Building second Layer within Startups
Posted by: venturevilla on: September 16, 2008
- In: Creative Ideas | Hiring | Retaining | Startup
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A lot of startups do have good founding team which is capable of building the initial product/service. These people are able to do initial groundwork to bring startup to decent level. But all organizations want to grow with time and founders want to realize their dreams in big-way. So, from here originates the need of second set of key people who can drive organization to new heights. These people are typically either have less exposure than founders or want to gain experience before venturing to start at their own. Typically these people bring experience and freshness and can be very helpful to scale-up operations. Founders should understand the relevance of 2nd layer and act in following manner:
1. Delegating Work : Founders should start delegating work-areas in which they are either not good or they don’t have bandwidth to carry it effectively. The 2nd layer of people should be given good amount of flexibility and responsibility with defined objective measures. These people should not ask founders for each small issues. By doing so, founders can focus their energies on core functional areas and other strategic issues.
2. Treating them as partners : Founders should not 2nd layer as employees only, since they can be very critical in scaling-up the business. They should be seen as business partners with reasonable equity participation as per time of entry and level. Even in terms of respect and place within organization they should be treated well.
3. Transparency : Founders should be transparent with 2nd layer, since these people are smart enough to gauge internal happenings. There is no point being secretive with these folks. Anyways, you want to groom them as future managers, hence let them understand good and bad things about the organization. If you have a genuine point and it is conveyed properly, then these guys would understand it in no time. Let them get complete view, rather than pointers.
4. Risk & Rewards : Tell them about risks of negative scenarios, while share rewards when they perform well. Think the way you would treat yourself in positive & negative scenarios. The 2nd layer will stick for longer time, once they start feeling sense of attachment and start sharing company’s vision.
Once you are able to build a solid 2nd layer, there is no reason why you can’t scale-up.
Best Online PR sources for Indian Startups
Posted by: venturevilla on: September 8, 2008
Indian Startups which need to gain visibility should use low-cost/free PR sources. These online sources reach out huge number of people at very low cost. Also good PR adds credibility about your company and services. There are some sources which Indian Startups should definitely explore:
1. PR.com : PR.com is a revolutionary Free Press Release Distribution Service where each business also has a full company profile to promote everything about its business. One can submit news and press releases via global online news and press release distribution service with powerful distribution points such as AskJeeves News, Excite News, Topix.net, MSN News etc. Utilizing full Company Profile you can promote your business, post products and services with full descriptions and images, distribute press releases, post job opportunities, and can do many more things. To see some recent Press Releases from India visit
2. IndiaPRWire.com : India PRwire is bringing a truly global platform for news and information distribution emanating from India. The service is a forum through which corporate houses, institutions, government departments, non-government organisations, associations, non-profit organizations and individuals can reach out to the world to tell their story. For the journalists, this becomes a ready resource and ‘reckoner’ for up-to-date, unbiased news and information on developments that have taken place. The India PRwire gamut of services includes PR posting, electronic distribution through PR Flash, targeted distribution, distribution of PR related photographs and documents.
3. Business Wire India : Business Wire India is the definitive platform for corporate news distribution and media monitoring for any company in India. They distribute news across India for leading Indian companies and indeed any company in the world interested in reaching this vibrant market. They are the exclusive India affiliate of Business Wire.
Press releases distributed through their system are immediately published in full text on the leading information systems in India (UNI wire service, IANS wire service, Yahoo! India, Rediff.com, HindustanTimes.com and many others), and are emailed and faxed to their 4500-strong journalist community.
4. PR Log : PRLog is a free online press release service. One can submit press releases at no charge. All of their services are free. Some relevant info is given below:
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5. Open PR : Open PR helps you to publish articles free of cost . They want to give smaller companies the chance to go public with their news at any time. A change to a fee-based service is not planned. openPR was launched in April 2004. openpr.com was relaunched in July 2005. It is run by the journalist Roland K. R. Becker and his team of editors in Schleswig and Hamburg, Germany.
Online PR can help you to get business, investors or just well-wishers.
