Zuckerberg's hearing in US Senate

If you are a marketing person or an entrepreneur then you got to watch Facebook's CEO - Mark Zuckerberg's hearing in US Senate. Key points:

• Violation or Exploitation of Privacy is not new. Google does it in bigger and better way and so is other social media platforms. It's just FB is caught. 
• Free service is never free. As the old saying "there is nothing free in life. Somebody is paying something somewhere". All the social media platforms or in that case many high tech firms - Ad network plays the major role in revenue generation.
• There is nothing that you can do about it. It's part of our lives, you cannot shut it down - but what needs is laws, guidelines and regulations. 
• It was interesting how Zuckerberg was answering the questions. He never went overboard or aggressive. Never flaunt with the ego of senators, show off "I know everything attitude".
• Most of his answers were diplomatic, and on the lines of finding solution rather than - I am the culprit or fight against the people.
• Good learning for every entrepreneur to deal and talk with government authority.
• Your data is never too safe. There are tones of loopholes. Having anonymity is next to impossible in today's world if you using bank account, mobile phone, internet etc.

Full video is available on youtube. Just search and you can find good link. 

My views on Plagiarism

Plagiarism, Idea Stolen, Inspiration etc. are all the terms that are been used now a days. Here I came across this video on Facebook and thought to share my view.

1. The basic rule that i am convinced is - Jo Jita Wahi Sikandar. Being an entrepreneur i know how hard it is to make success. Just Idea is not everything. I see so many budding entrepreneur at Elevator Pitch or Startup Meet who hesitate to revel his/her ideas fearing on being stolen.
My Point - Passion and Management gives the success. No body can copy both.  And Idea is the first step but without proper execution its just a Dream.

2. There are 7.5 Billion people across the world. People say there are 7 people who looks similar to you in the world. Now how can be all the ideas be 100% original. There is 4 possibility as per me:
a. Coincidence - Here it's like having similar looking face example. You thought something and somebody is already thinking in similar direction. Its a very much possible. Example: Some invention which are felt coincidence.
b. Unintentional - Sometimes you read/hear/see something which is part of your learning, or get registered in back of your mind.. and your ideas derived from your that learning. I mean all the ideas are based on some learning. Example: No one knows if its intentional or intentional but I thought The Ghazi Attack had some scenes like Crimson Tide. I doubt its intentional but i have seen both the movies have many scenes similar.
c. Intentional / Inspiration - Many times you have seen/heard/read something. But feel that its not complete. You can add your value to it. Only think is - Give Credit (as taking permission might not always work). Example: Five Point Someone Book by Chetan Bhagat to 3 Idiot.
d. Rip Off - Copying as it is with making minor changes is just wrong. And i can guarantee that extra-ordinary success never falls in this category. No one that i know have 100% rip off and been very successful. Example: Awara Pagal Deewana Rips Matrix Scene

3. There are cases where Passion and Management is there but the Time/Money/Audience is not there. So Luck also plays huge part of success. Example: WebTV

Here are some interesting reads:

• Successful Technology Failures of All Time: http://time.com/4704250/most-successful-technology-tech-failures-gadgets-flops-bombs-fails/
• Why some business fails while some succeed: https://www.successharbor.com/why-some-businesses-fail-while-others-succeed-02132015/
• Corporate Goes Bad: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/corporate-innovation-product-fails/
• Some products that came early: https://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2015/04/05/9-lessons-products-went-market-soon/

Standard 10 students gets 3Cr funding

I believe sustain is the key to every business. And in order to sustain, Funds are the main factor of every entrepreneur.
Besides funds, you need management skills, superior product/services, team, marketing and persistence.

Here is the latest story of young guys of age 16ish getting 3Cr funding.

The highlight of this funding which is inspiring is:
- They got out in first round of some startup meet but didn't gave up
- Pitching same thing over and over at multiple places require passion
- Differential product. They catched the trend of No Preservetive, and No Soda.
- Followed up till the end.. as it took almost 1 year for the entire process.

