BENGALURU: Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia wants investors to listen to a diversity of ideas instead of just funding food delivery companies. "Don't go and fund the next food delivery company. Obviously, I will say that, because first of all, that's a market that's already been discovered by someone," Bhatia told TNIE.
“All are just copying. They may change a little structure in five minutes or 10 minutes or faster, or motorcycle, but that's not innovation. That's structural changes. True innovation is thinking of a new idea to do something that has never been done before, outside of delivery,” the tech entrepreneur added.
He was here in Bengaluru on Wednesday to launch the Young Entrepreneurs Program at Orchids The International School. Speaking about quick commerce, Bhatia said, India is one market that is too much focused on this. "Too much focus on the wrong metric. Is your life going to change if you get some biscuits delivered in 10 minutes, it's no big deal," he stated, insisting both start-ups and investors to focus on innovation rather on quick delivery.
He said it is important to encourage out of the box ideas and there is a need for critical thinking in the education system. "Deep tech is about questioning things and figuring out different ways of doing things, and that comes from education. So, our education system needs to be overhauled if we need to have deep tech. You can't just say, oh, you guys are not doing deep tech. You don't just wake up and say, 'I'm going to do deep tech," he said.
Talking about talent, he said there is plenty of talent in India, but there is no mindset - way of thinking. “It's not that intelligence is distributed only to the Chinese or only to Americans. No, it's allowing for diversity of opinions that leads to innovation and breakthroughs,” he added.
In 1996, Bhatia along with Jack Smith founded Hotmail and within two years, they sold it to Microsoft for about Rs 3,300 crore. Later, it was rebranded as Outlook. In 2021, he founded ShowReel, an AI-powered learning platform.