Whenever I have helped someone I believe their thanks is sincere and heartfelt. Can’t beat that wonderful feeling, so I do my best to make time and pay-forward. Amongst the many that pay-forward, I was really intrigued by the iSPIRT community. A group of best-in-class entrepreneurs (and one could say even, celebrity entrepreneurs) coming together …
Talking Software Products in Bangalore
Bangalore was the next stop for the iSPIRT product round-table around the theme of “Getting Traction for Software Products”. The goal of this round-table, hosted by Niraj Rout (Hiver/Grexit), Natwar Maheshwari (Around.io) Avinash Raghava and me, was to get peer feedback from a group of startups at a similar stage. In this format, around ten …
Product Owner and/or Product Manager – Don’t Debate the Wrong Issue
Recently I was called into a mid-size software organization – and got right in the middle of a heated debate that had obviously been going on for some time. Development wanted to move to a Scrum-like agile model, and put pressure on the established Software Product Management (SPM) department to change their name to Product …
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Is your user story really about the user?
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, lived a grumpy old wizard who loved spending time throwing stones at little kids who played near his mansion… In just a few words, good stories transport you to a different place, stoke your imagination & involve you in the life and activity of someone …
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Demystifying Growth Hacking
Too much has been already written about ‘Growth Hacking’. Having been into product space for quite some time, I believe growth hacking is probably the most confused jargon being used in the business world (mainly product businesses). Hence, thought of writing down my perspective on growth hacking by clearing out few notions around it – …
Takeaways from the Second ProductNation Boot Camp #PNCamp #Pune
iSPIRT put together its second Product Nation boot camp for product people, by product people on 8th October 2016 at Persistent Systems’ Office in Pune. It was a day-long coming together of doers: ones who have been there, done that; and ones in the journey of getting there. The format was simple: Successful product entrepreneurs …
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The payment gateway friction in cross-border trade of Software products
The payment gateway problem in exporting online from India It is not easy for Indian Software product companies to export products online and receive payments in India. This is true for both the downloadable Software product or Software as a Service (SaaS). Experts say there is no legal or policy hurdle from RBI. Yet, there is friction. An …
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Here seasoned founders make bulbs flash in the heads of newbies
“Are you an accounting company or a finance company?” The question was addressed to Baskar Ganapathy, co-founder and product head of Numberz. It’s an early stage fintech startup with a software product to help small businesses manage their invoices and cash flow. What makes it different is an add-on feature that lets businesses get a …
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Ease of Doing Business – Is India Game?
Conducting business in one’s own country is never easy, let alone conducting business overseas, where rules, regulations and business environments differ. ‘Ease of doing business’ is also an Index created by the World Bank. It ranks economies from high to low, with the former indicating easier, simpler and better conditions for business as compared to …
Playbooks is one of the key pillars of iSPIRT bouquet.
Playbook in iSPIRT denotes entrepreneurial learning meant for Indian software product startups to become world class and be successful. Roundtable is a format of learning intended for startups that have reached a happy confused stage. In this format 8-12 non competing startups are brought together to discuss deeply on a topic that holds them from jumping to their …
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Learnings from #PNCamp
For those who aren’t aware, PNCamp is a bootcamp event for early stage SaaS startups. We were lucky enough to get invited to the event in Pune on Oct 8. The event, like earlier SaaSx event in Chennai, is a no-nonsense event for founders and product folks. The day-long event had two tracks: one for …
How AdPushup Uses Content Marketing To Power Growth #PlaybookRT
Close to about 15 founders gathered on 1st October at the small and cozy office of AdPushup to participate in a Playbook Roundtable on Content Marketing. This was Ankit’s first playbook with iSPIRT and he did a phenomenal job. AdPushup is a SaaS company that helps web publishers increase their ad revenue by letting them …
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An outline of entrepreneurial rubbish
Note: This is a long form article. It will take time if you want to read it through the end. If you’re heady about entrepreneurship, you may be offended by a lot that’s in here. Also, if you’re looking for a listicle or an article to skim through, this isn’t it. So be warned before …
India Stack for Smart Cities – Usage and Learnings that can be applied
Sanjay Jain, Pramod Varma, Ranga Raj With a lot of momentum being built around Digital India and Smart Cities, we offer a contrarian view of how government agencies and stakeholders should approach this complex problem. While there are many facets towards the journey of Smart Cities – some that are non-technology related – political, bureaucratic, …
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Why Did 33% of Prospects Reply to This Cold Email?
Cold emails have earned a bad reputation. Prospects see them as a nuisance, and most just hit delete without even a casual read. Even when the message is highly targeted, the open rate ends up being less than 10% on average. I call it the “Rhino effect”. Most of us have developed a thick skin …
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