Irfan's Space

Back to Blogging after a long time

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:58:00 +0000

Its been quite a while since I last blogged. I am hoping to blog more frequently in 2012 and yes it is my new year resolution. Running a startup is very exhausting. There is always one other problem to solve and 10 new ones popping up. We have almost reached 40 employees now and still growing.

We have recently decided to focus one an enterprise product and still in the ideation phase. Happy new year to everyone. btw, we did release the wakeupbuddy app, now named Bongiorno!. More about it later.

Our CTO interviewed by GeekWire

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:42:00 +0000

GeekWire, a leading online magazine interviewed our CTO, Sridhar over the thanks giving weekend as part of their startup spotlight. This spotlight is very encouraging and validates our 3 month old startup.

Started by three technology veterans, we have already reached double digit growth and looking forward to a meteoric growth in future. We have come a long way. With 2 successful products behind us, we are on the verge of releasing the WakeUpBuddy app which is now named "Bongiorno". At the rate we are growing we will soon reach the 50 mark we set for ourselves for calling it a successful start-up.

http://www.geekwire.com/2011/startup-spotlight-mobile-app-developer-faqden-labs

UnSnapp.com - TechCrunch for App Developers

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:27:00 +0000

Following up to my earlier post about TechCrunch for App Developers blog post, we finally went ahead and registered the domain name unsnapp.com. Atleast it is the first step. Just finished installing wordpress for site. Wordpress is probably is the easiest way to skip all the complex programming needed to get a professional blog review website up.

Next step is to start working on logo and branding message.

Faqden Labs company presentation video - Sample

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:23:00 +0000

Here is the first attempt at creating Faqden Labs video.

IntelliVocab website and ESD.34 System Architecture class

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:38:00 +0000

As previously discussed faqden is working hard to build a website for its popular IntelliVocab product. With over 150K users on iPhone, 10K on Android and 10K on old website (intellivocab.faqden.com; previously at powergre.com), we thought it makes sense to consolidate user base and provide a seamless transition between multiple channels. This is an ambitious attempt at creating a consolidated product line, which can be accessed and managed through multiple channels.

The feature backlog is so huge, that it is almost scary. I guess everything I learnt in the ESD.34 (System Architecture) class is helping me manage the complexity of the project without making it complicated. It took me sometime to realize and appreciate the essence of principles I was learning in Crawley's class. If I will advice one class, which is very useful apart from the Competitive Strategy by professor Yin, it is the ESD.34.

Anyways coming back to the subject of the blog, we almost finalized the home page of the new intellivocab site as well as the Login Page. The second image below is the login page and it completely blew me away. The designer (Jaydeep) did an amazing job at design. He are lucky to have amazing design team in Jaydeep and Ajay.

The practice session screen is making progress. The first draft (3rd image below) was simply bad. The second draft (4th image below) is work in progress. I have about 14+ feedback for this screen. We still have many more screens to design. So overall, it is still a long way to go.

WakeUpBuddy Latest progress

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:53:00 +0000

Few more updates on the settings screen and news section. It is moving slowly now, but we hope to pick up the pace soon. Faqden has started on few more ambitious projects and we are pretty busy now a days

IntelliVocab website is coming along pretty well

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:45:00 +0000

IntelliVocab website design is coming along pretty well. We are still miles away from the final design and eventual attempt at creating html out of it and developing the back-end server code.

Latest mockup:
Our VP of products filed 14 bugs today, so I guess we are still few days away from finalizing the home page.

TrailHead video created by Vivek

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:08:00 +0000

One of our most successful product TrailHead received an update this week. We have now added calender functionality as well.

Vivek, our technology evangelist created a product video for TrailHead. Animoto is amazing, I am going to give it a run to. In case you are wondering this video was created using Animoto.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Finalized the Logo for IntelliVocab Website

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:51:00 +0000

These are the finalist for IntelliVocab website. We are going to design the website around these logos and see how it looks in the final placement.

IntelliVocab Logo Design for the website

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:27:00 +0000

Now that the PowerGRE website has found a new address intellivocab.faqden.com , we are in the process of re-designing the whole website. I am including the sample logo which was created by our designer. Not that I liked any of them, but it is a start. Logo design is a complex process, as it is very difficult for the designer to build what is in your mind and it is difficult for you to communicate as well.

WakeUpBuddy Settings, News screens

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:21:00 +0000

The application is coming along pretty well. The ipa file continues to give trouble on my iPad, but the visual mockups are almost done. We are doing final touchups and working on social networking screen

Latest Screenshot

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:55:00 +0000

First binary of WakeUpBuddy

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:11:00 +0000

I received the first binary for WakeUpBuddy (name to be changed) today and it was a good feeling. I had been dreaming about this app for almost a year now. It was good to see a working version, but few requirements were way off.

