Himanshu's Blog - Technology, Entrepreneurship & Business

It's a new day, it's a new place

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:48:00 +0000

It has been almost five months since my last blog post. Lots of things have changed now, the good news is that I am now married to Janukin [engagement news here]

In May 2009, I left the startup I was associated with [updates here] and have now relocated to Bangalore. In order to gain some stability, I have again rejoined Mphasis. The entire post is full of updates i.e Marriage, relocation, job however there is one update which is very important for me[as a blogger and for you as an end-user i.e my loyal readers].

The content of this blog is now moved to my new domain http://blog.himanshusheth.net [which is using Wordpress and the theme is developed by V.V.K Chandra [again our contact happened through this blog, not to mention "He has done a phenomenal job to design a simple & sleek theme"]. I am sure, before you move to the new destination; you would want to be connected to this blog, so go ahead and update your feeds:

Subscribe via Reader [Courtesy- Feedburner]

http://feeds.feedburner.com/hjsstartupblog

Subscribe via Email/Twitter etc. [Courtesy- Feedblitz]
http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=642472

Let's get started ...

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:07:00 +0000

How many times, we feel like talking to someone but can't even take the first step. It starts with "How to approach" and once you approach "How you build a meaningful conversation". If the conversation goes like flowing water, than it is of no worry but if it does not, "the onus lies on the initiator to transform a talk into a conversation".

I had an interesting experience during my association with a startup where we handed over free gift to each person who helped testing our product. The free gift was definitely priceless for us since it would help us to spread our word [as our name was printed on the gift] but very few people noticed it. That is where each one of us started interacting with every person during the testing process[spending an extra minute or so] to explain about our product and startup through the "name" which was printed on the freebie.

It is a universal truth that "Pictures speak louder than words" and to demonstrate that we have this Twitter T-Shirt[which I ordered months back] from Pringoo

The T-Shirt contains my Twitter profile and 400 of my randomly selected followers. It is an excellent marketing tool [much more than just putting your company's name on it]. These are some of the basic things it does :

Effective story telling
As Seth Godin points out that Great story telling should capture the imagination of the audience. This is what the T-Shirt does perfectly. It not only eye catchy but also makes a person to craft his/her own story around the picture. This curiosity makes him/her to clarify whether the guess was right !!!

Starting a conversation
As pointed in the beginning, this is a great tool to make up a conversation. I was travelling in a bus and a guy came to me asking "Is this your Twitter profile" and at the end of it, we exchanged business cards and got connected elsewhere. That person was curious to know "Not only about Twitter but also about the other guys pictured on the T-Shirt"

Popularity of your service
In this case, the T Shirt was spreading the word of Twitter & to build my own brand [IMHO having 400+ followers is no big joke ]. What if your service had more than XYZ followers and you randomly selected first ABC & got them printed on some medium. It would definitely help spread the word much much faster !!! Even better would be if this was handed over as a gift to some lucky user of your service.

This is just one example of so called "great story teller". May be next time when you hand over a freebie, the first question that should come to your mind is "Whether it would help build a talk or conversation" !!!

If you have any other thoughts about the Twitter picture, do share them by leaving a comment & the same would be included in the article.

Book Review - Entrepreneur Journeys : Bootstrapping, weapon of Mass Reconstruction

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:50:00 +0000

Earlier on ThoughtsPrevail; we reviewed Sramana Mitra's book Entrepreneur Journeys-Volume I here & here, in this article we review her book Entrepreneur Journey's [BootStrapping : Weapon of Mass Reconstruction]

Like her previous book, Sramana follows the same format where she interviews successful entrepreneurs however this time around they are the ones who have successfully bootstrapped their business. The interviews provide vital answers as to whether a startup really needs VC funding or it can be entirely bootstrapped. It also gives some insights into why mentorship is so important for any startup.

Notably the book includes interviews of the so called sultans of blogosphere-Om Malik of GigaOm and Rafat Ali of paidContent [which was acquired by Guardian for $30M].

Though there are many inspiring interviews, the only downside of the book was that the focus was mainly on US based startups but this does not take away the core message delivered through the book i.e "How to bootstrap a business"

Some of the useful tips from the bootstrappers interviewed in the book are given below -

Greg Gianforte, RightNow

Find an entrepreneurial mentor, and if you are going to bootstrap, find a mentor who has already bootstrapped a business
Bootstrapping is a discovery process. Rather than building an ark, waiting for animals to come, and hoping the tide rises-you take an incremental approach and discover a legitimate, real world value proposition.

Cree Lawson, Travel Ad Network

Nothing is more expensive for a business on a personal and financial level than client and customer churn.
The right relationship with an experienced operator is more important than the valuation you can achieve in fund raising.

Beatrice Tarka, Mobissimo

You can have the best technology and the best product on the market, but without good team chemistry your business will fail.

Om Malik, GigaOM

I think that a lot of people do things for money, and it's the stupidest thing we can do for ourselves. Everybody thinks money is the answer, but it is not. What made me tick was writing; that's what I was born to do. How can you ignore your natural animal instinct ?
A lot of people make the mistake that when they outsource, they outsource it all. The reality is you outsource the physical function of it, but not the mental piece.

Rafat Ali, paidContent

The thing about email newsletters, which is still true today, is that you have a viral presence in somebody's inbox day in and day out.
I learnt that when you start a company, you need to spend money on keeping the books in order.

J.R. Johnson, VirtualTourist

We always knew that in the worst-case scenario, we could go into the cockroach mode and just hide out in the dark for a while and let the content grow.

Guillaume Cohen, Veodia

One of the biggest experiences for me, as a first-time CEO, is bringing in smart people who are much better than I am in their fields, then staying out of their way.

Wayne Krause, Hydro Green Energy

I remember seeing National Geographic drawing of a big ocean device to create energy, and I kept thinking that there had to be a way to make energy out of those waves. That's how it started.

Scott Wainner, SysOpt & ResellerRatings

For me, being an entrepreneur is so much trial and error that I would rather make the mistakes in the lower dollar range than at the Super Bowl advertising level.

Ramu Yalamanchi, Hi5

No matter how many businesses you start, it just takes one successful business to make up for all the other attempts.
If you are going to build a service and it has a good chance of becoming very popular, make sure you address the scale needs up first.

Murli Thirumale, Ocarina

Everybody who tried our product wanted it. All we had to do was get into the taste test.
A lot of startups are based on hypothesis- they build something and start interacting with customers, but they never verify it. What they are doing is rationalizing the hypothesis rather than evaluating & verifying it.

Manoj Saxena, Webify

If you raise a lot of money, you are leveraging the hell out of yourself. And you probably have a lot of people wanting to grab the steering wheel if things don't go right.
A Lead User is typically a person who has such a strong need or pain that they go out and build something on their own to solve the pain.

Lars Dalgaard, SuccessFactors

I didn't care about the title; I cared about the learning.

In few words, it is an interesting as well as inspiring read for Entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping or wannabe entrepreneurs thinking of bootstrapping.Let's wait to see what Sramana has to offer in her Volume-III !!!

Marketing in Rural India

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:14:00 +0000

Few days back, I just had a short chat with one of the co-founders of an IIM-A's Iaccelerator startup and our conversation diverted to an article that was published in Outlook Business. The article tells about how a simple SMS is helping the Indian farmers plan their farming better and in turn helping them generate more profits.

