Continuing on with the “In their Own Words” series, here’s an interview with Jojo Joson of Techseol Web solutions.

Techseol provides e-business services to make it a success using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Internet marketing. Jojo and his c0-founders started Techseol right after graduating from college.

Why did you do a startup?

A startup is always challenging & it gives freedom of operation. We can experiment our new creative thoughts in a startup, moreover our thoughts have a value. Despite the huge risks involved, a startup will give a high reputation, chance to explore new fields, a platform to learn many new concepts & ideas. What I value most is “experience on world” that I am having!

What inspired you?
Well, we formed Techseol not because of some inspiration. Techseol is the result of learning that we had 2 years ago. It was accidental that we got into the world of online money and the web industry. We were able to generate incomes from online advertising like Google adsense and from many other sources the very beginning of our entry into web world (i.e in 2005 to 2006). This initial experience gave us an understanding of the huge potential of this industry. This learning about potential of this industry lead us to formation of our company.

Who all are involved with Techseol?
There are 5 co-founders including me. We all are engineering graduates (2004-2008 batch) from St.Joseph’s college of Engineering, Kerala.

What are the major challenges you faced?
Of course like any other startups we have also faced a lot of challenges & hurdles on our way to formation of Techseol. It involves a lot starting from registration procedures, capital raising, finding spaces, finding new clients etc. By gods grace & our strong will we were able to overcome all major hurdles we have faced up to date & we expect a lot more in our way to explore success. The most important challenge is “sales & marketing”. As a startup we need to perform a competitive marketing with the minimum amount of money we have.

Any other risks which are there when joining a startup.
YES! Risks are plenty. I just cant explain here because it differs from business to business, person to person. If you have a strong will & courage to overcome the hurdles you gonna face, then its ok. Major risk will be your own fear itself. At first you must be successful in eliminating your own fear of failure chances, then go on & face the rest boldly. I hope we were able to inspire many of youngsters in Kerala by showing them an example. We would like to hear about many other likely ventures from our country.

What are some of the interesting trends you observe in this industry?
SEO/SEM industry in India is in its infancy stage or a developing (more better) stage. We are seeing advancements in the Indian web industry with more & more subscription of broadband connections, the announcement of a $10 laptop project for students,  new projects and online start-ups in the Indian market, all are promising. Though at a slow pace its interesting to see that the e-commerce business is flourishing in India. Another interesting stuff is, there’s a lot of ideas that can be turned into scalable business in Indian markets, means still many un-explored oil mines exists in Indian web industry. One reason might be the lack of entrepreneurship culture we are having! You can easily find a lot of interesting ideas in the web publishing (content) industry focused on India

Are there any aspects of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in India that you think need to be improved ?
I think there’s need of a Nationalised forum for young entrepreneurs of India, a well networked, with efficient people of country  as mentors, with funding aids etc. Government will be more likely establish this organisation with autonomous powers. This will be very helpful for young entrepreneurs to network, to expose their product/services to the right audience, to get sufficient funding and more over will help young business minds to develop targeted contacts with eminent business people. Primary aim of this organisations should be to “help new entrepreneurs with ideas” on how to establish their business.
So when people really really want to do something they find a way, right?
I wish to quote from Paulo Coelho’s –The Alchemist, “When you really want something in your heart, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”
To know more about Jojo Joson from Techseol Web Solutions, you may visit his official/personal blog: www.jojojoson.com

As an added bonus, Techseol will provide free SEO analysis for the first ten folks who contact them with the code SDUNIA in their email. They will analyse the current SEO factors and suggest changes for increasing your search engine visibility. Contact jojo at his email: .

• Interview with FlipKart founder Binny Bansal
• In Their Own Words – Interview with The Four Fountains Spa founder Anurag Kedia
• Dhingana launches games, awesome new UI – interview with founders

Comments

• February 17, 2009, Jojo Joson commented: Thanks Pranav for this post
• February 18, 2009, Rohan commented: Hi Pranav, I have closely followed your blog, but this time I am disappointed. I don't feel that this startup is worth any mention on SD. Sorry Jojo, though.
• February 18, 2009, pranav commented: Rohan, What I found most attractive about TechSeol is that these guys started right out of college. my goal is that more fresh graduates get inspired in a similar way.
• February 19, 2009, Jojo Joson commented: @ Rohan I dunno there is any sticky rules on reviewing startups! We have tried in our own way, with our expertise and knowledge till date. In the end v r more than happy bcz we have tried sth different, tht others usually dont dare to! I love criticisms bcz it only accelerates our growth!!... take care & bye
• February 19, 2009, Rajesh P commented: Hi Jojo , Well done . These days everyone is going after campus interview and jobs in some MNC , wasting their talent , just for the money they get as salaries . and Those MNC's make 10 X the amount they pay . An inspiring story for every prfessional students . Best of luck for techseol regards Rajesh P
• February 27, 2009, Shefeek Jinnah commented: I know Jojo for the last 6 years...I really appreciate talent and confidence....GO Ahead buddies....All the best for your future
• November 22, 2009, Jojo Joson commented: @ Shefeek Thanks pal...4 the support
• November 23, 2009, varun bansal commented: hey jojo wel i must say nice attempt ryt after the college life.W el u discussed abt many problems i really wanna know abt abt how u have managed to get seed capital for yur venture or did u managed with the bank. Wel me also startin with my manufacturing venture ....hmm ofcoarse its not related to IT field but yeah definitely a mechanical unit . Am also fresher jus came out frm the engg college this year itself well in the end best of luck for yur venture!

I’m starting a new series – “In Their Own Words“, in which, I intend to interview entrepreneurs and hope that it inspires others to seek out the entrepreneurial path and challenge the status quo. I’m gonna try my best to make it a regular feature on the blog.

I start this series with an interview with Anurag Kedia, co-founder of The Four Fountains Spa, a spa and wellness chain in India.

PS: Readers from Pune – there’s a special treat for you at the end of the interview.

Q: Who all are involved with The Four Fountains Spa?
A: There are three of us involved as promoters. Sunil Rao, Saurabh Garg and myself. All three of us are management graduates from the batch of 2004. Sunil is from SPJIMR while Saurabh and myself have studied at IIM Ahmedabad. Saurabh and Sunil both were earlier working with HUL and i was working with KPMG.

Q: How did you got into spas?
A: We all loved to get massages but always found it very expensive. We started studying this market and realised that the industry has a huge growth potential in the country if the consumers are offered value. The opportunity to create a new category and own it, is what excited us and we decided to get into this field.

