All Posts by Himanshu Sheth

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Truecaller introduced the most intelligent way to communicate by integrating new features to revolutionize the way people make and take calls: Smart Call History, Availability and a brand new dialer.

Making your communication safer and more delightful, by giving you more information about those you communicate with, is core to Truecaller’s mission. With the integration of the new features, Truecaller becomes an essential app for anyone looking to have more control over their incoming and outgoing calls.

Integrated new features

  • Smart Call History replaces unknown numbers with real names and faces in your call history, even for numbers that are not saved in your contacts. Now you don’t need to save contacts to your phone-book.
  • Availability shows you if your friends and contacts are free to talk before you call.  Now you’ll never get a busy signal or interrupt someone again.
  • Built-in dialer allows you to make all your calls directly with Truecaller.

Alan Mamedi, Truecaller Co-Founder & CEO said

Truecaller has become a necessity for hundreds of millions of people in their daily communication by always knowing who’s calling them and protecting them against spam calls. We are now taking this to the next level by changing the way people make phone calls with our integrated dialer and adding more context to your contacts that has never been seen before. Now, you can completely replace your existing dialer and only use Truecaller for all your calls. We are also very pleased to see our OEM partners being so supportive of our mission.

In 2014, Truecaller launched Truedialer to bring similar improvements to the dialer, which had not evolved since the introduction of the smartphone. After overwhelming demand from users, Truecaller are now bringing many of the great features from Truedialer and integrating them into Truecaller, giving you full control your entire calling experience with just one app.

The latest update will begin rolling out to users on Android and will reach all users in the coming weeks. Existing Truedialer users will be gradually upgraded to the new Truecaller experience.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Simplilearn, the world’s largest provider of professional certification courses, announces its partnership with EXIN, the global independent certification institute for ICT-professionals, to launch the industry’s first digital training in EXIN Agile Scrum Master. Simplilearn is providing training on agile and scrum concepts through live online instructor led training with Gamified sessions to drive high interactivity among learners.

With over 41.5 project management jobs to be created by 2020, Scrum is the future of project management professionals. Together with EXIN, who is providing the accreditation, Simplilearn has designed the course that provides learners an immersive experience on the SCRUM Master philosophy, delivering the highest of value to all aspiring professionals. With more than 240,000  Scrum jobs in the US alone, the online EXIN Agile Scrum Master course will provide a more accessible and affordable opportunity for aspiring students and workers alike.

Ankur Arora, Head of Category at Simplilearn said

Simplilearn has been delivering learning through future ready technologies that addresses practical concerns of our learners. This time too, we took a step ahead and partnered with a global accreditation body like EXIN to deliver EXIN Agile Scrum Master Training, a contact intensive program online through live gamification, reducing the time to master Scrum methods. The course will help aspiring Agile professionals learn how to manage modern day business settings that happen with geographically-spread teams.

Scrum Master Courses have traditionally been taught by trainers globally in a physical classroom setting, namely because of the hands-on nature of the program – naturally optimized for teams operating in the same geographic location. With more dispersion amongst teams in the modern day business setting, Simplilearn’s online offering was built to accommodate both local and geographically-spread teams, using live online group activities/games.

Robert-Jan Willemsen, Chief Commercial Officer at EXIN, commented

Simplilearn has become the first of its kind training provider to deliver EXIN Agile Scrum Master Training online through an instructor led training model. This approach will add great value to all Agile aspirants and we are confident that Simplilearn will continue to be a valuable strategic partner in times to come.

