Here’s wishing all of you a very happy and prosperous new year.  I’ve been writing rather infrequently in 2009 and thats likely to continue into the first couple of months in 2010.

I’m going to be in Ahmedabad around 15-20 th Jan. If anyone wants to meetup, drop me an email.

Comments

• January 4, 2010, Rama Vadakattu commented: Happy new year Pranav
• January 5, 2010, Cyril Gupta commented: Hello Pranav, Good wishes for the year 2010! :) I've recently updated Blogvani.com again. Now we're going to introduce support for the major Indian languages one by one. I am going to launch an English blogging site like Blogvani.com soon! I've also recently launched http://codebix.com, a blog aggregator for programmers. Do send me your feedback when you get time. Cheers! Cyril
• February 20, 2010, Abhishek Goyal commented: long time!

VoiceTap is a Noida based startup that hopes to connect knowledge seekers with knowledge experts.  As the fast-food content on the Internet grows, its becoming more and more difficult to search for relevant, precise, authoritative answers to your questions on Google. VoiceTap hopes to make it easier for those seeking answers to questions to connect with domain experts. They have two main channels for connecting users and experts – via mobile phone (dial a short code) and via Internet (google talk or using VOIP software).

Consider the following scenario which illustrates a use case for VoiceTap:

Let’s consider the situation of a student wants to give his GMAT and go for higher studies to an ivy league B-School in the US. His typical decision making process would be: Family, friends, extended friends of family, the internet and experts (who know all about what has to be done). While the first four are relatively easy to access – it’s usually very hard to get the final and probably the most crucial of the decision making blocks. That’s where we step in. The knowledge seeker uses Getafixx to reach out to authoritative experts related to his area of interest. Getafixx evaluates his requirements – and connects him to firstly to an expert who can help with the GMAT preparations (or guide him related to that). While preparing – he faces problems related to Maths. Again, Getafixx steps in – and allows him to interact with an expert who can solve that query.

Currently, they focus on five domains that they think are most important in the Indian context – education, career, money and health.  Anyone can ask a question and anyone can become an expert. They have a rating system in place to rate the experts, which will help surface the top experts on a given subject.

They were shortlisted in the top 100 Asia startups by Red Herring.

I think their idea has definite potential and on quite a few levels coincides with the concept behind Aardvark – although of course, Aardvark focuses only on your extended social graph.

I would suggest them to focus on a single niche as of now – education & career. Considering that they have several IIT graduates on the team, they can really carve out a loyal user base in this area. And the demand for education / career related counseling in the Indian market is always high. Once they evangelize this sector, they can start opening up other domains as well.

• Find a mentor using Mentorpolis
• Hiraj – an online baby journal for Indian parents
• Morpheus Venture Partners announces its latest batch of startups

Comments

• December 15, 2009, Ajit commented: What exactly is their business model? Or do they have one? How much one has to pay to get expert guidance? If its free, experts will be of much lower quality, because a expert who doesnt understand cost of his own expertise is going to be a no expert at all!
• December 17, 2009, VLSI Training Institute commented: I fully agree with Ajit's comments if it is free advice then its available all over the internet and that also for FREE !! But if one gets experts to give advice then it cannot be free or they could have a model to generate revenue through adverts for expert compensations. Remember experts are not available for free!! May be retired experts or professors who just want to be in touch of society can be available but how much they are current with their knowledge can be different question.
• December 17, 2009, Rohan commented: There is some another startup that had the same or similar business model. I can't recollect at this moment, but I think I read about it on this blog, or some other startup-themed blog.
• December 17, 2009, Arpit Rai commented: Pranav, thanks for featuring us. Actually just one of the founders is from IIT-Bombay. The rest of us are the normal kind. :) Ajit, in addition to individual experts, there are a number experts from different corporates registered on the platform. Both the categories of experts provide the knowledge seekers with unbiased advice. Consumers don't have to pay anything to use this system. Our business model is centred around corporates. As far as the quality is concerned, I can just say this: add getafixx@voicetap.in to your Gtalk buddy list, say 'Hi', search for a particular topic and connect with an expert. Let us know how your experience was. We're always on the lookout for feedback that can help us improve. :) VLSI Training Institute, fair point. And that is precisely the issue we're trying to address. Search on the internet leads to a plethora of information - for one specific question, there's hardly ever one link that will answer the question. You have to sift through tens of hundreds of links to find an answer to your question. What if you could just connect with an expert in real-time through voice or online chat who can give you a precise answer to a particular question? That's the problem we're trying to address.
• December 17, 2009, Rajat commented: Hi Arpit, I just saw your website today.Just a suggestion why don't you put pictures of some of the experts on the front page of your website, its good to attract visitors. Regards Rajat
• December 18, 2009, Arpit Rai commented: Hi Rajat, thanks for the suggestion. Will look into it.
• December 18, 2009, roshan rasaily commented: efefe3e
• January 14, 2010, Mark A commented: It looks very similar to Aardvark, why copy? I think they have to pay experts to answer questions, I am not sure if any expert will work for free.
• January 26, 2010, Jonas commented: I think it all depends on the question one has. If it is a very general one, I'll probably prefer the internet. However, for every question that demands in-depth knowledge of a special topic (legal advices and so on..) I would use a premium service and pay for it. @ Arpit, maybe a "how it works" button would add a certain value for new visitors. One more question: whats your pricing strategy? What do you offer experts for their service? Regards, Jonas
• March 16, 2010, indian matrimonial sites commented: Thank you very much to share this information. It is very useful and informative. indian matrimonial sites

MumbaiTrader is a new startup, offering social investing tips to Indians. The site brings together a network of pre-screened and verified advisors, who will offer their services to investors. Each advisor is ranked and investors can opt to follow an adivsor based on their rating and track record. This Covestor like model has been implemented by other Indian startups like MoneyVidya and MarketHero (which seems to have deadpooled now).

There are some aspects of the site that arent quite clear to me. Can any user join as an advisor ? What screening, if any, is done to join as advisor ? If any user can join as an advisor, then I suggest they change their marketing message – since it seems to give the wrong idea that advisors are pre-screened select set of users.

Additionally, access to every feature on the site requires you to login. Which is a huge limitation. You want the users to be able to access as much of your site as possible to get a feel of the site and its features. By forcing to login / signup before exploring the site features will severely limit the number of users signing up the service.

• TweetKnot enables you to form groups on Twitter
• Social investing startup MoneyVidya kicks ass
• Perfios hopes to become the Mint.com for Indian market

Comments

• December 17, 2009, ArthSutra commented: Again a good social startup but need to understand that good advisors will enroll only if they see any monitory benefit of their time. As all know every stock broker around the cornet has its in-house advisor but all know how good they are!! Best of luck to them and hopefully they come up with business model which benefit both society and experts.
• December 27, 2009, Rajesh Malik commented: It is sad the research on the part of the SD team. They are mentioning about moneyvidya and markethero, while the social investing space has moved way ahead when it comes to Fourstocks and Stockezy.com As a personal user of stockezy, you can find all the required elements of a complete social investing community right here at stockezy. It is high time, SD team do more research b4 throwing up their reviews.
• January 11, 2010, Santosh commented: I think the term should be "Investment Social". What do you think?

Vikas Bajaj has a story on NYT about India’s slow pace of innovation.  Nothing new and nothing most of you all didnt know already. Even the ubiquitous Sujai Karampuri gets a mention as is normally the case on stories based on this theme (no offense to Sujai – I love his blog and admire how outspoken he is).

This topic – call it ‘lack of innovation in India’ or ‘why no product companies in India’ or ‘where are Indian startups’ – has been touched upon umpteen times by media, bloggers (yes – I’m guilty too) and startup conferences and panels.

So, there’s absolutely no contest that there’s no or very little innovation happening in the Indian tech scene. I think we should move beyond the obvious and try to focus more on how to resolve the issue.

For starters, I’d like to point to a recent post by Fred Wilson who captured the essence of building a startup ecosystem quite well. By far, its one of the best and most lucid pieces I’ve seen on startup ecosystems. I’d say we’re still early in the first decade and have a long way to go yet.

Meanwhile, I also wanted to talk briefly about the oft quoted ‘not enough angels’ issue. The way I see it — the lack of angel funding is a classic chicken & egg problem in the Indian market. Lets say that hypothetically speaking, I have some extra money lying around that I’d want to invest somewhere. Lets say a startup pitches me for angel funding. Now, without any significant M&A activity or IPO’s, what is the probability of getting good returns on my investment ? Indian Internet, in its current form, is not a very viable market. So, what are the odds that I see more concrete returns in other sectors – be it stocks / real estate etc. and opt to invest in those sectors as opposed to tech startups ?

But some you may argue – arent angels supposed to be true risk takers ? Isnt angel investing more like – invest and forget (assuming you lost the investment). And I agree – thats the reason I say its a classic chicken and egg problem. Without some returns on investment, the sector might not attract a lot of angels and without the angels, there might not be a lot of startups.

Would love to hear your thoughts about it.

