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February 6, 2010

The traffic mirage

Infinite startups have been chasing huge traffic numbers. For pure online plays in India, thats usually a tough nut to crack. Meanwhile, have been seeing a few who've built decent businesses around low traffic - cleaner, more transaction oriented traffic and the focus is on the business. Its a different model, does not depend on optimistic funnels, and as a huge bonus - gets you to some sort sustainability much sooner.

Think if the numbers you already see, or can reach right now, cannot be already made to work for you financially. Worry about the funding, VC, scale, etc etc later.

Filed under  //   entrepreneurship   startups  

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February 4, 2010

What I need on Facebook

Facebook is up to 400 million users. Thats almost 6.7% of the world population! Awesome. 

What does it mean to me ? 

On the plus side, I've "reconnected" with a whole lot of folks from my past life. school, college, hometown - they're all in there. I've also connected with a lot many new connections that I forge through cycling, or other activity I participate in these days.

Amongst these, I get to know on an ongoing basis who's working in what part of the world, and who's had kids, and partied last night, and even the political, social views of many of these folks. Sometimes, I feel like an inadvertent voyeur!

Too broad a social landscape ? Too much info ? Some of these are context specific contacts, and while I do share some interests with them, I do not need to know every little detail in their lives, their friendships, their views on everything! In fact, with many there's little beyond the "Add as friend", and apart from having access to their inboxes, or walls, etc, there's little else by way of friendship or any sort of relationship. The context's too weak, and too distant, and its a farce, really. 

I certainly am interested in a smaller, tighter circle of friends, and have been actively thinking I need to keep my 'active social circle' much smaller, and more meaningful. Sure, I do interact with the larger set of people on specific interests, and it would be great to tap into their collective knowledge and wisdom on a need-basis - but without the full duplex intrusiveness of every little update from each others lives, social circles, etc. I might be old fashioned, but Facebook is not how my social life - at least the meaningful part of it - really operates. This was NOT that much of a problem when the number of connections was smaller, but the amount of fluff has grown manifold since. And turning a request down has since become some sort of a social faux pas.

There's opportunity for a different layer atop Facebook - which is reducing to some sort of a storage and archival medium for one's entire social graph - personal, hobby-derived, official, formal, etc as well as the activity on it - that helps consume the data from this store in a more meaningful, natural way. Either Facebook could add features to enable this (they were kinda forced to handle the Twitter deluge using the "Live Feed" vs "News Feed" split)  or a 3rd party app/site will spring up sooner or later to do this. The noise in there is getting a little too much, and I've been wondering if it really matters whether I'm "on Facebook" or not. 

Those who really need to find me or talk to me, will, anyhow. The rest is often just noise/PR.

Filed under  //   design   facebook   social networks  

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February 3, 2010

Community and Trust : Search, Discovery, Q&A

This I've noticed on a few fora I'm on - once members develop a certain level of trust in the community, they start depending on it for more than its stated, major purpose. These are usually theme/domain specific communities. For instance, an automobile group has threads asking for help with vacation destinations, restaurant selections, camera choices, and even how much bribe to pay and how. The ubiquitous "OT" on such groups is a major source of interactions within the community. Indeed, on one such group, there was enough traffic to justify creation of a parallel, <group>-OT list itself!

Some groups do try to stay 'focused' but inevitably yield to gray areas which might qualify as "slightly OT".

What does this mean for search ? Facebook, Aardvark etc are already starting to alter behaviour a little bit - intentionally or otherwise - and google.com is not the default place to seek answers to your queries. A whole lot of answers are much better sourced from people you know, since
  • The queries sometimes have subjective answers.
  • The context of the asker is very very pertinent and the community may be better aware of it that a generic algorithm.
  • Many answers need references. A paediatrician, or the right price of a used DSLR, or the right bike to pick to start cycling, are often decided upon based on what other folks you trust say.
Of course index based search is hardly going to disappear - the 'book of facts' approach has always existed and will continue to be a great source for a whole lot of stuff. It may, though, need to get refined for more clarity/clues about the validity, correctness of the data it matches (as opposed to "here's a web page with a decent pagerank that has the keywords"). 

Yet, more and more, a lot many kinds of queries will move to networks. Facebook may handle some, but I suspect as a whole its not clean enough and the trust levels aren't quite there for all kinds of queries. There *is* space for less open, sharper niche networks that also support partially anonymized queries - perhaps even from external sources.

Filed under  //   q&a   search   social networks  

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January 18, 2010

Startup, Salaries, Risk, Entrepreneurship, Payoffs

No, those aren't tags for the post, but the cluster of words that should go together, but often do not.

