FactorDaily Takes Its Leap Of Faith

I walked up on the stage and looked around, into the eyes of people present at the FactorDaily launch party.

“Why are they all here? And that too on a not-so-auspicious Friday, the 13th?”

I have been part of many events organised by some of India’s biggest newspapers over years. We had to chase the big names, push them hard, keep calling them till the event day.

Getting the “A” listers was almost like your KRA. Do or die.

This Friday evening was different. Not just because we didn’t go out of the way to request people to come and inspire us, but because they all came anyways.

And we didn’t have an “A” list.

We only invited people who believe in great storytelling, who’re passionate about building great products and who strangely believe that the team we assembled at FactorDaily can achieve the mission.

I then remembered the faces of those we invited and who couldn’t make it for various reasons. I could almost visualise them sitting right there. Then few who I forgot to invite sent messages too. Not complaining, but wishing us on the journey.

The evening was special not only because we had Nandan Nilekani, Binny Bansal, Prashanth Prakash and Sharad Sharma in the audience, but because of many others who we consider real rockstars and “friends of FactorDaily.”

There were journalist friends we truly admire, communications and brand professionals who we keep learning from, and the unsung heroes of India’s entrepreneurial revolution.

There were families of the founding team of FactorDaily too in the audience who kept cheering us. Their support will be the wind under our wings on this journey.

“This is it. These are the faces we need to remember every time there’s any temptation to stray away from the mission.”

While talking about how technology is going mainstream, I gave the example of the Kumbh Mela project that we’re tracking.

The 100 odd people who gathered to motivate us, listen to our story, almost formed “a mini Kumbh.” And we’re all soaked in the energy that will hopefully last for decades to come.

Thank you for coming over dear friends of FactorDaily. It means a lot to start this journey, and it means even more that you’re taking the leap of faith with FactorDaily.

We believe technology is going mainstream, and we will make sense of it with your guidance and insights.

Thank you again.

pankaj

P.S. You can watch this cool video about the FactorDaily’s founding team produced by my colleagues Anand Murali, Rajesh Subramanyan and Nikhil Raj.