Bear's Blog: Back from Africa...
Read more >>
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
0
Read more >>
Face-to-face with Vishwas Mudagal & Sandeep Gudibanda of JobeeHive
JobeeHive (www.jobeehive.com) is a unique web 2.0 community platform that brings professional networking services together with career information on companies and industries. "Where do you wanna go next?" is the question JobeeHive helps you understand and answer by (i) providing insider information from employees and ex-employees about a company so that you have authentic information to aid your decision (ii) tapping the knowledge of your professional network in order to add credibility to the information you have (iii) getting information directly from the companies themselves about work, culture, business and opportunities. JobeeHive incorporates all these utilities and more so that you have a blend of opinions and facts to help you choose your next move in your career or business with an enhanced sense of confidence.
RV College of Engineering, 2003, graduates Sandeep & Vishwas launched JobeeHive ALPHA in September 2007. On 08.08.08, JobeeHive BETA version was released. You can now signup at www.jobeehive.com, which is open to public. To keep the company reviews and salary details fresh, it is required for users to submit either a review or salary report before you signup. However, if you get an invite from an existing JobeeHive user, you need not write a review to signup
How it started?
Both Vishwas & Sandeep felt that there should be some system/ methodology to understand the work, culture, salary details & leadership of a company before you take employment with them. The idea got more strength when one of their close friends got cheated by a renowned company in Bangalore. So, that was the starting point for them. Jobeehive helps people to take Informed Decisions, be it in their careers or business – this is their mission.
How it evolved?
To start with, JobeeHive only had company reviews taken by employees and ex-employees of a company. This was no doubt a great medium. However, as they started approaching industry experts, friends and groups like KickStart for feedback; they realized that people needed a credible and interactive platform. Adding a professional network with features to tap collective knowledge seemed like a perfect blend. Later, they also added a third dimension of creating social networks or communities for companies within JobeeHive. One unique aspect here was that JobeeHive will bring companies themselves to engage their communities.
Prior experience helps
From the college days, both Vishwas & Sandeep dreamt of having their own venture and that too create something that is cool and useful. However, they understood that they will not succeed unless they have concrete experience in the corporate world. Before jumping into JobeeHive both of them worked with various software firms nearly 5 years and were start performers in their companies. It is this confidence that they leveraged when they started JobeeHive. Their families supported them a lot – all types of support that one can get – which has helped them to move forward.
Tough times
The biggest challenge for JobeeHive has been funding. Although they engaged with various VCs over a period of time, they were sure they didn’t want funding for a year. This was because they wanted to nurture the startup according to their plans – something which people should love using.
Because of this reason, they revamped their old startup Talentify and renamed it as PeopleStorm Services, a recruitment outsourcing company. This was something very interesting – starting a company to fund another company. But, the risk paid off and now PeopleStorm is generating enough business to sustain JobeeHive as well.
Team spirit
Right now, they have a team of 6 at their JP Nagar office; the chemistry between the team members is amazing – diverse thoughts for a common cause. If you have positive messages then spread it but don’t spread the negative ones, as the team is very young & negative vibes can distract or de-motivate them. Even at one point of time, Sandeep got offer from ISB, Hyderabad but he preferred to stay with JobeeHive to move this concept beyond everyone's imagination. When they first presented this idea at Barcamp Bangalore, they got many questions about the business model but today when they have launched their BETA version, users see a platform that is both useful and cool. Their revenue model is based on recruitment solutions for companies, premium user subscription, selling statistics, advertisements among other streams.
Mentors
Professor Suresh of IIMB and Dr. Kalyani Gandhi of NSRCell helped them a lot whenever they needed any help. Vishwas & Sandeep recommend startups to have good mentors to overcome many issues in the initial days.
Future plans
JobeeHive has many features in the pipeline. One such useful feature is tentatively called “Startup Buzz” – where startups will showcase their work, culture, pictures, demos, etc. and use it to create their own community for business, marketing and recruitment campaigns.
Our society really needs this type service, as our fellow professionals and students are being deprived of many promised things after they join a company. We need more transparency in the corporate world, where both companies and employees need to understand each other better. This can be an answer to creating great workplaces, controlling attrition and checking adhoc salary increases. Thanks for this innovation idea & service. We all wish them best of luck for the rest of their journey with JobeeHive (www.jobeehive.com).
Read more >>
Friday, August 15, 2008
1
Read more >>
Startup Savvy Movie released
We have renamed the movie Entrepreneur Blues to Startup Savvy.
We have released the Movie Startup Savvy on youtube.