Web 2.0 Expo : New York Edition
Posted by: venturevilla on: September 4, 2008
- In: Events | Web 2.0
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The first Web 2.0 Expo NYC is going to start on 16th September. There would be sessions for developers, designers, media & marketers, and executives.
Web 2.0 Expo is a global annual gathering of technical, design, marketing, and business professionals who are building the next generation web. Web 2.0 Expo features the most innovative and successful Internet industry figures and companies providing attendees with examples of business models, development paradigms, and design strategies to enable mainstream businesses and new arrivals to the Web 2.0 world to take advantage of this new generation of services and opportunities. Web 2.0 Expo is co-produced by TechWeb and O’Reilly Media.
The Web continues to be an engine of economic growth, fueled by a host of new business models, development models, and design patterns that collectively fall under the umbrella of Web 2.0, a term coined at the birth of Web 2.0 Summit (formerly named Web 2.0 Conference), a joint venture between TechWeb and O’Reilly Media.
To meet the increasing demand for Web 2.0 comprehension and skills, and to build a broader Web 2.0 community, TechWeb and O’Reilly Media launched the inaugural Web 2.0 Expo in April 2007 in San Francisco. That event was the first conference and tradeshow for the rapidly growing ranks of designers and developers, product managers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketers, and business strategists who are embracing the opportunities created by Web 2.0 technologies. Web 2.0 Expo has now expanded to include not only Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, but also Europe, Tokyo, and New York.
Program Information
The program will spotlight experts, leaders, and under-the-radar innovations, and in the spirit of Web 2.0, there will be ample opportunity for attendees to connect, contribute, and collaborate. Web 2.0 Expo is a place for creativity, engineering, and innovation, focusing on four conversations:
- Education: a vetted, cohesive conference program to maximize the sharing of knowledge and expertise around creating the next generation web
- Tradeshow: a traditional tradeshow floor introducing builders of the Web to providers of tools, technology, services and infrastructure
- Networking: a meeting ground fostering face-to-face business development for entrepreneurs, VCs, partnerships and recruitment
- Launch Pad: a platform for notable companies and products to debut
Conference Tracks will Include:
- Landscape & Strategy
- Design & UX
- Development
- Media & Marketing
- 2.0 at Work
- Finance
- Performance & Scaling
Who Should Attend?
Web 2.0 Expo is explicitly designed to address the needs of technical, design, marketing, and business professionals building the next generation web, including:
- Business strategists
- Web and UI designers
- Product managers
- Marketing professionals
- CxOs and IT managers
- Business managers
- Developers in established companies
- Grass roots developers and hackers
- Companies and organizations tracking emerging technologies
- VCs and entrepreneurs
Past Web 2.0 Expo events brought together participants from these–and many more–companies and organizations: Adobe, AOL, American Greetings Interactive, Apple, BA Venture Partners, BP, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Discovery Health Media, Dow Jones & Company, EMC, Experian Interactive, First Round Capital, Great Spirit Ventures, Hitachi, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, IEEE, Intel Corporation, Intuit, Jet Propultion Laboratory, Labrador Ventures, MTV Networks, Magazine Publishers of America, McGill University, Monster Worldwide, Motion Picture Association of America, Nokia, North Bridge Venture Partners, Northrop Grumman Information Technology, RealNetworks, Simon & Schuster, Standard & Poor’s, Sun Microsystems, Symbol Technologies, The Heritage Foundation, The Wall Street Journal Online, Turner Broadcastings Systems, University of Richmond, University of Southern California, Walt Disney Internet Group, WhitePages.com.
What Is Web 2.0?
Defining exactly what Web 2.0 means is still an ongoing conversation. Tim O’Reilly attempts to clarify Web 2.0, digging into what it means to view the Web as a platform, and which applications fall squarely under its purview and which do not. Read more here.
TATA NEN Hottest Startups Awards 2008
Posted by: venturevilla on: August 28, 2008
- In: Entrepreneurship | Events
- 1 Comment
The TATA NEN Hottest Startups Awards are the first ever people’s choice Awards to recognize the highest-potential startups in India:
- Young Companies with great potential to grow…
- Companies with the ability to change their industries…
- Companies that will create jobs and drive economic growth…
The TATA NEN Hottest Startups Awards are the first Awards designed to engage the Public throughout the process: the Public nominates the companies; information on the nominees is available to all, via a website; and winners are chosen through a combination of Public Voting and Expert Judges’ ratings.
India is witnessing a wave of growth. More individuals are taking the risk, stepping away from the comfort of jobs and institutes, and are starting companies to capitalize on today’s opportunities. The TATA NEN Hottest Startups Awards will provide these entrepreneurs with visibility, and enable them to connect more easily with resources. And by engaging the public, TATA NEN Hottest Startup Awards aims to increase appreciation and support for these future engines of growth.
The TATA NEN Hottest Startups Awards celebrate their entrepreneurial spirit: Dare to try!
Awards competition structure
People are invited to nominate hot startups starting August 2008. Each nomination will be reviewed and rated by two Expert Judges. The number of Public Votes and Experts’ Ratings together determine the 30 shortlisted startups on October 15, 2008. The 30 shortlisted startups then campaign for votes in the final round. Ultimately, the five companies from the shortlist with the most final-round votes become the 5 TATA NEN Hottest Startups 2008 Winners.
Benefits for Winners
The Awards are designed to boost significantly the growth of the short-listed companies, and even more so that of the 5 Winners by providing publicity, business development support and access to funding. The support will be provided by IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, Microsoft, Indian Angel Network, TATA and NEN. Subject to fit, winners will get introduced to angels or VCs; and/or connected to industry experts; and get access to specially designed business training, mentoring, educational programs and incubation support.
Partners & Support Organizations
NEN and TATA have come together to lead this first-of-its-kind effort to showcase and support young high potential startups in India. Major Partners include Seedfund, Helion Ventures and HT Mint. Microsoft, IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Bangalore will provide support as Knowledge Partners. In addition, all the entrepreneurial communities of India have come on board as Associate Partners, including TiE, Indian Angel Network, Mumbai Angels, Proto.in, Smart Techie, Open Coffee Club, Kickstart, Pagalguy Startup.in, Webyantra, Cool Avenues, MBA Universe and Business Gyan.
Criteria for Participating Startups
The company must be: 5 or fewer years old; headquartered in India; and a stand-alone venture, not a subsidiary or division of a larger company. In addition, companies should be highly innovative, growing rapidly and have the potential to reshape their industries.
Contact : Kavita Krishnamurthy at kavita@nenglobal.org for more details.
Visit Website here
MoMo Delhi – 6th Meet on 23rd August
Posted by: venturevilla on: August 22, 2008
- In: Events | Technology
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The 6th meet of Mobile Monday Delhi is scheduled on 23rd August 2008 at Amity Innovation Incubator, Noida. The theme of this meet is Mobile Advertisement.
Event Venue :
Amity Innovation Incubator
Auditorium, Block F2,
GATE NO. 2,
Amity University Campus,
Sector 125, Noida,
Ph: +91.120.46590000, 4659151
View Larger Map
Event Schedule available here
About MobileMonday
Mobile Monday is a global community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influentials fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets.
Mobile Monday has the following objectives:
- To encourage innovation within the mobile sector.
- To facilitate networking between small and large companies, and between local and foreign.
- To help local companies effectively participate in international initiatives through the import and export of visions, concepts, technologies, know-how and best practices.
- To present innovative visions, trends, studies and forecasts from the mobile marketplace.
- To facilitate and create partnerships.
- To contribute to the education of the broader public through its publications, online presence and media partnerships.
Mobile Monday is organized by a group of dedicated volunteers from around the world. Originating in Helsinki, Finland, in the year 2000, Mobile Monday has grown into the world’s leading mobile community.
Start-up Tips : Are you a startup employable?
