Started mailing these documents to investors one by one. Contacted nearly 15 of them by email, out of which I realize that 9 of them do not even exist anymore. They have either left the previous company or gone underground. I then decided to contact NEN. They were a huge network of entrepreneurs, investors and mentors. I was very apprehensive. After exchanging a few e-mails, they put me through a member of the IAN.

IAN had asked for more details about the project. My heart skipped a beat. Could this be it? Is something actually happening? I could not eat, sleep or think straight. I used to sleep with my inbox signed in and my laptop right next to my bed. Then one morning, I wake up to see a mail in my inbox.

Note: The names in the mail have been changed.

Hi Neha,

Would like to introduce to you Mithun, the founder of this venture. Mithun, a pleasure to introduce you to Neha from IAN.  She wants to schedule a call with you.  Could you kindly take this ahead?  All the best.

Thanks and regards,
Meera

My heart was in my mouth. A telecon? Why not face to face? I was always confident in face to face meetings and presentations than telecons. In telecons, they judge you by the voice and in face to face it is all about body language. The team resided in Delhi and thus the telecon. Replied to the mail, fixed a time and waited for it. Informed only my close family and a couple of friends who have been a good support. Prayers and wishes were flowing, but I was literally shitting bricks. From prior experience I had learned, until the cash falls into the account, never bank on anything or anyone.

I thought I would sleep early and have an early morning, but little did I know, my body had something else planned. I could not sleep a wink until 7 am and the telecon was for 12 pm. Wonderful.

What is the worst that could happen? The worst could be that I miss the god damn telecon by oversleeping……

image reference: debtfreedomblog.info, http://s3.amazonaws.com, http://www.ocha.ru, http://www.eng.upt.ro, http://www.tushar-mehta.com, http://www.blog.taragana.com

We did not have an experienced coder on board to complete the product that was left incomplete by the developer who left us. He just upped and left one fine day. The whole team was beyond cheesed off with him but we had no other option but to move on. But how? I had just INR 30,000/- left in my account with which I had to manage rent, server charges (which at this point in time was idle), electricity, water, food, fuel, phone, internet which would easily shave off INR 25,000/-

I could not ask friends or family anymore, they had helped me enough and there is a limit to begging as well. When you are trying to set-up a business, you will have to beg, beg more than anyone would, beg to people you never thought you would beg to. Is that compromising with your morale? Oh please, if I hug onto my morale, I will be buried underground along with my dream in this wicked world of business. I had to find a way out somehow. What could we do? We had two options, rather, I had two options. Either beg some more from different people whom I had just met, but were sweet enough to lend me 10,000 here and there OR try and raise funds from Angel investors. The latter seemed to be an option which we hadn’t explored yet and why? I frankly, do not know. Maybe, we had to see all this before we could muster courage to reach out to these angels.

So I got to work, re-doing the complete business plan, financial projections, presentations, every little aspect starting from idea, how, when, why, what, development, initial set-up costs, overheads, investment so far, from where it came, investment required, disbursement of the same, how long till I break even or make profits, revenue sources, competition, current financial situation, current product standing, marketing and sales strategies , strategic partnerships, other revenue sources, team background etc.

How the hell do I do all this? I did not have the slightest clue. There were a million templates online on how to make a successful business plan, articles on what Angels look out for in a business plan. Some said, Angels realize that you are a start-up and it does not matter if you make mistakes or do not know how to make a business plan or financial projections, they need to see how much you know about your product, the business, the competition, the differentiators and entry barriers, how you will make money and how you plan to grow which I realized is not completely true. All the good Angels are hidden somewhere and you would be just lucky if you find them. Other ones that are there either, ironically, would not be interested in the same domain or say that we will wait for a bit until you prove the potential of the product. Ahem!!! isn’t that why I am approaching them in the same place, so they give some money and help me prove the potential of the product?

But it was a fact and I had to face it, either my product was just shit and would not work whatsoever or i was just not lucky enough. I tried to force myself to believe in the former, but I just could not. I had nearly all my time and money invested in this to think it was useless. Could be a great mistake or a brave move. We would have to wait and see. So I sat down to think what would happen, in case I did not get any investors. Scenarios kept zooming through my head, people making fun of me behind my back, start looking for a job, get into the rat race, running away to someplace far and live my life.