Here is the movie
Startup Savvy 1
Startup Savvy 2
Startup Savvy 3
Startup Savvy 4
Read more >>
2
Mr. Rajeev Kumar is a Serial Entrepreneur, Green Technology and Management expert by profession, a Social Entrepreneur, an Urban Ecologist, a Mentor and a Speaker by passion. He has over 15 years experience in consulting and have advised several reputed companies in South India in important verticals sectors such as FMCG, Manufacturing, Retail, Advertising, IT, Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, Government, Enterprise Management, Infrastructure and Education.
Designations: Rajeev is co-founder and board member of four Companies in South India. His designations are Co-Founder & Promoter of Target Hotels & Resorts Pvt. Ltd. (Chennai), Managing Director & CEO of ChromoSoul Technologies (Hyderabad), Co-Founder/MD & CEO ChromoSAS (Bangalore), RamaVarma EcoBuild Technologies (Bangalore), and he is also associated with Gyapti Developers Pvt. Ltd. (Hyderabad), SecureCenterics Pvt. Ltd. (Bangalore) and Cherytech India Private Ltd. (Bangalore).
Educational Qualifications:
Rajeev has postgraduate qualifications in IT, Business Management, Green Technology and Foreign Trade. He has undergone professional training in Cleaner Production and Clean Technology under the UNIDO/UNEP/NCPC/KCPC partnership.
Thesis and Publications:
Rajeev Kumar has 17 published Papers, 6 White Papers and 2 policy drafts to his credit. He has played a leading role in 4 International Conferences. His doctoral thesis focuses on the Management practices in Public Administration, and Ecologically Responsible & Sustainable Cities (Ecocities).
Key Roles:
Rajeev Kumar was recently adjudged among top 25 Young Leaders to lead India in the future by The Times of India (World's largest English Daily), Bangalore (September 2007).
Future plans:
Rajeev along with his friends are launching the India Innovation Network to bring together all the stakeholders of Innovation on a single platform, and promote, develop, mentor and support Innovation.
Read more >>
Rajeev Kumar: A serial entrepreneur
Designations: Rajeev is co-founder and board member of four Companies in South India. His designations are Co-Founder & Promoter of Target Hotels & Resorts Pvt. Ltd. (Chennai), Managing Director & CEO of ChromoSoul Technologies (Hyderabad), Co-Founder/MD & CEO ChromoSAS (Bangalore), RamaVarma EcoBuild Technologies (Bangalore), and he is also associated with Gyapti Developers Pvt. Ltd. (Hyderabad), SecureCenterics Pvt. Ltd. (Bangalore) and Cherytech India Private Ltd. (Bangalore).
Educational Qualifications:
Rajeev has postgraduate qualifications in IT, Business Management, Green Technology and Foreign Trade. He has undergone professional training in Cleaner Production and Clean Technology under the UNIDO/UNEP/NCPC/KCPC partnership.
Thesis and Publications:
Rajeev Kumar has 17 published Papers, 6 White Papers and 2 policy drafts to his credit. He has played a leading role in 4 International Conferences. His doctoral thesis focuses on the Management practices in Public Administration, and Ecologically Responsible & Sustainable Cities (Ecocities).
Key Roles:
- Rajeev Kumar has led the conception and development of several unique projects in Environment Development, Technology upgradation, and Urban Development Sectors in Karnataka.
- He is also associated with management, civic, local development issues in Bangalore, partnering with the Karnataka housing Board, Brihat Bengaluru Mahanagara Pallike (Greater Bangalore City Corporation), Karnataka Police Department (Prisons Department & Karnataka Police Housing Development Board), Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), the Bangalore Management Association (BMA) and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB).
- He regularly writes and speaks at several Academic, Industry, Government and Public Forums representing industry and academia on Management, Technology, Civic and Environment topics.
- He is a member of leading professional organizations such as Bangalore Management Association, the International Organization for Biotechnology & Bioengineering (formerly Member of the Central Working Committee), Stockholm, International Ecocity Group.
- He successfully led an international team that organised the prestigious Sixth International Ecocity Conference (Ecocity6) at Bangalore during December 2006.
- He is working with several reputed personalities globally for setting up of the International Ecocity Society, the Centre for Green design & Research, the International Energy Transition Institute and International Energy Transition Fund.
- He is also advising the Government of Kurdistan on developing the proposed Green Capital City and the Kurdistan International Institute of Advance Studies.
