Sudeep D'Souza

Some of the questions that have been haunting me ever since the economic crisis started are What is this so called economic crisis and how it is caused? What is the meaning of all the terminology that they are using such as inflation, credit crunch, etc? How will the economic crisis effect us? How is money created? Are the governments around the world doing the right things? Is there a relation between the oil prices and the current economic crisis? Can the problem be solved and if it can be solved for how long will it go on? I have been looking around for these answers and came across The Crash Course by Chris Martenson . It is divided into the following chapters and it goes on for a total of a little more than 3 hours. Chapter 1: Three Beliefs (Time: 1:46) Chapter 2: The Three "E"s (Time: 1:38) Chapter 3: Exponential Growth (Time: 6:20) Chapter 4: Compounding is the Problem (Time: 3:06) Chapter 5: Growth vs. Prosperity (Time: 3:40) Chapter 6: What is Money? (

I came across an article in Rediff about " Deepika's unbelievable stunt! " and I was curious and clicked on it and got to watch the following video which is a combination of 3 images. I apologize for the bad quality of the video. This video is so fake that I could not believe the editors did not even notice it. If you break up the images that comprise the video it becomes very apparent and I will let the images do the talking. The text below these images clearly shows no body is reviewing what is being put up or Rediff will just publish anything as long as they get paid. I took two screen shots - one on Nov 26, 2008 @ 1:05 PM in which there was a link to the above farce and I then took a second screen shot on Nov 26, 2008 @ 2:50 PM and the link was not there. I searched all over for it but no luck it was taken off - but the original link to the post is still there so you can click on top and go see the post. Can we really trust any of the news sources out there

I was reading an interesting post today written by Steve Yegge titled - You Should Write Blogs  . In this post Steve talks about the common reasons people give when you ask them why they don't blog Reason #1: I'm too busy. Reason #2: I'm afraid to put my true thoughts on public record. Reason #3: Nobody will read my blog. Reason #4: Blogging is narcissistic. narcissistic meaning : [adjective] characteristic of those having an inflated idea of their own importance And when I ask a lot of very intelligent people around me the same question I get the very same reasons that Steve covered in his blog post. All very valid reasons, but let me give you reasons as to why you should blog. Project the right information about yourself In this connected world a lot of information is being put on the internet by a lot of sources. A lot of it is good and a lot more than that is bad. If for some reason someone searched for your information online, you do not want them to find i

Have you ever walked into a coffee shop and wondered what to order having not been able to understand the different coffee drinks available on the menu? Lokesh Dhakar in this post does an amazing job in explaining the different coffee drinks. Below are the images for the types of coffee drinks that I have seen in the Indian coffee shop menus. Happy coffee drinking. Americano [uh-mer-i-kan-oh] Caffé Latte [caf-ay lah-tey] Caffé Mocha [caf-ay moh-kuh] Cappuccino [kapp-oo-chee-noh] Espresso [ess-press-oh]

When I born, I Black. When I grow up, I Black. When I go in Sun, I Black. When I scared, I Black. And when I die, I still Black. And you White fellow... When you born, You Pink. When you grow up, You White. When you go in the Sun, You Red. When you cold, You Blue. When you are scared, You Yellow. When you sick, You Green. And when you die, You Grey. And you call me Coloured...

I came across a very interesting piece of news today that increased my belief in Google to be unbiased. If you search for the term Jew in Google till a while ago there is a sponsored link by Google explaining how their search results work. The reason Google was forced to do this was because for the search term jew there were anti jewish sites that were coming up as the top most result in their search results. When a lot of high profile people complained about it Google chose to give an explanation of how their search results worked rather than remove the site from the search results. This is proof that Google is completely unbiased and does not tinker with the results that their search algorithms return. This ensures that the results returned by Google are consistent.

