Crowdsourcing Inspiration @ INK TALKS

• INK Talks is an excellent platform for budding entrepreneurs and achievers,brilliantly captured through the art of Story Telling 
• Started by Anu Sethuram & Lakshmi Pratury (a renowned TEDster who brough TED to India in 2009) 
• INK Talks draws its inspiration from TED India, with its theme of UNTOLD STORIES
• They have built a community of young unconventional achievers, who become the ambassadors of INK; they are called the INK Fellows
• Alicia Souza, one of my role models is an INK fellow too!
• My favorite INK talk is of Snigdha Manchandani - she loves studying TEA?! Hear that? Studying tea! 
• INK hosts its flagship annual event called the INK Conference each year! It's happening in the end of Oct this year! So many awesome speakers, but too expensive for me. May be you can attend and share the experience? 

So, INK Talks is the new TED in India!? why not?

P.S - No, INK never asked me to write for them. No i don't get paid for this! 

Apparel Shopping 3.0

I have noticed three major trends in Apparel shopping so far. One, being the rudimentary physical shopping, where we wade through stores finding our best fits. The second phase, Apparel Shopping 2.0 as i call it is the Virtual Shopping, browsing the Internet, visiting online stores and making an online purchase! This phase triggered the convenience stimulus in us.

Well, all this apart, now i see our Shopping experience being taken to a whole new level, the Apparel Shopping 3.0 Here's mentioning two wonderful concepts i have come across recently

1. Kiosked - I am sure all of us have had our "oh i like the blue shorts in that ad" or other similar moments. While dresses worn by our favorite actors & actresses from blockbuster movies are turned into special collections in stores, our tastes are not often restricted to those popular choices right? Let me help you picture a scenario here. You are browsing a news website and you suddenly like the tee shirt a sports person is wearing. What do you do? Well, nothing but try and find something similar and almost always find yourself unsuccessful. But Kiosked helps brands this way. If the sportsman was wearing a shirt of brand X and if the brand has partnered with Kiosked, then you can go ahead and buy it by directly clicking on the shirt by getting redirected to the site where you could buy it! So, Kiosked turns anything into a store! What else? Advertising is now a Service!

Kiosked lets you buy anything anywhere (only for brands that choose to advertise with them though) If only every brand partenerd with them, you can literally buy anything you like anywhere on the Internet! Can you believe that? How interesting right?

2. Fitle - No matter how much we talk about online shopping, not many of us are still very comfortable buying apparel online, owing to the hassles involved in finding the right size. Also, we are often skeptical about how a piece of clothing would look on us. Fitle (a mobile app) nails this one by letting us try out those dresses virtually, oh yeah on your 3D virtual avatar. All you need to do is register your height and provide them a couple of your pictures (in different angles) Their exclusive 3D technology creates an avatar of you and you are good to go ahead and try your favorite outfits (their technology claims to have a 99% accuracy on all your measurements) Here's the cherry on the cake. Fitle saves all your past purchases and creates a personal wardrobe for you. So, you can always pull out your previously purchased top and try out new pairs of jeans to see which one gels well with it!

Does this seem like next phase of apparel shopping to you? It sure does to me! Please share any other interesting examples you may have.

Note : All relevant images have been borrowed from the Internet, i do not own any of them

Irrelevance - a phenomenon going extinct?

No, i did not spell it wrong, Irrelevance is what i am talking about

Entrepreneurs, Companies, Organizations, Marketers and all those who identify themselves under the umbrella of business, have begun to swear by the importance of “relevance” lately! Buy a watch on Flipkart once and more and more watches are shown to you, calling it “Relevant” I read technology news for a day or two and all i will be updated about eventually is Technology. You look for a book online and you keep attracting similar books.

Even the Facebook feed for instance will only show me updates of profiles that I regularly click on. Well, that’s sad because the whole point of being updated on the people I have lost touch with (in the physical world) is dissolved in this process. So, how exactly is Facebook connecting the world again?

This in case of an offline setup may end up being quite different. Let’s assume I love science fiction as my favorite genre. If I end up buying that book online, the internet has the lovely habit of showing me books of the same genre over and over again! So, I might not even end up attempting to look for what’s new in other genres. The purchase happens and the story ends. But imagine I am in a book store (a physical one) despite the fact that my eyes may first look out for science fiction, I will not miss on the opportunity to eye other genres as well. You never know which book may just impress you and you buy it, read it and what next, it might just end up giving you the next big idea in life! Does this show irrelevance is important? Am I missing it online?

