Of love, life and the internet

Way back in June last year I had profiled this little known start up in my blog - aardvark.

I’m not saying I told you so…. but looks who’s gone and bought them for $50 mn.

Now - there’s a Indian equivalent that I profiled as well, Voicetap. I’m not saying anything here…. but I’m sure those guys are tap dancing away at the moment.

Got a first taste of the startup scene in Delhi at bcd7. My brother recommended the event and it turned out to be a pretty good Sunday. Free breakfast, Free lunch .. Free T Shirt - you can’t go wrong! For the tweeters/ twitterers(#bcd7)

Overall, I was impressed.

The host - International Management Insitute.

The host B. school IMI was impressive and the entrepreurship club (Ecell) seems very progressive. They have been doing live projects with startups (next one in November). There’s a John Mullens seminar coming up. Top that with barcamp and I give them full marks.

My 3 favourite startups - phokatcopy, videotap and imo

1. Phokatcopy - A startup is as good or bad as the founding team. The ideas will change, the model will get modified - so it’s basically what the people are like. That’s where I believe that Harsh Narang has what it takes to make this a good business. The company essentially provides free paper (good quality, non-wood based) to the photocopy wallahs at the colleges. The paper has ads on one side and they are meant to use the back side to copy. If the student spends Rs. 20 or more on phokat copy, he/she can re-deem that money through mobile talk time, ice creams, clothes etc. Every 100th phokatcopy user wins an ipod.  The advertising medium is novel - repeat viewing for same ad - extremely targeted for the segment. Every player in the game is incentivised.
2. Voicetap- The basic premise here is that they provide access to experts for any and every subject. So in case you’re not getting any joy from google or you’d rather talk to a person then all you have to do is add getafixx@voicetap.in to your gmail contacts and say ‘hi’ in the chat window. Young dynamic team. Look out for a new site and launch in Jan. They’ve got a phone based model as well. Their revenue model is based on payments from corporates for the branding they get out of promoting their experts.
3. Imo - Out of 50 finalists at TC50, there were about 48 from US and these guys were the only ones from India. The company has made an iphone app which can then use the phone like a joystick or mouse for PC games. The future versions aim to make it as good as the wii experience for any PC game. The went on to win the best presentation at TC50. Watch the video on the site - it’s pretty funny!

While some people were asking ‘What’s TC 50?’, for me this company is the hottest thing in India right now. Keep an eye on these kids!

Here are the top results from TC50 this year.