Teknatus Solutions blogs

The Top 10 Myths and Misconceptions of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) by Eric Rosenfeld

pjain — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:24:12 PDT

Eric Rosenfeld, one of the founders of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), gave this presentation at MIT back in February. If you have even a remote interest in finance (and even if you don't), this is an hour and a half very well spent. Eric is brilliant and fun to listen to.

Semblr Private Beta Is Open

pjain — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:31:07 PDT

It's been a long road, oft-delayed, but we've officially started our private beta of Semblr today. The basic premise around Semblr is simple. It's an online marketplace where you can assemble your team of experts using a reverse auction process. It's a market where people that are looking for work can connect with people that need to get work done by bidding for the work. In this kind of economic climate there are more and more experts around the world that are available to help with projects that previously they had no time for. We want to make Semblr the go-to destination for experts and those looking for those experts.

If you have an expertise in Programming, Writing, Video (online and offline) and various other topics, come on over to Semblr and sign up for our free private beta. If you're someone who is looking for an expert to help you get something done, come on over and sign up.

We're just getting started so the marketplace is a bit small and we're launching with a limited number of job categories but we expect to grow the list over time to encompass all kinds of personal outsourcing categories. We will also be inviting new users almost daily to join our marketplace.

We look forward to all your feedback and we'll do everything we can to make the Semblr marketplace a profitable place for you. BTW, if you have suggestions on categories that you'd like to see added to Semblr, please let us know thru the contact form or via Twitter (don't forget to follow us on Twitter so you can get to see the latest auctions.

Twitter Opens up OAuth, Where's Perl?

pjain — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 05:46:54 PDT

Twitter opened up their OAuth implementation last week. It's a much welcome aspect of working with Twitter's API since we're planning on implementing some functionality into Semblr that uses Twitter. Hence, understanding OAuth and prototyping it's use was important for us.

My problem with Twitter's implementation is that the documentation is sparse and there isn't a single example in Perl or Java. Maybe these two languages aren't cool enough to warrant examples but to me, they're important because they're all I know. I spent some time over the last few days trying to implement OAuth for Twitter in my Perl scripts. The example below is a bit messy but it works.

It will create a few temp files, request a token for you, ask you to go to the URL printed to authorize the application. When you've authorized the application, run the script again and it will allow you to submit a status update.

#! /usr/local/bin/perl
# $Author: pankaj $
# $Date: 2009-03-22 23:46:27 +0530 (Sun, 22 Mar 2009) $
# Author: Pankaj Jain
# Copyright: Teknatus Solutions LLC
################################################################################################################################
use Modern::Perl;
use Carp;
use Net::OAuth;
use Data::Random qw(rand_chars);
use LWP::UserAgent;
use Data::Dumper;
use JSON::Any;

main();

sub main{
    my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;

    my $consumer_key = 'sdBwlvTkpZr7eiCmB0Evig';
    my $consumer_secret = 'asSINZmwnxwIfLwmdNvVBW7OSVzFOWj4mjJeDDaA';
    my %tokens = getTokens();

    requestToken(consumer_key => $consumer_key,
                 consumer_secret => $consumer_secret,
                 %tokens,
                 ua => $ua);

    my $message = "This is a Perl Net::OAuth test for twitter!";
    my $foo = {status => $message};
    my $url = 'https://twitter.com/statuses/update.json';
    if (defined $message && $message ne "") {
        my $request = Net::OAuth->request("protected resource")->new(
            consumer_key => $consumer_key,
            consumer_secret => $consumer_secret,
            request_url => $url,
            request_method => 'POST',
            signature_method => 'HMAC-SHA1',
            timestamp => time,
            nonce => join('', rand_chars(size=>16, set=>'alphanumeric')),
            token => $tokens{token},
            token_secret => $tokens{secret},
            extra_params => $foo,
        );
        $request->sign;
        say Dumper($request);
        my $response = $ua->post($request->to_url);
        say Dumper($response);
        my $response_code    = $response->code;
        my $response_message = $response->message;
        my $response_error   = $response->content;
        if ($response->is_success) {
            my $retval = eval { JSON::Any->jsonToObj( $response->content ) };
            if ( !defined $retval ) {
                say "TWITTER RETURNED SUCCESS BUT PARSING OF THE RESPONSE FAILED - " . $response->content;
            }
        } else {
            say $response_code;
        }
        exit;
    }
}


