13 year old CEO

Here is an interesting anecdote on Zoli's Blog.

Kaval Kaur, co-Founder of Virsa, a company acquired by enterprise software giant SAP is up on stage. She is a dynamic speaker, and a perfect inspiration for entrepreneurs or entrepreneur-wannabes in the crowd.

But ... what's happening? She is interrupted by a kid with a microphone in hand.

"Hi - are you looking for your parents?

No. I'm looking for funding."

The "kid" turns out to be Anshul Samar, 13-year old CEO of Elementeo, a battle-game of .. chemical elements. (Gee, I barely knew what chemistry was at his age). Anshul looks like a 13-year old, but speaks like an adult. He knows what he wants: the goal is to achieve $1M in revenue by the time he finishes high-school, which is next year.

If you're travelling, read this

This is why we choose to work for the whole year.

Vacations are what makes it worthwhile. One month off the job makes it possible to survive the eleven months of work. I wonder what would happen if that was taken away. I have heard that in Japan it is compulsory to take all of your leaves. Because they say the people there have a tendency to stop taking vacation because they say that the work gets affected. I can't believe that this kind of people still exist in the world.

Anyways, if you ask me, there are two places I really want to go to: Singapore and Thailand. Singapore, because it is one of the coolest places in the world. It looks modern but at the same time it is undeniably Asian. The climate is amazing and there are a shitload of places to go to. If you like it as much as I do, you can get your flights to Singapore here.

The second place is Thailand. And for just one reason, Bangkok is there :D. By the way, you can't flights to Thailand and the Bangkok flight. The last time I planned to go there was last new years. Luckily for me, I couldn't make it, because I fell short of money. And guess what happened. There was a coup. Bangkok got bombed. But my friends who were there, told me that it wasn't all that bad. So i've been saving up again for quite some time now. And this time it looks like i'm all set to go.

Sponsored Post : Payday Loans

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All of us know the feeling.

The pay day is oh so close but you need the money now, not one week later. One week later it would be all gone, it is now or never. And then you need to call up your friend, or your family and explain how much you need, and when will you return it. And you get those glances, even though you're on a full time job.

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Take a step back if you want to jump

Greg writes a beautiful post about why it is important to take a step back if you wish to jump. He refers to Christine Kane's interview, who gives us a few insights.

Not only does Christines' music reveal wisdom each answer to Ed's questions reveal a conscious, authentic lady who gets it. Her answers really do speak to the need of every entrepreneur to occasionally step back to gain perspective and look after themselves so they can be of service to others. Check out the interview on Ed's blog and make sure to check out Christine Kane. Here is a video of Christine performing one of her popular songs.

Link

Sequoia sells stake in FirstSource

IndiaPrWire reports that Sequoia Capital has today announced that it has sold a 4.45% stake in Firstsource Solutions to SUN Group for a total sum of $42 million. Post the sale, Sequoia Capital India will continue to own around a 5% stake in FirstSource.

Speaking on the deal, KP Balaraj, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India said, “We are very positive about Firstsource Solutions, which is one of India’s top BPO companies and is currently the largest publicly traded BPO company with a current market cap of over $1 Billion. The company is led by a world class management team and Board, and we are excited to remain a shareholder and investor here. We are also very excited that Sequoia India was an early investor in India`s first large cap BPO public company .”

eClips : The biggest resource of entrepreneurial articles

Here is the biggest resource of clips about entrepreneurship, including interviews with great entrepreneurs of all time. You can read more about it here.

Students and professionals interested in social responsibility often argue that business is only about making a profit and "entrepreneurship" is a dirty word. eClips brings wisdom from Bena Burda, CEO of Maggie’s Organics who feels commerce and trade can be viable solutions and states,

Business absolutely is a change agent.

Sponsored Post : Pingo Calling Cards

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Tired of looking through hundreds of calling cards to find out which one of them turns out to be the cheapest. Well now you can relax, because the cheapest card that you would ever find is already here. Pingo, the prepaid calling card provider started by iBasis, a public company (NASDAQ: IBAS), it intends to provide you with a cheap alternative and saving a lot of your time.



