Cactus Chords

I had no one to help me out with my business plan, financial projections or presentations. I just had my dear little internet.  I tried my best and put together whatever I could. Eventually when it took shape, it was quite impressive with a 15 page business plan, a 26 slide presentation, a 4 sheet financial projection spreadsheet. I opened all three documents in front of me, admired it for a long time. I could not believe I had made all these documents. I knew they were not professional, they were not what a seasoned company would have prepared. They would have a 100 page business plan, 40 sheet financial projection and 70 slide presentation. But mine basically outlined everything that the investor had to know about the project and us.

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

So we get back to our drawing boards to see where we went wrong and what we should have done. It is not that, we had a bad product, it is just that we approached the wrong client, what does that mean? There was only one answer. We had our target market wrong in the first place. The reason why we started this business was not to benefit colleges that had money in surplus, it was for those colleges that did not have money in surplus and wanted to still provide quality education to its students and prospective admissions. So what was it that we had to do? We had to try and sell it to those colleges. Done, but one small problem. No more money to keep going on.

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

Pardon my silence on this subject. I was a bit too busy with work off late and a few hiccups that are never ending.

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,

I would love to see the reactions that this post would evoke. Anyway, I have been frequenting parties for the past 2 weeks or so regularly as that is what I have not been doing for quite a while. I had recently gone to a party where we were subjected to a variety of intoxicants, nothing too hardcore, just a variety of alcohol ranging from tequila, absynth, vodka, whiskey, beer, cognac and what not and some sheesha with some weird tasting smoke in it..wonder what it was. Was kind of a high fundu party.

So we hit the party at around 8 pm and we are all pretty much high and blown by midnight and sat down to have a quiet drink and smoke after the 4 hour long, non-stop dancing and howling. Our throats were all croaky and badly needed to sit down for a while. One thing led to the other and topics went whizzing past us, a group of strangers. We were some 8 couples chilling at a friend’s farmhouse and some random guys who joined us. One topic which was discussed apart from work, bosses, business, drugs, relationships, electronics, cars, movies, music….. was porn. That topic kind of lingered in every one’s mind and was something that even after finishing the discussion had lasting side effects on the group.

After the discussion, there would be one guy who goes up to the other and says, dude, I don’t think that can happen or I don’t think this can happen then another one joins in. I too found myself getting deeper and deeper into it, when all the women….in fact the women were not even bothered after the discussion. They all went out to the garden to start munching away, except a few who stayed back to get the inside gossip.

The family of sub-topics that the topic of porn exhumed was surprisingly vast and debate worthy. If porn was a living thing, it would have won the critic award for the most discussed topic that night. We all crashed at around 5 am, out of which this topic devoured 2 hours. It is not because it isn’t normal, but just because this was the first time, at least with me, that people with no inhibitions (owing to the lovely spread of “starters” we consumed) were discussing about a topic that was not, rather never, discussed in a group with an equal demographic quotient (males and females) like the other topics. Porn was just a topic that would be merely brushed upon in private and quickly tucked away or ewwed by a few girls after which the guys would avoid talking about it. Probably later they would get together (only guys) and finish off the discussion. The best part was, this time we had the women pitching in as well and also asking us questions which they seemed to believe, unlocked the doors to what little mystery us males withheld.Pity,we are like open books. All you got to do is read, unlike women which have a book with a flap and a padlock on it with a 16 digit combination that requires a man to spend half his life figuring out the combination, the remaining quarter of his life, asking permission to unlock it and the last few years reading just half of the book and perish with the mystery still buried in the last few pages. And the best part is women are not all that complicated by nature. Its just hormones, all throughout.

It started off with why guys enjoy porn so much. Now there might guys who say, “Porn? Please…I am not one of those kinds”. The truth is, every guy watches porn, if not regularly, sometime or the other. Don’t even bother saying, I watched it by mistake or I was forced to watch it and did not enjoy it. That is like an insult to the twins hanging in between your legs and if Hue Heffner hears you saying that, he will wrestle you to death even at the age of 90. The conversation went on and on and went deeper and deeper to how porn was such a huge business and how much money lay in it. Not actually generating porn content, but merely by starting a website that hosts pornographic content would be a huge hit. The women just didn’t know how big the porn industry was and how badly it had affected so many people and especially couples in India, after the infamous DPS scandal.

