Musings

BootStrapping and VCs

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Last week I attended the Nasscom Product Conclave.  Lots of take aways.

Bootstrapping

I am reading Goal now ( a dedicated post is needed for the book ) and it taught me a new life lesson. Constraints are not a bad thing – they are the best thing that can ever happen to you. A few sessions reflected this thought process and brought some clarity.
For a Bootstrapped Startup – Cashflow / Money is the constraint. It shapes the way we think and act. Every Rupee that is spent is well thought out. Wastage is out of question. No unwanted feature creeps into the product – keeping the product spiffy and on its toes. The code / server is optimized to extract every ounce of performance as infrastructure is expensive and eats into the bottomline. 
I can keep adding lot other things – I appreciate the constraint bootstrapping provides – it is actually creating the character of the future company that has started shaping up.
VCs
This brings me to the other side of the coin. I felt bad for VCs – they got bashed up in this mela. Almost every session had something or the other against VCs. Yes, VCs are bad for early stage startups which are not capital intensive. Actually money works to the detriment. 
There is a place for VCs when the Orbits have to be shifted – sadly none of the VC bashers spoke about it. This also reflects how nascent this industry still is. The startups are just starting to take off. Only a few are feeling the need for VC funding. 
Also Dr.Wadhwa gave enough statistics to prove how the VC industry is imploding in Silicon Valley. This will definitely make it harder for our startups and VCs in the near future. Perhaps the model is not right – perhaps it was not done right – we will never know.
books, startup

Viral Loop

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It has been a while since I finished reading Viral Loop by Adam Penenberg – which traces the story of Internet companies right from Netscape to Facebook and Twitter.

The book is sinking in slowly. Being in the .com business it was exciting and scary to read the history of various startups.

The book covers the journey of the following startups.

Netscape
Hotmail
Ebay
Paypal
Amazon
Hot or not
MySpace
Flickr
Bebo
Ning
Twitter
Facebook

And there is a recurring pattern in all of them

1. The founder is invariably a developer


All these are essentially Web applications – and having the founder-developer part of the nucleus is ideal . Things change at the speed of light – and the founder being at the helm can immediately sense the course corrections that are needed – and correct them himself – instead of having outsourced the core work, or giving instructions to a team of techies and waiting for them to create magic.

3 Cheers to Developers – we are the makers of the world!

Free Tip Warning 🙂 :  If you are a developer and evaluating whether to take a Project Management position – turn it down if you have startup aspirations – instead  focus on becoming a better developer – some day you can run your own startup.

2. Scaling


Finding the right idea is not enough; finding customers to come to your site is not enough – the site has to scale. This is the single biggest problem faced by all of the above startups. This is a good problem to have – and you should be happy when scaling pains hit you.

It is a tough decision. Should you spend enough resources and build a complex architecture that can scale  VS build your product as fast as possible and handle scaling when the time comes.  Honestly I do not know the answer. There are pros and cons for both.

The universal answer “Depends” is, as always, the right answer 🙂

3. Viral co-efficient


And they have formed a mathematical equation to explain the Viral phenomenon – why some ideas spread like wild fire. The magic is in the viral co-efficient. As long as it is above a certain number the idea will succeed. This is what Malcolm Gladwell calls it as the Tipping Point.

The book is full of interesting anecdotes. Ebay bought Bill Point and tried to kill Paypal ( which refused to be bought out by Ebay ). In order to promote Bill Point, Ebay made its banner big, had a easy sign up process. Whereas for Paypal – Ebay had a 2 step signup – and made Paypal’s banner smaller and towards the bottom of the page. The community revolted and brought back Paypal.

Once an idea catches up – the community will make sure it stays on the right track.

On the downside – this book glorifies Ning. Perhaps it was written before the downward spiral started for Ning.

Ning had rounds of funding ( Mr.Sharad Sharma joked in one of his speeches that Ning has got more funding than what it took Chandrayaan to be sent to the moon  ) – and still Ning is struggling. They recently turned off their free communities and made the entire site a paid one. As an idea Ning is great – but as a business model – they could not sustain. It will be interesting to watch if Ning can turn things around.

