Getting funds for your startup somehow seems to be ‘THE’ issue most of the startups are facing. To me this is utter crap. Something like joining Gyms to lose weight. You dont know what you will gain out of doing excercise, when, where and hows of it. All you know is that you need to look good and for that join a gym near by. How many of us who join the local gym actually continue? How many really get the leaner abs?

First for idiots looking for startup funds (80%)

Most of the times we criticize the thing we dont have any control on. Thats a nice trick the mind plays. If your mind said you can succeed if you kicked your arse and get some work done, it would be difficult to implement. But if your mind said your venture is not succeeding because your startup is not funded. Now thats what I call as a real issue! right?

If you have attended any genuine startup meetup or networked with atleast decent ones like me (shameless plug) we are shouting from the top of our lungs that time wasted hunting for a VC to fund a half baked product, can be better utilized in developing a better product customers can help you bootstrap. It just makes so much sense but what your brain says? The problem is outside me and not with me.

Now to the genuine ones looking for some funds (20%)

Hey if you are the one who fits into the above section please leave. You owe your time to the awesome venture you are supposed to build. If you belong to the 20% who genuinely need some funds – Welcome. I have had my experience working in a startup couple of years ago and know how lack of funds can really burn your dream. Though a small disclaimer I never got any of my startups funded where I worked, but rest assured the thing I am talking here doesnt come from thin air. It comes from closely working with hundreds of Entrepreneurs via my non profit some of them looking to getting funded and some who are ready to invest.

Why invest in your startup? = Why get a life insurance?

Read the above line. Thats the secret key I am disclosing to the world and it really works. Let me elaborate with a nice example.

An insurance agent meets you in middle of something and starts pitching you to sell a new product to get better insurance. How should he approach you.

Approach One:

Here’s the product with xyz benefits for YOU. This is how it secures YOUR family’s future. And worst case scenario if YOU dont die (pun intended), this is what YOU will get back on maturity.

Approach Two:

Sir, Please invest in OUR best product till date xyz. WE have been able to provide OUR customers x% year on year. YOU can compare us with the COMPETITORS. WE do blah, blah, blah and WE ARE blah blah

Which version has a better chance to sell a policy? Duh that was ridiculously simple.

Same happens in the Startup funding game. You talk more about YOU. The first question (and the big one) why is the investor ready to shell out his hard earned money. There is a reason. For him you are not just a startup but an investment vehicle.

We all know so many policies to invest in, saving schemes in the market are dime a dozen. We invest in what we believe is the future and what we believe will give us handful returns. At times we risk more for getting more rewards. Same is the case for an investor/angle or a VC. If you understand this well. All of a sudden things change.

• You start understanding why exit section in your business plan makes sense to him, while you feel its useless
• You understand why you need to show who is your competition, what are the risks and how will you mitigate
• You understand why he needs a stake in decision making. (Same as you want power of switching funds in a Mutual Fund portfolio)

Its not about your startup getting an investment. Its about him/her finding a better investment vehicle.

Feels ironic? Who said Money matters are like candle light dinners!

So how do you get money for your dream venture?

Let me repeat. All of this really really helps. It helps to think that your customer(investor) is a human being. It forces you to think about competition. It forces you to say how will you differentiate among the masses. If slaps you on your face when you say crappy things like the world is my target market, or stuff like “This is the next facebook killer”.

Your dream is your dream. Its cozy. Lovely and what not. But it blinds you from reality. Startups are in existence for a purpose. However along with purpose there is business involved and just the machoism of hey I have this cool idea! might not work.

Consider an investor as a investor. A human being. You dont need karate chops to get your startup funded. Just a small paradigm shift will make the difference and think

• What is in it for him.
• How can I raise his odds of success
• How can I assure that its a sane investment
• How can I influence and gather trust

Money is not something that can make a startup successful; however lack of it can make one go home. This was just an attempt to add sanity in your startup fund raising and giving the poor investor some sane choice.Similar Posts:

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Naming new C Suite class of titles is a fancy thing. We had the uber cool CEO and then his gang of all CMOs, CFOs…. CXOs.  While I believe we have found enough chiefs across various verticals to lead the company. What goes missing in the leadership is the act to plant discomfort. Let me just elaborate a bit on why this is required.

Teams work against their growth

By virtue of being in existence every business expects to grow multifold. Growth and success are by products of CHANGE. And change by the way is a thing which faces the maximum resistance from teams across the organization. Now this is ironic. The very component required for success faces resistance! What can be done?

