What should the staff do at this  proposal ?

If he says “NO “, he is still culpable and will be prosecuted by police. If he says “YES”, he will be prosecuted and there will be no benefits.  The rational choice for staff is clear .

Is it fiction ?

Yes and NO. Flash back a year back on the 2G scam.  Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s three senior most executives were in Tihar  jail and the Boss was still enjoying Bollywood parties. The jailed executives were all but the leader.

The blame flowed downwards

During their jail tenure of 7 months in Tihar, whenever Shriyut Anil Dhirubhai Ambani ji used to visit Delhi , he used to meet the employees in jail and used to  commiserate with their fate with ” Everything will be all right and This too shall pass ” wish.

Were these three senior corporate honchos not  making a rational choice ?

In all probabilities YES.

Is the justice in spirit and action then being delivered ?  

A boisterous “NO”, its being bought by people with bags of money like a lame impotent duck.

What are its repercussions ?

The rich will continue to rape, their hires will continue to shield them and the justice will be fooled in all such major crimes.

Why this paradigm thrives?

I draw a small illustration which explains the system. It tells the ugly reality which exists.

Benefits and blame flow

What can be done to exterminate this?

Make circumstantial evidences more relevant and use it as a a primary objective of prosecution. Punish the leaders not the pawns who merely carry out the instructions

Where else is this screwing the nation or our lives ?

Almost every where. BCCI, Cabinet, State Govts, judiciary, companies. Every where, we are just beating the whipping boys while the scoundrel princes/Kingpins/ Queens are still reveling in the gains and glories. For every Kalmadi, Raja, Yedurappa,Naveen Jindal, Srinivasan, Vadra, Pawan Bansal, someone else is enjoying the

FRUITS of the LOOT.

Loot and Scoot

Where else have you seen this kind of blame flowing downwards ?

An survey done by India today clearly established that killer # 1 in India are not Maoists but heart diseases  :

Why heart attack is becoming such a silent killer in our country?

I read through a lot of articles and this is the jest :

1.  Cooking medium : We consume a lot more oil and ghee than other racial types. Against a recommended 0.5kg/ person per month i.e 2.5 kg of of cooking medium for a family of 5 we consume upto 7.5 kg ( 3.5 kg Ghee and 4 kg oil )
2. Sedate life style in non rural areas: 10 to 7 offfice hours, 2 hrs of commute time , TV, internet addiction leave little to exercise our heart. Lack of sporting activities  among adults contributes a lot.
3. Profusion of junk food :  Dominoes, MacD , Faasos or butter chicken they all are bombs of cholestrol bursting  inside our bodies. MacD product in fact have some of the highest sodium content directly linked to heart attacks.
4. Small coronary arteries :  Reputed Dr Devi Shetty says the arteries of Indians in 30 to 40 % shorter than Caucasians or Europeans which make it more susceptible to blockages . Not only this, it leads to a lot of inconvenience while operating on them.
5. Bada dil waale log (Higher heart age) :  Normally a 31 yr old Indian has a heart which is 38 year old , hence we as Indians are more prone to heart ailments than our Western counterparts.

Heart is in your hand

What are the things we can do to reduce our chances of heart disease ?

The following practical things :

1. Reduce the quantity of cooking medium :  Don’t buy more than 2 kg of oil and 1 kg of ghee in your monthly ration for a family of five. Also rotate the kind of oil used every month.  Paying 2x for Saffola wont take care of your heart. Its one big marketing lie. Rotate oils. Sunflower -> Groundnut-> Mustard -> Soyabean or others. This prevents on kind of cholestrol getting deposited in arteries. Same with Ghee  alternate between cow , buffalo and others if available.  Read about Saffola  fraud here.
2. Reduce eating outside to once a fortnight :   Ration eating Pizzas, burgers, fried chicken , outside to every alternate week and stick to it. Not only it keeps you in good health but also keeps your sundry expenses to minimum.
3. Take to exercising regularly and sustainably :  All these Gym memberships and jogging things become monotonous after a few weeks and are not sustainable. However if you buy a good cycle, the following  are the benefits :
   1.  Non impact : Its non impact and kinder on your knees and joints hence less injuries or stress
   2.   Fresh air :    A 30 min cycling easily takes you to 10- 15 km loop which gives you a lot of fresh air and helps you kick out mononotony.
   3.   Socializing :  Socializing over cycling is  far more easier than over jogging. I recently cycled 61 km ( in total on Sunday) with a new friend and it didn’t take me too long to prepare. Jogging for even 3 km will take you months to prepare.
   4.  Cool technologies :   Cycles have improved in leaps and bounds in the recent years. They have become lighter, the gears  have become more advanced , the tracking applications work on GPS . Over all cycling even alone gives you a good experience by audio commentary on your trip
   5. You will use it often : No more you will take out your car for going half a km or 1 km. These small errands will all be taken on cycles and these will make you fitter. You will save your money and also save the environment. Evidences show that once you pick it up, you will do it for rest of your life.
      

      Cycling posture

For more detailed benefits of cycling you can read this

If you wish to buy a great cycle for yourself and want some advise on what to buy , how much to pay for it and from where to buy you can post a comment. You can also explore our section on fitness equipments:

http://www.wicfy.com/category/Sports-Fitness-5

You try again.

When you fail again ?

Find a better method and try again .

What if you fail again with better method ?

You, take one more try at the best time, hour and second ( Astro or whatever logically )

What  if you fail again ?

People say – “Try , try and try again  and then give up !! No use being a damned fool about it ”

You wish to try again at a different place ?

You  fail at a different place too…

Do you give up ?

Yes , if you are a normal human  and NO if  you are VSS Mani. At  4 such failures  he had the tenacity to persist for 2 more attempts. He finally .. did it.

Failure just fails

Just Dial IPO  has shaken the bourses,  oversubscribed 12x and opening  at 15 % premium, Mani is just 2 tiny steps away from creating a Billion dollar consumer focussed company.

14 years is not a short span slog.  Building a 4600 Crore company in India,  is a story, that can  can only be written  by a hardened entrepreneur. Here’s a snapshot of the long tenacious years spent in dialing the right number

• VSS Mani, 44 years
• Age at starting business: 29 years
• Company name: Just Dial Private Limited
• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Seed capital: Rs 50,000
• Source of money: Self-funded
• First shot : Start the phone based directory-1989
• Gear change : Quit the idea and tried out other things-1992-1996
• Beginnings : 300 square-feet garage, Mumbai- 1996 Just Dial was born
• 3 yrs later :First attempt to get the company listed7 yrs later : Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund (SAIF) agreed to invest in Just Dial -2006
•  Another 3 yrs : Investment of 38.4 Cr from Sequoia-2009
• Winning hearts of VCs : Sequoia Investment of 305 Crore their largest investment in an Indian company -2012
• Filed for an IPO, but failed – 2011 & 2012
• Failed attempts – 5
• 4 June 2013 The company finally gets listed. Market cap 4500+ crores – June’2013

Not an easy journey, but VSS just never gave up and finally trumped it. The Rs 950-crore IPO, is the largest on Indian bourses this year and one of the biggest by an Indian Internet company.

Did he face enough challenges?

1. Apathy : The time for his idea hadn’t come, when he started in the 90’s.  His business model  was  not heard of.
2. Cash Crunch. Banks drove him out  VC funds never gave him enough time to explain business model.
3. Losing money : His wife mortgaged her jewellery to sustain the business in the early years Rs.15000 is what prevented him from  buying a telephone equipments, to start his business.
4. Excruciating family pressure:  He was the sole breadwinner Cynics : People questioned his ideas;  skeptical about his service. Technology shift : Since  inception Just dial was a telephone based service, People rubbished his ideas of moving it to the internet, What is the internet penetration in the country?  How many actually use it etc ?
5. Timing :  Taking the company public,  not the right time TIMING  not the right OFFER PRICE.

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success – Napoleon Hill 

Lessons to learn

1. Perseverance, tenacity and passion:  Have total confidence, conviction and belief in the idea. Think deep :Never take a reckless decision.
2. Patience pays off.
3. Be frugal with resources.
4. Entrepreneurship is a tough road to traverse,  full of hurdles. You will feel like giving it up and take a safe job .  You have to keep the fire within yourself burning till one day you succeed. VSS’s success and also has  changed a lot for the Indian internet industry. IPOs  for web companies appear as distinct possibility
5. VCs can have a better look at Indian market
6. The entrepreneurs can play a long game and have firm hopes to prevail
7. Development of hyperlocal searches as a key business category 

Applaud and believe there will many more like him!!!

