Robots, Drones, Electric Bikes, 3D printers, Modular Homes – It’s all Happening in India – #IndiaInnovates The Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable (iSPIRT), a think tank dedicated to the cause of the Indian Product Industry, held its flagship event InnoFest 2016 in Bengaluru. This unique event was inaugurated by Mr. Mohandas Pai, Chairman of the Board, Manipal Global...
Why Did 33% of Prospects Reply to This Cold Email?
Cold emails have earned a bad reputation. Prospects see them as a nuisance, and most just hit delete without even a casual read. Even when the message is highly targeted, the open rate ends up being less than 10% on average. I call it the “Rhino effect”. Most of us have developed a thick skin over the years as a result of the constant barrage of irrelevant email. Not willing to settle for “status...
Implications of GST Bill on Startups
The much-hyped Goods and Services Tax (GST), after years of stagnation and lack of political consensus, was finally passed in the upper house of the Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, on 4th August this year, almost a decade after it was first introduced in the Lok Sabha in the year 2006-07. It is the biggest indirect tax reform post economic liberalization of 1991. The economists say, a double-digit...
Naming companies and products (part 1)
Recently, a high potential team of founders invited me to be their advisor on marketing strategy. Their product is a employee transport management system based on mobile App and SaaS backend, targeted at large organizations. I knew finding a great name was a daunting exercise. All the “real” names in English dictionary have already been trademarked. The names from animal kingdom, astronomy...
Altizon – Impact of Effectuation
Effectuation (effectuation.org) is a decision-making framework used by expert entrepreneurs. The early morning workshop of PN Camp Introduces this concept and help participants arrive at stakeholder commitments for their product market fit. Vinay Nathan of Altizon talks about application of effectuation in his company and how it made him do more with less. Altizon is a Pune based Industrial IoT...
5 email marketing myths you shouldn’t believe…
Well, just as any other marketing strategy and methodology is important and it works, the concept of email marketing is equally important. Email marketing is sending emails to a group of subscribers promoting your product or services. In fact, most marketers don’t realize that email marketing is one of the major components of marketing. But just as everybody has myths about web marketing, there...
Ease of Doing Business – Is India Game?
Conducting business in one’s own country is never easy, let alone conducting business overseas, where rules, regulations and business environments differ. ‘Ease of doing business’ is also an Index created by the World Bank. It ranks economies from high to low, with the former indicating easier, simpler and better conditions for business as compared to the latter, indicating difficulty in...
Founders: you are not doing it right
I see a lot of founders requesting 15min time from me for quick advice. They are clear that it is not a funding pitch, but, more to get my opinion on some of their questions – is this a right market, whether idea has legs, customer size, product feedback, etc. Based on who is requesting, I tend to allocate time for few and discuss, which usually goes for 30min+. I know that 30min is not...
How To Choose The Name For Your Startup?
A Company name is the identity of a company and what people use to refer to it. Picking a company name at times can be harder than finding a business opportunity, and on several occasions, people have gone ahead and started their company without an apt name. This can damage the value of the company or the business itself because you are losing customers who don’t understand what your company...
5 ways to increase your CTR on blog posts
For those who don’t know what CTR or Click-Through Rate is, it is the number of times visitors click on the ad placed on your blog divided by the number of views your blog gets. The business rules are simple. You get paid per click that is made on an ad placed in the blog. But, there are certain factors that control the way users click on such ads. The prime reason for placing such ads is to...