All Posts in Entrepreneurship

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

For many people, working at a startup is the holy grail of employment, and it’s not hard to understand why. You can get in on the ground floor, be a part of something exciting, and maybe even be a part of huge growth. That’s why it’s so cool to work for a startup, but that’s also why it’s so hard to actually get a job with one: everyone else wants to do it too. Competition is fierce, but with the right knowledge and approach, you can find a way to make the cut. Read on, and you’ll discover 33 insider tips that can help you land a coveted job at a hot startup.

Find a startup you love
Identify a startup you can really connect with, and the rest is easy. With the right fit, you’ll be better poised to connect with the startup’s culture, vision, goals, and needs.

Present yourself as an innovator
Startups are always ravenous for fresh and creative ideas. You can really stand out if you come to your interview prepared with ideas for growing and improving the business.

Show that you’re well-rounded
Do you have side projects that demonstrate your interest and passion for technology? Discuss what you’ve been working on and your dedication will be clear.

Identify what makes you unique and valuable
Getting a job means being a great salesperson, and every great salesperson knows you’ve got to have a unique selling point (USP). What’s yours? Be sure it’s the star of your resume and cover letter.

Engage in startup-related chatter
Check in on Quora and other great sites featuring startup discussions, and do your best to answer questions impressively. By being a part of the conversation, you just might catch the attention of a startup that’s hiring.

Don’t wait to see a job posting
Actual startup job postings may not show up for quite some time, especially among those in the early stage. Rather than waiting to see if they’ll pop up, get engaged with the startup early on to express your interest.

Go big or go home
Go into the application process with the mindset of leaving it all on the table. Successful startup hires have created infographics, catchy slideshows, even interesting websites to stand out in the crowd.

Be flexible
Working at a startup isn’t like working at a 9 to 5, usually. You may have weird hours, unusual commitments, and strange tasks. Be willing to take them in stride and don’t be shocked when you’re asked how you’d feel about taking them on in the interview.

Just start working
One of Square’s earliest employees was initially denied an interview at the company. But he brushed it off and took it upon himself to acquire card readers and use them to sign up 10 new merchants for the service in one day. It’s a bold move, one that got him noticed, and hired, by the startup.

Say thank you
Sure, it’s impressive to create high tech, attention-getting media to woo your potential employer, and if you have the skills, by all means, do it. But startups are made up of regular people too, and everyone, yes, everyone appreciates a good, old-fashioned hand-written thank you note. Do this, and you’ll really stand out.

Fill multiple needs
Being great at one thing is impressive, but it’s much more likely to get you a job at a big company where they can afford to have one employee for one task. At a startup, needs tend to be much broader, as each employee is expected to take on a wide variety of tasks. Show that you can contribute with a wide skill set that fills multiple needs.

Know everything there is to know
Don’t just check out the company’s website a few hours before your interview. Really spend time getting to know what the startup is all about. Do extensive research, connect with their social media outlets, and learn about their development. Go beyond the surface so that you’ll be able to stand out as knowledgeable and intensely interested in what the startup stands for.

Don’t try to share any BS
Entrepreneurs tend to have great BS detectors. Don’t give them a reason to lose faith in you by trying to feed them any. If you don’t know the answer, own up to it and offer to find out and follow up with them.

Be a part of the community
Be visible in all the right circles. Attend meetups, hackathons, and launch parties. Take the time to make connections and nurture your network. Connect with the right people, and it’s likely to lead you to a great startup job.

Be personal
Joining a small startup means lots of one on one time with the first people with boots on the ground. If you don’t click personally, chances are, you’re not getting hired. Do you fit in with the company’s culture? Get along with the founders? If you think you do, make sure that you let your personality shine through so they will recognize it as well.

Have your own questions
Be really impressive by showing that you’ve taken the time to contemplate what the startup is all about. Come to the interview with your own questions, ones beyond salary, hours, and benefits, that really demonstrate an understanding, appreciation, and willingness to explore the company.

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|In: Ecosystem|Last Updated:

The Power of Ideas, India’s largest entrepreneurship development initiative from The Economic Times is back. Bigger and better than ever before. The Power of Ideas seeks to encourage anyone & everyone with a business idea to realize his entrepreneurial dream. It is a platform where ideas will be polished and nurtured with personalized guidance from mentors before being taken forward to investors for funding. This ET initiative is in partnership with the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India and IIM-Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship.

For more information

About the program : http://www.ideas.economictimes.com/pgme

Eligibility criteria for participation : http://www.ideas.economictimes.com/tc

To participate in the programme :  http://www.ideas.economictimes.com/participate

[The deadline for submission of the Business Summary Format is June 25, 6pm.]