• Google joins Band of Angels
• You say lack of angel funding, I say lack of startups
• Ashish Gupta from HelionVC on “lack of funding in India”

Comments

• December 10, 2009, Jojo Joson commented: What we need is not talks, symposiums, seminars etc. What we need is action.
• December 11, 2009, VLSI Training Institute commented: One thing need to understand that India is having huge middle class base but it is not consumer base. So no product innovation can be profitable till active consumer base increase. In India till now people are dead scared of using credit card online. Even offline use is also very limited to high-tech cities. Till actual consumption does not grow the product or innovation development cycle will not complete.
• December 14, 2009, Rajat commented: I personally feel its mostly human nature to follow a trend (as it seems safer), if one VC invests in a company that turns out to be the next google from India, then plenty will follow soon. There are ways to get around this problem. There is a thriving indian community in western countries whether in USA,canada or UK.Why not we people create a pool and put in some money and start investing in startups in India or launch our own startups.Might seem like a stupid idea to some.Shall we create a website for this and take up this idea. Also startups in India can take help from their contacts in US or other countries and ask them to pitch for them in front of VC's there. I think we should think in terms of global markets when we are launching products. I really donot understand when we launch service companies we think globally but when we launch products we think in terms of local market only (which might not be mature at this time for the internet) Also innovation comes from thinking long term.I think its in our culture to think short term, that shows in our vision for creating fly overs that only help to sooth traffic for a while, or joining bigger companies for money. Sticking to a service + product model might work i.e. to say doing 'service' work to survive and doing 'product' innovation to thrive.Once product initiatives pick up , then service work should be stopped.
• December 21, 2009, kumbham dilip commented: hey ! i think we are quite innovative , but problem is in action and action isnt there because we dont get much support from our nearest friends ,teachers and relatives leave VC , having VC funds doesnt bring much innovations , innvoations happens from universities , participating in quality discussions. the more and more we discuss the more products u c from india !
• December 21, 2009, Rajat commented: Innovation is there i agree, but in bits and chunks. And i also agree that many people even though talented enough still donot get support for e.g see this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPN3gLVDsOY This guy can easily be one of the best rock climbers in the world but very few people even know about him even in India, and nobody cares.If he would have been born in some western country by this time he would have been very popular. The chalta hai attitue is killing us and the nature to not help each other to succeed is also a problem.
• December 27, 2009, Nimesh commented: I absolutely agree with the idea about lack of innovation in India. I read a similar article but in a different direction in venturewoods.org, where the author has discussed about why we need product based technology startups in India. You can have a read here http://www.venturewoods.org/index.php/2009/12/17/why-india-needs-more-tech-software-companies/
• January 14, 2010, Sushant @ Techooze commented: Innovation in India is way more than any other country(My Thinking) but there is lack of awareness. The young entrepreneurs are suppressed by conditions here in India. When I started blogging people around me laughed at the idea of income from ads by other people clicking at them and instead of exploring any other field many of us are forced to move along the crowd. For them a 9 to 5 job is good rather than earning more money and working from home.
• January 19, 2010, Joe commented: In an indian context a few things matter most - Family views, Securing ones future, avoiding authorities when possible and buy gold, govt bonds or FD, property if possible...This thinking comes from their parents who have slogged their backs off and saved money all through their lives...It is very difficult to shake this monkey off! I did it and only bcos i am doing ok it doesnt matter otherwise i would have been termed a loser!! Indians need to know they can...like in Matrix...choose between the Red or Blue Pill...we need a Morpheus brigade !!
• March 7, 2010, Vidya commented: Hello Pranav, your blog post highlights a key issue, namely the lack of seed funding crucial to nurture a start up. I would also contend that along with the initial seed investment, having other serial entrepreneurs as advisors is also critical to getting things off the ground correctly. It would be worthwhile to mention that the US recently introduced a bill called the StartUpVisa Act in the Senate http://bit.ly/chjgor. If passed, it might have the consequence of attracting more Indian entrepreneurial talent to the US.

Since August, Rediff has lost four key executives -

– Long time product head – Zaki Ansari – who quit in August to join UTV New Media

– India Abroad editorial director Prem Panicker quit to join Yahoo India

– CFO Joy Basu left in August

– Most recently, Salil Chandrashekar, director of product development (was also spearheading Rediff’s minimalist approach)

A couple of executive moves here and there could be easily dismissed as normal. However, when 4 key executives quit in a short span of time, its definitely not a good sign.

Either there’s some internal turmoil @ Rediff or something else. None the less, such an exodus is a huge blow to Rediff, who I honestly think has already faltered with its minimalist strategy.

• Rediff Blog Showcase screenshots
• The Rediff redesign – a step backward ?
• Map Wars – Rediff launches Maps, MapMyIndia raises additional VC funding

Comments

• December 24, 2009, Johny commented: "faltered with minimalist strategy" How is that? Its far easier and interesting to browse the much cleaner rediff.
• December 24, 2009, Rajat commented: Yes but there is no 'MEAT' in it....look at yahoo.com...cleaner interface but with more content, rather meaty content (that is important)
• January 2, 2010, VLSI Training Institute commented: Rediff is far best unbiased news content site which I have seen but its marketing and flaws in customer complaints follow-ups is hitting it hard. It is also getting very severe competition from India Times which is backed by Times group and really good marketing folks. Still Rediff has good reader and online shopper base so it’s good time they wake up and look at their strategies.

I recently uncovered an incident where Burrp seems to have deleted a user review. Nishith,  founder of Pune based True Sparrow Systems (team behind SocialMedian – acquired by Xing), wrote a review for a Pune based burger joint, which he tweets was deleted by Burrp.

While I havent seen this as frequently occurring scenario, I am wondering if there are other similar instances that simply go unreported.

Burrp’s Terms of Service do state that they have the right to delete any content, including user posted reviews:

You understand and agree that Burrp may review and delete any Content, entertainment listings, business listings (including business name, address, phone, fax, distance, reviews, rating, reviews) that in the sole judgment of Burrp violates these Terms of Service or which might be offensive, illegal, or that might violate the rights of, harm, or threaten the safety of other users or members of the Burrp Site and/or other website users.

Its unclear why Burrp deleted Nishith’s comment and whether it violated Burrp’s ToS or it was deleted simply for building relationships with the biz – aka, financial gain.

If you have encountered a similar experience, do leave a comment and let me know.

• Local Reviews startup Burrp is acquired by Infomedia 18

Comments

• December 10, 2009, Aarti Jerani commented: Our goal is to maintain the quality of reviews on the site and encourage users to share their real experiences. The review in question was deleted because it was not a review about a personal experience at the cafe but instead a comment on the arrogant response from the business owner to another user. Keeping the review would have in fact favorably affected the overall review count of the business and pushed them up on the search results page. An explanation to this effect was sent to Nishith as well. burrp! would never delete a user review for financial gain or relationships with business owners. The restaurant in question is not a client; even if it was it would not give them access to deleting user reviews. In fact, we are extremely particular about comments from users and take strict action against business owners who are putting up fake reviews for personal gain. We will continue to do whatever it takes to maintain clean content on the site. Even if it means removing reviews that are not relevant.
• December 10, 2009, pranav commented: thanks for the clarification aarti - I did give Burrp the benefit of doubt since I havent seen many such occurrences: While I havent seen this as frequently occurring scenario,
• December 11, 2009, Gaurav commented: @Aarti - I think if Burrp (or any other company) deletes user content, they should replace the review with a note saying why it was deleted, something very similar to what you mentioned here. It will help users, who take time to write content, to understand how they can make better use of the tools and not violate ToS.
• December 11, 2009, pranav commented: Gaurav - I think thats a great idea. Providing a brief explanation would leave the reviewer less perplexed on why their review / comment was deleted.
• December 12, 2009, Anand Jain commented: Gaurav, that indeed is a good idea and on the face of it something that's very easy for us to pull off. Thanks for the tip.
• December 14, 2009, Aarti Jerani commented: Gaurav/Pranav - Thanks a ton for the suggestion. We are implementing this change soon and will keep startupdunia informed about the development.
• December 16, 2009, sathish commented: burrp deletes bad reviews of restaurants..... in short they are being paid by the restaurants to have only good ones on the site...... corruption even on websites..... new way to earn money in india.
• December 24, 2009, Anand Jain commented: @Sathish, can you back up your claim with any proof? Please don't spread rumours. btw, the feature that Gaurav suggested is now live on the site.
• December 24, 2009, Rajat commented: I have a question, just a personal thought, does Amazon / youtube / walmart / Yelp delete the comments.... I personally feel that content containing derogatory statements or bad remarks should be moderated by the people who read them rather then the people who host the site.Let the people decide what content is good or bad.
• December 24, 2009, Rajat commented: Also check this 'what these people did when they deleted content' http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1534-hulu-ceo-we-screwed-up-royally
• December 30, 2009, ggupta commented: I have had burrp comments deleted for no reason.... write a bad experience about a restaurant one day and it will disappear the next day. ubhi & burrp sucks....
• January 14, 2010, Mark A commented: I do agree that some kind of moderation is necessary, who determines how much? I think moderation should be left to users, if it is a content website, they could flag the comments which are inappropriate.
• March 8, 2010, Lalani commented: YES, its true. Burrp deleted 2 best reviews which we got from our customers and SOMEONE have put a fake bad review for our restaurant @ bandra. They have forced us to do advertising with them, we said we are not interested currently. and few days later our good reviews were deleted and fake reviews had come...

I’m looking for some data entry work to be done — can you recommend a reliable service provider if you’ve used one ? Leave a comment or drop me an email – contact [at]startupdunia[dot]com.