Hats off to the young lads as getting funded is not at all easy in startup world.

Details can be found at http://toi.in/TbJE9b/a19li

Energy Demands from Cloud Computing Companies

Well Safecloudlocker.com is going to be a cloud storage business and thus while reading through this article, make me thinking as "How can we go green for backend servers and infrastructure".
Here is the report that can make us thinking...

If cloud were a country, its electricity demand would currently rank 5th in the world, which is ahead of India’s total electricity demand and this is expected to triple by 2020.
A recent report by Greenpeace slams big computing companies for using *dirty* energy to drive their cloud computing initiative.
As more people around the world use the cloud to store and share photos, videos, and documents, IT companies have to build more data centres –buildings so large they are often visible from space – that house thousands of computers and consume tremendous amounts of electricity. These cloud data centers consume a tremendous amount of electricity; some consume the equivalent of nearly 180,000 US homes or close to 1.8 million Indian homes.
Electronic devices and the rapidly growing cloud that supports our demand for greater online access are clearly a significant force in driving global energy demand. The report shares a few specific examples of how companies have used data center location to their advantage:
- Yahoo, US: Yahoo’s decision to locate in Lockport, New York, was connected to its ability to secure a substantial (15MW) allotment of hydroelectric power from New York Power Authority.
- Facebook, Sweden: Facebook built its third major owned and operated data center in Lulea, Sweden, a location chosen for the large amount of existing hydroelectric capacity at high availability. The data center can be fully powered with renewable energy
- An increasing number of cloud companies have begun to take charge of their electricity supply chain by signing long term contracts to buy renewable electricity from a specific source through a utility or renewable energy developer via a power purchase agreement (PPA) to help drive renewable electricity onto the grid.

Open publication – Free publishing – More climate change

Download the report (pdf) from here
[Source : Pluggd.in]

Tips for Startup Co-Founders from Asterix and Obelix

As a child (and even now) I was a huge fan of Asterix and Obelix. I would spend hours reading and re-reading Asterix and son and imagine what it would really be like if I had special magic powers. The possibilities were endless. The names were funny. The fights were amazing. The adventures were awesome.
I did believe for the longest time that the Silicon valley folklore of “Two guys and a dog startup” came from Asterix and Obelix.
On a more serious note, I think there are 3 amazing things about them that make them the perfect startup co-founders.
1. They really respect and enjoy each others company. You can see it in every book and episode. Obelix is the one everyone makes fun of (since as we know he fell into a cauldron when he was a kid) but he’s also the most dependable. They each have their quirks (Obelix loves boars and Asterix, is just nuts for most parts).
2. They compliment each other amazingly well. One is a superhuman (magically gifted) and another learns (or drinks magic portion) his way into super-power. Asterix is supposedly the smarter of the two, but Obelix shows his smarts (Corsica, Spain).
3. They are both focused. I love this the most. They do fight (like most people do) but they know the real enemies are always the Romans. Most episodes do have some fight between the two, that brews for a few pages or panels, but put them in front of a common enemy and they are back to being old friends again.
If you are a startup team, I’d highly recommend you read a few of their comics and keep a few in your office. Things always get tough in small startups and when the going gets tough, the tough laugh it off.
If you have read any of the comics, which one is your favorite?
[Guest article contributed by Mukund Mohan. Reproduced from his blog]
[Source : Pluggd.in ]

