StartUp Idea #5: Forms online

Back in Dec 2010, i have written few posts related to StartUp Ideas. It took me one year to write a new one. 2011 was a great year for me because I finally quit my job at Amazon and (re)started my company http://www.chennaishopping.com/

Let me write about the new start-up idea which i had been grinding in my mind. It may exists or may not. i am not sure. most of the ideas i have written are problems that exists currently.

Now,  Forms  Online

What are forms?

Forms is a document which you use to fill up with pen and apply form some thing. checkout out Forms at wikipedia. I am not talking about HTML forms here.

what is the problem?

The problem is simple. collect all these application forms and provide them as pdf downloads to get it printed or make an HTML form out of it and present a printable form with customer data in it. You can store customer data for later use.  This solves the following list of problems

• user will not type / write duplication information like name, address, phone etc etc etc.
• user will just type the “new-not found information” that are asked in forms.

This gives the following advantages

• user knows exactly the form to use to apply for certain things. need not search here and there.
• all forms at one location. saves time for the user.
• user is not frustrated to fill the same details, 1000 times.

Different types of Forms

I am going to list the types of application forms available in general public.

• School/College Application forms
• Government Application Forms
• Job Application forms
• Bank Application forms
• Applying for Gas connection, ration card, DL, passport
• so and so…. hell a lot of it.

School/College application forms:

there are around 1.6m schools in india as per SchoolofEducators.com. see if you can help these schools, get their application forms online for just download for that academic year.  some schools / colleges do make money even in these application forms. you can make a cut out of it.

Government application forms:

Hell a lot of it. just browse through various states respective .gov.in website and collect their PDF link and provide them for download at one location. provide a easier way to find and download.  I spent lot of time in figuring out marriage certificate registration form online. Even though i found the site, i am not sure whether it is updated or legitimate. if you can assure it, your website is a HIT.

Job Application Forms

I am talking about Non-tech jobs. Get the job application forms for non-tech jobs that comes in paper or what ever and get it filled

Bank application forms:

Check deposit slips pre-filled or what ever loan application or what ever. Do tie-up with major banks and get their forms in pdf format to be downloadable at your site. List it by category, banks etc.

Gas connection, ration card, passport, DL:

Just get the gas connection form online. or what ever it is.

Miscellaneous forms

• BB plan change letter for BSNL
• BANK letter format for update of any information to ICICI, SBI et all.

Note: Do add more in comments if you have any.

Hell a lot of forms:

There are lakhs of forms to be filled by a user. every time he/she fills the following information multiple times

• Full name – first, middle, surname
• DOB
• Father’s / Guardian name
• Permanent Address
• Residential Address
• PAN
• Passport

and many more

Privacy issues and Trust factors:

what ever the information forms online get its, it will be too personal information. one should take care to protect the user’s privacy and get user to trust the website. It’s very difficult to achieve the trust factor in short run. but overtime, if you provide good service, users will trust these kinds of forms service, because it saves their time.

Business model:

More downloads. More Users. Your traffic and download is your source for revenue. you can get sponsors for various form channels say bank or get the advertising revenue. You can also get a revenue share with school/college application.

You can add premium service by providing few forms at a paid price etc. may be this will work or not. not sure though.

Conclusion:

whether this idea will work or not, the problem of filling offline forms exists. the problem of searching forms to apply for certain things exists. You have million opportunities to solve for the main stream users….. do share your thoughts at the comments below.

Update 1: there is a startup nopaperforms.com which is trying to solve this. Do give a try.

Your Carry bags and the environment

Recently, in every super market, i see a notice that “Please carry your own carry bags. As per Govt. order, we are advised to charge for the carry bags. This is done to save/protect the environment. ”

I really don’t know how much percentage of carry bags usage, spoils the environment compared to plastic packed foods like Lays chips, packed fruits, milk packets, chocolates and many more. Most of the plastics packed foods are produced by large MNC’s. They are not being called to be part of the initiative.

my question to the government

• How much % of plastic usage can be reduced by this initiative?
• are these done due to politics behind?
• Why only supermarkets/garment shops are targeted for this initiative? what about other places / organizations

General public are forced to pay 1-3 rs for the plastic.

• Will paid carry bags reduce?
• why not government provide these supermarkets / garment shops, the paper bags at subsidized rates?

If the GOI is really worried about the environment, it should ask every public / private organization to follow and then only it can achieve Plastic-free India.

Please understand India…

I read a blog post titled The real reason behind India’s lack of startups/innovation.
I wanted to respond little later but it seems the comments are closed. I have crafted my responses

>>>> And now let me clarify that how I qualify to answer this question. I am founder of http://closest.in it’s now a 11 month old web startup. We started working on it right after college, so I am a young startup founder, with very radical ideas, inspired by silicon valley culture and what not. So I have 11 months of experience in this arena to back my answer.

Congratulations on running your start-up all these months.

>>> Now, why there are no web startups from India, because there are no early adopters. That’s not in our blood. Web startups come out of USA because Americans love to try new things and we Indians don’t.