Q: What are some of the interesting trends you observe in this industry?
A: We observe that more than 50% of our clientele is male, which is not a very common perception. Also, gifting of spa therapies has really taken off for us. And people who are now not in India but have friends and family in Pune, have been a big source of revenues for us. Spa therapies form a perfect gift option because it not only pampers a person but also improves the health & wellbeing of a person

Q: How did the venture start out ? Did you bootstrap the initial venture ?
A: We had quite our jobs and were doing market research for around 4-5 months. After this we started speaking to prospective VCs. We were fortunate to find a VC soon enough and hence, we were funded from Day 1 of operations.

Q: Did you face any legal / government issues related to starting up ?
A: Not really. We had an experienced CA who was working with us. Our VCs were also very supportive and gave us all the necessary legal know how.

Q: Are there any aspects of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in India that you think need to be improved ? For example – registering your company could be expedited or anything like that ?
A: There are several requirements which are common to most entrepreneurs – CA, Lawyer, Ad Agency etc etc. Now most entreprenuers would not be able to pay a high fee but will still require an expert to work with them. If the ecosystem in some way can provide such basic information it will prove to be very helpful.

Q: Why did you guys become entrepreneurs ? What aspect of entrepreneurship do you enjoy the most ?
A: The opportunity to grow really big and create something which did not exist before is what excites us the most.

Q: What are the challenges you have faced?

A:Finding the right people for our team has been one challenge, right from therapists to managers. The second challenge has been that the category needs a lot of customer education, we din’t realise this when we started off.

Q: Any advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs ?
A: Take the plunge and start swimming, the water is not as cold as it looks from outside!

PS: The following has been excerpted from Rashmi’s interview with Anurag. I liked these questions way too much that I had to include them here:

Q: Then how did you end up starting a company?
A: The job was doing ok – not so good, not so bad. I was a management consultant, with projects across companies. One day I got a call from Saurabh and he said ‘kuch karte hain’. I said sounds interesting…

Q: So who all did u meet for funding?
A: We met anybody and everybody we thought could give us money including marwari seths, VCs, pvt equity funds, corporates – almost everybody. We thought we had firm commitment from 2-3 of them but then it did not materialise.

Q: No regrets??
A: At times you do miss the comforts, like we can’t go to 5 stars etc.

Q: So when people really really want to do something they find a way, right?
A: It’s not that big and bad world out there.Nahin karne ke liye bahut excuses hote hain. Sabse pehle naukri chhodo, to phir sab kuch ho jaata hai…!.

I wish Anurag and his team good luck — their story is pretty amazing indeed.

Now for the bonus for readers from Pune – Four Fountains is giving away 2 vouchers for free massages worth Rs 549 each. The first two commentors from Pune will get the voucher.

• In their Own Words – Jojo Joson of Techseol Web Solutions
• Interview with FlipKart founder Binny Bansal
• Dhingana launches games, awesome new UI – interview with founders

Comments

• January 6, 2009, Swanand commented: This is a brilliant idea. I have been visiting some of the SE Asian countries and always wondered why cant i go to a shop in Pune for a similar massage that is relaxing. Brilliant initiative. all the best.
• January 6, 2009, Gowtham commented: It's been a PROMOTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INDIA ,by the way for India,to acquire the status of a “developed” nation... Hats off to the entrepreneurs and the ways they are paving,this turns to a bliss in enriching economy... Hope to get you soon. Gowtham
• January 6, 2009, Nitin Mahesh commented: Hi i am from pune. I want to go there once. After that lets see what my mind suggest.
• January 6, 2009, Mitul commented: Hi. I am from Pune. I had read about Four Fountains almost a year ago on Rashmi Bansal's blog. Good to know they are progressing. Now how about my complimentary coupon? :-)
• January 6, 2009, Chandra commented: Hi Pranav, this new series seems to be exciting. I hope you do it regularly and we get to read a lot of interviews from entrepreneurs 'in their own words'. Four Fountain Spa seems to have everything - IIM brand, VCs...
• January 6, 2009, Gautam commented: Nice to see entrepreneurs go beyond dot com and IT - for a while it seemed that is all there is to entrepreneurship :-)
• January 6, 2009, Priyaranjan commented: Hi, I am from Pune . :). Well I liked the sentence about the cold water in pool. Liked it as I swim when tempearure goes down to 5 C. Inspired me a lot.
• January 6, 2009, Heeren Pandya commented: This is really a good effort and the last sentences that leave you job and everything happens is really inspirational. Hope they succeed in their venture.
• February 4, 2009, shitij commented: hey nice post....i dint know 50 % of clients were male....i thought only women go for such stuff.. im also from pune and im a month late :- ) ......do i get a voucher ????? shitij

Dhingana has just launched a games section with games like Cricket, Holi Tamasha etc and have refreshed their landing page to a great new design.

As popularity of Dhingana soars, I thought this would be a good opportunity to interview the Dhingana founders on their entrepreneurial experience thus far. As per Compete, US traffic to the site is down ~5% from January 2008, but is up by about 700% over the last year.

Interview follows:

1) How old is Dhingana today ?
More then 1.5 years old.

2) Can you share any interesting insights into your audience – like which are the top 5 countries you are seeing the traffic from ?
Sure. Our user base is spread over the world in more then 185 countries. Top countries are India, US, UK, Canada, UAE, Australia, Pakistan, Singapore, Germany & Japan

3) Any interesting info related to how many monthly hits / pageviews ?
4) How many  MB/GB’s are you currently streaming a month ?
This is a very exciting time for us. We are experiencing phenomenal growth rate and we have grown by more then 880% in terms page views over the last year.

5) What revenue model are you following ? How do you cover hosting and streaming costs ?
Though we have a few interesting revenue models planned for the future, as of now, it is Internet Advertising. We offer CPM based advertising inventory as well as  ‘Exclusive Sponsors’ ads for advertisers. We drive a very niche audience all over the world, as most of the users who come to Dhingana are interested in entertainment.

6) What kind of response are you seeing from the community and users in general ?
Users are really enjoying the experience on Dhingana. 100s of users join Dhingana everyday and we receive a plethora of compliments via email feedback every day.

7) What kind of licensing issues do you guys need to deal with for streaming music, if any ?
We work with the licensing authorities in India and we have secured licenses for streaming Indian music over the net.

8 ) A lot of folks are curious – who is the team behind Dhingana ?
Can’t say much at this time . All we can say is our core team brings a creative and diverse set of experience from Yahoo! and Microsoft. By the way, you are the first one to know this.

