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Which Train are you Riding?
Apr 7th
Often, when I ride a train, I look at my co-passengers and wonder where have they come from and where are they headed. The train is my metaphor of traveling – not distances but careers and lives, and how the decisions that we make may turn into the best or worst journeys ever!
The Subway
Recently I had the privilege to interview someone who had changed his jobs 13 times in 4 years. When I told him that in 48 months, changing 13 jobs meant that he had not even spent an average of 4 months in a job, he chuckled and said, ‘Yes Sir, I am in big demand’. Honestly, I felt like charging him for the coffee that my office had served him. How I wish I had read his resume before getting into the room. (He was one of those frivolous introductions one has to meet as an obligation).
This call center guy turned analyst turned telemarketer turned support service guy is the quintessential ‘subway rat’. Folks like him ride short distances; work nights more than days, nibble away loose food (quick moneys) and live in the world of dark underground, in the sewers of negative progress. I have to yet meet a subway rat that came out of the subway alive.
Despite my revulsion, I still resolved to be helpful and asked him – ‘So, think of yourself 5 years from now. What do you think you will be good at? How long do you think you can keep doing this?’ Mr. Rat had already switched off by then. Possibly the bright lights of my office and my fatherly questioning was not his poison. He quietly slipped away.
A lot of folks are entrapping themselves by riding very short career plans. Sure it’s the quick money, but what they don’t realize is that they ARE losing something very important – Experience in a domain & a normal lifestyle!
The Inter City Trains
I so loved this train that I rode from a Central station (got there via a Subway) that took me to a beautiful hillside resort for a day and then got me back.
The journey lasted for a couple of hours both ways. It went via the city, across the country and into the hills. It made me think of young folks I know who have taken similar career journeys. Dedicated to a job for at least 4-5 years, learning the business and the domain, weathering the seasons of change, understanding the ups and downs – just like this train would have encountered everyday when it made its journey, and across the year.
It’s fun to ride this train once and surely not every day. There is a difference between a fast rushing subway ride that makes you meet exciting new people versus this longish boring ride that always goes thru the same hills and trees.
But it’s the penance of the journey that takes you a long way head. The Inter City takes you out of the Subway and into a real City.
Our best folks of 2win, after having spent 5-7 years in our group Companies have taken up senior positions in companies like Yahoo, Disney, Turner etc. These are the folks who have ridden the Inter Cities, bore the brunt of long journeys and have come out shining like Gold. Similar stories abound with focused individuals who took on a tough and grueling job for a few years, only to come out on top of their race and then join the biggest companies of their Choice.
The Long-Haul Train.
Almost 20 years ago, I rode a train that took me from Mumbai to Bhubaneswar (in the State of Orissa in India). I remember it being almost a 3 nights and 4-day journey. After the excitement of the 1st night, the 2nd and part of the 3rd day were dreadful. The journey never seemed to end. Then interestingly, post lunch on the 3rd day, a certain calm and patience came over me. I knew that the train was moving and headed towards its destination. I had to wait. During that period, I read, played cards and even studied a bit (shucks – there was no iPad then).
When I compare my two entrepreneurial journeys so far (a decade with my father making socks for him in his factory) and another decade as a digital entrepreneur, that train journey constantly flashes before me.
I see so many similarities between that physical train and the career train that I have ridden:
- An immediate excitement when the journey starts that quickly turns into boredom.
- Sometimes just getting frustrated that this journey is never ending.
- The Highs and lows – the small breaks at small stations which seem to give you freedom from entrapment of the train and yet the whistle that makes you duck into the train again reminds me of the mini successes I had enjoyed in my business ventures, yet knowing that it’s not the end and I have to go back and do much more.
- A routine inside the train that becomes a habit. So working day to day, doing the mundane and unexciting jobs while remembering that it’s all part of a long journey.
- Fellow passengers who get on and get off between stops and cities remind me of fellow colleagues who joined us, stayed in the companies and then hopped off when they felt they had done their distance.
Even the longest train journeys finally end in happiness. The rush of completing a long journey is incomparable. In longer planned careers, this is exactly the feeling. Folks become masters of an industry, revered for their experience and are recognized as thought leaders who have demonstrated the fortitude of surviving long and arduous journeys.
The Cross Country Trains.
I hear of train journeys that take months and sometimes years to complete – trains like the Trans Siberian Railway (takes weeks).
I have never attempted such a journey and doubt I ever will.
Career wise, it seems that you are committing to a journey that you cant get out of, hop off mid way and quickly go back to where you started. Imagine riding the Trans Siberian and getting of mid way in Siberia!
A lot of ‘government’ job employed folks remind me of this type of train travelers. People who take up a job in a PSU assuming that it will last forever. Not really caring where the train is even going as long as they get the monthly stipend and yearly increment. Folks who increasingly become ‘isolated’ from the real world remaining cocooned in this train that chugs along without care.
