Tata NEN Hottest Startups

 Recently in the startup world, Tata and NEN got together for the Tata NEN Hottest Startups. This is "India's first ever people's choice award". The hottest startup will be indentified, showcased and supported!

Inkfruit is a nominee at this Tata NEN event.

It would be great to get your thumbs up for this.... you can vote online or type HOT(space)44 and sms to 56767

You'll can even check out the voting page to read the Interesting Inkfruit Information written by Kashyap there. I myself found it very interesting, maybe I will put up an Inkfruit trivia post soon. :)

Proto n Inkfruit

We just visited Proto - a get together of most of the startups in India currently. Its an amazing place to meet people and get a snapshot of what kind of new products are coming up in the web space (thats all we would be interested in right?)

Twas a lot of fun ... and extremely useful. There are loads of companies with whom we can work around synergies. One clear benefit is that we can expect loads of benefits being passed on to our users through tie-ups. So all of you on Inkfruit, wait up! Soon there will be loads of freebies and special offers coming your way. :)

Unfortunately, having come across Proto too late for participation this year, we couldn't squeeze ourselves in. Hopefully we will showcase the great stuff being done by people on our website in the next edition happening in Jan 09.

Cheerio!

Kashyap

IT mein gol ...

If you have been coming here regularly, you will be surprised to find two blogs on our contact details and the business.

Yaar, the funda is this. I suddenly thought that the blog should be formatted a bit better. That would mean four links on the right saying, The Business, The Team, Careers with us and Contact Details. Now, once these links were there, they had to be routed to the relevant text. The only way to do that which I could think off was to write blogs on the same and link that address to the icons.

So there. That is how these blogs have suddenly come up. Very soon we will have a graphic designer working with us and then, I will finally be able to free myself of my crack brain ideas to do something on the web. :)

Careers with us

We are currently looking for -

1. Graphics Designer

Should have a good aesthetic sense and no dearth of funky ideas. Should have some experience of web designing. Skills at photography would be a plus, but not strictly required.

Salary in the range of 15000 to 20000 depending on the candidate. Stock options can be explored over time.

2. Fashion Designer

Should be experienced in designing of knitwear as well as woven garments. Should have a broadbased aesthetic sense without being confined to niches. Should be proficient in the use of any one of Photoshop, Illustrator or Corel.

Salary in the range of 15000 to 20000 depending on the candidate. Stock options can be explored over time.

Anyone who applies must come in knowing that this is a startup. Renumeration will be lower than the market rates. On the positive side, becoming a part of the bunch this early, you can be assured that if we do well, you will make a mint as well!

The Business

One day the three of us were having cutting chai as usual, and we thought it would be fun to start making some arbit T-shirts that 'punters' like us would like to wear.

So we started thinking of how we could ensure that we keep making really arbit stuff without eventually becoming boring. This is something that happens to almost all funky products that get made. Tantra was like a revolution when it started off, with really kool stuff. But now if you look at it, most of the designs are all ghisaa pitaa old stuff.

I will just leave it at that. Very soon you will see what we finally got down to doing. And that a good cutting chai can change the world!

Contact Details

Kashyap Dalal
+91-9223249084
kashyap.dalal@gmail.com

Navneet Rai
+91-9891448828
navneet.roy@gmail.com

Sushant Sreeram
+91-9980163952
sushant.sreeram@gmail.com

Our Den @ Delhi (33DJ)
33 D, J Block, Sheik Sarai Phase II,
Near Bhagat Singh College, New Delhi.
Delhi - 110017

Our Den @ Bombay (Cutting Chai)
Work in Progress ... give one of us a call if you have any ideas ... we are still looking for a good place to set up our den here ...

Our Den @ the world wide web
www.gnome.in ... You won't find anything there as yet ... Work in progress here as well ...

thodi fight hai ...

