This post is not about revenue model .You may or may not have a revenue model and may be secretly wishing that you will cause a blip on the radar of Google,Yahoo,Ebay,MS or HT of world and they will acquire you . There is nothing drastically wrong in your assumption . This may happen .

I am sure you have got an “A-Team”. You have gone to right colleges, your room mate have fairly good understanding of LAMP stack so it won’t be a herculean task for two of you to code it up. Your friend who is a usability pro is ready to help you part time in designing logo , UI ,workflow and everything “creative”.

What’s the problem then?Why we are waiting then? What’s stopping you to start? Why Ashish doesn’t find enough startups to profile? Don’t tell me you are married or you are above 30 , that’s just an excuse!

In most of the cases, real answer lies in one sentence “I am not sure about Marketing” .

Underlying assumption in our story is that “Build it and they will come” but we fear that this may not happen . And we are not sure how too get our message across to our targeted user base . We count on being discovered by world . And that rarely happens.
We need to go out and talk to our user , tell them about our product offering. But you may ask- how? You are not funded (at least not yet), so you can’t possibly run full page advertisement in national newspapers,you can’t do TVC like Desimartini and Fropper; neither you can do bill board bash like BiggAdda. So what can we do ?
This is what this post is all about:

• How to engineer word of mouth.
• How to spread the word about your service ? How to make people aware that you exist ?

Its about street smart tactics of creating buzz . Not revenue ,Not sales, Not cash flow . Just how to make people know that you exist & make them talk about your service? & do it with little money .

I know some of you might be thinking “Here is Yet another armchair grandmaster trying to dispense his marketing gyaan. Why should I give a damn” . Very valid point.

Well……. I don’t have a series of successful venture exit behind me , neither I am running a cool startup . I have been a Software Product sales guy in past and I know a thing or two about how people react when exposed to new software or new way of doing things and how we can soften their reaction and use it for our advantage .

Secondly I am observing IT Consumer internet space for a long time now . thanks to my involvement in USENET I have been a mute witness to some ideas being discussed in those forum and than ending up being big time success.

Third is I have talked to few Jr guys in big PR Agency in valley about how they engineer a Word of mouth ? What’s their secret recipe? To my great surprise these are some basic common sense tactics This post my attempt to spark a discussion about the relevance and effectiveness of these tactics in Indian context .

A point of caution first, Operating assumption while writing this post is that

1) you are based out of a metro so you want to get early adopters from these cities only . 2) you are in Internet /Mobile space and your target user base is college Kid ,young or middle age professionals .

Your Sys Admin :

A startup in silicon valley wanted to make a Web based IM platform where you can log into your IM friend list at Yahoo Messenger ,AoL ,Jabber ,GTalk etc[ You know which company I am talking about ] . when they were about to launch Public Beta they started brainstorming way to spread the word . One of their approach was to contact System administrators community. Most of the BIG corporation don’t allow you to install messenger client on your computer .

Sys Admin knew it, they were good guys, they want to help their colleague but they were bound by corporate IT policy. With web based IM, it was possible for them to address this issue . Not to officially endorse the venture but quietly slip the word around . one cubic at a time . So founder called one of his friend who was a SysAdmin at a big IT service firm, showed him a basic demo and requested him to tell people about it .
Surprise ……server log showed that in next 3 days 500 people logged in to their service from a single building of that company. Very soon, every branch of that company started using it . Truth was that they were using Lotus Notes messenger to tell their colleague about this cool new Web Based IM . That SysAdmin probably had told it to few guys, may be out of sense of obligation.
But he started an avalanche. Next thing this startup did was to log on to a job site and find out all the guys in who were IT Admin, shoot them an email and rest as they say is History ….errr……History in making .

Now think about it . Lot of the Web2.0 stuff consist of making desktop application run inside a browser and similar stuff. I am sure your Sys Admin friend can help. Think about it .

Your Job Portal :

When we were starting out Delhi Chapter or Mobile Monday, we faced a problem. Where can we find people who might be interested in attending this group? So we checked Naukri.com to find out which company is hiring for Mobile specific Skill set and found out our friends in that company to spread the word. In some cases we even called the HR of that company and make her send event notification. So, you see that Your Naukri.com is a rich repository of Internet savvy people. I am sure you know at least one recruitment consultant , you can borrow his login id for a night and do some data mining. You can do a very targeted marketing . you can say some thing like

“Prashant , its been 6 years since you left college , i m sure you miss some of your friends , find out where are they and may be some of them are working with you at infy Bangalore .Join XYZ.com ”

” Prashant , last year I Quit my job as Mobile Developer to follow my dream , we bootstrapped a little company and our product is in Public beta now , as a fellow mobile developer i would like to have your view in this . please join our beta prog . if you like what we did please tell your friends about it ”

Chances are that reader of these emails will respond to your campaign . but for god sake please be careful and don’t send an email starting with “Dear Candidate ” .

Your HR Guy:

HR is not just for recruitment . there is one more responsibility of HR , Training . As you are a startup so I am sure you must have heard of some latest Buzzwords like Agile, Scrum, Rapid Prototyping ,Test driven development etc . and thanks to your training in Traditional IT Service companies I am sure most of you don’t understand it fully . But that doesn’t matter much ,you can read about it . Borrow a copy of Getting Real from your friend . Lobby with some HR or Training firm, arrange for a workshop to dispense gyan about somethings like “Making a High Performance Web based Transaction server with two people team ” or whatever is relevant , share your experience .

Truth be told ….some guys in Bangalore have actually done it. Not once but three times . Each time they were paid 25K . Few more such session are in pipeline for them . Their initial motivation was purely financial [Cash strapped venture] but later on they infused more and more marketing angle to it . And why not? On Each occasion time a focused audience of 500 saw , listened and interacted with their product for 20 Min . if you can not get some one interested in your product after 20 Min then….either the guy is not worth it or your product .

Those of you who are doing startup would admit that 1 year of work in your own venture gives you more opportunity to learn that 5 years in a CMM Level 5 IT Firm . I am sure you can use it., Why not share it and share it well. call your Boss and HR at the company you used to work for ..tell them you did one such training for a client you can’t disclose i was wondering if you would like to do it .

MBA Colleges

You can do the same for Guest lecture at MBA college …any MBA college with good student strength. Just add some entrepreneurship spin to your pitch and tell your story. If you are in a Metro I am sure you must be having one in next block- get in touch with them … Biz school depend big time on case studies,guest lectures ,summer training etc. You can be a case study to them . there are more than 20 MBA colleges in Jaipur itself . I am sure not all of them have their guest lecture schedule full. You can surely help . Do it while Web 2.0 is hot J

PTA Meetings

This might sound a little weird to some of you. Go to your local affluent schools, talk about the internet domain in context of your product. This will help parents who see their kids spending a lot of time online on Facebook , Orkut or P2P. Parents want to know more about it, but they don’t know whom to ask.

