Startups/Education/Technology

Revolving Doors Strategy: How to Exit Your Startup & Still Be In It

2012-02-09T13:58:00.013+05:30

Something that is less widely written/spoken about is 'How do you exit your start-up successfully and still be in it?' My good friend, Dr Kapil Arora, terms this the "revolving doors strategy". It looks like you are going out but you keep coming right back in !

To exit your start-up successfully is the Mount Everest of start-up achievement. But to exit your start-up successfully AND continue to be there is like sitting on top of the flag pole on top of Mount Everest. Exceedingly extraordinary. I have exited my start-up successfully. But whether I am still there is debatable. I will explain what I mean towards the end of this post. But before we get there, the road to a successful exit requires is based on basic principles of good business. Keep in mind that all that I talk about in this blog is relevant to services based start-ups. I cannot confirm if the same basics apply to an IP based business. Keep the salt handy. You may need a pinch any time. The basic principles of good business which enable a successful exit for a founder are ...

MARKET - BUSINESSES THAT ADDRESS A LARGE OR COMPLEX NEED ARE GOOD FOR EXIT

If your business addresses the simple need of lots of people or a complex need, it is likely that it will grow, gather momentum and start running itself. Which is the kind of business that you can successfully exit. Conversely, if your business solves a simple need of a few people it will not scale and will not make profits. It is unlikely you will successfully exit. The matrix below summarizes my point. If your business is in the red quadrant, a successful exit is unlikely. Green quadrants are good. The yellow quadrant is excellent for a successful exit.

BUSINESS MODEL - GIVEN THAT YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT BUSINESS, BUILD A BUSINESS MODEL THAT MAKES A LOT OF PROFIT AND/OR SCALES FAST.

A lot of entrepreneurs find this counter intuitive. Isn't a start-up about passion and ideas? Do we have to make a profit? Aren't start-ups supposed to sacrifice profit for growth? Answers ...

1) You cannot sacrifice what you do not have - so you can sacrifice profit for growth only if you HAVE a profitable business model to start with.

2) If you are not profitable, it is that much harder to successfully exit. Because profits increase affordability. Affordability enhances likelihood of hiring smart people. Hiring smart people is critical to exit. So make sure your business model is profitable, even if you are not making money currently.

3) AND/OR scale fast - if your strategy is scaling rapidly rather than profits, then build a rapid scale business model. Scale creates momentum, which in turn enables the hiring of smart people. But if you are scaling and not making a profit, be sure to check whether "not scaling" would have made you a profit. This is a simple calculation to do on an excel sheet provided you are willing to confront the truth. It is good to discover early that you are in an unprofitable business. It would feel terrible running a hugely scaled unprofitable business - think General Motors, Ford, Panasonic, Sony.

The matrix below summarizes my point on the Business Model. Red is not good for a successful exit. Not making a profit and growing at 20% year on year on a small base of revenue may be the symptom of a bad business model. Greens are good. Yellow is when your prayers have been answered.

SUCCESSION PLANNING - SPEND TIME TEACHING SOMEONE TIGER RIDING

Hire smart people and ask them to do your work for you. If you ignore succession planning, it will come back to bite you when you want to exit your business. Running a company is like riding a tiger; fun when you are on it - power, respect, freedom - they are all yours. But when you want to get off, there better be another tiger rider around, or you will just have to stay on.

EXITING

Wish and pray that there is a giant company waiting to gobble you up. If wishing and praying do not work, which is usually the case, then go to every conference in town where the big guys assemble and make sure to tell everyone how well you are doing. Also be highly visible in all media. People say 'companies get bought, not sold'. I will add 'companies get bought, not sold. But only in cases where the buyer has heard of the company'.

If someone buys you, you have money in the bank and you are happy. If no one buys you, you still have a profitable business or a large scale business that can be turned profitable and a succession plan in place. So you can set a date, transition and walk away. Only difference from a buy out is that you have to sit on quarterly Board meetings and demand a dividend so the CEO knows you expect performance and results.

I will let you in on a secret. When I was leaving, I was wondering if anyone could do all the great things I was doing at work. But a year later, they are doing just fine. So even for a moment, do not kid yourself into thinking you are the guy who "runs" the place. You are not. They will do just fine. PROVIDED, you have spent time and effort building people and processes. Which brings us to the point of the Revolving Doors Strategy.

By leaving the company you started, yet leaving behind your values, ideas and successors, you can be there even when you are not there any more. Which is how you get to sit on top of the flag pole on top of Mount Everest. There is so little space on top of a flag pole. Which is why so few get there.

I would argue that NRN achieved it while Bill Gates did not. But that is my next blog post.

Education has a cost problem, not a quality problem - by Avichal Garg

2012-02-04T10:48:00.000+05:30

Excellent blog with deep insight by Avichal Garg
http://avichal.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/why-education-startups-do-not-succeed/

P&G To Lay Off 1,600 After Discovering It's Free To Advertise On Facebook

2012-01-31T12:49:00.000+05:30

http://www.businessinsider.com/pg-ceo-to-lay-off-1600-after-discovering-its-free-to-advertise-on-facebook-and-google-2012-1

A giant passes away - RIP Paul Goodman

2012-01-30T07:37:00.000+05:30

Dr Paul Goodman, a towering academic passes away

http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2012/january/jan26_paulgoodmanobit.html

Why Every Entrepreneur Should Self-Publish

2012-01-29T12:14:00.000+05:30

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/28/why-every-entrepreneur-should-self-publish-a-book/

Top 10 Online MBAs

2011-11-29T12:35:00.001+05:30

http://www.macquil.com/articles/onlinemba.php

Beginner's Guide To Recruitment at Infibeam

2011-11-22T10:42:00.001+05:30

http://www.infibeam.com/eBooks/

Beginner's Guide to Recruitment at Infibeam.

A good insight into starting a company

2011-11-21T13:37:00.000+05:30

http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/11/20/watch-steve-jobs-brainstorm-with-the-next-team-in-this-fascinating-video/

There are so many investment opportunities here

2011-11-16T09:21:00.001+05:30

http://www.storyofstuff.org/

Sikkim Manipal University signs up with Edinburgh Napier University

2011-11-15T15:40:00.000+05:30

http://www.edu-leaders.com/content/sikkim-manipal-signs-mou-scottish-university

An interesting collaboration

Google Apps Versus Office 365

2011-11-10T14:06:00.000+05:30

I have been looking at Google Apps versus Office 365. What we have learned

Google sites does not have the depth of features that Sharepoint online (part of Office 365) has. For instance - Sharepoint has native workflow, google apps offers workflow through partner apps which are not as well engineered as Google Apps.

Google docs has concurrent editing capability that Office 365 cannot match - but to educate users to use this degree of collaboration is a journey. In our own case, while all employees have been issued laptops, ensuring they bring it to a meeting and make notes straight onto laptop or send emails wrt points discussed in meeting is a challenge - people write on paper, go back to their office, type it out on laptops and then communicate. So real-time collab is something we have to work towards. Gmail and voice and talk and youtube are features that office 365 will take some time to match. I would suggest you do a comparison of what you need against each of the broad capabilities in Office 365 and Google Apps.

Regarding the User Interface - if you have people who use laptop more an handheld then there is no good replacement for Outlook. So you will have to couple Outlook with gmail. This works but I have read that there are limitations but Google Sync seems to have solved most of it. Of course you have to continue to use MS Office since Google Apps offers no offline capability. So with current capabilities of both products you can have a Google Apps server + MS Office + Outlook as clients with Google sync and Google cloud connect.

Regarding security - Google has a US govt accepted security certification that certifies that Google Apps is secure, details available on google site. I would argue that most enterprise IT infra will not qualify for that security certification. Google Apps is probably more secure than most enterprise IT infra.

