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May 11, 2000

Ten Fast Facts

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vJungle.com

WHO:
A privately held Internet application service provider founded last year by Deepak Amin.

WHAT:
Offers an integrated menu of Web-based services for small business.

WHERE:
Headquartered in Redmond.

Fast Fact #1: vJungle is on the prowl for employees.

Comment: "If I could only hire about 50 more people -- yesterday," laments Deepak Amin, the CEO. This weekend, the entire Redmond office will board a bus and cruise the Seattle area -- accompanied by a pair of costumed gorillas -- to drum up interest in working for the company. Amin is looking for "people who like to do big things and hang out with smart people."

Fast Fact #2: vJungle's Redmond headquarters sits next to Microsoft.

Comment: Amin is a former Microsoft executive who has recruited many of vJungle's 80-plus workers from his former employer and current neighbor. "I just stand here and put my net out," he says.

Fast Fact #3: vJungle has an office in Amin's native city of Bombay.

Comment: That's where many of the company's software developers work -- under unusual circumstances. The city is plagued by rats. Amin recalls sleeping in his office there and waking up to find that the cord connecting his mouse to his laptop had been chewed in half. "You can't get rid of them," he says of the rodents

Fast Fact #4: vJungle grew from a company called Indicus that Amin founded in Bombay.

Comment: He lifted the name from a portion of the scientific description for India's indigenous cow. Since the animal is a sacred Hindu symbol, Amin thought it had unique appeal. "People are always going, 'Holy cow! Holy cow!'" he explains.

Fast Fact #5: Indicus originally contracted with Microsoft to help develop code for Windows 98 and 2000.

Comment: Along the way, Amin had trouble getting e-mail service for his business, so Indicus launched its own e-mail provider, attracting other small businesses as customers. Soon, those businesses began clamoring for more online services, convincing Amin "the action was going to be on the Web" and planting the seed for vJungle. He chose the name because he wanted something that would stand out in the U.S. market.

Fast Fact #6: vJungle is free.

Comment: Users need an Internet access provider, but the company's core services don't cost a nickel. They include companywide e-mail, instant flash messaging, file sharing/storage, company intranet and a Web site builder.

Fast Fact #7: vJungle also contains no advertising.

Comment: Does vJungle plan to make money? Yes -- by charging fees to provide additional online applications and expanded data storage. The idea, says Amin, is to coax small businesses to give the Internet a try. Once vJungle has earned their trust, they likely will have an appetite for expanded services such as e-commerce, procurement and payroll, says Amin. "We are all about service," says Amin. "We want to be the back-end engine for small business."

Fast Fact #8: vJungle is forming partnerships to provide the expanded applications.

Comment: Developing proprietary systems for all those services would be overwhelming, says Amin. Instead, he is busy courting "best-of-breed" partners who will extend their services via vJungle's platform. He already has deals with Network Solutions to provide domain name registration and Ramp

Networks to provide broadband Internet access. Several other "very, very big partnerships" are in the works, he says.

Fast Fact #9: vJungle is relying on integration to separate itself from numerous rivals.

Comments: "Everybody's found out that the pot of gold is small business," says Amin. "The question is whether you've got the right approach," vJungle's approach is to provide a platform -- driven by technology it developed -- that ensures a company's information flows seamlessly between numerous applications. "We are the place where they all come together," he says. "The whole idea here is we don't want the customer to ever have to enter ... data twice."

Fast Fact #10: Amin is having second thoughts about not protecting several potential patents.

Comment: "We'll push harder on our patents in the future," he says. vJungle raised $3 million in its first round of financing and soon will conduct a second round. Amin won't predict when or if vJungle will go IPO, but calls the company's "rocking!"



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