I've moved to my own domain: http://adityamishra.in.

My first Podcast

My first podcast came out last week. It has Gaurav, Veer, Aditya Mhatre and me talking about startups and mobile advertising. Gauravonomics has done a good job summarising it so I'll just point to the link.

BarCamp Mumbai 3 (and BCB6)

BarCamp Mumbai 3 seems all set to rock. With almost 600 people on the list, we can see over 400 turn up. We had some initial worries about the pace of topic registrations, but putting the topics onto the main page seems to have made a big difference. In addition, there will be several additions at the venue. Quite a few people have mentioned it in the registration list, in mailing list or even offline.

I'll have two sessions at BCM3. First is a FireTalk. Details only at the talk but it has something to do with unconferences. Second will be the launch of Startup Saturdays in Mumbai. Do drop in and add your views.

BarCamp Bangalore 6 meanwhile has been announced on 19 and 20th April at IIM Bangalore.

Its interesting to see these two events shape up side by side. Both have a very enthusiastic planners team. Both teams have seen an increase in number of folks who want to be planners. In fact, we've had people add themselves to the Google groups or crib on the general list about being left out from the planners list. In the end, all got included in the true spirit of BarCamps. The confusion arises since each edition has a different planners' mailing list. This allows for new faces to come up and olds ones to recede. The only criteria is demonstration of some degree of commitment for doing things. Usually turning up for a planning meet is enough. This time all commited folks got into the planners list and I guess more would be getting in.

The Calacanis controversy: What happens in India?

Jason Calacanis' recently wrote a post on ways to save money. It quickly became controversial when others such as Jeff Nolan responded indignantly to it. A good summary is here at Techcrunch. Essentially, Jason said Fire all those employees who are not workohlics and the rest fired him for such a ruthless and casual approach to one's own people. Jason seems to have missed the obvious: A start up aims at making money and not at saving money. It saves money to last longer to have a better shot at making money. Make cost cutting a priority by itself and you've shot your self in the foot. He seems to get it in his chair tip but missed it when it came to people. Maybe Michael Arrington got it right in his post that Jason didn't mean it.

Later Gauravonomics asked an interesting question:

"Has anyone read an Indian perspective on the "startups need workaholics"
controversy created by the @JasonCalacanis post http://xrl.in/mz ?"
"Especially because part of the controversy was about "family vs work"
& Indians are supposed to be both more hard-working &
family-oriented."

The answer is a bit complicated actually when it comes to India. I thought of providing an overview of what's happening today rather than my views (which are not very different from others! Relaxed mind produces better and more).

In silicon valley, one quits a large company and takes a cut in salary for stock/stock option. However, in India one joins a start up for a higher salary plus stock. This is in an extreme form in the Indian Mobile VAS industry where the average life span for an employee is about an year before s/he hops to another VAS player for higher cash. This means that the bosses do demand more work and results. This also means that the future holds little incentive and doesn't drive people. Only the founders and very early employees tend to motivated by the future ahead.

On the other hand, the Indian family man (or woman) doesn't have the same concept of work life balance as in US (and certainly not Europe!). Almost everyone here works long hours without any protest; start up or not. Its common to sit around in office even without work because it doesn't look nice to leave early. Amongst younger folks, the real reason is that there is nothing better to do at home. Older folks just can't say no the boss who asks for one more thing at 6 PM.

The end result: Long hours almost everywhere. But some are working hard for the extra cash, some because they are too timid to say no, some are not working at all!

Its not all bad at office though. Most of the early stage startup offices that I've visited seem to be a bunch of friends or a family. They get along very well and have fun together. They also have pizza parties, siesta time, movie outings etc. Later stage ones may compromise a bit on location for saving money but offices are quite plush and comfortable inside. People are taken care of.

E-Summit 2008

I attended the E Summit for the first time. According to the people who attended the earlier ones, this is the best so far. The turn out was good - estimated at around 350 to 380.