Looks like my request to integrate with Facebook using APIs was mis-interpreted as displaying Facebook page in safari browser. But after a couple of discussions, it is now sorted out. I guess challenges of working with remote developers. But these are the best developers, one can find and we are lucky to have an amazing team.

The news section didn't come out well, so I have asked it to be redesigned, the settings screen is yet to be designed. The Facebook integration was misunderstood. So overall, the framework is there, but different peaces need to be built and then integrated.

Unlike other projects, where we do detailed wireframes before starting the visual design and development, we decided to take a different approach. We took the continuous design approach, where we design minimalism wires and jumped right into visual design and development. We are building the requirements and design as we progress. This approach is being pushed to a large extend by ThoughtWorks and so far, I am impressed. It just requires a completely different thought process.

It is little harder than the regular SCRUM or waterfall, but it has so much room for innovation, as your whole project team can jump into the product discovery process. The discovery and development happens simultaneously. I am not sure how scalable this model is, but for an innovation based project involving small team, it can work pretty well.

Anyways, will continue writing. Will post more pictures tomorrow.

Hiring in India..Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:27:00 +0000

In my previous post about Hiring in India, I wrote about hiring challenges in India. In this post I wanted to continue the discussion to focus on post hiring challenges. Once you give an offer in India, the job does not really end, but it just starts. Every developer in India has on an average 3 good offers before he makes the final decision. The decision generally depends on the brand of the company, type of work and lastly the salary.

So it is not really the money/CTC which is the biggest issue. It is the brand. Developers in India want to be associated with something which they can feel proud about saying to their friends as well as family. This is a bigger problem than many realize. It does not matter who you are in US, if your company is not well known in India, it is tough to attract talent. Start-ups like ours is a totally a different story. Today we had one PHP developer who we were anxiously waiting for, called us and said he is not joining. I was glad that he atleast called. Most developers in India, just do not show up on the last day.

I will continue writing my experience with developers in India, but for now, off to working on WakeUpBuddy project.

WakeUpBuddy clock and coffee cup images are finalized

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:37:00 +0000

I guess I am spamming the internet with the progress of my app, but this is also a kind of experiment for open product development. I wanted to document and blog about every step of the product development process including how we went through various iterations for visual designs and interaction designs.

The developer did finish the first prototype of the app for iPad, but I am not able to still install it on iPad and test it. Hopefully he can fix the issue soon.

More soon :).

IntelliVocab for SAT deluxe is now ranked 69th best education app on Apple store

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:23:00 +0000

IntelliVocab has been steadily rising in rankings since last couple of days. It is now the 69th best app in the education category. It is ironical, that right now we have to use our competitors product to check our own ranking. We are working hard towards building our own analytic for mobile soon.

http://www.appannie.com/intellivocab-for-sat-deluxe/ranking/history/

TechCrunch for app developers - Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:52:00 +0000

Following up to my earlier article about TechCrunch for app developers, we debated internally a lot (we just love debating and I think we debate more than we work :) ) and finally agreed on taking it forward in small steps. For initial version of the website, we will only create an app metrics website on the similar lines of http://www.appannie.com/.

This should be roughly a 3 - 5 months project. Our board has given initial approval for a prototype. We are also exploring partnerships for building this site.

WakeUpBuddy new images

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:35:00 +0000

Not that everyone in the company is happy with the name, so this is just a code name. Other code name popular internally is Isabella :).

These is the latest mockup of home screen. It is still not there yet, but slowly making progress. The coffee cup and the digital clock are ugly looking.

More to come.

WakeUpBuddy's competitive analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:00:00 +0000

Today while analyzing competitors in this space, I came across Alarm Clock Rebel app which is amazing. More than anything, it validates that there is a market for these kind of apps. It was number 1 productivity app and top 133 app overall few times.

It is also a good source of ideas :).

Hiring in India

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

We @ Faqden Labs have been on a hiring spree since last month. Now that we are scaling well and experienced resource heavy, we decided to focus on freshers. It has been an interesting experience so far. To give an idea of the progress India has made: A fresher when contacted by our HR department for an interviews says something like this..."How much do you pay per month after taxes? If it is above 25K INR, I will come for the interview, else not". Do keep in mind, this person does not have a job and zero experience. He just graduated from a engineering colleague and looking for a position.