Comments

• December 8, 2009, Neelabh Prabhat commented: Hi, We have started a rural BPO in collaboration with the CSR arm of Usha Martin (a billion dollar listed company) in Jharkhand near Ranchi some 5 months back. Our first batch of 20 people is ready. They have typing speeds in the range of 20-40 wpm with accuracy greater than 98%. We are also looking to expand. Currently we are looking for data entry projects. If interested, please mail me to ask any further questions. Thanks, Neelabh
• December 9, 2009, Balaji commented: Hi, We have around 2 years expertise in providing BPO Services at Chennai. We have a workforce of 25 persons with the requisite skills. We do currently work for TTk Health Services for their BPO Operations. We are one of the few to impart BPO training to the masses. Regards, Balaji.T
• December 9, 2009, Gaurav commented: Not sure how big or small of a team you are looking for - providers on oDesk always amaze me with their work.
• December 9, 2009, Ubaid Ur Rehman commented: We are a small data enry and data ware housing company in jammu and kashmir. We have a work force of 60 employee all having an experience of more than a year. We provide data entry service at a very cheap cost usual makret price. Currently we provide services to Bharti airtelin kashmir. If you are intrested or need any further details please drop a mail to me at sofi.ubaidrehman@gmail.com.
• December 9, 2009, Pranav Dharma commented: gaurav, odesk is great -- but more suited for small jobs or programming related stuff..
• December 10, 2009, Majiny commented: We are Freelance Software Providers Based at chennai, Coimbatore. We have ample experience in Data Mining and Data Entry which we mastered in Freelance projects Regards, Majiny
• February 10, 2010, Sukrat Ray commented: Dear Neelabh, Salute to great initiative taken by you. I need people who can enter restaurant menus in my database. Please let me know if you can help me out with this. Thanks & Regards Sukrat
• February 10, 2010, Sukrat Ray commented: My mail ID is sukratray@gmail.com
• February 24, 2010, RAZZAK SHEKH commented: R/SIR:- WITH GREAT RESPECT TO TALK WITH U THAT WE CAN PROVIDED THIS SERVICE TO U.WE HAVE MEN POWER. WE R NOT LEADER WE R LEGEND.WE NEVER TALK WE PERFORM .MOST U CAN TRUST AND BE RELIF. AZMAL POWER SYSYTEM RAZZAK SHEKH
• February 24, 2010, Vicky Pradhan commented: We have just completed 1st batch of data entry work in our site by a number of freelancers. Will be starting the second phase of data of entry of products by next month. Vicky Pradhan Founding Member, bharatbuy.com
• February 26, 2010, Ashwin commented: Hi Sukrat , would be interested in knowing more about your BPO and services & data entry solutions , get in touch with me at ashwin@talentoncampus.com | 9999896523 [M] Best
• February 26, 2010, Ashwin commented: Hi Balaji, would be interested in knowing more about your BPO and services & data entry solutions , get in touch with me at ashwin@talentoncampus.com | 9999896523 [M]
• March 10, 2010, Rani Alexander commented: I am interested to do the data entry jobs, please send me details about joing in this job.
• March 10, 2010, Rani Alexander commented: I am interested to do the data entry jobs, please send me details about joining in this job.

Overall Learnings

1. There is no problem, i.e., (1) there are not enough good problems that startups are working on (2) there seems to be no shortage of funds, platforms and ecosystem partners willing to help startups, there are not enough good startups for them to support. The ecosystem is hungry for successes.
2. It was a good *startup* conference and not as a *product* conference – talks about bootstrapping, mentors, jobs for dummies, writing a B-plan, etc. were out of place.
   • We saw delegates from Sun Microsystems, Intuit and many other big companies. These guys would not benefit from such sessions when they were expecting a product-oriented conference.
   • Conferences are really really hard to make.
3. Product Management skills are the need of the hour, NOT talks about talks about opportunities in X sector, and so on. When there is no culture of knowing how to execute, rest of the topics are moot points. We will explain this with an example below.
4. What can be done better next time? More emphasis on product management, practical sessions such as case study on using Google Adwords to do market research, it was briefly mentioned in Naaem Zafar’s presentation, but why weren’t topics like these explored more? And also, people like @gauravnomics should be invited next time for marketing sessions. And so on.

Bottom-line: If you are considering to start a full-time startup, then please, please, build your product management skills than your powerpoint skills.

Now, on to the notes from some of the interesting sessions that we have attended.

Learnings from the Sessions

1. Guy Kawasaki said “Don’t worry, be crappy. Get it good enough, then take the shot and start selling. Don’t ship crap but ship ‘revolutionary new crap’. It’s not about the first version, it is about getting it out there and fixing according to what customers say. Beta programs are BS because no one will give proper feedback. As a rule, all betas go well. People will give real feedback only when they put their money on the line.”

The rest of what he talked about was irrelevant to the context of the conference – about products from India – see Sameer’s question: Why Kawasaki at a Product Conclave? for more.

2. Workshop on marketing and branding strategies for product organizations. The session was moderated by Peter Yorke and the panel had the CEO of Brandcomm, Sridhar Ramanujam, MD of Inventus Cap, Samir Kumar, CEO of Stelae Technologies Aruna Schwarz & Professor. Venkateswaran from SDM Mysore.

• Product is the language in the company. Brand is the language in the mind of the customer. Creating a value proposition is all important to make a product successful.
• When a brand is being created, the path is very similar to what Gandhi had professed so many years ago. First other companies ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you & finally they respect you. Any product/brand will go through all these phases.
• Starbucks is all about consumer experience. That is where all the concentration should be.
• Products are mostly identical. It is of utmost importance to provide and deliver value.
• Product is just a minimum criteria and the value proposition has to be driven by the right marketing mechanisms.
• Technology is one of the unique industries that create a need instead of satisfying a need. You have to be more in touch with market and consumer behavior to drive success through marketing as product development is only a basic condition that is satisfied.
• The most interesting story had been by Stelae. Her company was started by 2 non tech, purely business people even though they were providing a tech solution to publishing companies in France. They did have a customer when they started on it. But, they didn’t hire a CTO until 2 years into the process. This should be an eyeopener to many people in the tech community. Titles are not important. If the roles are satisfied, ignore the titles and move on & create products and do customer development.
• CEO is the overall image of the company. For 5-8 years, there will be no other brand image for the company. CEO will have to meet customers. The way CEO answers the phone might also become crucial to whether you make or break in the industry. Be professional in all your interactions.
• The key message is that “Brand is You”
• The VCs dont want to hear about any cool tech products, or any other kind of cool lingo. They want to see that there is a balance towards customer development. The problem is similar if there are only sales folks and no tech folks. Take care of balance.
• DO NOT create a marketing plan based on any textbook definitions. There have been biz plans with totally irrelevant target spending like on magazines etc.. when the product really requires traction online. The spending has to be very very targeted. Keep in mind that the really important thing is ROI and not doing something for the sake of satisfying criterion. Avoid misdirected spending.
• It has to be all about customer development & customer centricity.
• Have you asked yourself how the price premium is being justified for the product? What is the most unique proposition?

See Minimum Viable Product by Eric Ries and Customer Development process by Steve Blank for a succinct description of the same.

3. Krishna & Arjuna sessions – the value of a mentor/mentee relationship, and how startups should look for advisors

• Krishnas are valuable when they are “been there done that” people
• Arjunas can’t know everything, mentors can guide and tell you what you never expected
• 2-3 advisors in a mix of areas is a good choice
• Look for balance of ideas and execution, balance of advice and rolodex of contacts
• Examine your own SWOT analysis and find people who can shore you up
• Advisors look for humility ⇒ learnability, trust relationship, and their own relevance to the mentee
• Watch out for time constraints of advisors
• Communicate right things at the right time – they need to know enough precise context to advise you so that the 3-4 hours you spend with them is productive
  • A person who has been advising 3-4 companies say that they come to him only when they are in trouble and not give ongoing updates which shows their immaturity
• Can have a 2-3 year contractual obligation / timeline for advisors
• Avoid expectation mismatch, have structuring of relationship
• Distinguish between CEO coach / mentors vs. Advisors vs. Consultants – what are you really looking for?
  • Mentors / CEO Coaches are for long-term
• Compensation is the last thing in mind for a real mentor, but it is a gesture of goodwill. Equity-based vesting over the years is the best and simplest option.
• Only when we walk a few steps together, you really know the person
  • Do due diligence
  • Be patient (think long-term)
  • How do you structure an exit?

4. The panel session on telecom products led by Rajesh Jain was one of the best in the conference. The topic was broad, meaning not much depth but Rajesh Jain really did it well. He asked really pointed questions, guiding other panelists, keeping it sharp & on schedule. It was so interesting that midway I forgot to update my notes on the talk & got totally engrossed in the talk. The following points are all from my mind, so apologies in advance if something is misquoted.

