In Search of Meaning

"“The machine has got to be accepted, but it is probably better to accept it rather as one..."

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:05:44 +0530

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“The machine has got to be accepted, but it is probably better to accept it rather as one accepts a drug — that is, grudgingly and suspiciously. Like a drug, the machine is useful, dangerous, and habit-forming. The oftener one surrenders to it the tighter its grip becomes.”

It would have been great if we realized this simple truth before wasting our time in every decade blaming the latest “addictive” gadget/tool/machine that has become popular in the public imagination.

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- George Orwell, novelist (1903-1950)

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity."

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 10:49:10 +0530

““The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.””

- George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)

"“Prolonged study of the English language leaves me with a conviction that nearly all the..."

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:23:24 +0530

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“Prolonged study of the English language leaves me with a conviction that nearly all the linguistic tendencies of the present day have been displayed in earlier centuries, and it is self-evident that the language has not bled to death through change. Vulgarity finds its antidote; old crudities become softened with time. Distinctions, both those that are useful and those that are burdensome, flourish and die, reflourish and die again.”

This is so true, if you just take a look at the evolution of the word “nice” and “fool” across centuries and the fact that grammatical distinctions such as semi-colon and colon have fallen out of vogue in recent times. But so have, spellings! It will be interesting to watch the language not bleed to death in the current technology context.

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- Robert W. Burchfield, lexicographer (1923-2004)

"“There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.” We are all crew on..."

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:00:39 +0530

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“There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.”

We are all crew on Earth, responsible for our directions and destiny, while steering others a bit alongside.

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- Marshall McLuhan, educator and philosopher (1911-1980)

"“It is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they..."

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:02:09 +0530

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“It is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.”

There is no further elegance than the word that describes it all!

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- Robert Southey (1774-1843)

"“Every one is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody” I loved this..."

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:34:43 +0530

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“Every one is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody”

I loved this quote. Consiously or unconsciously we try to hide our shortcomings, jealousy, evil thoughts and showcase degrees of goodness, like the moon, to the outside world. But knowing that we have that side and being able to keep them in check, helps each of us be a better person.

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- Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

"“Reading a book is like rewriting it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read,..."

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:03:51 +0530

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“Reading a book is like rewriting it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms.”

It is so true. Can’t help but agree with Angela on this. Each person reading a book can take away something different and it is that quality that brings books to life. I like interpreting books and movies once they are over and realize that the moment we read or see them, they take a shape different from that intended by the author or the director. Care to share any experiences?

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- Angela Carter, novelist and journalist (1940-1992)

"Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for..."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:41:00 +0530

“Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education. Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both”

- Abraham Flexner, educator (1866-1959)

"A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live..."

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:28:03 +0530

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.”

- William Styron, novelist (1925-2006)

"One can promise actions, but not feelings, for the latter are involuntary. He who promises to love..."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:41:30 +0530

“One can promise actions, but not feelings, for the latter are involuntary. He who promises to love forever or hate forever or be forever faithful to someone is promising something that is not in his power.”

- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

"There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power."

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:43:45 +0530

““There is no such thing as a great talent without great will power.””

- Honore de Balzac

"Go to where the silence is and say something."

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0530

“Go to where the silence is and say something.”

- Amy Goodman, investigative journalist, columnist and author (b. 1957)

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there..."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:15:00 +0530

““When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.””

- Thomas Jefferson

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Except a creature be part..."

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:54:47 +0530

““Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose application of the word. Consider the flea! - incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage.””

- Mark Twain

"We always weaken whatever we exaggerate."

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:37:40 +0530

““We always weaken whatever we exaggerate.””

- Jean Francois de La Harpe

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could."

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0530

““Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.””

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Warning SMSes, Anyone?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:30:00 +0530

I was pulling out of my office building when I saw smoke from slightly beyond I could see. I was worried, but had no way to know what had happened without taking a heavy detour and risking getting into trouble in the process. That is when it struck me. How great it would be if we had a service that pings me (SMS/email/automated call - I can choose the mode) when there are incidents, in or around where I’m, that could affect me. Since, it is mobile based, it can identify where I’m and really make the service local as well as real-time. Now, the company offering the service can define what warrants a warning SMS (nice name, huh?).

One potential candidate who can offer this service could be - Insurance companies. Why? One, it aligns well with their business model - life/safety of people that they need to pay for and secondly, it will be highly valued by customers. Heck, they can even offer it for free/with a small yearly addition to the premium, just for the sake of differentiation!!! What say? I still remember the unfortunate bomb blast incidents in Bangalore more than a year ago. I was indoors and got to know what happened, what if I was outside? The only way I would know is if by chance someone I knew was watching TV or listening to the radio or browsing the internet at that time and what are the odds of that? Let us take opt-in marketing to a new level and create services that add meaning to the life of people, not just spam!