 IRCTC.co.in  is probably the only website in the world people use with utmost caution.  You are kicked out if you

• Refresh
• Click back button
• Double click or
•  Idle for few minutes.

                                                    The game is over.

No, its  not banking sites where you stash your life time’s earning. Its not some military secrets site or top business intelligence portal but its www.IRCTC.co.in, the online ticket booking nightmare site in India. Attracting 12 millions unique users every day, the tickets on it  for next 60 days get booked on the day bookings open. The only hope for individuals then is to try Tatkal (or immediate) ticket booking 24 hrs before the journey commences. So difficult is the act that its worth dissecting what goes behind the scenes.

First  the major ground rules :

1. You cant have a session which started before 1000 am  to book a tatkal ticket.
2.  If you are not able to book ticket in first 10 minutes most likely, your game is over.
3.  It may take 45 minutes to even to get a login.

For more detailed login rules and how to hack tatkal tickets DIY ( Do it yoursleves ) check http://tech2.in.com/features/general/tips-to-book-an-irctc-tatkal-ticket-faster/749732.

We followed all rules of the book. Persistently tried for 60 minutes to get 3 tickets using all thats mentioned in the link and the following

1.   Six people concurrently trying to log in exactly at 1000hrs

2.  Using connections having internet speeds ranging 2 MBPs to 10 MBPs

3.  Ready to take any AC 3 T ticket which could go from Delhi to Pune/ Mumbai/ Panvel.

It was a war at our office and as it is with wars

We lost the battle: We could not get any tickets from Delhi to Bombay or Pune in spite of having tried really hard. I  was stranded in Delhi with wife and 2 small kids.

What did we do after failing ?

We contacted an authorized agent to book tickets on our behalf. He asked for Rs 400/ person  extra for a ticket. He tried in agent quota and he met with no success. We lost all hopes of getting a train ticket.

Why did we not try flights ?

With 2 adults and 2 kids, the flight tickets for Pune or Bombay ranged from 42K to 92K ( 7 to 15 times the AC sleeper fares which is approx 6K). Being an entrepreneur , I could not afford to spend so much.

Why did we not try road routes ?

Red bus or makemytrip showed no AC buses from Delhi to Pune or even to intermediate places like Indore from where we could have taken bus to Gwalior and from there to Nasik and then Pune .

Sun melting the roads

The Indian heartland in June was burning with indoor temperatures ranging 46 to 48 deg celsius. Nothing seemed to work

How did we try it differently ?

Through our network we could find an unauthorized agent who claimed he would give us guaranteed confirmed seats  for a cost of Rs 1200/= per seat in Mumbai Rajdhani.  He asked  9K as advance for 3 tickets and balance on confirmed ticket delivery.  I was wondering, when every reasonable means in last 60 days failed what super human power does he have.

How does he do it ?

His openly acknowledged facts

• He has an army of people who stand in line at all booking terminals in Delhi.
• This army stands in the line 24 hours before the booking opens i.e 48 hrs before the journey
• Ticket soldiers  queue up whole day and whole night.
•  Normally they are the first or second person to hit the reservation counters.
•  All possible tickets are bagged in first 10 minutes of opening of the counters.

The unacknowledged facts are :

•  They have tie up with people sitting on direct terminals ( Direct  terminals hit the server much faster than irctc )
• Their collusion with people in  rail ministry who have quota in every train that chugs out
• If direct reservation does not work , they approach clerks/ babus with PNR numbers which needs to be confirmed under ministry quota.
• These tickets often get confirmed during the journey.
• Their last resort is  : The nexus with TTE who would give preference to people coming from their connections for confirmation during the journey.

Please read the cobrapost sting operation on this mammoth malpractice: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/exposed-railway-tickets-seasonal-shortage-fraud/281066-3.html

What do they find when they hit the counter between 1003 to 1015 hrs and how do they act?

Most of the available tickets  in 3AC are already sold  or are on waitlist in major routes especially 3 AC in summers. They buy whatever is available in next higher class.

Did he really deliver the tickets ?

Yes he did. He delivered the printed ticket to me on a pre decided metro station in Delhi on the day of journey after taking the balance amount .

Is this service useful ?

Yes, to any Indian who doesn’t make tonnes of money every month and finds railways as the means of travel affordable to her.

Some questions at the end of it :

How can we make things a little better for citizens ?

What will it take for railways and administration to stop this black marketing of tickets ?

What are the rational way out ?

Can limited auction of tickets help or will it further torture the citizens.

. My past flashed by in front of my eyes in a moment. The days when shopping was a part of my daily routine, when I never used to return home without buying something or the other. I could so well relate myself to the character of Isla Fisher in her movie “Confessions of a Shopaholic”.

But as life moved on, I changed from an IT professional with a handsome pay to a student who had to constantly keep a track of her expenses. The monthly pay cheques had stopped and with it the mindless shopping. I obviously had to restrict myself from going on a shopping spree by reminding myself of my bank balance. There were many days when I would indulge in window shopping to appease the Shopaholic in me. Then this opportunity of Interning with Wicfy.com came my way and brought with it, the role of Content Curator. It was a big challenge for me as all this meant that every day I would be looking at wonderful products and also know where they were available at the most reasonable rates, upload that content for our users, but I would not be able to buy anything.

My ideal work day started at 8:45 am sharp by checking out the current market trends, which would be followed by strategizing my entire day’s work based on the trends. There are different parameters involved before any product/content is uploaded on the site. These could be the most searched product, what is new in the market, are there any such occasions which may drive demand for any particular product and so on. Based on these parameters, I used to start my day long task of handpicking the content which involved selecting the product, getting the most attractive images and also as much detail as possible about the product and then finally uploading it.

Since Wicfy.com is a Web2.0/3.0 platform where people can share information, to ensure that the content is relevant and correct, I also had the work of moderating the content. Not to forget, the daily review of the failed search logs, which I did to find out the stuff that people were searching for and not finding on our website. This helped us in being updated with what people want and also ensure that our customers get all the information they need. Yeah that is what goes on behind the scenes at Wicfy, to get you the best local prices, stores, markets and much more!

Now all these activities could be labelled as Dynamic Content Curation and I also had something I called the Static Content Curation to do. This simply involved adding prices and products of the top 100 brands all over the world. And that is the secret behind some of the rich content that you find on Wicfy.

The biggest challenge in doing all this was finding out where a particular product was available at the most reasonable price and answering to the people’s iWant list. The iWant is a unique feature in of Wicfy, where people can post about any product which they wish to buy, at a price that is reasonable to them along with the location and need by date. Team Wicfy and its users then share their valuable knowledge about local prices for that product and help people buy them at the best prices.

The initial days were tough as I used to feel so lost and clueless. There were so many trends, so many searches, so many products and so many prices, it all seemed a haze. But as the days passed by things became clearer and made sense. I could predict certain trends as per the latest happenings. And there was a certain fun in discovering some unbelievable prices and watching the reaction of your colleagues when you shared it with them. At the end of every day, I used to analyze whether I had done some value adds both to the website and me or not. My day’s success acted as a fuel for the forthcoming day.

After a month of Content Curation I have moved on to user acquisition planning which is more about getting people to use our product, Wicfy. Saving the “No Shopping “part it was a great experience. I would like to believe I am armed with all the minute details that one needs to have shop smartly and spend wisely. My Shopping Quotient (SQ) has definitely shot up! I got a chance to see all the wonderful products available in different market, get an extensive knowledge about the markets an stores and also know what they are famous for, do a trend analysis, make strategies and subsequently curate it on our website.

Oh and by the way, the first stipend did get credited to my bank account. Now is the time to use that enhanced Shopping Quotient… Shopping Spree here I come…

The spirit of Bikaner, rise against the wind

What is the significance of Bikaner on entrepreneurship ?

The biggest business brand which has come out of Bikaner is Haldiram,  India’s largest snack company. Founded in 1937 by Ganga Bisenji Agrawal its site produdly depicts its growth .

Humble beginining , global dreams

This is the nearest any Indian has got close to being a global food brand.Bisenji was a small snack maker at Bikaner but with large business dreams . He moved out of the comfort of home in Bikaner and opened his first shop outside home in Delhi  in 1982 and then in famed Burra Bajaar of Calcutta. He started selling flavor of Bikaner to urban Indians. Soon the business grew, the shops in Nagpur and other cities followed and the pangs of scaling up began. Soon the factory at Nagpur took roots and a global snack food joint was in the making.  He thought of scale which was in stark contrast with other businessmen. Today Haldiram  offically is a USD 4 Mn brand ( I think its worth much more ) which occupies significant shelf space in global retail giants like Carrefour, Sipneys, Sommerfield etc .Its said its plant in Bichhwal, Bikaner consumer 100K litres of diesel per day to product this snack.

