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Taking On Microsoft And Google From India: InstaColl Founders Sumanth Raghavendra, Kaushal Cavale, And Their Mentor Sabeer Bhatia (Part 1)

Kaushal Cavale and Sumanth Raghavendra are childhood friends from Bangalore and the cofounders of InstaColl. After graduating from BMS College of Engineering and the University of Phoenix (Thunderbird), respectively, they worked in technical IT positions in the United States. They returned to India in 2000 to fulfill their dreams of starting a business. In 2005, they persuaded Sabeer Bhatia to invest in the company and become their mentor. The result is InstaColl, a collaborative online service competing with Microsoft Office.

SM: I would like to start at the point of the story where the entrepreneurs came together. Where does this story start?

SR and KC: We were childhood friends. >>>

Building One Of The World’s Biggest Tech Blogs From New Zealand: ReadWriteWeb Founder Richard MacManus (Part 7)

SM: What is your take on GigaOM? They have raised a lot of money. How does that story play out? They have open source, clean tech, and a lot of niche sites.

RM: At one point ReadWriteWeb was doing a similar thing wherein we were trying to build separate branded blogs off our main blog. That did not work for us. We were not getting much traffic to those little niche blogs, so we reversed that. >>>

Next 1M/1M Strategy Roundtable For Entrepreneurs On Thursday

Sramana Mitra’s next free online 1M/1M strategy roundtable for entrepreneurs will be held this Thursday, May 6, 2010, starting at 8am PDT/11am EDT/8:30pm IST.  You can find more details and register here.  Please join us and let other entrepreneurs know!

Building One Of The World’s Biggest Tech Blogs From New Zealand: ReadWriteWeb Founder Richard MacManus (Part 6)

SM: Are you hoping to sell the company in the end?

RM: We are hoping to. That would be the goal. Either that or grow it into a much more profitable business, but I think acquisition is probably the likely scenario at some point. >>>

Vision India 2020 Book Review: Sabeer Bhatia

Sabeer Bhatia is the co-founder of Hotmail, and here is his review of Sramana Mitra’s Vision India 2020:

“Sramana’s book could only have been written by someone who is both an entrepreneur and a good writer. Her stories, ideas and strategies for navigating the complex world of startups and venture capital are so realistic. I really think someone should take it upon themself to implement some of her better ideas. This book is an easy read and a must for all aspiring entrepreneurs.”

Vision India 2020 by Sramana Mitra is available from Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle, from Flipkart in India, and from Smashwords.com in all e-book formats.

Will Amazon Or Apple Buy Netflix?

According to MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, online spending grew 18% over the year in March, outpacing the growth rate of traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Online retailers Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) also saw significant growth in their revenues. Amazon’s stock touched a record high, and recent quarter results surpassed market expectations, recording double-digit revenue and earnings growth. But the company is in for some serious competition over its Kindle. It is not just Barnes & Noble’s Nook that has eaten into Kindle’s market share; Apple’s iPad is also becoming a force to reckon with. >>>

Building One Of The World’s Biggest Tech Blogs From New Zealand: ReadWriteWeb Founder Richard MacManus (Part 5)

SM: What happened to cause that growth?

RM: The business structure is stronger now. In the past six months I have put a lot more work into making sure the business structure is solid. >>>