TiECon – Why Every Meet is a Treat

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Dorai — Leave a comment ↓

There are lots of reasons to go to conferences – to learn, to network, to connect and immerse yourself. Here are some of my thoughts on why I enjoy TiECon so much.

Energy – Entrepreneurs are energetic souls and kindred spirits. Every one is trying hard to make a difference in their own way.
Knowledge – No single conference I know provides so much for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
Inspiration – Two of my favorites this year – Ronnie Screwvala and Chris Anderson.
Conversations – TiECon fosters amazing conversations. Some are casual and some are pretty intense.
Community- Each one of us here is traveling a different path but we have so much in common and a strong sense of Community.

As we were walking out after Chris Anderson’s keynote, Raman Govindarajan (a fellow charter member from TiEChennai) commented “TiECon Silicon Valley is really something”. I agree.

Tagged with: TiECON
Posted in Events

Trends: Kids Tend to Read Digital More

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Dorai — 3 Comments ↓

From Report: Kids Tend to Read Digital More Than Print By Michael Kozlowski

A recent report by the National Literacy Trust in the United Kingdom surveyed 35,000 kids, whose ages ranged from 8-16. It stated that 39% of children and young people read on electronic

devices every day, whereas only 28% read printed materials

daily. The number of children reading ebooks has doubled in the last two years from 6% to 12%.

If this trend continues, imagine the impact on:

Design of Books
Material for books
Delivery options from owning to loaning
Interaction design with books not just by readers (see what Kindoma is doing)
Book distribution
Libraries (virtual libraries, personal libraries)

Tagged with: digital books, kids, reading, Trends
Posted in Ideas

TiEcon 2013

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Dorai — 1 Comment ↓

I am quoting from the email received. Pretty impressive stats. Excited to be part of it all.

Highlights of TiEcon 2013

Over 3,000 registered attendees from over 30 countries are expected to attend the event.

The conference features over 220 speakers that include renowned CEOs, Entrepreneurs, VCs, and other CXOs of leading companies.

Expo Hall: The TiEcon Expo showcases leading edge products and services from startups and large technology companies. The Expo features over 140 exhibitors from countries as far away as Belgium, Brazil, India, Japan and Hong Kong.

TiE50 Awards: TiE50 has selected the Top100 global finalists and now the competition is on to pick the prestigious TiE50 Winners. Not only will it inspire entrepreneurs but will showcase many opportunities for investors. Presentations will be held in Room 201 all day Friday and are open to all attendees.

Lightning Round Winners: Our content advisory teams have selected 18 of the hottest startups in Big Data, Mobility and SDI. Be sure to check their presentations right after track keynotes on Friday

Networking at TiEcon 2013

TiEconnect: TiEcon offers many opportunities for networking and connecting with various attendees, co-founders and mentors. There are many informal networking opportunities at TiEcon but here is a list of the more formal networking events:

§ MentorConnect: An opportunity to spend quality time with successful entrepreneurs, Venture Capitalists and other movers and shakers. Entrance only open to attendees who pre-registered for MentorConnect. MentorConnect will be held in Rooms G & H on May 17^th and 18^th at lunch time.

§ FounderConnect: An opportunity to find co-founder for your startup. Pre registration is recommended. FounderConnect will be held in Room 209 on May 17^th and 18^th at lunch time.

A lot more coming up over the next couple of days.

Tagged with: entrepreneurs, tiecon2013
Posted in Events

Progressive Profiling

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Dorai — 1 Comment ↓

From Hubspot’s How to Use Your customer Data to Recharge Your Marketing:

The best way to collect the right information is to use progressive

profiling. Progressive profiling allows you to control which questions

appear on a form based on what you already know about a lead. That

way, each time a lead fills out a form, you are collecting valuable new

information about them while keeping your forms short and easy to fill

You may start with something very basic like name and email and in each iteration (visit or action), you may gather some more information.

Tagged with: Hubspot, marketing, marketing audit
Posted in Ideas

LinkLog: Those Who Teach

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Dorai — Leave a comment ↓

From Those Who Teach

Teach. Setup a lunch and learn. Try to answer questions you hear people have on places like Stack Exchange. Start a blog! Share open examples of something you’ve learned: code, spreadsheets, emails, anything. It might take awhile to build an audience, but you’ll quickly reap rewards from the clarity teaching brings you.

I resonate fully with the sentiment in this blog post. Every time I taught, I learned it better.

Math in high school and college
Machine language programming and architecture
Bits of Python
Entrepreneurship
Ideas on marketing

My teaching is more of seminars and sometimes through blog posts. But teaching helps you understand the subject a lot better, focuses your thinking and provides a strong motivation for deep diving into subjects.

Tagged with: teach to learn, teaching learning, those who teach
Posted in teaching, Thinking

Quote: Specialization

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Dorai — Leave a comment ↓

An amazing piece. A fragment that certainly makes you think.

Specialization is undeniably a powerful social and economic force. And yet it is also debilitating. It breeds helplessness, dependence, and ignorance and, eventually, it undermines any sense of responsibility.

Our society assigns us a tiny number of roles: We’re producers of one thing at work, consumers of a great many other things all the rest of the time, and then, once a year or so, we take on the temporary role of citizen and cast a vote. Virtually all our needs and desires we delegate to specialists of one kind or another — our meals to the food industry, our health to the medical profession, entertainment to Hollywood and the media, mental health to the therapist or the drug company, caring for nature to the environmentalist, political action to the politician, and on and on it goes. Before long it becomes hard to imagine doing much of anything for ourselves — anything, that is, except the work we do “to make a living.”

From the book Cooked.

Posted in Reflections

Kindoma – A Few Slides

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Dorai — 1 Comment ↓

This is a follow up post from my previous post on 30 Million Word Gap. A few slides from Tico’s presentation (he was kind enough to send it to me on request) that shows how Kindoma is trying to solve the problem of 30 Million Word Gap.

The Need/Problem

A clearly articulated value proposition

An assessment of Market Opportunity

They have pretty good traction, so far:

As I mentioned in a previous post, they created two research prototypes to learn family behavior before coming up with this product.

Posted in Books, Kids, Stories