• The panel had one member from each stack of the telecom product space. Vishy from Bell Labs was representing the most basic infrastructure. Sangeet from Comviva was in the space of applications and layer above the basic infrastructure. Manoj Dawane of Mauj Telecom was representing the VAS and consumer space from the telco perspective. Rajesh Jain represented the consumer from a overall perspective at the level of apps independent of the network.
• In the next couple of months/years, there will be an explosion of virtual operators in India. Virgin mobile is one of the virtual operators in India. As far as we know, they use the network of Tatas to provide their services. This will hopefully lead to better margins & free apps on mobiles.
• Hopefully the perennial “1 year away” 3G will be introduced in a couple of months.
• Overall, the telecom space in India is one of the most competitive space. In most countries, the margin is around 20% whereas in Indian market, it is less than 8-10%, putting pressure on the whole ecosystem to show ROI and profits.
• The main reason for the low margins is that the operators want to reach users at all segments and also control the revenue sharing. There have been some issues in measuring traffic for revenue sharing. The operator is all powerful.
• First up, the bell labs member spoke about the innovations at the most basic level.
• 1. Village Net – They are coming up with better antennae technology and hardware to increase range of wifi routers to 20km with no reduction in bandwidth, it is really difficult.
• 2. Mango application – mobile audio video on the go. GPRS is currently not cost-effective and people don’t know what to do with GPRS. The network cant support multiple media downloads etc. with the current infrastructure. You should be able to go into coffee day, browse or download for a couple of minutes, pay in micropayments and get out of coffeeday. This kind of technology is being realised by bell labs
• 3. Micropayments… This was more like a teaser.
• Second, the comviva member…
• Basically, this is the space which supports doing ringtone downloads, infra for VAS support, payment systems of telcos, everything other than basic infrastructure and non consumer end of VAS. This is a huge space in terms of products but very few companies. For example, comviva is in 40 different product spaces. I dont even know the extent of opportunity in this space. This is a good space to think about new services. Map services etc… have to be realised at this level. Another example is the top up technology supported by this layer of infrastructure.
• Indian ecosystem is really really innovative due to the competition and the market. This has led companies to innovate in India and then move on to other emerging markets. It is preferred that you enter the Indian market even though the margins are less and only afterwords diversify. The reason is that the the product will be suited to the consumer market as the company knows the consumer in and out.
• The future will be mobile financial services, mobile internet and mobile cloud.
• Because of the constraints in terms of processing and multiple platforms on each phone, there is a huge need for cloud computing for processing information, helping create a mobile cloud & pipes. This seems to be really appealing space to think of innovative products. Are the telecom departments in engg colleges listening?!
• Thirdly, the mauj member…
• Manoj has had a very interesting life in telecom. He was in telecom when incoming calls were priced at 16 rupees!! ie 1994. He has seen the innovations in the mobile space starting from prepaid cards. He was one of the people who approached Hindustan Unilever distributors to take care of prepaid markets. They went to Italy & some other country to learn how it works and had to implement. Can you imagine the journey form there to easy recharge of today?
• Manoj has been in places like UP which is 6 times the UK in population but a huge challenge to innovate and drive revenue. How can a prepaid card of around 10 be sold and above that, ask them to have ringtones and message beeps? They had to develop a infrastructure to make it based on daily revenue. That is vas, instead of being one time huge money, they made it per day. This was good for telco as well as the customer.
• Rajesh Jain mainly spoke about his ideas to appstore. How that will probably be the time when we can assume that regular users will have access to all kinds of applications.

Some more really good observations form this session:

• Learnings – The learnings in product development can be divided into 3 distinct sections. 1. Customer acquisition is really important. 2. Cashflows have to be handled carefully and effectively. 3. Execution – organization and management. It is all in the promise of delivery and execution.
• English – This was one of the questions. A startup is doing voice based VAS which is teaching english on the phone. I think it is a really good thing that the company is doing. They have been facing operator pressure but I am sure that with the help the telecom ecosystem, we might finally see some kind of education being imparted on the mobile phone. The day might not be far when the mobile phone will overtake the radio as the means to disseminate information in a more personalised manner. One day, there might be info about health, childcare, classes, agriculture and anything else that you can think of… the name of the person who asked this question was Mitul Limbani.
• Persona – “am I the customer” is WRONG! “I am building for the customer” is RIGHT! especially for enterprise customers. Basically, you have create a persona of a customer to keep the company and product in the right direction.

5. Writing a B-plan — Naeem
This was a good session by Naeem, mostly self-explanatory from his slides and from this description. The reason the session was so good was because Naeem was candid and to-the-point, busting so many common myths.

6. Building global consumer businesses out of India.
This was another really good session. We could hear all the stories of the people who created Indian brands for the global market. The companies chosen were also really good. Infosoft CTO Pallav had the most inspiring story. Ganesh of Tutorvista told us about his journey from BPO till tutorvista. Amit Ranjan shared his stories of the creation of slideshare. Narendra of Intel Asia spoke about how managing Asia pacific software products for India was challenging and interesting over the last 10 years. I will briefly tell each of their stories.

• Pallav – He started off without even knowing that PO means purchase online/order?! He is on the path to creating 6 new products after more than 6-8 products in the market. His dad takes care of all the finance part of it. He had to rely heavily on word of mouth, opensourcing code, writing code for free or for some mindspace in the user. It is the perfect rags to riches story of the coding world.
• Ganesh started off working with the BPO. Most investors when he approached them told him that the concept was too complicated and will be really difficult to maintain quality across especially if you expect a teacher who is not tech savvy to wake up at 3am and then teach an american kid when ganesh himself doesnt really know what american education is all about. The opportunity was that for really heavy personal tutoring, the rates were like $30-40 per hour against $100 per month of tutorvista. There are around 1000 teachers and 500 hours of teaching everyday today. (dont remember number exactly). The marketing in local media in silicon valley to Indian gujjus etc.. was unsuccessful. They found out that online ads were the best thing to attract and retain customers. They have adwords on more than 4000? words. It is a really interesting to see the challenges overcome by Ganesh. It seems such a simple idea but so difficult to execute! Every other person who knows skype would have thought of this idea but there are real challenges in executing it and keeping quality.
• Amit of slideshare was also very interesting. Amit was working for pepsi. His sister was a psychology prof in berkeley. Amit was bored of creating presentations everyday and decided to do something on his own. (oh! the irony! They modelled a lot of their site on the ideas of youtube, like embedded links etc.. One of the sequoia presentations has had more than a million views! The team is distribute 2:5 (us:india). They have around 23 people in all. It is really interesting to see an indian company based out of here be a global brand.
• Narendra – shared the challenges and the post mortem of what has happened in the last 10 years in APAC, especially India from a product perspective. Intel was/is interested in software domain as they see software to drive the sales of hardware. Narendra has been following APAC for a long time. The ecosystem is slowly opening up in India and slowly more product companies are coming up like subex etc…? There were a lot of jargons in his speech. It was good but since I dont remember any anecdotes, you will have to read his part elsewhere.

To end it up, let’s take the case of an actual product that we saw in the stalls section of the conclave. The product was called YoPedia (see walkthrough). Great concept of changing the focus of the user from “which software do I use?” to “what task do I want to do?” It delivers the long-forgotten promise of WinFS, especially allowing to store and categorize links, URLs, files, in a seamless way. It has many additional features, such as picking a few of them and emailing them, making new Word documents just 1-2 clicks away, and so on.

The downside? It *still* is not easy to use. This is exactly where product management would come into the picture. For example, anybody who is looking to simplifying the concept of a filesystem would assume that one single way of categorization would have been enough. But YoPedia actually had 6-7 ways of categorizing – category, topic, tags, color, workspace, etc. This means that it replaced the headache of folders with the headache of multiple ways of categorization! Excellent idea, great potential, but suffers from only tech people working on it. Not easy for a beginner, even though that is the USP. The product is still in alpha phase, and will be released as beta in the coming months, and we hope that it will eventually become the simple, easy-to-use, and must-have product that it can be.

It felt gratifying to see one product in the conclave that was interesting, which is both sad and ironic. Here’s hoping to really seeing more products from India!

This event report was brought to you by Swaroop C H and Srikanth Thunga, who thank StartupDunia for the opportunity to attend the event.

P.S. See http://blog.nasscom.in/emerge/category/nasscom-product-conclave-2009/ for more coverage of the event.

Comments

• November 6, 2009, sandip commented: Thanks pranav!!
• November 6, 2009, Raghu Pandey commented: That was a quite comprehensive coverage. Thanks
• November 12, 2009, Nevil Nayak commented: Appreciate the coverage. Its nice to gain knowledge on consensus amongst Indian companies. similar issues exist all over the world and this coverage is a good barometer.
• November 21, 2009, Rahi Jain commented: Good coverage and documentation. This is a saver, as in conferences there is knowledge pouring literally out of ears. So you did a good job, session to session,
• December 10, 2009, VLSI Training Institute commented: Thanks you have summarized everything very nicely
• December 25, 2009, Siva commented: About lack of Product Companies in India ..generally guys tend to forget the likes of AdventNet/Zoho, Tally, Focus, Ramco types ........but focus on new age consumer internet start-ups only ......Not sure why ?
• January 28, 2010, Abhishek commented: Good coverage.. Very nice.. Thanks!

VCCircle reports that Infy co-founder, NR Narayana Murthy, has sold $37 million worth of Infy shares to setup a VC fund. Proceeds from the sale will be used as seed capital for the fund.

That is great news. He has amazing street cred and is definitely viewed as an entrepreneurial icon who grew Infy to a multinational company.