For once, we all felt very very mature and learned and imparted knowledge on how some guys are cheap enough to shoot women or click images and upload them onto sites. We told them how they should be extremely careful when they are in public as to how they behave, speak and most importantly what they wear. They still did not get it and refuted us. We were left with no other choice. Yes, we decided to show it to them. Each one of the guys had some information on this. Mind you, the group comprised of corporates, top level managers in MNCs, artists, models and a couple of musicians. All of them had different perceptions.

We open the website to show them and an array of disgust and loathe was portrayed by the women. Yucks, ewwwws, what the fucks?, disgusting, inhumane, terrible, poor girl, why is she letting him shoot him and a guzzillion other remarks. We waited till all the remarks condensed and shut it down and then went on discussing the topic. The women blamed us for watching it and giving it so much importance and thus helping it grow. As if content privacy has been put to an end. We are guys and no matter what you say or do, if something like this pops up, it will be seen. We asked them one question, what if someone came up to you and said they had an MMS of one of Bollywod’s actors butt naked or caught with his pants down, would they watch it. At first, they said yuck, no way, while some of them agreed they would steal a watch and that is all we needed. We had proven our point. Nothing can be done about it. Porn has been the oldest form of craze and still is and will be for generations to come. It’s come to a stage whereby even Bollywood has soft pron movies, its taking over the world commercially.

Voyeurism is growing at an alarming rate and video streaming and pod casts is just acting as a catalyst to this growth. Just like the movie Untraceable, where the killer straps his victims to a contraption and puts it on a website and as more people view it, the faster he dies. It is not that, all the people want to kill him, it is mere curiosity. its human.

- Women have to take the initiative to end this by not letting their boyfriends click pictures or videos of their intimate relations.

- Women should not send semi or fully nude pictures across the internet to whoever it is

- Women should be careful when on bikes, parties, malls, stairways, while sitting, in hotel rooms, bathroom, of two-way mirrors etc

Man I could go on. It is really a shame to see that women have to go through so much, but its necessary if you do not want to end up in one of these sites. It is scary, you have no idea.

What do you think? Never thought I will say this, but professional porn is different from voyeurism and has to be put to an end. That can only happen if women take a conscious initiative. But the worst part is there are women still amongst us, who do not mind all this. They still consider that healthy attention.

Cheers,
Mith

image reference: http://images.dailyradar.com/media/uploads/showhype/story_large/2009/06/23/jennifer_aniston_upskirt_top_copy.jpg, http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cqvQosDKKWk/Sgv4GORpZxI/AAAAAAAABAw/CfHSIz6txBA/s400/Famke_Janssen_Upskirt_top.jpg, http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/06/22/pcporn_narrowweb__300×393,0.jpg, http://izismile.com/img/img2/20090603/two_way_mirror_01.jpg

Ive not done my MBA though would love to do it someday. In marketing there are the four basic P’s. Guys who already know this, please excuse me if I am stating the most basic concept you are aware of. But to me, marketing and selling lies between the first P and the last P and ends right there. I do not want to know anything else.

If you have the four P’s namely Product, Price, Place and Promotion figured out, then its fun. But if you do not have it figured out, it is even more exciting because you get to work on it. It is like surfing through a wave tunnel. Though you have a vague idea when the wave is going to come crashing down, you still are doubtful about reaching the other side. But one thing you are sure about is, even if it comes crashing down, eventually you have to surface and try and try till you sail through the tunnel to the other side. What are the things that constitute the 4 P’s and what all did we have. I sat down and did some research and found out the following;

Product – Functionality, Quality, Appearance, Packaging, Brand, Service, Support, Warranty or Reliability in our case

Price – List price, Discounts, Financing, Leasing Options, Allowances

Place – locations, Logistics, Channel members, Channel Motivation, Market Coveraage, Service Levels, Internet, Mobile

Promotion – Advertising, Public Relations, Message, Direct Sales, Sales, Media, Budget

Now out of these aspects what all could we harness at Spurr at this time, just 2 months after soft-launch?

