FreMo is like ZipCar, only instead of cars, they rent bicycles and instead of cities in the US, they operate in Mumbai, India.
If I had the money, I would invest in this company. There is a clear customer proposition, the business is easy to explain and the service becomes exponentially more valuable as it grows.
First, I would make them hire a designer/editor and have them re-do the website and THEN I would invest in them. I would also have a re-look into their pricing strategy.
:: FreMo - An Ecomove Solutions Initiative ::: "FreMo intends to launch rental station network that allows you to hire and return a bicycle. It is proposed to provide eco friendly and economical alternative travel solutions to the members of FreMo. To start with, we are looking at providing bicycle rental services to all the members at various locations in Mumbai and its surrounding suburbs like Thane, New Mumbai, etc. We will also move to other cities soon."
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
VC funding's overrated
Most ventures are started on entrepreneur's personal savings and credit card debt. VC funding comes in only after there are revenue numbers to show.
Ditch the Biz Plan, Buy a Lottery Ticket: "Where did successful companies’ founders get their financing from? Seventy percent used personal savings, 15% took bank loans (probably on their credit cards), and 14% relied on friends and family. (Note: they typically use more than one source for financing.)
The way the system works is that if you build something of value, the money will find you. Yes, there is a catch-22: you need seed financing, but no one will give you a cent until you have a marketable product and your company is producing revenue—which means that you don’t really need the money. But that’s the way it goes. Ironically, raising millions of dollars is usually easier than raising thousands."
Ditch the Biz Plan, Buy a Lottery Ticket: "Where did successful companies’ founders get their financing from? Seventy percent used personal savings, 15% took bank loans (probably on their credit cards), and 14% relied on friends and family. (Note: they typically use more than one source for financing.)
The way the system works is that if you build something of value, the money will find you. Yes, there is a catch-22: you need seed financing, but no one will give you a cent until you have a marketable product and your company is producing revenue—which means that you don’t really need the money. But that’s the way it goes. Ironically, raising millions of dollars is usually easier than raising thousands."
Thursday, April 22, 2010
How to Pay for IIMA or Harvard?
All banks in India are *required* to offer education loans. The process applying for is still so opaque, cumbersome, costly and time consuming that most student cannot rely on loans as their only source of funding.
I can go to yatra.com and book the cheapest flight from Mumbai to Delhi, sitting in my village and choose an airline with its hub in Bangalore. Why cant I get my student loan online?
How to Pay for IIMA or Harvard - WSJ.com: "In a few days, students will know whether they have made it or not. If you are chosen, you may not get too much time to celebrate – you have to figure out how to pay for that expensive education.
Several IIMs recently increased their fees by 100,000 rupees or more. A two-year management of business administration program at the coveted IIM Ahmedabad now costs around 1.4 million rupees ($31,500), while the fees are 1.35 million at IIM Calcutta and 1.3 million rupees at IIM Bangalore. Only a small percentage of students qualify for breaks in fees at these schools.
Luckily, there's help at hand.
India's banks have been increasingly boosting their education loan portfolios and new players are entering the market. In December, home loan giant HDFC Ltd. bought a 41% stake in non-banking financial company Credila Financial Services, which specializes in giving education loans. HDFC hopes to eventually buy out the entire company."
I can go to yatra.com and book the cheapest flight from Mumbai to Delhi, sitting in my village and choose an airline with its hub in Bangalore. Why cant I get my student loan online?
How to Pay for IIMA or Harvard - WSJ.com: "In a few days, students will know whether they have made it or not. If you are chosen, you may not get too much time to celebrate – you have to figure out how to pay for that expensive education.
Several IIMs recently increased their fees by 100,000 rupees or more. A two-year management of business administration program at the coveted IIM Ahmedabad now costs around 1.4 million rupees ($31,500), while the fees are 1.35 million at IIM Calcutta and 1.3 million rupees at IIM Bangalore. Only a small percentage of students qualify for breaks in fees at these schools.
Luckily, there's help at hand.
India's banks have been increasingly boosting their education loan portfolios and new players are entering the market. In December, home loan giant HDFC Ltd. bought a 41% stake in non-banking financial company Credila Financial Services, which specializes in giving education loans. HDFC hopes to eventually buy out the entire company."
All About Education Loan Schemes
Education Loan Task Force (ELTF) blog has some good information on education loan schemes that all banks in India must adhere to.
