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<ul><li>In an interview with Business Insider, <keyword id="6567188" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kavin-Bharti-Mittal">Kavin Bharti Mittal</keyword>, founder &amp; CEO of <keyword id="1868750" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hike-Messenger">Hike Messenger</keyword> said that he wants to employ psychologists to understand “why people do what they do?” </li><li>The game designers will be working on the Hike’s new social experience — <keyword id="8713739" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="hikeland">HikeLand</keyword>. </li><li>Hike is also looking for a crypto economist. The role demands digital skills including blockchain, consensus algorithms, bonding curves, mining.</li></ul>While the world is moving towards mainstream IT roles and emerging technologies like AI and data science, instant messaging platform Hike is looking to hire game designers, economists and psychologists. In an interview with Business Insider, Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder &amp; CEO of Hike Messenger said that he wants to employ ‘smart’ people to fit into the company’s fast-paced culture. “One thing about us is, we like keeping our teams small. We’re 150 people and we like that size. We’ll be hiring game designers, economists and psychologists — for a deeper understanding about why people do what they do?” Mittal said. The game designers will be working on the Hike’s new social experience — HikeLand, he added. He said that Hike has no ties with the offline world — which explains the lower demand for technology roles. <div type="Youtube" id="yU0IcyPgCpU" title="Kavin Mittal, Founder &amp; CEO, Hike shares his 2020 vision" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yU0IcyPgCpU/mqdefault.jpg"></div>

 In his recent tweet, Mittal also advertised for the opening of a crypto economist for Hike. The role demands digital skills including blockchain, consensus algorithms, bonding curves, and <keyword id="179198" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="20" keywordseo="data-mining">data mining</keyword>. “It is someone who can help us explore and design a new type of blockchain economy. You should have a deep understanding of blockchain, consensus algorithms, bonding curves, mining and more,” he tweeted. <div type="twitter" handle="kavinbm" handlename="Kavin Bharti Mittal" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1215423641204088833/eVf11liQ_normal.jpg" favoritecount="177" retweetcount="39" status="🙅‍♀️We're hiring a Crypto Economist! 🙅‍♂️ Someone to help us explore &amp; design a new type of blockchain economy. Yo… https://t.co/21QXvKoEfx" createdat="1581054102000" id="1225655858308116481"></div>

 Mittal also added that the company is looking for typical quintessential technical roles — including front-end engineers, backend engineers, ML scientists, UX designers. However, he emphasised that they hire very ‘selectively.’ “We are looking to expand our team but we hire very selectively. That’s because we like running small teams. We will at maximum add 50 people in 2020 — taking the total headcount to 200 employees,” he said. The seven-year old chatting platform is now set to launch its new feature with enhanced user experience called HikeLand. The company is also looking to experiment with revenues this year — to trade off between what can be offered free and what has to be kept as a paid service. Mittal claims that the messenger app had over two million active users every week, as of December 2019. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/exclusive-kavin-mittal-says-hike-will-look-to-make-money-this-year-heres-how/articleshow/73924944.cms">Exclusive: Kavin Mittal says Hike will look to make money this year —here's how</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/hike-takes-on-snapchat-launches-in-built-camera-with-face-recognition-skills-and-other-new-features/articleshow/55473215.cms">Hike takes on Snapchat, launches in-built camera with face recognition skills and other new features</a>

Hike is hiring game designers, economists and psychologists to build a ‘smart’ team

Having Mittal as a surname may come off as a burden to a bright 27 year old willing to make a mark in the global market. However, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Kavin+Mittal">Kavin Mittal</a> is determined to not let his father’s fame blur his own .Master Mittal is the founder-CEO of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Hike+Messenger">Hike Messenger</a> and the son of Bharti Mittal, the head of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Bharti+Airtel">Bharti Airtel</a>, India’s largest telecom company. 
 
BI India chatted up with this young and enthusiastic <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=entrepreneur">entrepreneur</a> to know what gets him going. 
 
BI: Your biggest lessons as an <keyword id="6359301" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Entrepreneur">entrepreneur</keyword>. 
Kavin: I think the biggest lesson is you've got to keep your ego in check. I believe the success of a company is directly proportional to the learning curve of the founder-CEO. My learning curve in the last three years has been literally vertical. What did I know about building a messaging app? Nothing. You've to stay ahead of the curve, and the curve is moving so fast that there's less time in figuring out how this stuff works. 
 