I attended the panel discussion between Sharad and Ashish. The initial talk was something I had heard from both albeit in different settings. Both of them were very candid and frank in the Q&A. Sadly the questions were pretty bad. The worst was when a NITIE professor got into a self promotion mode by asking a question: why can't entrepreneurship be taught from LKG? And then he told us about how they are very successful at doing so at NITIE where all MBA students have 30% grades dependent upon the performance of the company each has to start when they join. Not a bad idea. Just that success is measured using 30 parameters! He should probably refresh his corporate finance basics.

Another self congratulatory question was on how well have the IITians done in both India and abroad. Both panelist shot it down. In summary, IITians of an earlier generation made it to IITs and continued to do well later too because they were hungry. Training at an IIT had little do to with it. Today's IITians don't have the hunger and still have a big attitude problem. As Ashish put it, he doesn't hire from IITs anymore. Pretty damning statement coming from someone who holds a Gold medal from IIT Kanpur.

This is something I completely agree with. The problem at IIMs is even worse. Lot more people with an attitude but not enough competency. I remember giving a project to 5 IIM students (will not name which IIM). Out of the 5, one did well, one was ok, rest three were bad. Sadly the three who didn't do well had more attitude! Similarly, in tech projects given to 5 IIT B students in the same time frame, only one guy had some attitude. And one could even justify it given that he did well.

I would take an IIT guy over an IIM guy anyday given my personal experiences. But the experience of Sharad and Ashish who have seen it for far longer makes me think if I should just look at RECs.

Barcamps Mumbai and Bangalore

Looks like Mumbai and Bangalore Barcamps will be very close to each other. Bangalore planners met this morning while the Mumbai ones met in the evening. Given the usual lead up time needed, both are likely to end up being close to each other.

This will be very interesting for me; being on both teams. Bangalore one is the larger, older and more mature one while Mumbai one is just starting out. Also Bangalore is a city where one can't throw a stone without hitting a techie. In Mumbai, there is an mazing variety even though the financial world dominates the mindscape. With the schedules matched up too, it'll be easier to observe and compare.

This also seems to be the time when techies reassert themselves. We've already had a Devcamp. Now both Barcamps are highly likely to have a codecamp as well.

I attended the Mumbai planners meet. The planners group has expanded to include several BCA1 folks and some folks from BCM2 participants. Looks like an awesome party already.

DevCamp Bangalore 1

Just left DevCamp Bangalore 1. Its another offshoot to the Barcamp movement that is sweeping across India. As Sidu put it at the begining, there have been many focussed *Camps but not a Devcamp yet, so here it is. I thought it was quite appropriate that it happened at Thoughtworks where we had revived Barcamp Bangalore with BCB2. I too spoke a bit about Kickstart and the upcoming Startup Saturdays.

While I couldn't stay at the camp the whole day (I'm in the plane waiting for the flight to take off), it already felt like a great camp. Content is good. I liked participating in the "Is facebook an Enterprise App" slot. We didn't reach any conclusions but was nice to be hearing from Martin Fowler himself on this. He stayed away from most of the things but did comment that "enterprise grade" tends to be more of a marketing statement than anything else. Sadly, our time came to end just as we were warming up.

I missed Rajiv's product launch. He caught me later and gave me the due lashing. Sounds like an interesting product to check out.

A forward

We get email forwards each day and most die in the mail box. This one didn't.

