रिश्ते

Here is Priya again with her new poem... I wish I would have written this:

रिश्ते

स्निग्ध और सुगन्धित फूलों से होते हैं रिश्ते,
कोमल और मुलायम,
सुबह की हवा में बहती भीनी भीनी खुशबू से होते हैं रिश्ते
महकता है जिनसे घर आंगन आस पड़ोस..और वातावरण...

शीतल, निश्छल और पारदर्शी होते हैं रिश्ते...
झील के पानी की तरह प्रवाह लिए अपने साथ छोटी छोटी चीज़ों को
कल कल करते बहते हैं रिश्ते

एक धागे में पिरोये मोतियों से होते हैं रिश्ते
चमकते हैं अँधेरे में भी....बिखर जाएँ कभी तो समेट लेने चाहिए...
चुन लेने चाहिए धीरज से..एक एक
कीमती होते हैं...
बाज़ार में नहीं मिलते पैसो से...
न ही खरीदे जा सकते.... खुशियों आती हैं इनसे अनमोल ...
कोई कीमत नहीं लगायी जा सकती इसकी....


रिश्ते सहेजने चाहिए पलकों पर
उठाना चाहिए नाज़ रिश्तों में,
प्यार से चलते हैं रिश्ते... समझ और दुनियादारी से नहीं.....

Entrepreneur

Found this quote of Dan Bricklin very apt:

"Being a successful entrepreneur is tricky. You have to live with having control and not having control at the same time. It's like this: In big business, when you need to cross a river, you simply design a bridge, build it, and march right across.

But in a small venture, you must climb the rocks. You don't know where each step will take you, but you do know the general direction you are moving in. If you make a mistake, you get wet. If your calculations are wrong, you have to inch your way back to safety and find a different route.

And, as you jump from rock to slippery rock, you have to like the feeling"

Life

Here is Priya, my companion, expressed in her new poem. One's dream & potential are achieved at the cost of other. May God gives everyone fair chance and at least a second chance:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=199823450394&ref=nf

सबसे महत्वकांशी थे हम,


प्रखर, उन्मुक्त और प्रतिभाशाली...

अपने सपनो के रंग ही निराले थे,

ऊँची उड़ानें थी, पंख भी विशाल...

अपनी योजनायें थी, अपनी शर्ते, अपनी मंजिलें और उन तक पहुँचने के अपने बनाये रास्ते......



लोग हमें कभी इंदिरा गाँधी कहते कभी मदर टेरेसा के भक्त कहकर हंसते,

पर वे जानते थे, भरोसा था उन्हें भी... कि ये अपने नए आयामों को खोजेंगी,

जियेंगी अपने मुताबिक जिंदगी को और करेंगी कुछ ख़ास जो नहीं करती छोटे शहर कि लड़कियाँ,

शहर की पहचान में अभी से शामिल है इनका नाम.....



शिक्षक हमारी चमकीली आँखों में नयी दुनिया के स्वप्निल सपने देखते,

हमे मिले प्रान्त और देश के पुरस्कारों से प्रिंसिपल का कमरा भरा रहता था....

आँखों के तारे थे हम...अपने शहर के

मुट्टी में लेकर चलते थे इन्द्रधनुष के सारे रंगों को,

जो मिलता रंग देते थे उसे अपने अलग अलग रंगों से...



समझौता और मजबूरी जैसे शब्द तो जैसे हमें छू कर भी नहीं गुज़रे कभी,

हमेशा बहते थे, तेजी से...अक्सर बहाव का विरोध करते.

निडर, निर्भीक और बेहद साहसी मत के साथ..

हक़ छोड़ते नहीं थे, मुकरते नहीं थे कर्तव्यों से

फिर भी लोग कहते कि इनके जैसे बनो....



अभी भी ज्यादा कुछ नहीं बदला, एक पर्दा सा है दिल और दिमाग का

जो दुनियादारी और सपनो को अलग कर देता है निर्ममता से.

समझौते होने लगते हैं प्यार के नाम पर...

अंदर रोज़ कुछ सुलगता रहता है..एक आग सी...पर दबा देती हैं परेशानियाँ....