Tie-ISB 2009: Growth, Funding and Partnerships - Part 2

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0530

This is the second part in the series on the Tie-ISB session and it covers growth, funding and partnerships. The panelists were Sundar Subramaniam (Cofounder, Dim Dim), Atul Phadnis (Founder, Whats on India) and Srinivas Pothapragada (Founder, Tidal Data).

Takeaways for entrepreneurs was:

1. Listen to your competitors’ customers very carefully :) - don’t design features that you think are cool, design/make products/services that make the lives of the customers easier. In fact, one sure way to find out if that is the case is if they either pay upfront to get it developed or agree to pay on delivery.

My take» While, it is a good idea to listen to the customer, isn’t it easier when somebody has already developed the market through their efforts and now you are optimizing the pain points through your offerings. You can ask the customers what you like or dislike in a specific context very easily and much more objectively in a B2B than in a B2C market. Heck, your customers are so precisely defined that you know where to go hunt them. What if you are launching something revolutionary, innovative or game changing? Does it work that effectively if you were launching a completely new product or service in a market where the customers you might be tapping into a latent need? How do you ask the customers whether they want an iphone or a twitter, for that matter! Any insights? People who have done this inputs please?

2. Here comes the next point to the rescue - “Don’t solve a problem faster than a customer can create it”

My take» An excellent food for thought and what can be a better example than Intel, here? They can go much faster down the innovation curve, but they stagger it and do incremental launches, giving people enough time to figure out problems that need to be solved, and lo, behold, there is Intel with the solution. However, I do think that, this tracking is easier done in the B2B market, like the previous point too, than in a B2C market. That is why we see many more failures like palm pilots in the B2C market. In the B2C domain, the intent to buy may or may not reflect a real need (for all you know, they might have been amusing you) and the nonchalance for an innovative concept, is not its death-knell either! Sometimes, if the cost economics work out, you just need to go out there and launch the product, right?

3. Ensure you are solving a large problem.

My take» This is a repeated message from the last session too and you cannot overemphasize it. Find something that is big enough for you to solve and make space for competition. Counterintuitive, isn’t it? Who said competition was bad? In fact, if you are solving a big problem and you are in the right space at the right time, you will have tonnes of other people trying to solve it too and it just ensures that you are doing the right thing. Also, don’t forget, their pitches to partners, customers, VCs and all others - is “free market education” for you. Just know what you offer that is unique and different and strive on!

4. Know who your customers are and who are not - both of these are very important, it is all about being very clear about what market you are going after, whose pain points you are solving and spending your time and resources where it will get you the maximum returns!

My take» I cannot say it better than Srinivas put it, “Sales in the beginning is closer to marketing and is like an art - in that phase founders themselves are playing most of the roles. But, in the later stages it becomes a science and it gives clear instructions on who a customer is, what pain points you are solving, where you stand vs a competitor and then it is about execution. If your sales person is not sure whether the person he is talking to is a customer or not, you are doing a bad job of targeting. If your sales person is coming back with repeated feedback about the product (assuming your product is solving someone’s problem in the first place) you are doing a bad job of marketing as a whole - so redo that piece and if required change strategy/the marketing manager. In the lattery stage, sales scaling is where your growth is and it is about repeatability, just like in science, if your sales person spends time thinking or on feedback, you are not having a very repeatable process, are you?”

5. When working on partnerships - for faster growth, industry knowledge/experience or access to markets - always let the relationships win

My take» Actually, this is more of a question that I could not answer. Atul’s company works on Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) for the Indian TV media and he is bringing different kinds of content providers and channels on one platform, it is a tough job but the threat of one of these players wanting to take over what he is doing is not that large. What happens in a market where boundaries are less clearly established and people are integrating forward and backward? How do you work on the partnerships, develop trust and good working relationships. Any insights here?

6. Finally, the highlight of the session and the buzzword for the rest! ”Startups are about figuring it out as you go along”

My take» Well said! What can I really add to that? When you start, you think you know where you are going, but as you go along a lot of different forces pull you in many directions and it is in making those small and large decisions day in, day out, that you figure out what to do and how to do, to get where you are going and sometimes, even that is not fixed! A good team, goes at it together and that is why most VCs invest in a strong team. You can see here how Mark Suster (General Partner at GRP Partners) says that he invests in a team (70%) and the market space/idea (30%) about their investments in ad.ly.

Overall, great takeaways and lots of thought provoking content was put out in the session. I would love to know if you were there at the conference, what did you think of the points above? Did anything else stand out for you? If you were not, even better, do the points above resonate with you? Do you have examples to share? Looking forward to your comments!

