Soft economy and the Web 2.0 business model

October 13, 2008 · Posted in india startups · 10 Comments 

For the past 4-5 years, Web 2.0 has evangelized the ad supported business model, which seems to have become the norm for majority of today’s startups. The mantra for startups has been - “Get the users and the advertising dollars will follow”.  Instead of developing a solid revenue model and building a sustainable business around it, startups seem to have relied on Google AdSense for generating revenues.

With the recent economy crisis, it is undoubtedly going to have an impact on online advertising. Startups will need to uncover new revenue streams or risk the possibility of shutting down. Because in this soft economy, it may not be viable to sustain a business simply on ad supported revenue.

Such a shakeup may actually be good for the Internet, since its time to reinforce the fundamentals of a successful business - consistent revenue generation. This is also good for aspiring entrepreneurs since now they’re forced to think of a sustainable revenue model instead of building “Yet Another ad supported Social Network”.

What do you think ?

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My startup has been nominated to TATA NEN hottest startups

October 10, 2008 · Posted in Entrepreneurship, india startups · 9 Comments 

As the TATA NEN hottest startups event forges ahead, lately, I’ve seen a lot of startups flashing the badge that they’ve nominated for the event. Some have even issued grand press releases announcing the nomination.

My response is “Ok, you’ve been nominated. So what’s the big deal ?”.

So have 399 other startups. Nomination, by itself, carries little value, especially considering the fact that startups can nominate themselves into the contest. If you’re one of the 30 finalists and flaunt that badge, it would still mean something.

I was talking to a startup founder recently, and he raised concerns about the contest and seemed skeptical on how his startup would be even noticed amongst the crowd of 400 entries. And his thoughts resonated well with me.

As noble as TATA NEN’s intentions may have been (to help and promote startups), I think it suffers from a few issues:

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Indic language support, an addendum

October 6, 2008 · Posted in india startups · 1 Comment 

Fresh off my post on Indic language support, just came across two interesting stores related to content in Indian regional languages:

1) In an interview with Televisionpoint, Rahul Roy Chowdary, product manager for Google India, says:

“Growth is accelerating in these two segments (news & entertainment) and has seen a faster growth compared to other segments. The main driver for this is the availability of content in local language. Its amazing how the vernacular news portals are developing.”

and

“Much more content in Indian languages should be available online. We are also seeing a quick rise in searches for local content.”

2) In a separate story, an interesting bit from the Sarva Bharatiya Bhasha Sammelan (although, take this with a grain of salt):

“Almost 34% surfers of the 4.9 crore internet users in India, prefer surfing in regional languages,” said writer Shailesh Bharatwasi from Delhi

and

Sanjay Bengani from Ahmedabad, predicted a phenomenal growth for e-magazines in regional language

Great timing, what say ?

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5 Hacks for Startup Hiring in India

October 6, 2008 · Posted in Entrepreneurship, india startups · 4 Comments 

The following post has been syndicated from Mukul Kumars blog. Mukul is VP of Engineering @ Komli and often writes some great technical posts.

Here are some thoughts on hiring for a Startup in India. My experience with hiring in India for the last fifteen years, in one word, has been – “Awesome” ! In Pune I have met some of the best Programmers and Designers in the world and work with many of them. There are some of most hardworking, smart and knowledgeable individuals, who love to crank code (read an interesting post here, under the “People” section). I love working with the great guys at Komli!

Hiring in India is different than hiring in other parts of the world. The following thoughts are written for an employer in mind, especially a startup employer. These thoughts are in a random order, and based on personal experiences. Please don’t equate my consistent use of ‘he/him’ with a gender bias.

1. “Offer acceptance is not equal to JOINING”

This is something you learn the hard way. It is very difficult to believe that a candidate talks so nicely, and accepts your job offer, only to NOT show up on the joining date. This is a shocker, which takes several days to recover from. If the candidate is good he calls up/e-mails you a few days in advance, telling you that he cannot join. Many will not inform you, and simply won’t show up on the joining date.

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