May 04, 09 by Bharani
Spending 5 days away from work, away from PC, away from business and away from internet was much easier than I thought/expected 
Yeah, I went to Kullu-Manali along with my wife to celebrate our second successful wedding anniversary! Really enjoyed the trip and did quite a few things including white-water rafting, skiing, trekking, para-gliding, lots of sight-seeing and trying out local food. Should seriously do 2 outings/vacations per year…Now, heart wants to explore the beautiful north…;)
May 04, 09 by Bharani
Off-late, I have been so engrossed in my pursuit of goals that I have lost touch with my good old pals. It’s not that I dont remember them…Everyday I think about my friends and ruminate over the good-old memories…It’s just that I am making the mistake of not keeping in touch…! The guys who manage to keep in touch with everyone, I seriously need some lessons from you….
February 15, 08 by Bharani
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.
January 01, 08 by Bharani
Well, it feels like a short while ago when I re-capped 2006, but another year has passed in a jiffy…
Highs: (In chronological order)
- Starting a new job (Senior Product Manager @ ibibo Web Pvt Ltd) at new location (Gurgaon). First taste of internet industry.
- Being part of the core team that launched (DWAAR), India-focussed search engine.
- Getting Married. Varalakshmi is an extremely understanding and very caring wife. Lucky to have her as a life-partner…
- Learning Driving and getting my licence!!
- Buying my first car. Hyundai Santro Xing (Space Silver).
- Visiting Maldives (Heavenly place in earth).
- Visiting Taj Mahal with my wife. Being an Indian, too late to visit the Indian wonder that is part of the seven wonders. What a structure! What a symbol!
- Visiting quite a few religious places (Shirdi, Mathura, Gokul, Sripuram, Sholingur, Tirupati, Akshardham).
- Taking the entrepreneurial plunge & forming my own company called Antya Web Private Limited. Sunny Saurabh is my partner in this journey.
- Getting the seed funding for Antya. The seed fund has given us more confidence to continue the journey than anything else.
- Launching our own product, Antya. A site to find or discover websites across various topics.
- Featuring in Statesman Delhi for Antya- A full page article comprising 2400 words!
- Featuring in Indian Express, Technology edition for Antya.
- Interviewed for “Tech 4 U” section in Hindustan Times.
- Rise of the Antya in Alexa. Currently it is ranked 1764 in India. When launched the rank was 16905. It took just 20 days to reach under 2000! Antya is improving well in US too. Promising start for a long journey ahead.
- Getting my hands on Apple iMac Desktop (20″) loaded with Mac OS X Leopard edition. Interacting with Apple Mac is a Larger-than-life experience!
- Getting to know Bruno, a Labrodar, an extremely loveable and intelligent pet of my friend sunny. It’s amazing to see how fast he has grown from a small pup in May to a big boy now. Wonder how big he will be in another year
Lows:
- Death of a close cousin. She died of cancer.
Overall, Year 2007 has been pretty eventful for me. Year 2008 is a critical year for me in many aspects. Entering 2008 with loads of hope, courage, confidence, dreams and determination.
A quote to remember for me this year:
“…It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change…” - Charles Darwin
December 04, 07 by Bharani
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
September 26, 07 by Bharani
What I have done to my blog is absolute injustice. A post a week, fortnight or even a month would have been acceptable. Anyways, this time, the lack of posts is not atrributed to busy-schedule, but to lack of ‘ideas’ to ponder and to an extent lack of interest.
I promised to myself at the beginning of the year that I will publish 150 posts…I have hardly published 15 posts. Just 10% of the target! But fortunately the game is not over yet Unfortunately the equation is tough with 3 months to go, I have 135 posts to publish..
Few updates from my side…Have decided to take a break from my career after a long-thought. Now that DWAAR is launched, there is no better logical exit. I will spend 2-3 months before choosing and accepting my next responsibility. As of now, I will try to do things that I wanted to do but couldn’t do…Try my hands at new things, Travel, Fitness, Family, …and of course blogging…
Looking forward for the break in a month’s time.
February 14, 07 by Bharani
I normally don’t forget to take the wallet when I go out. But I did today! On top of it, I had promised to take few colleagues out for a lunch…An embarassment was almost inevitable! Luckily, the lunch session got cancelled due to an urgent work for my colleague.
