The New New Thing

ET and IAN have launched a initiative – The Power of Ideas. Havent had a chance to play with the website yet. Will update things once I do.

P.S.: Why do they have Google Adsese ads? Are they trying to monetize the website? What for?

Ooga Labs is a bunch of “Super Intelligent Nice People” based out of US and are trying to create “several consumer Internet businesses simultaneously”.

In simple words, they are a gang of people who got together and are simultaneously working on many ideas. Everyone is an owner of all ideas. And even if one idea goes on to become a sustainable business, all of them rake in the moolah.

They basically use the principle of rapid development and deployment. The focus is on getting as many ideas out of the door in as short a time possible. And once a product reaches a critical mass and looks promising, put more resources behind it and take it to the next level. Equivalent to playing on 20 slot machines at the same time, hoping to hit the jackpot on at least one. The approach has both its negatives AND positives. Notable negative being lack of focus and notable positive being very short time to market.

Far from business managers, venture capitalists, media and other frivolous things, the teams concentrate on building the ideas and launching them.

Is there a case for something similar in India? Any ideas? leads? thoughts?

UPDATE (22 Jan 09): Spoke to a friend in the VC industry and he is of the opinion that managing teams would probably be the biggest challenge in this kind of a model. He was of the opinion that disagreements happen even in companies with three partners. Here we are talking about 10-12 people.

Thanks to NoabBrier.com for the link to this FT article.

I wrote this piece for my alumni magazine and posted on this blog in August. I thought I would share with a larger audience and hence a repost…

How do you define entrepreneurship? For me, an entrepreneur is a person who takes some initiative, hoping to change things around him (and in process change things for himself). An entrepreneur is a person who has a risk appetite. An entrepreneur is someone who does not mind venturing into the unknown territory (and in process feed his insatiable hunger). And finally an entrepreneur is someone who wants to stand out, and values his thought and independence of actions (more than straddling with the mediocrity in routine tasks).

With this broad a definition, every around us could be an entrepreneur. From a vegetable seller to a professor to doctor to a home-tutor to a student to a parent to a toddler to an oldie, everyone is an entrepreneur. From a time when you were a kid, you took initiative by trying to walk. When you went to the school for the first time, you showed exemplary courage (some kids do cry when they first goto school). When you first drove that vehicle, you knew that you might get hurt but still wanted to do it. When you decided to take CAT and choose a business school, you were experimenting with your career (lets be honest, we dint do MBA because we always felt like becoming managers – we did because there were no other options or everyone else around us was doing it).

So why is it that when it comes to real life businesses, we loose this innate initiative taking ability and the spirit just fizzles out? Why do we get comfortable in work and seek solace in regular jobs and we don’t want to take risks? Is it because of our traditional outlook of having a secure government job that we keep on till retirement? Or is it because everyone around us seems satisfied and happy with their jobs and we simply want to live life like them? Content and happy. What else could it be?

Lets change track and for the sake of simplicity and clarity I will talk about three phases of life (“inspired” from the movie Pursuit of Happyness). These are

1. The Rats in Blindfold Race
2. Sundials in Shades
3. Round Pegs in Square Holes

Flashback to end of 2005 and beginning of 2006. The entire campus was abuzz with placement talks. Everyone was making their personal placement strategies in their secret hideouts. Some people were working alone. Some worked in pairs. Some found comfort in groups. You could spot flurry of activity outside library, computer center and rooms of academic toppers. Suddenly, new friendships were being forged. All enmities were forgotten. All broken walls were mended. All gaps were bridged. Everyone wanted to be friends with placement committee guys. Everyone wanted to master the art of cracking interviews and getting placed on that magic Slot 0 on Day 0.

Some people decided to revise whatever they had studied in 4 semesters so far (read as going over the notes made by the likes of Mansi, Supreeta, Manushree that have been painstakingly photocopied during these last 4 semesters, some people decided to study hard henceforth (this essentially meant mugging Kotler. Again), some people decided to start reading newspaper (and finally avail the facilities at the library), some people decided to polish their GD and PI skills (this essentially meant doing nothing at all), some people were oblivious to placement were busy partying and playing CS (these people were amongst the lower rungs of the CGPA ladder and were assured of Day 3 placement).

All of us were sure of one thing and one thing only. We wanted a placement with a prestigious company on a package of not less than 7 lakhs (this was the ACTUAL average salary when my batch was passing out). And that is all that mattered at that point in time. There were people who were very clear in their minds and thoughts about what kind of jobs they wanted and where did they see themselves in five years. They had all answers to all the questions that an interviewer could have had. Even the clueless ones wanted to make their careers in big corporations, rising to the top of ladder. All of us wanted to work hard for rest of our lives. For someone else. For peanuts. Doing the same thing for rest of our lives. Boring. Mundane. Regular. And still worse, trying to justify that whatever we are doing is fun.

