Parisista - Latest Comments

Re: LetsBuy plus Flipkart, the positive spin

Sagar Bedmutha — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:07:56 -0000

I really felt breathing fresh air after reading this post. Your concluding remark "these are venture startups and not a “baniya ki dukaan." is sort of "Sau sunar ki ek lohar ki"!

Re: LetsBuy plus Flipkart, the positive spin

mayanks — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:40:57 -0000

No doubt there is a silver lining in these dark clouds

Re: LetsBuy plus Flipkart, the positive spin

Ankur Gupta — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:17:13 -0000

The language and choice of words in which many of the startup blogs report reflects a lot on the attitude they bring on to the table.

Re: From Google to Facebook: The shifting monetization landscape

Web App Developers — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:13:15 -0000

I agreed with Indus.

Re: Merry Christmas. Give India some more ballsy angels

Craftila — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:50:59 -0000

We truly believe its a long journey with space for plenty of travellers to be part of this era.

Re: Flipkart, the e-commerce boom, the other view

e-commerce conferences — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:24:49 -0000

I agree it is not a difficult task to creat a web store but you need to be aware of all the applications required to give a good view of the products and keep the site updated evey now and then.

Re: Merry Christmas. Give India some more ballsy angels

Indus Khaitan — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:17:42 -0000

When I was starting with episode one in 2009, I was super bullish on e-commerce opportunity in India. In that era, Flipkart was still in the making with less than 10 crores in revenue (today they are at 500 crores). We tried doing one investment but it did not grow beyond a certain point. Probably, that was the reason I may have tried convincing you to morph into an e-commerce biz.

I'm still bullish on derived data for consumer internet but not looking into that sector any more..restless as we are!

If you are still building, what you were building when we met then hats off to your focus and perseverance. Would definitely love to meet in the coming year. Drop me a note.

Re: Merry Christmas. Give India some more ballsy angels

Vikram — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:17:50 -0000

Indus: I met you a couple of times in episode one. Once in a socializing event and then a one-to-one meeting. Unfortunately your response was similar to what I mentioned above - "can you somehow morph your product into an ecommerce tool?" I cannot blame you completely for that mindset because I know you came from Tejit which itself was all about user data corpus and derived information. And my expectation was that you will understand the needs and potential of another such startup, but something in the ecosystem must have been responsible for your response back then.

Be assured, that particular instance is not my point of contention against you or my motivation to write the first comment I wrote above. My first comment is a reflection of the sullenness I have seen among the Indian angels towards late-revenue startups.

About the solution to the problem. I too don't have a straightforward solution. And maybe I (an entrepreneur) don't understand the genuine problems on the other side of the table (investors) completely. But I think the solution is very much with the community (entrepreneur + angels/vc's) that is the creating the problem in the first place. One key ingredient is patience and not 3x in 18 months, as you said. They both have to get out of the overnight-success mental model. Its a topic that we (entrepreneur + angels/vc's) can discuss for hours together and I 'believe' we can come to a solution if we do it together, so I won't try to improvise on it any further in this comment.

Looking forward to your episode two.

P.S.: I have been kind of anonymous here. If you want me to get in touch right away, let me know.

Re: Merry Christmas. Give India some more ballsy angels

Indus Khaitan — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:32:51 -0000

Vikram: I did an Episode one with a small contribution to the ecosystem for 2 years. You have to independently verify whether it was veritable! Right now, making an attempt to amass some ammo for a future Episode two.

What you are saying is correct. I'm at loss as to how this problem will be solved. Exits first? Buyers galore? Dunno the right answer.

Re: Merry Christmas. Give India some more ballsy angels

Vikram — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:23:51 -0000

"Be the change you want to see in the world".
The risk appetite for great technologies among the Indian Angels is very low. They want to invest into things that a direct revenue model and will make money on day 1.

When great technologies which have an indirect revenue model are presented to them, they want to just crush the great vision that the entrepreneur has and ask him to pivot his idea and turn it into an eCommerce venture so that it makes money on day1. The indirect revenue technologies will make money only after an year or two after they have a huge corpus of data and a million users, and thats here things become indigestible for most Indian Angels.

Entrepreneurs and Angels both think that India should produce atleast one software giant like the giants in the valley. But Angels forget that a large part of the onus is on them. Only when they learn to 'fail' in 7/10 ventures, 3 moderate successes, only then will they find that 1 huge success. But they are much risk averse, they are happy with 5 low-to-moderate successes each year.

What's new on the scene? Geeks-on-a-plan were here and they were looking for opportunities to invest. Why? because they know the facts that I have stated above.

Its got to start somewhere. Are you up for it?

