Monday, November 5, 2012

Life in a startup company!


Whenever I hear success stories about big companies or small companies which have made a feat, I would get goosebumps and hooked up completely on it. Especially when I read lines saying how it all started from a garage or a room in their house and how they could hit the headlines of the newspapers later. Sometimes, out of sheer regular office boredom work, I have even imagined how it would have been, if I was part of that small team! The team which brought in the wonderful product that all of us are using now.

Time indeed had come! But for a short while though. I was given an opportunity in a small ambitious start up company which aims to reap benefits of wind power at high altitudes. I never really hoped that I would get an interview call when I applied for the developer position in this start up company. It was like a cake-walk for me during the interview, that I simply made them flat with the knowledge I had acquired all these years! However, my hunch for being selected was the airplane terms that I used which were highly relevant to the work they are doing. I learned terms like ailerons, flaps, fuselage etc when I taught my son "parts of an airplane!" and I believe that helped me to get through this interview :-) (and, of course God's wish as well).

I joined the team, knowing that I will be there only for 2 months and with God's wish and more investors pouring in money, I may continue. Isn't taking risk the first trait needed to be part of a start up team? So I accepted the offer!

After many years of experience in working for big companies like Nokia, I prepared myself mentally on how it would be to work in a start up.However, there were still some surprises! The work in fact, demanded more working time and faster response for all the assignments. So no excuses to relax. And, remember the assignments might also include ones which are  different than our previous experience like in my case from web page design to trash clean up.
Two months just went and I had learned also things which are essential for a start up company from day one! Thought it would be useful to all those including me, who are aspiring to build upon your idea and so here I share them.
  • How to plan and manage the activities and tasks? You need to have some software which satisfies the purpose on hand (there are many free cloud based software like "Zoho" with limited options). The software will essentially give the power to prioritize your activities and measure your performance. Ah, needless to mention, visualizing the work you have done these weeks does add confidence in your activity and future work.
  • Version control is equally important. So if you have some code based projects, having a handy version control will solve umpteen problems that would pop up in later stages. I do not have knowledge on other domains like mechanical, but for software based projects Git is a very handy version control.
  • Have your eyes and ears wide open and look for possibilities to collaborate or rope in investors from diverse fields. Certainly, there is more probability that you do not get response from many of them! However, keep trying as there is some reason behind ignoring our requests. At the same time, do not spend more time with those, who are least bothered about your idea. Time is indeed as precious as money for start ups.
  • Be prepared to spend time on accounts and other operational activities which grabs time from focus on developing and building the idea.
  • Things change fast, that the work going on currently might seem irrelevant. Judiciously plan the work with long term focus and include ifs and buts during planning. Scenario planning will help in coping up with the surprises and changes.
  • Last but not the least, cheer yourself and your co-workers often for the work done and that would keep up the spirits high! Indeed it is the spirit which is driving a human to be passionate.
Two months might be shorter time to understand much of start up dynamics and I am sure I have more to learn. Would be great to hear from you, the reader and your experience.



PS: It is indeed bad that I cannot continue my job in this start up and therefore could not see how life in a start up turns into a job in a flourishing company. BUT, it seems God has some better plans for me :-)

Learning about animals in fun way!




It is always fun for kids to look at animals around them and those in forests. Animals shape, sounds they make, food they eat and their different parts are always interesting for kids. We found an easy and fun way to make them learn about them by creating a poster scene at home wall. On one side we had pasted home and a garden using colored chart paper and the other side a small hill with trees around. We got some stickers of wild and domestic animals. Barathraam got interested in pasting those stickers of animals and understood slowly what are wild animal and domestic animals. Initially, he was head over heels on this activity that he just wanted to paste all at one go! It was indeed difficult to make him wait for next day to paste one more to his animal gallery.



Its an easy activity to do and I am sure kids would love doing it.
Needless to mention, having it as a visual backdrop will help them revise about these animals often.

Age to start this activity: Two and half years+