It’s that time of the year!!! 2016 stormed in and created a lot of chaos, and before we knew what hit us, it’s already on its way out!
It’s been a tough year for many of us and a lot of tough decisions had to be taken. Funding, firing, shutting down, preserving, surviving, et al are the many flavours we all tasted in 2016.
As always, this year too, I’ve tried to compile the best content on the site. There are incredible journeys, resource articles, interesting ventures, interviews, presentations, and of course, the best of Alok as well!
It’s turned out way longer than I anticipated. So pls bookmark this and read as many articles as you can, when you can!
Season’s greetings from all of us at TRH 🙂
Happy Rodinhooding!
Rewind from last year…
‘My 5 entrepreneurial learnings of 2015’ as shared by some rockstar founders & investors!
To celebrate the concept of “being independent”, here’s a compilation of some of our most inspiring startup journeys on TRH (not just this year, but over the last 6 years!) as a tribute to each one of you!
Incredible Stories!
This is one of the most incredible real-life stories we have come across. Meet Sanjeev – who was forced to run a Juice Center at the age of 7 and who grew his business to a Rs. 200 crore one! #RodinStar
Eternal Optimism – the story of how Rodinhooder Nithin chased his dreams…. #RodinStar (CubeIt got acquired later on!)
“When I quit my job on my birthday, I fooled my parents, the world around me and, more importantly, myself, into believing that I had a plan.” Rodinhooder Vartika bares her soul on how she chose to be reborn. #RodinStar
Here’s Sameer’s long, bare all the effing scars wala post on surviving 4 yrs of biz in India! #RodinStar
AppSurfer bids adieu – this is an incredible startup story of hitting all highs and then shutting down.
“Sell, of course, to those that know you. You must get the cash register rolling. However, don’t keep selling too long only to your circles. That’s your personal oyster; the real world is like the big bad unforgiving ocean. Embrace early on the feeling of rejection that defines the Sales profession.” Venkat ran alone for 5 years and lived to tell the tale 🙂 #RodinStar
Failure is a great teacher. No fancy headline. No sugar-coated words. Just one straight from the heart, naked story of how Rodinhooder Sahil’s business sunk owing to his personal issues at home. #RodinStar
Risk taking is a belief, not a behavior –Mohsin’s gripping true story. #RodinStar
Rodinhooder Akshay shares what he learnt from Heidi Roizen and how it changed his life! #RodinStar
From a College dropout to a University Speaker – Aashish’s brave confession!
“I will seek funding when the business is crying out for the growth and expansion that only money can offer. Right now, I am happy being a self-funded company with its own flaws and flavours.” 1000 days of building Monkey Baba – an education startup Nithya has been running from home as a solo mompreneur!
22 year old Sahil (a different one) is not afraid of failures. He is only afraid of giving up! #RodinStar
‘How I got myself admitted to school’. One of the most goosebumpy stories on TRH ever. It’s Gomti’s story of courage and determination. #RodinStar
‘This is why I work hard’ – a brave brave post by young Yash who has shared a deep-seeded personal story on trh that he has kept with himself for years!
How Gaurav & Madhup started their company over cups and cups of masala chai and their love for their kids!!
‘My Journey of being an entrepreneur and its end’ – Rodinhooder Jenifer shares her story and lists down crisp and very real learnings.
Priyadeep’s GyanLab turned 5! He shares his learnings so far…
Shubham shares his journey – ‘Through the ‘winters’ of funding season’…
“The fear of playing the game with the big boys.
Of being crushed for no fault of ours.
Of not being able to scale up.” ‘Hustle your way around the big boys’ – Vinit talks of the struggles & learnings of being a part of the cement industry…
Kritika shares her learnings after her startup turns one!!
Sunaina asked Rodinhoodnis to share one critical learning with all of us.
Moving on, not moving out… My own story of breathing TRH for 5 years with some hard, candid learnings.
All in a day’s work in Startupland!
Why developers and clients run into issues…! #RodinStar
The 6 different people you will encounter in your startup journey! #RodinStar
The Elephants in the Room of B2B Ecommerce! #RodinStar
‘PepperTap Goodbye’ Vaibhav has written a candid note to PepperTap where he’s shared some observations from the customer’s perspective. #RodinStar!
When co-founders fight, how do they make up? We asked some rodinhooders 🙂
12 ways to get potent, economical PR for your startup! Revealed by Rodinhooder Priyam in this magnum opus!
5 Reasons why India is unable to produce the next Google, Facebook or Alibaba! #RodinStar
Why do EdTech startups fail? This is a very well-articulated post by Priyadeep who has been in the thick and thin of edtech!
Sushrut’s brilliant article on the customer reaction of the Knowlarity outage, which reminds us how important customer loyalty is!
Rahul Varshneya shares 7 Questions to ask yourself before developing an app!
ps: Be sure to read all of Rahul’s articles!
What’s it like to be a single founder? “It’s a hell. Everything takes 4x longer and is 4x stressful” says Rishi. Read what other rodinhooders say!
‘My Coffee is best when heated for 1 min and 16 seconds!’
