beer O' clock

See you!

2007-11-17T20:07:00.000-08:00

Dudeva!

I have moved my blog-engine to Tumblr. I think Its working for me, considering the super-busy entrepreneurial days ahead!

Updates: Sequoia is comming as our financial partner. I'm serving a 6 month notice-period [ funny], Life's good, Full swing fund rising and LP connect happening.

Do follow my tumblr. Its fun!

Song for the moment?

Bye!

Daily Round-up?

2007-09-10T04:30:00.000-07:00

Ring around the ringtone! Apple wants to charge iPhone owners an extra 99 cents to turn songs they've already bought into ringtones. iPhone owners find a way around this. Apple pushes out a new version of iTunes to plug the hole. iPhone owners find a new way around this. Hmm - wonder what will happen next? Meanwhile, the good news is that all these work-around's are legal.

Apple cut the price of the iPhone by a third two months after shipping it, hoping consumers would start yelling "Buy!" Instead they got Wall Street is hollering "Sell!" $11 billion fell from the company's market capitalization in a few short days. Barron's has an excellent roundup of what a dozen analysts have to say about this.

Could Apple's next big price cut be in TV episodes?

Who really knows? The future is unwritten. It's not even burnt into toast.

Perhaps the brilliant toasters of today are harbingers of an imminent takeover by co-mingled human/machine intelligence? A Bay Area gathering ponders this possibility.

Whatever the future holds, we here in the US are tired of being so far behind the rest of the world. Japan has faster Internet, Korea has faster everything -and even the Brits can place a Starbucks order through a laptop.

And soon, they'll be able to do this while editing their photos via an online version of Photoshop.

2007-09-09T04:28:00.000-07:00

Lindsay chats with Mike Volpi, CEO of Joost, to discuss the future of television on the web.

Housing…The Bottom?

2007-08-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

I could care less about the financials and homebuilders because I don’t own them, but the tech leaders are going to explode and I own a lot of them.

I don’t know if Bank of America can fix things, but they are going to put a new world of hurt on the shortsellers once again.

Sex & the Investor

2007-08-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

Enophi.com - iPhone Feed Reader

2007-08-20T04:14:00.000-07:00

Most of us are accustomed to having Feed Readers on our computers, but not yet on our phones.

Now that the iPhone is out, Enophi.com has created a free RSS feed reader app to use with the device so its users can just as easily access their feeds on their phones as they would on their home computers. With Enophi a user simply needs to go to the site and register and then pick the feeds that they want to subscribe to. The reader is just as easy to use as any other feed reader that you would use on your home computer.

As people become more and more accustomed to having feed readers at home it will be totally inconvenient for these people to have an iPhone and not be able to access these things on the iPhone. Enophi stepped in quickly to make sure to be the first to offer this service.

As of now the service from Enophi is free and there is no advertising on the site. There's a link to Adbrite and there's a question ' interests' - so plan to monetize the feeds is there and sure.

I strongly believe there's a need for Mobile based RSS readers, think about a RSS enabled NOKIA series? Video enabled?

Geeklust, anyone? Come to me. I'll invest all my personal savings to that killer idea! :-)

2007-08-18T04:11:00.000-07:00

ZING - Satellite Radio Goes With You

2007-08-17T01:22:00.000-07:00

ZING is mobilizing a new generation of mobile audio and entertainment devices that are always connected so you can always stay tuned. With ZING software and services, your mobile experience goes far beyond simple playback. ZING brings you quality real-time streams and two-way connections that let you discover, play, and collect new music wherever you go, whenever you want.

If you can’t bear to part with Howard Stern and Martha Stewart when it is time to get out of the car and leave your Sirius radio, take them with you. The Stiletto SL100, Sirius’s new portable satellite radio, offers live reception in pocket-size form, as well as Wi-Fi connectivity for listening to live Internet radio whenever you’re in range of a wireless network.

The Stiletto 100, available at retailers and expected soon at shop.sirius.com for $350, can store up to 100 hours of live Sirius programming. The device’s two-gigabyte drive can also store and play songs in the MP3 or WMA formats and is compatible with many Windows-based online music services.

Measuring 4.7 inches high by 2 inches wide and an inch thick, the Stiletto 100 has a 2.2-inch color display. Kits for car or home use are available for about $70 each. Listeners can jump around among 30 preset channels, pause and rewind live radio, and even receive alerts when favorite sporting events are being broadcast — or when scores change, which could come in handy during football season.

Tim Bucher is leading the Zing team and he assembled an extraordinary team with many of the technical rock stars from Moxi, WebTV Networks and Apple. Another beautiful product is Zing's integration with Yahoo! Music - wow thing!

I'm really not surprised that Dell wanted Zing all to themselves.

btw Worldspice India, are ya listening?

Saywit - A Creative freak or a Cognitive Geek?

