Herculean task of developing a Software Product and Taj Mahal

Emperor Shahajahan constructed taj Mahal in the 17th century. The construction of the Taj Mahal was entrusted to a board of architects under imperial supervision, including Abd ul-Karim Ma'mur Khan, Makramat Khan, and Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. Lahauri is generally considered to be the principal designer (Refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal ).
When one tries to imagine how can such an awe inspiring monument could be created during those days with such primitive instruments, machines, processes and methodologies one realizes what an incredible job these guys have done. There are many more examples of such work spread around the world e.g. the pyramids, sphinx, Mayan temples, great wall of china, italy etc. and many more

Coming back to TajMahal since everything was made out of marble stones, carved painstakingly by 20,000 artisans they must have had to freeze the requirements well in advance before they started such an herculean task. Once decided on the blue print there must have been very less scope for changing requirements.

Definitely some type of modeling and prototyping must have been done so that the stakeholders could visualize what the end product would look like and through various proof of concepts all unknowns must have been thrashed out.

Imagine these same Architects, engineers and artisans today would have taken such a mammoth task in software product development today. If somehow the same people through time travel are beamed to todays time. It will be interesting to imagine whether they would have been able to pull of the same feat.

Today products have to be developed in internet time. Spending even more than a few months to develop your product or offering might be just too late. The requirements keep on changing by the day and the market almost quarterly. Stakeholders and customers are even more demanding than ever.

Also it is pretty ubiquitous to see customers especially in the service industry changing their requirements even after extensive deliberation and writing agreed upon requirements in detail.
There is a saying "Customer never exactly knows what he wants but surely knows what he does not want when he sees the end product"


No matter how commonsensical it sounds and you might have given the same advice to others it is difficult to restrain oneself from keep on adding features and continuously delay the launch of your product.

We ourselves after advising to all our service customers to launch the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product as soon as possible and take customer feedback as early as possible we too fell into the same trap while developing App42. For us App42 was no less than a Taj Mahal atleast in terms of scale. As a small startup to take on to such a humongous task of developing a complete cloud platform - PaaS (Platform as A Service) which  supported web, mobile, social, SaaS, Enterprise applications and TV apps and a full blown multiplayer Gaming Platform - AppWarp was a very daunting task. Two years since I quit my job and started developing App42. Everyday new requirements were coming in my mind and I kept on adding features. The market, environment, competition and customer perception was changing by the day, which added even more requirements. We were competing with one of the biggest cos in the industry and had to think of innovative features and wanted to be ahead of them when we launched. We also were working in stealth mode since we did not want to release something which would give away our product roadmap.

Today when I look in the hindsight, one realizes that I could have very well launched some part of the product line in the first year itself. Launching your product early results in multiple advantages.

- First and foremost you announce yourself to the world that you are entering this space
- Investors, Market Research companies, potential employees, Customers take notice of you.
- You get early feedback from your customers
- Your existing employees feel proud that they have delivered something and the success builds on their morale
- Credibility of your company goes high
- It helps you to forge alliances, since you have a tangible product to show.
- Easy to attract talent since they can see on what they will be working on
- Getting media attention early

Its not that not releasing early with less features can only amount to delay in the launch of product or loosing first movers advantage. Infact most often it can be fatal. There are plethora of examples both in startup as well as established big companies that products dont see the light of the day. Even if the get released the relevance of those products loose significance when they get launched.

Do read about the ship Vasa which went down in its maiden voyage. When Swedish Emperor Gustavus Adolphus put many requirements ( 70 meteres long, 300 Soldiers and two gun decks with mounting 64 heavy guns ) on the dutch Ship builder Henrik Hybertson which he could not push back. Since Sweden was at war with Poland at that time. He wanted to build the greatest ship with maximum no. of canons. On 10th August 1628 The Vasa went down just after only 120 meters  from the shore when it left the harbor for the first time.

Many entrepreneurs I have met always talk about Apple and how reliable they are and how great they look. When one says that release early does not mean that one compromises on quality. iPad's first release did not have front camera, usb port, support for flash etc. but yet the product was greatly appreciated. There were and in future new ones came in with far more features but are yet to break iPads hold in the market.

Compromise on requirements. Decide on the core features, which define your product and vision. Do it well, best in class and launch. Take nimble steps and be agile, be receptive to market and customer feedback and release often thereby incrementally building your product to its full potential.

Adding on too many features and trying to make your product picture perfect traps you in a endless loop from which it is difficult to get out. And the day one realizes it might be just too late.
Its every entrepreneurs dream to release a product which is light years ahead of its competition, but if you wait for so long and keep on building features and want it to be pixel perfect most often than not its a recipe for disaster.

Keep your long-term goal of building your TajMahal but in between release your product when it is completed to a logical level where it can start giving value to customers. It might not have all the features you want in your product in the first release or have more features than your competitors, nevertheless release it. Don’t try to build a TajMahal on your first release. It might very much be that the customers are expecting a different version of TajMahal than what you have envisaged.

