Oh, I'm just waiting for the funding

Here comes another delusion. I'm waiting to get funded, then...

Wait all you like, then wait some more. The chances are, you won't get funded. I'm beginning to sound like a pessimist, but honestly I'm not. Anyone who is an entrepreneur, or has ever been one would tell you just how much they'd give to get funded. There is very little one wouldn't do, most of them would do ANYTHING! Most of the times, my eyes light up at the sound of a VC, my mind running through my business model, scale-ability, ROI, projections and on and on. Then I'd meet the VC, listen to the their concerns and move on thinking about how I'd change my model to fit into the vision they've had for my company in the 10 minutes of my interaction with them. Eventually, I end up doing nothing.

Why?
Well, most entrepreneurs, especially the seasoned ones(I would not count myself as one, not yet!) have another name for VCs, Vulture Capitalists. There is a very good reason for this too. Much like the whole myth of entrepreneurship being this amazing journey where in a couple you end up with gold teeth, a house on the beach, a Bentley in the driveway, being the happiest man/woman alive. Getting funded is something similar. Looks like a dream, a dream which takes away your dream. If of course you were building your dream company.

They fund you, they own you. Simple.
Once you are funded, you more often then not go the equity way. A million $ debt doesn't quite have a ring to it. The equity way has you giving up a degree of control to the VC, this 'degree' goes on increasing with the more success you see and the more money you invest. You can't stop getting funded because now the VC is on your board. Slowly, but surely the decisions aren't yours anymore. The company isn't yours anymore. You could still be a face if you're lucky and of course brilliant at what you do, but chances are that's all you'll end up being. Even to remain a face, you need to be very very luck! Take the example of Steve Jobs, you don't need me to elaborate that one, he was just lucky enough to be brought back! Rob Kalin, who founded Etsy. He had the distinct pleasure to be ousted twice!! And of course, one of the recent famous CEOs to be fired, Jakob Lodwick from Vimeo.  This, is a common practice. Too common for my liking.

This is why when I meet VCs and listen to what they have to say to me, I listen, then I do nothing, because; I am lazy.
Also, because I would much rather retain control, do things my way, the way I'd enjoy them. Make decision, the wrong ones and learn. Build on my own. And if I fail, if my company fails, it'll be because I made the the wrong decisions for my own company. Not a vulture.
FYI, 3 out of 4 venture backed companies fail. Go ahead, Google it!

So, you could wait to get funded and then let someone else do what they see fit. Or you could stop waiting and build the company you want. Because, waiting won't guarantee that you'll get someone else to make those decisions for you, even if that is what you want.  

A marketer’s view of Moolya.

Moolya! I have come to see and know this amazing company as a Tester’s paradise. But what does this company mean to a marketer, especially a digital marketer like me?

When I see a company, all I see is the KEYWORDS so even before I joined my mind started racing ‘Software testing, mobile app testing, e-commerce testing, application testing…..TESTING’. This is exactly what got me wondering, hmm am I at the right place? This company is not optimized, wow the website barely has any keywords and well the god of internet, Google puts it on the second page.

Hmm, second page isn’t bad. Most of the times, it’s almost good. Here comes my second month at Moolya. I see just how bad ranking on the 2^nd page for Testing and Software Testing is for this amazing company doing some unbelievable work, work so good that it’s even got a certain Mr. Kawasaki and a Mr. James Bach tweeting about it. And seeing these guys in action led by their, sorry OUR, Kung Fu Panda I’m seeing Green(You know, Hulk green!)! 2^nd page doesn’t do Moolya justice. Nothing below the first would do, cos these guys who are always talking about Context Driven Testing and Exploratory Testing know just what’s up. They’ve already made waves in the software testing industry, good? Naah, I’m waiting for a tsunami because that is just how good I know these guys are.

So now, I’ve got a mammoth task ahead of me of helping market these guys. Some of you are thinking, If these guys are as good at software testing as I’m saying they are it should be a piece of cake, right? Wrong, because I know these guys are good enough to be well above the biggies, the giants of the Software testing world, the IBMs, the HPs and that is where I want to see them, that is where I want to help take them at least in the digital world. Above the rest, a class above. When it comes to testing, I know they already are but now it’s time to let the digital world know this. It’s time. I’m not intimidated by the big budgets the others may have for their marketing, cos these guys were never intimidated by the big budgets these other guys had for testing.

Guess what I’m trying to say is that WE are not intimidated. We are ready. We always were, it’s just time to go out and show it and I’m writing this to mark the start of this Tsunami.   

Facebook is dead.. Not in India

Let me sum up the Social Media scene in India for you in 1 word. FACEBOOK.

If you read this and think I'm getting my facts from 2012, you're most definitely a digital marketer. And/or you're getting your facts from the U.S, as do the most of us.
Still confused? Here's the Social Media scene in India:
Facebook is for everyone, everyone is on it. Myspace is for no one, no one is on it. Instagram is to upload selfies to Facebook. Twitter is for celebrities, mini celebrities, wannabe celebritites or those who well, have way too much free time on the internet. Google+, everyone is on it but nobody knows it. Blogspot is for the Digital marketers, nobody else reads these. Flicker, Pintrest, Reddit, Tumblr, What are those?? And LinkedIn is for when you are looking for a job. And even if you're active on all these, or say even 2 of these, Facebook is almost always the common factor.