World beating snack from Bikaner

Why Haldiram grew where others did not ? 

I had once gone to Chittaranjan sweet shop in Baagbazaar of Calcutta. So amazing was the quality of sweets that I was very excited to have him open shop in Pune.  Keen on even becoming a franchisee, I spoke to the owner. This Chitto Bhodro babu quickly blurted the stereotypical,  “We have no branches and we are content with the business and dont want to open anymore “.   His business value was in stark contrast to a Bikaneri food entrepreneur who was always hungry. He felt the branches were always less. He  wanted his product to reach shelves of every superstore of the world.  Is this not the spirit every business person should have ?

Whats interesting is that Bikaner and its people have tremendous spirit of adaptability. Not withstanding the domination it enjoyed in Namkeen market,  it  also became the biggest producer of Bengali sweets outside Bengal.  The city is a major attraction if you are a foodie. Today Bikaneri Bhujia is exported to almost all countries of the world.

What distinguishes the spirit ?  

An interesting conversation happened during my high school days. I was learning chemistry from  Dr Manas Ganguli ( Then considered GOD of chemistry ).  One day , he was pensive about the Marwari cultural imperialism. Famed  Calcutta Electric Supply coporation(CESC) was taken over by a Marwari ( RPG Group which owns CEAT and HMV brands ). He was pained with imagination that one day Calcutta’s famed South Point school which holds Guiness world record as largest academic school in the world will have a marwari flag. Though founded by a Bengali, it will one day be hypothetically renamed Gauri Prasad Agarwal high school.  The fears were not untrue and the school was soon taken over by M P Birla group( Though the name didnt change after acquisition).

Lesson : If you keep having fears and do nothing brave, crazy or enterprising, your fear will come true, and they will come true sooner than later.

Entrepreneurs carve themselves out of stone

On the foundation day of Bikaner, here is one Bikaneri  entrepreneur saluting the spirit of Entrepreneurship  of legendary  Ganga Bishen ji. Lets get inspired by his zeal to create dominant global businesses. 

Its often said labor is the maximum pain a human can endure but I would say startups give you nothing less. Life isnt a bed of roses unless you are born to politician or a filmstar.. When we incorporated our company, my daughter was 5 and son was just an year old. It was like having to look after 3 kids, the youngest one 1 a just born company.

You need to love and nurture your venture  just as you would do to your child. Your startup is as much made out of your blood, flesh and bones. The upbringing of a company and developing great culture takes more than raising a kid. The biological kids often get deprived.

Am I feeling Guilty??
NO. At times used to feel the guilt. I was missing deadlines at work and forgetting small promises made to kids. Guilt didn’t help. Resolve to be on top of it did. I learned to be forgiving, constantly reminded myself that this was not a 100m dash . I was in for a long haul, a big marathon. Making small progress every day both at home and office kept my spirits up. I would say, feeling guilty about small things make things even worse. Not only for ourselves but others as well.

Did I buckle under pressure ?
Tears did roll and it was excruciating to leave my 1 year kid at daycare or at home  but  think about leveraging the flexibility a startup can provide.  You can reach out to your  kids when they don’t expect you. The kids can drop in to your startup and there is no corporate security agency or policies to prevent them Studies have shown that good childcare promotes cognitive, language, and social skills. Eliminate your guilt by choosing the best daycare center or best home babysitter that you can have.

How I kept going ?
Stay away from people who point out mistakes in your work and management. Ignore those who demotivate. They may not be your real well wishers. There are many online forums for working moms where you can discuss things with like minded women.

Mom Entrepreneur

Dont wait for things, go and make them happen. Get started, if you take the first step, there are many who would love to walk with you.

Was it good ? 

Its an extremely fulfilling journey. Seek and retain a job or create new jobs for 100s, impress your boss or mesmerize the world with your offering, the choice and rewards are all yours . Loose your fears, startups wont kill you….. What doesn’t kill you, makes you strong and inspires a 1000 others. Start up. You will love it. Now is the Time.

Read the full article on -Fleximoms

So the iPhone5 is what I settled for, nothing less mind you. She’s a complete beauty- sleek, smooth and black as ebony. And ofcourse even for a techtard like me, the usability is like a dream. This is what I call a successful product in the tech world—one which can be used with little effort by even those who have zero technical know-how. So my beauty was acquired but now came the crucial question of how to protect her. The first 2 weeks were spent with my heart in my mouth. I held on to her like my life depended on it. I realized the true expense and value of something that cost a significant amount. The thing is that the product is so good that the fact that I would be broke for a long time to come didn’t seem to matter.

So came the pressing issue of a damn good phone cover. I mean since I spent a bomb on the phone, the cover needed to scream ‘hot and fabulous.’ I live in Pune and quite frankly, I thought it would be a piece of cake to get myself a cover for it. I took a walk down MG Road, one of the main and oldest markets in Pune. I looked everywhere and imagined all the fantastic covers I saw on ebay and incipio. Did anything I saw even come close to what I had envisioned? NO. Were the covers I found in almost 8 stores totally overrated and of poor quality? YES. For the very first time, something related to a purchase upset me so much. This was also the first time I understood why a company like Wicfy exists. There must be so many like me who are looking for a great product at an awesome price!

Then suddenly on the curve of the road, right opposite South Indian Bank, I see BIG-C MOBILE. A quaint little store, with quite a crowd. I walk in realize I’m in iPhone cover paradise! They have everything you find on any international website. Unfortunately I couldn’t take too many pics. But check what I picked up! For just Rs 350. It’s a super study cover and has even withstood a bad fall.

Do check out this store whenever you are in town or if you live in Pune, then the trip to MG road is totally worth it!

So how does it affect me  ?

 A startup guy in non air conditioned environment has rivers of sweat tricking through ravines of the body. Growing team, body heats,closed windows  gets me totally restless at office. Jeans. shirts , trousers are too much to wear. The skin must perspire easily.

What did I want ? 

Shorts. The ones which come upto knees. Look somewhat formal . Working in startup, offers some liberties with dressing up. Some thing like this :

Oh these cool shorts

Where did I go ?  

23 km drive to the only decent mall in Pune, the Phonenix mall in Viman nagar Westside store in to be precise.

Phoenix Mall Pune

What did I buy ?

2 Nuom shorts to begin with. They looked smart while buying.

How did they feel ? 

I was a lot cooler and relaxed in office. The heat passing away easily from calf, knees.  I wanted more of these for each work day.

How much these cost ?

A thousand rupees each. ( Approx 20 dollars a piece). Its not cheap but I wanted more

Where did I buy next ? 

Same store ? No.  I noticed a SALE at  FC road, Pune,   below Akash hotel . Heaps of shorts . Brands like Calvin Klein and Van Heusen for 1/3rd of what I paid for Nuom. Rs 700 for 3 shorts ( 14 USD for 3 ) Look at how these looked :

Calvin Klein Shorts :  Can you notice the finish and cloth texture

Also can you appreciate the color, finish and quality of stitching? :

Calvin Klein rear view. Well designed stitch patterns

Another one from Van Heusen :

Much superior products at less than 1/3rd of price of a non descript brand ?

 Were the cheaper clothes really good ? Were they genuine ?  Did they last ?  

I’ve been wearing top brands for decades and for me  its easy to identify the cut, the cloth and stitch make out if an apparel is fake.  If somebody can get  match it so close.. well then   its really worth wearing them without even a brand, CK, VH or Puma be damned.  Mentally, I was ok if the SALE stuff lasts more than a month. Was I was confident about the stuff I paid 1000/= each? This is what happened to the showroom stuff.

Note the wear near navel for the West side product. Lint is coming out heavily

Same happened with the other one. :

Totally Screwed up in 2 weeks of wearing : Poor Tata stuff

What did I learn ? 

1. Paying more doesnt always get you great stuff
2. SALE is not always BAD
3. If make SALT to Software (Tatas), may be you know a SHIT about clothes.
4. Malls are not the best place to buy good stuff.
5. Stick to the brands who know clothing ( Van Heusen, Calvin Klein in this case )
6. Hell with the NuoM or SuOM stuff. Westside is poor quality clothing

For exploring places where you can buy great stuff at throw away prices trust Brigade Road Bangalore, Sarojini in Delhi, Lindsay street in Calcutta but not Fashion street of Bombay ( It SUCKS ) .

