Eric Ries, an entrepreneur and author of ‘Startup Lessons Learned’ defines a startup as “a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.” He further explains that many startups don’t innovate at all in the product dimension, but use other kinds of innovation: repurposing an existing technology for a new use, devising a new business model that unlocks value that was previously hidden, or even simply bringing a product or service to a new location or set of customers previously underserved. In all of these cases, innovation is at the heart of the company’s success.
When we hear the word ‘Startup’, specific images of “two guys in a garage” made famous by HP or the more recent wunderkinds like Zuckerberg conjure up in our mind.Investors are generally attracted to these organizations due to their risk/reward profile and scalability. That is, they have lower initiation costs, and although higher risk, they have higher potential return on investment. Therefore, we generally observe these startups race against time to deliver the goods.
Our experience on working with Startups
We must not mistake all small businesses for a startup. We have worked with a bunch of startups like Kidmail, iReuse and more recently HashTip and have gathered extensive experience working with technology based startup ventures. Startups come up with an idea to solve an existing problem. As professionals, we go the extra mile to ensure that we provide the best solution, in the most appropriate manner. Since we are the experts, it becomes absolutely imperative to let us diagnose the problem and come up with a solution. Startups must understand this and trust our judgment.
There is a process involved in all product making. In order to save on time and costs, startups invariably want to bypass the process. Ideally, all steps must be followed but if absolutely necessary, the main steps must be covered and they must allow the experts to decide which steps can be skipped.
Usually a startup venture involves innumerable iterations at various steps because of lack of clarity. This has made us come to a decision that a limit should be set for iteration rounds defining the minimum as well as the maximum iteration cycles. We have set a minimum of three and a maximum of six iteration rounds. There are certain advantages and disadvantages involved for both.
If you go with minimum number, the advantage lies in the fact that you can quickly transition to the next step without delving into minor steps/details. This will require prioritization of the required functionality and putting away of the rest for next phase.
If going with the maximum number of iterations, the advantage is that you can expand on your feature list thereby making the business concept bigger. But at the same time, this will impact the development time and so the budget. Startups must keep in mind that the timeline of going from idea to market will also increase.
Now, proceeding to the development phase, it has been seen that generally startups want to work with technology that is currently ‘hot’. They must realize that we as professionals know best which platform will be suitable and hence let the decision lie with us
Pointers to keep in mind while working with Startups:
Startups have the business idea and need to work with a creative technology team that can envision multiple ways to use technology to bring the idea(s) to life.
Not only do Startup’s require a very conscientious attention to budget but the help of experts to envision a phased approach to delivering scope.
It is important to understand that Startup business plans are usually light on detail, big on passion. There is one constant in being involved with a startup and that is change. Ideas and direction can change any time. Hence, Startups need a rapid prototyping method of development.
Lots of start-up ventures end up missing the opportunity because the founders try to reach decisions on everything themselves and don’t take input from the experts they brought on who are eager to see the company succeed but perhaps have different views on how things could be run.
Startups need to find their “one thing” to focus on. It at least provides some clarity on how to proceed and helps shape what’s to come. This is where they should take the help of experts. viagra
Datawind also unveiled its ecosystem of partners for providing content, applications and access, making it the industry’s largest collaborative effort to deliver consumers a complete turnkey offering in a single unit. Intelligaia Technologies has been selected as a Platform Partner by Datawind. We will provide and develop OEM applications for the new Ubislate7 series of tablets. People who have booked the Akash tablet with Datawind have been promised the upgraded Ubislate tablets by Datawind.
Intelligaia’s Executive Director Rajiv Kaul says “We found that no one was teaching children how to form and pronounce alphabets and numbers the right way. So we created these apps that have a usable and child friendly design – they have a forgiving design that accommodates all the mistakes a young child may make. At the same time we force a discipline on the child and ensure that they learn to form alphabets the right way without any supervision.
Each year, this day, brings back memories. 
