Musings On Durga Pujo

To all my Bengali readers out there, wish you a very happy durga pujo. We have pujo at our ancestral home in Calcutta, and I must say, I miss it terribly. One of the big upsides of India’s recent boom is that opportunities for professional growth and actualization have become available closer to home. While I have thoroughly enjoyed my international experience over more than 20 years, it is during these major holidays that I feel a sadness for not being able to participate in the wonderful family celebration.

One of my yoga teachers commented some years back that she never thought of god as a woman, growing up in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. Well, since I grew up in a traditional Hindu family surrounded by Durga, Saraswati, Laxmi, Kali, and Annapurna, I never had any such ambiguity …

Anyway, for those of you who are celebrating, have a wonderful time!

Accelerating Global E-Commerce: Adyen Cofounder Peter Caparso (Part 4)

Sramana: How did your first customer find you?

Peter Caparso: I cold-called them. I find most of my customers by reading trade magazines, crawling the Internet, and cold-calling. I have built the business the old-fashioned way. >>>

Near Field Communication On The Verge Of Realizing Its Potential (Part 6)

By guest author Nalini Kumar Muppala

NFC: Outlook

For a new technology to gain a foothold, it needs to be mature and enable scenarios that improve the user’s work flow, lifestyle, or both. Consistency, ease of use and reliability are essential for a new technology to take off. Winning trust is essential when money is involved. NFC, by its nature, is set to deliver on the ease-of-use aspect. Trust will be addressed by the security elements in hardware. Consistency and reliability are where there tend to be issues. NFC forum plans to address such issues by establishing core specifications that devices should adhere to. However, the compliance/certification program promised for Q3 2010 covers just the basics, and much is left to be done in 2011 – this could mean NFC could be waiting in the wings a little longer. >>>

Accelerating Global E-Commerce: Adyen Cofounder Peter Caparso (Part 3)

Sramana: The payment clearinghouse is a very large market with a lot of competition. What did you see in the marketplace that made you believe you could be successful?

Peter Caparso: The nine original members had all worked in the industry and had vast experience. Our collective knowledge led us to believe there were some gaps we could fill. We wanted to address three basic areas in the marketplace. >>>

Near Field Communication On The Verge Of Realizing Its Potential (Part 5)

By guest author Nalini Kumar Muppala

NFC: Barriers to Adoption

Diverse Ecosystem

One of the barriers for successful adoption of NFC in phones has been the push and pull among ecosystem partners about the business models and direction. The vested interests of various players and their attempts to control where this plays out carry the risk of fragmentation of the ecosystem. >>>

Capitalism 2.0: Distributed, Democratic Capitalism

Even though I have been thinking about it for a while, I have taken my time to write this final piece on the Capitalism 2.0 series. Well, it is my conclusion that capitalism 2.0 needs to be rooted in value creation, somewhat distanced from the reaches of the speculators who have basically hijacked the 1.0 system, and it needs to be democratic, distributed, and its fruits far reaching. >>>

Accelerating Global E-Commerce: Adyen Cofounder Peter Caparso (Part 2)

Sramana: When did Adyen officially get started?

Peter Caparso: In December of 2006. >>>

1M/1M: Oct 6 Video Conference

On Oct 6, we had a synch-up call for the global 1M/1M ambassadors over video conference. Initially, my instinct was to simply share the recording of the call with the ambassadors. Over the weekend, I thought about it more and decided that we will make the video available for all the readers so you can catch up on what’s going on behind the scenes in 1M/1M.

It has been an interesting journey, somewhat grueling for me personally, but nonetheless infinitely rewarding. In this video, I have shared metrics, strategies, projects where we need help, etc. I have also answered questions, and if there are additional questions, please feel free to ask here, I will try to answer.

I want to reinforce one thing I have said right from day one: I’d like 1M/1M to be a for-profit, self-sustaining business, and not a non-profit. We are trying to solve a big, hairy problem in a scalable manner. This is better done as a for-profit, sustainable business model, and not depending on charity.

I will also emphasize one more thing: 1M/1M is an educational program. We’re not a funding broker. Yes, we do make connections to investors, but we also make connections to customers, channel partners, and other influencers who can help you grow based on revenue without costing you equity.

Remember, over 99% of the businesses that go out to look for financing are rejected by investors. Our goal is not only to help the 1% find money efficiently, but also to coach and educate the 99% that is making numerous avoidable mistakes.

So. Without further ado, here is the Oct 6 video conference recording for all 1M/1M afficionados.