As a leader day in and day out you are supposed to influence people to act. Push them to not act in the same monotonic manner but to innovate and build exceptional stuff. To break paths and set trends. All said and done this rarely happens. So what can you as a leader really do? You can push the army towards something that is uncomfortable. Giving some amount of discomfort really makes the team more smart and more productive

Lets talk examples, will you?

Yes examples add clarity to understanding.

Portray the most difficult boses that you have ever had in your lifetime. Forget bosses, the most difficult people to deal with. Now 80% of this group are the idiots. Forget them, we are not talking of them. What about those good ones who were dificult to talk with? A good person who made your life difficult? A friend who was a god send advisor, a mentor who told you how not to do things or even a father who tried to make it difficult by suggesting you the longer route to getting things done. At times we felt very uncomfortable with these guys. Why ? Probably because they asked us things which were difficult to answer. They proved how we were insanely wrong?

Giving some kind of discomfort is then a part of leadership. Jack Welch fired many people from GE when he took over as CEO. Steve Jobs killed enough products to get Apple back on track. These seem good examples from the outside but what happened to the people who were leading these initiatives that got shelved by these legends?

A primary goal of a leader is to disrupt.

So who would be the CDO and what will he do

Now we are making sense. You Chief Discomfort Officer is someone who would ask piercing questions to the followers. Questions that will make them think clearer than what they have been doing. A CDO will have to get his hands dirty to prove people that stuff can be done whether they want/believe it or not. He/She will make sure people put enough thought process and effort before they come back whining about how things are just not happening.

With these qualifications who do you think should be a CDO? I believe everyone. Everyone in a leadership role needs to be a CDO. This habit got into me from my boss. He knows stuff in and out. So before you try to open any silly thing before him you have to think twice. Same is today applicable to me vs my juniors. As a leader you are better off leading initiatives that change fortunes, rather than keep rectifying your followers thought.

Rather the juniors are indirectly delegating stuff back to you. They are making you burn grey cells which they were supposed to. So why not be a CDO.

All of a sudden you know you are solving problems that are worthy of you. You have more time and you are more productive at what you. In the long run, no one will look at you and say some point in my life you made him feel uncomfortable. They will alwas thank you for what you have made out of them.Similar Posts:

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Reflecting upon what can you achieve?

Though we all want to be successful in every endeavour we try to accomplish; we know we might fail. We might fail to achieve our targets and goals that we have set at various points in our life. There can be many reasons for this failure. The worst though would be our inner voice that you cant do it! Because that is something which can take a lifetime to work upon.

Since we have crossed the 1st week of the new year (incase if you were in touch you know how to accomplish exceptional results this year) I believe the first step to rock with your career, venture or any form of resolution would be first to re-check this very voice that you daily talk to.

While there are many ways to motivate you, I would take a different approach. Last night, all of a sudden a thought struck me which made me rethink about how capable I really am? I believe sharing the same would help you rethink and reevaluate your current strengths too.

The question that will make you rethink

We all have resolutions. Right from simpler ones like losing weight to really complex ones like making a dent in the universe. One of the often repeated wish is to someday travel across the whole world. Meet people and enjoy something not many can’t even think during their lifetime. So the question is can you travel the whole world on your own? Lets make is ridiculously challenging.

Can you travel across the whole globe on your own feet?

With no vehicle, just on your feet. Thats a weird thought. When I asked a few friends the immediate answer was a surprising “NO! How can one even think about it. This is not possible in a whole life time!”

I persisted to collect some data rather than making assumptions. Yes we can safely assume we can walk only x kms a day and yes Earth is a huge planet. Still. Why not calculate rather than assume

Earth’s Circumference is 40,075 km as per WolframAlpha. I cross checked this on multiple sites so you can assume it to be right. Next is to answer how much an ordinary – normal – mere mortal is ready to walk.

Lets not exaggerate on that. I believe 10 Kms a day should be good considering the level of the mission we will be on. People run marathons. I just assume you would be able to walk half of what a half marathoner does. So (40000/10) 4000 is the number of days we will take to walk.

4000/365 days = 10.95 approx 11 years. Add 50 leaves every year and you will still not take more than 12-13 years to complete your journey to travel barefoot – the whole world – and experience every part of it !

