Have a unique experience for yourself & stop listening to Clowns : Lakshman Srikanth, Founder – LegalCrystal

Posted on: March 28,12 By Himanshu 4 Comments

In the past there have been many articles written on this blog on BarCamp i.e. BCB2, BCB3, BCB 4 where I came across lot of smart people working on some cool stuff !!! It is during BCB3 that I met Lakshman Srikanth for the first time when he was a “Microsoft Student Partner”. And now straight out of college he dived into entrepreneurship with his startup GAViSTA TECH that solves a very interesting problem. In this episode, we talk to him about his startup journey, challenges, entrepreneurship, idea & many more things….

Can you let us know about yourself and your startup GAViSTA TECH ?

Well, I am an Entrepreneur. Started working on an idea – LegalCrystal and then later on registered GAViSTA TECH as a firm. LegalCrystal is now a product of GAViSTA TECH.

What is LegalCrystal all about ?

LegalCrystal is a search tool for Advocates, Anyone can use it to find laws, judgments decided at different Courts all over India.

Every idea addresses a problem, so what problem does LegalCrystal cater to ?

LegalCrystal addresses two problems mainly-

  • Before we started working on LegalCrystal, we researched existing softwares and came to the conclusion that Searching relevant judgments using phrase is the main problem. We started developing our own algorithm and indexers & built a search engine which is particularly tailored to Indian Law.
  • User Interface messed up in other softwares. Lawyers need to undergo a Teaching Class in order to use the product.! That is just lame. So we worked on UI and “Search Features” which makes advocate’s life much simpler and easier.

So would it fair to say that “LegalCrystal wants to be the Google of Law industry” ?

Well Google is for the WEB and we are for Lawyers on the WEB! With respect to Search Engine and ease of use you might say we are as good as “Google for Indian Law”.

How do you guys ensure that the information on LegalCrystal is up to date with the changes in the law system [penal code etc.] ?

We have a dedicated team to handle updates. We get case-laws from Judgement Information System hosted by National Informatics Center(NIC). For Few we go to respective courts and apply for a copy and then Convert it to text using OCR’s. We have another team which will take care of the data entry. As every judgement is sent to a panel of advocates who write Headnotes, Case Analysis etc. and then its paraphrased , formatted and updated on the website.

GAViSTA came up with the corporate offering of your flagship product LegalCrystal, how has been the response so far ?

Response has been really good! They just FEEL comfortable using LegalCrystal Corporate. We have approached International Law firms, Companies… First thing they like about the product is the User Experience and then the Search, Features. We are expanding the reach to other states very soon.

LegalCrystal started out as a college project, off late there have been many other Indian startups born in a similar manner, do you think that times are changing where students are getting more serious about last year projects ?

It depends on the individual, but there are lot of students who are trying hard to build something unique; Commercializing their invention is what they need to look into..!

Being a student entrepreneur [i.e. right from college], how did you get about hiring the initial team members & getting them to join you ?

As I was Microsoft Student Partner Lead, I already had a network of students in every college in Bangalore. So initially my friends & I started in my room, then later on we hired few folks from MSRIT and PESIT as interns who worked on really challenging tasks. Well, joining a startup isnt a joke! because there are too many uncertainties involved. As we had a solid product with great market scope we were able to convince them!

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Posted in BarCampBangalore3, Entrepreneurship, Interviews | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Startups are not a vehicle to make quick money : Atul Tatke, Co-founder – VocalBee

