Zomato Ex-CTO launches Giveter, a recommendation service for online gifting

Finding appropriate gifts is a huge task (especially if you are a guy) and Giveter, a new service launched by Zomato Ex-CTO, Avinash is attempting to solve this.

Giveter finds relevant gifts based on recipient’s age, relationship to gifter and occasion. Giveter, also helps finding gifts based on recipient’s personality and gifter’s mood. Giveter has tied up with variuos online website/brands/physical stores with expertise in different product verticals.

The company has an in-house gifting aggregation team which cherry picks unique giftable products (has a total of 2500 gifting option in different categories). Once user finalizes a gift, he/she will be redirected to partner site, for payments.

Giveter has also launched Zip-Gift concept. With e-addresses becoming more real than physical addresses, people will be able to send, receive and share gifts on Facebook. The company is currently doing a pilot with free home delivery of a photograph and a friendship band on the occasion of Friendship day (5th Aug).  The company will soon make this feature available for all the products and other platforms such as emails (for private gifting).

Founding team includes Avinash (IIT D/ex-CTO @Zomato) and Mayank Bhangadia (IIT D, earlier with Schlumberger Business Consulting).

Giveter is a great example of product curation and helping users with a pain point, which no other gifting service provides. Most of the online gifting services tend to assume that you know what you want to buy and as we all know, we Indians aren’t the ones who believe in ‘self-service’ (read: Why Indians do not buy online?).

Having said that, the key question for the team is discovery of products and mixing it with a relationship and gifting intent. That is, instead of asking these questions (as drop downs), the team should just integrate with Facebook and start showing gifts for your closed ones (the serendipity moment, when the service should just throw what you were looking for).

Give Giveter a spin and share your feedback with the team.

[This startup coverage is part of Pluggd.in’s 65 startup special series, which is supported by Nexus Venture Partners. If you are a product startup, submit your details here.]

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Want to succeed wildly? Adjust your attitude

(Credit: The Infamous Gdub)

Have you ever wondered what makes someone a world-renowned musician or a critically acclaimed novelist? Malcolm Gladwell would say it all comes down to practice — over 10,000 hours of practice, to be exact. But a study by Gary McPherson, discussed in David Brooks’ book The Social Animal, highlights that there is also an important attitude needed for success.

In 1997, Gary McPherson decided to study musicians — namely what exactly contributed to a musician’s success. Was it practice? Genetics? Environment? He studied 157 randomly selected kids as they picked and learned a musical instrument. Some went on to be professional musicians, and others quit playing after they left school. He was looking for patterns. Were there traits or characteristics that all of the successful musicians had?

Amazingly, the commonality was not one of the obvious ones. It was not IQ, aural sensitivity, math skills, natural rhythm, or even their parents that dictated success. There was only one question that provided a clue to indicate which students would be successful and which wouldn’t. Before they even selected their instrument, McPherson asked the budding musicians one question:

“How long do you think you will play the instrument you choose?”

The answer to this question predicted whether or not a student would be successful. If they thought they would play an instrument their whole life, they did better; if they thought they would only play temporarily, they did not play as well. Their success had nothing to do with skills — it was all about their attitude.

Logically, this makes sense. If you think you are going to do something for life, you work harder at and you are therefore better. However, we often do not apply this knowledge to our choices and work. For example, how often do you hear someone say, “I couldn’t be a doctor, I am terrible at science,” or “I can’t do that project, I’m not good at organization.”

We do not need any inherent skills to be able to be good at what we do, we only need an attitude that we are going to stick with it. Our minds and skills set will grow with us as we stick to our goals. How can we use McPherson’s study in our own lives and businesses?

1. Set your mind up for success. When facing a business project or when applying to a job opening, throw away unhelpful mindsets like “I wouldn’t be good at it,” or “I could never.”

2. Forget how and focus on when. When picturing your work or projects, start by adjusting your perception of how long you will stick with it instead of focusing on whether or not you have the right skills.

3. Dependent on others? Don’t forget to tell time. When working with team members on a business project, you can gauge how successful they will be by asking them about their timeline. This is especially good if you are interviewing employees. If you want to know how someone will be at a potential job, ask them how long they expect to do it — this will be a better predictor of their performance than anything else.

Knowing how our attitude affects our performance is an essential aspect of furthering our understanding of ourselves, and the probability of our success.

This post was originally published on YEC.

About Vanessa Van Petten

Vanessa Van Petten specializes in social and emotional intelligence research and development. The focus of her company is to research youth behavior and help adults keep up with young adults.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good), a book of 30+ proven solutions to help end youth unemployment.

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Want to succeed wildly? Adjust your attitude

(Credit: The Infamous Gdub)

Have you ever wondered what makes someone a world-renowned musician or a critically acclaimed novelist? Malcolm Gladwell would say it all comes down to practice — over 10,000 hours of practice, to be exact. But a study by Gary McPherson, discussed in David Brooks’ book The Social Animal, highlights that there is also an important attitude needed for success.