2007-08-16T04:55:00.000-07:00

Saywit is a social webapp to share our ingenuity, creative thinking, and out-of-box solutions. It aims to bring out our creative intelligence naturally through participation!

This is a self-initiated project by Seshu Karthick Tanveer, and a product of Siddhi Labs.

Implementation Specifics

Technology : Java 1.5, Spring MVC, Hibernate, MySQL
Libraries : OpenId4Java, Rome 0.5.
Third-Party : Haloscan, JS-Kit, Gigya.

Cool?
I think so. People spend hours and hours online, often doing not much of anything. This site actually wants to engage the mind and increase brain cells, while having fun too.

The site has its creative offerings such as "wittychat", where you can open a dialogue with random people (such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates). The cognitive offerings have algorithms and puzzles. You can then embed any responses on your blog or website.

The site is clever and original, and is a very recent launch. The site has potential, but needs some marketing.

30 books every young entrepreneur should read

2007-08-16T02:53:00.000-07:00

Becoming an entrepreneur for the first time requires conditioning yourself to a set of attitudes, skills and knowledge you've never encountered anywhere else before. You've got to be prepared to learn faster than any time in your life. However, being prepared for this 'knowledge hit' hinders many young entrepreneurs in taking their $bn ambitions to actually realizing them.

For those of you that are starting your entrepreneurial careers, you'll find this list inspiring, immersive and essential reading, even providing comfort for those inevitable moments where everyone tells you that you can't succeed. Here are 30 books I've read, which i think you should too.

Attitude

These books will help you to get inspired, think big and refuse to back down when people say you can't succeed.

The Google Story ( The story behind the greatest start up in history)
Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure (An emotional roller coaster through the founding of Go computer. How do u deal with technology which is too early for its market? Read this first)
High Stakes, No Prisoners: A Winner's Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars (The fly-on-the wall account of founding, growing and eventually selling Frontpage to Microsoft)
The Nudist on the Late Shift: And Other True Tales of Silicon Valley (The story of silicon valley gold rush in 1999. Get into the mentality of an amazing time in history)
EBoys: The True Story of the Six Tall Men Who Backed EBay, Webvan and Other Billion-dollar Start-ups (An insight into silicon valley during the boom, set around the founding of Benchmark capital and all the companies they funded)
Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Interviews with some of the foremost founders of technology startups. Great starts are Max Levchin of Paypal and James Hong of HotOrNot.)
Boo Hoo: A Dot Com Story (Boo.com received $160m venture capital in 1999. The story of the most prominent European dot com flameout ever)
Against the Odds: An Autobiography (James Dyson never gave up trying to make the perfect product. The insight into his struggle to what he achieved is inspirational.)
The Perfect Store: Inside EBay (The story of eBay, from Pierre Omidyar's bedroom to where it is now)
Icon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business (The unofficial biography of Steve Jobs. An unique insight into his dark and disturbing side)
Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography (The autobiography of Richard Branson. Just how did he grow his empire from starting with a humble magazine ?)

Skills

Negotiation, networking, getting users, dealing with people and executing upon your plans, these books will help you avoid taking investor money and just burning it.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity (How do you execute if you can't prioritise. David Allen's book will change your life)
How to Win Friends and Influence People (Mediating a dispute with a cofounder, or trying to impress an investor for the first time. Dale Carnegie has all the answers)
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement with out Giving In: The Secret to Successful Negotiation (Negotiating for your first serious round of finance, or with a supplier can be make or break. This book will mean you'll know how to squeeze out those extra details)
Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff (Knowing how to build buzz is invaluable. Learn from the man who decided he would rename a town halfway Oregon to half.com Oregon just to build buzz. Incredible reading)
7 Habits of Highly Effective People (The title says it all. Do what you can to become more effective)
Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time (Networking is an art. Know how to build, maintain and leverage your network. Business is all about who you know as well as what, so read this)
The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything (The concise guide to making it happen. Everything from fundraising, hiring, schmoozing, to getting your pitch right - with a dose of oomph)
The Effective Executive (Execution starts with you. Peter Drucker nails down how to be that bit more effective)
How to Be a Complete and Utter Failure in Life, Work and Everything: 39 1/2 steps to lasting underachievement (The only way to success is to know how to fail. This book gives you enough fodder to never fail again)
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (This book is the best book on making a usable website i've read. Start pleasing your users. Good startups are distinguished by good design. Build your advantage)

Knowledge

Starting a technology company is underpinned by some fundamental facts. These range from understanding long tail economics, how to push something to tipping point or what disruptive technology actually means. Read these or sink fast as others conquer.

