How Scott Cook coaches innovation teams
Great Coaches
All Posts
2016
2015
Chicken and Egg problems with Platform Experiments
Lean Startup and Platform Experiments
2014
Himalayas Trek: Triund, Mt Dhauladhar Base Camp
If you are considering trekking from McLeod Ganj up to [Triund], this travelogue should serve as a quick and dirty rough guide.
Why People Buy Things From You
Why People Buy Things
Customer Development, Invalidation, Karma and WhatsApp
This is an amazing story worth sharing again, and again. In May 2009, an entrepreneur shared this on an online forum that he was active on.
The Evolution of the PMO Site - Vajpayee to Modi
Here’s a colorful look back at the PMO India site over the years, with archives from the Wayback Machine.
Why Large Companies Should Consider A Lean Startup Approach Permalink
Recently, Adam Penenberg made a great post about large companies and why the MVP matters to them. There’s several things that I strongly agree with, but one ...
A 10 Minute Good Reads Challenge
So, my colleague and good friend Raj prodded me towards this post. He asked us to come up with a list few memorable blog posts that we’d all liked. What cons...
Kicking off Levitum Knot Hangouts On Air Permalink
I’d blogged recently about how we’ve adopted a new approach to how we’re running meetings at Levitum.
How I Lost Ten Kilos In A Year
Contents
What We Learnt From A Failed MVP (Lean Startup)
UPDATE Read the follow on post on lean startup customer development interview questions, that’s part of an ongoing series on this blog.
Five Most Popular Amul Ads Of 2013
Wonder what the most popular Amul Ads of 2013 were? Well, here’s a quick round up of the top 5.
Applying Lean Startup Principles To Mobile App Development
I attended DroidSync, an event organized in Mumbai by my friend Prajyot Mainkar of Androcid for app developers and entrepreneurs. I presented a session in th...
Three Tennis Serve Tips I Wish I Had Known Earlier
When I watch Roger Federer serve, his fluid brilliance is incredibly captivating. Balanced and relaxed start position. Check. Graceful rocking motion. Check....
2013
My First Pycon
Late last month, Vinu, Aditya, Jay and I attended Pycon India for the first time. I made a presentation about the technology stack we use at Levitum for the ...
A Case For Paid Trials Instead Of Interviews
Only 1 in 10 startups survives growth from initial co-founders to 10 people. Only 1 in 10 makes the next leap to a 100.
A New Site Design Pelican Kleen Theme
So, I moved from Blogspot a year or so back, and began using a fabulous static site generator called Pelican. The distribution offers a number of themes, but...
2012
The Pursuit of Dreams
The Education section of todays Times of India has covered my wife Monami Bhattacharya, chronicling her journey from an REC Warangal engineering grad working...
Musiguru - Part Deux
“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” ― Albe...
Agile Team Analogy - A Michelin Star Restaurant
My favorite analogy of great team work has always been the Beatles. A group of diverse people coming together to build off each others strengths, and improvi...
Ten collaboration tools every tech startup should consider
Our Bangalore based team at Levitum works from home 3 days of the week. It’s awesome since we save nearly two hours of daily commute time, which gives us mor...
2010
My Birthday
Time flies. Or does it soar? I can’t believe that nearly a year has passed by since my last birthday! My wife and I threw a BBQ party, had a bunch of frien...
My mom retires this Friday!
After nearly three decades as a middle school science teacher, Padma Krishnaswamy, my mom retires from D.A.V. Gopalapuram in Chennai this Friday!There, now...
ACJ Speaker Session: Technology and Journalism
Slides from my speaker session at Asian College of Journalism earlier today. Great audience, and insightful points raised afterwards. I was really impresse...
Featured in Iowa State University Newsletter
I'm honored to be featured in my alma, Iowa State University's annual departmental newsletter for 2009-10. The newsletter came out a few weeks ago, and the...
2009
Twit or Tat
A little bit of this,and a little bit of that.I tweet lots,and twit not.Follow me on Twitter,and we'll get to know each other.Like birds of a feather,flock...
Trends to Watch
Our team at Levitum has put together a list of key mobile cloud trends to watch in 2010 based on market research. While some of this is stating the obvious...
Ten Little Things
It's been a whirlwind few months, and I've mostly been staying in touch with friends through Facebook and Twitter havent quite done a good job of staying l...
Je rêve un rêve
Sorry for having disappeared for a bit again - it's been a busy couple of months, and this should be an eventful post. Firstly, the acquisition of the ente...
