startups

I recently ended up landing on pluGGd.in.
This blog , hosted by Ashish Sinha, keeps track of the goings on in the Indian Web 2.0 startup scenario.
The one great thing about this blog, unlike other ones, is that there is SO MUCH interesting content on it.
There are these amazing podcasts with the actual co-founders of some very intriguing Startups.
My personal favorite was Toufee

Dear All
We are building a team for a software product developing start-up company. We are looking for a software engineer fitting the following profile. I would be obliged if you could pass this communication to genuine people you may know.

professional requirements
• Solid foundation in computing technologies/computer science, ability to learn new technology quickly,
• Skill sets – web application development in open source platform

Redherring, in its June edition, have profiles the following eight Indian startups to watchout.

1. Ascendus Technologies, Bangalore, URL www.ascendus.com
2. ConvergeLabs, Gurgaon, URL www.convergelabs.com
3. Drishtee, Noida, URL www.drishtee.com
4. Hellosoft, Hyderabad, URL www.hellosoft.com
5. IBS, Trivandrum, URL www.ibsplc.com

The folks at 37signals.com have released a book that encompasses their business philosophy that is very innovative and agile. The book is called Getting Real and is available at http://gettingreal.37signals.com It is a fairly quick read and is easy-to-read even for the non-technical readers.

This current month's issue of BusinessWeek also has a feature on 37signals and their approach to go from concept to released product in 3 and a half-months or less. I am a big advocate of their philosophy because it can be a great mantra for Indian IT start-ups. The book professes a low-cost and lean approach to starting up that enables you to move quickly and engage customers early. Other key points in the book include the technique of being customer-centric in your product design and starting at the market-end, not at the engineering-end. They also list pitfalls that web-application-developing entrepreneurs commonly run into, and suggest how those can be avoided.