Startups Archives - Praval Singh

I was reading an interesting essay by Paul Graham and these insights got me thinking.

At any given time there tends to be one problem that’s the most urgent for a startup. This is what you think about as you fall asleep at night and when you take a shower in the morning. And when you start raising money, that becomes the problem you think about. You only take one shower in the morning, and if you’re thinking about investors during it, then you’re not thinking about the product.

Whereas if you can choose when you raise money, you can pick a time when you’re not in the middle of something else, and you can probably also insist that the round close fast. You may even be able to avoid having the round occupy your thoughts, if you don’t care whether it closes.

Is there a downside to ramen profitability? Probably the biggest danger is that it might turn you into a consulting firm. Startups have to be product companies, in the sense of making a single thing that everyone uses. The defining quality of startups is that they grow fast, and consulting just can’t scale the way a product can. But it’s pretty easy to make $3000 a month consulting; in fact, that would be a low rate for contract programming. So there could be a temptation to slide into consulting, and telling yourselves you’re a ramen profitable startup, when in fact you’re not a startup at all.

Ever thought of being part of the next big business idea? If yes, this is for you!

Event Info

Host: Proto.in

Type: Meetings – Business Meeting

Network:Global

Time and Place

Date: Saturday, September 6, 2008

Time: 10:00am – 5:00pm

Location: Amity – Noida

City/Town: Delhi, India

A Startup is probably the best place to be at for a fresher or for a professional who is looking for a career boost or to experience rapid growth. But the issue is that most people are not aware as to where to find these startups, neither are these startups able to be part of campus recruitment processes because of their small size.

The Basic Questions:

What is a Startup? A Startup is a company which is in its early stage of growth. It is most probably the founder of the company with a small team of five to ten people (or maybe less) working hard at a fabulous problem and to grow. There are two ways a startup could go: a) Really really big, or b) Go nowhere. The option is that you learn a lot from being part of a small group of people since you learn everything related to running a company and everything that goes on, which is an experience you will never get working for a corporate, and also if the startup grows big, you make a lot of money along with the founders.

What does it mean to work for a Startup? It would mean:

1. A committed job which would be an amazing place for passionate people
2. Slightly long hours of work
3. A very tightly knit team which is dedicated, passionate and probably the smartest set of people you will meet.
4. Slightly lower salaries
5. High Payback options on success

Who all can be part of this Startup Lunch? If you believe you do possess the skills to contribute to a Startup, you are more than welcome to put-in your name. Some of the verticals you might be coming from are:
* Programmers
* Marketers
* Visual Communication
* Animators
* Etc.

How Does this work?

The principle is roughly the same as the SpeedDating concept. The startup founders are seated on one side and the candidates get to say hello and have a quick conversation to talk about what the background of the founder is, why he started the company and what sort of person he is looking for, while asking questions to the candidate about the reason to join a startup and what his/her passions are and ten minutes later the same process continues with the next founder. Within an hour, you would have met/spoken to most of the startups, and by the end of the day would know whom to get in touch with for your first/next job.

So, what’s Cooking? Delhi Startup Lunch 3 is!
The Delhi Startup Lunch 3 is ready to be served on 6th September 2008.
We invite new & young businesses (Startups) and Candidates from Delhi + NCR region to participate.

More details about the event and the online registration process is available on the wiki page. If you decide to be a part of the event, you contact me or either of these guys to get any information you wish to have.

Abhishek (abhishekb@zoomtra.com)
Avinash (avinash@routeguru.com)
Vishal (vishalg76@gmail.com)
Praval (catchme@praval.com)

Praval is a web evangelist and marketer with Uswaretech.com, a Django web application development shop.