Product - Functionality (check, but always room for improvement), Quality(check), Appearance (check, but we required more user beneficial content as well as information on the site), Brand (we were trying to build it, so that was a NO), Service (check, when we start out, that is the only thing we can promise, service. Without good service you will not last in the industry), Support (check), Warranty or Reliability in our case (check)

Product was taken care of and was in good shape. Phew phase 1 complete

Price – List price, Discounts(check, we were ready to give it out for free), Financing (Hmmm…being a self funded firm, money was flowing out of my pockets like anything. We were managing), Leasing Options (currently no, but we could go on a license model later), Commissions (check, we were ready to give out commissions to those who were willing to help us out. That is how it works anyway, initially till we gain traction in the market)

Pricing was  a major issue for us as we were the first in this business approach and we did not know how much to charge. We had wasted a lot of money, effort and time. But then we also had to think from the students point of view and the college’s. I thought, if it was me, let alone pay for it, I would not even use it, unless there was something useful in it for me during exam time which would be there for sure. So that was our next aim, CONTENT. We had to source content from different places somehow or the other. But how?

But regarding the price, we thought we could get away by charging whatever we wanted. We decided an initial set-up fee from the college and keep it free for students as you know they are the essence.

Phase 2 – Believe me, we couldn’t have been more wrong about our notion.

Place – Locations (check, we decided to target the metropolitan cities), Channel members (none), Channel Motivation (none), Market Coverage (check, we were looking at the whole nation), Internet (check, we had created pages on facebook, twitter and spread the word), Mobile (not yet, but was in the pipeline)

Phase 3 – Not impressive at all, but we had to start from somewhere

Promotion – Advertising(couldn’t afford it. But printed some posters, then decided we will use it at a later point in time), Public Relations (way out of budget), Message (check, we knew what we had with us and how it can benefit its users), Direct Sales (check, this was our only option), Media, Budget

Phase 4 – Our promotion phase had to wait a little while more. We wanted to prove our model first.

And so set-out for meetings with a lot of balls, stories and more stories. Met at least 4 of India’s biggest institutes (biggest from a wasting-money-for-branding-the-institute point of view) and told them about this. Two of them showed interest and are on hold now and the other two shot it down that moment. Out of the two who shot it down, one of them went to the extent of saying, “What have you made? Do you think this will ever work? I highly doubt it” and went on criticizing www.eduvis.in

He told me on my face. “See Mithun, all said and done, the reason why I do not see this of any use is because, we can not brand our college with this. We do not care about what the students get from this. We can not pay so much for just uploading videos of our college on a website. If students do not get a chance to do their labs, experiments, it is their fault.” I was fighting a lost cause. I just kept quiet and listened to him with a smile. Because, you cant say which idiot might say something that can help you in future. I believed in my product beyond anything, but maybe from his point of view, it was useless. While he was telling me this and that, the office boy got us a plate of samosas, tea and chips.

As it is, the bum had told me my product was useless and once when I lose interest, I don’t care how shameless I come across. I devoured every bit of it with the same smile on my face. To buy some more time to finish the chips I asked him what else does he think is useless in my portal and that rodent went on giving me more drawbacks. One thing that made me wonder was, “Does he even think before he talks? In the initial presentation, I gave him, I had just mentioned all the answers to his questions and here he was phrasing those questions again, but this time as a drawback”. Bid him farewell and left. But I am looking forward to that day when that very college will come and register with us. Hope it happens. If not, what dya know, that guy was right afterall.

