What Have I Been Upto.
This question has been posed by a few of my well-wishers. Probably many have the same question since my departure from corporate world last October. Some were plain curious, a few anxious and perhaps even worried. It has been a month and a quarter of my biggest life experiment.
When one starts with an open plan and not much of expectations, whatever happens becomes a wonderful surprise. My plans were pretty vague - exploring startup eco-system, making progress on a list of creative projects I had including writing. Here is a short update on some of those vague plans.
Startup Exploration
It would be nice to have a business card with the title - "Startup Explorer". Maybe I should get one and shrug off the feeling of weirdness. Pre-entrepreneur feels more accurate. Captured some of the learning materials that I found helpful in understanding entrepreneurship as a learning kit. Also completed the Udacity course How to Build a Startup by Steve Blank.
I was fortunate to get connected to three eco-systems - the iSPIRT, Amrita TBI and SID STEM.
iSPIRT is a group for Indian software product industry. They put out lots of good information as well as organise several events that help folks looking at building SaaS and other software products. While I did not yet participate in any event so far, some of the information they have put out has been handy including the workshop on Julia.
Signed up as a mentor with Amrita TBI. Had one mentoring session over Skype. Got an opportunity to participate in their 2018 Pitchiest that happened in February. An action packed couple of days with insightful keynotes and a slew of ideas across varied domains that were pitched. Ended up on the judging panel on Day 1.
The most exciting find has been the low key incubator at IISc. The Society for Innovation and Development, a non-profit independent of IISc runs a deep science incubator along with initiatives to work with large companies as well as SMEs. It feels like a "moonshot factory" to me - startups working on diverse areas covering space tech, health, energy and water to name a few. Working 3 days as week with one of the health tech startup to help frame their direction.
Creative Projects
Put out a couple of RFC's - request for collaboration. Realised that while I may have interest in doing many different things, working someone who is better at some of those areas would help make progress. Now waiting for the universe to conspire :-) If you are reading this and are interested to collaborate or know someone who may be, drop in a line.
The Mindful Engineer Program
Mindful Engineer Program was the most concrete project that I was hoping to get off the ground first. Sent out cold emails to a few college industry placement co-ordinators. Heard back from a couple of them but did not hear a strong yes. Through WhatsApp chats, got connected to a startup founder who is building a platform for college students to acquire skills necessary for a professional career. Would be sharing more over the next couple of months as to how this goes.
Reading
While not much of writing, except some of the outlines and initial drafts, the most satisfying activity that I have sustained so far is reading. On the fiction front, I have been working through the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett in a random order for the past couple of years. Finished my 17th book. About midway point in this amazing series of books by a wonderful writer.
Two books from Thich Nhat Hanh - Miracle of Mindfulness and How to Relax - have been wonderful reads from my neighbourhood library.
Visits to IISc invariably implies a trip to the huge library there.
My alumni card worked surprisingly and started issuing books for the first time using that card since I stepped out of the campus back in 1999. Some tech does work after an 18 year gap. Bar codes in this case.
The gem that I stumbled onto was John von Nuemann's biography. Beautiful book that brought together wonderful tales around two of my favourite subjects - quantum mechanics and computing. What a story, what a genius !
It is biography season for me as I got hooked onto this genre after reading Johnny's life story. Have issued 2 more - Man who knew infinity and Journey into light - stories of two of India's great minds. My reading list continues to explode. It is already way past manageable. Bought 3 paper and 5 e-books to add to the chaos. Added many more to the wish list.
Around home
A local businessman started some construction just outside the boundary wall of our house. This brought out some interesting community dynamics around my neighbourhood and offered me a chance to interact with some of the local governance personnel. Never a pleasing experience. As expected, nothing came out of going through a formal channel of complaint and the 2 floor structure is almost ready now blocking light and air to houses by the road side.
A very unfortunate building collapse that killed 5 people in a nearby area triggered some reaction from the authorities. Today there was a notice served to the businessman to stop construction and produce approval documents !
So that is the summary of some of the action from the past 4 months.
No plan ? No problem.
Or so it seems so far.
