Strategy Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

There is a webinar for Entrepreneurs organized by Sramana Mitra, Forbes columnist & author of Entrepreneur Journeys[review here & here] on the following dates:

March 11, 2009
March 25, 2009

Below is the recording of the webinar held on February 18,2009 [quite insightful, especially the discussion on Bay Area Digital] -

Proto.in : The startup event ...

Proto[derived from Prototype],the startup event will be held on 23rd & 24th January,2009 in Bangalore.There is a very interesting presentation by Pictualize which gives you an insight into Proto & the benefits of being there for the event !!!



You can register for the event here. If you liked the work by Pictualize,you might be interested in checking out the Q&A we had with Pictualize team[here and here].

Like Proto-4,I won't be able to attend Proto-5;hopefully the sixth edition is in Hyderabad

FailCamp : Why are FAILURES important for SUCCESS...

One of the most common sayings about Failure is "Failures are stepping stone to success" but, what if we could learn important lessons from someone else's failures.Most of the times,Failure is a exaggerated term which should otherwise be termed as "Failed Attempt" and wouldn't be great to share your life experiences with others under one roof .FailCamp is one such wonderful initiative[better to call it as an initiative rather than an unconference] by Kiruba Shankar and his team.








The bottom-line of FailCamp -

We all make mistakes and learn from it to become a better person. Won't it be great to learn from other's mistakes so that we don't make the same ones!

The focus is really not about the failure. It's about why we failed and what lessons we learnt from it. Let's not be ashamed about failing. Let's celebrate failure. Let's look straight into its eyes.

To be very honest,off late;I have taken lot of hasty decisions[which have taught me lot of things] and it would be really nice to share those learnings with the audience.Well,not to forget listening to other's mistakes would be great learning for all of us !!!

So, interested in FailCamp:

Date and Time - 16th November 2008
Venue - Tenth Planet, Chennai. The venue was just finalized few days back and I am quite excited to meet my old unconference buddies
Registration - FailCamp Wiki

Before ending this article, I would like to share few lines from Paulo Coelho's book "Manual of the warrior of light"

A warrior of light shares with others what he knows of the path.Anyone who gives help also receives help and needs to teach what he has learnt.That is why he sits by the fire and recounts his day on the battlefield.

SlideShare's Viral Mantras...

There are a lot of SlideShare presentation embeds on this blog so,wouldn't it be great to know it's secrets straight from the horse's mouth Below is a video coverage of Amit Ranjan[Co-Founder of SlideShare] sharing his ideas about Viral Marketing[at Proto,which I had missed] and it's corresponding implementation at SlideShare.



Some very interesting points from his presentation:

In simple terms,Amit describes Viral Marketing as a combination of Web Analytics & Psychology and he justifies this very well in his presentation.The other interesting part is a term coined by him called "Shared DJs" [guys who are responsible for indirect marketing of the website by spreading it's content through mediums like Blogs,Twitter,FriendFeed,Delicious etc] who are as important as the content creators & both of them should co-exist for the success of the website.

Related Article:
Proto-IV coverage

WiCamp - The "WIpro Innovation CAMP"

It seems like the unconference styled format is becoming quite popular nowadays and even companies like Wipro have realized it's potential[both in terms of brand building and tentative recruitment].After a series of WiCamps in cities like Bangalore,Pune,Chennai,Hyderabad; WiCamp returns to Wipro's home ground -Bangalore

Pavan Soni ,WiCamp's chief un-organizer mentions :

Practitioners, Entrepreneurs, VCs, Academicians, Faculties, Students, Freelancers and almost everybody want to learn more on innovation and its applications to their lives. We have seen them all visiting these WiCamps over past few months.

WiCamp has been an informal platform which has helped people come together and share their perspectives on innovation.

Rajesh Moorjani, founder of Propel Software is all praise for the Pune edition of WiCamp for it's perfect adoption of the unconference culture[More here]

So,interested in WiCamp?

Date and Time - 10th October 2008 [9 AM onwards]
Venue - Wipro Technologies Campus, Electronic City, Bangalore
Theme - Taking Ideas to Market
[Interesting theme,however this should be complimented with speakers who have themselves taken some idea to the market ]

You can register for the event here

Proto - IV Coverage

In my previous article, I had mentioned about Proto[the Startup event] , that I missed but it is nice to see lot of blogs already updated with the coverage To start with, let us look at the startups that demonstrated at the event....

Startups that demonstrated at Proto:

| View | Upload your own

Source : Webyantra

Amit Ranjan of SlideShare & one of the co-organizers of the event has a crisp coverage of all the startups here

Experiences as a presenter - Prateek Dayal, Muziboo:

Few months back, we had a guest article from Nithya Dayal, co-founder of Muziboo & it is nice to see Muziboo getting shortlisted for the presentation !!! Prateek Dayal has shared lots of interesting views about the event & his experience on pitching in front of the audience !!!

Notable experiences from Prateek Dayal's blog:

Unlike some of the other startups, we had a walk through and no ppt. I think eventually turned out to be good as the response to the demo was very encouraging.

I liked the fact that proto mentioned that 3 companies have shut shop. I think its great to see that failure is no longer considered a bad thing. There was also a Proto for Dummies video which was pretty well done. I think the videos will be up on youtube pretty soon.