I think the author did not understand India and its people’s mindset. His product is addressing USA and not India. As far as i have known, many great products like Google Finance came out of India. There are many web startups like InterviewStreet.com, Muziboo.com, Tenmiles.com that came from India. They have been developed targeting Indians in mind. Not the USA.

>>> What are early adopters? Early adopters are those people who actually use new services and accept them or reject them. I am not saying that early adopters always accept new products, they actually give their opinion. So if a product is doomed to fail, it fails early. That’s how it works.

when orkut came, people accepted it. when facebook came, people accepted it because facebook was better than orkut in many ways. now its happening for Google+ i guess. If your closet is good enough, it will get adopted. Try to look for the reason why its adoption is not upto the mark. Glad, you have found out how a Product works….

>>>>And I know the root of problem, it’s the faulty education system which is brainwashing innocent children and putting a belief in them that “your ideas are useless”, it’s such a small line and has such a vast impact on the whole nation. Students are literally discouraged to take forward their ideas, especially in the average engineering colleges, I can only talk about them because I was a part of them.

I too agree on this. but if one wants to do and have courage to do, he/she could have done it. if you have felt that education ruined your ideas, why did you take part in it?

>>>>Only solution to fix this problem is to destroy all the engineering colleges right now and convert them into “idea factories” let young people work on what they want. I cry seeing so huge human potential wasting. If anyone wants to fix something in startups ecosystem, fix the education system, that’s the root.

Glad you found the problem and asking anyone wants to fix it. Remember what Gandhi said “If you need a change, be the change!”. Please understand the audience on which your product is targeted. Do what ever it takes to satisfy that particular audience.

One small example. In a auditorium, its the responsible of the speaker to gain the attention of the audience… not the other way round.
That’s all i want to say.

StartUp Idea #4: Touch based Landline Internet phone for home use

According to Communications in India wiki, India is marching towards billion telephone (landlines and mobile) subscribers. Even though the mobile phone connections are exploding like anything, there is always a need for landlines exclusively for Broadband connection. In India, wireless broadband has not yet taken off and the speed is very slow when compared to wired broadband connection.
The Internet Usage Statistics in India is 81,000,000 i.e 6.9 % and is expected to grow more. Also major telephone operators in the subcontinent are taking advantage of this growth.

Even though Mobile phones can act as a modem for connecting to internet, it cannot withstand due to following reasons
1. Lack of Towers and hence low coverages
2. Battery will drain out.
3. you need to charge every now and then.. etc

Need for the new device…
Communication became the important part of our daily life now-a-days. we communicate via Facebook/Internet, phone, voip etc. For each of these, we are using a separate device like laptop/desktop computer, mobile phones or internet phones specically. we also required modem to connect our laptop to internet.

why not have a single device which can do this all?
We cannot call that device as Phone. As per TheFreeDictionary.com

Telephone is an instrument that converts voice and other sound signals into a form that can be transmitted to remote locations and that receives and reconverts waves into sound signals.

Phone can refer only things which can transmit sound signals. But today, we are transmitting data (voice, documents, videos) as bits and bytes. Hence we can call that a communication device.

What feature it should have?
A new Integrated communication device should posses the following characteristics
1. Easy to use with Intuitive interface.
2. Always be connected with Internet i.e ADSL+ enabled or what ever the latest.
3. Camera enabled – Speak with your friends / families using Video capabilities.
4. Text Enabled – Send and receive text
5. 1-Touch Call
6. Voice Recognition
7. a Wi-Fi / LAN enabled to get our laptop/computer connected
8. Digital phone book
9. Built-in Bill Payment facilities for Phone service, Electricity etc
10. Mic / Speaker enabled. Support for headset should be also available.
11. Wireless Handset so that you need not be at phone while talking.

Basically, it should be a blend of
1. Today’s Smart-Phone
2. Skype
3. Landline
4. DSL Modem
5. Camera

Every feature i specified here decribes the funtionality it can do. Hence i did not explain much about the feature.

The Demand…
Airtel, one of the biggest private telecom operator in India is getting revenue 50-50 between voice and data. The demand for this kind of device will increase as operators are trying to give Value added services to their customers.
Landline phone is the easiest technology product that people have learned today even before mobile phones. Every body knows to dial and make a call. The reach to the masses will surely be achieved with this kind of integrated device.

Business Model
This will be a hardware business. To start with, a prototype should be made and demo it to the largest operator in the country. At-least they will do trial run at few places and would see the response for such kind of device. the cost of integrated communication device should be very low compared to the combined cost of phone + wifi / LAN modem or any internet phones. If it is being accepted, they it will sell like anything. Telecom operator can bundle the device along with the package which is sold now. You can take the share of every device sold.

Who’s the target audience?
This device is *not* for the techie people who already use / learned to use the device. This is a new generation device which will go mainstream like the normal landline phone we have now. Most of the people in India will be connected via this device.

Prototype

Integrated communication device Prototype

what do you think about this concept? comment about it.

Note: The mashup is created using GIMP. I took phone picture and icons from Google Images.

Amazon 4th Quarter revenue $6.7 billion, 18% up. 2008 year revenue $19.17 billion, 29% up

4th quarter result $6.7 billion 18% up.
full year 2008 – 29% up, $19.17 billion revenue

see the press release