Category Archives: Start-Up, VC & Corporate Stuff

The suit and tie stuff

Why don’t Companies pay their suppliers on time?

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Rodinhood

Can you postpone paying your telephone or electricity bills by a couple of months by sweet talking your Utility providers? Would you continue working for a company that paid your salaries after you had to wait outside the accountant’s office for hours? Would you ask your kids to tell their school that their fees will be paid by their parents ‘soon’ ?

If the above sound ridiculous, why is it that Companies routinely pay their suppliers late?
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Do you know how to say ‘Jump’?

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Rodinhood

In the early 90s, a lovely girl called Somya from a prominent business house was engaged to marry Mahesh (a scion and inheritor of one of India’s biggest business families). Theirs was to be the marriage of the decade. Somya’s father – Gulshan was the head of the family and managed the joint family business that included his brothers. One of the Gulshan’s younger brothers Sushant was not on good terms with Gulshan and was constantly litigating with him to separate the family assets and split the family fortune. Theirs was a raging bitter battle that had carried on for years………

………….I still remember a pre-board meeting in which one of my investors asked my CEO to change the business direction fundamentally and present it to the board. He refused. The investor indicated that he would fire the CEO and that he had the support of the other investors if he didn’t do as instructed. My CEO asked him to ‘Jump’. In the board meeting the next month, we went through the usual rigors and my CEO and I were dreading the dismissal motion to come up any moment. It never did. The investors stayed on the ledge and climbed back in.
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Have you been ‘wiped’ out?

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Rodinhood

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 →

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‘Entreception’ = Entrepreneurs + Inception can be the new Bible of Success!

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Rodinhood

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.
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What Entrepreneurs must learn from Fashion Models!

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Rodinhood

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 →

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Have you partnered with thieves and robbers?

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Rodinhood

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!!
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Do you know ‘Board’ Room Dancing?

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Rodinhood

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 →

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The toughest decision of my life…

Posted on June 29, 2010 by rodinhood

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 →

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Confessions of a Digital Entrepreneur…

Posted on June 5, 2010 by rodinhood

I was born and brought up in a Marwari family where breakfast, lunch and dinner conversations (granny included) were about deals struck and money made. I guess that’s where I inherited my ‘entrepreneurial dna’. It’s only after working in my … Continue reading →

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So you think you can ‘Start-Up’? Take my FURNACE test first…

Posted on June 2, 2010 by rodinhood

Almost every other day I get an odd mail from someone in a B-School or working in a corporate job wanting to ‘start-up’.  I am polite to all of them saying ‘think again’ but I am now inspired to write … Continue reading →

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