In 1997, Gary McPherson decided to study musicians — namely what exactly contributed to a musician’s success. Was it practice? Genetics? Environment? He studied 157 randomly selected kids as they picked and learned a musical instrument. Some went on to be professional musicians, and others quit playing after they left school. He was looking for patterns. Were there traits or characteristics that all of the successful musicians had?

Amazingly, the commonality was not one of the obvious ones. It was not IQ, aural sensitivity, math skills, natural rhythm, or even their parents that dictated success. There was only one question that provided a clue to indicate which students would be successful and which wouldn’t. Before they even selected their instrument, McPherson asked the budding musicians one question:

“How long do you think you will play the instrument you choose?”

The answer to this question predicted whether or not a student would be successful. If they thought they would play an instrument their whole life, they did better; if they thought they would only play temporarily, they did not play as well. Their success had nothing to do with skills — it was all about their attitude.

Logically, this makes sense. If you think you are going to do something for life, you work harder at and you are therefore better. However, we often do not apply this knowledge to our choices and work. For example, how often do you hear someone say, “I couldn’t be a doctor, I am terrible at science,” or “I can’t do that project, I’m not good at organization.”

We do not need any inherent skills to be able to be good at what we do, we only need an attitude that we are going to stick with it. Our minds and skills set will grow with us as we stick to our goals. How can we use McPherson’s study in our own lives and businesses?

1. Set your mind up for success. When facing a business project or when applying to a job opening, throw away unhelpful mindsets like “I wouldn’t be good at it,” or “I could never.”

2. Forget how and focus on when. When picturing your work or projects, start by adjusting your perception of how long you will stick with it instead of focusing on whether or not you have the right skills.

3. Dependent on others? Don’t forget to tell time. When working with team members on a business project, you can gauge how successful they will be by asking them about their timeline. This is especially good if you are interviewing employees. If you want to know how someone will be at a potential job, ask them how long they expect to do it — this will be a better predictor of their performance than anything else.

Knowing how our attitude affects our performance is an essential aspect of furthering our understanding of ourselves, and the probability of our success.

This post was originally published on YEC.

About Vanessa Van Petten

Vanessa Van Petten specializes in social and emotional intelligence research and development. The focus of her company is to research youth behavior and help adults keep up with young adults.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good), a book of 30+ proven solutions to help end youth unemployment.

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Startup Advice: How to Keep Your Employees Happy

Keeping employees can be difficult for any startup, but that’s especially true in China, where young people often expect to work jobs for a short time before moving on to the next one. So how can a startup — especially a Chinese startup — keep its employees happy enough that they stick around? Sun Qingxin, the founder of travel website Daoyou Tianxi, recently wrote a blog post sharing his advice on how to keep startup employees.

The full post is worth reading if you can read Chinese, but for those who can’t, here’s a summary of his eight main points:

1. Values are important. If you use money to entice and hire people, those people are likely to leave again as soon as a better offer comes along. And you’re a startup, so you probably don’t have enough money to entice people anyway. But if you can convince people that what you’re doing is meaningful and that there is value in it in the long-term, the money becomes less important and you’re less likely to lose people to better financial offers.

2. Be clear with everyone from the start: doing a startup isn’t a short-term prospect. Doing a startup means lots of hard work for little pay over a long period of time and then, probably, you still fail. Be sure that your employees understand what they’re getting into up front, because if they don’t, they’re going to bolt for the doors as soon as they figure it out, and then you’ve wasted a lot of time and effort on hiring and training someone you now need to replace.

3. Make people feel like they’re personally progressing and growing. You probably can’t offer vast sums of money, but if employees feel like they’re learning and bettering themselves, they’re more likely to stick around for the long haul because there’s value in it for them (even if the value isn’t financial). If they’re not learning anything, why should they stay?

4. Let people see the advancements and plans for the project as it progresses. Similar to the previous point, people want to know where the company is planning to go, and how close it is to getting there. Share important milestones with everyone and communicate about the company so that employees understand where they stand and where they should be striving to get to.

5. Make people treasure the team. Foster a “family” atmosphere among the team. If people feel like a family that’s going on a journey together, they’re less likely to want to leave.

6. Make sure everyone knows their value and importance. People want to feel like they’re doing something important. This is especially true in a small team that’s not getting paid a whole lot; most people need to feel like they’re making a difference. Be sure you’re giving them feedback that lets them know why they’re important to the team, or expect to have to replace them sooner or later.

7. Use the core team to set an example everyone can follow. If your employees see that you’re working tirelessly and that you really believe in the project, they’re going to follow. Conversely, if they see you’re phoning it in, don’t expect them to do any better just because you’re paying them.

