1. You need the best possible talent

2. You can’t pay them the best possible money

3. You can’t afford to do mistakes.

So while trying to figure out the best way to hire people, I asked one of my best engineers,  ”Why do you work for Mobisy?”

His answer, “That’s cause I am crazy, I love the challenges and there are plenty here ..”

My response, “Let’s try and find many more crazy guys like us”.

Here are some things that have worked for us in the past while trying to find “crazy” startup engineers.

Attend conferences not for VCs but for developers

I see lot of entrepreneurs at conferences trying to attract VCs or Customers. But if you look attentively, these conferences are attended mostly by geeks, developers, people who dream about becoming entrepreneurs. By experience I know that these are the best people to work for a startup cause they will not only build but even evangelize and sell your product !! So next time you attend barcamp or mobilemonday, look to hire talented engineers.

“Crazy Geeks” attract crazy geeks.

If you have some crazy dudes in your venture, ask them to get their friends. These are more likely to turn out to be great hires. It also helps to develop a healthy environment in your startup cause it’s like friends working together on a project. You will see your productivity shoot up.

Don’t bother posting jobs on Naukri/Monster, don’t hire a hiring agency

We have tried putting up jobs on job portals, it usually spits out profiles which I wish my competitors would hire. So don’t bother.

Market yourself as a “crazy” place to work in

This usually takes longer to build. But in every conference , event you attend , blog you write, just be yourself(i.e. ‘Completely nuts’). Your existent employees are the best people to communicate this to the rest of the world. If you really wanna post a job, put it up on startup blogs like here.

Once you find a talent hire it, don’t wait for cashflows to turn up

Sometimes a smart engineer turns up at your door but you reject him/her cause you don’t have enough money to pay him. We have made those mistakes in past but my advise is not do it. It’s so difficult to find right talent in place like Bangalore that if a good guy turns up, just do everything you can to hire him/her even if you may not have exact matching job profile.

If you make a mistake , then fix it.

One of the risks with hiring is that sometimes you end up with wrong people in your hurry. As with every other mistake you do in life, don’t waste time and don’t be afraid to fire people. You will find out that the rest of your team is more motivated to work with right set of people than to work for a company which offers ‘job security’.

Once hired, do whatever you can to retain the talent

Great environment, laughs in office, fun outings, home cooked free food, work from home are many ways to make sure that the energy of your colleagues stays high even after all those night-outs and hard work. So make sure you do all these and more to retain your hard earned talent.

What do you think?

BTW if you wanna work for Mobisy, shoot an e-mail to lalit at mobisy dot com or career@mobisy.com

Image courtesy, Zazzle

Most interesting bit he notes is that Mobile developers are choosing platforms based on Monetization possibilities and not just for  ’fun’ as was the case till couple of yeas back. After so many years, it’s exciting to see Mobile applications become a monetizable “Market”

1. It’s one medium that can reach all the mobile users without any issues of handset compatibilities and so on
2. It’s a push mechanism by definition
3. It’s offline (lesser spammy than a voice call)
4. It’s extremely cheap (at least in India)

What’s not so great?

1. It’s very difficult to make pure SMS based communication interactive
2. Remembering shortcode / keywords and ‘syntax’ could be a pain
3. User experience is highly dependent on handset vendor’s implementation
4. Delivering multilingual or any kind of rich content is not possible without considering handset compatibility.

So what if we could bring SMS based communication as a downloadable application ?

Here are some things SMS based apps can bring to the table and some reasons why I am so psyched about it.

1. Ideal for delivering textual content : Using SMS as a data delivery mechanism for your app would mean that your user experience would be awesome. You can organize  content the way you want, you can bring in some ‘cool’ user engagement elements. You can also deliver things like local language content without depending on handset compatibility.
2. Increase in consumption : Content consumption increases a lot  by providing facilities like search , related content, threading the content. SMS based app can provide them to you !
3. Interactivity: This is what I like the most about these apps, they can bring in an element of interactivity which a standard SMS interface does not provide. Getting user feedback, comments and other UGC can bring about a whole lot of difference to the whole SMS based content delivery ecosystem.
4. Alerts & Deep handset integration: As soon as you make an app, you can now get embedded in the daily life of a mobile user. One of the apps we worked on , would deliver graphic content using sms which would be shown on the Main screen of Mobile.Awesome, right?
5. Monetization : This is the best part. Using an app would mean that in addition to existing SMS business models (enterprise sms, tailing with ads etc). You can monetize more by ease of user interactivity(user generated sms could go to your shortcode ..:-)),in application ads, way to deliver graphic content(graphic ads) , download time fees, subscription and so on.

