Category Archives: Innovation

Invention Vs Innovation

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Invention can happen with a single person, but it takes a long time and lot of efforts for that to become an Innovation.

Charles Babbage was the first person who invented the programmable computer in the earlier 19th Century. The following years and decades transformed the whole meaning and design of the Computer.

What we are dealing with today is the transformation of the Inventions to Innovations which can reach people and make lives much better.

Innovations deal with identifying solutions to problems in simplistic manner. There might be an existing solution, but if we can better that up, it is Innovation.

Inventions happen vary rare, and even if they happen, it takes a long time for them to come into light.

What should we focus on – Invention or Innovation?

Innovation. Chain of innovations can lead to an invention.

Ask

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Ask is the one important factor and the first step towards success.

  • What would have happened if Newton never asked himself “Why did the apple fall down?”
  • What would have happened if Henry Ford asked his potential customers “What do you want?”
  • What would have happened if Richard Branson never asked himself why should he get into airline business?
  • What would happen if no politician ever goes and asks for Votes?
This is not different in Entrepreneurship.

All that we need to do is Ask. Not everyone is interested in Equity for Investment. Few Investors come to you because of their passion. Few investors adore your idea, but might not be able to invest money, but they are ready to mentor you, write a business plan, make a connection etc. Few other investors might just want their name to be associated with your Idea. The list goes on.

When was the last time you asked anyone for Investment in your idea other than Money? 

Monetary investment surely helps’s, but there are other investments which are more precious and help you build your idea.

Next time, ask for Investment from family/friends and strangers other than Money and see how it changes everything.

You don’t need Money to Startup

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Traditional approach to investments for Startup is Friends, Family, VC’s and Angel’s. But, when you are pondering on idea’s to startup, before you pool in money to either start or make it big, you will need lot of other services/resources for which you need not have cash.

You have an idea and you have validated it. Now, it is the time you start investing to make your dream come true. The biggest investment you make is time and the rest follows.

First, make a list of things which you would require. Let us say you are starting a website to offer online Piano lessons. The first expense is the Domain name and the Web site. The second expense is building the website. Next comes marketing and signing up for the first client.

Domain name and Web hosting space cost very less (~Rs.2,500) and you can self fund it or alternatively request someone to invest and you pay back when you have signup’s. Designing the web site and getting it live is the biggest expense. Try reaching to your friends and networks if someone can help you part time to design the website. You may offer something in return – Probably, 50% of the money from the first month revenue etc. The intention here is to have the web site designed and taken live.

What happened here is that even though you did not have money, you have got your website done. Technically, you don’t need money, but you need what money can buy for you.

Today’s world, there are lot of people who want to do something, but unable to take the next step for some reason or the other. Reach out to people and am very confident someone will step up to help you. In return, you can also provide a helping hand to someone who needs something which you can offer.

When starting up, stop focusing on money, and start focusing on what money can buy.

As a first step, I can help with Market Evaluation for your startup. Reach out to me at hnpv at harinathpv dot com if you need help. I will give my best.

Where do Ideas come from?

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Most of the complex problems in the world are already solved in the past; Problems which are not on priority are being solved now and the boring problems have been left for this generation to solve.

From Computing to Search to Facebook to LinkedIn to Twitter, all these are not new innovations/inventions, but problems which were solved previously and are now addressed at larger platforms.

Today’s Innovations are stemming from frustrations or inability to connect various solutions. If you look at online market places which bridge the gap in the B2C and B2B segment, this is not a high priority problem. There are existing solutions where we can order goods (by word of mouth, by friends etc). This solution has a limitation. The key limitation is that the choice’s are very minimal and you do not know the variety available in the market. When the problem is magnified, we thought of bringing the world shopping to our finger tips.

For instance, this blog idea is not my invention, but a thought which came about while I was reading about FitMeIn – An online application which offers monthly multiple fitness memberships. What is the pain point they are addressing – Boredom of going to gym everyday. Similarly, quite a few solutions we see today are amalgamation of existing solutions.

