The Startup Journey – Give Me a Lever (Pole) Long Enough

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” - Archimedes

I started my journey as an entrepreneur around 3 years back. Coincidentally, the whole startup ecosystem in Bangalore was taking shape during that period, thus I got the opportunity to closely interact with the various ecosystem entities like OCC, Pluggd.in, headstart, TiE, NeN, media etc. and of course the various types of investors. I got a lot of help from all and it benefited me in my journey.

Fortunately, I realized it early that making investment a priority is certainly the wrong way to plan your execution. While all this was happening the recession struck and we had to make some tough choices and then we changed our business model and boot strapped our way forward.

Today, I am happy that I took some right decisions and we not just survived the toughest period but are now growing at a decent pace. We knew given the type of technology we have and the general awareness and openness for such a concept (enterprise 2.0 and Collective Intelligence), it is not going to be a cake walk and investors may only enter once we overcome the technology, market and business risk successfully. We were lucky to get early adopters in enterprise though who helped us survive as well as refine our value proposition.

I am sure almost all of us have similar stories to share and there tends to be a generic pattern among entrepreneur’s journeys. Idea of this post is to try and portray the path to success for entrepreneurs by knitting together the most common scenarios and help aspiring entrepreneurs not repeat common mistakes.

The comic (edutainment) video below provides the whole picture from start to success; I am sure most of you will be able to relate to it, do share your comments and anecdotes too.

[Sumeet Anand is Founder CEO of Kreeo (i-nable Solutions), a startup in the space of Enterprise 2.0 and collective intelligence.]

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Telecom Roundup: Separate landline number for telemarketers hits roadblock

Separate landline number for telemarketers hits roadblock

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s demand for a separate identifiable landline number series, in line with a mobile series for telemarketers, has hit a roadblock with DoT saying that it could breach security at telecom exchange level.

“Most of the work in case of landlines is done manually. Fixed line network is not automatic as mobile network is. Identification in case of fixed line is done through manual process,” a DoT official involved in the process of issuing numbers told PTI [source].

SMS facility to check if your pill is genuine

Soon, you will be able to know whether the drug is genuine or not by simply sending an SMS from your mobile, thanks to a new initiative by the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) [source].

71% Mobile Subscribers Are Active

Videocon lost more than 1 million subscribers, while Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar added 3 million subscribers each in January this year, the Indian telecom regulator said on Friday.
More than 71% of mobile subscribers in India are active users, data revealed by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or Trai, in January. Around 548.66 million people were using mobile phones of the total subscriber base of 771 million mobile subscribers.

GSM operators to surrender excess spectrum during renewal in 2014

All leading GSM operators will have to give up ‘excess’ airwaves they have when their mobile permits come up for renewal beginning 2014. This implies companies such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, among others, which currently have up to 10 MHz or units of 2G airwaves in many regions, will be given only 6.2 units of radio frequencies when they renew their permits. [source]

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Best of the Week: TRAI SMS Regulations, Groupon Clones, PowerPlug

Last week, we announced the PowerPlug contest, which is first of its kind in India. The contest aims to recognize Indian entrepreneurs on a continuous basis (the winning prize is an iPad!). We will share more details of the contest in the coming days.

For week ending March 6th, here are the top stories

• Reliance Launches India’s First high-end CDMA Android Handset – Galaxy i500
• How To Choose Your Payment Gateway [R.I.P. Paypal]
• The Super Duper List of Groupon Clones in India [18 and counting]
• Of Infibeam Pi, Android Devices and A Call to Bring “Better” Chinese Imports
• TRAI’s SMS Regulations And The Lesser Known Impact on Ecommerce Industry
• How To: Build an Internet Product Business from India