I received a nice little Valentine gift from my fiancee in the evening…I opened it and found an artistic hand-crafted leather wallet! I was wondering at the string of events…at the happenstance! More than the gift, it looked as if I was sent the wallet because I forgot it today A fulfilling gift indeed!
January 17, 07 by Bharani
Over the past few weeks, I have been facing this question: “Why MIH?”, “What is MIH?” etc.,
MIH Web Private Limited is a part of MIH Group. MIH is the digital media arm of Naspers, the South African media conglomerate. [Profile in Yahoo Finance]
MIH created a buzz when they acquired Bixee, the first Indian Job Vertical Search Engine. This was the first acquisition in the Indian web 2.0 space. Bixee is a really useful site, as it searches for jobs across all prominent and non-prominent Job portals in India and provides a consolidated view [Federated search]. Along with Bixee, MIH also acquired Pixrat.com, a social photo bookmarking site. Pixrat was one of the earliest Indian sites to be featured in TechCrunch. I must admit and warn that Pixrat may not be safe to open at workplace sometimes! [The spam and offensive content problems have come down significantly though] But it has a great value for people who want to bookmark photos when they surf randomly.
MIH currently has few internet products in their portfolio, including iBiBo.com, a community platform with strong focus on Blogs and Albums currently. An interesting contest called “Great Indian Blogger Hunt” is currently running…See website for more details.
Our team is currently working on the flagship product of MIH India, which is set to be released in the near future. This will be completely different from all the internet products from MIH india. Watch out this space!…Will be really interesting and USEFUL product for Internet audience.
Coming to the question of Why? Well, it all fits my interests and aspirations. Internet space in India, a start-up, Product management opportunity and a tremendous opportunity to learn about all facets of a business from close quarters. A perfect platform to launch my entrepreneurship journey in a few years time.
Lot of action and progress happening around….Exciting times!
January 11, 07 by Bharani
I quit Convergys on January 5th. I moved to MIH Web Private Limited, based in Gurgaon. Last week at Convergys was very memorable mainly due to great bunch of colleagues over there.
Gurgaon is much colder than I expected. Though the place seems to be very advanced with skyscrapers and mega malls, the local transportation sucks. There are hardly any public transporation or auto-rickshaws. Even the shared auto-rickshawas are few in number and carries full-load of passengers. The only option is cycle-rickshaws or cab services (which are very expensive). Should buy my own vehicle soon!
Work is exciting and I am eagerly looking forward for next few months. Lots of action happening at the work place as few product launches are planned in the near future.
More updates later….
January 05, 07 by Bharani
2 months back….An e-mail from a recruiter to the applicant
Dear XYZ,
We hope you are doing fine!
It was really wonderful to talk with you recently and we appreciate the time you spent with XYZ.
Unfortunately, we are unable to take your candidature further, at the moment. However, your credentials are extremely impressive and we wish to retain your details on our active database. We shall get back to you as soon as another similar opportunity opens up.
We wish you luck in your future endeavors and thank you once again for your interest in XYZ!
3 week back….An email from the same applicant to the same recruiter!
Hi XYZ,
Apologies for the delayed response.
I had a very frank discussion with Mr. XYZ on the other day. I got a clear picture about the role and responsibilities. Though the roles and responsibilities are interesting and the opportunity to work with XYZ is a rare opportunity, I think the role does not cater to my aspirations of Product management as I expect and understand it. So, I will not be interested in further discussions/interviews for this role. This is in the best interest of both of us.
I really appreciate the effort and time that XYZ has spent in trying to find alternate positions for my candidature. I must admit that it was a privilege to discuss with some of the knowledgeable people and best minds in the field.
Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
with regards,
-XYZ.
Though the applicant and the recruiter can be guessed out, it is the “You loose some, you win some” principle of life that I want to highlight here…! In the first case, candidate was rejected for the position he applied for…In the second case, candidate rejected the role that the recruiter was offering…Ultimately, both of them are a case of win-win…As a potential expectation mis-match was avoided..:) It’s absolutely important to manage disappointments in life…as disappointments are mostly time-bound and partly our own ignorance-bound! Too much gyaan…huh? Chalo…My next post will capture some interesting things that have happened in my life…!
