The Real Xperiment @ NoPay Startups!

As an Individual we are born with abilitiy to have "Ideas". Most of us never persue them. Primarily due to fact that we do not know how to go about it or we don't have money or don't know how to raise money to commercialize the idea. Knowing that it is kind of impossible to execute, we just move on with our daily lives and never fathom persuing our ideas. I was one of those individuals as well and but few decisions changed my path.

Well, I just realized that I have never mentioned in my blogs about my startup passion and xperimentz. Tonight, I felt like letting you all know what has been my driving force, what makes me feel alive everyday I wake up.

I was about to give up almost two and half years ago when I was frustrated with fact that medyantraa.com, my medical tourism startup was a failure. While pondering over the reasons of this failure, the obvious answers were: bandwidth, the 'I cant do it alone' words and money obviously. Something clicked and as usual I started writing, by evening I had the name NoPay! Next day I made a decision to leave Iowa and move to the valley, the silicon valley. 

Couple of months down the line I was here in the valley settling down with my new job and simultaneously working on NoPay! Being in valley did help to an extent but it was not easy to bring a complex business idea to reality. This time I decided I wont quit, I found hacker dojo, a community of entrepreneurs or would be entrepreneurs. It infused new energy and ideas into me. Instead of knocking investors doors I decided to do an experiment with NoPay to prove it works, www.NoPayStartups.com was born in next few minutes and my first meetup was scheduled. I was not sure if people will show up so I requested few friends to rsvp yes and be there. My good friend and roommate then, Chai showed up with Padma, his wife and helped me setup the place. Over 25 people showed up, it was a success. 

I continued this xperiment for over one and half years till July this year, when I realized its time to take it to next level. Thanks to some of my mentors and great startup gurus who agreed to join me in taking NoPay to where it deserves to be. With over 7 success stories, today we are a great team of individuals helping new entrepreneurs to achieve their goals without spending any money at NoPay. 

I will write again to let you all know when NoPay is ready to help more startups and that would be soon. Wish NoPay team good luck!

Cheers!

Chet Jain

Medical Tourism

Medical tourism has been with us for many decades. Thousands of years ago, health pilgrims travelled to mineral-rich thermal springs and during the 16th Century, medical tourism experienced a boom in Europe where tourist towns grew in places like Baden Baden, Bath or St. Moritz. However, globe-trotting patients only ever occupied a niche. What is getting people really excited today is the fact that medical tourism is on the threshold of a dramatic boom and is quickly becoming the only viable option for more and more people. According to a study published by Deloitte Consulting in August 2008 the number of Americans travelling abroad for treatment will increase from 750,000 in 2007 to 6 million by 2010 and reach 10 million by 2012. The authors reckon that this exodus will be worth US $21 billion a year in developing countries in four years time. The forecasted growth is particularly important in the US since around 46 million Americans lack health insurance and other tens of millions have minimal insurance coverage. Europe's state-funded systems still give patients a reason to stay at home, but even here, private patients may start to travel more as it becomes cheaper and easier to get treated abroad or as they become impatient with long waiting lists for treatment.

The key factors fostering the growth of this industry include:

• Quality & Price: An increasing number of hospitals are gaining international accreditation and common surgical procedures can be done in world-class hospitals for about a fifth or less of the price charged in American hospitals. Asian hospital chains stand to be the biggest winners with one of the most famous hospitals being the Bumrungrad in Thailand. Bumrungrad has been described as the "United Nations of hospitals" since it attracts more foreign patients than any other hospital in the world. It is run as a five star hotel (on-site valet parking, team of interpreters to help with language problems, limousine pick-up service at the airport) and is considered one of the top hospitals in the world with treatment here costing about one-eighth of what it does in the United States. There are also "local hospitals" going global. In recent years leading American hospitals such as the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins have set up offshoots in the Middle East and Asia.
  
  
• Convenience & Speed: Two major draws to medical travel are the convenience and speed. Countries that operate public health care systems are often so taxed that it can take considerable time to get non-urgent medical care. In Britain and Canada it could take 1 year to get a hip replacement, while in Thailand, for example, it can be done within a week.
  
  
• Global Economy: A new global citizen whose life and work transcends borders is emerging. Many people no longer live exclusively in their country of origin and are becoming increasingly mobile in both their temporary and permanent work assignments. These global citizens are willing to pay for the healthcare systems which match their global lifestyle.
  
  
• Global Private Health Insurance Coverage: In an attempt to stay competitive and referring back to the "global citizen", there are a number of private health insurances who offer global coverage including costs of transportation. After all, if it is cheaper for the uninsured patient to go global, it is cheaper also for the insurer.