Steve Jobs as we all know is a great businessman, a charismatic leader and everything under the sun that we can take inspiration from. Think of him and Technology is what comes to your mind first. Well, he chose to learn Calligraphy back at college! How irrelevant right? But as we know this helped him design the world’s most awesome GUI feature, “The Fonts”. If only irrelevance was so irrelevant, how could Jobs connect those dots in his life? How could he end up being charismatic and legendary?

This is what uxmag.com talks about calling it Meaningful Serendipity, it's all about surprising customers/users with spontaneous results. This i assume will soon be a great part of our Digital World. Does it sound like dejavu? like good old times? Ofcourse yes! Well, I am not against the wonderful algorithms that tailor content to my taste, however what i am talking about is excessive personalization that's narrowing down my world, my knowledge in particular. Don't you think?

Geethanjali - a Tribute to Indian Culture

Indian Culture is highly regarded throughout the World, but how much pride do we  "Indians"take in it is the big question. Every art form, every musical note and every Ayurvedic medicine of the good old times had the power to naturally touch and improve our lives. But our cravings and interests have clearly been blowing in another direction, where most see Western culture as superior and "cool" Well i don't blame you, because honestly i opine that Indian Culture and its might has been advertised widely to foreigners more than to us

Geethanjali was one Youtube channel that surprised me with so much Indian content aggregated at one place. If you are enthusiastic to learn Bharathnatyam, Kathak , Carnatic Music, Hindustani Music or Yoga, or so much more, all you have to do is login to their Youtube Channel and start practicing like an Ekalavya! Not just that, you can read your kid or to yourself stories of Indian Mythology, Jathaka Tales and so many more animated stories. 

Their Youtube Channel further has several other sub channels that route you to different genres. Each such channel has an amazing collection of teach-yourself and entertainment videos. No more waiting for a TV show and no more browsing through scores of videos before you land up at your favorites, Geethanjali is a one stop destination.

Their Website hosts a unique collection of Audio and Video DVDs which are very affordable. Soothing music for Yoga, Dance forms or even Meditation is available. Geethanjali is also a private music record label under the banner of Super Music based in Chennai. They house some of the biggest music artists in the industry such as  Dr. Balamurali krishna, Maharajapuram Santhanam, M. L. Vasanthakumari, Sudha Raghunathan, Kadri Gopalnath, E.Gaayathri, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, M. S. Gopalakrishanan, Dr. Sheik Chinna Moulana, N. Ramani, Mandolin Srinivas and many more.

For all those who love Indian culture or Indian music in particular, this site will be a niche favorite. Do visit their Youtube Channel and check out their wonderful collection of videos.

You can visit their Youtube Channel here: http://bit.ly/1jCIE3z

P.S: All the images have been extracted from their Website & Youtube Channel.

An Open letter to Product/Service Review Websites

Dear Product/Service Review Websites,

From times when I only trusted my close peers to the time when I am almost taking the word of any stranger who has tried a product/service atleast once,  reviews have gained a lot of prominence in my decision making, I must confess. I honestly love the concept of reviews you know! They give me a sneak peak into what I am up for, that too so effortlessly. I have had days when I decided to buy or to not buy a product/service by just reading these reviews from strangers. Now you are convinced that your reviews work right? Good! But not so good! You know why? because out of all the times i have read your reviews, for once i decided i should write one too! Just doing my part you see! However, it's really funny how you dear Websites make my job so hard, especially when my writing the review is more beneficial to you as a Review curating website than me. 

So, i want to post a review and i open your website. As I click on the " Post a Review" button, you want me to register. Eh! no, i just wanted to write a review and not build a long term relationship with you where you constantly keep pushing mails at me until one fine day i get tired and break up with you by presenting you the "SPAM" award. Ok fine I will register, may be your attempting to get a real review and not a fake one. Ok i got you, here you go i fill your login form and get my account created! Ya i also took the extra effort to verify my details by logging into my id! Cool let's have some peace now. I will write a "real" review and feel happy! Oh! So many questions? Pros, Cons, Title, Subject, Rating, blah blah? I thought all I had to do was express my opinion.

Fine! Fine! I will do it, don't call me short tempered now! Filled all those extra details before i came to the "Write your review" section. Aah! fees like an achievement. Ok wrote it, and i think one more button and it's done! Before I took on my "Yes, I did it" pose, you say the review should have atleast 300 characters? What? Why? Ok you do not always have to be logical, but have you tried being practical? What's with 300 characters? Have you assumed i am not capable of expressing myself in less than that!? Out of all the times i choose to be a silent satisfied customer, i for once decide to voice it out and see what happens!?

So, here's my sincere suggestion to you dear Websites, make things simpler for people who wish to write reviews! Don't be so demanding, most people might just leave half way through the process and never come back! Lack of real reviews will eventually force brands to create fake ones which i am sure will take down your credibility. Period.