The switching costs are just too high. Sign up, create a profile, explore, get used to the UI, find friends, wait for friends to join, figure out the network, download the app. That's too much work. Even if you have nothing better to do, that is too much work.
Even if you do make the switch, it's way too hard to let Facebook go. It's too juicy, cos EVERYONE is already on it. There's too much happening for you to let go. Even with them snooping and experiments on us, we don't care. Most don't even know.

"Get the looks, get the likes" - A radio campaign by one of the top e-commerce fashion stores, phones with dedicated Facebook keys, mobile service providers offer free Facebook, anything else on the internet is charged, but not Facebook. That's how alive it still is in India and there is way too much happening for it to die.
Not anytime soon at least.

I'm not delusional, I'm an entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship is regarded very highly today, especially among the youngsters(including me!)
It helps our economy, empowers the people, self employment is always good, more jobs, more responsible citizens. It's really great!
But how many times have we heard an idea and just thought to ourselves "That's the stupidest thing I've heard"? Sometimes, just sometimes, they work. Most of the times they fail.

But never does it stop us. Which is again good, try and try till you succeed.
Here's where I see the problem, it's this obsession with being an entrepreneur. 'I don't know what I'm good at, I don't know what problems I can solve, I don't know what I can do, all I know is that I will be an ENTREPRENEUR'. This is a problem. A problem becoming so big, there's a ton of people dropping out of school or college with just one thing in mind, you guessed it, "I will be an Entrepreneur". It's not even I "want" to be an entrepreneur. I WILL be one.

They are risk takers, brilliant! "I take risks, I'm cut out to be an Entrepreneur". With no experience, no base for even taking that risk, no idea what they're gonna do. I see people today spending an hour on the internet and voila! I'm ready! It's borderline stupid, it really is!
But it is something I did too! But without the obsession. I didn't even care about entrepreneurship, that's how clueless I was! Started my company in 1st year of college and worked all the while after classes, between classes and even before classes. It was crazy, but never once did dropping out come to my mind because the facts were that I had a 95% chance of failure, statistically. Nobody would fund me because I had no experience, didn't even have a degree yet. So I stayed on and completed. That's 1 thing I believe I did right. Completed my education.
But here we are, with hundreds of youngsters, dropping out, discontinuing education and discarding it as unnecessary for, they aren't delusional, they're Entrepreneurs. These are people in good schools and colleges, pursuing well respected and quite frankly required degrees. I mean, what are the chances you will hire someone without a degree and without a clue? Because, truth be told 9 out of 10 entrepreneurs move on to a 9 to 5. And this isn't because they enjoy working for others, it really is because they don't have any other choice. But are these so called entrepreneurs even eligible for a 9 to 5? There's too much competition and too little scope to succeed on your own. And a backup in the form of a degree and some experience is something you just can't ignore anymore. And even more than being a backup, work experience is something that will help you realize what works and what doesn't in the world outside your own mind! Which is the world you need to go out to and become an entrepreneur in.

I'm all for entrepreneurship, but lets at least be smart about it. Rather, be real about it.

The Internet of Everything?? Hmm..

The Internet of Things, or the Internet of Everything as Cisco calls it.

It's smart, it makes your life simpler, it warms up your car before you need to use it(cools it down in India), remembers your daily routine so you can be more efficient at everything, tells you where your kids are at all times, knows when someone is inside your house, knows just how long you will take to get back home, controls all your electronics and even locks with your smartphone. All this is already in place, there is a lot more to come.

Sounds good? Not to me!

Allow me to put this another way. It's probably smarter than you, it tracks and remembers every single activity you perform everyday, it know exactly when your house is empty and how long it's going to be that way. Sensors and cameras all over your house controlled by a computer, a computer which can be accessed remotely. It knows what route I take home everyday, where I stop, what I do there, who I meet! It knows exactly where your kids are at all times and who they are with. Your entire house is linked to your phone, security, lights, doors, windows, oven, curtains, everything. How many phones have you lost? How secure is your phone?

All this information and more about you and your life is somewhere in the 'Cloud'.

I love technology and I love the internet. But, do I really want the internet to know even the most intimate details about my life? To track every move I make? For "IT" to have access to my house, my car, my life?
I don't think I'm ready for this yet.

What is this blog about?

Here's the deal, I have no idea what this blog is about.
I don't think I ever will.

I'm not much of a writer, though I do enjoy it. Maybe I just have never found the time, but I realize that I need to take out the time. So here's me, doing just that

All I plan to do is write whenever I can, about whatever I was looking at before I started writing. So, you are not going to see a theme here. I could be writing about Digital Marketing, which happens to be something that I love, or football (no it's not just the world cup fever, I really do enjoy football), cars? maybe, Internet? definitely. Entrepreneurship? I could definitely point out what not to do, although I did a few things right, I know plenty who didn't.

Wow, I'm at my fourth paragraph already! Yes, I will count this as 4 paras and this is how long I expect to be writing, unless I really don't have much work to do.

So, this should do it for a start, now on to the next one.