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A device that proves if you’re really sick

Allison Reilly — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:00:52 +0000

Calling in sick and “having a doctor’s note” won’t get you a free day off work anymore, at least not in Malaysia. A USB device, called SickVerify, will eventually substitute the role of doctors as providers of medical certificates. By August 2012, doctors across Malaysia will lose the legal authority to issue medical certificates. From then on, all workers will have to submit to a test using SickVerify to substantiate their claims for sick leave.

Using a complex series of algorithms, SickVerify measures the concentration of antibodies and cortisol (shows up specifically from stomach cramps) in the saliva sample to determine whether the subject was ill during the time period claimed for sick leave. The device is reportedly 98.9% accurate.

The test itself is blindingly simple and quick. The subject wets a fingernail-sized piece of cotton with his/her saliva. The cotton is inserted into the compartment of SickVerify, which is then plugged into any laptop or desktop via a USB socket. A program provided with SickVerify can then be run to begin the test (which takes approximately 3 minutes) and display the results.

This might not be a bad idea in the United States, as employers loss $1.8 billion from March Madness alone. But would verifying everyone’s sick leave excuses really fly in this country?

Eleven Learnings I swear by!

Alok Kejriwal — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:17:54 +0000

It’s been some fun filled years as a ‘digital’ entrepreneur. With a couple of good hits, some misses and a few big bets, I have chuckled, cried and framed these 11 learnings to carry with me all my life.

1. Just an ‘Idea’ is worth a ‘dropped cricket catch’

An idea by itself, despite its greatness, is worthless. Nada. Zilch. It’s all about massive and backbreaking execution. When I founded Contests2win in 1998 (first ever brand contesting site in the world), I thought that my idea would take the world by storm. Nothing of the sort happened. It took me a good 2 years just to convince people to meet me so that I could explain the idea!

I purposely say ‘dropped cricked catch’ because not executing a great idea can be as painful as dropping a cricket catch – you will not be able to forgive yourself. Example – the Winklevoss twins who had the original ‘facebook’ idea and innocently assigned someone else (hmmm…we know who) to execute it.

2. Don’t be a textbook.

Even God would be confused if she examined the crazy and unpredictable entrepreneurial world carefully. No one understands how some concepts become such global hits and neither can one analyze why the most brilliant ideas and execution failed. For example, I used to ‘check in’ once in 2 months in a hotel room on my travels. So, if you told me to ‘check in’ to my own house on an Internet map twice a day, via my mobile phone in return for virtual ‘ownership’ of my own home, I would have laughed at you like a jackass. Today I check into my home address like a fiend on Foursquare and fight like a marine to preserve my ‘mayorship’.

Don’t go by theories and textbook case methodologies while planning your business. Just take your best shot at your great idea and execute like hell. Then whether it snows or shines, it won’t matter.

3. Be ready to build the Suez Canal

It took 10 years to build the Suez Canal and it takes the same time to build a business from scratch. Even the biggest stars in the Galaxy – Yahoo, Facebook and Google were built painstakingly. Makemytrip.com (a star Indian travel portal) took 12 years to IPO. If you have the misconception that you can build a great idea into a huge business and then hope to exit in a couple of years and buy an island, I suggest you take a boat trip to the island and buy a shack. It will be the faster way of getting there and owning something on it.

4. Don’t play Rambo.

Unlike Rambo, trying to beat the world alone would kill you. Find a team that not only compliments you but also is better than you. They will allow you to – get financing; sleep at night and also get acquired. And sure, if you are a brilliant hermit and just can’t stand people, then write haiku poetry. At least that will help you attain nirvana.

5. Go back to the Altar and Marry again – this time your co-founder.

A VC recently shared an interesting joke with me. He mentioned that since a start-up venture takes 7-10 years to build into a Company of significance and given the fact that an average American marriage lasts about 5 years, the co-founder becomes more important than the spouse!

Employees are those whom you hire and can fire.

A co-founder is someone who can hire and fire YOU.

6. VCs are like God Parents

VCs are good godparents. They are rich, experienced, and very well connected. They can get things done. They have ‘seen the world’. VCs have a method of working and sometimes can be rightfully conservative in matters of corporate responsibility and ethics. VCs also demand respect and are selfish for your ‘Company’ (pun intended). So, go to VCs, explain to them your needs and then choose them very carefully (yeah, unlike parents, you can actually choose these godparents).