Comments

• October 23, 2009, Rajat commented: This is good news. More people might follow his steps , Azim Premji and others.
• October 24, 2009, vikas shah commented: Dear All Entrepreneurs, All VC's are alike .They will come when profits are around. An eg. NR Narayan Murthy was on front page of ET for showing interest in startups in India. There is a company providing "internet security solutions" to Banks in India .But this company is not able to break in its clients ,even though it has better product on anti-phising and anti-spamming.It is on multi-factor tool authentication. Only reason is that the biggies like Infoys and Wipro are deeper clutches and dont allow innovation. Allowing external innovation ,for them , means loosing a client. Message is clear I hope Happy new year to all the strugglers
• October 27, 2009, Chirag commented: Was not aware of this. It sounds good. :) NR Narayana Murthy will surely do wonders again !
• October 27, 2009, Rajat commented: Do we really respect body shoppers like Infosys, Wipro TCS ?? These companies have no product. they are just renting indian minds ..... no innovation so what if they have billions..... they do not have a single product
• October 27, 2009, Rajat M commented: Business is business rajat (even my first name is rajat :)), i don't think it really matters whether it is a prod company or a services company....As long as something positive is happening it should be a good idea right ... Do people ask this questions from VC's in america whether they started as a prod company or services company
• October 28, 2009, raj commented: NR Narayana Murthy will surely do wonders again !
• November 5, 2009, ekerala commented: I wonder who will get the first funding from him :) . Whoever it is, along with the funding they are going to get huge media mileage.
• December 10, 2009, VLSI Training Institute commented: True Infy and all started as body shopper but slowly they will move for product model specially for banking sector etc likewise Wipro is moving towards IP and hardware product manufacturing. Momentum has to be build to develop anything product or service.
• January 1, 2010, varun commented: hi, it seems u r trying hard to be a innovation success specially in some thing as a product. i think there is something positive about your comment. would be glad to know what u r upto and should love to share my innovative product's projects. varun 9268421704
• January 4, 2010, Rajat commented: Hey Sure Varun, I would call you up. Also here is my email id rajat.me@gmail.com
• January 26, 2010, Annadhatha MK Rao, Engineer, Reformist & Social Servant, Age: 63 commented: Though NVSN Murthy is a scientist in metallurgy, he became a real God for Indian Corporates since he is caring so much for their welfare in the long run. His mission proves that he is a great visionary. His advices to Indian Corporates are really motherly and priceless. Our Corporates must take him as an advisor. He really deserves the title of “Father of Advices”. His words and thoughts have the power to melt hearts, open the minds and fuse the souls – for a common cause. At least, our world needs one more visionary like scientist NVSN Murthy for APPLYING THOUGHTS for others. Annadhatha MK Rao, Age: 63, Reformist, Engineer and Social Servant, email: annadhatha@sify.com
• February 12, 2010, Annadhatha M K Rao, Age: 63, Engineer, Reformist, Economist & Social Worker commented: When Indian IT companies are APPLYING THOUGHTS for others, scientist NVSN Murthy is APPLYING THOUGHTS for the Indian IT companies. This is least noticed by our IT Corporates. It is unfortunate.

Although I’ve been tempted to own an iPhone since the day it launched, I’d held off doing so because AT&T is the sole carrier in the US and frankly – AT&T simply sucks. However, I finally caved in and got myself one a couple of weeks ago.

First and foremost – there’s no denying that the iPhone is an amazing device and singlehandedly can be attributed for jumpstarting the entire mobile platform market. From touch screen to the accelerometer to the appstore, it has pioneered an entire market in no time. Apple has gotten such a big headstart in terms of the application ecosystem that other players are going to have a tough time catching up. But while Apple continues to flaunt the 85000 + apps in its appstore in its TV ads, I’d say the number of meaningful apps in the appstore is much less than half that number.

When you leave out the gazillion fart apps, the lighter apps, the flashlight apps and the bikini babes apps, there are just very few worthwhile apps that warrant enough justification to be installed let alone used regularly.

To illustrate my point, take an example. SpeedDate, the dating site, has no less than 100+ apps listed in the appstore. From religion based dating to geo based dating, they have an app simply for every US state / religion that you can think of. A simple search for ‘fart’ in the Appstore yields several hundreds of results.

Beyond these stupid apps, majority of the apps are  ‘nice to have’. Very few would fall into the ‘must have’ category. All these apps make the appstore such a crowded place that it takes so much effort to find the true gems.

By allowing all sorts of junk apps, I think the appstore is becoming more of a crapstore.  If the influx of such apps continues, it could actually become a downfall for Apple and in fact competitors could use that as leverage – by being more selective on what apps get approved.

What do you think ? Is Apple shooting itself in the foot by approving all these stupid apps ?

• Airtel to sell unlocked iPhones
• How many mobile platforms can we take ?
• Vodafone to launch iPhone in India this year

Comments

• October 19, 2009, Gaurav commented: I don't think so. It is a market place should have what everyone needs. How many times do you actually search for the fart apps if you don't want to install. Here is how I access the app store and believe most of the people do as well: 1) Browse top 10 paid, free & apple featured apps 2) search for something specifc when I need it. Mostly productive/utility apps. There are a lot of people who like the fart apps and pay for them, not that I understand why, but they do pay. Walmart has a ton of items that you don't need and think are ridiculus, but that doesn't mean you stop shopping at Walmart. You go there to buy what you need and that's it.
• October 20, 2009, Roopesh commented: The problem is no different from Internet in general. No doubt Internet had democratised research by allowing everyone access to lots of information (including info and access to applications), but I dont think we are anywhere close to having the tools to analysing the vast amount of information made available nowadays to figure out which the best one for me is. I remember reading somewhere that there is actually an initiative from top companies to train people in colleges on analysis, by providing access to supercomputers etc to encourage research in this area..
• October 20, 2009, Bharat commented: Well, I've had the iPhone from back when it was 400 bucks. The trend with these apps is that they are used most for about a week after they are downloaded and then u don't look at them ever (I think I saw a study too somewhere online which had charts to prove this). I do not agree with this article, I think Apple is blocking more apps than it should just because they provide alternates to its basic functionality. Case and point, Google Voice, I've been amazed at what Google voice can do only to be disappointed by Apple for rejecting it. I know its a big controversy that the FCC is looking at and hopefully will resolve. But then I must say, I love the iPhone and can never understand how people go by without it (You wont believe how many times I hit double-space to get a full-stop :)). It makes you wonder why it took so many years for someone to come up with something this. Of course there will be competitors and imitators to iPhone, but it will always be the FIRST.
• October 20, 2009, pranav commented: I dont go searching for fart apps, but it just adds to the mess. It makes discovery of worthwhile apps that much more difficult. >>1) Browse top 10 paid, free & apple featured apps I guess thats what most users do - but over a short period of time, these lists dont change that drastically. Its finding the hidden gems that get lost in the mess becomes a nightmare. >>Walmart has a ton of items that you don’t need and >>think are ridiculus, but that doesn’t mean you stop >>shopping at Walmart. You go there to buy what you >>need and that’s it. The analogy doesnt make sense - Walmart is much more structured and organized so at least you know which aisle to go looking for say 'milk'. Besides, in Walmart, you know what you're looking for. In the appstore, a lot of the times you may not.
• October 20, 2009, pranav commented: roopesh, its no way similar to the Internet. Internet is an open system - the appstore is a closed system and apple is the gatekeeper -- so they have control on who makes it through the gates and who doesnt.
• October 20, 2009, pranav commented: bharat, topic of discussion isnt whether iphone is a great device or not - its about the appstore and the quality of apps making through to the marketplace.
• October 22, 2009, RohaN commented: I am surprised at this reaction of yours. Its business, so they will offer something that really sells and makes money. Since you are not new to the startup thing, you may well be knowing that that are many startups that have better products than their most popular and best-selling counterparts. Just because Windows or Apple or Gmail is extremely popular, it does not mean that there is no OS that is better than Windows or Mac, or that Gmail is the best email app ever. Retailers fill their shelves with something that sells, irrespective of their perception about the value offered by the product. I doubt if what you say is a "real" issue.
• October 22, 2009, pranav commented: Rohan, Imagine the appstore a year down the lane - if there are 85K apps at this time, and such lame apps keep making their way into the app store -- sifting through the mess would be even more of a problem. If there would be some amazing recommendation software (the apple genius is kinda ok) that would suggest new apps based on my preferences / app installation history then i wouldnt care less about fart apps or whatever.
• October 23, 2009, bipin commented: Application discovery is actually an interesting problem that many folks are dealing with. You may note that Nokia and others have also stumbled on executing an app store. I think a fresh/innovative approach is needed to create a logical framework for a) app discovery and b) app preview. This might require mining existing information ( text/pictures/videos) to create a new kind of user experience. We at mobikwik.com have just started on this problem and would love to hear from interested folks!
• October 23, 2009, swaroop commented: Actually, what irks me is how bad the search works in the iTunes store. If that worked well, I think most of the problem would have been solved. And the number of "85+K apps" *is* a marketing-wise selling point for the iPhone/iPod Touch irrespective of how many of them are useful or not. Let's take the hypothetical case that only sane and useful apps are allowed, but there are 15 different note-taking apps and so on, now you have the problem of deciding which one to buy without getting a trial (ignoring the Lite workaround), how to solve this problem now? Ultimately, the user has to search for what he wants. If he wants to track what are the best apps, then he has to visit http://www.148apps.com just like people use IMDB for movies and so on.
• November 2, 2009, Gaurav commented: Pranav, "Walmart is much more structured and organized so at least you know which aisle to go looking for say ‘milk’." So are app store's categories. I agree they are more like departments in Walmart than aisles. "Besides, in Walmart, you know what you’re looking for. In the appstore, a lot of the times you may not." This can be true for a regular store as well. Say, you might be shopping for a birthday present for a friend. "Its finding the hidden gems that get lost in the mess becomes a nightmare." In my opinion, it is the problem with the creators of the hidden gems. They should be able to market the apps to top 10 level if the app is 1) good 2) has a huge market. An SSH Terminal app can never be in top 10 paid or free as the market for it is not large enough. I don't think these apps should be banned from the store, but Apple should come up with more entry points to find newer or less popular apps and perhaps improve their algorithms (ratings/uninstalls?) for personalized app discovery (as mentioned in other comments). The bottom line is that users download/buy these "crap" apps which helps make $ for Apple.

