all things startup

Now a site to help you plan your next career move

2008-04-20T11:38:00.001-07:00

Interesting NYC based startup called Path101. These guys promote the concept of 'career discovery' as opposed to just being a job site. I think Careerbuilder, Monster and HotJobs all claim to help you plan your next career move, but they are nothing more than a collection of job listings. I'm not saying they're not important (in fact they play an important role acting as a bulletin board of sorts), just that they don't close the loop on job hunting. Path101 claims to be doing just that.

One punchline that stood out as I browsed through their slides was 'what do other people like you do?'. Neat. Just what people want. That's the reason why Facebook, MySpace and the gazillions of other social networking sites generate tons of user traffic - its because people (at least the new generation netizens) are always on the lookout for folks like themselves, and want to know what those people do!

Evil + Genius = Apple?

2008-03-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

Wired's latest issue has a whole series of articles on Apple, Steve Jobs and the gamut of products prefixed with 'i'. The write ups talk about how Apple has violated every rule in the Silicon Valley play book and yet won the game (or rather, hence won the game). While the articles make for really good reading, they seem to miss the point.

The Wired guys mistake creativity and genius for arrogance and pomposity. Steve Jobs is arrogant, yells at his employees and sues kids who blog about Apple. So he must be a genius. Hmmm.

Here's my take ... Steve Jobs is a genius. He's probably the most creative guy alive. He's the CEO of two companies at the same time. He revived a dying company in the late 90's and got its products into everyone's hands. And not just any products, but products with sex appeal. Now that's genius.

The fact that Apple hasn't followed the 'don't be evil' mantra that so many startups are living by these days, has nothing to do with the fact that they are a super creative bunch. Its the quality of the product in the end that matters. As an end-user shelling out $600 for an iPhone and $400 for an iPod all I care about is that the product works as expected and looks cool. I don't give a rats ass who the CEO of the company is, what shirts and jeans he wears, whether he yells at his employees or whether he keeps all products behind closed doors before launching them. Sure, as a geek I'd like know what the Apple guys are up to next. But I'm also an end-user. And I dig gadgets. Cool, sexy gadgets. I love my iPhone and MacBook Pro.

Creativity and management don't get along. Saying that 'management style X breeds creativity' is a bunch of crap. It just doesn't make sense. Give credit where credit is due. And don't attribute it to anything else.

Search engine, Ads, online apps, VC

2007-09-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

again, a long pause since my last post. either I haven't found anything interesting online to post, or I haven't been reading as much. ok, I admit it. I haven't been reading as much :-)

came across this article on businessweek. it talks about Google being seen as a the newest VC on the block. i've think i've mentioned this before but it was good to see it mentioned in businessweek.

its not hard to see that with a huge bank balance, Google would make for a good VC. the fact is that as per the businessweek article Google invests to the tune of $500k or less in promising startups. why then would a bunch of smart engineers with a brilliant idea agree to go with Google versus one of the big boys on Sand Hill? IMO, its the same mantra VCs use "We invest in the TEAM, not the PRODUCT". young companies today have a choice (aaah, doesn't that word just sound right?). the choice to be funded by a VC for huge sums of money, probably give up almost all of their company with it, and possibly not be acquired or go IPO. or be funded by Google, get acquired into the "best company to work for", work with the smartest geeks on the planet, all this while still working on the cool product they invented before they got acquired.

which would you choose?

web trends map

2007-07-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

check out what the folks at Information Architects have done:

imagine if every VC had such a map on their desktops? visual representation of trends, not just on the web, but else where. maybe even overlay this with real time data like revenue, growth rate, etc? colors could represent 'hot' and 'not' ideas and companies?

this is good work. thanks iA!

steps to raise venture capital

2007-07-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

'ten step' lists are always cool. they make daunting tasks seem doable. burnham's beat has captured a nice list of steps on how to raise money from a vc.

if any one has a similar list, please let me know, i'd like to link it off here.

it's not all fun

2007-07-12T22:27:00.000-07:00

yeah it's been a while since i've posted. no excuses. i've been lazy, and postponed writing something meaningful in a while.

