Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) are back in business. and with them, come tons of S-1. A Form S-1 is the initial registration form that private companies file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when they intend to file for IPOs. It looks like this Form S-1 Now, whether you invest or not, I totally recommend reading a S-1 because it is a gold mine! It teaches you so much not only about that specific company but also: 1. How much the company intends to raise and how they plan to spend? 2. What do they believe their moat is? 3. What is the risk they see in the future (no matter how hunky-dory the business model looks like from outside) 4. Competitive analysis of not just the company but also the industry they operate in 5. How is the company's financial performance, so that you can tie in the truths and PRs properly Reading a complete S-1 of a company is extremely time-consuming and to be honest, quite a waste of time. For example, this Asana S-1 is more than 161 ...
My experience with the mobile apps has been mixed both as a user and as a product guy. Most of the organizations, whom apps I have used, have created the apps more as an afterthought than as a planned strategy. As a result, these apps have become more like a broken and hanging limb off their body than a part of theirs. Usually, these apps are created thinking the target users being people who are connected with the Social brand. Now the intent is great, but the direction is flawed. The mobile apps are indeed are a part of your Social business than Social brand and hence there is a huge divergence in the way people look at it. I personally believe that with screen size of phone getting larger every six months, by 2015 we should see a movement more towards mobile websites from apps, since they don't need to be installed and with a bigger screen size and HTML5 adoption, most of their current limitation will get away. However, in this blog, I am dealing with one of the most c...
Today marks my last day at Goibibo and MakeMyTrip. It has been an eventful journey of 4 years. I was very fortunate. I worked with the smartest people on the earth, built multiple lines of business and learnt lots during the course. Here were my top takeaways: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish : When I had heard this line at Steve Jobs commencement speech, I only understood its meaning metaphorically. Over the last 4 years, I have worked in at least 6 different lines of business of Goibibo, more often than not working at 2 of them simultaneously. Every time I started leading a team, I learnt something new there, about product management, leadership, managing teams and being productive. Leaders like Ashish and Rajesh at Goibibo and MakeMyTrip taught me to keep looking forward and keep creating a vision of “Think about the way it’s going to be.” instead of “Remember, how it used to be?” Always be ready to unlearn: When I joined Goibibo, I was already one of the experienced PMs in the co...