McKinsey recently published its study on growth in income and spending of Indian consumer over next twenty years. It provides a great directional view of where the growth is, and where we might find ourselves in 10-20 years. Interesting read.
The Pmarca Guide to Startups-Part I and II
From Marc Andreessen(Founder, Netscape, Opsware and Ning)’s blog The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 1: Why not to do a startup and The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 2: When the VCs say “no” Is it interesting?
Just 85 lakh internet subscribers?
A TRAI report (17 April, 2007) contains statistics on Internet “subscribers”: 85.47 lakh in number. Of this, the total number of broadband subscribers are 20.54 lakh as of 31 December 2006. That would probably comprise cyber cafes, home users and some SMEs. Alarmingly low, I think, though the quarterly growth rate of 13% might be […]
PE gives Bears a headache
Businessweek has an interesting piece on how PE and turnaround funds are making life difficult for short-sellers: But as short-selling has proliferated, it has become increasingly difficult to make money at the game. Whereas a profit-challenged enterprise may once have floundered until shutting down or filing for bankruptcy, many such companies are now targets for […]
IT Services & BPO Connect – Bangalore, July 12
Hi, Have IT Services and BPO become a “big boys only” game? Can SMEs survive and thrive in these sectors? What are the new opportunities in IT Services? Can KPOs ever IPO? My company, Venture Intelligence, is organizing a conference where successful entrepreneurs, top industry executives and investors will explore these questions in interactive panel […]
Another step in viral marketing
Last week Facebook launched a new distribution platform for new applications. Developers can add their applications to facebook and facebook will show these applications in the order of popularity. And this popularity ranking is pretty dynamic. Flixster was at the top in the morning, at 4 two hours before and no where in top 10 […]
24X7 Study Portal for Management Entrance Studies
I have been thinking on this idea for quite a some time now. It would be good to have this idea discussed over here. The plan is to have the study material for management entrance exams (like CAT/GMAT) made available through some software, both online and offline. If we look at the candidates who take […]
Investment Play
This is my last post on VW till I return from my US trip in July . We are approaching tax season in India. For a number of years in the US I have used the Quicken family of products including Turbo Tax. There are other interesting personal finance sites like Bank Rate, Lending Tree, […]
VC boom in Russia?
BW piece on how the VC scene is hotting up in Russia: To encourage such investments, the Russian government has set up a trust that matches investments from private venture capitalists. Already, it has agreed to dispense nearly $100 million to three groups of investors. Among them: Asset Management, run by legendary Silicon Valley venture […]
Customer Fulfillment
I am going to spend a few weeks in the US in June and decided to see if I could rent a cell phone in India which would work in the US. Matrix provides such a service. The rental is $30 for the handset. This includes 400 minutes of talk time ( 150 Peak) and […]
Tinker Level Ideas
The world is madly chasing the convergence dream. I believe however the future lies in breaking some of that convergence into basic products – tinker level. The market possibilities are endless in the emerging world. Think of a GPS device that just gives you location and not mp3 and other bells and whistles. Think of […]
Perils of Forecasting
The genesis of this post is the forecasts on online media spend. I tend to agree that this may be slow to grow in India but I would want to know when it took off in USA and/or China and what triggered takeoff. I remain optimistic on advertising by persons and SME to get business. […]