The Long Tail: How Endless Choice Is Creating Unlimited Demand (There is 80% of the market you aren't thinking about. This is the long tail)
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (How do ideas, concepts or messages spread through network and reach mass popularity. Learn about the tipping point)
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (Getting ideas to have lasting power is tricky. This book will change your perspective on marketing)
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Taleb argues that rare events, can to be some extent be foreseen. Getting to that series A isn't so random after all)
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (This will change your view on the serendipity behind life-changing events)
The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth (This book takes the concept of disruptive innovation and summarises into a series of characterisable steps)
The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (This book is a classic, illustrating the term disruptive innovation with studies of where disruptive technologies have changed markets. Essential for the budding Niklas Zennstrom)
Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Products to Mainstream Customers (How to bring technology from your early adopters into the mainstream? This book created those definitions)
The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few (How can the average knowledge of a million people be more correct than an expert. With the Internet growing how it is, the wisdom of crowds could be your application's next big weapon)

So what books do you think should in here? Reply in the comments.

Startup Review: Townster

2007-08-15T04:48:00.000-07:00

Townster is a German startup based in Cologne that is all about helping its users search locally. Currently the service offers the ability to search for people, places, events, groups, or lists. While it is still only available in German, they plan to move stateside next year. The space shown below hold 10 employees and is much larger than shown in the photos; with another 20 employees expected in the next year, it will definitely be needed.

I’ve been noticing that more companies seem to be showing their dogs off to us. Here at Office Snapshots, we may not have a dog, but we do have a dilophosaurus. Sure it spits poison in our eyes, but their eggs make great omelettes.

Startup Review: Adpinion

2007-08-14T01:54:00.000-07:00

Adpinion lets users tell what they want to see.

That means brands don't have to guess the consumer's interests based on what websites they visit; Adpinion can advertise diapers to stay-at-home dads while they're reading ESPN. Better still, Adpinion does this without logging any personal information, for any period of time.

Here's how it works:

You have an ad.
adpinion help you place your ad into it's system, where related people and ads group together.
Feedback from users helps to move the ad into more relevant groups.
When a user goes to a website within adpinion network, it'll display an ad that suits their interests.[ If a user hasn't given feedback yet, we choose based on the likes of other readers of that site.]

WOW! that's pretty interesting!

Anyways, pretty promising output from Y-Combinator workshop, waiting for my beta invitation. More later.

Ratatouille

2007-08-13T23:04:00.000-07:00

Startup Review: NowPos

2007-08-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

We believe that you are a celebrity in your own status on NowPos. So tell us and the world more about yourself.

Its been a while I'm hearing about NOWPOS (short for Now Possible), a Hyderabad-based technology start-up.

I'm trying to test it.

Once logged on to NowPos, which is currently free, one can send and receive voicemail; users need to have a headphone with speaker facility to do so. Those who do not want to listen to advertisements, which currently constitute the revenue stream, might have to pay an annual fee. The structure is being worked out.

Frost & Sullivan has chosen NowPos (Now Possible) as one of the 20 top broadband innovations in Asia Pacific, describing it as the "coolest bridge in the Internet space." NowPos, which has just 20+ employees.

Crunched or Clone? Michael Arrington got a story. Its Teleflip

Whats your call people?

I like that attitude!

2007-08-13T03:25:00.000-07:00

Startup Review: Daily Dump

2007-08-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

A new start-up in Bangalore, India, hopes to arm consumers with products and services to empower them toward a simple solution for reducing landfill waste: composting. The Daily Dump offers an array of decorative composting containers that can be used in the home to manage organic household waste and convert it to useful high-quality compost. What's more, they offer a full range of service plans for customers wary of braving the ordeal on their own.

Composting pots and vessels made of biodegradable terracotta in a variety of shapes and sizes can be purchased on the website, which features a guide to help customers choose which is right for their needs. Rakes, spoons, spatulas and other supplies are also available. The website offers extensive information and tips, such as what items can and can't compost. Consumers who lack the time or desire to care for their composting pot can select a weekly, fortnightly or monthly service plan, with a Daily Dump ‘servicewalla’ dropping by to take care of maintenance: cleaning pots, adding dry leaves and stirring the compost. Those who don’t mind doing their own maintenance can opt out of the service plan and call Daily Dump when they have an issue that needs to be addressed by a professional.

The Daily Dump currently is limited to small residential composting, but the company has big plans for expanding its operations to include composting products for businesses and larger homes, solutions for dealing with inorganic waste and further ventures to address larger urban environmental issues. In the meantime, they hope to inspire others to invest in composting—and, as such, are not likely to mind much if copycat companies begin popping up in other parts of the globe, making it easy for them to be green.

Should You Raise Venture Capital, And When?

2007-08-07T03:46:00.000-07:00

Put that coffee down!

2007-08-06T05:35:00.000-07:00

Put that coffee down! One of my colleagues yelled at me. "You drink so-much of coffee and smokes alot"!

Trust me people, whenever I hear "Put that coffee down" I remember 1992 Hollywood flick Glengarry Glen Ross where Mr. Blake yells at Laveen.

