Vijay Sharma's Blog

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Hi,

I just moved my posts from Posterous! Do go though my blog for all the new posts.

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3Crumbs app - Are you the local thrifter we all have been looking for? 

[vijaydaman]

Nasscom Product Conclave - 3 years down, take a bow

After reading Dorai Thodla's blogpost on his learnings from Nasscom Product Conclave, I felt a sudden urge to post this.

I have been only 2.5 years out of college and it has been an amazing roller-coaster ride since. But before I got out of college, I took a deep plunge by bunking my PS 2 (internship) for 2 days to attend the Nasscom Product Conclave where Guy Kawasaki was speaking. I knew nothing about Entrepreneurship and why everyone went on evangelizing product companies (Sharad, Avinash and the other organizers). I was in an internship in a big company and realized I did not want to be there. Hence the exploration of the Nasscom Product Conclave in 2009.

I in that event met a certain Raghab Panda from NEN (Wadhwani Foundation- National Entrepreneurship Network) whom I stayed in touch with and helped connect with the BITS CEL (Center for Entrepreneurship Leadership) with whom I did not have much to do on campus with. 

I went back to campus and thought of what would I want to do and decided to want to work with young folks in the entrepreneurship space and I thought immediately of NEN, where I got interviewed via Sunita Singh and joined straight out of college. 

NEN First Dot was something which we acheived in that year, and is something still going strong in its 3rd edition as TATA First Dot. 

Then came Nasscom Product Conclave 2010, where I met Okri (SriKrishna) - a BITSian senior, who said go and join/build something you can call your own at this age if you are here. You will be able to contribute back better.

I also re-bumped into Shashank ND (Practo) whom I did decide to join to build Practo with.

Incidentally that Product Conclave I also met another BITSian senior called Shivku who was in chappals and with 2 phones in his hands with no time to network, but just managing calls. He was building Roopit. 

We stayed in touch and after Practo, and being an initial user of Exotel (pivot from Roopit) I am now here. 

So 2 things I would like to point out:

1. I ended up working in 2 young start-ups - both Product focussed (so there was a vision, and now I see SO many product companies, its unbelievable) Hats off to folks like NPC team who have been envisioning good product companies out of India since 2008-09.

2. Nasscom Product Conclave was a great exposure for me in the younger days, and re-meeting people and putting a face-cum-discussion to stay connected with people has helped shape my first 2.5 years post college.

I think these guys do a fabulous job and deserve all the praise they get. Adding more plaudits with a real life story here. 

[vijaydaman]

Alumni Relations - Good ideas to re-start alumni activities!

There was an interesting question which was left un-answered on Quora - the link is here 

I wanted to write an answer not only to those there, but too many of my alumni and of other institutes/schools as well. A quick few thoughts after volunteering for the past 2 years to support Alumni activities for my association 

The Question is - "What are the good ideas to re-organize an alumni assocition?"

My answer:

1. Find/Help a bunch of "few" musketeers who are willing and have a "cause" to work for and organize the association's initial activites around the same - as the cause will be bigger than any other pull - if it connects to most alumni. Ideally these musketeers would have great sense of belonging for the alma mater and would also be close friends.

2. Involve the Administration in your key programs and have a great link-back with the institute.

3. Build a structure for the core committee and provide opportunities for growth from volunteers to a position of importance so that the incentive's are present for anyone who puts in time and effort. Involve a good mix of young & old in the organization.

4. Have a great Online Infrastructure available to continuosly engage with Alumni who register and sign-up for regular newsletters, activities & events.

5. It will take time - if you/others dream of a great Alumni association - it takes lots and lots of time and effort! 

These experiences are thanks to the brilliantly organized BITS Alumni Association (BITSAA) International which now has helped concieve and implement many Million Dollar projects and also continues to have a regular framework to allow all Alumni to participate and give back in some capacity to the Institute. Quite thankful for it!

If there are more thoughts around this - do let me know - learning though never stops.

[vijaydaman]

E-Patients: Technology Empowered - from the Practo.com Blog

Have posted this on Practo's Blog - here, but reproducing it here as well.

  We came across this brilliant TED Talk from Dave deBronkart on how he survived Cancer with patient power! – a must watch for Patients & Doctors alike.

The key points for us to take away have been discussed in this post. All are not completely related to the talk though.

TEDxMaastricht Talk by E-Patient Dave – Video courtesy TED.com

Some say that the most under-utilized resource in all of healthcare is the power of patients themselves. The patient is large in number and an ability to bring them together has so far not been achieved. Technology could and is slowly becoming the solution to this problem as well! It has been termed as the E-Patient. The definition as given for the same is: E-Patients (also known as Internet Patient or Internet-savvy Patient) are health consumers who use the Internet to gather information about a medical condition of particular interest to them, and who use electronic communication tools (including Web 2.0 tools) in coping with medical conditions.

Why is the need for such a consumer behavior and how is it growing? 

Let’s now consider the patient angle:

He/She always has to carry files, records, for all of his/her medical history.

There is no centralized system or an easy access to online records for patients to be able to store their own data.

Few major hospital chains which build online records do not provide patients access to data – until requested, and that too is only hospital consultation specific!

The concept of E-Patient has come in recently via a wave by patient-patient movement to support each other in the United States of America. Patients are taking up the responsibility of themselves; they want to learn more about their treatments, their own records and gain awareness on their issues.

