Disqus - Latest Comments for roshandsilva

Re: FOHO Coin (FOHO) - Initial Exchange Offering (IEO)

roshandsilva — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 08:30:54 -0000

Thanks for the mention - look forward to engaging with your community.

Re: Priceline Group to Acquire Rocketmiles for $20 Million

roshandsilva — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 09:06:12 -0000

Amazing deal - the strategic fit and possibilities are immense.

Re: HomeShop18 Applies For $75 Million IPO; FY13 Revenue $40.7M, $167M GMV, $22.5M Loss

roshandsilva — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 14:24:18 -0000

http://www.sec.gov/Archives...

Re: The World’s Coolest Independent Coffee Makers

roshandsilva — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 04:21:12 -0000

I'm an independent coffee grower -my family owns Marian Estate at Sakleshpur about 4 hours from Bangalore.

Re: 5 Indian Fashionistas You Must Follow On Instagram

roshandsilva — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 08:50:06 -0000

c'mon don't be lazy. Where are the links?

Re: Vacation Rental Websites Are Making Payments Easier Thanks to Airbnb

roshandsilva — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 02:52:52 -0000

Please note btw, that Homeaway does not offer Book Now yet- Their Book Now is actually an experience where the traveler provides his credit card information upfront and essentially waits for the owner to confirm. I don't see a lot of travelers doing that. I run Tripvillas.com - one of the largest Vacation Rental websites in Asia and we have worked hard to implement true 'Book Now' - where you are able to book and get a voucher immediately. This of course is difficult as the owner's need to ensure that their calendars are updated and we were only able to do it for a large section of our properties because our owners are very engaged and we represent a large chunk of their business in Asia.

Re: An Amazing Deal On SEOmoz Pro

roshandsilva — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 05:04:23 -0000

hi Rand, I have emailed help@,,, we are an international customer from Singapore.

Re: A letter to my daughter on her 2nd birthday

roshandsilva — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 01:16:22 -0000

Brajeshwar, wish you all the best with the program. This post stuck out for its sincerity and I wish you all the best with what you are doing in life. It's a tough life being an entrepreneur.

Re: Social Layers and Social Intention

roshandsilva — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 07:09:51 -0000

Agree with you Fred. However, some of the products in google's portfolio lend themselves to social applications e.g. sharing interesting articles on google reader or interesting websites on google chrome or else sharing pictures with Picasa. The issues that google will have to grapple with are mainly safeguarding the users privacy without complicating the user interface. At the moment, it seems like one wrong click could expose private data to all people on your addressbook or friends list.

Re: Update: Why Would FutureBazaar Want To Acquire Shopping Biz Chaupaati Bazaar?

roshandsilva — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 03:17:53 -0000

I agree. The Chaupaati team is world class and has proven their ability to take a simple concept and execute on it effectively. It would have been really difficult for Future to attract this kind of talent and fresh blood in an environment when most such people are choosing to start stuff on their own backed by angels and VCs. I for one am looking forward to what they can bring to market given Future Group's backing. A word of advice for Future Group: Don't screw this up and corrupt their culture.

Re: Outsourcing

roshandsilva — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:10:51 -0000

Hi Fred, I feel there should be no reason why a remote office should work better than outsourcing. The fact is they do - my experience is that it usually is because of the lack of commitment and an approach that is transactional rather than long term to the relationship. I don't believe startups should not outsource. I just feel they need to do it with the right attitude.

Re: Outsourcing

roshandsilva — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:08:57 -0000

Hi Fred, Interesting post and I'll try and weigh in with my comments. Firstly a question for some context:-

Does having your own offices count as outsourcing - so for instance if you have most of the company in NYC and the engineering team sitting in Boulder or else Estonia or even Bangalore?

My view having seen many outsourcing deals is that success primarily boils down to three things:-
1. Quality of the person leading the effort in the remote office
2. The amount of time, effort and commitment put behind the effort.
3. The conviction of senior management that the guys sitting in the remote office are actually part of the team and cost savings are great but they come naturally and are not something you really need to fret over.

Can an outsourced relationship work? I firmly believe it can but it cannot work on the model which most startup founders want to try - i.e. I will send you this Functional Spec, send me back a time estimate and cost and let's look at a transactional relationship. For this relationship to work, the founders need to realize a few facts:-
1. Talented developers are a company's biggest asset. When they leave the office, your assets leave and when they come back in the morning your assets come back. Getting top quality assets and ensuring they remain with you should be the number 1 priority for the company.
2. Product Management talent in offshore locations tends to be scarce. It may be wise to take one of the best to take one of the best you have and ask him to move for a year or two to build culture and ensure that nothing is lost. The person should also be comfortable flying frequently between the remote location and HQ.
3. R&D and feature enhancements are an ongoing process. Experimentation is key and so it is best to have a set of people working continuously on the product as opposed to trying to spec out new features and go back and forth with the whole quote, timeline business every month.

Again, I respect your views but I do feel such relationships have worked and will continue to succeed when led by the right leaders who have experienced the benefits and have a little bit of courage and conviction.

Re: Contrarian Investing

roshandsilva — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:22:46 -0000

doubling down is a great strategy. However, there more then ever there is a need to be fair and spend time with management as sometimes if their sector is out of favor they may be asking themselves if they are on the right path. Having a supportive board member will make a big difference.