Posted by: venturevilla on: August 22, 2008
Startups in India are fast picking up and a lot of people are getting into entrepreneurship. These startups need good talent pool with slightly different genes than usual guys/gals preferring big companies. I am giving a check-list to find-out whether you are Startup employable or not:
1. You prefer doing things by yourself than relying on others.
2. Your mind is full of new ideas and you experiment few of them too. You believe in ideas & execution.
3. You are not very particular about your office timings ( I mean you can stay late or come early)
4. You want to become Head-Engineering, VP- Sales, VP – HR pretty fast and that’s why want to put extra efforts to learn multiple things within short span of time.
5. You enjoy working in a team and want to learn from others. You want to learn from people outside your company too.
6. You are not very particular about your office, seating space or even space outside. You are much concerned about your work and passion.
7. You don’t want to earn fast money. You believe in wealth creation.
8. You don’t want to own house, car, and other luxury items very fast.
9. Apart from cash component you realize the power of stocks
10. You enjoy the whole process rather than the input and output.
11. You want to experiment new things and not fearful of making mistakes.
12. You don’t blame others for your bad moves. You come forward to accept mistakes and take corrective action.
13. You grow faster and become mature faster than your counterparts at big companies.
14. You respect others and believe in open communication. You don’t want to spend time gossiping about people. You like talking about work.
15. You are passionate about your work and discuss your work with your parents or friends.
16. You like attending events which enrich your capabilities.
17. You enjoy sharing your tiffin/lunch with your colleagues.
18. You enjoy Office Maggi at 9.00 PM in the night. Sometimes even you prefer sleeping at office rather than going back to home.
19. You don’t mind your salary being credited to your account on 10th day of the month rather than 01st.
20. You don’t have too many girl-friends.
Score Inferences
20 : Complete Startup Individual
15-19 : Good Startup Person
10-14 : Formative Startup Person
Below 10 : Startups are cool. I would prefer reading about them.
You can drop me a mail with your score at contact@venturevilla.info for specific discussions.
Startup Tactics : Realizing the power of social networking
Posted by: venturevilla on: August 22, 2008
A lot of startups put all their energies in developing their products/services. They don’t realize the power of social networks which can do wonders for them. Spending good amount of time to make world-class offering is a good move, but you can’t do it at the cost of losing the opportunity of being networked. Being active in various forums help you to connect to multiple people with different skill-set and opinions. Ideally one founder of startups should be very active in all networking events. There are some inherent benefits of being part of such events/forums. I am listing here some key benefits :
2. You Grow : Being part of such events help you to grow your personal network. Even though internet is fast growing and people are using internet as a medium to grow social and professional network, but still the warmth and relevance of face-to-face meetings is phenomenal. Even a small gesture like bringing a glass of water or offering dinner plate to other participant helps a lot. A lot of places do have informal set-up and starting a conversation is very easy. Don’t try to be pushy and aggressive and try to engage in a healthy discussion. If there is a group talking on some topic of your interest, feel free to join and throw your ideas and/or listen to others. The whole process helps you to grow your personal network and spread a word about your company. After developing some rapport and few meetings may come-up for help in some form or the other. You should also be genuinely ready to help others in best possible manner. A lot of times, only the knowledge transfer is more than enough.
3. You Spread : Apart from knowledge sharing and learning, these events bring good amount of people looking for good opportunities/companies. These events provide enough opportunity to spread word about your company and requirements. There may be some technical requirements or sales requirements or funding requirements which can be propagated . Spreading the word helps you to reach out relevant people at almost no cost. A lot of people are updated about your growth, vision and passion. Be passionate and truthful to others. This would help you to get good guidance, right people and visibility. A lot of times such meetings also result in revenue generation, but while attending such event don’t keep that objective on the fore-front. It takes time to develop some and generate business.
4. You Brand : Such forums provide enough opportunities to carry out small-scale branding exercise. Try to get involved as a speaker, volunteer, blogger etc. If you get an opportunity to speak, then try to pass-on your company’s message without being invasive. Don’t make 50 slides about your company, but pass-on the vision and summary about your work. Interested people would try to touch-base after your talk and/or during networking sessions. Even during normal conversations, try to put across your visions in best possible manner. Be active and show high level of energy and enthusiasm. A lot of people would try to relate your startup with your personality. So, being a brand-ambassador spread-out the right message to attract potential customers, partners, investors, employees, vendors etc.