Today, there are many platforms from where you can pick ideas if you have the passion to solve them. Use Quora, where you can find many questions and possible answers. Research on this platform to find ideas which you can take forward and solve them. Organisations like HeadStart, Open Coffee Club etc provide a platform for us to solve problems.

Don’t Copy and Paste, but Adapt and Paste is the new mantra.

Innovation Perspectives

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On the 9th and 10th September, PMI Bangalore Chapter organized their Annual PMPC (Project Management Professionals Conference) at NIMHANS Convention Center, Bangalore. I got an opportunity to be invited to the conference at the last minute. Could not attend on both days but squeezed in as much as possible to be there on Day 1.

The key theme around the conference and its speakers has been “Innovation”.

Conference was well organized and there were eminent people who came to share their experiences including Mr. T N Seshan, former CEC of India. I could capture few interesting points during the conference and here, I am sharing them in Q&A format which could probably provoke your thought process.

How do we help “team” think Innovatively?

Many managers struggle with this. Innovation is not a skill, but attitude and the thought process. How can we change someone’s thought process when they are tuned to a particular style? Especially the learning style which we grew up with? One noble Professor who was part of the Panel  provided an interesting thought. Managers should keep pushing what he calls Stress Relievers. What he recommended is that we should push team members to inculcate the habit of reading. Along with this, Management should periodically give Puzzles to its team (group and Individual) and encourage them to solve. This will help them sharpen their thought process and start thinking of new ways of solving real live problems.

Helping team to de-stress regularly by encouraging them in Sports and Dancing is another way of motivating team to think different.

We are so used to follow instructions and solving problems in School and at College. What we need is a different way of solving problems. This comes only when Management/Managers give the opportunity to its team members to think different. Manager’s should definitely understand how to balance the pressure of the demanding milestones and also give the liberty to team members to think and solve a problem. Also, the success for the organization comes when Managers give the same freedom to their Managers.

Why is India far from Innovation?

Panelists had various thoughts on this. One perspective which struck chord with the audience is that we are more Service Driven. Others agreed, however also highlighted that there are various organizations which have started thinking in these lines. Intel’s Celeron processor was completely born out of India. There are many other innovations which are coming out from India. However, the cycle is taking longer due to the infrastructure. What I mean by Infrastructure is the system we have – Our Education System, Incubation Cells, Government Support, Investments and mentorship. These are working today, however, there is loads of differences when it comes to execution. We are definitely in-line, however it is taking longer than the usual cycle.

What are organizations NOT providing to foster Innovation?

One aspect which many have agreed is the timeframe and the service mindset. We need to Quantify results quickly than the anticipated time. This happens everywhere and most of the times. This becomes a burden for Innovation. Organizations need to develop their Delivery Models based on this. Time required for Innovation in solving the problem should be considered while estimating their timelines for Delivery. This builds the culture of Innovation in the organization and also teams are motivated to think in this direction. Organizations which have incorporated this have definitely been successful – Google (20% of time goes towards working on an individual’s passion), ThoughtWorks (Services organization) have been the true differentiators. There are many organizations across the globe, but mentioned the above examples so that they can easily be referenced.

How do you measure Innovation?

Many participants agreed that they use Innovation Index. Others who shared their experiences mentioned that they measure what needs to be delivered to how it is being delivered, essentially metrics.

For each of their goals, organizations should have a quantifiable measurement criteria and this helps measure their Innovation. How many different and effective ways have been proposed to solve a problem is what needs to be measured. This becomes a benchmark in the Organizations measurement.

Does aggressive growth need rapid Innovation?

It depends. There are various parameters in understanding what the end goal is. Organization Goals  take the center stage. What is the Priority of the organization – Growth or Innovative Solutions? Until this is answered, one cannot determine if each of them are inter-connected or inter-dependent.

Is Competition killing Innovation?