Just came across a very insightful presentation which talks about why rural India is so important & how one can tap the rural market. The most interesting point from the presentation is the statistics about Rediffmail -

Out of 20 million Rediffmail signups, 60% are from small towns. 50% transactions from these towns on Rediff shopping site.

Gogola : Because it's not Google

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:06:00 +0000

Last week, I was holidaying in my home place - Mumbai and we went out shopping for my marriage which is due on 23rd November, 2009. We were shopping at Bandra which is considered as a very posh place & there we can across a small chat [चाट] outlet. With the scare of swine flu, customers normally avoid from going to such places and this is where it becomes important for the shop owners to win back the customers confidence.

But what if, we use a household name to brand our small product. This is what MIGHT make the customer to purchase & use the product. And the chat outlet did exactly the same. The brand which was used was none other than Google and the product - Gola [गोला] was named Gogola, some interesting pictures below:

Considering that Internet explorer is the most widely used browser in India, using it effectively would be considered as "Another feather in their cap". Just like the glass, the menu card was also shown in a very geeky manner in an IE window [picture below]:

I had a chat with the shop owner and he told that "They came out with this strategy mainly to get customer's confidence" and as Google & Microsoft are household names[no matter you use them or not, but you definitely know them] using them ignites a spark in the customer's mind. This trust indirectly builds the Gogola brand.

This is a lesson from a small time shop owner on "How a product can become a brand, sometimes by smartly re-modeling an existing brand".

WOM is very important for startups - Amarjit Batra, OLX India

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:50:00 +0000

In the previous article, we spoke to Amarjit Batra, country manager of OLX India on OLX, Marketing, Online Classifieds etc. In this episode; we speak to him on Web, Startups, Entrepreneurship. Hope you enjoy the interview.

What are some of the Web 2.0 features that OLX promises to it's users ?
OLX is a Web 2.0 product and users can easily design rich colorful listings with pictures and videos and display their listings on their social networking profile [Facebook, Myspace].Some of the features that make us different from others are:

100% free (forever) even in jobs and real estate
Ability to include videos and pictures in listings
A city, neighborhood and zip code database so the entire country is covered and not just pre-selected cities
Ajax "WYSIWYG" rich-text editor for richer listings
Ability to comment on listings to create a stronger community
Advanced search functions with sliders allowing searches at variable regional settings
A distance field allowing you to see postings near your zip code wherever possible
Ability to post listings in any language in any country
Ability to view the site in any country in any language
Global reach
Mobile version: The mobile version http://m.olx.in is unique as one can do everything that can be done on the web

Currently OLX is only in English, do you plan to release for other Indian languages considering the penetration of internet in India ?
Actually, we are present in English and Hindi as of today. You can check the Hindi site at http://www.olx.in/hi Going by the India Internet reports, it is evident that local language consumption on internet is on the rise and could possibly drive the future penetration of Internet in the country. We would like to gain some traction in Hindi before launching other Indian languages in the country.

There is strong likelihood that local languages consumption would be driven by Mobile internet. OLX site is already accessible on the Mobile through our WAP offerings http://m.olx.in and having other local languages on mobile would help.

During this time of recession, one important thing is Cutting/Managing Costs? How is OLX doing the same ?
OLX is a 3.5 years old company. By the nature of our business model, we are very scalable and have a lean team of 125 people managing our sites in 90 countries.

Keeping the recession in mind, we are focusing on efficiency and optimizing spends. Business wise, we are in a growth phase and we have been busy expanding our footprint across the globe. Therefore, we do not shy away from spending if the opportunity is good.

Where do you see OLX from 3-5 years down the line ?
In 3-5 years, OLX should emerge as the preferred destination and a strong brand in most markets where we are focused. We will continue to innovate and provide the best classifieds experience to our millions of users and hope to become the largest classifieds site in the world.

Can you share some tips for the budding Entrepreneurs ?
I feel budding entrepreneurs should look at the following before getting into a start up

Are they really passionate with the idea and willing to commit long term to making it succeed?
Who are they going to work with? It’s important that the core team is experienced and have complementary skills. Even the VC’s prefer ‘a good team with an average idea’ to ‘an average team with a good idea’.
Entrepreneurs should be clear about their business model and have a monetization plan in place, even if the initial phase is experimental and does not fetch any revenues
Flexibility and adaptability are traits that could differentiate between successful and failed start ups. Sometimes start ups struggle initially but adapt and tweak the model to the market conditions to succeed.
Keep experimenting new ideas or new ways and
Always ask your network of friends and acquaintances for support or ideas. Do not underestimate the strength of the weak ties.

How important is marketing aspect in Web startup & can you share some tips with us ?
Marketing is important but considering that most web start ups are constrained with cash, one cannot expect to spend huge sums on marketing campaigns.

Marketing tools that work best for a web start up would be SEO, Partnerships & Alliances, promotions, social media marketing and community driven marketing. SEM should be also be considered depending on the marketing budget.

A good product acts as a marketing tool too. The word of mouth from users takes over the job of marketing and most successful web companies have been built this way.

Where do you see the Future of Web, since Mobile & Web [Real Time Web] are converging ?
I believe that the Future of Web is mobile. It’s much more personal, convenient and accessible 24/7 and mobile is surpassing the PC penetration in most developing economies. 3G accessibility, smart phones pricing and penetration will play a key role in translating this potential into a reality. The dynamics of this market should change two to three years from today.

When do you feel is the right stage an Entrepreneur should approach a VC for funding ?
An Entrepreneur should approach the VC for funding when most of these conditions have been met

The Company has been incorporated and business has been launched
The Founding team is in place, but there is a need for addition of talent in senior and middle management to set up the team for the next phase
The business model has been tested with the first set of clients or markets and the expansion needs cash infusion
Business needs to build the critical mass quickly to get the first mover advantage, or is in a situation where the barriers to entry are low
Have the business plan in place for the next three to five years and the execution of the plan requires capital or manpower

In some cases, the Entrepreneur can get funding at start of the venture. This is most likely in cases when the Entrepreneur has proven experience or the business model or sector excites the VC to take the initial risk. These cases are few in number, so it’s better if the entrepreneur is prepared to rough it out on their own for the initial phase of six months to a year.

Final parting words...
I would like to share a Les Brown quote I really like

"Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars"

Print classifieds will eventually die - Amarjit Batra, OLX India

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Online classifieds has been a growing business and is expected to grow 100% YOY. Be it marriage, Real Estate etc, all of use either of these services in day to day life. In this article, we speak to Amarjit Batra, Country manager of OLX,India which is 100% FREE classifieds site.

The interview is divided into two parts, with this one focusing on OLX, Online Classifieds, Marketing etc.

Before starting off, can you give a small pitch about yourself & OLX ?
OLX is a next generation classifieds site present in 90 countries and 39 languages. We are present in India on web http://www.olx.in as well as mobile http://m.olx.in. There is an option to use OLX India site in English as well as Hindi. We are live in most Indian cities and we already have users from 900+ cities in India. OLX is 100% free to search, list and transact. We have all the key classifieds categories like Jobs, Real Estate, Cars, For Sale, Matrimonial, Services, Education and Community. OLX has integrated many Web2.0 features to the product and we aspire to be good in every vertical.