Be more honest with them than you can be with your spouse or your parents. And be patient with them. Make your ‘Company’ work for them and win along the way.

7. Spend your money like it’s a debt from Don Corleone

Think of all the investments (your own and that borrowed from VCs) in your start-up as debts that need to be paid back to Don Coreleone (of Godfather fame). You know what he does when you don’t pay him back.

I am not suggesting not to spend money – I am saying spend cash with ‘returns’ in mind – calculated on everything you spend on. The returns may be revenue generating or for creating assets that can be valuable later. But don’t spend on vapor coz that is something Don Coreleone will cut your throat for.

8. Enjoy a slice of Cake. And let others eat it too.

Imagine hosting a birthday party, inviting lots of friends over, cutting a large cake and then refusing to share it!

Don’t fight over equity dilutions. Give enough to Investors, partners and especially your employees so that the party becomes meaningful. If you have a meaningful exit after a few years, the slice that you kept for yourself (oops ate) will be worth more than the effort you put in!

9. Be a mechanic. Dirty your hands

When I joined my father’s factory and asked him a technical question, he didn’t know the answer. He had to ask his ‘jobber’. I didn’t like that and I traveled to Italy to become a ‘jobber’ myself. That greasy, dirty, hands-on experience on knitting machines partially made me who I am today.

Learn the nitty gritty of your business before you hire people to run different aspects of the venture for you. That will help you to understand the moving parts of your business and fix things immediately when they break down.

10. Go to a movie everyday

Going to work should be like going to a movie everyday. And here I am not exaggerating the emotion. Even on the darkest days of all start-ups and businesses, there is a pleasure of having done ‘something’ that felt nice, worth it or just painful pleasure. No matter what the result. If you can’t enjoy your work and it’s become like some crappy job, then you need to press the reset button.

11. Don’t be Marc Zuckerberg. Be your ‘Ownbook’.

Businesses, like people, have a destiny of their own. So many factors working within and out of your control can create successes like you never dreamt of or will just bust you.

Emulating someone and hoping that you can be ‘as’ or ‘more’ successful than him or her is a complete waste of time and emotion. Do your utmost best, be humble to everyone, tackle every challenge that comes your way and respect your circumstances. Then, if it works – wow! If it doesn’t, try again.

You and I, and every entrepreneur will have our own book to write. Who cares what it’s called and how many pages are in it?

[via Rodinhood]

Startup Talk: ebook lending picks up steam, ebookfling launched.

Akshaya Murthy — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:51:32 +0000

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: Apptank wants to be the Elance of mobile app development

Akshaya Murthy — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 07:00:21 +0000

Everyone wants an app these days, no matter how silly it is. The Fart app for example or even the “are you a moron?” test app. Don’t fall for the bad press but the app trend is upward thanks to 6 major app platforms including iOS, Andorid and Windows Phone. Companies now want a presence in app stores at any cost given the rate of media consumption these devices have sparked. But there is one problem – the companies have ideas but not enough developers to convert them into useful apps. There have been solutions to such developer problems – why not head to developer exchanges such as Elance? The problem is the clutter. Developers tend to be jack of all trades on Elance and hence the focus on app quality may suffer. There is one solution now – Apptank, an Oklahoma based start up has created a one of its kind developer exchange for mobile apps only.

So what’s so special? How about $100,000 in app submissions a week? Yup, the ecosystem is so hot right now that Apptank sees absolutely no slowing down in app submissions in the near term. The focus on mobile apps and a developer qualification program makes Apptank one of those niche providers who add immense value to your app development process. Apptank also makes it possible for companies to spend less time on developing and more on marketing their app. Some success stories have also been to spend a portion of their development budget on marketing thanks to a competitive bidding process that seeks to minimize development costs.

Guest Post: Leveraging the grass-roots in building our tomorrow

Markus Lampinen — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 05:54:37 +0000

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?