अब बंधे हैं एक खूँटी से, मोह में अटके हैं

बंधन में बंधे हैं, और खुश हैं, हँसते भी हैं.....

'कम से कम दिखते तो ऐसे ही हैं'....

The Honeymoon that Never Ends

Osho speaks why its so difficult to relate and why we want it to reduce to a relationship.

Why it is so difficult to relate?
"Because you are not yet. There is an inner emptiness and the fear that if you relate with somebody, sooner or later you will be exposed as empty. Hence it seems safer to keep a distance with people; at least you can pretend you are. You are not. You are not yet born, you are only an opportunity. You are not yet a fulfillment -- and only two fulfilled persons can relate. To relate is one of the greatest things of life: to relate means to love, to relate means to share. But before you can share, you must have.

And before you can love you must be full of love, overflowing with love. Two seeds cannot relate, they are closed. Two flowers can relate; they are open, they can send their fragrances to each other, they can dance in the same sun and in the same wind, they can have a dialogue, they can whisper. But that is not possible for two seeds. Seeds are utterly closed, windowless -- how to relate? And that is the situation. Man is born as a seed; he can become a flower, he may not.

It all depends on you, what you do with yourself; it all depends on you whether you grow or you don't. It is your choice -- and each moment the choice has to be faced; each moment you are on the crossroads. Millions of people decide not to grow. They remain seeds; they remain potentialities, they never become actualities. They don't know what self-realization is, they don't know what self-actualization is, they don't know anything of being. Utterly empty they live, utterly empty they die. How can they relate?"

Here is a link to another article where Osho says. "Forget relationships and learn how to relate."

http://www.creationsmagazine.com/articles/C100/Osho.html

"If you enjoy being with somebody, you would like to enjoy it more and more. If you enjoy the intimacy, you would like to explore the intimacy more and more. And there are a few flowers of love which bloom only after long intimacies. There are seasonal flowers too; within six weeks they are there, in the sun, but within six weeks again they are gone forever. There are flowers that take years to come, and there are flowers that take many years to come. The longer it takes, the deeper it goes. But it has to be a commitment from one heart to another heart. It has not even to be verbalized, because to verbalize it is to profane it. It has to be a silent commitment; eye to eye, heart to heart, being to being. It has to be understood, not said.

Once you are in a relationship you start taking each other for granted– that's what destroys all love affairs. The woman thinks she knows the man, the man thinks he knows the woman. Nobody knows either! It is impossible to know the other, the other remains a mystery. And to take the other for granted is insulting, disrespectful.

To think that you know your wife is very, very ungrateful. How can you know the woman? How can you know the man? They are processes, they are not things. The woman that you knew yesterday is not there today. So much water has gone down the Ganges; she is somebody else, totally different. Relate again, start again, don't take it for granted.

And the man that you slept with last night, look at his face again in the morning. He is no more the same person, so much has changed. So much, incalculably much has changed. That is the difference between a thing and a person. The furniture in the room is the same, but the man and the woman, they are no more the same. Explore again, start again. That's what I mean by relating.

Relating means you are always starting, you are continuously trying to become acquainted. Again and again, you are introducing yourself to each other. You are trying to see the many facets of the other's personality. You are trying to penetrate deeper and deeper into his realm of inner feelings, into the deep recesses of his being. You are trying to unravel a mystery which cannot be unraveled. That is the joy of love: the exploration of consciousness.

And if you relate, and don't reduce it to a relationship, then the other will become a mirror to you. Exploring him, unawares you will be exploring yourself too. Getting deeper into the other, knowing his feelings, his thoughts, his deeper stirrings, you will be knowing your own deeper stirrings too. Lovers become mirrors to each other, and then love becomes a meditation."

"Relationship is ugly, relating is beautiful."

On Company's 5th founding day

To CarWale Team: This was day we formally began our entrepreneurial journey.

I've been very fortunate to be here and to be part of this team- which I must tell you inspires me every day. You guys are excellent and I'm proud of your efforts to create a valuable company.