You can explore such markets on http://www.wicfy.com/seller/marketexplore

Should machines are define the work done by humans?

We can see the same is happening with the average youth these days.  Social media  is becoming a part of our everyday life (whether personal or professional). We before becoming friend with someone, check that  person’s linked in or facebook profile. A talent manager can trace an employee, Employee can trace a company, Market analyzes the consumer behavior, Consumer analyzes the markets.

But are Machines really defining our lifestyle or is it just that they are part of change that happens? Jyotindra Zaveri, renowned Digital marketing consultant  once during a guest lecture remarked “ Machines can automate processes but can’t replace human abilities, sharpen your abilities to focus on how efficiently can you make use of automation rather than relying on it to effect that change” .

You can see this practically happening at my work place Wicfy, a platform where people observe, discover and discuss exciting prices submitted by other shoppers. If displaying the cheapest price online would have been the goal, then that we could have  done it by automating the process  by crawling 4 or five E Com stores.  Recently, a top Angel investor remarked ” There are a million crawlers / online aggregators and we dont even look at them ” .

Here not only are the prices displayed, they are debated, updated, changed through the trusted humans called ‘ Real users’. I believe that this is the best learning for involvement of human interaction taking the system towards constructive feedback and improvement.

This involvement of users to improve the system exemplifies me of the disruptive technologies coined by Clayton M Christensen. I believe Wicfy is the kind which can disrupt the existing solutions (ie., who maintain directories or the lowest online prices). This disruption happens towards improvement of the existing technologies. Here at work, the  o discussions revolve about what to do to make this system ever improving because everything else is done by the impact of the system. Learning here gets multiplied by every day and implementation of the learning is real, immediate and having huge impact in all measures.

The experience of being part of this innovative system is thrilling!
Ravi is the Wicfy man about town. He is in charge of offline marketing and can hardly be found in office. He’s brought about a lot of freshness and is extremely diligent  and mind you, he does all the running around despite hating the heat and anything connected to summers. His reward : Plenty of girls in short clothes of course.

Ever since I’ve taken up the role of Digital Manager here at Wicfy, there have been tons of questions that have overshadowed my thoughts. Coming from the fast paced, unruly world of the Indian media, a startup is the diametric opposite. Thanks to my past work experience, life experiences and academic history, I’ve not been used to chipping away at a problem. You just solve it. In one go.

The past 3 months have been a roller-coaster ride of emotions more than actual work. Here’s the thing about a startup: it’s like being a mom. You watch your baby grow into a fine young individual infused with values you have so carefully tried to entwine with his/her personality. This post is dedicated to anyone who has joined the startup world, not as an owner but an employee. To everyone who comes from a world as different as mine. Here goes:

1. MENTAL PREPAREDNESS: This one factor will determine the rest of your startup career. To the rest of the world, my work seems super easy. I mean what’s so tough? I work from home, I get to chill in my jammies, I can blast music at the office when I do go and my boss makes sure we’re always stocked with beer. Easy peasy? I think not. Here’s the real story: I work from home but am at my machine at 8.30AM as opposed to everyone who comes on at 10AM. Still not the point. It’s a world where a single mistake can cost you anything right from a facebook ‘like’to your next round of funding. This is not a world for the weak hearted or thin skinned.

2. GET ORGANIZED: My goals were NEVER defined by numbers in my previous jobs. Probably that’s the reason I suck at them. In a startup it’s all about adding quantifiable value to what may seem to be even the most mundane tasks. Excel sheets, Trello (oops am totally late for this one ), a gazillion startup forums, mind mapping, it’s all here to devour you. Here’s how my organization cycle worked:  Hated it>>Resisted it>> Accepted it>> Got used to it>> Can’t live without it.

3. TECHIES ARE US: Don Draper from my fav show ‘Mad Men’ had once said “ You’re  either right brain or no brain.” I swore by this till I joined Wicfy. Gone are the days when techies were total geeks scoring below average marks in terms of charm, wit and social skills. Ok fine, the first part still hold true. But the new age techie is something else—he/she is fun, interesting, knows a lot more than coding and even has live-in partners. The last part is totally true. Wicfy is a shining example. If you come from an ultra creative world like I did, make friends with them, get to know their side of things and realize that they’re trying to warm up to you too. Creative people have views that are way too radical for the average Indian coder. It’s always Right brainers VS the Left.

4. STAY CALM AND DON’T FREAK THE SHIT OUT: This is super important. Especially if you’re in a managerial position. “Don’ let the noise of others drown your inner voice”—Steve Jobs probably had tons of interns from 2 separate academic backgrounds to handle. As do I. I have a set of techies on one hand and media kids on the other….it’s like fire and ice. But if my nerves aren’t calm, my entire team bears the brunt in some small way, amounting to a larger more severe consequence. So do whatever it takes to make you  the god/goddess of placation—yoga, a run, a swim, play with your dog (this always works)

So there you have it..If you’re from a completely different professional background, keep these pointers in mind and you’ll be good to go in a startup of any kind!

A special dish is made on this day which is called ‘Ugadi Pachadi‘, which has a mixture of 6 types of tastes wghich enrich food and there by life. They are

The ingredients of Pachadi

• Tender neem : It tastes bitter and is symbolic of of Sadness
• Sugar/Jaggery :  Its sweet taste indicates Happiness
• Hot (chilli/pepper): This  represents Anger // Some times anger is also good
• Salt :   Represents Fear
•Sour Tamarind juice :  Indicates stong eye popping disgust
•Tender/Unriped Mango :  Represents surprise

It is believed that as a Mixture of all these tastes make a dish and mixture  mixture of all these emotions can make life Stable and Healthy. This is how ugadi Pachadi looks like >

Pachadi served

Why ?

The emergent kids are young and restless. They need to cry and scream louder to get their milk.  They  desperately need to scratch the formidable.

Why ?

When they scratch , they win .

Why ?

When they have created a bruise.. people clap..

When the baby misses the mark people .. they admire the courage..

When the formidable reacts… the baby is in news..

When the formidable ignores… the baby still gains.. People curse the hunks for ignoring the pain and cries :

Why ?

People more emotionally relate to the crying baby’s pain and believe some of her claims..

Crying baby : Photo credits : http://reelfoto.blogspot.in/2012/09/jill-greenberg-cry-baby.html

The context here is : “Loud declaration of begining of end of Mainstream stream media by a baby digital media ” here -> http://www.nextbigwhat.com/mainstream-media-journos-save-yourself-297/

While this doom’s day prognostication serves hidden interests ( Hiring better journos from MSM , cajole for credits in MSM and make some really tall claims) the reality is : MSM holds a much larger mindshare 100x + : India Today, ET credit and TIME cover will continue to rule for a really long time.

I am yet to see Digital media ( DM ) do any story without quotes  read any of the cash cows i.e funding stories.( I was asked to give > 2 quotes to every time our product or company got featured.

http://yourstory.in/2011/06/arun-purohit-simplibuy-a-hyper-local-price-information-system/

http://www.nextbigwhat.com/wicfy-app-for-android-297/

The desperation in DM is much higher specially for funding NEWS. for example : We didnt do a press release after our funding. We shared this news with close community of Entrepreneurs.. and before we could even approve of the content .. these articles were LIVE.. Ctrl C + Ctr V happened a 1000x everywhere in DM.

While the masses may consume these cries with a relish .. there are also those who can understand the truth and intent

1. Sitting Posture :  Hindu way prophesizes Padma asana or lotus posture as an ultimate posture for all spiritual/religious practice. This posture was good till I was a kid and even in 20s. Now in thirties,  the thought of crossing the legs so hard gives me cramps. Also in place of meditating I keep thinking of the strain I have in hamstring. Also the back hurts. So I give up.  The Muslim way of sitting on knees also doesn’t work. The blood clogs on the knees and I get electric shocks as the leg  almost sleeps. Whats the Buddha way ?
   

   Calm seating posture

   Sit on ground, but put a small pillow just below your hips. This support to cervix gives a comfort with which you can forget about the strain on your back. The shoulders  are pulled back, the neck as it reclines a little back creates  a slight incline back towards the chin which  slightly tilts down. The  tips of fingers of both hands touch.  Benefit :  You can get in to meditation posture without all your joints and bones crying for mercy. The hands and fingers are not making any funny hole or running a counter incrementing any count variable.

2.    Eyes  : The Hindu way tells you to either close your eyes ( I have often fallen asleep while meditating with closed eyes ) or tells you to stupidly look at the center of your nose ( Gives me migraine or headache + pain near eyebrows) or there is even more crazy way – look at the imaginary circle or chakra which exists on your forehead. This one gets me completely lost. So what the Buddha way ?
   

