Bowling Pins
Success in new markets for Startups is a lot like Bowling, where you have to hit the right pins first with all the right angles in order to get a ricochet effect and down all the other pins. Focus your energy on the right pin, but don’t lose the big picture. — Paraphrased from our conversation with Mohanjit Jolly.
The Bowling Pin analogy first appeared in the book “Inside the Tornado“, Geoffrey Moore.
Categories: business · marketing · technology
After 48 hours of non-stop talking, interspersed with few hours of sleep, we’re finally getting back to answering an avalanche of unread emails.
We presented Lipikaar at the summer edition of Proto IV 2008 (July 18-19, at I.I.T. Delhi) along with 15 other finalists. Here’s a video of the 6 minute presentation we made to an audience of over 400.
The highlight of the event was the enthusiastic response we received at our stall after the presentation. Lipikaar’s simplicity struck a chord with everyone as they came over to narrate their past experiences and their pain points with Indic language typing.
Our entire team is super excited with the possibilities, and we realize that we have miles to go before we can celebrate. A big thank you to the committed team behind Proto, and to all our friends, colleagues, and mentors who made it happen.
More Web Coverage:
Lipikaar is a Indian vernacular language utility for online & desktop users. Their products are used commercially by many banks & Govt institutions. — Webyantra: Impressive Show for Startups at Proto IV, Delhi.
Lipikaar is a simplified typing method for both monolingual and bilingual users. The tool is designed to encourage extensive usage of Indic languages beyond a casual remark or a phrase. For example, typing a document, an article, an email, a presentation, a blog - all of these currently happen in English because we have a mechanical typing method (keyboard). — Proto Coverage Blinkmagic,Ferox Foods, NextBit, Lipikaar, Eko on Plugged.in
The desktop version of Lipikaar allows you to create all types of documents in Windows XP, Win 2000, Vista, ME while the plugin enables the same functions online. Lipikaar also empowers instant messaging in local languages.
We really liked the product and it was one of our favorite companies that presented at Proto this year. The Alootechie editor downloaded the plug in and is very happy with the way it works! — Proto 4 - A Winner’s Showcase, AlooTechie.
Rahul Khanna’s Take – “Interesting technology, but needs a compelling application to drive adoption.” - A Quick VC Take on Proto Startups, VCCircle.
Photos by the Proto Team
About Lipikaar
Lipikaar is a patented solution we’ve been working on to ease Indic language typing on the desktop, mobile and on the web. You can try a live demo here - http://www.lipikaar.com. Lipikaar enables typing and interaction in all Indian languages. In order to use Lipikaar, all you need is knowledge of the regional language script and familiarity with the regular keyboard.
Categories: India · business · startup · technology
Tagged: Demo, Indic Languages, Lipikaar, Proto4
In every Pune OpenCoffee Club meet, you can’t help but notice the energy that Entrepreneurs bring with them. It is exciting and infectious. However, the Pune OCC is proving to be more than just about youth and learning. On July 3rd, Neeraj Arora of Google’s Corporate M&A wing, Neill Brownstein and Anjana Kaul of Footprint Ventures spoke about their respective organizations and philosophies. Over 50 Pune OCC members turned up for the event. (more…)
Categories: India · Pune · business · startup · technology
When I started the Pune Open Coffee Club in March 2008 on the suggestion of a friend, Vijay Anand (Founder, Proto.in), little did I know that in a short span of three months, the Club would attract over 200 members.
Anjali and I used to brainstorm ways of marketing POCC, and one of the ideas that really helped was coinciding our first major POCC meeting with the VC Circle conference in Pune in April. Since the conference was filled with investment bankers, the VCs who wanted to meet entrepreneurs came to the POCC event 
It’s exciting for us to see new members joining the Club every week, especially with all the action they’re bringing with them.
Here are some of highlights of June and July in case you’ve missed something.
Ken Banks devotes himself to the application of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world, and has spent the last 15 years working on projects in Africa.
In his essay, Mobiles in Africa: A Travellers Perspective, Ken Banks describes the entrepreneurial spirit thriving in Africa around the mobile industry,
“..Mobile phones are attached to bikes (two and three wheelers), and even boats, and taken to where the business is. In Uganda these bikes, known locally as boda boda’s, are hooked up with spare batteries and desktop mobile devices to create what are affectionately known as Bodafones”.
Categories: Anjali · India · business · infrastructure · inspiration · technology
Tagged: Africa
I don’t get paid for working long hours. (I don’t even get a comforting “I appreciate how hard you worked” speech from a supervisor).
I don’t get paid for the million emails, thousand proposals, and hundred presentations I’ve produced.
I don’t get paid for saying no to short-term opportunities in the interest of focusing on the product.
I don’t get paid for the hours I spend building the company’s morale, the team morale, and later my own morale.
I don’t get paid unless a large portion of the market accepts my product.
Who am I?
An entrepreneur (more…)
Categories: Anjali · startup
Tagged: beliefs, Entrepreneurship, reflection
Santosh
Anjali