I had always heard that talking to investors gives you a good perspective and I think its true. I had also heard that there are quite a few senior startuppy people who give a lot of gyaan and try to pull you down and I think that is true too. In general its not very hard to find a few people in proto who look like they have come down there just to feel important by giving gyaan to clueless entrepreneurs like me.

You can read the complete article here.

Coverage across the Blogosphere:
There are lot of other blogs that have covered the event and you can find them here.

After checking the coverage of the event, I never felt that I have missed the event Thanks to all of them !!!!

SPEED PITCHING : An interesting concept

18th July,2008 [i.e tomorrow] would be a memorable day for Vijay Anand and the team behind Proto since, it will be the first time that close to 500+ enthusiasts would be present at the event. Kudos to the organizers of this wonderful COMMUNITY event !!! And guess what, I would be missing all the fun and most of all the Live Blogging competition

We have come across Speed Dating and Elevator Pitches but wouldn't it be exciting to see a bunch of entrepreneurs in a room pitching their ideas to investors in just 7 minutes[also termed as Speed Pitching].Makes me remember of the days where there would be panel of interviewers interviewing a bunch of guys in a single room . Check out Speed Pitching in action below.You can know more about Speed Pitching & Funding Universe [the ideators of Speed Pitching] here & here



Just a Thought:
Though Speed Pitching is not a novel concept, it can be something that can be turned into a Mini-Proto !!! The only drawback being "Speed Pitching does not involve wannabe-preneurs, so does not help much in building a BETTER ecosystem, which Proto does very well !!!"

These are my thoughts on Speed Pitching and would like to hear "WHAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE ENTIRE CONCEPT".

Traditional Marketing : Advertiser - Consumer breakup

Time has changed and gone are the days where you had to spend huge money to advertise on televisions, radios or any such medium.With the advent of Web 2.0, companies especially startups have found a better, easier and faster method of spreading their ideas.You can find interesting thoughts on Traditional Marketing in my previous articles here & here.

Just came across an interesting video [shown below],which demonstrates "Why the big bucks spent on marketing may not be good enough to catch the eyeballs of the consumer !!!"

Source : Marketing Amnesia

If you [does not matter if you are a technical person like me] are interested in Marketing and want to interact & learn from other marketers, do join the Marketing Unconference group called MarkCamp here and here.You would also find the likes of Mahesh Murthy and other industry experts in the group so you can be assured that your first marketing campaign would not end in this way .

Related Articles:
Successful Marketing stunts
Marketing strategies for Startups
Email Newsletters : Cost effective way of marketing
Harry Beckwith on "Selling something that no one can see

BELIEVE in your IDEAS and BOSS just DO it - Praneet Kumar, Co-Founder - WebDefenders

Few days back, I had blogged about an Unconference named IdeaCamp,Pune which was all about sharing and discussing ideas.There were lot interesting people that I came across during the span of the entire event.Amongst those interesting set of people , there was a startup guy Praneet Kumar who knew well about cyber law, patents, trademarks etc.

Praneet is the co-founder of a startup WebDefenders Consulting Pvt. Ltd [website under construction] which is into cyber law, ethical hacking and few other activities[which are listed below]. WebDefenders looked a different and interesting startup , in terms of it's offerings and services .

Below is a small Q&A with Praneet Kumar from WebDefenders.The Q&A session is divided into 2 parts : WebDefenders and Entrepreneurship.

Note : "I" in the conversation refers to Praneet Kumar.

WebDefenders [How,When, Why etc.]

Q. Can you tell something about WebDefenders ?

Well, WebDefenders is a unique endeavor in itself. It provides a complete solution package for cyber security which includes cyber law, cyber crime investigation, ethical hacking, cyber forensics and its related training and education.

Q. What are some of the sectors that WebDefenders caters to ?
Well! We wish to target initially the following sectors:

1. Banking and Finance
2. IT
3. Government
4. Authorized investigating body [both Government & Non Government]
5. Education [Higher or Specialized]
6. Defense
7. Matters related Legal Exigencies

Q. Cyber Crime & Security is a niche area, so when did you guys feel that the time is right to venture into this field ?
Well! We have been involved in this area individually from 2004-05 but it was in mid 2007 that we [partners] met online, later became friends and finally the partners.

Q. What is your take on the recent happenings in the cyberspace with respect to cyber crime, security etc ?
Hmm! We feel that the major problem which India, particularly, is facing today is an acute crisis of awareness about cyber security with respect to cyber vulnerabilities. It is a now the cyber-age and so chances of being victim of cyber crimes is very evident.

Q. Since, your startup also caters to Intellectual Property[IP] services,what are some of the basic things that startup should take care of while filing a patent ?
Hmm! If someone has a creative idea or invention, or is interested in starting a techno company (s)he may wish to protect, the first thing (s)he does is contact a patent attorney and file a patent application. (S)he believes that (s)he has protected his/her invention, so is (s)he protected? Not necessarily!!!

Preparing a patent application is "only" one of many action steps to consider. But along with it, I opine following things must be kept in mind:

1. Understand your product and market. When discussing your invention or idea, it is helpful to know "What is the ultimate goal?" & "What impediments to market entry exist?"
2. Expand and test the limits of your invention.
3. At least some analysis needs to be done to support broad claims of a patent.
4. Identify your competition.
5. It is important to understand the patents that protect your competitors.
6. Consider foreign markets.
7. Contemplate costs.
8. Select a proper attorney.

