Look out for the Smartest Indian Entrepreneur

Yes, it's Zoho's Sridhar Vembu. I have been a great fan of Zoho and it's online suite of applications. So much so that I flaunt the Zoho logo on my website on my own!

Now read the Forbes article by Sramana Mitra and

Sridhar Vembu's interview with Mitra

Some excerpts:

Adventnet is a 100%, bootstrapped, $40-million-a-year revenue business that sends $1 million to the bank every month in profits.

Doing what? you might wonder. Selling network management tools, to be precise. But with a unique twist. Vembu employs 600 people in Chennai, India, and a mere eight in Silicon Valley. Imagine what that does to his cost structure!

Zoho's CRM costs $10 per user while Salesforce costs $65!

Way to go, Zoho!

India's first Podcast in action: From Sania to Sonia

Indicast is the first Multi-person Indian Podcast and the two resident contributors are Aditya & Abhishek. They have a very entertaining audio content that'll keep you updated with the top things happening in & around India, Indian business, Sports and technology. Their live cricket T20 semifinal/final podcasts were a huge hit.

I have been after Aditya with my set of questions on how two individuals can set up such an amazing site and concept in action. Thanks Aditya for some candid and interesting answers.

1. Where did the idea come from?

I was in the US and we initially had decided to start a business focused blog which didn't excite us as much as we thought so we decided to do something drastically different. This was when podcasting was fairly new and hence we decided to give it a shot. We read a lot of blogs but we felt that blogging wasnt for us and podcasting was the ideal platform cause not everyone can write as well as they can talk. Moreover, through podcasting we had a more informal and interactive alternative as compared to blogging.

2. Is there a research that you have done on the business model?

Yes, the research was done by me and abhishek over a cup of coffee at Dadar CCD on the back of a paper napkin - money could be made though our model but it requires a lot of patience. Its a long gestation business! On a more serious note, We really don't believe in analyst reports and it was good to know that even the VCs dont take the reports seriously. That being said we have spoken to a Media houses and we were pleasantly surprised to know that they are willing to buy inventory on new media like blogs and podcasts. The next step would be video ad embeds but we are getting there slowly. Apart from that the business model is pretty simple and there is only one way to find out if it works i.e by doing it

3. Tell us how you go about constructing a website like this?

We use joomla as our platform. Its highly customizable and best of all its free. But the beauty of Indicast is not in the technology but the presentation style. A platform can be easily replicated but nobody has been able to replicate our themes as of today.

4. How did you actually build Indicast (how much did it cost, where do you host, what did you need to do in terms of paperwork, coding, finding people, etc)?

We have done everything possible to keep our technical costs low. We host our shows on archive.org which is a free service which takes care of our bandwidth costs. Joomla is free and we very adept at customizing it to our (rather our listeners) needs.

As I said technical coding etc is the easiest part of the business. We are short of people who are willing to experiment. We are not looking for experts in finance or technology. We are just looking for people with deep interest in finance/ technology or anything else. We encourage people to help us out part-time not because we dont have the cash to pay them but because we believe that they get good insights working in other fields which add a lot of value in our audio shows.

5. Capital is important for a venture like this, I feel. What are your Capex plans?

Our capital expenditure includes buying good audio - video equipment and supporting hardware. From a software point of view we are not that worried. The major expenditure we see lies in marketing and spreading the word. We are currently going though the word of mouth advertising way because we dont have money to throw away at advertising. We would much rather use it in developing audio-video content.

6. What are your goals with IC? I mean the number of page views,

Our goal, if we get the required financial and advisory support is to hit 1million/year download mark. We are currently doing around 80 thousand to 1 lakh downloads/year. Its enough for us to break even and make a profit. Our calculations show a modest revenue potential of 2-3 crores.