One Professor who was part of the Panel started with an interesting perspective on various Era’s:

Socialist – The Nehru age. We need to become an industrial economy to build the country.
LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) – This happened across the globe. Each country wanted to build their economy to establish themselves.
WTO (World of Threats and Opportunities) – This is today. We have an Opportunity and Threat sitting beside each other all the time.
Did this kill Innovation? NO. What ever the perspective is, Innovation happens all the time and organizations ensure they stick to what they are doing. Going forward also, these aspects are always existing and how we handle them and build ourselves is what counts.

“Innovation is Attitude” – How can we develop this attitude?

No rocket science. Build the attitude from day one. Give the liberty to your teams to think on their own. Do not provide them with solutions to solve problems (like in a typical System Development Lifecycle). Let teams think for themselves and propose solutions. Match with what your experts have in mind and arrive at a cumulative solutions. This will provide confidence to your teams to think independently.

I was present for a session by Sudhir of Lumium Innovations, Ahmedabad and that was very different.  Lumium is working towards becoming the Indian IDEO. He had a different perspective on thinking out of the box. He says that there is Nothing outside the box, but it is just a bigger box.

The session name on the agenda attracted double the capacity of the auditorium. The initial case-studies he presented which they were working on, gave a different light to many in the auditorium, but what attracted me is one slide he shared toward the end on the three tangents of the Box.

There are three tangents to the graph – Past, Present & Future

Past

  • Cumulative Learning
  • Discrete Experiences

Present

  • Systems
  • Consumers

Future

What happened in the Past is that we banked on our cumulative learning. Imagine the last project you worked on?  The project schedule was prepared based on a similar project done earlier. The design and architecture is based on past experiences of the Architects (This is what they are paid for, right?). The pricing has been based on the projected number of hours taken to complete the project (again, this goes back to referencing earlier projects). There is nothing wrong in this. It is a very well accepted perspective.

In the book Super Crunchers, Ian Ayres begins the book with a reference to column  in a famous wine magazine which mentions that a particular place in France, at a particular latitude and longitude and at a particular time frame produced the best wine in the world till date. How did this come about? This is based on various calculation of the location of the vineyard, climatic conditions and the quality of grapes grown. This came into writing when the columnist referred to various statistics of wine produced around the world. The prediction (even though its in the future) was based on historical data. He did not predict that we will have the best wine prepared in the future, but it is based on the past data.

What is happening at Present is that we are building systems based on the consumers requirement. There is no referential data available. Look at all the applications which are being developed for the Mobile space as an illustration. There is no reference because the mobile space is re-inventing itself everyday. A new kind of platform is being conceptualized and brought to the real world almost every day.

What will happen in the Future is that our reference point is going to be Technology and inclusion of Bio mimicry. How technology takes shape and how consumers want o see what the want and demand what they see.

Most of the notes above are my interpretations and my examples. Feel free to shoot your thoughts.

Idea Valuation

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Yesterday (10 April 2010), I had a opportunity to speak at the Start-up Saturday Bangalore on Idea Valuation. I was playing the devil’s advocate role for few of my friends Start-up idea’s and that is how I got interested in Business Model Testing. After speaking to good number of people around me on this topic, I felt I could do something and help people by giving a third eye perspective of their ideas. Accidentally, I ran into a book Will it fly? The Idea Tester by Carla Langhrost. This little piece of work really inspired me. There is someone else in this world who is thinking like me 🙂 Took few key aspects which match with my thought process and put together few slides as a framework for my talk.

Here is the link to my slides Idea Valuation

Idea Valuation

View more presentations from Dazasya.

Ground Rule: All topics of discussion in this talk are practically applicable in your daily life too and just not Entrepreneur Ideas.

I started my talk with the definition of an Idea. What is an Idea?

The transcript, image, or picture of a visible object, that is formed by the mind; also, a similar image of any object whatever, whether sensible or spiritual.