PUT THAT COFFEE DOWN! Coffee is for closers...

So where were we? Coffee + Cig? Nope, but everybody's blaming Cig / Espresso for my lost look and they are really disturbed with my slim looks.

Why don't you take care of yourself Kris? Grow some muscles.

I used to answer them with smiles. Then used to say " Toughness is the quality of mind, nothing to do with muscles" then I fedup!

Today some 15 guys commented on my new looks & shirt and said, "Mannn, try to grow some muscles"!

Enough is enough, I need fix this. "Listen genttlemen" I said

" My job is to make long term and short term strategies for my firm. I research a lot, read a lot. I spend fucking 15 hours a day in office ( not because I'm not productive in 8hrs - just for the sake of it, I love my corner office) All i need to do is grow under eye dark circles, not my underarm muscles... & I want to get into Entreprunership then Venture capital NOT Gladrags Model or a male hooker. And about the sex part you mentioned, No gal ever complained or even doubted on my stamina or power of real muscles" !

Since thats the case thesedays, I think I'm sexy enough to smoke the hardest Marlboro available in town and drink atleast 10 Espressos a day.

Well, Sign Sealed Delivered! Need more? I asked! Well, u guessed it!

Web 2.0 Long / Short

2007-08-05T02:39:00.000-07:00

Toni Schneider, CEO of Automattic, about the best and worst parts of Web 2.0.

Why we must close the Internet?

2007-08-03T05:34:00.000-07:00

Because Elton John feels so.

He says the internet is destroying music! “The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff."!

Feeling liuke WTF? Elton John baby!

Sales of Elton’s last album The Captain & The Kid were disappointing — it barely shifted 100,000 copies. And in the past Sir Elt has opposed illegal downloading of his music from the net.

hmmm Elton asks for something he's not going to get. I guess that’s what Sir Elt would call a net loss . . .

Now stop that Meow between the sheets; Lonelygirl15 is no loner single!

MySpace Nabs Lonelygirl15 Finale!!!

In a deal that signals the ascendance of the independent video creator, MySpace will host and feature the Lonelygirl15 season finale this Friday. The finale, a culmination of the series to date, with 12 episodes released every hour over starting at 8 a.m. Pacific, is a bit of creative freedom that the Lonelygirl creators are taking to wrap up some storylines and play with the pacing of their show in real time.

Lonelygirl15, whose creators had shielded their identities before revealing the show was fiction last year, had initially been hosted on YouTube; then switched to Revver as the default host for http://www.lg15.com/ (while still uploading the videos to multiple sites); and just last week switched back to pasting in YouTube embeds.

BTW, Outsourcing to India is the old way. It's now all about crowdsourcing

Long-live Technology.

Web Alert

2007-08-02T04:51:00.000-07:00

If you liked Wallstrip, you might like this new short daily video show called Webb Alert.

Check this out, Guess it's gonna be good!

2007-07-17T09:06:00.001-07:00

Music 2.0

2007-07-13T05:10:00.000-07:00

Lindsay chats with Fred Davis, founding partner at Davis Shapiro Lewit & Hayes, LLP, to discuss Music 2.0.

2007-07-10T05:35:00.000-07:00

Introducing my new virtual pet 'tutu'.

Back in primary school, I had one turtle. His/her name was "tutu"!
With all those 6 year old's curiosity, I used to feed him and there was some special reason to invite all my friends home. ( first social networking platform?)

Anyways, now, thanks to bunnyhero labs - You can feed him snacks by clicking on the snack bag. Or play ball with him by click on more.

adopt your own virtual pet!

Social Networking 2.0

2007-07-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

we’ve been hearing about a new Yahoo social network initiative called Mosh, which is at mosh.yahoo.com but can only be accessed from inside the Yahoo offices. If you happen to be using the guest wifi at Yahoo, you should be able to access the site, although this may be shut down soon.

It’s likely this would replace Yahoo’s 360 social network service, which has never really gotten traction. The existence of Yahoo Mosh also most likely puts a bullet in any further speculation that they are in acquisition talks with Bebo, a somewhat unsubstantiated rumor from May. Last year Yahoo made a serious effort at acquiring Facebook but the deal was never closed.

Google Socialstream

Socialstream is the result of a Google-sponsored capstone project in the Master's program at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute. This project was guided by three goals that built upon each other:

Initial Task: Rethink and reinvent online social networking

Refined Focus: Discover the user needs related to social networking and explore how a unified social network service can enhance their experience.

Prototype Goal: Create a system for users to seamlessly share, view, and respond to many types of social content across multiple networks.

Directed to help improve the online community orkut, the project's scope was not to simply redesign the interface. Our team considered how online social networking could bring greater value to users, especially for ages above twenty. After initial brainstorming and research, we chose to focus on the effects of a new model for online social networking: a unified social network that, as a service, provides social data to many other applications. Our user research examined needs related to online as well as offline social networking and considered how they related to a unified social network service model. Through this user research we identified a set of archetypes that represent common behavior patterns that existed across multiple study participants and also formulated a summarized list of their high level needs.