But before you start jumping around and start working on your sms based app following are some  issues you must consider

1. Reach : Downloadable Applications themselves have limited reach compared to plain vanilla sms. That’s to do with handset compatibility issues arising due to number of operating systems and run-times that we have in Mobile industry. In addition to that, current App Stores do not reach to all the users in the emerging markets where SMS is a huge medium. Hence it’s sometimes better to partner with handset manufacturer to deliver the app to your users. Nokia is doing it very well with Nokia Life tools for their lower end handsets.
2. Asynchronous behavior of SMS : SMS by nature is an asynchronous medium. Which would mean that sometimes response times are as high as 5 minutes. You have to be careful while choosing your sms gateway provider , at the same time you have to set expectations of your users correctly. Some of the ‘tricks’ we have tried in past are, to get user to fill profile data while waiting for SMS , or get them to do something more in your app while they wait for response. One of the most interesting model I have come across is where a media company would deliver all the content at night for user to read it fresh in the morning (like newspaper).  Or an SMS chat application which would allow users to chat with multiple people at the same time so users have something else to do while they wait for response.

Summary : Considering all above, I am surprised why popular SMS based services like Mytoday / Smsgupshup do not have a downloadable app yet. Even popular blogs like Pluggd.in should have one in my opinion. In near future with the advent of more app-stores and market awareness about mobile apps, I do believe there is going to be a flood of sms based applications.

What do you think?

Disclaimer/Shameless plug : Mobisy is in business of creating downloadable applications. Our platform Mobitop supports using SMS as a medium of data transport and we have successfully delivered applications for media companies and Handset manufacturers using SMS as a medium.

I have taken some reference data from pluggd.in, readwriteweb and pinch media. As pinch media presentation explains, making money via in app advertising is an extremely difficult business model to execute. So let’s just stay with the download time fee as a tried and tested business model for downloadable apps. This is the business model of choice for majority of the existing app-stores too.

Let’s take some data from Ovi store.

As you can see, for international markets average revenue you can hope to earn using your downloadable app is ~$7882, not bad at all.

Please remember the problem with average is that it does not take care of 90-10 rule prevailing in Mobile applications (10% of the applications make 90% of the money). But for simplicity’s sake let’s say that if you can make an app for less than $5000 for international markets, then it’s not a bad idea to sell it on a store like Ovi.

Let’s come closer to India. Here are some of my extrapolations from numbers published by Airtel App store.

So considering that avg afford-ability of Indians is about half of western world (in reality it’s about 1/5 of the western world), to make money by selling a downloadable app in Indian market, your cost of making and marketing the app should be less than $1619. Which is little over Rs 60000/-

So in short, if you are a developer looking to make money by selling your application / game to Indian consumers from operator app stores, make sure you can make and market it in less than Rs 60000/- and are ready to wait for 3-6 months to get that money back.

If you can make an app for international markets may be you can afford to spend some more money.

I am by no means saying don’t make mobile apps. I think you should make them but remember the business dynamics.  BTW if you are developer, don’t despair. I have a very good news for you coming very very soon ..

A good developer is someone, who can implement something, once told what to do (he can figure out the how part)

An awesome developer given business goals,  can also figure out what to do.

But a great developer is someone who can just figure out what’s wrong with some one else’s code quickly. I consider ‘Art of debugging’ as the Zenith of one’s development prowess, because a great debugger can mean meeting product deadlines without compromising on quality.

Here are some of my tips if you want to be a great developer.

1. Identify the problem

Lot of times the real problem is wrapped under multiple layers of wrong design and hence wrong implementation. Which means that the natural instinct of any developer is to fix the symptopms ( login not working) rather than attacking the real issue.(wrong database architecture?). It takes lot of courage to admit a bug with the design at late stage cause everyone wants quick results. But as we find out time and again, it saves lot of time if you attack the real problem rather that keep on fixing symptoms.

