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.

Small Entrepreneurs… Big Inspirations…

Near my office, there is a small chaat shop. You cannot even call it a shop. Its actually under a asbestos sheet in front of a shop that sells Ice cream and chips etc. Although this Ice cream shop is a busy one because of the school presence nearby, this particular chaat shop is also popular.

The name is Calcutta Chat.
You will not find any name board there. Owner of the chaat shop served pani poori and other snacks in our cafeteria in past. I could remember because i used to eat lots of quantity. I liked their servings…

so whats different… or you can ask how its inspiring…?
Yes. It scaled

when my cafeteria started charging higher price for the bad meal, i and other colleagues started going out. Usually we go to Hotel Nisarga in infantry road, opposite to Police commissioner office. Food is good there too. I will write about Nisarga later. Last year, i was on a mission to reduce my weight. Hence i was trying to locate a good place to have my lunch where they wouldn’t add much fatty contents. One day, colleague of mine told me about this Calcutta chat shop which provides chapatti (roti) + dhal. As there were no tables in the shop, you need to eat food sitting in the chair.

I tried it. It was Good. It was priced at 20 INR. They served 3 roti’s + dhal + liquid curd (with masala topping) + mini version of salad (cucumber + onion). I liked it and i end up having it everyday. Apart from roti dhal, they also serve variety of parathas (aloo, gobi, onion etc). usual chats like samosa, pani poori, masala poori, pav bhajji and sweets like gulab jamoon etc. I have tasted almost everything except jamoon. Prices are decent for the quality they provide. Highest priced was some type of paratha at 40 i guess. Lowest is samosa… 7 INR. Few days back, rates have been revised but still, i consider it worth.

I commute in BMTC. i have to get down in sigma mall stop and walk to office premises. One day, i didn’t and thought i could get down near the chandrika hotel signal which is also the same distance as from the bus stop. I couldn’t get down due to green signal and bus was moving fast . I end up getting down in next stop which is near cantonment station. I had to walk back to office and suddenly i found a small shop in a basement with a name that seems to be similar. Its none other than “Calcutta chat” I thought this could be some other guys but wanted to check out.

I went inside the shop and was surprised. Same menu. few known faces. similar-taste food. They have tables and chairs here. Understood that this is a branch of the same calcutta chat which was next to my office building. In the new shop, they added meals(rice + dhal + aloo subji + pappad + 1 roti) to the menu which is decent enough. Its good to see that they found a new shop and they are on-track in their growth. I had usual roti + dhal and started to office. while coming back, i saw calcutta chaat shop owner nearby my office. I told him that i had lunch in that new shop. He smiled! I could see the happiness in that person’s face. All the troubles they have faced will vanish one day.

Who are their customers (two shops combined)?
Employees of Atkins, Amazon, Torry Harris, Vikram hospital, FirstSource, General Public and School students. Their peak lunch time is around 12-2pm and you need to wait at least 20-30 minutes to get, what you ordered.

may be after few years, i hope to see them managing a restaurant called “Calcutta chaat” with colorful atmosphere.

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.

Hey Google! dont force me to create public profile…!

Hey Google,

Why are you forcing me to create a public profile when i try to share the fotos from picasa website?

Stop forcing me to signup.

Today i noticed that google is forcing me to create a public profile in picasa. unless i do that, i cannot share the albums or photos.

any one experiencing this?

StartUp Idea #3: Book/Review/Rate Marriage hall services online…

I have been writing about the ideas related around marriages. Although the idea that i am going to write below might exist or can be considered additions to the existing ones in the market.

Hope you guys have heard of cleartrip.com, makemytrip.com which have refined the way we book air / train tickets and hotels. In the similar manner, we can also have a simple website wherein we publish all details about the marriage halls available in the city.

The simple website should do the following
For Marriage Halls
1. Ability to search marriage halls by cities, budgets, availability etc
2. Ability to block the hall by paying in advance if dates were not sure.
3. Ability to register / cancel the booking by paying online via NEFT / CC
4. ability to write reviews
5. Photo gallery of marriages, rooms, halls etc

For Caterers
1. Ability to search for Caterers by cities, budgets, availability etc
2. Ability to write reviews about their food preparation, servings etc.

Photographers / Video coverage
1. Ability to search for Photographers by cities, budgets, availability etc
2. Ability to write reviews about their albums work, DVD video editing etc.

Like above, there can be lot for some of the following things
1. Beauticians
2. Flower distributors
3. Music bands or DJ
4. For Hindu marriage, Iyer’s are needed.
5. and there should be many more….

Top sites already contain some of the information i mentioned above. Since they are all collected and organized by the site owners, they do not have reviews and ratings etc. A simple website which can have these information with the ability to search, rate and review, will be of great help for the general public.

Value & Experience :
People are(atleast i am) desperately in need of such sites and will be of great help. It will help me decide things based on the information i get from the site. Remember all information should be lively. otherwise, this website is no different from others.

Business?
India has 28 states and 7 union territories (federally administered). Each state should have enough marriage or events hall to cover the marriages. People searching for it will increase on the website provided they are lively and time will be saved. Transaction fee can be levied per booking or what ever applicable fees. But helping people to search and locate their liked stuff is more important and it will bring enough revenue later. you can look at example sites like 99acres.com or allcheckdeals.com which have exhaled in the real estate portal business i guess.

These services need not be restricted to marriage event alone. it will be helpful for other events such as
1. Birthday parties
2. Baby shower functions

I hope you got the idea….leave your comments…
bye for today!