People in search for jobs in startups or want to become co-founders, post here.
Use the comments section of this page to leave a short bio of yourself if you are interested in joining/creating a startup (fulltime, parttime, or advisory roles welcome). Please include your area of interest and specialization, location preference, the role and level of seniority that is expected. Also try and include any compensation parameters. Finally, do make sure you offer a direct response email id/phone number. You may choose to use proxy information in case you want to remain confidential at the first stage. Based on the response we will decide if we need to develop a more elaborate job board.
Please post only your bio here — please do not post other comments. Do respond directly to the bios, and do not comment further on the bios posted here
If you are in search for hires, partners, cofounders etc, please post them on Venturejobs section.
Like every other early-stage enterprise, I am sure you must be faced with questions like:
* I know my product/solution is good, but is this what the market wants?
* How do I build credibility for my company and my product/solution?
* How do I get the first set of customers to invest in my ideas?
* How do I build a sales process that would help me grow?
This is where NoDiVa, with years of experience helping such budding enterprises face up to such challenges, can step in to help you and your team meet these challenges and put in place a credible business plan that would not only help you get your first set of customers to validate your assumptions but also build a scaleable sales process that would help you to take your organization to the next level. Our services include:
Streamlining Product/Solution:
Is your offering a ‘Good-to-have’ or a ‘Need-to-have’? It is critical that what is being offered finds a ready fit in the market, by addressing some burning customer problem. NoDiVa would help in understanding customer processes; identify pain areas and build the business case for your offering, with visibility into Return on Investment (ROI), which would help to convince the customer to invest in your product/solution. If required, also recommend changes that would make the product/solution more relevant to customer requirements.
Building a healthy Sales Funnel:
Having managed to get the first set of reference customers, building a large pipeline of qualified, potential prospects is the next big challenge. Where to get these prospects from? How do you get them interested in your services? How to convert initial interest into invoice? These are some of the issues that new enterprises are faced with. NoDiVa has the experience and skills to help build this sales funnel and establish a regular, monthly/quarterly business beat-rate through a predictable, customer-centric sales process. Such predictable processes and prospect lists can be achieved through a number of ways, employing both direct and indirect marketing strategies, like Direct Marketing, In-bound Marketing, Channel Partnering etc.
Building Credibility:
The biggest challenge for a company that is just starting out is getting people to invest in their products and services. How do you get someone to take that leap of faith with you and your company? What needs to be done to get over the ‘unknown’ factor, in a most cost-effective way? NoDiVa will help to build the right strategy and ensure high recall value for your company by employing several brand-building exercises.
About Us: NoDiVa is founded and run by Srikanth Vasuraj, who comes with more than 30 years of experience in IT and Telecom. Having worked with several start-ups and helped them successfully scale their operations, he understands the work ethos of such early-stage enterprises and the issues that such organizations face. Building cost-effective Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies is his speciality.
He can be contacted at +91-98454 78585 or svasuraj@gmail.com
I have more than 30 years of diverse industry and functional expertise, with proven ability to analyse key business drivers and develop strategies to maximize market share and bottom line. Possess the leadership qualities to start, build and run businesses. Areas of expertise include:
– Leading & Developing Teams
– Developing Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategies
– Negotiating & Closing Deals
– Forming Strategic Alliances
– Setting-up Re-seller Channel
– Building Business Plans
– Managing Budgets and P&L
– Growing Revenue & Profit
– Corporate Communication
– Product Management
Have a good track record of success leading start-ups. Last assignment, ended Oct.31, 2012, was with Simbus Technlogies, a Bangalore based start-up specializing in building and selling solutions on the BPM (Business Process Management) platform. With Simbus my mandate was:
1. Streamline their product strategies:
Shifted their focus from selling their BPM platform to building solutions on the platform and selling them as business process solutions. This worked, as we were able to present a business case for our solutions with clear visibility into ROI, thereby helping us close some major deals with Wipro Consumer Care, Wipro Infrastructure, Madura Garments, Marks & Spencers and GE Energy, by building solutions that helped to address their specific business process issues. A couple of these solutions that helped to streamline their Dealer and Vendor Management processes were transformed to solution frameworks and taken to market as specific business process solutions with a high level of customization, to address any dealer or vendor management issues. These solutions have found many takers and there is a healthy pipeline to work on for closures.
2. Build a scaleable Go-To-Market (GTM) Plan:
(a) The first phase of the GTM was to acquire the first set of 8-10 customers to:
i) Validate the assumptions we had made with respect to solution features and functionalities.
ii) Understand the typical sales process and the time-cycle required to take an opportunity from contact to closure and thereby build a customer-centric sales process with a significant level of predictability.
iii) Understand the pre & post-sales service delivery issues and streamline the service delivery processes.
(b) Identify the target segments, market size, profile of target companies etc.
(c) Conceived and implemented a Direct Mailer (DM) campaign to the target segments and companies, set-up meetings and progressed from first cold-call to proposal and closure. All this was done by me alone, as I decided that until we were able to build a good reference base, we will not spend on any big team.
