StartupDunia

Quarterlife crisis

pranav — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:32:54 +0000

This may seem somewhat off-topic to some of you, but I get lots of emails from users who are confused about their career, unhappy with their jobs and unsure of what’s next in their professional life.

This post on a so-called ‘quarter-life crisis’ sums it up so well. Although written in the context of the western society / lifestyle — lots of bits an pieces could apply to the indian context as well.

It was too good not to share with all of you.

MeraMaal – classifieds site for Indian cities

pranav — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:45:21 +0000

MeraMaal is a new site, attempting to gun for the Craigslist of India. It has the usual fare that you’d expect from a classifieds site with various sections categorized by different Indian cities.

While launching a classifieds site isnt too difficult, the main challenge they will have in execution – how to attract users to post classifieds. Currently, they have very few listings on the site and till they solve the classic ‘chicken and egg’ problem, they’d fast fade into oblivion (as is the case with any classifieds site).

Comments

June 30, 2009, analyst commented: They just re - designed their site ..... they are not new..... an old site.... now with a copied theme from quikr (kijij.com) they have no traffic at all .... just like any other classifieds site in india classifieds do not work in india..... people just leave it and dont waste your time.
July 1, 2009, Aanchal commented: Analyst, Looks like you had a pretty bad experience with this site. I have used them for a while for posting my accupunture services and i did get some response from people. They look like old player with new design. I don't think they look like quikr.com at all. Looks very different to me. Lets wait and watch to see how far they go with this. Aanchal.
July 1, 2009, analyst commented: look at their alexa ranking..... they have no traffic at all....
July 1, 2009, Aanchal commented: Analyst, I am not very much aware about how alexa works. What is the the basis of Alexa ranking and what ranking is supposed to indicate the site is doin pretty well ? Aanchal
July 1, 2009, Rajat commented: My 2 cents.Actually there is a market out their if they integrate their site with other media as well. For e.g if they allow people to pay and post ads on News Papers / TV or Local Cable channels , Magazines or print and distribute pamplets at some important points. In India News Papers/ TV/Local Cable channels are still a much stronger medium then just putting Ads Online.

Proto.in scheduled for July 25th at Pune

pranav — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:19:10 +0000

The next edition of Proto.in, India’s biggest startup event, is scheduled for July 25th at the Dewang Mehta auditorium, Persistant Systems in Pune.

This edition of Proto intends to take a solid leap and focus on policies that support Start-ups both in IT and non IT sectors. The start-up community at Proto.in will analyze and understand how best to leverage the existing policies and in what ways it can get involved with key stakeholders such as the government in strengthening the policies further.

Book your tickets to the event – further details on their site.

The art – science – voodoo of community building

pranav — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:28:13 +0000

Building (read- coding and designing) a website or a social network is the easy part. How you build a loyal, active community of users is the hard bit.

Here’s an interesting post that provides an awesome example – definitely worth a read.

EduCell is a startup by IITians for aspiring IITians

pranav — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:53:42 +0000

EduCell is a startup founded by IIT currently enrolled IIT students with the goal of mentoring students who hope to ‘crack the IIT- JEE’ exam. Around 200 IIT students provide mentoring sessions to IIT aspirants and guide them through their preparations. The USP being that having ‘been there, done that’ in the recent past, they’re in a much better position to guide and mentor other students. All registered students get personalized guidance from current IIT students and also are provided with sample tests, study material and motivational CD’s. You also get notes used by JEE toppers, with the hope that the notes help you to score well at the JEE.

Other features on the site include tips-tricks via mobile, video sessions by IITians, live chat with IIt students and discussion forums.

I think this is an amazing idea – with their unique USP, they definitely have the ability to stand out in a crowded market. The market size for IIT-JEE preps is huge – and even if they make a tiny dent in it, they stand to make some solid gains of it.

I guess some from the IIM’s needs to get inspired and needs to port over this brilliant idea to the CAT exams as well — I’d say that’d be an even bigger success story (I believe CAT exam market / test preps is more larger and lucrative – but dont quote me on it).

Comments

June 30, 2009, Kishor commented: Can we get details of promoters of Educell..? Do they have franchisee at Nashik ? rgds kishor vyas
June 30, 2009, pranav commented: kishor you can contact them via their website. thnx.
July 1, 2009, Ruchir Gupta (Educell Team Member) commented: Hi guys, You can know more about Educell, and regarding applying, at the following website : www.educell.info. Alternatively, drop off a mail to contact@educell.info, or call +91 0771 4033954. We do not have any "centres" so as to say. Our main office is located in Raipur, Chattisgarh. Since we help students on phone/send material by post, we do not have local centres. Ruchir Gupta Manager Web Educell
July 2, 2009, Selva commented: >>"I guess some from the IIM’s needs to get inspired and needs to port over this brilliant idea to the CAT exams as well " A couple of guys from IIM-K have done just that, albeit in a small city - Coimbatore. They are called Focus Academy and can be found here www.focusacademy.in I am based out of Trichy and I know for a fact that the CAT market is untapped in Trichy and Madurai (two tier-2 cities in Tamil Nadu)

India not the ideal place for online, mobile entrepreneurs

pranav — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:13:59 +0000

In an insightful post, Deap Ubhi, co-founder and CEO of Burrp, says that India is not yet ready for online or mobile entrepreneurship.

this is where india diverges a bit from many other countries that are currently cultivating some great startup ideas. why is india different? my theory is simply this: the delta (or difference) between what many consider to be india’s market size and its addressable market size is vast.

the mobile market in india is closing in on just below half a billion. that’s almost twice the entire population of the united states. how many of those mobile subscribers are on prepaid plans? how many of them are below the poverty line? how many of them are unemployed? qualitatively, how many of them are just struggling to get a 4th grade education, can’t afford medicine for their illnesses, and frankly, don’t give a shit about anything except making sure their mobile allows them to talk to their circle

The post definitely gives us some food for thought. Deap has had the experience of running Burrp for about 3+ years now and it’d be foolish to dismiss his opinion as lame.

