Ciafo is a software products startup, based out of Bangalore focused on building consumer products for the web (including the mobile web). Ciafo has three products – Travelomy, Wayr, Frrole. In this interview, Amarpreet Kalkat, Co-Founder, Ciafo discusses aspects of building a B2C product from India and shares some of his learnings with startups. Frrole is an information …
Are you a #MadeInIndia Software product company that sells to Enterprise segment?
Do you like to share the success on a global platform? Here is your golden opportunity…..don’t miss it!! The members of this exclusive group are the best and brightest CIOs from some of the cream of the global companies like Aetna, Bechtel, Boeing, BP, Caterpillar, Disney, Dow, ExxonMobil, FedEx, Ford, GM, Goldman Sachs, Honeywell, JPMChase, …
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#FoundersMeet 3 – Collective learning of 20 Early Stage Startups
Background – I was fortunate to be invited for the #FoundersMeet 2; informal get-together of 7 startup founders last year. This time around Anirudh, Sid, Nischal, Deven and I suggested to move it beyond our circle and extend it to 20 startups to come together and share our small success stories, failures and challenges. We also wanted to create a …
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Enterprise customers Vs Startup customers
When you are selling a product to a customer, you will have to understand the characteristics of the customer. This is especially true if your product solves the problems of both Enterprises and Startups. Both are unique in the way they buy products. Enterprises have a process in place and hence you need to be …
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Q&A with Communication Platform Waybeo Technology’s CEO
Waybeo Technology Solutions was launched in December 2009 and was selected by Nasscom as one of the top 15 emerging, innovative companies in India in 2012. Its product, BounzD, is a global inbound communication platform enabling instant voice assistance to customers using a variety of mobile devices. In this interview, CEO Bushair AP discusses aspects …
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A Platform Thinking Approach to Building a Business
Every business is an engine. It needs to do a certain set of things repeatedly to create value. If you haven’t figured out that set of repeated operations, you probably haven’t created a scalable business yet. Ford needs to repeatedly assemble cars, Google needs to repeatedly run its crawler, Facebook needs to repeatedly get users …
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3 trends that we noticed from over 500 Indian startups that we reviewed
Over the last few weeks we reviewed over 500 startups and talked (phone, skype, etc.) with over 100 startup founders. This was our shortlisting process to get to 15 companies that will make it to our Spring 2013 batch at the Accelerator. First, we reviewed a lot of travel startups. Especially the problem of helping travelers with trip …
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M. A. P 2013 – Your Bridge to Global Brands.
ProductNation is pleased to support M.A.P 2013 a unique project supporting Asian innovation and designed to match new companies to the most senior decision-makers in global marketing and media. Since its launch in 2011, it has had applications from over 50 new companies and awarded four “Hot Company of the Year” citations. All applications are …
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Are you a Tech Startup? You are part of a Fraction
I remember this TED talk by Hans Rosling as he echoed the sentiments that I’ve heard working closely with Market Research firms: Even with quantitative data, you have to be careful because as much as they are hard numbers, they usually are averages of two extremes – and the markets are full of extremities. Truth is, if you …
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Are Product Managers Future Entrepreneurs?
Prof. Rahul Abhyankar, Director of ICPM Programs at the Institute of Product Leadership summarized it well in his message to the Graduating Class, “Product Management is more of a mindset change merely skillset” Product Management has many definitions but most experts will agree that its essentially the art & science of delivering delighting solutions to real …
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Indian start-up ecosystem – in a sweet & sour spot
Health warning: this post is slightly longer than the regular articles as the subject calls upon a more detailed discussion of the issues, so please be patient and read on! Our start-up ecosystem has come leaps and bounds over the past few years, the sheer development can be measured by the rising number of early …
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How to come up with a great company or product name? – A few YouTube videos can teach you that!
Who said YouTube is a waste of time? It can even teach you on how to come up with a great company or product name! Naming a company or a product is so crucial in a product start-up. You can call your services company – “The Great Maharashtra IT Services and Systems Company” and your …
Software Products can Spur Economic Growth
Over more than two decades, India earned a reputation as the global leader in software outsourcing, but product companies – perceived as the mark of a true technology powerhouse – have been few and far between. While India is still a long way from showcasing a Microsoft or a Google, unobtrusively, technology companies have sprung up across the …
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Learnings from the 2nd #PNMeetup – Selling your product Gangnam Style
#PNMeetup on Selling your product Gangnam Style was the topic at the recently concluded Meetup(Podcast link). We had over 45-50 people across products and the services who came out to gain an insight into the Enigma of Gangnam Style Sales, with their eyes wide open and all ears the speakers Mr. Sanjay Agarwala MD of …
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Growth = Engagement: A product design principle you can’t ignore
Newly launched startups love to see their traffic and sign-up stats grow. Growth, after all, is opium for a startup fresh out of the door, and frequent refreshes of the sign-up logs are the happiest pastime for entrepreneurs. Startups often tend to think of growth and engagement as two unrelated divorced concepts. In reality, nothing …
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