ESOPs in Private Limited Companies

Separation of ownership from management has been one of the principal foundations of corporate law. In this context, the idea of granting your employees stock options aims at bridging the gap between ownership and management, by giving the employees not just monetary compensation but also a sense of ownership through stock options.
There is significant literature on employee stock options (ESOPs) for public limited companies in India, but little has been written about how they can be used by private limited companies.
The issue of granting ESOPs acquires particular significance in the context of start-ups who do not offer significant compensation to their employees/ consultants but wish to offer ESOPs to retain talent and to also give them a sense of ownership and belonging. Set forth below is a summary of key issues to keep in mind while instituting an ESOP plan:
(a) Legal requirements: There are no specific guidelines/ rules or regulations under the Companies Act, 1956, that deal with employee stock option plans of a private limited company. Critical issues which arise in instituting an ESOP plan have been addressed below.
(b) Who can the options be granted to? While technically there is no prohibition to grant options to ‘promoters’ (persons who are in overall control of the company) they should ideally be excluded, because it is possible for them to get additional shares in the company through a preferential allotment. Similarly, there is no requirement that ESOPs should only be given to full time permanent employees of the company.
(c) What should be the ceiling for ESOP grants? There is no ceiling prescribed in law, however, a limit of 10-15% of the paid up capital is typically the market practice.
(d) Market price of the shares: Since in private limited companies, there is no market for the shares it is impossible to arrive at a valuation of the equity shares, unless they are valued by independent valuers, which exercise may itself be expensive. A possible solution is to use the book value of the shares.
(e) Disclosure requirements: A great step forward is the creation of an ESOP policy plan document and circulating the same to the employees. This increases transparency and creates trust among the employees in favour of the company. Typically plan documents contain details such as vesting schedule, lock-in requirements and eligibility.
(f) Enforcing the ESOP plan: While there is no one rule on who should institute the ESOP plan, ideally it should be enforced by persons who are not beneficiaries of the plan or are in no way interested in the results of the plan. Whilst, there are no independent directors in a private limited company, a possible solution is institution of the plan by independent trustees. If that however, becomes too cumbersome, then the Board of Directors could be responsible for the instituting the plan, provided that they are not beneficiaries of the plan.
Conclusion: As a start-up, ESOPs are probably on your mind as you consider bringing in the best talent to scale your business. While we have outlined the rules above which apply to you from a legal perspective, the most important rules when it comes to giving ESOPs are equity and fairness. As long as the plan you draft is fair, it is almost certain to get approved by the Court if, god forbid, a dispute should arise.
 
[About the author: Contributed by Hrishikesh Datar, founder of vakilsearch.com, online legal services provider (Legal Advice, Legal Documents & more.]
[Source Site: Pluggd.in]

Here's to CRAZY ONES. Think Different

Here is to Steve Jobs who is been great inspiration for innovation.



Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent.    They imagine.    They heal.
They explore.    They create.    They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Its all about content baby.... Interesting

All the website entrepreneurs out there, read this very intersting artcile that I found on plugged.in.  In the fast pace world everyone wants to move ahead and were content is most important criteria esp. for some web domains. Just don't copy the most important part of your business referring to this case model - which is very common around India and I bet across the globe.
Zomato has published strong proof against Burrp accusing them of copying restaurant listing data from their site. From what it looks like, there is no excuse that Burrp team can really present for this. And as usual saying, “User submitted data” is as lame as it can get.
In nutshell, Zomato publishes their own number for some restaurants that they have up tie-up with. Burrp, as accussed by Zomato, while copying data, also copied this phone number and hence was easily caught.

We have been experimenting with a few business models and have for a few restaurants put our own phone numbers on which we take table reservations on behalf of the restaurant. These instances are very few in number (~1% of our database). So these numbers are our numbers, the restaurant staff doesn’t know about this and these numbers have no business showing up on some other website (even our API does not serve these numbers). Also, we have our own proprietary GPS systems which help us collect very very accurate (within 2 meters) GPS coordinates for restaurants listed on Zomato. So when these coordinates, until the 5th decimal point show up on some other website, we have a problem.
Now, we found a few such instances on Burrp.com; these instances are incomplete listings (they didn’t take our data which they thought would be proprietary), but these listings have our phone numbers and our GPS coordinates in them. Here is a screenshot:

Note: I have saved snapshots of these Burrp pages on Freezepage at these URLs:
Zinos on Burrp on Freezepage
Mangal’s Profile on Burrp on Freezepage
Btw, we found these listings by doing a simple “site:burrp.com 49422222” search on Google. 49422222 is a Zomato owned phone number in Delhi.
We have found multiple other such instances on Burrp.
Now, we have pointed out such issues to Burrp twice earlier and the response we got was:
“This was a user upload, we have nothing to do with this, we will take down the listing. Thanks for keeping an eye on us. And please don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. We maintain 150,000 listings, so we don’t bother about copying your data at all. We don’t do such things.”
Now, this is not a user upload. The ‘user’ who added this listing is a Mangal84, who has added 11052 listings to Burrp (yet) with 0 reviews (!). Clearly a Burrp employee, since May 5, 2009. More about it here: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mangal-shewale/23/519/867 or http://www.freezepage.com/1316835281MDMFHBHHQU
With user uploads, I can understand, shit happens. But even then, you just cannot pass off shit in the name of user uploads. It’s a well known fact that Burrp verifies and moderates every listing upload that is submitted on the website. How could such a thing get through the moderation and verification system? So, if it is indeed some users uploading Zomato data to Burrp’s servers, we strongly recommend that Burrp should either strengthen its moderation systems or shut down the sections of its business which they clearly cannot manage.
What I have not been able to understand is the map coordinates available for a few restaurants on their system. I don’t really think that a user would go to the extent of going through our source code, extracting the map coordinates and submitting them to Burrp. As far as I know Burrp doesn’t even have a facility to submit raw map coordinates. And I think there is only a one in a million chance that the user accidentally dropped a pin on a google map which is exactly the same as the super accurate coordinates collected with our GPS systems. I would like to give Burrp the benefit of doubt, but it is highly unlikely that a user is doing this. As shown above, its quite likely that a Burrp employee is behind all this scraping from Zomato.

This is not the first time that Network18 has been accused of data stealing, earlier JustDial had sued Askme for data theft and the latter was asked to shutdown as well. It seems Network18′s web presence is nothing but a content farm. Their in.com property is also known to be reproducing SEO rich content from all over web on connect.in.com. They are so sure they are violating copyrights that they have published a notice for Copyright Infringement Issues on all pages.
While there are strong and might we say ‘insensible’ laws being made around web publishing that even go on to restrict fundamental rights of speech, there is no action on mass infringement like these. You need to individually go fight cases. I wonder why Google’s Panda update hasn’t taken up on this. Though one remarkable thing here is that in.com was doing all this through help of Bing until now but now Bing’s logo has been removed.
On web where having data is major part of your product it seems people have taken it for granted. Earlier even Cleartrip has been accused of data theft by Travelocity. The case led to momentary arrest of Cleartrip’s CEO.

Rented Offices are IN

Concept of rented offices are IN since companies are looking to reduce the overheads and add professionalism. The location and quality of the office are very important. It's going to be very important services for start-ups.

Some of the major things to look for before deciding:
1. Location - Should be in good corporate area
2. Furniture and ambiance of the office space
3. VAS like courier services, WiFi, Cafeteria, High Speed Broadband/Leaseline pop
4. Backoffice services like Fax, Xerox, Printing facility
5. Space
6. Scalability
7. Presentation room with project
8. Telephone - Landline ready
9. Reception and Helpdesk
10. Professional Housekeeping
11. Life and over facility/quality of the building
12. Good quality restrooms and drinking water facility

Checkout some of this websites which are recently came across.

http://www.newbridgeoffices.com/index.php

http://www.serviced-office-mumbai.co.in/

http://www.officesmumbai.com/index.asp

Please come back and post your reviews about this companies or any other if you are aware.