Introduce them to cult of Poke and scrap – they want to be cool or they simply want to connect with there kid by a common pursuit. You can surely tell them a thing or two and I bet these parents would go and boast it to their kids and you know a social network site endorsed by your dad is a excellent way to make it stand out. I am sure it won’t do much harm either. Key here is to balance between talking about your domain and your product. Worth a try. Isn’t it ??

Night Out @ College Hostel :

I am yet to find a person who doesn’t like to talk about romance of startingup , But at the same time i am yet to see a startup who actually capitalize on this romance . When it comes to marketing that is your best weapon . Don’t sponsor annual cultural fest of the local engineering college . Instead try this go to hostel one night on some pre text [b'day ,visiting your cousin , alumni etc].

Show them your Product . Tell them how much fun you guys are having in doing this. Show some pics of your team in bean bag and some of your pics with Narayan Murthy at some conference and tell a good story over beer . If you are able to pull a good show, you will have some good number of crusaders in that campus next day .Make sure you have everyone’s email id; and as a follow up, ask them to relay your message to college mailing list. Avoid sending a direct email to list- let your crusader relay it and take glory of introducing a cool thing.
In India, startup is still a novelty and having a chance to talk to entrepreneur is bigger novelty. I don’t see anyone capitalizing on this.
On the other hand, what are Indian startups doing ? Spamming Orkut??

There are few more tactics. Some of them too whacky, some of them too specific to application that they don’t need to be mentioned for the purpose of a generic discussion; and of course some of them too good to share. I am sure you can come up with few of your own!

What do you think about these type of guerilla tactics? Can it work in India ? Let me know your thoughts .
Lets talk about it.

tags: guerilla marketing tips, img

Why did Lightspeed take AskLaila bet?

Ever since I heard the news of LightSpeed led $10 million investment in AskLaila, I have been scratching my head and searching for answers. For starters, AskLaila (review) is a purely India focused local yellowpage website with an added layer of basic value added services such as user reviews.
How much ever I may wish to laugh away this investment as one of the 90% VC investments that go down the drain, the reality is that nobody, especially hardened breed known as venture capitalist, invests $10million without a clear glimpse of potential high payoff.

Here is a clue, when we look at Indian Market there are two clear realities that strike an aware mind

1. One one hand, we see a growing economy, that clearly has a potential to be one of the largest in the world in next couple of decades. With a vibrant economy comes phenomenal consumption demand that can raise many billion dollar companies in basic customer facing services alone.
2. On the other hand, we have an utterly underdeveloped consumer services infrastructure. A casual visitor from western world can clearly appreciate that India lacks basic services that everybody in the West takes for granted.

Now you start to see some method in the investment madness across sectors in India. We are talking about basic consumer facing infrastructure that can deliver reliable services day in and day out, which does not exist in India today.
When it comes to basic infrastructure, It may take a lot of investment & efforts to build something that works, but successful players will have the last laugh.

Three cheers for hundreds of AskLailas, Lightspeed Ventures, entrepreneurs and investors who have decided to take a plunge.

In the recent development, we have heard of Gmail offline avatar, (yes Goog is building an email client which will enable you to access your emails and contacts offline, just like the way you do with Outlook.) as well as GPhone.

These are Google’s global plans, what about the Indian Internet Industry? Here is one speculation – IPTV.

What if Google launches an IPTV service in India? A service which would take a leaf out of Joost and will bring the IPTV boom in the growing Indian and south Asian markets. Agreed that the major roadblock for IPTV in India is the Broadband penetration. To solve this, Google can partner with Indian broadband companies and well, don’t be surprised if we have a 10 MBps bandwidth at our homes in next 6 months [powered by Google].

What’s your take?

A few facts about Google’s India Interest:

• Google maps are being enhanced and geo location will be imprinted on the Google Maps version for the Indian cities.
• Google has invested closed to INR 100 crores in the Indian VC industry.

By the way, another rumour: Google is building a PDF writer and a reader, as well as a flash plugin??? Is Adobe watching?

tags: google iptv india, google gears

About Sanjay (in his own words)
I’ve been a corp exec, an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley during the go-go days of Web 1.0 by co-founding a VC backed internet startup (acquired by Infoseek/Disney), then founded in 1999 India’s first e-zine aimed at entrepreneurs called VentureKatalyst, then co-founded JumpStartUp one of India’s first early stage cross-border VC funds, and am today an advisor-angel to startups & advisor to a few funds. I also teach a business plan workshop at INSEAD B-school and am associated with IIMB-TiE-Nasscom in driving entrepreneurship. I’m also on the board of a social entrepreneurship venture in Bangalore.

Here is the first article:
—
“VCs don’t want to take risks”! “Hey, you claim to be in the risk capital business, so why can’t you take a risk and fund my young company?” “I’ve been trying to get funding for my startup but no VC gets it, they don’t understand what I’m saying!” “Gosh, they want me to make more progress but how do I show progress if I don’t have money?” “They want to take a significant stake in my company when all I want is some money!”

And the litany from entrepreneurs frustrated with their fund-raising experiences goes on and on. Having been on both sides of the table, first as an entrepreneur and then as a VC, I’ve presented some ideas here that I hope will be of value:

The Context

a) Understand what a VC does: A VC is a not a bank or a financial institution that lends some money against collateral. In India, the distinction between a VC and private equity (PE) investor isn’t very clear. An early stage VC typically invests small amounts in young, fast growing companies that have the potential for delivering 10X+ returns on the money invested – usually within in a 5 year period. There’s no collateral and the investments are in the form of equity with no financial engineering involved. It is a high risk investment and so the involvement of the VC is high. Empirical data of VC investments suggests that about 50% of the companies lose all the money invested, about 30% deliver marginal returns, while the balance 20% deliver the super-normal returns thereby ensuring that the portfolio delivers an attractive return in the aggregate. Now, you can see why VCs look for the possibility of very high returns. PE investments, on the other hand, are of larger sizes, into slower growing but established companies (and less risky), are more passive investments. Since PE investments usually involve some financial engineering, the investments are typically made into companies where there are physical and financial assets that can be leveraged. Given the lower risk, the expected return multiples are lower than the expected return multiples for VC investments.

b) There are different types of VCs: There are different kinds of VCs. They can be largely segmented based on their preferred investment stages (e.g. seed, early, expansion), sectors (e.g. technology, services, healthcare, medical devices, clean-tech), geographic focus, minimum investment sizes (e.g. some VCs will not invest less than a certain size). Pitching a technology startup therefore to a VC who largely invests in services isn’t likely to generate much `interest. Do your research on the VC!

