Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Celebrating Failure - Coimbatore Startups - 2015, October Meetup

The usual Second Saturday of the Month at Tib corp, Excellence Towers were a vibrant team of people from various startups in and around Coimbatore.

The agenda was clear, "Celebrate Failure". Sharing the stories on how they failed to the gathering for the people to pickup lessons from them was the motive which was well kept up.


 


After the initial round of networking, discussions and niceties shared, started the story telling on failures;

1. Bootstrap


The workplace can be made jazzy even with very little investment. Arvind of the Coimbatore Startups core team he passionately talked on how his first venture a restaurant that he had heavily invested did not sky rocket as expected. Cutting down all the expenses that you can and building a bootstrapped MVP is the solution to simply scale up.


2. Failure is Not Fatal


Ebin, seamlessly talked on how the society had branded him after his initial failure in engineering subjects. This made him to drop off the college, startup and run a successful show and get back on track on his academics and graduate with an engineering degree.


3. Calculate the Probability of Risk


Hari, talked about on how he had failed and learned to calculate the probability of risks in the tasks involved in taking forward his wooden decor business. He also did give an important point on how online sales fetched him better profits by packaging the product in a precise way.


4. Market Research


Karthikeyan and Santhoshini, the CA couple focused on delivering training sessions in the field of accounting explained on how the printed marketing materials with a course registration date led them to a headache with the distribution and targeting.


5. Sense the Next Step


A young second generation entrepreneur had scaled up his father's business and when it hit the ceiling limit and gradually bounced downwards since he was not able to retain the subcontractors. Taking the failure on the lighter side, he decided to venture into his new startup.


6. Never Give Up


Among us was a veteran student who has given multiple attempts to clear both CA and CS exams and is with the moto Never Give Up. He also has a Accounting Firm that he runs successfully.


7. Be Detached


Although having let go a profitable venture, having very clear insight on the  strategy on not getting into a loss was the story shared by Meera. She iterated that all the successful entrepreneurs take ZERO risks and build on established models.


8. Business is not Personal, So is failure


Aru, had vast experiences to share on how the feature list of his product kept on adding and the development was done targeting to finish all the features before releasing the product, finally the  client did not want any of the features but for the first one.


Another important insight shared was on finding a co-founder "Your good friends need not be your good co-founders".


9. Time is Money


It was my story where I spent a lot of time building a table for my company eventually not realizing that Time is Money and the season to harvest has gone by and for the next season it is a long wait...


There was a sense of pride and passion among everyone who shared their story and celebrated failure. The common thought everyone had was Failure was due to a mistake, Learn from the mistake and never do the same mistake again. 



Fail, Learn, Grow




P.S: We meet on Second Saturday of every month to network and grow organically. Join our Facebook group for more updates also, get added to our telegram group.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

An unforgettable experience in the mountains



Being blessed to be born in a world without cell phones was a boon, more blessed are our generation who have seen the transformation in technology and got trained to adapt to the required transformations. But the most blessed are those who have been on a camp or a hike in their childhood days and I am one such blessed soul.

The air became thin and our bus came to a halt for a short break it was mid day and all if us were damn excited and tired at the same time and very eager to reach the campsite. There were veterans describing about their experiences on spotting a few animals, the does and dont’s, the flora and fauna and what not.. We had stopped in a mountain town..




Driving through the last few hairpin bends, the narrowing roads, we reached the Berijum Lake. The shores were clean, the air thin, the mercury taking a dip, the water well settled and clear, most importantly the adrenaline rushing up and down for this was the first time. This was just the beginning.

It was our first camping experience and added to it we had come out together with our friends away from home for a night stay accompanied by our teachers of course. we learn’t what sharing means the day when the tents were allotted. What did we share? Rugs.

Before that we were told that camping is all about team work, now we started experiencing it. Setting up the tent to make it livable especially during the night was a challenge. This was the first team task where we had literally used the 2 rugs for the floor and other two to cover us while sleeping. Thinking back and trying to do it now would be a little more difficult to achieve I presume.

The second day was the real challenge, walking in the shoals exploring the rich fauna. Getting a chance to feel what forest was like, taking a nap in the middle of the forest in the afternoon after a dip in the waterfall, meeting with new friends from other schools and the long trek. Here was the time were we saw carcass of a bison hunted by a tiger. Getting to see a variety of mushrooms and getting to pick a few on the way back to the camp were the tastiest.