2008
Car Accident
This is a slightly delayed post to share an update that most of you are aware of by now, but may not be aware of all the details. Unfortunately, I was in a...
Comic: Ma Belle’s Vet Trip
Ma Belle is now a happy four month old pup and is growing up into the sweetest thing ever. She is the darling of the kids in the neighborhood who love play...
Ma Belle vs. Froggy
Our golden retriever pup is a hyperactive bundle of energy and loves playing my wife's old stuffed animals. Watch this duel with her toy frog - she gores i...
Does meeting madness get to you?
Do you feel at times that you are in so many meetings that you just arent adding much value? Or that you are in an ad-hoc meeting where you land up and th...
Birthday gift for Monami - Ma Belle!!!
We have a new addition - my gift to Monami for her birthday! A golden retriever puppy! Although her birthday was early May, we didnt get around to pup hunt...
Saturday Post - Inaugural edition in Chennai!!!!
I am very happy and proud to share some great news. On Saturday, Feb 9th 2008, Vanchi Publications, launched the first edition of the Saturday Post, a comm...
2008 - Carpe Diem!
What a crazy, crazy world we live in! Time flies by through the year and the best time to reconnect with your friends is often through a new year greeting ...
2007
Voila! Travel pictures!
There's so much to write about our travels and experiences in Europe over the last month, but there just hasnt been enough time!!!!! For now - here are a ...
India’s greatest President to teach at PSG
"A developed India by 2020, or even earlier, is not a dream. It need not be a mere vision in the minds of many Indians. It is a mission we can all take up ...
Ten Questions with Jeffrey Pfeffer
Here's a little insightful gem straight from Guy's blog - an interview with Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at...
Hanauma Bay Snorkelling - Comic Strip
Hanauma Bay StripPictures from our snorkelling adventure in Hanauma Bay in Hawaii I threw together while experimenting with ComicLife, a neat Mac applicati...
An April Fools Day prank
I started a silly prank on a few colleagues this Fool's Day - The pretext? That we had just closed a deal through a reseller in Pakistan and that they had ...
Good news - my patent received!
Well, some good news to share: A patent applied by Iowa State in Feb 2001, based on work I had done earlier during my M.S. (in 1997/1998) was finally award...
Jan 24th - I got married!
*Note: This is a backdated entry*The highlights from our wedding and honeymoon are now online! More pictures to come as we get around to uploading them - p...
2006
Maine Kya Kiah?
Melanie organized a fun carol singing event at work last week. Although I joined the first days practice, a bad throat infection kept me out through the re...
$499.95 on Amazon - my college project report
Neuro Fuzzy Methods for Adaptive Video Image Compression Using Iterated Fractal Transforms - For Sale ($499.95) (Hardcover)by R Engels, A Sendillnathan, A...
Did I tell you that I’m getting married?
I am!!! Here's our wedding invite designed by Monami and I - well, mostly by her really. It's in the format of a bookmark!The scans for the two sides are ...
Goofy Duo
Mons and I got a digitized sketch made at Garuda Mall.
Hampi Dumpty - my fall
That's a small gash I had from my bike fall. Not seen in the picture - I had bruises on my arm, knee and shoulder, which took a couple of weeks to heal. My...
Operation Heliconia
Back when I was in highschool, our teacher gave us a biology class assignment - each one of us was to put together a herbarium with 10 phylums on display. ...
Kabbaladurga
Inspired by Vidya, one of the 'kids' in our office with a passion for trekking, a few of us set off on a day trip last Sunday to Kabbaladurga, a picturesqu...
DAV Gopalapuram - India’s best school
My highschool (DAV Gopalapuram, Chennai) featured recently in a Rediff article titled "Welcome to India's best school".Excerpt - "At the Central Board of S...
Bheemeshwari Cauvery Fishing Camp
Last weekend, Aditya, Vengada, Ramesh and I made a trip to the Bheemeshwari fishing camp along the Cauvery river. The package was offered by the Jungle l...
A thespian dies, and Bangalore burns
Rajkumar, the Kannada thespian died of a cardiac arrest at the age of 77 last Wednesday, and the state plunged into mourning the demise of their beloved mo...
The Fireflies Festival of Sacred Music
The Fireflies Festival of Sacred Music is an annual "dusk to dawn" all night long music festival held at the Fireflies Ashram off Kanakapura road, Bangalor...
My 55 word short story
I am "it". I was "tagged" by my colleague Monami as a part of this ongoing online feud to write the best 55 word short story (started by the New Times from...