9) What features can we expect to see in the future from Dhingana ?
We started off as a music streaming site. We then went a step further and added a lot of interesting social features like Public SmartLists, Public mGreetings & Musical Profile Pages. We saw fabulous response from our users and got some nice feedback from them. We are now extending Dhingana even further & converting it into a social platform around entertainment. The main facets of our entertainment platform would be Music, Movies, News, Videos, Photos and Games. There are a lot of cool features planned and we will definitely keep you updated on this moving forward.

10) What are some of the challenges you’ve faced while developing and scaling a memory and bandwidth intensive site ?
Streaming media has its own challenges and requires a very solid infrastructure to stream reliably – especially if you are streaming high quality songs. It was not easy and we have learnt a lot as we have grown over the last year and a half. 6 months back we re-wrote Dhingana from scratch and what we have now is an extremely flexible & highly extensible platform. We expect to learn even more moving forward and scale & load-balance our platform as we keep growing to best suit our traffic loads.

11) Any word of advice for other wannabe web entrepreneurs ?
Follow your passions. Always try to make meaning and money will follow. Simplicity and reliability are the founding pillars for building a beautiful product. Lastly practice the 5C mantra http://www.dhingana.com/info/aboutUs

Thanks guys for your time && good luck with Dhingana !!

• Dhingana wins the best OpenSocial app award at WeekendApps event
• StreetAnchor.com – an Indian citizen journalism effort
• BuzzinTown – a new social site to discover local events in India

Comments

• May 9, 2008, Harsh commented: wow.. these guys are ripping off games from Indyarocks... look at the xclusive games list (above their logo)... They picked up games straight from Indyarocks featured games.. They even have that stupid Holi Tamasha game from FXlabs (recently FXLabs and Indyarocks partnered) so much for the 5Cs :-)
• May 9, 2008, Harsh commented: Hey just digged deeper. They even copied the same game categories in the same sequence and the same thumbs up ad thumbs down icons (changed color) and quite a few design similarities. Good luck guys.
• May 9, 2008, step2blog commented: whats the big deal guys even orkut is cloning face book app ,its not copying, the term is meeting market demands its common on net :-)
• May 10, 2008, Sachin commented: Hey I am also starting to use some cricket games on my blog..is this legal?
• May 10, 2008, Jitin commented: Harsh, no point criticizing dhingana when u dont know the complete picture...the design scheme they used for games section is same they have been using everywhere else on their site...its their unique and clean design...i have been using this site for an year now and i know these guys are doing an amazing job...they dont need to copy anyone...also games are user uploaded...there are quite a few game sites out there...and u can find common games on all these sites...more over most of the games are developed by 2-3 big game companies that every one else just hosts...even indyarocks are doing the same...no bigee there...i love dhingana more of its social network around music and the unique way they are handling things...just my 2 cents...also why are u showing compete graph and not alexa graph? compete is not that accurate as far as i know...
• May 10, 2008, Jitin commented: I dont see a drop here :) http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/dhingana.com
• May 12, 2008, pranav commented: @harsh, thnx for sharing your observations..It looks like games on dhingana are user uploaded. And like Jitin points out - there are only a handful of game producers -- others merely use games from the catalog of these game producers. and thats one of the reasons you end up seeing the same game at a lot of places. @jitin - where did you learn that compete is less accurate than alexa ?
• May 12, 2008, jitin commented: pranav, alexa has a lot more data points compared to compete..thats why compete results only show a small subset of the actual site traffic...on another note alexa results show a subset of traffic as compared to comscore...but when it comes to getting the site traffic for free, alexa is the standard...else comscore is the way to go...
• June 1, 2008, Radha commented: I looked at the site and they have a wonderfull collection of music. I hope they offer mp3 downloads soon either for free or maybe for a price as they have this one song that I would really like to have and I can't find the song anywhere else. Please consider the thought...than you! Great Job You Guys!

The following is a guest post by V V K Chandra, who blogs at WebGeekBlog.

I have got a chance to interact with the founders of a new web startup company ‘FlipKart‘. FlipKart is an online book store primarily serving Indian consumers.

I am one of the very first consumers and I have ordered over a dozen books in the last two months from FlipKart. I am really impressed with the way they ship the books so fast and at no cost.

Following is the interview I have done over email with Binny Bansal who is one of the two co-founders.

When was flipkart.com founded?

Flipkart.com was founded on 5th Sept 2007. The website was launched on 15th Oct 2007.

Could you tell me about founders and their background?

Sachin Bansal (26) and myself, Binny Bansal (25), started flipkart.com. Both of us are computer science graduates from IIT-Delhi from the 2005 batch. Sachin worked at Techspan for 6 months and then at Amazon India for a year and a half. I worked at Sarnoff India for a year and a half and then at Amazon India for 8 months. We quit our jobs in September 2007 to begin our startup journey. And to clarify any doubts in advance, we are not related to each other.

How many days it took to launch the service?
It took us about a month and a half to start a basic working website with 50,000 titles. We’ve now grown our catalog to over 1 Lakh available titles.

Whats the total team size?

Primarily, there is only Sachin and myself. We also manage a small team which takes care of our back-end operations.

What made you to start something on your own?

We started flipkart.com because we ourselves felt the need for a good online book store. E-commerce sector is one of the toughest to get into in India. We believe that we can make a difference here. We wanted to create something which has a long lasting value and which we can be proud of. Also at this point in our life we can devote our entire time and energy to flipkart which is very important for any startup.

What are the biggest challenges you have faced while launching the service?

One major challenge was to get tie-ups with the major book vendors as we didn’t have an off-line book store. We have somehow managed to persuade them and now most of the vendors are supporting us.

The second major challenge was to get the approval for the credit card payment gateway. We didn’t want to use CCAvenue as their interface is really confusing. So we had to convince Axis Bank for the payment gateway and that wasn’t easy given the fact that we are a self-funded startup and we don’t have an offline presence.

What are your current challenges to scale flipkart to the next level?

The biggest challenge currently is reaching out to a larger set of people with minimum budget. Scaling the back-end operations will be a challenge too. We do plan to get angel/seed funding in the next three months to scale our operations.

What are your future plans for flipkart? Do you want to go beyond books and offer other products as well?

Currently we are completely focussed on books. We want to be number one in books first, get a big customer base and then look at the possibilities of offering other products.

Could you give me an idea about the market size for online book stores in India?