- He is credited with the founding of the Bangalore based 'Project Agastya' – a unique experiment in citizen's involvement in city design, planning and development. Project Agastya is also involved in the drafting of new standards for Ecological Design and Development.
- He has also served as a Member of the Global Advisory Board, Gaia University, USA and Germany for a term. And also heads the Regional Division of Global Action Plan (GAP).
Rajeev Kumar was recently adjudged among top 25 Young Leaders to lead India in the future by The Times of India (World's largest English Daily), Bangalore (September 2007).
Future plans:
Rajeev along with his friends are launching the India Innovation Network to bring together all the stakeholders of Innovation on a single platform, and promote, develop, mentor and support Innovation.
Read more >>
0
Active Canvas is one of a kind art school that offers art classes and events across art forms for people of all ages. The founders of this renouned school are:- a) Ms. Raksha Sriram - Ms. Raksha Sriram completed her Bachelor of Arts from NMKRV College for Women, Bangalore in the year 1994 and later completed her Masters in Advertising from Syracuse University in the year 1998. Ms Raksha Sriram has over 10 years of work experience and she has worked in many organisations like American Society of Engineers, Olympus group, Alexandra, VA, Active Canvas as a Content Writer, Web Designer, Freelance Designer and Founder respectively. b) Ms. Divya Raghuram - Ms Divya Raghuram completed her Bachelor of Buisness Management from Sri Bhagavan Mahaveer Jain College in the year 2000 and later completed her Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing and Advertising from Baratiya Vidya Bhavan in the year 2001. She has worked in many organisations like OnMobile, Artists Foundation for the Arts and Active Canvas as a HR Executive, Program Manager, Freelan Actor and Founder respectively.
The important achievements of Active Canvas till date are:-
1. The organisation has nearly 1000 students in their classes since they have opened in Feb of 2007
2. They have conducted nearly 100 courses across art forums
3. They have conducted nearly 15 special events such as plays, music, concerts, exhibitions, etc featuring local artists and artists from other countries
4. Their pottery studio Olam is now the only one end-to-end studio of this kind in Bangalore.
The upcoming challenges of Active Canvas are:-
1. Getting more students registered for the classes. and
2. Sustainability
Active Canvas have been featured in many articles of papers such as Hindu, Deccan and Mid-Day and they have been referred in many websites of Burrp, Bangalore Metblog, Tendylicious, Events Bangalore, Citizen Matters, etc. Thus Active Canvas has proved itself as one of the best art school in Bangalore.
Read more >>
Raksha Sriram and Divya Raghuram - Active Canvas
The important achievements of Active Canvas till date are:-
1. The organisation has nearly 1000 students in their classes since they have opened in Feb of 2007
2. They have conducted nearly 100 courses across art forums
3. They have conducted nearly 15 special events such as plays, music, concerts, exhibitions, etc featuring local artists and artists from other countries
4. Their pottery studio Olam is now the only one end-to-end studio of this kind in Bangalore.
The upcoming challenges of Active Canvas are:-
1. Getting more students registered for the classes. and
2. Sustainability
Active Canvas have been featured in many articles of papers such as Hindu, Deccan and Mid-Day and they have been referred in many websites of Burrp, Bangalore Metblog, Tendylicious, Events Bangalore, Citizen Matters, etc. Thus Active Canvas has proved itself as one of the best art school in Bangalore.
Read more >>
0
Daily Dump is the brand of a company called Playsneak ( www.playsneak.com)
As a service, Daily Dump helps the people manage their household waste and convert it to useful high-quality compost. It supports the people with flexible service plans to achieve their goal of becoming a green citizen.
Ms. Poonam Bir Kasturi founder of Daily Dump was graduate from NID in the year 1985 with the degree Diploma in Industrial Design and prior to the foundation of Daily Dump she has worked in many organisations like Indian Design Center, Industree Crafts, Srishti school of art design and technology, Playsneak as a an HR, Director, Foundation Faculty and Founder respectively.
As an competant, the achievements of Ms. Poonam Bir Kasturi are:-
1. She has created the first composer of the indian market.
2. She has got it produced by craft.
3. And at last she has done it on an open-source platform
So the upcoming challenges of Mrs. Poonam Bir Kasturi are:-
1. To scale up the terracotta range
2. To get more clones established all over the country
3. To get the mechanical products out in the market.
Daily Dump was first blogged in " http ://dailydump.org/press.htm " and also people will soon see the released product in the modified forms sprouting all over. Our Google Analytics site tells us that the daily dump site has been visited by most countries and thus its been made popular.