There is nothing wrong with doing what the entire world is doing. After all we have interesting jobs that pay well, that makes families and friends proud, that elevates social status, that puts career on a fast-track path to that corner office on top floor, that gives a security of a pension post retirement. It’s a perfectly understandable that one chases dreams like second and third homes in suburbs, cars and membership to executive clubs. After all life is supposed to be enjoyed to the fullest. Work hard and party harder should be the mantra to live life by. We were doing what everyone was doing. We were like Rats in Blindfold Race running because everyone else is running and never for a single instant thinking why the race.

And this is where the problem is. We get so comfortable in our cocoons that we can’t imagine a life outside that. We become so comfortable doing our jobs that we simply don’t want to challenge the status quo. We become so myopic with our visions that we cant see what can be done. We become pragmatic and logical and hence we refute things even before we try.

Imagine if everyone in world became like that. There would be no new innovations and businesses, no Internet, no communication equipment, no electric bulb, no wheel, no fire, no evolution and no us. We would be in sleeping in caves or hanging from trees if the few daring ones dint venture out.

It was an entrepreneur who first decided to step out in the dark and for some reason decided to rub two dried wooden sticks against each other to discover fire. It was his curiosity that drove him to use two sticks. It was an entrepreneur who thought that a round object might be easier to move. He worked hard on making it round. It was an entrepreneur who first wondered why is that apples fall on the ground and not rise to the sky. It was use of common sense coupled with clarity of thought. It was an entrepreneur trying to solve a problem who invented the telephone and the Internet. It was an entrepreneur who thought a PC on everyone’s desk could make lives much more simple and better. It was vision and a belief in that vision.

We, proud mandevians have all that it takes – curiosity, hard-working attitude, bag full of common sense, vision, conviction and finally problem solving skills. In fact we label ourselves as change masters. And thus wondering why is that we have very few entrepreneurs amongst us? What is stopping us? Arent we being what Benjamin Franklin called Sundials in Shade?

More I think about it, more I realize that it’s because of two things. Foremost is the avoidance of risk and second is pure laziness.

Most of the ones reading this would have reached a stage where they would be married, possibly with a kid, a home loan to pay off, a very stable routine job where we would be yelling on our subordinates and would be on receiving end of our bosses whims. Life would be really rosy. No major worries on any front and everything going on as planned. Probably we guys look at entrepreneurship as something that would shake things up. Make things unpredictable. Add a lot of unnecessary work, effort and emotions in life. And other such factors. And since we are MBAs, we will do a cost-benefit analysis. The analysis would prove that leaving a comfortable job is not required at all. And thus many interesting minds remain hidden in the layers of hierarchy.

Coming onto the real subject, why choose entrepreneurship, a very famous advertisement (youtube vid) from Apple Computers sums it very well. It says

“Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.”

And as this ad says, its about a choice between mediocrity and expertise, a regular guy and an exceptional talent, working for someone else and working for yourself. We need to choose. We need to choose life. We need to choose sides. Which side would you choose?

Saurabh Garg is from batch of 2006. He updates his thoughts at http://saurabhgarg.com when he is not dreaming of taking over the world.

Alok Mittal (of Cannan Partners) posted this on Venturewoods. This pitchbook is meant to serve as an indicative guide to companies pitching to Cannan or any other VC for that matter. Information and well designed.

Few takeaways for me would be …

1. Explain how your solution is a company and not a function.
2. Target a big problem and a big market.
3. Know competition. Direct and Indirect.
4. Team – how is it uniquely poised to deliver the solution.

Obviously these are meant for people who are keen on talking to fancy VCs and getting even fancier valuations. Garage ventures dont need powerpoints and discussions to know their business and more importantly – dreams.

Pranav at StartupDuniya posted this about a paper that tries to answer the question – what makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial. Very very interesting read.

Direct link to the paper.

Was stuck in traffic today in morning and wrote this …

There are thousands of vehicles on roads.
There are millions of people that these vehicles are ferrying.
All in a stupid hurry to reach places they call offices.
Where these people will do what they have been doing all their lives.
Inching towards the inevitable.
And all this while not realizing the futility of their daily actions.

Dedicated to all the “people”.

I wrote this for my Alumni Magazine – Footprints. A lot of things might be out of context for few people but the essence would hold true. I would love to have feedback on this. Please do write in if you feel strongly about something.