The Winning Way

My View:
Just finish reading the The Winning Way: Learning From Sport For Managers.
Its a good read for all the entrepreneur, and Manager. I am a sports person and thus it makes more sense and interesting read. Harsha Bhogle knows India and have vast experience with the MNC w.r.t Branding, Marketing and Training. Thus its worth a buy. I would recommend this book to all the Managers and Entrepreneur who likes sports (and not just cricket but sports in general).

Rating: 7/10

I bought this book from Indiaplaza.com @ Rs. 120 - including shipping ( list price = Rs.200).

About The Book :
The Winning Way deals with what sporting champions do and what constitutes a winning team. Two renowned IIMA alumni, one a sports commentator and writer and the other an advertising and communication consultant dig into examples from the world of sports to see how they can help promote managerial skills. The Winning Way gives a clear picture of winning teams, good leadership and why some teams continue to perform well while others decline with time.

Anita and Harsha Bhogle reiterate the importance of perseverance and the right attitude to attain success. If an individual combines ability with the right attitude, he is bound to excel and become the best he can be. The writing is contrary to the popular belief that ability is the major distinguishing factor for success. This principle is particularly important as the levels of competition increases. For the distinguished authors, this book marks the completion of 300 successful corporate workshops of The Winning Way that they run.

I have a Dream from Rashmi Bansal

Well new book coming out from Rashmi Bansal (first week of June 2011). Yes..the author of Connect the Dots and Stay Hungry and Stay Foolish.
I enjoyed both her previous editions (yeh..some companies already crashed out but was a good/inspiring story to read) as it talks about entrepreneurship. This book is in the same line of the last two but with social entrepreneurship.
I am excited towards the book and have already pre-ordered the copy from Indiaplaza.com @ Rs.86. (List price is Rs.150)
You can also book from Flipkart - available for Rs.101 - free shipping or from infibeam - available for Rs.75 + shipping - which in my case came to Rs.105 so I picked up Indiaplaza.com
Anyways checkout the book and as I think she is one good author like Chetan Bhagat who targets the Young Indian in the right direction.

A brief synopsis:

'I Have A Dream' is the story of 20 idealists who think and act like entrepreneurs. They are committed to different causes, but they have one thing in common: a belief that principles of management can and must be used to achieve a greater common good.

These stories say one thing loud and clear change starts with one person, and that person could be someone next door. Someone like you.

I am fired and I don't give a crap. BRING IT ON.

Well I was just reading some emails from my friends about work load, change in management, pressure, change in vision etc... @ their work and how they are dealing with it. Most of them are trying to compromise, ley down, kiss ass, go along to get along, hide their real perception, and avoid the situation.
Well this reminds me a scene from 3idiots were Raju Rastogi goes in a campus interview after the suicide attempt and he says 'yeh attitude bhot ko kai aaya hai'. And I guess that is what we need to do. We are afraid of so many things that we loose our real selves.
Even I want to start my business and my wife's demand of flat, comfort, luxury, jewellery etc. and my mom's expectations against the family/friend/society are huge and pulling me down. I am also afraid to put the foot down and go on a ride. Most of us have financial, health, family, knowledge obligations and that holds us back.
In case of jobs - we have to change the approach. I have successfully tried this in recent times and am happy for it(attitude). I have told my self that - YEH!!!! I AM GOOD AND DOING MY JOB HONESTLY AND EFFICIENTLY. THE COMPANY NEEDS MY KNOWLEDGE, MY EXPERIENCE, AND SERVICE. IF THEY FIRE ME I WILL GET SOME OTHER JOB WITH BETTER PACKAGE AND THEY WILL BE AT A LOSS. THERE ARE LOTS OF OPENING FOR GOOD PEOPLE IN THE MARKET AND I AM NOT THE STUPID ONE WHO WON'T GET THE JOB. AND WORST SCENARIO IF NO ONE HIRES ME I WILL CREATE OPPORTUNITY FOR MY SELVES AND CREATE SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING. My family, friends, liking, hobbies, are equally important in my life as compared to the job. I will and want to work but at reasonable cost. I am open with my attitude within the family and company. Anything which won't compromise my basic criteria is fine. Thus this also reminds me of another scene from Karthik calling Karthik movie where Faran Akhtar goes back to his office after getting fired and makes his Boss realize - as how important he is for the company.
Overall one needs to be honest with themselves and take chances. Being a sales person and a fan of Rocket Singh movie I can't miss this quote - Risk to Spiderman ko be lena padta hai me to fir bhi inshaan/salesman hu ;)
In recent times, I am doing fine with the job and my overall attitude towards it. Now its my turn to take the similar approach towards the business. I am calculative and trying to work around it - lets hope that I kick the fears and fight for my better future.