With a unique product proposition, every student will gain access to attend multiple batches of the instructor-led training over a 90 day period for the same fee, ensuring a high level of conceptual clarity and the ability to re-attend an unclear session. The Scrum Master course comes with three games/case studies and 2 projects.  To see a demo of the Scrum Master offering, visit Simplilearn’s YouTube channel

About Simplilearn

Simplilearn is the world’s largest provider of short term certification courses that addresses the unique learning needs of working professionals. Having trained over 4,00,000 professionals worldwide,  Simplilearn provides unmatched customer experience, which handholds a customer – right from enrolling into an online course to getting Industry-recognized certificate in hand.  Simplilearn’s course contents are recognized by over 40 certification bodies, prominent ones being PMI, Axelos, Scrum Alliance, Peoplecert, and The Open Group. Simplilearn has also diversified into vendor certification like those from Microsoft, Cisco, and Salesforce. For more information, please visit SimpliLearn

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Grabhouse, India’s largest managed home rentals network, in association with Wheelstreet, the online bike rental platform, announced the launch of ‘Women on move’ offer to celebrate Women’s Day. Through this joint partnership, the first 10 women who book an apartment in Grabhouse Cocoon properties will be rewarded an Activa on rent for an entire month for free. This offer will be valid between the 5th and the 8th of March with Grabhouse and Wheelstreet bearing the entire month’s bike rent. Spread over four days, the contest is open to all women with a valid Driving License.

Additionally, winners will also get a rebate of Rs. 1000 on their house rent for the first month from Grabhouse. So, hurry now to register on Grabhouse, winners will be selected on a first come first serve basis.

Speaking about the partnership, Moksha Srivastava, Co-Founder & CMO, Wheelstreet said

We are glad to announce this association with Grabhouse. There is an immense amount of travel that one has to undertake after moving and a vehicle will ensure that the women are mobile as per their convenience and requirements.

Pankhuri Shrivastava, Co-founder & CMO, Grabhouse, said

We are excited to partner with Wheel Street. This Women’s day we are celebrating the independence of young women. They move to metro cities for fulfilling their aspirations of a successful life. With a flourishing career, comfortable living and freedom to move around the city is something that every girl desires. With this association, we want to help the women have a smooth moving experience and empower them to be independent.

You can also check the offer details on Grabhouse’s Facebook page.

About Grabhouse

Grabhouse is a two year old start-up aimed at using technology to resolve rental issues. Founded by Prateek Shukla and Pankhuri Shrivastava, the company is based in Bangalore and has presence across 11 cities. Grabhouse is India’s first 100% broker-free online rental platform and is designed to turn the cumbersome house listing or hunting experience to a seamless and hassle-free experience. For more information, please visit Grabhouse

About Wheelstreet

Wheelstreet is India’s first bike rental aggregator platform aiming to organize and streamline the bike rentals market using technology. Wheelstreet was founded by three childhood friends Pranay Shrivastava, Moksha Shrivastava and Mritunjay Kumar back in late 2014. Today they have operations in Delhi and Bangalore with over 1700 bikes to choose from, they plan to expand to 15 other cities in the coming years. Wheelstreet was started with the sole purpose of increasing transparency and organizing one of India’s most disorganized markets, to provide both customers as well as vendors a secure and hassle free experience at the lowest prices. For more information, please visit Wheelstreet

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

BigRock, part of Endurance International Group’s family of brands & one of India’s leading domain name registrars and web hosting companies, in collaboration with Netherlands-based technology developer AppMachine, announced the launch of Impress.ly, a full-featured web presence builder that creates a professional, dynamic, and personalized website that behaves like a native mobile app, with no coding or downloads required.

Impress.ly sources existing web content to automatically create a personalized, app-like site optimized for mobile with no coding required. Impress.ly enables a small business to launch a web presence seamlessly across any screen, blurring the lines between a website and a native app for both iOS & Android operating platforms.

Speaking about Impress.ly, Curt Raffi, Vice President Mobile Engagement and Apps at Endurance said

As technology advances faster and drives a greater digital divide, Impress.ly is an effective tool to help small businesses get online and go mobile quickly. It’s easier to use than drag-and-drop builders because of the structured, easy-to-use framework, which results in a well-organized website in minutes, no matter the user’s level of experience. The site it creates is easily tailored – from the navigation to content presentation and style – empowering entrepreneurs to craft their individual identity on the web with minimal time or hassle.

Impress.ly’s digital intelligence scans and organizes existing web assets from social media, websites and other online resources to automatically populate highly customizable templates that can be modified to suit the user’s needs. The builder automatically selects a design aesthetic based on inputs from the small business or their brand, resulting in a simple and fluid HTML5 site that looks and performs like a mobile app and automatically optimizes for any screen size. Impress.ly sites can be built both on a phone or a desktop.