I enjoyed being at CarWale. Its part of life and its not a mere co-incident that both CarWale and my son Kanha were conceived at the same time. Of course, it was easier to launch carwale.com and we got it in4 months.

What you need most to start a company is a vision- which in crude form is an idea and in its larger form a purpose to contribute to this world. And the very next and the most critical ingredient to serve that purpose is the team. People who are willing to come togather, invest their time and are willing to resolve differences for a common goal.

Let me talk about and thank my friends who made the birth of this company possible:

A word on each of the founders:

Priya: I'm an entrepreneur by chance- It just happened that I found myself starting a company. Honestly without any plan to do it or even with a thought that we have some ability to do it. Priya was the one to support me and encourage me to do it and said "Mohit, you have the ability and you can run your own stuff." She supported me in all ways possible.

She was working with Care India then, a leading non profit organization and worked very hard for years to help us run the house, pay bills etc. She was the first investor at CarWale. and today, none of my day is actually possible without her support.

Then I met Arun and met him online. He sounded very intelligent and when I met him I realized he is actually so- his problem solving approach was superb- and i think it was refined with thousands of hrs he might have spent playing strategy games. Arun helped me put my thoughts around what the new company can focus on. We decided to do telemedicine- which could help us connect villages with district hospitals (that's for some other time). What I like about Arun is his sincerity and strong will to experiment. He thinks without a baggage and he can think out of box. All i want him to do more is to think more often and think for solving so many business problems that we face in general.

Gaurav: Gaurav was as flamboyant as you see him today. Very good to talk to and he can impress most of the guys and all of the girls in first impression. Gaurav joined where I was working earlier and therefor we could spend more time and he has been most committed to build this company. He likes to achieve and he is ever willing to learn. Gaurav, thank you for being there all these years.


Tufail: After Priya, I have spent my most time with Tufail- now i know him for last 12 years. We have been room mates for 2 years while we did our MBA in Goa. We had shared our lunches and dinners at least a thousand of times in last 12 years. When you eat together friendship grows and if friends can work together business grows.Tufail is a person who had kept the team together- he has been very very caring and thoughtful.

I'm sure Tufail- I gave you more pain than peace (& pleasure) in Bhopal- where we did not have enough money to manage even girl friends. I thank you much for pulling it off. Thanks for bearing with me and for your help and friendship in countless occasions.

Rajeev and Banwari:
CarWale would not have been CarWale without you two. I'm much indebted that you decided to join this company and have given us the best of your time, effort and emotions. I'm sure we will spend many more years together and will enjoy them even more.

Satish and Deepak, though are silent- but their contribution is tremendous. I salute your commitment-brothers.

One of the thing which made this journey difficulty for others- was my inexperience in running a company. I did not have enough experience as how to do it. In all my previous jobs, my role was too independent and I hardly got any guidance. I have learn everything in this company. I am still learning and I'm sure because i did not have so many answers- which you may have expected me to have- i would not have helped you much at times. I know things would have been difficult for you.

A lot has changed over last few years. We have grown as a team, we have some recognition and we have proven that we  have the potential to make a great company.

Look around today and we have a great team. We have phenomenal talent.
Ashok, Avijit, kartik, Sameer, Edward, Jyoti, Bharati, Amol, Anand, Dipti, Anusha, Abhishke, Nancy, Anjali, Ajit, Jhonson and so many others: I admire you people for your talent and thank you for choosing to be part of this company.

We identified few things which are inherent to us. These values are something we live with.... and people who feel in sync with these values and will not compromise on these values, are the one we want to grow with.
1    We respect others and demonstrate care and concern in our behavior
2    We are agile and are ever willing to experiment & learn.
3    We put organization interest before personal position or interest
4    We take responsibility for our efforts &  results and  walk that extra mile to get things done.

I'm glad that the line between play and work has blurred for me and I'll work to achieve this for everyone of you at CW.