One thing you never run out of is emotional support, everyone you know will say, “go on man”, “you can do it”, “you are smart”, “it will work out” , but financially, not all. Of course, why would they. Even they have their expenses and why would they bank on a once failed entrepreneur?  I myself wouldn’t. Entrepreneurs become really selfish and self centred when it comes to building their businesses. They wonder why people can’t see the obvious potential of the product. But that is where the difference lies and the reason why you are a budding entrepreneur and they are seasoned businessmen. They have seen the in and out of business and can weigh a proposal by just brushing through it.

All said and done, I had to forage for myself. But this emotional support itself can replace financial support for a while because it is all about not giving up. I nearly thought of shutting shop as everyone around me connected to my life directly was getting weary. My family slowly started dropping hints, how long do you want to try? do you still think this will work? My younger brother was bombarding me with mails everyday asking me to do my MBA abroad. But for that too, you need close to 20 lakhs. We couldn’t afford anywhere close to that now.

My father was the only blind support I had who kept telling me, go ahead, if you think this will work then try, do not give up. After every rejection, he used to say, what’s the use if things came easy? You need a success story and not an easy story.

Keeping all this in mind, I decided to approach angel investors, Venture Capitalists (VCs) were out as we were too early to be funded by VCs. Made a list, researched and mailed them. This was it for me, make or break.

Either get funded and do well and get out of the hardship that I have been trough the past 3 years non stop or make a drastic decision to shut shop and get a job and earn some steady money. The mere thought of it sent chills down my spine. But I had no other choice but to do my part, believe in my product blindly and give it my best shot.

image reference: http://filingbankruptcyinsouthcarolina.com/images/bankruptcy.gif, http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad218/GangFights/Walking_Away_From_Everything_by_vam.jpg, http://www.symposiumz.net/wp-content/uploads/marketing.jpg, http://www.offprint.co.uk/Images/revenueRising.jpg, http://mamco.in/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Team20puzzle.28162911_std.jpg, http://www.thevarguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/channel-profits.jpg

Bharti Airtel has warned us that 3G mobile services will not be friendly to the end-user pockets, especially for subscribers in metros, as service providers shelled out a pretty handsome amount for the spectrum.

The amount for spectrum that has been charged for the metros Delhi and Mumbai is close to Rs 3,500 crore each. Rs 700-900 per month is the cost an end-user will have to bear if the operator has to just break-even after the input and licensing costs, mentioned Sunil Mittal, Chairman and MD of Bharti Airtel. I do not even want to think how much it would cost post the margin for the operators.

Bharti Airtel won 13 circles, including Delhi and Mumbai, paying Rs 12,295.46 crore, the highest among service providers.

The company could not achieve the objective of a pan-India 3G foot print as the prices rose beyond a reasonable level due to various factors like the auction format, a severe shortage of spectrum and also ensuing policy uncertainty, it had said.

And what’s next 4G?

One of the lessons I learned with my current venture was when I was faced with a question by one of the angel investors. After a couple of telecons and a few mails we had a face to face meeting. He asked me, “Mithun, from what I have seen and heard, your product has potential which is why we are having this conversation today. But let me ask you one question, does your product solve your  problem or does it solve the customer’s problem?”

I had done my market research and had an answer to this question which luckily he bought. That is when I realized how imperative this question was to a start-up before it went all out for its venture. And for a fact, I hadn’t thought of this. I was just lucky that it worked out and people started using it. But what if I was wrong and people hadn’t used my product? Then this question would have been that one question I could call as the crux of my business case analysis prior to development.

8 out of 10 start-ups come up with a product because it was a solution to the problem they were facing and wanted a solution to it and that is why most of them do not work because they can not find a group of people (prospective customers) who share the same problem. They lack the community that would use their product in other words, their target market.

Every product that is made has a market, there is nothing like a useless product. The key is to find the people who can use the product, once you have that figured out, the next step is to make them use it. Whether it is for free or not. Revenue models will fall in place once you have a modest user-base. Why go far, look at Twitter or Facebook or You Tube. These were products that had a mass appeal whereas another product might just have a state appeal or further restricted to a city or merely a small community. That is enough, trust me.

You do not always have to be the next Google or You Tube or Facebook or Twitter or My Space.