We are exactly in the middle of a huge flux. So many questions are yet to  be answered :

What is a successful business model for a Web product?
Is Freemium the right model?
Is Banner Ad-Revenue sustainable in the long run?
Is 37 signals / DHH philosophy the right one for a Web Startup?

Perhaps a few years down the lane we will know better. Till then let us keep guessing and keep updating our status and tweeting inane things!

android, apple, galaxy s

Breaking the Reality Distortion Field!

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I did it !

I broke the Reality distortion field cobweb of Steveji and joined the Android Brigade! It has been more than a week since I bought my first smart phone – a Samsung Galaxy S ( on the left – yes it does look very iPhoneish ) and it is Enthiranistic ( hehe 🙂 )

It was a tectonic mind shift for me. I love Apple products – my first laptop was an iBook. Then I bought iMac, iPods. When the 1st gen iPhone came I wanted it badly – but as a rule I never buy 1st Gen Apple products ( can’t afford the Apple Tax ).

Recently I decided ( the power above approved rather 🙂 ) to go for a smartphone and my obvious choice was an iPhone. Despite the attenagate I wanted to buy the iPhone 4. However I started reading more and more on the iPhone vs Android wars and found how closed Apple had become.

In the iconic 1984 Super Bowl Ad when Apple introduced PCs to the IBM masses – a lady with a hammer hurls it on the Big (Blue) Brother who preaches :
“Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause.”

How ironic. You can now replace the Big Brother with Steve Jobs and the words still apply. You might own the hardware, but you cannot install any applications that you want to. You cannot hack your machine –  you will void the warranty. Want to transfer files – you have to do it with iTunes and nothing else.

And more importantly – Apple for some reason – hates India. The iPhone4 release date could as well be in 2011. iPhone 3 got released exactly after a year it got released in USA. Also Apple’s prices are illogically high in India.

Anyway – here are the things I liked on the Galaxy.

Swype – I am as fast as the Chinese Teenage kids when it comes to texting now.

Google Apps Integration – Whenever I want to add a contact and if I am near a computer, I add it in my Google Contacts – and it magically appears on the phone.

No Brainer Syncing – Since I am on linux I do not have iTunes -in fact my iPod is yet to be updated with Enthiran songs. However with Galaxy S I just dragged and droped the media files.

Internet Tethering – Worked out of the box – on Ubuntu. I did not expect that.

I am not sure how this phone pits against the Retina Display of iPhone. And this phone does not have a flash – which is a bummer.

One parting advice for Steve Jobs – just let it go. You have the best product in the universe. Why create gates and windows?

startup

Release elsewhere vs Release in a Startup

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In August we had 4 Major Releases and 8 Minor releases. I was  thinking how the Releases were in my previous life ( few in a year ) and how it is now ( few in a month ).

Things are much more demanding in a startup – the developer’s job is not done by just pushing things to Prod and making sure things are fine. He has to do lot of follow up work. Looks like lot of fun isn’t it! 🙂

philosophy

The One vs The Many Heroes

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I started reading a Sci Fi novel – Dune by Frank Herbert. I have not even crossed 30 pages and already the characters in the book are analyzing if the hero ( a kid as of now ) is the one? It kind of put me off a bit..but I will persist with the book. Curious to know if he is the one 😉

Coming from an eastern civilization where there is really no “one hero” it does sound a bit funny initially. There are 1+ million Gods, in Mahabharata there are 5 heros, and there is a hero who is part of the dark side too ( Karna ), in Ramayana actually the bad guy is projected to be on the good side ( Rama – who else.. haha 😉 he plots the downfall of one of the monkey kings, suspects poor Deepika…better known as Sita and burns her etc. ).

Switch to the Western world – there is Matrix. After snazzy graphics, exploding cars and trucks, and 3 parts – it is determined that Neo is the One. In Lord of the rings the ring chooses a sad looking Elijah Woods as the One. In the latest movie too, Avatar, there is some legend among the Pandorites and our hero happens to be – not surprisingly – the One.