Questions on our Product Launch - App42 PaaS, Backend as a Service and Cloud Platform

Couple of days before we launched our App42 PaaS, Backend as a Service and Cloud Offerings Product launch.
Got many mails, phone calls from friends, colleagues and family. Good news was that all of them liked the concept and the creatives of our website.
During the same time Gangs of Wasseypur 1 & 2 got released and as I read the story behind the writers, directors, actors and the music I could relate with the trials and tribulations through which they had gone while creating the movies and we creating our product line. There is a story behind everything. For people who see the finished product it might be just a banner, the color might be just one thing or the feature or text on the site which one just passes through, But in the making of the finished product countless stories, discussions and iterations happen which only the maker of the product know.
The real pleasure is when you meet someone and that person picks that point and asks "Oh this things sounds interesting, was it by design or just a coincidence" The pleasure in explaining the thought behind it is unmeasurable.

In the next few blogs will try and illustrate the story behind every product which is part of the App42 Product line.


Shephertz App42 Product line
App42 Cloud API - 300+ Cloud APIs to develop Mobile, Web, Social, SaaS, TV and Gaming Apps.

AppHawk - Project, Issue\Defect Management and Collaboration with additional features for cloud and mobile app projects.

AppWarp - Massive Multiplayer Realtime Gaming and Virtual World platform for simple to complex games. Customizable rooms and lobbies provided out of the box.

AppClay - Build and launch HTML5 and Android native Apps on the fly in a few minutes. Zero Coding or technology knowledge required.

StartUp - Dealing with Non-Performers

Every company, whether big or small, has to deal with non-performers. Taking hard decisions is difficult, more so for a Start-up because the teams are small and close-knit like a family. You meet them everyday, sit on adjacent work stations and share the highs and lows, trials and tribulations with each other. Very similar to how when we come back home, you share the highlights of the day with your family.

It is thus painful to see when out of the high performing pack, a few are on a continuous down slide on their performance - this after one has given them feedback and tried to motivate them. The only thing that one can do is offer really sound advice and point out his or her improvement areas. It is then up to the individual to accept or not accept the feedback or advice and work on it. One can never impose his/ her opinions or decisions on anybody, as they say you can take the horse to the water but cannot force him to drink.

They might listen to you for some time because of authority, but if they themselves don’t realize it, the change will not be permanent and they will be back to doing their own thing very soon. Very quickly, you will realize that for some, your advice or feedback would be just a lecture or a monologue, which they have no option but to hear. But there are times when some of them take that advice in the real spirit and transform into performers. Any leader's sole aim is never to make a team which only works for the benefit of the goal for which they are striving. They want to transform and build lives. They want to make an impact in the society by building a great team, building business, changing lives in and around. There is no greater pleasure in life when you feel that you have made a performer out of a non-performer. As they say, great leaders make ordinary people do extra ordinary things.

Having said that there are times when you have take harsh decisions. Not taking them at the right time will most likely harm your company and can be very fatal, even bring down your company. When I am encountered with such a situation, I have tried to take the decisions based on some basic values which cannot be compromised at any cost. These are the five core values which have been my bible in good and bad times:

Integrity

This is, no doubt, the first and most important value. There should be zero tolerance for integrity. Tolerating such behaviour will be disastrous for any company. I say this because it is difficult to change the attitude of such individuals as it is so wired in them that no matter how many times they will apologize or regret their action, sooner or later if given a chance, they will repeat it at some point of time. As an entrepreneur, if there is an integrity issue with anyone in the company, however important or critical that person is for the business, he/ she should be shown the door that day itself. Please edit your employee contracts which will allow you to separate such employees instantaneously.

Whiners

In any team, there will be a set of people who will continuously complain – about work, hygiene, environment, clients etc. The complaining may never be public, but they will be on a look out to find like-minded individuals and spend most of their time during lunch, at coffee breaks, outside office or in parties whining and being cynical about the company. The one common denominator is that 9 times out of 10, they will be all non-performers. Such an attitude is so ingrained in some people that they would have displayed the whining attitude in their last job and will do it in their next job as well. Such people are always part of the problem and never the solution. They are like weeds which spread and try to reach out to all the branches that they can, suck the energy and eventually destroy them. It is only the tallest branches to which they don’t dare to reach. These weeds have to be uprooted with utmost urgency. If there is a war and you ask your army to pick up swords and fight. The performers will pick the swords and straightway dive into fighting. There will be some who wont even pick up the swords, anyways they decide not to become part of the war and they will leave. I still respect such people. But there are some who will pick up the sword and stand at the boundary and whine. The person who is fighting, they will try and infiltrate and corrupt their mind. They have an uncanny habit of trying to expand their group. Their sense of achievement is driven by how many people they have managed to convert, than thinking constructively on winning the war.

A company is much better off and a happier place to work at without whiners. .