The stream walk to the origin was a breathe taking experience that followed on the very next day. The pine forests were dripping with water droplets from the recent downpour since the rain gods had no mercy and this added the challenge of walking in the marshy terrain with dripping rain coats. This was the time we learned on how to break the step and follow the lead.

The final day was for spotting some wildlife but with no luck, this was a short walk to the other bank of the lake where there will come a chance for us to see any wildlife, here we all wondered were there anything wilder that us human beings?  

We had no other choice than to return to our camp to have spotted just a few birds. The Kingfisher being a very common sight.

The camping experience was totally incomplete without the camp fire which a fellow camper will call a forest fire and make the camp director freeze. The art of mastering the perfect spot to sit to enjoy the camp fire was something to be mastered. Too close will mean too hot and too far you are cold, Against the wind again hot adjusting to the wind nearly impossible until finally a perfect circular audience was formed.

Each hour spent in the camp was learning something new, each talk was knowledge gained, each act we did was shaping up towards letting the EGO off..

Today when I see the Sholai hills from a distance, I am thankful for the very important lessons learnt and expecting to go camping once again…

Camping to me means learning unlimited..

My Cycling Time (From Birth - Till Date)




Not really sure if I can clock the time right but it would be a lot of time spent on my favorite machine "The Cycle". Right from the tri cycle, to the BMX series and the ranger model the time spent with the little feet on the pedal was just fun.

The Tri Cycle was great fun when riding indoors, the fun was greater when the outgrown kid rides the cycle. The seat will not fit, the knee would bend but imperfect to reach the pedal, the handlebar too small to hold one positive thing here would be the missing brakes.

Next comes the talent of riding the cycle in very small gaps, getting the hero feeling when the elders of the house tell us to be careful. The feeling today brings back very beautiful nostalgia.
The BMX was the next version, the best memory goes back here with uncles and cousins training me up. This was the cycle which introduced me to my extended family and made me understand what cousins really are.

Post mastering the balancing act, the next step was to take a glance of the overtaking vehicle on the side, those thrilling moments to take the eyes off road and land up in a ditch, thankfully it was  dry one. On mastering the ride, the next big what was the one wheeled ride (wheeling), hands free ride, bund jumps and the small races.

Outgrowing the BMX and getting bored with the same machine to ride daily and ofcourse changing with the trend was the ranger cycle as it was popularly called amongst us. Every kid in the locality was moving towards a ranger cycle and soon it was my time. Though it was difficult to part with the BMX, had to keep up with the trend.

This was the cycle of pure fun and long distance rides. The mountain foothills, the street shortcuts, the first dog chase, the transformation from adolescence to teenage, the ranger was truly “THE” Best Friend. The very same cycle that I still own and refuse to give up till date for the past 15 years.. The very same cycle which has been the best gadget of my life till date and will continue to be…

My cycling Nostalgia, to be continued..


Wednesday, July 29, 2015

No Tear No Fear

Tear will not come out,
There is no fear for bout,
Problems that are near,
Will be solved by those here..

The sun has set but there is light,

There is light and that is bright,
The shine will last for years to come,
The wisdom spread will brighten our home..

We'll make the people cross the poverty line,

Our Nation will be developed and will shine,
Rest my president, Rest O'Divine,
Rest my president, Rest O'Sunshine..

Jai Hindh..!!

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Legend Never Dies

The Statesman is no more,
But the Legend is still here,
An Era has come to an end,
But the aura spread has gone beyond.

The journey well traveled,
A trail left behind, very well leveled,
The duty done so well,
For there will be no sequel.

Generations on the yester years,
Moved to the ledge with tears,
We thy see your vision,
We are now on the work mission.

Time for us to wipe the tear,
Time to leave the fear,
Time to prove the Legend right,
Time to take up the development fight.

Rest not till the dream is built,
Rest not till the barriers are made to silt,
Rest not till the till the impact is felt,
Rest not till the goal is reached.

Oh, visionary, Statesman, Scientist, People's President, Rest in Peace,
We, the fellow Indians take an oath to propel the country forward..


Jai Hind..!!