7. How do you market IC?

As you know we are marketing indicast through blogs. We have an affiliate program for Indian bloggers which helps us increase downloads. It is still in testing phase. Apart from that, we havent really conducted any formal marketing campaign. We try to create value to the user and have a good SEO system which helps us attracts users from google. For Example, during the world cup we forecasted that people would be searching for score updates since they'll be working. So we started providing free web based audio commentary for Indian matches and have received a lot of traffic for this service. This service is donation based and whenever India wins we get good donations. We also have developed a lot of goodwill since our commentary is similar to Indicast. We make people feel as if they are sitting with their friend in a living room and watching the match! These commentary listeners end up listening our pod-casts.

8. What would you say to a young person who wants to do something entrepreneurial?

Just get going... you might have ideas but ideas dont make money. Executing the idea does.

9. How enjoyable, frustrating has been the journey so far?

Its both... we are enjoying it whenever we are creating content but its frustrating when we see the month end revenue. But also, something that a VC told me that as an entrepreneur you will only get instant failure but never will you get instant success. This keeps us going.

Thanks, Aditya

web: http://www.theindicast.com

How to find the best financial products in India

I have been looking around for a price comparison portal for personal finance products and I found Ecompare

The site looks very promising and Clayton Scott, Director, Ecompare, was very prompt with the answers I was looking for. Yes, its about time the Indian consumer had a quality service that can help them find the right product

1. What is ECompare?

Ecompare is a price comparison service that helps users easily find the best finance products available in the market. We aim to deliver simple to use service to assist our users quickly find the most relevant products.

2. Where did the idea come from? What is the research you have done on the business model?

Ecompare is based upon the success of the price comparison concept in other countries where it has grown over the last few years. We believe that its about time the Indian consumer had a quality service that can help them find the right product. We truly believe there is great potential for our product based upon our own research.

3. Are you planning to add Insurance products and Mutual Fund products?

We will certainly be adding insurance products to our service. However our priority at this stage is to launch mobile tariff comparisons first.

4. Tell us about your team.

We are a small team of 5 based in Hyderabad. We will be expanding over the coming months as we develop a sales team.

5. How has been the response? Can you give some idea about the traffic?

We have recieved a lot of very positive feedback on the concept. One user stated-

"This service is very helpful, it saves a lot of a consumer’s time and
effort. Its one of those services that one can really use and not one
of those that looks good sounds good but does nothing. "

We only launched 4 days ago with no large marketing push. Despite this traffic statistics are very encouraging for us at this very early stage. We are here for the long haul and our business model requires steady traffic growth so that is the key for us at this stage.

6. What are your goals with ECompare? I mean the number of page views daily and the revenue targets.

The goal for ecompare is to develop into the premier price comparison site in India. We truly want to deliver a service that helps our users save time and money and becomes a powerful tool for them in their search for the best financial products.

We believe that if we keep developing a quality information resource with expanding services our traffic and revenue targets will be achieved.

7. How do you market ECI?

SEO will be a major focus for us at this early point. As we expand the concept we will look to use wider marketing campaigns both online and offline.

All the best, Mr. Scott.

First Update for India's Online Weekly on personal finance

India’s first online weekly on personal finance had it’s first update today.

To begin with we had this week’s roundup. The roundup featured the monetary policy review by RBI Governor on July 31, the sentiments of the stock market, a review of the fund launched by UTI MF, a health insurance product from the ICICI Pru Life Insurance Company, etc.

Ajay Shah was kind enough to allow me to publish a very useful article on Derivatives on Nifty Junior and CNX-100. And we had three articles on Insurance, Stocks and Financial literacy.

And we also linked to an article by IndiaKnowledge @ Wharton titled Currency Conundrum: Is the strong rupee good or bad for India?

Go Take a look. And tell me how it is, please.

Social News Reading Site: Neoows.com

NEooWS is a Social NEWS reading site, where people can read news, make friends and share with them what's happening around the world. NEooWS looks to me a blend of a RSS Reader (I use Google Reader), Digg and Del.icio.us!! Interesting I think this is unique. They have all the major features like, Tagging, Commenting, Recommending, Emailing, Saving, etc. which other similar sites have. They plan to announce some unique features soon. The key point is NEooWS gets better as you use it every day, so why don't you check it out.