Everyone knows that when entrepreneurs seek funding, it is very much the investors’ playground. Should not the best startups have the best investors competing for the right to invest in them? Granted, some cases are out where angels have had to break out a sweat, but doesn’t this dynamic generally seem upside down? Even though it should be a two-way street, the added value behavior of investors can be discussed, but to go as far as to argue that it outweighs the efforts of the founders and core team would be silly.

We cannot afford to not develop the funding markets that fuel innovation and not break the bottlenecks that are keeping new jobs and economic growth from blooming. Online behavior and especially the emergence of social networks such as Kiva.org have raised awareness of the grass-root movements and the crowds that can be empowered and exploited to free the innovation available. With the realization of this idea, Grow VC was started to out-source the identification of these most lucrative startups to the crowd and make the process more transparent. Efficiency has also been such a key issue in the venture capital sector, where the lean VC movement has been put on the table and will be put to the test in the next few years. What Grow VC set out to do, was affect the entire funding sector and work together with existing actors in the funding space, bringing them closer to the grass-root. There is enormous value to be created for all parties, with some cross-border collaboration for example in between grass-root innovations and venture capital firms, which is why Grow VC is seeking partnerships with venture capital firms and already has $5M committed by IndiaCo Ventures.

Without being too drastic, it can be said that no more is there room for those who do not create any real value in the world.

Ideabing Daily Roundup: Hidden Gamer Edition

Akshaya Murthy — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:33:45 +0000

Hide the Gamer Within (if you must)

It’s A Very Russian Idea

The Rent Nightly Business Is Hotting Up – Meet Metroflats

Boxes Going Green? All Over The Place?

The Rent Nightly Business Is Hotting Up – Meet Metroflats

Akshaya Murthy — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:00:53 +0000

The rent-your-home-to-strangers business seems to be bringing up more and more startups to the fore. Airbnb is arguably the biggest with presence in almost every nation in the world. We had featured another NYC startup – Localbigwig and now there is another! Introducing Metroflats. Metroflats says it all in the name – rent a flat in a metro area. Metroflats gives the same services as localbigwig and airbnb but in a smaller number of cities within the US. Started by two business graduates and serial entrepreneurs – Avisha and Shamoon, Metroflats boasts of the finest places you can rent in cities like NYC, San Diego, Orlando and Miami.

There is nothing new about new businesses popping up when a concept seems to start working but these guys seem to e a little different - targeting the higher end of the vacation rental business. The listings are almost all north of $100 a night competing directly with the upper segment of hotels. Come on, those Hiltons deserve some competition! Check out metroflats at metroflats.com

Boxes Going Green? All Over The Place?

Akshaya Murthy — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 07:42:03 +0000

Oh well, it was Lifebox, then UPS and now Ebay. Ebay is now giving out in its green boxes. But hang on – this one’s a little different. Ebay is not going to ship your stuff in it but is just going to give the box to you. The box has space for you to write where its from and a message to a person you are handing it to. The concept is that you will use the box to give someone something and in turn that someone uses it to give someone else, something else. and soon Confused yet? Yeah, I can understand. Ebay’s Skype buyout was as confusing. Ironically the box is name “The Ebay Simple Box”. Now the not so confusing part – if each of the 100,000 (only??) boxes being “given away” is reused 5 times Ebay estimates that we will save about 4000 trees, 2.4 million gallons of water and conserve enough energy to power 49 homes. Nice thought but the lucky few who get these boxes better use it at least 5 times!

[via PSFK]

Video: Population growth explained with IKEA boxes

Allison Reilly — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:00:02 +0000

Swedish global health professor Hans Rosling demonstrates the past, present, and future of population growth with a “new technology”: IKEA boxes. Global population is expected to hit 9 billion by 2050, but it doesn’t have to continue increasing. Rosling says 9 billion can be the sustainable population of the earth by encouraging green technologies and having the West be the foundation, instead of leader ahead of the masses like its always been. Rosling argues that by raising the living standards of the poor and promoting family planning, the global population can be curved and held at a sustainable level.

Rosling began his career as a physician, spending many years in rural Africa tracking a rare paralytic disease (which he named konzo) and discovering its cause: hunger and badly processed cassava. He co-founded Médecins sans Frontièrs (Doctors without Borders) Sweden, wrote a textbook on global health, and is currently a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Rosling has also argued with many heads of state, including Fidel Castro.