So, when one has an idea which (s)he intends to develop it, (s)he must be a bit more careful to consider all the requisites and technicalities involved before jumping into the patenting process. One may find that there is a lot more to consider than merely filing a patent application.

Isn't it!

Views on Entrepreneurship

Q. You took a plunge right after your internship in Persistent Systems, which is quite early; so what are some of things that came into your mind ?
It was one of my most adorable experiences as in how an organization has to be run transparently to such great heights.

I read a book called "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert T Kiyosaki, gifted to me by my dad when I was in my 2^nd yr of B.A.LLB.I then only decided that I am going for a business. After that I opted for a few internships to learn more about running a successful firm.I am a voracious reader. All these things together gave me the adequate impetus to choose for what I am today.

Q. You have a good team with you, what are some of the things you take care (as a startup) while building your team ?
Someone rightly said: It's not you [organization] who build team, it's your team which builds you. God gave me two gifts Neeket Pokharrna and Rohan Vibhandik..... rest happened automatically

Q. You were at IdeaCamp Pune, what is your take on such unconferences and how would that help startups ?
I feel that low mind talks about people, average mind talks about event but great minds talk only "IDEA". That's why a person of my frequency would have high stakes on such unconferences because any startup needs "the" association. In my views it's "the" place for starts ups which aspires high.

To corroborate this, I would like to state what my mind believes. Good association gives you good thoughts based on which one ends up doing good deeds. These good deeds, if performed again and again develop into good habits. All good habits if taken together form what we call a good "character" and no doubt, Character is the decisive factor.

Q. Can you throw some light on the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Pune ?
I as a person really appreciate and adore the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Pune. It's amazingly healthy, young, energetic, and explosive and it has what we call the "X" factor. One need less admit this fact, in presence of entrepreneurial endeavors like the Bajaj, the Punewalas, the Firodiya's, the DSK Toyota's, the Manikchand, the Persistent, the techie HUBS of the city and the list goes on. The silicon valley of east, the oxford of east, PUNE ROCKS….

Q. Many of startup activities happen in reputed institutes like IIT/IIM, what are some steps that an entrepreneur can take to carry Entrepreneurial message to other institutes (like yours or mine) ?
Wonderful question indeed! Just One expression for this - "believe in your IDEAS, have the hunger for right association and BOSS just do it, no excuse please"

Myth-Web around Indian Startups

Whenever there is a discussion around startups, you would find all the jargons around it like:

1. Great Idea.
2. Great Team.
3. Bootstrapping / Venture Funding.
4. Time to market.
5. Potential customers.
6. Marketing and ...............

As I have mentioned in the previous article, IMHO execution would always be the key; whether you are a startup guy or work for a startup.Also,when we think about Startups, the first comparison that always comes to our mind is The Silicon Valley, but many times, we tend to forget that Indian Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is different from that in the US.May be it would still be many years when a college dropout like Mark Zuckerberg or a whiz-kid like Anshul Samar of Elementio would be accepted in our ecosystem.

In this article, I would like to focus on the Cobweb of Myths[termed Myth-Web] around Indian Startups , which when dusted off, may lead to a better ecosystem.

Note:
The views in this article are my personal views and it would be nice, if someone corrects me wherever required .

1. Ecosystem = IIT(s) / IIM(s)
There is no point in mentioning how much impression premier institutions like Indian Institute Of Technology[IIT] or Indian Institute of Management[IIM] bring in our minds. For sure, they bring the best of the minds together under one roof, but Startups are not only restrained to them.In fact, an attempt should be made to take the IIT culture to the normal colleges(like mine) so, that there is an entrepreneurial ecosystem developed there as well.We need to get rid of the pre-made impression that "Entrepreneurs can only come from IIT's". IMHO, if we limit ourselves to only premier institutions, we won't be able to find our future Mark(s) or Anshul(s)

2. Venture Funding = Success
Funding always holds a major aspect for any startup but many times, people feel that - More the funding, more successful is the Startup.Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot has a very nice article on the same when His Startup raised $12 million in series B funding.
Money is always important in any business and each one of us understand the same but that alone does not materialize into success.This is an impression that is prevelant everywhere and hence, Hubspot[though not an Indian startup] was taken as an example.

3. Media = Success
With media not only restrained to mass media, so called Media Coverage has become somewhat simpler. Media may be coverage on blogs, websites ... But there is always a downside to the coverage in the media.Many startups(may not mention the name here) try to be in the news(in Magazines and other media) and this coverage is many times wrongly treated as Success .And it becomes difficult to digest this success.
With Web 2.0, media(except print media) has completely changed so, "Being in the media at the right time may lead to wonders else things may crumble"

4. Startups can be built in isolation
Why Bangalore is so famous in India is because it has a Brand Image attached to it and the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is by far the best in India.But it is not the same elsewhere.Many of us forget that the Ecosystem is a crucial factor in any startup and to bring a change , we need to be a part of that ecosystem.
I have spoken to few entrepreneurs from other cities(apart from Mumbai / Chennai / other metros) and the importance of Ecosystem is not yet penetrated there....Startups need all the support they can and hence, they can be built in isolation for some period [after which they have to join the change to make the change].

