Venture Capital in India: Ashish Gupta (Part 1)

Dr. Ashish Gupta is a co-founder of Helion and serves on the boards of Gridstone Research, Jivox, Kirusa, MuSigma, Naukri.com, and SMS Gupshup. He has co-founded Tavant Technologies and Junglee. His investments include Daksh (IBM), Odesk, Obongo (AOL), Speedera (Akamai), MakeMyTrip, Merittrac (Manipal Group), and Kaboodle (Hearst). Ashish is a Kauffman Fellow and holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree from IIT Kanpur, where he was awarded the President’s Gold Medal. He has written several patents, publications, and a book published by MIT Press.

SM: Ashish, to start could you give us a macro picture of what you have seen in the Indian venture market from 2005 to 2009?

AG: There are several things that are working. The number of people who are willing to be entrepreneurs and who have a very mature view of how to build companies as opposed to inexperienced entrepreneurs has increased. The entire ecosystem to support entrepreneurs has improved, although it is nothing like the Valley. >>>

PLD Overview: Xilinx and Altera

The recession had a severe impact on the semiconductor industry in 2008, but the programmable logic device (PLD) market was one of the few segments which saw growth. This $3.8 billion market received a boost early this year following the expansion of 3G mobile networks in China. The overall programmable logic market is estimated to grow to $4.2 billion in 2013. Let’s take a closer look at the dominant players, Xilinx Inc (NASDAQ:XLNX) and Altera Corporation (NASDAQ:ALTR), which together account for about 86% of the market. >>>

Next Positioning Roundtable On Wednesday, October 21

To help early-stage entrepreneurs develop their business ideas, Sramana Mitra is offering a series of free, online Positioning Roundtables. Entrepreneurs can participate from anywhere by computer or phone, and there will be a live, interactive chat throughout the webinar.  The next event will take place on Wednesday, October 21, 2009, at 8:00 am PDT (11:00 a.m. EDT/8:30 p.m. IST).

You can find more details and register here.

We hope that you’ll join us!

Deal Radar 2009: Yola

Today’s post is about a company that could be helpful for start-ups or businesses on a tight marketing budget to get exposure on the Web without the high costs. Yola, previously known as Synthasite, is a free, do-it-yourself website creator. It operates on a brower-based Ajax platform and supplies users with simple instructions, tailored services, and drag-and-drop technology, making website creation possible for even the most un-savvy of computer users. >>>

Simulating The Brain: Baynote CEO Jack Jia (Part 7)

SM: What has been your financing history? Did you finance this yourself at the beginning?

JJ: I bootstrapped it a little bit. I recruited Rob Bradshaw out of Interwoven to join me. Scott Brave was the other person with me initially, and he came out of Stanford. I did not need a lot of funding at the time. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: Kalypso

Founded in 2004, Kalypso is a management consulting firm that specializes in product innovation. Founders Bill Poston and George Young came together at Deliotte Consulting, where they were partners. The idea for Kalypso was born in a St. Regis hotel room in Houston when Poston and Young were attending the retirement party of a close friend and mentor. His retirement was the catalyst that led them to form Kalypso, which they left Deliotte to start in the wake of the consulting industry turmoil of 2003 on a core principle — to serve clients the way they wanted to be served. The two wanted to build a firm that was unlike traditional consulting firms. >>>

Simulating The Brain: Baynote CEO Jack Jia (Part 6)

SM: How do you get the context?

JJ: You have to emulate the brain. If you can emulate sensors and the neocortext, then we can behave just like humans. If you have human input on one hand and human behaviors on the other, then you can interpret human behaviors. You can give people what they want. >>>

Simulating The Brain: Baynote CEO Jack Jia (Part 5)

SM: Context is a key element of my Web 3.0 formula.

JJ: At the time, I did not know the importance of context. That came later at Stanford. I just knew that it what was in people’s minds. Since I could not get into people’s minds, the closest thing I could do is judge what was in their minds by their behavior. I realized that I was tapping into a discipline that I was not trained to be a part of, which is cognitive science. >>>