A few things you must check out on the to-do list before getting your product up are;

- Develop a product that has at least one differentiating aspect/feature compared to your competitor

- Do not hesitate because there are other players in the market. It is all about the target market

- Ensure that you have a community around you just before you commence building your product or as you finish

Once you have the product developed;

- Give it to them for free (pilot phase). Let them play around with it. If it does not work out there, it won’t anywhere, stop running behind it

- If it works with them, find a way you can make them pay for it. Even if it is a small amount, generating revenue is always good

- Consult industry experts, friends, mentors on how you can better the product and what would actually make the users pay for it

- Focus on quality, deliverance and most importantly look and feel because 80% of the users of any product are laymen and purely judge a site by its look and feel. If you have a differentiating aspect, you might still lose a credible number of users if your site is not presentable.

All my views pertain to low cost products that do not require heavy investment and resources. A simple yet effective solution to a problem.

Cheers

image reference: http://images.clipartof.com/small/15663-Nerdy-Man-Standing-In-Front-Of-Mathetmatical-Equations-On-A-Chalkboard-Clipart-Illustration.jpg, http://www.princetonol.com/groups/blawenburgband/bb%20group%20sm.JPG

Around 80 celebrities are already using the service and more are joining each week. They have also roped in content owners like BBC, Bloomberg, UTV, and Balaji Telefilms, among others.

Besides India, the company is in the process of launching the service in 6-7 other major countries throughout Asia and expects a similar success.

Say you register with them and you start following celebrities for a subscription charge per month. They start posting voice messages and you will receive an alert. It is free to send messages, but the user will be charged to listen to messages. Would you call that number and actually listen to every little thing that person says? Yes, there will be an initial craze because you will be able to hear your favorite celebrity’s voice, but then will you listen to it even 1 year down the line or even 6 months? What if you call the number and waste money and listen to a message that might be a reply to someone else’s question. I would not. I would get tired of voice messages and revert to Twitter, where it is free, much easier to follow and actually view the tweets than have to call a number to listen to a post of every person.

But a twist to this is Bubbly is planning to introduce video blogs  and text alerts as well where users can post video blogs. This can be an interesting feature whereby celebrities post their home made videos. Since the userbase to Twitter is huge, Bubbly also stands to gain from this. They can ride on Twitter’s success story and eventually become the mobile Twitter for users.

But it is crazy the way things become a craze overnight. Whether Bubbly becomes a craze or not is something we have to wait and see.

They have a pretty good revenue model though. They get a pie of every call that any user makes from the mobile operator, which from a company point of view is a sensible move than what Twitter did. But Bubbly has learned from Twitter’s monetizing delays.

CEO of Bubble Motion, Tom Clayton said, “As listeners get exposed to a wider variety of content, there will be many creative ways people will use voice-blogs to build community – from politicians reaching voters, school leaders communicating with parents, employers messaging their employees, sports enthusiasts sharing their analysis with other fans, comedians telling jokes, investors sharing hot tips – the range will surprise us all. This is the sort of service that once people get a hold of, anything can happen.”

All the best to the Bubble Motion team. It is indeed a smart product for mobile users.

image reference: http://media.photobucket.com/image/mobile%20calls%20frustrated/ohkulala/1%20hit%20wonders/frustrated1.jpg, http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2010/03/11/BubbleMotion_Logo_RGB_Medium.jpeg, http://rlv.zcache.com/overnight_success_tshirt-p235032639472238010tmn7_210.jpg

One such person I met was working in a well known software company for  2 years and was being paid close to INR 45,000/- after which he realized that the money was nothing when he was asked to work 7 days a week. Reach office at 7 am and be back by 11 pm. On weekends, he was asked to work from home and not go to office as if that was exactly what he needed. He was telling me, everyone thinks getting a job in these companies is a prestigious thing. It was, it used to be. But now, there are so many such companies and competition has hit sky limits and the employees suffer. The problem with such huge companies are that they forget the fact that employees are humans and not work machines. When he hit his top, he moved out without even thinking and he says, ”The feeling is heaven like. I had forgotten how it was to sit at home on a weekend. I had forgotten the taste of beer with friends. I had forgotten what having fun was. Now I indeed feel alive” He is now being jobless for 4 months and working on his idea. Wish him all the best. Even if this does not work out, he will be happy doing it. That’s the beauty of entrepreneurship.

Angel investment is growing in India, but at snails pace. On the other hand VC’s from Silicon Valley are quite active in the Indian market. What start-ups need are Angel Investors before they can knock on doors of VCs. Why is that? Here are a few points that explain why;

- VCs are a consortium of investors that invest anywhere between a million dollars to 100 million dollars or even more depending on the strength and sector of the business, whereas Angels could be one single investor or a few investors who invest anywhere between $50,000 to close to a million dollars again depending on the strength and sector of the business.