sub requestToken {
    my %args = @_;
    if (defined $args{consumer_key} && defined $args{consumer_secret} && 
            !defined $args{access_token} && !defined $args{access_secret} && 
            !defined $args{token} && !defined $args{token_secret}) {
        my $token;
        my $secret;
        my $request = Net::OAuth->request("consumer")->new(
            consumer_key => $args{consumer_key},
            consumer_secret => $args{consumer_secret},
            request_url => 'https://twitter.com/oauth/request_token',
            request_method => 'GET',
            signature_method => 'HMAC-SHA1',
            timestamp => time,
            nonce => join('', rand_chars(size=>16, set=>'alphanumeric'))
        );
        $request->sign;
        my $res = $args{ua}->get($request->to_url); # Post message to the Service Provider
        if ($res->is_success) {
            my $response = Net::OAuth->response('request token')->from_post_body($res->content);
            print "Got Request Token ", $response->token, "\n";
            $token = $response->token;
            print "Got Request Token Secret ", $response->token_secret, "\n";
            $secret = $response->token_secret;
            if (defined $token) {
                my $auth_url = "https://twitter.com/oauth/authorize?oauth_token=" . $token;
                my $message = "Please visit $auth_url and authorize this application to access your twitter account.  You may revoke access at any time you wish.\n";
                say $message . "\n";
                open(TMP,">/tmp/request_token.txt");
                say TMP $token . "|" . $secret;
                close TMP;
                exit;
            }
        } else {
            die "Something went wrong";
        }
    } elsif (defined $args{access_token} && defined $args{access_secret} && 
            defined $args{consumer_key} && defined $args{consumer_secret} && 
            !defined $args{token} && !defined $args{token_secret}) {
        my $auth_req = Net::OAuth->request("access token")->new(
            consumer_key => $args{consumer_key},
            consumer_secret => $args{consumer_secret},
            token => $args{access_token},
            token_secret => $args{access_secret},
            request_url => 'http://twitter.com/oauth/access_token',
            request_method => 'POST',
            signature_method => 'HMAC-SHA1',
            timestamp => time,
            nonce => join('', rand_chars(size=>16, set=>'alphanumeric'))
        );
        $auth_req->sign();
        my $res2 = $args{ua}->post($auth_req->to_url); # Post message to the Service Provider
        if (!$res2->is_success) {
            die 'Could not get an Access Token: ' . $res2->status_line . ' ' . $res2->content;
        } else {
            open(TF, ">$ENV{HOME}/.teknatus/.twitter_token");
            my $response = Net::OAuth->response('access token')->from_post_body($res2->content);
            print STDERR "Got Access Token ", $response->token, "\n";
            my $access_tok = $response->token;
            print STDERR "Got Access Token Secret ", $response->token_secret, "\n";
            my $access_secret = $response->token_secret;
            say TF $access_tok . "|" .$access_secret;
            close TF;
            unlink("/tmp/request_token.txt") if (-e "/tmp/request_token.txt");
        }
        exit;
    }
}

sub getTokens {
    my %args = @_;
    my %tokens;
    my $tokenFile = $ENV{HOME} ."/.teknatus/.twitter_token";
    my $reqTokenFile = "/tmp/request_token.txt";
    if (-e $tokenFile ) {
        open (TF, "<$tokenFile");
        while() {
            chop($_);
            next if ( $_ =~ /^\s?$/);
            my @tmp = split(/\|/, $_);
            $tokens{token} = $tmp[0];
            $tokens{secret} = $tmp[1];
        }
        close TF;
    }
    if (-e $reqTokenFile) {
        open (TF, "<$reqTokenFile");
        while() {
            chop($_);
            next if ( $_ =~ /^\s?$/);
            my @tmp = split(/\|/, $_);
            $tokens{access_token} = $tmp[0];
            $tokens{access_secret} = $tmp[1];

        }
        close TF;
    }
    return %tokens;
}

1;

2008 Reflections and 2009 Plans

pjain — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:02:40 PST

Happy 2009 everyone!

2008 has been a very interesting year by all measures. We saw record drops in global stock market indices - 34% drop for the Dow, the worst since 1931. We saw vast amounts of wealth obliterated. We saw the US moving closer and closer to a socialist economy. We saw the election of the first African-American to the office of the President of the United States. We saw another round of incredibly well planned terrorist attacks across India, culminating in the sixty hour standoff in Mumbai. We saw Indians get up and rebuild quickly from the attacks. We saw a new sense of urgency in the fight against terror by the Indian middle class. And we have seen India and Pakistan, once again, come to the brink of war.

Obviously, we've seen a number of other things that I've missed but these are some of the events that will always remind me of 2008. 2008 is also the year we got Teknatus Solutions Private Limited up and running in India. We did a soft launch of our Bridal network, Brides' View and we're getting ready for a private beta of our next product - Semblr. It's been an interesting and tough year all around. We've seen an incredible amount of interest generating around the Indian startup scene, both with prospective employees and also with the media. Plenty of folks have done a great job in catering to this interest. We've had Proto, Head Start, Startup Saturday and also BarCamps across all major Indian cities to help get startups some visibility and to help those interested in learning/joining/startip a business. With the economic downturn, a good deal of media attention is turning to startups and venture funding. The amount of Indian startups has been increasing steadily and now, with many people getting laid off, the numbers should increase even more. As far as VC/angel funding, well, the picture in India and globally isn't as rosey as it was six months ago. However, there are still quite a bit of deals closing.

For Teknatus, 2009 is going to be an interesting and challenging year. Our major goal for the year will be to launch a few additional products and start generating revenue. It won't be easy but I feel confident that the product we're getting ready for soft launch will be generating revenue by the end of the second quarter of 2009 and by then, we are planning to launch our third product which will be a SaaS product geared toward SMEs. Our next major goal is going to be working on building the team out. We're going to have positions opening up for various roles over the coming months and, hopefully, we'll be able to fill them with some great people.

In 2009, we also plan to continue working on helping the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India, specifically New Delhi. We've found platforms like Startup Saturday to be wonderful areas to connect with like-minded individuals. Hiring and building a team in India is difficult but it's not insurmountable.

Once again, happy 2009!

The Financial Ninja and "Greenspan Sees market Rebound"

pjain — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 07:11:44 PST

Here's a great post over at the Financial Ninja's Blog about how Greenspan sees the market rebounding in six to twelve months. I couldn't agree with the Financial Ninja more when he says, "I too believe we'll bounce significantly... but only to dive into abyss after."

Don't Believe the Market Hype!

pjain — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:38:24 PST

Intro
As all of you who've been keeping up-to-date on the happenings in the financial markets know, there's been a good deal of turmoil and volatility continuing. GM and Chrysler, in the US, are begging for bailouts, small, medium, large and extra large companies are laying off people in droves (Citigroup will be laying off 53,000 people). Things are pretty bad in the US right now. We all know that, we all hear about it, and the US stock market shows us daily.

What about India? Well, if you ask the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, various financial "analysts" on TV, etc. they will tell you that India is very well insulated and the India growth story continues, with a few minor speed bumps along the way. My personal opinion is that the politicians and media are generally telling us what we want to hear. They're not accurately portraying the severity of the situation in India. The situation is about to get worse in India but, barring any further catastrophic meltdowns, India should see some incredible growth post 2011.

Relative GDP Growth
Let's look at India's economy on a relative basis. Relative to the US and other developed, highly deregulated economies, India's still got a growth story, whereas, the US, the UK, Japan, etc. are all in a recession (negative growth). The talking heads in India tell us that India is still on track for 6.5% to 7% GDP growth in 2009. Assuming that is true and exactly what will happen, it's huge number (in aggregate terms) compared to other developed and many developing countries! However, India still has roughly 450 million people at or below the poverty line. This is one and a half times the population of the whole US. In order for India to decrease the number of poor and continue to provide for the basic necessities of the economically disenfranchised and cater to the increasing consumption of the middle and upper classes, growth needs to accelerate, considerably. GDP growth in India MUST be at least 10% if India is to continue to grow, relative to other economies. In my opinion, 7% GDP growth is akin to a recession in a developed economy. How can India grow at more than 7% in 2009? It's a complicated question that the smartest economists from Harvard, Oxford, LSE, etc. are trying to answer. I won't be pretentious enough to suggest that I know the answer. However, I will say that whatever the answer is, it's very complicated and it will most likely make a vast amount of people very unhappy. Hence, it won't be politically viable, especially, in an election year.

Layoffs
On the 20th of November, there was a nice little piece on Livemint that quoted Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrashekhar, "Most of our productions are based on domestic demand. As long as domestic demand remains reasonably strong, I don't think there would be any large-scale job cuts in India," he said. Domestic demand for many goods and services is growing but is it growing enough to keep up with supply?

The article also went on to describe how Jet Airways was "asked", by the government, to take back all of the 1,900 employees that they had laid off in October 2008. As a business, Jet Airways has every right to hire and fire the people they need to in order to stay competitive, and profitable. However, the Indian government, must also do what they can to avoid mass layoffs across large, high profile, Indian companies. Mass layoffs across Indian industry will have a devastating affect on the economy. However, how many additional companies can the Indian government "ask" NOT to layoff people before companies start feeling intense pain?

Smaller companies are laying people off and some are even shutting Indian offices. Zapak, a mobile games company, recently announced that they would be shutting their Bangalore office. In the Business Section of the Hindustan Times (Saturday, November 22, 2008 Edition), HSBC is predicted to layoff approximately 200 employees across India. Dell has decided to scale back their hiring of new employees. These are just large companies.

About ten days ago, I had spoken to an executive at a premium tissue maker in India. They said sales have fallen dramatically. People have switched from using premium tissues and toilet paper to non-premium essentials. If the current sales numbers continue, not drop, they will probably have to layoff some people.

When I told a family business exporter of garments that he must be happy since the USD has climbed dramatically against the INR, he told me that he's more scared then ever. He told me that orders are being cut by his clients, some of them have begun renegotiating contracts to pay in INR rather than USD because they feel that the Rupee can only depreciate against the US Dollar. I'm not quite in agreement in that statement but it highlights a very important fact - sales are down globally, not just in the West.

Real-Estate
The real-estate sector in India has slowed. There's no questioning that statement even if developers/builders in your neighborhood are still jacking up rates. They generally see the downturn but don't want to make a loss on their investment. Just wait it out and eventually, they will cave in. How can I say that, well, it's simple. They made some profits from other deals. Those profits allowed them to get funding from a bank. They have a mortgage to pay and at some point, probably six months, they will feel the excruciating burden of carrying the property and will realize that they have no choice but to cut their losses and run.

Investments in second and third tier cities have dropped dramatically. Indian and foreign investment firms are finally stating the obvious, "The Indian Real Estate market is slowing". Many projects from large RE developers like DLF and Unitech have been put on hold indefinitely. Indiabulls sees a 15% correction in the real-estate market over the next six months. I'd put the number a bit higher, closer to a national average of 25%. Marriott recently decided to shelve building a 250 room hotel in Pune, by at least two years.

For now, gone are the days when your driver or plumber is quitting his job to become a real-estate broker or a handyman is quitting his job to become a real-estate developer/builder.

Stocks
The BSE Sensex is at a three year low. Confidence is shaky at best. Corporate earnings look ok (on a relative basis) but earnings growth appears to worrying investors. Most companies are no longer expecting 20% or 30% growth rates for 2009. Info Edge (Naukri.com) has said that they see fiscal Q209 revenues to be half of fiscal Q208. Earnings growth is slowing. The question to ask is, "Is the rate of deceleration increasing?".

The BSE has failed to rally after two very big days of gains for the Dow. People in India are still bullish on the market and the Indian growth story so why hasn't the BSE soared like the Dow did on November 21st and November24th? There's still too much uncertainty and the Indian stock market is telling us that cautious optimism is warranted.

Currency
The Rupee is at an all time low against the US Dollar (though a one week high, as of November 25th, 2008). There are a great deal of challenges that India faces in the next two years - much like the whole world. I look at the Rupee relative to the US Dollar and I think that they INR should settle somewhere around INR 49 per USD by the second half of 2009. The US also faces great challenges but the Indian scenario is quite a bit more precarious in many ways. GDP deceleration, inflation (currently at 8.56%), rising import costs, FX reserves are much too low for comfort. Morgan Stanley expects the Rupee to depreciate to 57 before it appreciates. They may be right but the USD is going to be under a great amount of strain considering how much additional debt is going to hit US tax payers in the pockets.