Commitment

Standing by a commitment is an attitude. In startups you require people who stand by their commitment. If one says that they are going to deliver something on a particular date with agreed requirements there are no two ways about it. It has to be delivered.  At times, especially in software, the delivery date may just be wrongly estimated, or one may get stuck in some difficult problem -  whatever the reason is, the best solution is to be upfront, honest and pro-actively inform so that a corrective action can be taken. In a service company the client has to be notified in advance and in a product company, the same should be done with investors, customers or the other stake holders

Discipline

Discipline doesn’t only mean coming in to work and going home at the defined office timings. Discipline means that you exercise self-restraint and self-control in order to complete the task assigned to you. Let me illustrate the impact of indiscipline by sharing what happened in my company. While I was working in a corporate and now at my own venture, I have always believed in flexible timings and working from home, if so be the need. Flexibile timings or working from home means that people are assigned tasks or pick up tasks themselves and commit to a delivery date, and are then not monitored on when and where they are working from. However, not all tasks can be completed in isoldation, there are dependencies and one needs to discuss, brainstorm, monitor, share status and plan together with others. Thus an overlap becomes critical. At our company, we decided that this overlap period would be between 11 am and 5 pm when everyone would be needed to be present in the office together. For the balance time, the team could work whenever and wherever they wanted to. Again, ofcourse, if there is a customer meeting or delivery, the team would have to be in office even if it is early in the morning. Once this communication was shared, in just a few weeks time, it was observed that the non-performers started misusing this guideline – They came to work between 12-1pm and left between 4-5pm. In between, they had a leisurely lunch for an hour, followed by a post lunch walk for more than half an hour. Another hour was spent on the phone, facebook, chat, checking personal mails etc. Effectively, this group was putting in only 2-3 hours of real work!  Productivity dropped to abysmal levels and deadlines were missed.  The performers ofcourse continued to work either at office or home for 10-12 hours a day, sometimes even more. The products that have been launched would never have seen the light of the day, had it not been for the relentless effort by the performers. They never calculated the no. of hours at work, how many holidays were pending and I never asked them when they go on vacation, infact sometimes I had to force them to take vacations.

As in the movie Spiderman aptly says, Great power brings great responsibility. If flexible working hours are offered and exercised by employees, then it also means that employees have to be responsible. When I did not see this responsibility coming, we were forced to take corrective action and define mandatory working hours. The non-performers still default and are not disciplined.

Yes, it is tricky to decide when to enforce the discipline and when we should let the chaos and freedom prevail. It is even more difficult to set rules because of some bad apples as the good ones always suffer because of them. There are no easy answers. You just have to find a balance where you don’t impose rules for those who don’t require to be given rules, and correct those who abuse facilities, rules and responsibility. Coming and leaving at a particular time everyday and just sitting in the office is not discipline,  but delivering what has been mutually accepted, being there when the company or customer needs you and acting responsibly is discipline. Contributing as much as possible to the success of the company is discipline.

A piece of advice - Hire people who are self-motivated, self- disciplined, low maintenance and need minimum policing.

Team Spirit

Impossible goals are achieved when you have a great and tight team. In an orchestra playing symphony,  even if one of the group goes off tune, it impacts the outcome. Together they create magic!

Having said that, you might sometimes encounter some people who prefer working as individual contributors.  Assign them work which they can perform alone, spend special time with them so that they feel part of the team. Maybe they just like working alone. But the ones who neither perform well and are not team players dont deserve to be part of the team.

Misalignement of vision - Both ways

When you a see a boat with multiple rowers all rowing in unison, if even one rower is not in sync or is rowing slowly or too fast or in a different direction, they will collide and the boat will tumble. Similarly in a company, all team members need to work in tandem for that one common goal and vision. Any mismatch would only just collapse the team.

There is another great story which I always share with my team and when other companies invite me to talk about motivation.

Everyday while walking back to home, one man always sees three people breaking stones with a big heavy hammers.

For some reason all three, seemed to be different and his curiosity one day gets over him and encouraged him to ask the first one "Why are you breaking stones" The 1st stone breaker replied  'Stone breaking is what earns me my living. This is the only thing I know. If I dont break stones how will I feed my family. The money which I earn provides me shelter and other basic needs.“ The man then asks the same question to the 2nd stone breaker. He replies ,“I do this to exercise. I have got a day job and it is my hobby to build my body and keep it fit. Stone breaking is the most effective way of exercise. The man then moves to the 3rd stone breaker and asks him the same question. The stone breaker replies “I am building a temple”.

All three stone breakers were breaking stones to make stone bricks for a temple which was getting constructed. But one of them was aligned with the vision of building a temple. He knew the big picture and believed that he was participating in creating something larger than life. He was proud of his job since his participation in this whole act might be few bricks but he saw himself as building a temple.

Believe me, however idealistic you may find this story to be, you will see similar feelings in performers.

If there is mis-alignment in the vision of the company and the employee, the relationship is surely going to break sometime..sooner one realizes, the better it is. If one postpones the decision, it is only to buy time.

All the above points have helped me gauge who can be and should be part of the start-up vision. In bigger companies there are atleast 30% of the people which don’t perform at all, but they have the capacity to cushion that. For start-ups, even one of such employees in this category, can be detrimental to the success of the organization.

Take your call, make a plan for those who can improve and give them a fair chance. But the ones who have defaulted on integrity or are habitual whiners, do not blink an eyelid for them. Act before it is too late.

Our 1st "SWARMeet"– Forum for entrepreneurs to network, collaborate and grow their business

We recently launched our App42 PaaS (Platform as a Service) Product line. During the last few weeks, I reached out to several of my friends for help in making this launch a success. Since the inception of my venture, I have been regularly touching base with other entrepreneurs for assistance, advice and support - ranging from business leads, introductions with business contacts or investors to Graphics Designing, Copyrighting, Legal, Recruitment, Accounting, PR and Branding,. This made me think that many entrepreneurs would or might be going through the same journey and needing the same assistance and thus, a forum where entrepreneurs from different spheres of business meet with a clear focus to network, collaborate and grow their business, would work to everyone’s advantage.