Most importantly- why do you want to do it? For what business benefit? If you want to save cost by moving to cloud infra - then google apps and o365 are each appropriate depending on what your business needs. I doubt cloud hosting will save cost. I think it will improve availability and will reduce the overhead of managing your own datacenter. And change management can be best handled by retaining user facing applications like Outlook and MS Office so users are unlikely to experience a change except when they access email through a browser. This would be path of least resistance

Sane, simple advice on creating IT Strategy - loved it

2011-11-02T16:07:00.001+05:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbyJY9KlrtM

Joomla Versus Drupal

2011-10-29T10:01:00.002+05:30

http://www.a3webtech.com/index.php/compare-drupal-v-joomla-cms.html

Innovation and Crowdsourcing Platforms

2011-10-29T08:26:00.001+05:30

A list of innovation and crowdsourcing platforms

http://www.openinnovators.net/list-open-innovation-crowdsourcing-examples/

http://www.napkinlabs.com/ is interesting

Innovation in the Indian travel & hospitality industry

2011-10-25T05:59:00.002+05:30

We have all met the 'cab driver from hell' at one time or the other. There are so many types of cab drivers who can ruin your cab journey - the one who drives badly, the one who talks on his mobile while he drives, the one who suffocates you with body odor and so on.

For me, the most novel unsettling cabbie experience was in Malaysia. We took a cab from Melacca to Kuala Lumpur. The cabbie politely asked us if he could bring his wife along since he wanted her to see Kuala Lumpur. We said 'sure' since there was just me and my wife in the back and the front seat was empty. As soon as his wife got into the car, he took her hand in his left hand while his right hand was on the steering wheel. It was a stick-shift car. When he had to change gears, he let go of the steering wheel, changed gear and then brought back his right hand to the steering, while his left hand continued to hold his wife's hand. I watched this for a few minutes. I did not want to interrupt what seemed to be a romantic moment for both of them. But when I realized, he planned to do this for the entire 3 hour drive, I said - 'Excuse me, can you please drive with both hands, we are getting nervous'. It took a moment for him to understand what I meant after which he brought both hands to the steering wheel.

I came across two interesting companies which want to address the 'cab driver from hell' problem.

Savaari which offers cabs and good quality drivers across 60 cities in India with a web-based booking system which offers the convenience of booking a cab from anywhere in the world (available at savaari.com). This solves the last-mile problem - till recently you could book airline ticket/hotel through the web but not a cab. It also creates a branded cab service where quality of service is assured.

GlobalThen which offers training solutions to the travel and hospitality industry. You can read about the company at globalthen.com and specifically about the cab driver training at

globalthen.com/baburaokikahani

If these companies can pull it off, it will help substantially in the Government's 'Atithi Devo Bhavah' Program

Mulling over Education

2011-10-24T08:14:00.001+05:30

What is the impact of these websites on education?

http://www.khanacademy.org/
http://academicearth.org
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses
http://itunes.stanford.edu/
http://www.uopeople.org/

Interesting idea at http://www.jimmyr.com/blog/Online_Education_Free_201_2006.php

RESPECT Google ! This is the Google Engineer's Rant

2011-10-23T13:04:00.000+05:30

https://plus.google.com/112678702228711889851/posts/eVeouesvaVX

Awesome insight into the Tech industry. And my respect for Google has gone up enormously - they use their own tools internally and they do not fire a person just because he said the right things in the wrong place.

RESPECT !

The Strategic Value of Big Data - by Sumit Banerjee

2011-10-23T10:33:00.000+05:30

Sumit Banerjee, my classmate and friend from REC Surat has written an excellent article on the strategic value of Big Data. Very insightful - especially in India with the rise of the Indian e-commerce companies. Read it at

http://www.accenture.com/us-en/outlook/Pages/outlook-journal-2011-how-big-data-fuels-bigger-growth.aspx

Mindmap - Mindmapping tools

2011-10-18T15:30:00.000+05:30

Mindmapping tools are critical to starting a business. Here are a couple of good ones. Will post more on this later...

XMIND if you want a free solution

MINDJET if you want a paid one

An interesting view about Steve Jobs !

2011-10-11T19:03:00.001+05:30

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20117575-37/what-i-learned-from-steve-jobs/

Travelling to win deals ! Last Mile Solution

2011-10-11T11:51:00.001+05:30

Since startup founders travel so much to get orders/raise funding here is an interesting company that I came across that solves the last mile problem of travel - how to get from the Airport or Rly Station to the meeting without any hassle - online booking, clean cars etc - came across an interesting company called Savaari which offers chauffeur driven quality rental car services at nominal rates across India.

Check it out at www.savaari.com

something for wall street boys to learn

2011-10-05T16:56:00.001+05:30

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/100411-ballmer-pay-251574.html

Worry About Your Own Fortunes Gentlemen !

2011-09-30T07:22:00.002+05:30

Remember the line from Pirates of the Caribbean - Part 1 - "worry about your own fortunes, gentlemen". Always reminded of the line when I hear people passionately lecturing Malaysians and other oil exporting countries about how they have to plan for a future with no oil. Well here is the point - as long as there is oil, Malaysia and other oil exporting countries are going to be making a lot of money. When oil runs out it is not only the oil exporting countries that have to find answers. It is also oil consuming nations. The largest consumers of oil in the world today are the US, China and India. I do not see them having found a solution to a post-oil future. If they had, there would be no oil exporting countries. Just as oil exporting countries will face social and economic upheaval in a post-oil world, so will oil consuming nations. If we run out of oil we will all have to worry about our own fortunes. So please let the Malaysians party.

I Think I Can Throw Away My Laptop Now

2011-08-21T05:58:00.000+05:30

I am now on Yahoo Mail, Plaxo, Dropbox, Spotify, Facebook, Blogs, Shelfari, Amazon.com, Amazon Web Services. I think I can throw away my laptop. A PC at work should be enough for me. And I can use anyone's PC/Laptop/Ipad to access my stuff. Is this the new meaning of mobility? Instead of lugging your devices around you access them from whatever device is available.

Where Is Sardar Vallabhai Patel When We Need Him?

2011-08-18T05:50:00.006+05:30

As we watch the Anna Hazare protest on TV in India and the reactions of several politicians it makes me look for Sardar Vallabhai Patel. In the pantheon of India's greatest leaders we have Mohandas Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr Ambedkar. Anna Hazare has played the role of Gandhi. He has called on Indians to protest against what their conscience tells them is wrong. He appeals to our conscience, unlike so many other political protests that appeal to our caste, religion or ethnicity. It was Gandhi's genius that he was able to rouse people by asking them to be true to themselves, to demonstrate moral courage. Anna Hazare has very effectively harnessed moral courage and created a people's movement.

But no leader in India is donning the role of Sardar Patel who was India's first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. During the Partition, India's most painful episode, Sardar Patel swung to action. He galvanized the Government by asking every official within Government to act according to their conscience and not wait for orders from above. He employed Saama, Daana, Bheda, Dhanda to get things done. And when the 565 autonomous princely states had to be convinced or coerced into joining the Indian Union he did not balk. He did not hesitate to use military might where necessary to coerce the princely States into becoming part of the Indian Union. Just as in the Mahabharata, Arjuna responded to the need for action on the battlefield, Sardar Patel acted. He did what he believed was best for the nation and his legacy is this Akhand Bharath, one united India. While his critics have carped, we are fortunate we had a courageous leader who acted decisively, who did not wring his hands and wonder what to do.

But when I see Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram in Parliament, I see an unwillingness to act. Some politicians of the ruling party have the gall to say "this protest will not stop corruption". They are deluding themselves because they do not have the courage to act. What they do not realize is that the protesters are protesting to tell the Government to act against corruption. Nobody believes the protest itself will stop corruption. This is not about the Jan Lokpal. This is about the Government with its enormous powers to act, to punish wrong doers, to make systemic changes. Only a fool will say the Government cannot do anything about corruption. The Government is supremely powerful and can do ANYTHING. Since some politicians have asked what can be done to stop corruption here are a few things that leaders of civil society have asked them to do -- implement immediately through government orders and introduce it into Parliament later -- administrative reforms, Police reforms, judicial reforms, land and registry reforms and watch corruption die. If you are in Government and want to be seen as a leader introduce all these Bills in Parliament this week. There are so many things that only need a Government Order, not an Act of Parliament. Do it. Now. Seize the moment.

It is tragic to see Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram in Parliament looking beaten. For those who remember, in 1991, while India was near bankruptcy these same two gentlemen along with PV Narasimha Rao, another extraordinary man who rose to the occasion, swung to action. They did not say "we do not know what to do" or "no one has an answer". They took courageous steps. They were opposed tooth and nail in Parliament by the Leftists. But they persisted. In 11 months, they wrote Bills, repealed Acts, introduced new Acts, and issued Government Orders that today has transformed India economically. They did not balk, they did not hesitate.

