Skateboarding was crazy in July. With so much going on it's been impossible to keep up. Boston has never seen so much action in such a small amount of time. First Manny Mania and then Dew Tour bringing the spotlight to Boston. New England's own Dave Bachinsky held his own came into the semi-finals in 7th and ended up 13th overall in street. Another hometown hero Andy McDonald came in 3rd in vert. After the Dew Tour, ES rolled through town on the Game of Skate tour where Eric Martinac won himself a trip to Cali for the finals. New England wasn't the only hot spot though, the Zoo York crew brought some heat up to Canada for the Am Getting Paid contest where New England was still well represented thanks to Manny Santiago who ended up taking 2nd and took home $2000.00. Congratulations Manny! California of course has always been a hotbed for skating and all eyes were on Costa Masa July 10-12 for the Maloof Money Cup. A much less hyped contest but I think more fun to watch was the Converse Coastal Carnage. Now X Games 15 is going on and they one-uped the the Coastal Carnage set up by adding concrete, pool coping and a crazy line over the cradle.
Starting up your own venture has become quite the rage these days. Especially, here in IIT Kharagpur, with every passing batch, more and more people are getting ready to take the leap. So in order to inspire all the aspiring entrepreneurs in campus and beyond, we decided to talk to the guy from Kharagpur with the million dollar startup. We are talking about none other than Amritanshu Anand, co-founder of Betaglide, a powerful, reliable and easy to use tool to assist mobile application developers and testers to test their app over the cloud using real devices and real testers/users. Luckily for us, Amritanshu was in campus for the past few days, and in this candid chat, he shares with us his saga of building this company from its foundations.
Q:What motivated you to become an entrepreneur in a place like IIT, where the current trend is being absorbed into high profile jobs?
A: Although I had always wanted to be an entrepreneur, my ambitions got strengthened in IIT. I met a few alumni who were already entrepreneurs at one of the convocations, and was pretty impressed. I made up my mind that I would become an entrepreneur. However my scheme was cut short by the fact that I didn’t have much of an idea about starting up. So I joined the Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT Kharagpur, and received a lot of guidance from the other members.
A: In my first 2 years at IIT, I dabbled in managing events and innovating, but it wasn’t very fruitful. In the third year, I noticed a problem plaguing all app developers, that their apps weren’t being tested in a real world scenario. This led to the inception of Crowdbeans, where we had a set of testers in our campus, checking apps for bugs and other performance issues. Following this we would send our feedback to the app developers.
However, after some time, we felt that this process was highly unprofessional, so my co-founder Anshul (Shingle) and I developed a cloud based app testing platform called Betaglide, with its USP being device fragmentation. We entered TATA FirstDot.in, a startup competition and we came in the Top 20. This gave us the confidence to move on. After that we competed in MIT GSL (Global Startup Labs) and we won it. This enhanced our confidence by leaps and bounds. Several investors at NASSCOM 10000 and Little iLabs liked our idea and we were invited by T-Labs to come to Bangalore, to work on our startup full-time. Later this year, in the Rice Business Plan Competition we won the Mercury Tech Fund Investment prize worth 1 million USD.
Q: We all know that starting up is not easy. What were the obstacles you faced in this inspiring journey of yours?
A: Well, in a place like IIT, in my opinion, there is always a lot of pressure on you to perform. When I first took the plunge, there was academic stress and peer pressure on me. Also when T-Labs called me to Bangalore, I was in a dilemma for a long period of time, because I knew there was no coming back to the same old life at Kharagpur. I was also a placement coordinator, and with my resume, I could have landed a fairly plush job at a consulting or financial firm. I faced a little antagonism at first, but my parents were pretty cool about it later. In the initial stages another major problem was the lack of funds and this was pretty discouraging. The attitude towards student startups in India is always condescending. Investors feel that a student startup will last only for their college tenure and hence they are hesitant to invest in it. This is what we endeavour to change with our venture. Another low was when a competitor of ours launched the same product we had been working on for 5 months. Suddenly, we were back to square one, and completely disheartened. But we had the persistence and determination to move on.
A: There’s a lot of fun incorporated with work while working in a startup. We have an immense amount of freedom to work and innovate, in contrast to a 9 to 5 job. Sometimes I go to the office at 4pm and we work till 3 in the morning. We have no weekdays or weekends, everyday’s just the same. However with our growing family of employees, we have disciplined ourselves much more, and that is showing in our work. Another great aspect of working in a startup is the amount of travel. One day I’m on business in Bangalore, and the next I’m sunbathing in Goa. But all the time, wherever I go, my mind is fixated on my goal and how to accomplish my targets. The most satisfying thing in being an entrepreneur is not the money, its the fact that your company is creating jobs and value.
A: IIT Kharagpur has always played a crucial role in my startup and this whole voyage has been of paramount importance to me. I would sincerely like to thank the director, Dr. P.P. Chakraborty and the professors here who have never failed to assist me in any way. They allowed me to drop out of college to pursue my dreams. