I am doing a series of interviews with entrepreneurs, VCS and technologists on entrepreneurship and this interview with Raj Jaswa is part of that series. Raj Jaswa, is President of the The Indus Entrepreneurs, Silicon Valley. I was curious to find out about the early days in Silicon Valley (the late 1980s and early 1990s) […]
Just 85 lakh internet subscribers?
A TRAI report (17 April, 2007) contains statistics on Internet “subscribers”: 85.47 lakh in number. Of this, the total number of broadband subscribers are 20.54 lakh as of 31 December 2006. That would probably comprise cyber cafes, home users and some SMEs. Alarmingly low, I think, though the quarterly growth rate of 13% might be […]
PE gives Bears a headache
Businessweek has an interesting piece on how PE and turnaround funds are making life difficult for short-sellers: But as short-selling has proliferated, it has become increasingly difficult to make money at the game. Whereas a profit-challenged enterprise may once have floundered until shutting down or filing for bankruptcy, many such companies are now targets for […]
IT Services & BPO Connect – Bangalore, July 12
Hi, Have IT Services and BPO become a “big boys only” game? Can SMEs survive and thrive in these sectors? What are the new opportunities in IT Services? Can KPOs ever IPO? My company, Venture Intelligence, is organizing a conference where successful entrepreneurs, top industry executives and investors will explore these questions in interactive panel […]
Startups, Advertising and Brand Building
Advertising, Brand building and sales. Exactly! This is what every start up would think in terms of progress that could happen through advertising. So whatz aim of advertising. Is it aimed to build brands or bringing customers or for just making a feeler in the industry? Tough question to answer. If you ask advertising pundits, […]
Nishith Desai on Tax, Law and Strategy in India
Nishith Desai is an international lawyer and tax consultant and I recently caught up with him to find out about tax, law and strategy in India. This is a two-part interview. In Part-1 he talks about his entertainment law practice (clients include Amitabh Bachchan, Disney, Shekar Kapoor and others) and about Venture Capital in India. […]
Attracting Vanity Users for a Social Network
I am a regular user of Social network like FaceBook,Orkut, LinkedIn. Collaborative Knowledge Sharing Networks Like Wikipedia , WikiQuote,Del.icio.us Q&A forums like USENET ,Linkedin Answer ,Yahoo Answers . Media centric communities like Flickr,Slideshare,Youtube I have noticed that most of the time some specific member of network are more Vocal , enthusiast and involved than others. […]
Strategic Investors – When and how
With the flurry of venture money pouring into India, the other class of investors that are equally upbeat is strategic investors and corporates. I have met a few entrepreneurs who have received “investment offers” from these investors, and especially in absence of any pure financial offers, the option seems compelling — “they will put in […]
eLearning for all
Create an eLearning system where ANYONE can learn the way they want to learn. For example, if I am comfortable learning with the help of a person, I click on a subject and poof! appears a window with a live person web-camming with you. It is an interactive session on-demand, when you need it, in […]
Internationalization and Localization – Where Social Network Stands?
I read Flickr (Yahoo photo sharing) has added 7 more languages and 55% of their user base (24 million) is international. Also, interesting to note Alexa India rating of Orkut (Rank 2), YouTube (Rank 7) and Blogger.com (Rank 10) This is the current picture. However; I also hear a lot that there is a play […]
Giving back to society – Can for-profit and not-for-profit coexist?
Every once in a while, the question about giving back to the society pops up in my mind and in my friend’s circle, but we end up dropping it and continuing to do what we have been doing: earn more money. Howver, so many things have been happening around about me on this topic recently […]
Tim O’ Reilly on Web 2.0
Tim O’ Reilly on Web 2.0