All Posts by Himanshu Sheth

|In: Business|Last Updated:
Daily we subscribe to newsletters from many sites but newsletters from some sites are so awful, that you won’t even feel like reading them.Just happened to see a post on StartupPrincess which stresses on “How Email Newsletters are a Cost-Effective Marketing Solution for Entrepreneurs“

StartupPrincess has stressed on the quality of newsletters and some of the points which impressed me are given below:

1. You Must Have Compelling Info and Content to Share
2. Keep the theme of the newsletter simple and easy to Scan
3. Consider Design:
Make the design of the newsletter simple,attractive and more effective so that it looks more readable and presentable.
4. Stay on Schedule:
If you are sending the newsletter weekly/monthly , stick to the schedule.You never know how much people read it until you miss an issue.The quality of the newsletter should be as if you are sending a personal newsletter to the intended recipient.
5. Links are key:
If you want the newsletter to bring you sales, then be sure to include various links in the website that point readers back to YOUR site, articles, info, video, products, services, opportunities, calendars, etc.
6. Find an email program that can help you send your newsletter out professionally
7. Always edit and spell-check:
Which reader wants that there are spelling mistakes in the newsletter that you send,so better do a proper spell check as well as punctuation check before you send out the newsletter wink

You can read the complete article here

|In: Blogging|Last Updated: | 1 Comment
Before starting this post,I would like to confess that three years back,I was not aware about what is Entrepreneurship and now I blog on it and have started working on my own idea as well biggrin So what does it take to think big and take a path which others don’t think about?

Entrepreneurship is not a simple subject and being one is the most difficult as well as the exciting thing which one would experience in life.So,what transforms an ordinary person to think big and once he starts thinking big,what does he need to do?

I read that somewhere that in US,to get a company registered takes a few minutes whereas in India,it still takes months to do the same surprised But times are changing in India as well and this post would give an insight as to what an Entrepreneur should do before taking the final plunge.

1. Have an idea:
This is the very first step towards thinking big.So,once you have an idea,discuss it with your close friends(or colleagues) and get their feedback.Try to test if your friend would be interested in funding your idea and if he/she says yes,than you have hit the bulls-eye because “If you can’t sell an idea to a known person,how would you sell it to the unknown guys out there” questionThis makes me remember what Guy Kawasaki told “Always discuss your business ideas with women since male have a genetic problem of destruction and they want to kill everything right from plants to companies neutral Well,nothing to be offended here.

2. Build Contacts:
My first foray outside Bangalore was in BlogCamp,Chennai in September 2006 where I understood the power of Blogging.I met new people,some software consultants,some entrepreneurs,some engineers and the list goes on and on.So what was the change.I made lot of contacts and my network kept on growing.Remember,building contacts is not only exchanging business cards at conferences and than dumping them somewhere,you need to multiply your contacts through that one contact and on and on.You would require contacts before you start your company,when you are expanding your company or when you want to market your product etc.

3. Read about Entrepreneurship:
This is one of the basic steps that every person willing to be an Entrepreneur should do.There is no harm in thinking big and you should not try to repeat mistakes what other Entrepreneurs have made during their Entrepreneurial career.Every month,I always make a point to take one good book on Management or Entrepreneurship, so that I learn more about it and take precautions ,what successful entrepreneurs have recommended.I do agree that bookish knowledge is different from real experience but learning is the key and believe me , this has helped me a lot.What I do is carry a book to my office , so that it keeps me more motivated and also I can read it in my spare time.