   Calm eyes of Buddha.. slightly ajar

   Keep your eyes a little ajar. This keeps your from falling asleep and also those imaginary circles  do not give you hallucinations. Benefits : You find that you are actually able to meditate.

3. Breathing :  While these 2 nostrils and one mouth gives  3C2 combinations or six ways to perform gymnastics with air your entire thought process goes into doing the counts 11, 16 21 or 51. Also Baba Ramdev recommends that one makes a sound like a bee while breathing out( Bhraamari Pranayam ). I often find that all these  methods make us to focus on the sounds  or dynamics of air and their counting : What is the Buddha way ?
   

   Joyful breathing

   Breathe through your belly and nothing else . Benefit : Your mind calms down as the breathing cycle shows down.

4. Chanting : Hindu way of meditation often tells you to Chant “Om “/ “Ram ” or the famous “Gayatri Mantra “. When you do this two things happen either you know the meaning of these words or you do not.  When you know the meaning, they trigger your thoughts in correlation with those words. Essentially whatever these words mean to you or can trigger come to you. When you do not know the meaning, these  repeated words do very little to a rational mind. What is the Buddha way ?
   

   Lips ajar, tongue tip kissing the roof

   Buddha way tells you not to chant anything. It tells you to let the tip of your tongue touch the roof of your mouth and keep the lips a little ajar.  Benefits : This keeps your mouth from drying up and you do not have strain your vocal chords to make any noise, sound or inconvenience others while you are meditating

5. Concentration :  The Hindu way tells us to  think of all our favourite gods, goddesses, repeat their name , focus on sun, 12 to 16 inner circles, a Korean scientist tells us to think of oneself as a bottle where green light is entering, and leaving as blue light etc. These are good on the first few repetitions but suck big time when you try to do them repeatedly.  You cant just concentrate. Also there is this divine dictat that don’t think of anything else.  This is very difficult. We can prevent our thoughts from coming. More we resist, greater is the ferocity with which they hit us. So whats the Buddha way?
   

   Tranquil thoughts

   Just observe your thoughts and let them come and let them pass. Your thoughts should just be on your breathing.    Benefit : This appears to be a more natural way to concentrate. Just like waves thee thoughts come, hit you and go away. You do not resist, you do not invite. You let your brain police the thoughts and turn you focus back on breathing just to attain thoughtlessness after some time.

Conclusion : The Buddhist way of meditation started with Hindu way as base and evolved on top of it to become much more effective. When I see a Buddha statue, it gives me more peace than I have got it from all other acts combined. If you have read this far, may peace be with you.  DO share if you know any better method of calming the mind.

These words by one of the most successful individual of the millennium, Steve Jobs best describes my feelings on joining Simplibuy Technologies as a summer intern.
When you leave your academics and start working in any organization it gives you a sense of pleasure and achievement. Same was in my case when I completed my graduation and started working in an IT company. Time flew by and before I knew it, I again landed up in the academic field…pursuing my MBA.

After the completion of a strenuous year of my curriculum..I got an opportunity to join Simplibuy Technologies as a summer intern….it really feels great to again get into what I call the “ Implementation and efficient Learning mode”.

Simplibuy Technologies is a startup but I would prefer not calling it a startup but an Innovation factory. The concept and Idea on which the very existence of this organization is based is truly novel and unique…this is what excited me the most to join this organization. The team here is small in size but if I talk in terms of skill sets, intellect and unique ways of thinking and looking at things it is gigantic in size.

Nowadays every other day, you find an organization opening up but not all survive..the survival rate of a startup is very low…and I was very curious about the reason behind such a low survival rate..The founder of this organization has enlightened me on this .. he told me working in a startup is like participating in a war where you have to fight for your survival , everybody has to do everything in order to survive , there are no chances of stopping and resting in midway . You have to be ready with your skill sets which are your weapons for war all the time and use them whenever required.

On our first day of the internship when we came to the office it did not feel like we were in a new place and so new to this domain. Everybody treated us like team mates and not like any new intern to the organization. We were given the chance to choose the profile of our interest and also were given guidance in matching our skill sets with the skill sets required for the various job profiles. This very fact demonstrates the uniqueness of this organization. Some wise person had once said that if we are given a chance to do something that we enjoy doing it , the work will be more of pleasure than duty. This is what the founders and employees of Simplibuy Technologies believe and implement.

Not only were we given a chance to choose a profile but also we complete ownership of the task assigned to us. This portrays the essence of trust and belongingness that the organization has for their employees. By the end of the day we were assigned our roles as per our preferences and also a motivational talk by the founders of the organization which was like fuel to kick start our journey of 3 months here .

I pray and hope that I contribute in my own ways to the success of the organization and utilize this span of 3 months efficiently and fruitfully.
Happy learning to my fellow interns as well !

Barnali is Wicfy’s most enthu import. She’s hell-bent on making our website the richest in content and is a total badass at getting it done. She loves music and by loves, we mean everything from Jagjit Singh to Honey Singh. She talks nine to a dozen and is always the first one at work. Even before office opens. Yes, that is correct. 

                                            Also she hates cats, except if they belong to Sheldon Cooper.

Having worked in a $40 billion company, how does one manage to contribute, learn, have fun and make a difference in a start-up? In a matter of 3 months. Will the motivation and experience be the same? Will the takeaways be valuable or will it just be 3 months of an experience to be tabulated and reported for 12 credits? Will there be a sense of direction and purpose, will there be a sense of achievement at the end of 3 months?

But most importantly, how do you keep yourself going when some of your batch-mates and friends have been selected in bigger companies for better packages and offers?

I guess no one at Simplibuy would have had as many questions as I did, as I entered my internship period and this is just the tip of the ice-berg. Usually pondering and analytical by nature, I have many questions to ask. And don’t rest till I get a reasonable if not satisfactory reply. So what were the answers? Some of them are here, the rest will unfold like all stories over the next 3 months…

So I worked at Nokia L&C, before joining SCIT and it was one of the most valuable experiences till date. I owe my professionalism, work ethics to all those who worked with me at L&C. But Simplibuy interested me coz like L&C, it was also a kind of location-based product. And if there was one thing I felt during my L&C days, it was that I wanted to work with a product based company and get more involved in product engineering.

Simplibuy or Wicfy, which is our flagship product, offered me that chance. A start-up, usually means, that despite having defined roles and responsibilities, you have to be on standby to do all the other jobs, get involved in other aspects of the organization or product. And we @ Wicfy, will be doing just that. And that is one of the biggest learning experiences and motivation on offer.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is what I will be working on for the next fortnight or so. Having no background knowledge of that means I will have to start from scratch, building up my knowledge and learning something new, which I am sure will be valuable ahead in my career. You learn best, contribute better and make the best impact when you are wholly responsible for one area of work, when you total ownership of that work. Not only are you responsible of understanding and implementing that, you are also expected to make the others aware of the work area and ensure everyone is on the same page. You become the point-of-contact for that work area. And that is something you might not get to do at all those MNC’s. And that compensates for brand name, huge stipends and a lot more… Twenty years later, you are going to look back at the experiences and value from your first few companies.

A start-up teaches you the value of team-work, ownership, the value of money, the value of fun & learning, the value of time management… the list goes on. I don’t say this to justify my presence here at Wicfy or because it is my job, but because, I believe, that once in your career, you should work in a start-up, a struggling firm and an NGO. They each teach you something unique and mould you, bringing out the best in you as a professional and a person. I hope the next 3 months teach me what I could keep for the rest of my career- lessons, experiences and knowledge.
So here is me looking forward to a fun, learning and action-filled 3 months at Wicfy and hoping to make a real contribution. Keep watching this space for more updates.
Bharat S aka Brat
(The Weird One)

Bharat is an engineering grad turned B-school karate kid. He now interns at Wicfy.com. He thinks he can write,  loves music and is a self proclaimed voracious reader. Oh and he’s always right.

Always. 

