Archive for February, 2007

Tooting My Own Horn, OK, Please!?

iLeher.com is a top-notch blog that covers the Indian technology startup space. Their top story now is an interview with the tolmolbol team. You can find out more about tolmolbol at this link.

P.S: The title of the post is meant to be satirical and not megalomaniacal ;).

Why Paul Graham Is My Guru!

I’m a big fan of Paul Graham. PG is one of those guys who inspired me to dream big, chase those dreams and become an entrepreneur. All this through the beauty of his prose. This post, however, is not about entrepreneurship but about how PG saved my ass. Yesterday, I happened to waltz in to the Hyderabad Toastmasters meeting an hour late. Apparently, they had advanced the meeting by an hour and I was unaware of the same. Considering this was my second meeting as a guest and the second consecutive meeting that I turned up late (by an hour nonetheless), I thought I should make amends. Otherwise, my chances of being voted in to the club might have well been toast.

So, even before I warmed up on my seat, I bravely volunteered to speak in a round that had just begun called the “Table Topics” round. This is essentially a Just-A-Minute kind of talk, except for the fact, no one interrupts you like they would in a JAM. Imagine my luck when the topic given to me was “Procrastination is Good”. Relying on my memory of some of the excellent points mentioned in PG’s essay on this theme (and also perhaps on my many years of personal experience with the subject matter), I extolled upon the virtues of procrastination. I was pleased as punch with the delivery and coming, as it did, after a series of recent speaking debacles, I really couldn’t have asked for more.

So, my dear reader, here’s the moral of the story. Go and read Paul Graham’s essays if you haven’t done so already. You might end up starting a company like I did with tolmolbol; or better still, you might be able to make a good impression on the company you keep.

Bonne chance!

Starting up!

Boy, have I been pretending to be busy? Yup, I’ve been working on launching a start-up tolmolbol for the past few months. But, I coulda, shoulda, woulda posted and I didn’t. And because of that, the war in Iraq has worsened, global warming has increased and the ordinary Indian searching for something fun and useful on the internet has been left disillusioned. Thankfully, I’m back with tolmolbol and I can solve one of the three above-mentioned problems. Two more to go.

So, what is tolmolbol and what’s in it for you?

tolmolbol is a place to:

  • search for trusted businesses;
  • voice out your opinions;
  • meet interesting people in your community;
  • communicate interesting events and advertise local classifieds;
  • share experiences, tips and insights; and
  • get FREE SMS with information regarding businesses, events and classifieds

tolmolbol is all about you and your neighbourhood. tolmolbol helps ordinary folks like you and me get to know our communities better. Welcome to tolmolbol.com. Hope you have lotsa fun connecting with your neighbourhood!