Category: Business

Fallen for Deals Mania


Groupon has changed the way we shop on the net and it has created a platform which benefits the vendor & the buyer… For thouse who have no idea about the concept here is how it works;

Groupon.com is a site where in a vendor can display his product or service for a massive discount on a commitment of getting specific number of purchase.

Example if I’m a Vendor selling Jeans… I post a discount of X percentage (most cases it is more than 80%… I commit for that percentage of discount if 100 people commit to buy the product… Deal succeeds if number of people reach 100 else it gets cancelled…

Also there are some vendors who give massive discounts even if there is no minimum guarantee of purchase…

Since I run a Web Development company I got lots of request to develop a site similar to Groupon… I’ve been waiting for a long time to get something similar in India… Also I was following couple of sites based on Groupon concept… For last two months this wave has caught up in India… Following are the sites which I’m aware of;

  • SnapDeal.Com
  • DealIvore.Com
  • Sosasta.Com

Latest sensation among those 3 sites is Sosasta.Com which is acquired by Groupon.com for $10 million… But SnapDeal.Com must be the market leader because he updates atleast 2 new deals per day for almost all major cities… This month I’ve purchased 4 deals & I’m happy about the the deal I got from Big Brands…

  • Got a deal for Rs.299 for a Ayurvedic Massage from Apollo Ayurvedic Centre which was worth Rs.1650 from SnapDeal.Com…
  • Got a deal for Rs.149 for Salsa Classes for a month worth Rs.750 from SnapDeal.Com…
  • Got a deal for Rs.289 for 8 Classes to learn Hindi worth Rs.750 from SnapDeal.Com…
  • Got a deal for Rs.66 for Teeth Scaling & General Dental Checkup worth Rs.650 at Vasan Dental Care from DealIvore.Com…

I’m very much thrilled for getting such massive discounts and I’m expecting more such offers in days to come…

How Smirnoff Vodka Became The Best Selling Vodka


In the late 30’s the Smirnoff Vodka makers was looking to increase sales. In general they were ‘ok’, they were surviving but not really thriving. The company decided to hire an outside consultant for creating new marketing message. This consultant studied the Smirnoff Vodka in and out. He tried to understand every aspect of the vodka and what makes it unique. By doing this – he would be able to launch an effective marketing campaign for Smirnoff Vodka focused on Smirnoff’s unique selling points.

In his research he discovered one thing that was very unique: When you drink the vodka – you don’t have the smell of vodka in your mouth afterwards.

Based on this discovery, Smirnoff launched a campaign promoting this message and the company became one of the top selling Vodka companies in the world.

Message : Its all about finding that one little thing in your business thats a little bit better then your competitors.

Knowledgeable Sunday


Again Rooban made my day by introducing me to his BDE friend… We scheduled a meeting at noon in a Bar near Thambaram… The guy was marvelous with his knowledge and he gave me great insights about the subject and shared a great part of his experience which others resist to share.

Out meeting lasted for five hours and overall I got lot of cues from him… Not i’ve got some tips to start and from tomorrow it is upto me to strategies and execute all that we discussed…

Once again Thanks a million Rooban Bro…

A nice meeting & a new friend


Today I had to give an appointment to Deutsche Bank folks because I was chased by their pre-sales caller from Mumbai for almost a week. Then as usual I was late for the meeting because my previous meeting got stretched.

I allowed this guy to talk for couple of minutes where he lists his clientele, products etc. After listening to everything I asked him;

What will they do if they get a proposal from a Startup with an idea?

He said he (the Bank) cant help them. Then I said that is where I’m positioning myself and I wanted to help those people by Seed funding them since they are denied a chance with Biggies.

Then we because close on a personal note and he was talking about his entrepreneur wife who runs a chain of Pre-Schools. I’ve never seen an husband talking that high about his wife. In fact I wanted to meet her and have an interview of her in my blog.

Then we We discussed a lot about other business models, ideas etc. Finally what started as a Business Meet ended as a Friendship Meet and would be glad to meet such energetic guys.

is RedBus dye’ing?


My previous blog states the Irony we had with a Private Bus. Most of the passengers got the ticket through RedBus.in. For a person who is a great admirer of RedBus for the way they filled a Gap and in raising VC funding. They were a great success case study. But they are falling prey to a problem which is not their’s.

  • Most of the Top Private Bus operators have their own Online booking service and they have walked away from RedBus.
  • Now most of the travels they have are Travel / Ticket agents who don’t even own a Bus.
  • Also other operators are with single fleet service operators.

My last three experience with ticket booked by RedBus was a nightmare. I personally think RedBus to do something innovative to tie up with operators whom their customers can rely with. Else this concept is going to die because most of the operators are unorganized, hooligans who man handle customers.

Yesterday was the last occasions where I used RedBus & good bye guys. Pls take this as a serious whistle-blowing & work on some other solutions to stan on the field.

