Himanshu's Blog - Technology, Entrepreneurship & Business

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

The Valentine Web[Experience]

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:16:00 +0000

Web has been my best friend and it is the only where I could have found my first ever Angel Investor, a person who believed in me and my ideas .Though it would be close to a month since Valentine's day has passed,I would like to share an article which was published in DivyaBhaskar newspaper[V-Day special edition],Ahmedabad [I received my copy few days back !!!]. The central theme of the article was Why Web is the best place to find your life partner.

Note:
The article is in Gujarati,if you know the language;hope you like the article else kindly scroll down to have a look at our photo.

Below are three key take-away(s) from the article:
1. Maintain an excellent profile on the Web.It may not only get you your Angel, but would also help you in each & every aspect of your personal & professional life.
2. If you are not blogging, start a blog[more here].Without my blogger friend Paras Shah, this interview wouldn't have been possible. He was the one who introduced me to the journalists.
3. Finally, point(2) leads us to Networking.Be an active networker; whether times are good or bad, guys in your network would definitely be your savior & sometimes, you may also find a surprise appearance in a newspaper

How to use Twitter effectively ?

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:14:00 +0000

It has been more than a year since I am on Twitter but I was never caught in the the web of Twitdiction [Twitter Addiction].The first question that always comes to mind is "Who would read my tweet" and if at all someone reads my tweet, why would (s)he bother to reply me with a solution.But this turned out to be a misconception just like the one we have about Blogging.

For the past few days, there has been a steady growth in my T-follower count & T-following count, which gave a trigger to this article.

Below are my picks on how to make EFFECTIVE use of Twitter :

1. Use Twitter like LinkedIn:
LinkedIn has been a great tool for Business Networking[link here] and it is a place where you would find guys from the top to the bottom part of the corporate ladder.Seeing Twitter's phenomenal growth, you wouldn't be surprised to see the same set of people here as well.The idea is connect with them; check their followers list and follow the relevant people in their network. To take it further, Twitter is one step better in terms of transparency since you won't require the other person's email-id to follow him/her [exception is when the profile is locked].TweetSum is an awesome service that helps you more efficiently decide whether you should follow someone back once they've followed you on Twitter

2. Understand the time-zone :
Once you have established the network, you need to maintain it properly. How would a follower feel if you tweet "Good Morning tweeple,howz you?" and your follower in a different time-zone reads that in the night It is bound to happen that after irrelevant tweets like these you may loose a handful number of precious followers. We are no celebrities like @BarackObama or @ShahrukhKhan or @Padmashree Warrior etc.,that our followers would be interested in whether we had tea or doing coding or sitting with girlfriend; such tweets would surely bring down your follower count. This becomes very important when your precious followers are from various parts of the world.Though Twitter tag line says "What are you doing", it's meaning is much more than that !!!

3. Tweet & retweet relevant content :
This is an extension of the previous point, tweet[or even retweet] something meaningful which might be interesting and relevant to you & your network, keeping in mind that each tweet should bring in more RELEVANT followers on board[There should be some ROI for each tweet].Use HashTags or tags like [MY BLOG],[TECHNOLOGY],[STARTUPS] etc. wherever required so that uninterested followers won't spend time in reading that tweet.The crux is Tweet less , tweet relevant ...

4. PASSIONATELY LISTEN to your followers :
This would be the basic usage of Twitter and needs no elaboration. If you are a brand, it becomes necessary to look into what the Twitter(ers) are saying about your brand & be proactive enough to reply to their tweet.For example: Online travel company Cleartip was fast enough to respond to one of my tweets that referred them[Tweet here and Cleartrip's reply here], I really like their UI but this quick response doubles my liking for them.Freshbooks have proved that Twitter is a great platform to create passionate brand evangelists;their must-read case study here.