Why choose entrepreneurship

How do you define entrepreneurship? For me, an entrepreneur is a person who takes some initiative, hoping to change things around him (and in process change things for himself). An entrepreneur is a person who has a risk appetite. An entrepreneur is someone who does not mind venturing into the unknown territory (and in process feed his insatiable hunger). And finally an entrepreneur is someone who wants to stand out, and values his thought and independence of actions (more than straddling with the mediocrity in routine tasks).

With this broad a definition, every around us could be an entrepreneur. From a vegetable seller to a professor to doctor to a home-tutor to a student to a parent to a toddler to an oldie, everyone is an entrepreneur. From a time when you were a kid, you took initiative by trying to walk. When you went to the school for the first time, you showed exemplary courage (some kids do cry when they first goto school). When you first drove that vehicle, you knew that you might get hurt but still wanted to do it. When you decided to take CAT and choose a business school, you were experimenting with your career (lets be honest, we dint do MBA because we always felt like becoming managers – we did because there were no other options or everyone else around us was doing it).

So why is it that when it comes to real life businesses, we loose this innate initiative taking ability and the spirit just fizzles out? Why do we get comfortable in work and seek solace in regular jobs and we don’t want to take risks? Is it because of our traditional outlook of having a secure government job that we keep on till retirement? Or is it because everyone around us seems satisfied and happy with their jobs and we simply want to live life like them? Content and happy. What else could it be?

Lets change track and for the sake of simplicity and clarity I will talk about three phases of life (“inspired” from the movie Pursuit of Happyness). These are

1. The Rats in Blindfold Race
2. Sundials in Shades
3. Round Pegs in Square Holes

Flashback to end of 2005 and beginning of 2006. The entire campus was abuzz with placement talks. Everyone was making their personal placement strategies in their secret hideouts. Some people were working alone. Some worked in pairs. Some found comfort in groups. You could spot flurry of activity outside library, computer center and rooms of academic toppers. Suddenly, new friendships were being forged. All enmities were forgotten. All broken walls were mended. All gaps were bridged. Everyone wanted to be friends with placement committee guys. Everyone wanted to master the art of cracking interviews and getting placed on that magic Slot 0 on Day 0.

Some people decided to revise whatever they had studied in 4 semesters so far (read as going over the notes made by the likes of Mansi, Supreeta, Manushree that have been painstakingly photocopied during these last 4 semesters, some people decided to study hard henceforth (this essentially meant mugging Kotler. Again), some people decided to start reading newspaper (and finally avail the facilities at the library), some people decided to polish their GD and PI skills (this essentially meant doing nothing at all), some people were oblivious to placement were busy partying and playing CS (these people were amongst the lower rungs of the CGPA ladder and were assured of Day 3 placement).

All of us were sure of one thing and one thing only. We wanted a placement with a prestigious company on a package of not less than 7 lakhs (this was the ACTUAL average salary when my batch was passing out). And that is all that mattered at that point in time. There were people who were very clear in their minds and thoughts about what kind of jobs they wanted and where did they see themselves in five years. They had all answers to all the questions that an interviewer could have had. Even the clueless ones wanted to make their careers in big corporations, rising to the top of ladder. All of us wanted to work hard for rest of our lives. For someone else. For peanuts. Doing the same thing for rest of our lives. Boring. Mundane. Regular. And still worse, trying to justify that whatever we are doing is fun.

There is nothing wrong with doing what the entire world is doing. After all we have interesting jobs that pay well, that makes families and friends proud, that elevates social status, that puts career on a fast-track path to that corner office on top floor, that gives a security of a pension post retirement. It’s a perfectly understandable that one chases dreams like second and third homes in suburbs, cars and membership to executive clubs. After all life is supposed to be enjoyed to the fullest. Work hard and party harder should be the mantra to live life by. We were doing what everyone was doing. We were like Rats in Blindfold Race running because everyone else is running and never for a single instant thinking why the race.

And this is where the problem is. We get so comfortable in our cocoons that we can’t imagine a life outside that. We become so comfortable doing our jobs that we simply don’t want to challenge the status quo. We become so myopic with our visions that we cant see what can be done. We become pragmatic and logical and hence we refute things even before we try.

Imagine if everyone in world became like that. There would be no new innovations and businesses, no Internet, no communication equipment, no electric bulb, no wheel, no fire, no evolution and no us. We would be in sleeping in caves or hanging from trees if the few daring ones dint venture out.