It's hard to say what will happen. All we know is that many many things can change, very drastically, fairly quickly. I believe the next two years are going to be very difficult, globally, and we should be prepared for it - financially and psychologically.

Startup Saturday Volunteer Meetup

pjain — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:05:19 PST

For anyone interested in volunteering for Startup Saturday Delhi, we're meeting today, November 22nd, 2008 at 3pm at the Teknatus office in NSIC. If you're interested in joining us, please drop me a note.

Comment Moderation Enabled

pjain — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:37:25 PST

Due to the overwhelming amount of spam comments on the Teknatus blog, we've enabled moderation of all comments. We've also disabled the ability of non-registered, non-verified users to post comments.

Apologies but managing the spam has been too time consuming.

Startup Saturday Delhi - December 13th, 2008

pjain — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:38:10 PST

Delhi's first installment of Startup Saturday is scheduled for the 13th of December 2008. The event will be held from 2pm till 6pm at the American Center, New Delhi.

We're very excited to be working with the gracious team at the American Center to help add a little something to the burgeoning entrepreneurial community in the Delhi/NCR region.

The American Center is located on KG Marg, right next to Connaught Place.

Please sign up if you'd like to demo at Startup Saturday Delh. Please sign up here, f you'd like to present on a specific topic related to starting and running a startup.

~~Registration and additional details will be coming soon.~~Registration for Startup Saturday is now open

Please check back here for updates.

We look forward to seeing you at Startup Saturday, Delhi.

Startup Saturday Delhi - Request for Knowledge Experts

pjain — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:29:00 PST

If you would like to present at Startup Saturday, please fill out the form below and we will contact you regarding which session we have an opening for.

Everything I Know About Startups by Dharmesh Shah

pjain — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:45:58 PST

This is an absolutely great presentation by Dharmesh Shah, co-founder of HubSpot, that was originally posted at OnStartups. The presentation is honest, funny, and very informative.

Startup Saturday Delhi - Request for Demos

pjain — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:57:33 PST

To help the Indian Startup Ecosystem in some small way, we're going to be involved in setting up the Delhi chapter of Startup Saturday which is a part of HeadStart. We'd like to use this forum to help startups in the Delhi/NCR region showcase their products to a community of peers, media, and investors.

If you or your company is interested in demoing, please complete the form below.

Lean Startup Presentation

pjain — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:52:59 PST

This is a nice presentation on the need for startups to be lean and how agile development can help the process. It would have been nice to have audio to go along with the presentation by Steve Blank (Board Member) and Eric Ries (Co-founder and Board Observer) of IMVU.

IMVU was founded in 2004 and is doing roughly $1 million per month in revenue. IMVU is a 3D chat service where you can pick and choose your own avatar and much like SecondLife, you can purchase items in the virtual world, using real world currency to buy in-world credits. I haven't used IMVU but users can create items in-world that can be sold to other users for credits.

Lean Startup presentation for Maples Investments by Steve Blank and Eric Ries

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: lean startup)

IBM's Enterprise Mashup Video

pjain — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:37:33 PDT

Below is a nice little video from IBM explaining enterprise mashups succinctly and in a language that non techies could understand. Enjoy.

Saul Klein's Thoughts on the European Venture Scene

pjain — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:14:22 PDT

I came across this presentation by Saul Klein from Index Ventures. What I found most interesting was slide 33 which is a table listing the top locations for deals in 2007. Bangalore was number 17 with $335 million in 35 funding rounds and New Delhi was 18 with $316 million in 23 funding rounds. It's the bottom of the list but it was interesting to see New Delhi even on the list in 2007. I'm not sure how dramatically this will change in 2009 and beyond but it's interesting to note that after Bangalore, New Delhi was the place where the majority of VC funds in India were deployed.

Thoughts on European Start Ups

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: startups vc)

Things-To-Do When Rolling Your Own Startup

pjain — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:57:37 PDT

Most people advising startups focus on critical points like the business model, revenue model, and team. Remember, I said "critical" but I'm going to skip over them since so many people already discuss them.

In this post, I'm going to present a straight-forward check-list of other, very important things to do when rolling your own startup.

Think about corporate governance issues on day 1. Whether you have a partner, partners, or it's just you, you should identify how the company will be governed.
In good times, we tend to loosen our belts a bit and be a little lax in our control of expenditures. It can be excused when times are good but good times don't last forever. Keep strict policies on managing your cash (and cash-flow) at all times.
Manage every aspect of your expenses. Know what your fixed and variable costs will be. Put in a process for tracking money that you and other employees have spent on behalf of the company and have a reimbursement policy. A very simple expense spreadsheet could do the trick.
Whether you're prospecting for clients or not, figure out how you're going to run sales and marketing in your company. Use some form of a CRM. The cheapest and simplest way to get started is with a spreadsheet. Don't go wasting time on setting up your own free CRM and definitely don't waste the money on a paid CRM service until you're generating revenue and have a team of sales/marketing folks that are managing many clients.
Think about and layout your equity plan for founders, investors, employees, etc. How many classes of stock will there be? What, if any, vesting cycle will be used for founders and employees? Will employees buy stock in the company? Will employees be GIVEN stock in the company for free? Will the employees be given options (ESOPS)? What are the economic impacts of these models to the company and to the employee? Much of what you decide and do here will also affect point 1.
Find a good CPA/CA that has experience working with these kinds of corporate structures and share allocations, etc.
Find a good attorney with relevant experience and build a relationship with him/her as well.
Build a library of various types of contracts that are relevant to your business. Many of the relevant contracts can be found for free on the Internet. However, it is worth having a good attorney review them to make sure you and your business are protected.
Learn a bit about the law, a bit about economics, a bit about financial accounting, and a bit about technology. Entrepreneurs and top-line managers MUST have a knowledge of all these things to be effective in running the business.

