GypsyShack.com an INSEAD start-up focused on Activity Travel

GypsyShack.com is an activity focused travel start-up in India co-founded by an INSEADer. They curate some very unique journeys from across India and put it on their website where you can book the journey of your choice online.

19-12-2011: Singapore Graduation day tomorrow. Have been having a lot of fun recently. Went to Thailand for the Full Moon Party - 10000 crazy people dancing on the beach all night. Then was in Sri Lanka for the Graduation Trip, with 300+ classmates - we created quite a din in Hekkadua. Graduation Dat tomorrow! Wish I have a good life post-MBA.

*Book Review* The Monk and The Riddle by Randy Comisar

A very interesting book, The Monk and The Riddle was recommended to us by our New Business Ventures professor Rupert Merson.

Through the story of Lenny, a young internet entrepreneur wannabe and his struggle to find funding for his 'great idea' to 'put fun back in funerals', Randy explores what investors look for in a new venture and their team. The message broils down to passion and vision. The book also touches upon the difference between leadership and management and how VCs look for leaders rather than managers.

At a second level, Randy talks of his own career from working several jobs as an undergrad to being a corporate lawyer to his time at Apple to being the CEO of a gaming software company. His stories of different valley start-ups are interesting. He also shares what he learnt along the way, but I feel he oversimplifies the learnings.

The main message of the book is to work at what your passion is, and not delay it to after you are successful. In fact your likelihood of success goes up if you are passionate about what you are doing.

But for me the most interesting parts of the book were where he looked at how VCs think, what is the Silicon Valley mentality, and how people looked upon the internet a decade or so ago. For example he uses the term 'network effects', one of the most common buzzwords in tech business today, only once.

Overall a very interested read, although I found the message about how to live your life somewhat trivial and trite, I doubt if Randy would make a great philosopher, but the insights into how the Valley works were interesting.

What would have made it even more interesting (although a heavier read) would have been more of a focus on the industry and the Silicon Valley ecosystem of entrepreneurs and financiers, rather than on telling people how to live their lives.

A Wordle for this Blog So far, lets see in another 6 months what changes.

Desi Week at INSEAD

The Desi Week is on at INSEAD.

So we've decorated the campus in Singapore to give it a Desi feel. The desi crowd constitutes of Bangladeshis Indians Pakistanis and Sri Lankans (in alphabetical order) but since the overwhelming majority of south Asian students are Indian, it looks more like an India week. Although at-least 2 people from Pakistan are actively participating in the Singy Desi week.

There are kites hanging from the roof and from walls, nice Rajasthani puppets everywhere, guys walking around in Kurtas and girls in Saris.

Yesterday there was a team of students applying Tilak to everybody that walked in through INSEAD doors.
Today we had yoga classes and a nice South Indian breakfast,I remember the days in Fonty when I had to drive all 70 km to Paris to have a decent South Indian meal at Sarvana Bhawan in Paris (I'm Punjabi by the way).
We have a Holi Party coming up along with the Indian Dinner and the Bollywood Party.
This is going to be a lot of  fun!

Similarities between Jakarta and Mumbai

Went to Jakarta recently for the weekend. Jakarta was the only major city in South East Asia that I had not yet visited, so I wanted to change that. And secondly, I was interested to see first hand what it would be like to live and work in Indonesia, one of the most exciting economies in the world today.
I enjoyed my time in Jakarta, but time and again it reminded me of Mumbai. For the following reasons:

1) Weather : Hot and humid.

2) Income disparities : Very large and very stark. But Jakarta seemed to have a proportionally smaller middle class than Mumbai/India. Have to check the numbers on this, but the contrast was stark.

3) Chaos that works: Need I say more? Most people fail to understand how both these cities function.

Jakarta is a very interesting place to be. I picked up a book set in Indonesia "Map of the Invisible World" by Tash Aw in a Jakarta Bookshop. Very interesting reading. I'll post a review when I'm done.

Singapore Startup Scene

Currently I am caught between the idea of being an entrepreneur and the necessity finding a secure job. On the one hand, entrepreneurship looks very exciting, but on the other hand I have a big study loan, that I need to pay off.

Question : Why did Stalin chop off the left arms of all his economists?
Answer: So that they could not say "but on the other hand......" :-)


Unable to decide, I'm working on both, exploring entrepreneurship opportunities, and looking for a job, simultaneously.

Singapore Government seems to be keen to promote entrepreneurship in the island nation. They have set up incubator funds and what not to attract and retain entrepreneurial talent. Here's some interesting reading:

Singapore Tech Incubator Gets Investment

Some exciting tech startups in Singapore here

Haute Tech Startups in Singapore