It was an entrepreneur who first decided to step out in the dark and for some reason decided to rub two dried wooden sticks against each other to discover fire. It was his curiosity that drove him to use two sticks. It was an entrepreneur who thought that a round object might be easier to move. He worked hard on making it round. It was an entrepreneur who first wondered why is that apples fall on the ground and not rise to the sky. It was use of common sense coupled with clarity of thought. It was an entrepreneur trying to solve a problem who invented the telephone and the Internet. It was an entrepreneur who thought a PC on everyone’s desk could make lives much more simple and better. It was vision and a belief in that vision.

We, proud mandevians have all that it takes – curiosity, hard-working attitude, bag full of common sense, vision, conviction and finally problem solving skills. In fact we label ourselves as change masters. And thus wondering why is that we have very few entrepreneurs amongst us? What is stopping us? Arent we being what Benjamin Franklin called Sundials in Shade?

More I think about it, more I realize that it’s because of two things. Foremost is the avoidance of risk and second is pure laziness.

Most of the ones reading this would have reached a stage where they would be married, possibly with a kid, a home loan to pay off, a very stable routine job where we would be yelling on our subordinates and would be on receiving end of our bosses whims. Life would be really rosy. No major worries on any front and everything going on as planned. Probably we guys look at entrepreneurship as something that would shake things up. Make things unpredictable. Add a lot of unnecessary work, effort and emotions in life. And other such factors. And since we are MBAs, we will do a cost-benefit analysis. The analysis would prove that leaving a comfortable job is not required at all. And thus many interesting minds remain hidden in the layers of hierarchy.

Coming to the end and, a very famous advertisement from Apple Computers sums it very well. It says

“Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.”

And as this ad says, its about a choice between mediocrity and expertise, a regular guy and an exceptional talent, working for someone else and working for yourself. We need to choose. We need to choose life. We need to choose sides. Which side would you choose?

Saurabh Garg is from batch of 2006. He is an aspiring entrepreneur working on couple of ideas around computer gaming and communities. He updates his thoughts at http://saurabhgarg.com/thoughts when he is not thinking of ways to take over the world.

I recently came across this report titled “The Mobile Development Report“, published by CKS on a research commissioned by Nokia for developmental use of mobile networks in emerging economies.

The report focuses on social transformations around a new technology and its adoption. The report beautifully documents lives and ways Indians in tier 2 cities and towns use mobile phones. One of the best reports, a few highlights for me are

1. The East-West Divide: If we draw a line connecting Delhi and Chennai, the western India has seen most of the developmental efforts. East of this line still exist opportunities and possibilities. And this has largely been ignored by most of us (entrepreneurs, students, professionals, academicians etc.)
2. Understanding of India as a country. The report gives a very deep understanding of Indians and their communication behavior. What makes this one different and special is that CKS talks about the entire India – not just metros or towns or villages.
3. Classification of towns and villages. CKS has done a very good job in classifying towns and villages according the now famous pyramid by CK Prahalad. The report further classifies these rural citizens in terms of their purchasing power. Probably first such effort in India?
4. Opportunities in Rural AND Urban India. Everyone is ga-ga about opportunities in rural India and largely . While reading this report, it dawned on me that even the urban and semi-urban population is more than 500 mn. This number is more than the population of US and UK combined and there is a strong case of a business flourishing here also. Agreed that urban markets are difficult to crack considering they have plethora of options and they are picky. But is too large a segment to be ignored and is waiting to be tapped.
5. Insights from research: CKS has gone beyond regular data collection and have come up with insights such as elevation in social stature, increased credibility, ease of use of mobile phones as communication device compared to an Internet-connected PC, personal and societal welfare etc. And how does an access to a mobile communication tool helps people make their lives better.
6. Possible Applications: in micro-commerce, making travel easier, access to information, education (one of the examples look uncannily similar to latest Idea Cellular advertisement) etc. This can be coupled with findings from Jan Chipchase (more on him later) to identify new and possibly revolutionary businesses. Simple example could be use of airtime as currency and if someone can regulate this, its a huge huge market waiting to be tapped.
7. Case Studies: The way they have chosen their subjects, the methodology to conduct an interview, the detail in which they have gone while researching, they have captured the entire life of the subjects. With the kind of detail available, you can easily create character maps of these subjects and derive the way they live their lives and how they interact with brands.
8. Photographs: Awesome collection of photographs that the team has taken during their study.

The report also mentions at one point Jan Chipchase, a Nokia employee whose job is to travel the world and observe and document novel ways in which people use and interact with mobile phones. This is his wonderful talk on TED on how we use our mobile phones.

Coming back to CKS report, one might argue that they covered only three districts and have extrapolated the data to come up with findings and recommendations. And that report was released in early 2007. But regardless of these reservations, this still remains one of the best research reports I have read in a long time.