It is no surprise that, given the attractive growth forecasts of this sector, various countries are trying to promote themselves as "health care destinations" to get a piece of the pie. According to McKinsey & Company, the top 5 medical tourism destinations are currently Panama, Brazil, Malaysia, Costa Rica and India. India in particular is looking to become the world leader in medical tourism. Last year India received around 150,000 medical tourists and is forecasting an annual growth rate in this sector of 30%. The Middle East has also tried to learn from these destinations and is trying to create local brands in order to attract international patients and insurance companies. One of the most well known medical tourism projects in the Middle East is Dubai Healthcare City. Dubai Healthcare City was designed not only to attract medical tourists but also to reduce the need for residents to travel abroad to receive high quality treatment.

Few Ideas for Writing Great Blogs

This one is from blog of Ivan Misner!

1. Write a “how to” blog (much like this one). Share your best tips about how to do something you know all about.

2. Lists. For some reason, people absolutely love to read lists. Think of a topic relevant to your field of expertise (”The Top Five Faux Pas of Networking,” for example) and start listing.

3. The Straw Man argument. Set up a premise and then argue against it. This always makes for interesting reading, and you get plenty of blog comments if you choose a controversial subject.

4. Case studies. Discussing case studies from your professional work and the lessons you’ve learned from them makes for a great blog. Just watch the word length. Ideally, blog posts shouldn’t be much more than 500 words, so split the case study over two posts if you need to.

5. Interviews. Have you interviewed anyone knowledgeable or well-known recently? What did they say? Write about it.

Happy, Prosperous, Safe and Peaceful New Year 2009!

I feel that we are justified in looking into the future with true assurance, because we have a mode of living in which we find the joy of life and the joy of work harmoniously combined. Added to this is the spirit of ambition which pervades our very being, and seems to make the day's work like a happy child at play. May God bless us all with happiness and contentment this New Year!

Wish you all a very Happy, Prosperous, Safe and Peaceful New Year 2009!

Mid-Career Dilemma!

Hi Friends,

I am starting a new series of posts to bring up issues related to mid-career dilemma. I will be publishing several opinions and suggestions from mentors/professionals about dilemma most people face in mid of their career. I request you all to post your comments and opinion. To start with I would like to share one of the articles I read few months ago. This article was about professionals not able to make career decision in the mid of their career. There is this simple six-question technique recommended for anyone who is experiencing a career problem. By answering these six questions (at your own pace), you’ll be able to “clarify what’s eating at you, how you want things to be different, what you need to do and whether you’re willing to do it.”

The questions are:

• What is your problem?
• Why is that a problem? What troubles you about that?
• How do you want this situation to be? If this problem were solved, what would the situation be like? How would you feel?
• What’s stopping you from making that happen?
• What do you need to do to make that happen? What needs to change? What do you need to ask of others? What do you need to change inside yourself?
• Now that you know what needs to be done, what are you going to do?

I think these questions are useful in that they allow you to step back and look at your problem somewhat objectively.

Give it a shot and I wish it works for you.

Life Cycle of a Dairy Cow in America

Life Cycle of a Dairy Cow in America

In her lifetime, an American dairy cow experiences many lifestyle changes.

1st Phase - Birth

From the moment of her artificially induced conception to her birth nine months later, she exists in the nurturing environment of her mother's womb.

2nd Phase – Productive life

After birth, bonding with her mother lasts for no more than a few minutes to couple of days. Does a calf experience separation anxiety? We should know the answer to that question after hearing her tortured cry (I have seen this in my visit to a dairy farm).

After separation, she is force-fed between one and two gallons of colostrums by the human farmer. Without this first nutrient-rich bovine milk, she would succumb to illness and die in her first two months of life.

Does the mother accept that separation? Each year, tens of thousands of incidents are reported in which angry cows seek revenge upon dairy farmers. Each year, hundreds of dairy farmers are trampled, gored, attacked, and killed. Newspaper accounts blame such incidents on irrational unthinking beasts.

Cows live a lifetime of stress so long as they produce enough milk to be profitable to the dairy farmer. Once she becomes unproductive (around 5 years of age), or once she becomes too diseased to be cured, she is culled (removed) from the herd.

3rd Phase – Unproductive Life Journey

About thirty percent of America's dairy cows are culled from herds each year. To be culled is to be taken from the familiar surroundings of a farm and packed onto a truck with other non-productive or diseased creatures. The fear factor culled cows experience is extreme.

Most Americans would guess that at this point the cow is sent to slaughter house. That is not so. Additional indignities await her. The true torture begins once the cow leaves the dairy farm. Her first stop is not the slaughterhouse but the auction ring.

Also once a cow leaves a farm for her ultimate death, compassion is no longer a concern to human handlers called middleman. Cows are loaded onto trucks at the dairy farm. The ride to auction can be traumatic. Terrified creatures are unloaded from the truck after bumpy rides in which they receive no food or water and are guided into holding pens. Employees of auction houses are often low paid workers who have no interest in animal rights issues. Their job is to move the animals in the proper direction. The cows are led into rings while spectators sit in tiered bleachers and offer bids to an auctioneer's call. (I have seen the auctioning of cows).