IIM-A grad launches subzi mandi on laptop

Surat: Your daily aloo, baigan and bhindi will soon be just a click away. No more finding your way through the filth at your neighbourhood subzi bazaar and haggling for prices with rude vegetable vendors. An IIM-Ahmedabad graduate has brought the mandi right on your laptop.
City-based Akrosh Sharma, who passed out of the elite B-school in 2004, is all set to launch an online vegetable store after running a vegetable retail business for the last couple of years.
The website will create an online mandi where one can “see” the fresh vegetables, check prices and place orders. “Apart from purchasing daily vegetables, one can gift fruits using the web service. We are launching the concept of gift-packing fruits and vegetables as a ‘healthy gift’ option,” says Sharma. Sharma feels it will be a hit, especially among working couples in the Hazira industrial zone who seldom get time to shop for fresh vegetables everyday.
  “Once the order is placed, customers will get the vegetables at the time specified by them,” adds Sharma, who grew up in Vadodara and joined IIM-A after getting an engineering degree from MS University. His stint at IIMA landed him a lucrative job with a top MNC and was based in Surat. But Sharma, apprehensive of getting into a comfort zone, left his job to tread a different path and go on his own. He launched his vegetable and fruit business in 2007 in a 10 by 10 feet shop. 
“I competed with the mandi and not the big stores. I created a subzi bazaar-like atmosphere in terms of product display that had well-behaved staff members dealing with customers, high sense of hygiene and no haggling,” said Sharma. Currently, his “mini mandi” concept has crossed Rs 1 crore in annual turnover.

“New concepts like these will lead to improvement of the market where the customer will have better options. An institute like IIMA can encourage entrepreneurship in a big way. We wish it is not only IIM grads but even other entrepreneurs should come forward with innovative concepts like this,” says Vardan Kabra, who was Sharma’s classmate at IIM-A and had opted out of the placement process to launch his own school in Surat.

Source: The Time Of India

'Jail bhajiyas’ on wheels

The wait to savour fries of Jail Bhajiya without going to its stall at Ellisbridge is over. The Jail Mobile Bhajiya kiosk will start visiting different localities in the city after its inauguration in Gandhinagar on Wednesday. Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Balwant Singh and Chief General Manager of State Bank of India (SBI) TCA Ranganathan will do the honours. 

Locating the mobile kiosk would not be an uphill task. You just have to dial a mobile number (9638972154) to spot it. 

The mobile bhajiya van is a brainchild of IG (Prisons) Keshav Kumar. He mooted the idea a year ago. 

“I was very excited to implement the scheme. It took a lot of time and efforts to execute the plan. My dream came true since the SBI showed keen interest in it,” said Kumar. 

“The unique project is not aimed at making profit. Its objective is to reform and rehabilitate prisoners,” he added. 

Ranganathan, the Chief General Manager of SBI (Gujarat Operation), said: “This is a unique thing. One has to think out-of-the-box for this kind of schemes. I was excited after learning about the plan and agreed to lend a helping hand for a social cause. This is an effort to reform and rehabilitate prisoners.” 

The mobile bhajiya kiosk will visit different localities with three inmates of Sabarmati Central Jail and two police personnel. There will be an autorickshaw driver, too. The jail inmates will make bhajiyas, while the driver will steer the vehicle to different places.