Over the last two days i've been on the receiving end of a fundoo hearing from my friend ... not her fault at all ... even while we hang out somewhere, my cell phone refuses to stop ringing ... and guess who ... investor seth ka call ... :)

dekho bhai ... first of all, since i started working on the startup instead of making a fat paycheque elsewhere, she has been treating me and i have been quite shameless about it ... if on top of it i keep talking to junta while she treats me, meri thodi fight hone waali hai ... :P

-Kashyap

asking for too much?

there are atleast a million things that need to be done to start off a company ... i'm saying to start off a company, whether its a success or not ... just to bloody do business there are a million things.

u register a company ... and then you go and get some wierd clearances ... voluntary registeration, which is apparently not voluntary at all ... proffesional tax, when we left our proffesions to do all of this in the first place ... VAT and CST ... the guy who is doing it for us cooly said that we have to bribe people at the VAT office with a predecided figure of 1875. this 1875 is apparently split up nicely from the chaprasi to the top official ... then you have IPR management ... and funding to look for ... and offices to rent ... and ... and ... and ...

which actually gives me a new idea for a company ... there should be a one stop shop for startups ... anyone who wants to startup can go there and get everything from office space to cheap phone connections to hardware to software to lawyers to CAs to company registerars to .. to .. to .. to ..

get the idea? is it asking for too much? why cant the government do something like that? say set up such a center at an IIT campus or something and give it to them to manage.

anyway .. back to work for me ..

.com versus .in

We were quite kicked about having registered just the .in domain name that we wanted, when the web junta came in and crashed our party!

Some guys said that internationally google will not display .in domain names. Some said within India google will show .in names last in the list. Some said the .in domain name has not taken off at all. Some said people will make faces if they are told of a .in domain name.

Whatever yaar ... ye sab item log pehle nahin bataa sakte the kyaa? ... now we are out looking for another website name.

lo kar lo baat ...

The beginning of the end?

For the first time, I saw a public (in a sense) demonstration of the growing agony with Yahoo services. A registration form that I was recently filling up online had to say this:

"yahoo.com and yahoo.co.in mail servers are unstable therefore confirmation mails shall be sent to your secondary email id as well. Kindly restrain from entering a yahoo id as your primary email"

A recent report I read mentioned that Yahoo's performance in 2006 was way below analyst expectations. I wonder if it has to do with Yahoo trying to do too many things at once. Maybe it should just focus on a small set of services it provides and really get cracking on them a.l.a the concept of 'power brands' followed in many organisations.

It's beginning to really hotten up for Yahoo now.

-Sushant

Gnome Land: Welcome to Gnome Land guys ...

Hi all,
Its time we answered some FAQs, so that this blog makes more sense to first time readers.
1. Who are you? We are a bunch of IIT/IIM graduates who went slightly nuts over their idea and decided to try it out.
2. Why are you doing this as opposed to something more conventional? Every person has the desire to create something that he/she can call his/her own. For us this is our way to create something that is unique and our own.
3. What exactly is Gnome? What is the brand going to do? Gnome is more than a brand. Gnome is a person. He is that bit in you that wonders about anything and everything unknown. He is curious, intelligent, adventurous and craves to know more about anything that looks different and exciting. In terms of products that Gnome brings to you, they will include anything and everything that you might need which can be an expression of what Gnome stands for. Gnome will start with Casual wear for you. What you wear is a direct expression of you. It not only influences what others think of you, at times it influences even what you think of yourself. Hence the choice.
4. So what is this blog all about? This blog is about the people behind Gnome and their lives. You can read about who we are at http://gnomedforever.blogspot.com/2006/10/welcome-to-gnome-land-guys.html
Some of our friends keep wondering and thinking about starting up themselves. We know this, because before quiting our jobs we were in a similar state. For all such people, this is a place where they can get a flavour of the weird ups and downs in a startup and enjoy the ride with us.
Happy reading guys. Just one request. Please keep posting your comments on whatever you see. Anything at all ... jokes, quotes, your thoughts, advice, brickbats, praise ... We will love all of it.

Of names and colours....

Yes yes! it's been a long long while since we contributed to this blog. Kindly excuse us but we have been swamped with work many times over than anticipated. It's been a lot of fun nonetheless though and I am sure will be in the future.

The last couple of days, the three of us have had some discussions on the management structure of the company and the titles that we will hold. Now, I will not try to bore you with the mundane details of what we spoke about but this got me thinking - "How important are these titles for an organization, any kind of organization from a startup to a multi-billion enterprise"?