The 5 key Specifics

a) Team: This is the most important aspect of a VCs decision making. Given the high risks of the venture and the minimal downside protection, the only real collateral the VC has is the team. Integrity, academic background, work experience, ability to deal with high pressure and challenges, ability to attract and retain customers, employees, and partners, are some of the qualitative criteria that VCs use for evaluation.

What is the team’s reputation – what do ex-colleagues, subordinates and supervisors think of the team members? Do they want to work with them again? How did the team members behave during moments of crisis? Are they trustworthy?

Is the team focused on ownership control and protection of their stakes or is the team focused on enhancing the size of the total pie? Is what is good for you also good for your startup? Remember that what is good for your startup is almost always good for you. However, what is good for you does not mean it is good for your startup. Whatever your final role, you will always be known as the founder/CEO/VP of a successful startup. No VC wants to back someone who wants to continue to remain CEO of a small startup at any cost. And it is your startup that is the focus – not you as an individual. It is important to be able to de-link your startup from your individual self. This is a hard thing to do but necessary to be able to take dispassionate decisions.

Will the team hire people based on loyalty or competence? Remember, loyalty and competence are not substitutes.

Does the team think of the VC as a partner or as an unavoidable evil? Are you willing to be transparent and share all information with the VC? Maintain the highest standards of governance? Is family involved in the company as key employees, as suppliers, partners, customers? Have these been disclosed?

Is the CEO the number #1 sales person? The CEO has to sell to key hires, customers, partners, investors and the press. All too often, Indian CEOs are inhibited and diffident about their company and its offerings as it is not considered polite to be talking about oneself. But then, if you don’t talk about your company, who else will? Why should anyone else? If you are modest about your own company, the world will assume that there’s indeed much to be modest about! I’m not advocating ruthless self-promotion or making incorrect and tall claims. I’m suggesting that the leadership needs to be able to demonstrate the ability to relentlessly keep pushing the value proposition of their companies in all forums and with all stakeholders. Participation in trade shows, speaking at conferences, networking, getting the press excited, and following up with potential customers, partners, hires, industry leaders and experts are all therefore part of the process of communication. Is the leadership team up to it?

Does the team demonstrate confidence or are they arrogant and over-confident? Will they be humble enough to learn from experiences including those of others?

The young company needs to create advocates – has the company created a credibility cover for itself by having credible people associated with the company as Directors on the board, as Advisors, as Mentors?

All of this is possible only if the leadership team is passionate about their startup. A startup is not yet another job. It is not a “get rich quick” scheme. The passion to create, to deliver something unique with your name on it, to do whatever it takes to make the company successful, and to have fun while doing so is important. Getting rich is a by-product. It cannot be the sole reason to do a startup.

b) Market: What is the problem you are trying to solve? Is it a real customer issue or is it a “nice to have” thing? Is there a market for your startup’s offerings? Is it large? Is it growing? What is the competitive landscape like? How many potential customers have been spoken to?

All too often entrepreneurs say: “According to various market research analysts, the market size will be over US$5 billion in 2010. I’ve made a very conservative estimate of a market share of just 1%, so I’ll be a US$50million business”. Well, its like saying there are 6 billion people in the world and all I have to do is sell my Rs 50 T-shirt to just 1% of them to be a Rs 3 billion company! Easier said than done, don’t you think? Remember, VCs read the same research reports! On the other hand, you can dramatically enhance credibility were you to present a bottom-up approach that worked out the number of customers you could realistically acquire each year keeping in mind such things as the sales and marketing strategy (direct, channel, OEM etc), the hiring cycle times, sales cycle times, the price customers will realistically pay, the partnership discounts, a named pipeline that can support this growth, customer support and so on. Clearly, all this information cannot be obtained from reading research reports on the Net. This information has to be painstakingly gleaned from customer meetings, discussions with industry experts, with experienced sales and marketing people and the like.

It is mathematically impossible for any one market to support more than 6 companies each with 15% market share. It is also a truism that most markets tend to consolidate over time with the top 3 or so players commanding over 60% share. Can the market therefore support the creation of a large company, say $50m to $100m inside 5 years?

c) Offering: What exactly is your offering? Why is it different from those in the market? How can the uniqueness be sustained and defended?

The ability to clearly define what your offering is and the articulation of the benefits (not features) of the offering are critical. The sharp focus on the offering, the customer, and the benefits have to be clearly and unambiguously communicated. Is there defensible intellectual property in the offering? Why cannot someone else do the same thing? How will the innovation be protected? Is the competitive advantage in the business model, in the supply chain, or in the partnership arrangements? Again, how defensible are these? Is there a road map for the maintenance of the competitive advantage?

At the end of the day, the questions that need answering are: “Will the customer buy? Why / Why Not?” “How much will the customer pay? Why / Why Not?”

Is the offering truly innovative or is it just a small variation of a set of features? Can a valuable business and company be built on this innovation or is it better off being part of a larger offering? Is the offering just a “nice to have” set of features that customers can live without?

d) Model: How will your company make money on the bottomline – is it clear? How much will customers pay? Why? What is the customer acquisition cost? What is the go-to-market plan e.g. OEM, license, direct, channel? Is there a partnership plan? How will customer support be undertaken? Is there a monthly financial plan especially cash-flows, in place? Any what-if scenarios planned?

What kind of partners does your startup have? Remember, tying up with another cash-starved company isn’t going to do you a lot of good. Two poor people don’t make one rich person. Find partners who are better, bigger, and have more money.

It is a good idea to develop a detailed monthly cash-flow plan for at least the first 12-18 months. Then, look at scenarios where the projected sales shifts by one or two quarters or if cycle-times (e.g. for hiring, development, sales, securing office space) shifted by a quarter or two or if costs increased by 50%.

e) Valuation: How much cash will the company likely consume it breaks-even? Will there be other investors interested in the company? How much can this company be worth in a 3 to 5 year horizon? Can it go public? Can it get acquired? What is the entry valuation?

Reaching out to VCs: Once the specifics have been thought through in detail, comes the question of reaching out to VCs. But how does one reach a VC? As usual, there are good ways and bad ways. A bad way is an approach that shows you are ill-prepared or that you have not researched the VC adequately as indicated earlier in this article. As you’ve probably guessed by now, sending in a well researched business plan consequent to a referral is a good way. A`VC receives many plans from various sources. So, to get any attention, a referral is probably the best way. A referral also implies that some kind of quality check has been done. So how does one get a referral? One way is to use the good offices of the Advisory Board or some other trusted intermediary.

In cases where a cold-contact just has to be done, the Executive Summary should be first sent in. This is a 2-3 page document that captures the profiles of the key team members, the market need / opportunity , the uniqueness of the offering , the business model, revenue projections, and some info on how much money is being sought and for what purpose. This should be a well written, professional and crisp document. If this is of interest, the VC will probably call you for a meeting. Go well prepared for the discussion. As the old saying goes, “you won’t get a second chance to make a first impression”!