Shashank Mehrotra, General Manager, BigRock said

We’re thrilled to bring Impress.ly to the Indian market. Impress.ly is a perfect match for our country’s burgeoning mobile user base. It helps users to create a mobile-friendly site in minutes, without requiring any skills or resources, and gives them the online presence they need to compete in a market that’s heavily dependent on mobile accessibility.

Impress.ly is available on BigRock at a special introductory price of Rs. 549/month.

For more information, please watch Meet Impress.ly or visit Impress.ly.

About BigRock

BigRock, an ICANN accredited registrar and hosting company, is a leading provider of web-presence solutions to small-businesses, professionals and individuals. It’s product portfolio includes – domain registration, web-hosting services, Personal email services &Business Email services, website builder products, Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and digital certificates

|In: Mobile|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Cheetah Mobile Inc. , the leading developer of mission-critical mobile utility and security applications, announced the creation of SecureBase, a shared security database for researchers, at RSA Conference in San Francisco. SecureBase members will gain access to real-time data on the latest mobile threats around the globe, such as malicious advertising and stubborn trojans.

SecureBase arose from Cheetah Mobile’s desire to increase collaboration in the mobile security industry and ensure a safer future for mobile users and their devices. The database will serve as a comprehensive security knowledge center offering data visualization and up-to-date statistics, drawing from Cheetah Mobile’s nearly 2 billion app installations.

Ming Xu, President of Cheetah Mobile said

With SecureBase, Cheetah Mobile is leveraging its years of commitment to data-driven mobile security. We are extremely focused on making the mobile experience safer for users. Sharing our data and insights with the industry is an important next step for us.

Yong Chen, Senior Vice President of Cheetah Mobile added

Mobile security has reached an important turning point. Last year, Cheetah Mobile detected over 9.5 million mobile viruses, three times as many as in 2014. In order to protect users from these perpetual attacks, the mobile security industry needs to join forces and work together. We created SecureBase to build bridges to our fellow security researchers.

Trustlook, the maker of the popular Trustlook Mobile Security & Antivirus app for Android devices, has signed on as a launch partner for SecureBase.

Additional launch members of SecureBase include Prof. Yike Guo, Discovery Science Group, Director of the Data Science Institute, Imperial College; Prof. Qingfu Zhang, Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong; Prof. Chu-Sing Yang, Director of the Taiwan Information Security Center@NCKU, National Cheng Kung University; Prof. Hung-Yu Kao, Intelligent Knowledge Management Lab, National Cheng Kung University; and Prof. Mauro Conti, University of Padova.

According to Cheetah Mobile Security Lab’s latest research, more than 18% of global mobile ad network traffic comes from malicious promotion, such as fake app updates and ads disguised as security alerts. These bad actors have been particularly difficult to track because they often appear in targeted bursts in one geographic region before moving onto another in just a few hours. Big data is the key to fighting these criminals. With 567 million monthly active users, Cheetah Mobile’s top-down view of mobile devices all around the world offers a much-needed perspective for the security industry. In India alone, the company found that there were almost a million devices infected with various malware in 2015.

Security professionals can visit SecureBase to learn more about SecureBase and apply to join.

About Cheetah Mobile Inc

Cheetah Mobile is a leading mobile internet company. The Company aims to provide the best apps for mobile users worldwide, while building a leading global mobile ad platform for advertisers. Cheetah Mobile had approximately 567 million global mobile monthly active users in September 2015. Its mission critical applications, including Clean Master, CM Security, Battery Doctor and Duba Anti-virus, help make the internet and mobile experience speedier, simpler, and safer for users worldwide. For more information, please visit Cheetah Mobile

[Image Credit* – SecureBase]

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Every day billions of travel photographs, reviews and suggestions are being shared on the internet. Since all this data is fragmented and generated primarily for social consumption – the real commercial value, measured in billions, is being lost. This is a huge loss to the industry.

