Markerboard.in An Online Store for White Marker Boards

We are happy to announce that Markerboard.in , an interesting project we have been working on for a customer has gone into beta. It is an online store for buying white marker boards and similar items. It is probably a first of its kind in India :). We have been working on this project for Corporate Concepts based out of Chennai, India. Corporate concepts is a leading manufacturer and distributor of White Marker Boards. They have a big presence in South India. And this online initiative is part of their strategy to reach out markets in North India and abroad.

You may be wondering if this is a viable online business. However, Corporate Concepts and even we are bullish about the possibilities. This is a product needed widely across India by schools, colleges, institutions and even start-up companies. However not many stores could stock this locally because it is not a mass market product. Hence the whole searching and ordering process is time consuming and it happens pretty much over phone. An online store will make it easy for customers to browse through the product catalog easily and order them quickly. Markerboard.in will be offering free shipping across India and wide variety of payment options(Credit Card option is coming soon)

Currently Markerboard.in is in beta and the full launch is expected within a month. Even as an individual, you can check the site out as a white marker board will be a great productivity tool at home or at office. And if you register now, you will get some awesome discounts during the launch and probably will get an invite for the launch party :)

And we are definitely interested in hearing your views and feedback. If you have any please let me know.

Another One

It is a shame that I am keeping this space not updated. Shame on me. I can give excuses like I am busy..blah blah. A busy man is one who finds time for everything. I am a lazy one...That's a criminal mistake.
The economy is in a whole lot of trouble and its the best time to be in a cozy job rather than mucking around crazy thoughts and uncertain things. But I am already in neck deep, and I am going to enjoy this.
We closed last year reasonably OK, but that elusive break through has been just that. And as it is enough(or already late) testing water we are diving head first into deep waters by taking on some wild ideas.
We will keep you posted. We released couple of small android apps[Quizzen and Go! Chennai] into market. We are continuing to work in improving these apps.
Lot more stuff to come keep an eye on this page if you want to see what we are doing. And I too promise to come back here frequently.

Generally speaking....

Once in a while I get reminded of the promise I made to myself that I frequently write in my blog about all things in general and about my start-up life in specific. And then I find some excuse and life goes back to the regular grind. Today actually I am going to write. So first of all, to answer the general ice breaker question....What's up.... I just ask that question to myself. And I think I can answer it either way. Things are awesome and also awful.

I pretty much relocated to Mumbai now and my team is in Chennai. We communicate over the wire a lot. However, it would have been ideal if I am actually co-located with the team. But an all important customer insists that I be present in Mumbai. Will have to wait for some time to see whether its a wise move. In the eternal dilemma of whether to focus on product or service, I chose to focus fully on services now. All the product related works are put aside. I know... I know...Services is a bitch. But after reviewing our situation again and again, it's pretty much clear to me that I have to take-up the services work. For now we are fully loaded and few other projects are in the pipeline. But as expected, the work is going to be extremely demanding on me and on the team. I am hoping to manage to allocate some attention to our forgotten products too.

We have delivered two projects last month. I think we put in our best, and the customer is satisfied to an extend. Of course a long way to go to make them say wow. We have started couple of new projects and this is going to engage us for quite some time in coming months. We have increased the size of our team now and we are looking for Java, Flex, PHP & Mobile Application developers with couple of years or so of experience. If you know any one who is looking for a job and have experience in any of these technologies, let me know. And by the way, we have almost moved to a new office.

Personal life is in a mess and I think I have managed to upset all my family members and especially my wife. Balancing a newly started company and newly started family is no joke. Believe me. Add to that the financial stress.

That's it for now.

CEG Alumnis - Why you should be attending CEGAM?

CEGAM 2011 - Why You Should Be Attending on Prezi

CEG's Heritage Main Building Under Threat From Upcoming 10 Story Building

College of Engineering Guindy is India's oldest engineering college. The beautiful main building of the college is more than 100 years old and has been rightfully declared as a heritage building. In normal times there would not be a need to explicitly say that this heritage building needs to be preserved, but these are different times.