Here are a few resources that might be useful.

Resources:

US Resources:

Small Business Administration

Indian Resources:

NEN Online

Please let me know of other very important items that you've come across.

Hiring and Firing at a Startup

pjain — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:04:08 PDT

Hiring is one of the most important tasks of any startup. It's critical to the success of a business. Hiring people can be fun and even motivating.

When hiring a person, you're as much selling your business and yourself as the candidate is selling themselves to you and your business. Hiring quality people in India is very difficult. Being able to rely on them is 10x harder.

Bringing on a hire can make all the difference in getting your startup off the ground, or running it into the ground. Firing someone, even the wrong person, is never fun and it's never easy to do. It's especially difficult to do when the conversation turns emotional. However, as a business, you must make a very logical and unemotional decision about hiring and firing. Just because your business absolutely needs a network engineer, doesn't mean you should hire the first or second network engineer that comes in for an interview (2 candidates might be all that you'll get). It is better to take your time, look at as many candidates as you can. It's far less risky to take your time finding the right candidate than taking the chance of hiring the the wrong person.

Ankit, the lead programmer on Bride's View told me that I trust people too easily. I told him that is probably true, but to run a business, you MUST trust the people you hire to do what needs to be done. Trusting employees to do their work is about necessity. I trust people to do what they have to do. I trust them to give their work 100% if not 150%. I try to give them time and the tools and training they need to ramp up. However, when faced with a situation of retaining or firing the wrong person for the company, I've taken a very binary approach. Either the employee fits or doesn't. If they don't, they must go. This has set me back in terms of money and time but keeping the wrong person on board, I will be wasting more time and more money.

Perl for Beginners at BarCamp Delhi

pjain — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:30:40 PDT

Yesterday at BarCamp Delhi Prateek and Pratul decided to hold a hack-a-thon. The idea being, that in 2 to 3 hours, the group of programmers assembled would hack together some application. Some of the ideas thrown around were:

A Firefox Plugin
A Firefox Greasemonkey Extension
A manufacturing, logistical support web app

Pratul and Prateek probably have a more complete list than I do. The hack-a-thon broke apart into a few groups, each doing something different. No applications were built but a few Windows programmers were interested enough that I spent about 20 minutes showing them a few "Hello World" Perl scripts.

I've attached the Perl scripts for the folks who asked for them and any others that might be interested. Also, if anyone is interested in learning Perl, I highly recommend this book. It says 21 days to learn Perl but most of you will probably pick it up in less than a week.

Unfortunately, the extensions of the files are being changed to .txt so please take off the .txt once you download the files. I'm also putting the scripts inline.

hello.pl: A simple Hello World script

#! /usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;

my $name = "Pankaj";
print "Hello $name.\n";

hello2.pl: A "Hello World" script that uses a very simple Perl module (below)

#! /usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;

use lib("../lib");
use Hello;

my $name = "Pankaj";
Hello::hello($name);

Please put the Hello.pm in a relative path to where you put hello2.pl as described in "use lib" line above in hello2.pl.

Hello.pm Our very simplistic Perl module

package Hello;

sub new {
}

sub hello{
my $name = $_[0];
print "hello " . $name;
} #
# ------------------------------------------------------------
1;

And our final example that one of the campers asked for was a Perl script that would take input from the command line interactively.

hello3.pl: Our final "Hello World" script that interactively asks for names on the command line.

#! /usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;
use Getopt::Long;
use Term::ReadLine;

my $foo;
my @bar;

GetOptions("foo=i" => \$foo);

my $count = 0;
my $term = Term::ReadLine->new();

while ($count < $foo) {
my $line = $term->readline("What is your name? ");
$bar[$count] = $line;
$count++;
}

foreach my $f (@bar) {

print "bar is $f\n";
}

We didn't get to it but would one of the campers like to take one of these scripts and turn them into a CGI script or a mod_perl application? Please post your changes in a comment to this post.
Cheers

The Financial Crisis and India

pjain — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:40:21 PDT

BarCamp Delhi has been going on this weekend. I don't think anyone took any video of the presentation but I turned into a bit of a pig and took up three speaking slots.

Sorry to Netra, Sukhdeep and every one else for taking up their slots!

The presentation is available as a download below as well as on Slideshare.

The Financial Crisis and India

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: finance financial)

So far, there are posts on BarCampDelhi5 coverage on Webyantra and the BarCampDelhi Blog.

Cracks in the Armor?

pjain — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:29:33 PDT

Back in July, I put up a post about the chinks in the economic armor of India. Since July, the BSE Sensex has dropped to a low of 12,575 and rebounded to a high of 15,503 in August. Today it is trading down 149 to 14,174, mostly because of Infosys lowering its guidance. the people have come to terms with the fact that the credit crisis that began in the US over a year ago, has yet to claim additional casualties, specifically, Lehman Brothers. This has also had an indirect affect on Indian comp

The Rupee has gone from a high of Rs. 39.3252 per USD in January 2008 to a low of 43.29 in July and just a few days ago, it hit an intraday low of 45.885. Today, the Rupee is at 45.57 after hitting an intraday low of 45.785. Rs. 46 to the Dollar isn't far off as I said back in July. I think the Rupee will not fall much beyond 46. Perhaps touch 47 and then settle down in the 45 to 46 range, unless inflation rises much faster than expected.