Subscription business – yay or nay?
Sushrut’s counter view on the ET article on Startup Jobs. Btw, You can read all of Sushrut’s articles here.
How do your fav apps get you hooked? A case of 10 apps by Mithun!
Why Microsoft should acquire Upwork – Rodinhooder Mahesh shares his analysis and opinion!
‘Hacking a two month long foreign vacation even when my salary is Rs 80k’. Pardeep’s articles are always worth reading!!
How would you spend a crore? Read what these rodinhooders had to say!
Zero to 1 crore in 15 months without any marketing budget! Stagephod’s incredible story.
How and why to bootstrap to run a startup. Himanshu tells you all in black & white!
Deliver Push Notifications that delight mobile users says Rodinhooder Prajyot!
How to hire your first VP Sales.
7 Startup CEO Mistakes that are killing their businesses…
‘Zuck, where are my clicks?’ Rodinhooder Deep is pissed off.
How to build links for your ecom site –Yuvraj (the SEO/ecom king) shares a detailed post!
Top 27 actionable content marketing tips as shared by Team Digital Vidya
Select keywords wisely, says Saikat who wants to brainstorm on the topic.
Startup Goofs! Read some funny goof-ups Rodinhooders made early on while starting up!!
6 points every engineer (or non engineer!) should keep in mind while starting up!
The stuff aspiring entrepreneurs frequently ask Satish about starting up!
Why you’ll never get rich working in a startup!! Mithun demystifies employee equity.
Michelle’s 5 customer satisfaction insights for entrepreneurs
Pick the right fight. Says Shwaytaj.
Rodinhooder Puneet attended an event on and brilliantly captured many valuable retail learnings from none other than the legendary B S Nagesh!! #RodinStar
‘Zen and the Art of Entrepreneurship’ Mohul covers the Keychat with Anupam Mittal and Alok at the Mumbai OH. Don’t miss reading the roundup of the entire open house!
The Best of Alok’s articles this year!
Alok met Narayana Murthy in a plane. Read the lessons he (un)learnt from NM in those 4 minutes!
The five biz lessons Alok learnt from the story of Zara’s founder Amancio Ortega
Protectionism is for losers. It never works.
What is De-monetization? Explained simply, Rodinhood style!
Why not a Black Money Venture Fund? Alok’s idea on what to do with all the kala dhan.
Trump, do a “Namo” on the Dollar and become immortal!
Thank you Trump, Maximus, Marcus Aurelius
Interpreting the acronym BERKSHIRE of Warren Buffet for startups!
Blood on the Catwalk – What threatens Online Fashion Commerce
The QNet Scam and 2 questions that haunt Alok.
If Kingfisher was a startup – it would still be flying!!
How we hit #1 rank in USA on Google Play Store – 3 lessons learnt as an Indian Company
USS Starship Amazon – the final conquest
‘Popcorn in the Classroom’ Alok proposes entrepreneurship to be included in the school curriculum.
Tim Cook vs. FBI – 3 takeaways & opportunities for entrepreneurs! Hey, what do you think of #SnoopTech?!!
Entrepreneurship at what cost? Is entrepreneurship worth it, or not?! A very thought-provoking post.
A tribute to the 16th of January – a date to remember for a lot of reasons…
We did a RodinChat: Ask Alok Anything on starting up. You can go through all the Q & A’s!
Alok’s Vlog Series – It’s not hard 2win!
RAISING MONEY: “Raising money is a dialogue. Raising money is not a transaction.”
HOW TO SELL: “Selling is about selling to people and not selling things. So you must understand the art of people!”
CASH MANAGEMENT – “Don’t think of revenue generation as chapter 17 that will come later on and then you’ll think about it. No way. This is a chapter that begins the day you start up!”
SALES – “It’s not the sales department that’s gonna be hired to sell. It’s YOU who’s gonna sell what you are, who you are, why you are and what you do.”
MENTORS – who they are, what they mean, what kind of person you should be looking for…
FOCUS – why it’s important for startup entrepreneurs!
CO-FOUNDERS !!!
Ending the Rodinya segment with some humor… Hey Mr VC I am profitable – Alok’s startup comic on Chutney Margin!
Talking about Startup comics, Rodinhooder Kriti has shared 100+ startup comics till date!
Interesting startups/ventures/products/ideas featured (in alphabetical order):
Aanchal – an app in Hindi that helps/educates new mothers on breastfeeding.
Apptuse – An ominichannel commerce platform for SMBs
Beck – a global peer-to-peer logistics marketplace
Blue Streak Electric Motorcycle –Rodinhooder Pandian has created a working prototype and needs help in finding an investor. Check out his crowdfunding campaign!
ChatterOn – a bot development platform which gives you the required tools to build Facebook Messenger chatbots without any coding.
Chilla – a personal safety app that detects a scream and gets into action after that (sends sms/email etc)
Cosset – period subscription box
CrediHealth – a Medical Assistant that helps patients through their hospitalization process
Curious Cobo – creative learning activity boxes for kids
E-Stamp Duty Refund – the name says it all. Read Sarvesh’s interesting story behind the story – he’s a great storyteller!