An uncle of mine had proudly got his young son married a few years on the boast that he was employed by Air India and hence a job and salary was guaranteed. I was always intrigued how any Company in the world could generate a perpetual cash flow for itself and I felt worried for the girl and her family. A month ago my uncle was complaining that Air India was delaying salaries. And the tragedy is that his son will never be able to work for anyone else. If you sit in a train for 7 years and get fed and housed, you will never know what to do if you land up on a stationary platform.
Finally, what kind of train travelers are serial entrepreneurs?
Believe it or not – they ride the Subways, Inter City and Long Haul.
Not as passengers but as the train drivers. Never getting down.
Startup Talk: ebook lending picks up steam, ebookfling launched.
Mar 28th
We know how popular ebook readers have become off late, growing at a higher rate than ever. Sure there are tablets spoiling their niche party but ebook vendors have found their way around by introducing ebook stores on all mobile OS and PC platforms. The industry saw an eye popping $1b spent on ebooks by consumers in 2010 which will triple by 2015 according to a report by Forrester Research. Although the market is growing via first time users the industry had to find a way to make money out of ebooks already sold to consumers.
Amazon and B&N did what was natural to physical books – allow users to rent books from friends (only). This limited scope of book sharing has spurred the emergence of new startups in the book lending space like Lendle, Booklending and Ebookfling that are aiming to transform an already evolving industry. Lendle and Booklending allows lending and borrowing ebooks on the Kindle platform (on any mobile OS or PC) while Ebookfling allows you to rent and borrow ebooks on both the Kindle and Nook platforms. But how does Ebookfling stand out from the rest? Well, they let you borrow and lend books using what they call a credit system within the Ebookfling ecosystem where you get 1 credit point for every book you lend which can be used to borrow another ebook through the system.
First time user? No problem – you can purchase credits at $1.99 a credit point. So how does it change the ebook ecosystem? This model potentially limits the amount of money flowing into the Amazon and B&N’s coffers by cutting off a substantial number of first time ebook buyers. For example, if Ebookfling has 1000 books available for renting and the system takes off, no new ebook adopter has a reason to purchase books directly from Amazon of B&N. Instead of spending an average of $10 per book, a lent book only costs 20% of the price although it stays with you only for 14 days before it goes back to the original user. Plus the used ebook is always in mint condition no matter how many people you lend it to.
So will it permanently damage the revenue source for Amazon and B&N? That aspect is yet to be explored. The recent API block episode where Amazon blocked its lending API to Lendle should serve as a notice to future entrepreneurs treading this path. Although Amazon reinstated the API’s access to Lendle, it was not before heavy media exposure to the issue. just like Apple’s App store policies frustrated developers (even today it does!) the ebook lending policies will require a lot of fine tuning and tweaking before it becomes a sustainable, profitable model and eventually create an ecosystem like the Apple App store. Ebookfling CEO George Burke notes that “the initial reaction may be a negative. Publishers and authors will claim the lending feature is being abused and causing cannibalization of sales. Authors are already bending over backwards by giving away many of their backlist (older) books free in the Kindle never needing to purchase.”
From an analyst’s perspective the market is ripe for more than 5 lending services to co-exist and be profitable in the long term. Let’s just hope Amazon and B&N do the right things over the next year.
Startup Talk: Publishedin brings non-commercial referral revenue to bloggers and publishers alike
Mar 15th
For too long now, bloggers and publishers have written honest words about companies and businesses without any expectation of reward. Publishedin wants to change all that. Publishedin is an Israel based startup that wants to put referral rewards into the hands of every blogger and online publisher just for writing about a business or a company that they naturally write about (Ideabing writes about startups).
This is how it works – the publisher installs a small snippet of tracking code from publishedin on the website. Publishedin then tracks clicks going out of the website and reports it on the publishedin control panel. The publisher then invites those businesses to sign up on publishedin so that the referring content starts getting rewarded by the beneficiary for the amount of traffic that has been sent out. Think of it as a “reward per click” program. Simple enough?
So how does it change things for publishers and bloggers? Publishedin has setup an active paid referral system for scribes who would otherwise have not bothered to ask the referee to pay for referrals since it’s natural online content. Publishedin allows publishers and bloggers command more respect by telling the business “look, we have written nice things about you, why don’t you reward us”. Another trouble that the writer does not have to go through is contacting these businesses asking them if they would be interested in signing up for a referral program. The answer would almost always be a no. This way publishedin is creating a brand new monetizing mechanism without the hard work of cold calling and cold emailing by the publisher. What we are skeptical about is wether the end businesses care enough about online media to sign up for such a service since blogs are essentially free to use media for PR agencies. Let’s see how this startup goes on into the future.
VC = Venture, Vapor, Vulture & Vampire Capital
Nov 1st
‘VC’ business in India celebrates 10 years in 2010 and I am inspired to write this column as tribute to the best form of Capital ever invented; to dive deep into the skin of this monster and present my mini learnings in this space.
Read on after the break.
