Way2Top

P2W2 is an online marketplace for accountants, writers, graphic designers, software vendors, tutors, researchers and other major professional services. P2W2 stands for “People To Work with”!

Who is the target audience?
Small businesses and Individuals can use p2w2 to post project requirements or to bid for the projects.

How it works?
As a services vendor
1. You can create your detailed profile by describing your service offerings, your capabilities, your portfolio, your testimonials etc., Creating a good profile is very important to successfully win the project bids. As a service provider, you need to pay 13 USD or 500 Rupees to create profile.

2. Once you have created a profile, you can search for projects posted on p2w2 and bid for the projects.

3. Once the client is convinced about your profile and your bidding price, client will give a green signal to start the project. P2W2 provides you great tools to manage the project and client communications. Some of the features are sharing files, project tracking and feedback module.

4. Once the project is complete, P2W2 will ensure that the payment is settled between client and the vendor. P2W2 takes a commission of 4.5% of the project value.

As a Buyer of services:
1.You can create your detailed profile by describing your Company information, your capabilities, your portfolio, your testimonials, your credibility etc., There is no cost to create a profile. FREE!

2. You can search for professionals or vendors. Go through detailed profile and initiate contact with shortlisted vendors. P2W2 maintains a track record of vendor performances. Through this history, P2W2 helps buyers to decide on the software vendors.

3. Once the project is started, buyers can track the progress of the project, review the work and assign requirements through P2W2’s tools.

4. Once the project is complete, P2W2 ensures the payment settlement.

Major Features:

* Reputation management:
* Selection Tools:
* Online Project Tracking:
* Payment facility:

Innovations:

* They have launched a voice-enabled service wherein a client can express his requirements through his own voice by audio recording the requirements/feedback. The Vendor then can go through the audio and gather a very good understanding of the client requirements.

P2W2 is founded by ISB alumni. Chaitanya Sagar from Class of 2005 and Amit Mullerpattan from Class of 2006.

Existing Players [Few examples]
elance [www.elance.com]
ebay [www.ebay.com] yes, ebay has a facility to connect buyers and sellers of services.
Guru [www.guru.com]
rentacoder.com [For software services]
and quite a few freelance exchange sites

My Verdict:
The success of an online marketplace is dependant upon the the familiar network-effect. Unless there are more vendors of high quality, there is no real benefit for buyers of services to use this service and vice versa. This whole cycle of building the userbase takes time and good community building strategies. I am not sure about the current status. But cracking this is of utmost importance.

Moreover, weeding through fake profiles, fraudulent buyers and protecting the interests of both parties (buyers and services) is not an easy task. There are lot of security and trust issues to be taken care of.

Services like elance.com is generally considered good for buyers and bad for seller of services. Because sellers compete fiercely on prices and sometimes the prices are close to nothing. This makes it a place to find cheap sellers or service vendors rather than a quality and reliability-based hunting ground. So, P2W2 should focus on quality, reliability, trust and security if they need to create a niche and success. Will have to wait to see how it all pans out…But they have all the right elements in place…Wishing them lot of success

What is your take on P2W2?

Dangdang.com is the biggest online retail store in china, popularly called as “Amazon of China”.

Competitors:
Joyo.com (Now, amazon.cn)
bol.com
store.sohu.com (Now, amazon.cn)
cp1897.com

Challenges (initial stages)
1. Low internet penetration (0.14/1000 in 1999)
2. Low bandwidth/transfer rate (33.3 kbps)
3. Avoidance of Credit card for payments.
4. Lack of nation-wide courier services like FedEx.

Promotional Techniques:

1. “Lucky Time Activity” - A randomly chosen lucky hour each day, during which all purchases are made free.
2. “An E-love story” - A colloborating book authoring exercise involving the site users!
3. Membership scheme/Loyalty programs - Reward points/gifts depending on the buying patterns.

