Modern businesses are notoriously complex entities. They transcend geographies and political boundaries, and can often have a confusing set of investors and partners. So when things happen in one business, they can impact other unrelated businesses – often with surprising results.
India Inc. is also home to startups that fulfill needs that you didn’t even realize you had. These startups are quirky, zany, and are solving some very unusual problems. We trawled the length and the breadth of the Indian startup ecosystem to find out the most outlandish startup ideas that are being worked on last year. And we are back with our top picks this year.
This Independence Day, you can send personalised letters to the Indian Army with a couple of clicks. The Hyderabad based OyeHappy that organizes surprises and other beautiful gestures for your loved ones is now looking to delight those who protect the country. OyeHappy has designed LettersToTheArmy, a website especially for people to write a message for the Indian Defence Force personnel, whihc will be printed and personally hand delivered to the serviceman by the team.
On the face of it, it should be a time of celebration. You start a company, raise money, you get acquired. Happy ending.
But Lookup’s acquisition by Nowfloats has had no such celebratory tones associated with it.
On 1st June, 2010, Uber had its first ride in sunny San Francisco. At 4:16 AM GMT on 18th June, it had its 2 billionth. Along the way, it became the most valuable startup in the world.
And it has released a new video showing how far the company has come.
On July 1, 1996, exactly twenty years ago to the day, I entered an office for the first time ever in a full-time job and began my career in the corporate sector. On that day as I contemplated what my boss would be like, what work I would be given, and indeed, what was for lunch, I don’t think I would have imagined the journey that lay ahead of me. After twenty years, ten bosses, five moves, four kilos, and a journey that has spanned experiences across many different businesses and countries, I am back where it all began – Mumbai. Did I ever imagine I’d be working in the corporate sector for twenty years? To be honest, perhaps not, but back then a time horizon of a couple of years was long term thinking. As I think back to that twenty-two-year-old me sitting in the reception, waiting to collect my visitor ID badge, if I had the chance, what would I say to myself? Here’s an attempt.
Pokemon Go is no ordinary game. In less than 2 weeks of its launch, it’s the highest rated and installed game ever, its daily users have surpassed those of Twitter and it’s the buzzword du jour. And for those who the job was coming in the way of ‘catching em all’, here’s a man to inspire you. New Zealander Tom Currie has quit his job to become a full-time Pokémon hunter. His job designation on Facebook has been duly changed to “Pokeman trainer”.
Amazon wants to give away $5000 to employees who want to quit the company.
That Donald Trump is made of the stuff that embodies virality wasn’t lost on Teate Teas, a Kolkata based tea company from India. The company pulled a Trump card to cash in on Trump’s popularity ( Or the unpopularity) with a viral stunt. The company sent a total of 6000 tea bags purported to “cleanse trump” to the Trump Towers in New York. And this wasn’t done closed doors. The gesture was orchestrated with an elaborate stunt, complete with 2 Sari clad reps from the company who can seen pulling a trolley full of the tea bags across the city, getting sound bites from on-lookers, and of course with due focus on the core benefits of the tea.