Market size for online book shopping in India is expected to be between Rs. 20-25 crore for 2007-2008. Market size of whole of book industry in India is estimated at 4000 crores and is growing at a very quick pace.

How are you marketing the service?

Marketing on a small budget is very difficult. A large part of our marketing is built into our low prices. We believe that if we keep prices low and keep the customer happy we can generate a lot of positive word of mouth which has much better ROI than spending that
money on regular marketing techniques.

But, we do have to reach out to people somehow and hence we are experimenting with pay per click online advertising. We are also going to start a marketing campaign in Bangalore targeted at people working in IT companies. The current goal is to reach as many enthusiastic online book shoppers as possible.

How are you building trust? How can a first time visitor trust your service?

We have clearly defined and listed our shipping and return policies on the website. Also, we think free shipping adds a lot to the trust factor. We also have a page on which we address the issue of secure online payments.

All this coupled with an interface that quick, clean and user friendly, and the positive reviews on the web from our early adopters builds trust for our service.

Do you have any off-line presence?

We don’t have an off-line presence and we don’t plan to have one in the future either.

What is flipkart’s USP compared to other online book stores in India?

Flipkart.com’s USP is simplicity, convenience and customer service. We’ve made searching and browsing for books as simple as possible. And there are a lot of features lined up for the future which would help you in selecting books based on your interests.

And one of our major goals is to maintain very high standards for customer support. The lack of customer service is one of the major reasons for the slow E-commerce growth in India. We want to change this perception and get people to embrace E-commerce due to the many benefits it provides.

If possible can you share some statistics till date?(books sold and number of visitors, etc)

We can’t share exact statistics at this point but we are growing at the speed that we had expected when we first started out and we also met the goal that we had set for the first 3-4 months.

Finally, what are your suggestions for wanna be entrepreneurs in India?

Take the plunge. The timing couldn’t be better. And very importantly don’t go at it alone. Have at least one co-founder.

It was a real pleasure interacting with FlipKart founders and I wish them all the luck. Being part of a founding team in a start-up is one of the very exciting and challenging jobs I can think of. Every transaction a customer makes will lift up your spirits to a greater level, every good testimonial you receive keeps you excited about the future and every day is a new day with new challenges and opportunities which will unleash the creativity and talent you have got.

• Pustak – India’s largest book store ?
• In Their Own Words – Interview with The Four Fountains Spa founder Anurag Kedia
• In their Own Words – Jojo Joson of Techseol Web Solutions

Comments

• January 18, 2008, Vasanth commented: A great site which i visited recently. The UI is very good and comparable with seventymm.com. No doubt, a true customer centric site. Good logo design. Banner design and color combination can be improved. You IItians rock the show. -Vasanth
• February 19, 2008, sudhir commented: It was a real pleasure interacting with FlipKart founders and I wish them all the luck. Being part of a founding team in a start-up is one of the very exciting and challenging jobs I can think of. Every transaction a customer makes will lift up your spirits to a greater level, every good testimonial you receive keeps you excited about the future and every day is a new day with new challenges and opportunities which will unleash the creativity and talent you have got.
• June 9, 2008, sid commented: these little iit people - they are just such a big bunch of fools. They get into everything which is blowign right, and they call a website an innovation!
• July 3, 2008, Vasudev commented: This is useless website, copying everything from other website. They do not deliver goods at the promised time. I think one must try nbcindia.com. No big claims only business

Indicast has a great podcast with Avnish Bajaj, Matrix Partners, previously co-founder of Baazee.  As an entrepreneur turned VC, Avnish offers some very insightful and most often, very frank perspectives.

Listen to the podcast for a great background on how he came about to founding Baazee. He even shares his experience of getting acquired etc…

Thanks Avnish and the Indicast team for coming up with this podcast.

Livemint has an in depth interview with Raghav Bahl, MD, TV18 India Ltd. As part of the interview, Raghav discusses how their partnership with CNN, CNBC & Viacom. He also discusses the future plans for the company and that their current focus will be on launching the general entertainment channel.

“Today, we are India’s largest news broadcast group… We want to be a very large media and entertainment group with a significant presence across the television broadcast business, Internet and films, and filmed content space,” he says.

You seem quite aggressive in the Internet space. How do you see the business panning out?

We wish to be a big player in the consumer Internet space. It may be a small business as of now, but it will take off sooner than later. We
believe that media companies in the West have, in a way, missed this opportunity. They couldn’t foresee the growth of the Internet in the
manner it has happened. We are also very clear that we don’t want to be just a content player because that’s a given. We want to have a
significant play in the Internet consumer services business. Last year, our Internet operations contributed around Rs25 crore to the top-line and we see it doubling again this year. After the Viacom deal, print and radio are the only two gaps in your media and entertainment business. So are some more announcements in the offing? We do want to have a presence in the print space, the business news space, to be precise, but there are no plans to get into radio. Radio is a local medium whereas we are a national player and we neither have the management bandwidth to run a local business nor the need to do so.

Read the entire interview at LiveMint

FE has an interesting interview with John Gantz, IDC Chief Research Officer. As part of the interview, he talks about IDC’s 2008 predictions for the global IT industry and the impact on India.

Speaking of Indian software companies, he says that there will at least be one Indian IT company amongst the global top 10 by 2010. India companies have built great brand equity and are about five years ahead of their competitors. He also mentions that Indian domestic market is also poised for tremendous growth with India currently making up only 1% of the worlds IT spend.

Finally, he mentions how CTO’s and CIO’s should warm up and embrace Web 2.0 concepts and technologies such as wikis, UGC videos etc.

via FE.

Earlier last week, Hindu had the first part of an interview with Sridhar Vembu, AdventNet CEO – the company behind the Zoho suite of services.

Read the second installment of this interview here.

Comments

• May 7, 2007, pranav commented: Check out Scoble's post on autism, inspired after hearing about Sridhar's son,who is autistic. http://scobleizer.com/2007/05/04/my-parental-heroes/

In the first part of his interview with Hindu, Avnish Bajaj mentioned how Web2.0 is not currently a viable idea in the Indian market. In the second part of this interview, he talks about being a VC – what factors guide their investment decisions, what role they play in terms of investing in a company and what it takes to be hired to work for a VC firm.
According to him, it is easier to work with an ‘A’ team but, like many in the field, he frets that finding such a team is tougher in India. “I believe there are a lot of ‘A’ opportunities to explore in India.