Its fun – being part of both worlds. I grew up fascinated with the Mahabaratha, and Ramayana – it  helped me identify shades of grey in the world, and that there is not one, but many heroes – and they are on both sides.

Then Hollywood movies and American politics showed how things are really not as complicated as we Easterners think – but it is quite simple – as either a red or blue pill/vote and how there can be “the One”.

I can sense there is something deep here – but I am a superficial blogger so I won’t bother digging deep. Like the Inception ending, I will let you draw your own conclusions on what impresses you the most – The One vs Many heroes concept.
common cold

Cure for the Common Cold

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“If you take medicine the cold will go away in 7 days, if you do not it will go away in 1 week” – My 12th Std Biology teacher. That was the only time I smiled in his class, rest of the time I would be sleeping or keeping myself awake dreaming of college just a few months away and how liberating it would be.

Anyway this post is about my cold. It always hits me when I least want ( as if anyone will want to get cold ). A big release, an important interview, a vacation, a family get together – it is always there to give me company.  I have tinnitus ( like everyone’s hero Guy Kawasaki ) and it gets worse during cold – meaning – 1.5 of my hearing will be out of service for this period.

I have tried all things. Pranayama, Running, Walking, Japanese shower, Orange juice, Nuts, Fruits, quit smoking ( even though I don’t smoke 😉 ) – and also doing none of these – still the cold gives me a visit without fail. I have been fighting this battle since my earliest memory – still no respite.

I have decided what legacy I want to leave behind to this world. You would have guessed it by now. I will create this wonder drug. I have even named it : HAWT ( hawt always work terrifically – recursive name 😉 ). However it will not fight cold – it is useless to fight cold. It is like writing a software to replace Excel.

Instead, HAWT will fight all the symptoms cold brings – headache, loss of apetite, stuffy nose, runny nose, itchy nose, mild cough, dry cough, teary eyes, sore throat, mild fever. HAWT is designed to do precisely drugs are not supposed to do : that is to just take care of the symptom.

So where do I download cold APIs – want to start working on my legacy.

philosophy

IQ, EQ, CQ, PQ

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After reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book – Outliers – I have started looking at things with a different perspective. Here is my hypothesis on the elements that can make one successful in life. 
IQ
Whenever we see someone who has “arrived in life” we presume they have a high IQ – but this is not the only criteria. Having cart loads of IQ is good to have, but it does not guarantee success if the below 3 are not present in good measure
EQ 
Emotional Quotient :  The person who laughs at the face of danger; the one who lost badly but has the courage to try once again, or take a different path; the go-to guy at work when the experts give up and report sick on crisis situations; this is the guy every project manager wants in his team. EQ is a must have – not just a good to have. 
CQ
Creative Quotient :  The guys with a high CQ spruce up dull meetings; their emails are all a joy to read; their stand-up updates are fun – and the team tries hard to match him – and the whole team bonds & has fun day in and day out. When our man does not turn up for work – the project feels like a funeral home ( ok I am over stretching a bit here 🙂 ) – but I guess you get the picture.

PQ

Political Quotient : Bite your lower lip & accept the fact – you have to play the game ( there is a better term for this – hehe). In large organizations – PQ determines if you get a cubicle near the window or a seat next to your boss’s boss – it is a hard life and it gets harder for the ones with zero PQ.

In startups politics is non existent – who has time for such games anyway – however having a good PQ is essential for customer relationship management – and also to see the team through during some tough times.

In summary – the schooling taught and measured our IQ – post schooling – the real world expects EQ, CQ & PQ – in some combination or the other – and this will decide how far one can go in life.

