Thought Garage

Steve Blank's presentation on "Why Accountants Don't Run Businesses" discusses about how the eco-system of Entrepreneurship and startups is fast changing around the world: costs, venture capital, incubators and others. And more importantly what is different now and what matters the most for today's startups and entrepreneurs. Watch live video from Startup Lessons Learned on Justin.tv

Steve Blank - Founder Pioneer of Customer Development "Founders are artists in the true sense of the word." Steve is inspiring founders and challenging the establishment on how to approach launching startups. website: www.steveblank.com twitter: @sgblank

Part of 2010 Conference on Entrepreneurship. Description: A group of entrepreneurs talk about what they learned in the trenches that they never could have learned in a classroom. The panelists will also share the courses that were most helpful to them in their entrepreneurial ventures, the courses that they wished they had taken, and the topics that business schools should be teaching to aspiring entrepreneurs.

One of the best Talks I have ever listened to on Entrepreneurship, may consider this as the Entrepreneurship 101, not for how to become an Entrepreneur but to understand what is Entrepreneurship is all about. Of course, the definition may be biased and based on what valley firms are doing, but a much better definition overall. Part of the annual GSB Entrepreneurship Conference. As traditional barriers to scale erode, product life cycles compress, and the costs of starting a business fall, the opportunities for entrepreneurship have expanded. Steve Blank , the author of "Four Steps to the Ephiphany" and leading advocate for the "Customer Development" model of entrepreneurship, focuses on the new opportunities and challenges in a world in which entrepreneurship has become democratized.

Entrepreneurship is an emotional and economic roller coaster, says venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur Mark Suster. In this candid and informative lecture, Suster defies some of Silicon Valley's conventional wisdom. Based on his extensive experience with multiple companies, Suster shares his thoughts on the real day-to-day life of startups, smart ways to raise the right kind of funds, and offers honest advice in making your way as an entrepreneur. – Stanford’s e-corner Source : Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner

"God Complex" is a strange word but quite a pervasive feeling. Believe it nor,  we all have it. Not just a little, but quite in abundance. A little humility is all we need to will help us to experiment and innovate. Incredible talk. Economics writer Tim Harford studies complex systems -- and finds a surprising link among the successful ones: they were built through trial and error. In this sparkling talk from TEDGlobal 2011, he asks us to embrace our randomness and start making better mistakes.

Found this interesting interview of Charlie Rose with Top Indian Entrepreneurs at  Charlie Rose . Little old, I guess recorded in March 2006. But I find this specific excerpt with Anil quite relevant and interesting. Video URL You might also find the following quite interesting. Nandan Nilekani of Infosys Azim Premji of Wipro

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.   I thought for a moment, what difference would it make, if every blogger writes something about the issue? I remembered the Starfish story. If every blogger take one single action along with writing their ideas about the issue on thier blogs, it would make a huge difference.  "The Starfish Story” by Loren Eiseley Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up. As he ...

The Sun Startup Essentials program was launched the U.S. on November 2, 2006 on an experimental basis, and was launched in India on  August 8, 2007.  Sun Startup Essentials offers startup companies groundbreaking Sun technologies and software at breathtaking prices or free. For more program specifics, take a look at the Sun Startup Essentials Datasheet . Free Software  : Get popular open source software, such as Apache, MySQL, Perl, etc. -- all optimized for the Solaris operating system, free for the asking. Discounted Systems  : Get rock-bottom prices on industry-leading Sun systems and run the OS of your choice. Discounted Partner Hosting  : Get top-notch web hosting from Sun partners at great discounts. Startups Ask Sun  : Our professional engineers will talk with you through emails and will try to answer your questions.

   Product Workshop on -What & How to build Challenges of a Product Business NASSCOM presents a workshop  on “What & How to build Challenges of a Product Business”. The NASSCOM Product Forum has identified the need to guide entrepreneurs who have business ideas in the software product space and are striving to get those ideas off the ground. This workshop would contribute towards creating a software product ecosystem in India, learning from the experience of Silicon Valley, Canada, Israel and other technology centers. This Product workshop will be led by experienced people from technology, business and venture funding backgrounds who are keen to contribute to aspiring product entrepreneurs, Product Companies, Product teams and Incubating companies.  Venue/Date : 9:00 AM To 5:30 PM 01 September 2007, The Royal Ball Room, The Leela Palace, Airport Road, Bangalore Click on Event Page Link  for more.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central belief of western societies: that freedom of choice leads to personal happiness. In Schwartz's estimation, all that choice is making us miserable. We set unreasonably high expectations, question our choices before we even make them, and blame our failures entirely on ourselves. His relatable examples, from consumer products (jeans, TVs, salad dressings) to lifestyle choices (where to live, what job to take, whom and when to marry), underscore this central point: Too many choices undermine happiness. Source: TED | Talks | Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice (video)

Excellent visual showing almost all Apple products. I did not know most products. I haven't even heard of most of them except a very few.   Evolution of Apple's Products | created by Edwin Tofslie   A visual I created to show the evolution of most all Apple products created over the past 30 years.This was created to show the evolution of the form factor and industrial design of the products, not to show every single model or upgrade Apple has launched. Click here to view big Source: Apple Product Evolution

Excerpt from Bill Gates commencement speech at Harvard: Don’t let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives. You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time. As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had. You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have. And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort. You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer. Knowing what you know, how could you not? And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world’s deepest inequities… on how well you treated people a world away who...

