Guruji.com

The trend seems to be catching. Everytime i write about a website, the name seems to get more catchy!

Guruji.com is a Indian search engine. Reading this the first reaction was - another search engine. Then i went ahead and read the reason behind the name Guruji. Guru is a Indian word mostly use for spiritual reasons. Keeping the same in mind Guruji.com was developed to become a technology guru showcasing Indian content. Fair enough, but that doesnt make it an innovative startup.

I went ahead and checked the Management Team and found out that founders had a strong background with good pedagogy and relevant experience. All the more reasons for me to be shocked - How can 4 people with such strong background come up with a product which has no differentiator. To add to it Sequoia Capital as investors!!...

But there are some good points which i only realised when i checked the search engine. One, It is very India specific so what you get is specific information. Two, you have a coloumn "City" and when you search using that you get the contact details for such websites where applicable. Third, if you want to see movies it can be a good search engine. Despite the above three couldnt find a "WOW" factor unless missed something.

May be a discussion with founders or if you find something which i missed, pls. comment! Read more on http://guruji.com

Entrepreneurs in India: Are they missing on creating differentiators?

Over last few years there have been so many startups coming up in India that it has become extremely difficult to differentiate amongst them. So you really don’t find many sectors which are still unexplored but that also means that there’s lots of scope of innovation. Sectors like online travel which wasn’t a hot bed for startups a few years back now has more than 15 competitors in India providing services from booking tickets online to booking hotels. A year back a bus ticketing website would have been a dream – a far fetched one - but today you have websites like RedBus.in, ticketwala.com, ElineBus.com and many similar websites providing services.

To Read the complete article pls. click Evan Carmicheal

Smart Campus

Smart Campus, an extremely comprehensive suite of "campus" solution by iDenizen was in news recently for receiving USD 2.25 million funding from Indo-US Ventures.

Designed for educational institutes, Smart Campus integrates various departments and functions ensuring a technology enabled campus. So whether it is the admission details or the attendance details of students and staff - Smart Campus covers it all. All this thereby brings in streamlining of the entire process and hence increase staff productivity.

Now one of the things which made me look skeptically was "WOW factor for students". One it is making the process disciplined, two it has a detailed attendance feature - still WOW for students..Poor chaps, where is the WOW. WOW which it brings for students is reduction in administrative work and hence more focus on academics. I really dont know if students would like it! :)

Anyways a nice product and now that i am out of college i "can" say - surely a value add. To know more hit http://www.smartcampus.in/

LordsOfOdds

LordsOfOdds - Nice name, brings to mind the battle field with many horses or Lords of Rings!

But LordsofOdds is slightly different - A platform with a mission to showcase Wisdom of Crowds through exiciting games on sports, entertainment and current affairs. LordsOfOdds is a user driven platform where users can drive the website through fun filled inputs. So you predict an event, get people to buy or sell "Loots" points for that event and win/lose based on the outcome of the event. Also as the players/audiences keep trading the prices keep going up & down.

Isnt that gambling! So would Sachin make more runs or Dravid?? Wouldnt that question qualify for our "Satta Market".

Now this gets me thinking, may be we should ask the founders on this. Anyways to know more keep reading http://www.lordsofodds.com/index/

Old Post: Tyroo Launches Localization feature for SMEs

Though its a little old and many would already be knowing about this feature, i thought i will still write it down.

Tyroo has launched its new localization strategy for SMEs advertising. SMEs in India hasnt been able to enjoy the full benefit of online advertising because whenever you place an online ad & someone clicks on the same - it takes you to the website of the SME. Considering that the SME market in India is still in growing stage most of the SMEs dont have a personal website and hence havent gone ahead with online advertising.

It is here that Tyroo's Localization feature adds value to Indian SMEs. Using Tyroo's software whenever one clicks on the add it takes to a webpage with a form which when filled by the user automatically sends a message to the SME on his/her mobile. Now this helps him get the valuable leads on his mobile.

Awesome feature! I am sure by now many SMEs will have enjoyed & reaped benefits out of it and those who havent please go ahead and try it.

ApnaBill.com

The name itself says it all!

ApnaBill.com is a platform to turn the offline model into an online one - targetting the prepaid segment. So though we had airtel & tata's of the world helping us pay our bills online, ApnaBill.com has gone a step ahead and tied up with these vendors and hence reduced the operational overhead involved. Some of the operators include Airtel, Aircel, BPL Mobile, Dish TV, Spice, Tata etc.

