Venkat's Weblog

A lot is happening!

Today is very happy day for me and the family of INXS as our friend and colleague, Vinod Mutukrishnan has taken his 'Wedding vows'. We wish him a prosperous and happy married life.

In the coporate world, the most important event seems to be that of positioning iPhone as the 'Corporate Phone'. Next week, iPhone is planning to add some 'exciting new features'. This seems to be after Steve Jobbs announced to bring about a 'software development kit' for iPhone. News is also that AT&T has allowed business accounts to be opened in iphones from early this year. The first ones who had adopted the new technology seems to be executive who wanted to use features like email while on 'the go'. Also it is the hot topic of discussion as to how 'Apple' would view third party application development on iphone. RIM might be a participant in the third party application development program!
Source:- 'Tom Krazit' blog on CNet news.com

Chilly Chicago

This is a continuation of my travelogue. After taking part in the O'Reilly conference, I was ready to embark on the Journey to Chicago. This I hoped that I should not be anywhere near the bad traveling experience I had last time, but as fate could have, it was not to be. I had reached the Newark Airport at 3:15 in the afternoon. The flight was postponed from 4:15 to 6:30PM; finally we did take off at 6:30pm but were put in hold area till 9:00PM and reached Chicago at 11:00PM. I did anticipate Chicago to be very cold but nothing to the extent that I experienced. As soon as I had stepped out of the Airport towards the Rent-A-Car section I felt my face growing to a 'beetroot' red with the cold, leaving me with no other option but to rent a Taxi and head for my home in Chicago.

Next day I saw a 'White' Chicago totally engulfed by snow. It looked like snow queen had embraced Chicago with all her grandeur leaving no trace of green. It was beautiful. I realized that I cannot pick up a small car for my travel and hence got myself a large SUV, a Jeep Commander.

Except for the Cold the scheduled meeting went off quite well with the prospective investors. I was able to navigate my way in and around Chicago thanks to the GPS. On my last day of my stay I had to return the GPS to my relative and had to venture on my own to the Airport. As I returned from the house to the JEEP I almost froze (literally) had it not been for my relatives I would have got a frost bite.

Yet Braving the cold I drove the JEEP to the return area in the Airport, all the way my teeth were chattering and my hands trembling in cold, even below all the layers of protective clothing! It looked like the agony was all in vain when I found in the 'return' section of the 'Rent-a-Car' that my agency was not listed!

But thanks to the lady in the counter I got a map to the agency (remember I did not have a GPS) which was quite far off from the Airport. The result of the long drive to and fro, made me miss my flight! I had to take the next flight from Chicago to the LaGuardia Airport from where I landed in JFK and took the Jet Airways flight to Chennai!

The state of Economy

Technically almost an entire day before I land in India, the experiences at the Big Apple and Chicago are something I want to share with you once I am settled in my homeland and breath the 'Indian' air. Being out of a country which is in one sidecaught in the grip of a likely recession, a country and on the other side might see history being made if it selects 'Obama' or 'Hillary' as they might be the first 'black' or 'woman' president of the country respectively is an expereince in itself. The plunging house prices vand a credit market which is showing no sign of improvement are some of the issues which quite apparent in the cities that I visited.

The purpose of my visit being accomplished I am ready to share my experience with you...so hold on until the next post.

The O'Reilly Conference

Hey all, the O'Reilly conference as expected was a huge success. On a personal note, INXS got a lot of exposure and we were able to associate and identify with many at the conference and really really am happy to have been part of the coference.

Iam on my way to Chicago from New York. Will be there for the next 3 days, and Iam having a road show for investors. News is that the temperature is about -8 in Chicago and its snowing heavily. Lets see how I will be able to cope with this extreme temperature :-)

My Travelogue begins

As I said in my earlier post, I am all set to make a couple of trips which are essential and can prove to be the beginning of an important phase for INXS. I am leaving for New York tonight to be part of the consortium of 'Web 2.0 in Wall Street', I am looking forward for the same and am sure that the event would be a success both for the organisers and enterpreuners like me.

My next stop from New York would be Chicago wherein I intend to stay for about three days to meet investors, who have expressed their interest in INXS. I would be conducting a roadshow for the benefits of the prospective investors. This roadshow would be one of the most important steps which I would be taking on behlaf of INXS to reach our intended goal of putting INXS on the global map.