I had touched upon a similar topic way back in 2007 — even though India’s potential seems huge (1 Billion), actual figures are pretty dismal.

Comments

June 19, 2009, rabi gupta commented: Yes, Pranav that's somewhat the fact. We usually brag about total Indian Mobile Users and also say that total Internet population would increase as more and more users start accessing net from their Mobiles. The fact however remains that almost 80% of the Mobile users who will use Internet on mobile will be using it as a tool to stay in touch with whatever they are missing while they are on move. But in fact, the opportunity for Mobile VAS is still huge. Airtel has consistently innovated different services which are first of their kind in the World. So my verdict-- Online Entrepreneurs still need to wait till real desktop internet users number increase. Mobile Entrepreneurs still have loads of opportunities in Mobile VAS related areas.
June 19, 2009, viveck commented: I dont consider that a great post. Its always easy for companies to estimate the size of the market and take a pie of it, rather when they work the bottom up way, they will find their estimates are more reliable. Further, I am amazed if entrepreneurs make plan without considering the essential factors such as Average revenue per user, churn rate, (whatever is required that is ) before estimating market size. If they dont thats clearly their fault and if a VC cant raise these fundamental questions, he might as well reconsider investment as a career!
June 19, 2009, Aji commented: I disagreed about the web entrepreneurs part .... I thought I will add my 2 cents here ... seoforclients.com/blog/marketing/india-is-ready-for-web-entrepreneurs.html
June 19, 2009, Rohan commented: First of all, I think the term entrepreneur is used very loosely in India. I have seen "startups" with only an idea,a website and no revenue model qualifying as a "startup" in big-name competitions. I wonder if we need a change-of-definition in Indian context. Most of the times, I have seen "startups" in a rat race : "Hey! my code is better than yours", "hey! I got mentioned on so-and-so A list blog", etc. None of them ever come back to tell what kind of money they have made. "Entrepreneurs" here are more focused on displaying their coding skills rather than monetizing skills. It does not take even a pint of brain to come out with idea, but it takes much more to come with something that will actually sell. And this is where they loose. Web and mobile entrepreneurs are more focused on accessory services rather than fundamental or core services for which there is already a demand.
June 19, 2009, Rohit commented: if this guy is the ceo of some company ....... god save that company.... i dont see why you call it insightful.... the language itself ticked me off....... and the last time i checked burrp it looked an exact replica of yelp...... am i wrong or had any one else seen this ???
June 19, 2009, Rajat commented: The article is very insigtful. Coming from a person who has a lot of experience in running his own company it really urges you to think in that direction. I personally believe services that are 'Add on' should be avoided instead services that can be included in day to day activity and solve a pain point can earn well in India. I recently read an article on SiliconIndia where they mentioned that most profitable web companies in India were those that were running subscription businesses e.g Naukri.com other b2c companies that get money from advertising are not making much.Mostly if they do get bought over then they make some money. Also indian web startups should target people abroad as well (there is no harm in doing that, i am not sure about tax laws / or any legal stuff though).
June 19, 2009, Yelper commented: Yelp is barely profitable in the US where a strictly ads-based revenue has historically proven it's worth (unlike India). Burrp was copied from Yelp for the Indian market. I think this guy thought he could be the early bird and get the worm. But the Indian internet & mobile market is so different from the US. How many people in India eat at restaurants and drink at bars enough to make this type of site a hit. Internet users in India still mostly use service like Naukri, email sites, and marriage sites. If you want a piece of the Indian market, fix the infrastructure.
June 19, 2009, pranav commented: boy - do you seem ticked off these days or what...
June 19, 2009, pranav commented: rohit, deap has had the experience of being an entrepreneur for the past 3+ years in the Indian internet landscape - so I'd definitely give some value to his thoughts -- after all, he's basing it on his experience. besides, i dont see anything that should tick you off..
June 19, 2009, Rohit commented: I would more value to thought coming from the original......Jeremy Stoppelman rather than hearing from someone who copied it ...... read deap's other posts about the language.....
June 20, 2009, Rohan commented: no yaar, its just that I am seeing more of stupid services that one would ever pay for using. And yeah, I am speaking mostly about the web startups....not manufacturing, etc. Making money has to be the aim of any business.
June 25, 2009, Santhanam commented: Dear Pranav, Replicating any U.S/Foreign Business model in India without any thinking about the viability in Indian Context is really hazardous to entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs has first listen to the ground(Indian Ground of course) & offer services which is fine tuned to to indian customer's Requirements & Environment. For eg., IRCTC has done quite successfully pioneered online train ticket booking. Similarly other private players like ClearTrip has offered better UI to train ticket booking which is a Hit. But when we try to book Tatkal Tickets Online (5 days before journey, the quota is open for booking at 8 AM), all the online services fail. Railways Officials / Travel Agents advice people to go to Railway Reservation Office for Tatkal Ticket Booking. Also there are inconvenience/disadvantage in booking wait listed train tickets online. But also just check how many people are checking their PNR status using their mobile phones(Even people who are not net savvy also use it). At the end of the day, whether a service is online/mobile or offline does not matter as long as the service offers good utility/value to customers. A comment from me : If one Indian director remakes Hollywood film by copying everything, frame by frame(names, sequence, dialogue etc/) , that film will not go well with the audience. But the same director, gets the concept of story in that same Hollywood film and adds masala items( songs, dance, indian names,sentiments etc) which the audience will be able to identify with himself and his environment, then that film will be a successful hit. Whichever be the idea, it needs to be thought in the Indian Context and whether the idea can be sold to the Indian Customer, then only the enterprise will succeed. Thank You With Regards Santhanam
June 29, 2009, pranav commented: thats true -- there's no contention about that. but i guess the point that deap is trying to make is about the potential market size. its just too small in India. so - size and context -- both matter.

iTweet2Win lets you run contests via Twitter

pranav — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:45:24 +0000

iTweet2Win is a new startup from the founders of Pringoo, and enables users to run contests via Twitter. Once you sign up, you can create your contest, the questions and decide the prizes. You get a url to the contest on the iTweet2Win site and you tweet that url to your followers. Contest participants can indicate their participation by tweeting your custom message in their twitter stream.

