Bye Bye Bill

Just wanted to say "bye bye" to Bill Gates.

An undeniable force behind the evolution of personal computing, Bill Gates is now going to focus exclusively on his charitable foundation- a somewhat strange transition for a man who was considered a mean, unforgiving ruthless business machine by many.

At any rate, best wishes to Bill in his new expeditions, and if his past is anything to go by, he is about to make a big difference to humanity.

Go in peace, George Carlin

Here's to the man who provided inspirational cynicism, wit and guffaws to a lot of us for a very long time.






Go in peace, George.

Sooo...where are we?

Hello,

As I've mentioned before, we had a terrific beta period, with some awesome results.

We've also received a tremendous amount of feedback for WeareIndia.TV, a lot of which we will include when we get out of beta. The last month has been hectic, to say the least, in terms of all the capabilities we've been adding to the platform.

So here's the low-down:

- WeareIndia.TV will be back online on Aug. 14, 2008.

- New features include:

• Publishing management: content owners will be able to upload videos directly, view statistics, revenue reports, et al.)
  
• Community features : the WAI community will allow users to create their own profile pages, create their online portfolio, upload music/photo samples, submit screenplays, find talent, and a lot else)
• Channel WAI on Facebook: a 24/7 video channel on Facebook, bringing the most popular videos on WeareIndia.TV, to the Facebook platform, opening up a range of distribution possibilities.
  
• A new player: it's going to look beautiful, work flawlessly(just like our old one), and have a number of in-built features that will definitely interest you.
  

Thank you all for your support so far. It's turning out to be one helluva ride, so until we're ready to rock and roll next time around, do check back in with us on here, and we'll keep telling you stories of shoes and ships and sealing wax. ;)

-preetam

"Think Different"

Apple's "Think Different commercial".

Goes like this:
Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.

(cross-post) How to pick up a VC

Courtesy Guy Kawasaki and Sun Microsystems:

Many entrepreneurs ask me what is the best way to open a pitch to potential investors. I'll answer that question at the end of this posting, but first let me tell you the ten worst opening lines that you can use:

1. You say: "I'm bright and ambitious." Investor thinks: "That's a relief because I usually invest in stupid and lazy people."
   
2. You say: "I'm a blue sky thinker." Investor thinks: "You have no business model, and you don't know how to ship."
   
3. You say: "I don't know much about your firm, but I thought I'd contact you anyway." Investor thinks: "You're a lazy idiot--why are you wasting my time?"
   
4. You say: "I love to think of new ways to solve problems." Investor thinks: "Is this a high-school science fair?"
   
5. You say: "I have lots of great ideas, but I have trouble figuring out which one to try. Let me tell you about a couple." Investor thinks: "I want to know which idea you're going to kill yourself trying to make successful, not which ideas have crossed your idle mind."
   
6. You say: "I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur." Investor thinks: "I've always wanted to be a professional golfer. So what if you always wanted to be an entrepreneur?"
   
7. You say: "I'm sure you are aware of the growing need for security. Web 2.0, Open Source, whatever." Investor thinks: "If you're sure I'm aware, why are you telling me you're sure I'm aware."
   
8. You say: "If you sign an NDA, I'll tell you my idea." Investor thinks: "You are clueless. How can you not know that venture capitalists don't sign NDAs?"
   
9. You say: "The last time I contacted you, I..." Investor thinks: "I'm going to fire my secretary for putting this clown on my calendar again."
   
10. You say: "My goal is to build a world-class company." Investor thinks: "How about you ship and sell the first copy before we talk about world-class anything?"
    

Now you know what not to say. Here's what you should say:

"This is what my company does..."

It's that simple. What you're trying to do is get potential investors to fantasize about how your product or service will make a boatload of money. They can't fantasize if they don't know what you do. And they don't want to be your friend, mother, or psychiatrist until they understand what you do, so cut the crap and explain what you do.