It has been almost 2 years since I said 'tata' to Oracle..If I look at my bank account , it is almost entirely wiped out..But If I look at those things that I learned and I continue to learn , it is 'abundance'.. I consider it as my own MBA course,(Student,Professor and Institution all rolled int one) in I which would award myself a Distinction. The only thing that was not that great was that , it was the same 'lethargic and lazy' me.. Probably I could excuse myself by claiming that creativity requires a bit of laziness.
At first, it was searching in the darkness. Slowly things started to unfold. By now, I have a fair bit of overview about the things which I wanted to know. It is hard to convey everything , but here is a leaf from it.
The first question on any startup journey is to identify that thing that you are going to work on. To identify that thing :-
1. That you are truly passionate about
2. That you can be really good at
3. That has a substantial addressable market
4. That you can substantially differentiate from those which currently cater to the market.
I started out with a project that satisfied 2 and 3 but failed to meet 1 and 4...It was hard lessons. But it was those hard lessons which taught me the above insight.
Another hard learned lesson was that , it is the team that shall takes precedence to the idea...U need to first think about the team that you can assemble , and then start worrying about the idea, else you will be tied to your own limitations..With a great team, you can always think bigger...Another hard learned lesson! If I had known this before , I could have probably avoided the mistake happened with my first project.
The idea which we (or rather, others in the team, for, I am still sipping the bitterness of my first project) are currently working on, satisfies points 1 and 2. We are truly passionate about it, and we believe we can be really good at it..We have a gut feeling that would satisfy point 3 and 4 . Probably if our gut feeling was right, I could post a happy note in 2014 December and yea, start searching for her :P
It was really a hard time for me to segment the technology market and to pick up an idea which satisfies (or hopes to satisfy) all the four mentioned points. Here is how I divided the technology industry (for the sake of my own convenience);-
A. Services or the Traditional Technology Consulting Business
B. Technology Products
C. Technology Platforms (specifically Internet Platforms)
Sector A did not match with point 1, and without that, the rest was immaterial.
Sector B did not match with point 2 (sadly no geeks in our team)
Where as Sector C appeared to promise some light.
So it was again an attempt to Segment sector C. Broadly they were classified into
C1- Entertainment and Communication Media (Think Youtube or WhatsApp)
C2- Advertisement (Think AdWords,AdMob etc)
C3- Retail (Think Amazon,ebay)
The one we have picked up right now (our 'Plan A') is something which appeared to be promising in the C3 segment. One more idea is being explored in the same segment so that, in case if anything goes wrong with the current one, we have a 'Plan B'. There is an another idea in the back drop of my mind which belongs to C1, but I am not fully convinced about it. And in the next two or three months I am going to explore the C2 segment, which I am completely ignorant right now. And if none works, I will have to think about entering Sector B . Personally I started to hate coding, so sector B is really a distant option.
Well that was a gist of my two year research thesis :)
Great things are happening all around...Ever since I had stopped dreaming about batting like Sachin, I had been dreaming about something similar to the Kejriwal Act.. At night, lying in bed, with those fancy thoughts before you fall asleep, I had tried to plot a number of strategies which could possibly amass the people and clean up the democracy. Was really happy and was overwhelmed with joy, to see those fancy thoughts happening in real, in Delhi. But I have to shamelessly admit that my fancy strategy was bottom up, but Kejriwal's was top down..Well, I am finding solace in the fact that he took 10+ years to figure it out. Happy for myself, happy for Kejriwal and happy for India.
Happy New Year :)
Renjith
At first, it was searching in the darkness. Slowly things started to unfold. By now, I have a fair bit of overview about the things which I wanted to know. It is hard to convey everything , but here is a leaf from it.
The first question on any startup journey is to identify that thing that you are going to work on. To identify that thing :-
1. That you are truly passionate about
2. That you can be really good at
3. That has a substantial addressable market
4. That you can substantially differentiate from those which currently cater to the market.
I started out with a project that satisfied 2 and 3 but failed to meet 1 and 4...It was hard lessons. But it was those hard lessons which taught me the above insight.
Another hard learned lesson was that , it is the team that shall takes precedence to the idea...U need to first think about the team that you can assemble , and then start worrying about the idea, else you will be tied to your own limitations..With a great team, you can always think bigger...Another hard learned lesson! If I had known this before , I could have probably avoided the mistake happened with my first project.
The idea which we (or rather, others in the team, for, I am still sipping the bitterness of my first project) are currently working on, satisfies points 1 and 2. We are truly passionate about it, and we believe we can be really good at it..We have a gut feeling that would satisfy point 3 and 4 . Probably if our gut feeling was right, I could post a happy note in 2014 December and yea, start searching for her :P
It was really a hard time for me to segment the technology market and to pick up an idea which satisfies (or hopes to satisfy) all the four mentioned points. Here is how I divided the technology industry (for the sake of my own convenience);-
A. Services or the Traditional Technology Consulting Business
B. Technology Products
C. Technology Platforms (specifically Internet Platforms)
Sector A did not match with point 1, and without that, the rest was immaterial.
Sector B did not match with point 2 (sadly no geeks in our team)
Where as Sector C appeared to promise some light.
So it was again an attempt to Segment sector C. Broadly they were classified into
C1- Entertainment and Communication Media (Think Youtube or WhatsApp)
C2- Advertisement (Think AdWords,AdMob etc)
C3- Retail (Think Amazon,ebay)
The one we have picked up right now (our 'Plan A') is something which appeared to be promising in the C3 segment. One more idea is being explored in the same segment so that, in case if anything goes wrong with the current one, we have a 'Plan B'. There is an another idea in the back drop of my mind which belongs to C1, but I am not fully convinced about it. And in the next two or three months I am going to explore the C2 segment, which I am completely ignorant right now. And if none works, I will have to think about entering Sector B . Personally I started to hate coding, so sector B is really a distant option.
Well that was a gist of my two year research thesis :)
Great things are happening all around...Ever since I had stopped dreaming about batting like Sachin, I had been dreaming about something similar to the Kejriwal Act.. At night, lying in bed, with those fancy thoughts before you fall asleep, I had tried to plot a number of strategies which could possibly amass the people and clean up the democracy. Was really happy and was overwhelmed with joy, to see those fancy thoughts happening in real, in Delhi. But I have to shamelessly admit that my fancy strategy was bottom up, but Kejriwal's was top down..Well, I am finding solace in the fact that he took 10+ years to figure it out. Happy for myself, happy for Kejriwal and happy for India.
Happy New Year :)
Renjith