Introduction

Question: Where are the successful product startups from India? How to become one? And how long will we be taking example of only one company (Zoho)?

To answer this question, we’ll be attending NASSCOM Product Conclave 2009 on Oct 27-28 at the Lalit Ashok hotel, Bangalore.
It’s a traditional conference organized by NASSCOM (short for “National Association of Software and Services Companies”), the consortium that represents software companies in India.
The agenda this year is “Positioning to Win.”

Why is it interesting?

As the official website says:

Come, demonstrate your product, network, share with peers, and learn how to identify market opportunities, build a product organization with domain expertise, roll out a product, build brands, reach out to prospects and customers, create a network effect of channels, user and development communities – in short how to build a viable and scalable business model.

Of course, the caveat is always that no amount of teaching or sessions will help anyone until, you, the audience takes it seriously, imagine putting it into action immediately and ask questions on what will come up in your course of action. In short, look for the advice that you need.

Now that we have that diatribe out of the way, let us focus on the conference. There will be 4 keynotes, 11 panel sessions, 4 workshops, networking sessions and unconference sessions. The full program agenda is available as a PDF. The truly interesting part of this event is the quality of people expected to be on stage.

Here are the parts of the agenda that we found interesting:

1. Key Sessions and Panel discussions:

• Technology Opportunities serving the millions of India: The next major growth area for Indian technology firms
• Building a product ecosystem that addresses the millions of India
• Building global consumer businesses out of India
• Leverage the ecosystem for Product Development
• Indians Pulling off the impossible
• Product strategies in the telecom sector: potential for global leadership
• Why and how you can tie-up with SIs if you have a software product for enterprises
• Listen to key speakers from the usual suspects such as Guy Kawasaki, Kiran Karnik, Ashish Gupta, Rajesh Jain, VCs to people you would not usually get to hear from such as Ajay Dhir (CIO, Jindal Steel), Rajesh Hukku (SVP, Oracle), and founders of successful startups such as from iYogi, Stylkist, BabaJobs, and so on.

2. Workshops such as the Workshop on Go-To-Market strategies for Product companies which is being led by Subinder Khurana, Delivery Head, Enterprise Analytics, Cognizant.

3. Unconference sessions

• Krishnas and Arjunas — regarding advisors and mentors
• Hiring in startups, plus startups and potential employees get to talk to each other
• One on one business mentoring sessions
• Impact of social media inside organizations

4. Product Expo showcasing 12 companies with products for the enterprise market.

5. Specific structured networking sessions for startups with CIOs, country delegations, potential partners, potential advisors, potential employees, potential investors.

The downside is that because there are three separate parallel tracks, we won’t be able to cover all of them. We hope that we can cover the whole spectrum along with other indian startup blogs.

We wonder if we can hope for talks such as the one by Prof. Deepak Malhotra (Harvard Business School) about how to negotiate at NASSCOM Leadersip Forum 2007.

How to follow this event?

If you’re unable to attend the event in-person, then don’t fret because there are multiple ways to follow this event:

• We will be covering the event and hope to bring you new insights and interesting learnings as much as possible.
• Participate in the NASSCOM communities discussions
• Follow the NASSCOM blog
• Follow the #nasscompc tag on Twitter and @nasscom_pc
• Watch out for NASSCOM videos

This guest post is written by Swaroop C H, co-founder of a startup called IonLab. He writes regularly on his blog at www.swaroopch.com, considered to be one of the top ten blogs in India along with StartupDunia.

Wishing you a very Happy Diwali & for those who celebrate their new year, wish you a happy & prosperous new year as well.

• StartupDunia is one year old
• StartupDunia is 3 years old

Comments

• October 28, 2009, raj commented: Wishing you a very Happy Diwali

In most of the consumer markets, pricing is guided by a supply – demand fit. Price a product too high and there’ll be less demand, price it too low and you’ll miss out on potential profits (of course, there are lots of exceptions to this too). Pricing is therefore more of finding that fit as opposed to a perfect science.

Last weekend, I went to watch ‘Wake up Sid’ at a nearby theater. For a Saturday night show, the theater was reasonably crowded and I would have expected it to be more crowded. On my drive home, I started wondering – why is it that theaters follow a fixed price model ? For instance, lets say a ticket costs Rs 250/-. You pay the same price no matter if you watch the movie first day first show or 3 weeks later (assuming its still running). The only price variations theaters offer (in the US) are for students, senior citizens and matinee shows. That just doesnt make sense.

Seats in a movie theater are ‘perishable’ inventory. What I mean by that  is all the unsold tickets for a particular show translate to unsold inventory that is wasted – meaning wasted potential revenue. Its just like airline tickets. If a flight is not full, all the unused seats mean wasted revenue for the airline. Ditto for hotel rooms. So, while hotels and airlines offer incentives like last minute deals and sell through other opaque channels like Priceline etc., why dont movie theaters do something similar ? One might argue that last minute opaque selling for a movie theater is difficult since the actual unsold inventory can only be found out after they have sold tickets to a particular show. So, the opaque selling has to be a truly last minute, real time channel to meet the unique constraints of movie theaters.

If opaque selling is not a viable option, movie theaters should at least consider gradually decreasing the ticket prices for each subsequent week that the movie is aired. But if customers knew that movie ticket prices were to drop in subsequent weeks, why would they watch a movie first day / first week ? Wouldnt everyone wait just for the subsequent weeks to watch it ? Well, the answer is no. For two reasons:

1) just like die hard apple fans want the latest gadget as soon as Apple launches them, there will be movie fanatics who want to watch as soon as its released

2) In this scenario, you also throw in a dynamic pricing element. So, for instance, you keep it uncertain whether there will be price drop in the subsequent weeks or not. For a super hit movie like Harry Potter / Batman etc., it might not make sense for the theater to drop the price – there will be hordes of moviegoers who would pay the full price to watch the movie in the subsequent 2-3 weeks as well. Its for the other movies that you are most likely going to have unsold inventory that you try to price dynamically.

There might be aspects of this that might need more research, but just jotting down my thoughts as they flow. Let me know what you think.

Comments

• October 14, 2009, Ganjam Kalyan commented: Nice read. Certain aspects definitely need more research. Atleast in state I live, Andhra pradesh, It's a govt mandate to maintain prices approved by Govt. Multiplexes is a totally different game though which I think have less govt control. However, Movie ticket distribution is broken and there's lot of money at stake for those who can fix.
• October 14, 2009, Hari Babu commented: It is not right to compare movie tickets with airline tickets. Theatres are a source of entertainment; so, people will not want to acquire movie tickets on a last minute basis all the time (probably for the first two days for a blockbuster). However, consider DVDs and rentals : they are the cheaper alternative for older movies, aren't they? They allow you to watch whatever you want whenever you want.
• October 14, 2009, Suren commented: A friend of mine floated the idea of actually auctioning the first few days. The highest bidder wins the ticket. Sort of dwindle the black marketeers out of the picture and make it official online. Profits proceed to the theatre, movie makers and pocket the commission. I said, its viable but said it might seem like a fine line between auctioning and black marketing.
• October 15, 2009, Santhanam commented: In Tamil Nadu, Government has permitted theaters to fix a higher price for first few weeks of the film release. After few weeks, the ticket price goes to a normal level. This is good, since unscrupulous theaters will sell only few tickets through counter and rest through black market by their employees themselves.
• October 16, 2009, MaddyUK commented: The pricing model should also consider attracting more people during off-peak or down phases. Say a movie XYZ is not running well after 2 days from the release date, should'nt the ticket rate go down the normal price (obviously considering the govt. tax) ? I know people don't get fooled with low rates...but isn't there a scope to attrack more viewers?
• October 18, 2009, ankit commented: the idea is good ...tis may generate revnues for even movies that are low budget and currently suffer heavy losses...but i suggest one more thing..for people like us who want to watch movies in theatre every week there should be a priviledge card...to reduce regular cinegoer's expense...for example if you see 4 movies in a month for 600 rupees...using this card if reduces your cost by say 20 % would be cool
• October 18, 2009, amol aggarwal commented: I know a mall in Noida(TGIP) which follows the dynamic pricing model-it was selling a movie ticket for nearly 350 bucks for a newly released movie when the normal price is around 150 bucks.
• October 20, 2009, shande commented: As far I know, Inox has been doing sort of semi-dynamic pricing for long awaited movies on first weekend. usually it will be priced at a premium rate >= 300. Implementing full dynamic pricing based on rate of booking and amount of seats would be interesting. Also, on the lines of airline tickets there should be discount for people who plan and book for a show advance (3-4 days) before official release without hearing any reviews ! Later, when critical reviews are in public domain, prices should be brought back to normal level.
• November 10, 2009, Vijay commented: Actually the multiplexes could do a lot of good to the movie industry if they were freed up from the entertainment tax shackles which every state govt binds on them. These archaic rules don't allow dynamic pricing or discounting based on inventory levels. This is quite popular in the west.
• December 16, 2009, prabhu commented: First, Good thought. Why i think it wont work - In Chennai, Sathyam Cinemas is THE place to watch a movie. The highest ticket offered there is Rs120. One big reason why people go to Sathyam is not just the technology but the crowd who come there. As the tickets are priced higher people who come there Behave!. Unlike other theaters where our common Indian crowd do all the mean things to make the place stink. Make sense?
• February 27, 2010, Rahul commented: The Great India Place in Sector 18, Noida dynamically prices its tickets as a comment above notes. Before noon, during the work-week tickets are Rs 50. In the last half hour before a movie, ticket prices go up to Rs 500. Scalping before ball games and concerts achieves the same end. The other need is for discounting at the last minute to ensure reasonable participation/occupancy/utilisation which can be achieve by discounting for an unseen unbranded purchase as with hotel rooms. Here, for premium seats to a movie purchased online without specifying the theatre and its facilities.
• February 27, 2010, Suresh commented: The issue with movies (atleast multiplexes) is that there is a revshare between the distributor and the exhibitor - so an independent entity cannot do differential pricing - you will need to negotiate with the exhibitor and the distributor. That said longer term there might be a model here. I was seeing www.dealivore.com having some sweet deals (evidently on off peak demand etc). The first deal was a movie deal - apparently though they had a disclaimer as well (i guess it was not necessarily a discount from the theater). The second deal (that is going on) is with a restaurant chain - little italy where an low demand discounting works very well Bottomline - today theaters dont have such a model, ultimately though the industry might move towards that.

