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There are 3 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India" 3 Mistakes To Avoid In A Startup - Jared Blank - Founder TripMelaWe spoke to Jared Blank who recently took the difficult decision of shutting down his company Tripmela. We spoke to him on the 3 mistakes that a startup should avoid. Here is our interview with him. WATBlog: 3 mistakes that entrepreneurs should be wary of making while running a startup? - Create a board of advisers from the very beginning whom you can trust for strategic advice. Being an entrepreneur is actually quite lonely, and there were many times when I had no idea how to solve a problem we were having. Creating a board very early on will help provide a range of opinions on the company’s major issues and help you foresee problems that you may not have seen coming. - Entrepreneurs need to be very flexible about how they think about their business. It is extremely likely that the idea they had in mind will need to be changed in the first 6 months. Being inflexible will kill the company. You need to think broadly about the idea you have. For us, it took us a long, long time to realize that we were not a site where people can go to find cheap airfares; rather, we were a way for brand advertisers to reach a wealthy audience. It’s a subtle difference, but we went a long time without catering to advertisers (which is crazy, since that’s where the revenue comes from). WATBlog: If you were to start all over again what would you do differently? Jared: I would’ve focused on our Searchmela fare & hotel search piece of the business. Tripmela was too dependent on cheap travel deals - and the Indian market simply doesn’t have enough deals in the way that the US or European market do. That left us struggling for content. Had we focused instead on search engine optimization and unique content for the Searchmela tool, I think there’s a great business there. WATBlog: Piece of advice to young budding entrepreneurs? Jared: Surround yourself with a great team from the beginning, and be as flexible as possible about how you run the business. You have to understand that even though you have a great idea, you don’t have all the answers… Related PostsAlso Check Out: TRAI Introduces Administrative Charges - Delays 3G AuctionsEven while government telco MTNL launches India’s very first 3G services in the capital and also partnered with Aksh Optifiber to provide mobile TV services in Mumbai and Delhi, TRAI’s idiosyncrasies keeps getting the auction for the 3G services postponed indefinitely.
The Trai has also informed the DoT that the government should charge 2% of the highest bid amount as the annual administrative charge on 3G spectrum during the validity period of the licence. The DoT has to place this proposal before the Telecom Commission for clearance. If it succeeds, the licence cost will go further up for the 3G spectrum operator. The regulator's move to propose an administrative charge for using 3G radio frequencies is aimed at ending the ongoing controversy about the methodology for calculating this levy. The regulator also clarified that as “the operators will take time to roll-out their services after the allocation of spectrum, it has proposed a moratorium of one year from the date of allocation of spectrum in respect of payment of administrative charge”. Reacting on the news, T V Ramachandran, Director General of the Cellular Operators in India, commented, “This will impact the 3G bids — all operators will factor this additional levy and place lower bids for 3G spectrums. The finance ministry may therefore object to the TRAI proposal.” At a time when TRAI is walking quite a few extra miles to popularize technology in the common man’s hands, such a hike in prices would result into premium charges for 3G services in the country. For a country that already faces problems of inadequate information and decent usage of high-end mobile handsets, leave alone other mobile devices, such measures just might hinder the popularization on essential technologies like 3G on a large scale. Related PostsAlso Check Out: Event Update: StartUp Saturday In 4 Cities On The Same Day!There are four special Startup Saturdays across the country, ie, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, this coming weekend 13th December. As you must have been tracking WATBlog has been covering the Mumbai ones regularly. But I guess we would need to expand our team inorder to cover 4 of them this week! I guess slowdown aint impacting the startup saturday folks! The agenda for this weekend across the four cities are 2. Mumbai, venue : Dome 2, SP Jain Institute of Management, Andheri (West); 3 pm - 6 pm, register here. 3. Delhi, venue : American Center, 24 KG Marg, Near Connaught place; 2 pm - 5 pm, register here 4. Hyderabad, venue : Taj Deccan; 12 noon - 7 pm, register here. These Startup Saturdays are a run up to the HeadStart which we blogged about recently. Rajiv chief blogger WATBlog should be attending the delhi startup saturday and Shayon should be attending mumbai. Any bloggers who want to attend bangalore and hyderabad and contribute to watblog should ping us on info @ watblog . com Related PostsAlso Check Out: More Recent Articles
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Foreign telecoms firms looking to enter India by offering 3G services in the world’s fastest-growing market for wireless services, will have to pay a higher annual fee for radio waves, the sector regulator said on Wednesday. However, in return of the privilege, they shall be expected to pay up 3% of their revenues as annual fees.
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