TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a conference that brings the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). The TED Site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. I assume that is a compelling enough description to prompt anyone to have a look. Awesome site to spend your time on.

I am a web worker but I don’t use the Internet for music and movie downloads. I was using MTNL 2 MBPS (Rs. 199 upto 400 MB and Re. 1 per MB thereafter) but my monthly bill has shot up to Rs. 8990. This means I consume 9 GB each month through normal Internet usage. And that hurts my pocket. Unfortunately, there’s no unlimited consumption package for the 2 MBPS line. So I have, today, downgraded to an unlimited 256 MBPS package. Goodbye Speed. I need you but I can’t afford you.

• They don’t really end up getting you multiple loan/insurance offers as they promise. Most of them sell the leads to banks on an exclusivity basis and erase the very purpose of their existence.
• They don’t focus on organic traffic and rely heavily on getting traffic through Google Adwords and ad networks. And thus are functioning as arbitrage businesses. With the kind of volumes online, the arbitrage model can not be justified.
• The consumer side of the product is just a bunch of forms. So absolutely anyone and everyone tries to get into this business relying on Google Adwords to get their leads. Try running a search for Personal+Loan+Mumbai and see the number of advertisers vying for presence. I saw 17 of them. This means that the already thin volumes get further distributed. What it also means is that the bidding for keywords is high, hiking up the cost per acquisition.
• The quality of leads is pathetic. Most people who fill forms on these sites are those who have already tried and failed to get one through other channels.

• The CD/DVD Player Simulation used for the Music Player at The Raghu Dixit Project Site.
• Ability to design your own shoes on the NIKEiD Store.
• Airfare Graphs and Airfare Alerts on Cleartrip.
• Everything about burrp! Local – design/UI, content, search & discover features (through user-generated lists and proximity), burrpers Choice Awards, site-wide highlight given to contributors.
• SMS Reminders on burrp! TV.

Be nice to people on your way up because you’ll need them on your way down.
- W. Migner

I was reading some of the stuff by Y Combinator (a VC firm that has been spot on in picking the right early stage startups to fund). Fabulous stuff. But then I came across the article on The Equity Equation. I suggest you read the article. Here’s a part of it:

Question:
An investor wants to give you money for a certain percentage of your startup. Should you take it?

Answer:
1/(1 – n)
Whenever you’re trading stock in your company for anything, whether it’s money or an employee or a deal with another company, the test for whether to do it is the same. You should give up n% of your company if what you trade it for improves your average outcome enough that the (100 – n)% you have left is worth more than the whole company was before.

I disagree with this equation for early stage companies. You are selling out for too less. While it may sound rational and common-sensical, you are discounting your dreams in the process. The article tries to justify selling 2-10% of your company for under USD 20,000. Unfair.

Quality must not be confused with ‘compliance to standards.’ Quality is the pursuit of ‘perfect, free and now.’
- Prof S Chakraborty

I love tools that allow me to stay disorganized and that’s the reason I love Google. With GMail, I no longer have to organize my emails into folders. With Google Desktop, I no longer have to organize my files. With Picasa, I needn’t arrange my pictures/albums. In fact, these tools now make me more productive than the otherwise organized individual – who would have cumulatively spent hours allocating stuff in the right folder and giving it a nomenclature structure. Chaos, I have a reason to embrace you now more than ever before.

Vision is too vague a term. It doesn’t quite suit me. I don’t know what shape ‘Workosaur’ would take 5 years from now. Neither do I want to be bound by a vision just for the heck of it. Also, the word vision has been abused enough by organizations over and over. None of the employees truly understand or believe in the vision statement’s obsession with maximizing shareholder’s value. I’d rather have something which is simpler and concise (less than 7 words) and which embodies a philosophy that sets a direction for every employee in their individual spheres of work. Much like Philips’ Let’s Make Things Better. It’s a powerful statement and one which sets the ball rolling for every action for every employee/team. It’s a Unifying Philosophy.

I consider myself to be a good PPT/Presentation creator. But when I saw the Results of the World’s Best Presentation Contest 2008, I was blown away. Full marks to SlideShare for this marketing initiative. Good presentation creation skills most certainly increase your sales closure ratio.