Creating an Operating plan for execution

This is the most fascinating time of our start-up. We are working to consolidate our business streams and make them bigger, more predictable and profitable. Its like growing muscles and becoming adult from a kid.  In first two years, we had come up with an operating plan or resource allocation in 2 days and then go straight to execute it. And we expected the unexpected, knowing well that managing it will be key to our survival. I think we have been moderately successful at that. Some of the top of mind examples are :
a)  First edition of  Used Car price guide from the 100,000 plus car transaction database which we had was one such
thing.  A meeting with VC, where they suggested us to create Kelly's Blue book for India, made it happen. We changed gears fast enough to accommodate the project. We have served around 3 million used car values so far and its becoming increasingly useful to thousands of used car buyers in India.
b) Instant On road price quote for a new car buyer was another such project. An idea that sruck me while having showers, was implemented in a week's time after putting everything on hold.

So though we had a plan we relied a lot on intuition and on managing the unexpected.  And today, when we are burning mid night oil to create our budget and operating plan for the next fiscal, its quite different. We have vice presidents who have been part of MNCs where they have planned and executed it 'As planned and on time'. And we have founders who have managed it as it came. So it gives us the planning attitude and skills and it also helps us looking at contingency with innovation and creativity.

Here is what I learn making a thorough budget:
1. Budget should translate into operating plan for the year that simply means: who is accountable for what and how its going to be measured.
2. Who will get what resources to achieve what they are responsible for.

Here are steps we took:
1. We look at what goals we want to achieve in the year in terms of revenue, cost and margin and the brand.  It asks for getting what board/stake holders
2. Then we had all business heads working with their team to come up what they can deliver towards these goals. The very important thing was to list all the assumptions behind their plan.

As a team we questioned and identified the most vulnerable assumptions and believing that they are going to go wrong, what gap we have to meet our revenue, cost and margin goals. So we took the worst assumptions on revenues and  worked our costs again to see where we would like to be in a bad scenario.  We still have some gaps to fill but the new opportunities we are working on, will make up for them. For a week we had numbers scribbled in most of the white boards, desks and where ever a bunch of us met and discussed.

Its actually exciting to see the business a year in advance and then go about giving it the shape we committed for.

How much fund to raise and at what valuation

Here is another piece of discussion I had with the guys as how they agree on a valuation for the initial funding round they are working to close. A very important understanding on this came from Vineet Buch's blog on this.

1. Decide A milestone for your startup that you would like to achieve in next 12 months or so. A milestone is something which strengthen the business model or make the future growth of company more visible. It can be a product launch or break even or reaching a certain critical mass of customers etc.

2. Decide how much cash is needed to achieve that milestone. Say 'X'

3. Raise double the amount you calculated in step 2. That is '2X'

4. In seed round  VCs will typically ask for around 30% stake in the company. This translates into your startup valuation as: '2X * 100/ 30'

Ex: If you think it will Rs. 1 cr to get your product ready and attract the first client, then raise Rs. 2 cr and offer 30% to VC so your post money valuation is 6.7 cr.

In India VCs ask for at least 26% stake, which I believe makes it mandatory to have their consent in case the business need to be closed down. So founders can have some bargain to offer them stake between 26% to 30%.

Seed Investors invest around 1 cr to 3 cr. And therefor valuation one can really attract is also influenced by the VC who are investing. VCs with larger fund has a larger ticket size but are less likely to invest at early stage. Still, if  they get interested, one  can raise more funds and therefor get higher valuation.

More Money in Seed Round

An entrepreneur raising money in seed round spoke to me today. One of the dilemma he had was not to raise more so that he can save equity for future rounds.

In my experience, you will always give up 26% to 30% of your equity in seed  round. So it makes sense to plan as to raise maximum cash. there are other problems too, when one tries to raise lesser money. Lesser VCs will be attracted to the deal if one just intends to raise lesser money (less than Rs. 2 cr for Indian startup).  VCs would like to put in more  cash in fewer companies instead of putting lesser cash in many companies.

And if more than one VC is interested in your deal, you will be able to get a higher valuation for the same company and therefor more cash for same equity.