Approaching a VC should be the job of the CEO. The CEO makes the elevator pitch, the main presentations and answers all the key questions about the company, the market, the positioning of the company, the road-map etc. It is a good idea to meet the VCs with the key team members in tow as it gives the VC a good perspective of the dynamics and competencies in the management team. Make sure the team members are well prepared. For example, the marketing person should be able to answer questions about the market, positioning, customer/prospects, pricing etc.

Presentation: It is extremely important to be able to clearly articulate the value proposition of the company without getting lost in management and technical jargon. In VC presentations, remember you are unlikely to get more than 30 to 40 minutes in the first meeting to make your case. Don’t go with 50 slides – VCs have short attention spans! What that means is that you have to make an impression in the first short meeting. This can only happen if you have a crystal clear understanding of the market, the opportunities, and the value proposition. If you cannot explain what your company is all about in a few short crisp sentences, you’ve lost the attention of the VC. This also means that you should be a great communicator. Practice!

Ideally, you should have no more than 20 slides (including the cover and “thank you ones) to cover the team, market, offering, value proposition, revenue model, and financials. If there’s interest, you can share more information or use back-up slides to respond to questions. You should demonstrate focus in your idea and in your execution plan. Practice with a few “friendly” VCs, take inputs from the Advisory Board, talk to experts and those who’ve “been there, done that”. This could be critical!

There is no shortcut. There is also no magic formula. The key is preparation and in knowing your market, the offering and in communicating the essence of the value in a crisp and clear manner.

Good luck!

–
The article was earlier posted in BusinessGyan ’07 edition.
tags: indian startups, VC funding

On February 14^th 1876, Alexander Graham Bell applied for a Patent on an apparatus that could transmit speech electrically, beating out his rival, Elisha Gray, by just two hours. Never mind that Gray’s design worked better. Timing was all that mattered. When Gray later filed a lawsuit. The courts awarded the patent to Bell, who went down in history as the official inventor of the telephone.

So what’s the moral of the story? If you have bright idea—even one without commercial value—don’t wait for someone else to figure it out and cash in first. By failing to secure the rights to your idea, you run the risk of having your invention slip into the “Public Domain”. And once that happens, there is very little you can do to prevent others from manufacturing, selling and otherwise capitalizing on your innovation. Take a lesson from history and protect your ideas as soon as possible

What is Patent??
A Patent is an intellectual property right relating to inventions and is grant of exclusive right, for limited period, provided by the Government to the patentee, in exchange of full disclosure of his invention, for excluding others from making, using, selling, importing the patented product or process producing that product for those purpose.

In Short the word ‘PATENT’ denotes a monopoly right in respect of a new and useful invention. A Patent may be in respect of a substance or in respect of a process.

Legislation
The Patent system in India is governed by the Patent Act, 1970 ( No. 39 of 1970 ) as amended by the Patent (Amendment) Act, 2005 and the patent rules, 2003, as amended by the Patent (Amendment) Rules 2006 effective from 05-05-2006.

Types of Patent

1. Ordinary Application
2. Application for Patent of Addition ( Improvement or Modification of already Patented version, for an unexpired term of the main Patent )
3. Divisional Application ( in case of plurality of invention disclosed in the main application)
4. Convention Application, claiming priority date on the basis of filing in Convention Countries
5. National Phase Application under PCT

We will now brief you on Provisional Specification, if anyone has any queries on other Patents, feel free to mail us

Why Provisional Patent Or Provisional Specification?
Great ideas happen every day. But the idea, invention, or process isn’t always credited to the person who came up with it first. Sometimes, someone overhears an idea. Sometimes you’re so excited, you’ll tell anyone who will listen about it. And sometimes, believe it or not, someone else will come up with the same invention at just about the same time.

A Provisional Specification Application establishes your priority with a “date of invention.” In other words, it tells the world “This is my invention.” The reason it’s so important to file a Provisional Patent Application is because in Patent Law, it’s often not the person who came up with the idea first who wins – it’s the person who takes action and files the patent application first.

What is a provisional Specification application?
A Provisional Specification Application (PS) is a means by which you can establish and protect a “date of invention” until a full patent is filed with the Indian Patent Office. The provisional specification option was created to provide inventors with an inexpensive way to temporarily protect their inventions until they decide to pursue a full patent. Easier to file than a full patent, a PS allows you to establish an early effective filing date for a future patent without a formal patent claim, oath, declaration, or an information disclosure statement.

How long does a provisional specification last?
A provisional patent has a 12 month pendency period from the date of filing. A patent inventor must file a full (non-provisional) patent application to take advantage of the provisional patent’s filing date. If a full patent is not filed within a year, the provisional patent application is considered abandoned.

What is the difference between a provisional specification and a full (non-provisional) application?
A PS is a shorter version of a full (non-provisional) patent application. It is used to secure a filing date for a later filed full patent application. Once a PS is filed, an inventor has exactly one year to file a full patent application. If an inventor does not file a full application within a year, the PS is considered abandoned and the inventor loses the right to the filing date. Although inventors can still file a full patent application later, they lose the filing date of the provisional application and may also lose the right to the invention if they have already disclosed the invention to the public. Filing a PS saves inventors significant upfront investments and allows them time to assess their invention’s commercial value, conduct research, or seek funding before committing to the high cost and lengthy process of a full patent application.

Benefits of Provisional Specification
There are several advantages of filing a provisional patent application:

1. Lower cost and faster preliminary process

The provisional patent filing fee is much less expensive than a full patent fee. In addition, the technical requirements are simplified, which means it takes much less time and money to prepare and file a provisional patent application.

2. Establishes an official patent filing date

Full patent applications filed within twelve months of the provisional application date have the benefit of “relating back” to the provisional patent application. This means that should a dispute arise over invention ownership, the Patent Office will accept the provisional patent’s earlier filing date as the date of filing.

3. One year to assess the commercial viability of your invention

You can take advantage of the provisional patent’s one-year pendency period to evaluate the commercial potential of your invention before committing to the upfront costs of obtaining a full patent. If you decide to make modifications to your invention during the one-year period, you can file a new provisional patent application and then consolidate both provisional patents into one “regular” patent.

4. Use of the “patent pending” notice

Prior to the advent of the provisional patent application, an inventor had to file a full patent application in order to use the label “Patent Pending” or “Patent Applied For.” You may now do so upon filing a provisional patent application. This label is often useful in deterring potential theft.

5. Extending the patent term

A patent lasts for 20 years, measured from the date that a full patent application is filed. By first filing a provisional patent that lasts for 12 months, you could conceivably extend your patent rights by a full year.

6. Confidentiality
   A provisional patent preserves the confidentiality of your application without publication.
7. Immediate approval

Because a provisional patent application is not reviewed by a Patent Office examiner, you avoid spending time and/or attorney fees communicating with the examiner and redrafting claims during the regular patent process.