10 years of Entrepreneurship & 2 Years for Cogzidel


September has become a special month in my Life as it is during this month that I started my career and that too as an entrepreneur. I still remember it was during September 2000 I started my first company in a Ganesh Temple in Besant Nagar during Ganesh Chadurthi. Then I didn’t know I’d have crossed soo many hurdles & would be blogging about it today.

Also my second venture Cogzidel was started during september 2 years back and again I cant believe it has been 2 years. I can still remember both the days afresh.

It was a wonderful journey which was a mix of;

  • Excitement
  • Learning
  • Experience
  • Betraying
  • Managing Cruelty
  • Criticism
  • Appreciation
  • Recougnization

It took me 10 years in life to understand only half what entrepreneurship is and I’m still learning. Now I’ve a past to show people about my performance. But time to redraw my future & this is how I want my future to be positioned or I want to be or I want to do;

  • Become an Angel Investor
  • Become a Business Mentor
  • Become a professor on Entrepreneurship
  • Experiment / Research on Entrepreneurship like
    • Social Entrepreneurship
    • Holding and scaling an Entity
    • Forming a Company with Crowd Funding
    • Run a Public Limited Company

Just understood where my heart is and slowly moving towards the direction of my passion. Finally on this day I’d like to thank all my friends, relatives & my associates who have helped me reach where I’m today.

I wish 2020 will have a lot more to Share than now.

I watch this whenever I’m down


Adidas & Puma Story


Rudolf and Adi Dassler learned at an early age the enormous impact that gold medals had on their shoe business.

When U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens got to Germany for Berlin’s 1936 Olympics, Adi Dassler drove from Bavaria on one of the world’s first motorways to the Olympic village. There he found Owens, unpacked a suitcase filled with spikes and persuaded him to try them. Owens won four gold medals in Dassler shoes.

“Owens’s success cemented the good reputation of Dassler shoes among the world’s most famous sportsmen,” Smit writes. “Letters from around the world landed on the brothers’ desks, and the trainers of other national teams were all interested in their shoes.”

Business boomed and the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes each year before World War Two.

The war exacerbated tensions between the two brothers and their wives. Although both Dasslers joined the Nazi party and signed their letters with a “Heil Hitler” salutation, Rudolf was a more devoted Nazi.

The origins of the split between Rudolf and Adi are hard to pinpoint but an Allied bomb attack on Herzogenaurach in 1943 illustrated the growing tension. Adi and his wife climbed into a bomb shelter that Rudolf and his family were already in.

“The dirty bastards are back again,” Adi said, apparently referring to the Allied war planes. Rudolf was convinced his brother meant him and his family. The damage was never repaired.

In 1948, the brothers split their business. Adolf called his firm ‘Adidas’; Rudolf called his ‘Ruda’ before changing to ‘Puma’.

Second Step to Crowd Funding


After a week of thinking, to and foe changes on strategies we finally decided on two things yesterday;

  • Deliverable to the investor…
  • Business Model for the investment pitch…

Thought that is just a start from today have to plan a lot of parallels and still we have a lot of things to do like;

  • Forming Intermediates (Brokers / Affiliates) to sell the project.
  • Meet more people like Investment Bankers, Serial Entrepreneurs to understand the legalities and challenges we might foresee and work on solutions.
  • Start working on Business Plan to show it to investors.

From now it is going to be interesting as it is going to be a test for our patience, leadership, team-work and skills.

Life with Crowd Funding


It is going to be 2 years and it has been a great two years run. When i sat to prepare on my future plans or next milestone for the company; I realized I’ve been standing on the same foot for almost 10 years. Even with my previous company I started feeling about stagnation and I came our by that time. Now again I’m feeling stagnation and not sure about the Value as a company we are going to office. After much brainstorming i couldn’t think much. I think it is time to jump out of the comfort zone and take some chances and work on some cutting edge projects and slowly step into R & D. After making up my mind to step into next challenge and make life more exciting like how it was during 2002 & 2008 I’ve decided to work on raising funds.

In fact finance is one department which I haven’t explored and i want to try my hands on that too. So, we have decided to work on two types of fund raising;

  • Raising capital through Private Equities…
  • Raising through Crowd Funding.

It has been hardly a week since we have started and after starting it is like opening the pandora box. Every day i’m struck with something and I’ve to work on new tasks to facilitate the progress of core idea. I sleep every day without contention. I feel the day was half complete as i’m not done with my pursuit. But this is what making my life meaningful. I use to have the same feeling when i started my first company & with Cogzidel Consultancy Services. Today I’m happy with the progress of CCS & all those thought of half baked days are making today a contented day.

I’ve lots of personal lessons where perseverance has paid yields… For now i’m working on strategies for crowd funding and withing a week we are planning start our first pilot campaign…

If any of you have any knowledge or information about Crowd funding kindly ping me… I might need your help on it…