FGali – Artist designed funky footwear
FiFi – an AI-fueled, interactive personal health & fitness assistant.
First Time Investor – It’s not about fintech or financial planning. It’s about getting into the mode of DIY Investing says Rodinhooder Abhik!!
Galijob – a hyperlocal mobile job marketplace for blue collared and entry level job seekers.
G for Gestures – Studentpreneur Rachana posted about her VR project on TRH and found an angel investor! She has now launched her VR venture!
Grow Aquaponics – the combined culture of fish and plants in re-circulating systems!
Halla Gulla – a unique kids’ edutainment venture (video content for digital).
HighlyReco – an aggregator of book recommendations from influencers (Tech & Entrepreneurship included!!) Also read the series of events that led them to being featured on product hunt!
imeyou (instant me to you connect) – a social network/platform to find help from people around, and help someone around us. It also keeps you informed of what’s going on in your locality!
ImpactRun – a fitness app where your runs raise funds for social causes of your choice!
Indian Wedding Outfit Generator – an outfit generator that helps people select the most appropriate outfit for an Indian wedding/event
Invezta – India’s first low-cost, zero commissions, robo-advisor
I Support Farming – an interesting farming initiative where you get to partner a farmer and grow stuff together
Jodi Logik – create customized biodatas for getting married!
LeJagah – a real estate guidance & info portal
Mytaxcafe – set up an online tax desk for your employees to make their life simpler!!
My Yellow Plate – from an instagram handle to a food discovery platform!
NetaG – a location-based app to get politicians to solve your problems!
Nwook – work & study spaces
OnlyMobiles.com – they have a unique 30 day price guarantee!!
Powerlabs – a presentation & content studio to save you from “Death by PowerPoint”
PushEngage – Web Push Notifications for Content Sites
Scrabbl – an online portal where you can upload your content and get it translated to various languages.
Talkeees – a unique platform that allows you to share experiences in 45 sec videos in English
Tavaga – the latest fintech venture on the block! Read their story ‘Simplicity is not so simple’
True Jodi – a match-making app that will make you do 9 pheras… I mean 9 steps of verification (including a blood test!) before you can say quack to the saamnewala party!
UserExperior – a product which gives you a real-time video of how your customers are using your app and this information is gathered without any privacy intrusion to your customer.
UX Assist – an app that provides workflows for designers driven by UX activities.
VidLog – a video marketing chrome extension to analyse any YouTube/video channel from Vidooly!
Wixifi – Get richer using quantitative algorithms on direct plan mutual funds
YouRTI.in – a platform that lets any citizen submit right-to-information (RTI) requests simply. It is filed and followed up on your behalf!
Presenting…
The opportunity of gaming! Even if you’re not interested in the gaming industry –Watch Alok make this rocking presentation at Kotak’s Global Investor Conference. He says this is one of the toughest ppts he’s made!
How Rodinhooder Shailesh has created a 100 crore ecom venture, Mirraw while being bootstrapped!!
Catch Sudeepta’s ‘Bootstrapped and I’m Luvin It’ presentation about The Blueberry Trails
Alok on How Linkedin uses Gamification – so can you!
Building an online community – my hits & misses while building therodinhoods!
Mistakes to avoid… from a first time entrepreneur!
Sheelika & Ramnath of Team Indus told us they would ensure the moon has a bit of Indian Territory marked on it! #Million2Moon
Meet Mulchand who runs two ventures! One during the week and one over the weekend!!
Here’s Tanul talking about artisan food, making up with her co-founder over food, the Himalayas, Husband esops, kicking butt and more!
Everyone knows Mini Menon! Well she’s turned entrepreneur with her unique infotainment venture – Indy Network!
Saikat interviews a couple from Kolkata who built an online store, while keeping their 9-5 jobs!!
Meet Punam who brings Bihar’s Thekua online. [Thekua happens to be a sweet dish and nothing illegal!!]
The best way to earn RodinKarma is to answer a question in ASK FOR HELP! We would like to believe our ASK FOR HELP section is becoming the quora for startups in India! So even if you don’t need to ask something, or if you can’t answer something, go through the questions that intrigue you and read the comments – each post has a goldmine of insights shared by our rodinhooders. There were way too many to share here, so just a few to entice you!!
What due diligence do you do before opening a line of credit to your new customer?
Can a full time govt employee think of starting a full time business?
How should I take that “first step”…?
Need help choosing the best possible funding option for a food SME
Phewwwwww!!! That’s a lot of content! What an amazing year it’s been!
Tip: If you like a particular author and want to read more of her posts, just click on her name. eg. when you click on asha chaudhry – you will see all of my posts!
If you are new to TRH and dunno how to post – here are some pointers to help you get noticed and here are 14 easy ways to leverage therodinhoods!
think.do.be.brand.new.
reinvent.yourself.in.the.new.year.
may 2017 be better than ever!
mucho love ‘n luck,
asha
co-founder, TRH
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From the archives:
Dial 101 to check out the hottest startups on TRH in 2015
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ryan
That is quite some collection.Great work on your part here.
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