5. Why should I attend Unconferences?
This is just from a small conversation which I had with a friend of mine who works in a startup.The founder of that startup was very active at Unconferences like BarCamp, BlogCamp, etc ..... until one day they got funded.I asked my friend that your CEO is no longer seen in unconferences and the answer was : "We got angel funded and hence, he does not feel a need to come to Unconferences".The answer was shocking
IMHO, Unconferences is the most prospective place where you can find your cofounder/prospective employees or even a new idea for a venture.Though this incident was personal, Unconference is one place which may work wonders for your startup since, it has been instrumental in shaping up my career .

Note:
If you can think of some more points , do leave them in the comments section and I would be grateful to add them with the article.

Reader's Contribution:
Alok Padhi - An inspiring story of a A waiter who would be an IAS Officer

IdeaCamp : Ideate, Innovate and Implement.....

After BlogCamp,Mumbai, now is the time for some Ideation workshop in it's nearby city - Pune.

What is IdeaCamp?

IdeaCamp is a BarCamp styled Unconference catering to the discussion of ideas and doubts[and issues] revolving around ideas [it's birth, market validation, implementation etc.].As stated on IdeaCamp Wiki, below is the aim of IdeaCamp :

Often our ideas remain ideas and we are not sure whom to discuss them with. You may have a great idea, but the real challenge lays in finding its appropriate application. Cohesive and divergent thinking is what is required to build ideas from scratch to working prototypes. In the process we need to discuss with people from different walks of life to identify how our ideas can make a difference in their lives. Can our ideas make money for anyone?

When and where is it held?
Persistent Systems Ltd. [Senapati Bapat road] ;10th May,2008 17th May,2008

Important Links for IdeaCamp:
Registration : IdeaCamp Wiki
Blog : IdeaCamp Blog
Google Group : Group Home Page

I would be there at the Unconference and it would be great to meet you guys there

Employee Management in a startup

Have been pretty busy off late and hence , not been able to blog much and in the process have been missing many interesting events happening in Bangalore and Chennai

Few days back, I came across this article in LiveMint, which focussed on an important discussion from the perspective of a startup - Hiring the RIGHT kind of employees for a startup.Needless to say that every employee in a startup should have that KILLER GENE to make HIS/HER startup successful.Very important to note the term HIS and HER in the previous statement, which indicates that these employees are very clear about their basics - "If they fail, the startup fails and if they succeed , the startup succeeds".







But there are many issues in finding this perfect set of people for your startup and even if you get you MR/MISS RIGHT, it would be a much bigger challenge to retain them !!! This was the topic of discussion in the April edition of the Open Coffee Club, Chennai. Below are some of the excerpts from that meet.

[Thanks to Siddartha Govindraj for the minutes of the meet].

1.
The first step is Hiring good employees. Good here means that they should have the attitude to learn and grow with the company. Better having someone who wants to work with you and then train them , rather than get someone who may have better skills but who doesn't have the attitude and would leave you, when given a better offer. Best is the right combination of attitude and the skills.

2.
Once you get your right set of people , the next big challenge is to Manage them.Freshers can't be left alone because they need someone to guide them, so you need to continuously interact with them, help and guide them.This would help in boosting their confidence , so that they can take up more challenging roles in future and be a valuable asset to your startup.

3.
Experienced people can be left alone, but many of them who have worked in larger organizations may not have the attitude of working in a startup. So, there are two things which are possible in this case - either they get frustrated or they get accustomed in doing all the work by themselves.

4.
Generally, experienced people are good for high level strategy/marketing/advisory positions, and fresher/intermediates for development kind of work [but there has to be someone to nurture them & guide them). But if you get experienced people with the right attitude for startups, then thats great in any position

5.
You need to interact with everyone continuously, so that they know where they stand. In case someone is not performing, you need to bring this to their notice.This should not be done in a confrontational way, but rather you can mentor them ,so that they can perform better.But if there is no further improvement than you need to tell them that either they are not right for us or we are not right for them.

6.
Different people are good in different roles, so you need to keep an eye on mismatched roles. For example: Someone might be good at learning new stuff but may not be detail oriented, this kind of person might be good for research/prototype projects, while a detailed oriented person might be better for client production products. If they take up opposite roles, than it would be a complete disaster for your startup.

7.
Avoid a situation when you hire some people and then don't interact much with them.In this case there would be a series of confusions about their role, their expectations, your expectations; which may subsequently result in a drip in their performance.This would in turn be a cost to your company and there is no time for such confusions in a startup !!!

8.
At every moment of time, we should remember that the motivation level of the employees would always be different from the motivation level of the founders of the company hence, as discussed before[during the start of the article] always thrive the OUR attitude from the beginning.As long as your employees remain motivated and enjoy the work , they would stay and if they are not, you can be sure that they would join your competitor

9.
Sometimes whatever you do, your employees would leave you...in which case, you need to check your attitude, hiring strategy and other important aspects which may lead to such serious decisions. Always remember,"One person might be wrong in judging you, but if there are a series of people who follow their footsteps, than it is high time, you raise the ALERT signal and get your officials to discuss this issue"

10.
There are many proactive people in the crowd who would follow you and your startup from the day your startup was born.Always keep an eye on such people, since they can be future partners or employees in your company.You can always use the Stanford Shopping Center test to get your MR/MISS right in your company.