Better perhaps is The Pretense of Accident
This question has been posed by a few of my well-wishers. Probably many have the same question since my departure from corporate world last October. Some were plain curious, a few anxious and perhaps even worried. It has been a month and a quarter of my biggest life experiment.
When one starts with an open plan and not much of expectations, whatever happens becomes a wonderful surprise. My plans were pretty vague - exploring startup eco-system, making progress on a list of creative projects I had including writing. Here is a short update on some of those vague plans.
Startup Exploration
It would be nice to have a business card with the title - "Startup Explorer". Maybe I should get one and shrug off the feeling of weirdness. Pre-entrepreneur feels more accurate. Captured some of the learning materials that I found helpful in understanding entrepreneurship as a learning kit. Also completed the Udacity course How to Build a Startup by Steve Blank.
I was fortunate to get connected to three eco-systems - the iSPIRT, Amrita TBI and SID STEM.
iSPIRT is a group for Indian software product industry. They put out lots of good information as well as organise several events that help folks looking at building SaaS and other software products. While I did not yet participate in any event so far, some of the information they have put out has been handy including the workshop on Julia.
Signed up as a mentor with Amrita TBI. Had one mentoring session over Skype. Got an opportunity to participate in their 2018 Pitchiest that happened in February. An action packed couple of days with insightful keynotes and a slew of ideas across varied domains that were pitched. Ended up on the judging panel on Day 1.
The most exciting find has been the low key incubator at IISc. The Society for Innovation and Development, a non-profit independent of IISc runs a deep science incubator along with initiatives to work with large companies as well as SMEs. It feels like a "moonshot factory" to me - startups working on diverse areas covering space tech, health, energy and water to name a few. Working 3 days as week with one of the health tech startup to help frame their direction.
Creative Projects
Put out a couple of RFC's - request for collaboration. Realised that while I may have interest in doing many different things, working someone who is better at some of those areas would help make progress. Now waiting for the universe to conspire :-) If you are reading this and are interested to collaborate or know someone who may be, drop in a line.
The Mindful Engineer Program
Mindful Engineer Program was the most concrete project that I was hoping to get off the ground first. Sent out cold emails to a few college industry placement co-ordinators. Heard back from a couple of them but did not hear a strong yes. Through WhatsApp chats, got connected to a startup founder who is building a platform for college students to acquire skills necessary for a professional career. Would be sharing more over the next couple of months as to how this goes.
Reading
While not much of writing, except some of the outlines and initial drafts, the most satisfying activity that I have sustained so far is reading. On the fiction front, I have been working through the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett in a random order for the past couple of years. Finished my 17th book. About midway point in this amazing series of books by a wonderful writer.
Two books from Thich Nhat Hanh - Miracle of Mindfulness and How to Relax - have been wonderful reads from my neighbourhood library.
Visits to IISc invariably implies a trip to the huge library there.
My alumni card worked surprisingly and started issuing books for the first time using that card since I stepped out of the campus back in 1999. Some tech does work after an 18 year gap. Bar codes in this case.
The gem that I stumbled onto was John von Nuemann's biography. Beautiful book that brought together wonderful tales around two of my favourite subjects - quantum mechanics and computing. What a story, what a genius !
It is biography season for me as I got hooked onto this genre after reading Johnny's life story. Have issued 2 more - Man who knew infinity and Journey into light - stories of two of India's great minds. My reading list continues to explode. It is already way past manageable. Bought 3 paper and 5 e-books to add to the chaos. Added many more to the wish list.
Around home
A local businessman started some construction just outside the boundary wall of our house. This brought out some interesting community dynamics around my neighbourhood and offered me a chance to interact with some of the local governance personnel. Never a pleasing experience. As expected, nothing came out of going through a formal channel of complaint and the 2 floor structure is almost ready now blocking light and air to houses by the road side.
A very unfortunate building collapse that killed 5 people in a nearby area triggered some reaction from the authorities. Today there was a notice served to the businessman to stop construction and produce approval documents !
So that is the summary of some of the action from the past 4 months.
No plan ? No problem.
Or so it seems so far.
Better perhaps is The Pretense of Accident
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