Remember we just walked 10 Kms a day so that more than half the day you can enjoy the places you visit. Is this scientifically right? Well we may argue about weather conditions, about peace conditions in these regions, about blah, blah and blah. But the question was not that.

The question was – Can I just get up and see this beautiful planet in my life?

The answer is – YES, It wont even take a quarter of your life doing that!

But we are mere mortals

BUT. And this is a huge but. A but helps us a lot. It conceals our lethargic atitutdes, it makes us risk averse, it helps us end something which has not begun. Thats ironic. “BUT” is a gift from satan.

Experiencing the whole world will make many feel that their life was worth living it BUT we wont attempt to even think about doing it.

Imagine the wonders you would see on your own. Imagine the different climates. Sun burns in Sahara to the Chilling icy winds of Antartic. The species you never thought survive. The aromas. The dialect. The food. The World.

That’s a million dollar experience

Yet a million Dollars cant buy this

Yes its not the million dollars that is required to experience all of this. Its the will to do it. Between you and your BIG dreams are not a million dollars. A million dollar is a stack of cash. Your idiotic mind feels this stack will never turn to reality and hence finds ‘a million dollar’ a good reason to not do things.

I could have done that only if I had a million dollars in savings. Remember?

You know how to break this wall? Kill the bloody BUT.

Ready to rock with your new capability

You are more capable than you think you are. All you need is to take the step in the right direction. 10 years of walking is daunting. Its insane. But believe me few a kilometers from now and the environment will change. Few kilometers down you will not feel tired.

You will be happy that you took those steps. Life would be a different experience a few kilometers from here. That will motivate you. It will help you keep going. It will help you keep your hope alive. Experience, rejoice and keep walking. You would be busy experiencing the world and not counting your steps.

Its just a few kilometers away…. To achieve what you want, you just need to walk these few kilometers… Thats it. You are more capable than you think you are… Stand up. Prove this to yourself. Just do it.Similar Posts:

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Lets add a WOW to everything we do

Most of us always dream about doing something exceptional in our life span. This wishful thinking is not a sin. If you seriously consider, we as a race are supposed to evolve with time. However even with all these thoughts we still find ourselves at the end of the year standing at the same place as we were last time. Wishing a rocking new year to our self when we know nothing exceptional happened the previous year.

Wishful thinking is not  a sin, but not acting on one defintely is. While I am no guru in ensuring your success with mere blog posts (believe me its only you who can change your position), I do have a few thoughts before we bid adieu to the year going by. A few thoughts on building exceptional businesses, creating exceptional products and having an exceptional year ahead.

Since this is my last blogpost for year 2011 I need to help you out exceptionally right ?

Exceptional things happen to exceptional beings

While the world is agog in proving you that a normal mere mortal can make it big someday. I am not here to give you those dreams. Yes! let say this in your face that exceptional things are done by exceptional people and not the other way round. Are you exceptional?

While such questions can really be pricking, what we can do is approach the whole requirement in a scientific way. While you know that both of us are not exceptional (heck I admit), lets break this up into 2 parts. One, what I am right now. Two, What makes me exceptional.

By the way before we move on to this excercise let me assure you that being exceptional is not a rocket science. Good number of idiots seem to crack this. So why not you! Just calculate the difference between the you today and the you of Dec 2012. This difference is what has to be achieved nothing else.

The characteristics of being exceptional

Lets do another small excercise. Lets forget what exceptional is and try to work out synonyms for the word exceptional.

Exceptional is somethig different.
Something beyond what is existing.
Something that catches everyone’s eye.

Lets stop at this and re-read. Lets derive some layman inferences from this so that it becomes more reasonable, understandable and doable – to be exceptional.

Exceptional is something different

You need to be different to be exceptional. Thats the first step. You cant do the same old things hoping something exceptional will happen some day. Thats wishful thinking again. You need not be a lady gaga but you can still scratch the surface of being different in the industry that you belong.

Can you be a bit different. Like caring for a customer even post the billing is done. Like implementing what the customer says in his feedback and going back to him and say ‘Hey, Thanks for the feedback. See I have implemented this. Do you like me more?’. Different is challenging the norms. Questioning the assumptions. Trying to swim in waters unexplored

Exceptional is beyond existing

Nothing which is happening currently as a daily chore can be termed exceptional. But at times the same daily chore just executed a little bit more can be exceptional. Smiling more while greeting customers, listening a bit more to junior staff, caring a bit more for the family. You are already doing all this. Just a bit more and Bang! you are exceptional.

