Just over 12 years ago, I sat on the sofa outside my office in Infosys, and explained to Tom Friedman about how the playing field was getting levelled through technology. This inspired him to write ‘The World is Flat,’ an international bestseller that sold millions of copies and captured the zeitgeist of the era. It …
The iSPIRT Roundtable @Pune – 11 Startups share Metric Driven Growth Secrets
As a startup founder or growth marketer, you obsess over metrics: what is my lead-generation rate, how many customers did I win or lose, how is my monthly revenue growing, or how many customer referrals did I get? Analytics is critical for your business, without which you’re flying blind. However, data overload is real and …
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#MadeinIndia Inventory Management Software
Inventory or stocks are the lifeline of a company or business, and managing it properly is what makes the difference between company’s success or failure. Regular usage of inventory management software can help in the same, and can keep a check on overstocking of product and outages.
What is UPI after all?
India has come a long way in online payments in a very short period of time. With the launch of NEFT and IMPS, cash transfers between accounts has been made electronic, paperless and instant. NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) has recently launched UPI (Unified Payments Interface) as a new way to transfer money in …
The SaaS Juggernaut: Advantage India
An Indian software company serving majorly clients in the US or Europe is not an unusual thing anymore. However, if anybody were to guess the location of the India office, a company that counts amongst its clients about 100,000 small businesses globally, they would most probably chose Bangalore or Hyderabad. However, Appointy, which is an …
Meeting Product Startups #Ahmedabad
Over the last few months, I have interacted with a couple dozen awesome product startups in India as a part of product roundtables organized by iSPIRT, a non-profit industry group for software product companies in India. The roundtables that were in Pune, Delhi and Ahmedabad included around 8–10 product founders getting direct feedback about their …
Vijay Mallya’s Domino Effect: The Real-World Consequences of Late Payments
(Originally posted here) Vijay Mallya, the Chairman of United Breweries, exited the country on March 2nd 2016 – defaulting on loans worth Rs.9000 crores to 17 banks. The media storm which subsequently rained down upon the Mallya name would befit the crime, if it wasn’t painting an incomplete picture. Given the frenzy and the …
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“Getting traction for Product Startups” — iSPIRT Playbook Round Table | Notes
It was a warm Saturday morning in Ahmedabad and about 15 to 20 people had gathered at CIIE, IIM-A for this closed-door-day-long session where people who’d been-there-done-that were coming in, at their cost, to share (Read ‘Discuss’) their journey and more importantly, engage into a meaningful conversation about problems faced by Product Startups and their …
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DIPP – New Secretary catalyzing the past efforts, for Startup Ecosystem.
Mr. Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary of DIPP in a learning-session with iSPIRT. He formerly headed the Forwards Market Commission and has subsequently served as the secretary of performance management at the Cabinet Secretariat. He has been the key driver behind several reforms including the FMC being merged with SEBI. Mr. Ramesh Abhishek, is the new Secretary …
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Because designers need to know *about* code
This is a about a long raging debate on the process of designing and developing great products. In a recent Medium post, Jesse Weaver said something very simple but powerful — we need more designers who know *about* code. And I agree! Not only because I myself like to experiment with code but also because …
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There is no such thing as a startup culture
As of April 20th, 2016, Exotel is four years and 10 months old as an organisation. In the start-up investor jargon, Exotel is a VC-funded, high-growth start-up. Our home-grown on-demand cloud telephony services, powers over 1000 businesses of all sizes and shapes. Now, if that’s a lot to take in in one go, welcome to …
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Software Patents rigamarole- non-starter for start ups!
Every few years, we witness a fierce attempt to re-ignite the discussion of patentability of software (something that the Indian Parliament had rejected in 2005) by the usual beneficiaries of such a system: the mutli national holders of patent thickets, old system integrators, lawyers, and patent agents. These incumbent holders of patent thickets love to …
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Demystifying Startup Tax
Over the past couple of days, a lot has been written/discussed about the so called ‘startup tax’ and its perceived ill effects on the startup ecosystem. Under iSPIRT’s new initiative, PolicyHacks, I attempt in this note to demystify the legal/tax jargon around this tax and to clarify the proposed rule for the benefit of ecosystem …
Why did I love this Saturday?
I usually start my weekends with an intense workout regimen. This one was also quite intense but in a very different way. I attended the 71st edition of ‘Playbook Roundtable’ on Saturday the 28th of May, 2016. Incidentally, this was my first time at any Playbook event. From the time I received the invite, I …
1 Critical Analytics Mistake
Why some well funded/big companies miss business targets? Companies tend to focus 80% of their analytics effort on analysing “Historic Indicators” versus identifying “Leading Indicators” to grow business. This is biggest mistake I see wrt how some companies leverage Analytics. 3 Examples of how Analytics Numbers should be used: Spot Contrarian Points: Usually, consumer businesses …