Today, we have a chat with Mayank Gupta, Founder & CEO of Triplived that addresses this problem by automating trip recording in a well defined structure that travel seekers can easily discover and consume. The app was founded in August 2015. So let’s start of with the Q&A.

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

I started my career in 2005 with Computer Associates after my engineering from NIT Allahabad. Worked with Computer Associates for 4 years before opting for MBA from CUHK Business School and Chicago Booth. Triplived is my third start-up. We are a founding team of 4 from NIT/IIT with 2 members from MakeMyTrip. We started Triplived in August 2015 from an Oyo property in Gurgaon.

Every idea is born out of a problem, what was the trigger for starting TripLived ?

Being an avid traveller, I have always been looking for authentic travel experiences from fellow travellers. Unfortunately most of this information was shared over social media that was difficult to discover and reuse. A platform that could structure all this data and give me insights was badly needed.

Travel memories are a collection of photographs, moments, places, conversations, romantic experiences and a lot more. However, over a period of time, all that remains of these memories are scattered photographs, lost acquaintances and vague recollections of travel details, thereby ruining the fun in reliving and relishing them.

While the traveller enjoys her trip, Triplived intelligently detects moments to be captured and makes them a part of the travel story. An awesome feature of the application is location based crowd sourced suggestions to help the traveller make better travel decisions. The application scans thousands of suggestions, and shares those that are most relevant to the traveller and suits her taste. Once the trip is complete, the travel story is converted into a short video that can be cherish for a lifetime.

Can you touch upon the features of TripLived ?

Instantaneous capturing of travel experiences in real time through completely automated trip recording. Real time suggestion and experiences from fellow travellers that can enrich travel experience and help make right travel decisions.

The application comes as a big respite for travel partners such as OTA’s and travel agents who rely on standard 5/6 Days holiday packages. Triplived gives life to their solutions by linking them to authentic, real time travel stories. The application provides a strong marketing platform for these travel partners to showcase their services to the larger world, directly from their customers’ smart phone.

Is TripLived bootstrapped, VC funded or Angel Funded ?

We are angel funded.

What are some of the stand-out features as compared to other apps like TripAdvisor etc. ?

TripLived is the first proactive travel platform that intelligently analyzes travellers behaviour and preferences, creates his travel story, enriches his travel experience and interactively captures reviews and suggestions in real time.

What is the revenue model of TripLived [Tie-up with hotels/transport agencies etc.] ?

Triplived will evolve into an authentic, structured content platforms and consumption of content will drive revenue down the line.

How has been the feedback so far for TripLived on Play-store. Any plans on releasing the iOS App ?

We have got a warm response from users and travel partners. Yes, we will be releasing the iOS app in the next 4 months.

Does TripLived use Freemium Model [or it free for life-time where user can upload infinite trip memories] ?

Yes, the application is free for users.

What are the major changes that you experienced when you took the entrepreneurial path ?

No changes, just learning. No job is good or bad. There is a task that needs to be done. You may choose to innovate, simplify and learn along the way or you may choose to crib and change. Industry needs the former. Change your attitude first, before changing your job.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

The term ‘risk’ is wrongly perceived. Our lifestyle has changed; our value for money has gone down. The real risk is not as high as the perceived one. Stop comparing salaries or the time value of money and you will realize that you are ready to start.

Importance of Design in Mobile App Development ?

Most important! They are the blueprints, of your thought process. You get them right, you’ll get the product right. Designs beautifully depict product – business alignment.

What are some of the Growth-Hacking strategies that can be applied for an App-Based startup ?

Again a misused term! Every app is not WhatsApp! Every product has a use case and a target audience. Solve the problem and customers will use it.

How important it for startups especially web, mobile to follow Lean Methodology ?

Very important! Being lean is the way to succeed, be it the product or the business.

Can you give some pointers on Scaling Up & Customer Acquisition [some take-away for entrepreneurs]

Solve the problem and solve it right. There may be a need for it or a need may be generated. Later one is a little tough though. But till you have the solution right, word of mouth will follow. I do not know of any other way to scale.