Its quite unusual to see a book like this in India.  In US, if some one is successful in one venture, then their second venture is to sell that (so called) success formula. He/she spends the rest of their lives in selling that success through books, seminars, merchandise.. any thing that can be sold. I don't believe that  if you read those and probably follow them you will succeed. But it is good to see what their success made them to believe in. It is quite unusual to see similar books in India. Don't know why, I don't find (m)any books where Entrepreneurs and successful Indians wanted to share their stories. There are so many untold stories and unsung heroes. One of my friends, who share a similar mysterious belief, sent me a link to this book to prove the point that times are changing. It also has its own website to promote ( http://www.ithappened.in/ ). I The book is sold online through futurebazaar.com. But, the website shipping options only a...

A recent report by  Kauffman Foundation infers that there is a strong correlation between educational attainment and entrepreneurship. A report released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that tracked the educational backgrounds of immigrant entrepreneurs who were key founders of technology and engineering companies from 1995 to 2005 shows a strong correlation between educational attainment (particularly in science, technology, engineering and math) and entrepreneurship. Click image, above, to read Education, Entrepreneurship and Immigration: America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part II . Click image, above, to read America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs (part 1 of the study). But before jumping to 'any' conclusions about  role of Educational Attainment to Entrepreneurship, (which I believe is construed and a misquoted wisdom), consider the following points from the report itself: The report  studied only Technology and Engineering companies....

I always observed a huge contrast between the way Bill Gates and Steve Jobs present. While I enjoyed and watched Steve Job's presentation in full and many times more than once, I have never completed a Bill Gate's presentation so far. I had difficulty understanding Bill Gates. I found his thoughts to be too abstract and his speech very monotonous. Steve Jobs however speaks in a very engaging fashion and in very simple words and great visuals.  I found a blog post that compares the contrasting styles that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates uses in thier presentations, that might explain the reasons for my bias. Gates and Jobs: lessons in contrasts Take a look at some of the typical visuals used by Steve Jobs and those used by Bill Gates. As you look at them and compare them, try doing so while being mindful of the key concepts behind the traditional Zen aesthetic. Above. Does it get more "Zen" than this? "Visual-Zen Master," Steve Jobs, allows the screen to ...

How are many of the Web2.0 companies (hoping of) making  money out of their products? Quick and honest answer is : 'Nobody knows for sure, including the companies'. And predominantly there is only one business model: a free service and place ads on the pages. Here is nice study on current Web2.0 business models, from  VTT - Technical Research Centre of Finland : PDF File Social media is becoming more and more attractive to Web users. However, the majority of social media services do not have a clear business model. Typically an innovative idea gives birth to a service, which people can use free of charge. The most common way to create revenue is via advertisements: Google ads appear in many services. In the long run, however, social media has to adopt alternative means for making money. Why most web2.0 services are free? I think, despite the hype in the media, many web2.0 companies (excluding a few) are NOT looked as providing any VALUE to its users....

Seth Godin shares about his recent visit to Indian Consulate in Newyork and its bizarre state of affairs. Thats not a big surprise for me and fellow Indians who have been living through it for years. But it is quite interesting to read his fresh suggestions to treat it just like a business and leverage the unique opportunity and maximize benefits. He argues that problem is not lack of ideas to change but lack of a mindset to do so. The problem is that this bureaucracy, like most bureaucracies, has an attitude of minimizing, not maximizing. They want to minimize expense, not maximize benefit. There isn't a single person there who has as part of his job, "change systems to increase the satisfaction of people we deal with." Nobody who is charged with, "increase revenue opportunities for us and for the people we work with." Or even, "employ more people in Delhi." Same thing happens at my village zoning board, at most schools, at many churches and even...

Interesting campaign to create a technology dream for Girls.  Share the word and make sure you work with atleast one girl to encourage to go tech.  The Girls Go Tech campaign aims to encourage girls to develop an early interest in math, science, and technology and, ultimately, maintain that interest to help ensure a more diverse, dynamic and productive workforce. Girls Go Tech campaign! - TV Ads       --> GirlsGoTech Website --> Adcouncil 's Page Technorati tags: ad-council , gotechgirls , girlscouts , girls , technology , inspions

Not many people comeup with Ideas and Opinions on any given subject on their own.  But when some one express an opinion or share an Idea, the whole world wakesup. Some try to tear the opinion or idea apart by giving their 'expertise' judgement. Some express 100s of reasons why it will fail. Some question the motivation behind the idea or opinion. Some shoots the messenger itself. A very few, believe me, you can count them on fingers, see the potential and will try to understand the implications. These days, we see 100s of them in blogs, articles, magazines, conferences, reviews, interviews, commentaries and every social gathering that try to offer and market their judgements, comments and suggestions. I guess, this is a natural tendency and human nature that is completely in line with Darwin's law of 'survival of the fittest'. Not everybody is humble to see through. And truly and honestly, not everybody is competent to see it. And there is nothing absolute abo...