Taking a simple example- a non-IT company looking to develop a website or needing assistance with Digital Marketing won’t have to hunt around and could get to know, through this group, a reliable source who would do the job. Somebody wanting a company with complimentary skills to participate in a joint proposal, would in all likelihood, find a match through this group. You could get connected with a lawyer who could help you file patents or somebody who is ready to share office space with you, should you be looking for the same etc. Thu,s the endeavour of this group would be to act as an enabler and a facilitator in making entrepreneurs meet fellow entrepreneurs, collaborate with each other, cross-leverage our resources and grow our businesses.

The group would be called "SWARM" - . The name originates from nature where many species (like the bees, bats, ants, lions) derive collective intelligence by being together as a swarm. They live, hunt, work and migrate as swarms. Their hunting capabilities greatly increase when they function together as swarms. A herd of lions and lionesses can bring down a giraffe but it is almost impossible for a single lion to do so. By staying together, the survival probability of the swarm also increases as information is exchanged within the group, that helps save the swarm from predators and any probable danger.

Similarly we as entrepreneurs can help each other, collaborate and achieve success in doing things which might be difficult to do alone.

What the group is not?

• The intention of the group is not to hold lectures for aspiring entrepreneurs. Focus is to meet to collaborate and help each other in building and growing business 
• We would not be doing any public events. If however any event is planned in the future, it would be for members only.

The SWARMeets would take place once a month – every 2^rd Friday of the month for two hours.

Entrepreneurs located in the NCR region who are interested to be part of this initiative. Please reach out to me on mail @ siddhartha.chandurkar@shephertz.com

