New Technologies from Microsoft’s India Lab

Here is an article which throws light on three new technologies currently under development at Microsoft’s India Research lab. Many Ventures members and infact SMU students have worked on very simillar ideas to SixthSense, one of the technologies. SixthSense used RFID to identify misplaced objects around the house. The other two technologies are also quite interesting. Read on to find out more…

Posted by Aditya Maru

New Delhi: Imagine how easier life would be for people driving on India’s roads, if they could avoid a traffic situation, a crowded junction, or a road full of potholes, just by using their smartphones.

 

Microsoft Research (MSR) India, the research arm of Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software firm, is currently researching a software solution, TrafficSense, which will help smartphone users automatically monitor road and traffic conditions while they are on the move. TrafficSense uses different sensors on these phones—radio such as bluetooth or cellular wireless; microphone; global positioning system or GPS; an accelerometer; or even the camera—to help phone users monitor traffic and save time.

Looking for a loan? Try peer-to-peer networks

There are variouos websites which have come up recently which facilitate lending among members of a network. These websites connect borrowers with lenders. There are some micro-finance websites (like https://www.microplace.com/ and http://www.kiva.org/ ) which allow people to lend to poor borrowers in developing countries. This concept is simillar to an idea developed by a Ventures team for a business-plan competition in Hong Kong this year.

The following article talks about a website which links up borrowers and lenders and takes a cut (comission) for facilatating the transactions. So if you guys have excess money, you can use the following websites to lend. Or if you need urgent financing, you know where to look! Read on to find out more….

Posted by Aditya Maru

From The Economic Times

WASHINGTON: Saddled by student loans and credit card debt, Ryan Little was looking for relief. Like many, the 30-year-old insurance agent turned towards banks for a loan but he ended up finding a much better deal elsewhere, on the Internet, through a website called Lending Club ( www.lendingclub.com ). Little eventually borrowed 10,000 dollars from 30 people he didn’t know and had never met through Lending Club, a “peer-to-peer” or social lending network.

‘Friend Locator’ could become next craze for social networkers

A new social network site, Gypsii, launched in Feb of this year, allows users to search for and identify their contacts. Imagine knowing the real-time location of your friends on Facebook! This will add a whole-new dimension to social networking. Some SMU students have undertaken projects recently which make use of such technology. With real-time location, you can know if your friend is in the next street or vacationing in the Bahamas! Follow the link to find out more..

Posted by Aditya Maru

http://www.livemint.com/2008/02/13132302/8216Friend-locator8217-c.html

Guerilla Marketing

Heres a link to a website that will give you the lowdown on Guerilla Marketing.

Posted by Aditya Maru

http://weburbanist.com/category/guerilla-marketing/

How To Make Money From Your Website – Part III

In continuation with the series, this article explains how search engines rank pages. This may be helpful to entrepreneurs looking to develop a website which will receive a higher ranking on the search engines.

Contributed by Pawan Gupta

How Do Search Engines Rank Pages (or your web-site)?

Before you try to add your site to the search engines, you should understand what they look for when they decide how to rank your site. Just because you’re listed doesn’t mean you’ll get traffic.  You have to make sure your site is search engine ready.

The general rule of thumb is that most engines use a “formula” to determine keyword relevancy. The technical term is called an “algorithm”, and each search engine has its own unique algorithm that it uses to rank pages.  

Seven Reasons Why Buying a New Franchise Business Is a Disastrous Mistake

I have for a long time been fanatically supportive of purchasing franchises as a start-up business. For me, buying a franchise is the easiest and surest way of taking the big plunge into entrepreneurship. Sure, you leverage on someone else’s marketing and branding, but at least it saves you the trouble, the dollars, and puts your focus back on sales and operations. It makes the starting process a lot easier, safer, AND CHEAPER. Here is an article from Donald J. Trumps’ online University: Trump University, which begs to differ from my view point. I thought it should make for an interesting debate; I invite everyone’s thoughts on this.

