Archive for 'Innovation'
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 18 Dec 2005, 7:08 PM - 3 Comments
I hope somebody will create this plug-in for Firefox or any tabbed browser. Here is the background and the idea.
RSS changed the way we browse for information. Earlier you to go to an individual website and read stuff. Now, with a good blog reader (or RSS aggregator or whatever) we don’t have that problem. Manhy of my friends track hundreds of blogs and read them. This would not be possible without RSS. So, that is one part of the story. RSS won’t solve everything. You still need to visit several individual websites almost on a daily basis to do some of your work. The other day I counted and for me it’s about 14 different websites everyday. How can we solve this problem?
Here is a simple plug-in I thought would help. Store all the links to these “everyday” websites with a special del.icio.us tag and when you activate this plug-in, it opens all these websites in multiple tabs. When the first website opens up, you can continue to do your work and the other websites start getting loaded in the background (in other tabs)
You can save a ton of time. Thanks.
Update: Thanks to
Derek Scruggs and
Boris Bauer for showing me that this already exists. Boris kindly sent me the steps to do this. Here they are for the benefit of others.
For Firefox
1. Go to bookmarks2. Go to manage bookmarks3. Create a folder4.Group all the sites you want to open in one folder.5. Drag that folder in the bookmarks toolbar. (make sure this is enabled inthe View > toolbars section)6. Select the folder in the toolbar and select "open in tabs".
Thanks to both Derek and Boris again!
PS: Also thanks to Jason Siffring who posted another comment extending the logic. Thanks Jason.
Posted under Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 07 Dec 2005, 7:00 AM - 1 Comment
I had a beta account on Squidoo
for a few weeks and had done nothing with it. Last night, I started
working on my first lens and it took me less than 45 minutes to build
and publish one for Beyond Code.
Take a look when you have a moment and better yet, start planning and creating your own lens(es)
Have fun!
Posted under Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 29 Nov 2005, 9:25 PM - 3 Comments
Most of the people who have mentored me tell me that it’s not always the right answers that help – it’s asking the right questions.
There was a discussion a few months ago on whether being small had its
advantages – agility, speed etc. My response then was that it all
depends and I stick to the same opinion even today. While being small
has its advantages, it has its disadvantages too – especially if you
are a small technology business.
For those companies, I created this list of questions. Some of the questions may have broader applicability.
1. Do you have a sound business model?
Silicon Valley is fun. When I am at
Starbucks
having coffee, I know that in the same room there are at least a few
other people discussing new ideas, hatching business plans and crafting
their visions etc.
A few weeks ago, I met an old friend and he mentioned to me how
frustrated he was coming to San Jose Downtown as there is a lot of
trouble finding a reasonably priced parking spot. That frustration made
him think through a business idea which revolved around creating an
online business to compare parking lots and deals on parking spots. He
said lot of people like him will flock to the site.
Long story short. The idea was shot down by the end of the coffee
session as there was no viable business model surrounding that idea. I
am using this as an example where this entrepreneur cut his losses
(this
time at the idea stage) but there are probably thousands of other
businesses where there is no viable business model and while the
passion and dreams are great, if there is no business model to support
it, it’s not worth your time.
Answering the first question with absolute honesty is key.
2. Do you have the right resources to execute on the vision?
Starting a business is the most easy
part. I see people starting businesses all the time. They tell me that
they have contacts that can give them the business. What they don’t
realize is that not all personal contacts want to do business with
them. They are happy to be your personal contacts but they won’t bet
their company’s future on a startup. Also, you will run out of your
personal contacts soon. So, just depending on personal contacts is not
a good enough reason to start a business.
The key resource is people. Do you have the right team to run the
business? If not, can you afford to get the right team and what are you
willing to give up to attract the right team?
The next key resource is money. Do you have enough for now and for the
forseeable future. If not, do you have visibility to get that money
when you need it?