When World War II loomed over Europe, when the Nazis had occupied all of Europe except Britain, when the Nazis looked invincible, Winston Churchill stood up, rallied people and went to war, because he believed that freedom was worth more than anything else. He was the Prime Minister of a democratically elected coalition Government at the time. He had all the political pressures that Manmohan Singh and the UPA have. But he pulled it off.

Here is your chance Dr Manmohan Singh.

True Entrepreneurship - the story of the Manipal Pais

2011-08-17T13:34:00.003+05:30

This article captures the spirit of entrepreneurship and the opportunities in education in India

http://www.businessworld.in/businessworld/businessworld/content/Education-Barons-Manipal.html

Connecting social networks, instant messengers, voip services

2011-08-14T12:28:00.000+05:30

The telephone network grew explosively because you can speak to anyone on the phone network, even with people who have subscribed to a different service provider. Interconnected telephone networks were achieved through legislation - licenses are awarded to service providers only if they agree to interconnect.

By the same token, it is time governments across the world mandate that social networks, instant messengers, voip services and all communication networks should be interconnected. Imagine how absurd it would be if you had a yahoo email account and could email only to people with yahoo email accounts. But we all accept that you cannot chat with people on Google chat if you are logged onto Yahoo messenger. There are third party software tools that enable interconnect but this is absurd. Just as I can write an email or send a fax or call anyone from my communication device I should be able to instant message anyone across networks through my instant chat client or through my social network. Since internet based communication service providers like yahoo, google, skype did not have to obtain a license to provide a service, they can argue that the government cannot regulate them. But that is a flawed argument. All internet based communication service providers survive because of telecom networks - they use the telecom network to reach their consumers users. So several of the rules that apply to telecom networks should apply as much to them. Moreover, the government can regulate anything that affects large numbers of people.

Can India take the lead and demand interconnected internet based communication services

Where are the Indian e-commerce businesses?

2011-07-31T15:54:00.002+05:30

The growth of Chinese internet companies shows that India too will see the rise of internet businesses. The key the Economist says is

- In the West, internet companies replaced traditional companies offering the same service. But in China (and I would argue this is applicable in India too), they are addressing un-addressed markets - so it will be easier to grow since the consumer is comparing the service with not having the service at all.

- Broadband has reached home before organized brick and mortar retailers reach near their home.

You can read the Economist China internet story at http://www.economist.com/node/21524821

I postulate that the same thing will happen in India too. We will see the rise of several internet/mobile commerce companies in India. One additional Indian dynamic that will help the growth of Indian internet/mobile commerce companies is that India has extremely poor transport infrastructure. Owing to which a lot of people will prefer to shop from home. Some internet services that are currently not available/fully available in India and could serve as a huge business opportunity to entrepreneurs ...

-web search in non-English languages

-mobile phone based search in non-English languages

-an online book store + reader combination. Infibeam has a good reader but they do not have the range of titles and they do not carry enough Indian language titles.

- a text book store - for kids to buy text books.

-a good online music store - where do i go to buy songs and download onto a player. I doubt if everyone wants pirated mp3's on USB sticks. I suspect there are several people who will pay for good quality music downloads that plays well on a good music player. Apple iTunes does not have enough Indian content.

-an English language teaching place integrating internet + mobile + plain old land line phones

- an online counselling business - using internet + mobile + call center for advising kids on which school/college/course to study and how to get internships.

- an online store to buy consumer electronics - with the range of electronics available the e-zones and chromas never carry all the stuff. Ideal for an online retailer.

- i would argue that shoes will work too - just like the american company that amazon acquired some time ago - cant remember their name.

I felt an "IT Aha" moment today!

2011-07-28T17:34:00.000+05:30

Just this day had an IT aha moment - a reiteration of the power of a strong IT infrastructure. with Active Directory + Global Address List + Outlook + Lync + Sharepoint an Enterprise's productivity can soar. Just by letting people communicate truly seamlessly. Ofcourse, I am using Microsoft brand names only because that is what we are using. The concept equally applicable with Google Apps or any other solution that offers the full range of collaboration. We have not yet added voice+video to it. That will complete the "communication" experience !

The iPad is a tiny TV ! With on-board power

2011-07-21T20:08:00.000+05:30

I am suffering because I have an iPad 1. (Is it Ok to admit having just an iPad 1, not an iPad2 ? Well let the social mores take a walk, I have an iPad 1. If that means I can only use the washroom marked for the serfs so be it.) But I am suffering because of my iPad 1 and here is my list of woes

Strangely enough for a device named iPad, it insists on capitalizing the first word of every sentence. That may seem a good thing to you. But if it also capitalizes the beginning of your user id which can get irritating at times. Because all my user ids start with a small letter. (Oops! did the social engineering hackers learn something about me. Wait let me check my bank balance.). What happens when you type iPad as the first word of a sentence on the iPad - hang on let me check - funnily enough it corrects it to Ipad. So obviously all those kids writing marketing material for the iPad on the internet are not using iPads. They are using Microsoft Word because - just checked on Microsoft Word 2010 - while it does not allow iPad as the first word of a sentence it does give the option of correcting it to iPod. But you can add it to the dictionary and once you have done it you can type iPad as the first word of a sentence. Like they say in Hindi - which can apply well to all of the things Microsoft does - "dheri hain, lekin andheri nahin" - meaning "they may be late in getting the hang of things, but they are not blind to reality". Then there are a whole set of Steve Jobs-ish idiosyncrasies in the auto-correct function on the iPad but I will let you discover it on your own.

Then I move to my email. I received a PDF from my bank. I double click the PDF, it prompts for a password. The password is in my email. I search it and then tap the password to copy it. Nothing happens. Then I tap it several times and yet nothing happens. Then I realize you need to tap it and hold it for a while for the word to be selected. But hey - hold on - if I tap and hold sometimes the entire paragraph gets selected. And then sometimes nothing gets selected. Apparently there a few things you need to get right in doing cut/paste on an iPad. One of them is that you need thin & nimble fingers. Not quite the same as using a wireless optical mouse. Which makes me wonder - if Apple is all that cool why is it that they do not know how to implement an easy copy/paste. I cannot work without copy/paste. For instance, I sent an email to a few friends and then wanted to share the email with other friends whose email id I do not have. But I know them on FB. I try to copy and paste from email into FB and several things go wrong.

Try hitting the forward option on the yahoo mail app on the iPad and for some strange reason the body of the forwarded email is not shown. So you if want to read and edit the forward before you send it ... well boot up your laptop. Oh and there are thousands of websites that run Flash videos which the iPad stubbornly refuses to render. And when I look for a USB port I cannot see one. And where is the camera? And try editing your Microsoft Excel sheet on an iPad.

The iPad is good for viewing stuff others have made. If you want to comment, co-create or create content, boot up that PC. There is a device just like the iPad and is in almost every home everywhere across the world. It accepts only touch input, plays video and sound extremely well, cannot do co-creation or commenting, cannot do text editing. Only thing, you cannot lift it and carry it around. But then, neither can you watch the Lord of the Rings on the iPad. It is called a TV and has been around for some time now. And costs half as much. If you have the money, skip the iPad, buy a TV and a Laptop and donate the money you save to the poor kids in southern Sudan.

What They Said About MeritTrac

2011-07-18T08:52:00.001+05:30

http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/spotting-talent/1/6876.html

Taking this really short Startup Survey (From Verdure)

2011-06-27T20:33:00.000+05:30

Interesting startup survey from Verdure Venture Consulting at http://tinyurl.com/3wk8lol

Industrializing PhD Studies

2011-06-20T20:45:00.004+05:30

The idea of industrializing PhD studies came to me when I was attending a seminar recently.

A bit about the seminar before I discuss the idea ... I attended a seminar on pursuing a PhD and a career in research at a university in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend. I was there since my friend was speaking. Experienced researchers with PhD's were speaking to undergrad and post-grad students on the pluses and pains of doing a PhD. They spoke about their PhD experience. There were both profundities and comic relief - with repeat references to phdcomics.com. What the experienced researchers said was ...

1) Be sure you want to do a PhD - a lot of people start off because prefixing their name with "Dr" is so cool. But along the way they realize that it is a lot of hard work. You have to have an enduring passion for the subject and for doing research. You should also have a good graduate education in a related field - doing your PhD in Shakespeare studies after finishing your Masters in Physics is not a good idea. PhD graduation rates are very low.

