pathik

Maybe. But if you don't do it now, it'll just become harder and you'll regret not doing it all your life.

I did something similar, but I did it much before 30. Haven't regretted it so far.

Go for it.

Spot on. Thanks.

We do have a pending patent application for the same.

We would ideally love to have all users connect through data, but more than 80% of the 900 million mobile users in India simply don't have a mobile data connection.

Hence, if we are to achieve our goal of enabling universal communication among all our users, we have to offer SMS as a fallback channel.

And it also gives us a massive differentiating edge over other apps, so why not.

The whole "users opting out of the DND registry" is something that's controlled by TRAI, the Telecom regulatory body of India. We have no control over it.

It's not the ideal flow we'd like to offer users, but we've to work with what we have.

We're funded by the group which also backs a large telco in India, but we're separate companies.

Oh, there were some genuine technical limitations in implementing it over carrier networks. I'll check the exact details with the team and get back to you. (Most of them are sleeping, it's 3AM here in India.)

No ulterior motives. :)

We do have a lot of ideas in mind, but in a space like this, you can start looking at monetization only after you've hit a certain critical mass in terms of user base.

Ultimately, it's going to be a "content and connections" play, but the initial focus has to be on growth, otherwise you're just putting the cart before the horse. :)

Well, to enter and grow so fast in such a competitive space, you've to differentiate yourself from your competition.

Our differentiators are: 1. A beautiful UX/design 2. The ability to message everyone through hike/SMS

#1 works everywhere and has driven growth for us globally. #2 combined with #1 gives us a compelling proposition for Indian users, the first market we intend to dominate. It's very powerful for a market like India where more than 80% mobile users have yet to experience data.

The unit economics in the long term are quite favorable and we expect to have a positive average LTV across the user base.

It's going to be tough, but we're betting we can do it. Just wait and watch. ;)

Not really. We don't believe ads are the best way to monetize. And anyways, why create a beautiful UX and then plaster ads on it?

We'll start looking at that once we hit a certain critical mass, but in much smarter ways. Right now, all focus is on growth and engagement.

PS: I'm the growth hacker at hike.

+1. For now.

It's funny how everyone who reads this article tends to view himself as intelligent. Maybe that's just the type of crowd at HN, or maybe it's Dunning-Kruger at play.

Even if I share this link on Facebook, most people would agree with this article, relate to a few points and think they're intelligent.