Archive for the ‘The Journey’ Category
Will We Ever Change?
Posted on: February 2, 2009
- In: Entrepreneurship | India | Politics | The Journey
- 10 Comments
Its 10:13pm. I just came back from IITM, after listening to a talk by Nandita Das on “Cinema and Social Change”. I have to admit that until today, I knew that the name had something to do with the Cine world, but I had no other associations of it. This is the first one, and it probably will last that way – thanks to Today.
There is something good about being in a University campus, and working there. You sometimes feel younger beyond your years, and sometimes you just feel out of place. In either case, it provides you an alternate reality – not that I wish for it, but the difference in perspective in opinion and viewpoint is one that I thoroughly enjoy.
I overall liked the talk. It was simple, casual, touched upon personal lives – had a wee bit of self promotion – was optimistic, and the tone was real. But perhaps the message was exaggerated.
See, Gandhi said the words “Be the change that you want to see”. Quite powerful words, and one that finds itself many meanings, depending on what lens you are wearing. Nandita felt free to use those words to stir up a moment, and even an applause from an audience. I dont blame her, but I think its a very common mistake. Let me tell you why. Read the rest of this entry »
Back to the Beginnings.
Posted on: September 6, 2008
I am an Entrepreneur. I know that I am an entrepreneur. I cant stop creating. I cant stop meddling with whats the norm to improve, build, and hopefully influence things in the right direction. I can rarely put up with things that are above and beyond the scope of making things change… change for the better.
Its been close to three years since I exited my last venture and dwelled into my current avatar. The past three ventures have been a bit stressful on life, time and health. A break seemed like the right thing to do to garner some strength, reflect, and iteratively grow.
Proto.in, the work that I’ve been doing in the incubation centre, working with various folks from the industry, venture capital firms, etc etc have all been eye openers. In many ways, they are startups themselves.
Lately, I feel and hear that swelling of that energy. That urge to create, build something out of sheer madness, something that will make a difference – to me, if not for everyone else. As my Professor used to say, the sheer and only drive for an engineer to create is Creative laziness. I guess that best summarizes most forms of influential innovation.
I feel its beginning again. All over. Lets see whats gonna change this time.
Technorati Tags: vijay+anand, the+startup+guy, personal, decision
What Started 700 days ago…
Posted on: July 15, 2008
- In: Business | Entrepreneurship | India | Proto.in | Technology | The Journey
- 5 Comments
There are only a whole total of 14 tasks that need to be done before the event,and given the capable team that we have this time, and the sheer level of enthusiasm flowing, I dont see that to be a problem. The core team from Chennai, Bangalore, and other places are starting to fly in into Delhi starting tomorrow – Our flight leaves in exactly another four hours. The team is busy getting their laptops on datacards so that we can still remain effective, even on the go. We are prepped, geared and all ready for it.
What did didn’t expect is the sheer push of some magical moment that has happened within the community to attend the event. we are nearing 400 attendees for the event, and that’s a “significant” jump from the 250 that we had last time – and trust me when I say that I am genuinely surprised. I always thought that the southern states were more entrepreneur-centric. I suppose it takes a good shot to really prove and debunk theories and myths as well.
In the following two days I am going to be writing to you to prep you to help set some expectations and in terms of some of the activities that we are planning at the event. The Innovation brainjam on the second day is something I am personally looking forward to. The credit goes to Amit Somani of Google, who threw open this open-ended way of brainstorming that they practice at google and as we pondered over the possibility of doing that in a conference. It should be loads of fun.
If you are a blogger by any means are a little rusty, this is the time to sharpen your skills. It’s going to be a liveblogging marathon this time, and we even have a surprise for the best live-blogged summary of the event. If you are the logical, knowledgeable one, well take heed. The quizzes are there to die for. I’m sure you’ve enjoyed the quizzes on the blog, and you’ll see more of it live in action, and as random teams come together to compete.
We are still looking for folks to take up various activities (If you are a good photographer, do let us know). So if you would like to help volunteer, the mailing list for the same is the first place to start, Have fun, keep your heads up high, and as we get together, let the voice that we always echo, echo once more – may the startups win!
PS: We’ll mostly be lurking around the venue starting tommorrow. Feel free to drop by and say hello. We do take encouragement in terms of homemade cookies too 😛 – Just kidding.
A Series of (Un)Fortunate Events.
Posted on: May 25, 2008
Seems like this weekend is far from over. I am wondering at the Irony of the situation, since yesterday was more of a serious, fun and laughable evening – I went to the Laughter Fest with a good friend yesterday. More on that in a little while.
