How to blog regularly?

As promised, I will share my thoughts about this topic.

Let us analyze (non-professional) bloggers for their incentives/roadblocks for blogging:


Incentives:
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1. It is fun to communicate
2. Feedback from known (or random) people.
3. Freedom of speech (O ya..I can say whatever I want to in my blog)
4. Mental stimulation - Some intelligent thoughts do come by while writing

Roadblocks:
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1. Boredom (Ya...people get bored of it)
2. It is not directly related to our business, family or other things deemed important in life
3. No incentive if there are no feedbacks
4. Lack of time
5. Forgetting that I have a blog :)

There would be other points also, but here are some tips for those who want to write regularly. Note: I am going to try these tips myself. Will see if I can follow them religiously or not ;)

1. Have 3-4 topics lined up for writing. This helps in generating ideas when you are in the mood of writing.
2. Read religiously about the topics of your interest. This leads to mental stimulation and which ultimately generates new ideas that you can put on your blog.
3. If possible, give 30 min per day (or every 2-3 days) to your blog.
4. Engage with feedback providers. This leads to discussions, which ultimately loops back into motivation to write.
5. Visit other blogs and engage in discussions.
6. Involve your social graph in the discussion.
7. Use microblog to stream out small snippets of your thoughts

There would be other good ideas as well. Maybe we can brainstorm them later...or in comments.

ciao~

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New Developments

Its been a while since I wrote something on this blog. Got a bit too much involved in the biz-at-hand and thats why could not keep up with writing new articles regularly. You are not buying it, are you? Ok..ok...I admit..I became lazy. My bad :(

Now that we are on this topic...all of a sudden I feel that there is something interesting to write about: "Why do majority of bloggers NOT write regularly?" hmmm...I am going to write about this in my next posting.

For now, let me update everyone about what I was doing, where I was and everything else...

So, after the b-school, I moved to Overland Park, KS (yes...Kansas) to work for a company called Embarq. They provided me a great opportunity to work in the CEO's office as an internal consultant. (Yes...I worked in CEO's Office. Dan Hassey was the CEO of Embarq at that time. And currently he is the CEO of Sprint, trying to turn-around that company. Good Luck Dan..I know you can do it). Coming out of the b-school, I got this great opportunity to work in Dan's office...heck ya...I will move to Timbuktu for that :)

Things happened fast in Overland Park. I was full-time employed there. Enjoyed it. Also, I was leading blogoxy.com (which I founded while in School). But good times do not last for ever. n boom...here came the acquisition of Embarq and the layoff (Oct 2009).

This was the time when DSPs and Ad Exchanges started to pop up. Ad Networks started to look so much a "thing-of-past"(To become an ad network was our revenue model for blogoxy) and therefore it was time to say good-bye to blogoxy. Thanks to Vimeo, you can take a look at its video pitch.

So, job is gone. blogoxy.com is gone. Now what to do?

Instead of doing an intensive job search, I decided to start something full-time (remember, blogoxy.com was always a part-time gig: In school and then at work). So, I contacted few of by buddies and we came across the idea of the food business (in India). The country was growing at 9-10% growth rate, middle class was booming, malls were flooded with people, retail revolution was undergoing...how could I not join the bandwagon? So, in Nov'09, I packed my bags and moved to India with a hunger to open a food retail chain in the country. I and my good friend Nimai got together to start our company NIMSAN RETAIL and the brand: Mr. China.

Mr. China:

NIMSAN RETAIL opened its first outlet on Dec 28th'09 in GIP Mall @Noida in Delhi. Yes, I landed in New Delhi on Nov 7th and we opened the outlet on Dec 28th. It really does not take more than 2 months to open a food outlet (knock-knock all brick-n-motor folks). Coming form the Technology world, and planning to open a food chain, we automated our entire business processes.

The company became profitable by May'10 (in 4-5 months). We told ourselves...great...now lets expand it. N here came the roadblock. It is very difficult to raise funding in India (if you do not come from a rich family) for a traditional business. Yes, maybe we could have raised funding for a tech company, but for a food business...NO...there was no money. So, we decided to go with the FOCO model (Franchise Owned, Company Operated) for expansion. Basically, what this meant was that the franchisee would be the investor and NIMSAN would be the operational partner (our core competency). We started meeting investors (franchisees) but by Aug'10, the retail cycle took a dip and we barely made any profit in the next 2 months.

At that time, we decided to give this business some more incubation time before expansion. Our cash reserve was running very low, so we also decided to move out of the operations of Mr China, and to look for new businesses elsewhere. We got a highly seasoned hospitality industry veteran involved with us and I moved to the US in search of new opportunities. Yes, Mr China is alive..and is doing good now :)

Groperty.com

Last month, I and Nimai started a new venture: Groperty.com (Group + Property). Yes, you guessed it right: It is the group buying of new apartments/flats in India (Once again..same logic...economy is growing...real estate is growing...yada yada yada).

Future prospects of Mr. China look good. We will open new outlets and most likely will move into the processed food business. But I am now fully into an investor role there. Groperty.com is still a baby...and we are trying to gauge the market demand for this kindof service in the country.

Will keep you posted with the latest. Ciao.

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New frontiers

Few days ago I was thinking about how the technology has evolved in the past several years. Maybe we are witnessing the fastest growth in innovation since the invention of wheel OR the discovery of gravity.

