book is his autobiography and this title- The Wave Rider is inscription he would want to be put on his grave someday akin to what he and his brother wrote on their father’s grave when he died ‘Dr T. P. Balakrishnan, Doctor of Medicine, Man of Duty, Son of Kannur’. Ajit Balakrishnan even today is a big name, IIM Calcutta and Harvard alumni, dotcom entrepreneur and but the book is not what you expected. It is partially covers his life journey and how he created Rediff , How he handled various Venture Capitalists, Investment Bankers and how he listed the company on Nasdaq. Detailed description is there of how he battled lawyers in US who were there to extort money and subsequently how he steered his company through various financial crisis. But a major part of the book is spent on the modern age technology waves, and the author compares it several ages in the past and goes into philosophical realm, which becomes boring. One would have expected a book from him which would be a bible of sorts for all e-entrepreneurs, so it disappoints in that regards..may thats why the book did not create the waves that it should have.... Happy Reading

[Abhijeet Mishra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is for the ones who were really into the boom of the internet era. A beautiful insight into the tech entrepreneurs of the time, way before the startup boom. really interesting if Rediff ever mattered to you.

[Amit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant socio-economic account of the tech industry, sufficiently interspersed with rich historical references and engaging personal stories. Narrated in 'creative non-fiction' style, this book is a must read.

[Dragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay

I won't say it's a great book but it's a good read. The reference from history is admirable and knowledge worthy.

[Saurabh · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was not what I expected it to be. I wanted a book from a startup's point of view which clearly outlined how the first version was coded and the business oriented issues that cropped up along with the political and the philosophical issues but guess the book is purely Ajit Balakrishnan's outlook on how rediff survived the social,political and moral storms it was exposed to with intense competition growing. All the tech stories he has mentioned are nothing new and I have been chewing on them for the last 10 years or so.....