Some of the key observations for the weekend:
Democracy – More critics, and extremely less participants. Atleast thats the way it feels like. We started an initiative called I Fix (which has taken off to other cities) and are planning our next activity. I am really wishing that someday there is going to be a significant turn out in one of the planning meets – given that there are close to a 100 volunteers on the mailing list. So far haven’t achieved that, but is it always this way – that there are few planners and the rest all just fall in place?
Comedy: Went to the Laughter Fest in the evening with a colleague and friend, and must say that yesterday’s play was much better than some of the ones I had seen earlier within the same fest. Theatre is fun I must admit, though the flaws of a poor done script stands out blatantly at your face. Yesterday’s play “Twice around the block” was a stellar performance, except for the bit in the second play (most of the plays were multi-part) the lady who played the wife seemed to have this monologue going on with her at most times, when there was another character on stage (perhaps the quality of a wife she was trying to become?). I heard that Amit Singh who put together this entire idea to bring together so many directors and plays together, is bent on making a living in theatre – and one that is quite nascent here in Chennai, if I may say so. I am sure he knows that better than most others. It certainly is applaudable in that case trying to live as an artist.
Identity: I still don’t understand why folks don’t adapt scripts for India, or take some of the work of an Indian writer (Anyone noticed the spurge of indian writers lately?) and would adapt it into a play – it would make much more sense than trying to make vague jokes about Iowa and Idaho which no one here seems to be able to place. That’s a much longer topic that I’d like to discuss someday.
Death: It’s sunday morning and I just heard that someone close, and someone who was very wise passed away two days ago and the funeral was yesterday. I have been bothered by something for the past two days, and I am wondering if this event had something or anything to do with it. Immanuel, was a man who stood for nothing of ice-glacing, told the truth as it is, never got too emotional to lose perspective, was a loving father, a great man and husband, and one who met his end in his sleep. They say the end of a man’s life depicts his entire life, and knowing the way he finished his journey, it feels as if his ability to plan stands out till the end.
- In: India | The Journey
- 1 Comment
ABCD – American Born Confused Desi. That’s what they’d call an individual whose parents are originally from India, but probably gave birth to, and raised a son or daughter in the American Soil. The kid probably grew up with nothing more than strong dose of american culture, idealism and the values which grow with interaction of the location population, but the skin color just gives it away. No matter how american you are on the inside, you always end up having to live up to the expectations that rise because of what is visible from the outside.
I remember some of my friends growing up in other countries, that whenever they met people who had lived their entire lives in India, they’d ask them something about the hometown of their parents and some remote village, or some news which was a headlines for a while, and they’d draw a blank. I knew that they always whispered under their breathe that this kid was pretentious, when he or she really wasnt.
That’s not where the issue ended. The issue really began there. The issue really got worse when it came to social engagements. Now Whom would an ABCD marry? An indian girl – in which case the girl would beat him with a worn out pair of slippers cause he’d be clueless about any of the local customs, or a foreigner of the land who’d possibly adjust well with him, but his parents and family would have a hard time reconciling?
Read the rest of this entry »
The Addictive Touch.
Posted on: May 8, 2008
About a year back, when I was going around trying to pick a phone, I decided that eventually I’d head the PDA way, so it was time to get a smartphone. It happened, and as much as i was very uncomfortable about the “lets poke into the screen to type” mechanism at first, slowly started getting used to it, and now it has essentially become part of the way that I interact with mobile phones. I am serious! I pick up my friend’s Nokia N Series and do touch the screen to activate it, and do go blank for a second wondering why it doesnt respond. Yep, I am unrepairable and damaged.
So lately I am on a spree of trying out some UMPCs and HCL was nice enough to send the Mileap Y series to the office the other day. That machine, given that its an indian product is quite stunning. The looks are okay – there seem to be much nicer looking ones out there – but the functionality quite measures up. I got to hang on to it for a few days, and had to return it back – not without a teary eye and all.
There were a couple of ASUS EEE PC that were lying around in the office and I’ve picked up one of them, to use them for emails and such, and essentially move all my “communications” out of the desktop PC, and get it into this small, mean, machine.
For one, I am absolutely adapting and loving it. To a point where my normal Vaio is starting to feel heavy, bulky and hmm… inconvenient. Well, I know i couldn’t type this much without a full-fledged laptop, so it aint going anywhere – if at all you were even daring to think about sending me a msg asking if my laptop was for giveaway.
The Point is this. I still think that the Mileap ones, for its touch capabilities, is a better bargain. its slightly more expensive, but the fact that I could use it as a tablet PC is just uber cool. Most times you are taking notes, and this puny keyboard could stand in the way of all that. Plus, with a tablet, you could start drawing things – which could come quite in handy for some of the things I try to explain in this blog, me thinks.