Focusing primarily on the technology sector, let us revisit the path that the industry (and its main players) have taken. History teaches a lot of lessons. So, the history of personal computing (technology) can throw some light about the current trends (and possibly future trends).

Lets start with the grand-daddy: IBM.

Several years ago (before I was born), there was a company named International Business Machine (IBM). They made big machines (mainframes) which were very succesful. The company kept on focusing on making bigger and more powerful machines. They closed themselves from the changing market dynamics and lost to the "new trends" (at that time): The PC revolution.

Enter Microsoft. The big 800 pound gorilla of the PC age was hugely succesful (and it still is, and so is IBM) in the 90s. It beat IBM hands on but (because History repeats itself) it made the same mistake as IBM did. It kept its focus on the PC (remember those attempts to make PC as the hub in peoples' living rooms) and missed the Internet revolution. Yes, I know that they have Hotmail, MSN (and what not), but hey..they are not Google.

Enter Google. This one of the fastest growing company is the 800 pound gorilla of the Internet age. It weathered the DOT com burst, and has almost single handedly captured the most lucrative marketing/advertising business on Internet. But as we speak, history is repeating itself. Google is the master in searching information on the Internet and has pushed the envelope few times(remember indexing all books in the world), but it is missing the key changes that are happening outside of its domain. It is a very smart company (and so were IBM & Microsoft) but it is bound to make its own mistakes and has to give way to the new company that will ride the new trend.

So, what is the new trend that Google is missing and that will lead to some other company getting the crown?

Enter "Real time web". Internet is changing very fast (exponentially). There is so much information out there that even big-monster companies like Google and Yahoo can not index all information every day/hour. And if you look closely, then this is the most important information (most of the times) for a lot of people. Does it matter what happened 10 years ago in my town? Ofcourse it does. But does it matter more what happened today in my town? Absolutely. Does it matter what "my friend" said to me 10 years ago? No (maybe yes sometimes). But does it matter what "my friend" said to me "today". Absolutely. (Maybe no sometimes :) But you got what I am trying to communicate. Its the realtime web that is gaining more and more traction (and importance), and Google (and Yahoo as well) are missing it. It is by virtue of their strength (Ability to search & index the whole internet) that they are missing out on the new trends.

Real time web is drawing new frontiers in the technology sector. Sooner or later, new companies (or solutions) are bound to come forward and take the lead. Only future will tell us the dimensions of that leader, but some core features could be: blogging, communities, communication, and openness. Some key players to watch might be: Twitter, Facebook, and Widget companies. It will be interesting to watch their revolution.

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Startup in bad economy

What happens to the startup sector when economy goes south? Let us discuss top 3 drivers one by one:
1. Funding: Dries up. Very hard to get money for new ventures. (Negative)
2. Resources: Good opportunity. A lot of high talented people in tech, marketing, operations etc are looking for jobs. Simple rule of demand-supply and you can see the picture. (Positive)
3. Creativity: Necessity is the mother of invention. With that phrase, I would call it positive.

In MBA terms, I would put them as : Finance, Operations, and Innovation. All 3 of them are required to launch a succesful comnpany. With 2 positives and 1 negative (finance), it does not bode well. But..hold on a sec...do we really need a lot of capital to start a new Internet company? Also, bad economy means that operations will become a bit inexpensive as well. So, its not a dire situation.

Overall, it boils down to individuals. Succesful entrepreneurs and VCs would tell you that its the team that matters (not the idea). And in a downward economy, it might matter a bit more. But at the end of the day..it depends on you. If you have that "instinct"..then you will survive. If not, then join the ever increasing club :)

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Contextual slideshow: Dig up your old but similar content

We recently released a new widget: "Contextual slideshow" and have received some very encouraging feedbacks. This is a marvelous product that brings value to blog readers as well as increases page views for bloggers.

Here are some of the features:

1. Displays "contextual images from your blog". This means that your readers will get more similar content which you wrote several days/weeks ago.

2. This beautiful slideshow increases bloggers' page views. Simply put, a reader gets to see more articles..and bloggers get more page views.

3. "Zero" customization required: Absolutely no customization is required. Just get it from the site and display it. It automatically adjusts in the blog page, sideroll or anywhere else.

4. It broadcasts the bloggers' content to other blogs. This enables bloggers to get new readers to their blogs.

We have put a demo slideshow in our sideroll. Get a slideshow of your own and broadcast your blog to the world!!

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blogoxy brings more readers to the bloggers

So, at last http://blogoxy.com is standing on its feet. A lot of hard work has gone in this project and looking back I and my team feel so good!

You can imagine how excited we all are. I hope that our efforts bring color and can help fellow bloggers.

I have been so frustrated because there is no good mechanism to market the blogs. Hopefully, http://blogoxy.com will empower fellow bloggers for marketing their blogs.

We are starting in a very soft way. Thats the reason why we are launching only for food blogs. Yes...I love food. And food is the reason why we all survive. So, in true fashion of a food enthusiast, blogoxy is open for fellow food bloggers.

Please give us your feedback. And yes...do visit our blogoxy blog at: http://blogoxy.com/blog

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Banks and M&A

As I stated in my last post, here are some thoughts from Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/AIRDEF/idUSN0539241020080505

Why did banks advise Yahoo to not go down below $37? O well, simple answer: they did not. It was Yahoo's decision not the bankers' decision to not go below $37. If it was all for the investment banks, they would sell Yahoo for $20 per share. Afterall, they want their commission. Don't they?

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