I wrote to Rahul Sapkal, the founder CEO and he has given greater details of his venture. Read on...

What is NEooWS?
NEooWS is an online RSS aggregator and reader with all the features of a conventional desktop reader and more. The idea behind NEooWS is to build communities around news. Users can add comments and vote for popularity of stories from various sources, tag stories, and create groups. It also allows to compare news stories from different sources.


Why'd you name it that?
Its NEWS with a pair of eyes in the middle. NEooWS .



Where did the idea come from? What is the research you have done on the business model?
The idea actually evolved from our experiments with RSS. We found RSS as a very powerful concept to build a feature-rich consolidation website. Before we knew it, we were consolidating news and stories from various popular sites in one place, making a very powerful platform to read news and share insights. NEooWS evolved organically
from an experiment to a social networking website around news.


How did you actually build NEooWS(how much did it cost, where do you host, what CMS, coding, finding people, etc)?
NEooWS was built by two friends over six months of effort. The user interface went through different looks before we arrived at the current look. Rahul Sapkal is the primary architect with backend and logistics support from a friend in California.

We have a long term relationship with our hosting provider Lunarpages (http://www.lunarpages.com). We host NEooWS from Lunarpages's San Diego datacenter.

We are very much in public beta right now, and we are seeing some aggressive growth in the number of people visiting the website daily. We have quite a few repeat visitors with over 1000 registered members. Typically, guests visiting the website have grown manifold since we launched, and the average time being spent on the site by users has been steadily increasing. We are monitoring these statistics on a daily basis and are working on translating the large number of guest users into daily visitors.


What are your goals with NEooWS ? I mean the number of page views daily and the revenue targets.
Our goal with NEooWS is to make it the single best choice to read news on the Internet. We have a solid plan which we plan to implement over the next 6-8 months, which will allow users to read news online,offline and while they are mobile. Our customization features are on target to be the best offered by any news site, and are aimed at providing unparalleled flexibility to users of NEooWS on how they wish to consume the content.

We wish to start monetizing NEooWS with targeted advertisements and value added features (coming soon) when we have our NEooWS story near completion (see above). The target is to gain momentum in converting users and kick-start revenues by the end of year 2007.


How do you market NEooWS?
Currently, we rely on reviews and interviews related to NEooWS to market the site. Our main marketing tool is word of mouth. This works well during a beta stage since we are getting our feet wet with a large number of users, and interviews such as this help in driving more users to the site. We are mostly testing most of the features to make sure they are absolutely solid for use by our valued audience at this time, and the limited marketing keeps traffic to a manageable level for us to work with and improve.

Once we reach our target feature set, we will be more direct in marketing NEooWS with inviting blog reviewers directly, targeted advertising using google, yahoo etc. to drive users to the site.


Is there a USP for NEooWS that you are working on?
Absolutely. I won’t elaborate, but suffice it to say that we are working on features that will target every consumer of news stories (online or offline) with value added features that will target everybody.


What would you say to a person who wants to do something entrepreneurial?
We say, keep at it. If you find an idea interesting because it solves a problem you are facing, chances are, there is an audience for you. How big the idea is depends on how many such target users you will eventually have. Niche ideas generally do much better in garnering an audience if the right marketing is put in the mix.

If you are engineers like us, get professional help to market your site.

Q. What importance do you give to finding the funds vis a vis the idea?
It actually depends on the idea. Some ideas can be implemented on a shoestring (such as NEooWS). Others need funding. In case of the latter, we believe it is mandatory to go through the step of finding funding since that puts you through a trial of fire. If you capture funding from VCs, your idea probably has merit and it is a matter of
good execution to succeed.

In case of NEooWS, it is privately funded (mainly time and hosting
costs), which enables us to control the agenda and features we would
like to provide. However we would like to hear from people interested in NEooWS or have a proposal to work with us, write to us at business@neoows.com.

India News Box: Interview with the Chief Web Architect

Avinash runs a popular blog on technical trade calls on Nifty 100 and I was a bit surprised to see him launch a news aggregator. But Avinash is an avid news reader and thought that the news aggregator would be useful for like minded people. And he learnt PHP from scratch to pursue this hobby/interest/utility!!

