kvrlogs

Whoosh... that is how the time went the last 3 years. Sep 18th, 2008 - the day the Lehman Brothers collapsed and the sub prime crisis erupted - I started my entrepreneurial journey. 3 years down the lane - I still feel young and wide eyed. And this brings us to an identity crisis I am having. How do I introduce myself to strangers? Earlier it was easy - I work for an IT company and the other party just imagines me walking in with a laptop bag, boarding a flight to US of A and bringing back lot of foreign chocolates - and of course living the high life and someone who can afford the high rents and bribes. [ honestly this is not true, and I am always frustrated when the non-ITians think that we are having an easy life ] Now I honestly do not know how to introduce myself.  Here are the few attempts : I run a startup. The problem is - it is now my 4th year. How long will i keep starting should I not have started up by now? Also it feels as if I am toying with an idea or a business mode...

First the Disclaimer : This is not a mac fanboy post. I am loosely stereotyping the 3 kinds of users based on the 3 OSes - Mac, Windows and Linux. This is mainly to drive home the point of how an "ideal user" will help your product become better and better. The "Mac User", who I call - can also be a Windows, Linux,BeOs,OS 390.... user.  OS X has been successful mainly because of their Users - look at the amount of podcasts, fan sites, hints sites, magazines for this platform alone. Apple listens to these feedbacks - and incorporates some into every release of their OS. I am tending to call these "ideal users" as "Mac Users". Had linux/windows had the same level of success - will be labeling them likewise. Shall we move on? :) Here are some reasons why you need Mac users. 1. They demand Perfection This is from my personal experience. Some of the CxO users, ex-Entrepreneurs who use our product - just cannot stand mediocrity or minor bugs. As develo...

A startup has many challenges - market, cash flow, competition, support, hack attacks, attrition, power cut, hunt for the perfect coffee - add one more to the long list - Business Card Title. Today, Sangeeta and I had a chat on IM ( yes we are in the same office - long story :) ) regarding what will be the title. We cannot have traditional roles like CxO, X Manager etc. - as in a startup you have to specifically generalize. When we started ApartmentAdda, I had a short title on my Business card - Chief. - with a period at the end. I was ragged for 15 minutes by one committee when I had gone for a demo. Also later Sachin who was our Product Innovation Lead - used to tease me - Chief What? So when we went for a reprint had it printed as Chief, Technology. That explains one aspect of my job - the primary role. But there are lot other things I handle daily - support, IS, patching, backups, opening office, UPS rationing, analytics, accounting, server, domain renewals, organize team outings.....

It has been a while since I finished reading Viral Loop by Adam Penenberg - which traces the story of Internet companies right from Netscape to Facebook and Twitter. The book is sinking in slowly. Being in the .com business it was exciting and scary to read the history of various startups. The book covers the journey of the following startups. Netscape Hotmail Ebay Paypal Amazon Hot or not MySpace Flickr Bebo Ning Twitter Facebook And there is a recurring pattern in all of them 1. The founder is invariably a developer All these are essentially Web applications - and having the founder-developer part of the nucleus is ideal . Things change at the speed of light - and the founder being at the helm can immediately sense the course corrections that are needed - and correct them himself - instead of having outsourced the core work, or giving instructions to a team of techies and waiting for them to create magic. 3 Cheers to Developers - we are the makers of the world! Free Tip Warning :) : ...

In August we had 4 Major Releases and 8 Minor releases. I was  thinking how the Releases were in my previous life ( few in a year ) and how it is now ( few in a month ). Things are much more demanding in a startup - the developer's job is not done by just pushing things to Prod and making sure things are fine. He has to do lot of follow up work. Looks like lot of fun isn't it! :)

Today I attended the Bangalore Open Coffee Club's meeting in an interesting venue called Jaaga. Before I  jump into Mr.Sharad Sharma's speech / adrenaline shot - will talk a little about Jaaga. It is spear headed by Freeman Murray and Archana Prasad. They have identified an unused piece of land - and has built this structure with minimal and eco-friendly materials. This space can be used by NGOs or communities who want a place to get together, startups can come and plug in etc.  They call it the Urban Community Art Architecutre Experiment - http://jaaga.wikidot.com/start . Brilliant concept and I am sure you will be visiting this place sometime in future - it is going to take off well.  Now to the Orbit Change Catalyst's lecture ( thats his twitter bio   http://twitter.com/sharads  )  Mr.Sharad Sharma took us through his entrepreneurial journey and kept giving his insights and his learning peppered with lot of interesting anecdotes. 1. Innovation ...

There is this age old debate - should you specialize on a skill, or generalize and become a jack of all trades? Heres a quote that answers the question : “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” – Robert A. Heinlein — from The Notebooks of Lazarus Long There are exceptions - but as a generalization - the above quote is spot on. In any career you will have your main stream ( BA, Developer, QA, Architect etc. ) - but to become really kickass in your stream - you have to develop other surrounding skills. Where I am coming at is - as an entrepreneur you will be forced to don many hats. I have met a few entrepreneurs who will dig ...

Guy Kawasaki is following me on Twitter !! Woohoo - I was shocked when I saw this message. Thanks Mr.Kawasaki!! Some day I will take you out for lunch - to a sushi bar or an Indian restaurant when we meet. You have been a great influence on how I think and run my startup. 

I was not aware of the startups in India till I had my own startup. It is the same feeling you get when you are in the market for purchasing a Maruti Swift and suddenly you spot lot of Swifts. I am spotting startups in bus loads.  I am just bowled over by the number of ideas that are emanating out of India - not just Bangalore but from various parts of the country. Who said Indians are not creative enough? Yes we have been stifled a lot all these years because of various reasons and that could have given the impression that we are just followers and not leaders when it comes to ideas and technology.  But now our entrepreneurs are getting more adventurous - and people on the fence are letting it go and jumping into the fray - who knows the next Apple, Google is being cooked right now somewhere in an apartment.  Head over to this page - to see what I am talking.  http://enbase.net/db/Main_Page Wish luck to all my fellow startupians - you guys are crazy and be that way !!  Also I am dedic...