It began a while ago. Maybe sometime late last year, when I was grappling with ill-health and the struggles of freelancing. I needed to start applying for jobs here in Pune, a city I was returning to after almost 5 years. I would apply to some places randomly and some very diligently. I once came across a job on a portal and sent in my resume without even reading what they needed. It was one of those moments where you just applied without really thinking about it because well there’s no harm right?
With that application, one thing led to another and before I knew it I was sitting in a coffee shop being given a detailed analysis of what Series A funding means. The guy sitting in front of me was unassuming but spoke with the kind of enthusiasm that was intriguing. He was convinced of what he was saying and how I’d be a perfect fit in the organization. I warned him that I was technologically challenged, could barely google myself through basic information but was a Facebook and Twitter addict. The last two things got his attention. “That’s it, that’s exactly what we need.”
Ok, I mean if you want to hire a social butterfly, I’m sure you have a plan.
From then on began a journey that I can’t even begin to describe. It’s been only two months but I feel like I’ve been here for years. And I’m not a person who forms associations very fast so when I say it, I mean it. Here’s a couple of things why startups > big organizations. May not always be the case but just some perspective:

1. GETTING DOWN AND DIRTY: Literally. When you’re strapped for funds and work out of an apartment, you do everything—right from washing your own plate to setting up your office to being your own maid, watchman, plumber, electrician and butler. These additions to your resume may not help today or tomorrow but when you’re heading a team or even a project, you learn the value of systemization. You have a sense of tremendous ownership. You also learn the value of everyone else’s work which makes you a sensitized leader, something that even most big organizations lean on for keeping their attrition rates in check.

2. I HAVE A DREAM: You’re allowed to. Infact you’re encouraged to. Having a distinct, convincing goal and chipping away at it is what startups thrive on. Not so much in larger organizations. And I’m not even talking about founders. I’m even talking about people like me, people who’re early employees of a startup. In my first month, I was actually apprehensive of putting down my ideas, lest they be too outrageous or creative. But not anymore. Any startup that is on the road to success will allow you to lash out crazy, insane ideas, work out a budget and tell you to knock yourself out trying to achieve it. Forget job satisfaction, this is nothing but a professional high, don’t you think?

3. FAIL, FALL, GET UP,WALK ON: “Dust the mud off your knees and get a move on, we have great things to achieve” is what I hear constantly after each debacle/mistake. As someone who just joined a startup, I’ve seen this change other aspects of my life as well. I’m undeterred, as long as I know I’ve given my best. Also since it’s a small team, your boss/manager sees your efforts. So if targets are not met despite your sincere effort, you’re not pulled up but are encouraged and made to analyse your mistakes. You know what this can do for you even 2 years down the line? It can make you a world-class manager/leader/CEO, or just about anything you want to be. For the first time in my life, I know what I bring to the table. I know what makes me useful to my workplace and it’s a damn good feeling.

4. HANG UP THOSE MBA BOOTS: Further studies is something that we all look at if we haven’t already earlier. But it breaks my heart to see tons of techies in India each year doing an MBA. And they do this without even thinking. How is coding/programming related to selling paints/chocolates/insurance/underwear? I don’t get. Do you have no passion? Nothing that drives you? Or are these aspects of a profession life just meant for losers who have tons of time on their hands and no EMIs to pay off? The biggest game-changers in the world of business are not even graduates, forget about an MBA. Here’s where a start up comes to help. Since you’re given so much freedom, you really end up figuring out what you’re good at. End result? You may take time, but when you do that masters degree, it’ll definitely be in something that’ll enhance your existing skills because you’ve discovered what they are. Believe me, not even half your friends can boast of that.

There you go, my top reasons why I do what I do. I am convinced that the skill sets I acquire here in a start up are going to last me a lifetime. Maybe I’ll work in a bigger organization next or maybe another start up but all I know is that I’ll be able to hone my skills because I got to the root of it.

We had  5 EMBAS ( Engineer+ MBAs ) joining us for 3 months full time internship today.  I was thinking what kind of mental wiring  will be optimal so that not only they have good learning during their stay, they also add tremendous value to organization and they do it with  full passion.

Wicfy is known to be a great fun+ learn organization to be in during summers but while its F&L for interns how does the organization gain from interns ???

I was thinking and suddenly came up with a good thought – “A level up “.   Here is what I mean by it .

Where you must live mentally and physically to grow

1. When you are an employee :  Think of yourself as the founder of the company. Act and behave like her. When you do that, you will be noticed, valued and appreciated by the founders and other decision makers in the company. They will pull you near themselves. You will grow fastest. Alternately, while being an employee behave like an entrepreneur.  Three things may happen to you : 1.  Your committed work will get you promoted if the company benefits from your actions  2. The promoters of the company  might fund your idea or 3. You will become an entrepreneur and raise fund for your company.
2. When you are an intern : Behave and act like an employee. Display attitude and performance which is expected of the best employees. If you have done that, you have cemented a job offer before even the placement season has begun on your campus. Some of the best companies on earth like to catch their potential hire early on.  When we looked at the best performing interns of last year, we wanted them as employees and yes, 2 of our best interns are joining us as employees this year. The best part is : when we thought of initiating interview process for them, our lead investor said – “You already know them, they will be productive from day 1. Don’t make them go through the hoops, hire them ” . These interns by thinking one level up had already won their job last year.
3. When you are an interviewee :     When you are getting interviewed think of yourself as the employee. Learn before hand how some of the best employees of  that organization think, act and behave. Become aware of the biggest problem that organization or the hiring interviewer might be having.  Have 3 or 4 thoughts on how you would like to solve those problems. If you display this during the interview, positive resonance and job selection is most likely.
4. When you are a founder :  Think like your investors.  Think of every dollar which gets spent. Spend it well, get the max out of it .Think of every possible thing you can do to increase value of your organization. Think  of every way to prolong the life of your organization. Ruthlessly eliminate risks to the organization by attracting great people, relentlessly pursue partnerships, making your organization a money magnet.

While if you have requisite talent and capabilities, nothing prevents you from acting and behaving 2 levels up. . One level up is what you must do to be on a path of growth. If you just operate at your current levels you may be pushed down or get overtaken by others.

Purose

Bonus point

5. When you are a startup  :   When you are a startup looking for funds behave as the one which is already funded.  When you are funded imagine how the organization will be when you have done Series A . Mimic the successful startup organization structure and branding techniques.  If you have done series A , think like Apple and start creating flawless products which do not require any training to use. This is the way we are doing it at Wicfy.

When you are a startup, every penny matters.  The mantra for Entrepreneurs is free picking (open source ) borrowing ( From friends)  or stealing ( From home ).  In this tryst for free sometime we lose a lot of time. Time is precious for startups and while we must do all to get things for free. There however are some awesome products/services   worth paying some money.   They increase our productivity and velocity without burning hole in our pocket Here is a list of 4 services I use and am happy to pay without hesitation.

Software worth paying for

1.    WEBEX -As my work needed to collaborate with people sitting at distant places working/advising us on numerous issues, I started looking for the ways to get everyone in the same room..

I was using both Skype and webex meetings for free happily for little over a year after starting my company. Initially few people used to join the call from different locations.. But as the team grew, so did the need for tool that allowed more people to get into call simultaneously. Both skype and webex supported this in paid plan but Webex clearly won over skype for its following merits -

• Screen sharing is superfast
• Remote Control – other user in call can take control of mouse if needed.
• People can annotate, put questions to each other
• Record the meeting.
• Join the meeting’s audio by phone if someone prefers

One can start with Basic free plan and then graduate to paid plan as per need. I am using Premium 8 for meetings plan that supports up to 8 people including the host ($24/month). More details can be found at – http://www.webex.com/plans/meetings-plans.html

2.    Subversion Control from XP-Dev.com – Same as with webex, I started using free XP-Dev to manage versioning of source code as well as documents. XP-Dev.com provides Enterprise grade Subversion, Git & Mercurial Hosting integrated with Trac Hosting & Project Tracking.

After using it for 2 projects for free, when I wanted to have secure access to my work as well as more space to maintain the data, I moved to their paid version which starts at as low as 5$/month. Details can be found at – https://xp-dev.com/pricing

I can create and maintain unlimited projects with paid plan and happy to recommend it to fellow startup guys for their work. I am highly satisfied customer of xp-dev.  Great  job by team xp-dev.

3.    SignNow.com – SignNow.com is just great tool that allows you to sign documents online for free. No need to print, sign, scan and send back documents.. Very cool! We can also store the signed documents safely onto the online storage provided by SignNow. This allows us to access the signed documents from anywhere.

What more, we can save trees by eliminating paper wastage on printing, scanning, faxing, and mailing documents.

I used it for free to send many offer letters (of course signed documents ). Paid account is needed only if we want to upload more than 5 signed documents per month into our account. Don’t think twice before paying them considering the time and effort that they save in the process of signing and sharing the documents. Checkout its pricing details at – https://signnow.com/pricing

4.    Rackspace Cloud – When we decided to move from shared web hosting to cloud hosting, I looked up on tens of cloud hosting options.2 contenders came up strongly AWS and Rackspace. While Amazon gives free hosting for a while to start with, the cost is very high at early stage when you move to paid plan. Its more suitable when you reach high traffic.