Being CEO for the first time

I hit a book by chance called Why CEOs Fail. It lists eleven reasons why CEOs fail. These are:

1. Arrogance— you think 'Only I am right and others are wrong'.
2. Melodrama— you need to be the center of attention.
3. Volatility— you're moody.
4. Excessive Caution— you procrastinate decisions, decide slow for fear of going wrong.
5. Habitual Distrust— rather than the big sky, you just see clouds - focus on shortcomings
6. Aloofness — you're disengaged and disconnected.
7. Mischievousness—Do no follow rules yourselves, as if you are above them.
8. Eccentricity— trying/ arguing to be different, just for the sake of it.
9. Passive Resistance— Saying things, which you don't believe in.
10. Perfectionism— fussy about getting little things right and go wrong on larger /important things.
11. Eagerness to Please— make everyone happy and be most popular.

As I read these, I can think of various moments when these are true to me.

As our company has evolved (and may be grown) and as I can see the impact of various decisions, I think am overcoming these weaknesses. Still, a CEO need to constantly work to avoid these reasons of failure. Other areas I need to work and improve:

1. Hire only best, even if it means hiring slow. But fire quick ( An get rid of non performers).
2. Spend less, be frugal. A lean organisation is like a lean waistline (I think Sriram Sherapolo said that).
3. Listen more and to many. But still decide fast. Speed of execution makes all the difference.
4. Never fall short of cash. Cash is oxygen to start ups.

I also see, that I could avoid many of mistakes by being open to our investors, customers and employees. They helped me decide better, faster.

I also increasingly feel the importance of very effective internal communication with other founders, key executives and investors. I hope I will elaborate this sooner.

Happening time of my life

So much has happened in last two months. I have been so much through rush of emotions and actions. Let me remember, what all I can.
First, our life has changed forever, by the arrival of our Son, Kanha. And we have so many new things to learn to cope with him. More patience, more smiles, more fun and more realisation of our limitations.

Priya, my wife, have been through severe pain as spinal anesthesia in cesarean operation caused hyperaesthesia in her leg. It's classic case of how doctors can be careless. And though, she is a state level officer with department of health, we were misled and misguided. How they may treat and What may happen to poor people..scarce me. We have gone through tremendous physical and mental trauma.

And we have the most happening time at Carwale. Both Kanha and Carwale are infants and need most care. Its challenging and more fun at work and at home.

I am happier that we have agreed on a plan and milestones with our first round investors. Moreover, their advise and business insights helped us move faster. And Carwale team is ever more confident. Of course, we are yet to sign a term sheet and get the money in our bank. I'll write more on this experience, once we formalise the deal.

Interacting with investors and advisors, has taught me a lot. I know, I have made some mistakes to get the momentum and to get the speed a start up need. But I am doubly assured, whenever I do another venture this learning be the most crucial resource I'll carry with me. I'll soon detail on my experience in this role.


And I'll be ever grateful to my in-laws, parents, friends and Carwale team for so much of co-operations and encouragement during this happening time of my life.

Begin and it has magic...

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back-- Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."
This Quote is attributed to Johann von Goethe

Reaching customer feedback ASAP
One of the good things in Carwale.com is that we happen to take the model to customer very quickly. It was possible to spend many more days in development room and improve the product drastically.

I believe that no one can improve the product better than the customers who actually use it. Customers, are just the extension of development team who tell us what the product/ service has to be like.

We took not more than 2 months, since we conceived what we need to do to launch the portal. Thanks to our development pillars Rajiv and Banwari, and Arun to think it through. And to Gaurav, who made the pages look far better than what I'd approved for launch.

Business Plan and Business Model

I realise that writing a business plan is also the best way to hone your thoughts and improve them. As I rewrite my financials and plan, it occurs that our understanding on the whole model and plan has undergone a change again. My colleague questions this... Is it uncertainty of what we are trying to do? Is it that we have failed to explore all the options first?

I think it's none. A business is more like Sense of direction... . I once read that Business is often like a game of football. You know, where the goal post is and keep moving towards there. But game changes every 10 yards and you steer, adjust, reverse, forward etc... and keep moving towards the post.

It fits what we are going through. We keep moving, and on the way see newer horizons, inputs and then adjust to get more firm. It's possible to stick one single model and still succeed. But I think one will not unleash the full potential of an opportunity then.