More so if you use your mobile to call up, then using Pingo allows you to save as much as 90% on international calls, if you use Pingo. They use a trademarked PIN-less dialling, so that you don't have to remember the passwords. And you also get $5 just for singing up. It is also the lowest India prepaid calling card rate(India = 7.3 cents)

Other than that there are free merchant giveaways, free fathers day calls, and an affiliate program too.

Guy Kawasaki starts up company in $12k

Andrew Fife links to a WSJ article, which talks about how Guy Kawasaki, of Garage Venture, started his new company truemors on just $12k and free softwares. The programming was done by a company with cool website called Electric Pulp.

It is said that it took three months to complete creating the product.

Entrepreneurship Blog

Sponsored Post : Lowest unique bids win

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But the best part is that it's not the highest bid that gets it, it's the lowest bid that wins. For example, if you are bidding for this BMW 3 series, if two people bid $30,000 and one guy bids $40,000, and you bid $30,0001 for the same, then you win the bid. Sounds interesting?

If yes then you can log into Bid4Prizes.com and start bidding for the things that you really like. I'm still stuck on the BMW Series 3, just can't get my mind off it.

Enterpreneurship in Pakistan

Babar Bhatti talks about conferences for entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

I would like to share a new series of learning and networking opportunities for executives and entrepreneurs in Pakistan. In June, there are 2 seminars in Karachi, led by senior lecturers Ken Morse and William Aulet at MIT Entrepreneurship Center. First is “Pakistan CEO Summit” and the second is “Financing Your New Venture“. Organizers include OPEN, MDI, MIT Entrepreneurship Center and Computer Society of Pakistan.

I never thought much would be happening there, but it looks like there is.

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If you've even had the experience of coming across somebody who is addicted, then you might have some idea about how difficult life can be for such a person. Even though so many rehab centres are available around the country, the problem seems to be deteriorating. One major reason for the same is that the treatment for drug rehab can be too expensive.

This is why a new service which has come up can be really useful. 1800-no-drugs helpline is not-for-profit free service which provides consultation about where and how to find the correct rehab center for you friends or family.

So if you are one of those who are looking for help, do get 1800-no-drugs helpline a call. You are sure to find help there.

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Inventors and Innovators

This is why entrepreneurs won't let innovation die.

If creativity is the seed that inspires entrepreneurship, innovation is the process of entrepreneurship. Enterpreneurers are often thought to be "inspired" people, and perhaps they are, but more important, they often recognize changes and opportunities that can result from a dynamic world. Innovation is an important factor of entrepreneurship for every leader. It is defined as the process of doing new things. Therefore, it is often the active translation of a creative idea into a new product, service, or technology. Drukers writes that "innovation…is the means by which the entrepreneur either creates new wealth-producing resources or endows existing resources with enhanced potential for creating wealth."

Read the whole article here.

Succeeding as an entrepreneur

Trevor Nel, of the social entrepreneur defines what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur.

* Do it if you have passion about the project. You will not succeed if your heart is not in the venture.
* Have clarity of purpose: define what success will look like and quantify your goals. Write a business plan for the new venture.
* Make sure you have "sufficient" resources to succeed: money, time, psychic energy. If you are already wiped out from your job, you will have a hard time finding the extra energy and passion you will need to make the venture successful.
* You must have personal and organizational commitment and courage to succeed Is your organization ready to take this on? Is everyone on board with the plan?
* Articulate your organization's core values: does this venture fit in with the list? If not, don't do it.
* Be focused on the customer.
* You must have a willingness to plan: do not hesitate to ask for help.
* Be #1 or #2 in the marketplace, or don't do it at all. Like General Electric, you should plan on being the top player in the marketplace of services for your venture, or you should not bother to do it.
* Build the right team to carry it out.

