Squaring the Blockchain circle (Nov 2018) The hype-fog surrounding the blockchain and its offspring cryptocurrencies is peaking, and this book slices through it. Is the blockchain revolutionary in scope? Absolutely.
Start-ups Riding High on Steroid Funding Over the last decade or so, start-ups have been riding the high wave of steroid funding. With troves of capital raining down on start-ups,
Like them or ignore them, buffet is a hugely popular style of serving meals in restaurants of various scales and cuisines. Introduced to the world at the Stockholm Olympics in
Why Start Ups Fail – Overestimating the Product Delivery Whenever a new start up fails, there is an obvious post-mortem that is essayed by the community around it. It is
Humans have worked relentlessly hard in pursuit of a custom-made world that can function as per their needs. Technology is at the cornerstone of all the advances humans have made
Busting top 7 myths of Blockchain Blockchain has become the most “glorified” database of the 21st century. While there is some proven value of Blockchain (example Bitcoin application) and great
Climate change is considered the third most serious issue facing the world, only after international terrorism and poverty & hunger. So much so that all 197 signatories and ratifiers of
A lack of education can be marked as a root cause of most challenges that deteriorate the quality of living on the planet. It leads to crime, inequality, lost opportunities,
Lets briefly examine the good, bad and ugly parts of the deal, for various stakeholders Good for Flipkart employees, shareholders, and investors will get a good->great return from the deal Walmart
Most of us reading this are fortunate enough to be taking multiple shots of our gorgeously plated meals possibly with the ‘portrait mode’ of our ridiculously expensive and arguably worth-it
Water water every-WHERE? 71% of the earth’s surface is covered in water but cities throughout the world have started facing the impending crisis of water scarcity at an alarming rate
Life without Facebook As a generation of meme creators and sharers make hilarious jokes about how there’s no question about our personal lives Mark Zuckerberg won’t have an answer to,
Aren’t all of us guilty of using plastic in some way or the other. It has become such an indispensable part of our lives that we don’t even notice it
How to constructively regulate Blockchain, Crypto-currencies and Initial Coin Offerings This blog is an attempt to explain how and why embracing and regulating these new age technologies, and technology driven
As we begin the research for this post and type into my search bar ‘Why do people blow horns’, a Quora result completes my sentence by adding ‘in India so
Why ICOs need to be regulated In 2013, J.R. Willett unleashed the ICO concept – a fundraising system where companies sell their new cryptocurrency tokens in exchange for Bitcoin and
Could Blockchain magic wand make Aadhaar more secure and accurate Aadhaar – a Sanskrit word that means ‘foundation’, or ‘base’ – was designed to reach even the most excluded residents and those
Decade in review and preview – “Cryptos String theory” 2016 was a black swan year, with key unexpected events including Brexit, Trump and Demonetization in India. 2017 clearly belonged to
Everyone is excited about Bitcoin futures being listed on US exchanges, and Bitcoin price keeps soaring. Here is some analysis of this news. Bitcoin value is likely to go up
It wasn’t very long ago that Bitcoin and other similar crypto-currencies disrupted the financial ecosystem. It surpassed the US Dollar, other fiat currencies and even gold. Pretty soon it earned the title
Most entrepreneurs face several uphill challenges for years, before potentially transforming their startup into a sustainable business. And if the external factors favor, they may end up being fairly successful
Is there a free lunch, ever? We humans value something higher if it’s expensive / limited, & lower if its free / unlimited; rather than based on its true utility.