Success = a(IQ) + b(EQ) + c(CQ) + d(PQ)

And the above formula is open sourced under GPL – use it freely, improve the a, b, c & ds  and enjoy sweet success. You are welcome 🙂

[Img courtesy : http://malefis.u-strasbg.fr/site/images/homer-brain.jpg ]

linux, vista

Penguin Zindaabaad – Ubuntu 10.04 review

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They : Is this Apple?
Me : No. This is Ubuntu !
They : Huh? 
Me : Yep! 
The above conversation happened yesterday when I had gone to give a demo to an Association Committee.  Half an hour we were discussing on Ubuntu and then I realized I have come here to sell my product and not Ubuntu – and went on with the demo! 

That’s the screenshot of my desktop – on Ubuntu 10.04. Very minimal, OS Xish, smooth, fast, snappy, extremely responsive – and a conversation piece at every demo.

In May 2009 – a year back I installed Ubuntu 9.04 with dual boot with Vista ( http://venkat2.blogspot.com/2009/05/finally-switched-from-vista-to-ubuntu-9.html). Now after a year – in may 2010 – I clean formatted the laptop and have gifted the entire hard drive, boot sector et all to Ubuntu 10.04. I am confident / convinced that Windows is not needed any more.

In fact I am very grateful to Microsoft for having produced a crappy OS. If Vista was a little better I would have lived with it – how I lived through Win 98, Win ME, Win XP ( truly the best of the lot ). But Vista is a class apart – bloated, slow, buggy, random, restrictive, frustrating….!

Here is my take on the new Ubuntu.

Speed


The new one boots fast ( however not the 10 second boot time everyone is raving ) – I count 15 dots in the new bootup screen everytime – and by the time I login – the system has picked up the wireless, I click on Chrome – one jump on the dock and Chrome shows up. Not the same with firefox though – man it is bloated.

Almost all the applications ( Open Office, Filezilla, Gimp ) open up really fast.



Dock


I missed the OS X Tray. In the earlier avatars I tried Gnome Do and few other hacks – but nothing came close to the OS X dock. Now the new Docky has come pretty close to the real thing. It is included in the repository – just apt-get install it.

Ubuntu Software Center


Earlier I had to google and then learn about an app, then search in synaptics package manager. All that is gone – the new software center kicks ass. If you had used Fink Commander for OS X you will love using this. My only gripe is there should be a more button – minimal is nice – but once in a while it is a pain.

Compiz 

The wobble, desktop cube, cover flow view on ALT-TAB – all are very smooth. In fact when I use Windows ( 7 of course )  it looks pedestrian. Moving the windows gives me a stiff back – why are they so rigid?

Expose ( we call it scale ) works perfectly. I have most of the head spinning effects disabled – perhaps will leave them on before demos and get a few oohs and aahs for the OS also ( apart from the oohs and aahs for the apartmentadda demo 🙂 )

Copy dialog


The copy dialog goes and sits at the top right corner – double click and you get the copy window – neat.

Switch user


Works. In 9.04 the OS will hang. However it is not as fast as “fast user switching” in OS X – when they released this feature in 2004 or something.

Tata Photon


It shows up in the networking setup screen > mobile broadband – chose defaults – and it connected.

Laptop runs cool

With Ubuntu 9 it used to get really hot. I have the processor tray on my top panel and now it is like a placid ocean. Shoots up only when I start an application. I am not sure if it is the new Linux Kernel or there was a buggy app in the old release.

The Bad stuff


Penguin lovers close your eyes and ears.. Here are my gripes

Social media integration

Why are they wasting everyone’s time?  Linux is for serious users – the Canonical developers are just wasting time trying to build such stuff – which no one will use. In my opinion linux will not get widespread adoption because of such social stuff – but will get accepted if it is as usable as an OS X.

Window buttons on the left


Horror of horrors – why will they do that? Just by copying a small OS X style they are not going to get a usable OS. A google search solved it – it is a simple configuration change – need not even reboot.

Lack of a good iTunes alternative


There is none. zilch. I tried Amarok, rhythmbox – Sorry Mark Shuttleworthji – I will never recommend Linux to my friends for this very reason. Songbird has ditched Linux – and we are left with no options. I am seriously thinking of starting an open source project which will be a true iTunes alternative for linux.