Read more >>
Poonam Bir Kasturi - Daily Dump
As a service, Daily Dump helps the people manage their household waste and convert it to useful high-quality compost. It supports the people with flexible service plans to achieve their goal of becoming a green citizen.
Ms. Poonam Bir Kasturi founder of Daily Dump was graduate from NID in the year 1985 with the degree Diploma in Industrial Design and prior to the foundation of Daily Dump she has worked in many organisations like Indian Design Center, Industree Crafts, Srishti school of art design and technology, Playsneak as a an HR, Director, Foundation Faculty and Founder respectively.
As an competant, the achievements of Ms. Poonam Bir Kasturi are:-
1. She has created the first composer of the indian market.
2. She has got it produced by craft.
3. And at last she has done it on an open-source platform
So the upcoming challenges of Mrs. Poonam Bir Kasturi are:-
1. To scale up the terracotta range
2. To get more clones established all over the country
3. To get the mechanical products out in the market.
Daily Dump was first blogged in " http ://dailydump.org/press.htm " and also people will soon see the released product in the modified forms sprouting all over. Our Google Analytics site tells us that the daily dump site has been visited by most countries and thus its been made popular.
Read more >>
Sunday, August 10, 2008
0
Redbus is one of the renowned ticketing site for inter city bus services of private operators. Started in 2006 with three people on-board in a small office in Domlur the company is already in a break-even stage and is looking forward to setup offices in other major cities of India. In a interview to Eblues team the CEO of the company Phanindra Sama shared his remarkable journey of last 3 years.
Eureka moment
It was vacation time during Diwali in 2005 and many of Phani's friends were already left to their hometown. Initially not being sure about taking off from work Phani postponed his decision to book tickets. Finally when he decided to go to his hometown Hyderabad and the ticket booking saga took him no where. First he contacted his usual travel agent, later he contacted each and every known travel agent for a single ticket to Hyderabad. The series of unsuccessful attempts for booking tickers made him realize massiveness of the unorganized industry involving operators and travel agents. 40 buses from Bangalore to Hyderabad everyday! Being alone in Bangalore a golden idea struck him. Eureka! Eureka! why not organize this bus industry with help of a software so that it turns out to be win-win-win for bus operators, travel agents and of course for passengers. He discussed about the idea with his pals of BITS Pilani - Sudhakar and Charan. They started with a plan of making a software which maintains the inventory of the bus routes and assists the travel agents in booking tickets.
Key moment and the USP
Being member of TIE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) forum, Phani along with his friends submitted the idea to one of the competitions of the forum. Phani still believes the major reason for the project to get selected was the way it was presented. The allotted duration for presentation was 30 minutes, therefore they planned presentation for only for 15 minutes(rest for Q&A) with only 7-8 slides. 1- slide about the team, 1-slide about the unorganized industry and 1-slide about their solution and so on.
Godfather's insights
After the project was shortlisted in TiE competition, the team was alloted three mentors for further progress, one of them was Sanjay Anatharam. He helped the team getting the right VC and added some valuable inputs to the project. According to Sanjay, deploying the software for each and every travel agent all over India won't be practical, a lot of effort will be needed to make it work without any issues. Target city customer with a website to book the tickets online. Anyways in future Internet connection will be as ubiquitous as mobile phone connection.
Testing times
The venture went thru a lot of testing times. First of all convincing bus operators that the new medium will work took a lot of effort. The high pressure phase was the first two weeks after launch of the site redbus.in in Auguest 2006. They had to show the sales to the operators. The team went all out as for publicising about the ticketing site. They went in front of software companies during lunch hours for distributing the pamphlets and simultaneously explaining about the site.
The breakthrough moment
It was indeed the moment when the first ticket was booked by a software engineer of Infosys. It really was an auspicious beginning as the ticket booked was from Bangalore to Tirupathi! For the first customer the team ensured the safe travel by assisting the passenger for boarding the bus!
Engineers turned Travel agents
The way of earning changed completely. For every ticket booked the commission was about Rs.20. The expected amount of sales needed were very high to compensate for the salaries they used earn in their last jobs. There were slight thoughts of giving up, but the persistence of Sudhakar(co-founder) kept the team focused for achieving the goals. Also, when one starts a business even the minute details/rules can't be ignored like maintaining a attendance register, having a Kannada in sign boards etc.
Role Model & Inspiration
The major inspiration for Phani has been Richard Branson and his autobiography 'Losing my Virginity'. Branson's thoughts on colour red has been the major influence for naming the company 'Red'bus.