They offer a free basic version as well as a premium version for $9.99. For the paid version, you can customize your content look / theme and brand it as per your requirements. You also get advanced analytics about how your contest is being received by other Twitter users.

Once the contest end date is reached, you can select the winner by going to the contest page on their site.

You can take a look at a sample contest here.

I think if they can get the word out there, they’re onto something here. Leveraging Twitter’s massive user base and its inbuilt virality might just work great for iTweet2win.

Airtel to sell unlocked iPhones

pranav — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:56:57 +0000

Apple has authorized Airtel to sell unlocked iPhones to customers, enabling an user on any operator to get and use the iPhone. No word on whether Vodafone, the other iPhone provider in India, has been granted similar privileges or not (seems not).

Its not clear yet, on how much Airtel will charge extra for the unlocked iPhone (’locked’ iPhone costs Rs 36,000 for the 16 GB version). Unlocked iPhones are already available at various retailers, if you know where to go. Additionally, the iPhone 3GS will be available in India on August 9th.

Is Apple making this move to get more iPhone customers in India ? From the very start, iPhone has not performed well in the Indian market — is Apple hoping to change that with the unlocking strategy ?

via BS

Comments

June 15, 2009, Hari commented: Instead of authorizing to sell "unlocked" phone, Apple should stop being greedy for more money and sell it for lesser price in India. I am a hard-core apple fan, but am very disappointed with their strategy to squeeze more money from us.
June 16, 2009, Rohan commented: Is this a signal that Airtel will also jump into electronic item retailing like Tata Croma, Videocon Next, etc? Selling an unlocked iPhone is same as the local mobile shop selling Nokia or SE handsets which we can use with our preferred operators.
June 16, 2009, Rajat commented: I think eventually Airtell will get into retail whether for electronic products or others.I believe they were planning something like walmart stores earlier (in India).
June 17, 2009, Pawan Sahay commented: The whole concept of selling locked phones would anyway not fly in India, where customers want more freedom to choose their provider.And btw if u really know where to GO, you probably will get the piece for even lesser than 36K.

The Rediff redesign – a step backward ?

pranav — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:19:05 +0000

Rediff has gone live with a redesign of the Rediff India Abroad page (targetted towards NRIs) for the past few months now. The reason they cited for the redesign is that majority of the usage for their site happens from mobile devices. And the new design makes things more accessible from a mobile usage perspective.

Now I dont know what the Rediff guys were really smoking, but I think that the redesign is a big step in the wrong direction. In order to accomplish their goal of making the site more ‘mobile friendly’, they have managed to horribly destroy the online user’s experience.

For a content heavy site like Rediff, the focus of the site needs to be on content – promote and easily allow the user to discover good content and thereby increasing the user’s engagement with the site. The new design not only makes it incredibly difficult to discover new content, but the landing page fails to excite the user with any eye candy as well.

I’m no usability expert, but based on the strategy / redesign, it seems that the Rediff guys who were in charge of the task arent either. What I dont understand is — why not provide a different url for mobile devices ? Or, why not determine the client at runtime and if found to be a mobile device, why not redirect to the mobile section ?

In an effort to make things uncluttered, Rediff has lost its mojo — I wont be surprised if this impacts the visitors / pageviews metric for the site.

What do you think ?

Comments

June 15, 2009, basskeyz commented: agreed, I always end up clicking on the link at the top that takes me to the India site. One more click to get to their website- not good usability
June 15, 2009, creADivity commented: its not just a step back but i will say a walk back...its horrible in terms of user experience.
June 15, 2009, Rajat commented: 'The reason they cited for the redesign is that majority of the usage for their site happens from mobile devices' They could have easily kept two webpages as the welcome page for their site.One served for mobile users and the other for plain usage from a computers browser. The new site doesnot look at all like a portal. Have a look at the interface of www.in.com, its really cool.
June 16, 2009, Jeevan commented: Yes you are right. While mobile is one of the prominent platforms for web in the near future, and I agree that there should be sufficient emphasis on that area. However, that shouldn't be done at the cost of totally neglecting the current online userbase, which is still at large. The interface design of mobile hasn't matured enough to have an entire portal catered to it. The desktop web is still the preferred device of accessing the content online. The user experience could be refined by making the system adapt to the user by presenting the most appropriate design for that platform. Also, they could create applications specific to mobile, which leverages the device functionality and the user's interests. This is one of the early hiccups of the transistion from the desktop web to the mobile platforms and beyond. The current innovations in the mobile technology combined with the customer response would eventually decide the choices.
June 16, 2009, Siddhesh commented: I browsed through the site and I loved the user experience. Its very easy on the eyes, in stark contrast to the ad heavy sites of indiatimes. IBNlive and IN show ads just when I read the news which is a huge irritation. In contrast, the page loads extremely quickly. Check the rediff money updates- they are very fast. I agree that huge usability improvements will be needed but still, I think this might be a trend setting move.
June 17, 2009, Pr Jobs commented: nice thought. Tia smith
June 17, 2009, Nishi commented: Rediff lost its mojo long ago, when they started publishing more trash vs good quality articles and columns. Even before the revamp, the website looked like it had a few articles surrounded by a myriad of irritating ads. The redesign just made it even worse. Any better alternatives to rediff for those who want to read the news AND juice? Suggestions are appreciated.
June 26, 2009, ekerala commented: love them or hate them, rediff still remains as one of the top news destination for online users. Point is we might have hated the new UI but we dont have access to their internal stats and what actually work and what not. In a recent interview Ajit was mentioning about this new page and he also told this page is on a test ride right now and they are making changes to observe the user behavior with the changes.
June 29, 2009, pranav commented: it doesnt matter -- the design is alienating even once-in-a-while users like me. besides - it just doesnt make sense - even if they are getting more traffic from mobile users, that doesnt justify revamping the entire site to be mobile friendly -- if you think of it from that perspective, should other sites like bbc / nyt or whatever also do the same ? The point is that they should have a separate mobile friendly redirection / url -- and keep the web based ui as is.
June 29, 2009, Nisha Roy commented: I do agree with you....Rediff has lost its charm.....