2. Look at different ways to solve- don’t be afraid to rewrite

Once you identify the problem, always go for the “right” way to fix it rather than seemingly “quick” fix. Quick fixes have habit of generating plenty of side effects. This sometimes means rewriting the code and your customer/ manager may be pushing you really hard to show quick results. Be patient and fix it correct way, it will avoid lot of heartburn and disappointments compared to the quick and dirty solutions ! But this is much easier said than done.

3. Estimate collateral damage

This is an art. In absence of documented and updated design (which is the case with 80-90% of world’s software), it needs deep knowledge of how software works to estimate what all you may “break” by changing something else in the system. You can develop this knack over years with experience. But this is the ‘real’ thing.

4.Write test cases

This comes before you actually go on and implement. It’s always important to know how you can be “sure” your fix solves problem and does not cause side effects. I have always found it very useful to write a short test document/ white box tests before implementing so I know the “target”. It’s also easy to track progress with this approach.

5. Document then implement

If you are a good developer it will come easy to you. But in general document what changes you want to make before you actually start coding. Never find out things incrementally. If while implementing you come across an unforeseen issue, go back to step 1 rather than continuing to incrementally change the nature of fix.

6. Test well

Again all you need to do is to be careful while testing so your “fix” stays when deployed in the system

Bonus

And if you are really that special someone, you will share the root cause, your analysis, you fix and test procedure for someone who will look at it after you. This will make life really easy for some one else working on the system.

LBS Content

This is an area which needs years of work, investment and patience to collect and organize data. The data in case of LBS could be raw satellite imagery, Map data or in case of mobiles, mapping between different cell tower locations and lat,long or just point of interest (POI) data around different locations. This is obviously the basis of every LBS. It had a huge interest for past 5 years resulting in interesting acquisitions like Nokia acquiring NavTeq. Closer to home, map data firms like MapMyIndia or SatNav attracted investments from Quallcomm and Sequoia respectively. This is not technology savvy area but still needs some acute business sense to monetize the content. Not to mention overcome the competition.

LBS Platform

Technology, technology technology. This is the area for geeks like us. This is about organizing the plain vanilla LBS data/content in API or services which applications like Google Maps or Foursquare can use. It involves developing mainly server but sometimes client middleware to bring all the raw content points together. It’s a B2B proposition and hence main buyers include network operators ,handset manufacturers and big media companies. We see some content companies moving in this area (like SatNav / Mapmyindia). But it’s still a big opportunity for technology startups to explore. If you want to be there, learn to schmooze with the big guys along with getting a kickass technical team.

LBS Applications

This is the most interesting area as far as the users are concerned. I have been an avid user of Google Maps on my mobile(it helps me find customer and VC offices ..:-)). But, maps and directions are older or some may say commodity use cases. Some of the more exciting concepts I have come across includes Bus Timings and Location via BTIS from mapunity or FriendFinder from LiveVana or ChildLocators (many of them make it) . Though none of the Indian application companies have really become “foursquare” yet, I really think a successful LBS app would unearth many many monetization possibilities in Mobile VAS landscape in India. What’s more interesting, to create a kickass LBS app , you only need to connect to your users. Manufactures, Operators, Content providers, LBS platform companies, Media companies everyone is hungry for new and cool LBS apps.

Can’t wait to see what happens in this game.

In one of my recent visits to the Maximum city it re-occurred to me why I love Mumbai so much. There are 3 simple things about Mumbai (seen from an entrepreneur’s perspective) which makes it one of the most exciting business cities in India if not world !

1. Opportunities

Mumbai is one place where if you decide to network with people, you will be swamped with opportunities so much so that it’s quite easy to loose focus. In my last visit to Mumbai I was swamped with opportunities in everything from creating a web application to installing TV screens in retail stores !! People are extremely forthcoming wrt what they need once you meet them. It usually matters less what exactly is your niche … this sometimes happens in other places too but the difference is that in Mumbai people are serious about it. I mean lot of people use some big opportunities just to talk big. But here, guys really have budget to back up their big ideas.