In order to make your venture successful, you need to attend such events. After all success is not so easy; you need to work really hard.
How to Select a Startup Person?
Posted by: venturevilla on: August 18, 2008
- In: Creative Ideas | Hiring
- 1 Comment
Selecting right person for any startup is very critical. A wrong selection might have significant impact on the growth of company. While selecting any new employee/partner startups should look for following things:
1. Right Mindset : For any startup, understanding the mind-set of prospective employee/partner is very important. They should understand his/her current state of mind and future aspirations. An employee having different future aspirations may not stay with you for long in-turn hurting startup. The people interested in startups generally want to learn new things at fast pace, take higher responsibilities, look for wealth creation rather than faster bucks, possess good time-management skills, show maturity & passion and are quite flexible. The best candidate would show all these qualities in some for or other. Even people scoring moderately on few parameters should be probed further. A person with right mind-set would start shaping your dreams in right manner and would grow exponentially.
2. Financial expectations : People with startup mind-set would prefer to delay their financial gains. They may not look for fancy salaries in the beginning, but would like to have equity participation and/or profit-sharing. The startup guy/gal understands that during initial stage of any venture, utilizing cash optimally is very important. A company spending extravagantly may run out of cash in no-time risking life of employees and company itself.
3. Higher Responsibilities : A Startup person would always emphasize his worth and capability to take higher responsibilities. Before discussing salary and benefits he would like to understand the job-profile, expectations and his participation. A startup person will always look for value addition rather than just compensation.
4. True Reflection of his aspirations/skill-set : A startup person would try to bring-out real aspirations in front of decision makers. He won’t try to fool you by saying that he will continue with your organization for life-long, if he doesn’t feel like that. Similarly he won’t try to project that he knows everything. Being truthful is very important trait of any startup person. This mind-set helps them to be fair with every person directly/indirectly related.
5. Flexible Mind-set : A startup person is always open to new ideas and approaches. He/She look forward for best solutions, even-though initiated by somebody else. He/She is not always dying to get credit for work done, but is more interested in solving a problem in best possible manner. He/She is a good listener and derives out meaningful conclusions.
6. Innovation : A startup person would always think in innovative direction. He/She won’t try to solve problems in usual manner. He/She should be open to new approaches and look for multiple options before settling for best one. He/She would try to improve existing processes and methods and talk about the same during initial stage too. His/her motivation is improve the system through creative contribution.
In case you find potential employee good on above-mentioned parameters, then you should definitely look-forward to welcome him/her on-board.
VentureVilla@BlogIT – August Edition
Posted by: venturevilla on: August 11, 2008
VentureVilla started sharing content with “i.t.” Magazine. As a result the first article Five Ways To Hire And Retain Good People At Start-ups got published recently.
i.t. Magazine | INFORMATION. TECHNOLOGY. TODAY. TOMORROW
‘i.t.’ evolved into a magazine that strives to be the best source of information for those who make strategic technology decisions related to IT itself. Thus the magazine’s mission statement now reads, “Research. Identify. Simplify. Technology that matters.” The magazine is published for last 17 years having 1,000,00+ monthly circulation.
It’s a magazine for those who need to know and those who love to know about, “Information. Technology. Today. Tomorrow.”
| Frequency: monthly | Language: English | Download
VentureVilla@BlogIT – August Edition
Posted by: venturevilla on: August 11, 2008
VentureVilla started sharing content with “i.t.” Magazine. As a result the first article Five Ways To Hire And Retain Good People At Start-ups got published recently.
i.t. Magazine | INFORMATION. TECHNOLOGY. TODAY. TOMORROW
‘i.t.’ evolved into a magazine that strives to be the best source of information for those who make strategic technology decisions related to IT itself. Thus the magazine’s mission statement now reads, “Research. Identify. Simplify. Technology that matters.” The magazine is published for last 17 years having 1,000,00+ monthly circulation.
It’s a magazine for those who need to know and those who love to know about, “Information. Technology. Today. Tomorrow.”
| Frequency: monthly | Language: English | Download
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