Posted on: December 29,11 By Himanshu 2 Comments
Last week we reviewed an Android/iOS app named VocalBee and this week, we have a Q&A with Atul Tatke one of the co-founders of VocalBee. The chat revolves around VocalBee, his views on startups and his tips for entrepreneurs. So, let’s start with the candid interview ..
Can you give a small background of your startup & it’s co-founders ?
We are four of us that are working on this venture. Two of the founder members have been working on voice & mobile technology startup Hummingbytes. Another one comes from smartphone development background. He was a part of the company which got bought over by a big technology company. The fourth one comes from Restaurant and Retail industry. He has deep experience in Business and Technology consulting.
How did you guys come up with the idea of “VocalBee” ?
VocalBee is a spinoff of the idea that got conceived in Hummingbytes. Some part of the engine was built and used in Call Center & other customer service centric implementations.
Which are the areas where you feel VocalBee would be very effective ?
We concentrate on three kind of communications – Question, Idea & Feedback. Also we are concetrating on local government and businesses. I think we will be effective where citizens and consumers want to have quick communication of above type. Location based service is also another key point of the system. Events and promotion is also another feature which is very appealing when you mix it with location based service.
In addition to above mentioned areas, we will be able to capture client specific structured feedback once business is onboard with us.
Can you explain a bit more as to how the entire flow goes from when user sends suggestion/idea to VocalBee [i.e. what happens when I file a complaint of Pothole in my area, where the complaint will go etc. and user can keep track of it] ?
Government Setup: So, if you are in an area in Bangalore and came across a big pothole. Currently there is no easy way for you to raise your concern. With VocalBee you can take a picture, write about it and send it to the city. This communication will be going to a special page that we have designed for India. Also this communication will be going to our Twitter and Facebook. We are also analyzing this data that is coming & eventually will be presenting it to the government.
We will also try to get government to buy into it and give them the account. At this time it will become a claimed account. With claimed account, government can be directly in touch with citizens. They can broadcast events like street construction, water or electricity outage etc. In the US we are working with a couple of towns and their response is very good. They are working closely with us.
Business Setup: You visit the restuarant and like the food. Currently you can go on Zomato or Burrp and give the review. The review goes in social sphere. With VocalBee you give review to the business and we will connect with the business & send your communication to them. Businesses that come on board will be able to have one-on-one connection with consumer. Businesses can also send promotions, events on this established connection. We also have a concept of Wall where other people can answer or vote on public communication. We already have more than half a dozen businesses on this platform in the US.

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Posted in Android | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

App Review: VocalBee – Let your voice be heard …

Posted on: December 16,11 By Himanshu 3 Comments

How many times do we complain to others about the potholes, poor maintainance of parks, dirty roads, endless constructions nearby our area but have found no solution rather than cribbing about it. This article does indicate that the Indian government is spending good amount of money for the making the roads better  !!! Also, it does make a difference when many people “shout out” about the same issue rather than one person talking about it… Well in such situations VocalBee , an Android/iOS based app can come to your rescue.

VocalBee is a “Location Based” app that uses the strength of crowdsourcing to empower the user to do just one thing i.e. “BE HEARD“.  Be it sharing feedback about good customer service at a nearby restaurant, to complaining about the bad condition of roads or complaining to the government authorities about street lights etc., VocalBee helps you to close the circle i.e. it ensures that your query/complaint/feedback reaches the right destination :)

VocalBee has three target segments:

  1. Consumers – Provides a platform to voice out their opinions/suggestions/complaints & ensures that it reaches the right destination so that the consumer can keep a track of the same.
  2. Government – Helps them to cater issues raised by the consumers & keep them informed about the progress of their issue; which in turn would help to reduce the overall cycle time.
  3. Businesses – Acts as a collective medium to take “Honest Feedback” from the consumers which would help them to improve their service & in turn get more business.

Installation

I installed the app on my Android device as well as on my iPod Touch & installed without any hassles. Now we would walk through the features of the app & it’s usefulness.

Startup Page

The “Introduction” page explains the complete idea behind the app and how it would be useful to the users as well as for local businesses.

Usage

With VocalBee, you can either submit an Idea, Question or Feedback. Just like other location based apps like FourSquare, VocalBee shows the list of the nearby places for which the user can submit either of them.

There is an option to click a photograph and attach it to your query which also acts as an evidence of your problem. I posted couple of issues e.g. endless construction of roads nearby my apartment & many people did give a “thumbs up” to the issue & this is where the real power of VocalBee can bee seen i.e. Community Involvement.