Don't sell the website, sell it's uniqueness - Nithya Dayal, Co-Founder of Muziboo

Today, we have a guest article by Nithya Dayal, Co-founder of an online music community named Muziboo. Muziboo is a great example of community building and how effective is Word of Mouth marketing[WOM] in business.

In this article, Nithya focuses on "Mantras of building an Online Community" , something which has been an integral part of the Web 2.0 space.

Web 2.0 [ Of the people, for the people and by the people]:
It is not fashionable anymore to say that Web 2.0 is not as much about technology, as it is about people. When this is an accepted truism to such a degree, it is worth spending some time to analyze the dynamics of such a model [from my experience with Muziboo]

Before you build a website [hence a service] on the assumption and wish that users will come forward to generate content, you need to understand what it takes to drive those users to contribute content.

Mantras of building an Online Community:
Keep in mind the following mantras , while trying to build an active community on­line:

Is your service unique?
During your whole thought process ­ while planning to start, build and maintain a new website­ , if ever this question sounded clichéd within yourself, you are sure to come up with a non-­starter for a service. Unless there is something unique in what you offer, how fair is it to expect people to spend their time in your platform to generate content, when either, they are already comfortable doing the same elsewhere (or) they do not see a new source of satisfaction in your service. This satisfaction as your uniqueness could be in any form for the user – expression, recognition, entertainment, social and business networking and so on and so forth.

Initiating a Culture and Driving the Culture
Once you have decided on what should differentiate your service from similar others, you as the owner should become one of the patrons and initiate that ‘culture’ among users, which will in ­turn give the desired uniqueness to the service. As the first few hundred users go a long way in giving a face and feel to your service, it is vital to have given due thought about your uniqueness at a very early stage of conception of the service. Also, one has to be around constantly, driving it in the positive direction. Majority of users need hand holding while you wait for them to acquire the taste of what you have to offer. This is the only way to bring in the kind of culture [that showcases the uniqueness] that you want to offer. Because if you leave it to the users to bring in uniqueness all by themselves or give them a good idea and not follow ­up with efforts to involve them in building the same, the only guaranteed result is the establishment of a culture characterized by stagnation and inertia among the users. Do not forget that this need for hand holding is not a reflection of the users intelligence – if you can come up with something too exciting that it needs no hand holding, then good for you – read Flickr blog to understand that Mr & Mrs Butterfield had to work hard to establish the uniqueness of Flickr, which is not just a photo sharing site but a thriving community.

Here it is important to note that this ‘uniqueness’ refers to a dynamic aspect of the site, which has the potential for something exciting or which has a proven record of enthusing users to contribute. It rarely or seldom refers to the uniqueness in technology that the site has adopted. And, more often than not, only while enjoying the ‘uniqueness’ will the users be spending the maximum chunk of their time when logged in – even if it is a little peripheral to the main service that you offer.

Unfortunately some websites after getting a whole lot funding, start operating on the premise that marketing the whole service will encourage people to register and generate content. It is not enough to ‘sell the website’, you have to ‘sell the uniqueness’ of the website after establishing one in the first place.

Post ­sign-up
User assimilation is a slow painstaking process. The new user should immediately be made comfortable with an interactive interface. With an interactive interface, one should make easy the process of a user getting acquainted with other members of the community.

Recognizing Users
Most online community members like recognition, [rightly so] either for the content contributed or for participation. Couple of ways to do that would be featured articles and featured users.

Empowering users ­ Democracy
Empowerment is a great form of recognition and by doing the needful on that count, as an owner, you manage to stay away from ruffling yourself with too many responsibilities. By empowerment, I refer to the minimal barriers that you put out for content acceptance. All generated content need not go through great levels of moderation or quality checks before being published. The motivation to contribute from the users end is highly dampened if they get spiked. Also if you shackle users with too many do's and dont's , you will have a lot of fire fighting to be done everyday as the service scales up. Democratize as much as possible. Let most things be decided on user votes and ratings.

Having a balance – So Much Democracy
In the nascent stages, many users come forward with their ideas – both functional and business. Some will always be more relevant than the others, the ‘others’ being the ones that do not align with your vision of the service. It is for the service owner to handle this embarrassment without stepping on toes. You do not want to paint yourself in a corner while asking for ideas, because when not implementing those bonafide suggestions, you are likely to come across ‘rude’ or ‘technically in­competent’ ­ both equally hurtful for your image.

Promoting Offline meets
Promoting local offline meets is also a way to create stronger bonds among the community members. Posting updates about such events on the site can enthuse users from other cities to initiate such activities.

It Ain't Easy [because if it is, then it ain't fun]
Does this need elaboration??....Neah; remember the community is very intelligent and can help make/break your business.

I hope you also enjoyed reading the article, just as I did.Thanks Nithya for sharing your thoughts with us Muziboo has been quite instrumental in all the aspects as a startup and has been covered a number of times in the press, you can find the articles here, here and here.