And this though took me back to a book I read a long time ago. 'Maverick' was written by the CEO of Semler S.A., Ricardo Semler. Semler S.A. is a company in Brazil that during the 1980s manufactured ship-building products under Semler Sr. It was only towards the beginning of the '90s that Ricardo Semler took over the organization and the book is about how he took the organization in unexpected directions (the company started manufacturing meat-slicers, employees decided their working hours, employees even decided their remuneration!) and how in 6 years the company went from USD 35mn to USD 215mn in revenues! This during the worst of times for the Brazilian economy.

Part of Ricardo's work at Semler S.A. dealt with flattening the organizational structure to the extent where there were just three levels of management and people were free to decide their own titles. The book states how once this was announced, several people got new business cards printed saying, ‘Sultan of Operations’ (for an operations guy), ‘Sheikh’ (for a finance guy) etc. It just made the entire hierarchical setup redundant with use of such ‘lame’ titles. And it conveyed a message to all the stakeholders – that titles didn’t mean squat when it came to running an organization successfully (as proven).

So how important are titles in an organization. I believe they are relevant for one reason – for employees who gauge the success of their professional careers by the title below their name on the business card, these titles can make such employees feel happy about their role in a particular organization and keep them with the company longer. But then the question that begs to ask itself is this – “should an organization with its vision set on high aims and objectives be tied down by the whims of such people?” And let me clarify, by employees I mean the entire bunch of people working in an organization from the CEO right down to the other end.

I personally vote for titles that don’t make any sense at all ‘cause they don’t need to. I would personally like to be introduced as the ‘Marketing Maverick’ of a so-and-so company rather than ‘Marketing Director’! Gives it that nice touch, don’t you think? And I also vote for the board of directors to be called the ‘Sultans of Swing’!

But alas, we will have to wait and see what Kashyap and Navneet have to say about this. Will keep you all updated.

-Sushant

Thirteen Thousand Blue Blistering Barnacles!

Just realised we never posted about our final brand logo and identity! Well, without further ado ... bouingggg ...

A taste of things to come ...

Apologies for our long absence. But, we've been really busy printing some really funky designs for you guys.

With products at the ready, I guess this is the right time to unveil some of the stuff we've been working on.

Next to each design, you will see a tag. Click on it, and this tag will give you some clues on what the design is all about. This tag will be there on the final product too.

If you like something, you can order your peice at gnomed.forever@gmail.com. Or you could wait for us to come to a shop near you.

We make sure that all our products meet the most stringent international quality standards, giving you a very comfortable wearing experience and a great fit, over and above great designs of course. Our T-shirts are priced at a special introductory price of Rs350 for you guys alone.

The Eye of Horus

The 8 Fold Path

The Hand of Fatima

Elements

The Art of Alchemy

The 9 Gods

The Masks

Wings of Pegasus

Protector

Einstein was so so right!!

I've just seen a whole new dimension to the theory of relativity! The 5th dimension ...

Kind of silly really. 50% of my time is spent with designers and the rest with printers. And the transition is like amazing!

Last I remember, I spent half an hour with Anchal understanding all about shades and tints and the 15 different reds that existed. Sangreal and Rust and Red and Rubine Red and .. and .. and .. and ..

Right now, I've just come back from the printers. Everything that was supposed to be in Rubine red in the latest design has been done up in a dark pink!! And guess what the reply was - "saabji ye laal hi to hai .. aisa thoda bahut to hote rehtaa hai naa .. "

If only I had a medeival torture chamber .. I would try to explain the difference between Rubine Red and Dark Pink to him.

The entire out-of-india fixation .. and vice versa ..

Some time back I mentioned that we were looking for people who would be interested in investing in our business. Today morning I got a call from an investor based out of the US.

This might sound silly to some, but I was feeling quite nice about a person in the US being interested in our idea. Whoever I mentioned this to also took it as some kind of acheivement in itself. Quite weird but true for most of us.

A couple of months back we got in touch with a designer from London. He was very enthusiastic about designing apparels for our brand. He sent us some concept sketches. His work was really cool. But apart from the work, it felt so nice to tell people .. " theres a designer from London working for us".

This is something that atleast our generation of Indians still need to grow out off. The next generation will have a completely different notion. We are going thru a time where everyone is talking India and China. This is sure to rubb off on the personality of the next generation, and I'm sure they will be a lot more confident in terms of the produce of our country, believing it to be the best or at worst at par to anything else in the world.