By the time u guys read this news, the body of Major Manish Pitambare, who was shot dead at Anantnag, would have been cremated with full military honors.
On Nov 27, this news swept across all the news channels 'Sanjay Dutt relieved by court'. 'Sirf Munna not a bhai' '13 saal ka vanvaas khatam' 'although found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn' Then many personalities like Salman Khan said 'He is a good person. We knew he will come out clean'. Mr Big B said "Dutt's family and our family have relations for years he's a good kid. He is like elder brother to Abhishek". His sister Priya Dutt said "we can sleep well tonight. It 's a great relief"
In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad; Greg Chappell said something; Shah Rukh Khan replaces Amitabh in KBC and other such stuff. But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Dutt's "phoenix like" comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges. Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me. It read "Hisbul Mujahidin's most wanted terrorist 'Sohel Faisal' killed in Anantnag, India . Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.
It was past midnight , I started visiting the stupid Indian channels, but Sanjay Dutt was still ruling. They were telling how Sanjay pleaded to the court saying 'I'm the sole bread earner for my family', 'I have a daughter who is studying in US' and so on. Then they showed how Sanjay was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the verdict and also how he went to every temple and prayed for the last few months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory act...was being transformed into a hero.
Sure Sanjay Dutt has a daughter; Sure he did not do any terrorist activity. Possessing an AK47 is considered too elementary in terrorist community and also one who possesses an AK47 has a right to possess a pistol so that again is not such a big crime; Sure Sanjay Dutt went to all the temples; Sure he did a lot of Gandhigiri but then...........
Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists' whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp, killed Hisbul Mujahidin's supremo and in the process lost his life to the bullets fired from an AK47. He is survived by a wife and daughter (just like Sanjay Dutt) who's only 18 months old.
Major Manish never said 'I have a daughter' before he took the decision to attack the terrorists in the darkest of nights. He never thought about having a family and he being the bread earner. No news channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug addict, a suspect who's linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds. Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him.
Parents of Major Manish are still living and they have to live rest of their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won't ever see her daddy again. Finally Major Manish, to my generation is a greater hero, someone who laid his life in the name of this great nation.
So guys, please forward this message around so that the media knows which news to give importance, as it is a shame for us since this Army Major's
death news was given by a foreign TV channel!!!

MoMo Vs MMS

Its the second MMS for me and I'm enjoying it a lot.

My mind was drawn to a comparison of MoMo and MMS formats. MoMo format (as in Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad) usually has one presentation/theme a meeting and intense discussion about that one topic only. It also has a fairly high frequency with one meeting a month. MMS on the other hand has no theme and last at least one whole day. In fact, it is like a BarCamp around the theme of mobility. So, one sees a whole lot of variety in a single day.

In summary its depth vs width. Take your pick.

Jet: The response

Jet's response was slow in coming. Probably too involved with the abortive Sahara acquisition. When they did, it was essentially gap filling:
1. In flight entertainment introduced in selected flights. I haven't been on such a flight so no direct evidence. However, I've heard that its switched off the minute the landing announcement is made unlike KF where at least the audio channels continue even after landing!
2. premium treatment for the "super-platinum" customers. These are typically CXOs. jet treats them differently by marking them "MAAS" which stands for meet and assist. These people are met by an air hostess from the time they check-in to the time they enter the plane and then from the time dis-embarkation to time one leaves the terminal. These people engage you in a conversation while a porter carries your luggage.
3. The variety of food has increased in Jet's first class.

So has jet's response been inadequate? Or does its response say: I don't care?

Kingfisher: The Rampup

Kingfisher quickly ramped up its no of planes and routes. But the real innovative aspects were:
1. First Class
2. Cash frequent flyer advantage
3. King Club

The KF first class is really something. The experience starts from the time one enters the airport as the baggage is carried for you to the plane. The ride from the terminal to the plane is in a car or in a bus fitted with sofas instead of the usual coach. The seats are comfortable and adjustable. In addition to the being flatter compared to jet seats, the KF first seats have adjustable lumber support and foot support (though some of those haven't worked for me many times!). A TV screen can be brought out but is a bit painful to handle. The service is excellent with more choice in the drinks and food. The presentation of the food is great. As far as food and drinks are concerned, its like being in a 5-star in the sky. The experience continues on landing with the special bus and the luggage being carried to your car.