(d) Helped to streamline the service delivery process to seamlessly address pre-sales requirements for – (a) Basic data gathering on clients current processes; and (b) POC (Proof of Concept) processes, both before and after the POC.
I am now looking for a suitable assigment, part or full-time, with an early-stage or late-stage start-up to help them scale to the next level.
Please contact me on +91-98454 78585 or mail me at svasuraj@gmail.com
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.†– C.S. Lewis
Dear Friends,
Pardon me for the long story but proclaiming that “14+ years IT professional is available for start-ups to join as a rookie programmer†needs some context setting.
I am a software professional with 14+ years of experience in the IT industry. Started off my IT career in late 90’s as a person who just loved to code and could code/hack day-n-night for fun and work. For example, In early 2000’s, when super selector was launched (where you could create your own cricket teams from a list of players) me & friends hacked code in PERL to automatically create & register teams, create emails for registration, make changes to teams on defined logic etc etc. Needless to say we won a lot of prizes ïŠ.
Then in mid 2000’s career allowed to dabble a lot with open source solutions in Java/PHP and I created an enterprise project collaboration platform(using a branch of SourceForge platform called gForge). This was done by integrating several open source products into one complex yet easy to use platform on Linux. These experiences allowed me to understand and appreciate the role of creating meaningful user experiences, user adoption, customer feedback & service, simplicity, ease of use, UX design among other things.
Then in mid-to-late 2000’s I got a chance to conceptualize & rollout an enterprise social networking/collaboration platform that was on .NET, Java, among other technologies and this was built when not many organizations had gone the social path and social was not a buzz word. This was (and is) a platform that I am really proud of — I single-handedly conceptualized & got it built. Anyone who saw the platform truly appreciated the same.
Somewhere down the line, I became more of a product manager and less of a programmer(that I just loved being). I can still hack some code, look at existing code, make changes, add modules etc but that sharpness went away somewhere in between. (nothing wrong with being a product manager but I would prefer to be product manager who is a solid programmer as well)
In recent past, have worked towards creating concept prototypes for various ideas (in collaboration with UX designers) such as:
• A platform for brands & consumers to interact and create meaningful relationships
• A platform for project collaboration that mimics how work actually gets done in real life
• A platform for automotive companies to create engagement with their customers
Many a times the entrepreneurial bug also kept biting and I would have registered some 20+ domains for several projects that I would have thought about, created product specs, data models, feature lists, mind maps, etc etc. But, just didn’t take the step to start it all.
Now, I want to give up on the corporate IT Services job and get back to programming (and one day start my own). However bad I may want it, corporate structures won’t allow me to do what I want. I could possibly start side projects and get joy out of programming but I truly want to just do programming (combined with product management) in small/start-up companies and not the big corporate IT Services work. I have also realized that I am a small/start-up company guy and not someone who likes the big brand names. I would want to live & work on my own terms – work I like doing and not do work just for sake of earning money (I have sufficient money for me to pursue my dreams and fulfill my basic needs for few years). At some stage, when I do my start-up, I would prefer to be a fully hands-on techie when I work on my own ideas. Can’t happen in an IT Services setup.
So, here I am, ready to quit it all and start again, pursue my desires and give the best in that. I am available for start-ups to join them as a programmer (even as a fresher/trainee) so that I can get back to coding. I am clear that I would want to be in Mobility (android) + PHP/Java based back-end technology areas. Over time I want to get into Hadoop, NoSQL, Graph Databases etc. I have started exploring Yii & Android fundamentals to get back into groove.
So, if you are an innovative start-up (in mobile apps, consumer facing solutions or enterprise collaboration) and think that having me in your team can add value to both your company & me, drop me an email and let’s explore the possibilities.
PS: I am fully aware that I will not get the salary I currently get in IT Services and am happy to start at reasonable fresher salaries again – just to show my commitment. I am based out of Bangalore and don’t plan to relocate in near future but if the value proposition is exceptional, can relocate to Noida/NCR.
PPS: Sharing my learning’s with the team I join, mentoring, helping with ideas, etc etc are a given – I truly like going beyond my work, getting my hands dirty and contribute to the organization in all possible ways.
My contact email: shahnawaz.khan@gmail.com
XLRI 2010 Marketing professional, working with Tata Steel Ltd. as sales manager..
Let me know if there are any good offerings in sales and marketing, operations, consulting fronts.
I am keen on any industry for now especially education, online start ups. Others with suited requirements may also kindly get in touch.
You may contact me at 9029002044, mishasinghal@gmail.com
I have over 15 years of experience of business journalism and last year finished an exec MBA. Currently on a sabbatical exploring some entrepreneurship ideas.
Have figured I like the start-up environment a great deal. So would like to help some others with strategy, content, communication etc. while I figure out what is working for me. Do drop a line in case my skills are needed on busywanderer@gmail.com.
cheers