I remember this TED talk by Hans Rosling as he echoed the sentiments that I’ve heard working closely with Market Research firms: Even with quantitative data, you have to be careful because as much as they are hard numbers, they usually are averages of two extremes – and the markets are full of extremities. Truth is, if you follow (just) the numbers and build a product, you might end...
Who said YouTube is a waste of time? It can even teach you on how to come up with a great company or product name! Naming a company or a product is so crucial in a product start-up. You can call your services company – “The Great Maharashtra IT Services and Systems Company” and your clients may not care too much! Product startups, especially in the consumer space, need to think...
If 2012 saw a lot of buzz in India about Jugaad thanks to the Radjou/Prabhu/Ahuja bestseller, I am really hoping that 2013 will restore the balance towards systematic innovation. Indian companies need systematic innovation more than they realize because their challenges are different from the ones that multinationals face. Why are Indian Companies afraid of Systematic Innovation? Among Indian...
It was an early December late afternoon that Avinash and I got together to interview Aloke Bajpai, the Co-Founder and CEO of iXiGO – one of India’s most loved travel websites. Whether you are trying to save an extra rupee by comparing air fares across portals or planning your next trip with that saved money, Aloke’s iXiGO will GO with you. As I sat in the reception area waiting for Aloke...
Lean startups are not about saving money and getting development done on the cheap. They are not about saving money by doing work at home rather than a rented office. That’s not what the word lean means here! Lean is about elimination of waste in development, marketing, selling, and growing a company. And making course corrections quickly and efficiently so that you are precisely pointed...
Bizosys Technologies, launched in January 2009 in Bangalore, India, is an award winning, India-based software engineering company that has developed several tools that are available free to use online or as open-source software with downloadable source code. One of the most significant tools is HSearch, a real-time Big Data search engine for Hadoop. In this interview, Sridhar Dhulipala, co...
When Girish Mathrubootham, CEO, Freshdesk) hired yours truly, a complete novice straight out of B-School, I was Freshdesk’s employee no. 8, and we operated out of a nondescript location deep in south Chennai, from two small rooms behind a quaint Catholic church. Painted in our company’s signature teal color and equipped with an internet connection that had a mind of its own, our old office was...
Wingify’s vision is to develop world’s best tools for optimizing a website. Wingify launched ‘Visual Website Optimiser’ – an A/B testing software. Their products help in increasing website sales, conversions, signups and, at the same time, decreasing advertising budget. All this done by products which are really simple to use. Having hit 1900 customers in about 3 years, they sure have made...
After our 1st session of #AngelOfficeHours in Bangalore, Our next Angel Investor Office Hours will be in Mumbai on 22nd January 2013 at the Mumbai Angels office at 111, Industrial Area, Hindustan Minerals Compound, Next to Chroma Store, Cinemax Lane, Sion East, Mumbai 400022. Seasoned Angel Investors Anil Joshi and Ajeet Khurana of Mumbai will offer 8 Startups a chance to pitch to them. Startups...
In a product startup you may need to deal with lots of information about your own product features, your market, your competition, your competition’s product features, results of internal brainstorming sessions you may conduct or information about who you can partner with for various aspects of your business. Mind-maps provide a great way of organizing all the information you gather or...