Talking about entrepreneurial traits, he mentions:

He believes that there are two kinds of people with this trait: the first always keep getting bored and never achieve anything in the long run. “The second kind are the entrepreneurial types who keep getting bored until they find their passion and vocation, which is more meaningful and different.

On what he looks for in the venture:

And that’s a trait he actively looks for, now that he’s a VC himself. He also looks for track record of achievement – “because success is no accident” – passion about business, understanding of the market opportunity, dose of reality, etc.

Rest of the interview here

Sridhar Vembu, CEO of AdventNet – the company behind the Zoho suite of services, has an interview with Hindu. A snippet from the interview:
Vembu is a man who firmly believes that India has what it takes to build world-beating products, despite being most famous for concentrating on services.

“All remaining barriers are mostly in our mind. The reason most Indian companies concentrate on services is because of a certain aversion to risk, to trying out new things – an attitude of excessive caution.”

That caution is understandable in anyone who grew up in pre-liberalisation India, he adds. “The good news is that a new generation is coming,” without any such assumptions.

Remaining interview here.

Comments

• May 2, 2007, Aravind commented: Thanks for taking note of the interview, Pranav! I see that you believe in Web 2.0 succeeding in India. Great :-) There can be services like Zoho who cater to the whole world and not just India.
• May 7, 2007, Sridhar Vembu, AdventNet (Zoho) CEO, interview - Part 2 « Startup Dunia - Indian startups and Entrepreneurship commented: [...] Earlier last week, Hindu had the first part of an interview with Sridhar Vembu, AdventNet CEO - the company behind the Zoho suite of services. [...]

Interesting read – tracks the evolution of Infosys from a startup to where it stands today.

via MoneyControl

Avnish Bajaj, previously co-founder Baazee.com and current co-founder and MD of Matrix Partners India, thinks that Web2.0 is a distant reality for India.

I think people are wasting their time on Web 2.0 in India. People talk about the Internet being convenient, but it is not so in India. You need to go to a cyber café or you have to dial up a telephone line or use a slow broadband connection. Whereas in the US, 150 million households have broadband access all around the clock, sitting at home. When you have such a situation you can do social networking, but where is that happening in India? Do you think a person will go to a cyber café or any public environment to discuss everything about their life?

He talks of how Indian market isnt mature enough and needs more focus on the consumer services. When asked about what sector he thinks is hot:

I think consumer services opportunities across sectors are hot. They are also exciting in that each one of us is a consumer, so we can relate to the businesses far easier than deep tech-driven ones. I believe that Internet and mobile opportunities suffer from a quality deficit; I expect higher quality opportunities in these sectors to start showing up on the radar in the next couple of years.

Rest here.