Source: AM

All IPL teams are making profits

If the IPL has stood all you thought you knew about cricket on its head, it’s done the same with finances too. In a year when franchisees were complaining about how shifting to South Africa would make a mess of their budgets, each one of them will end up with a profit. 

If that’s not strange enough for your taste, try this: The two finalists, Royal Challengers and Team Hyderabad, would make a fraction of the profits that bottom-of-table Knight Riders will even if you take prize money into account.The main reason behind the healthier bottomlines is a huge jump in the share of revenues from broadcasting. Last year, each franchisee got Rs 25 crore from IPL as its share of the central broadcasting revenue pool. This year, that has more than doubled to Rs 67.50 crore each. 

Franchisees won’t be the only ones partying. BCCI’s profit too, according to one estimate, jumped substantially to Rs 477 crore from Rs 350 crore last year. For good measure, broadcaster Sony Max is also likely to be in the black this year. 

Had the matches been organised in India, it’s likely the teams’ profits would have been even higher because of higher receipts from ticket and merchandise sale, which have averaged Rs 8 crore and Rs 50 lakh respectively in South Africa. In 2008, teams like Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians and Team Delhi earned around Rs 20 crore from ticket sales alone as the capacity of their home stadiums was large enough to accommodate over 70,000 and the crowds just poured in. Team Jaipur tops profit table 

According to a report by equity research firm IIFL, Team Jaipur will make the highest profit of Rs 35.1 crore in the group matches of the second edition of the tournament. Jaipur had also made the second highest profit of Rs 14.50 crore in 2008, including the Rs 4.50 crore ($1 million) prize money. 

Knight Riders, which finished lowest in the league table during the qualifying round in South Africa, will nevertheless end up with the third highest profit of Rs 2.8 crore in the second edition of IPL. Team Mohali, which also did not make it to the semis, will just beat Kolkata to second spot with a profit of Rs 26.1 crore, according to the IFL report. 

In fact, the only semi-finalist which also stands to make over Rs 20 crore in profits is Delhi. 

This is despite the fact that prize money in the IPL is a sizeable amount, with Rs 4.8 crore for winner, Rs 2.4 crore for the runners-up and 1.2 crore each for the losing semifinalists.For those who didn’t get past the league stage, the sums are correspondingly smaller — Rs 80 lakh for the team that finished fifth (Mohali), Rs 70 lakh for the sixth placed (Jaipur),Rs 50 lakh for the seventh (Mumbai Indians) and Rs 40 lakh for the lowest one. 

The healthy bottomlines are a happy change from last year when besides Knight Riders and Jaipur, Team Chennai just scraped into the black due to its Rs 2.25-crore prize money for the runners-up position, according to a highly placed IPL source.

Source: Prabhakar Sinha | TNN and TOI 

Evolution of Logos

Well, while i was trying out different logos and generating ideas for gagagiftz and I found this interesting piece of series called Evolution of Logos. Check out the history of logos for some of the well known brands.

So..... this means gaga can also evolve down the road... :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MasterCard logo

VW logo

Shell logo

Boeing logo

GE logo

Saab logo

Yamaha logo

Nike Logo

Mazda logo

BBC logo

Mercedes-Benz logo

Kodak logo

Nokia logo

Reuters logo

IBM logo

Starbucks logo

Mitsubishi logo

Intel logo

Adobe Systems logo

Pepsi logo

Playboy logo

Audi logo

Motorola logo

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) logo

Fiat logo

Nestle logo

Apple Inc. logo

Ford logo

Xerox logo

Canon logo

LEGO logo

BMW logo

Google logo

LG Electronics logo

Microsoft logo

Renault logo

Siemens logo

Palm logo

WWF logo

Nortel logo

Source: Best Ad Blog

For Website Archive: Checkout this cool website www.archive.org