Technology will play an important role in enabling what might be the biggest revolution in Healthcare – the E-Patient. With online communities of passionate patients we can expect it to manifest into a movement because of:

Empathizing with similar situations faced by other patients

Provide solutions/treatment options from best experiences from across the world

Access to a network of patients who have access to Doctors

Doctor-Patient Relationship

A very interesting development occurs with the advent of Technology – “Doctor-Patient Relationship”

Dr. Malpani, a Mumbai based blogger from the Healthcare-Technology domain writes

“Right now the standard response for all patient queries is – Ask your doctor! (Isn’t it ridiculous that most books and websites on fitness and exercise have this disclaimer – Please check with your doctor before starting an exercise program!) All we end up doing is making patients more dependent on the doctor and unnecessarily increasing the doctor’s workload! What we need to do is make patients more independent, so they can fend for themselves!”

He provides a solution to the problem –

“The trick to making patients do all the work is to develop clever tools which will help the patient to make sense of what is happening to them so they can communicate clearly with their doctor. The vast majorities of health problems are self-limited and just need reassurance. They can easily be managed by a phone call or an email.”

The question then more importantly arises for all of us, is India’s Healthcare moving towards such an eco-system to enhance patient empowerment? Are we able to identify ways to provide accessibility of records to patients such that they can be responsible for the self, as technology grows in multiple folds?

Dr. Hasan Iqbal from Kolkata mentions that a patient of his was one of the reasons that he learnt a new technique of surgery and treatment, as the patient – all of 21 years old googled and found a different cure to his ailment. Since then, Dr. Iqbal uses this new methodology and to best effect for both his practice & the patients wellness.

The eco-system has to be developed in India and we all have to play our role in doing so.

[vijaydaman]

Hiring Freshers for Start-Ups in India

So let's get the context out first. Working with students over the last year and being a student the year before sort of puts me in a position to start off with this post. Worked with some amazingly talented students in Tier 1,2,3 colleges across India. Also met lots of Entrepreneurs, Start-Ups and this post comes out of my recent attempt to help some start-ups get some good fresh grads for different roles.

Firstly - from the Start-Up angle:

1. Very few "want to join a start-up" category (this I can say with my conversations with SutraJobs, Akash - student coder and many more)

2. Very few "exposed to start-ups and the eco-system (I myself got excited only in Sep 09 - my final year at college)

3. How to reach out and get best talent in? (I loved this reply from Sanjeev on PubMatic's Jobs/Career page to Swarup's post on "The real reasons start-ups struggle to hire in India"

4. Orientation - now this is out of my conversation with Shashank ND, and we ended up agreeing with our experiences that parents & family also need to be exposed to Entrepreneurship in India and that it's not a "Bad" thing (Family Taboo will be there, but efforts have to go in)

Secondly - from the Student angle:

1. Pool A (Very few "who want to join a start-up"): The Knowers are also divided into coders/geeks/hackers and non-coders 

2. Pool B (Not-exposed category)

Let's focus on Pool A because that's where Start-Ups should focus on. The Question arises if you are a Student in Pool A, you need to search for these start-ups who are searching for you as well, a few tips and places to be on at:

a. Sutra HR jobs , b. Events - Loads of Entrepreneurship based (less branded events - focus their, rather than the Big one's!) , c. We need something like Venture Loop (thanks Nakul) in India for Indian Startups (maybe when the eco-system is as established in the coming years) , e. HasGeek (really good portal for coders)

Now coders, find or are found - as they are most in demand by (if you are a start-up) moving and finding them nervously moving in and around at OCC, Chennai Geeks, GSoC, Dev Cafe etc. - catchable - but you need to look out for them. There is an interesting start-up StalkNinja (a new free-lancing concept focussed on Student Developers) - will also help catch the good guys!

Non-Coders (the students) - you need to search for exposure and exposure/experience and networking is the key for you. (bang that in your head)- there are amazing opportunities popping up every day - 3 years back never existed. For e.g. (Start-Ups catch them here btw as well):

- Opportunity Websites (LetMeknow, Twenty19, 10internship)

- Experiential Learning opportunities via really cool programs such as Summer in a Start-Up (which many Entrepreneurship Cells beyond the e.g. in the link, on campuses are running). Or better, just attempting to run a Start-Up (might fail, but will give you great learning)

What I would advise Start-Up's looking to hire some good freshers and talent:

1. Network (Simple - when you goto colleges to speak, or meet young 22-23-24 bracket people at conferences, make sure you get them and talk to them and try to know them - make them feel wanted rather than run a mill people)

2. Students know Students :) 1+1+1 leads to more

3. Seniors know juniors (catch the pass outs and ask them to connect you to their juniors)

4. Groups - try catching hold of organizations working with young people trying out of the blue stuff (Jagriti Yatri's, Grassroutes fellowship, Working at Entrepreneurship Cells in colleges) - make concentrated efforts here, and not randomly - go via organizations at campuses.

5. Don't try recruiting firms - you just won't get the right mentality

6. And finally - if you meet young students, take time out and help them out as much as possible, it's all karma - it comes back. it will all come back. Maybe a year later, but it will.

So this post's idea came from 2 wonderful blogs (Ravi Mohan & Mayank)  I read on Start-Up Hiring in India - and I wanted to focus on the fresher's angle a bit.Hope students & Start-up's reading this get some ideas on how to get over this problem of freshers talent working at Start-Up's.

Any contradicting views? Any add-in's by either students or start-up founders to this post would be great! Looking forward to them.