8. Ask unsuitable people to leave quickly. Hiring the wrong people from time to time is going to happen, but don’t make things worse by keeping them on after you’ve realized it’s not gonna work out. Getting people who aren’t the right fit out of the way quickly is better for you and the employee you’re letting go in the long run, so don’t delay.

[via Sun Qingxin's blog]

The post Startup Advice: How to Keep Your Employees Happy appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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China Blocks Hep B Patient Rights Website Just Before World Hepatitis Day

World Hepatitis Day is July 28th; it’s a day that’s meant to raise awareness of hepatitis B and C and encourage prevention and treatment. But according to the AIDS Policy Project, China’s biggest hepatitis B Patient Rights website was blocked in the country just before World Hepatitis Day. The reasons for the block are unclear, but several days later, the site remains blocked.

The site — In the Hepatitis B Camp Network — is a nonprofit BBS forum that serves as a “camp” for China’s hepatits B patients, of which there are around 120 million. It serves as an important place for information exchange among patients about rights, treatments, and ways to deal with the disease. That’s especially important in China, where Hep B patients are highly stigmatized. From AIDS Policy Project:

In China, due to the exaggeration on seriousness of HBV in HBV medicine advertisements and incapability of government, the HBV-related discrimination and stigma is very serious and widespread, the fundamental rights of work and education of the people with HBV positive are deprived brutally. According to a research in 2007, more than 20 laws contained discriminatory articles against HBV carriers [...] In 2003, ‘In the Hepatitis B Camp Network of China’ started an anti-discrimination citizen campaign through rational and legal means and has become one of the main forces in fighting against the HBV-related discrimination in China since then. During the past nine years, the website supported hundreds of HBV carriers to sue many state owned companies, multinational companies and local governments for employment discrimination, and to sue many schools and universities for rejecting children with HBV, regardless of the risk of revenge.

It’s not clear whether that campaign has resulted in the website being blocked, but whatever the reason, let’s call this what it is: disgusting. The stigmatization of hepatitis patients and carriers of other diseases in China can be rather extreme, and the internet should be a tool that offers patients the support they need while promoting awareness and rationality among others so that patients are treated like human beings. Blocking a major site like this is heartless, and only serves to further the nonsensical stigmatization of Chinese hepatits B patients. Blocking a major site like this on the eve of World Hepatitis Day…now that’s just despicable.

[via AIDS Policy Project]

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China’s New TV Ban: No Web Game or Novel Adaptation, No Remakes of Foreign Shows

Totally unrelated image.

Our friends at SARFT, China’s film and TV censorship board, are at it again. Having banned internet celebrities from television earlier this year (along with a bunch of other stuff), has now moved on to banning web games and novels from the tube. In a list of six new regulations for Chinese television, SARFT announced recently that adaptations of web novels and web games would no longer be allowed on television.

The new restrictions may hit Hunan’s popular TV station, Hunan Satellite, the hardest as it is currently broadcasting a show that has been adapted from a popular web game. It’s not clear whether or not that show — Xuanyuan Sword — will be canceled as a result of the regulations; when a Beijing News reporter asked a SARFT representative about the show’s fate, SARFT replied with the rather cryptic: “There is a process for everything; the same is true for management [of television].”

Web gaming is obviously quite popular in China, but readers may not be aware that internet novels — often serialized with chapters coming out at regular intervals — attract huge readerships in China. The biggest internet novelists may have readerships as large as, or even larger than, their offline counterparts.

Other new restrictions to Chinese TV that SARFT announced along with its ban on web game adaptations and web novel shows:

• No remakes of foreign TV shows
• Dramas about the revolution (i.e. the Chinese Civil War) must make it very clear who the good guys and villains are. (In other words, make it very clear that the Nationalists are bad and the Communists are good).
• Business dramas must be careful about the values they’re promoting
• Historical costume dramas can’t stretch the history for comedic purposes
• No “limitless” magnification of conflicts within families (whatever that means)

Chinese TV is so much fun these days; I can’t imagine why viewers are moving to streaming online video in droves. Give SARFT another few years and the only things permitted on TV will be the CCTV Evening News and footage of ethnic minorities dancing and singing happy songs about the Communist Party.

[Beijing News via Sina Tech, Image source]

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LoveByte: “We’re growing so fast that we had to scramble to upgrade our server”

Muacks! Kisses! Hugs! Now you can do all these in an app. I mean, you can do it via SMS, email, or any chat apps out there. But LoveByte gives you that extra loving sensation for digital romance messaging. Sure, there are quite a few similar alternatives like Between and Pair. But sadly, no one seems to be giving Singapore-based LoveByte any love. So here we are, blogging about it because I thought the app’s design is quite awesome for a start. It also has some interesting features that make digital loving all the more fun.

