Key Takeaways from the 25th #PlaybookRT at Bangalore – Sales for Startups

The 25th playbook roundtable held last week (01 March 2014) brought together about 14 startup practitioners to discuss and gain insights on some of the challenging aspects of Sales in product companies. This roundtable was hosted at Accel Partners office in Bangalore, and was led by Aneesh Reddy, from Capillary Technologies. In a span of …

OpenSource: The Most Underused Strategy by Indian Software Product Companies

Open Source has been quietly making its mark. Kickstarter just completed a billion dollars in crowdfunding. A lot of the work funded via Kickstarter is licensed for public use. Because the initial capital is pitched in by lots of people, the creators have a lot of incentive to give it back to the people. The …

Why Startups are opting for Ruby to build their MVPs

“By the time that product is ready to be distributed widely, it will already have established customers”~ From the pages of “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries. It is essentially true that by the time you finish building your product completely, your customers are already looking for something new! Demands of your customers change in …

Customer Acquisition Models for a SaaS businesses

Software-as-a-Service is paradigm shift for the software industry. The most profound impact of SaaS is on the software businesses revenue and cost models and therefore the cascading impact it has on the way the business is organised. Customer Acquisition for a SaaS business therefore requires a complete re-think. Since you are not going to get …

iSPIRT – CeBIT partnership to drive Software Adoption in India

iSPIRT signed an MOU with CeBIT India organized by Hannover Milano Fairs India Pvt Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of the Global JV Company HMG (Hannover Milano Global). With iSPIRT’s partnership with CeBIT India, iSPIRT opens more opportunity to grow the software development industry in the country and encourage the right policy environment towards product entrepreneurship. …

What is your company’s IP Score?

In the scramble to get to market, protecting the IP of your invention sometimes takes a backseat. This is a mistake and one that can have potentially damaging long-term effects. In this article we examine how developing a proactive IP Strategy can mitigate IP risk for a startup. Startup Priorities Most startups begin with a …

Can we build IP-based Product Businesses from India?

My interest in knowledge management has always been from the perspective of knowledge creation. So, I readily agreed to participate in the CII Knowledge Management Summit this year in a session that focused on this dimension. Ganesh Natarajan, Sharad Sharma and I were together on a panel to explore the potential of, and challenges in, …

The Three Design Elements for Designing Platforms

What does the traditional world of manufacturing have in common with the way networked platforms work? How can a basic understanding of factory design help us change the way we think about designing internet platforms, marketplaces and social networks? I’ve written previously about the distinction between pipes and platforms. If you haven’t already read it, you …

Building that 1-Click magic in your Product

Many startups struggle when it comes to building features for their product. Their product road-maps are a list of features they plan to include over next 6-9 months; once they are built out – its a feature mess ~ too many things to do that leaves the user confused. This does not stop here., entrepreneurs …

We do Cross-Border Investments! Domestic E-Commerce and E-Retail too! Nexus Venture Partners #ThinkInvestor

ThinkInvestor is iSPIRT and ProductNation’s new initiative to serve as a catalyst between Venture Capital firms, Angels, Angel Networks and Entrepreneurs. It is to go beyond brochure ware and dig deeper into the whole life cycle of a typical investment; from introductions, funding, styles of on-going engagement, to exits. And in the process, capture their views on global …

Go west my son; the Valley calleth.

Without a doubt the Silicon Valley or “Valley” as it is known leads the world in new technology breakthroughs. Day in and day out we hear of companies growing, getting acquired, of going public and of untold riches accrued to the founders and the investors. The recent Whatsapp saga is a classic example of a rags-to-riches story …

Zoho, Cloud, Sridhar Vembu

Those who know me well have heard a lot of stories about my experience at Zoho when they transitioned from AdventNet to Zoho. I worked there between 2001-2004 when it was quite a new thing in the indian product ecosystem to talk of Product Management etc. During that period, the company went through a very significant phase …

If a picture speaks a thousand words, a video does that 24 times per second.

Video advertising is increasingly becoming a necessity for a business in today’s fast paced world. Gone are the days when you would pen down tons of text in the “About Us” section of your website. A crisp video about your start-up can definitely make you go a long way in explaining what you offer to …

Meet the Rickshaw Rising Challenge Winners!

The Rickshaw Rising Challenge finale took place in the first week of February 2014 in Mumbai. Fourteen entrepreneurs representing 8 teams went through a two day long boot-camp. Read more about Day-1 and Day-2. On Day 3, they pitched their business to Robin Chase (ZipCar), Harish Hande (SELCO), Judith Pollock (Shell Foundation), and Madhav Pai (EMBARQ India). We …

‘In order to succeed in the Indian B2B marketplace, be mentally prepared for the long haul’ – Vishnu Tambi, CEO of Excellon Software

Product Nation interviewed Vishnu Tambi, CEO of Excellon Software to understand the key aspects that helped him to create a successful product company working out of a tier-2 city. In this discussion, Vishnu shares his experiences dealing with Indian customers and tips for succeeding in the Indian market. Read on…  Could you describe the genesis …