On my terms

Sometimes it really helps to spend sometime hanging around, feeling like a good-for-nothing. Having spent the last couple of weeks doing just about nothing has infact helped me a lot to clear up some cobwebs that I had formed myself. I am happy I am able to see clear again.

I think there are two kinds of people in the world - the Actors and the Victims. Actors make things happen whereas things happen to Victims. I have always believed myself to belong to the former category. But I am so disappointed that the way I have felt for the last few days is nothing but a typical victim feeling.

Now when I look back, I ask myself what I was cribbing about. I did what I wanted. I wanted to do BluXone because I believed in that idea. Right from its beginning till the end it was very clear to me that it’s a non-commercial software. And I like it that way. A few proposals (rather display of intent) to turn it into a “Premium SMS” sending gateway did come my way. But that’s not what I wanted it to become. So all’s fair.

Post BluXone, I started working on other ideas to churn out another software which can be commercialized as well, and I take off on my own. That’s when the frustrations started creeping in. The way I was thinking of these software and the people who would use them was still the BluXone way. The software were of great utility, but the point to note is that the people are doing pretty fine without them as well. That’s where I think the difference comes in between a (prospective) commercial and a non-commercial software. I still love these ideas but I guess this is not the right time. I think I will come back to them once I have taken off, and have the liberty to introduce people to new tools and methodologies at no cost.

So what was I crying about - absolutely nothing :). I had lost some clarity about what I was up to and was just crying why it does not work the way I want. The thing about the mobile software market being all closed is there. But there is a reason for the way it works. Find out the reason, change it and it will work the way you want.

Another thing that I realized in these days of idleness is the hypocrisy that I have allowed myself to develop within me. I believe that niceness (if that’s a word) is an overrated virtue in our society. I don’t want to be nice, then why the heck do I even try to be nice with some people who I think are absolutely useless - but of course nice - people. I think it’s just the way I have been brought up, but I would like to change it. I should not give people false impressions of what I think of them. That’s unfair to them and quite corrupt of me.

Alright, so that’s Monkey reporting to all who care to read :). Its time to get back to work. Remember - the idle days are over :).

The last couple of months have been a rollercoaster ride of emotions, ambitions and belief.

I remember when I was trying to learn how to ride a bicycle, I used to fall time and again. Dad would tell me that I am not doing it right, that I am looking at the bicycle and not looking at the road ahead. Every time I fell, I made a note of what went wrong and made sure I don’t repeat the same mistake twice. In a matter of a few weeks I was riding like a pro, and could even perform some very cool stunts.

But this time I am not even sure if this bike can be ridden. Every thing else is same. I have tried, I have fallen, and I have tried again. Today I feel I am standing at point 0, and not for the first time. Some good things have happened since the last time I was here. BluXone is one of them. But I feel I am still as distant from my target as I ever was.

Mobile software is an interesting industry. Potential customer base is theoretically the entire population. Current state of software on it is naive. Most of the popular software on mobile are interfacing software - either PC interfacing or web interfacing. One can for sure do much more with a device which is primarily used for networking, which is 24×7 connected to a network than just letting it be used for existing models and technologies. But the challenging part is how? You can make all the software you want for these devices, but how do you put it across to its intended audience. Unlike the PC software, people do not like to download software directly on their mobile phones. Most of the software that resides on the devices is usually the pre-installed software by the manufacturers, or the software pushed by the operators. So in this huge market, the only way of getting your technology to the people is through the OEMs or the operators - basically.

With a very heavy heart today I am standing at a juncture where I want to decide if I want to pursue mobile software any further. Its not about if I can/can not push my software through these channels, its more about do I really want to start a company whose backbone is so fragile. As of now it makes a little more sense to write desktop/web software which you can actually sell in the free market. Looking at the current state of affairs, having your software on mobiles looks more like a nice to have thing, than something which can act as a sole bread-earner for a company.

Let’s see when do I become a pro at riding this one.

I just realised that ten days have gone by and I haven’t even wished my blog a Happy New Year. So, first things first, A Very Happy New Year to all of you and my dear blog :).

This year has had quite an eventful beginning for me, some events which I can share and some which desire only to stay with me. A great night long new year bash, some good things at work, a lost cricket match, and a fractured finger - to mention a few :). And now the next thing that stands on my calender is the Mobile Monday Delhi meet on Jan 20.

The remarkable Mobile Monday phenomenon began almost by accident in Helsinki, Finland during the chilly autumn of 2000. Vesa-Matti ‘Vesku’ Paananen, a well-known Finnish mobile visionary, invited more than fifty mobile innovators to an Irish pub for an informal get-together and perhaps a drink. The only suitable time? You guessed it, Monday evening. After meeting many new faces and discussing the latest in mobility, the group decided to continue meeting on the first Monday of each month – and MobileMonday was born.

The Delhi Chapter however usually seems to meet on the Saturdays, and that does makes sense, doesn’t it. In this meet, I will be giving a talk on Mobile Development Environments. In this talk, I will be giving an analysis of the available development platforms for Mobiles. The talk is intended for people who want to get initiated in mobile development, or for someone who has an idea in mind and needs to take an informed call on which target/platform to develop the solution on keeping the nature solution and the business in mind. If time permits and people are still awake, I am also thinking of demonstrating some of my work in the domain.
If you have some particular issues in mind which you believe such a talk should cover, do leave a comment for that.

Apart from this, there will be a lot of other presentations as well. You can check out the details at the Wiki page.

If you have a venturing mind (and some good idea about what to do), here are some good pointers about things you can use to prepare yourself up.

David Cowan’s Blog

On David’s Blog, you will find a whole lot of articles about Venture Capitals, Industry in General, and a lot more. Here are some of my favorites among those.
How not to write a business plan
This infact suggests how to write a good business plan. Do not miss out reading Boris’s tips on the PitchCraft.

Will keep adding to this as I find more stuff.
Good luck.