Turning Your Provisional Patent into a Full Patent
Once your provisional patent application is filed with the Patent Office, you have exactly twelve months to apply for a full patent in order to claim the earlier filing date as the date of invention. This can be done in two ways:

1. Filing a full patent application that claims the provisional patent’s filing date.
2. Filing a petition to convert the provisional patent into a full patent application.

Although both of these actions result in a full patent application, the term of the patent will differ. With the first option, your patent term will be measured from the date that your full patent filed. With the second option, the term will be measured from the filing date of the provisional patent. Thus, with the first option, you are effectively able to add up to an extra year to your patent term.

In order for the full patent application to have the benefit of the provisional patent’s filing date, the description of the invention in the provisional patent application must be similar in sufficient detail to the invention as described in the full patent application. In other words, the Patent Office must be able to confirm that the invention described in your provisional patent application is the same as the invention covered in your full patent application.

Therefore, it is important to be as thorough as possible when disclosing your invention in the provisional patent application. For this reason, the Patent Office highly recommends that you include professional illustrations of your invention with your provisional patent application.

In addition, since a provisional patent application is not reviewed by the Patent Office, the filing of a provisional patent does not guarantee that you will actually be awarded a full patent. Instead, the full patent application is evaluated on its own merit. Only if the full patent application is approved will the provisional patent’s filing date be used as the priority date of the patent.

tag: legal issues in startups

The Top 100 award winners will be announced at the ceremony, but the 200 short-listed companies have been announced here.

I’ve identified 28 Indian companies (nearly 15%) that have made it to the finalists. Considering the list identifies companies that will lead the next wave of disruption and innovation, some names are obvious – like iXiGO, Paymate & Onyomo; while the majority of the names lead me to doubt the shortlisting process itself – like GlobalLogic, WEP Peripherals, kerela.com.

Following is a list of the Indian companies that have made it to the 200 finalists.

• Adiance Technologies Pvt Ltd www.adiance.com
• Automotive Exchange Private Limited www.CarWale.com
• CashTech Solutions India Ltd www.cash-tech.com
• Cat Computer Services Pvt Ltd www.quickheal.com
• Cross-Tab Marketing Services Pvt Ltd www.cross-tab.com
• FXLabs Studios Pvt Ltd www.fxlabs.com
• Gameshastra Solutions P Ltd www.gameshastra.com
• GlobalLogic India Pvt Ltd www.globallogic.com
• Intrasoft Technologies Ltd www.infrasofttech.com
• iXiGO.com www.ixigo.com
• iYogi Technical Services Pvt Ltd www.iyogi.net
• MeritTrac Services Private Limited www.merittrac.com
• Mindlogicx Infotech Ltd www.mindlogicx.com
• Mistral Software Pvt Ltd www.mistralsoftware.com
• nautanki.tv online india Pvt Ltd www.nautanki.tv
• NetAlter Software Limited www.netalter.com
• OnMobile Asia Pacific Pvt Ltd www.onmobile.com
• PayMate India Pvt. Ltd. www.paymate.co.in
• Proteans Software www.proteans.com
• RealAcres.com www.RealAcres.com
• Rudra Technologies Pte Ltd www.rudratec.com
• Regalix www.regalix.com
• Saora www.saora.com
• SM Onyomo Infotech Pvt Ltd www.onyomo.com
• Telibrahma Convergent Communications Pvt Ltd www.telibrahma.com
• Vembu www.vembu.com
• WeP Peripherals Ltd www.wepindia.com
• Worldviewer Dot Com India Private Ltd www.kerala.com

Congrats all, and wish you luck for bagging the award

Read our interview with OnYoMo’s Shailesh Mehta.

The concept is similar to that of OffersForShoppers, available in Bangalore & Delhi/NCR since past few months. But if you are a Mumbaikar who has been lamenting the lack of such a facility for your own city/locality, lament no more!! mKhoj is for you, even on the move. You can get deals served instantly on your mobile phone by sending an SMS “deals <on what> <where>” to 6767777.

I can already hear voices from Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, etc – I need this too!! mKhoj, OffersForShoppers, discountsindia.com… Anyone!!

With an active deal inventory of 3000 deals and a 15000 small & big ticket retailer base, mKhoj brings quite some value to the table for both merchants & customers. Merchants pay, on an average, Rs. 3-5 per impression and considering the deals are served only to interested customers, I’m sure merchants can appreciate that customer acquisition costs are way below other traditional advertising platforms.

Updating the deal inventory is a mix of manual data seeding by mKhoj and online updates by merchants, they are working on the scalability bit early on . Merchants also need to create a login before they can start posting their deals, which prevents spam [unlike discountsindia / offersforshoppers]. Ofcourse, this also works for mKhoj as CPM is the primary revenue source.

Following is a snapshot of the customer deals search experience.

What next?

• Cleaning up some obvious cracks - I searched for “ice creams, borivali” & got a couple of “Buy 1 Cookie-Tin Win a Bangkok Trip from CCD”… Ice creams & Cookies, what’s the connection!! Trousers & Clothes, make the connection!! From a search experience point of view, product associations is always a work in progress & a tough nut to crack, but necessary to target latent desires. Google’s “did you mean”
• Showing top deals – If there are 15 qualifying deals, I would expect to get 1-2 SMSs only with “top deals”. And that’s where the intelligence in the deal platform kicks in, again a tough nut to crack.
• Enhancing the user experience- I searched for “cookies, bandra” & got 7 results of the same offer across multiple CCDs!! Would like to see only 1 offer & group all merchants below it, so users are not misled with multiple deals.
• Availability in other cities – Other metros & some tier 2 cities figure at the top of mKhoj’s expansion plans, and they already have a foot in the door with partnerships with multiple retail chains and shopping malls chains. Looking forward to them competing with OffersForShoppers in Bangalore.
• Buying on the mobile – With the advent of mobile payments companies of the likes of mChek, Paymate & Jigrahak and the general adoption of the mobile phone as a secure payments option, mKhoj should take a serious look at extending the user experience from plain deals search to one-click purchasing.

Mumbaikars, do give mKhoj a spin.

UPDATE (Aug 10, 2007 10:55am)

Continuing the “What next?” theme…

• Personalized Alerts – I am interested in books & would love to be alerted (via e-mail / SMS) of all deals on books in my locality. Can I set up an alert for say a 30day period? From a customer point of view, this would be kick-ass. From mKhoj’s point of view, though, this will fetch significantly less CPM, since the deals served in this fashion will not see the same conversion as the SMS pull model.
• Deal Classification- There are all kinds of deals – discounts, future-use coupons, lucky draws, spot wins, campaigns, etc. On the website, at least, I should be able to drilldown to specific deal categories too. I might be more intersted in a 25% discount on clothes than on a win a trip to Singapore!! I would love to see this on the mobile too, in conjuction with “top deals” filtering; but there is always a trade-off between feature & usability on the mobile phone.
• Suggest a Deal- As a customer, can I suggest deals for a retail that’s not yet / not so frequently covered by mKhoj? Till that point when mKhoj has covered a significant section of the retail base, this is not just a nice feature, this also highlights gaps in meeting customers’ expectations. For example, I see no deals on “books” or “harry potter” yet!!