Centilian launches Bollywood streaming app for the iPhone

pranav — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:42:53 +0000

Centilian, a Silicon Valley based startup, has launched a new application – Bollyhood – for the iPhone, which brings streaming Bollywood content to the iPhone.

Bollyhood enables users to stream free movie trailers, behind the scenes footage, interviews, news, gossip, music videos etc straight to their iPhone. Users can also rate the content, share it with friends on Facebook etc. They have tied up with Eros, to power a lot of the current content for the app and are working with other studios to bring full length movies and TV shows to the iPhone as well.

Their goal is to start with the iPhone and gradually become the one stop source for Bollywood video content on all mobile devices.

If I were an iPhone owner, I would definitely try out this app — considering that I dont subscribe the various Bollywood TV channels – hopefully this app could keep me in touch with the new movies/ songs etc.

Myntra launches ‘Team India’ cricket jerseys in partnership with Nike

pranav — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:13:30 +0000

In what I’d consider a major coup, Myntra has partnered with Nike to launch personalized ‘Team India’ cricket jerseys. Users can customize the jerseys with their name and number and show their support for the Indian cricket team. NRI’s can avail these jerseys too, courtesy of Myntra’s international shipping.

I’d say this is a major accomplishment for Myntra because a tie-up with a brand like Nike gives them some serious street cred and recognition.

Comments

June 16, 2009, VS commented: Ha ha... Its so untimely.. .when the defending world champion is out of the tournament. Myntra is late by few weeks.
June 16, 2009, Rohan commented: lol....India is out! But anyways, football craze is picking up and these guys can do the same thing with footbal jerseys too!
June 16, 2009, pranav commented: I guess it might have helped if I followed cricket more closely :-)

IT still remains preferred career choice for Indian engineering graduates

pranav — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:48:23 +0000

With 43% of votes, Information Technology still remains the preferred career choice for Indian engineering graduates of the class of 2010, as per a survey by Nielsen.

IT is followed by automobile, telecom, energy – oil & gas, infrastructure/real-estate and power sectors.

Some additional interesting tidbits from the survey:

Ratan Tata is the most popular role model for the 2010 graduating class
Students perceive nanotechnology (12%), IT services (11%), Power (9%), oil & gas (8%), telecom (6%) as the top 5 ‘industries of the future’
IIT students consider energy/oil & gas, nanotechnology and finance as the top ‘industries of the future’
half of the 2010 graduating class intend to move out of their first job in the first 3 years
51% cite higher studies as reason for leaving their first job
69% of the 51% intending to leave their first job for higher studies intend to do an MBA
Students are willing to continue with their employer if they employer pays well (39%), they have a good job satisfaction (34%), if they have a good work environment (32%)

You might wonder why this survey even deserves a post.

In my opinion, this survey is important because it gives a very good background on what factors graduates weigh in while looking for a job, while leaving a job etc. Not to mention that entrepreneurship doesnt even figure as a career option anywhere in the survey. The fresh graduating class is where we actually need to sow the seeds for entrepreneurship – that is the best time when they can afford to take risks as entrepreneurs. When such a high percentage of students sees an IT + MBA as the holy grail, there needs to be a means to show the benefits that they might get from being a hands on entrepreneur instead of attending a b-school. Last, but not the least, this data will also be helpful to startups to attract and retain talent.

via release

Comments

June 11, 2009, Rohan commented: +MBA ? We are forgetting that over 95% of the people, whether IT grads or not, need "security", "stability", "guaranteed pay cheque" and all that. Add to it, the kind of lifestyle they mostly live and those fat loan installments! Also, an MBA from a high-profile is the only respectable MBA. Even this is arguable because not all IIM-A b-grads are that worthy. And most of these people who leave IT for MBA goto 2nd or 3rd rate MBA "Management Colleges" which we never heard before. For these guys, MBA is just an additional qualification like B.E. or B. Tech that keeps them ahead of the "other" candidates at the interview. Not all MBA is magic, some is black magic :D A few people boast of doube MBA, but when you ask them the college, some never-heard name crops up :D
July 4, 2009, Ankit Bansal commented: Indian job & education scene is vastly different from the US. Graduates from second grade colleges are considered no better than 12th class passouts. Whereas in developed countries students can hope to get work straight out of school or polytechnics. In India, an MBA is a must to even get your Resume screened for interview. If only employers become more open about hiring graduates, students can take more risks. Of course it can be argued that too many students rushing for MBA provides enough supply of fresh MBAs every year due to which employers are not willing to hire plain graduates. Another important point to be noted is that US is a highly flexible and open culture. People from all sorts of educational backgrounds can do a particular job. In India, try securing an IT job with a commerce/arts background. Even if you were top of the class and have all important IT certifications from the likes of GNIIT and Aptech, you will have a hard time getting a mediocre job. Indians surely have the talent and the guts to take risks, but risks are just too much in our country.

IndyaRocks launches Social IM integrating popular instant messaging platforms

pranav — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:00:00 +0000

IndyaRocks will be launching an integrated social instant messenger day after tomorrow. The messenger will integrate all the popular IM platforms like Yahoo, GTalk, MSN and AOL and the user can chat with their buddies from within the Indyarocks site itself. This will be a great viral play for IndyaRocks.

The chat application is launched in partnership with Geodesic and will be monetized via branded campaigns.

They claim to have about 3.2 million registered users now.

While IndyaRocks may still be small, as compared to Orkut / Facebook, I cant help but applaud their efforts at innovation. Slow and steady, they have kept up a constant stream of innovations and features for users. Be it launching new sections on the site or partnering with other content providers, they’ve constantly managed to make the site more complete and more engaging for the users.