The Entrepreneur and Successful Start-ups – Quest for panacea to success

Recently I have been spending some time on LinkedIn Groups. Have joined some of the groups on Start-ups and Entrepreneurs. Also been attending multiple Entrepreneur centric events, Across the board the questions, discussions, polls on groups and speakers at events have been discussing on what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur or a start-up to succeed or to get funding.
Today I was about to post a comment on one such group. I realized that it qualifies for a dedicated blog. Its not a topic on which you can answer objectively and there is no silver bullet or path to glory which defines the composition of an entrepreneur of a successful start-up. Don't know whether will be able to cover such a general and vast topic in one blog. But would make an attempt in this blog and the following ones.
I have tried to list down some of the learning's and experiences which I had. Might apply to many or might not. But hopefully will surely try to answer some of the questions which goes in one persons mind when he is considering to be an entrepreneur or is already one. Success of Entrepreneur and Start-up is most often discussed simultaneously. Will try and attempt to illustrate these topics separately starting with Entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs can be broadly be classified into two categories.
1. Just out of college or a Dropout full of energy. Contemplating whether to take that campus job or pursue externally. Parents, friends and well wishers telling him to comply with the general in most of the cases i.e. to take a job with a company which is successful and known.
2. A person who has already worked in an organization and is considering to start his venture on that big great idea since sliced bread
I wont be able to add much value to the Type 1 case since my story is based on Type 2. But, would still try and take a shot at it based on my experience as Type 2
During these times and era where products/apps have to be developed in Internet time. The earlier you start is better. If you are thinking about an idea there is high probability that somewhere in some garage in some geography and corner, a person is thinking and implementing the same idea. Believe me it is so uncanny that you think about an idea and start working on it and suddenly you see multiple solutions in the same space. Its like when you learn a new word. You hear and read the same word in newspapers,radio and TV almost from the next day. 
If one does not participate in this acceleration of progress where technology, experience in life, business are changing, built and evolved almost at a quarterly basis. One might regret that they did not take the plunge at the right time. The advent and penetration of Internet and Mobile phones have opened up such immense opportunities and reach that what can be achieved is only limited by ones imagination. I for one regret that I did not take this decision earlier. If you are student in college or just out of college don't let the thought of being an entrepreneur just pass away. I know its difficult when you see your colleagues, that classmate with whom you always competed or disagreed during arguments in the cafeteria has got a cushy job at campus or later.There is family and social pressure to get that great job which you can boast about and start earning right away. Its a very difficult decision to work on idea, pursue it which might work or not work in the next foreseeable future and possibly have no earning for some time or ever. An Entrepreneur is  by birth a different person, against all odds there will be a inner calling which will tell you if I don't pursue this path I wont sleep well or if one dies an untimely death will feel he has not done his part. If you feel passionate about it enough … follow it. Have the will, patience and sustenance to pursue it. Having said that, Its not always necessary to start early. Sometimes it makes sense to get some exposure. I was an out and out technical and R&D (Research & Development) type of guy. I worked for many years with a Telecom Equipment Vendor. Then I joined a service company. It gave me business exposure. I understood and experienced the complete cycle of customer acquisition, engagement and closure. It gave me a new perspective and my business acumen got evolved immensely. I was lucky to have great Mentors and Bosses throughout. Sometimes at jobs you get work which doesn't make sense at that point of time. My then company was starting a new location, I volunteered to participate in establishing that location, because of which I got tremendous exposure to operations. Deciding on security of employees, sitting plan, optimized usage of space, lunch menu and prices, ferry planning, and transitioning people from one location to another … It all didn't make sense at that time. But today when I look back, my all that collective experience has helped me every step of the way. Having said this, no experience is enough and there is always a first time. If you think that you have enough perseverance in you. Don't wait for that dream job or the right time just believe in yourself and dive … believe me you will figure it out. There is never a right time. But be receptive to people who advice you, just don't ignore them, even from worst critics sometimes you will find pearls of wisdom, hidden in their criticism . There is saying in India. Hear everyone, do what you believe in.
As I said I am the Type 2 guy. Will try to illustrate my experience as a person who worked in the corporate industry for ~13 years and quit his job started his venture and have been surviving for the past 2 years and just released our first offering  … App42 Product line.
The idea or desire to become and entrepreneur is a dormant thought which builds cumulatively, slowly but steadily in ones mind while the person is working somewhere. Its somehow wired in your mind from birth or gets injected because of a aahaa moment which you experience because of an inspiring event in some part of your life or you meet someone who induces it in your mind. Based on the discussions which I have had with some of my fellow entrepreneurs who earlier worked in other organizations. The day the thought comes to your mind, one is good one to one and half years away from pursuing it seriously if at all the person decides to do so. Every person is busy in trivialities of everyday existence … which includes family, marriage, children, bills, loans, increments, progressions, unforeseen calamities, luxury, better house, car, job, pending tasks personal and professional etc. . One decides that I will take a call next available weekend, or in my next vacation, when a particular personal milestone is achieved or the next available convenient time … etc. Believe me there is no right time to quit and follow your dream … period. As mentioned earlier with the risk of repetition. In fact its so uncanny that when one quits, in few months one realises it is the worst time to have taken this decision, since somehow all problems find a way to pop during those times.
There are some who contemplate to do moonlighting and work on their idea while they are working. They are the worst kinds. First and foremost many organizations have clauses in your appointment letter restricting you from doing the same and it is unethical. Even when it is not and you are actively looking for funding, which you most likely would unless if you have loads of saved or inherited money. Why will a investor fund in you when you yourself are not ready to risk your future on your own idea and that person has just heard your pitch and you are asking to invest millions or hundreds of dollars. You have to find a way to Bootstrap … through service, teaching, consulting, early sales, funding through Friends & Family or Angel Investors, or whichever way you can think of …. If you cannot survive and are scared during these times, believe me there are more trying times ahead.
Majority of aspiring entrepreneurs fizzle out during this stage. They cant garner enough courage to quit.  They spent inordinate time trying and finding new research data through various channels to prove that their idea makes sense, and get into a endless loop deciding whether to go ahead or not. Continuously work on reducing the risk to such a level, which is rarely achievable that their idea is fool proof. No idea is fool proof whether initiated by a start-up or a big organization. Every idea has to by nurtured, cultivated, built, evolved and convinced.
Some breakaway and take the plunge. Working for a corporate and then starting a venture completely reconfigures you. Its not about focusing on that particular area which was assigned to you i.e. Technical, Sales, Business Development, Project Management, Operations … etc. You have to suddenly transform into a Rambo  - One Man Army. Starting from recruiting the first set of team, getting an office space, administration, accounting, taxes, legal, sales, implementation and delivery, quality, advertisement, HR – motivating your team, keeping them tight and motivated, convincing people to invest in you etc …. you have to perform multiple roles.Time will teach you and you will learn.
Coming back to the genesis of this blog. What makes a person successful entrepreneur  or a start-up. I could barely finish writing about the entrepreneur. If I am force a to take a single reason …. it is self motivation. Every night when you will sleep or get up in the morning … doubt will slowly creep in … It will reside somewhere in the dim recesses of your mind and just pop in during the worst time. Time will test you and believe me to the hilt. Incidentally today I read a great article The dirty little secret of overnight success Every start-up goes through this phase, Remember Overnight success is achieved after 1000 nights of effort.
Self motivation is the only virtue which will make you pull through. One has to be highly self motivated. Belief in your team, on your current idea, you vision and  will …. it will keep you going. There will be many people who will agree on your vision and then many who wont. If you are talking with investors and describing your offerings e.g.  A, B, C, D. Half of them will tell you that A and B are great and the remaining will say C and D, and some other hybrid combination. Stick with what you believe. You cant promise every investor what he wants to hear. If you do so you are not being honest.  Having said that always hear what the market wants. Most often than not the idea on which you started will change its complete form and shape from what you started with and  what you will release. Take nimble steps and be receptive to the market.
If you are not yourself self-motivated how will you motivate the team. How will you persevere during difficult times. Don't wait for anybody else to motivate you. Get up in the morning, pull your socks and just follow your dream. Once you have decided to be an entrepreneur … ideas will change and evolve, because of environment, market conditions,technology, competition and external conditions beyond you but don't let your resolve change to create an impact in the society.
Wanted to write more on this topic, but I can see the sun is creeping out on the horizon. Need to hit the sack. There are other things which one needs to focus on equally ... Will try and write on the same soon.

