Founders, VCs Recount Journey With Qyuki’s Samir Bangara Through Heartfelt Tributes !!

Samir Bangara, the co-founder and chief executive of digital music platform Qyuki Digital Media, passed away on Sunday morning following a motorcycle accident. The 46-year-old, in a career spanning over two decades, held roles across a functions & organisations, including as venture capital investor, investment banker, CXO-level positions and as an entrepreneur. A motorcycling enthusiast Bangara was riding a BMW S 1000 RR bike to Charoti in Dahanu from Mumbai when the accident took place. He was riding alone. After completing his commerce and finance graduation from the University of…

8 Marketing Metrics to Focus on in 2020 !!

Tracking your key marketing metrics is essential to running an accountable, effective marketing program. If you’re not measuring your performance, how can you know you’re on the right track? But then, extending from this, you also need to know what the right metrics are, in alignment with your broader business goals.  Are you keeping tabs on the right stats? What are the right data points to measure for your business? These days, there’s a heap of performance that measures you can keep tabs on, but in this post, I want to…

Facebook is Adding a New Option to Switch Between Personal and Business Accounts in Messenger …..

Facebook’s looking to make it easier for Page managers to respond to message queries by adding a new,simple toggle which will enable switching between personal and business Messenger accounts. As you can see in the above sequence, now, when you tap and hold your profile picture in Messenger, you’ll be able to quickly switch to your business inbox instead. As explained by Facebook that “According to our research, over 90% of Facebook business admins already use Messenger to chat with friends and family, and we hear from many that they don’t…

Boycott China: Should India build apps based on its own cultural and political ethos?

As a growing number of Indians consume their news and content online, there are high chances that you are accessing this op-ed on a device with components manufactured in China. This long-standing dominance in computer hardware has now tipped over towards software deployment. Today, there are a growing number of online platforms with roots in China. This trend has not gone unnoticed. Local technology entrepreneurs have been visiting these technology companies in China to understand their growing scale and adoption in global markets, including India. There is a sense of admiration…

UP MSMEs Flag Loopholes in Skill Mapping Database of Migrants !!

Lucknow: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in UP have flagged a number of loopholes in the skill mapping database of migrants received from the government, complaining of “improper” data collection characterised by mismatch of skills, workers, and incorrect contact information, which they said posed a challenge for matching labour needs of firms with workers willing to be employed. They also said a lot of migrants who were called were not interested in working in industries. A centralised list has been given to the MSMEs that will address their issues,…

Startups may have to be ‘Atmanirbhar’, govt stimulus may not help !!

BENGALURU: A large number of early to mid-stage startups are unlikely to be able to qualify for the cabinet approved Rs 3 lakh crore emergency credit line even when they are registered as an MSME. According to entrepreneurs and investors, a startup needs to have existing debt on its books to qualify for this loan facility from the government. Venture-debt, a popular instrument used by startups, and shareholder loans, won’t make the cut as debt for startups. Profitability is another angle that is making startups anxious about their chances to…

Artificial Intelligence in Education landscape !!

Some of us may have heard about Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is a branch of computer science associated with the building of smart machines that can perform tasks that otherwise require human intelligence. AI endeavors to simulate human intelligence in machines so that they are able to think, perceive, learn, problem solve and even take decisions. Computer systems powered by deep learning and machine learning are able to carry out such tasks. This is achieved by bringing together thinking, perception and action using mathematical algorithms. In AI, each and every…

Impact Of COVID-19 On Startup Funding: How To Raise Capital During a Crisis?

The COVID-19 pandemic will have a far-reaching and long-lasting impact on the global economy. Even though lockdown restricts have now been eased in several countries, financial markets are likely to take a long time to recover from the covid-19-triggered crisis. As reported by the International Monetary Fund, this is the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, projecting a humongous loss worth $9 trillion in global gross domestic product over the next 2-years. These are challenging times for businesses, even more so for startups that operate with razor-thin margins. Besides…

4 Ways Startups Can Prepare to Survive Economic Tumult !!

The world is in a state of unprecedented tumult. Businesses and governments around the globe have been shaken to their cores by the Covid-19. This crisis has forced companies to ask their employees to work from home for their safety and improved productivity. 1. Flexibility for the way people work Around the world, the majority of large corporations still operate on inflexible, conservative management structures that care more about how long people are in the office than how productive they can be. The fear of being wrong or arriving late,…

Twitter removes China-linked accounts spreading false news !!

LONDON: Twitter has removed a vast network of accounts that it says is linked to the Chinese government and was pushing false information favorable to the country’s communist rulers. Beijing denied involvement Friday and said the company should instead take down accounts smearing China. The U.S. social media company suspended 23,750 accounts that were posting pro-Beijing narratives, and another 1,50,000 accounts dedicated to retweeting and amplifying to those messages. The network was engaged “in a range of coordinated and manipulated activities” in predominantly Chinese languages, including praise for China’s response…