Queries: If you still have a specific query/feedback about the programme, share it with ET at: etideas@indiatimes.com

Start-up Sessions: With the twin objectives of taking those with an idea through the nuances of starting up & guiding them through the process of filling the Business Summary Format, which is the participation form for the initiative, ET has organized a series of learning sessions called ‘Start-up Sessions’. To know more about these sessions & participate in them log onto http://www.ideas.economictimes.com/sup

Social: To participate in exciting contests, have fun with cool trivia etc., follow “ET-Power Of Ideas” on:

Nominate a friend: If you know a friend who has a business idea or is running a start-up, but is not able to take it forward/scale up, connect him to “ET-Power Of Ideas” by SMS ETNF<space>your name<space>his name and his email id to 58888

Partnership: In case you seek to partner with “ET – The Power of Ideas” programme as a mentor/investor/sponsor, drop them a line at etquery@indiatimes.com

** Image Credit : ET Power Of Ideas FB Page

|In: Blogging|Last Updated: | 4 Comments
Many times people ask me the question “What is the advantage of blogging/Why should you blog” and to answer that I came with this article which was written around 5 years back. There is a tendency with most of us [including me] to Google our name & see where we stand on Google !!! This is how Himanshu Sheth, a green entrepreneur from Jamshedpur found me. His interesting work resulted in a short Q&A on his startup & other entrepreneurial challenges. So, here we go…
Can you tell something about yourself & your company ?
I am a marketing consultant for industrial products, based at Jamshedpur, the city of Tatas. My work experience in this field is over two decades. My  enterprise, Coir Atlas, is my proprietorship firm at present. Over a period of next six months, I am planning to shape it up as a company, by inviting a few people to join me in my endeavor. Right now, Coir Atlas is at a stage where it has successfully developed, tested and patented some unique Eco-friendly as well as biodegradable products that are meant to replace wooden dunnages, used by Steel industry to support their flat products viz. sheets/plates and coils during shipment.
It was quite interesting on how we met, can you narrate the incident ?
While working for long hours, at times I take fresh breaths by saving my work for review later and venture to surf some unrelated sites on the web. Once, merely on impulse, I googled my name and  found 5-6 references of the same person, that is you (HJS, Banglore). I looked you up and also saw a YouTube clip where you recommend people to start blogging. Since your blog focuses on entrepreneurship & start ups, I decided to touch base with you.
Every idea comes up with an unsolved problem, so what is Coir Atlas trying to solve ?
Steel producers across the globe have traditionally been using wooden logs as separators for shipment of their flat products viz. sheet/plate and coil. With growing awareness on environmental issues like global warming and need to conserve forests etc. availability of timber for such applications for long is a question mark. Moreover, wooden logs act as separator only & do not provide a good frictional hold to the load that is moving at a high speed. This leads to mishaps & loss of life and property worth billions of dollars every year.

‘Coir Atlas’ is an eco-friendly and biodegradable substitute of wooden logs used for such applications. Lab tests and substantial field trials taken by Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India have proved that ‘Coir Atlas’- which is made of natural items like jute & bamboo, provides much better grip to the load during shipment.
What is the technology being used behind the Coir ?
Coir Atlas is a patented technology. It uses natural items viz. Bamboo, Coir and Jute as raw materials. Coir Atlas has been designed and developed in a way that it can be manufactured by cottage industry, mostly using hand held tools. It does not require large plant/equipments or heavy power etc. Coir Atlas also creates employment opportunities especially for unskilled/illiterate women or differently able persons, who may not find employment on regular industries. Women SHG(s) have been involved in manufacture of Coir Atlas.
Can you let us know some of the social benefits behind your venture ?
The social benefits arising out of usage of Coir Atlas are three pronged –
  • It helps saves our precious green cover. It is commonly held belief that we are loosing forests because of population growth and developmental activities. Though it is true, but it is true only in very small fraction. The actual threat to forests comes from ‘single use’ of wood for packaging applications by industries.
  • Wooden runners create the required gap necessary for loading/unloading of consignments. But they do not effectively support the heavy load, while a truck or railway wagon is moving at high speed. Many mishaps keep happening because of shifting of load in transit, resulting into loss of life and property. Whereas jute being fibrous material, provides much stronger grip to the load and will not let the load in motion shift so easily, due to frictional hold it provides to the load. Thus, Coir Atlas will result into enhanced safety on the highways saving precious lives and costly material.
  • It is an proven fact that any extra income in the hands of women is most likely to be spent on children’s education and family welfare.

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|In: BarCampBangalore3|Last Updated: | 6 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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|In: Android|Last Updated: | 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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|In: Android|Last Updated: | 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…

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 2 Comments

In this article, we speak to Max Aengevelt, co-founder of UK based startup myhomepage. Here Max shares his thoughts about the company, it’s core offering as well as his insights on entrepreneurship.

Can you give a small background of you and your start-up and its founders?