The trip across 4 states was the worst I have ever had. To keep costs at a minimum, I took buses instead of flights. Trains were not available on such short notice. I forgot to pack my warm clothes and I step onto Jaipur soil from a heat of 25 degrees in Pune to a 2 degrees. My nose went numb and my lips went dry. I cursed myself for not listening to Aayush. He had warned me in Pune. The incidents in Pune, Mumbai, Jaipur, Jalandar, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Gurgaon can cover a book in itself. It was the most horrible trip of my life, incidents wise with accidents, delayed bus trips, kids puking, food poisoning and many other cute little “shit”uations one might not want to be in while traveling.

to be continued…..

image reference: http://www.netmba.com/images/marketing/mix/mix.gif,

Pain in the ass… So many things going on, I do not know what to concentrate on. My processing power is a bit too slow …I make a trip and visit my saviors Shoban and Sreenath in Kerala to decide on the upgrade. We have a round of 3 lengthy meetings where we decide what the site should look like and the new layout. But we did not have a design. So we turn to a professional firm for help with the layout, design (Graphical User Interface) GUI. Nisha who is a master at research starts her work and finds out 6 firms that could be of help to us. After a round of group research and discussions, we narrow it down to one firm as the rest were way too overpriced. How wrong could we be? We discuss with two of their employees, who love the idea and want in on it on a passion perspective than a project point of view.

Being a start-up exactly what we need, people who can work for future benefits that short term costs. Eventually, we finalize on the new design and we get the quote from the new firm…..I nearly popped my bloody balls looking at the quote INR 117,000/- Yes, you read right, one lakh seventeen thousand rupees. I didn’t even bother looking at the detailed proposal they sent and turned it down that very instant. Another moment when you realise that, finding a team that will stick by you and share your dream is a boon. Everyone works for money. All are puppets to the bills. No one works for free, no one works for passion unless they actually feel it is worth it.

These guys though said they were really excited to work on it, didn’t mean it. What the hell. What next? Look for a designer.

Who do I turn to? Nisha. She was amidst launching her own label as shes a fashion designer. Amidst all her work she, without a word she gets to work and within no time we have a brilliant design ready. But since she was not a professional website designer, the CSS part had to be done by someone else. I ring up Arun, another friend of mine who helps me out with quick development jobs. If there is anything Arun hates, its CSS, but the poor guy helps me out anyway and sends the files to Sreenath. A classy design along with some technical layout is a perfect portal. We went to work the very next day and decided to launch the upgrade on the 1st of December. Sreenath is on it, toggling between a part-time teaching job, he ensures that the new portal is up and running by the 27th of November to leave 3 days of day and night testing by 10 professionals. We were working round the clock, reporting bugs, fixing them, re-testing them and testing the portal again.

Everything looked fine and working well other than a few minor technical glitches which could be solved within a couple of days. All that was left was the sales part. We had EOIs from institutes like Symbiosis and IIPM and several engineering colleges in Bangalore. This interest by customers kept us going. At least we were sure, people wanted it or at least were curious about it.

Like they say charity begins at home, I went and approached my college to see what they would say R.N Shetty Institute of Technology. They listened to the whole presentation, fired a few questions, discussed amongst themselves and got back to us within two days with the cheque. They loved it and purchased it. But purchasing alone will not do, they had to upload content onto it. So we aided them to upload videos of lab experiments and the campus etc. All this with the first simple design we had. For a new user, it was not a catchy website at all. But when WE look at the hard work we put into it, it was the most beautiful site.

So far, we had our first client, content on the site, more clients interested. Meetings lined up with well known group of institutes, what and how else could anything go wrong? Keep following my posts regularly to see how life gifts you with the weirdest of opportunities and craziest of circumstances. No matter how beautiful life is, there is always something waiting for you that will turn the whole thing around. So make the most of now, so you can sail through the bad times for there are no regrets. Live your life to the fullest…….

to be continued……

image reference: http://www.gftgroup.com/Petrana_presentation.jpg, http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/group_discussion.jpg

At last, the basic product was ready.  We could have colleges register, students register, upload videos, view videos etc. The design was very plain. White background and a hint of blue here and there. The site was barely a portal but we had the functionality up and running. A few questions kept bothering me all the time.