4. Value your time:
Only people who are really passionate can do something big in life.Time is money and it is rightly said so.We do lot of things in our free time like watching TV, speak over the phone for hours or just sleep etc but one thing which we forget is we are spending Quality time fruitlessly exclaim Only people who value time can dedicate more effort for their idea and this is one thing which Entrepreneur would never forget since for him “Time wasted is a loss for him”

5. Do an industry analysis and and try to blog it:
You know what idea is in your mind but what about your competitors(if there are any).Learn more about the industry that your startup would fall into.Blog about your thoughts so that it is more visible to others.Learn about the Financial aspects of th business and this would be the toughest of them(if you come from a technology background).Get the industry information and have it on your own personal blog so that you can make more and more people aware about your interest.Remember,the more you blog,the more you read which means more the information that you have…So understand the power of Blogging.
This reminds me of what Wirkle founders have on their site…“We are a company of Bloggers”


6. Learn to Convince People:

When I was reading my latest read “Make the Move” , I just wondered that this is very much true.In the book,the authors Ishan Gupta and Rajat Khare have mentioned “During the Entrepreneurial days,the founders will have to play multiple roles from Founder–>CEO–>CTO–>CFO–>Officeboy and so on”.This means that you should be able to play multiple roles and this will apply before taking the plunge.As I mentioned before “A good businessman is a person who can convince people and before you start,you need to see whether you can sell idea at least to few people since you would have to play multiple roles , at least for the first few initial years of your startup.”

7. Join as many Networking sites as possible:
I have already spoken about “Building Contacts in point 2” , so what is special about Business Networking.Well,sites like LinkedIn and TechTribe helps you to be in touch with people you might never have met but the guidance you get from these sites is enormous.I had an article on TechTribe here , which is really informative.Who knows a someone from these site’s might be your partner.

These are purely my thoughts..I would love to hear from the readers , if there are some points , which I might have missed and you can add those in the comments section wink

|In: Books|Last Updated:
Ever thought,why Google and Hotmail were created? The simple reason was that Google founders Brin and Page could not find information easily on the internet and this problem gave birth to Google(and now Google has become an integral part of our day to day life).I cannot imagine even a single day without Google biggrin Same was the case with Hotmail,founders Bhatia and Smith who were frustrated since their personal America online accounts were not accessible from the office network and there was no email service available which could be accessed anonymously over the web

Similar to this,there are lots of examples,where “Problems encountered are transformed into meaningful solutions” and some of those very interesting instances can be found here

In fact,my own idea also started with a problem and now I am working to find a universal solution to that problem.So lets see how can someone find an idea to start his/her own venture.I encountered this when reading “Make the Move” and thought it to be very realistic and meaningful.

Hate and create something:
Sometimes,the idea to start something just may not strike.So,what can be done is you can create a “I HATE IT WHEN….” list biggrin This means that you write down all the points that you don’t like in this world.It can range from small to medium to complex.For example:During the cold winters,you may not like waiting for hot water since cold water is flowing out of your tap during the first couple of minutes.Also,you may not like your shoes loosing its shine,before you reach for an interview etc.
Whenever you find something that you don’t like,make a note of it and when you have certain no of issues on the list,write methods in which you may be able to solve them.If there is an interesting idea,start working on it.It may turn out to be the biggest invention ever rolleyes.Finally,it would help remove something which you don’t like and will make life simple for you and for others.

Love and create something:
Another method to find an idea is to look at yourself and find your hobbies.If your chosen profession can be from your hobbies,it would yield great level of satisfaction for you idea.For example: If you love music,you may want to create a software for the easy creation of music.If you love sports,you could do something for the love of sports(with the help of software).
The key lies in identifying the potential of the idea,implementing the idea at the right time and with the right set of people wink

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 5 Comments
Just came across this when I was reading the latest edition of SmartTechie and this article is by one of my favourite authors Rajesh Setty.Since,he is involved in many startups in same space,he shared his experience through his article and believe me,it was a good learning for my own Web 2.0 startup idea biggrin

Below is the list of some of the important points which is mentioned in the article:

1. Don’t chase exceptions-make them:
YouTube got sold to Google without making any money.Same is the case with the other high profile startups like Plenty Of Fish and Fark,which have only one employee.So,should we target our startup based on this model?Well,these were some of the exceptions and hence,rather than chasing an exception,create your own!!!

