In 1993 and 1996, I was too young to care or know the difference between a booming economy and a recession. In late 2000, I was too close. Come 2008, this is my third down cycle. Things are hard. At one level they are much harder than what was eight years ago – the outlook is bleak all the way …Read the Rest
Startup Mode: Finding the voice of the customer
April 2, 2010
Startup Insights – Finding the voice of the customer I have been teaching entrepreneurship as a practitioner for 8 years and the format that I follow is very simple. Start with a group of students willing to express their ideas in less than one hundred words. Mix in between 18 to 36 hours of instruction. Finish and close with a …Read the Rest
Startup Guide: Kill your ego…
April 2, 2010
When I first met Don Sexton, Mark Broadie, Ralph Biggadike and John Whitney at Columbia, a few things stood out at once. All four were very successful, well established and well respected professionals. They had touched professional peaks I couldn’t even dream about and had nothing left to prove. All four changed my life. 8 years later when I look …Read the Rest
Startup Guide: Just ship it
April 7, 2010
This week I kept on going back and forth at a client convincing them to ship a product that was already four weeks late. Every day someone would find that one little extra thing that would make the product a winner or fix a crucial defect. While the product was ready and possibly superior to any other prior releases done …Read the Rest
Startup Guide: Lessons from a failed startup
April 7, 2010
Looking through the wreckage of an old folder, found this post for the really early days of Reboot – the original list of lessons from a failed startup that became the book. Here is the list, with one new addition, five years later. Technology is not a competitive advantage. Focus on the business problem not technological elegance or cool factor. …Read the Rest
Startup Guide: The startup crash course in 7 posts or less
April 16, 2010
For the last four weeks I had been thinking about putting together a basic reading guide for mentees that would help them move forward and remove me as a bottleneck. A collection of short to the point posts that introduce them to a basic framework that many of us take for granted and most of us have never seen or …Read the Rest
Startup Mentor: The road to startup failure interview
May 15, 2010
Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away, when it was cool and unique to talk about new venture failure, I did an interview as part of Society of Actuaries coverage of the Blue Screen of Death and Reboot. I was looking for something else when I found it and I thought it was worth sharing on the startup …Read the Rest
Startup Founders: Borrowed time, non-core distractions, or why diversification is a four letter word?
May 25, 2010
You are living on borrowed time. Each day that you don’t generate cash is a day closer to the end. The new-venture lifestyle burns you out personally and financially faster than any professional route known to mankind. The hours are longer, the stress higher, the baggage heavier, the money rarely enough. Then the sacrifices start calling. Initially the suffering is …Read the Rest
Startup Deals – The paradox of large customers
May 25, 2010
Is there any correlation between targeting large customers, executing large orders, and new venture failure? I believe so. New ventures, with rare exception, lack the depth to handle large assignments and contracts. Without sufficient depth, new ventures make bad short-term calls on pricing, delivery terms, hiring, concessions, and service-level agreements that put them on track for eventual failure. It’s about …Read the Rest
Startup Mentor: Baby Steps
July 24, 2010
The first step is always the most difficult And then You get used to it… Or If at first you don’t succeed, blame your knees
Google Adsense Adventure: Three simple tweaks for higher Adsense revenues and incremental traffic
September 8, 2010
I did three quick posts on Ping lists (list included), Directory Submissions (list included) and restricting low yielding ads through the competitive ad filter on your Google Adsense panel. The first (ping) and last one (competitive ad filter) certainly work, the one in the middle (directory submissions) I am not sure about. But feel free to try your luck. Here …Read the Rest
PTCL Plays Hardball with Maxcom customers
October 18, 2011
Imagine a world where you are extremely unhappy with your broadband service and you disconnect it. The service provider confirms that it has been done. You receive an email confirming that your request has been received. You hear nothing for the next few weeks. In August you find out that the service provider has been taken over for PTCL. Actually …Read the Rest
The P@SHA National ICT Policy Draft Recommendations
October 15, 2011
National ICT Policy There are many ways to approach and develop a national ICT policy framework. Over the last eleven years a number of initiatives have been undertaken in this area by individuals and groups sponsored by our technology industry association (P@SHA), Ministry of IT (MOIT), by the state (the Planning Commission), local and expatriate Pakistanis. Within the list of …Read the Rest
From Startups and Pitching to Selling Treasury Products
October 14, 2011
Welcome to the weekend and three spanking new courses live at Finance Training Course.com In the Pitching Case Studies course (55 minutes) we review common challenges faced by startup and venture teams in making an impression, including: Making a pitch real Breaking the “They can’t do it mindset” Presenting and pitching financial models Visualizing customer pain and choice Building credibility …Read the Rest
The P@SHA Making History Project
October 13, 2011
Do you like to travel to exotic location with strange people? Do you like to write and take pictures and record videos? Can you move social media with a flick of your pen? Make founders and geeks clamor for your attention? If you fit the bill, take at look at the P@SHA Making History Project. Free ticket, boarding and food …Read the Rest
The case for toffeetv: Teaching kids how to learn Urdu through animation and fun
October 12, 2011
Here is the abbreviated pitch for Toffeetv.com and a short note to my friend Salman and his team. The market There are 7 million expat Pakistanis outside Pakistan. This number does not include the second or third generation or extended families and is limited to current NICOP and Passport holders. If you include Pakistani origin individuals and families the number …Read the Rest
Pitching for startup – Case Studies and Dissection
October 12, 2011
The Business Plan Pitching Case Studies course dissects 7 business plan pitches that I analyze for stuff that I like and dislike, for ideas that work and don’t. Combined with the pitching for Startup framework it tells you everything I have learnt about making and grading pitches over the last 11 years as an entrepreneur and business plan competition judge.
The P@SHA ICT Awards Debate
October 11, 2011
Please note that these are my private opinions as an individual and do not reflect the views of P@SHA or its membership body. Every year the P@SHA ICT Awards ceremony hosts 500 hundred plus souls for a night. We have now been doing this for 8 years and the show as well as the number of entries has grown many …Read the Rest
English video transcribers – open positions
October 8, 2011
The job – Video transcribers, content editors and content writers Alchemy Technologies has a client who needs transcription services for a number of English videos. This is an ongoing assignment that will carry well into the next year. In its first phase about 12 hours of videos need to be transcribed in English. If you are interested and feel that …Read the Rest
Stress Testing, ALM, Capital Adequacy online video courses
October 4, 2011
Three new posts at the Finance Training Course portal this week that broke the popularity graph. Continuing Profession Education (CPE) online learning solutions for actuaries Stress testing crash course for Board of Directors and Board Risk Committee members Cross selling treasury products Two new online video based courses – The Stress Testing, ALM and Capital Adequacy Crash Course and the …Read the Rest
Crazy week – Friday morning blues
September 22, 2011
Crazy doesn’t even come close… Monday morning Jehan reminded me of my two commitments to judge the P@SHA Launch Pad event as well as stumble my way through 2 feet (yup that is how high they stack) of applications received for the P@SHA Social Innovation Fund. As I dressed and rushed to leave home on our daily 18 kilometer trek …Read the Rest