Education Loan Task Force (ELTF): All About Education Loan Schemes: "All About Education Loan Schemes
To know more about education loan schemes in India, please download the ezine on Education Loan from the following link:
http://www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0110.pdf (pdf file 560 k)
Indian Banks' Association has evolved a Model Scheme which has been adopted by all the Banks. The Model Scheme can be downloaded from the following link (pdf 120k).
http://www.prpoint.com/ezine/eduloan-IBA.pdf"
Education Loan Task Force (ELTF): All About Education Loan Schemes: "All About Education Loan Schemes
To know more about education loan schemes in India, please download the ezine on Education Loan from the following link:
http://www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0110.pdf (pdf file 560 k)
Indian Banks' Association has evolved a Model Scheme which has been adopted by all the Banks. The Model Scheme can be downloaded from the following link (pdf 120k).
http://www.prpoint.com/ezine/eduloan-IBA.pdf"
Capitalism Fail: Fuinding for Education
People who will benefit the most are least likely to attend college.
The problem is lack of tuition funding options make education prohibitively expensive for people who most likely to benefit from it. Isn't capitalism supposed ensure that that more profitable ideas get funded over less profitable ones?
Who Gains the Most From a College Education? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com: "Who Gains the Most From a College Education?
By FREAKONOMICS
A new study finds that the students who are least likely to go to college (based on family background, abilities, and friend group) are the ones with the most to gain from a degree. Jennie E. Brand and Yu Xie find that the unlikeliest male college graduates earned 30% more over their lifetimes than comparable men who earned only a high school degree. In contrast, male college graduates most likely to go to college earned only 10% more than their non-college-educated counterparts. Brand and Xie observed a similar trend for women. The authors believe that the tough labor market faced by non-college-educated, disadvantaged students partly explains the results, but they point to an additional factor: economic motivation. “For students from disadvantaged groups, college is a novelty that demands economic justification,” Brand said. “By contrast, for students from advantaged backgrounds, college is a culturally expected norm. Economic gain is less of a motivation.”"
The problem is lack of tuition funding options make education prohibitively expensive for people who most likely to benefit from it. Isn't capitalism supposed ensure that that more profitable ideas get funded over less profitable ones?
Who Gains the Most From a College Education? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com: "Who Gains the Most From a College Education?
By FREAKONOMICS
A new study finds that the students who are least likely to go to college (based on family background, abilities, and friend group) are the ones with the most to gain from a degree. Jennie E. Brand and Yu Xie find that the unlikeliest male college graduates earned 30% more over their lifetimes than comparable men who earned only a high school degree. In contrast, male college graduates most likely to go to college earned only 10% more than their non-college-educated counterparts. Brand and Xie observed a similar trend for women. The authors believe that the tough labor market faced by non-college-educated, disadvantaged students partly explains the results, but they point to an additional factor: economic motivation. “For students from disadvantaged groups, college is a novelty that demands economic justification,” Brand said. “By contrast, for students from advantaged backgrounds, college is a culturally expected norm. Economic gain is less of a motivation.”"
Friday, April 02, 2010
If
'If', by Rudyard Kipling: "Rudyard Kipling
If
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on';
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!"
If
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on';
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!"
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tendulkar Hits Double-Hundred Mark - TIME
Time's Bobby Ghosh dumbs it down to help cricket illiterate readers appreciate what Sachin Tendulkar just accomplished.
Cricket Batsman Tendulkar Hits Double-Hundred Mark - TIME: "To understand why the mark was long thought impossible, consider the odds against it happening. In a one-day game, each side gets to bat 50 six-ball overs — that's 300 balls or, in American baseball terms, 'pitches.' It's rare that a single batsman gets more than 150 pitches, so the batsman would need a hit rate higher than 100% to get to 200 runs. Tendulkar got his 200 runs in 147 pitches, a hitting rate of 136.5. Very few players have scored at a faster rate, and none had the combination of patience and skill to score fast and stay on the pitch long enough to get to 200. Only one other time in the past 10 years has a batsman gotten to 190. In a career spanning 21 years, Tendulkar himself had just three scores in excess of 150 before today's feat. The closest he had scored was 186, against New Zealand in 1999."
Cricket Batsman Tendulkar Hits Double-Hundred Mark - TIME: "To understand why the mark was long thought impossible, consider the odds against it happening. In a one-day game, each side gets to bat 50 six-ball overs — that's 300 balls or, in American baseball terms, 'pitches.' It's rare that a single batsman gets more than 150 pitches, so the batsman would need a hit rate higher than 100% to get to 200 runs. Tendulkar got his 200 runs in 147 pitches, a hitting rate of 136.5. Very few players have scored at a faster rate, and none had the combination of patience and skill to score fast and stay on the pitch long enough to get to 200. Only one other time in the past 10 years has a batsman gotten to 190. In a career spanning 21 years, Tendulkar himself had just three scores in excess of 150 before today's feat. The closest he had scored was 186, against New Zealand in 1999."
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