2) A PhD neither guarantees a job nor a higher pay. In fact, quite the opposite. Most employers may find you overqualified. Several Ivy League universities are unable to find jobs for a majority of their PhD students.

3) It usually takes 7 years to do a PhD. During the time, be in touch with family, make friends, have an active social life and have intellectual peers which will ensure there is no intellectual or social loneliness.

4) The stages are - define the problem, do literature survey, collect, analyze, postulate, write the thesis, defend and graduate.

5) While it is a lot of hard work, frustration and loneliness, when you graduate and become a Dr it feels well worth it.

Which made me ask the question ..."Why cannot PhD research be industrialized? Why put people through loneliness and hardship? Why make them do research in an area that they randomly choose? Why waste time and effort in doing research that no one wants or cares about?

My wisdom on this; from bridges to cars to clothes we have progressed as a civilization because we have industrialized our crafts. Where one expert craftsman was doing most things on on his/her own, along came someone and said - "if we ask potential customers what they want, then have a team to do work with some guys coordinating work and bring in tools we can do things better, faster, cheaper. And no more lonely craftsmen toiling away alone". Yes, the master craftsman is wistful of a bygone era where she could define the problem, design the solution, build it and feel good about it. But society benefits from industrialization because time, money and effort is channelled to solve problems that affect large numbers of people.

By the same token, why not industrialize the PhD study. For instance, make universities set up portals where people from all walks of life state what problems they want the university to solve. These problems are picked up by the university and allotted to groups of PhD students who work in teams. The univ supports them by assigning people to do administrative and clerical tasks so the PhD students focus on research and problem solving. This way we could graduate PhDs in a shorter time, they will not feel lonely since they work as a team, the clerical support ensures they do not have to contend with word processing and they produce something that the world is waiting for.

What do you think?

MeritTrac CEO Murlidhar on Startup in India

2011-06-19T21:58:00.001+05:30

Read it at ...
http://www.dnaindia.com/money/conversation-corner_capture-the-excitement-in-india_1556739

Team Building and Delegation Gyan

2011-05-31T22:00:00.000+05:30

If you want to leave behind a legacy it may be better to learn from Walt Disney rather than from RK Laxman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._K._Laxman). Both Walt Disney and RK Laxman were cartoonists, but look at the enormous difference in their legacies.

Never Too Old - the Idea doesnt matter

2011-04-23T21:04:00.002+05:30

You are never too old ... the idea does not matter.

Go ahead and start that company - its never too old and u cant tell beforehand if the idea is good. Age - Ray Kroc was 50 something when he bought the 1 McDonald restaurant and made it into a franchise. Ideas - who would have thought aerated sugared caffeinated water would be a global multi-billion dollar business. What was the need there? What was the elevator pitch?

Using communication in a "startup" way

2011-03-09T22:15:00.002+05:30

http://www.hellercd.com/2011/02/rectify-the-language/

Really neat writeup on communicating clearly and in simple words

Should I startup from Harvard Startup Guru

2011-03-07T21:01:00.000+05:30

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/01/should_i_become_an_entrepreneu.html

The Brave New World of Work !! Cool writeup

2011-02-13T17:34:00.001+05:30

http://blogs.forbes.com/ciocentral/2011/02/11/welcome-to-the-brave-new-world-of-virtual-work/

CAT Exams Development & Scoring

2011-01-19T11:21:00.000+05:30

http://www.catiim.in/dev_scorind_equityprocess.html

CAT 2010 Press Conference - I was there !

2010-12-01T13:43:00.000+05:30

An article from MBAUniverse on succesful CAT this year ... one of the guys in the photograph is me !

MeritTrac was a Prometric partner this year for CAT 2010...
http://www.mbauniverse.com/directors-digest/volume_1_issue_2/coverstory.php

The Return of the King OR Get BillG back to Microsoft!

2010-11-01T20:32:00.002+05:30

I have been waiting for this. Ray Ozzie is leaving Microsoft. And Eight Finger Eddie - the hippie who apparently discovered Anjuna Beach is dead. I vaguely remember that in the book - "The Road Ahead" - Bill Gates said the coolest programmers were hippies who trekked in India and then went back to Silicon Valley and wrote some super applications. I do not remember now if he was referring to Ray Ozzie or if he was referring to Mitch Kapor. But if he was referring to Ray Ozzie, then Ray can rediscover his hippie days by taking the place of Eight Finger Eddie at Anjuna. He can enjoy Ajuna's azure water - among other things.

I have been waiting for Ray Ozzie to leave Microsoft because it paves the way for the return of The King - BillG. The sad thing for all of us is that in the computer industry today, guys who were always second best are looking like superstars now since The King is not around. As a parallel, in the tamil movie industry for instance, Vijay or Surya would have been acting in Enthiran if Rajnikanth had not been around.

Take for instance Steve Jobs. For nearly 20 years, Apple had been making Macs - own hardware on own OS. And they have always had a less than 10% share of the market. Apple's products were cool and over priced. And a few people who thought coolness was a requirement bought Apple products. For the rest of the world Windows on any hardware was the solution. And Steve Jobs went around telling everyone that Microsoft stole Apple's user interface. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. But if your only claim to fame is a cool user interface then you deserve only a 10% share of the market. And then when BillG was busy getting kids in Africa and India vaccinated (or whatever it is he does - not sure because most of the news just says he does charity), Steve Jobs goes out and copies Microsoft's greatest idea - the route to a mountain of money is to first pick an existing product that is poorly made and does not have a good business model though the potential market is huge. Then perfect the product, build a great business model around it, work with partners and focus only on the core. Very soon there is a flood of cash. So Steve goes to a Taiwanese manufacturer, asks them to make what is essentially the Creative music player but in a white box. He goes to all the music companies and tells them to put all their music on his website and he will pay each time someone downloads a song. The kids like this because it is easier to search and download songs from an Apple website rather than searching for pirated music from a multitude of web sites.

Or Eric Schmidt for that matter. Novell had such a hard time competing with Microsoft when BillG was around. BillG had Netware for breakfast. Does anyone remember Sun Microsystems - "we are the dot in .com" - whatever that meant. And though Larry Ellison for ever has been trying to compete with Microsoft, he does not seem to be getting anywhere. After having acquired every possible company in the IT industry, Oracle continues to remain a much smaller company than Microsoft. And though Larry Ellison was the first guy to talk about "computing on tap", Amazon seems to have stolen the lead on that front.

Well Microsoft itself is not Microsoft anymore. Why would SQL Server Azure be more expensive than SQL Server on AWS? Unless someone at Microsoft seriously believes that they will keep selling hardware boxes and Enterpise licenses for ever. The Windows and Office teams at Microsoft need a good strong shake up. Else Google Apps will have them for breakfast. Google Apps cant do a lot of stuff that Excel can do. But then millions of users do not use most of the fancy stuff on Excel - try this at your office - ask your Excel users to do a PivotTable. If they cant do PivotTable, then they dont need Excel - Google Apps is enough.

So here is wishing BillG will leave the charity to the professionals. Let him keep writing the cheques and let someone else actually fly to Africa/India to review progress. Lets get BillG back where he belongs - at the head of Microsoft and kicking some serious butt. The only conditions should be - he cannot use the word Windows in any communication and he should support Flash on all devices. Let him reinvent Microsoft completely - from scratch.

Why Windows 7 when we can be on Cloud 9 ?

India: Knowledge and Professional Services to the World - The Next Decade- Conference by AIMA

2010-10-28T19:59:00.000+05:30

From someone who attended :

The message from all speakers clearly indicated rapid growth in the IT/ BPO segment for the next decade - (Top 4 trends- Shift to cloud computing, Importance of using mobiles for various application to leverage 6.5 mobile users currently- Mobility, use of social media for business- eg- Facebook, Twitter, Offering end to end solution to the client- very few only IT or only BPO companies to remain). The key challenge being reforms in the education sector to increase the available employable talent pool.

Listing down some Key statistics/ points raised by the speakers below for your reference-

Mr. N. R. Narayan Murthy-

• IT services industry has potential to reach $ 300 billion from current level of $ 50 billion dollars by 2020 with a projected growth rate of 20%. At a growth rate of 10% it will take 16 -17 yrs to reach $300 billion.