Every company cares for its customers. They cant afford to lose them. Customer is their lifeline. Yet there are winners and losers in the same game. The Winners, for the records, Just care a bit more.

Exceptional catches everyone’s eyes

Doing exceptional is just not enough in todays world. You have to club an acknowledgement with it. You need to know that just cooking great food will make no great sense if people dont try it. Having a huge customer base is still not enough if they are not passing the word of mouth.

There are thousands of brands in each product line and a million messages bombarded on the customer. He is a mere mortal! Dont expect him to consider you for your good work. Reach out for him. Let them know that you are doing some exceptional stuff out here.

So ready for something exceptional

Probably we read articles for weird reasons. We have developed this habit of more reading and less implementing. We mistake this for learning. Reading is not learning. Doing is.

At the start of this article all you wanted was to be exceptional. Being exceptional is not a secret formula. Its a simple procedure which requires persistence. To repeat – All you need to do is Do different stuff which is exceptional, Walk the extra mile and than ensure that your target market knows that you are exceptional. You just need to do these things period.

As I lay back on my bed I read the below lines I wrote long back on the whiteboard front of me

Knowing is not enough, you need to apply it.
Willing is not enough, you need to do it.
- Bruce Lee

Now go ahead and be exceptional ! We will catch up next in 2012.. Happy holidays till then.Similar Posts:

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Companies thrive because of their people. The brains behind their awesome products and the hands behind their indefatigable services. While every company, as it grows bigger, tends to grow complex there are times when we just follow suite and not try to see things in the real light.

This is kind of a personal post. What I intend is not to malign any person or department but highlight how futile our system has become. As titled I would like to present what will I kill, if I have to remove one complete department from every company on this planet. Sounds pretty freaking but I derive this from my experience of a decade working in companies with a strength ranging from 2 to 200,000.

So who are we going to kill and Why?

Lets cut the crap. I am steadfast behind killing the HR department. Yes, you got me right. The Human resource department which works day and night for employee satisfaction. The ones who are responsible for the internal customers welfare.

I personally believe the HR department as a concept is fantastic on paper. You grow your employee base, you want someone to manage this team well and bang you have the HR guys. This is far away from reality. While HR execs are supposed to help us during troubled times (who needs a help when happy?) It is us who restrict this from happening.

What help does an Employee require

An employee struggles hard to fulfill his or her duties to the organization. In return she demands a competitive pay (To start with). Things like raise in salary – to leaves – to culture; all come under purview of the HR. While we would be happy to get this resolved by anyone who can, these issues are like dinosaurs and require good strength to be tamed.

Do HR execs have any strenght of their own?

During recession can an HR guy decide who shouldn’t be fired from the team? Can a HR come forth and say that while the whole organization gets a 10% hike Mr X has slogged a lot and is worth 20% ? These questions might seem stupid but every other employee has such doubts which the HR execs can never help with.

So what can they do? Like a pre-fed sluggish Windows program they can dig up data and tell you what procedure you need to follow. They can help you by mugging up a rule book. “If you complete x number of years you are worth a promotion” Says the HR guy. In no ways can you defy this rule. Your case cant even move beyond the HR. Wait. So are we saing no promotion? No, absolutely not. Wait for a critical period, than quit the organization. If you are of any worth to the company, all of a sudden you will be with a team of decision makers. Even if they do not completely agree to your credibility they will still try to settle your case on top priority!

What the HR couldnt do in ages, a manager does in seconds.

So what needs to be done in a real world

Remember the quote from the movie Spiderman – “With great power comes great responsibilities”. I dont see the above complaints as a problem with the HR. It is a problem with the system. An HR exec is devoid of any power but has to deliver on her responsibilities. This is lame.

All we are left is with 2 options:

1. Either the HR gets more power to act rather than just coordinate in futile ways.
2. Or every manager gets the role of an HR. A manager is responsible for employees satisfaction

I am very much in favor of the second option. An HR exec can still work with the managers, but more as HR secretaries rather than HR Managers. This seems bad, but it does good to all. This is the way the business world is functioning till date. Its time that we formalize this reality.

There will always be issues between 2 parties. The employer – employee, team mates or customer. An HR can work well as a mediator to resolve conflicts. But that requires credibility. It requires power, which unfortunately the system doesnt give to the HR.