P.S: For all those who wonder if i left it half way too, no i did not. I successfully wrote the review and then took on my Feeling-Accomplished pose.

(All images in this post have been sourced from Google Images, none belong to me)

Cannabis - The Road not taken...

I have so far talked about so many Indian startups be it on food, health, e-commerce, tech, etc. (you can read about them all here just in case you missed any - Interesting Startups) But this very startup shook me real hard! This is the story of a bunch of cool people who are working on something that's seen as "not-so-cool" Can you guess such an industry!? Wait! Let me give you a hint. This industry constitutes close to 60% of Indian workforce and contributes about 17% to our GDP. Yes! the earthy industry - Agriculture.

On hearing the word Agriculture, people may end up picturing green fields, villages, farmer deaths and what not! But, can you imagine a bunch of young people setting up a company in this arena? Surely not huh!? Well this is the story of the Bombay Hemp Company whose vision is to Educate, Cultivate and Alleviate. It was formed by a group of seven friends who are first generation agriculture entrepreneurs with zero experience in this field. 

What they do is quite interesting. Have you ever heard of Cannabis? Oh no not the one that gets you high (Cannabis Indica also called Weed/Bhang/Marijuana) We are discussing Cannabis Sativa, which is a useful and legal form of Cannabis. It allegedly could be used in 41 different industries and it has more than 25000 end uses. Hey! did you know Henry Ford made his first car using industrial hemp? Well, I did not! This industrial hemp grows close to 12 feet in three months and it is called a trillion dollar super crop. 

All said and done, how can it be used? and how are our "Cool-farmers" at Bombay Hemp Company using it? Well, in many ways! They collaborate with farmers to make the following products

1. It is used to make a form of brick which is used in the construction of "Green Buildings" This concept is pretty prominent in the West and is quickly gaining fame in India too. The speciality of this brick is it contains lime, which continuously absorbs CO2, thereby making it stronger as time passes! Also, it costs much lesser than the regular bricks

2. Hemp can be used to manufacture textiles, which are natural and require lesser resources than regular cotton

3. It is also being used to make Hemp foods, which according to the World Health Organization are considered the world's most balanced nutritional food! 

The best part about Bombay Hemp company is that they are not only carving a new industry from scratch but also are also helping farmers understand and implement the same considering how little is the land required to cultivate hemp and how much revenue it can generate. This could be the start of a new revolution uplifting the agriculture sector. Kudos to the Bombay Hemp Company! 

Check out their website for more details: www.boheco.org

Info Sources: boheco.org, inktalks.com. 

Image Sources: www.malawivoice.com, boheco.org

Getting the Shopoholics richer

No matter how innovative a startup could be, there's one question that haunts all companies, be it small or large - "How do we retain our customers?" All the marketing efforts are focused on this rigorously, albeit a very few of them achieve it, while most companies keep experiencing customer attrition.

So, how can we retain customers!? We could do this, we could do that and that and this...all said and done have you ever thought how it'd be if the answer to this question was embedded in the very business model itself? Quite a thought huh!? Well that's what this startup is doing and it is called Cashkaro.com 

As the name goes, you make money out of every purchase you make through this site. Cashkaro.com is an internet portal that aggregates 350+ e-commerce sites for you. So, what's so new about it? Hmm..well there are coupons you get! Oh! i have heard of that too! Well, have you heard of cashback over the regular discounts? For every purchase you make through Cashkaro.com, you avail a discount on the brand + a certain amount of money as cashback. Let me explain!

So, for example, if you buy stuff from Jabong through Cashkaro, apart from the discount already available, you get an extra 10% cashback. The cash keeps getting accumulated in your account and once it reaches Rs. 250 or more, you can request for a money transfer to your account! Better than asking more pocket money from your parents huh!? Earning more while you spend is a bliss ain't it?

Cashkaro.com was founded by Swati Bhargava and her husband Rohan Bhargava, both graduates of the London School of Economics. Prior to Cashkaro.com, they setup a similar internet portal called Pouring Pounds.com, which is based out of UK. Both these portals operate on the same context of coupons and cashback - a concept that has witnessed great success in the west and is slowly catching up in India.

In my opinion, this business model serves as a great push to many who still hesitate going online shopping! Also, it holds something for both the seller and the buyer (cashkaro here) which can help them as a great clutter breaker in the virtual market. They have grown rapidly within one year of inception and have been quite active on the social media front as well! 

Does the success of this model indicate that no matter how forward we have come in the line of business, the age old Barter System is still around?

Info and Image Sources: cashkaro.com, Google Images