Comments

• April 23, 2007, Vish commented: Seems like he is limiting definition of web2.0 to just social networking.
• April 23, 2007, Adil commented: Hey Pranav, You are doing a great job! Keep up the good work. We will soon be launching a very exciting website and keep you posted. As for Vish, I suspect Avnish is right on the mark. Let me explain what Web 2.0 really is other the fancy colors and logos and mashups. Web 2.0 is taking off here in the United States because companies are launching competing products which someone is already doing on a large scale. The competing projects are enhanced greatly and add tremendous value to the industry. But most are failing due to any revenue projections. Nevertheless they are actually improving on already built industry and market. In India that is the not case yet. First the web 1.0 has to take off on massive scale. In order to achieve that, consumers have be to able to live on the internet. One hour of downtime here in the US is like a heart attack for most of us. I hope you understand what I mean. Again keep up the good work Pranav. Thanks
• April 23, 2007, Vish commented: Interesting take Adil. That is precisely the point. All the various internet services/apps need to feed off each other for takeoff growth( revenues or not). So the question whether soc. net. will take off or not in a big way is a rather limiting viewpoint. It may feed other internet services in a big way or it could grow on the back of other services (like for eg. seventymm.com as Avnish points out). All depends on the innovativeness of the startups. Because it is not just infrastructure hurdles (that will be overcome) but probably also the culture. On the other hand, if you _really_ want to discuss your personal life or whatever, you will.somehow.
• April 23, 2007, adil commented: Vish, I agree with your last paragraph. Culture does play a small role but if one was to discuss personal life they will. My fiancee is always sharing pictures with her cousins in india who are sitting a cafe and I keep on thinking to myself, whatever happened to privacy of personal life. Vish anyway to chat with you sometime? I am available on ymsngr if you are. my id is adill*420 without the * Thanks Adil
• April 23, 2007, Kamla commented: Thanks for this post. Yes, it is going to be difficult to get Web 2.0 going in India because of the limitation of broadband penetration and more importantly because of the quality of the broadband connection. Plus, it is cheaper to own a high end mobile phone and connect instantly than buy a laptop and connect to the broadband. Opportunites in mobile for consumers is going to be a huge area of growth...not necessarily just retail. As one CEOs that I interviewed put it what matters in India is that 10 percent of 1 billion is a huge number compared to 10 percent in the USA....and I think that is a key point to remember. In India if you can reach even 10 percent of the population there is a huge opportunity to grow. Kamla
• April 23, 2007, pranav commented: Some very interesting comments. @Vish I agree - To a certain extent Avnish seems to be equating Web2.0 with social networking. Even if thats the case, the popularity of Orkut would offer a glimpse on how popular soc. networking is in India. @adil @kamla I guess the root of all misery is the infrastructure. If people have an always-on Internet connection, it would increase the consumption by Indian audience..This in turn would drive the demand for new online services. I think the potential for mobile is great -- but I dont see it replacing the laptop anytime soon.
• April 25, 2007, abey commented: This definition of web 2.0 as a social networking thing is too narrow. SocNet is but one visible sign of what is happening under the hood. The "info-structure" so to speak. Web 2.0 is actually the first step in an interface revolution that is going to transform the web as we know it. Irrespective of geography. That Tata Indicom is already offering 2Mbps is a precursor of things to come. Web 2.0 is also about the collapse of the traditional software boundary/website (read: APIs, Mashups etc). Avinash Bajaj is correct in his perception though he has screwed up the analysis. You cannot invest in something that is not there. India does not have a web 2.0 story. Yet. The likes of Infy and the tech titans are all solid software engineering shops but they don't understand web 2.0. They are still booting up in OOP mode and staggering under the weight of obedience to SEI-CMM. You can't expect a whale to dance like a dolphin now can you? To effectively use Web 2.0 you have to understand software. Not in didactic terms but as living extensions that plug into your everyday life. The convenience of instantaneous response, the centrality of anywhere, anytime access, integration to everything that is critical in your life. That is the direction Web 2.0 is pointing to. It's not whether we in India will follow that route. It's when. One more thing. On the infrastructure side we already have sufficient scale. We just need one bright spark to kick off the India wave! :-)
• April 25, 2007, pranav commented: Abey, I wouldnt expect Infy and the likes to understand Web2.0. They are after all in the IT services industry rather than consumer facing Internet market. Abt the infrastructure,I havent had first hand experience, but a lot of close friends tell me that broadband in India is still sub-par..often unreliable - not the 'always on' that one would expect of broadband
• April 25, 2007, Kamla Bhatt Blog » Exclusive Interview: Alok Mittal on iYogi + Web 2.0 Debate commented: [...] In case you missed it there is a a lively debate that started with D. Murali and C. Ramesh’s interview with Avnish Bajaj of Matrix Partners.  Check Startup Dunia and Content Sutra for a lively thread on the topic.I am waiting to get a response from Avnish about Web 2.0 and Social Networking. In the meantime, D. Murali informs me there is a second article on Avnish that should be published shortly in the Hindu Business Line. So, watch out for that. Technorati tags: Alok Mittal, iYogi, Web 2.0 in India, Avnish Bajaj, venture capital, social media No comments for Exclusive Interview: Alok Mittal on iYogi + Web 2.0 Debate » [...]
• April 26, 2007, Cool Dude commented: Excellent thoughts. Core sector in India has much more potential than nascent concepts such as Web2.0 Similar artical at another blog http://boldstep.blogspot.com/
• May 1, 2007, Avnish Bajaj interview, part II « Startup Dunia - Indian startups and Entrepreneurship commented: [...] In the first part of his interview with Hindu, Avnish Bajaj mentioned how Web2.0 is not currently a viable idea in the Indian market. In the second part of this interview, he talks about being a VC - what factors guide their investment decisions, what role they play in terms of investing in a company and what it takes to be hired to work for a VC firm. According to him, it is easier to work with an ‘A’ team but, like many in the field, he frets that finding such a team is tougher in India. “I believe there are a lot of ‘A’ opportunities to explore in India. [...]
• July 17, 2007, Lucifer commented: @ Pranav,Abey, I beg to differ about your point "I wouldnt expect Infy and the likes to understand Web2.0. They are after all in the IT services industry rather than consumer facing Internet market. " and to what Abey said earlier. I work for one of the IT "whales", and contrary to your belief, we do work on projects apart from making banking solutions and the like. Web 2.0 is a big big part of a major research I am currently undertaking for a breakthrough venture of ours. A lot of our clients are companies who are part of the customer facing internet market. They need Web 2.0 and we need to understand that. True, India is far, far away from where western countries and western companies are when it comes to web 2.0 enabled offerings/ features/ interactivity / mindset etc., but its myopic to say that the whales have no clue. We are not a Bn$ + company for no reason.
• July 17, 2007, pranav commented: @Lucifer, How much % of revenue and staff does Infy have dedicated to services & maintenance and the likes ? And how much towards Web 2.0 ? Lets face it - Infy is a services provider. There's a possibility that Web 2.0 may a growing pie of the services industry...Still, I believe that maintenance and support will always be at the forefront for the next few years.
• July 17, 2007, Lucifer commented: @ Pranav, "Still, I believe that maintenance and support will always be at the forefront for the next few years" I agree totally. But that was not my bone of contention. All I was saying was that its not like the behemoths like infy etc. are ignoring it completely or are totally clueless. The services/product portfolio is after all a function of customer demand. and customers are mostly American and european cos. (so its not like Indian firms specifically are lagging behind). the point I was making was that even the whales want to dance like dolphins. Its a slow move, but its steady and purposeful. Like it has been said earlier, infrastricture is, and will continue to be a problem in India for a while. I'm in bbay and suffer an hour or 2 of downtime a week at least. thats probably the best level of service ever heard of in India.
• August 2, 2007, ajitesh commented: Have we forgotten Orkut.com while talking all about Web 2.0, Social networking, talking about personal life, infrastructure and stuff like that? Are we limiting Indians to "Indians in India" or we are referring to "Indians around the globe"? I think we wont like to ignore that fact.
• August 18, 2007, mwzd commented: I'm inclined to agree with Avinash on this. Listen to him, that guy is no flash in the pan developer for the web in India. When he formed baazee he was very clear that the ultimate goal would be to sell to ebay, not an easy thing to achieve, yet he did it. Even if socnet does take off in India, by limiting yourself to India or Indians how are you ever going to compete with the majors? Myspace/Orkut/Facebook etc all have a target audience, none limited by geography or ethinicity.
• October 16, 2007, Swamyraj commented: Aha.. nice thoughts being shared on this subject, so let me lend some of mine. So firstly i completely agree with Avnish and Pranav. I'll begin with picking up some interesting keywords. 'distant reality'. When Avnish mentions that Web 2.0 is 'distant reality' it does not mean that Web 2.0 is not going to succeed its just that all the stake holders will have to work in collaboration, so its only matter of time that user acceptance will increase in India. For example social networking or other service providers based on web 2.0 concept will have to collaborate with ISPs so that they get better reach and ISPs in turn get their business expanding. So on a larger scale Reliance, the Airtels, Lenovos and media must do a good collaborative marketing to create awareness in consumers that ... they should use Seventymm, bazee.com, bigadda, yatra.com. 'Culture'.. now traditionally Indians are not used to selling news paper, burgers, subways at the age of 17,18..20. In US at young age they start selling some kind of product or service so they develop the PR or marketing skills quite naturally. So migrating from 'service-oriented' to 'product-oriented' mind set will require some proactive measures, some radical changes in schooling, some openness in society. Having said that.. its really nice to see such initiative being taken... latest one being Storzz.com. i was actually feeling the need of such an initiative and voila i found it few days ago. SO 'consumerism' is set to change in India.. its just matter of time.

Penguin has published two books consisting of User Generated Content compiled from Sulekha. Satya Prabhakar, Sulekha founder is a strong believer in the power of blogging and says that bloggers form a niche testbed where marketers can reach out to other users in an unparalleled manner.

Read the rest of the story here.

Subroto Bagchi, COO of Mindtree Consulting, has documented his entrepreneurial experience from the origins of MindTree to its latest IPO as part of a new book – The High Performance Entrepreneur – Golden Rules for Success in Today’s World.

Knowledge@Wharton has an audio interview with Subroto about these principles that define a high performance entrepreneur.