5. Use "Social Media Monitoring" tools for your links :
Being only limited to 140 characters, links that are posted on twitter have to be shortened using URL shortening services[list here].Though each service gives us a short URL, many a times it becomes important to know status of the link[how many read, percentage of people reading from different parts of the world etc.];to keep it simple-we need something like Google Analytics for short URL(s).These analytics would help you understand whether twitter is REALLY working for you & your brand. My personal favourite is Cligs, you can find the pros & cons of various services here

6. Maintain an effective Twitter background :
This just came out from my personal experience.Being passionate about Entrepreneurship, once I changed the twitter background to my current one; the number of followers increased at a very steady rate.Compare the profile page with RSS Feed; we read an article based on the title & it's relevance to us[even though the complete article may not be present in the feed !!!], similarly an effective backgound gives a clear idea about "THE REASON WHY YOU ARE ON TWITTER". This even saves the other person's time & his/her decision to connect with you becomes faster !!! TwitBacks also helps you creating custom Twitter backgrounds that would make your profile page more meaningful

7. MONITOR your twitter behavior :

One fine day, you realize that 'N' followers have stopped following you, hence before this happens it becomes necessary to check your TWIT(avior)- Twitter Behavior.TweetEffect helps in understanding which Tweet of your's caused a negative effect on your followers and helps you keep a check on your activity.

Note:
If you liked this article, we could get connected on Twitter & LinkedIn.

In case you have some more interesting points to add, please leave a comment and the same would be added to the main article [with due credit to the commenter].

Strategy Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:07:00 +0000

There is a webinar for Entrepreneurs organized by Sramana Mitra, Forbes columnist & author of Entrepreneur Journeys[review here & here] on the following dates:

March 11, 2009
March 25, 2009

Below is the recording of the webinar held on February 18,2009 [quite insightful, especially the discussion on Bay Area Digital] -

Know your customers...

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:12:00 +0000

Few days back, there was a post which highlighted "How language barrier could be a hindrance to your business". Today's article came in as an email forward from Alok Padhi that very well explains the above mentioned problem[& would surely bring a smile on your face ].

A disappointed salesman of Coca Cola returns from his Middle East assignment.A friend asked, "Why weren't you successful with the Arabs?"

The salesman explained

"When I got posted in the Middle East , I was very confident that I would make a good sales pitch as Cola is virtually unknown there. But, I had a problem I didn't know to speak Arabic. So, I planned to convey the message through three posters...

First poster
A man lying in the hot desert sand...totally exhausted and fainting.

Second poster
The man is drinking our Cola.

Third poster
Our man is now totally refreshed.

And then these posters were pasted all over the place "Then that should have worked!" said the friend. "What the hell it should!? said the salesman,but I didn't realize that Arabs read from right to left"

Viral Marketing at it's best : Wario Land

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:28:00 +0000

All of us know that something that is visual carries more appeal and also sends the right message with less effort. Though pictures are very effective, many a times; videos have an upper hand over them.Take the example of Google Chrome, instead of numerous cartoons giving insight into Chrome, if Google would have created a small video[or a series of videos] indirectly demonstrating Chrome's capabilities over other browsers-high CPU usage by Firefox, V8 etc., it would have been much more appealing.Since, Google being a brand in itself, such things may not have a negative impact on it's business.

This podcast focuses on why online videos are becoming a crucial part for promoting the business.The best example to demonstrate effectiveness of online videos is the following clip:

If you find found this clip interesting, you can check out the actual video live in action on my test blog, definitely worth a watch !!! It really interested me[like many of you] how this video was made; after looking into the source code, I came across this Google Gadget which is the heart of the video.Debug version of Flash Player & addons like FireBug were also quite helpful to find it's details.

Keeping the technical brilliance apart, the shake-it up video resulted in 500% increase[from 5000 to 25000] in it's total number of page views/day.

This article provides the complete insight into "How Wario Land's shake it video broke the Viral Marketing mould !!!" Though there are lot's of Viral Marketing videos around, if you come across any video that has created such a high impact; do drop-in your comments & it would be added to the article.

"Go GREEN" this February...

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:24:00 +0000

In this tumbling economy, Entrepreneurship and Startups have definitely become the flavor of the season.With more and more newcomers opting to work in startups, an event like Entrepreneurship Week would definitely be an icing on the cake

What is E-Week,09
E-Week is a project initiated by the National Entrepreneurship Network [NEN] with an aim to embrace innovation, engage communities and inspire young people to think big.

As per the E-Week wesbite :

E Week India 2009 will connect young people across the country through a range of activities and programs to harness their potential as innovators and problem-solvers. Industry captains, experts, non-profit leaders, and faculty members will be in attendance in large numbers to encourage, guide, and inspire students to take action. In doing so, students will begin to acquire the knowledge, skills and values required to grow high-potential, sustainable enterprises for a brighter tomorrow.