CricFeeds – live cricket match play by play simulation

pranav — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:50:09 +0000

CricFeeds is a pretty interesting startup. They provide a play by play simulation of a live cricket match.While I didnt get a chance to view an actual live match play, I was impressed with what little I saw. The simulation includes ball-by-ball action and includes actual fielder names, actions and positions on the field as the match is in progress. The simulation includes live audio as well as text commentary and a small chat module as well, where viewers can instally discuss about ongoing play. The entire simulation is browser based and doesnt require any downloads or such.

The service is offered as a white label solution instead of a direct to consumer app — in other words, the service is for other portals that can integrate the app into their site. Portals can customize the look and feel, branding and several other things. Portals can also manage the ad inventory for the app and the analytics as well.

The app is already deployed by several affiliates including IndyaRocks, WebDunia and several other newspapers.

Probably, the app has existed for a long time now, but I just discovered it recently — and found it compelling enough to write about it.

Comments

June 10, 2009, Gaurav commented: Here is my take on the service: The idea seems to be disruptive. TV/Internet rights are sold for millions for cricket tournaments. However, stimulation of the match is cheap and won't be subject to any copyright issues with the cricket boards. Providing this as a FREE white label solution than creating a dedicated website would ensure a fast growth in user base. They have also created apps on Orkut and FB. Making Money - Paid accounts (with audio commentary) and I assume audio/video ads for free users after end of the over or a wicket loss. I thought majority of their traffic should be from USA and other non-cricket playing countries, but that's not the case. cricfeeds.com gets about 90% of traffic from India. I guess they are people sitting in office who do not have access to TV. Why would someone watch stimulation over video or even audio of a cricket match? They have more info here http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dhjcwqvj_88gt8wkcsh

Qualcomm Ventures launches QPrize business plan competition

pranav — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:20:31 +0000

Qualcomm Ventures has launched QPrize, their business plan competition. Four winners, one each from India, China, Europe and North America will receive $100K of funding, while the top winner (from the shortlisted four) will win an additional $250K in funding.

QPrize is open all entrants, whose business plans accelerate wireless technology development in the following sectors:

Consumer/enterprise applications and services

Communication devices

Semiconductor and component technologies

Mobile platforms

Digital media and content

Healthcare technologies and services

CleanTech

July 31st is the deadline to submit your business plans. The India winner will be chosen in September while the finals will be held in November at San Diego.

For additional details, check their website.

TweetKnot enables you to form groups on Twitter

pranav — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:08:44 +0000

TweetKnot is Bangalore based startup that provides you with the ability to build private / public groups using Twitter. The idea is create a ‘knot’ (community) based on a mutual interest. A knot can be made private, where only approved members can join the knot or the knot can be made public, where anyone can join the knot. The owner of the knot can specify the users whose messages should appear in the knot automatically. The owner can also follow any other Twitter users and the messages from that user will appear in the knot – for example, if I create a knot based on the theme of startups and I set the knot to follow TechCrunch, messages from TechCrunch will appear in knot automatically.

You can simply start using the service using your existing Twitter credentials. Messages can be posted from the TweetKnot site or from Twitter using the format ‘D TweetKnot ’. Messages can be read only on their site for now.

I think this is a pretty useful service to make Twitter usage more targetted — theme based groups keeps distractions and other noise from the Twitter stream at a minimum.

What do you think ?

Comments

June 8, 2009, Rohan commented: But hows does this one make money? I would like to make another point here. I am referring to startups in general, not specific to the one covered in this post: The herd mentality is just too common. There are very few startups that will actually add value to the end user, and much fewer that will actually make even decent money. More and more startups provide the same solution to the same problem. Finally, it gets reduced to just "Hey! my site is coded and designed better than your site" rather than "Hey! I solve this problem quicker than you". Web 2.0 may have simplified procedures, but doing business with it is the challenge. It does not take more than 2 months to code(read as rip-off) a web application....but it takes months and perhaps years to make money from it. Selling the service is still a big challenge. Coding a application isn't. Overall, it seems that the so called "entrepreneur" is more obsessed with what he can do rather what the end user wants. More and more "hobby projects" are being miscategorized as "startups" and people thinking of themselves as "entrepreneurs". My words may be harsh, but definitely not harsher than reality! And I am speaking in-general of the startup scenario. I have left entrepreneurship(because I failed out of my own foolishness, but my luck shone in stocks) - but I will request every entrepreneur to take a hard-and-brutal look at whatever your business is. Don't be in a haste to tag it as a "startup" and yourself as an "entrepreneur" until you really feel it can make some money. If not, let it be a hobby project. The illusion is that you are an "entrepreneur" is very dangerous. It like when you are too close to the object, you can't look at it the way it looks to the world. Also, always allow the enthusiasm to wane off before deciding on an idea. When enthused, every idea looks like a million dollar one even if its not work a penny. After the enthu is lost, most just keep moving round-n-round in the loop and breaking out upwards is unlikely. Infact, most will lose momentum while in the look and totally break down. Thank you, and sorry for throwing cold water on anybody's enthusiasm.
June 9, 2009, Ramya commented: Rohan, you are right that Indian startups are not thinking much about making money but same is case with Twitter. They never had any revenue model in mind and even their real time search idea came to their mind only once they are popular. Also Rohan, Facebook started as a hobby project and grew to become one of Internet Giants. So there is no difference between a hobby project and startup except the name. Let the guys try out who knows the next google can be from India.
June 9, 2009, al commented: Ramya, Facebook was a copied project...... not a hobby.... Zuckerberg stole the code.... we all know that..... I agree that twitter is one of the many startups not making money.... But I think it is not important for startups to make money on day1 ...... if the response is good..... it will be a good take over candidate.
June 9, 2009, Rohan commented: What is the probability that twitter itself will not implement this idea? Why do you think twitter will just sit back and allow a derivative of it to have all the fun?
June 9, 2009, Krish commented: Boy boy boy...! You seem to be struck hard! Anyways, everyone is entitled to have his set of opinions which might be incorrect. Rohan, all that is matter is "Success". Ok that facebook is copied, but enterpreneurship lies in the fact of "sense of timing", being at the right place and an eye to spot the opportunity. Whethar you do it as an hobby and otherwise is I guess irrelevant. And, as said in Gita..what matters is "Karma"..without giving too much relevance to so called and misused by so many as "Heard mentality" or "Me too" for many upcoming ideas... If the guy involved has that level of faith, forget about idea, a mountain could be shaken... So, Rohan, you might want to look into why you failed. Probably you gave up too early by giving lot of importance to immediate result without even harping on how to innovate and create killer value addition for the user... cheers!
June 9, 2009, Rohan commented: Yes, success needs perseverance - may not be instant. But only if you are "innovating" the product, not if you are "copying" it! Innovation is uncertain, but copying an innovation is certain. When you are copying it, you already know the procedures, the market parameters, etc. So all it takes is marketing to make money. I have observed this all the time: That most "entrepreneurs" are so seduced by their idea that they end up applying motivational principles to situation which cannot take them.
June 9, 2009, Krish commented: Rightly pointed. All I would like to say are we rightly placed and informed to judge the "enterpreneur idea". Or otherwise we would have ended up calling Google as "me too" idea in 1990s when Yahoo and altavista and lycos were doing failry good job... So, there is always a chance that an innovation is being cooked within "Copy an idea" ..and its the time which give it flying colors... I would in fact say that only people with good money want to copy idea as they could pump money in marketing...Pl correct me if I am mistaken in my opinion
June 9, 2009, Rajat commented: Very well said Rohan.I totally agree with you. Mostly startups based on social networks try to get the users first and then think of making money.I personally donot agree to this thinking, i think startups should think of making money from the first step onwards.What if Twitter adds this feature to their site themselves, in that case TweetKnot will be wiped out in a day.
June 9, 2009, Ram commented: Welcome to the twitter world..!
June 10, 2009, Rajat commented: Just to add to my previous comment http://www.ismashphone.com/2009/06/15-apps-rendered-obsolete-by-the-new-iphone-.html These apps were added to iphone earlier but the new version of iphone ships them as features.Something similar can happen to TweetKnot (and they should make money somehow before that happens)
June 10, 2009, Gaurav commented: ...and I thought it was "arrange marriages" through Twitter. No, seriously!