Pantaloon Retail, PVR cinemas, Subhiksha – these are some of the tremendously successful investments made by Renuka Ramnath as part of the India Advantage Fund. She currently serves as MD and CEO of ICICI Venture.

Read the full interview here. I would strongly suggest you read the interview – she gives some honest insight into how the Private Equity world works.

Kamla Bhatt would need no introduction to many of you. For the uninitiated, she’s India’s first podcaster and a well known blogger. She produces and hosts the Kamla Bhatt Show and also contributes to the India section on PodTech.net. She recently started foraying into video blogging (3-4 video clips a week) and has also started a travel blog – Ifyougoto. You can read the rest of her bio here.

I have been following her podcasts for quite some time and became more and more intrigued by the wide variety of people she interviews as part of her podcasts. She’s interviewed some prominent personalities such as Shyam Benegal, Vikram Chandra, RK Laxman, Ameen Sayani, Dr. Salman Akhtar, Rakyesh OmPrakash Mehra to name a few. I wanted to know more about how she chooses the subjects, how she got into podcasting and how her podcasting experience has been.

So, without further ado, here’s the interview.

1) How did the ‘Kamla Bhatt show’ start ? What was the motivation and the vision you had when you started out ?

Kamla: Much of what I have done all these years almost seems like preparation for what I am doing now. I have always wanted to do a radio show ever since I was a child. I never saw it as a choice – it is what I always wanted to do. I dreamt of doing my own show from way back when. Besides, radio on the web is a great means to get across to the world on what is happening in India and the Indian community.
A few years ago when my husband was running a streaming media company he suggested I launch my radio show, but I found the cost of hosting a streaming show to be expensive. More recently I discovered all these user friendly tools and started experimenting with it and before I knew it I was neck-deep in producing my own show. The current Kamla Bhatt Show preceded two other shows: Talk News India and News About India.

2) Why did you choose podcasting as the medium of expression ?

Kamla: Podcasting is a distribution channel for my radio show. I understand that in India only the government controlled radio stations can produce news-related shows and that is why most of the private radio stations are so entertainment heavy.
I also think that the radio experience is just as relevant whether it is delivered through ‘plain old airwaves’ (POA), the satellite or the Internet. What makes a radio show on the Internet different is that content is available anytime, anywhere to the user, and this allows me to focus on compelling and cutting-edge content that regular radio shows may miss out or may incorrectly perceive as not being viable.

My goal is to appeal to the inquisitive and thinking Indian or Indophile who wants to listen and enjoy a good conversation. It does not matter whether they live in India, UK, Tanzania, Malaysia, Singapore or the USA. The difference between a good and great interview is the same in each of these medium. In my view a great interview is more like a conversation among friends in familiar surroundings and that is what the show is all about. I get lot of emails from listeners who say that they enjoy listening to the conversation on their mp3 player when they go for their morning walks, or are traveling by bus or plane. I think that is great validation from real listeners and the market place. That validation cannot be bought or influenced.

3) Were you familiar with the nitty-gritties of podcasting ? Was there a learning curve ? If so, how did you work your way around it ?

Kamla: I was not familiar with the nitty gritty of using any audio related software. However once I discovered the software I started playing around with it and learnt the basics of using the product. Yes, initially I had quite a few harrowing days learning the software and how to convert the files into mp3 etc.

4) How was your first podcasting experience ? Any memories / nightmarish problems you ran into ?

Kamla: I think I took to podcasting like a duck takes to water and whatever initial problems I encountered were minimal in my perception. In the end my perception is my reality and I think that mindset helped me focus on creating good interviews and not dwell on the technical challenges. Some of my initial podcasting experience involved interviewing street performers in New York city and I thoroughly enjoyed doing those. One of my initial interviews was with this wonderful woman Flower Silliman, a Baghdadi Jewish person from Calcutta, who now lives in New York. Flower was such a delight to interview and in interviewing her I fulfilled a long-held dream of mine of interviewing Baghdadi Jewish families that had ties to China in the 19th century. My graduate thesis was on the Opium Trade between British Indian and China where I read some fascinating accounts of Baghdadi Jews and Parsees involved in the opium trade to China.

5) I have been following your show for quite some time and there a couple in particular which found very interesting – Ameen Sayani and Vikram Chandra. Ameen Sayani’s one especially brought back very fond memories from his radio show. That’s what got me intrigued about one very particular question – How do you choose the subject of your next podcast ?

Kamla: The number one source for suggestions come from my listeners who send me emails with their suggestions and people they are interested in listening to in the show. Besides that I have a dynamic wish list in my mind about the kinds of people I would like to talk to. I want to find out how they started and what motivated them to chose their field. I think that informs and colors my choice of people that I feature on the show. Mr. Sayani was right up there on my list.
On a broader note what anchors the show is the tagline: Life, People and Ideas…the message says it all… these are the strands that connect the Indian Diaspora across the world. There is nothing that brings me greater joy and satisfaction in watching their interplay. The radio show helps me convey the nuances and complexities of their interactions. And this is not just about the mechanics of radio. As I mentioned, in my view a great interview is more like a conversation among friends in familiar surroundings and also learning about the lessons of life.

Why reinvent the wheel? There are others before me who have struggled to find their groove and passion. I often look to see what I can learn from these people in fulfilling my dream of doing a great radio show.

6) Deciding upon the podcast subject is difficult. But equally difficult is actually getting hold / an appointment with the subject. Not only can it be a time consuming but also a frustrating process. How do you manage this part ?

Kamla: I guess it is hard work and luck? I don’t get to interview everybody on my wish list. If I don’t get somebody I move on. I guess my training in sales has helped me to move on and not to take these rejections personally or in a permanent way. One of the biggest lessons I learned from my sales day is that there are different kinds of sales techniques and one of the best that is out there is relationship selling and a genuine interest in the people you are talking to. When they are ready I am sure they will talk. There is no point in pursuing a subject needlessly.

7) For the uninitiated folks like myself – Can you describe the entire process from start to finish – narrowing the podcast subject to the actual editing and uploading of the podcast – what all is actually involved ?

Kamla: I always having a running list of people I want to interview embedded in my head. Once the subject agrees we do the interview and I prefer to do it in-person. I then edit the audio file multiple times and generally this process may take a few hours and sometimes might spill into a a couple of days. Once I am satisfied with the audio quality, I create the right tags, a brief text description and sometimes an associated blog. I then upload the content. Simple.

8 ) Are all the podcast interviews done in person or over the phone too ?

Kamla: A combination of both.

