Planning, Enterpreunership

Some of you know, I've been trying to get an idea off the ground. We are a bunch of techie guys who believe in it, and are going forward. However, NONE of us has an actual business degree, so we kept trying to postpone the creation of a business plan. BAD IDEA.

I've come to realize, the Business plan, even though it may not be the most accurate or even come close to reality once things touch the ground, gives us a PLAN, or atleast something to refer to, to think about where we want to go. I believe it's extremely important to have a plan on where you want to go. You can't just start something and expect it to take off without a plan.

I guess it's time for me to dig up my plan which was written LONG LONG time ago, rethink it for the current scenario and move it forward. We've just internally released a pretty decent upgrade, and on a crusade to fix some bugs. Once thats done, and we a add a couple of features I really really want, I think we'll be ready for our much larger alpha! Yaay!

Ofcourse, I also have another idea, but can't seem to get the right people together for it! Damn it!

The other thing I've found is, you need a team of people who are all as enthusiastic about the product as you are. That core team is extremely important. I've found that 2 or 3 people tops for the core team is always good, and complementary skills is a must!

Its unfortunate that here in the US of A, unless you have globs of money to put into your startup, you're not allowed to legally start a company (as an immigrant) :(.

AP, India elections

While the Congress(I) is celebrating in India on winning the elections, it's a loss for the country. Even though they talk about a great democracy, the percentage of people that votes was laughable (about 40% in most places or less).

Andhra Pradesh which was earlier considered a laboratory for economic reforms (during Naidu's rule) became a laboratory for welfare schemes," said Rama Brahmam, a professor of political science at Hyderabad University.

That about sums it up for why the current administration in the state of Andhra Pradesh won.

If you care to read....the article is here

Its probably true in most parts of the state where the damn party won. I used to LOVE this Prime Minister (Dr. Manmohan Singh) and I was more than psyched when he became the PM the first time. But then when it all became giveaways, and corruption, it just felt such a big let down.

Rant: India Votes!

HOW STUPID CAN THE INDIAN PUBLIC GET!?! HOW COULD THEY VOTE BACK A NON PERFORMING CORRUPTION RIDDEN GOVERNMENT? Even in Andhra Pradesh, India's almost silicon valley, the worst party possible - the Congress(I) has gotten the most votes. Why? Probably because all those young adults who could vote, couldn't be bothered to go vote, and all the corrupt government employees whose bribes would be cut significantly went and voted. The TDP during their tenure drastically improved public services, roads, infrastructure etc. Whereas during the Congress rule that past years, all they did was rest on TDPs infrastructure, and ate as much money as they could.

I hope and pray that atleast in the next general elections, India will boot out these asses, but I dont have much hope. Until the young generation goes and votes, India will continue to be in a rut and led by the worst party of the nation - the Congress(I).

Newspaper industry....

People keep talking about the newspaper industry and how it's dieing. I am all against it -- especially because BLOGS aren't news, they're mostly written by people with (almost)NO JOURNALISTIC talent. I'd rather have professional journalists doing the real reporting even if they're skewed one way or another.

To revive it though - I'd say - once you give something free it's hard to take back. So why not some of the newspapers join together in a "online media partnership" and allow people access to content for a certain fee per month or year (plus ofcourse the ad revenue)? That should take care of atleast some of the revenue generation and people won't feel like crap to keep paying for individual papers. Perhaps some "Free" content and the rest can be paid.

I wouldn't go the extreme of what WSJ is doing and keep increasing prices willy nilly (but Murdoch is nuts), but I think some kind of an "all access pass" is long overdue!

Fannie Mae - You SUCK!

So - Mr President Obama has this ambitious plan to help all mortgage holders and encouraging all of us to refinance. However, he's forgetting that Fannie Mae SUCKS. They don't care if your house appraisal comes up about 100k over what they say your house is worth. They will WITHOUT any appraisal of the neighboring houses will set their price and not budge from it! So what can the home owner do? Refinance with a different lender - and put in money again (to make it 5%, 10% or 20%) or what not, and cannot take advantage of the Homeowner Affordability plan.

So in short - Mr President - your plan sucks!