Oil has pretty much crashed from a high of USD 147. What has driven the downward trend in oil has also helped keep inflation in check, here in India. The drop in oil and the slight easing of inflation is primarily a result of decreased demand, which implies slowing economic growth worldwide, as every one knows, but also in India. No one wants to openly admit it but inflation, high commodity prices, rising wages, real-estate sticker shock have finally taken a toll on the Indian economy.

Will oil remain at the $100 level or drop? Your guess is as good as mine. However, I think it will probably drop a little in the short-term but OPEC has already decided to cut production and keep the $100 per barrel as the floor. Count on this to keep oil prices relatively stable until mid November. A bad winter in North America and Europe will most likely push oil prices up but it's unlikely that oil will see the $150 per barrel mark for at least the next 6 months.

I stick with the assessments made back in July. For the short-term be careful where you're putting your money in India and every where else, for that matter. If you're in it for the long haul, this is a good time to start dipping your toes in the water and nibbling at various investment opportunities. As things come further south, it'll be a good time to take small bites and keep increasing your exposure to India.

The Indian Tech Startup Ecosystem

pjain — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:10:26 PDT

I've been in New Delhi for almost a year and a half now. Though it's been difficult getting things going, I've been fortunate to meet some really interesting entrepreneurs, all at various stages of the business life cycle. A few of us have even formed a group where we meet every two weeks to discuss various issues that we're facing in each of our businesses. Though this is a small, private group, many other groups and events are beginning to take place in cities like New Delhi that can help foster the startup mindset.

Ecosystem

Building an ecosystem, for anything, is never easy. Building a tech startup ecosystem in India, is twice as difficult as it might be as compared to a city like NYC.

What goes into building a startup ecosystem?

Drive and Passion
Mentorship and Guidance
Free Sharing of Ideas and Community Guidance

Drive and Passion

The first thing and, in my opinion, the most important thing is the drive and will to take a chance and bring about a major change.

There's a great deal of energy building in India around the idea of starting a company. Folks right out of college are beginning to consider working for a startup or even having a go at their own startup. Unfortunately, these folks are still the exception to the rule. They are a very very small minority of graduates, but it's nice to see that students are even considering startups as an option.

These recent graduates provide an energy, drive and risk taking capacity that is missing in those that have been institutionalized (been at cushy jobs longer than they should). However, they lack the experience in building and running a business that's necessary.

Mentorship and Guidance

The second thing that is critical to an ecosystem is mentorship.

In places like Silicon Valley, there are hundreds, if not thousands of experienced entrepreneurs who are willing and able to provide guidance to the next generation of budding entrepreneurs.

In India, the land of small business, it's much harder to find effective mentors that have the experience building and running a startup - especially tech startups. In all of India, there are probably a few dozen entrepreneurs that have built, run, and in some cases, sucessfully exited the startups they founded or began their careers at. Fortunately, these 1st generation tech startup junkies have began "giving back" by advising/mentoring, and in some cases, providing seed capital to the next generation of tech entrepreneurs.

Many 1st generation entrepreneurs have formed angel groups, venture capital funds, Y-Combinator style incubators, and most importantly, these 1st gen tech entrepreneurs are active in local events such as BarCamps (though not in all cases approachable). Organizations like TiE are also heavily involved in providing mentors to budding entrepreneurs. However, from what I've heard, the results of the mentorship have been mixed. Nonetheless, this component of building an entrpreneurial ecosystem is gaining momentum and it's growing.

Free Sharing of Ideas and Community Guidance

The third item that I feel is critical to an entrepreneurial ecosystem is the free sharing of knowledge and ideas which helps to bring about community-based mentorship.

I have found people in India to be very open to sharing knowledge and ideas. Events like BarCamps, OSSCamps, OCC (Open Coffee Club), etc. are all examples of people taking the initiative to meet with other like minded individuals to discuss their businesses, talk about technology, legal affairs, share resources, etc. Newcomers and strangers are welcome with typical Indian hospitality. Most of the people I have met through some of these events were quite open and friendly about their businesses. They have also been invaluable advisors and full of resources.

Many times, talking to a mentor about hiring issues could be helpful but other times, the mentor could be out of touch with issues like compensation packages, finding office space, finding the right recruiter, working with the right vendors or knowing what technical skill set would be required for a specific job. In cases like this, sharing your needs with the community can be extremely beneficial. People in the community have, most likely, gone through and dealt with similar issues or dealing with them at the same time you are. They can easily share how they overcame the hurdle in front of them and give you an angle of attack that you may have overlooked or put you in touch with a great resource to help you move forward. Couple this with advice from your mentor and you could have a resource equivalent to an informal board of advisors.

There's still a long way before India can come anywhere close to Silicon Valley in terms of it's entrepreneurial ecosystem. However, changes are happening at a rapid pace. The economic boom of the last four years in India is fueling more ambition and passion than ever before. I believe the next five years will be an exciting time in the Indian technology industry with true innovation beginning to take place here, in India.

The "Axis of Evil"

pjain — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:58:34 PDT

Here's a great post on Pluggd.In by Vishal Gondal of IndiaGames (and my $.02)

Proto.in July 2008 Reflections

pjain — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:00:43 PDT

Proto.in is an event very similar to DEMO held in the US. The basic premise is to help startups gain visibility by being able to showcase their prototypes or products in front of other startups and potential investors.

Proto.in has been held in Chennai since its inception in January 2007, however, this summer, they decided to hold the two day event at IIT's campus in New Delhi.