Re: Contrarian Investing

roshandsilva — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:27:05 -0000

Fred, it's tough to think contrarian in times of great Exuberance. I invested some money during the boom time and the strategies that worked for me albeit with very little capital were:
1. To keep track of multiples in the VC, PE, Pre-IPO and Public markets and to sometimes go across sectors depending on where I felt the multiple was most reasonable. It was surprising that sometimes there was good public companies where the management needed some encouragement and a little capital and time to get the business in tune with the times.
2. Build companies from ground up instead of investing in a fully baked idea i.e. one with a team and market in place. You need to be fair and it may sometimes bring with it a lot of emotional pain but you could end up with a significant ownership position in a high quality business as long as you choose high quality people and play fair with them.
3. Aggregate smaller pieces to build a bigger business. This involves making a larger capital commitment to an opportunity and identifying first a really high quality company that can form the foundation of this strategy. Usually a marked leader in a niche segment which has not been marketed effectively is a good starting point. The big bet is essentially taking the 'good deal' mainstream by making the transition from the early adopters to the vast majority through good marketing.

However, what is also a good strategy is to remain engaged with companies, track their performance and eventually the deals will stop happening and expectations from management will reset to realistic levels. I would caution against waiting too long in some deals though - when a lo of capital chases gold, a lot of money gets spent building railroads and highways - without theses it may not be able to travel fast.

Re: What A CEO Does

roshandsilva — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:12:12 -0000

Agree John. It's just that I feel CEOs need to pay more attention to the ultimate customer experience.

Re: What A CEO Does

roshandsilva — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:11:35 -0000

Agree with you William that the role is even more important in the early days of a company. However, lets say I was the CEO of Ford. If I was unable to deliver a great car, could I be doing my job as CEO?

Re: What A CEO Does

roshandsilva — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:04:17 -0000

Fred, I like to feel that there is an additional role that good CEOs take on - that of the final authority on product utility, usability and quality. These functions need to be the responsibility of experts but ultimately the buck must stop with the CEO and he cannot run a company successfully if he is not on top of these areas. He should hold a veto on the launch of any product which he feels don't match up to the standards he would expect in each of these areas.

Re: Angel Liquidity

roshandsilva — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:16:54 -0000

Hi Paul, My feeling is that the decision to exit via a secondary is a call the VC takes based on where he is in the lifecycle of the fund as well as his reading on how soon the company may IPO / get sold to a strategic. Compared to no exit my guess is this is a better option in some situations and more such transactions will benefit the ecosystem as VCs will find they have a potential exit route in certain situations. Of course, the big returns that will move the needle have to come from the traditional routes - IPO, M&A.

Re: The CEO Mentor and Coach

roshandsilva — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:57:24 -0000

thanks JLM. Well said!!

Re: Angel Liquidity

roshandsilva — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:53:23 -0000

Paul, while an investor with a venture capital fund will never see the absolute multiple that an angel in a 'deal' would there are two differences:-
1. As an investor, I am motivated to make more money on money I have and not just a greater %age on smaller chunks of my money. As such, there is value in investing significant portions with funds who can deploy larger amounts and generate a decent multiple on them. So for instance I would rather make 50mn a year as opposed to 3 times my money on a 100k investment.

2. Money also tends to follow the last in first out rule and so having the ability to participate in follow-on rounds or else to continue to finance over multiple rounds is a major advantage.

I think the multiples are around and strategics will always pay irrational amounts for businesses. It just requires a continuous focus on exits. The entrepreneur's time is best focussed on building the business. The VC's probably best in this area.

Re: The CEO Mentor and Coach

roshandsilva — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:21:41 -0000

Good stuff JLM. Second your views on severance. I've found that you should always part on as good terms as possible and I make an effort. However, a question: when you do have to give someone a warning - that he is not performing - and I find this happens more with sales guys - it ends up pretty much being summarized in the following manner - you make xUSD in y time or else you will need to leave. Is it ok to be so frank and upfront?

Re: The CEO Mentor and Coach

roshandsilva — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:23:47 -0000

I totally second the part about firing people gracefully. It's important to do so quickly, gracefully but also in my opinion to signal clearly before that the person in question is on a sticky wicket or else that the position is being made redundant and you are trying to get them alternate accommodation. Not signalling can and will be used over time to portray you as someone with an unsteady mind who is prone to quick decisions.

The same also goes with shifts in strategy and pursuing new initiatives. Many people who come in from larger organizations are not comfortable with the numerous quick pivots that startups do and the high risk of failure from these initiatives. When pursuing new initiatives it is worth building a system to generate feedback and most importantly a way to figure out the true believers and to put them in charge so they are as passionate about the same as you!!

Re: The CEO Mentor and Coach

roshandsilva — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:18:26 -0000

True Fred. I was so impressed by Ben's insight when I read the post the first time, I've bookmarked it and will keep referring to it time and again. In life, we tend to not talk about the dirty side of building a business - office politics is one such area. Unfortunately as the CEO you have to be conscious about it and learn the rules fast - esp. if like myself you are a young person and the typical hires esp. in Senior management tend to have played the game much longer. I totally second what Ben says with some tips of my own:-
1. Don't indulge in loose talk / gossip. The more you indulge in it, the more you will encourage such behavior in the company.

2. Remember that there will be people who will use your friendliness as a tool in front of others and distort it to mean that they are powerful/ wield clout/ are not to be messed with. I've found it important to not do too many one on one meetings and instead do facilitative meetings where I can play more the role of a co-ordinator / referee.

3. We like to promote out of turn as this makes the CEO feel powerful. It's necessary to do this in only the rarest of rare situations and have a good HR person to run through each decision on a case by case basis.

Re: Remote Charging – A REVAlutionary innovation

roshandsilva — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:34:47 -0000

Hi Anand, I think you have not understood clearly what they have done. The above is against basic laws of science and thus makes me very skeptical. In my opinion, what you are describing is Impossible!!

Re: The daily routine

roshandsilva — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:40:02 -0000

you must bhai.. how is the marathon practice going? you must better last years time