The project goal is to “create a system for users to seamlessly share, view, and respond to many types of social content across multiple networks.” more information here

This video gives a good overview of the interface and features:

To explore the final prototype, visit the solution section.

Scoopt

2007-07-05T03:40:00.000-07:00

Scoopt, the self-styled “citizen journalism picture agency”, will now allow Flickr members to tag their images with the keyword ’scoopt’, enabling Scoopt to push tagged images to their media outlet buyers. Scoopt will also encourage buyers to use Flickr as a commercial image resource.

Scoopt founder Kyle MacRae said the new feature makes sense as “there’s no easy way to connect Flick members to buyers” and “Flickr members are not allowed to advertise their content commercially”. The Scoopt move is unofficial and does not have a formal relationship with Flickr.

Sales revenue is split 50/50% between Scoopt and the photographer. The photographer always keeps full copyright. It’s free to join Scoopt.

Scoopt has 12,000 members and is based in Scotland.

The Green Wiki

2007-07-05T03:36:00.000-07:00

Here come the niche Wiki launches. Following on from JobberWiki, the career information resource site that anyone can edit, comes Tiptheplanet.com (quoting):

Tiptheplanet is a project to create a green wiki website that encourages discussion and the generation of tips that benefit you and the planet - From tips for individuals about staying happy and healthy to tips for multi-national companies to limit their carbon footprints, with accompanying explanations.

The site is coming out of the UK and has a nicely random feel to it, as in: “Switch to green energy; Find out about distributive power”.

The site has been launched by Tom Savage, who also run Blueventures.org, a not-for-profit organisation which facilitates projects in global marine conservation and research.

'O' Word Sour on Riya ?

2007-07-04T03:53:00.000-07:00

"Some in Silicon Valley begin to sour on India" - Wallstreet Journal homepage loaded with a little bit of surprise.

Read the full article (subscription required) or I quote

Silicon Valley has helped power India's outsourcing boom by shifting technology jobs to that country. Three months ago, Munjal Shah reversed a bit of that shift.

Munjal Shah, who leads a California start-up called Riya Inc., had opened an office in India's technology capital of Bangalore in 2005, hiring about 20 skilled software developers. The lure was the wage level: just a quarter of what experienced Silicon Valley computer engineers make.

Then Indian salaries soared. Last year, Mr. Shah paid his engineers in India about half of Silicon Valley levels. By early this year, it was 75%. "Taking into account the time difference with India," he says, "we weren't saving any money by being there anymore." In April, Mr. Shah shut down the Bangalore office and offered half of its engineers a chance to move to San Mateo, Calif., with work visas."

The story lists a bunch of other companies making similar moves, including Kana Software, of Menlo Park, Calif., Teneros, of Mountain View, Calif., Apple, of Cupertino, Calif.

I think there's something unusual about Shah/Riya’s case; there is no way on earth engineers in India get paid about 75% of what their US counterparts make. I dare say the 25% figure is still the norm for almost every development hot-spot in India apart from maybe Bangalore where it might be higher.

The reason was - not enough value for the money he had to pay. Add some more and he would be able to get someone in his US team.

Value is obtained by learning how to hire efficiently and how to manage that team efficiently. Strategy and management makes all the difference between failure and success of an offshore team. Big vague words as they may seem, there are a few things for these that can be done quickly that can get this fixed 80%.

Munjal hypes up things. One cannot generalise about the whole market from the data gathered from a startup that cannot attract/manage employees at the right cost. Though this may be true for high-end engineers (PHds from Stanford/MIT) who may have returned to India, it is definitely not true that a normal programmer/software engineer is 75% of the US cost.

Well there's a war in WSJ and other media quoted this story. Anyways here’s the full article if you forgot to renew your WSJ subscription.

Social Media kicks Ass!

2007-07-02T04:06:00.000-07:00

Kickass study by ComScore/Piper Jaffray indicating the rapid increase in time spent online interacting with social media experiences. The growth is astounding and suggests that our inflection point may be right around the corner.

Chat with Sumir Chadha of Sequoia Capital

2007-06-18T03:45:00.000-07:00

Got an interesting video from YouTube. Interview with Sumir Chadha - Sr. Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India @ TiECon 2007.

Gizmoz Rocks

2007-06-14T02:56:00.000-07:00

Get your own at Gizmoz.com

Boxing & a lot more can happen over coffee

2007-06-13T23:27:00.000-07:00

8.00 PM IST. Barista Coffee PVR Saket, New Delhi

"You are not been to the boxing arena, then why those black circles? ... Not having enough sleep, tired, or just stress? ... You need to be cared, are ya single? "

Too many questions? Yup - Defnitly from a female!