2. You can’t forget the team:
This is important just like a normal project.He had a nice Jim Collins quote saying “You got to have the right people in the right places on your bus“

3. You still need a sound business model:
During the dotcom days,there were business plans on the back of the business envelope which got funded.There is lot of venture capital now but as open source goes mainstream,the technology costs have reduced.And nowadays,many entrepreneurs use self funding rather than using other people’s money.This is the basic principle , which should be followed in other businesses as well.

4. Do what works,not what’s cool(Ajax):
Ajax is cool but customers wont use your product only if you use Ajax.Hence,it is very important to see if the customer really needs it or not since,something might be cool for you but might be irritating for others. redface

5. Lay the right foundation for the next few versions:
In my point of view,this is the most important point for any startup lol
Design the first version of your product with very high standards and with that,you have made an implicit promise with your customers on what is about to come in future.Mainitaining the same quality in all the future releases would be very difficult but it is very important for the success of your product.

6. Emphasize agility:
If your model is so cool that just two people can execute it brilliantly , than any other twosome may be able to challenge you quickly idea.You can’t always ride on the first to market train!!!The best way to protect yourself is to design and configure everything to be agile,so that even if you are met with surprises,you can change course quickly and maintain your lead.

7. Build to scale(rapidly):
This one made me think for my own Web 2.0 startup and it will be an eye-opener for all those guys planning to jump in that space rolleyes
It hurts to fail because you don’t have customers.It hurts even more to fail because your idea attracted too many people,too fast and you couldn’t service them.This is very much possible in the Web 2.0 market so,make sure from the outset that the solution you’re building is built to scale.

8. Choose the right metrics:
This is the second point which I liked the most.
Just because another startup earned a lucrative exit based on number of website visitors or page views,there is no guarantee those metrics will work for your company too.Don’t do something just because everyone in the Web 2.0 world is doing it.That’s the best reason to do something different smile

9. Involve the customers right from the start:
This is the third point which I liked the most.
Always try to meet your customer expectations.It is very easy to get carried away with your idea without having enough information.The best way to delight customers with your product or service is to work with them from the outset and get their feedback.
Knowing their expectations and beating them is a great way to create a “wow” experience-for them and for you.

|In: Business|Last Updated:
Few days back,I had a small article on outsourcing and when we talk about outsourcing,the first thing which comes to mind is “Cost cutting”.But is outsourcing only about cost cutting and what precautions should be taken when work is outsourced? Gartner had a good analysis about this whole outsourcing scenario.Keep on reading…

Five reasons why Outsourcing does not work:

a. Unrealized cost savings:
Most businesses push work overseas in the hope of cutting labor costs. An application maintenance worker in India, for example, earns about $25 per hour, compared to $87 per hour in the U.S, according to Gartner. But businesses make a mistake by looking at salaries alone.Though there is a lot of saving here,the hidden cost includes in infrastructure,communication,travel,training etc.

b. Loss of productivity:
During the initial phase of outsourcing,staff at an offshore service center probably won’t be as productive as internal staff back at home.Gartner has the follwing reasons for the loss of productivity:Staff turnover can be high in competitive offshoring markets such as Bangalore, India, which also means programmers there may be new and inexperienced. And service centers overseas struggle with ambiguities in the work they are assigned and shifting directives. Sending jobs overseas can also lower morale at home, creating a drag on output.

c. Poor commitment and communications:
Good communication is very important for the success of any project.Projects,goals and expectations should be clearly defined.Also,at the home side,the managers should explain its employees why the work is getting outsourced and what would be its benefit.

d. Cultural differences:
Culture differs from one region to another.As per Gartner,”In some cultures, questioning authority is considered disrespectful, so a team may push ahead with a given plan even if they see a better approach. Offshorers should get expert advice about a local culture, provide cultural training and even arrange exchanges among staff on both sides“

e. Lack of offshore expertise and readiness:
Organizations should first see whether they are ready to take up the outsourced work,do they have the right set of people , have the right team composition,have the right competency etc.If they do not have the right competency,plan should be made to build the competency among the existing set of people in the organizaion so that taking the outsourced work would be simpler.

