Gauravonomics Blog

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Yesterday, I gave a talk at the NASSCOM Emerge Friday 2.0 event about how the time is ripe for Indian startups to target the global market: ‘Made in India, Made for the World‘.

So far, Indian startups have focused on tweaks for the local market, not inventions or tweaks for the global market, partly because Indian VCs have tended to fund me-too startups with a business model focused on enabling transactions for the local market (book a air/ rail/ bus/ movie ticket).

However, in the last one or two years, several Indian startups have dared to build products for the global market. On my list are enterprise collaboration players Zoho, Deskaway, Uhuroo, Remindo, Cyn.in and YouSuggest, consumer focused web 2.0 startups like LifeBlob, AuthorStream, GizaPage (and the now dead Fachak and Kwippy), widget company Tell-a-Friend/ SocialTwist, flash-maker Toufee and online tutoring company TutorVista. Do let me know if I have missed out startups that should be on this list. With a little luck, several of these startups can become global players, and some already have.  Read More

There’s a difference between being simple and being simplistic, and I’m surprised how many smart people don’t see it.

If I am designing an user interface for a community website, I would want it to be simple and intuitive, even minimalistic. A simple user interface makes the website accessible to the user, pulls her into the community, without overwhelming her with unnecessary details.

However, the same community website might have some power users, including moderators and admins. If I haven’t thought through the full range of functionality these power users need, I would end up designing a simplistic workflow, that will prevent them from performing their role in a simple manner, and eventually drive them away from the community.

Here’s my point: end users, power users and designers occupy different points on the simplicity-complexity continuum. The interface for end users needs to be as simple as possible. The workflow for power users needs to be both simple and comprehensive. The thought process for the designer needs to be anything but simplistic.  Read More

Now that we have a full team at 20:20 Social, my next target is to get everyone to read these brilliant social media books –

- Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

- Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day by Dave Evans

- Web Analytics: An Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushik

- Secrets of Social Media Marketing by Paul Gillin

- Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernowitz

- Marketing to the Social Web by Larry Weber

- Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams

- Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky

- The Wisdom of Crowds by James Suroweiki

- The Long Tail by Chris Andersen

- What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis

- Now is Gone by Geoff Livingston and Brian Solis

- Crowd-sourcing by Jeff Howe

- Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

Plus, here are two books to get everyone to start thinking about presentations in an all new way.

- The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam

- Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds  Read More