Anyways, Carwale.com is the best learning event of my life. Most exciting too... Very true that entrepreneurship is the closest a man can have to give birth. Right Now, I can see first at work, other at home.

Here are my new year resolutions:

1. Organise my early hours of the day. Get Up Early; Exercise and Meditate more regularly.
2. 'Live in the moment'. More conscious and aware. I'll explore the joy of being 'Present', I gain it at times and then lose it. Practise More.
3. I'm filled with gratitude for these indescribable feelings of becoming a father soon. So I am going to Priortise and contribute more at Home. Will work to be give my best to the child.

4. Take Carwale.com to more stable phase. Get Angel Funding by March 30. And execute the first phase aggressively.
5. Work to ensure at least 100 people saying, that they enjoyed car trading with carwale.com.
6. Think, Think, Think.. how people can buy and sell car on their mobile. And then make this happen in 2006.
7. Reward the team who supported us in making this company. Work to see that they like being in 'carwale.com'
8. Go on a holiday trip With Priya and Baby... and forget rest of the world.
9. Spend 7 days at a stretch at Dhar.

And I'm yet to decide my tenth resolution.
10.

If you happen to read this, and have any contribution, suggestion, support.. you are most welcome.

A very fulfilling, funfilled, peaceful and successful 2006 to everyone.

Golden Rule According to

1. Surround Yourself With People Smarter Than You Chris Albrecht, CEO, Home Box Office, George Steinbrenner, owner, New York Yankees

2. Remember Who You Are, Not What Brad Anderson, vice chairman and CEO, Best Buy

3. Make Hiring a Top Priority Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft

4. If You Think You Can't, You're Right Carol Bartz, CEO, Autodesk

5. Make Your Customers Your Sales Force Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce.com Reinvent Yourself. Repeat. Alex Bogusky, executive creative director, Crispin Porter & Bogusky

6. When People Screw Up, Give Them a Second Chance Richard Branson, founder and chairman, Virgin Group

7. Check With the Wife Po Bronson, author, The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest and What Should I Do With My Life?

8. There Can't Be Two Yous Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway The Customer Should Always Be Happy John Chambers, CEO, Cisco Systems Don't Be Interesting -- Be Interested Jim Collins, management consultant; author, Built to Last and Good to Great

9. He Who Says It, Does It Simon Cooper, president and COO, Ritz-Carlton Treat your customers like they own you, because they do. Mark Cuban, co-founder, HDNet; owner, Dallas Mavericks

10. Educate and Obey Your Conscience Stephen Covey, business consultant; motivational speaker; author, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

11. Get Out From Behind Your Desk Jim Goodnight, CEO, SAS

12. Learn to Give Back Michael Graves, architect and designer

13. Only the Paranoid Survive (Now More Than Ever) Andy Grove, former chairman and CEO, Intel

14. Once a Day, Take Some "Beach Time" Mireille Guiliano, CEO and president, Clicquot; author, French Women Don't Get Fat

15. Believe in Something Bigger Than Yourself Carlos M. Gutierrez, U.S. secretary of commerce; former chairman and CEO, Kellogg

16. Never Bow to Precedent Gary Hamel, business consultant and author

17. You Can't Cheat an Honest Man Phil Hellmuth, poker world champion

18. Don't confuse luck with skill when judging others, and especially when judging yourself. Carl Icahn, billionaire investor

19. Conventional Wisdom Is Always Wrong Paul Jacobs, CEO, Qualcomm

20. Make Deals With People, Not Paper Penn Jillette, magician, author, and producer

21. Get Your Timing Right Ray Kurzweil, inventor and entrepreneur

22. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Competitor's Success Geraldine Laybourne, chairman and CEO, Oxygen Media

23. Business Can't Trump Happiness Shelly Lazarus, chairman and CEO, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide

24. Don't Trust, Just Verify Steven D. Levitt, coauthor, Freakonomics

25. There's something bad in everything good and something good in everything bad. Michael Lewis, author, Liar's Poker, Moneyball, and Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life