2. Speed

If you are new to the city, that’s one of the first things that hits you like a thunderbolt ! Everyone is in hurry and running around. Everyone wants to break his current orbit and get into next one let it be promotion, business expansion or just becoming taxi driver from a rickshaw-wala. Everyone is in hurry to achieve his/her dreams.

Decision making is extremely fast here. There is a realistic chance that you can finish a decent size deal in a week here. what better can a start-up entrepreneur ask for?

3. Professionalism

Average Mumbaikar’s professionalism is something that sets Mumbai apart from all the cities in India IMHO. Let me give you an example :- The other day, I took an auto from a Hotel near Airport to Parle station , the meter showed 42 rupees. I gave him a note of 50 since I did not have change. The auto driver requested for 2 rupees change and gave me back 10 rupees. I did not posses the change so I gave him back the 10 rupees and asked for whatever he change he had and told him to keep the rest. The guy just smiled, gave me back by 10 rupees and sped off leaving me speechless. After coming across all the auto-wallas in Bangalore and Pune, this was completely new to me. The guys here would save time and chase new customers rather than fighting over small change.

And this you can see in every aspect of business here. ‘Value for money’ is revered ethic.You experience ‘Customer satisfaction’ truly in plenty of facets of daily life. Everyone is expected to work hard for their living and you can expect the same in return !

So if you are a start-up entrepreneur doing business in India, make sure you have your footprint in Mumbai !

Disclaimer :- I was brought up in Mumbai so I have a soft corner for the city so much so that I support “Mumbai Indians” in IPL though I have been living and working in Bangalore for past 6 years.

But of course during the course of last 3 years I heard some comments contrary to our believes , let me try and bust those myths here.

1. Mobile processors are too slow to handle heavy processing needs of a full fledged browser based app :-

Just  3 years ago when we started, N80 with it’s 220Mhz processor was one of the fastest Mobile computing device. Today we have Google nexus with 1Ghz processor almost as much as a laptop .. match that ..:-)

With these processors it’s not only feasible but it’s easily possible to write rich applications for mobile handsets in web technologies.

2. The pipes are too small

Well that’s a funny one. Today in Mobisy, we have couple of interesting applications on Mobitop using only SMS as a pipe to share data. We are also working on another app which uses CBS as a pipe. Now compare that with existing GPRS and upcoming 3G pipes..

3. Battery life

Battery life is real concern, web apps with their interpreted processing and network oriented approach, do such Battery quicker than native app. Going forward, batteries themselves are getting better as well as we are inventing new ways to write smarter applications.

4. Reliability of connections

With Ajax techniques we do write completely asynchronous applications which do not really rely on reliability of connection. Especially if you know your users are going to use flaky connection. We have also integrated offline working in all our applications to get around this issue more effectively.

5. What else ?

Do you have any question yourself?Please get in touch. I love to sell Mobitop ..:-)

Today morning, during a casual chat with Kesava, we said sales is like “center forward” you may not be the best footballer in the team but you know how to be at right place at right time. And that’s when it clicked. Most of the good product companies should work like a good football team. This is especially true for startups like us.

R&D as Defence :- R&D is your defense. Your strong technology team will build the basis of your product. It’s R&D s job to stay ahead in the market to prevent competition from scoring goals against you.

Marketing as Midfield :- Marketing is the backbone, these are the most expensive players. They give inputs to R&D to defend better and position the forwards to give them better chance to score more goals against your opposition. These are usually the best players in the team. And if you have a weak midfield you are doomed no matter how strong your defense or attack is.

Sales as Forwards :- This the is the face of your company. They will get the credit most of the time. But most importantly they need to position themselves correctly just behind the defense of the competition to be able to score most goals. They are indispensable since you win only if you can score more goals than your competition. Another thing to note is that anyone in the team can score a goal ..:-) in that sense everyone in a startup have to do their bit of sales.

Strategy as Coach :- The strategy team of your company including very senior management, investors, board, advisors etc can help you plan the game and change the players in the middle of the game but cannot do much on the field itself.

Team spirit :- This is the most important bit. As any sporting team, you need to be a very good overall team to be successful. There has to be a healthy competition at the same time you need to feed on each others success.

What do you think?