I asked Avinash about his efforts/thoughts on what he and his wife Tejaswini have taken up as an exciting project and am thankful for his prompt and candid replies. Thanks Avinash. (Btw, I'm referring you as the CWA: Chief Web Architect)

1. What is IndiaNewsBox?
IndiaNewsBox is a hyper aggregation service which aims at delivering news in a manner that it gives a comprehensive view of whats happening. The idea is to cover 9 major sources of news/views on subjects ranging from India General , Technology , Business .. to Tech Blogs ...so that a reader gets the comprehensive picture of news. In addition we have also added services like online near real time charting for stocks etc etc because we believe it is also extension of the news service which we provide.

2. Why'd you name it that?
Name !! Its good that you asked this question .. Umm actually i wanted to name it in a manner that it sounded different like my earlier blog SmellTheCheeseBlog.com and then i chanced upon the name called as GaramGaram and then started to design my site ... Once i had almost completed design i found that GaramGaram.com domain was no longer available for usage as it was booked by someone !!

As i was getting the website template developed by a professional I had to change the name then and there so IndiaNewsBox.com was born .. Not much thought went into it !! :)

In fact I never used the website template developed by the professional instead i got my wife to design one for me from scratch !

3. Where did the idea come from? What is the research you have done on the business model? Or do you just see this as a hobby?
I got this idea while i was trying to improve my SmellTheCheeseBlog.com to incorporate news into the blog. I felt that if ever there existed a service which could aggregate news from my favorite news sources in a single page it would be great ! !

I am an avid news reader and would visit two to three news websites to catch up with news . Thus i thought that if i come up with a news service like this then it would be useful for others .

So I created a prototype and asked for the opinion of a few friends . Based on their feedback I developed a UI along with my wife (who happened to be a web designer at that point of time :))

The research part of this site has happened over the last few months as I am evolving the product to cover more and more things based on user feedback
a) We added Live charting for NSE stocks
b) We are covering 18 of India's Best blogs
c) Regional Language coverage

The business model was quite simple as I did some research on the net and figured that if you are able to get 1000-2000 visitors / day on your site it is quite lucrative, meaning you can earn 300-400 US$ / month based on advertising. So I figured that it would not be difficult to achieve the target over an year (as this is not my full time job)

4. I guess you have some success from your stock calls on your blog? Do you have the same response on this NewsBox? Or better?
Yes Ranjan , I did manage to get a good response to my blog which gave the stock calls and that's why I was able to set IndiaNewsBox service . But i must admit the the business models for both the projects are different !!

SmellTheCheeseBlog.com is dependent on users giving money after making profits in their stock trades . While IndiaNewsBox is based on advertising revenue . I think i would be able to make decent amount of money only when I achieve the scale of 2000 visitors / day.

5. How did you actually build IndiaNewsBox(how much did it cost, where do you host, what did you need to do in terms of paperwork, coding, finding people, etc)?
This is the interesting part of the IndiaNewsBox story because the total cost of setting up of IndiaNewsBox is really zero !! . Meaning i did not spend any money at developing and coding this site as most of the webdesign is done by me wife (who was a web designer earlier) and the coding part has been done by me !! In fact most of the coding has been done with PHP and i had to learn PHP from scratch in order to develop this site.

So we are only a team of two people (me and my wife Tejaswini) who are working on this project.

Now coming to the hosting part it costs me 12 $ a month to host on Yahoo hosting . This hosting is pretty easy to manage . So all i need to break even in my site is to recover the cost of hosting .

Which am managing to do every month since am up and running :)

6. What are your goals with INB? I mean the number of page views daily and the revenue targets.
My Goal with this website is pretty basic meaning i would like to achieve page view of 4000-5000 / day which translates into atleast 1500-2000 visitors / day within the next 3 months . Once we achieve this scale then we will remodel the site to add new features like email delivery of news , customized IndiaNewsBox.com etc etc .