Payin2 – payments via offline recharge points

pranav — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:18:44 +0000

One of the stumbling blocks for e-commerce in India is the lack of penetration of credit/debit cards and the fear of using them online to make purchases.

Payin2 is a new service that hopes to make it easier for SME’s and startups to charge for their products and provide them with a ready to use electronic distribution and cash collection service. The mode of operation is offline, which Payin2 does by its 30,000 ‘recharge points’ operated by its parent company Paytronic Network. Paytronic is one of the leading electronic distributors of prepaid mobile vouchers and extending this for of payment / recharging serves as a natural evolution of their ‘recharge points’ network.

Here’s how the service works:

Once you register with their site, you can select a few keywords that are uniquely associated with your service. When a consumer needs to make a payment to you, they visit any of Payin2’s recharge points and make a cash payment. The merchant sends a SMS to the Paytronic number (known only to the merchant), which is handled by the Payin2 backend server. Your code leverages the Payin2 API to verify the payment and recharge the customer’s account. Currently, Payin2 charges a 10% of the transaction amount as their service fees.

I think Payin2 is a great extension of their existing distribution network and could serve as a significant channel to reach out to those consumers who dont have access to cash cards and or mobile payments.

Comments

June 8, 2009, Rohan commented: If I am not wrong, it works pretty much as the ItzCash cards and some other prepaid cards. There was some other company with mobile based solution too. Anyways, I doubt if it provides a breaking solution to any real problem. Most businesses offer direct bank deposits and online transfer. What I would actually like to see is a service that recharges my Paypal account - It would accept cash from me and credit equivalent dollars into my paypal account. Another concern is the steep 10% service fees. Who wants to pay Rs. 500/- as "service charges" for a product retailing at Rs. 5000/-. This is more evil than "service tax" levied by the government. Also, would they be charging both merchant as well as customer? Would they charge both 10% or 5%? This seems more like a solution in search of problem and money to gulp!
June 11, 2009, Prithvi commented: Hi Rohan, this is Prithvi from Payin2.com. We are also trying to create a mode of payment through Payin2 service. In that sense its similar to other prepaid cards. But operationally its very different - we dont ask the customers to put a balance with us, there is no concept of leakage or float here. Whenever a customer wants to make a payment, he just approaches one of our shops and pays in cash. Our service is targeted at small companies and startups who dont have the ability/trust to start their own distribution/cash collection service. How many people will be comfortable doing online payment for a small unknown startup? We act as a kind of escrow for these players. Also its not just cash collection but also electronic distribution service. For eg consider a software company which wants to sell its licensed software. It could distribute registration codes through our network and allow for free downloading from its website. What you suggested about Paypal service is also possible through this service (of course we need to look at the RBI regulations). The point is ours is a generic service and the possibilities are endless. If you look at our website, we have not yet finalised the service fee and are still trying to get feedback before we finalise it. Thing to be kept in mind is that it has to be attractive to all the stakeholders - merchants (who accept payments), businesses and Payin2.

Startup Idea for Entrepreneurs

pranav — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:37:08 +0000

Continuing on my earlier post on startup ideas, here’s another one, although not necessarily technology related.

Start a company that provides handyman, plumbing, general repair etc services to people.

Before you dismiss the it as crazy, hear me out.

In my experience, getting a miscellaneous home repair job done in India is a nightmare. You need to first go hunting for a handyman or repairman or electrician or plumber. Haggle about the price and then decide upon an appointment time and wait for the guy to show up. And for reasons unknown, these guys are almost always late and never able to keep the scheduled time. If you have taken a day off from work or are working from home, it translates to lost work, time and money for you. You need to repeatedly check in with the guy when he’s gonna show up. Its almost as if you are at the mercy of these guys. And that just sucks.