It has come to light that Madras University, the parent University of CEG & Anna University, is planning to build a tall building (around 1o stories) at their site west of Anna University's play ground. Any one who passed on the Kotturpuram side of the campus recently might have noticed that the shrubs between the compound wall and the play ground have been cleared and a huge foundation pit is being dug.

An imposing ten story high building is not in the best interest of preserving a heritage building. I am not an expert in structural engineering or architecture, so I can not say how it is going to directly affect the main building. I hope the learned & eminent Civil Engineers will come up with proper technical explanation on why such a tall building should not be erected. But for now, I can definitively say the aesthetics of the heritage structure will be compromised by the new building. More over the building site is directly west of the main building and hence the main building's visibility will be completely obscured.

Apart from the above objections, what is more appalling is that it looks like Madras University probably has not got the clearance from CMDA. For a 10 story building, they may require a large front setback(I think two thirds of the height of the building is the standard). There is not that much space available for Madras University. Similarly, the main building being a heritage building, any near-by construction that may potentially disturb it should get appropriate clearance. It is not sure whether Madras University has got such clearance. Since Madras University owns another well know heritage building the "senate building", they should have known better.

Also, it seems they have not officially informed about the building plans to the leadership of Anna University even as a simple neighborly courtesy. Ironically the plan of ten story building has come to light when Madras University had submitted the plan to CEG's Structural Engineering department for analysis.

Of course, the leadership of Anna University should have protested strongly to this new and objectionable addition. However for some reason there seems to be more silence on their end than protest. So it has become the duty of the CEG and Anna University Alumni to raise whatever noise possible in protest. As alumni, we lose no opportunity to claim the pride for being cream of cream and for having CEG as our Alma-Matter and now is the time for taking some responsibility. So please spread the news.

You may be asking what is the source for the details listed above and if there is an URL to an MSM article. There is no MSM coverage on this yet. The alumni should come together and take steps so that it is noticed by MSM. I came to know about these during the Executive Council Meeting of CEG Alumni Association (which I attended as an invitee). A senior faculty member and office bearer of alumni association mentioned about this(Since I am not certain whether his name can be mentioned, I have not).

RIP:Monthly Paychecks, From 3-7-2000 To 2-7-2010

Long back when I was in college, once i had a discussion with a friend. What would we be after 10 years? I remember saying some thing like, "I don't know what I will be but I know that I don't want to be a manager or some thing like that in some company". Being a highly opinionated person, I used to make lot of such declarations. Even now my friends tease me that I am the biggest hypocrite, saying one thing and doing another thing. May be true. But I think I have kept at least one promise. Exactly 10 years after I joined my first job I am not a "some manager at some company".

This is what I have always wanted to do. To do something actually meaningful. To make some impact. To be on my own. Now I think I had run out of excuses for not doing it. So I have said good bye to my fat pay checks.

I am starting a venture.

Bar Camp Chennai Roundup

- The sessions started little late. Robin from ReachAccountants.com kicked off with a session on the accounting and tax related things any entrepreneur need to know. It was informative as most of the participants were techies and this is one area which techies don't fully understant.

- Praveen from Krea gave a talk on the importance of Market Research for start-ups. His take away was "Find the market and develop the product/solution". A discussion ensued with a counter point that there are many examples of super success startups where the product/solution came before there actually was a market(Likes of Google, Twitter...etc).

- Kannadhasan from Eagle Software gave a talk on how biometric based id cards are used for Healthcare delivery (TN government's insurance scheme). It was interesting and very good to know that technology is touching people and is reducing pilferage. As a side topic, a strongly opinionated discussion on the ethical and privacy concerns of collecting bio-metric information of all the citizens and how the government could misuse it.

- The high light of the bar camp was the presentation by Ms.Sonal Misra Deputy Commissioner of Traffic Police Chennai. She demonstrated what she had done with geo tagging of accident prone zones at Erode. Eventually there was a very involved discussion on how technology can be used in
- providing automatic traffic alerts
- traffic law enforcement.
- Senthil Nayagam of RailsFactory.com gave a speech on the need for Hackerspace. Good idea. I would for sure subscribe to one such hackerspace.

We had to leave after this....In general the Barcamp was good. It could have been better. Though it is an unconference, the discussion could have been lil bit anchored, if not moderated. Some times the discussions took a tangential path.