The business of start-ups and the creation of art have nothing obvious in common. They seem as different as chalk and cheese. Even when we picture them in our minds, we see suits and offices for one and galleries and colours for the other. The results are obviously very different but the similarity is in terms of their creators. The artist and the entrepreneur have more in common than meets the eye. While their work and work environments often differ widely, their inner workings run along the same lines.
The tech industry is abuzz over the announcement that IBM (Watson) and Salesforce (Einstein) will integrate their artificial intelligence platforms. While some may see this alliance between two giants as a bit concerning, I see this as a positive sign, and a sign of big things to come in terms of AI for business.
A large percentage of Indian start-ups stare failure in the face within months or years of launching. The money has run out or the co-founders disagree or the investors are backing out because of the lack of profits. The list is long and dark with lots of scary statistics and unseen pitfalls but we do have miles to go before the end. Miles in which we will see the what, why and how of failing start-ups and look for sunshine and hope in the darkness of these challenging times.
Blockchain on the High Seas and the future of Trillion Dollar Shipping
Mark Twain would undoubtedly be able to identify with Gordon Moore—or, more specifically, the “law” that the founder of Fairchild Semiconductors and Intel devised more than 50 years ago. In Twain’s case, his death was “greatly exaggerated.” In the case of Moore’s Law, its so-called death is more irrelevant than overblown.
Investors were knocking on the doors of the Karts and Deals that sold similar products in the same old ways with the same old styles. I asked myself what it was that investors saw as their valuations rose and their salaries doubled and tripled. Was discounts and undercutting all that mattered in the e-commerce industry? Did uniqueness not matter at all? Flawed business models, bad decision making, getting carried away like kids in a candy store and much more did not seem to faze investors. While, here I was with an e-commerce company that was pushing a unique idea with innovation and more but I was still not getting the kind of pull that regurgitated model was.
When Jason Lippert became CEO in 2003, Lippert Components (LCI) a manufacturing company was assumed to have peaked while hovering at $100 million in sales.