Any idea, if it cannot be visualized in your mind is not worth taking forward. What you visualize need not be precise, but at least a skeleton image is not showing up in your mind, you need to re-think on your Idea. For instance, you are wanting to buy a car, but you have not decided the brand and make yet. However, when you think of buying a car, a skeleton model is up in your mind. The end result might not be exactly what you visualized, but without that skeleton picture, it might be practically impossible to get what you really want.

Components of Idea

Every idea has four basic components – Uniqueness, Meaningful, Acceptance and Future.

  • What is the Uniqueness in your idea? You are doing your job or your are driving the car of your choice only because your organization found some uniqueness in your skill set and you are driving that car because it has few unique features which match you requirement.
  • Meaningful – Your idea has to be meaningful. To dry yourself after a shower, you need not only have a towel, you can use a dryer or stand below a fan.
  • Acceptance – One of the best examples is the “Free Hugs”. Fee Hugs was initially not accepted by many countries, it was even banned in few places due to various reasons, but the persistence of Juan Mann and his visualization of the happiness in one’s heart after the hug is what makes the movement a very successful one.

Testing Parameters

Three basic parameters to test your idea – Idea Preposition, Start-up Preposition and Self Preposition.

Idea Preposition

  • Need – What need are you addressing?
  • Idea – How viable is your idea and how much of the problem can it solve? (Note that not all ideas solve 100% of problems)
  • Uniqueness – How different is your idea from your nearest competitor?
  • Test – Finally, ensure that you give sufficient time for your idea to settle and test the viability of your idea.

If you notice the graph, Uniqueness occupies the biggest pie. During your Idea Preposition days, the more you concentrate on your uniqueness, the more better is your end result.

Start-up Preposition

  • Start-up Cost
  • Profit Margin
  • Breakeven Point
  • Test

While testing your Start-up Preposition, Start-up costs become the most important factor. When you are buying a car, the initial investment you make on your is more important that the maintenance costs. Even if you can afford maintaining (paying service bills) a high-end luxury car, but you are unable to raise funds for the cost of the vehicle, it really does not make any meaning.

Ensuring that your Start-up costs are completely in your control is the one key factor for your idea to become a reality.

Self Preposition

  • Self Analysis
  • Salary
  • Work-life Balance
  • Passion
  • Test

When ever we take up new task, we always tend not to look at the viability of implementing it. When you are having a 12 hour work-day everyday, it really does not make sense to start another new task taking more time away from your resting time. This results in failure than success even if the idea is one of the best. Work-life Balance is the key is Self Preposition. Ensuring enough time for rest will help in thoughts settling which ensures better results.

Business Model Test Approach

Traditionally, there are two well accepted ways of testing your idea – Data Driven and Model Based.

  • When you are starting something new, it is the Data Driven Model which you would choose. You need to do your ground work really well to ensure you have the right ingredients in place for building your Start-up. “Data” is the only answer and it will substantiate your idea to make it practical and implementable.
  • When you are starting something similar to an existing business (Ex. Software Services or a Retail Chain or a Restaurant Chain), you may test your idea comparing with various business models in the space. Already businesses are existing and you are starting something similar. There is no harm in understanding, valuating and identifying gaps in your competitors business model to ensure you incorporate them in your business model.

Each of the above can be practically applied to any component of your Business Plan and Remember to TEST your Plan thoroughly before beginning your journey, because – In God we Trust and Everything Else we Test!

 

Here are the Video’s of my talk…

Idea Valuation – Part 1

 

 

Idea Valuation – Part 2

Idea Valuation – Part 3


Idea Valuation – Part 4


I thank Viswa for all his efforts in creating this video.

Letter to Steve Jobs

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Hello Mr. Jobs,

This is my first letter to you. I am a true devotee of Apple like many others in this world. I hail from India and wanted to take this opportunity to write to you and share few of my thoughts on your strategy of Apply products for countries like India.

