Sunday, May 20, 2007

S3: Amazon's Secret Weapon

As a web entrepreneur, data storage has always been my nightmare problem. Dreams of critical data wiped out, or just not being able to manage all those servers that store the data, or not being able to serve data fast enough, or...or...

Then along comes Amazon S3, Simple Storage Engine, completely managed storage at $0.15/GB/month storage, with a simple interface that takes literally minutes of programming and wallah you have headache free unlimited storage for your web app.

Already this service is being used by large and famous internet sites, such as SmugMug and WebMail.

Amazon has solved one of the biggest problems on the web today. And they have kept a very low profile about it. I predict that Amazon S3 will go onto to becoming the world's largest data warehousing business, taking away business and revenue from traditional hosts like ThePlanet and Rackspace.


Monday, May 14, 2007

"Stubborn Entreupreuners"

Finally a success story validating what I do. I am stubborn, I have conviction in my beliefs, but when you are trying to grow by raising finance you are always pushed around to alter your strategy or business plan. People tell you "build to sell", "build for compatibility", "show less cash burn", "bring in CEO", "reach profits faster", "go more aggressive", etc etc.

What is a poor startup entrepreneur to do?

Here is a story about a successful 35 year old VC who actually likes stubborn entrepreneurs, who have conviction in their beliefs. He is the one that funded Facebook and look how well they are doing:
http://www.mercurynews.com/vcsurvey/ci_5873542?nclick_check=1

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Is India independent?

My uncle in the US sent out a bit of trivia about the how the 1st war for independence against the colonists was lost in 1857. My reply to him was:

the war of independence in India is still lost, because India still does not appear to have a fair, fast and mature judiciary:


1. Alister ran over and killed 6 people in Bombay, the court acquitted him. Now the High Court has reopened the trial and the judge who acquitted him has resigned

2. Some of MF Hussain's (India's leading artist) paintings were complained of to a small court in Haradwar, which already had 13,000+ cases pending before it, some over 15 years old; and the court issues summons to attach MF Hussain's properties, and now MF Hussain lives in exile in Dubai

3. Richard Gere does volunteer work for an AIDS show in UP; and someone complains to a local court that he behaved obscenely on stage and the court immediately issues an arrest warrant in his name.


So what independence are we talking about. Just removing the Brits is not independence; independence is being able to secure your freedom through law, order & justice.


Why does all this happen in India? Well, the salary of a high court judge is $450 a month, and they politicians want to keep the judiciary weak so that they have power.

And who votes these politicians in? NOT US, the rich in India do not go to vote, you cannot expect them to leave their AC rooms and stand in line...so the poor go and vote, the illiterate go and vote...so you are seeing an India of the illiterates, by the illiterates and for the illiterates.

In the recent municipal election of Delhi, out of 1300+ candidates, 850+ had not graduated past class 4; and over 1100 had been booked for a criminal offense. Don't even ask me what is going on in the UP election...