Posted by Raghav Somani

Richard Parker: Jeff Elgin’s recent article in Entrepreneur, “Top 10 Reasons for Buying a Franchise,” takes my breath away. Sure, there is logic behind some of the reasons he spells out for buying a franchise – you’re also buying a recognized brand, he writes, plus receiving promises of training and advertising. But I have heard them all before and my experience tells me that buying a non-franchised business is a vastly wiser business decision every time. Further, reality dictates that not all franchisors come close to living up to the representations they make when “selling” you the concept.

In fact, I put together a list of my own – called “Seven Reasons Why Buying a New Franchise Is a Disastrous Mistake.” (Notice, I stipulated, a new franchise. In a moment, you will find out why.)
And here are my reasons:

1. The failure rate of franchises is greater than most people realize – far greater. If you ask the friendly franchise salespeople to document failure data, you will see their eyes glaze over.

2. Opening up a new franchise location is only slightly better than a start-up. You have absolutely no assurances that it will be successful. And when you are buying a franchise a lot of the decision about your location is not yours, but the franchise company’s.

3. Not everyone is suited to operate a franchise. Do you have entrepreneurial fire? Do you dislike being told what to do? Do you want freedom with your marketing plan? If so, owning a franchise is not for you.

Cool Cell Phone Applications

Making applications for cell-phone is becoming big business now. Whether it be creating applications for Apple’s touch-screen iPhone or Google’s new Android Operating System, developers the world over have tremendous opportunities to make money. Also, with the cell phone moving from just being a phone towards being an essential tool for modern day life, it represents a new territory for entrepreneurs to exploit.

Posted by Aditya Maru

So here, we share some links to some interesting articles about applications for cell phones.

Android Developers Challenge Winners
Google is coming up with a new Operating System for cell phones. So for it, they held a competition for developers to come up with cool applications. Here is the link that provides info about the winners of the competition. Some of the applications are truly breakthroughs.
http://phandroid.com/2008/05/10/adc-round-1-winners/

Compare Everywhere- Shop Smarter Using Your Phone
The following is the link to one of the coolest Android Applications. It’s software which allows you to:

·         Scan any barcode on a product and instantly search dozens of online and local stores, finding out if that “sale price” really is a good deal.

·         Read product reviews, listen to music clips, and watch movie trailers with a single tap.

·         Easily connect with stores in your area using driving directions or a phone call.

·         Quickly build shopping lists, wish lists, and share them with friends.

Here is the link that gives more info. The Demo is truly amazing.
http://scan.jsharkey.org/

A Legal Alternative to Online Gambling

This is a business that is very similar to an idea proposed during the Ventures Business Plan Competition leading up to the Asian Students’ Ventures Forum. Do read this one for a crazy web based BPlan!

Posted by Raghav Somani

Here’s a business model for you: Give people money and let them place any bet they’d like. If they win, they get to keep the spoils; if they lose, give them more money to play with.

No, we’re not talking about the subprime mortgage business. We’re talking about a new–and perfectly legal–online gambling outfit called Centsports.com, founded by budding Webpreneur Victor Palmer in College Station, Texas.

Online gambling has always been illegal, even though people got away with it for years. In 2006, U.S. federal prosecutors started cracking down on payment processors, making things a little harder, even for off-shore virtual casino operators and their customers.

Palmer skirts this pesky problem by banking his customers. Three elements have to be present to violate most state gambling laws–namely “prize, chance and consideration,” says attorney Chuck Humphrey, a gaming-law specialist and author of the Gambling Law U.S. blog. Because Centsports.com doesn’t allow users to bet their own stash, no “consideration” is involved, and thus all is kosher. Quips Palmer: “Congress assumes if you’re dumb enough to give away money, then go for it.”

Here’s how the site works. Each user starts off with 10 cents in his or her account, provided by Centsports. (You need only register a name and password.) From there, they can bet on any event for which Las Vegas bookmakers set a line.

Once users accumulate $20 in winnings–the equivalent of doubling your money eight times, or striking gold on a 200-to-1 long shot–they can cash out a minimum of $10 and receive an actual check in the mail. (In terms of “consideration,” winnings on that initial 10-cent stake don’t constitute ownership until actually cashed out.) Losers risk nothing–except perhaps a touch of pride–and get immediately restaked with fresh dimes.