Kingfisher also realised that Jet's lead was essentially due to the corporate traveller who stuck with Jet because of the accumulated Jetmiles. Its attack on that aspect was fantastic. KF realised that most corporate travellers take the first flight out and are back the same day. So first they matched their flight times within 15 mins of Jet times. Second, they offered a thousand ruppees if one took a flight back the same day! Thus, one got cash of Rs 1,000 in hand instead of cashing the jetmiles later. It was of course controversial as the tickets were purchased by the company and the money collected by the employee. There were also tax issues. In the end, the scheme got dropped and a frequent flyer scheme introduced.

The frequent flyer scheme was also innovative. KF realised that the immediate benefit for most people was the ability to tele check-in and hence they lowered the entry barrier. At jet one needs 10 flights to be able to tele check-in while the king club allows one to do that in 3 flights. Another expected response which did come was to give a Gold card to anyone who had a Jet Gold/Platinum. This was done through the employers to get a good coverage.

Overall, aggressive launch followed up with aggressive ramp-up. Paints a picture of a new boxer punching the older and larger guy into the corner. So the next post on how Jet has responded.

Kingfisher: A blast of fresh air

I've been absent from blogging for some time. Picking up today from we left almost a month back.

Kingfisher came in when there was a lot of talk of low cost airlines. With "all economy" planes and fares lower than that of Jet, KF was clubbed into the Low cost category to begin with. But the clear promise was that of "an experience that even other airlines are going to talk about".

And the experience was good: Planes were new, seats slightly wider, leg room slightly more. And all these counted as everything was benchmarked to pain-points of the leader: Jet. One also had in flight entertainment: 5 video channels and 10 audio ones. What also counted was the bright festive red colour compared to the conservative blue of jet. It did feel like being part of a more cheerful experience as the staff was very cheerful and friendly. Even the in-flight magazine was about fashion, parties and of course bollywood.

What I personally liked the best and made me take KF flights was its flexibility in check-in. Jet would not allow one in 30 mins before the flight even if one had a Gold Card. KF on the other hand took everyone even 15 mins before the flight!

After the first few flights, I remember thinking of Jet as a service provider with German efficiency. This was a lesson in many ways:
1. A great airline all of a sudden had a strong competitor which made it look in a bad light. "German efficiency" is not a great name recall!
2. The industry changed from airline industry to a service industry
3. The brand extension of king fisher was admirable

Mobile Monday Delhi 2

I'm at MoMo Delhi 2. With around 175 registrations, it promises to be an exciting one. Of course, it IS another MMS - Mobile Monday Saturday!

State of business air travel: pre Kingfisher

Jet Airways (9W) ruled the roost. Period. Shahara with its blatantly bad service and lack of punctuality was hardly a competition. State run Indian Airlines (IC) was really the second best. Almost all business travellers would travel on Jet Airways as first preference. The few I knew who preferred Indian Airlines prefeered it for its better food. having travelled on IC as my second preference, I would have to agree. IC scored over 9W in both taste and the variety of food. One aspect that many liked was serving of curd in all meals.

So 9W was effectively the de facto standard to which everything would be benchmarked. An airline that many would refer to as the best domestic airlines in the world! And these were people who had trevelled the world over!!

Airlines Comparison Series

I fly both Jet and Kingfisher quite regularly and also have heard a lot from other frequent travellers. A conversation today at Chennai lounge reminded me that even many frequent travellers (he has a platinum on Jet), do not have a good understanding of the pros and cons of the two airlines. So here is my lame attempt in the genre of serial posts. Here is how it looks right now:

1: State of business air travel: pre Kingfisher
2: Kingfisher: A blast of fresh air
3. Kingfisher: The Rampup
4. Jet: The response
5. Jet vs Kingfisher: Does Jet need to fear Kingfisher?

Barcamp Pune

Continuing with my Barcamp pilgrimages, I attended the BarCamp Pune this weekend. I came in weary from extensive travel over the past 2 weeks and was rejuvenated with the infectious energy at the camp. We had over 90 people attending three parallel sessions. There were also many enthu volunteers from Symbiosis managing the show and taking/attending sessions at the same time! As usual, many interesting people and businesses.

