Bangalore Biking Club-MTB Race on Aug 3rd 2008

3P Mantra for a Product Startup

Mr. Kiran Karnik, former President of NASSCOM, speaking at recently concluded NASSCOM product conclave had given 3P Mantra for the Product Startups. Following are the details.

Patience:

It's said that patience is a virtue and this certainly holds true in practice. It is even truer in this fast-paced society where rushaholics and hurry addicts are in the majority and companies seem to believe that faster is better. Although patience is sometimes mistaken for sloth, it's the patient ones who are the most effective time managers. They tend to think things through before they act and focus more on results than activity. Following are the few characteristics of patient enterprises.

1. Patient companies fully intend to accomplish all their goals but they don't expect it to happen overnight. These companies recognize that time is their ally, not their enemy, and that all goals can be accomplished, given a realistic time frame. They will not hurry to go to a VC or taking the company to public.

2. Patient enterprises are not thrown off balance by momentary delays. These enterprises utilize idle time by working on other tasks or new innovations.

3. Although patient enterprises utilize idle time and waiting time rather than get frustrated by the delay, they seldom perform two activities at the same time if both activities require their attention. So they don't do sales on a marketing platform.

4. These enterprise plan before they act. Consequently they make good decisions, wise choices and sound judgments, achieving above average results.

Persistence:

Know that persistence is the name of the game...and plan accordingly.Those entrepreneurs that meet success do so because they had the ____ to push and prod and coddle their business into existence.

They found a way to keep their business moving forward in a strategic and precisely aligned manner. If something wasn't working for them, then they changed the way it was done. They looked at their business from many angles and found a way to proactively design their business to work the way they needed it to.

"Energy and persistence conquer all things."- Your Entrepreneurial Predecessor, Benjamin Franklin.

It is very important in sales. Today’s “no” doesn’t mean, No forever. You have to keep calling your prospective to customers. It is better to revisit your sales tracking once in a month and give hello calls to everyone in your list.

Passion:

Passion but passion is most important for every entrepreneur. Passion is a beautiful thing. Passion is what keeps you awake at night because you are so excited about what you are building. Passion is what makes you work on weekends. Passion is what blinds you to imaginary hurdles. Passion is what makes you deaf to destructive criticism. Passion more than makes up for lack of money. Passion attracts talent. Passion attracts customers. Passion brings pride in what you are doing. Passion sells your product. Passion sells your dreams. Passion makes you think differently. Passion makes you less greedy. Passion is what helps you get up after a bad fall. Passion is what builds great companies. Passion is the only hope for a startup. You can right lot about PASSION.

Jump into the MOMO Monsoon Splash Pool!

Mobile Monday Bangalore is organizing its August event as a daylong program on Saturday, the 30th of August, 2008 between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore’ (IIMB) Main Auditorium, Bannerughatta Road, Bangalore.

Christened as “MoMo Monsoon” this event aims to create a splash pool of issues ideas, challenges and opportunities in order to evoke interest and excitement of all stakeholders in the Mobile VAS ecosystem.

Mobile Monday is a global community of wireless industry professionals. The open community promotes the wireless industry. It fosters cooperation and networking among interest groups, industry and their companies by providing the logistics and opportunities for personal and virtual contacts. It is an open forum. Organizers and administrators of Mobile Monday chapters have and maintain a good reputation in their community. Bangalore chapter of Mobile Monday started its activities in June 2006 and is the first Mobile Monday chapter in India. Mobile Monday Bangalore popularly known as MoMo Bangalore, is registered as a not for profit organization (Trust). There are more than 700 registered members on its mailing list.

We are expecting in excess of 300 participants spanning entrepreneurs, early adopters, startup teams, industry observers, media, developer community, etc from the mobile eco-system.

For more Details Click Here

Is Failure An Option? Yes It Is!

There is no word called “Failure” in the today’s entrepreneur’s dictionary. This is the state of mind of many startups I had met. Failure is not an option! That’s the battle cry of the entrepreneur. Is this is Right?

If “Failure is not an option” what happens if you fail? If I am right more than 50% new business will disappear in the first two years. I am sure this number will be very high, especially if we consider the startups that are started in spare bedroom and closed by that time next relative arrives.

So what do you do if you’ve decided that failure is not an option? Do you commit suicide when you end up among the majority of start-ups that crash? A small percentage of entrepreneurs actually take this grim avenue. I wouldn’t recommend it. I think a wise entrepreneur needs to have plenty of options, including failure.

Many of us don’t want to allow “Failure as an option” into your consciousness, fearing we may doom ourself to it. The advice many of us get from so many of the so called self improvement books is to not to allow failure word in the dictionary. Because of this many of new entrepreneurs seem to believe that reality is little more than the projection of will. Thus, if they commit to the belief that “failure is not an option,” they will not fail.

May be I am wrong! Please let me know your comments!

Note: Thomas Edison had 2000 failed attempts at creating an effective light bulb.

VC or Angel

VC Or Angel:

With the requisite talent already in place in the Indian IT/ITeS and Technology industry, the sight of aspiring ingenious technological start-ups on the domestic terrain certainly does not raise an eyebrow. One thing that is common among these startups is, it is the dearth of funds to kick-start the ventures.

Why Angel, Why Not VC:

Many o f these start-ups need a smaller investment size that does not fall under the purview of Venture Capitalists. 8 out of the 10 start-up’s I came across are planning raise 0.25 to 0.5 million dollars. 19 out of 20 VC’s minimum investment is more than one million dollars.

There is this dearth of angel investors in India. Many of us came VC’s in one or other conferences. It is very hard to come across an angel investor. I fell this is partly attributed to the fact that angel investing is typically done by first generation entrepreneurs. In India, first-generation entrepreneurs are as old as decade or two and it is only now that they are turning towards angel investing. If I go by this equation the number of angel investors are too less to fund the scale of innovation happening out there.

My suggestion to all the entrepreneurs who are planning to raise less than one million dollars is STOP CHASING VCS, START LOOKING FOR ANGELS. Look for the people who made money in last decade or two, especially in your start-up domain. According Mr.Srinivas Udayagiri MD Lightspeed , in India only 8 out of 1000 proposals were sanctioned VC funds last year.

We should get more successful entrepreneurs than VC to the conferences . Especially in the conferences that are focused on early startups.

Silly Saithu....1

As you know lot of kids wet in the bed. After long time my son urinated in the bed for two days continously. On the second day, when he got up, he asked me "Why you people never urinate in the bed?".

It was very tough for me to explain. I told him kids can not control the bladder. He told me, he is not a kid any more, he buys a ticket in the train. :-)

Other day when we were in the train, I told him about the necessity of ticket from five years onwards.

What is Silly Saithu?

Thi series is all about the silly questions asked by my son. These are not silly questions, but silly. He is just complete five years. Chaitu is my son's nick name. One of our close family friend from Tamilnadu calls his Saithu. I love the way he calls.

Balaning VC Funds In India

At the launch of Venture Capital Association of India Mr.TC Nair (Sebi’s Whole time member) said the market regulator was in favour of balancing investments by VC funds across different sectors.

My heart says, it is very good. I want the investments in all the sectors. Especially education, agriculture research, health etc…

My mind says, capital will flow where ever it has to flow. People will invest where they like to invest. It is very foolish to force people.

At present 90% of the VC funds are foreign funds and TAX free. If I am right most of these funds are coming through Mauritius. If required an VC fund can open another firm in Mauritius and invest in the area where they liked.

Comments Please!

Let us discuss this in the upcoming StartupSaturday Bangalore. Off-course off-line...

PS: http://in.biz.yahoo.com/080806/203/6w9na.html