I have been in the internet space in India for the last nine years and am a strong believer in the online marketplace model. India is an important market for OLX, and I hope that we can make a difference to the lives of the Indian populace through our Free Classifieds site. I am delighted to be a part of the OLX Global Classifieds team and join them in this exciting journey.

How big is the estimated classifieds market in India ?
India is young classifieds market, but there is a lot of potential. As per estimates, the size of the online market is Rs. 800 to 900 crores.

How different is OLX from other competitors like Sulekha, Sify Classifieds etc.
First of all, we are a free site. Yes 100% free! And we want to keep our core site free forever. Our major difference with vertical category sites is that we are present in many categories- Jobs, Real Estate, Vehicles, Matrimonial [only in India], For Sale, Services, Classes, and Community.

Being a local site, we are today present in all major cities in India, whereas the rest of the sites are focusing on few cities only. The other key differentiating factor is a user friendly mobile version of the site http://m.olx.in on which one can do everything that can be done on the web version. We are also present in other languages like Hindi http://www.olx.in/hi/ that gives us a wider reach.

Being a Web2.0 product, users can easily design rich colorful listings with pictures and videos and display their listings on their social networking profile [Facebook, Myspace etc... ]

Unlike others, we are a global classifieds site network with a local presence in India. Being present in 90 countries and 39 languages gives us an international reach and we do continuous improvements on our product and features.

OLX has presence in many countries, how different is the Indian market from market in US/elsewhere ?
Indian online classifieds market is quite different from US, primarily in two ways.

Online classifieds in India have grown through vertical sites in jobs, real estate and matrimonial unlike US where the biggest classifieds site is Craigslist, a horizontal site.
US online market has been the harbinger to the shift from print classifieds to online classifieds and it’s been happening in huge way recently with many print dailies getting out of business. Contrarily to the US and Western Europe, the newspapers in India are still growing in circulation. As a result the print classifieds is also growing.

The online classifieds industry will eventually cross the print classifieds through the sheer reach, flexibility, cost effectiveness and ease of use for both advertisers and searchers, but it will take some time.

India is difficult to cover by a single medium or a single language. It was print earlier, but Internet has shown a good growth recently and mobile is going to become important in the future. Similarly, English readership is limited in our country and to fully cover the market, local language options would become increasingly important.

You have worked with EBay(India) & other B2B,B2C based companies ..What changes have you seen in the market since that time ?
Internet has changed the way we search and buy products and services. The online transactions in India might not be huge today, but the search starts on the internet for a lot of us. With Mobile internet gaining popularity a lot more people will exposed to Internet.

In the last few years, the online classifieds market has evolved in many ways. I have seen the following trends in the Indian market:

Increased awareness and preference for online classifieds. There has been a increased awareness among the internet users now, whereas earlier, a lot of time and effort was being spent by online classifieds players in educating consumers and businesses on the benefits of using classifieds.
Rise of the Horizontal Classifieds Sites. The market is moving from vertical category sites to horizontal category sites. Even the players who were earlier in one category have launched other verticals or their own horizontal sites
New categories becoming relevant online. Jobs, Real Estate and Matrimonial have been the top draw categories and continue to remain so, but there are other categories like Vehicles (Auto), For Sale (e commerce categories), Services and Classes (Education) that are also driving considerable interest among consumers.
C2C users now have a platform to trade. Online classifieds has been a shot in the arm for C2C transactions in India and filled a huge gap. If you look at US also, C2C was earlier captured by eBay but a lot of it has now shifted to Craigslist. If an individual is looking to sell his car, give his flat for rent or look for paying guest, sell old furniture, offer tutoring services etc, online classifieds is now a preferred option to advertise.
Boon for SME’s. As a country, India is on a growth path and the large numbers of micro and small entrepreneurs starting their businesses or facing the onslaught from competition are increasingly looking at advertising options that are free or low cost. Online classifieds provide them with a local as well as a national reach and it’s free.
Internet is going local. Most trades, transactions and exchanges happen within a city or town and local online classifieds have gained traction since the last few years.
Emergence of the Mobile Internet. Internet penetration in India has been constrained because of broadband and PC penetration where as Mobile penetration has been explosive. People are beginning to realise the ease of access of Internet through their mobiles and in many cases they are having their first exposure to internet through a mobile handset. Online classifieds on Mobile are gradually gaining traction and with the rapidly growing mobile internet users, it could be a large chunk soon.

OLX recently got 5 million funding from Nexus(India) , how difficult is it for startups to raise money at this point of time ?
It’s definitely tougher to get funding nowadays. However, if the team and the idea is good and the initial business results have been demonstrated, I am sure funding would be easier to come.

Craigslist is very dominant in US, how does OLX plan to compete with it's popularity ?
OLX is more popular in markets outside of the US. We are doing quite well in Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Latin American countries and India. In US, we have been encouraged by the response we have got.

Our differentiating factors are that we are focusing on product and business model innovation. Craigslist charges for jobs, real estate and other categories in certain cities, whereas we are 100% free to post and intend to remain free to post. We feel that charging limits the number of ads on the site which is a detriment to the user experience. We want our users to find whatever it is they are looking for.

From a product perspective, we aspire to be as good in every vertical as the best paid vertical sites. Already we have a number of innovations relative to many of our competitors:

We have a fantastic mobile version such as http://m.olx.in reachable from any cell phone.
We allow users to promote their listings automatically on social networks.
We have a rich WYSIWYG editor allowing users to create colorful postings without knowing HTML.
We support photos and videos.
The site is multilingual even within countries with 39 languages supported.
We have powerful search functions in real estate and cars.

If OLX is completely free, what is the revenue model of OLX ?
We are having text ads (currently provided by Google) as the only monetization option. Our core site will always be 100% free. However we have launched 'Featured Listings' in few countries that allows users to get prominent placement on the site. This is certainly a value add to the advertisers, without compromising on the free listings that one can still post. We do not have any immediate plans to introduce this in India.

Our mobile site http://m.olx.in is also completely free for users. The mobile site has a banner or text ad on top and bottom of each page and is monetized through ad networks.

If you have any questions for Amarjit, kindly leave them in the comments and we would add them in the Part (II) of the interview.

What makes a winning CULTURE ....

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:11:00 +0000

There is a general tendency of we humans to compare whatever we can. One thing that gets compared first when someone joins a new company is the "Company Culture". Culture becomes SO very important especially if you are a startup.

Just came across quite an interesting presentation that describes NetFlix's winning culture especially focusing on it's core points which are listed below:

Values are what we value
High performance
Freedom and responsibility
Context, not control
Highly aligned, loosely coupled
Pay top of market
Promotions and Development

As you can see it is more for reading than for presenting; hope you enjoy reading the same.

Thanks to JoeManna for the tweet

Why should you work for a startup

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:39:00 +0000

As an Engineer, all of us wanted to work in companies like Infosys, Wipro, ~~Satyam~~ Mahindra Satyam & many other so called Indian MNCs. However, times seem to have changed now due to accessibility to lot of resources available on the internet & some credit also goes to the change in our mindset. Startups have really become a buzz word & guys don't feel shy that they are now working in a startup !!! In fact, many of them even prefer working in startups than working in MNCs.

