Saturday, October 27, 2007

Learning No. 10

Evaluate your idea on this framework. I believe it is better than the popular MBA ones. This at an overall level answers the question: what is the pain you are solving and is the pain big enough to push users to use what you are offering?

  • How did they do it earlier?
  • How will they do it now?
  • How much would they have to change?
  • How much would it cost?

Learning No. 9

This one is a ‘big learning’. Why? Because this is a compilation of learning’s, those which have already cost me a lot of time and energy. I hope I can learn, improve and implement these aspects as I go forward.

An identification of a leader is to get the best out of people. And I recently failed here. I think the problem lies in not analyzing why you need people, which translates into not making people aware of their roles before joining and finally into no clear responsibilities for them. And this leads to not getting the best out of them. So, assign clear responsibilities and decision powers.

Secondly, be sure that the work you are assigning to people under you is relevant and that will ensure that their efforts do not go waste. Wasted efforts breed negativity in a team and show lack of value for someone else time.

Finally, here is something that I already knew and still faltered on. Trust people, but also spare the time to follow up that trust.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Learning No. 8

There are so many things that build up your life like browsing through websites, playing, meeting friends, clicking photographs, opening a bank account and others such small things.

So you have a job!!
When you are employed with someone, you do all of these on your employers time. Even if you spend a day browsing or playing, you are being paid for it at the end of the month.

What happens when you are working for yourself?
Half of the useless things go out of the window and you optimize on the rest. Now this may mean not going to a concert, playing less and working more. Yes, you gain the independence you always craved for, but it comes with a responsibility, towards your idea, towards people who trust you and towards your bank account.

Learning No. 7

This is a simple learning. I am writing it as a reminder to how you will face additional difficulties when implementing your vision. The last two months that I have been on the road, so many things that we did not think of have cropped up.

The good news is that many things that you thought would be difficult are actually much simpler.

For e.g.: we thought that shooting videos would be tough in colleges and students would not be much enthusiastic. What we found was that they were over eager to shoot the videos. At the same time, what we did not think of was that girls and their parents would have a problem with an online video profile. So, we have ended up with most guys shooting it, and also adding an additional option of hiding video for girls.

Learning No. 6

Okay, so you have 24 hours on your hands. And you can choose how to spend it, either to build your business or check out how the competition is doing. Checking out competition is good but this often leads to a lot of time being spent on game theory and can be disconcerting for what you were trying to build.


Keep some time aside each week for checking out others. If you come across a link during the week, archive it for that session. In that session try to look at what other people are doing and any learning that you can incorporate from them. And the rest of the time focus on your business.

Mind you, it will need discipline.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Learning No. 5


Your meeting went good. You had a nice conversation, you got great feedback and you can think of a couple of ways in which you can go forward in the future. Well, looks like you had a productive morning.

Wait.

Did you get any money? Did he buy what you went there to sell? No.

So you had a nice time and have hopes of getting money in the future. This is business development alright, but if you are in a startup, you need clients now. So don’t be lead into complacency by having a good meeting. Get the cash.

Remember that, water like feedback is abundantly available and very valuable but does not bring much money when sold.

Learning No. 4

You will need people to run your company. And for that you will need to trust them and value them.

Value a person not by what he is getting, but what he should get. If you see someone with potential doing a lowly job, instead of offering a menial raise, offer him his full price. This is the way by which startups can solve manpower crunches and grow big.

Learning No. 3


This one is around marketing.


Close out deals fast.

Learning No. 2

This one is based around the notion of how same thing can mean different things for the parties involved.

When an entrepreneur closes a deal, it may amount to 25% more revenues for that year or may be it was the first deal he got. For the company it is one of many associations that the company does with other small players. So when a meeting is postponed to tomorrow, the big player has no loss involved but for the entrepreneur it adds one more day to survive with the limited cash he has. The funny part is that the big player does not may be recognize the dynamics involved.

A similar corollary can be made in a much more day to day scenario. When your presswalla or dhobi or maid asks for money you may casually mention that take it next week or tomorrow. This may be because you don’t have change or are not in the mood to fetch your purse. But for her it may mean one more day on the limited ration, one more day delayed in paying school fees of her child.

Let us be careful here.

Learning series | Learning No. 1

What is the learning series?
It is an effort to put down what I learn here from my entrepreneurial journey in www.cocubes.com on the web.

Learning No. 1
Ideas begin and get implemented in the following steps

Things began with a simple idea and associated assumptions.cWe then research the idea to make it complex. Then we try to define the value proposition we are offering and cut it down again to make it a simpler offer for the market

Stages 1 and 3 are both simple representations of ideas, but what may have changed is the value proposition. This could be because of the extra insight we gained into the problem which led to modification of initial idea we had.

The take away is to get to stage 3 with minimum time investment and the correct market offering. This is one of the things I hope to get better at.


How is this made possible?

  • Validate your assumptions as quickly as possible. Even the strongest assumption. This can be done by taking feedback from the parties involved in the business
  • Develop a sense of what is important and what is not. Look at things that can be scaled up
  • Concentrate on the basic offering – the one which provides major value proposition for the users. If you get that right, the users shall take care of the rest

Why this blog? Why this name?

Why this blog?
Things are happening, life and beliefs are changing. And here I am posting once in a while.

Why this name?
There are few things I love Ideas, photography, poetry and people.

And all of them come true while I am pacing the streets. It is my homegrown method of doing my MBA for http://www.cocubes.com/, a long course in photography that goes on for life, touching heart and mind and forcing me to write and letting me meet more humans.

Helping me be a wanderer and reminding me constantly that there is only 'One life to live'

Lets go.