- Angels are more of a learning curve for start-ups and VCs are the latter part of running the business. Expansion to be more precise. VCs may also come in if you have the next big thing. And according to all entrepreneurs, their product is the next big thing

- With VCs you have to have a fool proof business plan and without that it is as good as going in to get shot down whereas with Angels, they know you are a start-up and they understand you might have absolutely no clue on how to run the business. I know so many companies that have gotten funding without a business plan whatsoever. They are ready to help you through this so you can stand on your feet. This doesn’t mean you take Angels lightly. They understand and will help you only if they believe in you and your business. But it would be easier to bag an Angel than a VC when you have just started out.

- To raise VC money, you need to perfect a few factors like preparing the right pitch, know your business inside out, know your competitors, have s strong and professional business plan, marketing & sales strategies in place, future revenues, client retention methods and many more. Basically, you need to know your business and where it stands and its growth potential inside out. This is not easy when you have just started out. That is where Angels come in. They are aptly named Angels because they indeed come down on start-ups like angels when you just need a few lakh rupees or a few thousand dollars to kick start your business.

To get a better understanding, Angels are like your nursery and elementary teachers that take your hand, walk you through each and every chapter, individually, giving you special attention before you move onto the higher classes where you have to prove yourself and either stand out or end up being one  of the back-benchers. Angels instill the core lessons that you need to learn before you knock on VCs doors otherwise, if you directly pitch to  a VC, they will shoot you down before you can utter the first word because they are investing huge amounts of money in your business and most importantly, YOU.

Start-ups in India, need more Angels than VCs and at present, they are scarce. But there are a few active Angels that want to help start-ups. I would encourage anyone and everyone to contact these Angels if you have an idea. and want to see it grow into a successful business. In case you need any help with the initial steps, do contact me. I would be more than glad to point you in the direction I know best.

Here are a list of Angel investors in India with their contact details. Hope this post has helped anyone looking for information on Angel Investors in India and how they work.

List of Angel Investors in India (click to download PDF document)

image reference: http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/4564131/2/istockphoto_4564131-angel-with-money.jpg, http://narracom.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/knocking-on-door_000005666099small.jpg,

Alright, so we were waiting for the result of the meeting with one of the top most group of institutes in the nation. The meeting though went well, we were faced with a lot of queries that were unexpected and frankly speaking utterly useless. Some of the queries like

Q: Why would we want to share even some of our study material with any other student in any other college?
A: What could we possible say to this? We told them we give you the option of choosing to share or not which led to the next question.

Q: Then why do you have a feature like this in the first place?
A: Duuuuuuh…for the ones who want to share something!!!

Q: What is the difference between your portal and a portal that we get developed from another company with the same features?
A: The fact that, you hadn’t thought of any of this till now, until we walked through the door and now since you have the money to invest in building a whole new thing just like ours but for yourselves alone.

Q: What about copyrighted content? What if one person takes one line of matter from a copyrighted document and adds it in his document and uploads it?
A: We just smiled at him. I did not want to waste my breath on answering such arbid and baseless questions. Pull out a line from a document and use it in his document? Jesus Christ. Unless it is a quote, there is nothing we can do about it. But I had to say something. I replied, “with all due respect sir, if we find a solution to that, we will be the first ones in the world and that is kind of impossible to track down one line from a document that has 50 pages.” To which his reply was, “Then please go ahead and find a solution to that.” This is when I realized that, he was toying around with us.

Q: You said this initiative is to make content available to those less fortunate students in other areas, what about rural areas that do not have internet?

A: Now, is this guy for real? Just because there is no internet in rural areas did not stop any other company from inventing products, does he mean we should only launch this when there is internet in every nook and corner in India or does it mean that he is not satisfied with our vision? This time, I looked him dead in the eye, shook my head, smiled. I wanted to say, “Thank you for your time sir, I wish I had had this meeting with you a few months earlier, it would have saved me a lot of time and effort.” Instead, I just said, “Thank you for your time sir” and walked out.