Startup Of The Day: Fundreveal
Oct 26th
Given the horrific track record of mutual funds in the US in the past few years, it is necessary to have a mechanism to track performance of these mythical creatures. Today’s Startup of the day – Investment Risk Managament Systems has developed a product that might have an answer to this problem. FundReveal gives you unparalleled intelligence about any U.S. mutual fund. FundReveal helps you find best mutual funds to invest your money. These funds give higher returns at lower risk of loss and persistently beat the market while taking on lower risk, in many different time periods and market conditions. They have better investment decision-making capability and are most likely to outperform in the future. It shows risks and returns of mutual funds versus a market benchmark such as the S&P 500 index for many different time periods. It divides risk-return performance into 4 quadrants: BEST – A, RISKY – B, LESS RISKY – C and WORST – D, and compares your funds with the universe 20,000 U.S. mutual funds.
Persistence, a unique measure developed by Fund Reveal – validated by extensive back testing – is the single most valuable piece of information an investor can have about a mutual fund according to the company. It goes further than conventional measures, letting you see how predictable a fund’s performance has been.
FundRevealSM Persistence Ratings show you which funds are more likely to outperform others in the future. You can also use FundRevealSM Premium Subscription to see how risk-return performance of funds changes over different quarters.
Startup Of The Day: Gofundme
Oct 18th
We have featured many crowd sourced funding startups on Ideabing including Kiva and GrowVC. While Kiva and GrowVC cater to funding rural entrepreneurship and funding your startup respectively, what about funding individuals and causes? Now we have an option. Today’s Ideabing Startup of The Day is Gofundme.com. The concept behind gofundme is quite simple. You register, create a fund, set the amount and you are all set to start raising funds!
Gofundme uses crowd power to fund your causes, ventures and donations. The most interesting part about gofundme is that it is very well connected socially. The website gives you widgets to post on your fundraising website or the gofundme website itself can be used as your fundraising homepage. Gofundme also lets you publish that your fundraising status on facebook and twitter as well, making it truly social. Currently users can raise money in 5 currencies. Check them out at gofundme.com
Guest Post: Leveraging the grass-roots in building our tomorrow
Oct 4th
There comes a point in the startups life, where external funding can really nudge the pace of growth and take the startup to the next level. Startups have furiously evolved in the past decade, with the contagious effects of the Internet, yet the funding sector to fuel this growth is still rather undeveloped.
In large VC firms, it’s a fact that the partners do not have resources to read every startups plan that approaches them; in super angel funds the issues are much in line. What’s more, personal relations, references and perceptions make a whole world of difference, which is only natural, but do you think these always help identify the best investment opportunities? How transparent is the decision process and is it as efficient as it should be? Where in the world is this capital available and are in fact all the brilliant innovations around Silicon Valley?
The Ponzi Scheme Infographic
Sep 30th
Hey, seen that movie – “The Other Guys”?. The movie about busting a super ponzi scheme? The movie that was released a little too late to make some money? The movie itself is stupidly shot but the movie’s credits is something you should take a look at. The credits tell you how a ponzi scheme works and tells you how the economy collapsed about a years ago – all in classic infographic style. Video after the break.
An Innovation in Social Shopping
Sep 29th
Camelot Venture Group announced today the launch of a new service to consumers called WANT. With WANT, consumers have a brand new way to share lists of products they desire with friends and families via email or by pushing their WANTs out to Facebook. The unique aspect is that WANTers can receive funds directly towards specific items from contributors using PayPal or any major credit card.
“This is a major revolution in Social Shopping,” said David Katzman, Managing Partner of the Camelot Venture Group. “Now consumers can share exactly what they WANT with their social network and that same group of friends, family, even co-workers can work together to get them exactly what they WANT. I can’t think of a better way for Dad to make sure everyone knows what he wants for Father’s Day or children to share with Grandparents what’s on their list this holiday season.”
The WANT button was first implemented by SharperImage.com but shoppers aren’t limited to only sites that have the WANT button. Consumers can drag the browser button at www.ShareAbill.com/WANT/ that allows them to add any item from the web to a WANT list simply by clicking on the button and then clicking on the picture of the product they are interested in.
The WANT button comes from the same developers who brought ShareAbill to market, an alternative payment method that allows buyers to split the cost of any item at the time of purchase.
Gen x and Gen Y not meeting halfway
Sep 6th
How many of you have noticed more and more younger folks opting for entrepreneurship over the last 5 years as compared to ever before? And this number is steadily increasing each year. No longer are cozy corporate jobs the big thing. More and more management graduates out of B-schools are getting frustrated with their corporate jobs, even if it is with a fancy investment bank. More folks are suffering from burn-out and are opting to try their own thing. For many folks reading the articles on this website, your 9-6 jobs are no longer their primary source of income. More and more graduates are looking at getting into their own groove and doing their own thing whether it be photography, fashion design, website design, games development, professional blogging, restaurants and much more.