Second is you need to have a strong mind. Perseverance is very important. One of the biggest reasons why startups fail is perseverance. Not very long ago Hike was all set to shut down. Back in Jan 2013, this was before we raised our first round of funding. Germany became very big for us, but India was still zero. By March we had 3 million users as targets, and we had zero in India that Jan. We were freaking out. With our back pushed up against the wall we launched talk-time rewards, which incentivized people to get friends on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Hike">Hike</a>, and the user-base went from zero to 5 million in 3 months. If we didn't have the determination to make this a success, it would not have happened. 
 
Third is a healthy body and a healthy mind. It's been a very stressful period, the last three years. You go through ups and downs. More downs than ups, and it's very important to be fit to actually stay in a state of mind to make good decisions, even in the worst times. I only have 24 hours a day, I could really use 48 hours. But the only way to expand this is to work out, stay healthy so that your 24 hours feels like 48 hours. 
 
BI: Your father, Sunil Mittal, is a self-made man, and he's had life lessons galore. How often do you go to him for any kind of advice and how often has his advice made any impact in the business you're in? 
Kavin: The simple answer to that is that every great successful entrepreneur has great mentors. I have a mentor who happens to be my father, whose experience in life happens to be tremendous. 
 
BI: Who are the people you look up to in the business world as role models, as people you can emulate and learn from? 
Kavin: You know there's a saying - you're born original don't die a copy. I love that. I think you can borrow from people you look up to, but never try to copy. You got to be your own person. Of course, I've looked up to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Steve+Jobs">Steve Jobs</a> my whole life. I was very inspired by him. There are very few people in the world with five big breakthroughs. 
 
The second one has to be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Niki+Lauda">Niki Lauda</a>. I'm a big <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Formula+One">Formula On</a>e fan. If you've read the Lauda story, it's a much more real version of the Rush movie. Hats off to the guy, the way he changed the sport, the accidents that he had, the perseverance that he had after that. Came from a very wealthy family, still went his own way. 
 
There are a common set of qualities in these people. They have a very, very clear state of mind and they want to change the world around them. 
 
BI: What are the biggest challenges young entrepreneurs in India face today? 
Kavin: To sum it up in a sentence everybody seems to be looking for a quick fix. Everybody wants to go from start to finish tomorrow. It does not happen. Building businesses and products take time. You'll go through more downs than ups in your life while building a startup. Don't build a company to be successful and famous. If you do that you'll face a quick death. Start a company if you're inspired by an idea. 
 
BI: Are there books that have left an impression on you? 
Kavin: The most recent one is called The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. He's a great guy. Talks about life as a journey, his startup and so forth. It's like my Bible. 
 
The other one is a book that I've read again for the second time. It's called Zen Mind Beginner's Mind. It stems from the Zen Buddhist philosophy that I personally follow. It's just changed the way I look at the world completely. When you realize the world around you is simply an illusion of your mind, it's a very, very powerful thing. These two books have had the biggest impacts on my life in the last 3 years. 
 
BI: What is the one thing that really makes you happy after a hard day at work? 
Kavin: Sleep *Laughs*. Just getting 7 hours of restful sleep will make you the happiest person on the planet. 
 
BI: Given your sweet tooth, won’t some Rasmalai and Rabri also make you happy *laughs*! 
Kavin: I really like the Magnum Almond. I can go through three or four of them in a day. I avoid them like a plague. You have to build a life that offers you balance. I work out really hard so that I can cheat and eat some Chocolate, and because I eat chocolate I have to work out. It balances itself out in many different ways. You have one life to live. 90 years is not a lot of time, and I've already almost gone through one-third of my life. Time flies by, each year becomes a smaller part of your life. So each year goes by faster. 
 
BI: We read a lot about people like Elon Mask. Where are we lacking in India. Why don't we have people like these? More than 60% of software engineers in the US is Indian! 
Kavin: You can see the first wave of Internet startups in India happening today. There are a lot of people working on ground-breaking technology in this country. More importantly it's the environment, the mindset. In <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Silicon+Valley">Silicon Valley</a> it's OK to have 10 failures. Here you have half a failure and they'll put you in a pit and shame you. You really should see failure in a company as a comma, not a full-stop. You have to allow people to iterate and fail, and that's the only way to grow. 
 
BI: You think the push to startups will only come when we're more open-minded? 
Kavin: I think it's already happening in such a big way. However, there are still people who fear failure. Fearing failure is a good thing as long as it drives and motivates you. It should not be the dominant thing. The pressure of success is so high that that itself can detriment a lot of people to talk about ideas. Hope we can provide inspiration to the next generation of companies. Look at Ritesh Aggarwal from Oyo Rooms for instance, a very smart guy. This is happening and we hopefully will see more of this sooner.