9) How many hours on an average do you spend for doing one podcast ?

Kamla: Oh it varies and can take anywhere from 12-18 hours and this includes researching on the subject, the actual interview, editing, writing etc. This is basically a one-person show and is driven purely by passion.

10) Is the Kamla Bhatt show a single person effort or is there a team behind the effort ?

Kamla: A single person effort with a lot of emotional support from my husband Deepak Srinivasan. I could not do the show without his support.

11) How many visitors / page views / subscribers is Kamla Bhatt show getting ?

Kamla: I cannot disclose that at the moment – but suffice it to say I have an engaged audience.

12) So far, I havent noticed ads or other means of revenue generation. Do you intend to generate revenue from the Kamla Bhatt show ? If so how ? If not, why not ?

Kamla: Yes, it is a conscious decision not to run advertisements. Well, there are some ideas in the pipeline.

13) Do you have a day time job that pays the bills?
Kamla: My radio show pays my bills.

14) I noticed you spend your time equally between US and India – is that for personal or professional reasons?
Kamla: I do this for professional reasons.

15) What are your plans / long term vision for the show?
Kamla: I would love to get on the airwaves in India.

16) Of all the podcasts you have done, any favorites?
Kamla: Oh there are so many that is difficult to choose. I enjoyed interviewing Shyam Benegal, Dr. Salman Akhtar, Mr. Ameen Sayani, Beth Watkins, Indu, the mallishwali, Baldev Sharma, the New Delhi cab driver and a couple of others who are in the pipeline like Mr. R.K. Laxman and Mr. V.K. Murthy cinematographer to Guru Dutt. Bottomline, I have enjoyed interviewing each one of the guests in the show and each time I come away learning something new and different and I feel richer for that.

17) If you were to sum up and list the single most benefit you’ve gained out of your podcasting experience, what would it be?

Kamla: When I used to report for various magazines my friends would always tell me that I had a knack of drawing out people. I did not believe them then and used to brush it off. But, now when I am producing my radio show I realize that I truly enjoy connecting with people and finding out what keeps them motivated and going. What can I learn from them at a personal level? What I hear most is from my subjects and from some of my fans as well – as to how they deal with their successes and their rejections, the ups and downs of life. These are people who have been there and done that and are in many ways much better informed than me.

18) Any suggestions to others who would be interested getting into podcasting?

Kamla: First, you need to have the time and dedication to do it on a consistent basis. Learning how to use the software and record the interview are not difficult. You cannot substitute passion and genuine interest in people. Do not fake it if you don’t have it.

19) Finally, how does it feel to be in the hot seat yourself ?

Kamla: Well, I don’t consider myself to be in the hot seat. Just answering your thoughtful questions gave me an opportunity to think and refresh my own perspective. And, thanks for taking the time to do this. Wish you all the best with your Startup Dunia venture Pranav.

Thanks Kamla for taking the time and sharing your experiences with us.

Comments

• April 10, 2007, Kamla Bhatt Blog » Interview with Startup Dunia commented: [...] Pranav from Startup Dunia has an interview with me that you can read here. No comments for Interview with Startup Dunia » [...]
• April 11, 2007, G Vishwanath commented: Kamla, That was great to read. For a change you were answering and not asking. A lot of questions that I had in mind were asked and answered. Keep up the good work which I find contemporary, creative, interesting, useful and entertaining. I have tried other podcasts and blogs (both desi and international) but your web site which I stumbled on quite by accident, just a few weeks ago, struck a chord in me and is one of the few I visit regularly. As part of my work, I spend over 10 hours in front of the computer every day and I find myself using every opportunity to cash in on small free time slices during my busy day to take a quick peep into your web site and catch up on the latest podcast you have to offer and download it in the background to listen to later or transfer to my ipod for the weekend treat. Often, the subject is such that I am unable to control the urge to react with a quick comment on the fly, like I am doing now. I said this before in a private maiil to your and I will say it again here in public. In addition to your dedication and passion for this medium, you have a great natural asset that is not so common. You have a great voice. It's just right for this medium. In me, you can count on a loyal listener of your podcasts and a "prolific" (to use your own word) commenter on your blog postings. I hope this unsolicited praise from me ( a person who has nothing to gain) will make your day and spur you on to even greater success. All the best. G Vishwanath JP Nagar, Bangalore.

Knowledge@Wharton has a great interview with Ray Ozzie – the chief software architect at Microsoft. A small tidbit:

Knowledge@Wharton: Which ones (competitive threats) worry you the most?

Ozzie: I’m paid to be worried, and so I worry about many things.

I worry about Linux and making sure that we’re really good in that market. I’m worried about the future of media and the devices we consume that media on — things like iPod and what Apple is doing. I worry about making sure that we continue to lead in email and that we’re delivering email on mobile devices and in the enterprise and to consumers. There is a different set of competitors in that realm.

I want to make sure that we deliver business solutions and development platforms for business solutions to customers. There is a different set of competitors there. And then, of course, I want to deliver online services to consumers and small businesses and big businesses. There’s a set [of competitors] there.

TutorVista has been in the news several times lately. Last year they announced $9 million in funding (first $2 million from Sequoia and next $7 million from Lightspeed venture partners). Last month, TutorVista CEO K Ganesh projected online tutoring revenues in India to rise to $2.4 billion in the next three years. Last week, they announced a tie-up with publisher HarperCollins.

Niladri Roy has an interesting interview with K Ganesh on the topic of online tutoring, related obstacles and the future of online tutoring.

Comments

• August 19, 2007, Ganesh commented: I understand that several tutoring sites have received fundnig, such as Tutor-Vista, Vie-Nova, SchoolTrainer Tutoring, Tutor Easy and Tutor Next. Do you have any information on this?

Ok, this is off topic but I just had to post it. Kamal Nath gets grilled to the point that he drops off mid way during the interview.
A friend forwarded me the link to this video. Boy, never have I seen an interviewer getting their point across so vehemently. Kudos to this host. Anyone know who he is ?

Comments

• March 23, 2007, Sudhir commented: A brilliant one!!! and he is Udyan Mukherjee http://www.cnnibnindianoftheyear.com/tv18editorial_team.html
• March 23, 2007, pranav commented: thanks Sudhir for the info. They guy for sure knows his stuff. And the best thing is - his exasperation and disbelief reflect so lucidly from his expressions. Pranav.

The International Herald Tribune has a nice Q & A session with Kamal Nath – India’s minister of Commerce & Industry.

Read it here.