Gyaan Sutra On entrepreneurship and technology

ON BEING VIRAL

There is nothing viral among dogs. You never see all the dogs trying to see the same videos, or trying to eat the same dog food, or getting their dog food from the same website. Making something viral - is such an inherent human activity.

I remember when I was in school, while reading about the American War of Independence I read about ‘The Commonwealth Men’. They were writers from Britain who propagated republican political ideas and liberties. Even though they were not too popular in Britain, their radical books were read widely and contributed significantly in the American Uprising.

These men were viral even before the internet came along. It must have taken a considerable amount of time and effort to get their ideas to become so widespread that a book on history had to write about them.

VIRAL CONDUCTIVITY

Now, for an idea (or if you prefer a ‘meme’) to spread, you need both sides of the equation - the writers, and the people who understand it. Then comes in the medium, which usually finds itself if the idea is strong enough, and the people need to hear about it.

Even among people, there is quite a huge difference in aptitude to accept the floating memes. This aptitude can be though of as the ‘viral-conductivity’. Some people are better at taking new ideas and propagating them, which some are blocked to a certain category of ideas. People also say that the “viral-conductivity” goes down with age, but it usually varies from person to person, and this quality is a differentiating factor among people.

STARTUPS

When you start a company, all that you have is basically a meme. And you try to find people who understand the idea and want to work with you to bring it to life. A number of times, people are willing to go ahead with the first few people who fell for the idea and build your company with them.

But in those days, what you really need is people with low viral-conductivity. The difficult it is for you to get the idea across, the more sculpted your idea will become. And you would know that you idea is working when you make them see the light.