Yesterday marked the 3rd anniversary of StartupDunia. Wow – its hard to believe its been 3 years already. Its been an amazing journey so far, of course with its share of ups and downs. Along the way, I’ve made some awesome contacts and friends and come in touch with folks whom I would have never come across otherwise.

I know that this year I’m not posting as frequently as I’d want to – I’d actually attribute that to two reasons.

1) Honestly, there isnt a whole lot of startups happening in India – doesnt matter what anyone says or how many events / b-plan competitions you have. Of course, I could always rinse and rehash tech news, but I’d prefer to post original thoughts on this blog, even if thats infrequent. I’d rather post when I have something to say rather than just posting for the sake of it.

2) There have been some ongoing transitions in my life leaving me with less time to blog

I know I’ve said this before, but I’ll sure try to post more frequently. Meanwhile, if you’re interested in writing for StartupDunia, drop me an email (if you have a blog, provide a link to your blog) including your background details (sorry – I dont make money from this blog to pay you money).

Finally, I’m grateful to my wife who’s been very understanding & supportive throughtout these 3 years – seriously, all the blogging time is time away from her – so without her support, it’d have been just impossible to do.

And of course, thanks to all of my readers and especially those of you who take the time to comment on posts.

• StartupDunia is 2 years old
• StartupDunia is one year old
• Off to India on vacation

Comments

• October 11, 2009, Indus Khaitan commented: Congrats Pranav! Would love to see you post more. Cheerio! Indus
• October 12, 2009, Ravi commented: Hi Pranav, Congratulations! 3 years is a significant milestone indeed and you deserve credit for building up one of most-followed blogs on happenings in the Indian start-up world. Looking forward to a lot more from you! Cheers, Ravi
• October 12, 2009, Rajat commented: Hi Pranav, Congratulations on the 3rd anniversary of the blog. I would love to contribute to the blog. I have been following the startup scene in U.S. for a long time and have recently sparked interest in bringing these ideas to the Indian market. I have gained tremendous insight from your blog regarding it. I would love to contribute to this blog. Please send me your email address where I can send a direct message. Thanks Rajat
• October 12, 2009, Saurav Mishra commented: Hi Pranav, Congatulations !!! Thanks for some real good insights and food for thought! Keep it coming. Have sent you a mail too. Do keep in touch. Saurav
• October 12, 2009, Jayesha Jhaveri commented: Hi Pranav, Congratulations for completing 3 years. Your messages help me keep track of the recent developments on the startup scene. Keep it up and congrats once again. Regards, Jayesha
• October 12, 2009, Aditya Kedia commented: Thanks Pranav for the excellent work you are doing. Indeed the startup scene in India has been dormant lately, however, it's good to know you are covering whatever is present. Regards, Adi
• October 12, 2009, Rohan commented: Congratulations Pranav :)
• October 12, 2009, Manish commented: Congratulations..........
• October 12, 2009, pranav commented: thanks guys !!
• October 12, 2009, Swaroop commented: Congrats! And agreed, there has not been many interesting startups worth talking about... either the hype is too early or the market is not mature yet for tech startups... or a bit of both.
• October 12, 2009, Rajat commented: Congrats.I started reading your blog around 6 months back and i am totally hooked up to your blog now.I regularly read your blog.Keep the good posts coming.
• October 14, 2009, Gopal Sharma commented: I find some of your blogs really useful. I think you have done a great job overall... It is very difficult to keep motivation level up for this long and that too while talking sense :) Great job!!!!
• October 16, 2009, Aditya commented: Hi Pranav, Congratulations, wish to see more of your posts...keep up the good work. Aditya (Perfios)
• October 16, 2009, mohit commented: congratulation dear
• October 18, 2009, Rama Vadakattu commented: Congrats Pranav.

WSJ has an interesting story on the play by play strategy of TweetPhoto, that hopes to usurp TwitPic as the leading photo sharing service via Twitter. Right from initial idea to leveraging developers, it highlights how TweetPhoto stumbled along the way and then went on to have Britney Spears as a user.

Read it here.

Comments

• October 7, 2009, Manuel commented: nice info

Iglooo, a Pune based startup, has launched a price comparison website for books.  You can search for a book based on title / author and they provide price comparison results from vendors like A1 books, First & Second, Landmark and Crossword. To purchase, you are redirected to the vendors website. Currently, they claim not to be making any money from referrals but that should change down the line.

In their pitch, they seemed to stress on their  ‘clutter free design’. However, there’s a difference between no design and clutter free design and the latter doesnt necessarily mean the former. The design definitely needs some work from a usability perspective. For instance, if a book has no photo associated, display a default ‘no image’ thumbnail. Allow to sort results by title as well. If possible and available, include a brief summary of the book in the site results — you could use Amazon API or any knowledge available from public sources like Wikipedia for this. Use a horizontal line or border to easily demarcate the various listings in the results page.

In its current form, the site provides little value to an end user.  Let me elaborate why:

For starters, you cant discover new books using the site. Just like music and movies, you dont necessarily know the title of every book you will like and want to read. Book discovery is an equally important aspect of such sites. Secondly, without the book summaries, I have to visit the vendors website, get an overview of what the book is about — if it doesnt interest me, come back to Iglooo’s result set and then rinse and repeat. As an example, say I’m searching for books related to startups. If I search for startup in the title field, the back & forth process on the results set just becomes too painful.

Few additional suggestions to the founders – get a logo developed ASAP if you are serious about building a brand (learnt it the hard way on StartupDunia). You also might want to consider an alternate name for the site — its too easy to spell it wrong in the url (there are 3 ‘o’s).

Although it needs a few tweaks, the service does have some potential.

• IAndMyStory lets you personalize book characters
• CreADivity provides a marketplace for Indian designers
• SheepStop, Scopial launch crowdsourced T shirt designs

Comments

• September 25, 2009, Champak Bhumia commented: Although I agree with most of the points raised by Pranav, I think the design is absolutely kick ass. Coming to discovering books, I do not understand what made you think this is a book recommendation engine. It clearly states, find books by author or title. And I think it does the job quite well on that. Discovering books based on tags would be a neat idea nonetheless and I hope they start this too. I am looking for a book's cheapest price and I think this does it rather well. If I need to discover books or read summaries, I have amazon and a zillion other such sites. So, I agree with some points raised here but overall, I think iglooo fits my needs quite well.
• September 25, 2009, Prasanna a.k.a Flipkart Fanatic commented: What is the use, if it does not add Flipkart?
• October 1, 2009, Anil commented: @ Champak... Maybe it addresses your unique needs. It is possible, there might be different behavior patterns. If I am required to visit amazon for book discovery and then iglooo for actual purchase, convenience value doesnt exist at all ! Of course, meta-searches are yet to make money, it is easier with the low cost base they work upon.
• October 6, 2009, Iglooo commented: @Prasanna a.k.a Flipkart Fanatic - You'll be pleased to know that as of last week we've added Flipkart :-)
• October 7, 2009, Nikhilesh commented: @Iglooo You guys have to start caching popular searches and books. You can't expect users to wait that long while you scour the middle earth.

The iPhone without an ounce of doubt jumpstarted the smartphone category. So much so that smartphones are one of the fastest growing category of phones in the US market.

Earlier, mobile app development was restrained by closed platforms and proprietary OS’es.  Now, however, it looks like the increasing number of mobile platforms might lead to a new, different problem. Increased fragmentation and confusion about which platforms to support. You already have Symbian, RIM, Windows Mobile, Android, iPhone, WebOS (Palm), Mameo.

Now, it seems that Intel is planning to launch their own mobile platform. And LiMo seems to be picking up steam as well.

iPhone and RIM and Android dont seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Symbian is already seeing declining market share and it seems that even Nokia is looking to defect to Mameo – although currently, Symbian totally dominates markets like India and Africa.

The success of each platform will not only depend on what the manufacturers and operators support — but which ones the developers flock to as well.  iPhone has already built a thriving apps community, but more and more developers are getting disgruntled with its app approval process and lack of openness. But then, at the same time, other app communities have hardly reached the level of success that the iPhone has.