• Increasing opportunities from the PSU & Govt sectors

• To focus on Emerging markets (in addition to America/ Europe)

• Need to scale up engineering talent intake (Reforms needed in education, with input from corporate)

• Globalised Approach- hire local talent in other countries- Improve brand equity of Indian companies overseas to attract & retain talent

• Infosys Business Structure- 30% consulting, 60% software & allied services, 10% BPO.

• Rural BPO’s to grow

• To invest in new product development

Mr Kris Gopal Krishna

• 50% new jobs last year were created by IT services last year

• Infosys to hire 25,000 candidates from campus

• Companies are going to move from a technology solutions provider to an end to end business solutions provider

• Cloud is going to be the future- application products – Services for this to be developed in India

• Need for MBA’s/ CA’s/ Lawyers will increase (In addition to engineers)

• Cost is not the only benefit a customer looks for- Intial buy- in may be due to low cost, but a customer is retained/ grown through other value ads.

• Work with campuses to increase employable pool. Research based education.

Mr. Ashok Kumar manoli

• BPO has grown over 35% in each of the last 5 yrs, to grow by 50% this year

• 80% of business comes from America/ Europe

• Use of Mobile commerce in the future

• Extending presence to Tier 2 & 3 cities will help reduce costs by 35%

Partha De Sarkar

• BPO employed 1.8 billion till 09 & can grow to employing 5 billion people

• Seasonal peaks are unlikely (Was last seen in 2005 where 1000+ candidates were hired in a month)

• Focus on quality will improve

• Cost of Training, cannot be taken by corporate for long (Expect the Govt intervention to refine the education system)

• Cost of inflation/ appreciation of the Re is impacting business

• Hinduja Global Solutions- 98% is BPO.

Ganesh Lakshmi Narayan

• Requirement for strong corporate governance.

• Reputation of the BPO industry to be improved

• Non Linear growth is expected

• Social networking as a business tool to be used widely

• Differentiator- Technology+ service offering

Roopen Roy

• 1000 more universities are expected in the next 10 years

P Jayaram

• Animation industry is 80 billion currently to grow to 100 billion by 2012

Ramesh

• 6 of the wealthiest companies in the world are in China

• 65% OF THE POPULATION ARE UNDER 30

• 615 million mobile phone users in the country

Anandan

• 80 PHD’s every year in the country/ 35 are Microssoft employees

• Less than 11% in the world is spent on R&D, In India its less than 1%

• Microsoft spends 9 billion dollars on R&D every year

• 3.5 million engineers passs out every year in India (In the US its 75000)

Pramod Bhasin

• Need to convert data into analytics

• Remote heathcare management – Latest trend in China

N Chandrasekaran

• Total spend on technology to grow.

Cross Browser Compatibility !!

2010-09-25T07:01:00.002+05:30

Interesting stuff on building browser compatible applications

http://freelancefolder.com/7-fresh-and-simple-ways-to-test-cross-browser-compatibility/

http://www.netmechanic.com/products/Browser-Tutorial.shtml

MeritTrac Turns 10 (Born August 4th, 2000)

2010-08-04T22:10:00.001+05:30

MeritTrac turns 10 today - born August 4th, 2000. At 10, MeritTrac has delivered 10 million exams. The MeritTrac story ...

Read This Before You Startup!

2010-08-02T09:55:00.002+05:30

This post is about mandatory reading before starting up. Instead of learning from personal experience, you can learn from the experience of others who have tread the path before you.
Websites :

- http://gigaom.com/2010/01/02/startup-company-lessons/ - a blog post that has aggregated several blog posts. I think it covers most of things about a startup.

- http://www.gazelles.com/ which is a company run by a management consultant called Verne Harnish who is also known as "The Growth Guy". This website has 1 - 2 page forms that enable you to write out your strategy and your execution plan. Several management frameworks are condensed into these forms. Like Verne Harnish says - "I have condensed a lot of management theory into a tool that people can easily use instead of having to study all the theory and then applying it." To download these forms from the site you have to first register yourself at http://www.mygazelles.com/

- You can download a 1 page business plan format from http://www.verdure.in/data/freedownload.html. This is a company called Verdure Venture Consulting that advices startups and helps them raise funding.

- Register yourself on www.vccircle.com to get updates on the VC community.

- http://www.nenonline.org/ - Mission - "The nonprofit National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) was established with a mission to create and support high-growth entrepreneurs, driving job-creation and economic growth in India". True to the mission, they provide a lot of resources on their website for early stage startups. Go to http://www.nenonline.org/jsp/resources/resources.jsp for gyan- go to "Beginners Basics" section in the Knowledge Bank link on the left. They also organize regular workshops where experienced entrepreneurs speak to novice entrepreneurs.

Books:

Mastering Business in Asia - By Chris Boulton - has a chapter on every aspect of starting and running a business with actual case studies that are Asia specific.

High Performance Entreprenuer - By Subroto Bhagchi - is the gyan book with chapters from Bhagchi's own experience at MindTree

What Would Google Do - Jeff Jarvis - this is a book that captures the essence of new age web companies

Get a Harvard Business Review subscription online and download articles on startups.

Happy starting ...

Learning from Startup Failure!! - Snaptalent.com

2010-05-20T10:57:00.000+05:30

One of the high-profile online recruiting companies – www.snaptalent.com downed its shutters (figuratively speaking) recently. On their website, they have put up this letter that analyzes why they had to sut shop. Lots of insights for those of us who are in the campus-recruiting space and entrepreneurs in general. Also quite proud that MeritTrac survived !!

The company has also done a service to everyone by capturing what their challenges were. This is truly about learning from failure ... read on (pasting the information on this blog too just in case they shut down the URL too)

http://snaptalent.com/

Dear Investors, Users, and Snaptalent Fans,

From founding the company in 2007, we've had a crash course about the nuances of the online recruitment space. We'd like to announce that we've made a decision to move on from Snaptalent and return the majority of capital raised back to investors now than continue.

Its been a tough call, as we had enough capital in the bank to last for two years. The decision has primarily dictated by market conditions and opportunity cost which in aggregate would mean we probably wouldn't have been able to show the kind of results we wanted to make this a big company in this market. There are a number of reasons behind that decision and a number of lessons, which I intend to articulate here in this note.

We've been through a number of iterations since we launched. Initially we started as an ad network for recruitment advertising, which despite winning The Top 10 online recruitment products of 2008 (and earning critical acclaim in the industry) ended up being economically unviable as a business. Primarily because the number of candidate leads generated per impression wasn't able to satisfy employers to keep buying and therefore for publishers to keep getting paid.

In November 2008, we transitioned from this product to identify an opportunity to try and focus on how recruitment products could be adapted for the Facebook generation. We hoped that our experience of consumer products and frustrations of this generation would allow us to deliver an amazing product. With a few months of development and market research behind us in March 2009 launched a platform to enable college recruitment to happen more efficiently. Market timing couldn't have been worse. One, as overall recruiting dived, college recruitment became marginalized as a business (roughly 20% of college seniors had jobs on graduation, compared to 80% the year before, most calls to potential customers indicated that they wouldn't be willing to spend or focus on this area for at least another year). Secondly, the decision to focus on an audience (go niche) radically reduced our market size in a shrinking market. The outcome could have been different however. In November 2008 we had a number of decisions to make about our strategy. Instead of focusing on short term trends and going after the opportunity of owning how companies recruit on social networks we went for an audience focused approach with a longer term horizon. In hindsight this was a mistake. Going after short term trends would have given us the momentum we needed. For any startup, losing that trajectory is only recipe for loss of morale and momentum for the team. Three new product launches in 9 months didn't give us much to build on.

The online recruitment space has its own unique market dynamics that restrict innovation on the company side. From the outset, online recruitment spend is huge. Its a market with the right fundamentals from the outside looking in. Its a large market ($10B/year spend), with rich customers, and poor innovation. It sounds like an entrepreneur's dream. The truth is that there are barriers to adoption of newer technologies which come down to the position of HR in an organization. Since HR isn't directly revenue generative, HR decision makers aren't as empowered to drive change required by revenue generative functions like marketing or sales. This creates a unique enterprise sales environment where companies that innovate too radically are too early to market/phased out despite those innovations being commonplace in other enterprise markets. You can't change behavior too radically for HR, which as entrepreneurs super excited by changes in the consumer web we felt incredibly frustrated by. Recruitment spend is bloated, so as the cost of transmitting information to connect companies and candidates comes down, the trend is for companies to use free tools which help amplify that spread. The companies that will win in the recruitment space therefore are all working on solutions which take away from job advertising spending; search engine optimization, social networking, referral hiring, improving social media presence.