so about the title, i was at the Elevator Pitch Roundtable organized by VCTaskforce (I started as a volunteer there about a month back), and it was good to see things from both sides, i.e. both from an entrepreneur's and a VC's perspective. i've met with VCs in the past, presented to them, and fielded questions. sure i had my opinions ("how could they not like MY idea!", "they have no clue about the killer app i'm building", etc), but watching these VCs sit thru 9 one-minute presentations and offer critiques, i got a glimpse of what it must be like to be in their shoes. they probably go thru 3 times as many proposals every day. not an easy job. not when your competitor VC closed a deal 5 years ago with this internet company that's just gone IPO.

i thought to myself ... "it's not all fun". but hey, would it be worth the effort if it was :-)

so you wanna be a vc?

2007-06-17T23:31:00.000-07:00

i should have posted these a while ago, but hey ... better late than never. i'm sure most of you have already read guy kawasaki's vcat (venture capital aptitude test). follow that up with will price's response to the test.

also read about kauffman fellow praveen sahay's how to on becoming a venture capitalist. granted there's a lot of obvious and generic points listed there, but its worth a read.

of course, search the web for anything related to becoming a vc, and you're sure to land on seth levine's how to. i know his 'step one' isn't very encouraging, but i guess that's the point - succeeding when there's no one cheering you on, or boosting your morale. "yeah you can do it" and "c'mon give it your best shot, and you'll make it!" ... that stuff is for college kids. this is vc land. and step one according to seth is "assume you will not be able to land a job as a venture capitalist"

gary rivlin has a write up on the same topic, but with a lot more real world examples.

bill gates' harvard commencement speech (june 7, 2007)

2007-06-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

here's the text as prepared for delivery. interesting thoughts and insights into bill gates' ambitions for the future, thru the bill and melinda gates foundation.

gates has presented an interesting problem to ponder upon, not just for graduating harvard students, but for intelligent, privileged and fortunate students all over the world. whether you graduate from wharton, iit or tsinghua, you have the power and potential to make a difference in the lives of people who have never even heard of these universities. to quote from his speech (and this is one of my favorite lines):

"Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name?"

extend that thought to any privileged top-ranked institution in the world, and its obvious how the imbalance of opportunity affects us all. how can we claim ourselves successful leaders, when we cannot improve the lives of those who need us the most? to put it simply, leading a bunch of smart, white-collared professionals (which is what you land up doing after graduating from top schools like harvard) isn't a challenge. saving the lives of millions of impoverished kids around the world, by making sure they get vaccines and medicines on time - now that's a challenge!

i know it sounds cliched, but i think bill gates might find the answers to the questions that we have evaded for so long - how do we save sick kids around the world, how do we eradicate killer diseases, how do we bridge the gap between the fortunate and not-so-fortunate? time has a nice article, including a podcast of an interview with bill gates. definitely worth listening.

so does all this have to do with entrepreneurs and VCs? well, in some sense they are a privileged lot too, just like the graduating students of harvard. we (ok, i consider myself an entrepreneur) have access to the kind of technology and talent most people can never even dream of. we need to keep the gates' perspective in mind as we try and solve problems. are the problem we're trying to solve, going to help the people who really need help? or are we simply creating problems for the rich and privileged, and solving them too?

venture capital paradigm shift

2007-06-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

peter rip talks about why traditional vc approaches and strategies don't work anymore. i especially like the way he talks about valuations and exits, and some simple math surrounding these key points in a vc and entrepreneur's careers. he finishes up by describing two strategies he thinks would work best in a world with too much capital.

once bitten, twice shy? you'd think that makes sense, especially if being bitten means losing out on millions of dollars. not so in the vc community. post-dot-com-bust there's more money from institutional investors than before, more funds created by vc firms, and in turn more access to capital for entrepreneurs. all you need to do is make the most of it. efficiently.

How to get started as a Venture Capital (VC) analyst

2007-06-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

I found this blog post from Will Price's blog. By now I've read more than a dozen articles online on how to become a VC. Most of them seem to say the same things, which is good. Unfortunately, they don't really say much. I found this one to be one of the most interesting, simple, and straightforward posts on the subject.

In fact this one actually gives hope to potential VCs, by listing steps that can be done now and should be doable by anyone with passion on the subject.