Check out the other links too (link)

Why developing nations need entrepreneurs

Emeka writes about the growing problems in developing countries and why all such countries need entrepreneurs. (link)

The problem is that we mistake that importance of technical ability, and vastly underestimate the importance of entrepreneurial ability. Our schools are organized to produce technicians in all fields, and from age 16 a student must narrow down their course of formal study (for life in most cases) to four subject areas and General Paper.
The truth is that educating another lawyer, doctor or accountant is unlikely to contribute much to our GDP. Narrow technical abilities are admirable, but nowhere near as vital to countries in which the large mass of people cannot afford to use them.
What most developing countries need are not more professionals with masters degrees in contract law, but more entrepreneurs who are willing to hire ever increasing numbers of ordinary people.

Link

If you think about India, all of this is true of all places except for Gujrat. For they say that in any other part of the country, if your son is useless, he starts a business, but in Gujrat it is the smarter breed of Gujjus who get into business. And who says they don't have anything to show for it.

Issues with starting up in developing countries

Atif comes out with a beautiful article about the problems of starting up in a developing country. He seems to be back after three years, but looks like he's still in touch ;).

Here are the main points that he mentions :
1. Political stability
2. Government Oversight
3. Financing

(Link)

Here in India, things are almost similar to the countries that he is discussing about ie Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh. Ofcourse when I compare, Political stablitily is still not that much of an issue. Military comes in once in thirty years, which gives you enough time to plan.

Government is a problem. It takes three weeks to register a company in the US. In India it takes well over a month, no matter what they say. Everything is supposed to be online now, but it still takes a lot of time. And the reasons are aplenty. From websites not handling the load to issues with getting registered at the government office. More so, since the government started taxing pass through income, it seems things might get a little more difficult. However, there are a few government initiatives coming up, like this, I am not sure I know too many people who rely on it.

Financing is also a problem. Starting up right after college is a complete no no because nobody would fund you to startup. Even after three or four years things are not as easy. Everybody looks for a team with a combined work ex of close to twenty-twenty five years, before they even think about giving you the money. Sadly, there is not much which can be done, and I hope things do improve as time progresses.

Factors affecting Entrepreneurs

Sparkii, a new blogger on entrepreneurship, writes about Culture Norms and Personality Traits Influence on Entrepreneurship.

He explains why the entrepreneurs feel more responsibility when the business fails

During the start up stages, founding members are usually more passionate as they were the ones who nurtured the firm to its present status and would remain so on all activities concerning the firm. They tend to worry about future prospects and have a high locus of control believing that their life’s event could be controlled (Ang and Hong, 2000). Thus, when failures occur it would attribute it to their own actions.

Then he comes on to why and what makes an entrepreneur.

Possession of personality characteristics alone does not imply that any individual has what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Motivation also is needed to drive an individual to have the entrepreneurial spirit. Therefore, there are two components to an entrepreneurial spirit – the ability or personality component as well as the motivational component. (Ang and Hong, 2000)

This is where it starts getting interesting. He explains why Confucianism is also partly responsible for the lesser number of entrepreneurs in Singapore. And then moves on to how entrepreneurs still manage to succeed against all odds.

An entrepreneur who holds a steadfast belief that has brought him success would likely to continue holding on to the same views to eternity, such persistence could be detriment to the future of the firm (Lok, 2007); even as entrepreneurship is about being perseverance. The problem then is of change and the management of the usual resistance to it.
But then when is it a good time to change and know that it is for the better? Perhaps a lot of it depends on intuition which draws it strength from experience and even the random generation element. In Hertzmark (2001) empirical study of commodity traders, it was observed that consistently a group of traders were able to obtain returns inspite the lack of abilities. The returns are devoid of logic and predictability.

An interesting read. (Link)

eBay Entrepreneurship Conference

Open your online wealth states on his blog that the Attendee registration is now open for eBay's 6th Annual community conference in Boston on June 14-16. (Link)

eBay Live! aims at helping users improve their entrepreneurial skills through classes, roundtables, and panels, the company said. Guest speakers will include personal finance guru Suze Orman, marketing expert Seth Godin, and John Gardner, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur's Soul, the company said.This year's theme is "The Power of All of Us."