They say "a lot more can happen over coffee" - True! Since you wanted to sip those awesome beans in warm water with awesome tar filled inside white paper and most of the time you have to share table with others! Blessed!

"Yup, I am - Infact 'Romatically Challenged' ! I replied.

Trust me folks - It feels great watching some chick laughing for a genune cause, trust me! "But why"? The smile etc,etc ...

Blame it on the schools I attened, all boys - I never had an opportunity to groom myself as a 'nice guy'! Hard luck! - Answer.

"Ohhh ... but ... hey you have a cute face, gals love that and I see - you dress well, I saw you comming in Avis and the driver is opening the door for ya - you must be earning well, you told me you are into strategy and advisory (sorry guys - I did flaunt my firm and job a bit) ... still?"

Well sweet heart - Its not just about a cute face - its about something, something you really don't wanna do.

"You know what" now she's really acting like a mentor " you just need to listen to all Air Supply songs". ( Oh Really ...)

"I think to find love - you need to act like a Buyout fund" I said.

"What the fuck?" Predictable reaction.

"You know - You need to be a buyout fund, you need to acquire controlling stocks of the chick, even in the case of old Gap CEO ( read Chick with experience in romance) need to put extra 12% shares -that makes the whole situation into 4% debt! And I'm a not a trend investor..."

[ I know thats going wired - I had a simple answer for that, but I was just checking her *connected thinking* ability ( you knw I badly need a Research Analyst - Hiring interview) ]

"Or you need to be Africa - babe I'm starving for love, I don't have anybody - my family disowned me, my girlfriend ditched me and appreciating my best friends shoes just cause he's got an appartment and he's living alone ... I don't have anyone!"

"Okie - So you are not a buyout fund neither Africa ! " Guess he's interested in me , she's constantly ignoring her Cig - now thats a good point!

I'm not a Lover of Salsa
I hate Westlife and band of boys/gays
According to me "Wham" is not the greatest song ever
I hate SRK, Krish and Yash Raj films
Sorry I don't watch the OC
I don't eat Italian or French or dream about honymoon in Paris
Honey - I just can't blame Himesh Reshmiya and Mika ( i know why you hate both - not because they lack talent, its the 'in thing' thesedays)
Spas - Bu ha ha
Golf? I play since school - not a wannabe Rolex fan - I know what it takes to be a tiger - no nike cap and wheatish dads money looks can ever make ya a tiger
I just don't need a hair gel to look retarded

So pal, thats my point - pretty interesting ppl around. So hardluck!

"Your Cig's actually burned out" - "Oh... gawd ... I just .. I just ... Can I have yor lighter again" ( "Anything for ya sweetheat")

So whats now then - you been analysing people? All thiese ages? How Old are ya?

Time for a belated birthday wish mate, June 10 and im 25 now!

"Ohh ... Belated hapy birthday buddy ... So you were talking about the learning curve ..." She's really interested or she's so fucking jobless

"Well ..." ( lighing Cig, one deep pick and a pause) " what I've learned over the last 25 yrs is Chicks look for Three 6 factor in men"

"Six Foot, Six Packs and Six Inches - Unfortuatly I can't provide the first two"

She grabbed the attention of the PVR Saket community in a second - Thanks to her Bingo-Laugh!

"Dude - You are freaking mad - I just ... Lemme treat ya with a coffee! " So kind of her " Here?" I asked. well nice girl, "Well, you haven't cleared the take-me-home time yet. So Barista"

Double Shot Esspresso! ( not that I'm a fan of esspresso, thats teh cheapest available in Barista, I just don't wanna tax strangers, like Mexico)

You alone or waiting for somebody?
Well - I'm waiting for ma Brother ... Okie

Are ya in Orkut? ( Fuck thats the freaking thing I hear when strangers meet, It used to be whats yr phone# or emil id mate - Wharton, are ya listening ?)

Story goes on and on - Till her media chick arrived late - all going to the Media night at TC " Dude, you wanna join us? "
(WTF? even/odd issues) "Thanks pal, I'm kinda busy and need to finish some work to save my job .. carry on. have a great time"!

"Are ya sure? Give me your number ... We'll meet again ..." ( she's so sure i guess: Creed Fan?)

Whatever - back to same old Cig!

9.30 PM IST

17 Twitter messages ... Busy Deleting crap!

Bubble - Long ? Short?

2007-06-12T04:17:00.000-07:00

Marc Andreessen, the inventor of the first commercially viable Web browser and the co-creator of Netscape, finally has a blog. And he started this week with a splash: in his third post, he offered a harsh (for him) rebuttal of the spreading notion that there is a new Internet bubble forming, that Silicon Valley is overexuberant about “Web 2.0,” and that soon it will all come crashing down (blog.pmarca.com).