So initial goal is to reach 2000 visitors/day!! Long term goal is to make the portal to get 100000 page views / day ( moneycontrol.com has this now) . I believe that this is possible if we constantly react to user feedback and adapt ourselves.

Currently we are having traffic of 200-300 visitors resulting is around 500 page views and we are making revenues of 40-50 US $ / month !! Which is not much as it is not even equal to my one day salary but as things progress and we scale up we will make decent money ..

As they say its always difficult to make the first million and billions will follow later . The same holds in the web domain its difficult to get then first 1000 and then hopefully we will get our million visits soon !

7. How do you market INB?
We don't do any marketing , we have only done some search engine optimization so that we receive visits from Google . This gets us 10-20 new visitors / day . Some of the stick on and thus we are able to build a steady stream of visitors over the past 2-3 months ..

8. What would you say to a person who wants to do something entrepreneurial?
Entrepreneurship !! I think one needs to understand that being an entrepreneur is not that easy as it sounds and it needs huge sacrifices and energy to be spend . So before you start please think through of all the good things which you may have to give up when you take up and entrepreneurship !!

9. How much weightage/importance do you give to finding the funds vis a vis the idea?
I believe that execution is more important than the idea itself because ideas are available in dozens !! But its the execution and the promotions which make or break a product !

Funds .. If the funds are essential for implementing your vision then I would give it more importance than the idea part of it !

Those were some very candid and useful answers from a guy who is taking small steps to build a small business. It also explains the limitless opportunities available on the web. I wish Avinash and Tejaswini the very best. Once again I'm reminded of one of my favourite quotes:

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Interesting Links while on vacation

Aristotle said that "All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind". So how about being my own CEO for PersonalFinance 2.01 . Thoughts of a mind on vacation!

Yes, right now I'm on a vacation and conserving my energies even for this blog. But I do have some interesting links for you.

Rajesh Jain has an overview of India's digital infrastructure and it is indeed insightful and useful.

JDR of GetRichSlowly shares some resources for would be Entrepreneurs. It is more US centric but useful nevertheless.

Ajay Shah has an entry for those who are confused about monetary policy. Needs some knowledge of the background, though

"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy", says Edgar Bergen. Interesting !!! I'm unabashedly lazy. And I'm so happy!!

Personal Finance v/s Business Finance

We have a way of thinking in compartments. Me too. That's why I am always confused of putting personal finance and business finance together on this blog. I think I'm guilty of cramping too much in one blog and there should be two different blogs for each one of them. A third on government finance that includes Economics, Monetary poilcy, Budgets, etc.

But wait. Here's a post by Seth Godin which clears me of my guilt :) Read Marketer's guide to personal finance by Seth Godin.

Business Planning by Story telling

The best presentations have a story telling style behind it. And if you want to become an entrepreneur you have to write the story of your business. Popularly known as a Business Plan.

The Business Plan tells you and your investors whether the business makes any sense. It also tells the audience about your thoughts and abilities and whether you can make it all happen.

We know about the various elements of the Business Plan which are:

• Executive Summary, Company Description, Market Size, Technology description, Competetion, Sales Revenue generation, Finances, Management

There could be plans with slightly different headings but essentially they talk about as above. We might just focus on each of them separately but I'll start off where I most usually harp on: Finances

In this section of the plan you will try to explain how to set off your expenses with your revenues over a period of time. To me, this is very important. If you are not able to articulate that, it's time to rethink and maybe move away from the present idea to another one. Till you are able to build a model where you generate profits and build a sustainable enterprise.

One aspect of the Finances is deciding the right pricing. Head on to this article from Bnet for some insights. Determining the right pricing for your product/service

Entrepreneurship is a Jouney, not a Destination

15 years as an Entrepreneur is an inspiring read. Rajesh Jain is a serial entrepreneur who did his B Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1988, and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York in 1989. He then worked at NYNEX Science and Technology for 2 years before returning to India in 1992. He created India's first Internet portal which was launched in 1995, which was acquired by Sify in November 1999 for USD 115 million.