Other Guest Articles on Thoughtsprevail:
Ten steps to improve your E-commerce business
Financial Management for a Startup Firm

Time is now, the idea is to start and not think much : Sumit Jain, CoFounder - CommonFloor

In one of my Open Coffee Club meetup in Bangalore, I interacted with two young guys who knew one word well - ENTREPRENEURSHIP.They are Sumit Jain and Lalit Mangal, ex-Oracle guys and now Co-founders of a company named Max Heap Technologies

Max Heap came out with a concept called Common Floor, which is a local networking site for apartments.Common Floor is currently operational in over 150 apartments in Bangalore and has plans to take this concept to other cities in India.

Below is a small Q&A that I had with Sumit Jain from Common Floor.The Q&A session is divided into 2 parts : Common Floor and Entrepreneurship.

Note : "I" in the conversation refers to Sumit Jain.

Common Floor [How,When, Why etc.]







Q. Can you give a small background of you and your startup and it's founders ?

A. Both of us, Lalit and myself , are from IIT Roorkee and joined Oracle through the campus selection in 2006. We left in June last year. Yeah, in just 1 year. So both of us don't have much experience to talk about. We were the part of Oracle Enterprise Manager team. Lalit holds a patent under his name. Lalit loves reading. I love dancing.

Q.How many apartments in Bangalore are currently using this service ?
A. More than 150 apartment complexes in Bangalore have signed up to use CommonFloor as their interaction platform. We expect the figure to go to 300 in a couple of month.

Q.How do you plan to take your service to other apartments in Bangalore ?
A. Now as we have reached the critical mass, we can expect the word of mouth publicity to actually work. The associations of various apartments are approaching us and we are approaching them to take CommonFloor in their apartment.

Q.CommonFloor is a niche social networking site, what is your take on Social Networking and it's future?
A. I would rather like to call CommonFloor as the "local networking site". With CommonFloor we are solving a bunch of needs; social interaction is just one of them. We intend to be the one stop destination for all kinds of problems an apartment residents face, making their lives simpler. We are leveraging the geographical proximity of our users and giving them enough avenues to know more about each other.

About Social networking, I believe that in Asian communities social networking is not going to work the way as it is happening in US & UK. We are a different breed and have different needs. In India particular, internet has not been able to reach to the masses. So for any social networking site to happen, it has to offer a lot more than just the networking features. The social networking has to be done over a need. It has to offer something which people can relate to their real day to day lives. In short, it has to solve a problem.

Q.There are 3 people who commonly fund startups 3F's Friends, Family or Fools; so who gave you the first set of investment for CommonFloor ?
A. None of these three F's as such. Though our families have been very supportive, we mostly managed to run it by our own. In a startup like ours, you don't have to spend much on basic requirements and we chose to remain basic for some time . We had some savings and we took a couple of free lance projects in between to keep it going.

Q.What is your revenue model(apart from Ad's)...Do you charge the apartments with which you tie up ?
A. Ad's is always a source of revenue for any dotcom business but surely never a significant one until you manage to get the highly targeted ads. Apart from ad revenue, there are a few other areas where we generate revenue. As far as charging apartments is concerned, there is a basic version of CommonFloor which is free and top of it there are some paid features. So this would be another source of revenue in the future.

Q.What is the USP of CommonFloor over other such groups on SN sites like Orkut ?
A. CommonFloor does not complete with any of the social networking sites in the direct market. As I told you that CommonFloor is a local networking site which harness geographical proximity of its users which is absent in any of the service currently available.

Q.What are your funding options and where can people find more information about CommonFloor ?
A. More info about CommonFloor is available on request. We are in talks with a couple of angel investors and deal would happen latest by the end of this month.

Views on Entrepreneurship

Q.Both of you left your cushy jobs in Oracle to start off MaxHeap, what was the major trigger point?
A. The time is now. The idea is to leave and start and not think much. The journey is so exciting that it is worth taking a break and doing it full time. Rest is identifying yourself and going for it.

Q.You are a regular feature at Open Coffee Club,[Bangalore], how has such kind of events helped fostering Entrepreneurship?
A. It helps a lot. OCC is a great platform. I am very thankful to both of Bangalore OCC's Co-Founders, Ramjee Ganti and Vaibhav Pandey to take this initiative. For a startup, to keep himself updated and finding opportunities for synergy is very important and OCC is one of the right platform for it.

Q.What are the major changes that happened when you moved from an Employee to an Employer [or Entrepreneur] ?
A. There is a drastic change in the responsibilities. Now you are not answerable to anyone but to yourself. You get most of the decision making power and your decisions can actually make it or break it all. You learn self management. Time Management is first and most important thing you learn while starting up. You are risking your valuable time while your peers are busy getting hikes and great salaries, the pressure is immense. Other than hard work and motivation, it requires a lot of patience and persistence.

Q.What are your key advices to people who want to startup ?
A. If you want to do it, don't think that you can't do it. Always see that what you want to do and then how can you do it. Challenge yourself rather than questioning. If you are falling short of the confidence to start or there are other liabilities, join a startup, the journey would still be a lot more exciting.

