New Business Models in Wireless Space at Barcamp Delhi…

Today I attended BCD5, the Barcamp event in IIT-Delhi. Although registrations for this event were many online. However, only a few turned up for the event actually. Quiet a few people were carrying laptops and PDAs to blog in real time about the event using wifi which in general IIT – Delhi auditoriums have for use by everybody but today there was’nt any due to security reasons.

Among others, I also spoke on new business models in wireless space, representing CellStrat. Though the attendees for this topic were very very less with a total of about just 10-15 peoplefrom close to 100+ . But it was appreciated quiet a lot as these were the only people who were either working in mobile space on these models for their clients abroad or would like to include them in their businesses in India.

Overall, the technology presentations or the one in tech space were quiet good.

Mobile Monday Delhi Event today…

Hi All! Today I attended Mobile Monday (MoMo) Delhi event in Amity University. Agenda for today was mobile advertising. Quiet a few good speakers like Salman Hussain of Vuclip, Vijay Shekhar of One97, Chirag Jain of recently funded smsgupshup, Salil from NDTV, Milind Pathak of Buongiorno etc. presented their views on mobile advertising trends and scenarios.

Vijay Shekhar during his presentation asked the audience as to how many people are thinking of buying the recently launched iPhone 3G, if we become price agnostic, just 3 out of 70 odd people said they are planning to buy. These 3 also said yes, as they are in the process of developing applications for iPhone and thus they will need the same for test purposes.

Though gathering this time was less (in comparison to other events of Momo), with a total of approx. 65-70 professionals from the mobile world. But, overall it was a great event.

A brief about the Mobile Monday is given below for the people who don’t know what it is:

Mobile Monday is a global community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influentials fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets.

Mobile Monday has the following objectives:

To encourage innovation within the mobile sector.
To facilitate networking between small and large companies, and between local and foreign.
To help local companies effectively participate in international initiatives through the import and export of visions, concepts, technologies, know-how and best practices.
To present innovative visions, trends, studies and forecasts from the mobile marketplace.
To facilitate and create partnerships.
To contribute to the education of the broader public through its publications, online presence and media partnerships.

Mobile Monday is organized by a group of dedicated volunteers from around the world. Originating in Helsinki, Finland, in the year 2000, Mobile Monday has grown into the world’s leading mobile community.

Nano-Scale Springs to Protect Mobile Phones from Damage…

Electronic devices get smaller and more complex every year. It turns out that fragility is the price for miniaturization, especially when it comes to small devices, such as cell phones, hitting the floor. Wouldn’t it be great if they bounced instead of cracked when dropped?

A team of Clemson University researchers, led by Apparao Rao, professor of physics, has invented a way to make beds of tiny, shock-absorbing carbon springs which possibly could be used to protect delicate objects from damaging impacts. With collaborators at the University of California at San Diego, the team has shown that layers of these tiny springs called coiled carbon nanotubes, each a thousand times smaller than a human hair, can act as extremely resilient shock absorbers.

Similar coiled carbon nanotubes have been made before, yet Clemson researchers say this method is unique since beds of coiled carbon nanotubes can be grown in a single step using a proprietary hydrocarbon-catalyst mixture.

The group also envisions coiled nanotubes in soldiers’ body armor, car bumpers and bushings and even as cushioning elements in shoe soles.

“The problem we have faced in the past is producing enough of these coiled carbon nanotubes at a reasonable cost to make a difference,” said Rao. “Because our current method produces coiled nanotubes quickly in high yield, it can be readily scaled up to industrial levels. After formation, the coiled nanotubes can be peeled off in one piece and placed on other surfaces to form instant cushioning coatings.”

Photo of Keqin YangIn earlier studies, Rao and his team, along with UCSD collaborators, tested more conventional straight carbon nanotubes against coil-shaped nanotubes. When a stainless steel ball was dropped onto a single nanotube layer, the coiled nanotubes completely recovered from the impact, while the straight ones did not.

“It’s like an egg toss,” said Rao. “If you move your hand backward as you catch the egg and increase the time of contact over which the impact occurs, the impact will be less forceful and the egg will not break. It is the same phenomenon experienced in catching a baseball.”

In previous work, Rao’s group developed a process that coaxes a traditionally straight carbon nanotube to split into a “Y” shape. When powered by electrical voltages, the Y-branched nanotubes behave like tiny switches or transistors that process information.

“Our studies with carbon nanotubes have been ongoing for quite some time,” said Rao. “Each step along the way has led to the next breakthrough, and each time we’ve learned more about how they grow and what their applications could be. We believe that carbon nanotubes have tremendous potential for the lives of each one of us.”

Vishal

Startup Event in New Delhi

India is catching up too in number of new startups and number of candidates looking for taking risk early/ late in their careers, to join these startups.

Last weekend,  I attended a Startup Lunch event held in Delhi (India) as a team building exercise. About 25 startups registered for the event and about 18 presented their businesses to 80+ prospective candidates. Many candidates were interviewed by these startups and results were almost mind blowing. Many candidates were hired by more than one startup.

I also presented showcasing CellStrat’s products and services. We got lot of attraction from almost all present there. This is because Mobile applications area is still a brand new area and people are just now beginning to get their hands around mobile data apps and uses.

Although venture funding companies are investing less in Indian companies in comparison to other countries, but good ideas and people behind the same have no fear and quite a few might become successful.

VS

Verizon + Alltel => Done

As we reported yesterday, Verizon signed a deal to acquire Alltel for $28.1 billion. Wow..are things fast. The rumor arose yesterday and the deal is done today. Possibly Verizon kept it under the wraps to thwart any competitive bidding. As we suspected, Alltel walked away with a billion dollars more than the figure mentioned yesterday. The two private equity firms behind Alltel – Goldman Sachs and Texas Pacific Group were able to recoup their $27.5 billion and some more in seven months. Nice deal for them. With credit markets in crisis, these firms probably want more cash on hand and they walked away with a nice profit (albeit not a large one) in a short time.

AT&T lost its No 1 leadership mantle. But these things hardly matter. Too much M&A to pin No 1 mantle on any one firm for too long…

MT

Globalization of innovation

A new survey conducted by Deloitte and Touche on behalf of National Venture Capital Association suggests that innovation is going global. Even though US remains the headquarter of innovation with maximum VC funding going to US startups, many countries are gaining ground in high-growth areas. Eg Germany is close to US in clean investments, India is in strong second place in software investments and Japan is close to US in telecom investments. Yay to the whole world. Innovation is the air which drives human betterment and progress and we are all for its globalization.

57 percent of US venture capitalists are investing abroad this year as compared to 46 percent last year. The survey included 400 venture capitalists worldwide.

MT