So here’s what you can do:

Start a one place shop that will provide all kinds of repair services – electrical, plubming, general repair etc.

Your goal and USP should be to buffer the customer from bad service. Period.

Encourage and instill value of timeliness and customer satisfaction in your employees. By offering a superior customer experience and all-in-one shop, you could also get away with charging a little premium over others. People will happily pay a little more than have to deal with the whims and fancies of local repairman.

And its a win-win for the handymen, electricians, repairmen as well – they get to work as a salaried employee (stable pay) rather than an uncertain income.

Thoughts, feedback welcome.

Comments

May 28, 2009, Rajat commented: Another good idea. Collecting people who will work for you and retaining them can be a pain but no doubt its a good idea.
May 28, 2009, Manu commented: There is a company that does this. A bit expensive. Can't seem to remember their name. But they are doing pretty well. If i find the name will post here.
May 28, 2009, Manu commented: Got it .. http://www.handiman.co.in/
May 29, 2009, snigdha commented: superb idea.
May 29, 2009, Himanshu commented: There is a company in Bangalore named handiman, which does that....
May 29, 2009, Accentor India commented: Good post, It's better for start up like us. We have got great motivation from this post. We accept such posts in the future ahead. All the best!!!
May 29, 2009, Accentor India commented: It is a fantastic idea from google to indian market. by taking the perspective of internet penetration google will shortly receive greatest response from Indian consumers. It is also making people more interested towards Internet Search. When people will spend time into internet then online advertising market will grow.
May 29, 2009, Deepesh commented: Fantastic idea, i had some research on this here are few stumbling blocks and some advantages. I would be the power of SMS here may work the most! Problems, These skilled crafstmen are not fixed in one location.(migrant labour) They have a tendency to directly negotiate and close the sale, therefore to be part of panel we have to make our costs as low as say Rs 10 a month for the person to be listed and it means having alteast 10,000 people to earn Rs 100,000 a month. Overheads are far too much. People may not belive the costs Advantages USP - You can get good work done cheap - You can also provide some sort of warranty on workmanship to take care of these people chaning residences fast (migrant labour) - Typically corporates / hsgn societies and other places can be contracted social benefits to all craftsman who would be part of it - Can add more specialised skilled people to increase rates - Can add more services, - may open job opportunities in smaller towns Where would the business come from? Internet Phone Who would be our users? Corporates Retailers / Market Associations Hsgn Society Individuals Any takers, deepeshkris [at] gmail [dot] com
May 29, 2009, nikunj commented: Hi I had thought of a similar concept but there are certain issues in addition to the retention of labour and cost. -- it is difficult to fix a price point before examination of the problem. eg. a tap that is leaking might be because it is loose or broken or valve. the examination is done by the craftsman that goes there and then again you are out of loop -- inventory management if you want to provide the spare parts also. if that is left to the craftsman visiting the household, the chances of him keeping a cut on buying spare parts and compromising on the quality are high. if the flush of my house is not working, i will give a call to the solution provider. i dont know what is the problem. the solution providers sends the plumber. the plumber examines the flush and says xyz is to be replaced. i have a choice to either go to the market ( which is inconvenience to me) and buy the particular spare part or send the plumber. if the plumber goes, there are chances of him overpricing or getting low quality stuff. if the solution provider maintains the inventory of the parts, it involves high capital.
May 29, 2009, Rohan commented: The problem with this idea that your life is "short". After one or two cycles of incidences of "business", you could be thrown out of the picture! Real life example: I bought my desktop computer in March 2003 from a dealer. Since then, it has run into problems quite a few times. The first time, I had to call the dealer and he would send his person. While leaving, that person gave his contact no. to me. Now, when I need help, I do not call the dealer, I directly call the person on his mobile. So all the service charges that I pay go completely into his pocket without a fraction to the dealer. Also, these laborers are so low paid that they will think times over handing you over the commission or "listing" fee. If you want, just go to your local hardware shop and ask him to send a plumber/electrician. The person will be at your door step within minutes. What we are not realizing is that there already exists a strong offline "network" and they are already getting enough business that way. So mostly they won't bother being listing with you if you would charge them. And what will the volume of service consumed anyways? The last time I called a plumber was 6 months back, and the electrician about 12 months back. On both these occasions combined, I paid less than Rs. 300. How frequently will a family need a plumber or electrician? Corporates? They already have these people at hand.
May 30, 2009, ashutosh commented: Hi, even i had thought of this sometimes back. The essence is that middleclass2.0 is not hesitant to shell out a few bucks for comfort, guarantee of quality work, and hassle free dealing with people doing laborious tasks (plumber/gardener). Additionally, my plan included setting up a single-point contactcentre number taking up all requests on phone. On phone you can request for plumber,car-wash,fetching milk or haldi from shop,taking your dog out, send a parcel to courier guy, or escort your old parents to station airport (yes),car-wash etc . The sense was that you are organizing a person's life and you are acting as a Secretary to a family, just for a service charge for misc srvices (monthly/pay-per -service). I have a detailed business-plan prepared for this. If anyone interested in NCR, i may be interested to hook-up for a chat. -ashutosh
May 31, 2009, kushal parmar commented: I want to startup a KPO firm in market research,data research,equity research & other such areas. Plz can anyone suggest me how to explore opportunities in this space..? If anyone has idea,plz mail me back we can workout together. mail-kushalparmar@live.com
June 1, 2009, pranav commented: you dont list plumbers / electricians etc -- you keep them on a payroll..so, they are actually your employees..
June 1, 2009, Rohan commented: Its very difficult to employ these people in a real-sense. At most, its most profitable to call them free-lancers. I doubt if there will be enough work to keep them employed. And how much money the work would bring in.
June 3, 2009, FirstBallSix commented: You are getting this one wrong. The numbers will not add up and it doesnt make sense to do this. Again you will have a cost vs service quality tradeoff.
June 3, 2009, Pradeep commented: Hi This is nice idea. Hope to see more players in this field -Pradeep
June 5, 2009, Anindya commented: I tend to second Rohan; our team had progressed far in launching; building awareness and subscriptions froma couple of South Delhi colonies where we were planning on launching; creating the netwrok of service providers and all that... Our model was a monthly subsrciption based model and our trouble was not so much the market acceptance but, fiding a steady workforce, ensuring quality and security when these guys visit workplaces. Also, what Rohn says is very true. All the colonies have a strong network of these handymen. And, all neighbourhoods have a services directory where the names are published/ advertised. BTW, these plumbers and electricians are entrepreneurs and do not like working for others :-)
June 5, 2009, Anindya commented: Ashutosh, Sometime late last year, me and a couple of other guys had done a lot of "research" on this. I will be happy to share my perspective. Mail me (remove the spcaes!) C A N I N D Y A at Z O H O dot COM
June 8, 2009, vikas shah commented: Take optimum use of manpower .Plumbers ,electricians can be asked to deliver KIRANA or do sth else in part time.Win Win situation.
June 8, 2009, Rohan commented: The grocery store has enough people to do this. My local 15x8 ft grocery has atleast 5 people working at any given time of the day.
June 15, 2009, Biraj Desai commented: Hi, Reference to your business plan you can call me on 9820211306. Would love to chat up on the same. Infact regardless the negative, I am already in process of setting this whole AMC jazz. Inputs from your end will be very helpful . Cheers
June 15, 2009, Biraj Desai commented: Hi, Reference to your business plan you can call me on 9820211306. Would love to chat up on the same. Infact regardless the negative, I am already in process of setting this whole AMC jazz. Inputs from your end will be very helpful . Cheers
June 15, 2009, Handyman in Jacksonville commented: Your post is very well crafted and I have learned. I

