Vision India 2020 Review: Blueprint For The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

From Kartik Raichura’s review of Vision India 2020 by Sramana Mitra for Management Paradise:

“I recently laid my hands on Vision India 2020 by Sramana Mitra, and couldn’t stop thinking of the endless opportunities that are right in front of us here in India. This book is a must read for every entrepreneur, aspiring entrepreneur, lawmaker, policy enforcer and, well, actually the complete entrepreneurial ecosystem. Honestly speaking I completed reading the book in straight hours because of its inspirational futuristic tone as it transitions from the present to the year 2020.”

You can read the rest of his review here.

Also, Sramana Mitra recently discussed whether or not entrepreneurship is just about the exit with Markus Lampinen for the GrowVC Podcast.  You can find the recording here and on their iTunes channel here.

Vision India 2020 by Sramana Mitra is available from Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle, and from Flipkart in India.

From Free To Premium With Ease: YouSendIt Cofounder Ranjith Kumaran (Part 3)

SM: I understand there were three cofounders. Did any of you take a salary role in the beginning of the company?

RK: The other guys were still consulting at their previous jobs. I was out raising seed capital to keep the company going because my former company had just been purchased. I was able to generate enough interest from seed investors to enable me to make the decision to plunge forward. >>>

Roundtable Recap: July 8 – The EJ Methodology

This week’s roundtable was an interesting mix of entrepreneurs ranging from an IP licensing company to a snow removal system.

Dr. Marilyn Bruno started off by presenting Aequor, Inc., an early stage biotech company that removes biofilms by using proprietary chemical compounds extracted from marine microbes. Biofilms support the proliferation of bacteria. Marilyn wants to license her technology to various market segments that have applications in bacteria removal, and has identified industries like ships’ hulls to agriculture to contact lenses to teeth cleaning as possible application areas. She expects that it would take the company about five years to really kick into royalty revenue gear, and meanwhile, is investigating funding options.
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From Free To Premium With Ease: YouSendIt Cofounder Ranjith Kumaran (Part 2)

SM: What was the competitive landscape like at that point?

RK: Right around the time we launched another small company out of Los Angeles called Dropload. It did not take off as quickly as hoped. >>>

July 8 Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, here is the recording:

Roundtable Starting In 30 Minutes

Today’s roundtable is starting in 30 minutes, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/8:30 p.m. IST. Click here to join.

From Free To Premium With Ease: YouSendIt Cofounder Ranjith Kumaran (Part 1)

Ranjith Kumaran is the founder and chief technology officer for YouSendIt. Prior to YouSendIt, Kumaran held marketing positions at Verisity Design, and he was the director of sales engineering at Celoxica. He has also worked as a software systems engineer at Red Hat. Kumaran received a bachelor of engineering degree in computer engineering from McGill University and is an active member of TiE Silicon Valley.

SM: Ranjith, tell me about yourself. Where does your story begin?

RK: I was born in England. My father was there doing his PhD in physical chemistry. I was only there for about a year, but I am still pulling for England in the World Cup. >>>

World Cup Diary: Spain’s Moment

Spain’s moment has finally arrived. The Germans trampled England and Argentina, but just couldn’t break through the Spaniards. It’s nice to see two teams that have never won get to the finals.

In the WSJ today, an article suggests that Europe will avoid a double-dip recession in 2010:

“A regular quarterly survey released Wednesday by Germany’s ifo, France’s INSEE and Italy’s ISAE institutes forecast that the gross domestic product growth rate would peak at 0.5% in the second quarter before slowing in the third and fourth quarters, to 0.3% and 0.2% respectively.”

All across, Europe can certainly use the breath of fresh air amidst the colossal gloom and doom!