Most startup founders who are looking to launch their product or are figuring out ways to grow their usage / customer traction come with a plan that includes “a little bit of everything”. The assumption is that since they dont know which technique works best, (or in other words – gets the most customers with… Continue reading The Liberating Power of Focus on the One Thing for Marketing

We moved to India 6 years ago from the valley. I started BuzzGain and then wanted to start another company, but ended up at Microsoft instead. Now we are moving back to the US in July or August. We are heading to Seattle. I will still come to India every couple of months and the team here… Continue reading So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, But Not Really

There is an ongoing meme that keeps popping up ever so often among tech entrepreneurs and gurus. That the “business plan” is dead and there is actually no sense in planning at all. After all they say “Hands-on Entrepreneurial Action is all that is required to create a Business”. I have enough curiosity to keep finding out which of… Continue reading A Data Driven Approach to Dispelling the Myth

I dont subscribe to the meme that says you have only one “story” as a startup. I think you need different stories based on your audience. I want to talk about one particular case based on a real world example and share how the stories might differ, the messages might change, and the positioning might be… Continue reading How Your Investor “Story” Differs from Your Customer “Story?

The last week we had over 25 folks who run accelerators, incubators and coworking spaces in India at the Microsoft accelerator. A few of them were individual angel investors as well. Anyone who has invested in Indian technology startups knows that getting exits is hard. In fact in most of our discussions with entrepreneurs nearly… Continue reading New Innovation: Investors Seeking Exits on Startup’s Revenue

Rich Karlgaard : ForbesThat ability to spot insights and lessons from fields far outside your own is one hallmark of an innovative leader. Not every leader can–or should–be an innovative leader. Full article.

In 2009-2010, during the peak of the eCommerce bubble in India, there were very few seed stage options for raising funds for startups. You could either get money from angel investor or look to raise money from large VC’s, hoping they would put money at the seed stage so they can be part of the… Continue reading Does Raising Institutional Money at the Seed Stage Help or Hurt?

When working on customer development, many B2B startups quickly realize that their user is different from their customer. This usually happens because the price of the product is more than what the user can pay for on their credit card, or if the user wants to use the product for “work” and needs to have it… Continue reading Why You Need to Do User Development before Customer Development