Category Archives: Ideaman

The People (r) you encounter as an Entrepreneur

by Shashwat DC | Leave a comment

Any new venture or project is seldom down in isolation, in case you are not Michaelangelo or Picasso. So long is the project is not externally funded (or till it is), you will have to be dependent on a set of people to help you through. Based on my numerous interactions (not to mentioned ideas discussed or launched) here is a lost of people that you are most likely to encounter:

The Believers
They will stand by your project irrespective of its merits or demerits just because they believe in you, your vision or your capacity.

The Exciters
These are the set that will get excited, discuss grand plans, but they will not commit anything till the idea has taken shape.

The Promisers
These are motley set that will listen all, nod and then make grand promises of collaboration, only to Not fullfill them.

The Backers
These are a set of people who don’t really believe in you but like the idea and would back it up now and then just to be in the loop of things. They are there to back up on things.

The Jealousers
This set will listen to the idea and grumble at how you stumbled upon it. And while they would not help you with yours, they will either start working on a “similar” their own secretly, or starting digging a pit.

The Opportuners
These are the people who will wait to see how your project is shaping. They will concur with you, take time, but only work once the project is truly off the ground. Not before, not later.

The Connecters
These people have a lot of connection, or atleast know a lot of people who can be helpful. If the idea is sold to them, they will readily connect you to a whole bunch of relevant people who can be good help. Continue reading …

Zewak: The search engine

by Shashwat D.C. | 1 Comment

Imagine, it is a hot afternoon and you are trudging your way on a street, hot and thirsty. All you want is a nice cosy restaurant where you can sit down, order your lunch and possibly have a drink or two. You keep looking here and there, walking down the length of the street, but are unhappy with what you see. So, you finally catch hold of a person, who seems to be all knowledgeable and approachable. You beseech him to guide you to a ‘nice’ restaurant, where you can find all this and more.

On hearing you out, the person, cross-checks with you a few more things; things like, what is the cost range you looking at? You want to have a beer or a juice? What kind of cuisine you looking at? AC or non-AC? And a few more like this. Based on your responses, he proposes a few options and then on further discussion, you finally chose one from them. The search for the restaurant for a hungry you in this scenario was two-way process.

This is how we work in life; this is how we find what we want. And yet, the online world is anything like this. Most often the search, or more precisely Googling, is a one way process. Wherein we put in a keyword and thanks to the wonderful algorithm and the scores and scores of servers, the search site puts out a veritable lists of things that might be of interest to you.  It is basically information inundation. Going back to the scenario earlier, a hungry you, are presented a telephone guide of all the restaurants that are in the area.
So, while Google has become an integral part of our lives, it is surely not the best solution that we have. What we need is a new search engine, a new idea, a new concept that kind of maps our real life and mimics our offline life on the online space as well. Continue reading …