I do understand that since the beginning, Apple has produced only technologically superior products. However, when these technologically rich products do not reach people at the right time it is a waste. Also, if technology cannot be affordable, then there is no point in producing it, because in return, it would not give you any results in creating the technology which cannot be used by people.

As I understand, all of your products are technologically rich and also expensive. To add to this, you keep changing versions of your products too very soon and few of the features do not make sense at all, there by hitting hardly on your buyer.

Let us take an illustration of your iPod. When it was initially launched, it created a revolution. Music has been redefined. As Microsoft took a computer to a common man, iPod took music to every pair of ears. This is remarkable. The way music industry works has been redefined. Instead of buying the complete album, you provided opportunity for music lovers just to buy just the music they want to listen. Over the next few years, there were many new additions and enhancements to iPod so quickly that the first mover was completely dejected and unfortunately, there is no way I can upgrade an existing music system. Why do you do this? You may ask, is this the same way other music systems work? No, but as an Innovation organization, can’t you think differently? I do agree that there is something called “Product Life Cycle”. Every product has its end, just as it has its beginning. By being an Innovative organization, cannot Apple think something different to this life-cycle? Like we recycle our clothes and waste, I am sure there is a scope of recycling the product.

Another classic invention is your iPhone. The mobile phone industry was shaken with the launch. Your competitors started “innovating” more exhaustively, just to beat your phone. However, you again proved your point by bringing out updated versions too quickly into the market and there by hitting on middle-income people like me. I cannot afford Rs. 35,000 for a mobile phone once a year. Also, iPhone locks me with certain features which I really do not need. For example, the iPhone comes in two varients – 16GB / 32GB. I do not need a phone with so much memory. I have my iPod and I really do not want to throw it away because I paid a real good amount of money for that (Rs.13,000). Instead, why cannot be there an iPhone version which comes with standard memory and allow me to upgrade its memory when I need? This reduces the cost and does not confuse me – iPod for music and video, iPhone for mobile purposes and Mac. Is there a time Apple will reduce this confusion for us?

Is it by chance or by choice do you do this? Why do you also rate your products so exorbitantly and do not give us options of using what we want rather than forcing what you want to sell? It is my very strong belief that what ever is the product/service/innovation you bring out, if it cannot reach the middle of the pyramid, there is no big deal of it.

At the moment, Apple is catering only to the Top of the Pyramid and the upper top of middle of the pyramid. It is understandable that this is your business strategy, but with a little twist, you can take your Innovations to many more, there by changing the game of computing.

I am sure, the same is going to happen with iPad. The first buyers will be held at ransom when they realize how much has changed in an iPad in a very short time (At this point, iPad does not have multi-tasking and Camera and I am sure these will be included in 12-18 months of its availability in market).

Is there any thing you can do about this?

Appreciate your understanding..

Regards,

Hari

Was reading an interesting article on the same topic today ‘By Ignoring India, Apple is doing a big mistake‘.

A Change for Tomorrow

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I have been reading The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley recently and was amazed with the amount of research which went in to write the book. This book speaks on James Tooley’s experiences in the developing countries as to how they are over-looking the Public education system and turning towards Private education to provide a better future for the young generation. Two case studies, one of Hyderabad, India and one of Nigeria caught my utmost attention. When James tried to turn to the Government to understand how and why the poor families are turning towards paying small amounts of fees for their kids to be educated in private schools, most of the times he received answers in the affermative. When he continued his journey, he found amazing results and he was astonished. I cannot summarize a 300 odd page book here, but the one thing which I took away, is that no poor family of the so-called developing country is leaving any opportunity to rewrite their future.

In the recent issue of Career 360 I was really impressed with the cover story. It is the same old story which we all hear that the education system in India needs to be revamped. But, few stories of children of poor farmers from Bihar on how they went against the odds give a refreshing perspective. The story of Anand Kumar who started Super 30, a school which coaches top 30 poor children to get into IIT is really inspiring. Can you beat this, in the last 7 years, 182 students of 210 have made it to the IIT’s and in the last 2 years, all 60 students made it to the IIT. These are the results we speak about.

