Vijay Anand | The Startup Guy.

Jumping the Long Tail

// April 20th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Business

In an ideal world, just about anyone can create. But is that really an ideal world?

About two years ago, while blogs were being touted as the biggest thing to ever hit the planet, apart from all those mystery meteors in the sci-fi movies, what was interesting was to note the number of readers that blogs usually have. Its perhaps the reason why I never took too much interest in this blog – as I created it as a corner for my own thoughts than to make a living out of it. That made a difference.

In the world of unlimited creativity, the problem is the matching up with the respective constraints. Take the matter of politicians, Blogs, Television Shows, a New Product, Opinions and Perspectives All of them – if they are in a democratic context – dont have an entry barrrier to come into this world. But once they do, they need to fight for survival.

Election times are up, and the curious side of me always is after the number of “independent politicians” who usually get a vote. I wonder who that one vote was – was it himself, his wife, or someone in his family? If that is the case, was he so lonely with his ideologies that he couldnt garner more than a vote? Then think about it, its not so different from keeping a blog and never seeing that counter go more than one. The situation is pretty much the same.

I believe, this is the fundamental reason for terrorism. And I believe terrorism is more prone to happen in a democratic scenario than in any other form of government, cause democracy demands that you make your way to the top, that you fight to have your voice heard, and do whatever stunts you need to pull to make that happen. If there is someone who unfortunately is in a minority and doesnt have the patience and forebearance to tolerate time, she ends up become a terrorist to make a statement – all to simply catch that attention.

I dont have any answers here, but a lot of questions, and the hope of this post was to get you to think and perhaps discuss this – please refrain from “Life is like that” comments. Its crucial to understand this, because there is a lesson in strategy and marketing here. How DO underdogs really take on the golliaths, if people would never pay attention to little Davids? Perhaps the answer is in the question itself. Do we really need miracles and just the sheer luck of having the right timing to make it happen?

Setting Expectations For the Future of Computing.

// April 15th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Business, India, Mobile, Technology

The experts in Marketing would usually say that, marketing, pricing, the sales process, and the customer satisfaction that follows that can all be related with a simple equation.

Satisfaction = Reality – Expectations. (Thanks!)

And they would be right.

I remember a call from my dad’s friend about a year ago, to come over to his house to check out his new computer that his Son had gotten for him. His children live in the US and they had gotten their parents a computer so as to take advantage of Skype, Webcams and all those cost effective ways of communicating, which would mean more long hours and detailed conversations amongst themselves. His complaint was that the computer sales guy sold him a slower computer when he marketed it as the fastest computer available in the market.

A little bit of clicking around, and lo and behold, it was a duo core, bloated with RAM, hard disk space and a nifty 19″ monitor, bundled with the entire multi-media suite. All was right here except for the expectations.

When I did mention that, this does seem like a fast computer, his simple question was as to why it takes so long to “turn on”. His comparison: “I push the button on my TV and its on, in about five seconds max. I doubt its as fast as they claim these computers are”

This certainly is a serious case of expectations set wrong, but I believe is also an insight. If we are serious about the next one billion, then we need to address this. The reason why India has more cellphone users than computer users, is also because mobile phones in a way did give people the “instant on” reaction that they were expecting – which might not last for long, now that we are getting more complicated OSes into mobile phones and also taking it down the same route as PCs.

Technologists often quote that the mobile phone is the New PC. I think that entire ideology is wrong. PCs have to become what Mobile phones were, and hopefully are still. We are still far away from computing becoming a utility. If it has to evade every household, it has to become what the television is. Thats the expectation we need to satisfy.

Open Wide the Indian Boundaries

// April 12th, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Chennai, Entrepreneurship, India, Politics, Venture Capital, Venture Funding

If you are one who has traded in the Stock Market and had anyone sensible enough to teach you the ropes, the first rule is that when everything starts to drop, its a good time to buy. The rule is simple. When everyone is heading one direction, there is probably – and with very high probability – a chance to make money if you head the other direction.

Given the economic climate, the first thing every country out there seems to be intend on doing is to plug their capital leakages, and in most cases seems to be shutting down outsourcing, closing borders to immigrants and workers, and the usual shabang. Close the doors, lock it tight and throw away the keys till we figure this thing out seems to be the attitude.

This is all just so wrong.

The US is such a fabulous country for one reason. Because the land gave opportunity for entrepreneurs to succeed. It was a fresh soil, they got rid of all the natives and with no prior baggage in terms of history, it was all open to those who arrived to build the nation. And building almost always came with perks – of becoming rich.

We need to do the same here in India.

Its election time in India, and not sure if anyone is reading blogs and listening to the voices that go on here, but if there is someone listening, they should seriously consider opening the boundaries of this country for any national from anywhere in the world to come here, and setup shop. We should even go as far as providing these startups with space and some financial support to get them on their feet.