Say if we’re talking about 5 years down the line – which one do you see as having the biggest potential ? which one do you think will dominate the Indian market ?

• Airtel to sell unlocked iPhones
• The Crapstore
• Vodafone to launch iPhone in India this year

Comments

• October 2, 2009, amol aggarwal commented: I disagree that Symbian is going to get out of flavor anytime soon.It is a dominant platform esp on Nokia phones and doesn't see a second platform replace it in near future. I will leave iphone out as iphone is still way too expensive for Indian market.
• October 4, 2009, lodha says commented: agree symbian platform is more technological than java
• October 11, 2009, dinesh commented: dera ferr takl tima

The E-Cell @ IIT KGP is organizing an ‘Entrepreneurship Awareness Drive’ to promote entrepreneurship and encourage students across the country to embrace entrepreneurship. They will organize an Entrepreneurship Awareness Camp in 10 cities over a span of 10 days across various college campuses. Some of the campuses they intend to cover as part of this drive include Punjab Engineering college, Anna University, Delhi college of Engineering, BITS Mesra etc. Times Private Treaties and the Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) have collaborated with the ECell on this effort.

You can find additional details on their website.

• Event: Conference for Entrepreneurs by Entrepreneurs
• What would be your single biggest advice to fresh college graduates in India ?
• Event: “Entrepreneurs Forum” planned at Bangalore

Comments

• October 2, 2009, amit commented: How is Delhi College of Engineering included in this drive?
• October 3, 2009, TAPAS commented: Dear all, i have a professional working samsung and also doing some kind of online business.. my website is www.lessdeal.com we deal industrial good to diffrent company.. i want to participate
• October 9, 2009, Sartups's Blog commented: Entrepreneurship Awareness Drive by IIT Kharagpur... <p>The E-Cell @ IIT KGP is organizing an ‘Entrepreneurship Awareness Drive’ to promote entrepreneurship and encourage students across the country to embrace entrepreneurship. They will organize an Entrepreneurship Awareness Camp in 10 cities ...

Apparently, a tweet by Shashi Tharoor, the minister of state for External Affairs, about some joke related to ‘holy cow’  has landed him in some shit. I kid you not – it has offended Indians and Indian politicos. So much so that Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with him about the ‘controversy’.Rumors also floated that he might lose his job.

Quite a number of tweets talking about the ‘controversy’.

Seriously, when will we learn to take ourselves a little less seriously ? The slightest mention of Indians / Indian society / religion riles us up to defend ourselves.

• Does music help you focus better while working ?
• KamlaShow on LiveMint, Sramana’s book ‘Entrepreneur Journeys’
• Nielsen Online and Wall Street Journal launch in India

Comments

• September 25, 2009, Harshal Vaidya commented: One needs to understand the sensitivity of that remark made by Tharoor. To save the tax payers money Pranab Mukherjee started a austerity drive and advised all MP's to travel economy class, following which Rahul Gandhi's train travel got much applause and news coverage. Tharoor, without much thought made a categorical comment that implied indirectly that such austerity measures are done for the cattle class or poor class, which started an outrage. The reason Sonia met him was to give him the stick and make him realize that when you are a public figure your words carry weight and they need to be thought out before they come out of your mouth. She just re-iterated to him that you are no longer in UN where nobody cares to follow your tweets, but you are a sitting MP from Congress and cannot make rash comments. Freedom of Speech is one thing, but when you are a public figure, rash comments have to be avoided or at the most sugar coated at least. Tharoor is a new kid on the block and will learn slowly.
• October 2, 2009, amit commented: Our Ministers really sometimes do irritating stuffs
• October 4, 2009, lodha says commented: thank god Mr. tharoor didnt get the job in UN

It is an undeniable fact that mobile is *the* platform in India. SMS usage aka texting is probably one of the most pervasive mobile applications prevalent in India. However, if you want to provide an SMS interface to your web-app, there is no easy solution out there. You need to either buy a SMS short code for yourself  (which is pretty darn expensive) or you can take a do it yourself (DIY) approach by connecting a GSM modem to your server and use software like Kannel to access incoming SMS messages.

So, here’s an idea.

Instead, why not buy a short code and then have multiple customers ‘rent’ the short code ? The way it works is – say you get a shortcode ‘12345′. You then let each customer reserve a keyword that they can use with this shortcode. So, for instance, if I need to leverage SMS in my app, I reserve the shortcode SDUNIA. Say some one else takes up the keyword FBOOK. Users of my web-app can send an SMS to my app by sending a text to 12345 SDUNIA <msg>. The backend service parses this keyword and decides which customer the SMS belongs to. So, you need to provide an API as well so that your customers can retrieve their SMS messages and use it in their web-app.  You charge the customers a fee as long as they use the service.

This approach has a lot of potential since it saves other startups and other businesses looking for an SMS interface the cost and effort involved in getting their own, exclusive SMS shortcode.They can literally hit the ground running in terms of providing a mobile interface to their app /service.

TextMarks is one such US based startup that does this same thing pretty successfully.

I’m not sure if such a service already exists in the Indian market. Also, one would need to check for any legal issues involved specific to the Indian market.

let me know what you think.

• Startup Idea – Group buying discount
• Startup Idea for Entrepreneurs
• Two killer startup ideas for Bangalore

Comments

• September 22, 2009, Vinuth M. Madinur commented: I think a lot of Short Code providers in India provide this option. http://www.znisms.com/sms-short-code.html SMS GupShup provides a more elegant API and is perhaps easier to get started than negotiating with Short Code providers. http://api.smsgupshup.com/
• September 22, 2009, Vinuth M. Madinur commented: BTW, I heard Facebook uses SMS GupShup API for Indian users.
• September 22, 2009, pranav commented: right -- somehow it totally slipped my mind that sms gupshup does this. thanks for bring that to my attn. i havent heard about the other service you pointed out - they any good ?
• September 22, 2009, Vineet commented: This is already being done almost all short code providers in India. Renting these keywords on shared short codes as opposed to an exclusive code is much cheaper.
• September 22, 2009, Nikhil commented: Hey Pranav, old one. lots of companies, including Yah
• September 22, 2009, Nikhil commented: sorry..accidentally clicked submit. What I was saying is that even Yahoo India has been providing this short code service. Have put up a complete list of short code service providers at MediaNama...over 50 of them. what no one has done yet, apart from ValueFirst with Alertrix I think, is make it easy to use - where you can log in online and buy a keyword at a price. one problem with these short codes now is a TRAI notification, according to which short codes need to have an alphanumeric prefix for identification of their originating operator. This makes it difficult for users to reply to messages. For example, if I query 556655 for Help, I'll get a response from, say, TM-556655 . I can't click reply and respond to it because it's alphanumeric.
• September 22, 2009, pranav commented: thanks all for the input and correcting me - i list such ideas as and when they occur leaving the onus of doing the research on those who find it interesting. if there are lotsa other companies already doing it, it might not be an easy fare then.
• September 22, 2009, Nilesh Trivedi commented: (Disclaimer :- I work with SMSGupShup ) Enterprise SMS GupShup allows you to set up keywords and masks from the online interface. (a Keyword is for directing incoming messages to your webapp whereas a Mask is what shows up as sender Id in the messages that YOU send). In fact, Enterprise SMS GupShup is the only provider out there with a complete self-serviced solution. The API is extensive as well as easy to use.
• September 22, 2009, Rohan commented: Yes, there are many startups/resellers that rent short code. Just google for "bulk SMS software". Actually, their primary service is bulk SMS from PC, but most of them offer short code renting @ about 4.5 INR p/m If somebody already has a server located in-house at office or workplace, they can instead just buy a special number like ones ending with triple digits, or ones that are easy to remember by paying a small premium.
• September 22, 2009, ashutosh commented: Hi, I think that just getting a sim card and putting it "up" with kannel for inbound routing, isn't the key. The legality involved here is that almost all telcos TOS mentions in the application form, something on the following lines: "That, the customer shall use the sim and associated services for the purpose of making and receiving calls, messages, and other services available in the SIM for his *personal use*, not any commercial use." Even if you "bypass" the above, the telcos shall disconnect you and it gets messy, as happened with NetCore of Rajesh Jain ( http://emergic.org/2009/02/17/we-versus-vodafone/ ) . The plea given by VodaFone and Bharti was that NetCore was flouting NDNC norms for alert services, while the truth was that they just could not see someone bypassing the VAS ecosystem, thus denying them their "lion's share". PS: I am not affiliated with NetCore at present, or in past.
• October 4, 2009, Suresh commented: Hi i need to buy a special short code for my company, not the keyword but want to buy a shortcode specific to my company, can you help me where to buy it.
• October 13, 2009, SMS Reseller commented: Another company offering a commercial grade credit based SMS shared short code application with api is Anchor Mobile
• October 17, 2009, Mel commented: I am currently looking for someone who can rent me a short code. But i am only interested in Premium short codes. I want to charge my customers a fee for the applications I will provide. Any suggessions.
• October 17, 2009, Mel commented: By the way, I can be contacted at centralprocessingusa@gmail.com. I will be marketing within the continental US
• February 28, 2010, Rahul commented: Ashutosh, ur comment was a great insite.. sounds like the general population trying to bring down the oppressive rulers :)
• March 8, 2010, Vicky commented: Hey Guys, visit this site www.valueleaf.com. Probably the only company in the SMS, ShortCode and Email marketing industry with ISO certification. I know few people who are their clients. Have heard great reviews about the service offered. Check this company out.