Note: When you are small, you make compromises on things (just because
you can’t afford everything on a limited budget) but when you start
growing you have an option to not compromise. Just being aware of this
will help.
3. Are you willing to change?
They say change is easy as long as you
are not part of it. As your business grows, there will be some changes
that won’t affect you directly and there will be some that will affect
you directly. What is your appetite for change?
What is the extent to which you are willing to change? If it requires
that you need to unplug yourself from the business for the good of the
business, would you be willing to do it?
4. Can you influence the influencers?
When you are small (or in general for that matter) it is always a great idea to have a plan to
influence the influencers.
Most people prepare and always look out to get to the decision makers
when the journey can be a lot smoother by going after the influencers.
5. Can you scale?
While not having enough customers is
one problem, having too many too early and not being prepared for it is
another problem. Do you have a plan in place if (or when) such a
thing happens?
6. Can you think “systems”?
Systems thinking is one of my favorite
topics and if you are a small business, it is even more important to
understand systems thinking.
Systems thinking is a way of understading the inter-relationships
between the parts of a system and the impact each part will have on the
whole system or on the other parts. When you build a business, you get
plugged into an eco-system that comprises of at least:
* employees
* customers
* partners
* government
* suppliers
* competition
* consultants
* world
You need to understand how each part relates to the other within the
system and should be able to quickly understand the impact of change in
one or more of the parts.
The Fifth Discipline
by Peter Senge provides a great introduction to
Systems Thinking and if you are an entrpreur or wanna be one, you got
to read it and digest it.
7. Do you have the right tools?
If everything remains same, the person
or the company that has better tools will win. Tools may be something
that will save you time, money, share knowledge, increase productivity
or improve efficiency. Have you thought of what tools you need to have
to run this business in the most optimum fashion?
What is your plan for acquiring these tools? What is your plan to
implement these tools? How do we make sure that everyone uses the tools
that are already in place?
8. Do you now how to market in the new world?
The advertisement model of yesterday is
almost dead. The new world requires new ways of marketing or reaching
out. Have you explored blogs, podcasts, viral marketing, word of mouth
marketing etc. Your particular business may require something totally
new altogether to get it going? How willing are you to experiment?
The keyword for today is findability. Clients will find you rather than you finding them. Are you findable on the web?
9. Are you willing to kill your darlings?
Sometimes we hang on to something good
for too long. Selling ice was a good idea at some point in time. When
the world changed and refrigeration started showing promise, it was
time to move on even if there was a good business going. Now this
example seems like an obvious one. What if one of your offerings was to
sell ice when someone was developing refrigeration technology out
there? Are you watching the trends and innovation outside of your world
to see if there are things out there that can impact your business?
The bigger question is: When you do find that your biggest offering is
losing relevance, are you willing to kill it or commodotize it and move
forward?
10. Is your business GYM-proof?
I think GYM is a term coined by
Robert Scoble
- stands for Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. The question is “How do you
know that one of these big companies come up with the same offer as
yours but give it away for free?”
Recently Google announced “Google Analytics”
- a simple, sophisticated Analytics solution for the web for free. I am
confident that a few boutique firms whose bread and butter was to sell
these solutions are worried like hell. It is hard to get information on
what all projects that these companies are working on but sometimes
they give a hint. For example, it would not be a good idea to work on
something that is already being showcased in Google Labs
unless you are pretty sure that you have some amazing technology and
you know that your solution will be far superior than whatever Google
will eventually come up with.
On a lighter note:
When I shared this with one of my close
friends, he said, “Raj clear this list. I have only one question to
replace the whole list – What are you doing today that will ensure that
one of the GYM companies will pick you against others in their next
acquisition spree?”
PS:
This list is in no way complete. However, I have to end this post somewhere 
Posted under Business Models, Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 17 Oct 2005, 10:07 PM - 2 Comments
I have been exploring Ning, a simple
framework for building social apps. The promise of Ning is compelling
and it appears like it should be easy to create applications like Craigslist, Flickr or Del.icio.us. Ning was founded by Gina Bianchini and Marc Andreessen.