Related: offersforshoppers interview

tags: mkhoj, local deal search

1. What is Copyright?
Copyright is a right given by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works and producers of cinematograph films and sound recordings. In fact, it is a bundle of rights including, inter alia, rights of reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation and translation of the work. There could be slight variations in the composition of the rights depending on the work.

2. What is Covered by Copyrights?

1. Literary
2. Musical and
3. Cinematograph film and
4. Artistic Works.

3. What is a work of joint authorship?
“Work of joint authorship” means a work produced by the collaboration of two or more authors in which the contribution of one author is not distinct from the contribution of the other author or authors.

4. What is the Procedure, where is it done?
The procedure is same as getting trademarks, but this has to be applied at Registrar of Copyrights and is located at B.2/W.3, C.R. Barracks, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi- 110 003.

5. What about Computer Programmes?
The term “literary work” here includes Computer Software and Programmes, Databases & Contents of a Website.

6. Are there any special rights in computer programmes?
Yes. In addition to all the rights applicable to a literary work, owner of the copyright in a computer programme enjoys the rights to sell or give on hire or offer for sale or hire, regardless of whether such a copy has been sold or given on hire on earlier occasion.

7. Is copyright applicable to Ideas?
There is no copyright in ideas. Copyright subsists only in the material form in which ideas are expressed. It is not infringement of copyright to adopt the ideas of another. However Ideas or Business Methods can be Patented in and only in USA and therefore the claim is also restricted in USA

8. Is copyright protected in perpetuity?
No. It is protected for a limited period of time.

9. What is the term of protection of copyright?
he general rule is that copyright lasts for 60 years. In the case of original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the 60-year period is counted from the year following the death of the author. In the case of cinematograph films, sound recordings, photographs, posthumous publications, anonymous and pseudonymous publications, works of government and works of international organisations, the 60-year period is counted from the date of publication.

10. Who all have rights in a musical sound recording?
There are many right holders in a musical sound recording. For example, the lyricist who wrote the lyrics, the composer who set the music, the singer who sang the song, the musician (s) who performed the background music, and the person or company who produced the sound recording.

11. Is it necessary to obtain any licence or permission to use a musical sound recording for public performance?
A sound recording generally comprises various rights. It is necessary to obtain the licences from each and every right owner in the sound recording. This would ,inter alia, include the producer of the sound recording, the lyricist who wrote the lyrics, and the musician who composed the music

12. Can I Broadcast any videos on my website?? What are the rights of a broadcasting organization?
The rights of a broadcasting organization with reference to a broadcast are :

• right to re-broadcast the broadcast;
• right to cause the broadcast to be heard or seen by the public on payment of any charges;
• right to sell or hire to the public, or offer for such sale or hire, any sound recording or visual recording of the broadcast.

13. What is the term of protection of broadcaster’s rights?
The term of protection for broadcaster’s rights is 25 years.

14. Is copyright of foreign works protected in India?
Yes. Copyrights of works of the countries mentioned in the International Copyright Order are protected in India, as if such works are Indian works.

15. Does copyright subsist in a foreign work?
Copyright of nationals of countries who are members of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, Universal Copyright Convention and the TRIPS Agreement are protected in India through the International Copyright Order.

16. Which are the common copyright infringements?
The following are some of the commonly known acts involving infringement of copyright:

1. Making infringing copies for sale or hire or selling or letting them for hire;
2. Permitting any place for the performance of works in public where such performance constitutes infringement of copyright
3. Distributing infringing copies for the purpose of trade or to such an extent so as to affect prejudicially the interest of the owner of copyright
4. Public exhibition of infringing copies by way of trade; and
5. Importation of infringing copies into India

17. Who is responsible for copyright offence committed by a company?
Every person who at the time the offence was committed was in charge of, and was responsible to the company for, the conduct of the business of the company, as well as the company shall be deemed to be guilty of such offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against.

18. What are the civil remedies for copyright infringement?
A copyright owner can take legal action against any person who infringes the copyright in the work. The copyright owner is entitled to remedies by way of injunctions, damages and accounts.

19. Which is the court having jurisdiction over civil remedies in copyright cases?
The District Court concerned has the jurisdiction in civil suits regarding copyright infringement.

20. Is copyright infringement a criminal offence?
Yes. Any person who knowingly infringes or abets the infringement of the copyright in any work commits criminal offence under Section 63 of the Copyright Act.

21. What are the punishments for a criminal offence under the copyright law?
The minimum punishment for infringement of copyright is imprisonment for six months with the minimum fine of Rs. 50,000/-. In the case of a second and subsequent conviction the minimum punishment is imprisonment for one year and fine of Rs. one lakh.

If you have any doubt whether you are infringing on copyrights, you can mail us for our legal opinion

Look at the comparative screenshots below…

Of particular mention are the following features:

• Least Price Search- If you wanted to fly from, say, Bangalore to Ranchi ( Ashish & my hometown ), you can choose Air Deccan/IndiGo for the Bangalore to Kolkata / New Delhi leg and then MDLR for the New Delhi / Kolkata to Ranchi leg, and pay lots less for it since iXiGO does all the permutations & combinations for you. You do not need to pay more for a JetLite flight from Bangalore – New Delhi – Ranchi, as is the “recommended” least price on Yatra / Cleartrip / Makemytrip.
• Least Duration Search- With flight combinations, there is the additional complexity of wait times at stops. I’m sure some of you might be ready to bear Rs. 500 more for a reduced wait time of 2 hours? iXiGO has added a nice sort by feature on the “stops (time)” column to help you make this trade-off visually
• Usability Improvements – A swanky new icon legend below the “filter options” will help first-time users.

If you hail from one of smaller towns / cities in India, I’m sure your cheap flight search for a trip back home has been quite a daunting task till now. Take iXiGO for a spin, search for some “exotic” flight routes (say Coimbatore – Guwahati) and see the difference in fares.

On a side-note, ever since iXiGO has launched 2 months back, they have been releasing new features every 15 days odd. Each of these features is a gap that is not being serviced today by the Indian OTAs, but essentially not new in the travel search domain per se (check out farecast, farechase to see what I mean). However, it still is really heartening to see the entrepreneurial & innovative spirit in these folks, and it remains to be seen how long does this steam last

Poaching OTA loyals from their favourite flight search sites is the mantra for success in the crowded Indian travel domain. And the issue is very real. In-fact quite a few senior folks in my office were not aware that flight combinations is not provided by their Yatra, MMT, Cleartrip, etc today!!!