In an interview Tarun Tejpal mentions that the education in our country is more of academic and marks oriented. This is the most disturbing part.

I hail from South India (Andhra Pradesh) and when I completed my graduation (I did not take up Engineering/Medicine) most of my friends have either taken up Engineering or Medicine and after education, one has to take up a job in either Infosys / Wipro / TCS which are the best IT compaines. What you do in the organization does not matter, but as long as you have one of the 3 brands, you are entitled for a settled, secure life and when time comes, a huge dowry for the wedding.

Just to give the other side, if one has to apply for B.Sc Economics in Delhi School of Economics, the cut-off percentage is usually more than 95%. When I took up Economics and Computer Applications in my graduation (this course has been terminated after 2 batches because there were no takers), I was termed the most un-fit and unsuccessful in my batch. After 10 years, when I look back, I think I made the best decision of my life and I really need to thank my Parents and Brother who gave me all the support to do what I want in life.

Now, why did I get into this topic? One thing I realized after co-founding HeadStart and founding Dazasya is that we are not yet ready for Building a better tomorrow with the current way of how we deal with things. In the last two years of being with the Startup community, what I notice is that the willingness to take risks is not yet ready in our minds. Even if one is ready to take the risk, family and social pressure’s take up a lot of time to get you forward. Once you get forward, what misses is the Bigger Picture. Should I attribute this to our up-bringing? From our childhood we are “told” what to do and if we do not, we are not guided enough to come out of the situation.

We are not taught problem solving, but taught only the application of a formula. We are not taught how to think differently, but only taught how to follow what has been thought over by our teachers and elders.

This is one of the primary reasons as to why we do not have an Apple, Microsoft, Google coming out of India.

Many entrepreneurs today are in the path of Entrepreneurship for freedom to work and chase their dreams. When we look at their dreams, ideas revolve around something which exists today, rather than trying to create something new. Why don’t we have even a browser bring created in India?

Let me take my own example, I co-founded HeadStart 2 Years and 6 months ago and founded Dazasya 2 Years and 2 months ago. In either of the two organizations, I am able to Innovate anything new which can help the Startup community.

Let me begin the change here….

Innovation Series #8: Business Model Innovation

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Everyone and anyone – be it an Entrepreneur, Employee or Head of the Organization… today, every one is focusing on Innovation and how to go up the value chain. This post of mine is inspired by a presentation I saw (I sincerely apologize as I am not able to retrace the presentation) on how small thoughts can change the way we can package a service.

Project Management is one key focus area which most of the start-up community ignores when they are beginning. There is no time to define the Organization Project Life cycle. I do agree and am with you on this. However, once we start looking into this area, I assure you that your innovation will definitely have a better output. 

You have got a great idea! and you confirmed that the world has been waiting for your innovation to come into market 🙂 That’s great and good news, however, before you put in your heart and soul, you need to look into the viability of your solution, how much would it cost to make your dream a reality, time to market and end of the day the returns which you are going to get. 

Project Viability

Well, now you are at the first step and desperately waiting for your solution/product to come into the market. Before you begin, the best practice is to get inputs from your family and friends (assuming that they are your customers) if they are going to use your innovation in their daily lives. It makes a lot of sense with family and friends because they critic it very well and give you a honest feedback. If you are not satisfied with their feedback, go out into the market and speak to potential customers take their feedback. If 5 out of 10 acknowledge you for your idea, then you can dive deep and see what else they want / do not want. Accordingly shape up your idea so that you increase the chances of the 5 to definitely buy your innovation. 