There were a already 2 institutes of Symbiosis using our portal on a trial basis and the students were registering, but when it came to the whole bunch, then problems started. He made it clear to us that, what we had has never been done before and also can be a success, but he wanted the one thing we did not have, TRACK RECORD. He asked us, “Say, I purchase your product and use it and it crashes, then the 19 institutes will call me an idiot for purchasing it. What can you do about that? Do you have any colleges who are using it on a daily basis?” The answer to this was obvious,we did not have anyone using it on a daily basis as it had been less than 2 months since we launched it. So, we gave him an option to use the portal for a period of 3 months on a trial basis and to see whether it works, to which his reply was, “But what if it crashes then?”

At this point in time, he was playing with a paper cutter and flicking it on his chin as he spoke. I felt like getting up and jabbing that paper cutter up his hairy nostril. I contained myself and replied, “Isn’t that the whole idea behind the trial period? If it doesn’t work, you are free to trash it and not purchase it SIR.” He looked at us for a while and said ok fine. I will have to discuss this with the rest of the colleges and we can not take a decision until July as we are really tied up till then.

After that meeting, I did not know if I was to be happy or dejected. Somehow, I was content, not because we did not get the deal then, but because we got to meet the head of the decision making board who was a jerk of the nth order. And this was not just my opinion, even the guys who worked under him who pushed our proposal ahead said he was.

They told us not to worry and they would try again. But we did not push it. We thanked them and walked out. So all the months of waiting and nail biting came to a grinding halt. But looking on the bright side, we had, from stupid questions, some features that we could integrate to our portal. But this was pretty much out. Aayush was the most dejected and was cursing everything that he could think of, even the dogs on the road. But we just couldn’t give up. There would be so many who put you down. I had set out to do this and I would till it fizzed out completely and I had nowhere to go. Otherwise what is the use of all that I worked for all these months?

So Pune trip kinda froze there. Had to concentrate on smaller institutes. This made us realize that our target market had now shifted from tier 1 institutes to tier 2 and tier 3 institutes because that is where this would be useful. There, they did not have funds to maintain a platform like this on their own, or have a technical team. So we started working on that. We had lots more to learn and had the eagerness and energy to learn.

Now, when I sit and write this blog, trying to track back the smallest details of what happened and how far we have come in such a short time, I feel proud of everything we have achieved. None of this would have been possible without the help of the team.

So we had a team meeting to see what was the next step…. and the advice one of our team mates gave just turned the whole thing around. That is why I am so glad that I don’t feel like am surrounded by idiots, but instead I feel like the idiot because of all the brilliant minds around me……

image reference: http://zipline.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/stupid1.jpg, http://smspitara.com/upload_image/questions1.jpg, http://www.filetransit.com/images/screen/38018248b89fc8538c792db719ea689d_3D_Matrix_Screensaver__the_Endless_Corridors.jpg,

Ok, so now I get back with a couple of interested clients and a couple of not so interested clients. But what the hell? we had someone interested in it. You know what? In a way I am glad the other two said they were not interested. Though I felt dejected for a while, I thought, if everyone had said it was interesting it could mean 2 things;

1) Either I had a technology that was really innovative and ground-breaking (which I also know ain’t true. My product merges existing technology and uses it in a different approach to make education more interactive than boring and a vision to create a quality, user generated, knowledge database)

2) Or they were just saying it to make me happy and get me out of their office soon (more likely).

But here, there was a balance; some liked it and some didn’t. That showed that, there existed a market. Of course every product has a market, but we could make out the potential our product had.

Aayush calls me one morning and says, “Got an appointment with the IT heads of one of the top most group of institutes in the nation and they have expressed interest post reading our proposal.” I swallowed my saliva hard; it felt like a rock going down my throat. If this worked out, it was close to a dozen institutes going live on Eduvis or at least 1 of them. Bad deal? Not at all I would say. I quickly brushed up on a few things on presenting our product, opening line, sensitive points, institute history, points that would probably make the audience agree with me etc. Packed my bags and a couple of days later, I was in Pune. All set….we “suit-up” to cover up the tattoos, clean shaven, spikes disappear and side partitioned, combed down hair, piercings disappear and good boy look comes on.