You can read the complete article here

|In: Books|Last Updated: | 5 Comments
In the recent past,more and more multinationals have been scaling their operations in India and more(and more) work getting outsourced to fast developing nations like India and China.Everyday in magazines,newspapers and various other places,we have news about “more and more jobs being cut in US(or some other developed country) and getting outsourced to India”.But,on the brighter side “Outsourcing has impacted the economy of India in a very positive way” and Outsourcing has become a buzz word biggrin

Well, this reminds me what Jack Welch mentioned about Outsourcing in his book “Winning-The answers” that “US should take outsourcing positively and utilize this wonderful opportunity to the maximum“.

Just happened to see a video on YouTube,which has Thomas Friedman-Author of “The World is Flat” interviewing Indians to know their response on this whole Outsourcing buzz.The duration of the video is around 44 minutes but it focuses on some of the untouched things like “How the Indian middle class thinking is changing and how outsourcing has affected their life etc”…Sit back and enjoy the learnings from this excellent video wink

|In: Blogging|Last Updated: | 2 Comments

Well,to start this article, I would like to clarify that I am referring to UnConference and not Conference.Hence,I would start with some of the basic questions and than jump to the advantages of attending unconferences.

What exactly is an UnConference?
An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is driven and created by the participants, generally day-by-day during the course of the event, rather than by a single organizer, or small group of organizers, in advance. To date, the term is primarily in use in the geek community. Unconference processes like Open Space Technology, however, have been around for over 20 years in other contexts.
You can know more about Unconferences here

Which are unconferences happening in India?
Of late,there are a lot of unconferences happening in India.There is BlogCamp, BarCamp, MoMo, Proto,WikiCamp(this is the first time it happened here in March,2007).There may be some more unconferences,which I may have missed but these are some of the best unconferences(which I have also attended) happening in India biggrin

What are the advantages of attending unconferences?
Unconferences provide a great platform to showcase innovation and get on the spot feedback of your product/idea.Along with exciting and out of the box ideas,you can meet and network with lot of tech enthusiasts.As we all know “Solo Entrepreneurship is much hyped and hence in order to start,you need soul mates“ and Unconferences is the place where you can find a few like minded soul mates.And not to forget,there could be some VCs in the party as well who could fund your idea razz

Few days back, just received an email from Prashant Singh(the organizer of MoMo Delhi) where “MoMo was covered by the Sunday Times”.The title of the article was interesting “Recipe for new ideas? Try MoMos“.Some interesting points from the article are given below:

Ask Lomesh Dutta, COO, Wirkle Technologies who attended both the events(BarCamp and MoMo).”For me, it’s the best place to network and keep abreast of the latest developments in my field,” says the young entrepreneur.
Don’t innovators fear their ideas could be stolen? No, say regulars. “Everything that happens at these unconferences are simultaneously recorded. Later they are put up at the wiki site, so no one can really steal ideas from here and claim it as their own,” says Tyagi.
Says Naresh Gupta, MD, Adobe India, “It’s a win-win platform for both individuals and companies. With the traditional model of company and community undergoing a change and with interaction becoming integral for product development, a platform like this could be useful for both.”

You can read the complete article here

Interested to contribute to “UnConference-The Book”?
Now,every person can become an author by contributing to “UnConference-The book”.The cover of the book says “Because the audience is more intelligent than the speaker“.You can find more about the book here and if you wish to contribute , you can check out the WiKi
So, go ahead and contribute to the UnConference Community through the UnBook lol

Happy UnConferencing!!!

|In: Business|Last Updated: | 3 Comments
Just started reading “Make the Move” and after reading the first chapter in the book , it just struck me to write something on “Entrepreneurship and Management”.There were some inputs taken from my readings in Business Gyan as well!!!.In “Make the Move” it is said:

Entrepreneurs are leaders who are the heart of Business and Managers are the brains of the business.So,Entrepreneur has the responsibility to create those aims and objectives and motivate his managers to accomplish the goals.