Interestingly, Amazon.com has already swallowed 2-3 major online bookstores in china. Amazon did try to swallow Dangdang, but dangdang resisted. Amazon offered $150m USD for 70-80% stake. Dangdang rationalized saying that it was interested in investor and not in a buy-out. Sources say that, Dangdang actually was employing this tactic (Delaying) to up the price offer from Amazon, instead it backfired, as Amazon went on to buy Dangdang’s nearest competitor Joyo.com for a meagre 75 million dollars!

Similar to paypal.com, a popular online payment solution, China has it’s own online payment solution in the form of yeepay.com. Yeepay partnered with various online stores including Dangdang.com. This partnership helped dangdang.com in a significant way to increase the online purchase tendency among the users. It’s worthwhile to note that yeepay has both online and offline payment collection mechanisms! A combination non-existent in india!

Off late, there is too much emphasis on Execution in corporates, government and social organizations…literally everywhere. Being a man who thrives on execution more than strategizing, I find it very encouraging…:)

Recently I travelled in Delhi Metro and was fascinated by the quality and standards. Even european trains that I have seen fade in comparison with Delhi metro. I was so curious about the way it was executed. E.Sreedharan, the man behind Konkan railway, oversaw the execution of Delhi Metro too. This man simply amazes me! There is so much to learn from him and his works.

2 days back, I came across E.Sreedharan’s interview with Shekar Gupta, NDVT 24×7 walk the talk (way back in 2003) and was spell-bound by his eye for details, straight-forwardness,humility and leadership qualities. Read on…it’s worthwhile

Interview of E.Sreedharan with Shekar Gupta, NDTV 24×7

It’s very easy to read about starting a business from scratch, setting up the operations, organizational structure, Marketing strategies and financial fundas….But when the time comes to implement what one has studied for himself, the world teaches the ground realities..hard facts…and the importance of the practicality in life…

While the progress at Antya has been good so far, the progress isn’t sufficient enough. We are in the phase of executing the crux of the business plan… GENERATING REVENUES. Facing some challenges in that front but overcoming one by one..Talking with various industry experts, investors and validating the ideas and plans is quite insightful…but have to admit that it has been stressful at times too…But hey! what’s the fun if everything goes smooth according to the plan? There should be twists and turns..surprises and failures before one sees the success…Otherwise, it will be very difficult to replicate the success as one wouldn’t have learnt to cope with obstacles and challenges!

OK..It’s been 4 months since I quit my job. What have I learnt?
- I have learnt the art of being very productive whilst working-from-home. Coping with this new lifestyle!
- I have understood the value of money! Seriously, frugality was slowly missing from my life with all the easy money from corporate world!
- I have realized how diluted the quality of workforce has become. Hiring is very difficult! Either people have shallow knowledge or knowledgeable people come with a very expensive price tag. It’s probably easier to hire fresh minds and train them. Can’t afford to spend time and train now…in a fix!
- Getting to know the world of Venture capitalism and angel investors.
- Building decent contacts in the internet industry.
- I have come to realize how many people working in the internet industry are NOT gung-ho about internet. In fact, they are all doubtful about the prospects…All the internet companies have their hopes pinned on the the projected growth except for handful of companies which work on transactions.
- I am learning to think INHERENTLY “How to make money? How to reduce costs? How to execute fast? How to overcome competition? How to take help? How to sustain? How to spot opportunity? How to add value? How to differentiate?”..I mean it.
- I am learning the basic formalities of setting up company, legalities, agreements etc.,
- I have been lucky enough to have very supportive family members. So don’t have the additional burden to cope up with the family pressures.

By now, many of you would have noticed about the funding for Antya.com. Just capturing the news bits here…

Pahwa Knowledge Based Services has also seed-funded a search engine called Antya.com, which is a web discovery engine that helps people search for specific websites on a particular topic, says Pahwa. Antya.com will also offer regular search service like Google and will be launched in beta mode in a few weeks

- Source Agency Faqs

He’s also funding a soon-to-be-launched India-focused search engine, Antya.com

- Source Business Week

Ever since I left MIH, I have almost gone into hibernation! Working hard to give shape to an idea along with a good pal. Made decent progress! Looking forward for the completion and launch!