A product of four fraction from Delhi, team at ApnaBill.com consists of Mayank who has around 4 yrs of IT exp and a B Tech degree, Sandeep again from IT industry with similar background and Sameer who is a Post Graduate in International Marketing and looks afer the marketing of ApnaBill.com. All in all a very young and enthusiastic team.

ApnaBill.com was also a part of the startups list at the 4th edition of Proto which was recently held at IIT Delhi on 18/19th July and are currently looking for Venture Capital Investments. So if you are a VC and want to invest in a budding idea you know where to go!

An idea which already existed in the market but an audience which wasnt targetted - all the best folks! To Read more http://www.apnabill.com/

Updates on i-Startups Library

Latest Updates on i-Startups Library: Articles

1. 7 Habits of highly successul founders by V C Karthic - Founder BuzzWorks

2. Why Business Plans dont get funded by Akira Hirai - Founder Cayenne Consulting

3. Making a Great Product by Sachin Bhatia - Co Founder Drishti

Read them on http://www.i-startups.com/Library.html

Proto

The fourth edition of Proto took place at IIT, Delhi on 18-19 July. Though i wasnt lucky enough to reach the venue i did happen to see some of it through live video streaming.

The event had an impressive lineup of 15 startups from different segments & also saw amazing support from across the startup community. The list included companies like LootStreet, Crederity, Muziboo, ApnaBill and many others.

Considering the fact that Proto was only started around 2 years ago the response that it has been getting is just amazing. And considering the increasing number of enterpreneurs India is witnessing, events like Proto are only going to see these numbers going up

Webyantra

A Tech Blog which covers profiles of Indian products and services, Webyantra is a forum for those products which use internet as a delivery.

Despite being a very generic idea, the content on the website brings a lot of knowledge on table. Online Partner for Proto (July'08 Delhi Edition) the fundamentals of webyantra is very similar to i-Startups (another reason for it being a part of the illustrious list on this blog). Much like what i-Startups is to all the Startups, Webyantra is to Web 2.0 (though they say they are also tragetting Web 1.0). And all this web focussed have to have Indian connection to be a part of Webyantra. So whether its Navajo (word based facebook)or Kelly Services India Salary Handbook - all of that is present on Webyantra.

To read more on the same hit http://www.webyantra.net/

i-Startups Library

i-Startups Consulting has added one more feature on the website, i-Startups Library and with the same has moved a step closer to its vision of building a one stop sTartup shop.

i-Startups Library will be a database for wealth of information that is required by a young enterpreneur during his startups journey. So whether it is Business Plans, Market Strategy, Collaterals, or experiences of fellow enterprenaurs: i-Startups Library will have all that.

To access the same check http://i-startups.com/Library.html

Memsaab

The name sounds like its just the website that's "just for women"!

And actually thats true. Memsaab.com is a networking website for "memsaab's" around the world, providing the Indian women a platform to join hands together. And its not another female centric orkut but "one voice" to the female community. The existence has had to be for a purpose which is support females around globe, fight against injustice as a single voice, build a sense of togetherness and host regional chapters to build a community feeling.

The platform covers a whole lot of things like Blogging section, Discussion forums, and a chat section all very female oriented.

To me its another startup with little purpose! 1 on 5...Hit http://www.memsaab.com/ to know more

New @ i-Startups

Though i started the blog with the idea of covering only innovative startups, but over the past few days i have felt that i really need to cover a lot more things if i-Startups intends to become a one stop shop for all startup needs. And based on that i have come across some of the things which i plan to add to the i-Startups Setup. Some of them are mentioned below and you are free to give your feedback on the same:

1. Video Interviews - This section will cover video interviews of startup founders who have made a mark over the last few years.
2. Editorial Section - This section will involve articles from people who have been there done it all. The articles will be around their experiences and any other topic of interest directly related to enterpreneurship. This section will be hosted on i-Startups Library (http://i-startups.com/Library.html)

So is you feel you can and would like to contribute towards building i-Startups as a "One Stop" startup shop for all the budding and young enterprenaurs, please mail me with the subject line as "Video Interviews". "Editorial Section" or "Blogger's Coloumn" on contact@i-startups.com and i will be quick to get back to you.

Powerset

Founded in 2005, Powerset's first product is search engine for Wikipedia.

So after google, we now have a dedicated wiki search. But do we need it and isnt google more effective. To a certain extent yes, but if you want a detailed and in depth search on Wiki than Powerset seems to be an awesome solution. You can type sentences, phrases or keywords and Powerset will get you the closest answer in Wiki and sometimes even gets the correct answer directly. Besides Wikipedia, Powerset also get the articles/responses from Freebase which is an open community with tons of information.

Though fundamentally it s a search engine and there's nothing much to differentiate except that its in a niche segment - Wiki Users.

To check if it works well hit http://www.powerset.com/

Interview with Founder & CEO - Management Paradise

1. Brief us about the value proposition of Management Paradise and how it is different from other MBA forums like PG or CoolAvenues?

Management Paradise like PG and CoolAvenues is a community. If you ask me, PG's expertise lies in Helping students crack CAT, Coolavenue's expertise lies in bschool related news, while MP has a strong foundation in helping students in their research reports. So if a person is confused about what he should include in his report on "Venture Capital", he logs on to MP and puts up a help request, he gets help on it and after completing his project he posts that report on the forum. Now another student doing the same research will use it as a reference point and build on it. Our TG started from BMS, we expanded into MBA. After finding that the market for Banking and Insurance has become lucrative, we spearheaded it with Priyanka Pisat TYBBI student and Founder for our BBI forum on our side. Our vision is simple, to make MP a resource so powerful that every person who has interest in Management Education, regardless of whether he has secured admission in a bschool or not, can become as proficient by learning from others experiences. And all this without any pressure on his/her pocket.

2. Since when has Management Paradise being in existence and what all were the problems you faced in building it up?

Management Paradise has been in existence since Nov 2004. It all began when I was studying in SYBMS. I had a strong urge to do something big, to change the way things worked and to better the education system. With this in mind I founded MP which flourished with the help of many like minded people.There were a lot of problems in the beginning because technologically challenged professors do not understand that the web is all about sharing information. If there was not sharing of information, the internet wouldnt be such big a thing. So while a few spread bad PR about the forum in the beginning, the same were found asking me to refer students to them for coaching classes after the forum showed signs of success.The forum is still misunderstood by many as a place from where they can just copy paste project reports but most of the members know that its an ocean of information about management education, a double edged sword that can be used either way.Getting people when you arent making enough monetary gains to pay them and expecting the same amount of commitment and passion has been one more challenge but i'm lucky to have found some gems that have stood with me like pillarstones.

3. Besides you who all are inolved in setting up of Management Paradise and brief us about the profiles of Founders?

Management Paradise the concept was my brainchild, and was founded by me. Though as days went by a lot many people joined MP and worked voluntarily for it. Many people have worked with me in the past 4 years though Key people include.

Bhavin Mehta : Marketing Head and Administrator, the stallion, pursuing his MBA from UTS, Sydney, Australia.
Nilesh Nagdev: Head Forum Moderator and content developer, is trying to crack the CAT
Nikhil Gadodia: Human Resource Head works full time with a media house as senior HR manager.
Vishal Bhawsinghka: Head Public Relations and is pursuing his MBA from XLRI which has been sponsored by accenture where he is undergoing training.
Pratik Mehta: person who Co-authored 2 books for tybms students under the MP publication umbrella is pursuing his MBA from Lala Lajpatrai
Kartik Raichura: Founder and CEO, is juggling with his MBA at Welingkars and managing this brilliant team that is commited to revolutionize management education.

Every leader needs followers and its only fair that I mention other potential leaders in MP which include Roshni Bhatia, Deepak Khanna, Melroy Lopes, Rahul Parab, Rohan Kachalia and Fatima Khan who played key roles to take MP reach where it is today.

4. Any messages you would like to give to young enterprenaurs?

YOU are always right. The world might not be ready for your innovations, you might be considered a wannabe , a whacko, your ideas might be laughed or frowned upon but the only thing you need to know is, if you truly feel that YOUR idea is going to help change lives, then there is nothing that should stop you from giving it your best shot. Your passion will drive your team achieve excellence. There is NO right or wrong in this world. Everything is relative which is why you should never shy away from experimenting.

To know more on Management Paradise hit http://managementparadise.com/ and if you have any questions to Kartik mail them to me at contact@i-startups.com

IIM A alumni sells vegetables in Bihar

Yes, I am sure the heading made you sit up.

27-year-old Kaushalendra, an IIM A alumni has a dream of making Bihar a Vegetable hub and has put in the first steps to realize his dream. He launched the private - public venture about a couple of months ago with assistance from Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) with just one pushcart and has now gone on to place an order for 50 more carts, thanks to a collateral-free loan of Rs 50 lakh from Punjab National Bank. with more than 300 farmers associated with him in his venture, he is all set to bring vegetables from Bihar on every Indian dinning table and who knows 5 years down the line this might become a global phenomenon. and thats what he wants to target - "In five years, we would like to target the vegetable markets in the US, Europe and Japan," Kaushalendra says

He has brought in a new concept of the pushcarts being used for selling vegetable - Ice cooled vegetable push carts - providing fresh vegetables to the buyers. With electronic weighing machines and a cashmemo authenticating the quality and quantity of vegetables, he has been able to touch the pulse of Indian buyers.

"I am not only selling vegetables, but also the name of the farmer and the village where it has been grown. The farmer should not remain an unsung hero any more," he says pointing at the tag on the vegetables which has the mention of the name of the farmer and his village.

Amongst the many innovative startups that i have mentioned on my blog over the past few months, this seems to be the most innovative and most courageous of the lot.

I am sure Lalu Prasad Yadav would be sitting proudly seeing his native Bihar creating waves.

OnlyGizmos

OnlyGizmos.com – Your Daily Dose of Technology!

As the years pass the role of technology in our lives and the society has grown significantly. Gadgets and Gizmos is the heartbeat of the youth and OnlyGizmos presents technology in a unique way.

OnlyGizmos actively covers technology festivals and events. The coverage of the IIT TechFest 2008 has been the most significant till date. OnlyGizmos brings an all new culture of online media, we cover important events live and Report them live over the web. Our live reporting of the IIT TechFest 08 and several other product launches across the globe brings the latest to our readers just as it happens.

“In the last 6 months we have had over 300000 hits, mainly from India. We are committed to bring the latest in technology to our audience. We live technology, we dream technology, we wakeup every morning to see new gadgets and gizmos.”. - said Annkur P Agarwal, Editor – OnlyGizmos.com and CEO Kratee e-commerce and consulting Ltd.

What more, listen to the industry gurus speaking exclusively on technology, internet and more. OnlyGizmos invites CEO’s and techgurus to publish guest posts on their view of the tech world.

The team at OnlyGizmos features several writers from different fields and this provide a unique mix to the readers. OnlyGizmos presents a variety of exclusive content ranging from tech-reviews to tech-tips.

About Kratee:

Founded in 1985 Kratee e-commerce and consulting Ltd (Previously known as Olympic Advertising Ltd) worked as an advertising agency in the early 90’s. With changing trends recently the company has dedicated its focus on e-commerce. Kratee plans to expand its operations in areas of ecommerce, software development and online media.

NeedGrub

After MealPundit, its time for another foodie startup.

NeedGrub - An online food guide is very similar to Meals Pundit and surely a competitor. It offers similar services in terms of the restaurants and other food hang outs but has a far more spread out reach and covers more regions that MealPundit. Besides the online guide, it has also pages dedicated to food events so if you want to find out where is the most delicious buffet going to happen on this sunday - NeedGrub is the place to check.

NeedGrub also scores over MealPundit over its ease of use both for the users and audience - with user friendly and dynamic pages restaurant owners can add their specialities, restaurant details, special events etc.

Thats not all, all the connosuiers can add their foodie reviews and help the other foodies know which is the place to be for a evening snack & by writing reviews you are not just helping other hungry souls but also making yourself eligible to win a NeedGrub T Shirt.

Though there's not much difference in terms of concept, NeedGrub surely has packaged it wonderfully well and surely scores above its competitors.

To read more hit http://needgrub.com/

Meal Pundit

After having search engines for almost all the things on earth, its time to cater to the man's basic needs (not talking about that... )

Meals Pundit is an end to end food junction with options to search your favorite restaurants, know your cuisines and other foodie stuff. So you will find places to search coffee bars/pubs/pizza parlours etc and also find receipes for chinese food/gujrati food etc. And as a token of "pls. comeback to my site" meals pundit also have contests of the month, monthly health tips and monthly myth buster. Ater covering Delhi, Pune and Chennai the next destination for meals pundit is Mumbai.

A decent startup on a very sensitive issue - Meals :) Know more by checking http://mealpundit.com/default.aspx?mp=2