So keeping this big difference in mind, let us go to the micro level to see the differences:

a.
Entrepreneurs are people who are thinkers behind the creation and execution of any idea.They are people who have a blend of technical as well as management skills.They are the final verdict behind the business and their level of thinking decides whether the business would reach the shore or would sink in between biggrin
Managers are people who are the drivers of the organization.Management is basically divided into various stages of the ladder which is described in my previous post.They focus more on goals and drive the team to achieve those goals/milestones on time.

b.
Entrepreneurial thinking is more on innovation and it is more “means driven” and less “result driven” For example:Why can’t we create an “application A” which has not been developed by any other company!!!Taking the example of cooking a recipe Business Gyan says,”Entrepreneurial thinking is like designing a new menu with the ingredients in hand.Hence,Entrepreneurial thinking focuses more on creativity.
Managerial thinking focusses more on targets and have fixed steps to achieve it.Taking the same case of a recipe,”Managerial thinking is like cooking items on a pre-defined menu with the help of a recipe book”.Hence,Managerial thinking focuses more on efficiency.

c.
Entrepreneur‘s mind craves to do new things even if they turn out to be wrong.Taking the first step is more important than getting worried about the end result.
Manager‘s focus more on doing things right and doing the right thing.The end result is much more important and it does not matter on how you achieven your target.In short “Doing the right thing is most crucial in this case”
Business Gyan has a very good example of a failed product-the Post-It by 3M which was tried with some more innovation and became a hit.Post-It is one revolutionary product which is used in our day to day office life.You can read about the invention of Post-It here.Here(in case of Post-It), entrepreneurial thinking helped and it not only asked “What can we do with what we have?” but goes beyond in asking “What else can we do with what we have and what we are unexpectedly landed with?“

d.
Entrepreneurs are less resource dependent.Sometimes,scarcity of resources turns out to be a boon for the entrepreneurs.For example Ebay was built with the intention to build a robust self sustaining platform on which millions of people could trade at the same time(which was’nt available at that time) and the other reason being, the Ebay founder did not have any venture capital funding rolleyes
Managers on the other hand are more resource dependent.The performance of the manager is heavily dependent on the performance of the team members, which means if the team fails,the manager also fails!!!

e.
Entrepreneurs are risk takers and they they leverage risk as an opportunity to prove their capability.They are always prepared for the unexpected and they think “If something is likely to go wrong,it will !!!”.Entrepreneurial thinking challenges the assumption that there is a predictable relationship between risk and reward.Hence,High returns can be achieved irrespective of the risks associated with the venture by transforming the unexpected into a growth opportunity smile
Managers are also risk takers but take less risks as compared to an entrepreneur.The risk lies on the decision of the manager and management focuses on ways to reduce risks-through Non Disclosure Agreements(NDA), written contracts etc.

f.
Managerial thinking is predictable and hierarchy sensitive. For managers,future is decided from the learnings in the past and for them,“Past data is the ultimate resource to decide the future”
Entrepreneurial thinking is highly unpredictable and network oriented.For them,learning from failures encountered by other fellow entrepreneurs is important but that is not the ultimate resource to decide the future!!Entrepreneurs argue that “Past is a reliable indicator to decide the future but only to the extent that the entrepreneur is not taken into account”
For example:In 1967,Harvard economist J K Galbraith stated that “The era of small entrepreneurs was over-just a couple of decades later entrepreneurs like Bill Gates(of Microsoft) and Steve Jobs(of Apple) built some of the largest new ventures,the world has ever seen surprised

g.
Entrepreneurs have to prove to themselves(that wrong can sometimes be right,if wrong is done correctly) and than to the entire world.
Managers also have to prove to themselves and than to the organization where they are serving.The organization in turn would its capability to the world hence,Manager is just a small medium in this case!!!

Note:If you have some more differences,they are most welcome…Do add them in the comments section