Theme for E-Week,2009

"Go Green" is the theme for this year's E-Week.The main attention would be on sustainable development, green business opportunities and innovative solutions to environmental problems.There would be expert panel discussions on alternative forms of energy, competitions to identify and debate on green opportunities, educational movie screenings, exhibitions to showcase ideas etc.

Green Leader of the week
Mohanjit Jolly, executive director at DFJ is the Green Leader of the week.May be he was the ideal choice since, he is really betting big on cleantech in 2009.In his article "Predictions of 2009", he states that "Cleantech would be most invested sector in 2009"

The event would be celebrated from February,7th to 14th and you can find the complete details here

Proto.in : The startup event ...

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:16:00 +0000

Proto[derived from Prototype],the startup event will be held on 23rd & 24th January,2009 in Bangalore.There is a very interesting presentation by Pictualize which gives you an insight into Proto & the benefits of being there for the event !!!

You can register for the event here. If you liked the work by Pictualize,you might be interested in checking out the Q&A we had with Pictualize team[here and here].

Like Proto-4,I won't be able to attend Proto-5;hopefully the sixth edition is in Hyderabad

Book Review : Entrepreneur Journeys [Part-II]

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:25:00 +0000

In continuation to the review of Entrepreneur Journeys by Sramana Mitra, today we have look at the other Entrepreneurs featured in the book & some useful tips for the Entrepreneurial community.

Philippe Courtot,CEO Qualsys

Too many people crack under stress. In venture, you must thrive on bad news. If you don’t thrive on bad news, move over, because every day represents something uncharted and new where you sort of sit down and say, “How do we deal with this?” And you make mistakes every single day too. As soon as you realize you made those mistakes you go back and you fix them.

On "not" getting selected for a job in France : In France, we have psychological tests and when they turned you down, they did not tell you why.So when I wrote a letter to them, they wrote me back saying that their policy was not to tell why they had turned down people.But I insisted..insisted and finally they responded saying that my Psychological test showed me that I was far too much of an independent thinker.They were looking for people who were willing to be directed and they said that I would not be happy working with them.

It is very important to see yourself, what you do and what you have with the eyes of the customer.

American society was based on what you can do.So,it was than I realized that it would be best for me to come to US and work internationally.

I went extreme skiing for 9 months.I have done that every time between jobs- take a sabbatical.It allows me to digest what I have learnt.To digest and forget, essentially and than I come back fresh and new.

Lessons learnt from skiing : I learnt to push myself from a physical standpoint.The biggest thing I learnt to address was fear.In business it is the same.If you look at your competition, if you are afraid of your competition and you focus on that, and you don't look at where you should go, you get lost.The big trick in business is to transcend your fears and be aware of the obstacles, and then focus not on the problems but on the solutions.

Difference between Asian and Western mentality is that Asian people look at life as a complete interaction, while the Western mentality is about the immediate success.

A lot of VC(s) micromanage everything and they are on your back constantly, which doesn't work for me.

The only piece of technology missing today is ubiquitous broadband wireless access.

Steve Singh,CEO Concur

My professional background is very engineering oriented.I happened to have a passion for the business side as well, so I migrated in that direction.

The ideation story is quite interesting.During my days of extensive travel[in my job at Contract Software], one of the things the CFO told me was I had a week to get my expense reports in [before the acquisition by Symantec] and if I didn't , I was going to loose out on my expenses.As expected I lost money, but this made me wonder that there was no easier way to do this and this is how the idea of Concur evolved.

Our view is that you must confront the issues that exist in your business as soon as humanly possible and solve them.

One of the great things about an on-demand business model is you can drive your cost structure down to the point that it is very compelling for companies of any size.

Edward Fields,Co-founder Hotchalk

My parents were educators.I launched Hotchalk to actively involve myself in raising the quality of education worldwide.

Through the experiences, I realized the tremendous potential of web-based educational technology resources.I was inspired by my own experience as a parent and the frustration that parent teacher conferences always seemed filled with surprises.Since I did not have any continuous visibility into the daily or weekly goings at the school, I discovered all sorts of things at these meetings.

We[Hotchalk] know teachers intimately.We speak with them daily through surveys, feedback forms and phone dialogues.These open lines of communication with teachers enable us to offer resources on their sites known to provide value to educators.Schools cannot afford to waste funding on products that do not benefit their teachers, yet it happens all the time.

When teachers work together with students and parents, academic achievement follows. We don’t try to work with school administrators. We work with the teachers, and they’re the most crucial element of the education value chain.