Now the other side of the coin is that people outside are fighting for a pie of India as well. The designer I mentioned was really eager to work on anything that was to go into the Indian market. He felt it would greatly enhance his credentials. Investors continue to pour money into India Funds across developed countries.

Quite a nice situation then. Indians want to interact with the world and the world wants to interact with India. Good for everyone.

Drnkss and parents to be ...

Every startup at some stage needs to find a name for itself ... I guess we have reached that stage ... where we stop telling people that we are working on a startup venture and start naming the company ... "we work with Drnkss Inc" or sumthing like that ...

Ok, now Drnkss is a kool name. Its an anagram created from the initials of the three entrepreneurs starting the company and is obviously a conversation starter!

But then there is the school of thought which frowns on the frivolousness of the name, and there are doubts that with such a name, investors and or stake holders would not take the company seriously.

The other name doing the rounds is Fingerprints Inc. This is a kool name too, in the sense that it touches upon leaving an impression. Nice thought.

At the same time its too sober and nicy nice for the taste of some and not differentiated.

Beyond a certain extent the name of the company doesn't matter too much. Its the brand name which will interact with the customer. While this is true, everyone is very involved and senti about the naming of the company.

I wonder how our parents decided on our names ... ever thought of that? ... I think I'm gonna go and ask them about the number of sessions they had over that ...

Delhi winters and the warbler ...

The warbler is a bird found in UK .. the poor chap doesnt find any worms there during the winters .. so what does he do? He goes to Africa!

I feel so much like him in Delhi right now! .. All of a sudden the days have shortened .. its twilight zone by 5pm .. Temperatures dropping .. the sudden phobia of water .. bathing is almost like a medeival torture process .. if you go out at 10pm the roads look like curfew in ghost town! .. the nights are so silent, you could hear your heart beat ..

Fine! I've put my own dose of exageration, but its still bad! .. the only silver lining is the pleasure of sleeping long hours cuddled up in a heavy blanket .. but then you can never get enough of that ..

The warbler has this biological process of eating a lot and creating fat reserves before it starts off on its yearly trip to africa .. It almost doubles his weight through this period, and then sets off on his 4800km journey ..

Well, we are planning something quite similar .. leave aside the "doubling weight" part .. we will be migrating to Bombay quite soon .. back to perenial warmth and comfort, 2400 km away .. and Gnome will find loads of fat worms pretty soon.

Amen

And we're back in the game!! ...

Umm .. dunno where to start. For those of you following us regularly, it must have come as a surprise that there wasn't any activity for the last 16 days.

Well guys, thats what happens in startups. One minute you think life couldn't be better and the next something hits you .. **BANG** .. and you are running around like a maniac! .. or like a gnome as the case may be ..

To cut a long story short, one of our investors suffered adverse conditions in her business. Given that, it is dicey whether she will be able to fund our venture or not. Over the last 15 days we've been gnoming around .. looking for someone gnome enough to invest in us.

Things are looking up .. most people we have met seem to think quite highly of our work and hopefully our investment requirements should be met quite soon ..

Coming to the important stuff .. the highlight of the last 15 days has got to be our encounter with a mobile snatcher in Noida!!

Scene: Mr. Navneet Rai is talking away on his hep 15K Samsung cell phone (ekdum matrix types). This non descript ragged man runs in at top speed, snatches our man's cell and runs off!

**Lights .. Camera .. Action**

Navneet is stunned for a few moments .. and then runs in pursuit .. shouting out obscenities i can't risk mentioning here .. Kaku on his heels .. and Kashyap right behind them ..

The chase goes on .. and guess what .. the entire barage runs by the police chowki .. Kaku yelling at the top of his voice "Kutte .. mein tujhe goli maar dungaa" .. and Navneet .. umm .. sorry, that part is still censored ..

Now all this racket gets our pandu hawaldar all aroused .. two of them ride behind us on their enfield mobike .. Kashyap, right in front by now, yelling at them to catch the theif .. Kaku yelling at them to catch the theif and not Kashyap by mistake ..

The road takes an L turn .. the bike zips ahead and blocks the ruffians path .. and guess what .. he runs right back towards us ..

