You can’t invite people to a party and try to sell them stuff. Pretty much every starry-eyed startup that went after eyeballs gets it by now. Over the last seven years the web has moved away from a consumption medium (think NY times) to a creation-consumption medium (think Twitter, Facebook). But we’ve been very tardy in reshaping business models for this new model of the web...
July 5, 2013
Why #Hashtags are the future of monetizing social media
05July
July 4, 2013
8 Truths why IT Services Organizations cannot do Software Products
04July
The bread and butter of the Indian IT Industry has been IT Services. IT Services, as the terminology implies, is servicing a customer. A customer states his needs, the IT Services organization makes a proposal to develop / maintain / re-engineer / etc., and the deal is done. As offshoring and outsourcing has matured, customers have become savvy and are putting pressure on IT Services...
July 3, 2013
How to think about a product startup progress ?
03July
One of the most difficult things in a product startup is to know when has progress happened and if it is in the right track. This is an even more difficult problem for first time product entrepreneurs. Not to say that it easy for a second time entrepreneur but in that case experience intuitively guides. Most prevalent thinking is to go from idea to a product build phase leading to a launch in...
July 2, 2013
Crowdfunding In50hrs: India's Idea-to-prototype Event Platform
02July
I am in the middle of building two platforms. One being The Startup Centre, the older one, and its younger sibling In50hrs. In50hrs does get a bit of my attention, partly because I find my soul being there with entrepreneurs, teams, and ideas when they get that Aha! moment of breakthrough and build something. Its priceless being part of those moments. Most of you might think that In50hrs is...
July 2, 2013
Cybersecurity: Israel’s Innovation as India’s Opportunity
India is one of the leading victims of cyber-crime and the cybersecurity market is estimated at around US$218 million. Indian cybersecurity companies have developed indigenous products to address rising cyber-threats, but, with limited success. By contrast, Israel is famed for its prowess in developing innovative solutions for fields that encompass agriculture, medicine, clean-tech, hi-tech etc...
July 1, 2013
Why just 'knowing' your customer is not enough
01July
Every customer support forum and blog has at least one post talking about the importance of ‘knowing’ the target customer. This is one of those well established cliche-stereotypes that David Foster Wallace points out in Infinite Jest – we talk about them so much because they happen to be true. The only question is, how true? Is ‘knowing’ your customer really enough? Cadbury’s knows that its...
June 28, 2013
Stories are Better Than a Feature List
28June
You’re at an event, and you’re ready. You know your product inside out. You know the competition. You know the licensing terms. The deals. The partners. The competition. Technical details. Market details. Detail details. Regulations. Strengths. Compatibilities. Your head is stuffed. Crammed, just when – A customer comes to you. “I’ve got sixty seconds. Why should I buy from you?” You spent years...
June 27, 2013
#PNMeetup – Showcase your Product & Get Advice from leading CIOs
27June
We are pleased to partner with APAC CXO Forum to put together the 8th #PNMeetup in Noida. If you have a brilliant Enterprise Product and you just know that its the best out there, here is an opportunity for you showcase your product and get one hour of quality one-on-one time with the CIO community. In this one hour, you not only get a chance to showcase your product to the CIOs but also get one...
June 27, 2013
What's your Sales Story?
Whenever faced by dilemma over any issue pertaining to sales and marketing, I recall a famous quote by Ben Feldman, who is considered one of the best salespeople in world history. Don’t sell life insurance. Sell what life insurance can do. Just by following this one mantra, Ben was able to insurance policies more than worth USD 1.8 billion in his life! It would be unfair if I don’t mention Steve...
June 26, 2013
Action Plan for increasing M&A opportunities for Indian product startups
26June
Indian product companies punch below their weight. Despite huge innovation and rising entrepreneurship, most Indian product companies are invisible on the global map. The reasons are many, but a big one is the lack of meaningful exits for companies that actually create value in their product markets. This paper focuses on a plan to address this gap. iSPIRT: M&A activity report may 2013 from...