First I must admit I haven’t really used LoveByte with my girlfriend. But I did look at what are some features that I thought are interesting. One that caught my eye is the scratch cards which I thought are pretty cool. You can send your significant other a surprise, say a couple’s massage over the weekend, and he/she has to “scratch” the card to see the message. That’s kinda fun and certainly something that girls would love, I think. The rest of the features are pretty similar to the rest. Though I must emphasize that the design is pretty well done.

Founder Steve Sng says that LoveByte was launched just a week ago and so far has attracted more than 1,000 users. According to Steve, his app is listed in the Singapore App Store’s top free lifestyle apps. “Our users are growing so fast that we had to scramble to upgrade our server to cope with the traffic,” he told us.

That’s kinda cool if true. He also shared more on this thoughts when asked about his competitors:

Because of the sudden surge of competition, LoveByte was forced to evolve and do more than just to provide a private space for couples. While Pair is focused on improving communication between long-distance relationship couples, and Between is focused on helping couples archive their relationship’s moments, LoveByte is focused on helping couples create quality interaction offline. Thus, LoveByte had a unique feature called “scratch card” that allows couples to send date suggestions in a fun way.

Like most apps, monetization is always a problem and Steven understands the problem. He didn’t state what kind of monetization methods he would use. But I thought selling virtual goods would make sense, you know, like a virtual rose or LV bag. That would be fun and maybe profitable too. Chinese flirting apps like Youjia do this already.

Couples can give LoveByte a try here (iTunes link). Happy sexting messaging.

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Clozette through the eyes of a fashion enthusiast with a U.S. perspective

Upon first being introduced to Clozette I was impressed, to say the least. It is described as a fashion social network, but it proves to be much more than just that.

A fashion enthusiast myself, I found myself asking, why haven’t I seen this site before? Oh yeah, because it’s from Singapore, and I’m from Chicago. Which is why I quickly scoured Google to see if we have anything similar to this back in the States.

The closest site found originated from Brazil and was introduced to the US in June 2012, called “Fashion.me“.

Although Fashion.me boasts over a million users, it doesn’t come close to competing with Clozette. Fashion.me required one to be invited in order to join. So I requested an invitation to see what it was all about. I was hoping once you got the invite the site would expand to its full version rather than the initial demo it allows you to view without membership. This wasn’t the case.

Fashion.me looks essentially identical to Pinterest. There are fashion apps that you can click on, however, but they are equally unimpressive.

To start, there are only three apps: “trend it,” “dress up,” and “closet.”

Overall Fashion.me seems like a site that a twelve year old girl might enjoy. And that is pretty much the extent of it. So I have to ask, why is this site expanding its membership to the US but not Clozette?

Alternatively, Clozette offers a much more comprehensive and impressive site. It really is the ultimate fashion social network. They have four key community activities: Discover, Share, Organize and Shop.

The center of the site is the virtual closet platform. Within this closet you can store photos of items you own, just bought or simply wish you had.

Users can create and share styles, be it with virtual items from products online, or with pictures taken of their favorite items in their closets.

Members can comment on posts, like them, and share them. There are outlets for discussion in forums and there is even a section for shopping where products are linked to real places.

Another great feature is a Bazaar in which users can buy, sell and swap items. The sites depth and dimension seems to be (as far as I can tell) unmatched by other similar platforms I have stumbled upon.

Not only is there a fashion element, there is also a beauty section which also allows you to search and share beauty looks, tips and tutorials in both video and picture form. The beauty section is complete with the same features from the fashion section: discussion forums, “looks” that users can create and share, and plenty more.

The scope of usefulness on both the producers and consumers’ sides should not go without recognition. One of the founders of Clozette, Roger Yuen, commented on the site’s innovative structure.

“We have designed the site that it’s also a digital platform for brands, retailers, designers and artisans to engage and interact with consumers and fashion tastemakers to build communities,” Roger said. “User generated content and advertisers’ messages co-exist in harmony through their relevancy.”

It only makes sense to me that fashion is heading in this direction with a site like Clozette. With everything becoming more and more virtual, and different kinds of social networking sites popping up everywhere, fashion lovers should be developing outlets to share and navigate the already massive online fashion world.

My own obsession with clothing and makeup was enough to make me insanely envious Clozette has yet to expand to the US. It is the ultimate destination for anyone who loves fashion beauty. The interactive nature and ability to connect with other people over a similar interest is invaluable. I have zero doubts that it would prove to be immensely popular should it ever expand to the US.

About Bailey Monte

Bailey Monte is currently an intern for Fetch Plus Inc as well as contributing writer for e27 and Charlton Media Group. Back in the states, she is the opinions editor for her school newspaper. She was the Today Show’s Youth Correspondent 2006-2008 reporting and producing stories, ultimately interviewing Miley Cyrus and other notable people. She hopes to follow a career path in broadcast journalism in the future.

 

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