Startups/Entrepreneurship

• Corpans Wants To Be The Quora of Enterprise Segment
• Infibeam Launches Pi2, EBook Reader With Wi-Fi Connectivity and Touchscreen
• Zipdial launches an Innovative “Zipdial to verify” service
• Minnows can beat the giants [Lessons From Ireland-England Match]
• Kuliza Acquires GizaPage, Social Media Aggregator
• Is There a Business Model in Deal Aggregation Space?
• Ohana Media Launches OhanaQB, Audience Clustering Technology
• Cut The Paper Out Of The Admission Forms – Apply Through NoPaperForms

Mobile/Telecom

• Recap of Union Budget 2011–PCs to Become Dearer, Double blow for small, medium IT firms
• No Relief From SMS Spam Yet – TRAI Postpones the New No Spam Policy
• Budget 2011 Live (Reporting) on Youtube, Vodafone to Launch 3G Services [News]
• India Blocks Typepad [Digital Anarchy?]
• Introducing PowerPlug–The Monthly Contest For Indian Technology Entrepreneurs [iPad]
• Orkut To Get a New Look [Inspired by Facebook?]
• Zynga Launches Game Cards in India

Gadgets

• Opera Mini spreads its wings — coming to INQ phones March 2, 2011
• The Completely Redesigned Evernote 4 for iPhone and iPod Touch
• ibibo.com brings to you virtual trading game –‘ibibo CricEx’
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc Available in India for Rs. 28,999
• Google Targets Content Farms–Some Well Known Names Revealed
• Samsung Galaxy SL I 9003 Available in India For Rs. 19499
• Reliance launches India’s first high-end CDMA android handset – Galaxy i500

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PayPal dangles $50,000 for Android developers

Android developers, perk your ears up: PayPal announced last Thursday, March 3, that it is now accepting Android app submissions for its PayPal X Developer Challenge. The contest would award cash prizes of $50,000 for innovative and secure Android mobile apps that leverage on PayPal technologies – such as Mobile Payments Library and Mobile Express Checkout – for mobile payments.

Three prizes are up for grabs, with a grand prize of USD25,000 of PayPal credit, second prize of USD15,000, and third prize of USD10,000. Furthermore, the top three applications would get marketing and PR support from PayPal to publicize their app.

PayPal, however, is vague on what they’re looking for in the winner: “We’re looking for something new, something surprising, something with business potential… make us say, “Wow!”, said the contest website.

While the last year’s contest also accepted applications for the Apple iOS platform, this year PayPal decided to focus solely on Google’s Android platform. “The tremendous growth of Google’s Android platform has brought about a huge pool of opportunities for developers,” said PayPal.

Past winners include iConcessionStand, which allows food, beverage and merchandise sold at live events to be ordered with the mobile app and paid for using PayPal, and AppBacker, which helps developers sell their iPhone apps to wholesale buyers.

The deadline for submission is on May 14, and winners would be announced on June 29. For more information on the competition, visit https://www.x.com/community/ppx/devchallenge

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GOOD Stories • Chapter One: Pursuing Passion

GOODSTUPH kicks off GOOD stories with their first Chapter on Pursuing Passion. They’ve got a great lineup of amazing people with equally amazing stories to share.

1. Kun of Make Studios.
2. Steve Lawler of KULT
3. Kenny and Karen of BooksActually
4. Eeshaun of Gardensilly
5. Jill-Marie Thomas – Singer
6. Dharni Ng – Beatboxer

Of the many reasons there could possibly be to attend this event, meeting Kenny and Karen of BooksActually should be on top of any list. These two entrepreneurs have done something amazing in creating a sustainable, if not successful, bookstore and brand during a period when mega-stores like Borders and Kinokuniya rolled into town and threatened to put an end to the concept of hometown bookstores.

Below are some of their works:

A project done by the superb team at OgilvyOne Singapore and digital maverick Kun of Make Studios.

Nike Trackball from Our Work on Vimeo.

Friendly entrance fee: $10
(Includes 4 finger food dishes and a non-alcoholic drink.)

Friendly note: RSVP required
Just a heads up, attendance is only confirmed once you get a confirmation email. Spaces are limited so reserve your places early!

RSVP to steph@goodstuph.org by 11 March 2010 before 1800h!

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