Blockchain has been a major topic of discussion and media coverage in the last few years. It has been over-estimated as the magical wand that can solve all technical problems
Background Humanity has evolved through few key eras, over the last 10+ billions of years. Evolution of life form from molecules to homo-sapiens over the last few billion years since
BITCOIN – Acceptance around the world As humans evolve the future where automation and robots replace and / or compliment all professionals, including cab drivers, doctors, engineers, and even sex
The B words – Bitcoin, Blockchain and the BANKS Background – Bitcoin Overview Bitcoin concept was introduced in 2008, for one major reason – To get away from a centralized
What is Peer-to-Peer Lending? Peer-to-peer lending (also known as person-to-person lending; abbreviated frequently as P2P lending) is lending and borrowing which occurs directly between individuals or “peers” without the intermediation
Governments find it harder to gain public trust, even if they do good work. Primarily that’s because of lack of transparency, lack of public involvement in decision-making, and traditional operation
How did Hashcove brand itself The name ‘HASHCOVE‘ stands for a small body of Hash Functions / Values. And hash values are a crucial part of the BlockChain. – Most people we see in
Quick decision making flowchart. Do you need Blockchain
Branding your Start-up So you’ve jumped across all the hurdles in your way, put in sweat and blood, and invested countless hours to kick-off your start-up. Now how do you
Kodak Cameras History Kodak developed the first simple, consumer camera. For over a century following this, Eastman Kodak was the biggest player in the industry. However, the years following 1994
Say you’re planning a cross-continental trip to three different countries. The usual hassles accompanying such a trip would be the exchange of currencies and the inevitable fee that accompanies each
What a year 2016 is turning out to be from the viewpoint of India’s Startup ecosystem! The year got off to a ‘Big-Bang’ start with the Prime Minister outlining the
Blockchain is likely to be the most hyped database in the current decade. It is the core technology that enabled bitcoin, which has had challenging ups and downs due to
Robots, Technology, Automation, etc. have existed since the last century; but they got smarter, relevant and widely used across most industries in the current decade. The number of movies on
Funding is a crucial element for any company in the world. From large companies to startups, funding can make or break a company’s existence. Ironically, Funding acts as a double
Several startup failures can be categorised into few common and classic mistakes. 1. Build a product / service which is not required Many entrepreneurs feel that they want something,
Businesses run a variety of applications, each containing and holding data vital to the needs of an organization. These applications cannot operate in isolation and eventually; there is a need
Fintech will continue to grow and stay in headlines, but it will be far from the full disruption. I do not see a Google or Facebook alike company emerging
Indian financial markets have seen a major growth in the current decade in terms of technological advancements. This has enabled growth in algo trading volumes, leading to Indian exchanges featuring
I am a Start-up entrepreneur and have learnt more doing my startup in the last 3 years than I did in the previous 30 years or my life. I enjoy
Over the last few years, I seeked advice and mentorship from various senior and kind leaders in the capital markets and technology industry. We were lucky that many super successful
Having done 2000+ final round interviews (for shortlisted candidates) in the last 3 years, we have had several discussions with candidates who eventually chose not to join uTrade. We are
Entrepreneurship is booming around the world. This decade will witness most start-up firms ever in the history of mankind. The balance of economy among large gigantic firms and small /
It’s a good situation for a start-up to have built a product / service and have some live / beta client(s) to work with. If proven, the offering could be
It’s a brave move for entrepreneurs to move from any “comfortable” career path to start a start-up. Some of those with lot of hard work and luck move to the
The US subprime crisis in 2007 had shaken the foundation of US economy and eventually the global economy. Subprime loans (loans for people with not so good credit history, jobs,
Business Planning Don’t make a business plan where you target to get a few percentage points of a multi-million of billion market, and you think it’s going to
The tremendous growth in financial trading volumes in the last couple of decades has been made possible only with the use of technology. Technology has helped in – automating the
As we know that some successful entrepreneurs are drop outs from various colleges, its definitely not a pre-requisite though. Many entrepreneurs have decent academic background, with some work experience as
Good teams increase the probability of a start-up success. The start-up team includes its co-founders, employees, investors and board members. The entrepreneur needs to make tough firing decisions