We have very little to lose, and so much to gain if we do this. We would;

a) Have more entrepreneurs coming here, looking at everyday problems of ours and trying to fix them effectively, essentially building this country. And Making money.

b) Bringing a fresh and radical outside perspective which doesnt carry the cynical attitude that we carry towards change.

c) Will leapfrog India into an International zone, creating various modes of expression and lifestyle services, that will make us unique and original, rather than imitations of the west.

d) Entrepreneurship is the fastest way to create most jobs.

As I said, if anyone out there is listening, You make this part of your mandate, and You have my vote and support.

Getting to the Heart of it.

// April 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // Ask Vijay, Business, Entrepreneurship

I am reading the transcript of the conversations held by the Union Square Ventures, and reading a quote by Sir Ken Robinson (who is now fairly well known in the education circles for his TED Talk). In the talk, he quotes a note from the book “The Empty Space” by Peter Brooke. In a way of not breaking what he said, Let me quote him.

   There was a fantastic booklet a few years ago by a
   guy called Peter Brooke.  He’s a theater director,
   if you ever come across it.  He wrote a book called
   “The Empty Space.”  And he asked himself this
   question.  He was concerned most theater and is –
   loose entertainment — it’s not invigorating.  It’s
   like a passing time.

   His thing is theater as a vibrant,
   social and cultural force.  So, he also analyzed
   what goes wrong with the theater.  So, he asked
   himself this question.  He said, What is the heart
   of the theater?  What is it?  What is this thing we
   are talking about?  And to get to it, he started
   the process of subtraction.  He said, “What can you
   take away from it and still have it?”
  
   And he said, well, you can take away
   the stage.  Take away the script.  You can take
   away the lighting.  See what’s going on, you take
   away the curtains, and you can take away the
   building.  You can take away all the crew, and you
   can certainly take away the director.  All of that
   is very easy.  Take it all out.
  
   The only thing you cannot remove from
   theater is an actor in a space and somebody
   watching.  That’s the heart of it.  And if either
   of those parts is missing, there is no theater.
   You need a performer and an audience.  Theater is
   that relationship.
  
   And he said you should never add
   anything to that relationship unless it improves
   it.  If it gets in the way, if it encumbers it, if
   it makes it more difficult, you shouldn’t have it.
   And that’s his problem with theater.  Everything is
   a distraction from the main business.

More than once, and whenever you do find yourself trying to redefine an industry, change the way a system works, or maybe even build an ecosystem, these words are good to turn to. Define the basics of what makes that system work, and see how it can be re-tuned, rebuilt and made to work better. You have to go back to the basics, if you want to redefine.

Outlook + Google Calendar + Nokia Calendar = Being on Schedule.

// April 3rd, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Business, Mobile

Once life starts picking up the biggest problem for me seems to be managing time, and most of all trying to avoid the moments when I end up cross booking the time slot for two people – yep, that isnt an easy situation to get out of.

When I am at home, and during weekends, I manage my Calendar on my Nokia Handset with an hour reminder. When I am in Office, I use Outlook’s calendar to manage schedules. The biggest issue is the first few meetings on Monday mornings – there are times when something comes up and there is no way for me to check my schedule.

So here’s the solution I’ve gone with.

Using Google calendar exclusively to manage my entire data. I found to my pleasant surprise that Google has a small app that can syncronize your outlook calendars with Gcalendar.

Secondly, after trying a host of free, opensource and cant-seem-to-get-it-to-work apps, I found CalSyncS60 which works like a charm with my Nokia Phone to do a two-way sync with my schedule in Google Calendar.

As of now, life seems to be in order. The fine line between, work and personal line is blurred forever, but it should atleast save me from breaking people’s hearts by forgetting scheduled meets and keep me on time. That’s a fair tradeoff.

Fearing the State of Not Climbing

// April 1st, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Business, Entrepreneurship

There are quite a bit of people that I come across, good and very good people who sometimes have this fear of not being in the ladder. They are great with startups, but are afraid of being left behind in the startup world and constantly keep looking over the shoulder to move up to becoming a corporate and then join the old boys club of retired entrepreneurs.

i have almost come to believe that that is one of the primary reasons why once someone is fairly successful in this country as an entrepreneur, they run off to become a VC, and then become directors in a few companies and are never heard from again in the startup circles. Apparently they “graduate”. And this is somehow seen as the norm.

There is a certain thrill, passion, grit and energy in working with Startups. And if you do fall addicted to it, there is also more than enough means and ways to create wealth in this phase of creativity and corporate development.

But you are going to have to make a decision about staying put, sinking your heels deeper and committing to this space. As someone rightly said “My life never makes sense in the windshield. It only makes sense in the rear view”. Working with Entrepreneurs, working with Startups, and being an entrepreneur is also a lifestyle choice.