Kids keep their feet on the ground in the real world, by doing good in the Virtual World

Yes I have not written a blog since eternity but that’s because Facebook & Twitter were good enough platforms for me to express my feelings and grudges :-) But there is one initiative I would like to talk about in detail and it brings me back to my blog today.

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“do u believe in changing the world?”

“have u donated for a good cause lately?”

“can kids playing games make a difference ?”

Most of the adults would dodge questions around charity, contributiong to the society with a response like “You know how things are at work… Got no time for anything!” It’s sad but true. Most of us don’t think that we have enough time to give back to the world that we live in and make a positive difference to it.

I would like to share a recent event which involved kids that made me realize a lot of things. This came from an initiative called ‘Coins For Change’. It is an initiative for kids around the world that inspires them to support a cause and make a contribution (from their virtual coins from clubpenguin.com). It’s a simple program for kids in the age bracket of 6-14, which they look forward to each year excitedly! Every year during Coins For Change, Club Penguin users donate billions of virtual coins to help change the world! Players can choose causes that are important to them, and their virtual donations help direct how a cash donation is shared in the real world. These causes include: Providing Medical Help, Protecting the Environment and Building Safe Places.
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Is TED the world’s most expensive drug?

Most expensive drug

Physically, the brain uses dopamine to create a ‘good’ feeling. This is normal and natural. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that the brain uses during its normal functioning. Drugs of addiction cause the brain’s cells to excrete and flood the brain with the chemical dopamine or conversely, block the chemical from being reabsorbed into the cells.

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Stupidity and Me

beingstupid all

U are Stupid! This was the most common sentence I heard for a long
time from friends, family and early investors when I used to describe
to them my weird plans on how gaming is going to be big in India. That
was in an era when PCs were just introduced to India….and no one had
even heard about the Internet.

And recently we all witnessed 3 Idiots become the biggest Indian
blockbuster. I thought there is really something special about Being
Stupid! I want to take you through 3 of my learnings on the same.
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Playing the Number Game

excel

Having started my business career at the age of 16, I had a great
handicap, the handicap of not knowing many of the basic fundamentals
of business and finance. What I was doing during my early days could not
really be classified
as business. I would call it a way I had adapted, to keep paying for my
pocket money, a source of income I had created to fund my hobbies and
have fun with my friends.
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Loser! The new winner

looser
India has traditionally been a society where we have heard stories of the King and his Subjects, Gods and Mortals, the British Raj, and somewhere in our minds we have the concept of being submissive or being a follower to someone of higher power. And it did not help to have a Licence Raj. I grew up hearing stories of how these men of power could turn anyone into winners and anyone into losers.
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Fund me or I will Kill you!

extortion
Every new day brings new experiences and in my case new surprises. In my role as a mentor and investor I meet many entrepreneurs each of them with a story, unique business, passion and blind belief in their business. Many of these entrepreneurs have good backgrounds and generally well prepared for the meeting. They are able to share a crisp presentation on the plan and in my case within 5 mins of the presentation they start getting a volley of questions and we discuss, debate, agree, disagree and generally it ends up to be a 1 to 2 hour meet. While few of these meeting convert into a funding event in most cases I love to keep in touch with the entrepreneurs and keep advising them if they come to me with any query.
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Decoding the Brain of a VC

the vc brain

The brains of the VC’s are wired differently and startups should know how to deal with them.

A venture capitalist is a person who invests in a business , providing capital either for start-up or growth. Venture capitalists aim for a higher rate of return than would be given by more traditional investments. My years of interactions with VC’s have made me come to a conclusion that their brains are certainly wired differently. Just like entrepreneurs demonstrate certain common traits across the world VCs have certain traits. And when it comes to India I think the breed goes through another generation of transformation. To help entrepreneurs and startups better understand how to deal with the complex brains of the Indian VCs, I have put together my version of their brain map. Of course this is generic and there are many exceptions to the rule. Continue reading

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Social Media #FAIL Indian Software Companies

twitter jokes rTjFE 26548

NASSCOM the premier software body of India is once again organizing the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2010. Overall a great conference, mostly attended by senior level executives of most top software companies of India, global Industry leaders,CEOs, Entrepreneurs etc.

Outlined are few of my observations related to how Indian IT Leaders are adapting to social media and traditional email :-
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Why do Indian Media Companies Suck @ Internet ?

indian media companies suck at internet

India has witnessed a tremendous growth in its media and entertainment business. In the past decade, we have seen the growth of billion dollar home grown media conglomerates like Network 18, Zee, UTV, Reliance ADA, Yash Raj, NDTV, Bennet & Colmen, and Hindustan Times to name a few. At the same time the foreign players too have done extremely well either directly like Star TV or via investments and partnerships with local players. Today Disney, Viacom, Turner, Sony, you name it and they have a large presence in the Media and entertainment business. When it comes to Television, Newspapers, Magazine, Sports, Movies, Theaters, DTH and entertaining over 700 million people in India, these companies rock.

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13 year old Kid from Bihar takes on the Mumbai Terrorists

outside taj
Mumbai Terror Attacks on 26/11 has impacted thousands of people directly, millions of people across the globe who saw the event unfold on television, internet, twitter & facebook were also deeply impacted. For the next couple of months there were public demonstrations, media reports, blogs CEOs, Politicians, Teachers, street vendors, taxi drivers housewife almost everyone had a viewpoint. We got mad at the media, abused the government and politicians, blamed corruption, lack of planning, bad equipment, no coordination between agencies, Pakistan, Raj Thackeray, Shiv Sena, America, George Bush and everything under the sun for the Mumbai Terror Attacks
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I must admit I too was suffering from the soda bottle effect, where initially it was all the bubble fizz of agitation but slowly things started to settle down and life got back to normal and 26/11 became a phrase Indian’s started to use with a bit of ‘pride’ it was India’s 9/11 and became a much popular topic of discussion whenever I met friends and business associations abroad.
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