Prof K Ramachandran of ISB gave a wrap up on all that we discussed during the full day session. Eliminate customer dissatisfaction, always. Dynamic business plan. Strategy is easy, execution is tough. Have detached passion. VC money: Be ready to have a bumpy ride. Documentation is huge. Constantly build resources. Resources are behind opportunities. Stretch them. Most critical resource is time. ROTI - return on time invested. Usually a lot more effective than ROI which most people use. Innovativeness is needed everywhere. Working capital is life blood. Working capital should be low. Compress cycle time. People and system key to growth. Share vision, build passion. Develop and maintain networks. Listen to others pick up signals. Related posts Notes from TiE-ISBConnect - Amit Kishore Prasad, SatNav Technologies Notes from TiE-ISBConnect - Samir Kumar, Inventus Notes from TiE-ISBConnect - Sandeep Singhal, Nexus India Notes from TiE-ISBConnect - Shanta

Amit Kishore Prasad is the founder CEO and MD of SatNav Technologies based in Hyderabad. Amit spoke about Execution - Building a team. Ensure you have bosses that the employees look up to and trust. People need to repose confidence and faith in the entrepreneur. Choose employees that have the willingness to learn and are willing to play multiple roles. Employees who have qualifications/experience and also bring an attitude with it will create a problem.  In an organization it is good to have written communication. It should be clearly outlined what is the carrot and stick when doing tasks. When someone comes with a problem ask them for a solution. Give feedback immediately but not publicly. Weekly action plans work well Retaining people - Involve them in the decision making process and keep them in the loop. - Defend your team in front of others When going for VC funding be ready to answer tough questions regarding your team such as are they qualified enough, can the deliv

Sandeep was Co-Founder and CEO of Medusind Solutions, one of the leading healthcare outsourcing companies in India. Sandeep is also the co-founder and Managing Director of eVentures, a leading Venture Capital firm focused on early stage investments in India since 1999. Sandeep has held senior roles at McKinsey and Company, Digital Equipment and EDA Systems. Click here to read more about Sandeep. Sandeep spoke about developing differentiation Important to make your product/Service unique - This allows you to price better. - It is easier to sell. - It allows you to figure out where to focus. - Helps in prioritizing your resources. Sources of differentiation - Technology or patents - Processes - Business model - Marketing How to differentiate? - Build the right team. - Surround yourself with people brighter than you that will question you. - Develop a deep understanding of the target market. - Choose the sources of differentiation. - Execute flawlessly. Notes from Ti

Samir has been an early stage venture investor in India for the past six years.   Prior to co-founding Inventus, Samir built and led the India venture team for Acer Technology Ventures - a $260 million cross-border venture fund investing in early-stage technology and services companies across India, the U.S. and the Asia Pacific. Samir was an early member of two startups in India, and was part of the early team at Wipro. He helped Wipro grow revenues from ~$4M in 1989 to over $200 million in 1998. Click here to read more about Samir. Samir spoke about Marketing Strategies for a startup. Think big and execute in small steps It is important to have a good team. Very few VCs will invest in a single individual. Product Most important thing the entrepreneur needs to focus on. It needs to be thought through very carefully and diligently. Think from outside in. Look at it from the view of a customer. Important to include customers when conceptualizing the product. Understand the

Shantanu Surpure is Managing Attorney at Sand Hill Counsel, a law firm with offices in Mumbai and Silicon Valley. He focuses on venture capital and private equity transactions. Shantanu holds a BA from Brown University/London School of Economics, an MA Juris from Oxford University and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School and is admitted to practice law in India, California, New York and England and Wales. Shantanu spoke about Negotiating with VCs. Be organized and document everything properly. Hire a lawyer when negotiating with a VC because they will have one of their own. VC's will do a valuation and will ask for anything between 25% to 40% of the company in the form of preference shares. When the VCs have an interest in investing they will give you something called a term sheet which will have all the terms and conditions. VCs usually look at a 3-5 year investment horizon. In the term sheet there will be anti dilution terms which means that if the valuation of the co