Entrepreneurship implies risk and the possibility of a payoff.
A startup, as we know it, is one form of entrepreneurship.

In this context, the concept of 'market salaries' has no meaning at all!

More and more and more startups I see, hear, read about are trying to behave like larger, more structured organizations. The worst part is that they model "compensation" (oh, how I hate that word - its what accident victims get, not motivated people working towards a dream) and other "HR practices" on how-its-done-at-big-co-X. Where is the innovation there, people ?

Here's some ideas and thoughts that are worth remembering/attempting
  • Market salaries : this is an absurd phrase for anyone in even a partly decision-making position in a startup. 
  • You need empowerment, ownership, flexibility way more than you need processes
  • Try this : Keep a very small 'retainer' component, and then a percentage of profits, not equity stake etc. Sure, do that as well for the early ones, but since you're small and all, nothing like direct participation in profits, and nothing quite like that to keep folks 'real' and focused on the bottomline. It'll build a business like nobody's business :)
Don't ape the last big company you work at. You never know whats going to work, so at the least give it a shot! And just because you need people, do not "attract" those who're in it just because its cool to be seen as 'taking risk' without actually wanting to take any.

Filed under  //   entrepreneurship   hiring   startup  

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December 5, 2009

The US Immigration debate

Vivek Wadhwa has been working on, and pushing forth the idea that the US needs to 'allow' more and more smarter guys in to start businesses and participate in the American Dream, so it can grow. There's some support, some opposition, some hate-mail. I'm not sure whether I agree or disagree with the Startup-Visa idea, but overall, he makes sane arguments for an open world. 

However, there's just one little hitch. The world's moving on rapidly while people argue on the allow/disallow lists! Sure, the US has been a major destination for folks across the world over the last 30-40 years, but the gloss is gone, and the action's moved/moving rapidly elsewhere.

In fact, the numbers of 'foreigners' doing ventures in India, tho small, seems to be on the up. China and India were 45% of the world economy till a couple of centuries ago, and it'll probably get back there quite quick. its just plain logical.

So while Vivek's attempts at ensuring his adopted country doesn't lose whats been its competitive edge for a long long time are commendable and necessary, it might turn out to be too optimistic an argument in that geography soon. 

India, on the other hand, needs to silence its Xenophobes really quick if it doesn't want to get into the same situation. Yes we're a lot of smart, entrepreneurial people, but special skills, smart ideas and a few more herbs and spices enriching our melting pot is not only a wonderful thing, its also been a tradition here forever.

Filed under  //   economy   immigration   india  

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November 17, 2009

Catching the Entrepreneurial Bug : Side-Effects

Choices force thought.

Its true for startups (one reason I say delay the funding so you're forced to choose this over that, etc).

But so very true personally as well. Been getting "Opportunity" mails in the Inbox. A couple of them would've been dream jobs a couple of years ago, but now, I feel apprehension. Will it be too narrow a "Job Definition" ? Wait, what'll I even write on my CV - if I do even feel like sending across one - ohave done too wide a variety of jobs over the last few years to try and showcase this over that. Will I get bored in a 9-5, and will there be enough flexibility ? Can I even muster up the requisite formality - and I mean that in the most positive sense of the word - for a regular corporate setting ? 

On the other hand, there are half a dozen ideas. At some level or the other all seem worth pursuing. There are also other interests I am pursuing. Nothing's crystallized enough to warrant undivided attention, and to a great extent I just love the energy that pursuing multiple ideas creates. Thats one reason SlicedBread happened.

Which is the opportunity, and which the cost ? I only wish I had the benefit of some hindsight upfront :)

Filed under  //   choice   entrepreneurship   opportunity  

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November 9, 2009

Business Cards DIY

Have a formal business meeting early tomorrow with a bunch of folks who'll be exchanging business cards. Have not gotten around to printing visiting cards yet, so panicked a little. Shubha suggested we could make our own, and the results were not bad at all! 


It helped that we had some chart paper like material leftover from the kids' craft project. The rest was easy, and more importantly, worked better than expected. I think I'm going to stick with this one for a while. Cheap, on demand and distinctive.

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November 6, 2009

And I never thought ...

...I'd be moving to a new blogging platform from my earlier blogger one. In the last 3 days I've used posterous, have gotten completely hooked.
Its a very easy interface, and blogging via email clinched the deal.

So both my blogs are moving here. Yeah I know - old links and traffic and all that - but hey, given the readership, no big deal, eh ?