At the Bear’s Whim

Ventures’ very own Finance Secretary, Aditya Maru, had a lot to share about Doing Business in Russia leading up to his ‘Business Study Mission to Russia’ later this month. I found this article about Entrepreneurs and Business in Russia and the role of the Government, that will give everyone a heads up on the subject. Feel free to spam Maru on the topic. He’s more than happy to share his experience and knowledge.

Posted by Raghav Somani

Russia’s former president Vladimir Putin has spent the last few years expanding the state’s interest in industries ranging from diamonds to aviation. A new fund for the construction of much needed roads and bridges will be largely funded and overseen by the state. Rosoboronexport, the massive arms-trading entity owned by the government, bought the country’s largest titanium concern and has taken control of a carmaker that has a joint venture with General Motors.

In Russia, entrepreneurs don’t just compete with each other, they have to watch that the government isn’t lurking around the corner, planning to seize the fruits of their hard work. Many large natural-resources companies are partly owned by the government–or at the very least, are vulnerable to the government’s whims. But there is a separate sector, made up of fast-growing consumer products companies, telecoms, pharmaceuticals and others, that operates mostly without government interference.

The danger, though, is that this divided economy could result in stagnation. There is an ever-present fear that the government will arbitrarily choose another sector to sink its teeth into. As the newly minted president, Dmitry Medvedev, takes over from Putin, many in Russia are anxious about which way the economic and political winds are blowing.

This all has its roots not in the gangland crony capitalism of the 1990s, but in the latter years of communism. At the time of the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, there were no companies as we understand them, and there was no competition. In the late 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost and perestroika to loosen controls on society and commerce. This move resulted in well-connected people (such as those who had been active in communist groups or the Party) forming semi-private companies, many of which were simply auxiliaries of state-owned companies and were used to siphon profits into their owners’ pockets.

The Best Emerging Markets for Expat Entreprenuers

A very insightful article by Forbes opening your imagination about where you should be looking to do business beyond India and China.

Posted by Raghav Somani

You’re craving adventure and eye-popping growth?

Sure, there is plenty of action in India and China, where big boys like Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT – news – people ), Citigroup (nyse: C – news – people ) and Intel (nasdaq: INTC – news – people ) have made deep inroads. But for entrepreneurs with vision, patience, an appetite for risk and command of a second language (or two), there are plenty of opportunities in even more exotic locales.

In Pictures: 20 Emerging Markets To Watch

Indeed, emerging economies–defined here as those not included in the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development–now make up more than half of the world’s economic horsepower. By 2050, they will account for nearly 78% of total output, estimates a 2007 report by business services firm Grant Thornton.

“In general, you make money in countries [that] are currently not doing that well … but over the next five or 10 years, they’ll grow,” says Simeon Djankov, chief economist at the World Bank and co-author of the World Bank’s Doing Business series on business environments in emerging markets.

While the outsourcing trend has grabbed headlines in recent years, a small cadre of U.S. entrepreneurs is setting up shop abroad–mostly in the real estate, architecture, education, information technology and medical device fields, according to the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service.

Of course, some countries are more hospitable to business than others. Ocean views don’t mean much if you can’t enforce a contract or fire incompetent employees. In India, for example, enforcing a simple commercial contract takes 56 procedures and nearly four years, notes the World Bank, while in Venezuela, workers who earn less than 1.5 times the minimum wage can’t be fired. Meanwhile, in Brazil, it takes an average of 152 days to start a business, compared with just five days in the U.S.

Another other huge hassle: corruption. Take Africa. On top of the devastation wrought by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, corruption devours $148 billion per year–25% of Africa’s gross domestic product–and increases the cost of goods by as much as 20%, estimates the African Union.

So where are the most promising locales? Eastern Europe’s Georgia was last year’s top reformer, according to the World Bank’s 2007 Doing Business report, which ranks countries based on regulatory reforms that enhance business activity. Georgia made strides in six of 10 categories, including the time it takes to start a business, dealing with licenses, employing workers, getting credit, cross-border trade and enforcing contracts.