“If you’re going to call a bubble on the basis of lots of bad start-ups getting funded and failing,” he writes, “then you have to conclude that the industry is in a perpetual bubble, and has been for 40 years.”

For the most part, he argues, the companies that are getting the most money and attention are those that deserve it. “People laughed when Fox bought MySpace for $580 million,” he wrote, but now, given its revenue growth, “MySpace would probably be valued at between $3 billion and $5 billion.”

BTW More Bubble Stuff? Thanks to NY Times & Dan Mitchell here's some.

Well comming back to Marc, do check the 'The truth about venture capitalists' series

25th Year & 25th Hour : Happy Birthday!

2007-06-10T04:23:00.000-07:00

Hey! Its my Birthday today

And after a long 25 hrs of work, I'm going to the hills to celibrate!

Catch ya !

TV - the Blip way

2007-06-08T03:59:00.000-07:00

Blip.tv, the video sharing site focused on independently produced shows, today announces the closing of its series B financing and its first venture capital investors. The round was led by Ambient Sound Investments (ASI), the venture capital fund established by the four founding engineers of Skype.

Other participants in the round include the venture fund Lauder Partners; Jeffrey Sechrest, Managing Director and co-head of the media and entertainment division of Lazard; Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum; Jonathan Kopp, a partner in the PR, marketing and advertising firm SS+K; and Ken Sawyer, founder of Saints Capital.

Blip.tv, founded in May 2005, is also marking its second anniversary.With ASI's support, blip.tv, which shares revenue with content creators on a 50/50 basis, will expand its ability to give content creators the opportunity to generate revenue by offering new advertising options, advanced technologies, and an extended distribution network to make blip.tvshows available in as many places and on as many devices as possible. The company already distributes user video to destinations with combined reach measured in the hundreds of millions.

Heard of Dina Kaplan? Nope? Lindsey Campbell? Nope? Better press "X" now!

Whats your pitch?

2007-06-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

Vator.TV, the video site started by Bambi Francisco, the former MarketWatch columnist, officially launched!

It is designed for people to share ideas about their companies, to investors and others. From the main page, you can select “My Vator” to create a pitch and manage your profile. Outsiders can use a search bar to find pitches. There is also a text news section and a place where pitching competitions are listed.

Interesting features: They've managed to get the who's who of the VC industry. Vinod Khosla, Tim Drapper etc etc....!

Khosla's pitch on "Areas of interest" is a message to future biggies - think different, give that social networking concept a break!

I like the "Competitions" session: Business Plan competitions!

The competition section is a place to find and search for business or product ideas submitted to the latest contests held by Universities, venture capitalists, angel investor groups, conferences, and companies. Competitions typically last for 3 months and are designed to attract a particular type of business or product idea. For those seeking a solution to a specific problem, holding a competition on Vator.tv is an efficient way to source ideas.

Watch Pitch Tim Draper your billion dollar idea here and the responses' fentastic!

So - People, Whats your pitch?

The Twitter of Sex

2007-06-06T02:24:00.000-07:00

MeetMoi, a clever “location based” mobile dating service, has just raised $1.5 million in a first round of financing.

You go to MeetMoi’s site, fill in some basic info, upload a profile, and register your phone number. Then, whenever you’re looking for a date, you send a text message containing your zip-code and cross-street to MeetMoi’s system. This lists you as “available,” and sends text messages with your profile to other “available” people within your vicinity.

If your profile makes any of these people tingle, they can reply to the text and the message will come to you. You then can see their profiles and have the option to respond. At no point does MeetMoi disclose your phone number. The service is free to register and costs 99 cents for 10 anonymous text messages.

The funding comes from Acadia Woods Partners. It is available on Cingular, Nextel, Boost, Sprint, T-Mobile, ALLTEL and CellularOne.

The WallStreet Jurnal mentioned MeetMoi’s story really well (read here - subscription needed)

So - Science of Twittering - Third Law of Web 2.0? People dumping computer? Think so!

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs highlights at D5 - All things Digital

2007-06-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

Old Media meets New Media

2007-06-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

Old media visits new media to tell them what they're doing to keep up. Wallstrip's Lindsay chats with Beth Comstock, President of Integrated Media at NBC Universal.

Compensation at VC-Backed Companies

2007-06-04T01:46:00.000-07:00

Fresh off the rousing success of their Term Sheet series, the guys at AskTheVC have begun tackling the issue of compensation at VC-backed companies.

This is must-read stuff for any entrepreneur in the process of raising venture capital, or who already has raised venture capital.

After all, who else are you going to ask if you’re getting screwed over? Your own VCs?