For many like me, entrepreneurship appears glamorous and sexy . But the minute you get started with entrepreneurship, you realize that it will take so much of hard work.

This was what was working in my mind when I wrote to Rajesh Jain and here's what he replied.

Its always a tough ask becoming an entrepreneur. Fortunately for me, I have known no other life :-) Most days are what I call 'down' days -- things don't end up going according to plan. But then one gets used to it.

Starting off as an entrepreneur is the hardest part. Its the journey and not just the destination which one should enjoy.

Rajesh Jain has promised that he will write some more about entrepreneurship in India on his blog. So if you have any plans to become an Entrepreneur, head on to his blog

Do You Have the Big Idea?

The Big Idea by Stephen D Strauss is an amazing read. It profiles dozens of creators who have gone ahead with launching their own innovation like remote control, Viagra, Tupperware, Barbie dolls, etc.

One of the profiles was on CocaCola. Coke is the no.1 brand in the world.Back in 1985, after facing tremendous competition from Pepsi, Coke took a bold and considered decision. It changed the formulation of its 100 year old flagship product.

No, it was not just a knee jerk reaction to competition from Pepsi and because Pepsi was winning all the taste tests. Coke carried out an elaborate $4 Million research and after the R&D team brewed a new formula that beat Pepsi handsomely, the Coke management launched the new Coke. During the launch, the Coke President thundered, "It's the surest move ever made".

New Coke bombed. And two months later, Coke was wise enough to reintroduce the Old Coke.

What were the mistakes that Coke made? One, people liked the new coke but the interview process did not expose them to the fact that the Old Coke would no longer be available.

Two, Coke estimated that only 10-12% Cola drinkers would be upset. But this 10-12% was sufficient to stir mass discontent!

Three, such a big brand has immense ownership. To the point that it is being owned by the public rather than the management! You can't tamper with their whims and fancies. It's similar to our Indian cricketers!! They are owned by the people rather than themselves. Look what Sachin has to face despite being a legend like that.

We digress. The Coke story does not end here. No heads rolled despite the massive mistake/blunder by the top management. No, it's not the lack of accountability. In fact the blunder helped Coke to understand their customers better and reinforced their brand in a powerful manner. Also the fact that the top management took responsibility for the mistake and rectified it fast, within two months!!

My takeaways? Always lookout for improvement. You may take a bad decision. But if you accept your mistakes and make corrections, the blunder would make you stronger.

Back to some real gems from the book which teaches us to innovate- and grow richer.

1. Think of things that never were and ask, "Why Not?"
2. The power of One: You can make a difference.
3. Keep it Simple, Stupid. (KISS)
4. First is Best.
5. Try, Try again.
6. Risky business brings out the best in you. It is more exciting, crazy, fun, exasperating, rewarding, frightening and challenging.
7. Synergy is necessary. 1+1 = 11!!

The book ends with Goethe's couplet: Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

.

Reviews, Tips, Calculators with an Indian perspective.

JobOkPlease: A Job Site For Students and Fresh Grads

Rasmi Bansal is the Editor and Publisher of a popular youth magazine called JAM - Just Another Magazine. JAM magazine has just launched Jobokplease.com. A job site whose USP is opportunities for students and fresh graduates.

Rashmi Bansal took time to answer some questions on the idea, process and the targets in respect of her jobsite. As she says, "It's always more a question of self-belief and 'daring to do' rather than lack of funds which prevents you.If you are convinced about your idea and business model, just do it."

The answers are enlightening. All the best, Rashmi.

1. What is JobOkPlease?
Jobokplease.com is a job site for students and freshers. The USP is that we're featuring jobs in categories like part-time jobs, freelance jobs, projects, vacation jobs and also 'first jobs' for fresh grads. Every young person out there could do with a little extra pocket money - as well as the exposure to the working world. Companies too are looking for young talent but don't know where or how to find it. So there is definitely a need out there, from both employers and jobseekers.

