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Tag Archives: Clearstone Venture Partners
The 9 Best Conversations I have had in my life – and the lessons I learnt from them!
He said, “Alok, we have taken a good look at mobile2win India. We like the business, the Company and the management. We are moving towards sending the board a term sheet to make a large investment. However, we have also decided to acquire your shares since we believe you are not adding any value to the Company.” Continue reading
Posted in Experiences, Internet, Media, Mobile and Tech, Start-Up, VC & Corporate Stuff
Tagged Ajay Mathur, Bala Deshpade, Bill Elkus, C&A, Clearstone Venture Partners, Contests2win.com, Courtaulds, eVentures, GK, Intel, Jim Armstrong, Kamini Banga, Neeraj Bhargava, Norwest Venture Partners, Renuka Ramnath, socks, Sumant Mandal, Thota Ranganath, Trident, Vab Goel, Xintiandi
5 Comments
The Al Dente Moment – What Pasta can teach Entrepreneurs!
If there was ever a perfect ‘Al Dente’ moment, it was when Steve Case sold AOL to Time Warner. A small fledgling company positioned itself so cleverly to an old media behemoth and the values that it extracted are now historical and soul shattering. Unfortunately, in the case of Time Warner, what they thought was ‘Al Dente’ Internet Pasta turned out to be Al Dente Rotting Garbage. Continue reading
Posted in Experiences, Internet, Media, Mobile and Tech, Start-Up, VC & Corporate Stuff
Tagged Al dente, AOL, China, Clearstone Venture Partners, Entrepreneurs, Games2win, Hotmail, Indian Idol, Mahesh Khambadkone, Microsoft, MMOG, Mobile2win, Pasta, PRC, Sabeer Bhatia, SMS, Steve Case, Time Warner, VAS, VCs, yahoo
3 Comments
Have you been ‘wiped’ out?
Entrepreneurs I know shiver from the word ‘failure’….We failed at this project but learnt an important lesson all entrepreneurs must imbibe – Even before you create an amazing solution, ask your consumers if they even want it? Your consumers will not use something made ‘easy’ if they never had a problem in the first place!….Everything in life cannot be ‘technologized’…Lesson – don’t try and automate what pains you. The pain is what brings the profits…I dedicate this post to all those entrepreneurs out there who have had hits and misses. The important thing to remember is what a famous man said – ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’. Who cares if the first step begins with a sprained ankle? Continue reading
Posted in Experiences, Start-Up, VC & Corporate Stuff
Tagged Advergames, Charades, Clearstone Venture Partners, Contests2win, Himalayas, Monastery, Monks, Nirvana, Online Games, Rangoli, Search, Sumant Mandal, Tibet, zen
7 Comments
What Entrepreneurs must learn from Fashion Models!
One day, when I was on my regular ‘contest begging’ trips, I was stunned when the brand manager of Liril Soaps (a Unilever Company product) said, ‘Alok, don’t harass me. We make soaps here – not contests. If you like contests so much, why don’t you make them and pitch them to me, rather than the other way around’……. On introspection, it was so clear why the games succeeded in China – with no mass entertainment options available (TV and films are state controlled) and very cold weather, Chinese teens were happy to lock themselves into gaming dens and play away for hours non stop. On the other hand, in India, with 3 bollywood movies releasing a week; 500 channels on TV and very warm and ambient weather, teems cared a damn to sit in suffocating game parlors and play online games with silly dragons and elves Continue reading
Do you know ‘Board’ Room Dancing?
So, you can burn the dance floor, but can you tango in the Corporate Board room? I have had the pleasure of attending many board meetings and am happy to share some experiences and tips in the lessons on how … Continue reading