I choose Rackspace for following merits -

1. The cost to start with them is very low as compared to AWS.( as low as 16$/month without managed hosting)
2. Excellent support team to help you setup the server and sail through the initial hurdles.  I like their chat support which is quick and effective.
3. Performance is almost same as AWS.  Scaling Up and down server size is really very quick. I could increase the server size in few minutes. Felt WoW!!
4. Never faced any outage s at Rackspace till date whereas on AWS heard a few recently.
5. Provide good documentation about the hosting related features.

So, to summarize, all good things come at a price. Choose wisely and be happy paying them. Comment with which software service/tool you are most delighted to pay. Share your experiences.

Happy Starting Up..

But Marissa failed. She is now the reason that women will think twice before looking into a man’s eyes and saying “Dude, I don’t need to be your equal because I’m more ambitious than that.” She made a hash of what could have potentially become one of the biggest management success stories of our time. Right from interviewing every applicant at Yahoo to building a personal nursery in her corner office, Marissa has left no stone unturned to receive the flak she has. All of which was sadly justified. But the one policy that I had a real problem with was the one where she banned working from home. Hello Marissa, have you not heard of Gmail, Skype, Chat Webex, Box, and Dropbox to name a few? The whole concept of ‘distance killing’ was pioneered by Yahoo. So how does this not apply to your own workplace? A tad ironic don’t you think?

I could go on and on about this. But let’s check some solutions. Solutions for those people who work with sane companies which have a work from home (WFH) policy . There are some really simple ways to get it right. So here goes:

SET YOUR OWN GOALS: Remember you have no real boss looking over your shoulder through the day. No one to come to your desk and catch you chatting with your partner/best friend, checking out your ex’s wedding pictures on Facebook or even planning your evening drinking binge. You can do all the above when you work from home, oh yes you can. But here’s the glitch—it starts to show immediately. Even if I don’t work for an hour, I can feel the results in the evening when I’m winding up and I invariably work an extra hour. If you are in your office, you’re still in touch/sync with what’s going on. At home, it’s that extra effort. So set targets that you’ll achieve through the day and make them happen. No matter what.

HOME OFFICE. OFFICE HOME. SAME DIFFERENCE:
Your home is now your office. Set it up like that. Ok, not your entire living space, but atleast one room or even a corner. Make sure you have a desk, a pen stand, a plugpoint nearby and your computer with high speed internet. DO NOT work while chilling on your bed. You wouldn’t get to do that at work would you? Wake up on time. Don’t think that just because you’re home, you can wake up all hungover and ready for lunch. Wake up, bathe, workout if you do, have a hearty breakfast and sit at your table. You need to follow a routine else get ready for a pink slip.

THE OUTSIDE WORLD? THE TOXIC VOICES? STOP IT!
My first week working from home was spent trying to get things in order+ meeting targets+ learning new things+ creating a good work culture at home. The first thing you need to do is tell everyone at home to shut up. No, I mean it. I’ve just moved back home with my family after 4 years and believe me, it was tough initially. Exhibiting strict professionalism is of key value. Being at your work desk, refusing to tend to household chores, inculcating strict discipline and fostering an excellent relationship with your boss is what’ll make you a good ‘home worker.’ As soon as the neighbours, the watchman, the plumber, the electrician and other menaces found out that I now have a job where I primarily work from home, they would ring the door bell atleast 5 times a day. This may not seem like much but when your work involves a lot of concentration, it’s a lot. So I just stopped answering, no doorbells, phonecalls, miscellaneous emails, pings, nothing. I just blocked it all out, like I would have I been at an office. It might have seemed a bit harsh and it bugged everyone at first but now they respect it because they know they don’t have a choice.

A CALL A DAY KEEPS THE FEARS AWAY
You’re working from home. Half your colleagues probably think you’re the luckiest person on earth. Little do they know how much tougher it is when you have no communication with everyone else at work. You’re all by yourself and in my case, in a job role where I have a zillion new things to learn. I’ve been told stuff like “Wow you can wear shorts and drink beer while working!” Yeah sweetie, coz that’s just what you need to meet your targets- be drunk in skimpy clothes. Jeez.
Your solution? Atleast one call a day with the Bossman. You deserve it. It’s almost like a birthright if you’re working from home. If you’ve been hired from home, your organization has to handle you accordingly. If not, then you’re clearly in the wrong place.

DON’T GET OBSESSED
It’s an office. Just that it’s at home. So don’t get very stressed out. This tends to happen and you find yourself working everyday till midnight and beyond. Do that only if it’s a one off case, where you need to really put in the hours. Don’t do this everyday. Else you’ll end up like how I did last week—in a state of burnout and at a complete loss of thoughts and mind space. This is what is going to make you dwindle in your work and you can never meet your targets. So start in the morning and shut down your machine once work hours and your tasks for the day have ended. Go out, take a walk, play with your dogs, spend time with friends and family.

Remember these 5 points and you’re good to go. The Association of us ‘Home workers’ needs to prove to the Marissa Mayer of the world that we CAN work from home, be productive, have a life, fall in love, get married, have our kids, watch them play and read them a bedtime story and do all this along with having a fantastic career and a flawless work ethic.

So are you ready? I sure as hell am.

Progressively, people are agreeing that  sleep is one investment which gives highest RoI on productivity. For sleeping well, besides sound isolation, a comfortable temperature, a mind free of worries, we also need a good mattress.

What do most of us sleep on ? Is it the right way ?

Majority of Indians ( including me) have slept for most of our lives on cotton filled bistars/gaadis or Indianised mattresses. The cotton used in these bistars is a great natural filling beaten by a special stringed instrument to give it the fluff. Please see this special implement which looks like a bow and sounds like guitar.

A bow used to beat cotton

The guitar like sound is produced  when  they beat it using a mallet tan-tun-tan.  However, over a period of time, cotton bistars turns into lumps which provide little very support to our body (especially the back). Also, cotton absorbs water, kids wet bed, food particle etc make inroads into these bistars making them unhygienic and lumpy.  They need a refilling every 2-3 years or so. Now if you leave it to the local gaadi makers (and do not supervise), they invariably do one of the following:

1. Put adulterated cotton or some other material which is heavy // The bistar maker charges you for gross weight of mattress.

2. Reuse old spent cotton which was already there  this leaves you with a really bad bed. //  I experienced it just before I decided to buy a mattress.

Why did I decide to buy a good mattress ?  

When I got the refill done on my cotton mattress, I  started having back ache just after 2 months of usage. I would often wake up at 2 am, observing muscles in the back  which were badly strained. One good night sleep in a good hotel ( Sayaji ) and I realized that the quality of sleep on a proper mattress was 10x better better.  As a startup guy I needed to be more productive than ever.

Why was the mattress so effective ?

The mattress was really luxurious and relaxing. The makers of specialty orthopaedic mattress had used memory foam (  NASA research product ) which remembers the shape of your body and retains shape to support your body. Read more about memory foam here   Spring fit mattress claims that 1 hour of sleep on spring fit is equivalent to 2 hours of sleep on an ordinary mattress. Having slept on some of the most luxurious mattresses I knew what to look for.

Nasa developed Memory Foam-fast

How did the the decision for structure work for buying a mattress? :

I discarded the

1.  Spring mattresses because : They are bouncy and not recommended for home or daily use. They are  good for hotels to give you sense of luxury, they are difficult to maintain and always give you a sense of unnatural. // This immediately discards all those bonnel spring, pocket spring ones which cost 1 lakh plus.

2.  Coir mattresses because the coir essentially behaves the same ways cotton. Can turn brittle, it makes the bed heavy. It can absorb moisture and worst part is ; If you fold your mattress accidentally, the coir cracks up.
3.  Hard or soft on both sides type because Last year I had met with an accident and had an impact on back. The doctor had asked me to sleep on hard flat bed for one month. So having only soft will not give support. Only hard will not give comfort.

So,there I was on the look out for a mattress which would give me a good night’s sleep after 12 to 14 hours of work at startup. This one link also gives you a detailed view on how to select a mattress :

Where did I go to buy ? How much did it cost ?

I first went to Ishanya Mall and for a 5 ” mattress, the salesman at Hometown store showed me all different kind of mattress ranging for 21K to 45 K from Sleepwell. The price of mattress goes up disproportionately as we move up from 4 “to 6″or 8 “. Being a significant cost product I knew, I need to negotiate prices. The sales guy said, its a branded product and there is not discount. I said “Thank you sir “.

