Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Why to not not start a startup

Like many others, probably..., I have read Paul Graham's essays on start-ups many times, and felt blood rushing through my veins, always. Today, I made an attempt to evaluate my doubts while reading "Why to not not start a startup". Here is an account of whether or not I think following is a doubt point for me:

1. Too young
Not really... I have gone thru a 2 year MTech and worked for 3 years in a regular company. Infact, sometimes I feel I am too old for this.

2. Too inexperienced
Somewhat yes. I think I have worked for a regular company for some time to gain some insight on how things work, but certainly I am inexperienced in taking up new tasks on my own, deciding things and manage my own time..., but that probably won't come unless I actually start something.

3. Not determined enough

Hmmm, there is not a certain way of evaluating this. Your determination gets evaluated only when you are actually on to something.

4. Not smart enough
Yes. That's a real doubt :-|. But what Paul Graham's says about this is really inspiring:
"If you're smart enough to worry that you might not be smart enough to start a startup, you probably are." :)

5. Know nothing about business
Yes. That's another one. But I'm somehow not really worried about this one... May be after seeing so amny successful startups started by techies... may be they knew more about business that I do, but I doubt if they knew that before starting the company...

6. No cofounder
Yes. That's a major one. And, the reasons are exactly what Graham states. Have been in a regular job for long, lost contact with people who want to ditch and can afford to do that..., and ofcourse would like to do that with me... My husband is there, but he cannot afford to not earn ;)

7. No idea
Yes. Another one. But I think... solvable.

8. No room for more startups
Hmmm, no, don't think so...

9. Family to support
No.

10. Independently wealthy
NO!

11. Not ready for commitment
Not really... I mean may be a problem later... but now... manageable.

12. Need for structure
Not at all! Infact, its the reverse... I hate a structure or a routine in life, and that has been my main pain point about a 9 to 6 job.

13. Fear of uncertainty
Again, no.

14. Don't realize what you're avoiding
A big NO!

15. Parents want you to be a doctor
Nothing like that...

16. A job is the default
Yeah, I guess that's what has lead us all to a job...

So, in summary, I think I am in job because it's the default thing to do when I am a little inexperienced, probably not smart enough..., know nothing about business, don't have a co-founder, and don't have an idea!


Tuesday, January 08, 2008

We are there in voice recognition!

I always used to wonder what is it that is preventing people from giving end-user level services in voice recognition. Technology is certainly mature, a number of enterprise level softwares have been available for long. For long, we have had small voice recognition softwares on our desktops, that can interpret your voice and generate text... but then what! I mean, nobody was really "cashing" this.
And, look, while I wasn't looking, a few very interesting services/startups have cropped up:
SimulScribe
Read your voicemail! You can receive your voicemails as SMSes on your mobile etc.
SpinVox
Provides all sorts of services around voice-recognition. You can store your voice mail/talk to your blog, and a lot more...

Needless to say, all these services is for english (It would be a pleasent surprise if they can detect successfully interpret Indian accent :) ), and available in US/Canada/Europe mostly.