It can take a long, long time to sell any new product to the schools, by going through the school administrators.

We do not accept advertising from fast food companies or anything that is sexually abusive.Hotchalk only presents tasteful advertising to meet the needs of students in a positive way.

Leaders work for their followers and it's the leader's job to make sure that the team has the tools, training and resources necessary to carry the day.

2.8 million teachers need to be recruited over the next eight years to meet education demands. These future teachers are students in universities who use Web 2.0 applications daily, so using a web-based application is second nature.Hotchalk's product is simple and easy to use, so even less technology-savvy teachers can get on board.

It's time we remove politics from education and support teachers, making sure that they are given the best resources they need.

Harish Hande,Founder SELCO

SELCO is my first job and hopefully it is my last.

A lot of things get lost in translation.Between Orissa and Bangalore[since my mother is from Karnataka], we chose the latter.Another factor was the lack of money in my pocket, and I had relatives there who could subsidize my cost of living.

The focus in the initial period was not looking at where money was, but rather looking at what the success level of the technology was and if people would accept it.When you have no money, you tend to become more innovative.

In our company, we have to think of ways to help the poor, not sympathized with them.

You can always create a product that matches poor people's needs,it does not matter how poor they are.World bank has always said that solar does not make sense for them because they were not poor, but here you can see if the need is matched, then it is a productive fit.

The pressures I see today are when young people want to join the company, and their parents call up and ask how long we are going to be there.Convincing the families of my applicants is a difficult task.

Message to Entrepreneurs : There is no short cut to creating good processes.A lot of people try to solve it quick, and that can't happen.Some people do it by numbers, I would never do that.Concentrate more on the processes and the numbers will come.

Book Review : Entrepreneur Journeys [Part-I]

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:28:00 +0000

With the new year starting off on a good note, I had the fortune to read Entrepreneur, Blogger & Forbes columnist Sramana Mitra's book Entrepreneur Journeys.Though, I am a voracious reader;this article would be the start of a new innings - my very first book review

Anyone who is interested in startups would definitely be a reader of her blog but after reading this book, I feel it is a great boon to the existing as well as aspiring Entrepreneurial community !!! The book touches the various aspects of startups namely Bootstrapping, Venture Funding, Business Models, Ups & Downs in the life of an Entrepreneur etc. using a simple medium of Q&A. She also focuses on how Internet has changed the entire game of Business & why Web 3.0 is the next big thing.

Though these simple words describe the simplicity & depth of the book, I would like to couple it with some of the notable excerpts:

Jerry Rawls, Co-founder - Finisar

We did not have any outside investors, so it was clear that we did not have enough money to support both of us. So, I stayed at Raychem and Frank Levinson went off and got started. At the end of the year I left Raychem and joined him fulltime in Finisar.

While we were doing product development we supported ourselves, probably for four years doing mostly consulting work.

I heard a guy a few years ago give a talk and somehow in the talk, he threw a line "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" & I completely agree with that.

We have a culture where we accept nothing, there are no sacred cows.We want to continually improve every part of our operation.We have a culture that says we are going to hire bright people who have good interpersonal skills and can really handle pressure & work well in small groups.

Because it is a company policy that everybody travels Economy, I myself also travel economy.

Sridhar Vembu, Founder of Adventnet

We at Adventnet hire young professionals whom others disregard.We don't look at colleges,degrees or grades.Not everyone in India comes from a socio-economic background to get the opportunity to go to a top engineering school, but many are really smart.We train them and in nine months, they produce results at the level of college grads.Their resumes are not marketable but these kids can code just as well as the rest, sometimes even better !!!

We found we could reach customers directly.Today we have most of the new customers through the internet.It has become much easier to supply companies directly.The internet is allowing us to reach all these customers.

I am not ashamed to compete on price, that is our main strategy.

Keep the marketing costs low, that is our strategy.If we do the SalesForce economics, 75% of their revenue is spent on acquiring customers.There should be a better way of doing business than charging the customer for acquiring him.Why not give it away for free,if all the money will be spent on acquiring the money elsewhere.

Most attrition happens from boredom related issues.We try to keep our team motivated and challenged with interesting work, and as a result, they don't leave.

Steve Hafner, Co-Founder - Kayak

On working at Orbitz: I saw a company start from a few PowerPoint pages and grow to the point that when I left it was booking $4 billion a year in tickets and hotel rooms.