Tie-ISB Connect 2009: Incubators – Part 1

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 +0530

I attended the Tie-ISB Connect 2009 this year and to say the least, it was one of the most inspiring sessions I have attended in the recent past. Let me go over some of the highlights for those of you who missed and for the rest of us to keep pointers in mind, as we move on…(with the “rodent-sized memory” of ours – courtesy Siddharth of Rang De Basanti fame, during the panel discussion on Taking India Forward)

I will cover Incubators in this session. This was the first panel on JumpStart that was organized by Sanjoy Sanyal and had as panelists Nandini Vaidyanathan (Founder For Startups), Sunil Maheshwari (Founder Mango Technologies) and Deepam Mishra (i2 India Ventures). All the three had incubators in common, where Nandini helps setup & run incubators in Engineering Colleges, Sunil was incubated in IIM-B and Deepam is trying to commercialize the technology present in our top-notch IIT labs.

The broad takeaways from startup perspective were -

1. Be ready to fail

2. Focus, Focus, Focus

3. Think big, thing different, think you – when you are solving a problem

4. And, last not the least, realize that incubators are good for money and the relationships – everything else you need to do on your own.

Nandini went on to describe the ideal incubator as one that believes, funds, mentors and bridges (helps with networks) but the fact that no incubator perfectly does all of these shows that there is a lot of room for improvement. At the same time, her own efforst in this area and increasing awareness to spur entrepreneurship in the community has helped create incubators in engineering colleges that can help young startups attain success. You can read more about these efforts at her blog.

Next few sessions were around funding, growth, partnerships, next 800 Million Opportunities and taking India forward…that I shall cover in the next few parts of this blog series. In the meanwhile, please feel free to share your experiences, if you are looking to engage with incubators, please feel free to ping me.

PS: There is a 5 -day workshop on entrepreneurship being held from Nov 16-20th 2009 in PES School of Engineering by Prof Nandini Vaidyanathan and interested people should register before Nov 5th 2009. Knowing Nandini, I would strongly urge anyone interested in entrepreneurship and startups to register and gain from the experience.

Do entrepreneurs need previous experience?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:29:20 +0530

I was asked this question by Suhani who is with YourStory.in. Here is the excerpt she published in her article at YourStory Blog. However, I could not stop my thought process from rumbling on and most of that does end up in this space…so here goes (my take, the unabridged version…). Hope it triggers a good discussion and thought process on this.

The truth is, if you are asking yourself this question, you probably do need the experience. On the other hand, the young somethings that go startup on their own don’t ask themselves this question, they are the “doers” who go get things done. Occassionally, they might reflect on the sub-optimal use of their time/efforts due to lack of “proper” training/experience, but largely, that wouldn’t deter them from pursuing their entrepreneurial dream.

Now, defering your dreams to go get some corporate experience under your belt is not bad, if you are not using that as a bait to go down the least effort path. Instead keep your eye on the end goal and keep working towards it, relentlessly. What do I mean by relentlessly? Be on the lookout for potential partners and employees who can help you achieve those entrepreneurial (Gosh! I think they made this word hard on purpose) dream, try and get relevant experience in terms of implementation, marketing, sales, technical exposure, management - anything related to your idea(s) that will help you understand the market better (enough to uncover pain points, at least!) or understand the execution aspects better or make you better at hiring people, give you better networks to rely upon once you are on your own etc. etc…

Can you be really taught entrepreneurship? Short answer is – Yes, if you were to go out and build something on your own, you might end up hours trying to figure something out that with a good training might be a cakewalk. However, Do you need prior experience before taking the plunge? Hell, No! Look at what the young entrepreneurs of the world ranging from Gates, Jobs, Yang/Filo, Bezos, Dell, Brin/Page, Zuckerberg etc. etc. have achieved. While, it might teach you how worthwhile your cause is and how underutilized you are in your job at spur you towards taking the plunge, for others it might build a comfort zone or a cushion beyond which their dreams might cease to exist. In fact, they might even get loaded with the “large corporate” baggage so much so that they when it comes to it, they can’t operate in a startup anymore!

So, the question remains – is MBA an answer, then? Can one learn to become an entrepreneur at an MBA school. My take on that is – No. As much as a manager needs to grasp a lot of theory to get on top of the world’s learnings on management, each company, each entrepreneur is different, how they learn and what they want to learn is different. No standard school curriculum can teach you that. At best, it can help you with resources, mentorship and networks (which is great, by the way and still rare to get all the three together in one place at the same time). So, what do you do? The only way you can learn entrepreneurship is by doing it and if you can attempt it on your own through your own networks and building your own safety net, great! Else, incubators are the place to be for you…

All the best and hope it helped answer the questions of at least some of you and do ping with your share of stories…looking forward to hearing from all of you!