So, the overall consensus is that once touch screens become ubiquitous, there is a whole new world waiting to be awakened.
- In: Technology | The Journey
- 7 Comments
So, I need a new phone. That’s a given. Which one, is the issue.
As Always I’ve tried going through the list of things I’d like on the phone, and here they are:
1. I do check mail on the go, and do very much need it.
2. Ability to hop to a wireless lan when available would be great.
3. Should be type friendly.
Now My options are to go with an Apple Iphone, a Blackberry Curve, or a Sony Xperia.
I love the Apple Iphone, because its an Iphone – does anyone need any other reason than that? It obviously has a slick interface, and gmail on an Iphone is a dream come true. It is not quite push email, but I guess do whatever I am doing currently, and logon whenever I do find the time and catch up with emails. And the fact that it can hop to a wireless lan, and has an awesome screen space, is tempting enough.
The Cons:
1. Given as to how many text messages I shoot out – its much simpler to co-ordinate, remind and respond – the iphone’s interface seems very hard to do that. I have been practicing on the interface of the Ipod Touch, but its still very irky. Do things get better? Is there a way to calibrate the touch? Would like to know.
Read the rest of this entry »
- In: Business | Entrepreneurship | India | Proto.in | The Journey | tips
- 5 Comments
Putting the right tools in place, can make the difference between you having to be stuck in the office managing the team, vs, a system doing its job and you supervising and even better – you remote managing your team and keeping a pulse on how things are progressing.
It sounds like a dream, but isnt too far.
Try the Zoho Suite. I had mentioned in the first part that you should get a corporate email. It seems Zoho offers that as well. Apart from Email, they offer the calendar suite, and everything from applications to take notes, to Wikis, to CRM, etc etc.
Google Analytics. The first thing you need to do after your website is up, is to essentially track your visitors, and ensure that the one channel that serves and mediates your image to the outside world is well taken care of. The second bit to this is to know how to use Google analytics. There are some very spiffy tools and insights that it can provide. See if you can leverage that.
If you can, get a Blackberry. There was a time when affording a blackberry was unthinkable. These days given that its price has touched just about the price point of a normal phone, its a luxury worth having. Email on the go, is something that once you get used to, will not depart away from.
Get a Project management tool in place. This is tough. And trust me, it will take its own sweet time for everyone to fall in place and start using it, but believe me when I say that without this you are not going to scale anywhere. You will end up baby sitting everyone. The only way to scale is to bring accountability and a mindless, neutral system to monitor everyone helps. Recommendation: Basecamp / Activecollab.
Financial Software: Your Excels are not going to hold those data for long. It is better to switch to a financial accounting software from the beginning to start with. There are plenty of freelancing accountants who will setup this process for you.
Invoice Application. Very soon, I assume you are going to run something for clients, and they are going to require invoices. By the time you figure out what template to use and what all is required, the client would have moved on to so many better things. Try Zoho’s Invoice Suite. Another option is Freshbooks.com
VNC: Virtual access is your best friend when you come home, and want to login to your development machine to get something out – after SSH. Block that darn FTP port and dont allow anything apart from secure access.
Anti-Virus. Firewall. AntiSpamware. You cannot afford to be stopped by these measly pests. Enough said.
Block Bittorrent. If you are on office lan, block the ports that Bittorrent uses. The sheer amount of network congestion that BT causes is not good for a productive environment. Block it at all means. Orkut is next on that list – you need to setup a HTTP Proxy for that.
Go Wireless. For Rs.3000 flat, you can go wireless. Eventually people are going to bring in their wireless and the fun element in a startup is the ability to be flexible. Go wireless from day one.
Theme the Office: You could be very cheap and not really look that way. A good chair will set you back by Rs. 5000 to anywhere upto 8000. But imagine if you can get bean bags, or even a few of those gym balls. I’ve been to offices where they have used floorings from Fabmall, thrown a couple of pillows on the ground, and had done an entire japanese – sitting on floor – with low tables and such. It looked fabulous. One could never pull off such things in a MNC.
Corporate Benefits:
When you are running a startup, the first thing your employees will feel is the lack of benefits. It doesnt take much to put together a few and bridge that gap.
1. Income Tax Filing: If you are paying fairly well, your employees will need to file their taxes in time. MYITReturn.com allows you to do it online. Set apart a date and get it all done, with an accountant.
2. Bring in a Financial Planner for Advice. If your Employees pinch the pennies, and do some planning, trust me, it helps you in the long run. Employees who dont save and burn everything every month, end up as liabilities when you yourself are on thin ice every month. Just before the end of the fiscal year, get a financial planner to come, and have a chat with everyone and get them all on a plan to save.
