This is the story of a startup that never was. It’s a story which I want to document to crystallize learning which I myself have had from this experience and also for several wannabe innovators/entrepreneurs to read and take lesson from. The Story In the heady days of 2004 when me and Hemant were incubating MastishK , our talk sessions lasting into the wee hours of the morning often threw open many revolutionary ideas which we canned and kept at the back of our minds for future use. One such idea was to create a newspaper out of blog content – essentially as we realized later, we wanted to build an intelligent aggregator of user generated content. Fast forward to 2006, when I conceptualized the idea in words and posted a prelude to it on my blog. The idea then developed further on in discussions with Aurko, Shubham and Manish. I developed a very basic prototype of the idea (I learnt Ajax during this development phase) but it was looking very amateurish. About the same time, I got hook

I have previously written about Prof. Prasad and his initiatives to promote student entrepreneruship through his National Center for student Entrepreneurship (NCSE) in the NITIE campus. He is courting students nowadays for his Hamara Dhandha initative. Prodded by him to come and 'lecture' the students on the idea of student entrepreneurship - I went to NITIE on July 4th - the audience was thin because committee interviews were going on. So not sure if Prof Prasad will get many volunteers ... I explained the guys the need for looking our of the NITIE universe - the PMG's and Placecoms - to work in stuff like Hamara Dhandha. The philosophy doing rounds in most B-school campuses (as it had been through our times as well) is that stuff like events, industry lectures, internal committees, paper presentations etc - are the major contributors towards a heavier CV which ultimately helps during placement. However, what this philosophy fails to notice is how the landscape in Busin

You're not a hoopy frood You thought you were really with it and in with your younger colleagues but they just laugh at you because you can't hear beyond this! The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 14.1kHz Find out which ultrasonic ringtones you can hear!

A scoop from Millennials as Entrepreneurs: Time to Grow Up Everyone is quick to point out the shortcomings and idiosyncrasies of millennials, but I prefer other research which reveals some positive attributes from a business perspective, including the following: Confidence Goal and achievement oriented Multi-cultural Civic minded On the other side of the coin, there are some worrisome millennial attributes relative to the role of entrepreneur: Need to be scheduled Not ready for the “wild west.” Consensus driven Earlier post on being a Millennial

Monsoon view from my window ... East West Street Art | Location: Parel-Elphinston Flyover on the Ambedkar Marg A rainy day drive to office ...

Image Credit phishpot from FlickR It's a beautiful sight - a lit up marketplace, cars driving through the lane in the middle with their own lights on, the slow speed making drivers push their breaks and hence a lot of red lights as well and rain falling from the above. I like night time - ever since my school days when we used to practice for our annual function at night in school. I used to love seeing the school building lit up. At night all the imperfections in buildings are hidden, the lights then highlight the best parts and shapes accentuating the looks. I loved roaming around my school campus at night, and the habit continued in college. Life at NITIE took my liking for night times to a completely new level - night time was for committee meetings, parties and chatting with friends - it was THE time. Night life is one of the hallmarks of the modern era; in the ancient times night was associated with darkness and hence fear of the wild, in the medieval it was the time of cri

The difference between Golf and Entrepreneurship is that as an entrepreneur, you are the golfer who must also run as his own caddie! *Original Quote - Copyrighted. Please acknowledge my moral right of being identified and recognized as its 'creator' when using it :-)

Sometimes marketing managers make some very obvious mistakes - like this StanChart advert below (Click the image/ here to see complete ad). Using a pack of cards to depict one's savings is really a cruel cruel joke on people - especially in the current financial circumstances.  Probably a more appropriate image to use here would have been a kid playing lego blocks and a parent adding on top of the structure. 

It is quite common to find an author releasing an excerpt of his/her book on the web to create an initial buzz. Notable example include Purple Cow  , Getting Real (released complete), and Chetan Bhagat's 3 Mistakes . But the trend was started in the 19th century by French Novelist  Honoré de Balzac  with his novel  La Peau de chagrin  .  Before the book was completed, Balzac created excitement about it by publishing a series of articles and story fragments in several Parisian journals. Although he was five months late in delivering the manuscript, he succeeded in generating sufficient interest that the novel sold out instantly upon its publication.  Set in early 19th-century Paris, La Peau de chagrin tells the story of a young man who finds a magic piece of  shagreen  that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy. Even I am thinking of releasing an e-Book, just gotta find some time off to compose i

As a part of promotions for the latest flick title 99, some theatres were offering 2 tickets for Rs 99.  Call it a marketing gimmick for the movie's popularization or a taste of market reality for the strike-stricken movie-theatre-multiplex market, but its an awsome offer ... almost 1/4th the(old) prices; multiplexes showing desperate reflexes still their muscle flexes (PJ credit: Arijit). And I thought someone was giving away branded wrist watches for Rs.99