I have this mostly untested BHAG – big, hairy, audacious goal in business lingo. The BHAG is to ideate, build and launch beta products in order to early exit (by sale or spin off).Key assumptions I am making are:
- In today’s day and age, building simple “need fulfilling” products and getting a read on their performance in the market within 6-9 months is not impossible.
- Further, with the right team, this can be done for multiple product ideas one after the other.
- If you are detail oriented and a fast learner, you do not need 10 years experience in a particular domain before building a product for it.
From an initial pool of a dozen ideas, I have chosen 3 concepts to start with based on their business case. These products concepts are in the ecommerce, online payments and mobile VAS spaces; 1 is for the Indian market and 2 for global customers. The intent for an early exit is not borne out of greed for $$$, it is so because building products is the most exciting part. And the more diverse products we can build, the better it is for challenging our brains @ZaakCo 
Requirements for business partner / CTO / Techie / Super Geek:
- High energy, self-starter, risk taker, street + book smart, no ego/drama/God complex
- CS Bachelors degree preferred; non-CS works with right experience!
- Equally comfy with mySQL, JAVA, PHP and the open source toolbox to tend to both the front-end and back-end of a product.
- Experience and/or interest in some product verticals, must contribute to concept development also not just coding!
- Compensation: equity and/or minimal salary
- Suitable age 26-36 years
- Location Delhi NCR, India
All the other normal stuff you would want to know:
- Company is Zaak Consulting, www.ZaakCo.com, @ZaakCo
- I am Upasana Taku, 1 year as a Management consultant, 4 years as a Product Manager @HSBC + @PayPal, 2 years @Stanford, 4 years at @NITJ, http://upasanataku.com/?page_id=2, @upasanataku
by Sandeep
11 Oct 2009 at 12:22
Hey Upasana,
Liked the way you described the criteria. I m in Hyderabad and willing to know if we can collaborate together.
Thanks,
Sandeep
by Upasana
15 Oct 2009 at 17:22
Hi Sandeep
Your site does not tell me much…Please email me your profile and what areas you are interested in Knock ZaakCo.com
by Ashok Hegde
22 Oct 2009 at 15:23
I am looking for a similar person how about collaborating.
Currently in London with an Investment Bank from a Business/Tech background.
Currenctl working on a intergrated mobile experience platform.
Looking to prototype and dfine the product.
will be approching the London Dev agancy
for Funding @ http://www.g2i.org/
Let me know your thoughts
by Ashok Hegde
23 Oct 2009 at 14:30
Also anyone up for a “Technology Cooperative”.
Since we are in the business of generating ideas and technology is effectively a commodity does it not make sense to have a not for profit shared ODC with transparency in terms of costs.The ODC would have its own shared CTO and admin staff.
This would be ideal for “Idea Generators” and people looking for early exits where individually they would not have enough tech work to warrant an ODC.
Something along the lines of law chambers for barristers.
by Upasana
24 Oct 2009 at 13:38
hey Ashok
I see where you are going with an ODC but there are several existing incubators out there albeit not non-profit. I am personally not interested in doing an ODC since from my experiences having totally outsourced product development rarely works especially if you are building a web or mobile that is technology product or service.
If you are building a tech product I think technology is not really a commodity! Its as important as the idea or strategy how you build, on what platform you build it and so on…
Coming back to what I am trying to build is something between an Ideo and an IdeaLabs. At Ideo new products or enhancements are quickly prototyped and handed back to the client as happens in most consulting assignments. At IdeaLabs, new ideas are seeded and entirely new companies are spun off for each idea.
With ZaakCo, we want to do something more than IDEO by launching Beta products and improving them to prove their value. Yet, we want to do something short of IdeaLabs by not going the full stretch of taking each company to a IPO or profitable business. We want to sell our validated product or POC to a larger player whose portfolio it would fit in to beautifully. By exiting early, we the core team would get working on the next product idea and so on. This is how we currently envision positioning the company as a New Product Development company.
by Rohan
27 Oct 2009 at 20:26
Hi,
I have already experience in developing platforms which is used by millions of users.I have send you an email looking forward to hear from you.
Thanks,
Rohan
by Rachit
18 Nov 2009 at 21:16
Hi,
You recently came to IIT-Delhi to give a talk about this issue, calling web developers who have a thing for web-entrepreneurship. If you remember, i spoke to you briefly after the presentation, saying that this kind of initiative is exactly what i was looking for, and would love to join you, if you find my credentials worthy.
I sent you a mail in this regard at your ’stanfordalumni’ id a few days back. Please go through it when you have the time.
Thanks,
Rachit
by Vipool Prajapati
07 Jan 2010 at 04:33
Hi Upasana,
There is a boot-strapped startup called thinkcomputer.com that is developing an iphone app for online payment – interesting stuff.
I am located in Bay area; would love to chat with you briefly.
-Vipool
by suresh
20 Apr 2010 at 01:02
Hello,
This is suresh. I have worked for 2.6 years as a php developer for one us based company.
Im from hyderabad.I want to start a web agency mostly with open source technologies like php,mysql,oscommerce,magento,wordpress,joomla,drupal,html,css,javascript,ajax,jquery.
I have experience in above technologies.
if you need my help i can available at suri.t64 [at] gmail.com
I am planning to start web agency in hyderabad.
Suresh.