• Bootstrapping … (If you find this blog worthwhile do read my blog on Bootstrapping through Service  To Service or not to Service that is the question
• Team
• Leadership
• Networking
• Cash Flow
• Funding
• Angels and VCs
• Scaling
• Product Development and Release Management
• Digital Marketing, Social Media, Virality and its Impact… etc

Do visit our Blog http://blogs.shephertz.com to get updated news about Shephertz Product line, team and life @Shephertz and our website http://www.shephertz.com

To Service or not to Service … that is the question

The day I started this venture and before, like everybody I have met plethora of established and aspiring entrepreneurs, angels, venture capitalists, corporate managers and engineers etc. most often than not when they ask about what ShepHertz does and how do we make revenue. I have always mentioned about our product offerings i.e. App42 and our service business. Majority of them raised their eyebrows when I mentioned the word Service. One question which I was always asked post that
Do VC’s perceive your company in the right way when you are doing Product as well as Service Business together ?. Is it a death trap for a Start-up to do product development and service simultaneously ?
Sid: Don't know whether VC/Angels perceive us in the right way or not. You have to keep the lights on. Nobody is going to do that for you. Businesses don't work and salaries aren't paid based on what people think, but on what you face and execute at a daily level. At the end of the month you have to take care of your burn in terms of salaries, admin and other operational expenditures. The show must go on. One approach is to wait for that Angel who is going to bail you out and the other is to be in control of the situation. Funding is a very important aspect of entrepreneurship but it is not the only thing on which the company should be formed. If you take funds … its not the end. Its the beginning .. you have to create value for your customers and stakeholders. You still have to manage your cash carefully and judiciously. It wont be long when the  money will get over and you will be back to square one. In my opinion through my limited experience as an entrepreneur keeping funding as the main goal is like putting the cart in front of the horse. Endeavour should be to create a great team and build value for your customers through your offering, funding will follow.
Services business though it has pulled us back in terms of time. But at the same time it has given us much more. If your idea wont make any sense 3-4 months later because of any unforeseen delay … believe me you should consider dropping the idea and pursue some other one which is more resilient to time and competition. Since times and competition are always going to change. Of course it should not get perpetually postponed, if service is sucking your time and not leaving you anytime for your product, if its getting difficult to balance both and risks the launching of your product within an acceptable time … you will have to stop service. You have to limit yourself in taking only that much work which you can handle. There is high chance of one getting sucked into only service because it gives you immediate revenue which is very lucrative and difficult to resist. We somehow managed to find that balance. Took projects which we could handle in parallel with our Product development and have enough money to survive. Service has helped us build our team. We have tried to take work which is aligned with the skills, which are needed in our co. This helped us to built the ideal team required for our start-up. It has helped us to survive and fund our product development. There has been no interference in our creative decision making because of the service work. Whether we will succeed or not that time will tell but at least we know we have got a valid chance to make an attempt in what we believe. Without the revenue which we have made through service we would have gone under.
Now that our product has been launched, angels and VCs are reaching out to us and we are also actively pursuing funding we have decided to further limit Service and focus completely on our App42 PaaS Product line, its enhancement and support. Apart from completing our prior commitments, We will prefer only those projects which involves license sale of our Products with its customization, white labeling and integration, than mere project work. So in reality it is not service in classical sense its actually supporting the license model of App42
Investors with whom I have met have appreciated that, for nearly 2 years we managed to keep our heads above the water and yet develop such an extensive and comprehensive product line.
Whether its doing Service, Consulting, teaching or some other way through which you are earning revenue. Find a way to Bootstrap which suites you, every start-up and entrepreneur has to go through it.
Do what is best for you and helps you to achieve your ultimate goal. Don't lose focus of what your companies vision is and what it wants to be. Everything else will fall up in place irrespective of the approach which you take … there is no right way to reach your destination, the right way is the one which works for you

Fellow Entrepreneurs

There has not been a time when I have spoken about our team at ShepHertz in public forums, and I have not got Goosebumps. As an entrepreneur the biggest asset and the earning is who is on your side and who is not. I have had friends, best friends, colleagues, acquaintances, business contacts like any body has … but nobody stands more close to people who have given huge sacrifices and believed in this idea App42
When you embark on your journey … and a difficult and arduous one as we have. You learn many lessons in life … There is a saying in India the milk separates from water almost instantaneously when there are trying times. We have been always cash flow positive since we started this venture, but for the past few months we stopped taking new service work so that our dream App42 gets released … all our efforts and resources have been channelized to release this product, Not to say we are self funded, surviving without any angel or VC money, completely bootstrapped through our service revenue. We had to pay a heavy price for that …. we went cash flow negative in the last two months. We didn't take any new service work which was keeping our lights on and put all our efforts and resources on launching App42 . We had delayed salary payouts and had limited facilities at our office. The result was that App42 eventually got launched with very good reviews from media and friends.
The biggest sacrifice and difficult times have been endured by our immediate family members and our team mates at ShepHertz who have sacrificed their dreams and the time of their life to make the idea successful. They sacrificed their house and car loans, took a cut on salary and increments, and left that great opportunity which came their way during these times and above all sacrificed their personal and family material dreams, because they believed in the larger good. Don't know whether we will make it that big. But nothing can replace the pleasure and happiness we got when we released the product and the whole process of developing the same … when everybody danced and hugged each other post our launch after working for 48 hours non stop  ….. Family members called in the middle of the night. Wife's and family members of colleagues at Shephertz shared and liked our launched links. Its been an exhilarating and awesome experience which no amount of success, fame and money will give it to us. Look forward to more rewarding times :) Thank you team ShepHertz we will make it big together :)