Some hiring tips for entrepreneurs [especially the core team] ?

This is the most challenging part of any start-up. Look for those with right attitude. Skills can be outsourced.

Any parting words from you for budding entrepreneurs ?

Entrepreneurship is the most exciting journey and the best learning experience. You mature as a professional; you start respecting people and money; you become a better decision maker and above all you generate employment. Go for it.

I have been using the TripLived app and we loved the problem that it tries to solve!!

Salient Features of Triplived App

Record Of Past Travel Experiences
Provides a timeline view to your travel stories to relive those memories that are half-forgotten or lost.

Live Trip Recording
While you enjoy your trip, Triplived creates your travel story on your smart phone. It automatically detects your activity, captures your location, does automatic check-ins, and tags your photographs. Your reviews and suggestions complete the story, that can then be shared with friends and family.

Targeted Suggestions For Better Planning
Your friends, relatives or travellers you follow may have been to the place you are visiting. Based on your interests, Triplived scans through hundreds of suggestions, and shares those that are most relevant to you and suit your taste.

Social Connect
Triplived allows you to share your travel experiences with friends and family in real time.

Trip Video
Once your trip is complete, Triplived converts your travel story into a short video that you can cherish for a lifetime.

We are sure that you would have got some handy tips from the discussion we had with Mayank Gupta of TripLived. The Triplived app can be downloaded from the Playstore from here. If you have any questions related to TripLived or have any general query, please leave them in the comments section.

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Simplilearn, the largest provider of professional certification courses & Tableau, a global leader in self-service business analytics software announced their partnership. The aim of this partnership is to strengthen Simplilearn’s vision to build a talent pool of 200,000 skilled Data Scientists by the year 2020. The partnership enables aspiring professionals to get up-skilled in data science and analytics with high quality instructor-led training, e-learning, and industry projects fulfilled on the latest version of Tableau.

Tableau Software is a global leader in rapid self-service, easy-to-use business intelligence software that systematically helps people access information, perform analytics and get instant results in the office and on-the-go. The software delivers fast analytics and business intelligence through creation of visualizations, reports and dashboards in minutes that can be shared in seconds. The simple development process, intuitive UI & flexibility is prompting leaders in all industries to move to Tableau from traditional reporting formats.

Speaking on the partnership with Tableau, Ankur Arora, Category Head at Simplilearn, said

The huge demand for data scientists and analytics professionals across all industries has led us to focus on this domain. Our alliance with an industry authority like Tableau provides strong boost to our learners who are keen to build a promising career in the field of analytics. Big Data, Advanced Analytics and Business Intelligence together form the 3 pillars of the analytics industry and Tableau is a leader in the BI domain. Together, we are confident about setting an ambitious mission of creating a large talent pool of over 200,000 Data Scientists by 2020.

As per IDC, the global business analytics market generated $37.7 billion in 2013 and is estimated to grow to around $59.2 billion by 2018. Glassdoor has even recognized ‘data scientist’ to be the best job in US with combination of parameters of demand, salary and career opportunities. The future demand for data scientists, proficient in analytics and business intelligence, paves way to over a million jobs for professionals who are aspiring for a promising career in demanding field of analytics.

Deepak Ghodke, Country Manager for Tableau in India added

Partners like Simplilearn are Tableau’s extended family. They are instrumental to inspiring and empowering more people to see and understand their data. In today’s era of data, everyone needs to be equipped with the right skillset and applications to thrive in a smarter, digital economy, which makes our partnership all the more meaningful

In line with the mission to create a strong talent pool of Data Science and Business Intelligence practitioners, Simplilearn is adding to its strong suite of Analytics offerings. Simplilearn recommends the Tableau Certification Training where aspirants are provided with high quality on-demand live instructor led classroom training. The course comprises of over 32 hours of thorough training from experienced analytics experts coupled with four industry projects that are designed to provide learners with much needed real life experience.

