This blog post is long LONG due. I know. I know. I have been totally off radar and running away from answering questions in details. The main reason for that approach was that my near future was still not stable and I was finalising on a few prospects. Now that it’s done, I can share my thoughts and chain of reasoning I used to arrive at my conclusion. Will follow up with another post on what I am currently upto:
What was Superchooha and what were we upto?
A social business agency, using tools to help brands do marketing, market research, knowledge management, ideation platforms, customer support communities etc. How was it different from any other social media agency, you ask? We were doing not just marketing (though 95% of revenue still came from that) but diversifying into various other verticals. I was a Co-founder along with Ankita (who is the original Superchooha rockstar) and responsible for overall business growth and innovation.
So what was the status?
We were doing pretty awesome in fact. We already had a strong portfolio of 40+ clients. We were in talks with 4 angel investors. Business was growing. We were partnering with 3-4 companies for backward and forward integration. We had cracked 2 partnership deals from Dubai and Qatar. Team was properly built and trained so scaling up could have been easier (relatively).
Most important of all, we had managed to built a social culture from within the company. A bunch of young freaks out there to take the world :)
So what went wrong?
- My bubble burst. Social media marketing had become restricted to content creation on Facebook and Twitter. There was no space for most important stuff like branding and integrated marketing.
- Basically we were working in a silo (as are other social media agencies). This is bad not just for your passion of marketing but also for the business in the long term.
- The barrier to entry is very low in the industry. There are random social media ‘gurus’ sprouting from every curb on the streets. Which will always keep undercutting you.
- It’s fucking difficult to scale up the operations, mainly because it is a services model and not a repeatable product. It’s surprising how few people understand this simple funda -
Products: You can sell 10 pieces or 100 pieces without any increase (substantial) in sales efforts / resources = less expenses
Services: The moment you want to service 3 more clients, you need to hire more people, spend more time = more costs - If you are putting your blood and soul into the startup, working day and night to complete projects, it better give you the right returns 5 years from now. Passion and love is fine. But in the end. It has to give you an ROI so that you can take the investment and put it into further awesome things.
- I did try building my own product internally on media monitoring, which is still in the Beta phase. We also formulated plans of running the services model and using that money to fuel the product model. But nope. It doesnt work that way obviously. Your heart and sould needs to be at one place.
- And trust me, there can never a big independent communications agency. Your only hope of getting good money is a buy-out. And those are surprisingly unhealthy for the startups in this field. Want an example? Look up for the Razorfish acquisition by Microsoft and you will see a valuation of 1.56x the annual revenue! Which is peanuts.
- I want to retire by 30 from work. I really do. And I know that if I aim for 30, I will achieve it at 40. And continuing with Superchooha wasn’t going to gimme that.
What advice do I have for other social media agencies?
As much as my meager experience has taught me, I can share these thoughts with other social media professionals in the industry:
- Stick to it! It’s a booming industry and is the future of internet and thus of humanity. But make sure you get your priorities right. If you want to stick to services, make sure you fuel that with innovative products and diversified solutions.
- Beware of big and established agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy One, Webchutney etc. (they have already taken the first steps by building 2-3 member strong team of social media strategists) will stand up one day and build their own social media team instead of outsourcing to you. And their bigger brand name and integrated solutions will get them that account. Leaving you high and dry.
- Understand that the future of web is not social media marketing, it’s just ‘being social’. Find out and start offering services on how you can make every internet operation more social and generate value out of it.
That’s it I guess :) Your thoughts?
P.S.
I miss these buggers :\ They are some of the most awesomest bunch of people I have ever met.
P.S. 2
- Shabaz Malik (the cute guy on the right. He knows how to use his tongue, all right!) has started his own company called Missing Link. With him is Manveer Malhi.
- Ankita Gaba is still kicking ass as usual. And getting better at it. She’s handling some clients. Giving social media classes at two colleges. Leading the way at Social Media Club, Mumbai and phew! What not.
- The others are at various other digital companies like Hungama, Interactive Avenues, Windchimes etc. or doing higher studies in communications.
- Heck an intern just landed a job at Mu Sigma (business intelligence) by selling the concept of our Internet Audit Reports via social research :)