I don’t know what beer the developers of Amarok and rhythmbox are drinking – guys – if you want to beat Windows / OS X – we need a better jukebox – or atleast bribe or feed the ego of the Wine guys to make iTunes run in Linux. Sheesh – I am appalled.

Only good thing out of this is it makes me more productive. I do not waste time downloading, playing, dissecting songs on the laptop – my trusty iPod classic has all the stuff and I update it occasionally on my iMac.

Anyway – bottom line – I am one happy linux geek. 10.04 is truly the most awesomest OS Canonical has ever produced. I am hoping that, with 10.10 they will release Gnome 3 – and there will be no looking back. I will put Ubuntu on my 5 year old iMac ( damn chrome does not run on it because it is a power PC )

Penguin Zindaabaad !

books, inspiration

After reading Outliers I write a time-travel letter to myself

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I finished reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell a couple of days back and lots of thoughts have been churning in my head. Putting them down as a letter to myself – a letter I would write to the 20 year old Venkat whose career is just beginning ( also applicable to anyone who is in college right now ).

Hi Venkat,

How are you doing? How is your new college? Here are some tips for you.

1. Eat Breakfast. 

This is not from Outliers – but my personal advice. I never ate breakfast in college – slept late, woke up late and would miss breakfast. Just by eating your breakfast daily you will get a better grade. Trust me.

2. Work hard.

You see your class topper ace in all the subjects. You think he has got an extra chunk of grey matter. Take a peek into his life – he works hard and works effectively. Takes notes in class, brushes through the chapter before coming to class, and he practices the problems. His parents taught him the right methodology to study, perhaps he had a cousin who taught him early in his school days how to present answers attractively – so he always scored higher than his peers.

Why do, on an average, Asian kids ( Singapore, Korea, Hongkong ) consistently score higher than US/European kids in Mathematics? – It is because they work hard. It takes 20 mins to an hour to crack some concepts – like fractions,probability,calculus etc. They spend that time and effort – it is in their culture to work hard. The kids from Western nations do not have the patience to understand the concept – they never get the fundamentals right – and the hatred towards Mathematics carries on. This is just a crude generalization – however – the finalists in Maths Olympiads from all the countries are all at the same level – all these kids are hard workers.

The yield from a small match box size Rice paddy field is higher than a hectare of wheat field. The rice farmer wakes up very early before the sun rises, makes sure the water level is just right, when sun comes out and water gets hot he should drain away the water, he plucks the weeds one at a time, the harvesting has to happen quick and has to be done with utmost care. Wheat on the other hand needs very little care, can be automated using large farm equipment – and yield is considerably less.

The same happens with the brain. The more effort and more energy you will spend on your brain – the more yield you will get.

Being “gifted” does not guarantee success. They have done a 20 year study on a bunch of high IQ kids in California. They followed their career. What they found is that they did not do any better than the average IQ kids.

So work hard – yes, all the proverbs about working hard are all true.

3. 10,000 hours

After you pass out of college, you will get inspired by Jimmie Hendrix and Santana – and go join a guitar class. But you will drop out after a few months. You cannot give up just like that. Any art, talent takes time. Researchers have found that it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated practice before you can become an expert. They have analyzed the school years of high school music teachers and talented artists who play in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.  The successful artists would have spent 20-30 hours every week of their school life playing their instrument.

Mozart became famous only after 10 years into his career. Beatles played 8 hours at a stretch 7 days week in a shady bar for 3 years before they became world famous. Almost all the famous authors would have produced numerous works before they would have had a best seller. Whatever profession you are choosing – put in the hours – long hours, weekends – so you can quickly reach the 10,000 hours – and then magic will happen – and success will come along with it.

So good luck on your career. Life is hard and complex – and therein lies the beauty of it. If your life is simple or easy – then it will become boring. Whenever you find that your job / career has become easy and you are not learning anything – change your job. Try to keep searching for complexity – you can enjoy life a lot.

PS : I know you are curious to know who your life partner will be – sorry the time travel protocol does not allow me to reveal that 🙂

Here is the life story of a speck

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