Being Kavin Bharti Mittal: Inside
India Inc's brightest scion

<ul><li><keyword id="866223" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kavin-Mittal">Kavin Mittal</keyword> plans to introduce a new "social experience" to Hike in 2020 called <keyword id="8713739" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="hikeland">HikeLand</keyword>.</li><li>In an interview with Business Insider, Mittal said that Hike will be experimenting with revenue this year to find out what should be paid and what can be offered for free.</li><li>According to him, the <keyword id="8713742" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="virtual-economy">virtual economy</keyword> is an untapped golden goose in India with microtransactions set to increase as payments become seamless.</li></ul>From being a super app that offers games, news and the ability to send messages, Hike has unpacked itself to focus on the chat experience. Last year, Hike CEO and founder Kavin Bharti Mittal launched Hike Sticker Chat — a messenger app focused on emojis to communicate with close friends, peers and significant others. In an interview with Business Insider, Mittal shared that he plans on "creating a new social experience" to help monetise the app called HikeLand. And, it has nothing to do with e-commerce. "In 2020, this is going to be the year that we start experimenting with revenue," he said and it doesn't necessarily need to reflect in the real world. Launched in 2012, <keyword id="1868750" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hike-Messenger">Hike Messenger</keyword> has gone from being a super app to a sticker chat with 2 million weekly active users as of December 2019. <div type="Youtube" id="yU0IcyPgCpU" title="Kavin Mittal, Founder &amp; CEO, Hike shares his 2020 vision" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yU0IcyPgCpU/mqdefault.jpg"></div>

 Revenue is just another feature In 2020, Hike plans to find out what consumers are willing to pay for and what can be given away for free. "Revenue is one more feature. Building revenue is also a part of the product development process," said Mittal. The aim is to take Hike Sticker Chat into a new era using technology to build an upgraded user experience around the <keyword id="8335972" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="hikemoji">HikeMoji</keyword>. Mittal describes it as, "a new user experience beyond messaging that's a safe place for people to hang out." He explains that the HikeMoji will be able to do multiple things within HikeLand. That will be the ecosystem around which Hike will build a virtual economy business model. Virtual economy is the untapped golden goose Mittal believes that since payments have not become seamless, microtransactions are going to emerge in a big way — and the virtual economy is the golden goose that no-one has tapped into. "Virtual economy business model is the one that's completely untapped in this market," he claimed. According to him, as virtual communities emerge and multiple verticals are created, economies can be integrated into them to add a layer to the consumer experience. Hike — as a 'bits-based' business — has no ties to the offline world, according to Mittal. There are no warehouses, no logistics and no delivery mechanisms. "We have already seen this [virtual economy] happen. More in the East than in the West. And, that's the model we're going to pursue," he explained. Hanging out online Hike's peak usage is between 10:00 pm to 12:00 am. According to Mittal, it's not because people are messaging or sending stickers at the time — it's simply because they want to hang out online with their friends after they're done with "family time". "If we want to build a safe place for people to hang out in 2020 for close friends or with their significant other, what would that look like? And, that's the big step that we're taking with HikeMoji — and HikeLand," said Mittal. Doubling down on existing bets In addition to launching HikeLand, Mittal will be doubling down on the bets that he's already made. In 2018, the Hike super app was unbundled into two verticals — messaging and gaming. On one side was Hike Sticker Chat and on the other was investment, a gaming platform called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/zostel-and-zorooms-founder-has-a-new-fund-for-game-developers/articleshow/70301357.cms">WinZo</a>.. News, on the other hand, was dropped altogether. "We have to double down on both these products. How do we get Sticker Chat to a much bigger user base? How do we land HikeMoji and HikeLand extremely well? On the WinZo side, how do we grow the scale we have today to be three to four times bigger," said Mittal In addition to growing what's already working for the company, Hike will continue to work on the innovation pipeline as well. Nonetheless, the return of the super app doesn't seem to be on the cards. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/zostel-and-zorooms-founder-has-a-new-fund-for-game-developers/articleshow/70301357.cms">A new $1.5 million fund is looking for good game developers in India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/hike-takes-on-snapchat-launches-in-built-camera-with-face-recognition-skills-and-other-new-features/articleshow/55473215.cms">Hike takes on Snapchat, launches in-built camera with face recognition skills and other new features</a>

