Rajesh Jain has a post on Quarterly Numbers.http://emergic.org/2009/01/14/quarterly-numbers/ where he has an advice for Startups:

• Think of the business in quarters. A month is too short, an year, too long.
• Put up a quarterly report to a Board of 3-4 members and review.

See the entire post

There are upteen quizzes promising to assess your “entrepreneur-ability” in terms of personality, skills, experience, and background.

Are they of any use?

Would you imagine “entrepreneurship capabilities in a 40+, parents knowing nothing of doing business and who has spent 18 years working in a PSU environment ?

But, each individual is different.Who knows what this 40+ guy can do!!

Paul Graham’s post on “Why to start a Startup in a Bad Economy” is spot on!

The economy has some effect, certainly, but as a predictor of success it’s rounding error compared to the founders.

Which means that what matters is who you are, not when you do it. If you’re the right sort of person, you’ll win even in a bad economy. And if you’re not, a good economy won’t save you. Someone who thinks “I better not start a startup now, because the economy is so bad” is making the same mistake as the people who thought during the Bubble “all I have to do is start a startup, and I’ll be rich.”

People don’t take notes when they go to the opera.

Powerpoint magic steps from Seth Godin

The financial crisis has deep implications for Startups even though it may seem unlikely.Read the survival guide and decide for yourself if you need to take those steps 

From Web Strategy by Jeremiah:

I’m mainly looking for briefings from companies that are ready for prime time. They are established, have a solid product, and are ready for adoption by Fortune 5000 enterprise companies. These companies don’t have time to deal with a startup that may not last the test of time, or have weak infrastructure. As a result, often established companies may have significant funding, or a revenue stream and thereby are able to afford a few thousand dollars a month for PR services. Having PR services is one indicator that a startup is beyond the garage (but not always)

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Vijay Anand, Curator, Proto.in asks, “If we make better companies, and if we are darn better in hard work, and are more than well aided in terms of talent and capacity, whats it going to take us to the global spotlight?”

And he has the answer too. “ I think its going to take the support of the community as a whole to make that happen.”

Here are some brands that had no launch at all: Starbucks, Apple, Nike, Harry Potter, Google, William Morris, The DaVinci Code, Wikipedia, Snapple, Geico, Linux, Firefox and yes, Microsoft. (All got plenty of PR, but after the launch, sometimes a lot later).

Great publicity is a treasured gift. But it’s hardly necessary, and the search for it is often a significant distraction. Full post by Seth Godin

The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad’s center for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship started recently. The center is part of IIIT-H initiatives to combine research and encourage innovation and entrepreneurship with highest quality education. The center was set up to imbibe creative, strategic, managerial and transformation thinking amongst students.

SETU software systems became the first company to be incubated & housed inhouse in IIIT-H, with the base technology offered from the CEO, Prasad Pingali’s PhD work at the institute’s LTRC lab. The co-founder of this company is Prof. Vasudeva Varma, who is also the chief scientist in the company. SETU Software system is a product & services company operating in the area of Indian Language search & information extraction.

As part of their academic partnership within 2 months of setting up the innovation center, SUN Microsystems extended support to the Institute by giving servers and software platforms. The Institute received financial support to projects from Governmental scheme DSIR’s TePP and DIT’s initiates for entrepreneurship development.

“More often than not success will take longer in coming than you think. There will be times when at the end of the month there will not be enough money to pay the office rent and employee salaries… There will be years on end when you will be financially the worst off person in your batch from business school… So before making the jump ask yourself a question – will I love doing this for the rest of my life even if I am not financially successful?” Sanjeev Bikhchandani adds.

Read the full article here