DD Ganguly is co-founder and CEO of Dimdim, Inc. Previously, as Vice President of Product Development at CA (NYSE:CA; $ 3.5B) he built and led an organization of 1000+ members. He joined CA in 2001 upon its acquisition of Boston based AIM, Inc. where he was founder and CEO. Click here to read more about him. DD Ganguly spoke about his Fund Raising Experience for DimDim which is a free web conferencing service where you can share your desktop, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk and broadcast via webcam with absolutely no download required for attendees. Funding When looking for funding look for people that like you and what you are doing. Angel investors invest in your business because the align with how you think and what you do. Try and get journalists and bloggers to write about your product/service. This will help in popularizing and showcasing your product to potential VC's. You need to click with the VC for them to invest. Choosing a name The .com webaddress should

Professor K Ramachandran is the Associate Dean of Academic Programmes at the Indian School of Business. He has been a professor of entrepreneurship, family business, and strategy at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad since its inception in 2001. He is also the Thomas Schmidheiny Fellow of Family Business and Wealth Management at the ISB. Professor Ramachandran spoke about Entrepreneurial opportunities and Organization Building - A Road Map. He spoke about identifying the type of opportunity, the graph of time against turnover for a startup and elements of a business plan. Opportunities are identified through a pent up need or customer dissatisfaction in the existing offerings. By mapping the pent up need (Discontentment) on one axis and Criticality (dissatisfaction) on the other different kinds of opportunites can be identified. Any organization needs to balance Financial Needs, Technology Needs, Marketing Needs and Entrepreneurial Capability. If an entrepreneur can manage t

Sateesh Andra is a Venture Partner with DFJ India. Sateesh started his Silicon Valley career in the early nineties and has extensive background in general management, marketing, product strategy, and technology development. Prior to DFJ, Sateesh was the fo founder and CEO of Euclid Software, a leader in the IT Governance space. He has also served in product marketing and engineering leadership roles at Tsqware (Conexant), LSI Logic, VLSI Technology (Philips), and Wipro. You can read more about Sateesh here . Sateesh spoke about the Spirit of Entrepreneurship - My Journey. Here are my notes from that session. Have passion in your idea for a period of time. Dream big. Study your idea. Understand the stated value proposition vs the implemented value proposition of your idea.  Is your idea a pain killer or a vitamin. In times of hardship people stop using vitamins but the do not stop using pain killers Raise money from the right people. Do not just take money from any source th

Sashi Reddi is the CEO of Applabs which he founded in the year 1998 and today Applabs is the world's largest independent software testing company. Click here to read more about Sashi Reddi. Sashi Reddi spoke about the Spirit of Entrepreneurship - My Journey. Here are my notes from that session. Being a part time entrepreneur does not work. If you want to be an entrepreneur then you must be full time into it. There is no right time to start. The right time is when you are passionate about your idea. Jump in and then refine your plan. Jump in and sort the problems. There is no perfect business plan and if you wait for the perfect business plan then your venture will never get off the ground. Be an entrepreneur to make money. Do not start a venture where it is not clear how you will make money. Take a shot in a fast growing big market. The reason is because it is easier to capture the market when there are more customers. When starting think small on how to make money w

I am going for the TiE-ISB Connect conference to be held here in Hyderabad from the 5th to the 7th of this month. Quoting from the website this is what it is all about "India’s most exciting annual networking event for entrepreneurs and investors, the TiE-ISB Connect '08 will be held on November 5th, 6th and 7th, 2008 at the ISB campus in Hyderabad. Organized by the TiE, Hyderabad Chapter and the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED), ISB, TiE-ISB Connect enables interaction of aspiring entrepreneurs, early-stage ventures, and growth-stage ventures with potential investors, successful entrepreneurs and mentors. " The conference is of two parts - one is the Jumpstart event that is a day long learning event. It is a day meant for young entrepreneurs to get a head start. The day is broken up into several workshop type sessions with each topic focussing on a specific area of entrepreneurial learning. From this session I am hoping to learn how to conve