Comments for Be a Force of Good

Comment on Insights into the anatomy of the Indian entrepreneur – Work-hobby and Work-life balance by Arun

Arun — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:42:41 +0000

Caveat to comment above in favor of “work-hobby” employees: If the employee has more than one hobby/passion to keep up with, 1 & 2 don’t apply!

Comment on Insights into the anatomy of the Indian entrepreneur – Work-hobby and Work-life balance by Arun

Arun — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:29:33 +0000

Nice post – esply provides clarity on aligning motivations in the great “Indian context”. While high-growth oriented startups might argue the point, I think this is highly relevant for non-tech/SME/life style” entrepreneurs.

As someone who runs a relatively small shop, I would definitely recommend the “work-hobby” variety.

1) At least, they are passionate about something.

2) Especially if they are quite good at their “hobby” (which just doesn’t pay the bills), they tend to have better work culture (i.e., they have less time for gossip, office politics, Facebook, etc); have relatively higher IQ and EQ; and tend to stick around longer (especially if the employer is flexible vis-a-vis their “hobby”).

Just my 2-bit. Pls keep up the great work on the blog. Has become among my favorite ones in the “Indian context”.

Comment on Insights into the anatomy of the Indian entrepreneur – Work-hobby and Work-life balance by Lakshminarayanan

Lakshminarayanan — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:11:39 +0000

“The work-work folks will not be working for you in India. They would rather be entrepreneurs themselves, since they live their work.”

Not necessarily. The ability to take risks may be missing. This also incldues joining startups or starting one.

Comment on Insights into the anatomy of the Indian entrepreneur – Work-hobby and Work-life balance by Sriram Balasubramanian

Sriram Balasubramanian — Sun, 19 May 2013 11:27:12 +0000

Nice post. However, we cannot assume that employee behaviors are static and it cannot be changed. Behavior is also strongly influenced by the environment. The same individual will behave differently in a library and a bar. The environment (call it culture if you want) and the example the leaders set are crucial especially in India where people love to worship them. As an employee, when I believed in the vision, worked under very good leaders and actually saw some results, I could move into higher orbitals just like the founders. However, when the results aren’t forthcoming or the vision isn’t really compelling enough, the fall in energy levels is inevitable.

Comment on Startup documents by Nikhil Wason (@nikhilwason)

Nikhil Wason (@nikhilwason) — Sun, 19 May 2013 04:52:45 +0000

Thanks Mukund. This is useful Btw, do you have a template for ‘mentor agreement’ too? I can see ‘advisor agreement’ in this list, but I’ve heard that there’s a difference between advisors and mentors. Let me know..

Comment on A discussion with Rajan Anandan on #startup trends and the 2020 outlook by Raj Mohan

Raj Mohan — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:54:44 +0000

Interesting numbers being bandied around here, so 100 million SMB websites with 100$ ad/web/whatever spend will become a big market. Mr Anandan sure has his numbers right.

Comment on Startup trends: China: The “hunt and peck” has given way to the “touch and tap” by Tech[y/no]tions (@techynotions)

Tech[y/no]tions (@techynotions) — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:39:51 +0000

Great Insights. My colleagues & I were recently discussing about an app that allows ‘trash talk’ as it happens in games – kind of similar to the ‘Gaali De’ app mentioned here

My thoughts on the language issue:: The need for local language interface cannot be over-emphasized for such services to go mainstream in India. Purely icon based ones would either be a fad or a niche. And it might not be enough if the messaging app alone is in local interface. The whole device (the OS) needs to be in local interface. I feel sad & guilty every time I see an English-illiterate Korean/ Japanese/ Chinese using a computer / mobile phone so easily while people in our country struggle.

The biggest reason for lack of PC adoption IMO is the non-availability of native OS support of Windows for a long long time (not sure if there is a Hindi version of MS Windows even now). While there has been other factors like affordability that affected PC adoption, no such thing exists for phones (even Smartphones). So if the mainstream Indian public do not use their (smart)phones for anything beyond voice & occasional texting, there is nothing else to blame.

We need multiple efforts to get Android in several Indian languages. One of those efforts is sure to produce a good version with proper translation and so on (without writing the English string in the local language alphabets or with words that are not in daily use). Robosoft had released a Hindi version of Android about an year or so back. I do not think it took off. Nor have I heard of other such attempts. We see local language messaging apps like PlusTxt, Quillpad and local language IMEs like Sparsh but they remain only to people who know English but want to communicate in other languages also, not for people who do not know English.

Comment on What 4 Indian investors with $2 billion under management are looking to fund now by Startup Guy

Startup Guy — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:32:12 +0000

So now we build companies based around VC money rather than solving real problems?

I thought the goal of businesses is to solve problems and make money. Is it really a good idea to start your company based on what idea or niche is likely to get funding?

I think VCs need to find investment opportunities around startups, not the other way around.

Comment on What 4 Indian investors with $2 billion under management are looking to fund now by Greening (@rajmohancyp)

Greening (@rajmohancyp) — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:13:00 +0000

On boarding SMBs on the net… tough back breaking work, But yes can be rewarding, Surprised at no Soc-Ent activity? No time for that?

Comment on Should accelerators in India help entrepreneurs “fail fast”? by Sapna Chandiramani

Sapna Chandiramani — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:04:58 +0000

Well, we can call it anything – fail fast/adapt fast – as long as the goals are clear, which should be (a) reduce the failure rates and (b) in the second best case, reduce the time to failure. What we don’t want to see is people throwing in the towel after 3-4 years, or after a lot of cash burn. So, how do we achieve these goals? My contention is that we really need to be looking back and understanding the primary reasons for failure, and see if as an ecosystem we can learn from that. I really don’t see enough this happening. Please correct me if I am wrong.