While this was never the result we were expecting, our entrepreneurial hunger remains strong. We've learned a lot in the last 2 years. There is no doubt we will be using these lessons to go after new opportunities very soon. Thanks everyone for your patronage and support.

The Snaptalent Team

WWW - Wireless Will Win by Prof Sadagopan

2010-05-16T20:02:00.003+05:30

At a recent conference in Bangalore, I realized why Prof. Sadagopan is called the Guru of Indian IT. While there were leaders from Industry who spoke within their specific contexts, Prof. Sadagopan was able to bring it all together into a sort of IT roadmap. Here are some of the things he said ...

- Cloud: Just like there are interconnected national highways, state highways, city streets, toll roads and private roads there will be public clouds, private clouds, virtual private clouds, virtualized servers, private servers all co-existing - even in the same Enterprise. So there is no need to define a one-size-fits-all "cloud strategy". Do what makes most sense. There are always cost, security, availability, reliability considerations in these decisions. So the entire Enteprise IT is not going to be sitting on Amazon Web Services any time soon. At the same time, a lot of Enterprise IT that can go on to the public cloud will require rethinking the architecture of these applications.

-Enterprise Video: With increasing realization of the power of consumer video - video blogs/training videos on youtube being extremely popular, this may be the year of enterprise video. Enterprises may increasingly deploy video for knowledge management, corporate communication, product demonstrations etc. With increasing server processing power, virtualization and decreasing bandwidth costs this may take off in 2010.

-WWW - he coined a new acronym - WWW stands for Wireless Will Win. With 300 million mobile phone users in India and a huge number of mobile phone users world wide, you cannot build applications that support the mobile phone. You have to build applications for the mobile phone which also support the PC. This is a completely different way of thinking about applications. The mobile phone offers instant access and a level of onboard power that the PC can never match.

-One click installs from the Cloud - The other interesting point was that the era of complicated installation of applications is over. Consumers are used to the ease of an app installing on an iPhone. Consumers will demand one-click installations. So make the installation as simple as possible.

An enlightening session !!

A new device is born - the iPad!

2010-05-06T09:42:00.000+05:30

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/apple-ipad-reaches-one-million-sold-twice-as-fast-as-iphone/

Apple iPad sells 1 million devices in 28 days. Forget the techies and their cribs - the consumer wants this device. A whole new category of device is born - the ideal "content consumption device" with the laptop as the ideal "content creation device" and the mobile as the ideal "communicate while moving device" . This is going to be fun !!

Where Does Bill Gates Get His News?

2010-04-06T07:36:00.001+05:30

http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Infrequently-Asked-Questions/specialfeature.aspx?id=68

Cloud is the new hardware, SaaS is the new software!!

2010-02-28T23:02:00.002+05:30

IBF Media (ibfmedia.com) has an event series called Capital Connection where startups are connected to VCs. I attended the Cloud Computing seminar at Ista Hotel in Bangalore on Feb 25th 2010. (http://ibfmedia.com/cc2010.php).

Panel discussion format with Microsoft, Google, Fidelity, Kleiner, Helion and a 2 startups http://www.orangescape.com/ and http://www.impelcrm.in/. (suprisingly no one from Amazon was invited!!)Takeaways from the panel discussion

- "Cloud is the new hardware, SaaS is the new software" - by Kishore - CEO of Impelcrm.in

- Cloud Based Architecture = IaaS (Infra as a Service) + PaaS (Platform as a service) + SaaS (Software as a Service)

- Most Enterprise Apps may not need the rapid scale up and scale down that the cloud offers. But the ability to switch off when no one is using an enterprise app may be of use. But enterprises might like to move commodity services like email onto the cloud for manageability reasons. Consumer applications and customer facing apps need the cloud since they experience rapid scale ups and scale downs.

- All enterprise apps may not move to the cloud - owing to security/licensing/user experience reasons. But no reason why your enterprise email and intranet should not be on the cloud. Google Apps for the enterprise has been bought by a couple of Fortune 500 companies - so there is no good reason why your company cannot use Gmail (paid enterprise version) for its enterprise use. Orangescape - Chennai based startup - does not own a single server and they operate completely on the cloud. Includes software development, file storage, email, intranet, a few enterprise apps.

- Security is probably a lesser concern on the Cloud than on your office infrastructure. You can trust cloud providers security processes better than your own limited expertise in this area - a cloud providers information security procedures will most likely be much better than your own. Also have you factored for the information security issues when a laptop or pen drive is lost? And since there are so many apps from so many companies on the cloud, the ability to hack your specific data is probably harder.

- Processing power may not move completely to the cloud with dumb terminals on your desk. Some apps need a huge amount of local processing for a richer user experience. Connectiivty speeds are not growing at the pace at which processing power on the client is growing - so the client may continue to be fat. But the processing power of the cloud may enable new custom devices - a wear on display? which only displays and everything else happens on the cloud - a TV metaphor?

- The cloud allows every kid on the block to write and put up an app and to scale service. This makes the application marketplace very competitive. At the same time, since everyone can deploy and scale an app, the customer may not value the app as much as other aspects of business.

- Is cloud the new mainframe? Will it restrict innovation? - no. The cloud is not the new mainframe and it will not restrict innovation. Because the cloud is 0 capex and accessible to virtually anyone with a credit card. The mainframe was controlled since it involved a huge amount of capex and it required highly custom coding.

- Will we now have to code for everyone of the cloud platforms - Amazon, Google, SalesForce.com, Microsoft Azure? Yes, it is unlikely there will be just one standard for apps on the cloud.

The registration fee was a bit on the higher side but the food was good - pigged on goan fish curry. And the beer was flowing. No complaints. Only wish Amazon was there. After all, they are the kings of the cloud.

A Very Successful Online Exam - Wipro/MeritTrac

2010-01-07T17:59:00.001+05:30

Online exams scheduled for 24,000 candidates over 7 days in 29 cities; all tests delivered successfully on Pariksha, MeritTrac`s platform for high-stakes, large scale exams Bangalore, 6th Jan 2010:

Wipro, in collaboration with MeritTrac successfully conducted a national-level online common entrance test for admissions to Wipro Academy of Software Excellence (WASE). The test was conducted for admissions to their Master of Science program, - WASE, which is an off-campus ‘earn while you learn’ program pioneered by Wipro in collaboration with BITS, Pilani. MeritTrac, India’s largest test & assessment company was the partner for this exam

The national level test was conducted between 13th and 20th December across 29 cities, in 44 testing centers, with 24,000 candidates being scheduled for the exam. The entire test delivery process achieved a success rate of 99.8%. Pradeep Bahirwani, Vice-President, Talent Acquisition said, “Wipro firmly believes in the power of the online medium and that the online exams are the future of assessment systems. We decided to go ahead with our series of online tests with MeritTrac and completed the assessments on schedule to the complete satisfaction of all the stake holders. It was a great experience for us as well as the candidates.” He also said “The success of the WASE assessment test has been very encouraging and Wipro will be using the online assessment model for campus recruitments and other hiring needs”.

The test was conducted using the Pariksha platform for large-scale, high-stakes exams, which was launched by MeritTrac in November 2009. Madan Padaki, Co-Founder & CEO, MeritTrac commented, “We are proud to have partnered with Wipro on this initiative of online exams. The successful conduct of this exam reiterates our belief that with a clearly defined exam process, appropriate technology, trained people and efficient project management, it is possible to deliver online exams successfully. .” Earlier this year, MeritTrac had conducted the Gujarat Common Entrance Test (GCET 2009) for over 23,000 candidates across 11 cities in Gujarat. The Online GCET project recently won the Chairman Distinction Award at the Manthan South Asia Awards 2009 in Delhi. “This is just the beginning. Several educational institutions, Governments and large organizations have shown active interest in taking their assessments online on the Pariksha platform”, added Mr.Padaki.

WASE is a four year, eight semester course where the candidates train with Wipro and work on live projects on weekdays and attend classes over the weekends. The first seven semesters comprises of course work, with the eighth semester being a dissertation. At the end of four years, candidates get an MS degree from BITS, Pilani equivalent to their full-time two year MS degree program. Wipro bears the entire course fee and also pays the WASE candidates a monthly stipend for the duration of the course (four years).

