What are the reasons that some startup succeed while some fail? Why do products instantly attract a multitude of users while other still lag at user acquisition, even after considerable marketing expenses? The answer to this can be a variety of reasons such as user interface, design, customer service, utility value and sometimes even price.…More
What are the key differences in being a tech entrepreneur in US and India?
I read this question on Quora and thought of adding my perspective to it. I am going to address the point of key differences between these two countries and their eco systems. 1. In India, our ecosystem surrounding Startups is still in the Nascent stage. Most people would say that the ecosystem is absent, but I don’t think…More
Microsoft, Facebook Announce Patent Agreement
Microsoft just announced a Patent agreement with Facebook (you can check out the original Press Release below) According to Robert Scoble (Startup Liaison Officer at Rackspace Managed Hosting), this can get extremely interesting for a few reasons: 1. It shows Microsoft has no chance at all to get into social game other than to license Facebook.…More
Want to ‘Social’ise your Startup? Heres How
Build a company that’s social from the beginning. Create your social media accounts as you grow to develop an early fan base. Whether it’s limited to only a twitter account or you want to indulge various mediums depends on the nature of your product, but the important thing to remember is that you should use your…More
Breaking News: Facebook just agreed to acquire Instagram for $1Billion
Posted by Nameet Potnis 15 minutes ago Facebook has agreed to acquire Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg just shared the following update on his Facebook Timeline. “I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook. For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for…More
Indian Government gets ready to ‘spy’ on Blackberry users emails and BBM
Blackberry’s highly secure BBM service could now be open to Government scrutiny. Back in March 2008 the government of India had asked Blackberry to allow them to intercept emails sent over Blackberry’s servers to monitor unlawful activity. If recent reports from India Today are to be believed, the government will soon be able to do…More
Five Fundraising tips for start-ups
Post adapted from Sankalp Forum As an entrepreneur, scaling your business is both an exciting and difficult task. You have a great idea, a great team, and an interesting business model but moving from 5,000 customers to 500,000 and then five million is a complicated and capital-intensive process. For enterprises that aim to create social…More
blog maverick I hear it all the time from people. “I’m passionate about it.” “I’m not going to quit, It’s my passion”. Or I hear it as advice to students and others “Follow your passion”. What a bunch of BS. “Follow Your Passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get. Why…More
One of the most innovative Pinterest Campaigns so far by Kotex
For brands trying to get their heads around Pinterest, here’s a clever engagement of the site’s users by Kotex. For a Kotex campaign called “Woman’s Inspiration Day,” Israeli agency Smoyz targeted 50 “influential” Pinterest users, studied their Pinterest boards, and then made handcrafted gifts for those users based on the items they liked most. The…More
Funding a Start-up in India to be classified as Taxable income!
A recent clause in India’s 2012 Budget proposes taxing Indian start-ups 30% of the amount invested by Angel investors by terming the investment as income. The Memorandum of the Finance Bill 2012 states “It is proposed to insert a new clause in section 56(2). The new clause will apply where a company, not being a…More
The Story of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’
Keep Calm and Carry On was a propaganda poster produced by the British government in 1939 during the beginning of the Second World War, intended to raise the morale of the British public in the event of invasion. The poster was rediscovered in 2000 and has been re-issued by a number of private sector companies,…More
Homeless people as the new 4G wifi hubs!
An unconventional experiment which involved using homeless people as 4G mobile wi-fi hotspots has gather a lot of crowd at the SXSW happening at Austin, TX. The project is defined as a “Charitable Experiment“. A lot of homeless men equipped with Verizon MiFi’s wearing specially printed t-shirts which say, for eg., “Hi, my name is Clarence, I am a 4G hotspot,…More
Technology meets DesignMore
How to do what you Love
To do something well you have to like it. That idea is not exactly novel. We’ve got it down to four words: “Do what you love.” But it’s not enough just to tell people that. Doing what you love is complicated. The very idea is foreign to what most of us learn as kids. When…More
Nameet Potnis 