Tata Nano bookings open on 23 March 2009 in India. 

Tata Nano

 

Nano booking can be done at Tata motor dealers and SBI bank counters. The upfront amount to be paid would be 70,000. However, looking at the production capacity of Tata Nano and estimates of 10,00,000 bookings likely in first 2 weeks, it will be a long wait for many. 

Tata Nano for the first time will effectively challenge Maruti 800. Maruti 800 has been leading the segment for many years and haven’t changed much in the car for many years. It would be very interesting on how Maruti handles this new most-talked-about-peoples-car. 

I would be looking forward to test drive this car sometime. If you buy one, please give me a ride!

For a startup to succeed it is ideal to follow a non-linear approach from idea to market. In other words, if you know who will consume your product or service you don’t have to wait until your offering is ready to sell.

Getting customers early (during your planning or development days) will do great and even bring you funds. In this post, I will provide you with case study of LifeMojo, recent startup based out of Bangalore.

LifeMojo is a Preventive Healthcare platform that helps you stay fit by helping you eat right. It is a team of 3 enthusiastic developers/entrepreneurs. They started the company by pooling in their personal savings but knew they have to get it right before they drain away their savings. Time was crucial.

LifeMojo CEO, Namit Nangia recalls

” We found our first prospective paying customer, 1 week into the product conceptualization cycle. We approached them with a storyboarding of the concept as a working HTML and discussed the concept. They were excited about the product and gave us their input. We got back to them with the prototype within a couple of weeks and that is when we signed the first paying customer.”

He emphasised the importance of customer inputs to get their offering to be build around what people want.

“The first few customers helped us a lot by spending time with us, helping us understand their industry and identifying the gaps in the existing preventive healthcare processes that we would fill by leveraging technology.

Surprisingly not many entrepreneurs take this approach. Many startups learn it the hard way.

So lets go back to the basics.

Begin with selling your idea

If you fail to sell the idea you are quite likely to fail selling the end product. Find customers early. Don’t start it too late as it can help you save a lot of costs. Find people who would benefit from your solution. Get them along during your requirements, design and testing process.

Customers are good testers

You would get real users to test your application. This would save a lot of our testing time and totally eliminate the need to outsource testing. They will also give you a valid use-cases for new features that they would expect in the application.

Customers can bring in funds

Product companies don’t like making tailor made software – but often companies require customers to define feature roadmap. Giving features at the speed that the customer needs can attract some cash even before you roll out the product to the world.

Customers can predict better

Your customers are likely to be in a better position to tell if your application is usable, useful and value for money. A perfect reality check. So, if you are heading the wrong direction in development – no better expert than a customer to guide. You can be sure that your product will not fail big time when it reaches the market, if your first few customers loved it.

Lifemojo exhibits great risk-aversion strategy by acquiring domain expertise by involving customers early. This helps them keep cost low and increase chances of their business to succeed faster.

Bangalore was my dream city a decade ago. But not anymore. It has been a victim of the so called ‘development-era’. Nevertheless, I love the city for it’s weather and food. There has been plenty of memorable trips to Bangalore that I have never written about.

Anyways, I am heading to bangalore to speak at Proto, The Startup Event at Nimhans Convention Centre on 23 & 24 Jan 2009. I would be sharing a session with Amit Ranjan. Unlike my usual speaking engagements, to engineering or business school students, for the first time I am going to address India’s top grade upcoming entrepreneurs. It is both a chance to share experience and gain a lot of enthusiasm and inspiration from peers.

Satyam fraud is absolutely shocking. Ramalinga Raju, Chairman of Satyam has resigned from the board and admitted the Fraud committed. The IT industry which is already faced with tough times in US will raise questions in minds of FIIs and FDI. According to the letter, neither the auditors nor any other member of the board where aware of the fraud.

You can read more about this story here: Raju admits fraud; Satyam books inflated of Rs 5040cr.

Tenmiles generated it’s initial funding (2000-2001) by offering services like web design, logo design and ad banner design services. Today we are a 8 year old solid product development company with great in-house design team. However, we are now gearing up to re-launch our design division and take our offerings to a next level.

Tenmiles Interactive, the new division would be based in Chennai and offer web design, brochure design, logo design & corporate identity solution. We would also be focusing in offering design services to companies in chennai. A Web Design Company based in Chennai. with a dedicated team of designers, content writers and managers. Gearing for growth!

While Maruti, Hyundai and most other car companies are posting a drop in sales, Honda has improved it’s November 2008 sales compared to November 2007. This is a good news for the company. If you also notice, Honda City is one of the top advertised Car on TV. Honda looks very aggressive with the New City. Impressive!

Micromax is a Gurgaon based company mobile handset maker that has rolled out it’s new model called the X1i that sports a whooping 30 days standby time and upto 17 hours talk time. It’s quite a remarkable achievement for an Indian company.

MicroMax has it’s production units in India and has priced the model at 1,999. Steal huh?

I am expecting everything else to be average about this phone but love the price point and Indian origin. It will give LG run for it’s money in India.

Feature Highlights

Ultra Long Battery*
Music Player
Expandable Memory
Dust Resistant Keys
Theft Track with Remote Access
Black List
Voice Recorder
Speed Dial
Handsfree

Sales Package contents

Transceiver
Standard Battery
Standard Charger
Handsfree Kit
Service Guide
User Guide

Micromax Mobile, India

Micromax House, 697, Udyog Vihar, Phase-V,
Gurgaon, Haryana, INDIA
Ph. : 0124-4009601/2
Micromax Website: http://www.micromaxinfo.com/
Other Phone Numbers and Addresses can be found at: http://www.micromaxinfo.com/contactus.html

I handle a lot of support tickets and sales questions everyday at Tenmiles. Constant contact with customers have tremendously benefited me in envisioning better software products. I believe every busy CEO should spend time with their customers. I read a post long back about David Heinemeier Hansson of 37 Signals that mentioned how busy david is but still manages to keep in touch with the customers.

Keep the customers happy, always!

LinkedIn Customer Service – will they actually respond?

I had been contemplating to report an issue to the linkedin customer service team. There wasn’t any ticketing system or form to fill. I have had no-response experience with some web2.0 companies in the past and hence was wondering if they will ever respond.

I had to shoot an email to their customer service email address to report my issue.

The first response came within 30 hours. Considering the weekend I was happy with the response time. My issue was resolved within the next few hours. I was impressed. Considering their support volume their turn around time was great.

The top ten brands, according to the “Best Global Brands 2008″ list are:

1. Coca-Cola

2. IBM

3. Microsoft

4. GE

5. Nokia

6. Toyota

7. Intel

8. McDonald’s

9. Disney

10. Google

Apple ranks 24. I effectively use only 3 brands out of the top ten. How many do you use?