Kayak helps users find deals from all of the other travel websites.We thought by doing a bit what Google does, which is build a very simple and sleek interface which goes out and searches on behalf of consumers & brings back the results in a comprehensive display, we would give consumers a choice of where to buy.

In the first year or two of Kayak, we focussed on building a great product.We felt if we build a great product, consumers would stumble on it, like it and tell their friends.

We are of the mentality that for every dollar which could be placed into marketing, we would rather place it into engineering and make the product better.We spend next to nothing on marketing.

On the internet, there is always going to be a lot of competition because it is easy to build a website.The hard part is to make the website scale.

There are three things you need to do to have a viable Vertical Ad network.You need to get a set of publishers, you need to get an audience and you need to match them with technology.

Gautam Godhwani, Co-Founder - SimplyHired

What we saw in the employment space was an incredibly large market.There is a market of $100 billion market in US alone.At the same time,the market had services that we called pain killers versus vitamins.If you needed a job,you really needed a job.If you had to hire someone,you really needed to hire someone.

From the beginning, I have believed the value of a vertical player, search engine or otherwise, is able to participate in a greater lifecycle of the user.

I hope you enjoyed reading the review cum insights of the book Entrepreneur Journeys.There are many more exciting lessons from the other Entrepreneurs featured in the book which would be unveiled in the Part-II of the review...till then, keep breathing the fresh air of Startups

ThoughtsPrevail enters the elite list !!!

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:11:00 +0000

It has been a long long time since I wrote my last article.Guess time has finally come to break the BLOGGING shackles [one of my new year resolution's] with another great news for ThoughtsPrevail.As per the recently released list by ~~eCairn~~ Marc Dangeard ,ThoughtsPrevail is the 91st most influential blog for Entrepreneurs ...Check the entire list below:

On the personal front, I have relocated to Hyderabad where I am currently working for a startup;more about which would follow soon on my LinkedIn profile.To keep up with the same spirit of blogging, there are a couple of book reviews,interviews with startup founders, personal experiences & few surprises on Thoughtsprevail

Thanks to Invenio group for this wonderful list, guess it is time to relook at my feeds in Google Reader !!!

How can startups survive the economic storm ?

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:04:00 +0000

My blogging rate has gone down drastically due to the lack of internet connection in my residence [Blame it on my my recent relocation but I am sure that ThoughtsPrevail would bounce back !!!].Today, we have a guest article by Kelly Kilpatrick who shares some mantras on "How to keep your startup afloat during the economic crisis".Kelly writes on the subject of best business schools and can be contacted via her email

No one likes a downturn, least of all when it has to do with the economy, not just of a company or even a country, but of the entire world. It’s a domino effect that we’re witnessing now, as the mighty fall of a few big names are bringing down others associated with them and causing a global crisis the likes of which have not been seen for a long time now. When even the huge conglomerates are known to be shaking in their boots, is it any wonder that the little startups and fledgling businesses in doubt about their future? However, all is not lost, not yet. To use a cliched expression, where there’s a will, there’s a way; so hold your head high and let your positive attitude take you forward in these difficult times:

Believe in your abilities
A bird on a shaky branch is not afraid, because it is confident in its ability to fly even if the branch does give way. An apt analogy for our present situation – even if the economy of the world is unstable, as long as you believe in your abilities to make it through this bad patch, you’re going to be ok.

Adopt conservative measures
It’s not the time for risks, not when people are struggling to stay afloat. It’s best to be as conservative as you can, both in terms of current business principles and future plans.

Go back to the basics
It’s now more than ever that you need your customers to stand by you; so pick up the phone and let them know that you’re counting on their support and that you’re committed to providing them with the same kind of service they’ve been receiving all this time. True, you already have a relationship with them, but in these tough times, you must focus on re-affirming the relationships that you already have rather than looking to forge new ones.

Cut unnecessary expenses
Money is definitely going to be tight for a while, so it’s best to cut back on your overhead costs and any expenses that could be considered as frivolous. Focus on reducing the recurring expenses – these, even if not a large amount, could add up each month to a significantly huge sum.

Ditch unprofitable ventures
If there’s a department that’s not doing too well, it’s best not to persist with it at this time, not when money is hard to come by and you’re struggling to cut your losses.

Cut production costs
If you can do so without compromising on the quality of your products. If you can’t, and if you know your market is secure, raise the price of your products. Of course, you will have to deal with unhappy customers, but if you put it across to them in a positive way, they’re likely to understand.