Work on the Costing

As you are working towards taking feedback for your innovation, also ask your ‘potential customers’ how much they are willing to spend if a product like yours is available in the market. This is to understand/analyze/assess how your idea is accepted into the system. With this base information, you can reverse-engineer your costing model. Instead of you fixing the price, go with the price what people are willing to spend. This makes sense for you on the long run. It is better to sell 100 numbers at Re.1, rather than selling 10 numbers at Rs.10. Of course, this entirely depends on who are your target customers and what problem your solution would solve. 

Time to Market

The next aspect which you need to consider is the “Time to Market”. You are starting from the scratch and you definitely need to have enough funds and plan to take your innovation into market. With this analysis in place, you are very sure of how your project will shape up and also gives you the flexibility of time to build a quality solution. 

Returns

Well, now you have potential customers feedback, cost of your innovation and time to market. This gives you a clear picture of how things should be running for you. These become your milestones and ensure you are in track all the time, when ever you are missing your internal deadlines. 

During your journey in giving shape to your innovation, you will also need to keep working on how you are going to structure your Market entry and sales. How are you going to distribute your solution? (Internet, wholesale, retail etc). Identifying how your innovation is going to reach its customer is very important. Vague aspects like I will find someone to stock my product, will be available for download from the website etc are all very vague answers. Remember, if your innovation does not reach the right customer, at the right time and in the right way, then all your efforts are totally waste. 

What are your revenue streams? How are the customers going to pay? If yours is a wholesale/retail innovation, do you have the commission structure in place? Have you thought about the branding and positioning? We usually miss these small things. Right?

Last but not the least, ensure you have required licenses and approvals from the local authorities to ensure that these things do not delay your innovation entry to the market. The customer cannot wait and even you too… 🙂

HeadStart – Compute 2009

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HeadStart has been our annual event for showcasing Startup Talents in the country. We started organizing the annual event since 2008, along with ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Bangalore Chapter.

Why HeadStart and ACM?

HeadStart is a community of Entrepreneurs, Investors, Industry Professionals and Evangelists. We came together to contribute back to the community which has brought us to this level and given us lives.

ACM is a focused group which concentrates on future of technology and how it fits into today’s world.

As an Entrepreneur, it is very important for us to understand the Business Model, writing the Business Plan, speaking to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors, bringing the product/service to the end user, legalities in building your organization, employee management and last but not the least – the future of your innovation.

You have a cutting edge idea and you are excited about it. You speak to various stakeholders and lo! you idea has hit everyone. What next? You are starting up your baby. That’s great news. One important and key aspect you need to consider is what is the future? Today, we see many Insurance companies advertising –For your retirement solutions and your child educational / child future plans, do contact us. In the same way, you need to understand the future of technology to ensure safety and security to your baby (your enterprise) and yourself. We feel safe when we have life insurance and few plans for our children, but we ignore our tomorrow.

Yesterday, I met an aspiring entrepreneur and he invited me to be his Devil’s advocate (I am not going into details of his idea or our conversation with due respects to him). He shared his idea with me and I honestly did not see a tomorrow in that. I did not see a strong bonding of the idea with the stakeholders. But he is passionate. Passionate about the idea and his tomorrow. I am sure he would succeed in what he is doing, but definitely few of my questions have kept his bells ringing.

During HeadStart – Compute 2008, we had two eminent personalities from GE to speak on the future of Database. The two scientists shared their research information on how the future of Database would change. This is what is needed for an Entrepreneur.

A classic example of not looking into the future is the Y2K. Many organizations realized and started working on this issue a bit late in the 90’s. What if these organizations had the guidance to think about this earlier during their startup stage? Things would have been different. If everyone took the necessary precaution, I am sure there would not have been many people who would have got job’s in the west during late 90’s.

HeadStart and Compute are dedicated to create the perfect ecosystem for Entrepreneurs. If you recollect the Project Triangle, then it is very easy to relate to what we do. We do exactly the same – Ensuring for a healthy startup focusing on the key parameters – Technology, Capital and Eco-System.

HS Model

Be there on the January 09-10, 2009 and participate to help create the ecosystem for Startup’s.