A few highlights from what’s been posted so far:

Compensation Before Raising Money: “Don’t be greedy on cash compensation. There is nothing that turns off a VC more than seeing a pre-revenue, pre-funded company where the employees are making market salaries…”

Deferred Cash Compensation: “Be careful about expectation setting here – while some VCs will respect this arrangement, if this deferred compensation number starts to grow, as a condition of the financing the VCs will often require some or all of the deferred comp to be converted into equity…”

Equity Compensation Terms: “The standard vesting terms for a venture-backed company are typically a four-year vest with a one year cliff. For example, let’s assume you are granted an option for 10,000 shares of stock as part of your compensation package. A standard vesting plan would have you vest 25% of your options (2,500 shares) after one year (“the cliff”) and the other 7,500 monthly over the next 36 months (or 208 shares / month)…”

What Percentage Will You Own at Exit: “The range is so broad as to be meaningless…”

follow Ask a VC for more.

Science of Bubblishness, Mohalo and Blogs that Talk!

2007-06-01T02:30:00.000-07:00

Mahalo.com, the latest company from entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, launched, with a stripped-down search engine designed to handle only the most popular requests in widely appealing categories.

Focused on areas such as travel, music, television, movies, cars, food, health, news and sports — and filtered with the help of a team of 40 employees in Santa Monica, Calif. — the limited results are meant to avoid the spam and other junk results that clog up the other search engines. They aim to fulfill the Web’s most repeated requests.

By cherry-picking only the most popular 10,000 search terms, it can organize results in the form of a more organized, thoughtful list about your search term’s attributes.

The challenge here, though, is that dozens of other search engines have launched to tackle specialized search already, including shopping search engines, job search engines, travel engines and engines like Hakia that organize results in similar ways to Mahalo.

Moreover, there are other sites that provide real people to help assist in searches, such as ChaCha.com. Finally, Mahalo forces people to change their searching behavior, requiring them to calculate when to use Mahalo versus say Google or other engines — all things that make this a long-shot for quick, big success.

Geek gossip is (well - not from Truemors) Calacanis had ambitious plans for his video wikipedia, but had no idea he'd be this aggressive in funding Mahalo. From the various numbers floating around, our guess is that Calacanis is seeking up to $20m, at a valuation of up to $100m. The round would make Mahalo one of the most lavishly backed pre-launch sites since, um, Boo.com during the last bubble. (That didn't end well.)

Bubble? Telecom bubbles and blogs that talk… this week Sweetheart Lindsay sits down with Alan Levy, founder of BlogTalkRadio.

I like the Last Line

2007-05-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

Structuring Venture Capital and Other Investments in India

2007-05-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

Many U.S. and other foreign investors are evaluating alternatives for structuring investments into software development, business process outsourcing, drug discovery and other tech and non-tech companies based in India.

Here's a whitepaper from Fenwik & West, a Cali based legal firm covering 2007 update to Structuring Venture Capital and Other Investments in India.

The primary structures for investing in India are:

Direct investment in an India company from outside India(usually through a Mauritius or a Cyprus subsidiary fortax reasons)
Investment in a U.S. company with a services fulfillmentsubsidiary in India
Investment in a Cayman Islands or Mauritius companywith a services fulfillment subsidiary in India
Direct investment in an India company from outsideIndia through a venture capital fund registered with theSecurities and Exchange Board of India.

The primary business considerations in determining how tostructure such an investment are:

Relative valuations in the U.S. and India capital marketsfor the type of investment in question, particularly aservices business;
Ease of IPO exit including any currency exchangerestrictions, the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley in the U.S. andoverseas company listing requirements in India;
Ease of acquisition by the likely set of acquirors as an exit-strategy
Investor “comfort” with the limitations on preferenceshares under the India Companies Act of 1956, asamended (the “Companies Act”)

It also covers the IPOs, Company act, Mauritius Financial Services Commission strategy, Cyprus and other key areas. Download the paper here

Feed? 100 million for ya!

2007-05-25T03:48:00.000-07:00

On the surface, this looks like a straightforward story. Google is tightening its grip on text advertising with the acquisition of Feedburner. The rumored purchase price for the Chicago-based startup is of the order of $100m!

Text ads in feeds receive so little attention from readers that Google, which pursued its own trial, abandoned the experiment. Feed readers, the applications and sites on which geeky internet users scan news items, often do not support the graphical ads which brands prefer, closing off that avenue for a broker such as Feedburner.

So, why would Google pay such a high multiple, about 10 times revenues, for the startup? Probably, for the same reason it has developed Google Analytics: it is another way for Google to tie in independent online publishers. Feedburner provides an array of services to sites, such as email newsletter publishing, and the integration of external news and photos. It is more valuable as a publishing service than an ad broker.

What's a Feed btw? Lets ask to Dick Costolo CEO, FeedBurner ; Thanks to Lindsey - another dope and denim fellow!

The Art of the Start

2007-05-24T01:16:00.000-07:00

Guy Kawasaki of Garage Ventures at TiECon last year. Download the presentation here (pdf)

Truly "The Art of the Start"