I was tempted to get a beta developer account and get my hands dirty on
this one quickly. Before that, I did want to check how they were going
to make money from this offering. Once I found that out, I realized
that the details are sketchy and the exposure of creating an app is
huge at this point in time.
Here is the Ning FAQ if you want to read it yourself. Two things caught my attention:
* Application Quota is for public applications is 1GB.
Note: Don’t know what it would cost for additional storage.
* You need to pay for turning off features like “Clone this app” or “View Source”
Note: If
I am building a serious application with a lot of effort, I may not
want someone to clone this app. How much does it cost to turn off the
features are not provided
So, long story short, I will wait until they announce more details. I
am sure Ning will come up with answers to the above and I think until
then I will work on my other projects 
Posted under Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 10 Oct 2005, 10:38 PM - Leave Comment
The company you work at and the company you keep both make a big difference.
Being in the silicon valley, I get to meet and talk to entrepreneurs
almost on a daily basis and get to hear about cool things that they are
working on. It’s amazing to see how these folks look at the same things
that everyone is looking at but will find an opportunity that no one
else has seen.
Every time there is a paradigm shift or a discontinuity, there are a
ton of opportunities. RSS was a paradigm shifting technology and that
lead to a ton of opportunities. Here are some examples:
* It was difficult to visit so many sites and created an opportunity for RSS readers (eg:
Newsgator,
Bloglines)
* As a publisher, it was difficult to find out how many people
subscribed to your feeds and that created an opportunity to manage
feeds (eg: Feedburner)
* Search engines were not indexing blogs in a good way, that created an opportunity for blog search engines (eg: Technorati)
* Bloggers were not able to monetize beyond AdSense as more people
subscribe to their feeds and not visit the site. That created a RSS
advertising opportunity (eg: Pheedo)
* For every one person who is using an RSS reader, there are 99 who may
not know what is RSS. This created an opportunity to send blog entries
via email (eg: Feedblitz)
Now for the latest innovation – you now have so many sources to search
and that created an opportunity for a meta search engine (eg: gada.be)
I was one of the fortunate few to hear this idea when Chris
was literally writing it on a piece of paper at a conference a few
weeks ago. I was fascinated by the simplicity of the idea and now that
the service is launched, I am not only fascinated, I am amazed at the
power of this service.
I can search for something by putting the search term as a sub-domain in the blog url. So typing something like http://rajesh.setty.gada.be
will actually report back results from a few search resources (for
‘rajesh setty’) all in one page + the search results can be output as
an RSS feed. Check it out. You will be glad you did.
Posted under Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 25 Aug 2005, 11:41 AM - Leave Comment
I am of the firm belief that email is still the killer app and there
are many more killer apps that will come out based on email.
Feedblitz is one of them. In a nutshell, Feedblitz provides a painless way to get blog content into an Inbox. Brad and Phil helped me setup an email delivery capability for my blog in less than three minutes. It was that simple.
If any of you want to receive this blog content via email, there is a signup form on the left sidebar powered by Feedblitz.
All the best Phil.
Posted under Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 19 Aug 2005, 12:12 PM - Leave Comment
Every company is different when it comes to agility. There is a
viewpoint that as the company grows, companies become less agile. There
are bigger companies, though, that demonstrate agility.
I am here at the Blog Business Summit and Beoing, one of the sponsors of the conference are pitching their service – Connexion by Boeing.
Connexion by Boeing is a business unit of The Boeing Company that
provides real-time high-speed Internet and entertainment services to
airline passengers in flight.
What an amazing service offering by a company whose core business is to build planes. Hats off to Boeing.
The other company that I am fascinated (when it comes to agility) is Amazon.com.
Starting off as an Online book store (Remember the tagline – earth’s
biggest bookstore), Amazon has morphed into so many things and become
an Internet power house. Here are some things that I could think of:
* Morphed into an online superstore with a ton of items (books are one category now)
* Sold ecommerce infrastructure to Target, Borders etc.