My laptop and phone were in the worst shape possible. My laptop did not retain its charge for more than 5 minutes so it had to be on charge all the time which would prove to be a problem for me during meetings. My charger was on the last strand of wire. Whenever I looked at it I felt sorry for it. It was as if, it was alive and kept itself functioning just until I could afford a new one before it gave away. My phone an E-61i had stood the test of time (3 years) as well as the four elements earth, water, wind and fire, need I say more? When I realized that my laptop was gonna slip into permanent silence without warning and my phone’s display started flickering; it was time to change them before it was too late. So I turned to Nisha again for help, she would find me the best deal. As expected within 2 days she told me that, if I can get hold of a Citibank credit card, I could buy a brand new Dell with the best configuration on EMI. The best part was that, there was no down payment, only INR 3900/- per month for a year. That was the sweetest deal I could ask for. Sold my laptop to a bakra for INR 15,000/- bought the new E72, went and swiped my uncles credit card and gave him some senti stuff and told him will pay him per month and got the new laptop. Half my tensions were done.

We reach the college which was like a good 18 km from where we stayed. We could have taken the bike, but we didn’t want to look gang raped with a dusty face, ruffled hair and a dead look by the time we got there. So we reached a consensus to go by auto. The driver quoted us a good 500 bucks for the up and down trip. I bit my tongue and said, “Lets go”. If this goes through, we will make loads more. It’s not that 500 bucks is way too much money. I would have used that for beer instead , but for one auto ride 500 bucks seems like paying 1,000 bucks for a bottle of water in a dessert. It was a necessity but still poked the heart in some way, you know what I mean. We enter the campus and to our relief we see students all over campus and 7 out of 10 of them had laptops and were working on them. making presentations, pdf  and other documents.

The tension had melted a tad bit on seeing this. We could pitch with this along with the opening line..wooohooo. Right then we get a call from one of the guys we were to meet and they guided us to the conference room. We sit down, start from scratch and go over every little detail. When we saw smiles on their faces and head nods, it gave us all the more reason to go on. In that excitement, I might have gone a little overboard with my talk Midway I glanced at Aayush, he slyly signaled to me to take it easy and slow down. Before stepping in, it was me telling him to chill and take it easy. What excitement and anxiety can do to you. I went onto wrap up my part and sat down; gave him a “sorry dude” look and asked him to carry on. Aayush took it slow and smooth and completed his part of the presentation. By the end of it, they loved it. All smiles and kind words of appreciation were showered. That itself was a gift. They also assured us that this is exactly what they wanted and all that stood in the way of this going live was a signature once it was approved by the council.

There was just one small problem. WHEN? The problem when you are talking to a society that manages over 50,000 students across a dozen institutes is that, there are a guzillion people it has to go through and if one of the guzillion has a problem, that would result in an indefinite delay until it is pushed further. So a delay was expected, which made my stomach cringe. But then, what’s the fun without some nail biting wait. We were optimistic and decided to follow up and wait. And that was the longest wait we ever had. We did not want to divert our attention too much from this deal. Besides, we had users registering on our site on a daily basis and uploading documents here and there. So the site wasn’t idle and that gave us time to concentrate on other important things.

We got back to our drawing boards and started concentrating on the portal because user experience and service was number one and wanted it to be that way for years to come. We dissected and started to work on improving it’s functionality, user friendliness, justice to feedback, constant testing, storage expansion, much more professional at the same time a jazzy design, work flow, user importance, user benefits, quality content procurement, strategic partnerships and newer revenue models etc.

How long would we have to wait and will we get this deal or not?

to be continued…….

image reference: http://www.lttechno.com/images/presentation.jpg, http://rbeale.com/wp-content/themes/thesis_16/custom/images/Borat-Gives-Thesis-Theme-2-Thumbs-Up.jpg, http://419.bittenus.com/JAMESANDERSON/thumbsdown.jpg, http://www.school-of-thought.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/college-students-using-laptops-to-build-a-streaming-media-server-using-adobe-flash-media-server-3-to-develop-applications12-300×225.jpg, http://ecofin.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/bajaj-autorickshaw-4s.jpg, http://www.callback1.co.za/callback_images/businessmen.jpg,

Pranav Mistry, is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT’s Media Lab. Before his studies at MIT, he worked with Microsoft as a UX researcher; he’s a graduate of IIT. Mistry is passionate about integrating the digital informational experience with our real-world interactions.

At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data — including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop.” In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he’ll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all. Watch the video

This technology has finally been commercially implemented by BMW. Watch the video

Truly mind blowing. Hats off to you Pranav. Feel proud to be an indian.

Cheers!!!

Good evening, everyone.

Dean Hubbard, distinguished faculty, honored graduates, relieved parents, family, and friends, it’s a distinct pleasure to be in New York City this evening to celebrate the biggest milestone to date in the lives of you, the young men and women before us: your graduation from Columbia University Business School.

