Startup

Guy Kawasaki evangelizes...

• Make meaning
  • Increase the quality of life
  • Right a wrong
  • Prevent the end of something good.
• Make a mantra (not mission statement) for your organization which will be understood by everyone who connects to the organization.
• Just get going
  • Think different
  • Polarize people
  • Find soul mates – to balance
• Define a business model
  • Be specific
  • Keep it simple
• Weave a MAT
  • Milestones like “finish design”. Its prioritization.
  • Assumptions like how much you can do x in what time… write them down, test them
  • Tasks like “rent an office”
• Niche thyself

Daniel Pink’s asks the new players to master the “six senses” – design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning.

Pune has starting buzzing with the startup activity recently. Though the number in Pune is nothing compared to Bangalore, yet a very strong start has been made. In the coming years, more and more startups are likely to come out of Pune.

A startup is acquired for multiple reasons -

1. The startup might be competiting with the big company. Though this kind of acquisition is not seen very often.
2. The startup might be complimentary to the business of big company. eBay acquiring PayPal and Cisco acquiring Linksys are examples of this.
3. A tech startup may be acquired for its technology. The technology must be hard to replicate either because of time, money or resource limitations.
4. The startup might offer the opportunity to enter a new market. The new market could be a new geographical location or it could be a new space altogether. For example, Fox acquiring MySpace allowed Fox to enter social networking space. However, Monster acquiring JobsAhead was to enter new geographical location.
5. The startup might offer the resources/working-setup that's hard to replicate. Sometimes, the companies are bought for the team.

While pitching for an acquisition, the startup needs to evaluate these criteria. Based on these criteria, the startup team can assess which company might give them maximum value.