As per the recent update in my LinkedIn profile, last 2 years provided me with the best learning(s) in my professional career and it was entirely in startups. In fact, I was thinking of an appropriate title for this article and one which struck me was "Why should you AT LEAST ONCE work in a startup". Each one of us have a reason to do or not to do a thing, so if you are interested to work in startup than the following reasons may help you to decide "Whether you should or should not" ....

Entrepreneurial litmus test
If you aspire to be an entrepreneur, it is very important to work in an early stage startup or should we say "To pass the litmus test". There are MORE ups & downs in a startup which not only teach you to deal with difficulties but also help you understand yourself better. As for me, startups have taught me to survive on less money & also to understand "Whether I can myself startup sometime?". Working in a startup becomes the very first step to look within yourself & say "Can I do it?"...

Relationships Matter
In a startup, it becomes difficult to isolate from the startup community which in turn teaches the Art of Networking. This not only helps to build the startup's brand through WOM but also to network with fellow startup guys. Not to forget relationships inside the office; it is very important to keep best of the relations with every person inside the startup as well since, you cannot stay isolated neither inside nor outside your startup. It is a small world and you never know when you would again work with your colleague

Learn to save[for present & future]
There is a famous one liner "It's all about the money honey". Every person in a startup always hopes for the best but is prepared for the worst.In other words, once you enter the startup arena, the first to do IMHO is to become a bit stingy and keep check on your finances. Hence,a startup would also turn out to be a finance institution !!!

Contribution
If you are a person who is interested in multiple things [being an expert in one], your startup may become "fuel to your interest/passion". Since the barriers are low in a small company, it becomes easy to contribute in multiple areas & prove your passion eg. Engineer with an inclination to marketing can help market the service/product which might be impossible to do in an established company.

ONLY results matter
Big corporations focus on the process along with the results however, startups look out only for results. Hence, if you are a fresher looking out for some interesting work, startup would give you the push-up and later on MNC would give the necessary branding. Startups are less hierarchical and more result focused.

Bootstrapping
As mentioned before, startups help to bring out your other qualities some of which you might have never exploited !!! This helps you master the Art of Bootstrapping. This would become an important step not only when you startup but also when you are in a crisis situation[like the current tumbling economy].May be sometimes, it becomes necessary to be "Jack of ALL trades than be a master of NONE"

If you have some more reasons to share, please leave them in the comments and it would be added to the article.

Book Review : e-Riches 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:13:00 +0000

Few months back, there was a guest article by best-selling author Scott Fox[of Internet Riches fame] on Internet Riches for Indian Entrepreneurs[articles here & here]. This time we review Scott's new book e-Riches 2.0

A short review
Let me start off with one of the best reasons to read the book - "Today your customers are online, even if your business has nothing to do with the Net, computers or Technology. To keep up with the competition, you need to promote what you sell by using the latest online marketing techniques to interact with your customers". This is where e-Riches can help you to use the medium of the internet to establish your brand, make money and outsmart your competitors.

In depth review
It does not matter whether you are a web startup since this book covers a broad range of topics which might be helpful to four kinds of people

A corporate marketer or agency employee
A small business owner or partner
E-business curious and
Worried about your financial future.

In the current economic situation, most of the people can be put under the category[4] and internet can definitely be an alternative source of generating some income. This is where e-Riches 2.0 comes in very handy since it covers the various aspects of Web 2.0 and beyond. Also, even if you are not able to earn online, the book would definitely help you/your business to create an effective brand.

It touches upon the various aspects of the Web namely -

Email marketing
Social Media Marketing
Importance and usage of mediums like Blogs and Microblogs
New online Public Relations[PR] and Promotion tools
Online broadcasting [How to use Video Marketing]
What makes a winning online marketing strategy

Most interesting chapters
Although the entire book was quite interesting to read, few of chapters entered in my favorites category. They are -

Social network marketing
Whether you are Web startup or not, Social Networks have become very important since, all the conversation about your brand is happening there. Many times, I hear that we are not internet-savvy & hence you become unaware about what is being told about you as a person/your company. This is where this chapter comes in handy since it touches upon all the aspects of SN Marketing namely -

Why should you/your startup use Social Networking.
Which Social Networking medium is best for your business.
Strategies for success in Social Networking.
Quick start guide for guys who are new to this medium.

Era of Blogging and Micro-Blogging
Everyone [or should I say most of us] know what is a Blog, but how many of us use the medium effectively.This is where this can be an excellent starting point if you want to use Blogging to reach the right set of people and to promote your business. It explains the Do(s) and Don't(s) of blogging and touches upon each & every corner of the medium.

Microblogging especially Twitter has now proved an effective medium for marketing and the chapter talks on Twitter for Personal use as well as for business use.This complete chapter was a delight to read !!!

Who should read e-Riches 2.0?
If you are already quite acquainted with the Web and the various aspects of Marketing, this book would help you with some important pointers which can be used in your daily routine. However, if you are new to this entire Web arena, e-Riches could turn out to be an excellent starting point of your journey.

What else could it have?
1. The chapter on Twitter could have been a bit more exhaustive and should have included some interesting tweets on how businesses are using that medium. A small Q&A with few business owners could have made a huge difference giving it a more dialogue oriented approach.

2. Though Facebook had a huge mention in the book, Orkut was left far behind. Some more detailed analysis on how Orkut could be used a marketing machine would have been insightful [Note-Orkut is hugely popular in India though Facebook is catching up ...]

My personal learning
It has been long[4.5 years] since I am blogging. I have been thinking of booking my own domain[which would stand as my own brand] but had been delaying for a quite a long time.

After reading Scott's book, I understood personal branding in a much better way & have now registered ThoughtsPrevail

Final Words on e-Riches 2.0
As stated before, it could be an excellent starting point or an excellent resource for detailed reference on some of the activities that you perform on the Web.

My personal thanks to Scott Fox for including my Facebook profile[as his Fan] in his book.Scott, if blogging wouldn't have been there, we wouldn't have connected with each other !!!

Twitter 101 - Twitter for Business

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:02:00 +0000

For those who are looking out to use the medium of Twitter for Business purposes, the wait might just be over.Twitter has released the OFFICIAL guide-Twitter 101.

Below is the officially released guide for business users using Twitter

Case Studies
You can find some interesting case studies here. In case you are looking out for more case studies you can head on to my LinkedIn question[status - closed] here

Related articles
LinkedIn - The Twitter success story
The Twitter success story - Updated

Microsoft expands it's contribution to Open Source

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:14:00 +0000

After Google announced the arrival of it's open source Chrome OS, things are looking quite bright for the open source community. Though Chrome OS would be an excellent competitor not only for existing Linux distributions but also for the upcoming Windows 7, there are many reasons why Microsoft may not worry about the Chrome OS

However, it seems Microsoft is also trying to extend more support to the open source community. Recently, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of Linux code [LOC] to the Kernel community.Below are some of the highlights of the Microsoft release[received via an email from Microsoft's PR group]

Microsoft has released 20,000 lines of Linux code to the Linux kernel community. The code, which includes three Linux device drivers will be available to the Linux Community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008.

In addition to this significant code contribution, Microsoft is also highlighting the ongoing investment the company is making to optimize PHP on Windows Server and the Microsoft SQL Server database system. For additional context regarding Microsoft’s ongoing work with PHP and the Microsoft SQL Server driver for PHP available to support more native features in Microsoft SQL Server 2008, please see the IDC white paper–Microsoft, PHP & Open Source, a Pragmatic Alliance for more information.