If you are eager, take a sneak-peek at this destination…

The human life is so short…but the human brain is capable of conceiving unimaginable levels of dreams and imagery in that short span of time. Few of those dreams transform into ambitions…in other words ‘long-term goals’. It is natural for people to set short-term goals, which will eventually lead them to successful realization of their long-term goals. It is even more natural among B-school grads…

When I wrote an essay to answer the post-mba career goals related question in the ISB application form, I clearly set aside short-term goals and long-term goals. I look at it now and I realize that I am more or less on track, except for few specifics. But, I must admit that I have gone through a lot of plan-changes during the last 1.5 years. The main reason for that is the new information that reaches the brain every new day, testing my rationale and challenging my aspirations.

Of late, I am facing a BIG question. When is the time to take the BIG STEP? and of course freebie questions like: If I have to set up my own venture, are there different ways to achieve the end-goal? If so what are they?

I have absolutely, 100 percent, realized that nothing less than entrepreneurship is going to test the MBA skills. Nothing less than my own-venture will deserve the hard-work that I am willing to put. But, there is a problem. The problem that is prevalent among many Indian youth. Courage to take that first RISKY step. Lack of momentum to go off-tangent.

I have decided that I should keep working on my ideas during my personal off-time. May be I am ambitious…May be it’s just a rush-of-blood. Giving the ideas a definite shape is the only to way to ascertain if it is just a case of “May-be” or really a “Must-be”. And to my satisifaction, I am slowly regaining the lost discipline back. Now that, 3 to 4 of my friends have started their own ventures, I should observe their progress and learn from them. For the time being, I will build up and nurture the entrepreneurial mind-set.

I just have a feeling that the world around me is conspiring towards me. I am going to believe the golden words of Alchemist now.

“When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true” - Alchemist.

http://Sramanamitra.com

This is another Business-Technology-Entrepreneurship blog that I found today. The blog is maintained by Sramana Mitra, an Entrepreneur and Strategy consultant since 1994. She blends her rich experience with happening tech trends and offers solid content for readers.

She has been writing for 20 years! The lady seems to have great photographic skills too….And yeah, she is a good friend of Om Malik, the person behind the blog Gigaom…

Yet another entry to my Technology Blogroll…

I wanted to dig out a nice blog which talks about new internet-based businesses that are sprouting throughout the world everyday. I am glad I did not have to spend much time…as there are two prominent blogs already addressing this need . TechCrunch, the pioneer in this area and WebYantra, a result of an “idea arbitrage”. For next few days, I am going to catch up with these 2 blogs.

“…TechCrunch, is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. In addition to new companies, we will profile existing companies that are making an impact on the new web space…”

“…WebYantra is a tech blog that profiles Indian web products and services. It is ‘ground zero’ for Indian web startups, ecommerce websites and internet based businesses……

Webyantra will encompass all the Web2.0 jazz that you lust for - socialweb, mashups, aggregators, filters, RSS, web communities, user generated content et al…It is also about current technology trends like the mobile web, mobile communities, VOIP, SAAS, agile web development, AJAX, et al…Not to leave about pre Web 2.0 stuff like internet search technologies, online payment systems, contextual internet advertising, web services, web browsers etc., etc.,…with an Indian Flavour“

The post published by JonathanBoutelle on Webyantra was very insightful. Some snippets from his blog:

“…Many of the Indian Startup companies are simply based on idea arbitrage..”

“…Most Indian tech bloggers seem to be suffering from a Silicon Valley fixation. Check out and you’ll find full of google, yahoo, flickr, youtube etc.,…”

“…But then where is the attempt to initiate a dialogue to improve Indian web products? I am yet to find a single Indian forum that addresses this malaise…”

The “Idea Arbitrage” is a very easy way out to rapidly ramp up a web 2.0 company! Just keep watching the silicon valley and customize it to India. The talent lies in identifying the matching pairs!