What next?

• Price comparisons within a date range, Customizable low fare / deals alerts, etc from an earlier post
• Completing the search – purchase experience on the mobile phone. iXiGO & OnYoMO have launched least price flight search on the mobile a month back, but if I have to get on the internet to purchase tickets, why would I want to search on the mobile!!!
• What do you think iXiGO should be doing next? Leave a comment here, I’ll make sure they listen

Well, when i started to use CGI scripting, it was PERL and ASP that ruled the tech world. On the contrary, PHP an open source revolution was just starting; and now after the release of 5th version, every web developer should understand what’s in PHP and why it can potentially replace ASP.net or the upcoming RoR.

I have worked on ASP.net but my rationale behind choosing PHP was only the fact that it’s open source and the cost of hosting and cost of developing is very minimal!
History of PHP can be found in here
Performance Factor!
If your product uses ASP.net and SQL server as a DB, it has to be hosted on a IIS web server. If a space is shared with IIS server, you will always repent for all the SQL or unhelpful “service unavailable” messages you get which are traits of MS version of IIS. The technology doesn’t suit large scale hosting and is quite clearly unacceptable, if you hope to get major traffic to your site.
[ex: Orkut is coded using ASP.net and is hosted on IIS, you must be very familiar with unhelpful pages i am refering to]

When compared to PHP hosted on Apache with a respectful MYSQL, you could substantially be more reliable and need not worry about any breakpoints.

Hosting Ghost!
When you have to host a windows based system to support IIS and ASP.net programming, its way too expensive and literally not affordable for small scale business need.

On the other hand, switching to Linux based systems with PHP, you are a clear winner. It costs nearly 60% more to host on Windows compare to Linux systems.

I understand Linux experts are few and its easy to maintain a windows box with many MS certified engineers flocking around. It’s always challenging to have your linux box
always up and running, but when you look for a cost/benefit analysis, its always LINUX and PHP which are best to combat all my woes.

IIS : No SEO !
When you have a portal hosted on IIS, you would witness the most ugliest URLs and very unfriendly environment for a SEO.Probably MS didn’t had a forethoughts of a growing need for search engine optimization.

IIS isn’t SEO friendly and APACHE with its mod_rewrite command could let you easily play with .htaccess to bring effective ways of controlling search engine features.

Coding Column
ASP.net is robust AND secure with all its consistent framework and the connectivity to DB too is brilliantly implemented, and at the same time PHP is very inconsistent and doesn’t follow any best pratice (from a programming sense).

At the same time PHP is a programmer’s delight – type a PHP program on a simple text editor and run under your apache, you would see the interpreter replying back to you [very light weight], its all so easy when compare to installing, licensing, publishing , waiting for IIS to reply back along with those heavy frameworks to control the objects from a browser [what the heck]!!

PHP is so very simple to control and very easy for a novice programmer to start coding, it follows very good CGI scripting binaries of C programming language and with its Out-of-box coding standards it would very support huge traffic and further enhanced with every version.

Databases and woes!
Myself being an avid lover of MSSQL and with all its feature built resources such as Enterprise manager, Query Analyzer, I wouldn’t anytime compare with less privileged MYSQL.

MYSQL might look very easy for a starter, but it simply rejects complex queries only due to its arbitrary limits and moreover, the unsupported UI makes it more complex for SQL to be scripted.
Never mind all new SQL editors like SQLyog gives a supporting edge and with MYSQL on a enterprise user level, its getting better every day!

Conclusion:
The above expressed views are based only with my experience in working with ASP.net and PHP mode, I would anytime suggest for a migration to LINUX,APACHE,MYSQL,PHP [LAMP].

It’s really not that bad getting a good idea, but its always good to get an overview and actually understand the market feasibility, and also to propagate with building on the idea. It’s better to get involved and discuss with known people/mentor around and always important to go for cutting edge technologies.

When you have a plan to implement all your forethoughts, its always essential for people around you, to know what a you are building or looking to build that could probably change the way you live. Most start ups either succumb at infancy stages due to lack of optional credits or get involved in value addition by selling to a bigger firm. In order to make a splash as a successful product company,trust me its takes everything out of you!

When you plan to build something new, understand what market has to say , eventually that is where your credit lines are defined, its easy for anyone to get an idea, but to move ahead with plans and strategies it takes something else. When an idea evolves, try to push it further to understand the market segment; Or think of it this way – if you could come up with the product in next 2 years how it could be unique in this world?

There are only two things which sells in this world “SEX and the other being UNIQUENESS“. so choose which suits better at your mode!

Right Idea and the Right team:
Once you are done with seeding up an idea and start building the team,don’t pick unknown commodities! To survive in the long run, you need close friends and close relations on first guard.

Team makes all the difference – To have a right team to drive through, your team should comprise of your close associates, and not people whom you have met on a social networking site or in a Chat room sessions.
An idea can be sowed by anybody (be it a computer scientist or a MBA holder), but what actually matters is its execution – where you have reached with planning and how well you could progress in stages to make it the best activity of your life.

We in India, being in a contemporary service industry we always think that we would need a team of 100′s to build applications,on a huge enterprise level. Indeed its true, but to go ahead and build a product, it’s not necessary to have a huge team, you just need smart people around.
Hint – Google was built by two, eventually enhanced by more.

To start only with a attitude to sell to someone else, I’d consider it normal – but you bring good things in life ONLY when you are totally abnormal. You’ve got to posses passion, you have to dream in building new things, in having more self confidence and the next thing to sleep over it to make things look beautiful.

Frequently Intriguing Questions [FIQ]
I have an idea, but i am associated with another firm,how do i proceed?
I am happy you can think, never mind working 100 % for your respective company, but as we know Indian servicing industry has very less space for your creative thoughts, so keep pushing it unless it doesn’t affect your actual work, Its very simple if you are building products which is variantly unique form your servicing factors,there no law to stop you in this. Don’t worry about your senior Managers they can’t charge you for this.

I have a brilliant plan ready, but no Investment?
Well, Angel Investors are born for the same reason, when you have something which could turn the tables, there are always people who are looking for such bright people to make there investment worth, but again be extra cautious not to sell your idea for few pennies!

Now I couldn’t find the investment, but I need to proceed?
Yes you could very well start on relatively small scale, all good things comes in small packages. The key for any startup is always believing in what you could do than to compare yourself with all existing players, all human beings on earth are unique so as you, so start yoga, read Novels, and if it really helps you grow your confidence then i suggest listen to Eminem and watch Federer play!

I have an idea, but I don’t have a team member?
I always stress that you should share the idea with close friends or people whom you could believe and trust, IDEAS don’t take shape without discussion, if you want me to believe that you developed a kickass idea all by yourself, stop kidding.