Finally we work for managers. How can they run away from our satisfaction, our aspiration and our corporate life just by replacing all this with a talking rule book – the HR.Similar Posts:

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Steve Jobs and David Ogilvy - The Masters in their Art

Many of us have weird definitions of Marketing and Sales with our own sweet little understanding. This post is not about what I think Marketing or a Sales process has to be. It is something beyond what we already assume.

Have you seen ads on TV? Dumb question. Which one of these ads is creative as per you? Think one or two of them which you can recall. Do you believe if a man in flesh and bones just like you makes this creative, he still might go wrong in understanding what the masses will feel about the creative? You bet.

Hence I tried getting a different take on this. A couple of years back I read the following quote by the Master David Ogilvy, the father of advertising,  regarding what is a creative -

If it doesn’t sell it isn’t creative

This kind of stuck in my head. So much of common sense yet known to the least. We have our definitions of what can be called creative but every creative has a purpose (doesn’t it?). Incase if it doesnt meet the purpose (of selling the products) will you even give a damn whether it is creative or not? So the litmus test of your definition as per David Ogilvy has to be – What purpose does it serve?

The same thought works for the purpose of Sales and Marketing. For us Sales (and unfortunately at times Marketing!) starts when the product is ready to be sold. You never thought who will shell money on your product while you were building it. You were just busy making a product which you thought an ‘ideal’ customer will buy. Ideal here, is actually your alter ego which assumes whatever you do is kickass. This is seldom true. That is not how sales or Marketing of a product is supposed to be.

Lets talk examples

Have you ever questioned what the mileage / fuel conomy of a Mercedes is? It just doesn’t matter.

Do you think iPhone has a feature that is nowhere replicated and people are dying without it? NO!

Still these products sell like hot cakes. As the nice tagline says -

If you don’t have an iPhone you just don’t have an iPhone!

In terms of language this sentence makes no sense to me. However from a Marketing point of view, this stuff is kickass. You product is not just a product. It’s a Brand. You become the benchmark people compare to. That is a marketer’s paradise

So what your Sales guy needs to do today

With the above background it is quite clear that Sales is not just about selling the product. Nor does it end once the sale is made. A sale is just a form of communication. Few lines that should stick in the customer’s mind. Every time you window shop mobiles you should say XYZ is a great phone but an iPhone is an iPhone.

Steve Jobs was a classic sales man I have seen. He always used the right adjectives, the right pauses and the right jabs. Made you think. Allowed the message to just sink in. It sounded as if – If you don’t buy his stuff you are really missing something. You buy and even though the money is gone out of the pocket, you still love the product. The pain of separation from your hard earned money becomes pride of owning an iPhone.

The Sales pitch remains in the mind. You believe you are having the most wonderful experience a device can give you. You OWN it! And then reach out to share a word about it.

You push more Sales for the company. You do their marketing – free of cost.

Re-craft your Sales and Marketing

Don’t you remember the chocolate candy advertisement where loads of chocolate syrup falls smoooooooothly like silk in a milk jar full of crunchy cashews. Every time you have a bite of the chocolate the picture is triggered in your mind. That’s the kind of magic the David’s of marketing create. The chocolate is tasty but the taste along with this picture in your mind makes it delicious. That is how marketing for epic products is done.

Don’t say your product belongs to a category. Proclaim a category of your own. Steve Jobs did the same with every single gadget he invented.

You make your chocolate taste good. Marketing and Sales make it delicious. Irresistible.

Your Sales pitch or your Marketing pitch or your brochure is not a tool to sell more products. It is a feature of your product. It augments the product, its perception and your brand.

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Whether you are Interviewing candidates for your company, project, charity or Startup you always tend to get mixed results. While some might seem more proficient in work, they might not score in academics. While some might answer almost all your questions confidently, you still have a hunch that this candidate might not be the right one for your startup?

Hunches and gut feels like these are common. Recruiting someone for your company is a responsible job. Not only will the candidate get paid by the organization, he will also form part of defining your organization’s or teams culture.

Its quite unfortunate to note that while the interviewee is always ready and arrives with his homework done; the interviewer on the other side (you) hardly do any homework before starting the interview. In this post we will analyze some nice interview questions that I ask along with my team to differentiate good candidates from the rest. Do note all these ninja techniques are not just mine, this is a process that evolved interviewing with other smart brains.