These milestones and the motivation behind the work is simple - Microsoft is committed to ensuring interoperability between the Microsoft technology and open source technology to provide the choices our customers are asking for.

Though 20,000 LOC is not a very huge number [considering Microsoft's size], it is good to see Microsoft embracing the open source technology You can read more about it here

Is BMTC missing an opportunity ?

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:06:00 +0000

There is a saying "Nothing in this world is constant except change", on a similar lines there have been lot of changes in Bangalore; some good, some bad. However, one thing that has drastically changed is the "Public Transportation". Remember the days when we only had blue colored BMTC buses but now with the introduction of Volvo buses, Public Transportation has gained momentum. Not to forget with the shift of the international airport to a so called remote place, the obvious choice of most of the Bangaloreans is the famous Vajra bus.

BMTC has done a great job by introducing Volvo buses for the right places and also setting the up the right frequency for the right routes e.g ITPL or Electronics City is a place which is filled with software companies and the frequency of Volvo buses is exceptionally great there !!!

Before writing this article, I interacted with a few people[who travel to ITPL] and most of them preferred BMTC over their own cars/bikes. Apart from the normal ways of generating revenue, there are many other areas where BMTC can look for more revenue:

Brand Promotion

Most of the times, there is FM being played on the radio in the bus but if BMTC manages to tie up with brands, radio can act as a great medium for marketing.It can be used to showcase offers in shopping malls, promote new brands, movies etc. Remember, there is Big Bazaar near ITPL; so this would be much useful in such cases !!!

Job Announcements

After the economy tumbled, many were laid off where some of them landed up in jobs out of no better choice. With Indian economy showing early signs of recovery, Volvo bus would make an excellent tool to showcase jobs again through radio or advertisements inside the bus. To make things better, these advertisements can be geo-targetted like buses from ITPL, Electronics City etc. would ONLY carry those ads.

OOH Advertising

Along with the convenience, the added advantage in Volvo is the additional standing space. The photograph shows the frontal view & there is definitely a big opportunity for Out Of Home advertising. There is space for 2 TVs [one in the frontal entry and other at the back entry]. With OOH growing at 20% annually , this is a big opportunity form BMTC to target the people travelling in the bus.

Photo Credit - Srinidhi Hande

To summarize, BMTC can replicate the Google Adsense model for the Volvo - RIGHT Ads Targeted for the RIGHT routes and obviously for the RIGHT customers !!!

Many of us would be travelling by BMTC buses, hence if you feel there is any other revenue generating opportunity BMTC is missing; please leave them in the comments section & it would be added to the article.

Non business books for Entrepreneurs

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:29:00 +0000

In the past, there have lot of articles mentioning useful books on Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Management etc. Today we have a look at some of the non-business books that would be useful for Entrepreneurs [or we can say for any working professional], let's have a look at them.

[Hat tip : Amber Johnson of Online Universities]

Communication

The Elements of Style: Write and communicate clearly with the help of this book.

The Definitive Book of Body Language: Read this book to learn the essentials of reading and communicating with body language.

Crucial Conversations: This book offers skills that can improve your communication and relationships, as well as prevent arguments and misunderstandings.

You Can Read Anyone: Read this book to find out how to pick up underlying clues from others.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Learn the essentials of punctuation in this humorous book.

Messages: Messages offers a book of communication skills.

Line by Line: This book offers an effective guide to editing your own writing.

Difficult Conversations: Thrive in difficult conversations with the help of this book.

The Lost Art of the Great Speech: Read this book to learn how to write and deliver excellent speeches.

The Art of Talking So That People Will Listen: This book will teach you how to get through to anyone you’re speaking with.

Presentation Zen: In this book, you’ll learn how to make your presentations simple and perfect.

On Speaking Well: Peggy Noonan shares advice and ideas for writing and giving effective speeches.

101 Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills Instantly: Use this book to find methods for communicating more effectively.

Lincoln At Gettysburg: Take a lesson from Lincoln and learn how to improve your communication skills to demand attention.

Grammatically Correct: In this book, you’ll find the definitive guide to correct grammar.

It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It: Follow this book’s advice for communication, presentations, speeches, and more.

Getting to Yes: Read this book to improve your negotiation skills.

Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln: Learn the secrets of effective speakers in history from this book.

The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking: Dale Carnegie shares his knowledge and advice for effective speaking in this book.

Choosing Powerful Words: Develop your eloquence and public speaking with the help of this book.

100 Ways to Improve Your Writing: Use this reference to learn how to become a better writer and communicator.

Great Speeches for Better Speaking: In this book and CD, you’ll be able to listen to and learn from important speeches throughout history.

Guerilla Negotiating: Learn unconventional strategies for getting what you want from this book.

The World’s Great Speeches: Learn communication skills from some of the greatest speeches in the world, found in this book.

Emotional Intelligence: Learn about emotional intelligence from this book and find out why it’s so important.

Leadership

Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World: Get a unique view of leadership, groups, and change in this book.

Developing the Leader Within You: This book offers a useful look at becoming a great leader.

If It Is To Be It’s Up To Me: This book will help you develop the attitude of a true leader.

Primal Leadership: Read this book to learn how you can use emotional intelligence to be a better leader.

The Servant: The Servant offers a look into what’s most important in leadership.

Success

Yes Man: This book will show you how just saying yes more can change your life.

The Fountainhead: Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead offers themes including individual strength and the tug between good and evil.

The Tipping Point: This book explains how ideas, messages, and behaviors can spread like viruses. The Greatest Secret in the World: Og Mandino shares an explanation of his Ten Greatest Scrolls of Success in this book.

The Go Getter: Read this book to learn how to be a go-getter.

Talent is Overrated: Read this book to find out why talent isn’t the most important factor to success.

Our Iceberg is Melting: Read this book to learn how to change and succeed no matter what conditions you’re in.

Think and Grow Rich: Apply the techniques revealed in this book to find lasting success.

The Magic of Thinking Big: Use the methods in this book to think big and conquer your achievements.

The Greatest Miracle in the World: Read Og Mandino’s story to learn secrets of happiness and success.

The 80/20 Principle: The 80/20 Principle shares the secret to being successful with less.

Outliers: Malcolm Gladwell explains why some people succeed, and some fall short.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: In this classic, you’ll learn how to improve your personal effectiveness.

The Lorax: This book by Dr. Seuss shares the dangers of exploiting the Earth.

The Power of Positive Thinking: Use this book to put the power of faith in action.

The Art of Looking Sideways: Learn to deconstruct your preconceived notions with the help of this book.

The Magic of Thinking Big: Use this book’s methods to get the most out of your life and your new venture.

The Secret: Although criticized as unrealistic and irresponsible, this book’s message is a useful one — think positively to improve your life and work.

Atlas Shrugged: Understand the philosophy of objective reasoning through this book.

Influencer: This book will teach you how to change just about anything through influence.

Personal

The Art of Possibility: This self improvement book will help you change your outlook on life and open yourself up to possibilities.

The Da Vinci Method: Use The Da Vinci Method’s advice to learn how to break out of what hinders your greatness.

Living an Extraordinary Life: Read this book to find out how you can live an extraordinary life.

The Art of Happiness: Dalai Lama offers his handbook for living happily.

The Four Agreements: In this book, you will learn about personal freedom.

