Techie musings

We have been seeing the trend of moving to social from each and every individual. The testimony of this is that facebook has around 800 Million users and recently they announced that around 500 million users are online at a time.

Every individual is spending most of the time in social networks by sharing posts, stay connected to friends status updates blah blah....

That facebook crazy question "What's on your mind?" tempting every one to share things irrespective of the topic.

I think, The era of enterprises moving to social started now. Sounds crazy!!! Yes, this is what exactly "Social Enterprise". It exactly means that "Get in touch about your company branding from your customers, who are social :)"

IMO, facebook did great job in moving individuals to social & hopefully salesforce.com will do great job in moving enterprises to social.

Very nice video on how "Burberry" can become social enterprise.



Go social.. Go Social

Cheers!!!!

10 Inspiring TED Talks for Startups

I wanted to share few things how i thrive into a startup company.

1) Self motivation
2) Be Transparent
3) Very passionate
4) Be hungry every minute
5) Let my manager knows my strengths, weakness and expectations
6) If I feel disgruntled then analyzed myself immediately
7) Expect less from others
8) Start with doable things once we see any working prototype we can scale it to any extent.
9) Shout immediately if i stuck any where
10) Built Good reliability by attitude.

At least,
I did these things for the first 1.5 years. Later anyhow i get habituated with these things :)

I was so impressed while reading these issues which are to be addressed as part of Business plan from Subroto Bagchi book "The High performance Entrepreneur"

1) What is the mission and vision of the organization?
2) What is my product or service? How will it evolve as a family of products or services?
3) What is the competitive landscape? How are other leading player serving the market? What trends do market research and analyst reports indicate?
4) In what way will I be different? Why should someone buy my products or services?
5) How will I get my first, paying customer? How will I price my goods or services?
6) What will be my marketing strategy?
7) What organization structure will I need? What critical skills do the founders possess and which ones need to be supplemented?
8) What capital expenditure will be needed and why? How have I determined and adequacy and the cost?
9) What revenue expenditure will be needed for the same period?
10) How is my cost structure different from that of the competition?
11) What is my three-year cash flow?
12) When will the organization reach break even?
13) What is the funding plan? How much of it will come from personal capital, how much from venture funding and what portion from loans?
14) What is the plan for recruitment, training and retention of people?
15) What are the R&D plans? How will the activity be sustained over time?
16) What are the manufacturing and distribution plans?
17) What are the various risks involved in building the organization?
18) In what way will the team de-risk those?

50 logos for tech start-ups that were launched in 2010 or that came to prominence in 2010 which were categorized them into 3 groups: "The Good", "The Average" and "The Ugly".

50 Startup Logos from 2010 | DesignCrowd Blog

Back in July, I wrote about Professional qualities whose source is "The Professional by Subroto Bagchi". Now i am reading the same author's book "The High performance Entrepreneurs". He depicts few points about the profile of an entrepreneurs

1) Self-confidence.
2) Entrepreneurs value their sense of freedom but they are also very disciplined.
3) Entrepreneurs work hard and are extremely goal oriented.
4) Entrepreneurs are flexible, opportunistic and recognize the power of 'emergence'
5) Entrepreneurship is about egolessness.
6) Entrepreneurs love money.

Its my pleasure to find such a fantastic book.

Back in September, I wrote about Khan Academy saying that World-class education to anyone, anywhere. Not only math and science are the only topics that Khan teaches but also several videos on the subject of venture capital. He explained by taking an example company whose product is "Selling socks online".

You can find the sequence of videos for the following topicsImage via Wikipedia

1) Raising money for a startup
2) Getting a seed round from a VC
3) Going back to the till: Series B
4) An IPO
5) More on IPOs
6) Equity vs. Debt
7) Bonds vs. Stocks
8) Bankruptcy Liquidation
9) Bankruptcy Restructuring

Here is the video's link

A venture capitalist (also known as a VC) is a person or investment firm that makes venture investments, and these venture capitalists are expected to bring managerial and technical expertise as well as capital to their investments.

Get the complete A-Z firms list here

1. What would the ideal web technology start-up team be composed of?
2. How does one hire really good product managers?
3. What are the best ways for gauging or assessing product "spidey sense" during an interview?
4. What is the best way to evaluate a potential startup to work at (full-time)?
5. Are there examples of good start up term sheets?
6. What interview questions would you ask a prospective User Experience design leader for a Web 2.0 startup?
7. What are the top 5-7 questions a start-up CEO should ask of an angel investor early on, to determine if they and you (& your project) are a potential fit?
8. What are the best ways to manage relationships with VC contacts prior to fundraising?
9. What are the top qualities to look for in angel investors?
10. What key values led to early PayPal's culture of entrepreneurship?
11. What companies are the best examples of great corporate culture?
12. What percentage equity should an "involved" advisor receive?
13. What are the most common mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make?
14. How did Startup X get traction?
15. What is the number one reason startups fail?
16. What are some blogs a new startup should send press releases to?
17. How should startups compensate an attorney?
18. What essential skills do startup founders generally lack?
19. What is the best advice you could give to a young, first time startup CEO?
20. What is the most useful, shortest and most generally applicable piece of wisdom you know?

Please get the details here

1. Integrity


2. Commitment and ownership


3. Action orientation and goal seeking


4. Continuous learning


5. Professional Knowledge/skills


6. Communication


7. Planning, organizing and punctuality


8. Quality of work


9. A positive attitude, approachability, responsiveness


10. Being an inspiring reference to others through leadership