P.S.: The above is true for most, but not all, Angels, VC's in India. There are a few exceptions that I know of. I have refrained from taking any names either on the positive or the negative side of things.

Re: Why I love doing non-productive bull-shit work

Indus Khaitan — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:19:36 -0000

True. What if you start your day early at 8:00a? Would be "worn out" in 2-3 hrs before lunch hits...

Re: Why I love doing non-productive bull-shit work

Indus Khaitan — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:18:43 -0000

Thats the whole idea, kill the back ground threads by taking these short "assignments".

Re: Why I love doing non-productive bull-shit work

Sushrut Bidwai — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:59:39 -0000

This is all good Indus. But you know what - just hire a office assistance. Like right now. 4/4.5K per month of office assistant salary is nothing compared to dealing with so many things. Its not the actual time, its the background threads these mundane tasks occupy in brain which kills productivity.

Re: Why I love doing non-productive bull-shit work

venkat kandaswamy — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:43:20 -0000

Nice strategy.. i typically keep these chores post lunch.. mornings and evenings is when I get my adrenaline rush and I save it for dev activities

Re: Why I love doing non-productive bull-shit work

Indus Khaitan — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 05:42:03 -0000

25 Minutes is too short for technology workers :)

Re: Why I love doing non-productive bull-shit work

Indus Khaitan — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 05:41:25 -0000

Pomodoro technique sounds interesting. Pasting it from the site.

The basic unit of work in the Pomodoro Technique® can be split in five simple steps:Choose a task to be accomplished
Set the Pomodoro to 25 minutes (the Pomodoro is the timer)
Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings, then put a check on your sheet of paper
Take a short break (5 minutes is OK)
Every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break

Re: Why I love doing non-productive bull-shit work

Srikanth Thunga — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:30:31 -0000

You have invented your own version of pomodoro :)

I think one of the main reasons pomodoro works is because it forces you to prioritize the tasks for the day & work on it.

Re: Why I love doing non-productive bull-shit work

Vimal George — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:17:02 -0000

Sounds like you'd like the 'Pomodoro technique'. (though the default there is 25m sprints and 5m break for non-core stuff/email; it all depends on the kind of *flow* you want to achieve and the kind of work you do.)

Re: Flipkart, the e-commerce boom, the other view

Shopping cart solutions — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 02:34:37 -0000

Yes flipkart is the fastest growing Ecommerce company in India with lots feature and product range.

Re: Flipkart, the e-commerce boom, the other view

Shopping Cart Solutions — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:11:43 -0000

Flipkart i really love their services and the offers. It is cool

Re: Flipkart, the e-commerce boom, the other view

Hosted Ecommerce Software — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:05:20 -0000

Flipcart is one of the best shopping carts or online shops we have..I was really happy with their services.

Re: The state of career networks in India (and the pain of finding a right job)

Amy_lee2327 — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 07:10:29 -0000

A friend of mine introduced me to senscool. After getting
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hours. It worked miracle for

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keep an extra bottle. I applied the gel on my shoulder and
was not surprised at all

as it has the same effect. It helps the muscle relax and has
a very cooling effect.

Senscool should be in every one’s medicine cabinet. Check
their website http://www.painfreeology.com/

Re: Laptop to Loadbalancer: Is your LAMP hardware infrastructure growing like this?

Rettege66 — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 00:36:20 -0000

Please let me know if you have any questions as I assure you I am a serious and would very much like to do business with you.

Thank you

Re: Recent musings on hiring and an imperfect job market

Pankaj Mittal — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:24:53 -0000

And then employers say why should they pay to recruiters?

In India, most of the time it is NOT WYSIWYG. So, you have to plan for everything which you don't see.

1. Don't depend on one candidate even if he is the perfect candidate you are looking for. Have a list of choices not to find surprises afterwards.

2. Hire recruitment agencies (don't hire too many) even if they do the same what you would be doing. At least they will manage the complete mess for you. They can make RecruiterBox, Linkedin, Facebook, Naukri, Monster and others actually work for you (in any order).

3. India has a peculiar problem of having most number of vacant positions with most number of unemployed people. So, don't post jobs unless you want to hire in bulk and you have agency to go through the millions (not really but yes) of irrelevant applications.

4. Candidates don't have much options as of now.

Re: Flipkart, the e-commerce boom, the other view

Kamal — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:32:59 -0000

Here is a simpler way to look at this. Flipkart has been given this enormous opportunity to remake the retail world in India. Is it going to be easy? No way.. Is it possible? I think yes! If they succeed in what they are trying to do, the issue of valuation will take care of itself, simply because there is a huge addressable market.