Old Poetry

A few days away from life
A few days among the lonely mountains
A few days here and there. Nowhere.
A few days of my life.

Written after my wonderful trip to Kalindikhal, 6000m mountain pass, more than an year ago!! Everytime you come back from such a trip you promise that you would go back soon. And for most people that soon is too late. I hope to make a trip to the mountains in the next two months.

Learning No. 13: Drawing the line

This takes on from an earlier post on how time becomes crucial when starting up. You have 24 hours on your hands.

Meeting new people (and marketing there) is probably the most critical part of a startup. Potential customers, investors, advisors, accountant and in general people who can help. One great place for doing so are conferences. The dilemma comes in when the conference ends and you come back home with a stack of cards to follow up with (50 - 100 if you are a networking person). So what do you do then? You see the loads of work that tomorrow shall bring and the backlog that is definitely there because you went to this conference. You met some nice people, some big hot shots, a few customers who were really interested in what you are doing, some media guys who could give you coverage and some people you just want to forget.

The hardest to write mails to are the customers because you shall have to customize your offerings and think clearly about what you write. But even though the lure of the easy mails saying 'It was a pleasure meeting you' beckons, save them for the last (but make sure you do it the second night). Write to potential customers first and then schedule meetings with the few hot shots you met (lunch, coffee, dinner) and the media guys. See who you can find on LinkedIn.

There is loads you could do. Know where to draw a line. Don't go overboard and forget that your baby beckons.

Learning No. 12: Website

In layman’s language, here are a few basic things that I think one should keep in mind while building a website:

• Make a platform which is scalable/sustainable
• Make the platform integrable with third parties. The efforts of mass will always be more than 10 people in your company
• Apply extra effort on interaction design
• Keep the offerings simple and focused on the core values that you provideMake the website available on various devices online, offline, phone etc and for each device provide a different set of chosen features which gel with its use

Learning No. 11 : Building a brand

Suppose your company is going through a tough time. Think of an environment when everything is going great. Think of all the good things happening. Now use that vision to build your brand, to make the changes that will take you from your current place to the strong one. Create a perception of a strong brand and a stronger brand will also come following. E.g.: Infosys in order to revamp its image among employees in 2003-04 recruited foreign interns. This created a belief that people even from abroad wanted to be at Infosys!!

Renting a House

So you are planning to shift to a new place!! Here are some of the tips that you might want to keep in mind while deciding how and which place to choose!!

Finding and letting agents know what you want

• Go to 99acres and magicbricks and search for houses online. Call these agents
• Typically agents divide their areas of operation. And they have a very closed group. So just let a couple of them know in an area and everyone else shall get informed
• If your budget is X then quote 0.75 * X to the dealer. He will invariably take it higher
• Be clear on what you want in the house (Furnished/unfurnished, power backup/inverter etc) and convey this to the dealer

Choosing a house

• Once an agent calls you to tell that he has found a house, ask him if he has seen it himself
• If no then tell him to do so once and ensure that he has the keys to the house before spending your time in visiting the place. Ask him if the landlord is willing to give the house to bachelors
• Take a girl along to look at the house. They can spot the small missing things easily. For e.g. missing curtain rods, hangars in the bathroom etc
• If possible take a house where someone has lived before. This ensures that all things are in working order

Finalizing a house (so you like a house and have bid for it)

• Talk to the previous tenants about the house. Also go and talk to the neighbors once. They are the most reliable source of information
• Make your demands clear in front on the landlord and don’t move in unless they have been met. Don’t get swayed by the lines ke 'ho jayega'
  

Finally, to make things easier, take useful phone numbers from previous tenants/neighbors. Also keep the watchman happy, he is your link to the plumber, electrician, your couriers and everything!!

Happy hunting!!

First Salary

Things have come a complete circle. Two years and 3 months after I received my first salary, CoCubes paid out salary to our first employee, Rakesh. Way to go.. .

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?