By MICHAEL BROWN
Special to the Sun
When pondering the finer points of whether all men are
created equal or not, it’s hard not to get caught up in the specifics.
We all have to worry about the fulfillment of basic needs
(warmth, food, water, shelter, etc.); we all possess some general
physicalities (a brain, a heart, skin, blood, etc.); and
we all have a one-of-a-kind million dollar idea tucked away.
Of course, where we differ is how we go about fulfilling
those basic needs, the arrangement and size of our similar
physicalities, and the distances each of us are willing to travel
towards making that big idea come to fruition.
Take Rocky and Arif Mirza, Canada’s newest Internet
gurus, whose imaginative designs for deriving wealth from
the Internet border on crazy – crazy like a fox.
Surprisingly though, the Mirzas count the concoction of
an idea as secondary to their willingness to hatch said idea.
“The idea itself is nothing,” says Arif Mirza, CEO of the
Ottawa-based Allainet Corp., parent company of such revolutionary
websites as Uniqueauction.com, Ibetex.com and
Weblo.com. “You might be walking down the street and think
of 10 great ideas, but implementing them is a different story.
“Take a plane, for example; you need speed before you
can take off.”
Back in 1997, the Mirza brothers first saw the raw potential
of the Internet, when they founded Allainet, a local software
and website developing company.
“These days, people don’t ask what your phone number
is, they ask what your e-mail address is,” says Arif. “Your
website is your storefront.
“Without a website you’re not home.”
From those humble beginnings, the ideas began to swirl
before the duo saved up enough money to start Ibetx.com,
an online sports betting exchange run out of the U.K., in
March of 2003.
Quick smash hit
“We did £1.5 billion in revenues last year,” says Arif. “In
our first year we were told we needed to do at least £2 million
a month; we did that in the first week.”
Not only does success spawn more success, but more good
ideas as well.
On Sept. 20 of this year, the Mirza boys took their boldest
and most creative step to date, venturing onto the hallowed
grounds occupied by Ebay, the Internet’s Goliath.
The sling with which to slay their foe: UniqueAuction.com.
“It’s a unique concept,” says Arif. “The most unique bid
wins.”
To understand, it is best to disregard all you know about
numbers and their tendency to ascend from low to high with
the highest number, in the case of most regular auctions,
being the most desirable.
For example, currently up for auction on the site is a $100
million trip to the moon. Interestingly, UniqueAuction.com
has set a ceiling bid of just $11,703. This means the winning
bid will fall somewhere between $11,703 and one cent. The
rub, however, is in order to cancel out the leading unique
bid and select a new one, moon voyage hopefuls must fork
over an administration fee of $100 ($200 for non members).
As well, the reserve on the auction is not price but number
of bids. In a nutshell, if you want to go to the moon for the
price of flying to Saskatoon or less, you need to be the last
one standing after at least one million bids have been made;
otherwise, no moon for anyone.
“It’s all broken down into numbers,” says Arif, of the strategic
bidding process that brings goodies like trips to the
moon out of the realm of the rich and famous. “If only one
person bids $1.87, they win the right to buy the product for
$1.87.”
To get the ball rolling in the United States, UniqueAuction.
com auctioned off a mock funeral that proceeded from
Times Square through the streets of New York. Who died,
you ask?
“We killed the Ebay monopoly,” says Arif. “I have no problem
with Ebay – it’s a good company with a good idea. I have
a problem with their monopoly.”
The trip to the moon and mock funeral are just for shock
value. Most items on UniqueAuction.com are regular items
that you would find at any auction; they have no reserve
amount of bids listed, they can be purchased for no more
than 20% of the item’s value and they take just $1 to make
a bid ($2 for non-members).
“In less than six weeks we had our one millionth bid,”
says Mirza. “It’s a great concept – people are loving it.”
Virtual real estate
Another Mirza creation is Weblo.com, a virtual real estate
listing site where anything with a postal code – your house,
mine, the MacDonald Hotel, the Taj Mahal – are bought and
sold in a virtual world. It too is beginning to realize success,
but not just because it was a good idea. Arif says people have
had better ideas that fell flat, and that making it in the virtual
world is no free ride.
“There is no such thing as an overnight millionaire unless
you win the lottery,” he says. “It takes countless hours to get
to that point. I’ve worked hard before, but hard work leads
to either an early pension or an early grave.
“You have to work smart.”
Arif glosses his brother Rocky as a “marketing genius,”
and gives his business savvy the credit for most of their success,
but adds that while conventional ideas don’t add up to
success, conventional business practices should not be tinkered
with.
“What makes one company better than the next? When
buying shoes at a mall, what makes you choose one store over
another?” asks Arif. “Customer service. One hundred percent
customer satisfaction is the key.
“We create win, win, win situations.
“The customer is happy because they got what they wanted
at a low price; the businesses we buy the product from
are happy because we are paying full price; and we’re happy
because we get to charge a fee.”
TOP: Arif Mirza, chief of Operations for UniqueAuction.
com shows off one of the items the company is
auctioning off, a Nissan 350Z. RIGHT: Rocky Mirza.
T H E E D M O N T O N S U N • Saturday, November 19, 2005 70 careers
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A unique look at success
Tags: arif, Mirza