The Litmus Interview questions

I call all these interview questions as litmus questions. They easily show a red signal if something is fishy. Without much of a jab lets head over to what they are?

Hands on questions

In case if you want to evaluate a candidate in under 15 minutes this question is your best bet. Normally interview questions are based on the knowledge the person has or the kind of work the person has done. Unfortunately both can be faked. You can learn much about the kind of questions asked and you can even make a fake story of your experience. The best bet then is to first ask a lighter question (where answer can be faked) then start drilling down the rabbit hole with a few hands on questions

In our interviews we often ask questions that software developers can easily crack based on a regular google search they might have done. The trick is if he reads such pages – So can I! Once I understand that the answer given matches quite well with what I read online I start digging deeper. 80% of the bozos get trapped in this because they dont get sense out of the answer they just mug up.

Think more question

These are the type of questions to ask people who are super clear with their basics. Every one knows simpler solutions that are assumed to be asked in an interview. Say a simple stuff like calculating the number of followers on twitter, or doing a bank transfer. Once they answer this, give them difficult or weird situations. Ask them to ‘Think more deeply’ to answer. These questions help gauge the analytical ability and creative prowess of the individual.

Be clear that you don’t expect them to answer the question precisely. What you do expect the candidate is to come up with as much options as possible.

Challenge thy ego question

Once I know that the candidate is quite good to get selected I add this torture. Ego bashing can be a fun game. See where the interviewee starts feeling uncomfortable. Where does he give up. Calculate his tenacity and wit at this level. Ask questions about his previous experience that actually tries to demean to some extent. How do they take this ? Tell them the solution they provided to questions you asked was outright foolish. See what to they do. Argue ? Give up? or Seek clarification?

In my industry more than aptitude, attitude is what matters the most.

What will you do type of questions

So the candidate seems to be a gem. Right knowledge, right attitude. However the problems at times is that either he/she is not aware of your industry or has the technical prowess developed in similar skills but a different domain. Here you can ask them questions about issues they will actually face once they are on board with you. Things like What will you do if….

Again this resemble to the think more options as discussed above, the question is intended to give him a feeler of how life would be once they come on board. It also makes you understand how life would be when the interviewee joins your team

What do you know about us – question (and what do you want to know about us questions)

This ones a very typical of what people ask. More than the interviewee, the interviewer is just killing time here. Do ask this question; but do listen to what they have to share. Its common sense that they will praise your startup, company or charity while answering this question. Ask them to reason this. Ask them to talk factual data. Note from where did he get the information ? Is he referring just common understanding available in the market ? Or is he digging into your companies financial docs ?

Another important thing is what does he want to know more about the company. This is important. He she denies asking, or asks about how the interview was? Stop her and push her to ask about the company. We always tend to ask things that matter to us. This trick will let you know what matters to them. What are they pursuing? Gives you a good understanding whether the candidate fits in your culture.

Hope all of these Ninja Tricks for generating Startup Interview questions did help you out. I am sure this will help you get a real good resource for whatever venture you are interviewing (unless the resource too is a BizDharma reader). Do take all the advice with a pinch of salt and next time when you interview a candidate do some homework first. Its not just good to do, its your duty !

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I believe there has been a sudden vacuum created with the untimely demise of a great legend – Steve Jobs. This vacuum can only be filled with a few more crazy ones. People/Startups who prefer not to play around with the rules as a captain, but rather change the game as a pirate.

Another strange incidence that happened was a sudden down pour of articles on how Steve inspired and changed the way people work. I agree to a few of them, not all. The disagreement is not to doubt about what Steve gave us, but this disagreement relates to our capability of taking and utilizing a mindset that Steve had.

Its easier to read a book, be inspired and say Wow! This has changed the way I think. It’s rather difficult to really change your actions from the learning. I believe rather than adding one more article in the huge pile of what I learnt (learned if you are in the US) from Steve Jobs, i would rather prefer to highlight what I plan to do. Because to do is greater than to learn.

5 promises that every enterprising individual like you and me should make to this legend Steve Jobs!

i Will never sell myself cheap

We have this innate ability to mimic any fancy thing that we see. I believe it just justifies our evolution from monkeys. We however do realize that we need to differentiate in some aspect to create an identity. So all we have learnt is to rip off other businesses and just say I am same as (insert your inspiration company/product here) BUT I am cheaper!

