Companies too suffer from this bias. They believe their own PR and marketing hype and ignore dissonant customers and negative market feedback till it is too late. They don’t hear the little boy who shouts about the lack of clothes on the emperor! All of us are guilty of this bias. But what’re we...
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The Paypal issue has created quite an awareness (and the impending confusion between IEC code vs. Purpose Code) about the Exports of Goods & Services regulations and here is a guest article by Sandeep, ex-HSBC Banker to help you understand the issue better. Exports of Goods & Services – Regulations Exports of goods and services (including...
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The mystery of startup valuations has existed since the day 1st startup was born! This topic is fundamental, emotional, scientific and artistic at the same  time. I have been asked this question often, and in different forms like "What is my idea worth?", "How can I get 10 crores funding, but retain control of...
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Today I had a long discussion with an old friend on economics of content in the Long Tail. Sharing some of the interesting points. What is long tail? According to Wikipedia – The Long Tail or long tail is a retailing concept describing the niche strategy of selling a large number of unique items in relatively...
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The startup was in a tizzy. One of its largest partners who sourced the startup’s products, bundled them with other offerings and sold them to customers had decided to make the products itself. The partner was much larger than the startup, had more money and reach. About 10% of the startup’s revenues came from this large...
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SME Market in India is too big to be ignored. And while Indian entrepreneurs are chasing the big enterprise market (and consumer segment), here are a few data points for SME opportunity India has the second largest population of small and medium businesses (SMBs) among BRIC countries and the US. SMEs in India contribute to more...
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Firstly, I must say " why would anyone organize a grand-scale event in the freezing winter",well its been an experience which i can't forget easily. GSMA -Barcelona, the mecca,the Jerusalem,the Varanasi of Mobile Technology, this is the place where deals happen, people envisage the future of Mobile and bring in a new paradigm of...
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Now that Google Buzz’s buzz is over, here is a quick step-by-step guide of Google Wave Phishing attack Create a phished Google Login page. You could check out tackle. Search for public waves Reply to one of the messages, insert a gadget in your reply The gadget sets the top.location to the phished page. The victim now visits the...
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Writing a business plan is a time consuming and challenging effort and takes significant management bandwidth. Though there are a number of excellent resources/templates/articles on “how” to write a business plan, many times, people who are writing it for the first time get too involved in the “process” of writing and as such may...
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In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence. The onus, unfortunately, therefore is on leadership to discover those individuals with poor managerial capabilities before they’re promoted! It is also important to keep in mind that many technical people may be very valuable for their skills but poor managers, and...
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One of the biggest challenges that startups face is undoubtedly – exposure. As a startup, you may offer great products and services but, unless people are aware of your offerings, it’s hard to gain any amount of business. Building a well rounded online identity can take your business to great lengths. While most Indian startups...
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Every content network has walked this rope at least once – ad inventory optimization. Direct sales team can only sell 40-50% of your ad inventory at any given time. The rest is filled with different ad networks, big and small. The math is very simple; push those ad networks which pay you higher CPM...
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There is a difference between engineers and software developers; and here is a guest post by Abhishek on what does it take to become a world class engineer.
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At some point in their existence, many startups have to confront certain existential questions – about themselves and their future. Some of these typical questions: “Are we on the right track? Are we likely to reach where we wanted to? We need to grow fast but how? Should we acquire and grow? Should we...
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Lack of a boss. Period. The lack of a higher authority to give you your next todo item is the single most-important factor that makes entrepreneurship so hard. In school, you have a clearly defined schedule and you have teachers who give you homework which provides something concrete to do everyday. Then they have exams, a...
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India has witnessed a tremendous growth in its media and entertainment business. In the past decade, we have seen the growth of billion dollar home grown media conglomerates like Network 18, Zee, UTV, Reliance ADA, Yash Raj, NDTV, Bennet & Colmen, and Hindustan Times to name a few. At the same time the foreign...
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I received a letter by courier yet again last week from a well known financial institution. It took me a while to reach the letter since the envelope in which the letter was enclosed had been fortified by no less than 9 staple pins. In addition, the envelope was tightly sealed with gum and...
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My observation is that most organizations do not pay attention to the product usability while building their products. The myriad reasons, cited by misinformed product managers, product developers or management executives for not being able to address product usability during its development, are categorized under various headings below Neglector Usability is not that important as long...
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1991 was when India achieved its second independence – that of economic liberalization. But, in retrospect, one has to say that it has been far more than just economic liberalization. It also liberated the mind of the baggage of self-doubt, low confidence and ignorance. It has therefore been my belief that those born around...
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Google launched landmark based driving direction few days back and while it did validated some of the market hypothesis, it does look intimidating to a few startups who are trying to build their niche in this space (how can a startup take on Google? Is this the death bell?), but there is ofcourse something...
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