I had a very good discussion with 2 folks over the last week about the current state of technology entrepreneurship in India. The rough estimates from multiple sources indicate a varied number from 250 (low estimate) to 1000 (high estimate) technology product startups each year in India. Compared to that, the US produces tens of thousands and even Israel beats India by having 3-4 times that...
If we were going to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, comparing accelerators, here is my biggest gripe about “Accelerator Models” – Demo Day. For the fortunate, who aren’t aware of the Process, this is how it goes. Applications open, Teams submit their applications, Interview processes later, teams are picked, brought onboard and after a 12 – 16 week Programme (depending on which...
Read the Part 1 and Part 2 of the series. Shoaib Ahmed, President of Tally Solutions, began his career as a retail software developer in the early 90s. Formerly the Founder-Director of Vedha Automations Pvt.Ltd, Mr. Ahmed was responsible for developing Shoper, a market-leading retail business solution — and the first of its kind in India to bring in barcoding to the retail space. The...
How many times last month did you use Power Point? Most would have used it at least a couple of times. Power Point is one of those products that seem so natural and effortless to use. And when you think about it, Power Point acquires its muscle from its core ability to dumb down a variety of thinking processes. What were its creators — Dennis Austin and Thomas Rudkin – thinking when...
When we think of Software Product Innovation, we imagine getting “Eureka!” moments 3 am in the morning, getting up and writing down inspired thoughts and coding them the next morning! Reality is much more mundane and is more of evolution rather than sudden insprirations from the sky! Yahoo started because Jerry Yang and Filo just wanted to create a searchable directory of information...
I’ve spent a decent amount of time in India over the past few months. Most recently, I spent a little over two weeks of August meeting with founders and investors in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Goa. A couple of observations in no particular order: Indian founders don’t have clear role models… at least not within the Indian startup ecosystem. That being said, that will likely change over the next...
After the first post on technology mentors in India, the next person who can help the most as a mentor to startups < 2 years old is someone that can help with product & customer knowledge (or understanding user / customer behavior if its a consumer startup). There are 3 primary categories of “marketing” mentors I’d recommend you think about. You dont need them all, just be clear who you...
There is a lot of activity and interest in technology product companies in India, as there is in the US. I spent some time reviewing numbers from NVCA, VCCircle and pulled some numbers specifically in the areas of Internet, software, technology products and eliminated services companies. Here is a simple table to keep things in perspective. All sources are at the bottom. USA India Total number of...
I am going to write a 3 part series on mentorship and technology startups. Rather than write about why you need a mentor or how to engage with a mentor (next series) I thought the first step for most entrepreneurs would be to seek out great mentors. As an additional bonus, I thought I’d list some good mentors in India so there’s a starting point (not comprehensive). Please feel free to add people...
There is a reason, Mark Zuckerberg sits right next to the Summer Intern from University of Waterloo (True Story – Daughter of an Indian friend of mine!). No separate office, no glass windows to look out of! Sergei Brin and Larry Page are worried sick of “Not Enough Innovation” out of Google! They all focus on building the right culture for their people so that they can out...