It may surprise you, graduates, but as big a night as this is for you, it’s an even bigger night for your parents. They may look calm and collected as they sit in the audience, but deep inside they’re doing cartwheels, dancing the Macarena, and practically speaking in tongues, they’re so excited. This is what happens when parents anticipate that their bank accounts will soon rehydrate after being bone-dry for two years. So, for everyone here this evening, it’s a very special occasion. And I’m delighted to share it with you.

I am keenly aware that graduates traditionally refer to our time together this evening as the calm before the storm. Some graduates — perhaps those who minored in self-awareness — refer to the commencement address as “the snooze before the booze.” However you describe my comments this evening, please know that I understand. It wasn’t that long ago that I was in your place. And I remember the day well. I knew that I owed my parents — my financial benefactors — this opportunity to revel in our mutual accomplishment. Yet, as the guy at the podium droned on about values, goals, and how to make my dreams take flight, I remember desperately checking and rechecking my watch. I thought, “I deserve to party, and this codger’s cramping my style!”

In one of life’s true ironies, I am now that codger. Well…I’m the female equivalent. A codg-ette, I guess. And I now understand that values, goals, and how to make dreams take flight, really are important. So being a firm believer that hindsight is one of life’s greatest teachers, allow me to make belated amends.

To that distinguished, erudite, and absolutely brilliant man whom I silently dissed many years ago: mea culpa. Big, BIG mea culpa!

This evening, graduates, I want to share a few thoughts about a topic that should be near and dear to your hearts: the world of global business. But, I’m going to present this topic in a way that you probably haven’t considered before. I’m going to take a look at how the United States is often perceived in global business, what causes this perception, and what we can do about it. To help me, I’m going to make use of a model.

To begin, I’d like you to consider your hand. That’s right: your hand.

Other than the fact that mine desperately needs a manicure, it’s a pretty typical hand. But, what I want you to notice, in particular, is that the five fingers are not the same. One is short and thick, one tiny, and the other three are different as well. And yet, as in perhaps no other part of our bodies, the fingers work in harmony without us even thinking about them individually. Whether we attempt to grasp a dime on a slick, marble surface, a child’s arm as we cross the street, or a financial report, we don’t consciously say, “OK, move these fingers here, raise this one, turn this one under, now clamp together. Got it!” We just think about what we want to do and it happens. Our fingers — as different as they are — coexist to create a critically important whole.

This unique way of looking at my hand was just one result of hot summer evenings in my childhood home in Madras, India. My mother, sister, and I would sit at our kitchen table and — for lack of a better phrase — think big thoughts. One of those thoughts was this difference in our fingers and how, despite their differences, they worked together to create a wonderful tool.

As I grew up and started to study geography, I remember being told that the five fingers can be thought of as the five major continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America. Now, let me issue a profound apology to both Australia and Antarctica. I bear neither of these continents any ill will. It’s just that we humans have only five fingers on each hand, so my analogy doesn’t work with seven continents.

Clearly, the point of my story is more important than geographical accuracy!

First, let’s consider our little finger. Think of this finger as Africa. Africa is the little finger not because of Africa’s size, but because of its place on the world’s stage. From an economic standpoint, Africa has yet to catch up with her sister continents. And yet, when our little finger hurts, it affects the whole hand.

Our thumb is Asia: strong, powerful, and ready to assert herself as a major player on the world’s economic stage.

Our index, or pointer finger, is Europe. Europe is the cradle of democracy and pointed the way for western civilization and the laws we use in conducting global business.

The ring finger is South America, including Latin America. Is this appropriate, or what? The ring finger symbolizes love and commitment to another person. Both Latin and South America are hot, passionate, and filled with the sensuous beats of the mambo, samba, and tango: three dances that — if done right — can almost guarantee you and your partner will be buying furniture together.

This analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents leaves the long, middle finger for North America, and, in particular, the United States. As the longest of the fingers, it really stands out. The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working together efficiently and effectively. This is a really good thing, and has given the U.S. a leg up in global business since the end of World War I.

However, if used inappropriately — just like the U.S. itself — the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble. You know what I’m talking about. In fact, I suspect you’re hoping that I’ll demonstrate what I mean. And trust me, I’m not looking for volunteers to model.

Discretion being the better part of valor…I think I’ll pass.