Being cheap is a crime. To start – it seems as if you will drill your market share. But in the long run, you actually kill the market itself! No one gets a share when there is no market in existence. Don’t sell yourself cheap. Charge a bloody premium and then give a service so that the customer differentiates what is a class and what is mass.

i Will add value that just blows off the users mind

Steve jobs was enterprising and Apple, a HUGE startup. One of the favorite Steve Jobs quotes that I liked was -

My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better.

Being easy is being similar to the receiver. To empathize. This is not a good way to differentiate. You can’t make better things by always building upon stuff which is always there. At times you need radical changes. And though adding value and being radical may sound as a huge task it might really not be that difficult. You need to step back and look at the situation and just humbly ask yourself (as Steve did) – There will be a better way to do this… It is then that you start adding value to a place which immediately seems like a huge gap in the overcrowded market

i Will always deliver a fantastic experience

Steve redefined everything into one word ‘experience’. Think about it. From luxury cars to a basic meal the only common thing that you consume is – ‘experience’ and Steve mastered that very well. Whether it is about the slick iOS interface, the looks of a Mac or the presentation style of Steve Jobs. He understood what an experience is and knew inside out how to make it sheer awesome.

As Startups we get immense benefit of adapting to the users requirement. Enough opportunities to interact. Even as professionals we often shake hands more number of times than we inhale. Every moment is a part of the experience that we provide. Are we capitalizing enough on it? What can be done to differentiate how the consumer experiences our service?

i Will Design products and make it worth more than others think

I could have clubbed this thought with the point about experience; but talking about Steve and not acknowledging the Design and aesthetics that he brought to the consumer durables industry would be a crime. However, even before talking about Design we need to understand what it actually is. I believe Steve’s definition was way better than what a design school teaches -

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service

Steve knew that as (normal) human beings we not only understand but connect well to simple things. Design of a product works much more than just a differentiator. It can redefine the whole product and even the whole category itself.

i Will have an eye for details and be bold

Design, Experience, Awesomeness all seems good to achieve targets but none can be achieved without getting down and dirty with the product. You need to get into details and yet not forget the bigger picture. And when you get into details the biggest challenge is decision making. This happens every single second.

People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.

Be Bold enough to make the right choices

It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much.

It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them

i Won’t be a captain when I can be a pirate

The most important part is having Fun. Fun not in the way we perceive it today. Fun is in living the way you actually want to live. Fun is taking bold decisions. Fun is being on your face.

Shouldn’t Steve donate more money? Shouldn’t I be allowed to sync with more devices? Shouldn’t this and Shouldn’t that?

All the questions and piercing headlines together couldn’t move the man an inch away from his ideology. And he sold each and every product that he made. That is fun! Thats what I understand as to be a pirate.

Starting up. Selling deals. Executing Projects. Changing the world. All can either be a root cause of stress or be a life altering experience, only if we want it to be that way.

I believe Steve has touched your lives in a million ways but more important are those 1 or 2 traits that you will imbibe in yourself. Which one are these?Similar Posts:

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After too much bantering on and then agreeging to sudden social media success stories we now have agreed that social media has come of age. It is successful. People can sell stuff and build businesses via Social Media. The next immediate question that comes is HOW? And like Math there are too many ways to resolve this, a quick one is the recently launched http://timeu.se

What is TimeU.se and what can it do

TimeU.se or timeuse to be simple, is a project developed by Scott Golder, a graduate student in the Social Dynamics Lab in the Department of Sociology at Cornell University. What this tool does (or rather did) is record millions of public tweets, analyzed them and the data collected is now open to the whole world.

So what’s the big deal about this?

Simple you can fire queries on their dataset (I mean peekaboo into the data) and know when was a certain thing talked about a lot? I mean when do people said that they need help in xyz area, or when did people talked (tweeted) about their cool new gadget.

Will this information help my business?

Heck. Absolutely. You need to read this why twitter is better than google for your business. You need to know what people are demaning and just go ahead and fill their demands. This tool helps you to know when are such demands made. I mean, why not fish when there are enough fishes ready to get trapped rather than fishing in a dead pond.

Ok I got all that now …

Show me the money

Ok so now we boil down to the cream. Simple Question.

When will people talk about Breakfast the most?

Huh In the morning dodo.

Right.

And when do they talk about the iphone most? iphone apps? Or probably when do they want help from your buiness expertise the most? Are they open to discuss about insurance on weekends? Will they ask for a lawyer post leaving offices? Can you pitch a cheaper mobile plan or health insurance during Sunday afternoon? All this very much depends on when are the customer’s thinking about all these things and thats where this tool is a gem.

