Alok, With your experience with Jobs Ahead you would be in the best position to see if this blog could help startups connect with people who want to work in startups. For the IIM-A person I got over 10 startups who were interested. In addition an IIM – C person wanted to investigate working in […]
The D word
What to do promoters in India fear the most. I think it is Dilution or the “D” word. It is obvious that if you can build a billion $ company and own 90% or even 30% of it then it is great. However, if you could build a billion $ company and own only10%. Would […]
Wants to join a Startup
I received a mail from a student who is part of the graduating class of PGP students at IIM – Ahmedabad. He is keen on joining a start up to gain experience to do his own in the future. Startups that may be interested in recruiting him please contact me. He has no sector preferences […]
Rang De Basanti
I saw this movie over the weekend and was very impressed by how a strong social message ( Zero tolerance for Corruption) and the need for the youth to play an active role was delivered in an entertaining way. The thesis that the new exploiters replacing the British are corrupt politicians is probably not too […]
AARP + Senior Living
I still have a year before I turn 50 and can join AARP the American Association of Retired Persons. My Dad was visiting me and he keeps talking about the need for Senior living facilities like Sunrise. Does India present an opportunity for something like AARP and/or Sunrise. With all the real estate funds being […]
Prosper + 600000 villages
Sometimes elephants get created by connecting disjointed inputs. An entrepreneur Narain sent me this article from Business Week. This is like an eBay for loans. I also saw an advertisement in the paper where Ministry of Information & Technology is interested in funding SCA ( Service Centre Agency) which will manage CSC ( Common Service […]
IIM – L catches Startup Fever
Interest in entrepreneurship is quite high at IIM Lucknow. Here is a quote I received from a student at IIM – Lucknow. In fact, this year in IIML there has been a mass exodus by the students towards startups. 6 people are signing out to start their own company. Another one student is joining a […]
Startup Campus Recruitment
In GISIL as we look at our people needs we think we need a mix of fresh and experienced people. At the premier management campuses you have experienced as well as fresh people. In the engineering campuses most of the people would have no work experience. I may in the next few weeks talk at […]
Venture Woods Works
The one regret that I have on joining GISIL is that I will not have advisory bandwidth. Before joining GISIL two entrepreneurs connected with me based on my 10-10 thinking post. I visted them in Bhopal and Chandigarh and all of us found the interaction useful. I hope both these entrepreneurs do well and I […]
IIM Ahmedabad Talk
I visited Ahmedabad on Jan 13 as a judge for Anveshan ( B-plan contest) spoke to a few students at IIM Ahmedabad on entrepreneurship, elephants and joining startups. The response was very encouraging. A few students want to post on venture woods and connect with interesting early stage startups. There could be other bright folks […]
Joining Startup – Timing
Apologies for not posting for so long but I have been rather busy. I thought my startup days were over but I ended up investing some money and joining a startup in Gurgaon called GISIL. My dream was to create another elephant in the payment space and that matched GISIL’s aspirations. I joined Jan 18 […]
Critical Mass
In India what would be some good ways to get lets say 1 million members signed up. What you are becoming a member for is important but lets assume that the value proposition makes sense. Initially if say for the first 10000 members sign up is free. Then membership costs Rs 99/-. A member gets […]