Great for Startups - Amazon Web Services

2010-01-04T16:26:00.001+05:30

Cloud computing is the future. Allows scalability and very low costs. Here are are a set of introductions to cloud computing...

1) http://www.nytimes.com/external/idg/2009/05/18/18idg-why-my-company-uses-amazons-ec2-cloud-12208.html

2) www.tractalent.com/Running-Your-Startup-on-Amazon-Web-Services.ppt

Original Source: Downloaded from www.docstoc.com

3) http://www.jroller.com/carlossg/entry/amazon_web_services_an_introduction

4) http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ar-cloudaws1/

You Dont Need To Read Anything More !!

2010-01-03T18:17:00.003+05:30

This post that I read just now is THE last word on startups. I don't have anything more to say.

http://gigaom.com/2010/01/02/startup-company-lessons/

Dont Release Early and Dont Release Often !

2010-01-03T18:00:00.000+05:30

An interesting counter view point to the "release early/release often" mantra of software startups. Very interesting reading. And the arguments are very insightful too

http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/11416/Releasing-Early-Is-Not-Always-Good-Heresy.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+onstartups+(OnStartups)

TiE Bangalore Woman of the Month - December 2009

2009-12-28T11:00:00.000+05:30

The TiE Bangalore Woman of the Month - December 2009 is .... Usha Krishnan - my wife !! Her company Verdure Venture Consulting advises startups on business plan creation and she helps them get funded.

You can read about it at
http://www.cmoaxis.com/tie/tie_tiewomen.html

The Enemies of "Customer Need"

2009-12-20T16:53:00.001+05:30

Despite learning it during my MBA, I have sometimes forgotten or not focussed on the "Customer Need" in the excitement of starting and running a business. If your business is not growing, if your profitability is low, if running your business seems like an uphill task all the time then you may want to introspect on what Customer Need you are satisfying. The usual suspects who obstruct a clear view of Customer Need are Passion and Armchair Expertise.

Passion: Startups run on passion. And this passion extends to "loving the solution and forgetting the customer need". It happens to all of us - we device a way to solve a customer need and are so passionate about the solution that we are unwilling to ask ourselves whether the need itself really exists. So balance your passion with a hard cold look at customer need. Talk to several prospects, customers, acquaintances and see what their need is. If the need exists and if the need is large, devise a solution for the need. Again run the solution past prospects/customers and debate it before it becomes "the solution". Example: I met a guy a few days ago who was excited about a technology solution he has built for small retailers. When I asked if he had ever met small retailers, spoke to them, discussed their problems, observed them at work before he created the solution he says "no, but the solution is so cool they will buy it". Well, good luck with that.

Armchair Expertise: Beware the armchair expert! This is the worst guy to have on the team - the guy who never does research, who never meets people, relies on pure logic and is full of hubris. Almost nothing in the world works the way you expect it to. In the real world, there is government regulation, local realities, cultural context, customer expectations and a million other variables that logical deduction will never show up. There are so many failed products, failed strategies traceable to armchair expertise. Did you hear about the 400 million Indian middle class that were all going to wear Nike shoes, eat Kellogs, drink Coke and drive GM cars?

The better your understanding of Customer Need the faster is your business success.

NEN - A great resource for Entrepreneurs!

2009-12-20T16:16:00.001+05:30

Spoke at the NEN Alumni Meet at Jyothi Nivas College, Bangalore yesterday. There were 20 odd alumni of NEN cells at colleges. ( www.nenonline.org - National Entrepreneurship Network dedicated to creating and supporting entrepreneurs. They have NEN cells in several colleges across the country and work with students through these cells). Felt good to talk to very young people - these people were in primary school in 1999. They were high on enthusiasm and have already tried their hand at business at some level.

I recounted the MeritTrac story - how we started, got funded, managed crisis and succeeded. Some of the questions - How did you manage personal life? What differentiates you from your competitors? How do I discover customer's need? I closed with a few words of wisdom which may be of consequence to everyone.

For potential entrepreneurs, NEN can be of great help. Highly recommend the "Knowledge Bank" section of the www.nenonline.org.

Verne Harnish (The Growth Guy)

2009-12-16T14:14:00.000+05:30

I attended a session by Verne Harnish (The Growth Guy, www.gazelles.com). He specializes in advising young companies on growing. Thorougly enjoyed the session and there were several take aways which can be of use to all startups. I would highly recommend this session to all startups and growth companies.

Some of the things I found to be eye openers

- Something as complex as strategy is reduced to a 1 page framework. Fill it and you have got your strategy going. While the idea is not to say that filling a form gives you strategy, it is more to do with the fact that the tool assists in writing out the strategy clearly. There will be iterations but the tool drives thinking. It is available on www.gazelles.com for downloads but it says clearly that it is downloaded only for your own use. So I wont put up any links here. You can register and download it from www.mygazelles.com

- The other amazing 1 pager is the Rockefeller habits checklist which again with a simple checklist tells u what to do to make your company grow

- Speak to customers regularly when in trouble or when not clear. call and speak to them, meet them, ask questions, ask them what they expect from us ... this gives a hold on customer "need" that leads to innovation, growth and profitability. Several very realistic examples were given. It takes several conversations before we understand what customers want from us. Almost all armchair hypothesis of customers needs are wrong - for instance a server hosting company realized that customers value support and resolution more than high quality servers or the quality of data centers.

- On managing employees, ask employees 3 questions often ...

Question1: What should we stop doing?

Question2: What should we start doing?

Question3: What should we continue doing

- "Routine sets you free" - if you have prescheduled monthly meetings /weekly meetings/daily meetings to resolve issues of different time horizons it ensures that you are able to go grow without the need for superhuman effort all the time.

Highly recommended !!

How MeritTrac Would Have Done CAT?

2009-12-09T08:53:00.001+05:30

In the backdrop of the CAT exam challenges students faced (this exam was done by Prometric - a competitor) here is a write up on doing Computer Exams well ... from a self-styled expert - me!

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/manager/2009/12/07/stories/2009120750310600.htm

Tech Startups - Managing Cash

2009-10-17T11:47:00.002+05:30

An interesting writeup on managing cash in tech startups ...
http://vator.tv/news/show/2009-10-07-whats-the-secret-success-of-mint

Hold on To Cash OR What Is Your Burn?

2009-08-10T21:57:00.009+05:30

You have taken the plunge, setup shop and got your first customer. You realize that it has been a while since you looked at your finances. So you call in your accountant, have a chai and both of you do a bit of excel sheeting and you realize you are running out of cash. Well ... don't panic. I still have to hear of a startup that has not faced cash challenges in its intial days. Bill Gates in one of his books says he decided that Microsoft, while being super-aggressive in the market, had to be ultra-conservative with finance when he realized in their second year of operation that they were running out of cash. Even the emperors of the universe face cash problems ... Lehman Brothers for instance.

To ensure you do not run out of cash you need to do two things

-- Bring in orders - as fast as you can

-- Manage your burn

While "Bring In Orders" is obvious and everybody inuitively understands it, managing burn is a challenge. Most times because startups don't know what their burn is. So a few words of wisdom on burn ...

To run a company you have to spend money. The typical startup spends on salaries, rent, electricity/water, phone, internet, travel etc. These are recurring monthly bills , and you pay up, whether you bring in revenues or not. This is your "burn" - the money you spend no matter what. When you calculate "burn" you should exclude costs you will incur only against revenue. For instance, if you make shoes, you will buy shoe uppers only if you have an order for shoes. So the cost of shoe uppers should NOT be included in the burn. But the salary/rent/utilities of the shoe factory should be included.

As a thumb rule, you should have enough cash in the bank to sustain your burn for 6 - 12 months. See the formula below

Minimum Cash In Bank > = 6 x (Monthly Burn)

OR better still

Minimum Cash In Bank > = 12 x (Monthly Burn)

If you do not have enough cash in the bank, cut your burn immediately. Usual tricks - salary cuts, turn off the lights/monitors/servers at night etc. Then one of you go out and raise money while everyone else goes out and brings in the orders.

Remember: 1) A company cannot run without cash 2) Even to negotiate with a potential investor you need some money in the bank to last you through the negotiation.