Arguably, time is the most important commodity in a start-up, and not Funds. You cannot raise more time. As an entrepreneur, you will need to make lots and lots
Adults are typically biased and afraid of more things than they need to be. Entrepreneurs can draw a lot of inspiration from the behavior and attitude of children. Kids are
It’s paramount for entrepreneurs to know and understand their customers. The customer relationship can help grow business as well as product development. Customers are typically not very helpful
I have met several aspiring entrepreneurs who feel very possessive about their idea. They want to get feedback, business advice, opinion on their ideas; but they are not
Financial Services play an important role in the countries’ and their economies’ functioning. Following the credit crisis (2008), and its various consequences (de-leveraging, lesser sophisticated financial products, shift
Financial trading has grown from manual to electronic to automated with the use of algorithms in the last few decades. The increased adoption of technology will lead to disruptive trends
Financial exchanges are the market places where buyers and sellers of financial securities trade (buy and sell). The exchanges have become automated and electronic over time leading to rise in
Trading process has evolved over time. An individual or an institution needs to trade through a broker who is a member of the exchange. Couple of decades ago, here is
Electronic trading in the last decade has laid the foundation for increased use of technology in the financial markets. If a trader’s mind can be coded into an algorithm (step
In finance, trade is typically an exchange of a financial security (share, bond, etc.) with cash. (To understand more around how financial securities are created by discounting cash-flows, please read
The business plan in a start-up evolves very frequently. Mostly the market, customers, product requirements would move in an ever changing world during execution of your business plan. Good entrepreneurs
Every start-up has some objectives. Success, though subjective, is one of the core reasons why many start-ups come into existence. While it is useful to have well defined targets as
A start-up’s success is mostly directly linked to the combined performance of its team. Hiring a good team is important, but how they collaborate and deliver is also crucial.
If you have worked in larger organizations for some time, you would realize how much political it gets and how your growth gets limited by the bureaucracy of the organization.
Challenges of running a start-up in India: India ranks around 130th in the world bank rankings of world bank’s ease of doing business Index. It makes India one of the hardest
Understanding the Investment Landscape Other than Investment Banks, there are other financial institutions in the market that play a big role. Below is a possible representation of Investors, Investment Intermediaries
Securitisation has been a key factor in the rise of financial services businesses and it poorly managed sub-prime loans distributed across the world through securitisation led to the subprime crisis
The Rise of Investment Banking Investment Banking has offered one of the best paid jobs and it’s questionable whether the Bankers did enough for the kind of money they got.
As a start-up, you may chose to have a Board of Advisors and Directors. It’s not a necessity but definitely adds credibility and experience in your company. Lets first look
Hiring software engineers in Indian start-ups: India has millions of software engineers from good educational background and with reasonable work experience. This headline is well sold across the world. However the
What caused the sub-prime problem will be discussed and debated for long time. Many blame the Sub-Prime crisis upon Greedy Wall Street Investment bankers, or on “Risky” Hedge Funds,
A bank is a financial institution with the purpose of lending and borrowing money. Retail banks are banks with retail customers (most individuals and smaller institutions / businesses) where
What is the role of an Investment Bank? Different Investment Banks would have a variant of the following generic business structure. Investment Banks in simplest terms help match investors
If you are one of the main founders of a company, you may become the CEO. It is always a good position to have, but a very challenging one
If you are the first person to think of an idea and truly feel passionate about executing it, you may chose to bring in other co-founders along with you.
In most scenarios, the success of a Start-up depends upon the quality of its team. From co-founders to management and its employees, everyone should be efficient. There should be
Selling is a constant job that an Entrepreneur has to do. It is a very key skill within a start-up. you will need to sell your company to investors,
Why is it that very few start-ups succeed, whereas 99% or more fail? Firstly, the success and failure are subjective terms, and the partial success and partial failure is
Presumably you have an idea with which you are considering to start a company. It’s going to be an incredibly challenging and exciting journey. Here are some points you
The funding process is a very critical component in the survival and success of a startup and deserves good knowledge and experience of this domain. I will try to cover