Meeting different kinds of people
Being a CEO at such an young age has been challenging. As part of work he has handle people with twice/thrice as his experience. Every person is unique, some people pamper him even not doing anything great and some blast him for not doing any mistake. These things one never faces being an employee of a big company.
Expansion plans
The main interaction with customer happens thru customer care operators. The company hires operators as employees, instead of outsourcing the work to a third party. The long term plan is to open offices all over India which includes even North-East Indian cities. But the expansion is planned/done in a organic way. When the one office breaks even with respect to investment the other office in a different city will be set up.
The edited video of the interview is embedded below.
Read more >>
Rendezvous with CEO of Redbus.in
Redbus is one of the renowned ticketing site for inter city bus services of private operators. Started in 2006 with three people on-board in a small office in Domlur the company is already in a break-even stage and is looking forward to setup offices in other major cities of India. In a interview to Eblues team the CEO of the company Phanindra Sama shared his remarkable journey of last 3 years.Eureka moment
It was vacation time during Diwali in 2005 and many of Phani's friends were already left to their hometown. Initially not being sure about taking off from work Phani postponed his decision to book tickets. Finally when he decided to go to his hometown Hyderabad and the ticket booking saga took him no where. First he contacted his usual travel agent, later he contacted each and every known travel agent for a single ticket to Hyderabad. The series of unsuccessful attempts for booking tickers made him realize massiveness of the unorganized industry involving operators and travel agents. 40 buses from Bangalore to Hyderabad everyday! Being alone in Bangalore a golden idea struck him. Eureka! Eureka! why not organize this bus industry with help of a software so that it turns out to be win-win-win for bus operators, travel agents and of course for passengers. He discussed about the idea with his pals of BITS Pilani - Sudhakar and Charan. They started with a plan of making a software which maintains the inventory of the bus routes and assists the travel agents in booking tickets.
Key moment and the USP
Being member of TIE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) forum, Phani along with his friends submitted the idea to one of the competitions of the forum. Phani still believes the major reason for the project to get selected was the way it was presented. The allotted duration for presentation was 30 minutes, therefore they planned presentation for only for 15 minutes(rest for Q&A) with only 7-8 slides. 1- slide about the team, 1-slide about the unorganized industry and 1-slide about their solution and so on.
Godfather's insights
After the project was shortlisted in TiE competition, the team was alloted three mentors for further progress, one of them was Sanjay Anatharam. He helped the team getting the right VC and added some valuable inputs to the project. According to Sanjay, deploying the software for each and every travel agent all over India won't be practical, a lot of effort will be needed to make it work without any issues. Target city customer with a website to book the tickets online. Anyways in future Internet connection will be as ubiquitous as mobile phone connection.
Testing times
The venture went thru a lot of testing times. First of all convincing bus operators that the new medium will work took a lot of effort. The high pressure phase was the first two weeks after launch of the site redbus.in in Auguest 2006. They had to show the sales to the operators. The team went all out as for publicising about the ticketing site. They went in front of software companies during lunch hours for distributing the pamphlets and simultaneously explaining about the site.
The breakthrough moment
It was indeed the moment when the first ticket was booked by a software engineer of Infosys. It really was an auspicious beginning as the ticket booked was from Bangalore to Tirupathi! For the first customer the team ensured the safe travel by assisting the passenger for boarding the bus!
Engineers turned Travel agents
The way of earning changed completely. For every ticket booked the commission was about Rs.20. The expected amount of sales needed were very high to compensate for the salaries they used earn in their last jobs. There were slight thoughts of giving up, but the persistence of Sudhakar(co-founder) kept the team focused for achieving the goals. Also, when one starts a business even the minute details/rules can't be ignored like maintaining a attendance register, having a Kannada in sign boards etc.
Role Model & Inspiration
The major inspiration for Phani has been Richard Branson and his autobiography 'Losing my Virginity'. Branson's thoughts on colour red has been the major influence for naming the company 'Red'bus.
Meeting different kinds of people
Being a CEO at such an young age has been challenging. As part of work he has handle people with twice/thrice as his experience. Every person is unique, some people pamper him even not doing anything great and some blast him for not doing any mistake. These things one never faces being an employee of a big company.
Expansion plans
The main interaction with customer happens thru customer care operators. The company hires operators as employees, instead of outsourcing the work to a third party. The long term plan is to open offices all over India which includes even North-East Indian cities. But the expansion is planned/done in a organic way. When the one office breaks even with respect to investment the other office in a different city will be set up.
The edited video of the interview is embedded below.
Read more >>
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Updates
