Narayana Murthy's 5 success mantras for entrepreneurs

N R Narayana Murthy, co-founder and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies talks about the best business decision he ever made, the reason why the core Infosys team has been together for all these years, the Satyam fiasco, what money means to him and what aspiring entrepreneurs need to succeed.

The five things are:

1. You must have an idea whose value to the market should be expressible in a simple sentence, not a complex or a compound sentence.
2. You must have a team that brings mutually exclusive, but collectively exhaustive set of skills, expertise and experience
3. The market must be ready for your idea. If the market is not ready for your idea, doesn't matter how smart your idea is, you will not succeed.
4. You need a good value system, because entrepreneurship in the beginning is all about sacrifice, hard work, deferred gratification, disappointments. It is the value system that creates confidence in each member of the community that other members too are doing the same to make this company succeed.
5. You need funds. . . but that is easy, finance is not a problem.

I read this on Rediff as part of Murthy's discussion where he says, "We use facts to resolve differences. That is why we say, In God we trust, everyone else brings data to the table."

Basics of Marketing your Startup

Mahesh Murthy, of SeedFund and the CEO of Pinstorm, talks on the Basics of Marketing your Startup. This talk was at the Delhi Edition of Proto.in in July '08.

Are you an entrepreneur, you absolutely need to watch this one.

Startups

A Complete List of 100 Attributes of People Who Start Companies: How You Can Be One of America’s Entrepreneurs.

Click here to read one hundred characteristics and attributes of people who start companies—some born of experience, education or birth. Most can be learned by study and practice.

Got a great idea?

There's never been a better time to turn it into a great company. Here's a 16-step guide to help you do it right and build a bulletproof startup.

Phase One Establish a Company
Step 1. Stress-Test Your Big Idea
Step 2. Build Your Founding Team
Step 3. Draft a Business Plan
Step 4. Play the Name Game
Step 5. Incorporate Thyself

Phase Two Prototype the Product
Step 1. Stake Out Intellectual Property
Step 2. Create an Advisory Board
Step 3. Build Your Prototype

Phase Three Develop the Beta Product
Step 1. Start Staffing Up
Step 2. Assemble Your Back Office
Step 3. Launch Your Beta Test
Step 4. Revisit the Business Plan

Phase Four Launch the Product
Step 1. Build a New Board of Directors
Step 2. Develop the Sales and Marketing Plan
Step 3. Open an Office
Step 4. Hit the Market

Read the entire article by Michael V. Copeland and Om Malik on Cnn Money.

A Two-part Rule for Naming Your Startup

Use a compound name, with 2 components: one word that relates to the product and a second word that represents a metaphorical adjective that evokes the characteristic of the company's product. Some examples, PayPal, IronPort or Brightmail.


Read more about it here.