Many bidders sit in the audience, content to purchase number of animals depending upon the size of their slaughter operation. Each cow or calf awaits its turn… Twenty three cents per pound? Sold. Next.

4th Phase – Final Extinction

The cow is now owned by the successful bidder. It is his job to get the animal loaded onto his truck and shipped safely to his slaughterhouse facility. After experiencing a first truck ride, no cow wants to ever again climb the ramp onto man's vehicles. These are the most painful and undignified moments of a cow's life. Tails are grabbed and twisted. Nose rings are pulled and sometimes ripped from faces. Gentle creatures are stunned with high voltage electrical prods. Even the most stubborn of creatures eventually goes for her second and final ride.

All cows are slaughtered in America when they are around 5 years of age while their life expectancy is around 15 years. Some are to be slaughtered in factories, while others are to be slaughtered in sheds. Some receive a bullet to the head while others are stunned. (I have visited the American slaughter house).

5th Phase – Recycled Phase

The first step in the slaughter house is o cut their throats so that they are bled. One can see that some cows are awake and conscious during the bleeding process. Spurting blood is collected in 55-gallon drums during slaughtering process. Blood is then dried and processed into powder, then packed into 50 pound bags. Dairy farmers buy this commodity as a protein supplement to be fed to future cows and their offspring. American cows are no longer vegetarian cows. Their own blood protein is mixed with grains to feed the next generation of cows.

Conclusion

Twenty-seven million cows and other animals die each day in America.

If and when we drink a glass of milk, eat ice-cream, cheese, sweet, or for meat eaters, the meal of burger, or the nuggets, or the Colonel's crispy wings, we are eating the suffering and death of once living creatures.

During the 3rd phase of their journey, the middlemen who are responsible for transportation of the cows are the most abusive of human handlers (worst in India because of long journey), but they exist to serve the whims of the consumer. We eat the fruit of his abusive labor and we are complicit in their crime.

When To Dump That Great Idea!

When To Dump That Great Idea

A while ago, you had an idea for a new company that would change the world. You stayed up all night feverishly sketching your plans for global domination.

Yet there you are, months later, still sitting in your cubicle, that brilliant flash a distant memory.

Wake up: Not every idea--even a great one--turns into a money machine. In fact, it's often just as useful to know when to dump a good idea as it is to pursue one--if only so you can get to work on that next "great" idea.

Here are three ways to know when enough is enough.

Paying Customers Never Show Up

So your friends are high-fiving, investors are salivating and the media is gushing. So what? The difference between having an idea and having a real company is a throng of paying customers.

The classic case of early exuberance later squashed was the Segway--that two-wheel, stand-up "human transporter." When Dean Kamen unveiled the Segway in December 2001, top-tier investors like venture capitalist John Doerr and Amazon.com's (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ) Jeff Bezos applauded. The media blared that the device would change the way cities were built.

Customers were less enthralled. The Segway sold less than 30,000 units in over six years: not exactly a revolution.

Some ideas are simply ahead of their time. Remember the Apple Newton? One of the first "personal digital assistants," the Newton was a brilliant idea that the market didn't yet appreciate. A few short years later, Palm (nasdaq: PALM - news - people ) re-introduced a similar concept, to huge fan-fare; now PDAs are a fact of life.

At bottom, it doesn't matter how ingenious your product is--if you can't communicate its value, it may as well not exist.

You Can't Sustain a Competitive Advantage

Novelty alone is not a competitive advantage. A new idea is bound to attract competition. (If it doesn't, chances are the idea wasn't as good as you thought.) The key is being able to survive the onslaught.

Launched in 2002, Friendster, the pioneer of social networking Web sites, was a brilliant idea that couldn't sustain a competitive advantage. Ultimately, Friendster's strategy and technology were easy to replicate and extend. That's why News Corp.'s (nyse: NWS - news - people ) Rupert Murdoch was happy to shell out $580 million for rival MySpace in 2005.

Remember: Your idea is what gets you in the game; your competitive advantage is what keeps you there. If you can't figure out how to stay ahead in your market, start looking for a new one.

You're Not Ready To Quit Your Day Job

You can only moonlight so long before your kids start calling you "that weird guy in the garage." At some point, you actually have to trade in the comfort of a two-week paycheck for the uncertainty of starting your own shop. If you can't muster the courage to make the leap, it's time to dump your idea.

Here's why: When you're really, really ready to head out on your own, your day job seems like a millstone. Heck, you're so consumed with your new project that you're probably a liability at your job anyway.

Chances are, if you're going to make that leap, you'll do it sooner rather than later. Commitment to an idea spurs action. Driven entrepreneurs can't wait to hit key milestones--incorporation, building prototypes, drumming up customers. The uncommitted take the "Mr. Rogers" approach: They sit down, take a shoe off, talk a while, slide a sock off, and maybe, someday, they might be ready for action.

If you're not moving fast, it's probably time to move on.