Q.You are an IIT Roorkie Alumini, how important has IIT been in nurturing your Entrepreneurial talent ?
A. What I personally feel is that the best part of an IIT is its network of students and alumni. Infrastructure and the professors help a lot but you spend most of your time with your friends, seniors and juniors in the college. You get to network with the very hardworking and motivating people with whom you can discuss about things other than getting a good CGPA or a job. Most of the people are looking to go for higher studies and quite a few are exploring the startup world. The number of people who start out of IITs exceeds more than IIMs.

BlogCampMumbai : Have Vadapav with Bloggers

The race to Mumbai's first ever BlogCamp is on and now it is just a few hours away [not to remember things in day(s)] Though, attending Mumbaiya BlogCamp was always on my charts but due to some reasons, I would not be able to attend the unconference in Aamchi Mumbai .

When we talk about Unconferences, BarCamps also fit under the same category and I was very much attracted with the Barcamp Mumbai [held in 2006] poster and did not want to miss this chance to have it on my blog (though I know it is very very late). A beautiful piece of work !!!!

[Creative & Design Courtesy : Hitesh Mehta]

Though, IMHO with the advent of Wireless Technologies, the headphones in the image should have been wireless While searching for Unconferences, I also came across another interesting poster made for BarCamp Ahmedabad.

[Image Courtesy : Aditi Gupta]

So, just like you got confused reading this article, you may get confused(especially if you are a first timer) in BlogCamps or BarCamps; but there is definitely lot's to be taken from such camps (along with confusion) ....So don't miss this chance and register for BlogCamp Mumbai(to be held on 29th March,2008) here.Details about the venue here

With many new cities(like Kashmir , Kerala) hosting Unconferences ; very shortly, you can expect another new city hosting it's first ever Unconference .... So which is that city, keep watching this space for the suspense !!!

This article really turned out to be a VadaPav,a mixture of so many things, yet so tasty

HeadStart in a Nutshell ...

Had a very busy and Entrepreneurial Friday as well as weekend !!!.There was an interesting Entrepreneurship event at 'Indian Institute Of Science,Bangalore' namely HeadStart.

Though the dates of HeadStart and Proto overlapped with each other, there was quite a decent crowd and a great Panel [which included Entrepreneurs as well as VCs].Hats of to the organizers of the event !!!

Though, I could not blog the event live, there were certain very interesting topics , some of which I have recorded on my PMP and are given below:

Ram Shriram , Founder of Sherpalo Ventures:
Ram Shriram expressed his views on Internet and the changing scene of Internet. He also touched upon Mobile v/s internet and why the mobile market is so hot in India

He was on a webcast from his Menlo Park office and it was a great privilege to listen to this initial investor in Google...

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

Srini Vudayagiri , MD of LightSpeed Ventures:
Srini Vudayagiri gave a very interesting presentation on Identifying and validating business opportunities. His presentation covered on all aspects of Opportunity, right from Ideation to Delivery. It also gave a lot of insight into how VC's fund, how they are and some of the other aspects of VC funding !!!

The most interesting question that he asked the audience was "Which is the largest VC firm in the world".....and guess what, the answer is Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

Ganapathy Subramanium, Ex VC & founder of MyDuniya:
Ganapathy Subramanium, founder of startup MyDuniya and an ex VC with ICICI ventures and JumpStartup, gave an interesting session on Startup Funding.The most interesting statement which he made during his entire session was : "There are 3 kinds of people who would fund your business at a very early stage namely 3F's [Friends , Family, Fools]" .... So, is he referring Angel Investors/Seed Investors as Fools Enjoy the complete session below...

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

Note:
a. There might be some disturbance in certain , part of the audio so please bear for the same.But definitely these sessions are worth listening !!!
b. Harinath Pudipeddi has blogged the event live and is an excellent reference of the entire event.You can refer to Day 2 sessions here & here and Day 3 sessions here & here.

KCamp : Knowledge Management 2.0

Have not been able to post very regularly on the Blog but here I am back from another unconference Kamp.

Yesterday, it was a big day in the world of Unconferences with the First Ever BarCamp in Kerala and Kamp[The First ever Knowledge Management Camp] in Bangalore.

After landing at the venue and attending few talks, we[myself and Sridhar Rao] realized that we were only the two guys who were not from that background We also managed to give a talk on some Web 2.0 tools that could help organizations to manage the Knowledge.Sridhar also shared his insight as to how his organization manages knowledge through Blogs, Wikis, Webcasts etc.

Most interesting part of the entire unconference was "The Knowledge Cafe" lead by Raj Datta , Vice-President - Knowledge Management at Mindtree Consulting.There was a single question that was discussed in the Cafe - "How do you encourage employees to share ideas and help companies to generate Business round those ideas". There was a short debate on "Patenting" v/s "Value Creation through Idea Generation".

Not a bad start to the first Kamp with around 40 attendees [though there were around 180 people who registered for the event ].

The bottom line of Kamp was "Web 2.0 has revolutionized the way Knowledge is managed in organizations as well in our personal lives....."

