My colleague Rohit Nair picked this up since this slide gets picked up in the SEO search for c2w:
Since I know the promoter of BrandandMe, I wrote this mail to him:
From: Alok Kejriwal<alok@games2win.com> Date: Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 11:49 AM Subject: Fwd: BrandandMe Investment Summary To: Surjendu Kuila <surjendu@brandandme.com> Cc: MR Anurag Batra <abatra@exchange4media.com>, Rohit Nair <rohit@c2w.com>, Satish Iyer <satish@c2wgroup.com>
Dear Surjendu,
A colleague of mine sent me this deck of yours that mentions that
Gaming Websites: E.g: Contests2win (C2W) i. C2W is defunct for all business purposes. C2W was very successful at one point in time but the promoter lost interest due to other ventures. Mitigation: The founders of B&M are solely focused on making B&M successful. B&M will be the platform on which all other value added services will be provided.
First of all:
– C2W is CERTAINLY not ‘Defunct’. It makes me wonder who teaches you these terms!
– Also, it’s in VERY BAD TASTE to create public documents that deride competition in this manner.
I am sorry, but this is disgusting.
Please also treat this to be an official notice to change this statement in the next 12 hours.
Wishing you the best,
Alok Kejriwal CEO and Co-Founder Games2win – a global top 20 online games biz
Date: Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 12:05 PM Subject: Re: BrandandMe Investment Summary To: Alok Kejriwal <alok@games2win.com> Cc: MR Anurag Batra <abatra@exchange4media.com>, Rohit Nair <rohit@c2w.com>, Satish Iyer <satish@c2wgroup.com>
Dear Alok
Thanks for your email. I am replying to this email only because I personally hold you in high regard.
Before I jump onto the context I would like to inform you that we have moved on from Gaming or Adverquizzing. We recently got funded ( though we haven’t made that public ) and are focussing on building the next gen product review platform. Our product release is in the next 10 days.
Now to the context:
This was a very early stage investment pitch and it was done by our investment banker. We were not aware that anything of this sort is in publicdomain. If you could let me know the exact place from where you got this we would ensure that it stays there no more. However, if google has already indexed that then there is nothing much we could do about it. But, rest assured we would try our best.
– As a CEO – you MUST reply to such mails even if you don’t hold the person in high esteem.
– Even though your investment banker/finance consultant made this, it never went up until it was approved by you. No IB puts stuff up without validation from the client.
First of all I am not the CEO – Just a co-founder. And, what you said is your belief. My belief is a complete antithesis to yours.
Secondly I never said that the investment pitch was not approved by us. It was definitely approved by us. What I said was “I was not aware that this is in public domain”.
I hope you are not dictating me what I write/speak in our internal memorandum. There are many competitor of ours ( read in the product review space) who badmouth us. I don’t have the time, energy chasing them asking them to amend facts or rectify mistakes. We believe that our work should speak of itself and seriously do not bother much about grapevine.
According to me building a business is analogous to WAR ( read do or die) and you must be familiar with the popular adage – Everything is fair in …….
Signing off by letting you know that I love reading your blogs.
what you say in the ‘private’ domain is one thing and what you say in the ‘public’ domain is another!
Secondly, if you call c2w ‘defunct’ in a public document, then you stand the risk of legal action from our side since you are maligning us.
i don’t really care about what you say, who you say it to, what you believe in, what blogs you read or like. I only know that if you badmouth / malign someone in the public domain, then you will have to answer for it.
stay tuned
Wishing you the best,
Alok Kejriwal
*****
So, this is the NEW STANDARD of fund raising??
– Say anything about anybody without a care because it’s “private”??
– When you get told about it, you don’t care because it’s “WAR” out there????
– Maligning Companies and saying things that may be false is something that doesn’t need correction??
– The responsible person writes back because he holds me in “high” esteem and not because he should be writing so as a responsible officer of the Company??
This, to me, signifies the ROT and absolute DEPRAVITY that some Entrepreneurs stoop to when they are desperate to prove something!
I think this guy and his attitude are beyond repair, but I would suggest:
– Before making claims about Companies in ANY DOCUMENT – be it private or public, check the facts and DON’T make false and loose statements.
– Please have the manners and courtesy to stand corrected and be HUMBLE about it.