I asked few of my friends where to buy these from they said you may get 10 % off on company listed price at Bajirao road.. This didnt impress me much.

So we headed for Chinchwad and Pimpri link road. We have seen this market as very competitive for most standard products:

The first store we saw on the link road had Sprig Fit mattresses and the seller was willing to straight away offer 15 % off the MRP( Some more if we were making final buy decision ) . On a mattress of price 18000/ = it was a flat saving of Rs 2700/= over Ishanya and Rs 900/= over Bajirao Road.

We went to a store just next to it. The store was selling Sleepwell only and after a good negotiation she was willing to give 20 % off on the mattress..( Saving Rs 3600/= )

Now we were still driving a hard bargain and said we didnt have this big a budget , how can you make us buy a Rs 20K mattress. She said she can make it 25 % off if we didnt take the company pillows which come with it. This was the best cut on price we had observed after one full day of survey.

In view of brevity  we couldn’t go lower than this. We also ran a contest on FB to leverage crowd intelligence to buy mattress at cheapest price and we got momentous 81 responses :

We next went to Neeraj Handloom near Sai Chowk in Pimpri. They are the biggest dealer of furnishings and mattresses in the area. We tried and slept on 10 to 20 different mattresses and selected Springfit Ortho mattress.  This one met all the conditions we had mentioned above. We demanded 15 % upwards on the spring fit mattress and asked for complimentary pillows worth Rs 1000/= and thus on a MRP of 18000/= we could save 3700/= i.e effectively 20.56 % ..

Thus began the nights which have started giving us better sleeps. We are seeing the benefits of investing in a good mattress and also buying it smart. We loved the Pimpri Bazaar a lot more than Ishanya Mall where we drove 30km to reach and came back disappointed.

If you have found better sellers for branded mattresses like Sleepwell, Kurlon, Springfit, do respond back with the prices and quality you have found. It will help a lot of others who have decided to invest in good night’s sleep

The owner, Rahul tells  that his store mainly deals in designer fabric shades in all shapes and sizes. Not just this, they also customize lampshades according to your preference including getting prints of your favourite band/singer/actor/writer/general picture or anything or anyone else on the lamp of your choice!
The prices range from about Rs 550-Rs 17000 (this one is a 5 foot long lampstand). Rahul says that he was inspired by the need of beating the Chinese market and creating some original Indian products in the lighting space. They have manufacturing units in Maharashtra for meeting their needs.
Their exciting upcoming plans include developing a stone lamp, the materials of which have come all the way form Jaipur. The inlay is in brass and it promises to be a one-of-a-kind product. The price of this should be in the range of Rs 4500-Rs5000 on an average.

So head there right away and get great prices for some of the most stunning lamps in Pune city!

 Entrepreneurs in digital business have to scale the mountain of acquiring first million users/customers and the uphill task daunts many. I was reading a book by Jim Collins and was amazed by the way he describes how great companies get breakthroughs’. The  following paragraphs abstracted gives some answers.

Picture a huge, heavy flywheel about 30 feet in diameter, 2 feet thick and weighing 2500 kgs mounted horizontally. Your task is to rotate it as fast and as long as possible.

When you push with all might, it just moves an inch. It moves almost imperceptibly at first but if you keep pushing ,  after 2 or 3 hours of persistent effort you can complete one entire turn.

When you keep pushing, it moves a bit faster and with great effort you can complete the second turn. If you are persistent, it completes three turns.. four.. five.. six.. .. and the flywheel picks speed… seven… eight….. .. you keep pushing and it builds momentum…..eleven.. twelve…. moving faster with each turn…. twenty…. thirty…. fifty…. a hundred..

At some time you  hit a break thru!.. The momentum of the wheel kicks in your favor, it hurls the wheel forward, turn after turn…… Whoosh!!! .. Its own weight starts working for you..

You push no harder than you did during the first rotation…but the flywheel goes faster and faster.. Each rotation of flywheel builds on the momentum of previous rotation, compounding your investment of effort.  A thousand time faster, then ten thousand, then a hundred thousand.. The giant disc flies forward with almost unstoppable momentum..

Turning the wheels much larger and horizontal

Now which push caused the thing to move so fast ? Which one was the great push which caused the breakthrough ? first push, third, fifth or fifteenth or hundredth ?

Lets face it, acquiring users is not easy. People across the world have huge inertia, cynicism and attachment to current solutions. Change to new products doesnt happen overnight. We start with some campaign and the response is 1 or 2. Does it mean that we abandon the push? Panic and give up on what we are convinced is a right direction ?

[ Arun Purohit, Entrepreneur at wicfy.com has been trying to turn the wheels for long..]

I know someone who has been going to his favorite barber for 35 years and returning with the most badly cut hair in the history of haircuts. But he continues to fire on his loyalties no matter what. This is not an uncommon Indian phenomenon, especially amongst the older generation. We are a nation of loyalists. It takes time for us to switch loyalties, whether it comes to our favourite brand of rice to soap to pretty much anything we purchase.

Times however are ‘a changing and Gen Next does see the urgent need to experiment and diversify, though only relatively. In the sense that we still sort of, hold the same values when it comes to brand loyalty on the internet. Think about it, terms like ‘Google it’ would not have made to the English dictionary otherwise. In India, we look at certain  brands as the be all and end all of all our searches and queries, Just Dial being one of them. You seem to think you can get anything you want in your city, but can you really? Here’s why we think otherwise:

Can we “Just Dial ” to the lowest prices

1. 1.      Yellow pages VS actual value

They’re basically a  listing of  all who have paid them and could be a repository of anything you need. But may not be the best you can get. There are times when product differentiation takes a beating in this regard. Asking for detailed places to eat or where you can find the cheapest vendor for a particular brand of cameras is not something they can cater to. If you know the place you want to go to, Just Dial is the right place to go to only if you need nothing more than contact details.

1. 2.       Vendor collusion

This is a personal grouse shared by many who have used the service. The higher the amount paid to Just Dial from the vendor, the more the leads passed on to them. This works well for the vendor, but in the long run can be pretty tough on the consumer. So it ultimately boils down to who pays more. If one needs to know where the cheapest vendor is for say, a pair of leather shoes in a particular area, the consumer will be at al loss because that vendor may not have the financial resources to be regularly featured on Just Dial’s top resource list.  So if a seller is not listed with them, though that seller might be the absolute best for your needs, they will not make you aware of the same. Not a very fair deal now is it?

1. 3.       How did you get my number?

The eternal question we ask every tele- marketer when we’re harassed to buy a credit card or take a bank loan or attend a sale that we are least interested in. Spam calls and emails are some of the annoying aspects of services such as these. It’s quite painful for the consumer as there is no personal connect but very forceful marketing techniques which border on just plain harassment.

1. 4.       If it’s not social, its obsolete

Being bombarded by call centre employees when you call Just Dial is the most impersonal strategy. I’ve had personal experiences where they don’t take the time to understand what it is that you really need. They just have a set list of numbers that they dole out for anything that broadly comes under any of the categories that are already present in their archives. So a consumer’s specific needs are not met at all. Besides, all the information is submitted by vendors or their content team so it’s not validated by consumers. So stuff like whether a certain place is actually the best place to buy a certain book at the best price will never be established. So the consumer becomes a slave to his/her fate because of which the consumer has no room for choice.

End note : Enough reason to think about whether you’re getting true value for your bucks? I should think so.  Is there not an urgent need for a place where a consumer can have the choice to choose? A service where she can be specific about her needs whatever they may be. A place where she, the consumer is truly the Queen? .

Previous post : http://www.wicfy.com/blog/7-reasons-why-you-cant-google-your-way-to-the-cheapest-seller-2/

My neighbor is a Mechanical Engineer who works with Volkswagon. This morning, on way to office, I saw him struggle with his wife’s scooter. He seemed tired, probably this was his 50th kick . The scooter engine just refused to purr. It was dead like a stone. I asked him , how long he has been doing it. He told me that its been more than its been more than 20 minutes of kicking and the scooter has not been used and last 2 months. He has just been kicking it on hope without avail. I thought I could help.

Engine terrible

I looked at the scooter the ignition and choke were both on. I turned the ignition off, put the choke (rich fuel supplier ) off . Did 2 kicks, stopped, turned the ignition on, put the choke off.
Kick one : Nothing happened.
Kick two : The engine purred
Kick three : Engine  was back to life.

Can any one explain why this process got the engine on, when previous 50 kicks were turning futile ?