My name is Max Aengevelt. I am one of the two co-founders of myhomepage. I am a recent graduate of European Business School of London; the other co-founder is Massimo Agostinelli who still attends EBSL. Massimo originally had the idea for myhomepage together with his younger brother when working on his Apple Macbook. The way your windows can be displayed all at the same time is something that really inspired Massimo. Why not be able to view the web like this? Myhomepage is a personalized homepage, online password manager and bookmarking service that users can use as a start page. We are particularly proud to have an auto login capability that allows you to automatically login into your websites. From the original idea of being an interactive start page, we have really grown to be a one stop shop to start your online browsing. Myhomepage is a personalized start page.

There are lots of other competitors. What do you see are your strengths and weaknesses compared to them and what the future is like for these services? What is the USP of myhomepage over competitors?

There are several players in this market and we have analysed every single one. Therefore we can say with confidence we have the most complete product. To begin with we are not a widget based news aggregator, nor are we a pure bookmarking website. We offer a lot of different features that make it safer and easier for the user to navigate the web. 70% of websites require a username and password to fully operate the site, myhomepage is place that lets you organize these websites and automatically access them through our auto login feature. I personally would not be able to use the web without the clarity myhomepage gives me. One of our main competitors or alternatives is browsers. Browsers also allow you to store and organise bookmarks as well as passwords which are two of our main features. However, unlike browsers we are online. This means, wherever you are you will be able access all your favourite bookmarks and logins at any time and from any computer using any browser. Also browsers are not a safe place to store your username and password, someone could steal or hack your computer. And unlike other password managers, you do not have to download anything or pay for it. We use a patent pending technology to safely encrypt your account and passwords.

Secondly, as mentioned before, we are well aware of our competitors and no other service offers all the features we offer in one place. There are competitors offering one or two of our features but no one else offers them all in one place. Furthermore, it is designed with a simple, clean layout. We have a lot of great features which make using the website fun – we use thumbnails to display bookmarks, have a unique auto login feature, have drag and drop functionality, bookmarks are organized by tagging, you can import bookmarks and you can easily email bookmarks to your friends. Adding up all these features, myhomepage is a product that stands out from the crowd! Furthermore, ‘myhomepage’ is a great name and brand and one that is you can easily relate to and most importantly trust.

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|In: General|Last Updated: | 12 Comments

This article is the result of an email forwarded by a friend of mine and after reading the email, I was sure it would qualify for this blog :). The email was about the learnings of Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of Reliance narrated by his close friend A.G. Krishnamurthy of Mudra Communications. Inspired by the characteristics of Dhirubhai, Mr. Krishnamurthy coined the term “Dhirubhaism” , which consisted of the insightful lessons from Dhirubhai. Some of the inspiring Dhirubhaism’s are mentioned below:

Note: “I” in the article refers to Mr. Krishnamurthy. “He” refers to Mr. Dhirubhai.

Roll up your sleeves and help

You and your team share the same DNA. Reliance, during Vimal’s heady days had organized a fashion show at the Convention Hall, at Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi.

As usual, every seat in the hall was taken, and there were an equal number of impatient guests outside, waiting to be seated. I was of course completely besieged, trying to handle the ensuing confusion, chaos and protests, when to my amazement and relief, I saw Dhirubhai at the door trying to pacify the guests.

Dhirubhai at that time was already a name to reckon with and a VIP himself, but that did not stop him from rolling up his sleeves and diving in to rescue a situation that had gone out of control. Most bosses in his place would have driven up in their swank cars at the last moment and given the manager a piece of their minds. Not Dhirubhai.

When things went wrong, he was the first person to sense that the circumstances would have been beyond his team’s control, rather than it being a slip on their part, as he trusted their capabilities implicitly. His first instinct was always to join his men in putting out the fire and not crucifying them for it. Sounds too good a boss to be true, doesn’t he? But then, that was Dhirubhai.

Be a safety net for your team

There used to be a time when our agency Mudra was the target of some extremely vicious propaganda by our peers, when on an almost daily basis my business ethics were put on trial.  I, on my part, putting on a brave front, never raised this subject during any of my meetings with Dhirubhai.

But one day, during a particularly nasty spell, he gently asked me if I needed any help in combating it. That did it. That was all the help that I needed. Overwhelmed by his concern and compassion, I told him I could cope, but the knowledge that he knew and cared for what I was going through, and that he was there for me if I ever needed him, worked wonders for my confidence.

I went back a much taller man fully armed to face whatever came my way. By letting us know that he was always aware of the trials we underwent and that he was by our side through it all, he gave us the courage we never knew we had.

The silent benefactor

This was another of his remarkable traits. When he helped someone, he never ever breathed a word about it to anyone else. There have been none among us who haven’t known his kindness, yet he never went around broadcasting it.

He never used charity as a platform to gain publicity. Sometimes, he would even go to the extent of not letting the recipient know who the donor was. Such was the extent of his generosity. ‘Expect the unexpected’ just might have been coined for him

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