Author
Welcome to Rodinhood
Inspired by Rodin who sculpted the Thinker and Robin Hood who delivered. Hence Rodin+Hood.
Enjoy my blogs, contribute by commenting and sending me stuff that I could publish!Translate to read
Get My Feed!
Category Archives: Experiences
How to avoid your Start Up from getting a Hangover!
If you get drunk with someone you know, she will surely drop you home and make sure you are safe. Similarly, whilst starting up, try and cultivate one or two major clients who can completely uplift your venture. It’s nice to say that you are working across lots of clients or customers but getting many to sign up becomes very difficult at an early stage……Get out there, and measure every metric that you have modeled you business on. For example, if you think 5% of all companies will sign up after you present your holiness, try meeting 20 and check if 1 (5%) converts.
Continue reading
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
6 Comments
‘Entreception’ = Entrepreneurs + Inception can be the new Bible of Success!
Tell me any entrepreneur worth his sleep who hasn’t sold to himself and then to a VC a dream…..They dream of the future that lies ahead and then dive back into reality to reach there! … Our Eureka solution was to create ‘digital prizes’ ….. One of the biggest dangers of entrepreneurship is that you fall in love with what you are doing and even when events turn ugly, you refuse to ‘wake up’…Watch out for Mal. Either never let her become who she is and if you cannot avoid that, then know when to ignore her and stay focused.
Else your dream will become your death.
Continue reading
Posted in Experiences, Hall of Fame, Internet, Media, Mobile and Tech, Start-Up, VC & Corporate Stuff
Tagged China, Disney, Dream, Inception movie, Kick, Mal, MMOG, Mobile2win, shanghai, SMSes, VC, Wall's
3 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
Have you partnered with thieves and robbers?
Look at the love triangle – Pirates love our content and steal our games. We love ads and place ‘invisible to visible’ ads in our games. Consumers love games and they play them on all kinds of websites all over the world!!
Continue reading
Mr. Marwari – Have you met Mr. Tata?
He chuckled and said’ ‘What nonsense! The first rule of the funding game is to siphon out 25% of the funds and make yourself-rich. Investors can be dealt with later’ Continue reading
Posted in Experiences, Hall of Fame
Tagged Black Money, Colgate, Corus, Jamshed Bhabha Auditorium, Land Rover, Marwari, NCPA, Oboe, Sam Balsara, Tata, Tata Salt, TCS, Telco, TISCO, White Money
25 Comments
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
The toughest decision of my life…
By 2005, a company I had co-founded called Mobile2win (originally started in China in 2001 and then brought into India in 2003) was sailing… We were first movers in the India Mobile VAS (value added services) space and things were … Continue reading
Posted in Experiences, Hall of Fame, Start-Up, VC & Corporate Stuff
Tagged China, Contests2win, Hadanes, ICICI, Indian Idol, Mobile VAS, Mobile2win, Norwest, Pramod Haque, Siemens, Softbank, Vab Goel
57 Comments
Why service at India Retail stores is so bad…
A few weeks back I invested a princely sum of money to buy my Airmax 2010 Nike shoes from the flagship store in San Francisco. Last week, just before traveling again, I washed my shoes and was aghast to see … Continue reading
Posted in Experiences, Hall of Fame
Tagged Apple, Brands, Jet Airways, Levis, mumbai, Nike, Retail, Sales, Tommy Hilfiger
20 Comments