2. Why'd you name it that?
The JAM team brainstormed and came up with several names. We liked this one because it cued jobs and yet has a touch of irreverence to it which is the JAM hallmark. Also, the name was available across all domains (.com, .net, .inetc!)

3. Where did the idea come from? What is the researchyou have done on the business model?
Way back in 1996 JAM kicked off a summer internships' program where we placed bright young people in some excellent companies. These were the kind of interesting jobs which were generally not open to undergraduate students. Companies we tied up with included Leo Burnett, Euro RSCG, TV18, Sony Music,rediff.com, Hindustan Lever, and so on.

The JAM internships program was hugely successful - it attracted some of the best young minds. For some it was actually a life-changing experience. An engineering student, for example, shifted to journalism while a guy doing hotel management joined advertising instead.

Internships was a program we conducted for many years as a brand-building exercise for JAM and a service toour readers. In the last couple of years we found employers were coming on their own and wanting to advertise jobs with us. As a small publication without a dedicated classified department we found it uneconomical to accept these job listings as too much administration was involved for a very nominal revenue.

So we decided to shift the process to the internet. As employers are now familiar with and used to posting on jobsites we would not have to educate them. And the job site market reaching a more mature stage there is room now for niche brands like ours. The business model already exists - we are only creating a new vertical within it which is in sync with the audience we have been catering to through JAM magazine and jammag.com - the youth aged 16-24.

3A.Tell us how you go about constructing a job boardlike this once you have the idea?
The development and design was in-house.

4. I guess you have some success from offlineparticipation in the past. Do u think an onlinejobboard of this kind will click?
We already have 50 registered employers and 35 jobs in diverse roles and industries, from advertising and journalism to software and even NGOs. If you count no. of openings the jobs are actually 300+, however what we are more keen on is quality, not quantity of jobs.We've also attracted about 1500 jobseekers. We are now kicking off a promotional campaign for JobOkPlease among young people -at college festivals, through stickers and posters on campuses.

There will also be cross-promotions. Every issue of JAM will feature hot job listings and these jobs automatically appear on the JAM homepage www.jammag.com. We are growing the site organically,and I would evaluate its success only in another month or two. This is the seeding stage."

5. How did you actually build JobOkPlease (how muchdid it cost, where do you host, what did you need to do in terms of paperwork, coding, finding people, etc)?
As I mentioned, everything was done in-house by our existing design and development team. I can't get into specifics.

5A. How do u find the funds?
It's more a quesion of time and bandwidth than funds.The team very clear what it wanted - a clean,focussed, youthful looking site - and hence we had no expensive re-iterations. Of course small bugs keep getting discovered which we keep fixing!

6. What are your goals with JOP? I mean the number of registrations, (jobseeker and employer) and the revenue targets.
By the end of 2007 I would like to see 500 employers, 3500 jobs and 15,0000 registered jobseekers. More than that would be a bonus :) Once the site achieves a critical mass, I am sure revenues will follow.

7. How do you market JOP?
As I mentioned, we are now kicking off a promotional campaign for JObokplease among young people -at College festivals, through stickers and posters on campuses.There will also be cross-promotions. Every issue ofJAM magazine will feature hot job listings and these jobs automatically appear on the JAm homepagewww.jammag.com. There are also other plans in the pipeline.

8. What would you say to a young person who wants to do something entrepreneurial?
It's always more a question of self-belief and 'daringto do' rather than lack of funds which prevents you. If you are convinced about your idea and business model, just do it.

9. What qualities do you look for when hiring? Whatis your team like, in terms of numbers and experience?
The right skill set as well as an optimistic, problem solving attitude. The JAM team is 30 in number but across a wide set of roles and functions, hence difficult to give you a profile. On the one hand we have senior, experienced people, on the other we regularly take in freshers. But the mindset across the board is youthful.

10. How much weightage/importance do you give to finding the funds vis a vis the idea?
Like I said... funds come when the idea is strong and you have the guts to implement it!

Thanks Rashmi!The answers are enlightening.


Reviews, Tips, Calculators with an Indian perspective.

Take the Pledge of Entrepreneurship

Visit National Entrepreneurship Network


Reviews, Tips, Calculators with an Indian perspective.