Apart from the focus on mobile phones, the report is that detailed that you actually get tons of ideas (another post on this later) while reading it. Congratulations to CKS team for this awesome effort.

P.S.: The font size is way too small and there are 226 pages of information, worth its weight in gold.
P.S..: If anyone else is keen on serving the information and entertainment needs of a community and can foresee (or already has) a business in this domain, please contact me. You never know what might come out of a discussion.

Image Credits: manoogupta via Flickr

In this post I shall talk about brands as I understand them and as they are applicable to digital brands. Please note that this list is still in beta and will evolve with time. Your feedback would be really appreciated.

This is required because we need to stop looking at startups as just startups but serious businesses where branding plays a vital role. Often, the way you look at the business makes a lot of difference to way you work.

Coming to the point, I think there are three principles. Utility, Emotional Connect and Relationship that goes beyond just one product.

A: Utility

• Customers never talk about a brand they are going to use. They talk about the action they will perform. What problem does the brand solves?
  • I need to book and air ticket. I will use Cleartrip.
  • I need to upload slides and show them to friends. Let me use Slideshare.
• The brands that can make themselves synonymous to utility invariable become the leaders.
  • Can you Google the data on number of Internet users in India?
  • Can you Slideshare your presentation please?
• The utility could be functional, mechanical, emotional, psychological or any of those –al things.
  • Using Twitter helps me stay in touch with friends on the go.
  • I use FB because the elite Internet users in India are on FB.

B: Emotional Connect

• A customer will use a brand that he can associate himself with.
  • I like Apple products because they stand for innovation, user interface and simplicity.
  • Google stands for open culture. I am an open source evangelist and hence I will use and promote Google initiatives.
• If possible, the association with the brand should elevate the status of the user.
  • Google could have invited everyone when they launched Gmail. Limited invite was a way to get traction. All limited launches are like that.
  • Alltop gave away batches like “featured on alltop”. People displayed these batches because it was a way to show off that you belonged to the best of the category (as rated by alltop).

C: Relationship extending beyond single product

• The relationship should start with one product and when the company launches more products, I should be aspiring to buy them too. This is very important for creating sustainable businesses that go beyond one time relationship.
  • My relationship with Apple started with an Ipod. I have already bought a MacBook and have pre-ordered the iPhone.
  • I started using Google as a search engine. Then I started using groups. Then it was Gmail. And then calendar. The list continues.

Which one of the three things are valid about your brand? If it does only one, how can it do other things?

Please give your feedback to me at saurabh.garg+digitalbrands@gmail.com

Vivek posted a very interesting post on Venturewoods and here is my comment on the same.

Hi,

This post could be true for me I could change the location to Mumbai.

Comments by other people have been really interesting and here are my 2 cents on the same.

1. How do you balance the pay packet for a potential employee? Please give two scenarios – (a) You are self funded. (b) You are financially backed by an angel or a VC.
A: If I was self funded I would not have a lot of money to give away. I would be forced to look at things like equity or just share in profits. If it was a VC funded, I would have made adjustments for employee costs in my business plan and hence I would have money. Also my understanding tells me that most VC funded startups HAVE a lot of money.

2. Would you consider the prior experience of a candidate from a different domain, or would you simply consider him/her to be a fresher from your company’s perspective?
A: Tough one. I think depends on what person brings to the table. He could bring his experience, his learnings, his background, his perspective, his contacts, even things as intangible as his enthusiasm. If he brings something that I desire, I will make sure I will recruit him.

Talking about fresher or experienced, in a startup personally I dont think I need to have that kind of categorization for people. I want people for skills, not for showing off. Moment I start talking like that I become a lazy, slow moving company.

3. What kind of commitment would you expect from the new hire? What kind of notice periods/bonds would you look at?
A: No notice period. No bonds. Commitment – believe in the idea and evangelize that.

4. What are the legal aspects which you would look into before hiring someone? Would you do extensive background check on the candidate or rely on references or just hire him/her for what value they can bring in?
A: I would want to hire without checks. For me checks waste a lot of time and for a startup, time to market is really crucial. Once we start working, we can always figure out in due course if the person was appropriate or not. And if at a later stage, he is found inappropriate, we can easily part ways.

5. Would you have an age criteria to hire? In other words would you believe that a 21 year old could be as valuable as a 40 year old?
A: No age criteria. Yes a 21 year old can be very valuable. How? You just asked 5 questions that a 40 year old would have never asked. And when you are 21, you are not scared to ask those questions. And thats a huge things to have. There are more areas like understanding of the market from a teenager’s perspective, contacts with more fresh minds and top of everything else enthusiasm and confidence that young people have.