As usual I would posting snaps during various stages of my trip. So adieu until I catch up with you in my next blog.

Beginning of a New Era

Today is 31st December 2007, a year to look back and evaluate once achievement and disappointments. One can learn from disappointments and take in achievements humbly (this everyone says but seldom practice). Looking back I feel that it has been a productive year for INXS with Marketsimplified being launched both in the U.S and India and having a good response, we have much expectation for the year ahead and are well to make use of the various opportunities that INXS will have. Yes everyone at INXS is in a joyous mood to welcome the New Year and it just reflects in the kind of productivity that we have been putting in.

Reflecting on the Year that was, I have compiled many article from CNet, Business Standards etc., CNet reports on ‘Green Tech Solutions’ and ‘Social Networking’ are as follows

Reports suggest that this year about $2.6 billion was funneled by Venture Capitalist into Solar and Bio fuels. One of the most sought after technologies for 2007 is supposed to be’ Solar Thermal’. The biggest investment of the year was in Great point Energy, where about $100 million was invested. Please note that Great Point Energy has the process of converting coal to Natural Gas. The recent trend being that most people are willing to pay more for Green technology, so the most profitable and sought after business is clearly ‘Green Fuels’

‘MySpace.Com’ was the most popular social networking site of the year; it continues to expand both in case of New language and original Media content. But the Social Networking site that made its mark is ‘Facebook’ it was catapulted into glory after its CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the site would be releasing a code which would allow third party users to developers to create applications that would run within the service itself, this profited the site so much that Microsoft was ready to invest $240 million(Please see my earlier article on Mark Zuckerberg). The other Social Networking site that has come to forefront are club Penguin which is acquired by Disney, and Stumbleupon acquired by eBay. Even though both Myspace and Facebook are faced with security issues, they remain the most popular social networking site of the year.

At home it was good news from the beginning with the Rupee appreciating, Sensex crossing the 20,000 mark etc. In a recent interview held with the many prominent CEO’ s of the country most of them are of the view that the Rupee would appreciate. A little more than half feel that Interest Rate would come down while around 30 percent feel that the Interest rate would be stable.

Well things are really looking good in case of technology, capital and for Indian Economy; what else could one ask for except thank our lucky stars that we are at the “right place at the right time”!

Welcoming Christmas and New Year

It was celebration time at INXS with Christmas and New Year dawning in. We at INXS hope that the New Year brings in lot of cause for celebration to INXS. INXS had a new glow to it on 25th of December with our premises being decorated and the festive mood setting in.

Reaping it Early!

Some incidents within the office had confirmed the facts that India is indeed booming and what more the citizens are cash rich; so much against the PPP theory published in today's dailies.
Well to give you proof here are some pictures of our Good Old Kumaresan; I was left wondering whether he was all soaked with money or if the money were all soaked!

Saturday Night INXS

Saturday the 8th of December 2006, was a night to be remembered as one of INXS family member, Prashanth celebrated his First Wedding Anniversary. We all gathered at his residence around 8 PM and really had a great time. With Prashanth's wife gracing the evening with her beautiful voice by rendering some melodious Carnatic Music, we had our own little kutchery of December in Prashanth's Place. The day was also special to me as it was my better half's B'day and the team at INXS had wonderfully coordinated both the events. Here are some pics of the event.

Be Thankful!

Doorbusters sale, limited time sales are something which people look forward to for the Christmas Season. The official shopping season is expected to start on Black Friday or the day after the Thanksgiving Thursday. But due to the condition of the economy retailers feared for drop in the shopping spree and had offered discounts online. Great names like that of Wal-mart, Best Buys and JCPenny have put advertisements for great discounts, Midnight Madness and even wake up alams forDoorbusters sale. The sites have been seeing a record number of people visiting for the discounts and the retailers seem to be happy.

The question is can such a shopping spree lift the spirit of the people and the investment population in general? well it is to be seen after Friday, but the increase the number of people on the various retailers site and that of the increase in shoppers a little early on Thursday itself is a positive sign.

Guess the Holiday season was not so damp as figured out to be and one has to see the increase in the shoppers and what it does to the morale of the population itself?