India Budget 2007: Playing It Safe

This is my fourth post in three days on India's Budget 2007. I started with a review of the last years budget, postulated my own "anal"-ysis on budget & cricket the next day and gave a running commentary as it unfolded today.

So it is befitting that I run the victory lap for myself (I'm so proud of my achievements/learning a new thing). I mean I have the right to review the budget too! :)

Tomorrow's paper will be full of reviews by learned and not so learned people. Political parties prepare well in advance. They have a review template much before the budget and they could have easily reviewed the whole thing yesterday or the day before!

But seriously, here's what I could make out after putting my brain/kidney into some storm.

• The fiscal deficit has been pegged at 3.3% from 3.8% last year even though the projected expenditure has been raised from Rs 5.63 lac crore to Rs 6.82 lac crore. This means that revenues will grow by a bigger margin without taxing the common man.
• I also applaud the E-Governance allocation growth from Rs.395 to Rs.719 crore.
• Tax rates have largely been left alone even though there is duty rate reduction from 12.5% to 10%. FM is playing it safe for sure.
• The dampner was ofcourse Dividend distribution tax being raised from 12.5 to 15 per cent and ESOPs being brought under FBT.
• I stand vindicated for my feeling that Agriculture will be a thrust area in the Budget. There are a lot of incentives and schemes announced for the sector.
• But I did not see any out of box thinking to manage inflation and also some vision to bring about the desired change in the Infrastructure woes of the country.
• I expected some visionary thinking on the part of our honourable FM and PM and was disappointed. The budget was just another budget.

Ofcourse it is easier said than done. I feel that the Government has a limited role in building the economy. The real builders are the people of the country. I think it's time to excite and educate the youth of the country to think creatively and build on the vast opportunities available. Time to take responsibility instead of cribbing on the Government's inefficiency and inabilities.

Entrepreneurship is one area where the FM and the PM can work to create an encouraging atmosphere. There is an Entrepreneurship Week being celebrated. Entrepreneurship Week India is being run concurrently with Entrepreneurship Week US that has been sanctioned by the US House of Representatives, and initiated by the Kauffman Foundation, the New York Times and Inc. magazine.

Could there be a political will supporting the climate for entrepreneurship in India?

Reviews, Tips, Calculators with an Indian perspective.

Entrepreneurship Week India: Feb24-Mar 03, 2007

Held for the first time, Entrepreneurship Week India will celebrate today’s opportunities and work to improve the ecosystem for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial people through activities and awareness campaigns.

Entrepreneurship Week India will be run concurrently with Entrepreneurship Week US that has been sanctioned by the US House of Representatives, and initiated by the Kauffman Foundation, the New York Times and Inc. magazine.

To be truly successful, this initiative has to become a nationwide movement. Spread the word around and participate. Visit their blog and their site



Reviews, Tips, Calculators with an Indian perspective.

Freedom & Responsibility of Working on your idea

Entrepreneurship is often a difficult undertaking, as a majority of new businesses fail. So what keeps the dreamy eyed entrepreneurs going. Or what makes an entrepreneur?

• The entrepreneur has to have an enthusiastic vision, the driving force of an enterprise.
• The entrepreneur's vision is usually supported by a specific business plan. I think when the overall blueprint to realize the vision is clear, the details may be incomplete, flexible, and evolving.
• With persistence and determination, the entrepreneur develops strategies to change the vision into reality.
• The entrepreneur takes the initial responsibility to cause a vision to become a success.
  Entrepreneurs take prudent risks. They assess costs, market/customer needs and persuade others to join and help.
• An entrepreneur is usually a positive thinker and a decision maker.

The idea of becoming an Entrepreneur is a sexy one. But taking the road less travelled is tough. You have the freedom to work with your ideas and have your own work time and space. But the freedom can work out to a demanding schedule of 18-20 hours a day!!

Guess you have the freedom to work in a Tshirt and your joggers too. But working while in a Tshirt/ Joggers is revolting to me!!