Idea.. Dilemma.. Launch! - The Story of a Mobile, Web and Social App Entrepreneur

Nick has just passed out of college and is booming with ideas. While lying on the bed and watching the ceiling, an idea strikes - he wants to develop an App which is accessible through Mobile and Web. Next morning, the first thing he does is to run to a book shop to buy a book on PHP/RoR, iPhone and Android development. He then straightway heads to a coffee shop. Orders his favourite cuppa of beans, opens up his laptop and tries out the ‘Hello World’ examples.
He dives deeper and reads few more chapters, just to get started on his idea, and realizes that he needs to buy some space to host his App, because his App requires a back end. He also needs a hosting provider - cloud services are ubiquitously hyped, instead of the traditional Datacenter. He signs up with a cloud service which is the cheapest and promises the world to him. The moment he logs in to the newly registered account, he however sees a jargon-infested console which he fails to understand. This cheapest solution, was even out of his budget. Frustration creeps in and he questions whether he should really go ahead. It doesn't seem so easy to launch his idea - There is a lot of self-learning to be done. He wonders if instead the App should be outsourced to somebody. If that is the case, how much would it cost and would he have any control as he does not have the technological know-how. As he makes an attempt to understand the console, he ponders over all the lingering questions … which database to install, would it be able to take the scale, which ports to open, how much hard disk i.e. secondary storage would be required, should he opt for a higher configuration virtual machine, what is a virtual machine, root login, auto scaling, monitoring your applications, what happens if the load increases.. would the current configuration be able to handle it. He talks with many of his friends in this space or remotely associated with this space. Every body suggests him with new options and at the end of it he his even more confused and undecided.
Then he stumbles upon App42! A simple interface which requires basic knowledge of App Development in any platform available in the market. It allows an app developer to develop any application- be it simple or complex – and enables him to go live in just a few minutes. Nick downloads the SDKs based on his choice of language and platform, tries the samples, integrates them and ….voila! :) He is all set to launch his App. His footprint of his App is minimum, the complexities of maintaining and developing complex logic is taken care by App42, he focuses on the UI and the business logic. 
The intention of the App42 PaaS platform is to make the App developer achieve his goals i.e technology as well as business goals. All its services are aligned to make the App developer/company successful. All our current product line and in future will make their best attempt to provide services which will allow an App developer to succeed and gain revenue as quickly and reliably as possible.

Significance of the no. 42 in App42

Many people have asked me since the day we launched our App42 product line in a closed group. What is the significance of 42 in the name of the platform. The name is inspired from the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , a comic science fiction series created by Douglas Adams which I had read many years before. Please follow the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Answer_to_the_Ultimate_Question_of_Life.2C_the_Universe.2C_and_Everything_.2842.29  to know about it in detail.
The no. came back to me in life when I participated as a core team member  @ ISO/IEC
JTC 1/ SC 7 Annual Plenary Meeting in the working group WG42  Architecture in Hyderabad, India 2009. The working group was named 42 i.e. WG42
When I started this venture and was struggling to decide what name should I give to the platform. I started with Wings (Infact it took lot of time to remove Wings since most of the code and the UI, even the logo was built using Wings as the name of the platform), later on moved to AppWarp .. then to AppArena, but somehow I was still not comfortable with these names. One night I just started thinking what does the platform intend to do ? When somebody hears our Product name what should come to their mind ? That's when the number 42 resurfaced  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Answer_to_Life.png - Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything and so the Shephertz PaaS platform became App42.

48 hours of jamming and we are live

Last 48 hours before yesterday night has been a culmination of little less than two years of effort. I have been dreaming and waited in anticipation for this day since then.