I'll try and post similar articles I find. We can never get too much advice on how to become a VC.

no mba

2007-06-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

interesting read from rajesh setty. i think its worth reading even if you are planning on getting an mba.

When You Can't Earn An MBA: Thoughts On Getting Ahead Without An MBA

how to recruit top talent

2007-06-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

move aside Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon. Bangalore based Aditi Technologies has a better idea :-)

find a niche

2007-06-02T13:15:00.000-07:00

just speculating here (actually spoke to a friend about this, and thought about blogging it) ...

there are probably two routes to success in a startup (many more probably, but two main routes) - either you get acquired by a giant or you defeat a giant. what about 'going IPO' you ask? well, that's not success really.

anyways, so either you get bought out or you run down the big guns. now the latter is possible (hello Google, bye-bye Yahoo) but rare. so rare, that we should assume it wont happen again soon.

so that leaves us with the only other option. find a niche. pick a giant. find out what they do best (that's the easy part - it's probably all over the news). find out what they suck at (this is the hard part). and go build a company in a niche they suck at, but need desperately. form a core team of 4 or 5 geeks you trust. build a kick ass product. get a few customers to use it for free. get written testimonials from them. then approach the giant with the product, the customer testimonials, and a lot of enthusiasm. that's it!

now isn't that easy :-)

be a cockroach

2007-05-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

its been a while since i've posted here, but paul's latest essay was interesting as usual and this piece was so amazingly apt, i just couldnt resist posting it:

"Apparently the most likely animals to be left alive after a nuclear war are cockroaches, because they're so hard to kill. That's what you want to be as a startup, initially. Instead of a beautiful but fragile flower that needs to have its stem in a plastic tube to support itself, better to be small, ugly, and indestructible."

got coders?

2007-02-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

who doesn't? i mean we all want someone to actually do the work right :-) despair not. try some of these resources:

a word of caution: insist on good references. don't just take previous work samples for granted. anyone can show you a cool AJAXy website they had their friends whip up in the past. look for 'real' work. look for projects that still live today, and make money. (i've had a horrible experience with a so called e-lancer, and it cost me way more than i intended to save!)

networking in the valley

2007-02-13T21:21:00.003-08:00

Here are some interesting sites to help you network while in the valley (well, just about anywhere really):

Networking, schmoozing, meeting, hobnobbing, whatever you call it, you know its one of the key ingredients to a successful venture. I've heard this so many times before, yet its still worth mentioning here "Its not what you know, its who you know!"

early bird gets the worm

2007-02-13T21:21:00.001-08:00

motivating enough to wake up early?

brad feld

2007-02-13T21:20:00.004-08:00

another interesting vc blogger

are you bronze?

2007-02-13T21:20:00.003-08:00

errrr what? read on and you'll find out. another interesting write up from paul graham: "why smart people have bad ideas"

one of my favorite paul graham quotes: "There is nothing more valuable, in the early stages of a startup, than smart users. If you listen to them, they'll tell you exactly how to make a winning product. And not only will they give you this advice for free, they'll pay you."

... and another one: "Build something users love, and spend less than you make. How hard is that?"

ok, ok ... here are all of paul's essays.

gubb: the best online todo list orgnanizer

2007-02-13T21:20:00.001-08:00

these guys are good. its called gubb and the site is all javascripty. simple and easy-to-use web interface. you can also use email and sms to manage your todo lists.

i've been using it for a while now. you can share lists with friends and family. this is the easiest way to remind someone to buy you a gift :-)

while we're on the subject of organizing, i must mention this cool new mind mapping tool i found called freemind. seems simple and easy-to-use. i'll have more to say in a few weeks. (note: its free under GPL)

notes from paul graham

2007-02-13T21:19:00.003-08:00

two very interesting reads ...

* All about funding startups.
* Start a company early on in life: here's why.

I found these links from the Y Combinator.

yet another blogging service

2007-02-13T21:19:00.001-08:00

i mean yet another blogging service. its called vox. looks a lot cooler than its contemporaries and apparently integrates seamlessly with youtube and flickr.

a day in the life of a venture capitalist

2007-02-13T21:18:00.001-08:00

hype? reality? interesting read nonetheless.