Exclusive: Kavin Mittal says Hike will look to make money this year —here's how

<ul><li>Speaking at the Business Insider Global Trends Festival 2020, <keyword id="866223" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kavin-Mittal">Kavin Mittal</keyword> of <keyword id="44033" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="hike">Hike</keyword> said <keyword id="6354632" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-media">social media</keyword> companies grow at the back of the customer data. “Your data, my data – but where’s my cut?” he said. </li><li>The average <keyword id="6262601" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="indian-social-media">Indian social media</keyword> user spends 17 hours on platforms every week and consumes over 8.3 gigabytes of data. </li><li>The next big money from social media will come from ads, micropayments and commerce.</li></ul>India is one of the world's biggest markets for social media. But India's homegrown social media startup Hike's founder Kavin Mittal has a question that he believes can change the way we look at social media in the country – what happens when the customers ask for their cut from these platforms for using their data? According to McKinsey's report, the average Indian social media user spends 17 hours on platforms every week and consumes over 8.3 gigabytes of data – that's higher than the average data usage in the US or China. And this enormous data and user numbers, which is only set to get higher (India's total internet users could cross 800 million by 2023), has got social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, setting up shop in India, and feeding on the data produced in India. Speaking at the Business Insider Global Trends Festival 2020, Mittal said, "It's fascinating to see all these social media companies grow at the back of the customer data. Your data, my data – but where's my cut? Customers being the owner of their own data – this is going to be a radical transformation, especially in a market like India." Mittal believes that is the next big leg of monetisation of social media in India, which has so far been riding on ad revenues. The next big money from social media – ads, micropayments and commerce There’s been a lot spoken about the next big wave of social media and the power of revenue it will bring with it. However, even with the millions of new users coming in, Mittal believes that the cost per thousand is still very low in India and so micropayments or small transactions made by users online will be another thought that drives monetization. However, <keyword id="3395480" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Farid-Ahsan">Farid Ahsan</keyword>, founder of <keyword id="3358959" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShareChat">Sharechat</keyword>, one of India’s largest home grown platforms, still swears by the ad revenue model. “We are not against any sort of monetisation in a low ARPU economy like India. It's important that you are able to build revenue in a way that it's a win-win for everyone whether it's the brand, platform or the user,” said Ahsan. Ahsan believes that the combination of ads and micropayments will lead to a commerce-driven economy. The idea of clubbing ads, micropayments and commerce has also seen the rise of the social commerce vertical in India with homegrown players like Meesho (backed by Facebook), having rapidly made a mark in India. “All of these platforms will eventually become communities with their own economies where there are creators, brands, and consumers. That’s honestly how a platform should be defined – the net GMV of a platform is much larger than what the platform can actually monetize,” he said. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/uber-bus-pradeep-parameswaran-says-india-and-apac-will-follow-egypt-success/articleshow/78788982.cms">EXCLUSIVE: Uber Bus in India soon? Head of Mobility in APAC says he is ready to import the Egypt experiment</a>

‘Where’s my cut?’ the question that can revolutionise social media

With an aim to strengthen the workforce at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Hike">Hike</a>, this popular instant messaging service in India has now roped in senior executives from Unilever Singapore and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Amazon+India">Amazon India</a>. 
 As per the official statement issued by the company, <keyword id="3115305" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hemant-Goyal">Hemant Goyal</keyword> is the new VP of Finance. Previously, Goyal had worked with Unilever Singapore as finance director for global supply chain with an experience of over 12 years with the firm in distinguished roles across India and Europe. 
 On the other hand, former <keyword id="6354743" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon-India">Amazon India</keyword> principle legal counsel <keyword id="181169" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gautam-Vohra">Gautam Vohra</keyword> has been made the general counsel of <keyword id="44033" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="hike">Hike</keyword>. Vohra, who is a legal expert in technology and intellectual property matters, will take care of legal, compliance and policy functions at Hike. 
 The statement further revealed that both Hemant and Gautam will be reporting to <keyword id="6567188" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kavin-Bharti-Mittal">Kavin Bharti Mittal</keyword>, founder &amp; CEO of <keyword id="1868750" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hike-Messenger">hike messenger</keyword>. 
 
Kavin Bharti Mittal, while announcing the appointments, said, “With Hemant and Gaurav on board, we add a strong financial and legal foundation to our leadership team. Both Hemant and Gaurav bring incredible cross-domain experience in their respective fields and we are excited to have them on join us.” 
 
Expressing excitement about the umpteen possibilities to be explored at Hike, Goyal said, “I look forward to sharing my experiences and contributing to the future direction and growth of one of India’s fastest growing internet companies.” 
 
Vohra also asserted he too was “thrilled to be a part of the organisation at a time when the company is well-positioned to tap new possibilities during this time of ever evolving mobile-first rather mobile only world. Look forward to contributing towards the accomplishing the mission of bringing India online.” 
 
The move has come at a time when India is emerging as the most lucrative market for mobile Internet companies. And it seems that Hike is in full swing to get best out of the time. 
Image: thinkstock

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