For a more detailed case study on managing cash in startups follow the link below (16 pages). You can start from Page 9 if you do not have the time to read all 16 pages.

http://www.merittrac.com/webpages/Downloads/PDF/MeritTrac%20Story.pdf

Should I Take The Plunge? And Other Startup questions

2009-07-20T20:56:00.018+05:30

One of the challenging questions for someone who is about to start a business is "should I take the plunge?". The deeper concerns underlying the question are "what if it fails? will I get another job? how will I support my family during the initial years? I am in a comfortable job with a clear future ... why risk it all? ".

This post is my opinion on the matter based on the experience of having started and succeeded.

What if it fails is a question you HAVE to ask yourself. Having a Plan B is critical. At the same time, the imagined risks are almost always higher than the real risks. Even if you fail you are not unemployable. You have a good education, good work experience and you have the experience of having tried to pursue a dream. The Plan B could just be "I will go back to where I was working earlier". Almost every boss in the world, if you leave on a good note, says "would be glad to have you back" and actually means it. So that is backup plan 1. So keep in touch with your boss after you have left so that backup plan 1 is active. Backup plan 2 is to have some money in the bank to tide over the time spent looking for a job. Even bad economic recessions do not last for ever.

Moreover, everyone dreads leaving a job and starting off on their own. It is "sweat your palms, watery belly" kind of dread. The last day of my job at the software company I was working at was frightening for me. I left just after 9/11 happened and most people thought I was being foolish. In fact when I called my father and told him that I had resigned my job he said "You are stupid. If there is a chance, take back your resignation". December 2001 was the beginning of a tough slowdown so everyone I knew, including me, was wondering if it was a smart decision. So if you dread leaving your job, you are not alone. Some of that dread is certainly unreasonable but then when is fear linked to reason.

How do I support my family is too personal a question to lend advice on. But in general I would say "either start off before you get married or marry a person who works or marry a person of steel".

I am in a nice cushy job is the hard one and difficult to answer. If you are a well-educated professional working in a good company, the dilemma you face is real. For instance, you are a Senior Manager at a large consulting company and throwing it all away to start something may not be worth it. The financial rewards may not make sense. Maybe you can become a Partner in the consulting company which better fulfills your goals. In some ways the educated professional has a tough choice to make because he/she has to choose between a well-paying job and an uncertain pay-off. The answer to this question is something deeper.

The core issue that you have to deal with if you are wondering whether to start off is 'know yourself'. This is the most difficult part. Have you sat for an hour just with yourself ... no TV, no drink, no book, no facebook, no spouse, no children and wondered what makes you happy, what you really want to do in life. Personally, I always imagined that starting up something meant you imagined a blockbuster product or service, you made an excel sheet with business plans on it, you reviewed everyone on progress and you watched the company grow. I imagined a world where I was translating an idea to reality. There was also a deep urge to create something that did not exist. The sheer thrill of taking an idea to a 100 crore business that people talk about/are willing to work with you for /that people recognize/are willing to pay large sums of money to buy was my kick.

You should find what your kick is before you start.

Startups ... Use Freeware Please !

2009-07-12T21:25:00.023+05:30

My advice to Startups ... dont use Microsoft. While most tech Startups are already wise to this, I see non-tech Startups starting life on Microsoft platforms (or other license based platforms). Dont do it. All the old reasons for using Microsoft - easy to develop, easy to deploy, easy to use, better user interface are just that ... old. Today's freeware/shareware is just too compelling an option to ignore. It is free, can be customized, is massively scalable, is "cloud computing" compatible, has excellent support forums and does not cost the moon as you scale.

Most non-tech Startups start by installing Windows OS/MS Office on their PCs and then put Small Business Server on their servers. And the first application they build - either for customer use or for own use - is usually on a Microsoft platform. They reason that freeware is cumbersome and not intuitive. But times have changed. A Linux/Open Office combination on your PC is just as easy to use. And you can save documents in the open document format which makes every document compatible with MS Office. A freeware based software application today is indistinguishable from a Microsoft based application.

There are two broad challenges in using Microsoft platforms.

1) Total Cost of Ownership - for small volume users, Microsoft products are cheap. But as volume grows Microsoft platforms cost exponentially higher. By the time realization dawns it is too late to migrate out of Microsoft.

2) As Microsoft shrink wrapped software becomes obsolete, so does your software application. (While I cannot claim to be able to see the future and predict accurately, I think there is consensus that the era of "pay upfront, buy software licenses based on the number of PCs/processors" is certainly over. ) At which time you will have a software application that is obsolete. And if you have software that your customer uses, your customer most likely will be paying on a pay per use basis but you will be buying from Microsoft upfront. And while your customer will pay you less when they buy more, Microsoft will charge you exponentially more as you buy more leaving you with a completely unviable model.

So dont get into the trap ... do freeware now. Once a company goes down the path of freeware, employees become familiar with it making it possible to use freeware on a sustained basis. There are people who say "no large enterprise runs freeware - they all use Microsoft". To which my answer is "Ask Google".

Does Work Experience Count?

2009-02-02T23:03:00.010+05:30

While I was at proto.in - 2009 in Bangalore - a startup event, one of the people handling a session on starting a business asked me (I was in the audience) what I thought work experience meant. The question was unexpected; I answered impromptu. I said people with work experience usually tend to be more people oriented and more sensitive to other people's needs. The context of the question was the larger debate which was : does work experience count while starting a business and at work in general.

On mulling over it for some time, I would say work experience counts for a lot. I would argue that people who have more work experience tend to demonstrate more empathy which in turn makes them more people-oriented. This is probably because the experience of working with different types of people over extended periods make one more empathetic (is there a word like that?). This is discernible in the way they interact with employees, supervisors, customers and society at large. Another noticeable difference in people with work experience is a high attention to detail. Work experience probably sensitises one to the pitfalls of glossing over details.

While there is a corny line that goes "do you have 14 years of experience or 1 year of experience 14 times over" to denigrate work experience, this is rarely the case. Work experience matters in what are termed as critical incidents. For instance, if you observe a Project Manager at work everyday one would summarize his or her role as sending emails and tracking progress on projects. Most programmers believe they could easily do their Project Managers job. But in a crisis - a release that is not working correctly, the customer is yelling on the phone and the programmers are at their wits end on what do - a Project Manager would bring all his experience to bear in thinking through and implementing a solution. Most times the Project Manager would have thought of a solution that would have missed the programmers. This is usually the reason companies pay a premium for work experience.

If you are interested in exploring this line of thought two interesting resources ...

1) Malcolm Gladwell's book called "Outliers" where he specifically talks about the 10,000 hours rule - it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become world-class at anything

2) A post by me about the difference between Experts and Beginners available at

http://tractalent.blogspot.com/2008/09/iaea-2008-learning-2-creating.html

Can You Build My Business Model For Me Please?

2009-01-25T13:40:00.014+05:30

Was at proto.in - 2009 in Bangalore - a startup event. Inevitably at an event like this, there were questions on funding and the challenge of raising funds during a downturn.

Based on interactions with VCs and angels, I would argue that it is possible to raise money during this downturn. An investor's view at a time like this would be 1) Only really passionate individuals start a company in a downturn 2) Valuations are realistic or very attractive 3) Will invest in interesting business models.

Raising money is possible, even in difficult times provided there is a compelling business plan/business model. This is an area where some startups require assistance. For instance, the winners of the "shotgun startup" competition at proto.in (make your product prototype in 48 hours) were two guys who designed a lego-style lamp. While there were other competitors who had written software through the night for their software products, what was appealing about the lego-style lamp was that it addressed some universal problems we face with using fixed lamps in rooms. By extension, the business model is interesting because of the product's universal appeal. (lamp here refers to the kind that emits light, not LAMP as in the software industry).

While passion drives entepreuners to create products, cold reason helps in creating a workable business model. For instance, creating Google search was all about passion but adding the Ads to Google search was cold reason. Interestingly, there are companies now that assist startups with precisely this aspect of business. These companies, by virtue of being "external" to a startup are able to dispassionately evaluate a product and help in building a business plan around it. There are several investment banks that offer venture consulting services but do not work with small startups. Some companies who work with small startups in building a business model and raising funds are Verdure Consulting (http://www.verdure.in/ disclosure: my wife runs Verdure) and VentureBean (http://www.venturebean.com/).

So if you are working on building a business model for your product, you may want to speak to them.