Nudge: Nudge will help you make better decisions throughout your life.

Transitions: Endure and make the most of changes in life by reading this book.

Awake in the Wild: Use nature as a path to self discovery with the help of this book.

The Alchemist: The Alchemist tells an everyman story of the struggle to pursue your life’s dreams.

Relationships & Personality

How to Win Friends and Influence People: Improve your influential skills using the lessons in this classic book.

Personality Plus: With this book, you’ll gain a better understanding of yourself, and other people as well.

People Skills: Find out how to assert yourself and deal well with others in this book.

Goodbye to Shy: Become more outgoing with the help of these "shybusters."

Groundswell: This book explains how to be successful among social technologies.

The Power of Charm: Read this book, and you’ll learn how to use charm to win people over.

Extraordinary Relationships: This book offers a new way of thinking about human interactions.

How to Talk to Anyone: Learn these tricks to find success in your relationships.

Social Media is a Cocktail Party: This book will help you learn how to make the most of social media.

Crucial Confrontations: With the help of this book, you’ll learn how to make it through difficult conversations and confrontations.

The Developing Mind: This book explains how relationships work to shape who we are.

How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less: Read this book to learn how to instantly win people over.

What to Say When You Talk to Yourself: Check out this book, and you’ll see how you can become what you tell yourself.

Psychology

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: This book explains the psychological foundations of influencing people.

The Psychology of Winning: In The Psychology of Winning, you’ll get a look at the qualities of winners.

Predictibly Irrational: Read this book, and you’ll get a better understanding of what is perceived to be irrational behavior.

How We Decide: This book will help you understand how you and other people make decisions.

The Paradox of Choice: Read this book to find out why fewer choices are better.

The Drunkard’s Walk: In this book, you will learn how randomness influences our lives more than you think.

On Being Certain: This book will help you learn to effectively question yourself.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Psychology: This book offers an essential look at psychology.

Psychology of Achievement: In this book, you’ll learn how to develop the mindset of a top achiever.

Covert Persuasion: This book shares psychological tactics and tricks for winning at persuasion.

Psychology of Success: Read this book to learn about the psychology behind succeeding.

The Psychology of Judgment and Decisions Making: Learn more about the thought behind judgment and decision making from this book.

Animal Spirits: Animal Spirits explains how human psychology drives the economy.

The Psychology of Persuasion: This book will help you learn how to use psychology in order to persuade others to your way of thinking.

Finance

The Millionaire Next Door: This book will teach you the rules to becoming a millionaire while living a simple life.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad: In Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you’ll learn what the rich teach their children about money.

Total Money Makeover: Read this book, and you’ll find out why it’s so important to pay cash and stay out of debt.

The Millionaire Mind: Read this book to make your mindset more like a millionaire’s.

Freakonomics: Find out how to illuminate financial mysteries and more just by asking the right questions.

Small is Beautiful: This economics book keeps people in mind.

The Richest Man in Babylon: This classic book has a lot to teach about investment and finances.

Think and Grow Rich: By reading this book, you’ll learn how to thrive even in economic downturns.

Strategy & Innovation

The Now Habit: Read The Now Habit to create a program that will help you overcome procrastination.

Eat That Frog!: In this book, you’ll find 21 effective methods for conquering procrastination.

Blink: Malcolm Gladwell’s book will teach you to rely on your adaptive unconscious.

I Dare You!: Read I Dare You! to become one of the daring few on the way to somewhere.

The Art of War: Read this book, and you’ll learn how to gain advantage of your opponents in any situation.

The Prince: Study this book to broaden your political and strategic philosophies.

The Medici Effect: Read this book, and you’ll find out how innovate by approaching situations differently.

[Reproduced from Online Universities Blog]. I guess it is time for me to pick up some of these books from the nearby bookstore

[LinkedIn] The Twitter Success Story

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:31:00 +0000

The question which was posted on LinkedIn about Twitter - Success story through Twitter has received excellent response from guys from different geographical locations.

A gist of some interesting answers below -

Story - 1
Just to share an experience on Customer Service and Listening. I have been on twitter for 6-8 months now, I just shouted out about @cleartrip not giving out any offers on twitter. cleartrip listened to my shout out and rolled out the offer in twitter. Now that's definitely gotta make a customer feel good.
Twitter is more about engaging with your customers, to know what they want and more importantly act on it.
Then there are companies in the b2b business finding leads through twitter. So its happening, but companies are more or less just absorbing the stuff which can be done on twitter.
-Rahul Nambiar,Interactive Solutions Architect

Story - 2
Kogi bbq, a korean taco truck in Los Angeles has attributed much of its rapid and recent growth to twitter. http://twitter.com/kogibbq as has Coffee Groundz, a cafe in Houston http://twitter.com/CoffeeGroundz.
-Gary Sanchez, Consumer Marketing Leader

You can check the remaining answers/contribute your success story here

JustDial - Where it went WRONG ...

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:04:00 +0000

Few weeks back when I started blogging, there was mention about my ~~old~~ online lifeline - JustDial. Most of us who are online more than half the time always rely on mediums like Wikipedia, Google Maps, JustDial etc for information. The advantage is you have ready-made information which comes free of cost & MOST of the times it is proven and might be CORRECT.

Let me start off with a terrible incident with JustDial which made a repeat customer like me to walk away from the service !!!

Before the delivery
The episode started when I called up JustDial for Packers & Movers [M&P] in Hyderabad. As soon as I hung-up the call, there was a series of calls from different small to big M&P. I got a good deal with a P&M named DG P&M, Hyderabad. Though it is a small M&P, they gave a great deal as well as promised an on-time delivery[i.e within two working days the luggage would reach Bangalore]. After I reached Bangalore, there was no trace of the luggage for more than 4 days. I spoke to close to around 4-5 guys from DG P&M & 2-3 drivers who told me that the luggage is very close to my place and it would reach in few hours.This continued for more than 5 days and finally I received the luggage[though it was not in the state in which I gave to them].

After the delivery
Once my fearful moments were over, I immediately called up JustDial and there were number of lessons learnt about JustDial[and in general the mis-information floating on the internet]

Authenticity of information
When I asked the customer care executive about the authenticity of their huge database, she had no clue about the same.In fact, even as an anonymous user, I was able to change the mobile number of the DG P&M which was a complete security breach in JustDial !!! JustDial has an interesting Terms Of Use with a special mention to it's authentication - While every attempt has been made to ascertain the authenticity of the site content ...

Customer is NOT the king
JustDial would be definitely serving lot's of people daily[considering it is a Rs 500 cr enterprise] so it would not bother about every single customer but what if the customer has called back with a grievance.Even on my narration of the complete incident, the executive completely denied to transfer the call to the right person. In fact, she told me to read the Terms of JustDial & further added that they cannot remove any company listed in their database [even if the customer says that they had a horrible experience after using their service].

Why care about Media/Social Media
After I got a bad response from one executive, I called back again after some time. After completing my narration, I informed the executive that I have decided to share this message on TV through CNBC Pahredar , she was least bothered & argued with me for a long time. Not to mention that social media tools like blogs, Facebook were not new to her but she never cared how much it would affect JustDial's online reputation.

Is Internet just for FUN ?
Like me , many people rely heavily on the information available on the internet but this incident made me wonder - Can we trust this information [even if it comes through a reputed service like JustDial]. Or should we say- Information can be used as long as there is no serious motive attached with it [ i.e we can use it to find Theaters, Pizza corners but not if you are looking out for something which may turn your life upside-down....

