Concept Note For StarupFundas.com

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StartUpFundas.com
Unearth the startup inside you

Concept Note

Almost everyone in a job has thought of, imagined or dreamt of becoming an entrepreneur. Yet so very few actually take the plunge. Why?

Besides the obvious and often quoted reasons of fear of failure, society not having favourable disposition towards failures, high need for security and so on so forth, I feel something more basic tacks is missing in the picture which is “LACK OF INFORMATION” about what life as an entrepreneur entails and what it offers. To give a simple example, most guys feel there is a monetary risk in giving up a job but nobody even bothers to quantify the risk and see it is as a percentage of lifetime earnings. The short point here is that due to lack of information, the risks tend to get magnified and the opportunities and benefits look meagre in comparsion

To add to the mess created by lack of information “the entrepreneur” is often over romanticised as a half crazy guy who defied all odds, started with Rs. 5000/- in his pocket and ended up being a billionaire. While such stories do end up inspiring a few, they make most people end up thinking entrepreneurship is not their cup of tea and possibly. The truth is most entrepreneurs start with a lot more, take far fewer risks than imagined and possibly also end up making far lesser money than the ones in the stories. Again the short point is that entrepreneurship has a lot more to offer than a hefty networth. It is a life choice with many aspects of freedom, personal growth and satisfaction.

StartupFundas.com plans to make acting on your desire to know about entrepreneurship as a life choice or act on your desire to become an entrepreneur simple and hands on.

It plans to do this by offering direct interaction with “E-Catalysts” (people who have gone down this road) on email, phone and web chat. We acknowledge that each person’s situation is unique and hence the information he seeks would be different.

We understand and appreciate that a lot is common like business planning, company formations, agreements, finance, money so we will build on a resource base which the entrepreneurs can access but our key differentiator would be that the starting point would be an interaction with a “E-Catalyst” who will guide the budding entrepreneur to appropriate resources. The “E-Catalyst” will keep in touch with him to progress him along the path of figuring out if entrepreneurship will work for him. Once he has crossed that hurdle the “E-Catalyst” will help him get closer to taking the plunge and starting up.

For people who have decided to start up, StarupFundas.com can look at providing mentor capital and seed money as well.

So what are you waiting for…

Login to StartupFundas.com…
You have nothing to lose but your job which you probably want to leave anyway

Experimenting with Direct Cash Transfers

Sanjay one of the guys on http://7days7gifts.ning.com used a nice phrase "I have adopoted a family". That set me thinking and linking with something I have been thinking for a some time

For long I have thought cash transfers were the most effective means of relief and
poverty alleviation. There are conditional transfers but they come with too much overhead

So combining this with gifting. Here is what I think. If we could identify families, preferbaly not in the cities but in some remote areas where Rs. 250-Rs.500 a month would make a difference and just get guys to adopt a family for a year to three years. The money could be sent through direct bank transfers and preferably in the name of the lady of house. It will just be a gift with the message that "there are people who care about your well being..". That in itself will give such a lot of hope to people getting this gift. It is like having another family for you in another part of India. This will clearly come with no strings attached but we can choose to identify well.

My idea is a simple direct income distribution without any moralising on how to spend the money. Just thinking I have some more family members whom I have to provide for in a limited way

Comments and suggestions invited

Beehive Queues

Everyone in India must be painfully aware of the unique "Beehive Queue" formation that we seem to specialise in. Just for those not aware, a "beehive queue" is one where everyone tries to reach the entry point/counter from all possible directions quite similar to bees homing on to their hive.

Now I have seen this happen at airport lounges where there is no fear of someone taking your seat or a counter running out of tickets. I have thought long and hard about this and have reached the following points to ponder:

1. Basically I think we have been a scarcity economy and continue to be so in some spheres. Anyone who has rushed at a DTC bus and climbed onto it and sometimes been left behind, will vouch for this.
Our behaviour continues to be like it should be where there is scarcity even when there is no need for that. I have observed that very young kids stand in queues far more patiently than some of the elder ones do.

2. Somewhere in our psyche, I feel, breaking a queue and getting something out of turn is seen as an achievement and not as something to be ridiculed at. A guy probably feels more macho if he leans on the counter from the side and buys his tickets in between two customers in queue. He will then be congratulated by his group and he will become their official queue breaker.

3. Another thing which contributes to this mentality is that in shops, the shopkeeper or attendant attends to ten customers at a time, probably employing a round robin to handle their requests. Anywhere in the West, only one person is attended to at a time. Although research needs to be done to find out which creates the shorter average waiting time but the many customers at one time surely generates a higher level of blood pressure and increased irritability. Any one who has ever tried to get 100 pages photocopied and has been interrupted by 10 people with 2-3 copies each, will understand exactly what I mean.

So where does all this lead us to, not that everything has to lead somewhere.

The only way out of this, apart from not breaking queues yourself, seems to be that the queue breaker needs to be objected to by the others in the queue more vocally

So next time someone breaks the queue or walks into the ATM while your are withdrawing your cash or tries to put his hand over your shoulder to reach the counter, please please stop him and make a hue and cry. Do not shrug and let that pass.

A simple thing like that could change things a lot.

Getting started

Who, am I? I am Vivek Joshi, 35 years, resident of New Delhi, India.

This blog is my attempt to highlight and share some of my thoughts on some seemingly complicated issues in the Indian context mainly. Hopefully it will lead to something more meaningful as I get more feedback and suggestions.

Some of the areas which I will try to write about in the coming days will be:

1. How to reduce generation of black money in the Indian Economy
2. Why citizens in India forever feel short changed by the governance they get
3. Ahhh..the dreaded "C" word..."Corruption". Is there really no way out. Are we doomed to greasing palms for generations to come...or ....Can something be done.
4. Why we cannot form and stand in queues and why we should

I think it is enough of a start for a first blog.

More soon, hopefully :)