Professor Grandhi at SP Jain is a new friend who had been after me to share my thoughts about what business plan competition at a business school should look like. The post goes out to him and all other promoters of entrepreneurship who believe that we should catch this generation young. Preferably corrupt their minds…
Category: Blue Screen
Blue Screen of Death Book posts
Teaching the dreamer course again
In Dubai, teaching the entrepreneurship course from today till the end of the month. More later
Funding for dummies…four
And finally no financing deal ever goes through without relationships and credibility. Relationships open the door and get you time; credibility gets you to the term sheet. The sooner you build up your stock of these two elements the faster you can get to capital – debt or equity.
Funding for dummies…three
We met Wilson Tan on a trade trip across China. In just over a week, thirty technology companies from the Asia Pacific region covered 3 cities and one hundred Chinese partners, trying to understand the opportunity that was China. Wilson was the President of the organizing body, (the outgoing President of Mercury interactive and on…
Funding for dummies…two
It’s not that money is not available. Or that you can’t raise it. Or that it’s a fairytale that come true for only a select few. Truth is a lot less absolute; there is no black and white, only shades of grey. Let’s take a look at how and why a 37 year old, father…
Funding for dummies…one
You dream, you write, you pitch. If you put your heart in it and have an idea with merit you collect, build, sell, retire and live happily ever after. You never have to ask, borrow or steal another dime since the millions of dollars you have put aside as a result of your efforts are…
Things to do in a down market when you are not dead…
We were lucky that the downturn hit us early. In July 2008 we lost two of our largest clients; within a week of each other and on a week’s notice… It made for interesting internal conversations and a scramble to conserve cash. We were luckier still that between attrition (top heavy), expense management (read: extended…
Dreams…
“Let’s just say I dare to dream bigger dreams”, said a spunky student when the rest of the class was done with introducing themselves. Quite a few sunsets and students later, the dreamer called again. This time he wanted to be a sponge and observe in first person the special sauce that made a technology…
Strategy and tactics redux or Winning for itsy, bitsy, teeny, weenie, little Pakistani mom and pop tech shops.
Here are my hard earned qualifications that allow me to speak on strategy. I have never been rich or famous (infamy is separate classification) or successful. Of the last four of my ventures, three were dismal failures. I have been teaching since a crazy afternoon in 1995, when I was asked to substitute for a…
Marc Andreessen does a blog
Marc, the Netscape founder does a series on the only thing you ever needed to learn to run your startup. Great validation for the Blue screen of Death.