I am MBA holder, have an idea, but i don’t know coding?
Well, coding isn’t ROCKET SCIENCE, but yet i suggest you being on a Management platform please don’t start coding. You have to think about feasibility reports, in pane points, in understanding the market/how to monetize and other stuff. Your options would be to hire or get associated with people who are coding gurus – share the wealth with them.

I am a coder, but don’t have Marketing Skills?
Well, its good you can develop products, but without effective marketing you can’t really take your products to new level. I suggest that you get in touch with your close friends, who have some strategies in mind for marketing and who can build good ways of communicating and eventually making your product worthwhile.!

Finally, I am done with planning, implementation, and launched product?
Don’t look for acquisition, initially building a product company takes a toll on you, but when it grows to new heights you will cherish the fruit of your labour – after all, what you sow shall you reap.

My concern being with the rapid growth of technology advancement I see very few instrumenting some encouragement to the academic value, we tend to always compare India with Developed nations and the topic of discussions being basic amenities, growth factor, economy sustainability and blahhss!! Why isn’t’ academics discussed in these talks?.

A Fresh Graduate [i.e. Fresher : coined by IT majors] who aspires to work with major IT companies [SWIT :call them Satyam, Wipro, Infy, TCS] or major MNC servicing depots,
will literally be unaware of what a product or a servicing factors would do, or how is it effective for his career growth.
I don’t blame the servicing industry. Its a hard truth it generates job and makes a common man live happily, but until when? Won’t we have product developing engineers, or valuable Entrepreneurs?

Its high time we change the academic value system and build the next India 2.0. These are few points which cross my mind when I think of the same:

• Academics should go hand in hand with the technologies and it’s growth; and not the same rudimentary syllabus anymore!
• Bring Industry experts to set syllabus, keep in mind the growth for next 10 years
• No point having adhoc system values and to teach students of age old MYTHS, its time we grow up!
• Bring entrepreneurial education in academics, make students think on their own feet, rather than shaping them to serve others.
• Leave IITs/IIMs alone – they always grow, they constitute only 8% of total engineers in INDIA [out of which less than 1 % have pay scale in Rupees]
• Academic should be the place for a student to understand the Industry and related developments before being a part of industry.
• Product Development in India is still way behind for simple reason that we have very low profiled academic value.
• Bring good Industry experts to teach new technologies [Internet, Chip design, Management lessons].
• teach them product engineering skills [ I don't want to see my son using a Windows paying freakin $110].
• If we are capable of developing Brahmos, Chandrayana Mission,Nuclear Reactors, SuryaKiran‘s and many more , why not a Operating System, Search Engine , Programming language,Semantics?

Few excerpts from my research:
In UK/US, less than 15% of the students [of UK,US origin] completing Bachelors take up further studies and complete their Masters, but the known truth being, where in the world did 450,000 get enrolled in US alone for Masters, this time the record 1,65,000 INDIAN student applied for the Masters programme.
Why would a Indian student need Masters degree from UK/US?
Is it because our Bachelors are not worth a white collar job ?I still reminisce a joke by my friend:
What if the Indian IT Servicing Industry doesn’t work for a week?
Well, none of the US banks can do the transactions, Federal govt employees would go haywire,
Planes would stop flying, NASDAQ would declare bankruptcy…….
But what if the Indian IT industry doesn’t work for a month? - US will outsource the same work to other countries and normalcy will resume!

Talk of bargaining power?

iXiGO, the newest kid in “Indian Travel Search” town launched yesterday. It is a travel meta-search engine that aggregates content from 14 airlines and 3 travel search websites (makemytrip, yatra & indiatimes), and brings them to you in a pure Web 2.0 experience.

But, do I need another travel search website? Aren’t there too many already?
The Indian travel industry is on a boom. With so many airlines and so many VC-backed travel websites, the consumer can’t complain for lack of choice. On the other hand, the same is a real search pain. If I am a price conscious customer, I have to search across atleast 2-3 airline websites and 2-3 travel search websites to get the best price possible. I might have my preference for travel search sites, but I might also be missing some cool deals if I’m not doing this.

iXiGO is trying to solve exactly these end user pains via its travel meta-search engine.

How are they different?

• Price Transparency – How much do you pay for a Rs.9 (Air Deccan) / Rs. 999 (MDLR) flickt? Atleast 1100-1250 more, thanks to taxes!!! Price comparison on travel / airlines websites really start on the final chekout page, 3 page navigations per site X 5-6 websites = about 15-18 page navigations before you can buy the least price ticket. iXiGO’s search, on the other hand, shows total prices (base + taxes)… All it takes is 1 page navigation on iXiGO for you to shell out the least money from your pocket.
• Search Speed – A Bangalore-Kolkata one-way search took 5 sec for the first search results & 45 sec for the total search (across all available options). The same search on Zoomtra, iXiGO’s nearest competitor, took 15 sec & 75 sec respectively. You can take your pick
• Breadth of Choice – 14 airlines, 3 travel search websites. Need I say more…

Are they competing with the other travel search providers?
Not really. iXiGO’s meta-search makes them yet-another distribution channel for the airlines / travel search websites, thus warding off direct competition. With time, when iXiGO takes off as a major inbound traffic provider, they could well be in a position to offer special iXiGO deals for their customers.

What next for iXiGO?
The following features top my wishlist, have been in discussions with iXiGO folks (they’re my juniors from grad school) to roll these out at the earliest…

• Price comparisons within a date range (farecast???) – Would love to see prices within a range of say +/- 1 week around the intended travel date. Presenting this in a visually appealing format (e.g. graphs, etc) would be a great tool for the price-conscious customer whose travel dates are flexible.
• Customizable low fare / deals alerts – Again for a price-conscious customer.
• Tighter integration – Closing the search & purchase gap, can iXiGO take me directly to the final checkout page of the airlines & travel search websites.
• Search on your mobile – On the internet, search on iXiGO & on one-click navigate to the purchase page. On the mobile, search is okay, purchase??? Can they integrate with a mobile payments provider – mChek, Paymate, etc – to complete the mobile search & buy experience.

What next from me? Look out for a podcast with iXiGO founders next, give them feedback here.

Setting up your itasveer account with your Flickr account is a breeze, here’s a nice FAQ outlining the process and some screenshots. BTW itasveer.com also got a website facelift today

Watch out for some audio-visual tutorials on itasveer, and my next article in this segment – A critical look at the Indian online photo printing market!!

Sidenote: This article is authored by Tamal Das, a new plug @ pluGGd.in. In addition to being a technology & product management enthusiast (about which Ashish may write later , I’m also a digital photo enthusiast, check out my photoblog. You can either leave a comment on my posts, or send me an email.

What next from me? Some more announcements of new Indian startups in the local search, social networking, travel search, etc domains!!! Are you excited?

tagged: itasveer