Find a mentor using Mentorpolis

pranav — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:55:22 +0000

Mentorpolis is a new startup by IIT graduates, that hopes to make it easier to search and find mentors. A lot of times, we’re faced with significant dilemmas about what decision to make – be it in your professional life, related to education, job or entrepreneurship. What would help is if we get some guidance from a person who’s ‘been there, done that’. And that’s what Mentorpolis hopes to accomplish.

Briefly put, Mentorpolis is a marketplace for finding mentors. Here’s how it works:

You search for and explore various mentor profiles on the site
Select a mentor whose expertise closely matches your requirements.
Schedule a mutually agreeable time to touch base with your mentor
Mentors decide their own charges for mentoring sessions. You (the mentee) pay the amount before the scheduled call
Get in touch with your mentor for personalized advice and recommendations

Some sample questions that you can seek out a mentor to guide you through:

‘I’m thinking on doing my masters in engineering from US. Can you help me find good schools that fit my profile and interests?‘

‘I am very good with web 2.0 technologies but lack the commercial sense of a web enterprise. How do I get started with my idea?’

You can also view a couple of sample mentoring session transcripts here.

Web seminars and online conversations on the site are free of cost. However, each telephonic or in-person session costs Rs 500/-.

I think this is a great idea. Going by the number of young folks who seek out answers to such questions, there is a viable market out there. A couple of suggestions for them:

1) Reach out to sites like NENOnline and bloggers like Rashmi Bansal – they deal with a lot of young folks who are seeking guidance and advice about career, education and the likes.

2) Rs 500/- may be a bit steep for fresh graduates or those who are still in college. I would suggest making it more alluring to this demographic – introduce a per hour pricing and probably some discount to such young folks. In addition, introduce a ‘free mentoring sessions for the first month’ kinda deal – this will help to get the intial userbase on the site.

Do check it out and let me know what you think about Mentorpolis.

Comments

June 1, 2009, Rajat commented: What is their revenue Model.How will they earn money. After knowing a mentor, people can contact the mentor directly, why do they need a website.
June 1, 2009, Rajat commented: Please ignore my previous comment, i didnot read the post fully.So they are charging on question by question basis.Thats a good idea.
June 4, 2009, MentorPolis commented: @ Startupdunia Team Thanks a ton for the feature. I think the suggestions you've made are quite valid. We would definitely ponder upon them and act as required. @ Rajat charges are not per question basis, but per consultation call. @ All Thanks everyone for your kind words. I hope you will all spread the good word about us.
June 4, 2009, Rohan commented: @Mentorpolis, I don't know how exactly its gonna work, but still my suggestion. Instead of allowing mentors and seekers to use the normal browser, you can use a cutom created software and charge the mentors on a monthly basis for that. I have seen companies charging professors real heavily(extremely overcharged!) so that could be a big source of money.
June 7, 2009, Sunil commented: I thought of visiting their site and search a mentor for me but having seen the IIT spammers in comments, wonder if its worth
June 8, 2009, Sunil commented: Hay....why did you delete the founder's spams....is something fishy?
June 8, 2009, pranav commented: those comments werent from the mentorpolis founders..some other folks were posting all those comments.. i deleted them since, as you said, they were spammy.
June 20, 2009, Year One Online commented: My friend on Orkut shared this link with me and I'm not dissapointed that I came to your blog. p.s. Year One is already on the Internet and you can watch it for free.

Navteq shortlists Asia Pacific semifinalists for the LBS challenge

pranav — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:31:23 +0000

Navteq has shortlisted the semifinalists from the Asia Pacific region for their global location based services (LBS) Challenge. Among other candidates, some of the apps shortlisted from India include:

‘Bargain Seeker’ from 3 Door Trading – allows businesses and individuals to offer discounted products to consumers
‘Services Seeker’ from 3 Door Trading – allows consumers to connect with service providers based on their location
‘Shout Out!’ from MakeMyTrip – helps travelers to connect and share info with other travelers
‘Redgift’ from ValueFirst connect – locates nearby volunteer blood donors for emergency situations
‘Hotel Companion’ from Yatra Online – enables travelers to locate and learn about POI near them

The finals for the LBS challenge are scheduled on June 19th in Singapore.