3. Corporate Mobile Plans. If you are anything more than a five people team, any mobile company would be interested to sell you some plans. Get a corporate plan for all your employees, and offer to cover upto Rs.500 in their bill. Also most corporate plans come with the option of being able to talk to each other for free. Will certainly go a distance in making sure they call and talk to each other when necessary. Picking up the phone and talking is still the best way to get something resolved Immediately.
3.b If you can get a guy to come and collect the payment every month as well, that’s even awesome stuff.
4. Suggest to your employees to stay close to where you work – not more than 30 mins commute time. Help them find a place nearby if required.
More to Follow.
Monetizing the Long Tail. Part I.
Posted on: April 30, 2008
- In: Business | Technology | The Journey | tips
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You know, for the sheer amount of noise and echo that used to be carried around under the tag of “Long Tail”, things have mellowed down quite a bit lately. But I think there is an increasing awareness among internet startups on the 3P model (Product x Price = Profit) which is looking at means of revenues beyond just Advertising. Not all services can be free. It simply cant be so. While providing the service for Free to the end-user and charging someone else is one model, its just that – just one of the models.
Unlimited creation, creates unlimited consumption. That was what was spoken about the Long tail. If we have to cut through the middle and divide the “people” of the long tail, they are essentially the 80% of the people who arent contributing to the top of the pyramid. They are producing content which is probably not upto par yet. They are major consumers of alternate products. They have their own way of doing things – cult / opensource etc etc.
All of these are opportunities to monetize, while you are serving this segment.
Point #1: Consumers are the ones who really benefit from the Long tail.
Search Youtube for just about anything and you would find it. Because the range of production is so vast, any consumer has the option to consume what he wants. Look at blogs. There are blogs ranging in the millions out there which amount to a significant chunk of content that is getting churned out – including this very one. Anyone who is looking for stuff to read, has plenty of options. The concept of the “long tail” greatly favors the consumers in terms of options, and drowns the producers taking away attention.
Point #2: Consumer options, dont translate to revenues.
So what if there are 250 million blogs out there? Most blogs dont even get a single person visiting them. So from a producer perspective, the long tail does not benefit by much, if it has to be for monetization.
Point #3: There is plenty of hope.
If there are 80% of the folks within the long tail who are “producers”, its actually very very good news, and the best chance for monetization. The rule is simple. Anyone who can help any segment of this 80% – higher or lower, to “professionalize” their service to move into the higher 20% and make more money, will be more than happy to depart from some of that revenue as service fee to you. So build a product or service that enables these masses to make money, and out of that money, take what is yours.
Thats a reason why salesforce.com makes sense.
More to follow on this.
PS: Do a search on “The long tail” and you will realize that the long tail concept applies to everything from digital media, to internet voice applications, to the sale of wallpapers, to chip making companies, etc etc etc. The applications are wide as the options in the long tail itself.
Doers Vs. Sayers.
Posted on: April 30, 2008
- In: Business | Entrepreneurship | India | The Journey | tips
- 1 Comment
While I was in Canada, I remember having this fabulous movie collection. Most of them were DVDs, and some of them were in CDs (The documentaries type). It was probably a collection that I was very proud of. Then along came my roommate one day and borrowed a whole lot of DVDs to impress this new girl that he had been dating. Little by little, more movies went out, and my shelf started to look quite barren. Some of the DVDs did return, but not before it had gotten some pretty bad scratches on them. I almost had doubted whether they were running a business renting out some of these.
A few months later they broke up. I knew I had to kiss goodbye to my DVDs that day. After some major protests, a few of the DVDs returned, some of them were just the boxes.
I don’t blame my room mate and friend about this. Its the way some people are wired. Some people are born with the sense of urgency to constantly get things done, throw out the waste, keep improving and keep moving, but others arent.
For one, I know for a fact that I cant sit on something. I rent a DVD from my store for three days and If I watch it on the first day, right after its over I’ll make sure it goes into my car and is duly handed in into the store the next time I pass by. I could rarely hold on to a book that I had borrowed – past its reasonable deadline, not to anything that I am holding onto, which belongs to someone else.
We all eventually will, and with a certain magnitude of determination and passion will get the things done, the way we want it. But how soon, and with what preparation and to what quality is what sorts the losers from the winners. I absolutely believe in that. If you want to spot a winner, spot one that can’t sit on her hands, but is constantly moving, and aiming for that imaginary face before her, getting ready for the big fight. That’s a winner you need to bet on.
Vijay Anand | The Startup Guy. 