26. Share and Share Alike Scott McNealy, founder and CEO, Sun Microsystems

27. Get Face Time With the Customers Anne Mulcahy, chairman and CEO, Xerox

28. Choose Your Mistakes Carefully Craig Newmark, founder, Craigslist

29. Maximize the Compromises Hans-Olov Olsson, chairman, Volvo Cars; senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Ford Motor

30. Whatever a Man Soweth, That Shall He Also Reap Dick Parsons, chairman and CEO, Time Warner

31. Never, Ever Forget That You Are a Servant David Neeleman, founder, chairman, and CEO, JetBlue USA
Jim Press, president, Toyota Motor Sales USA

32. Learn to Trust Your Gut Paul Pressler, CEO and president, Gap

33. The Next Big Thing Is Whatever Makes the Last Big Thing Usable Blake Ross, co-creator, Firefox

34. Be a Problem-Solver Hector Ruiz, CEO, AMD

35. Loyalty Counts as Much as Smarts Srivats Sampath, founder, McAfee.com; CEO and president, Mercora

36. Hard Work Opens Doors Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and CEO, Verizon

37. Be the Person Who Steps Up George Shaheen, CEO, Siebel Systems

38. Those Who Don't Know Their Own History Are Doomed to Repeat It Ram Shriram, angel investor and Google board member

39. What Gets Measured Gets Managed Stan Sigman, CEO, Cingular Wireless

40. Quit Taking, Start Giving Russell Simmons, co-founder, Def Jam Records; founder, Rush Communications

41. Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an e-mail. Eliot Spitzer, New York state attorney general

42. At the Height of Success, "Break" Your Business Ed Zander, chairman and CEO, Motorola

43. Business Is Not About Ideas, It's About Initiatives Sergio Zyman, marketing expert

Passion and Persistance
David Hornik's is one of my favorite VC blogs and his posting on Tim Westergren who founded Pandora (Savage Beast) is especially inspiring.
Passion has always been talkd of as the most important ingredients for entrepreneurs (Passion creates Vision and vision creates success), and I think Passion has to be necessarily complemented by Persistance to create success stories. It's fascinating to read Tim's committment to create Savage Beast, and the way he went about founding the company all along.

Carwale.com

We have built the model on the lines of autoweb/autobytel (and numerous others worldwide). Though I respect what they have done and created the revolution in automotive trading, I'm sure this revolution has a long way to go.

A real intermediary (info/ service cybermediary) shold be able to match the best available vehicle for a user at a given point. So in acse of used cars, the internediary will take customer prefernces (exhaustive) as inputs and will compare all possible vehicles available, including the cost of acquiring those given the time & place of delivery , and will deliver the best match possible.

Next it will recommend the best possible match for associated transactions like Finance/ Insurance/ Accessories and Service, therefore making the transaction complete. At the end, customer will get the BEST possible deal.

If I stretch the model further it should be possible to recommend the user that given his prefernces, what advantage/ losses s/he stand to gain if the buying decision is delayed by a time period.

I happen to read about Riya.com, I think it's generation 2 of photos.com. This is I think is applicable to so many existing business models, including google.

What I learnt running a start up?

Two things.

1. We need to Plan & execute but still remain Open: To put it simple, we should decide where we want to go (Focus, Plan) and start moving on the road that lies ahead. (Mostly, only the mountain is visible and the road is not even clear till one starts moving towards i)At the same time we need to keep asking ourselves " Is this where we want to go? Is this the path I want to take?", as we get answers, we have to make adjustments. Opposite to this, one may remain still, not moving untill deciding on the best path. I learnt that it's a wrong thing to do.
2. Decide and then JUST DO IT: It's difficult to know which decision is right. Simply put one rarely have all facts in hand to 'Take the Right Decision' , but one can definitely works all the ways possible to make one's decision right. At times, when we decide things are clearer and one can weigh the odds against evens. But, very often things are 50:50 or 51:49 and then what is important for an entreprenuer is to take an option and get all the energy, team and resources in doing it. The team shpuld look at options, ways and strategise to ensure that the option THEY CHOSE becomes the right option.
   

What kills good ideas and visions is too much of thinking, too much of calculations, half heartedness and weighing pros & cons while one is executing it.