So keep your bags packed, Boston, here we come.

Liberal Entrepreneurship

Planting Liberally, takes about Liberal Entrepreneurship in the latest post. Like most of the other articles on the site, this one too provides a lot of food for thought.

He defines it thus

"Liberal entrepreneurship" is a term I am ripping off of the better known "social entrepreneurship". As defined by Wikipedia, a social entrepreneur is "someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change." By contrast, a liberal entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a problem which faces the progressive movement and builds an organization to solve it.

And then he talks about some basic approaches to increasing the flow of money into the progressive movement, and defines what he means by the term 'Liberal Entrepreneurship'. Here are the main points about increasing the flow of money

1. Rely on Big Donors
2. Support Entrepreneurs
3. Going for small dollar fund raising

Do read the complete article here. (Link)

The importance of being a failure

In their latest post, Singapore Entrepreneus argues that failure is the stepping stone to success. This one advice just might be the most often quoted piece of literature on entrepreneurship, yet the most widely used.

The argument used is creative, he uses economics, aids and pollution to explain why people in Singapore are scared of failing.

I can say it's with all of the other countries too.

A must read (Link)

Entrepreneurs in Indian Engineering Colleges

Matt McGann from MIT writes about a few about his collegues in engineering colleges who are starting up. He referes to a company called 'Dropbox', which I can say I have heard about before too. (Link)

How long would it take before it starts happening in engineering colleges in India. Right now, all that you hear about is ragging (which I should say I'm not really against, if people stay in the correct state of mind, which they usually do).

From my batch in college, not more than 4 out of a 180 have started up. And this is after two and a half years. While we were in college there was no way we could even think about something like this. Maybe time has come for a change.

Spirituality in Western Entrepreneurship

Andy writes on his blog Public Policy News and Research about the demise and Reawakening of Spirituality in Western Entrepreneurship

Understanding spirituality may serve as a foundation for developing new approaches to managerial action, organizational learning, social change and leadership. This article explores this phenomenon by hermeneutically tracing the demise and reawakening of spiritual entrepreneurship in Western life over the past 200 years. Spiritual aspects of entrepreneurial organizations are also framed via the lens of critical management theory as reflected in literature spanning four social epochs: federalist reality, the Industrial Revolution, disciplinary society, and the post-industrial milieu. The resulting themes highlight the interconnectedness and reciprocal influences between social reality and spiritual leadership in Western entrepreneurial enterprises. Drawn from the author's doctoral research (Jue 2004), the article suggests a need for reintegrating spiritual leadership among post-modern organizations and entrepreneurial firms in the achievement of more sustainable futures.

Link

Farmers turn entrepreneurs

The Economic Times brings out an interesting article about farmers in Punjab turning entrepreneurs. The Punjabis have always been famous for having the business gene, and now we have even more examples.

An example is Jaswinder Singh Sangha — a potato grower from Jalandhar — who has become the authorised franchisee of the Subway outlet in the city. Another member of his extended family (also in the potato business) has recently set up a unit in Jalandhar which makes French fries and supplies it to several top food chains including McDonald’s.

Link

Entrepreneurs and Corporates

MindPetals brings out the song of entrepreneurship as against corporates. He writes

It’s fun. It can be scary. It’s stressful. It’s amazing. It’s all of these things and that’s why we love it. It’s our ever-changing and growing song and we sing it everyday of our lives.

Do check out the song at his website.

(Link)

Using Ajax : Downloading songs from Myspace

Here is one hell of a trick to flick songs off myspace, and guess what does it use, yes, Ajax. All you need to do is to copy and paste the the band's homepage url and paste it in the form on the page, and you're done.

Try it out here.(Link)

If anybody knows how this is done, do let me know.