kvrlogs

2014 is coming to a close. It has been a very interesting time for Startups. A Government change, with it expectations, a rising economy - which in turn will benefit startups. Billions of VC money flowing into the ecosystem. Traditional investors become Angels. Here is my wishlist for Startups - new and old for 2015 - to Fight the Good Fight. Gain Customers, not Facebook Likes No Short Cuts please. Gaining traction, gaining customers is not easy. This is the most important metric for any Startup. Not the Facebook likes, Alexa ranking, Twitter Followers - these will come automatically once customers start signing up. To gain customers - you need to have a kickass product. Not a 80% almost there product, but a 200% going beyond the wildest customer expectation product. To reach there, it takes lot of hard work, lot of iterations - there is no short cut.  Do not start a clone  There are so many problems waiting to be solved. If you have 2 ideas - one which is never tried before ...

After the Vibram law suit, I got disillusioned with Bare foot running. Also running on Mumbai Roads, bare foot is not practical - it is dangerous. I ran barefoot for about 6 months ( on Sports Authority of India's track in Kandivali), then switched to Bata shoe... which got worn out pretty quickly. Then I switched to Nike Free Run 3, and for the last 2 years this has been my running shoe. I have clocked close to 930Kms on this and the soles have worn off pretty well. I enquired about Nike Run 5, and it was close to 9k. I literally stopped on my tracks - this is crazy. Couple of weeks back, San pointed to a Sale in the Puma shop next to our office. I looked around, and found this interesting shoe - the Puma Mobium. The sales guy knew about running and said this is not a heels strikers shoe, but more of a front to mid foot runner's. This is the ideal way to run from what I have researched. This was also 9k, but they had 40% off. Did a few trial runs in the store an...