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October 29, 2009

The Great Indian Ecosystem

Some gems I heard over the last two days (All paraphrased. Non italicized bits are mine):
  • Indians don't take risks. Yeah, right.
  • Indians are immature. We should read more books. Whoa, there!
  • Indians don't know how to sell :)
So, more or less, "Me = All Indian" seems to be a strong foundation of the ecosystem. Add to that the repetition of the sentiment. And again. And expertise is thus born!

So the hordes selling Tally, and of course making it, and the numerous loads who set up Potels, and the Tata Nano and the risk associated with buying a JLR or a Corus, the buying and selling of Glaceau - I guess no Indians in any of those pictures, eh ?

Ok, sorry about the sarcasm etc. I will confess it did get my goat and this was not a mature reaction. Should probably go read a book to figure that one out :D

Seriously. Guys, please. There are numerous other Indians who take risks, sell awesomely, and while they might not read books, their business maturity will be the content of many. Hordes of them. We're the nation who's everywhere - amongst the largest trading, immigrating, innovating populations. (Its not, repeat not, repeat not about patents and lab research alone. Please get over that inferiority complex of yours. Please.) Yes, I personally suck at a lot of these attributes, and would love to learn how to deal with this gap. So do a lot many from the technology space, and this is surely a gap we need to bridge (probably through partnering).

So lets please find those Indians, learn from them. The sweeping generalizations will not help. A pets.com, amongst a gazillion similar examples, sucked as much, so the nationality tag doesn't help at all!

If we all become a little more straightforward, show a little more honesty and humility, and focus on the solutions, we might yet create an ecosystem. Judgmental generalizations, though, will probably not be part of that...

Filed under  //   ecosystem   entrepreneurship   india   nasscom   nasscompc   product conclave   startup  

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October 29, 2009

Why Kawasaki at Nasscom ?

Bangalore played host to the Nasscom Product Conclave over the last couple of days, and it was a brilliantly organized event. The best part of it, imo, was the cross section of participants the event was able to pull in. Such major industry events usually get a little intimidating for the smaller, just starting out guys - but this conclave easily avoided that. The sessions were useful, deeper than usual, and because of these reasons, packed. The networking was very very active, and I pretty much caught up with everyone I've met and come across over the last four years!

Amidst the relevance, interactivity and focus of the event, Guy Kawasaki - as a keynote speaker and twitter specialist :) - added the superstar draw for many folks. Guy's a great speaker with ready wit and humour, and very, very approachable. He's also a persistent marketer.

However, I do think he wasn't the best choice for the keynote. Also, the session he conducted was as much a distraction from the theme of the event as it was an attraction for many. Why do I think so?

  • The keynote presentation above was not the most relevant to the ground reality in India. At all.
  • We do NOT get people for free here - not that much of a resession after all.
  • We also are awesome "value" creators and it often makes sense for a large chunk of startups (especially as they learn about business) to start in the lower right quadrant - a small chunk of startups can shoot for uniqueness, and especially building a business around it. Execution, value hold they key to getting a shot at stage 2.
  • Twitter as a marketing tool in India ? Hmmm. I'd almost say a large chunk of active Tweeters were actually in that room :) I exaggerate, but you get the idea.
  • We need a couple of home-grown superstars who, like Guy, are great speakers and approachable, and are less jargon-laden than anyone who gets to some level of success has a tendency to become. Entrepreneurs building products need stellar examples they can relate to, as well as understand!
  • The Twitter 101 was a little too basic for a lot of the crowd. Some of the ideas shared both in the keynote as well as the sessions would be very very useful in a college, or what-do-I-need-to-know before I start out crowd, but a lot many attendees have progressed beyond that. We needed Marketing 102, or Sales 102, etc. more than this.
  • I'm completely guessing - but it must've been expensive :)
  • The Indian product space needs a little more grunt and grassroots and less superstardom-aspirations - and getting a major star like Guy can reinforce the wrong message. Too many folks already confuse the superstar dreams for passion.
    • Apart from this, though, I had a terrific time at the event. Made connections, and started out on my journey to understand the fascinating world of real world marketing and sales (I'm still in Kindergarten wrt those, especially sales). The CIO session was very useful (wow, people who really spend money on software :D) though one always would love more direct, straightforward and precise ideas about how the real world operates (no discussions on size difference related issues, kickback-demand handling, etc)

    Nasscom has taken a very conscious step towards supporting product creation out of India. And from the evidence at hand, its at most an iteration or two before the geeks really connect with the biz folks, and magic happens.

    Update: StartupDunia has a very comprehensive coverage of the event, including the real deep details on sessions, etc.

    Filed under  //   bangalore   entrepreneurship   nasscom   nasscompc   product conclave   startup  

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