This example gives you an idea of opportunities and growth in India. Compare that with US, where even engineers graduating from premier engineering schools are without a job and looking for a decent start. I am little worried that this saturated growth in US and hyper growth in India is going to create either backlash in US or increase in wages in India and decrease in wages in US until an equilibrium is reached or people heading to India to take up positions. The third scenario will be an interesting turn of events. I recently read an article about Americans lining up for Canada immigration.

America has always found a way to stay ahead and out innovate the rest of the world, so it remains to be seen how events will unfold in the future.

Irrespective of the growth in India, I still think that the professionalism of some of these engineers graduating from tier 2 schools is questionable. Taking into account that most of the engineers trained by engineering schools are not employable in corporate without atleast 3 months of training by software companies, it is even more shocking. Add to that the job-hoppers who switch companies every one year to get a meager salary hikes, the resource management in India has become a major problem.

Faqden Labs - Alexa Ranking

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:46:00 +0000

Faqden Labs has been steadily rising in Alexa ranking since we started our SEO activity. The website was ranked roughly around 2 million and is currently ranked 800K. Our preferred keywords are doing good and steadily rising in their placement on Google search query. It has been a learning experience on what works for SEO and what does not. Hubspot webinars and blog posts helped us a lot in optimizing the site.

Next stop, under 500K. Will write a post back in few days, once we reach that ranking :).

Site Information for faqden.com

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Alexa Traffic Rank: 836,340 Traffic Rank in IN: 52,333

Sites Linking In: 46

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faqden.com

SCRUM in a mobile apps startup

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:20:00 +0000

All the thoughts here are just personal opinions and not of Faqden Labs. SCRUM is a high-tech project management methodology, but I am yet to see its advantage in a small company setting. In a company of size less 10, where you work with everyone in the company one on one, changing requirements by the hour, all I see so far, is it putting unnecessary stress on innovation, and adding overhead.

Maybe, I am yet to figure out a way on how to make it work in a highly charged hyper changing environment. Having worked with Scrum for over 3 years and involved in multiple change management phases in large organizations, I definitely understand its value, but just not sure if it applies to all size organizations.

I am open to giving it a run for couple of more weeks. I am open to ideas.

IntelliVocab is in the top 100 education apps ranking again

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:08:00 +0000

After a long hiatus, IntelliVocab is back in top 100 ranking in the education category (among 45K+ apps). IntelliVocab has been going through wild swings in the recent past and we are yet to figure out a reason for it. This is our featured app and we hope that we can soon stabilize both the rankings and sale. We have planned an extensive roadmap for this product.

Will keep posting updates as we make progress.

re-branding PowerGRE to IntelliVocab

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:41:00 +0000

PowerGRE website was created in 2008 during a South America trip, as an experiment. It had decent success and since then, I was thinking to migrate it to smartphones. The decision obviously paid off as IntelliVocab went on to become the top education app with huge media coverage. The success for a simple vocabulary tool was unimaginable, but I guess that is the power of iTunes (thanks to Steve Jobs), that the discovery and curation process is easier. It is easy for quality apps to get noticed.

We have decided to change the location of www.powergre.com to intellivocab.faqden.com and brand it as IntelliVocab. We just started the project yesterday and will take some time for the migration. The goal of this initiative is to provide a seamless access and transition between multiple channels for studying vocabulary.

We have also planned a huge roadmap for this product and make it a true platform. But that is few months away. Our development team is excited and motivated to see our vision through. I am happy to hear that they have confidence in the roadmap we have created, not only for the intellivocab product, but the company in general. We have a team which can make any product we dream up, into a reality. Just read my other post about iGoogle clone app. Within 2 days of starting the project, we are already seeing good progress.

Entrepreneurship and decision making process

noreply@blogger.com (Irfan(Abhi)) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:22:00 +0000

There is a saying "Decisions made in real-time are never perfect. Never second guess them sitting in an arm chair" and it is very apt in the world of entrepreneurship. Since the day I founded faqden labs, I have been making decisions every second, many a times with almost no information and just based on gut feeling. I do get asked sometimes to justify why I am making a particular choice over the other, and I struggle to put it in words and the fact is there is no real justification.

Startup is like a battle field, you do not have all the information, but at the same time you do not have the luxury to wait for situation to get clearer. The opportunity will pass you by. The best thing you could do is take shot and go with your instinct when u are small. The opportunity cost of not doing anything is higher than taking a decision and not really succeeding at it.

Obviously this strategy should change as you start to grow. The decisions should be based on data and not only instincts. In leadership roles, instinct will always play a role, but as the company grows the balance tilts towards the data more.