Social Media Integration

VocalBee does a good job of integrating Twitter & Facebook through which users can share their “queries” on these Social networks. The UI is clean and makes the app very easy to use. The user also has the facility to keep a track of their queries online through the VocalBee website

Final Verdict & Suggestions

I have been using VocalBee for few weeks & it looks a great tool where you want your unattended issues to be solved & that is the power it gives to the consumers !!! However, there are a couple of suggestions -

  1. Photos taken real-time can only be attached to your query/suggestion/complaint which means the App does not allow to “attach” an already taken photo from the Media Gallery. This feature would really be helpful in cases where you have already seen a problem but forgot to submit the complaint to VocalBee. Also, problems can be seen at any place & at anytime !!!
  2. The life-cycle of the query was not very clear for eg. If I file a “complaint” for potholes against my local authority; to which department the complaint has reached i.e. the flow of the query from “new” -> “In Progress” -> “Closed” can be made a bit transparent.
  3. A further extension could be allowing the users to post “Videos” as well in which case, VocalBee would act just like a Citizen Journalist for consumers :)

VocalBee can be downloaded from the Android Market from here. You can also download it on your iPhone or iPod Touch from here. Do give VocalBee a spin and share your feedback in the comments section…

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Posted in Android | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

It’s time for a BETTER tablet… the SAMSUNG Galaxy TAB 750

Posted on: September 03,11 By Himanshu 15 Comments

It has almost been around a month since my last article and it was time to get along with my blogging and here [Courtesy- Indiblogger] is the “appealing” reason which motivated me to get back to it !!! So, as you might have already guessed, I also thought of giving a shot to the “Samsung Blogger’s Contest”  & if this entry wins, it would be a privilege to be one of their “Mobilers” :)

Before, we get into the review; I want to share that my first brush with Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 [henceforth referred as "Galaxy Tab 750"] which happened at the Best Buy store during my Visit to US in June,2011. Though, I had already purchased the killer beast Apple iPod Touch but Galaxy Tab 750′s amazing experience left me aghast and wanting for more [Unfortunately, I could not purchase it due to budget constraints]. So, here comes my hands-on review [which I had for half an hour] with this amazing piece of beauty named “Samsung Galaxy Tab 750“

Android 3.1 [Honeycomb]

As we know that Android 3.1 is the tablet optimized version of the open source operating system – Android. Though there were several enhancements made for tablets, the top one on my list is definitely the “UI Enhancements“. Below is a comprehensive Google IO presentation which touches every nook & corner of Honeycomb [Slides:17-22*] over it’s predecessors.

Now the question which arises is that the “Samsung Galaxy Tab 750″ is not the ONLY tablet with Honeycomb, there are many other alternatives like the XOOM, Asus Transformer, Acer’s Iconia etc but the points below would prove that “Samsung Tab” is a clear winner …… so read on ……

Impressive Specs

IMHO, any “Embedded” device is nothing but a “Board with components like registers, capacitors etc” if it’s processor [CPU] cannot handle enough load. After looking at the Galaxy Tab 750′s specifications, the only thing that would come out of your mouth is WOW !!!

The Galaxy Tab 750 is powered by the Nvidia Tegra-2 1GHz processor which runs on the “Dual Core ARM A9″, and even when I launched multiple applications;there was not much change in the performance. As you read-on, you would realize it is not second generation TAB from Samsung but a new avatar of it’s predecessor “Samsung Galaxy Tab 7“

The complete specs can be found here but here are my favorite picks -

Weight – 595 grams.

Display- Size : 10.1 inches

Color & Resolution : 16 Mn & 1280×800 Pixels

Faster Processor – Nvidia Tegra 2 Dual-Core 1GHz Processor

Expandable Memory – micro-SD card slot expandable upto 32 GB [though the USB adapter has to be bought separately :( ]

Browsing – Flash support

Image Courtesy Gadget Technology News

Design, Design & Design [all the way]

Design is the key to anything, be it website or consumer product like a tablet & this time around, Samsung has definitely gone head-to-head with Apple[termed Design Guru] and won us over with Galaxy Tab’s sleek design.