Aaha .. and our man Kashyap .. packs in the first full filmy style punch of his life onto the ragged mans chin .. **DHISHOOM** .. and the man goes down .. Navneet's cell flying on to the pavement .. Kaku races up and starts kicking the theif ..

Guess what .. our pandu hawaldar comes in and gives a nice hard fatka to our "heroes" .. Kashy and Kaku .. apparently the dude was worried about the theif incurring injuries from our beating .. anyway, let that be ..

Well, this happened on the 9th .. today is the 16th .. and where is the cell phone? .. sitting at the police station as evidence for the case against the theif .. Navneet bhai has had to pay some lawyer a 1000 bucks to file his application for the cell .. he has had to visit the court thrice .. has heard rebukes from the police over writing applications .. :) .. kind of reminds me of the movie "Jaane bhi do yaaron" ..

Heres to seeing a lot more activity on this blog from here on .. and yes, will post some pics of the Navneet Rai Cellphone Saga ..

The 4th Musketeer ...

Mohit Rai ... uff Kaaku ...

All rise to honor the illustrious owner of Kaake da Dhabba, Kaake da Hotel and Kaake da lots more ...

Ten thousand blue blistering barnacles!!

Ok, now u better get it right the first time ... The G in Gnome is silent.

It is not G - nome. The next thing I know, you will start asking me for its DNA structure. Please guys, I left Bio in class 10th cause I was paranoid of dissections. So don't go and call the brand G - nome.

It is not Gnom either. If you keep trying to say Gno, I'm sure your nose will give up on you. You dont think so? ... Go ahead ... try it! ... Say GnoGnoGnoGnoGnoGno for 5 minutes!

Its nom ... it rhymes perfectly with Rome ... and if you still haven't got it, go to the link below. Click the Speaker Icon next to Gnome.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gnome

33 DJ

Thats our den guys. We are currently working out of this ulti-kool studio in Delhi.

I'm sure you guys are dying to know the whacky and rivetting origin of the name 33DJ! .. well, ladies and gentlemen ... presenting ...

33D, J Block, Sheikh Sarai Phase II, New Delhi. Delhi - 110017.

hee hee hee hee ... what did u expect from a bunch of engineers?

Some snaps from our den ...

Thats a wierd man with a gotti ... some call him Osiris ... reminds me and Navneet about Sushant at times ...






Modern Art? ...






Our Juke Box! ...






The Maggical Cauldron ...

Apunka Printer ...

Notease Bored ...

Zit isz zee goollest plaze yever!!

Happy B'Day To You!!!

27th Oct, 2006 - The birth of Gnome. Long Live!

Gnomes are ...

According to the alchemist Paracelsus, gnomes are the most important of the elemental spirits of the classical element of earth. They are also said to have magical powers that make people feel sad or happy.


The word gnome is said to be derived from the New Latin gnomus and ultimately from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge. According to myth, gnomes hoarded secret knowledge just as they hoarded treasure.

A gnome (Greek: gnome, from gignoskein, to know) is also a type of saying, especially an aphorism or a maxim designed to provide instruction in a compact form.

The Team

Thats the three of us. A bit more about us if you want to know ...


Navneet Rai (uff Roy sahab) ... you can see him enjoying the best of both worlds here ... working out ... and puffing away at his Wills Classic Milds Sutta ...

He is from the historic city of Gwalior. Currently in Delhi.

The latest update in this guy's life is that he has been adviced by the doc to have as much beer as he can. I don't need to elaborate on how happy he is!



Sushant Sreeram (uff Nirma) ... don't ask me why his nic is nirma ... but sumthing tells me it has sumthing to do with the line "doodh see safedi, nirma se aaye".

He is an andhra-ite staying in Bombay and currently in Bangalore. I wonder how these things happen.

I think this pic was taken when he was talking with one of his many sweet-hearts. Sorry dude ... I hope none of them read this blog. Mann!! ... u r blushing in this one!


Kashyap Dalal (uff baby uff kash) ... yours truely!! I'm trying to give an item angry young man look inside an auto here ...

I'm a gujju from Bombay, currently in Delhi.

Apne baare mein aur kyaa likhun yaar ... eat maggi, drink tea and be happy!