It was my first time attending Proto.in and the first thing I have to say is that the event was well organized. The first few speakers on Friday were pretty good. Unfortunately, though, as time went on, it was evident that many of the people giving talks weren't able to engage the audience. It seemed that many attendees were finding more value mingling in the hallways as compared to what they were getting in the auditorium, myself included.

Day 2 was the day for fifteen startups to showcase what they're doing in six minutes, like DEMO. Six minutes isn't a lot of time to talk about your company, demo your product, and pitch the value proposition. However, this time limit is really meant to instill discipline in entrepreneurs' pitch to customers and investors.

Overall, I wasn't very impressed with the various ideas/businesses or business models that were being pitched. I'm going to touch upon the four companies that left some sort of impression on me. The other eleven companies left more questions about their viability and business models than anything else. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to get in front of the founders of all these companies and get any sort of clarification.

Soliton was an interesting company. Good presentation, good delivery and interesting to see a company building hardware focused on the manufacturing industry. The idea behind the product isn't new but Soliton is trying to deliver a simpler and more effective camera to monitor manufacturing defects in a smaller package at a palatable price point.

The HiringTool is a web based B2B platform for recruiting. It allows companies to use multiple recruiters, consultants and agents. Their UI looks very easy to use and provides some interesting methods of working with recruiters ahnd determining what candidates are acceptable or not. The HiringTool hasn't officially launched but they are taking registrations. Too bad they didn't build this using Open Source technologies :-(

Blink Magic showcased a nice little LCD display connected to a physical shopping cart. The idea is to enhance the shopping experience at a grocery store, Walmart, K-Mart, or anywhere shopping carts are found. Cool little product with a nice simple interface. I'm not sure how viable this is in India, though. I see HUGE potential for this type of product at places like Walmart, Sears, K-Mart, Target, etc. Reliance Fresh, Sub ka Bazaar, or other Indian retail outlets, not so much, yet. The problem in the Indian context, once again comes down to basic infrastructure - mainly electricity and connectivity in the retail stores. Go West, young man, Go West!

Eko, for the purposes of full disclosure, is owned by a friend of mine so I've been exposed to their business model for a while. I won't say much other than they have the potential to do for micro-banking what Grameen Bank did for micro-lending.

I am hoping that the next Proto attracts really innovative thinkers and entrepreneurs rather than business models that are, for lack of a better description, mind-numbing.

The Office ... Space

pjain — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:52:47 PDT

Finding decent quality office space for any company is a challenge. However, the space challenges that a startup faces have a far greater impact on the business than most people realize.

In Silicon Valley, it's mostly expected that a startup of less than ten people will work out of a garage or a basement. However, in other parts of the world, such as India, technology startups are almost required to have a "proper office".

Because of the bull market in India over the last four to five years, more and more people have gotten into various aspects of the technology business and employees now weigh, environment as high as they weigh compensation. Many prospective employees will not show up for an interview if the location of your office is not in a "suitable" location (locale as well as building).

Many recruiters and vendors will turn down working with you unless you're in a suitable space, plying that you're "too small" for them to work with.

In a recent report called The Global Markets Report by CB Richard Ellis, New Delhi was listed as the seventh most expensive office market in the world. Mumbai was at fourth place, London's West End was at first place. Midtown Manhattan in New York City was at number thirteen (you will have to register to download the report).

With the cost of office space in places like Mumbai and New Delhi soaring, it is becoming increasingly difficult for startups to find affordable and decent office space. In parts of New Delhi, like Nehru Place, rentals are going for Rs. 100 (roughly $2.38) to Rs. 150 (roughly $3.57) per square foot per month.

The problem with most of these spaces is a lack of power backup (availability of electricity in India is not very reliable), a lack of stable current (a UPS and current stabilizer are imperative, especially for computers and air conditioners) and overall appeal. Infrastructure costs for diesel generators and a UPS can run lakhs of Rupees (tens thousands of dollars) in CapEx and a few lakhs (thousands of dollars) in monthly maintenance costs. All of which, a startup typically can't afford.

I've been searching for affordable yet presentable office space in New Delhi since January 2008 with almost no luck. Those spaces that are affordable are very poor quality spaces. Those spaces and locations that are, relatively, decent quality are completely unaffordable.

Not being able to find decent space in Delhi has severely impacted our ability to hire the ten to fifteen people we've been aiming for. Hence, it has a hurt our ability to get products completed on time and on budget.

I think, and hope, that is going to change over the next twelve months. With credit tightening, growth slowing, and inflation rising, I believe that commercial office space will become more affordable but will it be affordable enough, fast enough? Your guess is as good as mine.

India's Economy Hitting the Proverbial Brick Wall

pjain — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:05:55 PDT

This is an interesting article from BusinessWeek Online. I swear, I read this article today, after my previous post on the state of the Indian Economy.

The article focuses more on how the government mismanaged the economy when things were good and, basically, had (and continue to have) their heads in the sand as things started falling apart early this year. Another thing to note, is that the economic "dream team" of Oxford-educated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Harvard-educated Finance Minister P. Chidambaram have been bogged down playing politics with the various parties (including their own Congress Party) and the diverse group of politicians in India, many of whom, probably couldn't spell "economy".

Just six months ago, India was looking good. Annual growth was 9%, corporate profits were surging 20%, the stock market had risen 50% in 2007, consumer demand was huge, local companies were making ambitious international acquisitions, and foreign investment was growing. Nothing, it seemed, could stop the forward march of this Asian nation.

Read More of this story at BusinessWeek Online

Market Turmoil and Basic Economics

pjain — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:17:12 PDT

It's been quite some time since I put up a post and I apologize for that. Business matters such as recruiting, product development, and facilities have been taking a considerable amount of time.