There was an interesting presentation that I came across which reading about Knowledge Management on the internet.

| View | Upload your own

Related Articles:
Live Blogging from BarCamp Kerala by Kenney Jacob
Unconferences covered on ThoughtsPrevail

Startup Camp : Sun's unconference for the Startup Community

Long time back, there was a Podcast which focussed on Sun's strategy to help Startups .Just came across an excellent initiative[taken in this direction] by Sun Microsystems named Startup Camp, details of which are given below:

What is StartupCamp?
Startup Camp is an unconference-style event that's dedicated to bringing together the various members of the startup community for a face-to-face collaborative meetup where its the attendees that drive the agenda [in true unconference fashion]

What's hot in StartupCamp?
There are topics which would address each and every corner of a Startup right from Starting Up to Funding a Startup to Managing a startup to Scaling a startup and many more... Some of the HOT topics are given below:

1. How to start without funding?
2. Software Practices for Start-ups
3. Intellectual Property Issues for Startups
4. Venture Labor as an alternative to Venture Capital
5. Marketing with $0.00
6. Developing a winning team

Check out the complete list of Discussion Topics here

When and where:
New York,USA [22-23 October,2007] [Oops, the Unconference is not in India but we can surely watch out other attendee's blogs for more details into the actual event.]

How to register:
More information about StartupCamp here.You can register for the event here

More Coverage:
Ian Murdock sheds light on StartupCamp

Reader Contribution:
Sun Startup Essentials Guide [Thanks Vaibhav Pandey]

Startup "marketing strategies" - I

In one of the talks by Seth Godin , he mentioned about Sun Microsystems where Sun officials mentioned "We will take care of Technology and marketing would be taken care by itself " and as Seth mentions "Technology just enables you to connect to people but marketing helps you reach that Technology to people". Most of us are so much addicted to Technology that we always think in a technological sense but when we think of an idea , all the aspects are very important.

Every Business gets a shape with effective marketing and IMHO, every Business is like a DHANDA(in Hindi).My favourite example is "The guys who sell clothes in Fashion Street,Mumbai are the best marketers I have come across with since, they have the capacity to attract customers as well as compete very effectively with the surrounding competition."

Marketing is one of the pain-points of any startup since, (as a startup) you don't want to spend a single penny on marketing so, how do you still get your idea to the crowd? Below is a list of some the cost-effective marketing strategies , that might be used with a very high impact and good returns :

Note:
This article has been divided in two sections, the next one would follow very soon.

1. Word of Mouth (WOM) Marketing :
This is one of the most effective ways to start your marketing campaign.You tell your friends, relatives & others in your vicinity about your product/service and get their feedback.But only if a person comes back with a feedback than that is the person who is expected to spread the word Rest others are just observers and they can be termed as the passive users of your service/product.

For example: Initially when you have a new blog, in order to get some traffic on your blog, you inform your friends about your blog.Simple isn't it? But do you think each one of them would reach your blog? Na...Only people who are interested in the topic on what you write or who love reading/writing etc. would turn back to your blog.Rest of others are all one-time readers.
So ideal part is to identify the correct audience in your circle whom you can approach & after some time, they would surely revert back with their feedback So, the key is "Identification of the right audience to get the honest feedback".

2. Blog Marketing :
With the increasing number of people going online and reading blogs , Blogs are one of the simplest,fastest & easiest ways to spread the word.I am sure that as a blogger, each one of us, would be receiving many mails asking for a review, feedback etc and this list will keep on growing as more & more companies/startups start realizing the importance of Blogs With a better Broadband penetration in India, Podcasting would also be one of the effective tools for do hard-hitting marketing.

3. Video Marketing :
Few months back, I had posted about the Coolest definition of Web 2.0 and you can check the viewer-ship statistics(which is already in millions) of the video here. But Youtube is not only about posting songs , videos but has also become a unique platform for startups to post Demos of their products. Just when I logged into Gmail, the bottom left corner showed the video(given below), which is a collaborative effort by the Gmail community.



So, what is special about the video? Well, Google has used YouTube to the fullest, to demonstrate the power of Gmail !!! If Google can use this medium, than a startup can definitely use the same medium to spread it's word.In fact, Prof. N. Venkat Venkatraman of Boston University School of Management points out that Google should look to monetize YouTube beyond advertising!!!". Video of Pakistani startup Scrybe demonstrating it's Alpha on YouTube [Interesting video]



4. (Un)Conference Marketing :
Unconferences are one of the best places to network with like-minded people as well as spread the word about your idea/startup.Consider the niche of your product and you are sure to get a good percentage of audience from the unconference community.
For example: If you have a new Blogging platform , than the end users would obviously be bloggers Hence, BlogCamp would be an ideal platform for you to launch your new platform since, many of them would ideally turn out to be the end users of your service !!!

5. T-Shirt Marketing :
So, how does a normal half-sleeve T Shirt cost in India? May be in the range of Rs 100-150 but if you have a logo of your startup on it, it becomes priceless. When your team wears the same T Shirt, it suggests that the team is very well knit and also conveys your brand value. For example: T-Shirts have indirectly turned out to be one of the best tools for marketing unconferences !!! Every time you wear a BarCamp or a BlogCamp T-Shirt , you are sure to attract a million eyeballs !!! Below is the FOSS T-Shirt, which is bang of target wrt the punch line and many have unknowingly complimented me for the design of the T-Shirt T-Shirts have a very long reach with very minimal expense !!!

Image Courtesy : Alok Padhi

Listed above was a mix of conventional and unconventional marketing , the other strategies would be continued in the next article.Definitely, the new era of marketing has arrived and it can be used very effectively by startups !!!