If you have any such mis-incident to share, please leave them in the comments section and it would be added to the main article.

Photo Credit
Movers and Packers

Important Update -
A similar complaint raised against DG Movers and Packers

How valuable is Re. 1 ?

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:41:00 +0000

Have you ever tried conversing with a small bakery owner about his expenses & his approximate savings at the end of the day ? If you haven't than better try it out The conversation would teach how a single rupee becomes thousand rupees at the end of the day. Though small bakeries sell cold drinks, juice, other eatables; chai[aka tea] is what yields them the maximum returns[Rs . 2 profit on a single cup of Rs. 3] which shows that it is all a QUANTITY GAME !!! The current issue of Dare contains an interesting list [shown below] of things which retail for Re. 1 or less

Matches
Confectionaries - Toffees, Gums ...
A glass of water at roadside vendors
Stationary - Erasers, Sharpners
A phone call
Kites
Shampoo Sachets
Vegetables - Coriander, Lemons etc.
Candles
Paper cups/ plates
Stamps/Postcards
Use of roadside weighing machines
Photocopying
Some medicines
Waste paper
Balloons
Golguppas
Bindis
Stickers
Greeting Cards
Holograms when bought in bulk
Screen printing in bulk
White paper sheets
One mosquito coil
Loose flowers
Small coconut pieces at roadside stalls
Some crackers
Rangoli/Holi Colors
Thread
Needles
Marbles
Chalk
Nails/Screws
Used bottles
Some local cigarettes such as Rustam available in Patna
Blades
Ice
Perfume samplers
Loose beedis
Paper Caps
Digestive tablets
Chewing tobacco
Buttons
Salt/Sugar sachets
One impression of an ad
Jam sachets
Oil sachets
Whistles
Toothpicks/earbuds
Use of public urinals

After going through the list, I easily could co-relate to the conversation that I have with the chaiwala in my locality ... Definitely lot's of things can help us build a bulk business with Re. 1 !!!

EVANGELIZE yourSELF ...

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:44:00 +0000

It has been almost a month since the last update on this blog. Past few weeks have been pretty bad where I had an incident which made me realize "How search agents like JustDial can lead to mis[information] instead of providing information"...More on that in a separate blog article.

Just came across an interesting audio presentation which touches on The art of evangelizing oneself , hope you find it useful too ...

The "Virgin Mobile" THINK HATKE contest [CLOSED]

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:19:00 +0000

Sometimes, it is better to leave our normal path & do something different.You might have read lot of articles on Startups, Technology, Book reviews & some of my small achievements;but this time, ThoughtsPrevail has something different/hatke to offer Readers are always smarter & as you might have observed the title of the article "We have a contest !!!"

As a part of the contest, answer one/both of the following two questions[ as a comment in the article with your contact details] & win some cool goodies from Virgin Mobile-Indian Hatke League

1. Suggest a hatke name for one of the existing IPL team(s) with a valid reason for the same.
2. You have seen FakeIPLPlayer blog rise to popularity; on a similar lines, Suggest a Hatke title for the official IPL Blog.

Rush your entries before 29th May,2009.

* It is an open contest & you can compete against yourself by submitting unlimited entries.
* Creativity is the only key for being "Hatke/Different".
* If you are one of the lucky winners, you would be contacted by either email or phone number provided in your comment.
* If you would like to spread the message of this contest, please use the following link.

Hope you guys have a Hatke time !!!

Tribes, we need them ....

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:19:00 +0000

All of us know about the famous saying "Birds of a feather flock together", needless to say that all of us are always in search of like minded people i.e. the guys with whom you can share your passion & interest;be it anything- Technology, Movies, Travel etc.The search for the very first like-minded person becomes very critical since (s)he would be backbone of the entire group a.k.a Tribe.

My current read is a short interesting book- Tribes by Seth Godin.As explained above "Tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader and connected to an idea".A group needs two things to be a tribe - shared interest and way to communicate.

The book has some great case studies on the so called Tribal Movement and focuses on "How either a Single person/Tribe or a small group of Tribes or a large group of Tribes can make a significant difference.

Every Tribe has a leader but a Tribe needs followers too.But a follower can be a person who is eagerly following[eg. every blogger would be passionately following Techcrunch since,it has changed the complete blogosphere] or is compelled to follow[eg. A person who has less interest in technology is forced to follow Techcrunch ], a single word compel makes a HUGE difference.The book had a short paragraph[quoted below] on how a single word- Compel can create a difference in an organization.

Any organization needs people who aren't just willing to follow, but are eager to follow.It's a mistake to believe that the best tribe recruits are the blind sheep.Folks who do nothing but mindlessly follow instructions let you down in two ways -

First, they are not going to do the local leadership required when the tribe members interact.They are going to be so busy following the playbook that they will hesitate about engaging in the interactions that make a tight tribe such a vibrant organization.People don't engage merely to remind one another of the status quo.Instead, they eagerly engage when they want something to improve.This micro-leadership is essential to the health of your organization.

Second, they are not going to do a very good job of recruiting new members to your tribe.That's because evangelism requires leadership. Leading someone towards giving up one worldview and embracing yours isn't easy and it is not always comfortable, consider any vibrant group-political activities, nonprofit volunteers or brand fanatics.In each case, it's the microleaders in the trenches and their enthusiastic followers who make the difference, not the leader who is ostensibly running the group.

Tribes are meant to make a difference but the Tribe that really MAKES a difference is the one each one of us need/create !!! To summarize, the title of the book says it all "Tribes - We need YOU to lead US"

Get more productive with "Prism"

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:41:00 +0000

Few months back, I had blogged about GMDesk - the Adobe AIR app that makes access to all your favorite Google services easy. However, the issue with the app was that it worked fine on Windows but on Linux, the app crashes when you type M/m in user-id/password text box !!!

Mozilla Labs came out with an interesting add-on called Prism which like GMDesk allows you to access your favorite sites as a standalone app.Yesterday, I gave a try to Prism and really loved it - some of the reasons listed below:

Firefox on my PC has lot of add-ons and few like TwitterFox make it really very slow since they have to poll for new messages every xyz minutes.
For users of Chrome, this would be one of the potential reasons to switch to Firefox since Prism does not share the memory with Firefox and hence Prism app continues to run even though your browser crashes/hangs.
Last but not the least, Prism enhances your productivity since you don't have to switch tabs or open multiple windows to get to your favorite sites since, the desktop shortcuts to your Prism apps would do the trick

Though Prism apps take up lot of memory [snapshot below] yet they really make browsing fun as well as interesting.

Important Links :
Prism download page
Youtube channel

Do give Prism a try & definitely it would be a big productivity booster for you like it has been for me !!!

Success stories through Twitter [Updated]

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:19:00 +0000

Few weeks back, I had posted a question on LinkedIn about "Twitter's usage in Business". Today, I just stumbled upon an interesting presentation[shown below] that not only explains Twitter's usage but also backs it up with a good number of case-studies. BTW, the question is still open here

Either you start off or sit on the shore - Tarun Bhalla,CEO SimplyLearnt

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:09:00 +0000

In this article, we speak to Tarun Bhalla,Founder & CEO of SimplyLearnt.SimplyLearnt is Learning marketplace having excellent salient features...so, let's start-off with our Q&A

In brief, tell us something about SimplyLearnt
SimplyLearnt is a Learning Marketplace where students can buy courses, tests, test Series and even lectures from any of their favorite educational institutes or educators. You can think of SimplyLearnt as the Makemytrip of Educational world – with higher margins and a bigger market.