However, in the six months since my last post much has happened in the global economy and even more is happening in India.

I've been saying for some time (since late 2007) that the valuations of stocks on Indian exchanges didn't make any sense. The BSE benchmark index hit an intra-day high of 21,206.80 in January. Most people were predicting the BSE would hit 25,000 by March and 30,000 by the end of 2008. I had told many friends and relatives that the economic conditions were such that I saw the BSE hitting the 12,000 to 13,000 range by the end of 2008. I was wrong. 1st July 2008, the BSE has dropped to a 52 week low of 13,263.39. Is this the bottom? Not by a long shot. I believe global economic conditions will continue to drive liquidity out of the Indian market, making credit harder to come by and the BSE dropping to the 8,000 - 9,000 range in the next 9 months.

The Dollar-Rupee exchange rate touched a low of Rs. 39.12 in February of this year. The most pessimistic Indians chose to stay on the fence about where the Rupee was going. However, most people in India were talking about the Rupee going to 36. Could the Dollar at Rs. 36 be justified in this global economy? Absolutely not! Because of the fears of global economic sluggishness, investors are slowly pulling out of emerging markets like India which are perceived to be riskier than markets like the US. Already this year, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been selling off investments in the Indian market and moving capital back home and in many cases into US Treasury bonds.

Today (1st of July 2008), the Dollar has touched Rs. 43.40. Will the slide of the Rupee continue? Absolutely! I believe the Rupee will approach 45 to 46 by the end of this year, if not slightly sooner.

Weekly inflation numbers in India have hit 11.42%. Though the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is working to curb inflation by raising rates and also raising the cash reserve ratios that banks must maintain, it is unlikely that inflation will see single digits for quite a while. I believe inflation in India will hit 15% before the end of the year. Real inflation that customers are facing is far higher. A short auto-rikshaw trip that cost Rs. 30 a year ago is now Rs. 40. Not a big change in real terms but it's a 33% rise in cost to the consumer. Basic groceries such as milk, fruits, and vegetables that used to cost Rs. 200 per day now cost in the range of Rs.375 and Rs. 500. That's an increase of 187% to 250% in the last 15 months.

Now I'll come to my thoughts on the Indian real estate market. The Indian real estate market has seen an unprecedented growth in the last five years. Some locations have seen 10x returns on the sale of property in just five years. Most of the growth in Indian real estate is a result of foreign investors putting capital to use in India and the easy availability of domestic credit. Commercial and residential properties all over India have been doubling roughly every twelve to fourteen months. Sustainable? "Absolutely" remark most real estate brokers and developers/builders. Some anecdotal evidence that I've seen:

A residential apartment in a relatively upscale section of New Delhi that was on the market approximately 15 months ago at Rs. 2.25 Crore (just under USD 520,00) is still on the market but now at a price of Rs. 3.25 Crore (just under USD 750,000).
An office at what I would classify as a C-class building in a popular market place was being quoted at Rs. 100 per square foot per month in December 2007. In early June of 2008, a similar office in the same area was being quoted at Rs. 135 per square foot per month

Generally, residential properties are staying on the market longer than they were a year ago. At the same time, the seller (usually some developer/builder) is raising the price of the property based on the "Time Value of Money" principle. It's costing him something to hold the property and inflation and credit costs are also rising so he is factoring all those costs into the price of the property. The only problem is that the buyer is in some cases, losing money (or has at least given back some healthy gains) in the stock market, being pressured by higher costs of living due to inflationary pressures, and credit is harder to come by as well as being more expensive to acquire as domestic banks continue to raise mortgage rates.

Conclusions:

BSE to fall to 8,000 - 9,000 in the next 6 to 9 months
The US Dollar will strengthen against the Rupee and hit the Rs. 45 - Rs. 46 in the next six months
Indian inflation will continue to rise and reach 15%. Sharp rises in lending rates and reserve ratios are the only thing that can slow down inflation and risk dampening Indian economic growth. Growth could slow to the 5% - 6% range during the next twelve to eighteen months
New Delhi and Mumbai were recently listed as two Indian cities with the highest cost of commercial real estate rates in the world. New York City wasn't even in the top ten. Though both cities will probably remain in the top 10 list, do expect prices to fall dramatically over the next eighteen months. Residential prices will likely fall farther as speculators and buyers will be drying up rapidly with higher borrowing costs
If you're looking to invest in India, put your money in and don't think about it for 10 years. You will likely see returns that far exceed returns in more mature markets like the US during a 10 or 20 year time horizon.
Short-term speculators are going to continue to feel the pain like they haven't in a long time
Amateur stock pickers and real estate "investors" in India are going to exit the market in droves

I'm very bullish on India over the next 10 to 20 years. It's the next two years that are going to be a time of bringing this market and the people back to the basics. Reminds me a lot like the fall of 1998 and the dot com bust of late 2000 / early 2001. India will be stronger and more stable after the retrenchment.

Please chime in!

Happy 2008!

admin — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:28:19 PST

All of us at Teknatus want to wish all of you a very happy, healthy, peaceful, and prosperous 2008.

Best of luck in the coming year to all of you.

-The Teknatus Team

It Lives!

pjain — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:19:45 PST

I'm, Pankaj, one of the founders of Teknatus Solutions. This is my inaugural post as our site is up and running. As the company grows and evolves, this blog is where I, and my colleagues, will communicate recent developments at Teknatus that is relevant to our clients and also to technologists and entrepreneurs.

I, specifically, will be writing about starting a business in India and the various aspects of running a business in India along with trying to communicate with others thinking of starting up in India.