* Launched Search Engine A9
* Launched Amazon Stores – allowing other folks to setup stores using the Amazon infrastructure
and a lot more. For me, Amazon is an example of what could be done in online commerce.
In summary: Agility is important and
it’s important no matter how big or small your company is. It may be
easier for smaller companies to be agile but it’s not impossible for
larger companies to be agile.
Posted under Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 16 Aug 2005, 6:57 PM - Leave Comment
In my earlier life I used to run an eBusiness consulting practice. One
of our areas of specialization was personalization. We used to work
with partners like Broadvision
implementing personalziation solutions. The deal with personalization
was simple – give us some information about yourself and we will keep
sending you information (and some ads of course) that will suit your
needs.
I posted earlier about Salon.com sitepass
approach employing a win-win-win (salon.com, advertiser and reader) for
circumventing the mandatory registration issue. I had a few emails
related to that post. The most interesting one came from Manisha (thanks Manisha for the link) pointing me to a site called BugMeNot
which has an interesting way of solving this problem. For sites with
non-premium content, registered users can share their username/password
with other users so that everyone does not have to register to access
some information on the site.
It is a game changing move and while I don’t want to comment on the
business model etc., I am just thinking about what this means to folks
that are implementing mandatory registration systems to access their
site information. John from Atlanta may be using the username/password
for Jeanne from Nebraska. Since Jeanne is sharing her username/password
from the site, I am confident that all information about Jeanne is fake
(which is not a surprise) and if this trend continues what good is junk
registration data anyway.
This is what happens – when you make it hard for people to do simple
things (like reading an article) people will come up with solutions
that will find loopholes in the system. I am not going to speculate
what happens to BugMeNot (that’s
food for thought later) but for now, sites that have registration
systems, please take notice and re-evaluate your own approach.
Posted under Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 13 Aug 2005, 6:12 PM - Leave Comment
When I clicked on a link that directed me to a page on Salon.com
I was just hoping that the site won’t ask me to register myself before
I was allowed access to the article. What I found there was
interesting.
One option was to register and get access to information (which most
people avoid – how many username/passwords can we remember anyways) but
the other option (termed as sitepass) was to watch a sponsored
advertisement for a few seconds to get a day pass to access content on
salon.com. That was the option I chose and in the process also
discovered some other cool articles over there.
There are several approaches to this problem and San Jose Mercury News
at our backyard follows a sliced approach – meaning a small percentage
of articles are free for all but most others need registration.
There is no one right solution but Salon.com approach was definitely
different than many I had seen. I think everyone (salon.com, sponsor
and the reader) wins with this approach. I wish them the very best.
Posted under Innovation, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 31 Jul 2005, 5:00 AM - Leave Comment
One of my new friends asked me the above question “How to
de-commoditize if you are selling a commodity product?”. He knew that
commodity products usually get differentiated by price and wanted to
escape that.
That’s a problem for many companies. Adrian Slywotzky has a cool book
called How to grow when markets don’t
where he talks about the story of Cardinal health. A division of
Cardinal health sells hospital supplies, mainly surgical instruments
(can be argued as commodity products) and instead of differentiating
the produts they (Cardinal Health) studied how these supplies get used
in the hospitals (value chain) and came up with a solution to help
streamline the process of packaging and delivering surgical instruments
“just in time” for the operation. The package would contain everything
that a particular operation would require in the order the doctor would
want. In fact, it would include the instruments of the doctor’s
preferred brand. You just can’t beat that with price. Instead of
competing on the price of the product, they sold a solution and an
experience that is hard to match by a competitor.
We talked about this and discussed if there was a possibility of “knowledge arbitrage” for his business.
More companies (think Starbucks) are selling experiences rather than products and of course, are charging a premium.
Something to think about…
Posted under Innovation, Main Page.
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