What is most crucial to my analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents, is that each of us in the U.S. — the long middle finger — must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand…not the finger. Sometimes this is very difficult. Because the U.S. — the middle finger — sticks out so much, we can send the wrong message unintentionally.

Unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now. Not as part of the hand — giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers — but, instead, scratching our nose and sending a far different signal.

I’d challenge each of you to think about how critically important it is for every finger on your hand to rise and bend together. You cannot simply “allow” the other four fingers to rise only when you want them to. If you’ve ever even tried to do that, you know how clumsy and uncoordinated it is.

My point here is that it’s not enough just to understand that the other fingers coexist. We’ve got to consciously and actively ensure that every one of them stands tall together, or that they bend together when needed.

Today, as each of you ends one chapter in your young lives and begins another, I want you to consider how you will conduct your business careers so that the other continents see you extending a hand…not the finger. Graduates, it’s not that hard. You can change and shape the attitudes and opinions of the other fingers — the other continents and their peoples — by simply ascribing positive intent to all your international business transactions. If you fail, or if you are careless, here’s a perfect example of what can happen:

A U.S. businesswoman was recently in Beijing, China, on an international training assignment for a luxury hotel chain. The chain was rebranding an older Beijing hotel. As such, the toilets in the hotel had yet to be upgraded. There were no porcelain commodes, just holes in the floor. Until recently, this was the standard procedure in China.

Now, 8,000 miles removed from the scene, you and I — and most Americans — can shake our heads and giggle at the physical contortions and delicate motor skills necessary to make the best of this situation. We’re simply not used to it. But to loudly and insultingly verbalize these feelings onsite, in front of the employees and guests of the host country, is bush league. And yet, that’s exactly what this woman observed.

In the hotel’s bar, the woman overheard a group of five American businessmen loudly making fun of the hotel’s lavatory facilities. As the drinks flowed, the crass and vulgar comments grew louder, and actually took on an angry, jingoistic tone. While these Americans couldn’t speak a word of Chinese, their Chinese hosts spoke English very well, and understood every word the men were saying.

And we wonder why the world views many Americans as boorish and culturally insensitive. This incident should make it abundantly clear. These men were not giving China a hand. They were giving China the finger. This finger was red, white, and blue, and had “the United States” stamped all over it.

Graduates, it pains me greatly that this view of America persists. Although I’m a daughter of India, I’m an American businesswoman. My family and I are citizens of this great country.

This land we call home is a most loving and ever-giving nation — a Promised Land that we love dearly in return. And it represents a true force that, if used for good, can steady the hand — along with global economies and cultures.

Yet to see us frequently stub our fingers on the international business and political stage is deeply troubling. Truth be told, the behaviors of a few sully the perception for all of us. And we know how often perception is mistaken for reality.

We can do better. We should do better. With your help, with your empathy, with your positive intent as representatives of the U.S. in global business, we will do better. Now, as never before, it’s important that we give the world a hand…not the finger.

In conclusion, graduates, I want to return to my introductory comments this evening. I observed that as big a night as this is for you, it’s an even bigger night for your parents. I ascribed their happiness to looking forward to a few more “George Washingtons” in their bank accounts. While this is certainly true, there is another reason.

Each of your parents believes that their hard work has paid off. Finally! They believe that maybe — just maybe — they have raised and nurtured the next Jack Welch, Meg Whitman, or Patricia Russo.

Don’t disappoint them. Don’t disappoint your companies. And don’t disappoint yourselves.

As you begin your business careers, and as you travel throughout the world to assure America’s continued global economic leadership, remember your hand. And remember to do your part to influence perception.

Remember that the middle finger — the United States — always stands out. If you’re smart, if you exhibit emotional intelligence as well as academic intelligence, if you ascribe positive intent to all your actions on the international business stage, this can be a great advantage. But if you aren’t careful — if you stomp around in a tone-deaf fog like the ignoramus in Beijing — it will also get you in trouble. And when it does, you will have only yourself to blame.

Graduates, as you aggressively compete on the international business stage, understand that the five major continents and their peoples — the five fingers of your hand — each have their own strengths and their own contributions to make. Just as each of your fingers must coexist to create a critically important tool, each of the five major continents must also coexist to create a world in balance. You, as an American businessperson, will either contribute to or take away from, this balance.

So remember, when you extend your arm to colleagues and peoples from other countries, make sure that you’re giving a hand, not the finger. You will help your country, your company, and yourself, more than you will ever know.

Thank you very much.

Cheers!!!

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