- Now how could we prove this model to the market?
- How many of them will buy this?
- Will it be as useful as I thought it would be?

All these thoughts kept bothering me. I was beyond nervous. My last two posts were about how problems and challenges just don’t stop coming. Check this out….weeks before our soft launch, one of my partners decides to bail out as he had just gotten married and did not know whether he was up to the task. Though the whole team expected it, we were kind of taken aback on the sudden decision he made as he was the one insisting to join us in the first place. It does harm when you actually feel like you have a team to help you fulfill your dream and wake up to see that one member has decided to leave. Friendship and business are two separate worlds and the sooner people understand that, the better. We are still best of friends, but will never do anything professionally. Re-working the agreement, his resignation, re-filing of agreement and all the formalities took a good 2 and a half weeks and till then I could not start a bank account owing to all the changes in paperwork.

Eventually September 12th, we do the soft launch. We had nothing more than 2 technical guys (Shoban, Sreenath) and 3 marketing guys (Nisha, Aayush and myself). We did not know where the hell it would go, what was going to happen and whether we are going to be laughed at or embraced. I contact Aayush, the marketing backbone of the firm to fix up meetings with institutes in Pune. He does a swell job and within no time,we have met colleges in Pune and they loved the idea. The students praised us as they were looking for a portal to upload their work. We also had features in the platform that the colleges thought was a myth and thus welcomed us. But something was missing. Money…..

Even though we impressed upon the institutes, the money was not flowing in. People were waiting for someone to start using this portal to its hilt to see whether it is actually useful. You know one of those things…..The technical team, who has been with the previous venture of mine and seen no results starts to get impatient. They wonder if this will ever work out.  Making people buy your product is the hardest part of business.  I explained the same to the technical team and they were more than supportive. I do not blame them one bit. If I were in their place, I wouldn’t join them in the first place. But they still did, that shows passion always lies a step above money. It is hard to actually ask for a team that actually understands you and in fact sees the company as their own as much as you see it yours.

So the product is out, people like it, but there are certain factors that we have to incorporate before we can go big. We had gone a good month and a half with the soft launch and gotten a good response. A new design, more features. Till now we were just a video sharing site for educational institutes, but we needed something more for educational institutes that matter like pdf, presentations, images and audio etc. Bloody hell, we didn’t have time for that. That meant changing the whole architecture yet again. Why didn’t I think of it earlier? But I guess this is how we get to learn things. Only once we released the product will we know what is missing so we can upgrade it just as Guy Kawasaki said. So what’s next? Upgrade…..

to be continued……

image reference: http://www.fineartphotoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/the-show-is-over-say-good-bye-800.jpg,

One of the greatest challenges while working in a start-up is funds. Money is always, always a nightmare. We did not have a server to host the portal initially. To purchase a server, I had managed to accumulate some funds, thanks to my father and friends who were kind enough to loan me some. But we needed a credit card. That, unfortunately landed on a weekend and thus made it hard for us to find one as none of us broke bums had one. Who would give me a credit card? I was jobless, no income, penniless.

We finally managed to purchase the server to find out that one of our crucial modules isn’t compatible with the server and is creating problems. Another couple of nights of tension, phone calls, cigarettes, air castles tumbling down. Amidst all the tension and heightened haste, the technical team manages to find a way out. Something I have learned with time, there is nothing that can’t be done with technology. If it is done before, it can be done by us. All that separates us is the fund involved and thus the time.

The tech team also did not have a proper working internet connection to work with. The torrential rains ensured that there was no power when you needed it the most. They had to work offline most of the time. We could not coordinate with each other through phone as we ran out of balance after 2 to 3 conversations. The internet was out due to rains and power kept fluctuating. Kudos to Shoban and Sreenath.