The postits during our last leg of journey to the launch were just simply not ready to budge from the right side of the board to the left. But after tremendous team effort and coordination for 48 hours at a stretch … at around 10 pm yesterday we managed to get all of them on the left.
App42 was launched to a small group of people. Coming Monday we will be launching to the developer community worldwide.
The hard work, wait and anticipation has been completely worth it. We @ Shephertz have developed a strong product line which we will be releasing incrementally starting today and remaining in the coming weeks.
Our vision is to make App developers successful. All our products focus on making App developer’s life easy and help them to make applications of varying complexity. Assist them in developing applications from a very simple to complex App in as short time as possible and in a reliable manner.
App42 is a Unified PaaS (Platform as a Service) platform for Mobile & Web applications. Currently we have created over 180+ Cloud API’s with SDK's for all popular platforms and languages, very soon we will be providing a deployment and execution environment for custom server side code using our Shared Cloud and Dedicated Cloud Containers.
Complete server side complexities are taken care by us, allowing the App developer to focus on the UI and on their business functionality. Whether you are an iOS, Android or HTML5 App developer or developing SaaS and Enterprise Applications using popular languages like Java, Groovy, PHP, Ruby or python, our API's will provide Technical as well as Business Services which you can use out of the box with minimal configuration and integrate in your App code.
A full-blown mobile, Web, SaaS, TV, or enterprise application equipped with cutting-edge server side functionality is now possible with just few lines of code using the App42 PaaS.
The sheer comprehensiveness of our API’s will leave very little server side code to be written for applications, if not any.
Very soon we will be launching some more services please watch out this space http://www.shephertz.com
Do keep visiting our Blog to get updated news about Shephertz Product line, team and about life @ Shephertz
Last but, not the least it has been great fun to work with the team (our fellow entrepreneurs) at Shephertz where even in most trying times we found a way to stick together, excel and above all enjoy the whole process.
In a way it’s an end to the chapter which started since our inception in July 2010, but it also is a beginning for many more chapters to come or I would rather say volumes ;) where we have to focus on marketing, support, managing our production servers, scaling, bringing in new features and release our other products which are part of the App42 Product line. Above all getting continuous customer feedback and improve every aspect of our business inch by inch everyday

Code freeze done

At last the day we have been waiting for past 1 and half years has come. Code for our first release has completed and tagged. We are in the process of deploying all our products on the servers. Lot of code has been written, deciding what is ready to be released and what is not has been a very hard decision. One gets tempted to release all in one go. We have not only cut features within a product but have decided not to release some of our main product offerings e.g. Shared Cloud App, Dedicated Cloud App etc. Very soon in the coming weeks they will be released.

The main issue which was troubling us i.e. sub domain mapping and session issue has been resolved. The SDK documentation is almost in sync with some minor changes pending, which will be surely done by tomorrow EOD.

Once all servers are up and running plus a complete regression testing is done we are all set to launch.

Still working on the website content, Licenses, Terms and Privacy policy, hopefully by Friday we would have completed the content and linking of all the pages.

Office help is still missing …have found a replacement. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week when he joins. Currently have tied up with a tea/coffee shop who delivers twice a day and all team members are helping in keeping the office clean.

Enough for today, have to get back to writing the site content

Hmm ….

Had planned something else for the day but the day got spent on trivialities of existence. Personal  and financial issues cropped up and when I reached office, administration took so much time  that it is not funny, these are things which you normally take for granted when you are working for corporates. Our operations person is on vacation. The office help has suddenly disappeared without telling us the reason. Next months salary has to be calculated. We are not at full strength, our main team is on vacation. And above all the accounts consultant is changing his advise every other day … still cant figure out what is the right way to calculate tax and what is wrong. Absolutely don't want to be on the wrong foot on this .. Irrespective of the above got the bank accounts which will support at least 8 popular currencies … though we are far away from charging our customers and the sub-domain problem is still troubling us. But surely we have covered some inches towards our goal.

In the evening we realised that we needed some more API’s for our launch to make the service complete. Its a big decision whether some features which have emerged out today should be incorporated or not. But prudence directs you to be wise and leave it for future. But believe me its a difficult decision when you get into the shoes of the user of the service and feel that the feature should be part of your launch offerings … at the end decided that we stick to our current goal. No more new features till our launch … period.

Tomorrow complete focus on the site and solving the sub-domain problem and site content.

Next week going live seems like a reality – Yes I can see the summit peak but still there is lot of ground to cover.

Countdown begins …

So the countdown has started to launch Shephertz offerings. Today we finished our coding and it has been released for a final round of System testing. Started focusing on how the site will look, whether all links are in place and not broken and above all whether our OpenID integration works seamlessly across multiple products. , It has been challenging to make it work with sub-domains. Thankful to Godaddy for their great support who helped us solve DNS and subdomain configurations issues on the phone.
Though it was a big and risky decision which we took 3 weeks before to move to OpenID but that was a necessary step to be taken. Centralized Identity Management is crucial for our customers unified experience especially since we will be launching multiple products next week and some more thereafter in the following weeks. Now we have developed our own OpenID provider and our different products work as relying parties for authentication. The implementation has put us two weeks behind schedule but at the end it has been a worthwhile decision which will pay heavy dividends in future.
Since our main product offering is a cloud platform which provides multiple SDK’s, documentation has been a humongous task as we are supporting multiple technologies and device types. It has been a great challenge to coordinate across teams to keep the documentation and SDK’s in sync across SDK’s
Next 2-3 days will be focusing on the site, licenses, terms and conditions and our social media marketing strategy.
Apart from the pressures of start up and the entrepreneurial challenges it has been absolute fun developing this App42 product line with such a great team. Instead of sitting in cubicles and in different rooms, recently we decided to all work in the same room with round tables. It has immensely improved our productivity and above all exponentially increased our fun in coding and having meetings directly from our own seats. We just turn the face of our seats towards the person who wants to initiate any discussion. No meeting requests, no appointments and no coordination.
We look forward to also listen to our favourite music when one of our colleagues takes the role of an RJ who plays music on request while all of us hum our way to coding.
Time to hit the sack … tomorrow will bring new sets of problems and challenges plus many more successes but above all, we will be working towards getting one more inch closer to our dream.