Author Archives: Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan (Rajan)

Helping founders craft capital efficient SaaS business #ValueSaaS. Past life - M&A, Intuit, Entrepreneur

Liquidity of Indian startups compared to US & Israel

[original post 3 Apr 2017, migrated from Ubedge.com] Recently was having a conversation with a Private Equity friend and was trying to explain the challenge that has captured my imagination and full attention, ie exits for software product startups in India. He felt that the data about the exit structural deficit that I was trying…More

Will your product survive a silicon valley product teardown ?

[original posted date on 20 Mar 2017, migrated from Ubedge.com] Answering following 10 questions that can withstand a silicon valley product teardown ? Use this a framework if you are building a world class product. Who is the one user or customer ? also called the unit of one. Name him or her. What is the job…More

If CBInsights did a proper market map of Indian startups

[Original post date 2 Apr 2017, migrated from ubedge.com] If CBInsights were to do a market map of software product startups in India it will look something like below. For Indian startups that map should be done based on broad markets available to an Indian founder and not slicing of sectors that CBInsights normally does…More

M&A is the story of when fear meets greed on a treasure hunt voyage.

[posted on 28 Mar 2017, migrated from ubedge.com] “Startups are bought never sold” Like many others I have used this aphorism in every M&A Connect conversation in last 8 months. It sounds intelligent, pithy making some one saying that look very smart however I was stumped when my 7 year old nephew asked me what…More

Are we there yet ? Innovation Accounting

[Original Post date 6 Oct 2014, migrated from WordPress post on Ubedge.com] Innovation Accounting for startups was introduced by Eric Ries in his famous book ‘The Lean Startup’, however is as case with many thing written about in the book it is poorly understood even if it is acknowledged as an important and useful thing…More

Choosing right market can save upto 18 months of runway

[original post 20 Sep 2016, migrated from ubedge.com] Starting point of a startup is an idea and it goes through a journey of product releases and pivots to reach its product market fit and further scale. Source of this idea is a brainstorming session or hot flavor of the season (FoodTech, Fintech etc). Sometimes it…More

My cognitive dissonance with Network Neutrality

[Original Post date 7 Feb 2016, migrated from Ubedge.com] I am silent on Network Neutrality as I am split on the side to take irrespective of the hat I wear. Understanding the underlying science makes it harder. Entitlement of Ownership of Network that feels like a public good Network neutrality is a battle of ideas…More

Mobile App Stores – The next wave – is it ?

Since the last few months I have seen an  increased chatter about how mobile app stores are the next big thing. Last year and before it was the topic of mobile advertising ( claimed a  couple of billion dollar industry globally and with CAGR over 30% ) that had caught the fancy.  With the deep…More

Calling All Innovator |Forum Nokia

Forum Nokia has a launched an enticing program called “Calling All Innovator” and I am planning on giving a serious look  to it this time. Thought I will share this with all as I  mobile enthusiasts might find it very interesting. Here is about the event from the website. “Forum Nokia, Nokia’s global developer programme…More

Indian Idol – Why zero sum game?

I am hooked to Indian Idol this season as well but what causes a lot of uncomfort to me is the fact that Indian Idol ( and all other singing talent show in so many other languages)  is a zero sum game. There are many forces driving such a show – discovery for new talent,…More

Someone told me markets will all save us

Well how can that be look what markets gave us. There are massive failure of institutions at large, the pinnacle of which was these events that unfolded in the financial sector over the  weekend. While it is a well known fact that communities/networks become unstable at large scale ( we have seen it in ample…More

Chrome – what abt it ?

I have seen the tech media go crazy about Chrome’s release last week but I don’t  get what it is about. Installed Chrome over the weekend and gave it a run, certainly it has a small footprint and runs faster,  it is based on webkit and has some key features as Firefox blah blah but…More

MoMo Monsoon

Our regular monthly event take a slightly larger form this month , dubbed as MoMo Monsoon it will be held as a day long event.  With the help from many kind souls in the community have been able to assemble some fantastic panels and put together some wonderful topics.  As I blogged before this is…More

Best time in Mobile Industry

2008 has been the year of open source causing serious impact in the mobile industry but I could not imagine Symbian getting open sourced and that is exactly what Nokia has announced to do after acquiring Symbian. This has very long term implications for the mobile industry.  One can expect to see business model innovation…More

May MoMo summary, Livemint article

Since recently I have written few articles for what is called Tuesday Post in LiveMint. The most recent one was the summary of the most recent MoMo event.  You can find the article here.More

We are not a VAS company

This was one of the most resonating message delivered by Viren Popli,(head of Star TV, mobile entertainment) as a representative voice of content & media companies in the Mobile VAS 2008 event put together by IAMAI. Now this might sound like a bold, foolish or even cocky message depending on which stable you belong to…More

Ashish Gupta Kamla Bhatt Podcast

Though I am regular listener of Kamla’s podcast show and I have been interviewed by her a few times, it was Rajiv who hat tiped me this podcast interview of Kamla with Ashish Gupta of Helion Ventures and it was an absolute delight to listen to it.    I strongly recommend this to any entreprenuer,…More