As specified above, the Tab weighs just 595g and it is just 8.6mm thick which makes it a easy & lighter device to carry when we are on the go!!! It has become a routine that whenever a tablet is released [be it the bottom of the Pyramid tablets like latest Reliance 3G Tab or the most popular one in the higher range Apple iPad2], it is always compared to the iPad2 … so here we go with our comparison…

Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 with iPad2

Image Courtesy PC World

Here goes my feature list on where Galaxy Tab 750 wins over iPad2

Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 Apple iPad2 [Wifi Only]
Operating System Android Honeycomb 3.1 [Ideal for Google User’s] iOS 4.3.3
Processor 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 with ARM Cortex 9 CPUs 1GHz dual-core Apple A5
Internal Memory 1GB RAM; 16GB flash storage 500MB RAM; 16GB flash storage
Display 10.1” (diag); 1280×800; 149 ppi 9.7”(diag); 1024×768; 132 ppi
Battery 7000mAH 3.7V Li-polymer [Bigger Battery, more life] 6930mAH 3.8V Li-polymer

In a nutshell, for any heavy duty user of Google Services like Gmail, Reader etc., the Galaxy Tab 750 is definitely a better pick as it comes bundled with all of those services !!!

IMPROVED TouchWiz UX [for TABLETS]

Samsung has always been using it’s proprietary “TouchWiz Interface” for phones like Samsung Galaxy S2 & it’s other Android phones. But like many others, I did not like the TouchWiz experience on my S2.

However,  Samsung has made an extra-ordinary effort and customized it’s TouchWiz interface for tablets… and boy, it looks quite amazing & intriguing on the Samsung Tab 750.

Below is a short video from our friends at GadgetExperts reviewing the new TouchWiz UX

There are many enhancements made, but here are my favorite picks :

Mini Apps Tray – There are six tools on top of any running application namely Task Manager, Music Player, Calendar, World Clock, Pen Memo and Calculator. The tray would fade out once when you are using the main application and would again re-appear when you tap on it.

The list of apps however is customizable and I am sure this change would definitely be there in Samsung’s To-Do list…

Motion Control Zooming – This feature is more of fun and a very nice alternative to Pinch & Zoom [Video: 5.15 - 5:45]. Just click a photograph and move your Galaxy Tab 750 back & forth to experience this feature :)

I am sure that apart from the features which I liked the most, the Galaxy Tab 750 would definitely provide me with BETTER:

  1. Web Browsing
  2. Speed
  3. Reading
  4. Music
  5. Communication
  6. Office
  7. Multimedia
  8. Imaging
  9. Accessories
  10. MUCH BETTER ME …..

I would like to share the Galaxy Tab 750 India’s launch video, enjoy it :)

Thanks for reading the review & making it this far :) I hope you liked the review and had a “TAB”bing experience just as I had writing the same…

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Posted in Bangalore, Blogging, Review | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments

Even Savitri Bai has a website with BigRock

Posted on: August 20,11 By Himanshu 5 Comments

Finally, I am back with blogging in 2011 !!! With the number of internet users expected to reach 237 million by 2015,  it has become a medium which is hard to ignore. No matter the nature of business e.g. selling home made chocolates, sweets etc. having at least,  a “Minor” web footprint is required.

If you are a business, looking for a web presence  you have BigRock to your rescue. BigRock is a part of the Directi group of Businesses which is mainly targeting the Small & Medium Businesses (SME) & individuals. They offer the following services:

  • Domain registration
  • Email services [Anti-Spam & Anti-Virus services]
  • Web-hosting services
  • Website builder products
  • E-Commerce Solutions
  • Digital Certificates

Good Services are “Best” when they are coupled with ROCK bottom prices and that is what BigRock promises to offer. You can get a website at as low as Rs. 99 !!! They promise round-the clock support and while writing this article, I gave it a try :) To my surprise,  support was even available at 10:30 PM on Sunday, chat transcripts below [click to enlarge]

The exchange with their customer support department made me very happy since they deliver what they promise !!! As a reader of this blog, we have “Rocking” offer from BigRock awaiting for you…

  • Up to 50% discount on Hosting, Email and Do-It-Yourself Website builder  products.
  • 10% discount on all other products.

    • To avail this fabulous offer [which is only valid till 28th February,2011]  just head to BigRock and use the coupon – thoughtsprevail . Along with their service, I even liked their advertisements that are appearing frequently on TV, the best of the lot is the one below

    If you are availing this offer, it would be great to hear from you about your experience with BigRock… just drop an email to himanshu.sheth@gmail.com :)

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    Posted in BigRock, Marketing, Web 2.0 | 5 Comments

    About the author

    Hey, Welcome to Himanshu's blog. Himanshu is a engineer, blogger, startupper & an aspiring entrepreneur from Bangalore, India. To know more about him, please visit this page.

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