The high point was meeting Anjali and Santosh from Bookeazy. Both have returned from US to pursue entrepreneural dreams. Very clearly, they didn't have the best presentation. In fact, I came down on them very heavily with several questions. But in the end, I came away deeply impressed with the tenacity and enthusiasm of both of them. The discussion was one of the most engaging that I've had with any founders. Not sure of the answers but very sure that they'll get them right. The best was to see Anjali sit down immediately to look at the responses to the questionnaire they had circulated. certainly the team to watch out for. I'm eagerly looking forward to their Jan release.

Barcamp Delhi 2

I'm at the second BarCamp Delhi. As usual, gyan sessions are boring. Deep tech/product demos are interesting. Discussions start. I guess it has simply to do with the fact that insights/new thoughts make one think and thats where the connection is made.

Importance of mental models in Innovation

My own discussion at Barcamp was centered around Innovation in large IT services firms such as TCS. A bulk of the audience had exposure to IT Services but almost no one believed that there was any innovation in the large IT Services firms.

It was a free flowing discussion where I wanted to hear as much from the audience as to leave them with something worthwhile. We spent a lot of time talking about how mental models inhibit or foster innovation.

We asked ourselves questions like what exactly is IT Services? Are the lines as dictated by conventional wisdom really hard lines on the ground or mere simplifying mental assumptions that need to be questioned from time to time? Does innovation start by challenging conventional wisdom?

I firmly believe that one has to continually probe at the received wisdom of the day to really see what new can be done. At the same time, one has to respect the received wisdom because its established for a good reason. Let's take an example: Google is an example of business service enabled by strong IT. Is there something to be learnt for IT Services companies? At the first blush no, because the ad-driven revenue model is far out from current business. Not core competence as some would say. But does the basic concept of providing service to one party using strong IT and collecting money from a third depending upon the quality of service extendable to IT Services? At TCS, the answer has been yes!

Case in point: MCA21 project of government of India where TCS is directly responible for provision of service to customers and collects money from the government. The money collected depends upon the quality of service just as the ad revenue depends upon click through in Google's model. And this is not the first time this was done. A precusrsor to this with a slightly different model was APonline which provides citizen services on behalf of Govt of AP. APOnline is 80% owned by TCS.

Bottomline: Conventional wisdom challenged but in a more realistic way which is closer to the core business. No hard and fast rules but the best way is to try and learn.

Who comes to Unconferences?

Sandeep Singhal asked an interesting question at the begining of his talk: How many of you want to be entrepreneurs and how many of you are already one? A large number of hands went up on the first and very few on the second. Clearly unconferences attract aspirants. This is evidenced also by naivette that one sees in the questions asked etc.

The good news is that a lot of the aspiring entrepreneurs at least at Barcamp Bangalore were working at an idea or had a ready concept or were looking to launch. Good deal flow for VCs such as Sandeep.

Bangalore Barcamp 2 - Large Turnout

Bangalore Barcamp was over this weekend and we had great fun. Interest levels are best indicated by numbers: 382 registered, just over 200 attended day 1 and almost 100 on day 2. When you end at 6.30 PM on a Sunday with many people still hanging around and some speakers not getting a session, you know it was a great hit.

We all started at 7.30 AM so that we have everything in place by 8.30 when the registration was to begin. The first registrant appeared at 7.40 AM and we were still waiting for keys to unlock the conference goodies. By 8.30 AM we had 25 people in from the registered list and 4 in a the waiting list. All flood gates opened by 9.00 AM. But by 9.30 we were down to a trickle and still away from the 200 mark. Next I checked was at lunch and we had around 200 in.

Still a 50% dropout rate makes me think about the fate of the upcoming barcamps. As someone pointed out, this was bangalore after all!

The team behind the efforts including yours truely: