Sukshma

Aneesh and Badal bring you all the action on BookEazy’s blog

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From what I hear, the short student films by Whistling Woods are a great catch!

I often wonder if it’s fair to label the actions of startups. For example, is this startup good or bad? Is the idea right or wrong? Is the market small or big? Has the VC come in early or late? Are the founders passionate or experienced or both? Did they hire tech guys first or sales? Did they raise good money or dumb money? Is the plan conservative or aggressive? and so on…(Pardon my venting, I carry around a list of 100+ questions that I’ve repeatedly heard from co-founders, colleagues and investors).

Almost everyone out there has an opinion on everything a startup should and should not do. These questions beg for a boolean answer that labels the startup one way of the other. That’s fair if there was really a right answer. Trust me, even two partners of the same venture fund don’t agree on what the answers should be. As for startup insiders, they base the “right” answer on what’s happening at their own startup. They forget that if we had played the game any other way, our learning would have been different but the questions would be the same. Now you’re a startup that did X instead of Y. But hey, you missed out on learning Y.

My personal belief is that an attitude based on getting labels, or believing one label is better than the other is detrimental to the entire team. It highlights past mistakes vs. past learnings. It instills fear of failure, kills motivation and creativity, and worst of all, hampers the ability to set newer and bigger goals. I like to think of it as taking away the Ctrl+Z (Undo) option from an author who is writing her new book.

The first two years is all about probing, trying, quitting and retrying. Seriously, how much time can you spend looking in the rear view mirror in a ever-changing unpredictable market like India?

As Seth Godin rightly said, “Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt.”

If you’re the founder of a startup give yourself an applause every time you press Ctrl+Z. Let’s undo what we did last month and fix it. So what, if we took 6 months to figure out what’s wrong? Let’s take 1 month next time. Let’s bet on more than one idea. Let’s bet on more than one person. If we’re not happy, let’s reinvent the context of our company. No guilt attached. That’s the key. Undo without guilt.

Don’t let anyone - insider or investor, take away your ability to press Ctrl-Z. Don’t let them give you the guilt pill for trying, for taking your time to learn. The faster you accept that no past job or degree is going to help you swim, the faster you will learn to swim. Just dive in. Label yourself “Student #1″ rather than “Life Guard” and get going.

The day you make it, call yourself a company and not a startup.

–

P.S. This post is inspired by my colleague Nigel who shared this quote with me.

“We fail when we get distracted by tasks we don’t have the guts to quit.” - Seth Godin.

Looking for a reason to start a web company in your home country? Here’s one more from Santosh and myself - you get to celebrate your Independence Day with every citizen who visits your website.

In true web-ishtyle BookEazy added a splash of our tri-colour to its logo.

This would not have been possible without BookEazy. Besides movies, if there’s anything that gets our team fired up, it’s the excitement of being an Indian and in India at this juncture. If you’d like to add the magic of cinema to your Independence Day celebrations, we recommend one of the following:

- Watch the recently released “Chale Chalo” on DVD (Making of Lagaan) or the movie itself. If you thought starting a company was hard, wait till you see this one. I recommend this to any one who is looking for some inspiration and a lesson in planning.

- Listen to A.R. Rehman’s renderings of our national anthem. The previews of the album released this week look spectacular and every legend you can imagine in the field of Indian music is a part of it.

- And, of course, you must catch the latest blockbuster Chak De! India on BookEazy.com. After a long time, there’s a movie whose spirit is compelling enough to draw out even the not-so regular movie fans.

Some of our early adopter customers have been pushing us hard for a mobile version of bookeazy.com. Last night, our technology team finished and released a Beta mobile prototype of bookeazy.com, what we proudly call beMobile.

If you have GPRS/EDGE enabled or CDMA - data, give the application a whirl. If your phone is GPRS/EDGE or CDMA data capable and you would like your wireless operator to enable it, we have help pages to guide you. Write back to us with your feedback and if you think the application can be improved further.

“We all live under the same sky, but we don’t have the same horizon.”

As my mom shared this quote with my sister on the last day at her earlier company, I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous.

Santosh and I often wish we could trade places with the young stars who work with us. We have a bunch of ambitous and enthusiastic folks who joined us very early in their careers, most straight out of college. As I observe them interact with us, a part of me wishes I had done the same seven years ago. Here they are, sitting in the cockpit watching a new pilot fly, and thinking to themselves, “Hey, it can be done. I can fly a plane someday. “

As my younger sibling, Neha, gets ready to take the plunge into BookEazy I wonder how my life would have turned out had I known the difference between being employee No. 5 and employee No. 100. It’s not about the stock rewards. It’s about the experience of piecing a puzzle right from the very first piece, when you don’t even know how you’re going to find the second piece. As we make projections and later face reality, as we come up with yet another technique for guerrilla marketing, and of course as we battle the onerous task of raising funds, our young stars share it all with us. For many, this experience is the deeper reward better than any MBA, and this one is guaranteed at a startup unlike the stock option rewards which may or may not come.

Those who are aware of the deeper reward, don’t miss out on it early in life. The rest probably don’t need it.

BookEazy Technologies Private Limited is a young high-energy technology startup based in Pune, India. We’re a team of ambitious people with a vision to create intuitive, zero-effort consumer-facing technology that blends with the psyche of the Indian consumer. We’re crazy about using technology to solve a problem in a way that delights the customer.

We take a “no-compromise” excellence driven attitude only where it matters. So, we live in jeans rather than suits, discuss around couches rather than boardrooms, prefer open spaces to cubicles, and doing real work rather than clocking face-time. We promote a warm, informal and no-frills culture. We believe joy at work comes from meaningful contributions, participation in decision making and profits, and above all from fun and interactive relationships with peers and mentors.

Our company philosophy is:

• Winning matters.
• God is in the details.
• If you’re gonna think anyway, think BIG.
• We must have fun all the way.

Software Design Engineer.

Required technical skills:

• Professional experience with web application development in either PHP or Java.
• Understanding of scalable, multi-tier web application architecture.
• Basic familiarity with Ajax, Javascript.
• Basic familiarity with XML and XSLT technologies.
• Application development experience for the Linux - Apache - PHP - MySQL platform would be a definite plus.
• Understanding of HTML/DHTML and CSS standards is a plus.
• Familiarity with developer tools: Subversion/CVS, Bugzilla, Wiki is a plus.
• Strong problem solving skills.
• Excellent verbal and written skills with outstanding customer service.
• Strong understanding of Computer Science fundamentals is a must.

Responsibilities:

• Design and develop scalable web service components and architecture
• Create and maintain test code and tools
• Manage and track the resolution of bugs

Besides technical skills, we value people who are proactive, detail-oriented, execution-focused and passionate about application usability. You may lack experience in some of the above skills but must demonstrate a strong willingness to learn.

We are a small, experienced and energetic development team. You will be exposed to all aspects of product development and in the process develop strong technical and interpersonal skills.

To apply for this position, email your resume to careers at bookeazy dot com. We get several resumes every day, be sure to mention [SUKSHMA] in your subject line. Please feel free to include any questions you have regarding this position or the company.

More jobs on Sukshma.net.