Here are some simple queries

Ready to rock the Apple App Store. Or making a dedicated app for the ipad. You Want to know who is talking iPads. Well the best days are Wednesday and Thursday. See the clear and HUGE difference. Some might be asking for help, some reviewing apps and others have a hell lot to talk about the iPad. So if your business revolves around iPad (apps, games, covers, protectors, accessories or even insurance) make sure you are active and all ears on Wednesday and Thursday.

So these kind of insights can popup. Wanna know more here are few interesting facts that I pulled up

• Android apps are very popular during late nights or early mornings Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
• 4-8 pm daily is the zone when people talk pizzazz. Do you have a deal ?
• Though common sense but proves the point – Burger is required during 11 am – 2 pm and between 5 – 7 pm.
• People talk about lenovo products during late nights or early mornings only

lenovo statistics on twitter

pizza stats

Hope you get all of this and there is a catch

Yup yup I know that you knew there is a catch. This data is not super recent or hot. The data might not help you if your query is of a brand, or product which is quite recent. But I highly doubt whether last year people wanted an accountant on a specific time and this year it will be different.

What you can pull is open to your imagination. I guess smarties have already started analyzing happy-sad swings basis this data!

The point was not to just present this site. The point was to clearly show where social networking sites meets your business bottomline.

So what are you waiting for, go enjoy and try to pull as interesting analytics as possible.Similar Posts:

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The next billion business ideas

So you have a dot com !

Starting a business is more art than science. While you may know what to do (and what not to do) to convert your dreams into reality; guaranteeing success beforehand will still not be possible in any case whatsoever. Ignore even one crucial factor and your business starts heading towards doom. Understanding entry barriers to a business is very important. IT / Internet or the dot com plays a nice deceiver here. You think you have a great idea for the next big facebook and bang you are already on your way to failure.

Your dot com will doom. Here’s why

As a startup volunteer I meet many startups with great sparks. Each one of them thinks that their idea is unique and they will really crush it online. While a unique idea which solves a pressing pain is a sure recipe for success, it still is just half baked cake. Your web app, mobile app or whatever platform you develop an app for is not just about you, your team skills or your ideas. Its not about your customers and thats where IT geeks take the biggest plunge.

You might mash up the google maps api with amazon books and sprinkle over it a few authority tweets, but the real value add in all this will not be the app but your understanding of the consumer!

Let me explain with a clear example

For you this might be an example but for me its a story I listen from every alternate startup. The entrepreneur has some good contacts from where he can source products for cheap. He builds a nice ecommerce portal and promises cheapest prices possible. Bang! you have a million dollar e-commerce portal in the making. Right? No… Wrong! Absolutely wrong!

Even if you will provide me an iPad for 50 bucks, still you wont be able to sustain your startup. And this is true for any dot com. What you need to know is everything about one person – Your customer

From Googles to Amazons the story will always remain the same. Customer expertise comes first.

Some of the most successful businesses were launched by people who had a clear and strong problems. They were desperate to solve it. They did and they won!

Why do we pay more for the same product

Dont we pay more money for the same product we can get cheap. At first this sounds foolish but we all do this. A better hotel, a better quality food or a good looking outfit is something we can all differentiate on. But if the same product is available on some unknown site for a few bucks less than Amazon, who will you chose? Every one can make a twitter app right? but can you scale it to the levels Twitter has actually scaled to?

Why are these successful companies charging us more? There is a reason to it – They understand – you the customer well and this charge is the fee for the effort that goes in thinking about you first!

The entry barrier in IT

The dot com moguls of tomorrow need to understand this. Your entry barrier is neither technology nor scaling. It is understanding the market. A lone geek in a dorm room hardly understands what the world outside feels like and how to make the connect (exceptions are always there, Mark). So if you get the eureka moment next time, dont jump to create layout of your website. Jump out to meet the customers who have similar problems. Interact with them. Understand how will they react to your solution? Will they pay? How much?

Just getting a piece of software running is not business. Having a wordpress blog doesnt make you an authority. Your customer has the only right to choose you and unfortunately she cant excercise this right on every other business

I read somewhere that customers are like wives. I would say they are smart wives, even before getting into a relation they will ensure that they marry to a product/service which understands them the most. Ready for the marriage?Similar Posts:

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