About Simplilearn

Simplilearn is the world’s largest provider of short term certification courses that addresses the unique learning needs of working professionals. Having trained over 4,00,000 professionals worldwide,  Simplilearn provides unmatched customer experience, which handholds a customer – right from enrolling into an online course to getting Industry-recognized certificate in hand.  Simplilearn’s course contents are recognized by over 40 certification bodies, prominent ones being PMI, Axelos, Scrum Alliance, Peoplecert, and The Open Group. Simplilearn has also diversified into vendor certification like those from Microsoft, Cisco, and Salesforce. For more information, please visit SimpliLearn

About Tableau Software
Tableau helps people see and understand data. Tableau helps anyone quickly analyze, visualize and share information. More than 39,000 customer accounts get rapid results with Tableau in the office and on-the-go. Over 150,000 people use Tableau Public to share data in their blogs and websites. For more information, please visit Tableau Software

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Setting a new benchmark in automotive technology, Ather Energy unveiled India’s first truly smart, electric scooter, the S340.  Packed with a powerful Lithium Ion battery pack, top speed of 72 kmph and a range upto 60 kms, this connected scooter is designed for urban tech lovers, who are curious about futuristic products.

S340 represents

  • S stands for scooter series
  • 3 is the kW motor
  • 40 is the amp-hour battery pack

Tarun Mehta, CEO & Co-Founder said

The future will be connected and inevitably electric and the Ather S340 has been built as a manifestation of this philosophy. It is an unapologetically electric vehicle, it has been designed and built mostly in-house with engineering precision.

Structurally robust and intelligently designed, its IP67-rated battery pack offers an un-compromised ride for 50,000 kms. The vehicle achieves an 80% charge in 50 minutes in fast charging mode and can be charged from any 5A normal socket in normal mode. It has a distinct sporty look with zero lateral weight offset, a low centre of gravity and intuitive LED lights that respond to ambient light conditions.

The S340 is not just redefining electric vehicles, it is one of the pioneers of smart scooters. The touchscreen dashboard integrates cloud based data to help personalise the consumer ride experience. Features like user profile based sign in, on board navigation, pre-configured drive modes like sport and economy allow a personalised experience. Its integration with the S340 Mobile App keeps the rider connected with the vehicle, to configure ride and profile preferences and sync navigation routes remotely. Predictive analyticsand aggregation of ride statistics enable customised recommendations. As more vehicles go in-field, aggregate rider and vehicle data will help in customised vehicle updates that will be delivered automatically over the air. Intelligent vehicles will revolutionize our commute experience in future and we have just begun that journey.

Sharing his vision on the industry, Tarun Mehta added

The automobile industry is in the midst of a huge technological disruption. The technology of electric vehicle has advanced in leaps and bounds. It is the preferred choice because of its inherent efficiency that will shape urban commute and the smart cities of tomorrow. The other aspect is the connectedness of the world around us, enabling integration of devices and making our life experiences seamless. Intelligent vehicles will revolutionise our commute experience in the future and the S340 stands at the cusp of this exciting reality.

Tarun Mehta & Swapnil Jain, Co-founders of Ather Energy

Dashboard of Ather S340

With a manufacturing unit set up in Bangalore, the S340 will be a great showcase of a product truly made in India and will roll out production by end of this year. Experience centres will bring the product to life and facilitate test rides in the next few months. In an industry first, Ather Energy will build an online-only purchase model with doorstep delivery and service.

Pre-ordering will be open in the cities of Bangalore, Chennai and Pune in the next quarter. The company also aims at setting up an ambitious public charging infrastructure in every city it will operate in, partnering with government and private enterprises.

About Ather Energy

Ather Energy is the brainchild of IIT graduates Tarun Mehta & Swapnil Jain and is among the few hardware start-ups in India. It was founded in 2013 and has received funding from Tiger Global and Flipkart founders Sachin & Binny Bansal. Aided by a breakthrough in the in-house designed Lithium-ion battery pack design, the team is gearing up for production of the S340, by the end of the year.

The Ather S340 has a touch-screen dashboard connected to the cloud, host of smart features and offers a top speed of 72 kmph. The scooter is designed in-house by Ather and will be manufactured in India.

For more information, please visit www.atherenergy.com