Boost your employee morale
Unhappy employees cost you a lot in terms of time, money and productivity. So make sure your employees are mentally secure; even if you have to lay off a few of them, make the rest realize that their jobs are safe. Or if you could get them all to take a pay cut rather than force them out of a job altogether, that would work fine too.

Getting a new business to grow is hard work even in the best of times; and now that we’re going through the worst, you must work even harder to make sure you stay afloat.If you have to lay-off people, this article by Guy Kawasaki , would definitely help you in laying off people while making others feel safe .

Business Model Innovation

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:13:00 +0000

Came across an excellent presentation by Alexander Osterwalder, a Business Model Innovation advisor.No matter what is your idea or business, this presentation touches every corner of it [from Ideation to Execution].

He has quite an insightful blog on the same topic & I am sure you would also enjoy reading every bit of it .

Hurry up & start early - Vineesh Kumar, Pictualize

noreply@blogger.com (Himanshu Sheth) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:32:00 +0000

Last week, we had an interesting interview with Vineesh Kumar of Pictualize where he shared his thoughts about Pictualize & Entrepreneurship.In the final episode of this interview, we question Vineesh Kumar about Pictualize's future plans with usual glimpse on Entrepreneurship !!!

Do you have any fixed marketing strategy for Pictualize?
At the moment, we are actually marketing our work and we are finding takers for the same. The BarCamp Delhi [BCD] presentation helped us reach out to some clients and our recent work on the credit crisis has reached out to a much larger number of people due to solid efforts that we put in to get the word out.The plan to market Pictualize to the world is through carrying out innovative communication that enraptures the hearts of people and bring this power to other businesses and help them succeed too.There isn't a very hard plan as such and we are going with the flow. Just paddling, when we start losing direction.

As per your opinion, which are the three most striking things that makes IITs different from others?
In IIT Delhi [IITD], it's tough to tell how striking it actually is , because the daily grind actually makes one abhor the entire IIT system. But now being an outsider, I realize that the rigor of IIT has fundamentally affected my being and the same happens with everyone.

In my opinion, IITs are a little different from other institutions mainly because of the amount of raw talent that one can see and feel each day.
Apart from that IITD particularly provides quite a lot of exposure, so I had opportunities to see entrepreneurship closely before taking to it.
The third point would be that being through the IITs instills a certain degree of confidence, that helps tremendously in facing the opposition to entrepreneurship.

How do you filter valid/invalid user feedback [especially after BCD presentation]?
The BCD presentation majorly brought us positive feedback, so we didn't actually filter anything and just enjoyed the moment . We actually don't aim to filter feedback, but take all of it seriously and see how can we improve with it.

Has the risk appetite increased or what are some of the reasons that more youngsters are willing to startup/join a startup?
I wouldn't call it an increase in the risk appetite. The numbers seems to be growing proportionately to the opportunities available.
In my opinion, all entrepreneurs are rebels of sorts, looking to create the future. As we advance, there are more and more of such exciting opportunities and it is just the issue of mind over matter for a person to shift to the entrepreneurial world.

What are three most important things that you see when you guys formed the team?
We actually didn't think that we were forming a team. We are just a bunch of friends. Each has a different view of life and each has big dreams, but each of us have a vision to grow, improve, enjoy and succeed. As they say in love that two people needn't look at each other but in the same direction, the same I feel is true for a team.

Can you share some key learnings before/after co-founding Pictualize?
I would like to share learnings that I obtained in the last 5-6 months but prior to Pictualize.

Team building is not as easy as it seems and team members are though not tough to find, but they aren't easy to find either.
When you work and meet, make notes. Keep things in written. Helps in disputes later and is extremely important for facing clients, since their needs change by the minute.
[For students & wannabe entrepreneurs] If you are starting up after you are passing out you are already late. Hurry up and start earlier. You really need to earn money by the time you pass out.

In a place like India where families are close-knit, how important is "Family support" for any startup's success?
IMHO, family support would contribute to over 90% in the success of a startup running without external funding. As long as family can tolerate a productive person doing seemingly non-productive things [like starting up], the person is in the best of his situations to actually build a successful business. Without family support, it becomes a multi-dimensional problem and multiplies the risk of failure.

Enjoy another presentation by Pictualize which shows the Current Economic problems in a hilarious as well as meaningful way