3^rd September 2009, we run into some major technical issues during testing of the platform, which could be solved, but would pile on an extra two days to the soft launch. I don’t know why I worry so much. I felt like everything slipping away. The tech team took the role of a shrink as well as assured me it would be rectified in no time. What you need most at such times is moral and mental support. Blessed I am for my supportive parents and girl friend who never left my side and ensured my tension was kept at bay and for a team that is more of friends than work mates.

The problem was slightly more serious than we had expected it to be and thus it piled on a good 4 days to the soft launch. Alls well that ends well, the tech team rectified the problem and we decided to push the launch date by a week to be safe. We subjected the platform to heavier testing. Thanks to all my friends who helped me out in testing the platform thoroughly.

to be continued……

image reference: http://cactuschords.in/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Money-stacks.jpg

We had everything in place, a Limited Liability Firm, the name we wanted – Spurr Wireless Solutions LLP. Spurr, a tweak to a word from the phrase “spur of the moment” as we worked on sheer spontaneity.

We had our company website – www.spurr.in

Two existing products – www.spurrsms.in and www.spurrring.in

Another major product in the making -  www.eduvis.in

Visiting cards, designations (one of the luxuries of being in a start-up, choose your own designation). From this point of the origin of the idea, till the shaping of the project, there was tremendous tension, haste and hurdles. Am skipping all those details as I shouldn’t bore you guys either, that is if you already aren’t

As our platform neared the launch date, I had my eyes glued every 12 hours on the famous blogs and business news to see whether someone was coming up with a similar idea. On the 31^st of August, I switch on my laptop and check my live feeds for the blogs and BANG…….right in my gut I feel a massive punch. I see a line that makes my stomach cringe and twirl into a tight knot, “……… plans to launch educational portal”. The 3 words I dreaded from the time I decided to go ahead with my dream, LAUNCH, EDUCATIONAL and PORTAL. I quickly clicked on the link and read the whole post and the related posts as well.

Someone was planning something similar if not exactly what I had in mind.I shared it with the team. According to the post, the portals were not to be launched for the next 2-3 weeks. That did not help one bit. If they wanted, they could easily release it within a matter of days. I was angry with myself for not doing this earlier, sad that there were others planning just when I was about to launch my product. But, then something dawned upon me that made me feel much better. “Why would this happen now? Either I could have decided to do this a month later or a month earlier? What a coincidence? How come none of them thought about it before me?” All these questions just led to one answer, “There is nothing you can do about it. Just do your part and cork your hole”.

It is not that, no one would think about this ever. Someone somewhere was bound to tap into this sector sometime or the other. One thought made me ecstatic. I was on the same wavelength as the guys at these big companies. They were partnering with god knows who all to make this work. I wanted to make this work with just the 5 of us. It was possible. It is possible. Nothing is impossible.

I took this as a catalyst to push me that extra mile and ensure that when our product launched, it had to reach the whole nation. How would I do that? How else, get my sorry butt everywhere myself and talk to each and every college and university, simple! I decided that I was not going to let money come in the way now since what I am aiming for was truly worth running for. Ecstatic would be an understatement to describe what I was going through.

So I decided to do a soft launch on the 5^th of September 2009 and see how the market would respond. I went to colleges and offered them the portal on a pilot phase. I was extremely nervous during the presentations and demo to see whether there was a positive or negative response. Eager to face the questions they had for me, hoping that those queries held the secret of bettering our platform. I conducted a rapid tour across India covering all the target colleges within a span of 2 weeks.

I had to let it ferment, let it sink in to the colleges, allow them to embrace it wholly, meddle with it, try and mess with it. I waited eagerly to hear what they had to say about our product. For that one week, I went through the worst time of my life, more sleepless nights, I was literally eating cigarettes. I had to wait it out. No other choice. I had no other option but to wait for Janta Ki Vote.

To be continued……..

image reference: http://thedoublethink.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/warning-challenges.jpg, http://cdn.picapp.com/ftp/Images/0286/4523f976-0975-471c-a102-10a38e018966.jpg, http://ttoes.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/salesman.jpg,