With so many services already into e-learning, what was your driving force to start SimplyLearnt ?
e-Learning is a very broad term and is used very casually. The only e-Learning that has been happening has been in the world of Corporate training. There’s no significant usage of e-Learning in the world of school/college education. So, on the whole there’s no credible supply happening as far as school/college education is concerned whereas if you look at the demand, its astronomical may be not realized but still astronomical.

So, what we see is that there’s a huge potential in e-Learning in the School/College education market that can be captured via a product like SimplyLearnt with its unique proposition and business model.

Is SimplyLearnt only restricted to the courses that are available online ?
Currently, yes! We are offering our partner’s courses only online either on our platform or on their website. However, very soon we will be launching a desktop version where students can consume these courses/tests offline as well.

If SimplyLearnt is also powered by UGC, how does a person become a tutor with SimplyLearnt ?
It’s fairly simple, the user can register here as a normal member. Further, the user needs to register as a tutor by populating their expertise information and their hourly rates as well.

How do you manage the revenue sharing with the tutor who provides premium service ?
First, let me clarify we work both with individual tutors/teachers and educational institutes. In the former case, the revenue share is very simple and flat 80% [tutor] and 20% [SimplyLearnt]. However, our partnerships, with coaching institutes or content companies, are always on a case-by-case basis. For instance, if we market a product for our partner, we seek a higher revenue share.

Can you let us know about some of the recent tie-ups of SimplyLearnt with the content providers especially coaching classes ?
We have done fairly well in the Engineering and Medical domain with strong partnerships with Sahil Study Circle, Narayana Institute and Quest Tutorials. We are in advanced stage of talks with couple of top nation wide coaching institutes in the domain of MBA test preparation [We will let you know when that deal is closed ]

We have also tied with few star teachers of different domains to launch their content online. For instance, we are launching NTSE preparation courses by Vineesh Kumar [who is a NTSE top ranker].

Do you plan to go into the offline mode where you provide your copyrighted online material through CD's/DVD's
Very soon, but the material/content would be not ours – again of our partners.

With low broadband internet penetration in India, how has been the acceptance of SimplyLearnt ?
Well, it has been very promising, our registrations already span more than five thousand users !!!

Can you guide us through a simple process on how a student can use SimplyLearnt for exams like GRE,GMAT etc.
Very Simple – just go to SimplyLearnt homepage and depending on which domain you are interested in – enter into the respective domain [MBA, GMAT/GRE, Engineering, Medical] and buy courses/tests from the respective coaching institutes. If you have a credit card then you can make the purchase online, else, you can buy a coupon code from the respective coaching institute.

According to you, which are some of the outstanding features of SimplyLearnt in comparison to the other services ?
Actually, I do not think a comparable product exists in the market currently. However, since you ask, I would mention some of the salient points of SimplyLearnt -

It is an aggregation platform for educational institutes–none exist in the market so far.
It has features like composite courses and test series–nothing like this exists so far.
All the content [paid/unpaid] on SimplyLearnt can be embedded in any other website– essentially creating a very powerful affiliate experience – again this does not exist in the market.

How are currently marketing SimplyLearnt ?
We would like to believe that we are smart about marketing. As a die-hard Web 2.0 believer, we do not spend a single penny on marketing until we have a clear ROI model. We do get a lot of promotional space via our content partners. For instance, check out this link at SahilStudyCircle - these solutions are present on Sahil’s website using our embeddable document player. This page has been hugely marketed in the print media.You can check out this as well, we get additional users when someone gives the above test on UptuPlus.

So, in a nutshell, we believe that the Web 2.0 treatment of our content, indirect promotion from our existing partners in addition to some social network apps that we intend to build would power the usage of SimplyLearnt. However, we will definitely do paid marketing for courses/test series that would have a clear ROI.

How can a content provider of SimplyLearnt share his/her content with the readers of his blog/website ?
SimplyLearnt has been designed keeping embeddability of all our content in mind. For instance, the courses, tests, test series and even lectures are embeddable. Again, check out the experience here, here and here.

After the drop in economy,the number of students applying for GRE has reduced quite drastically, how are you guys fighting these changing market dynamics ?
Actually, SimplyLearnt is insured in that sense because of our aggregator approach. If GRE goes down, we always have a good scope with GATE or CAT for that matter.

You started your career with Wipro and then studied & worked in US. What made you return back to India ?
Well it was a combination of personal priorities and economic opportunism that brought me back to India.

How is SimplyLearnt currently funded and are you looking out for more funding ?
Well, SimplyLearnt is personally funded currently, I was involved with another venture Building Blocks which has started to yield some results – so that helps. Our goal is to make the business cash flow positive before we look for outside funding – we may be close to that.

What are the key barriers you faced while starting off with SimplyLearnt ?
I do not think that we faced any barriers on starting off SimplyLearnt – I have personally run this kind of business in United States – Rhapsody and Yogita, our development head has an incredible User Interface background from Microsoft , Seattle and Adobe, India. So from a strategy and development standpoint – we have been very sound from the beginning.

Of course, There have been challenges with the partners not forthcoming initially, however, with a clear value proposition for them they have also joined hands.

Recession has come as a blessing in disguise for startups, how has SimplyLearnt capitalized on this ?
Indeed, our hiring has been much smoother and the quality of people joining in has been good.

Your word of advice for people who sitting on the shore and want to start-off ?
Honestly, I do not believe in the idea of sitting on shore – either you are an entrepreneur or you are just doing it to please the gallery. So if you are an entrepreneur, you may not need a push to start and in case if you are not – please do not come, the pressure would be difficult to handle.

In case you have any questions for Tarun Bhalla, kindly leave them in the comments and we would include them in our interview.

[LinkedIn] Success stories through Twitter ...

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:13:00 +0000

It has been almost a month since my last article & once again busy schedule has distanced me away from my blog Few weeks back, there was an article on this blog about Twitter and since, than I have been much more active on it

Well, we all know about Twitter & it's usefulness for business. However, there has not been [at least I have not read about it] similar news like this one where startup/company has generated sales through Twitter.Below is the question that I have posted on LinkedIn and to answer it, you can leave a comment below or head-on directly to LinkedIn

There would be many more startups/companies [apart from Dell, Sun etc.] generating SALES through Twitter

Twitter, a company that is making news without making any revenue is familiar to all of us. Though, most of us on Twitter use it for personal use; I would like to know about the following:

1. Is your company/startup using Twitter ?
2. If the answer to (1) is yes, how have you used the medium e.g in generating sales, getting feedback ?
3. Is there any success story [apart from Dell making $1 Million in sales through Twitter] where a startup/company has been able to generate sales through Twitter.

PS - I posted this question after I could not gather much information from leading blogs/ websites/newspapers.

What can we learn from Mr. Obama ?

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:22:00 +0000

Lot of things have been written and told about Barack Obama , today I came across a very interesting presentation on Obama which showcases the qualities that every leader should have !!!

Via Vineesh's blog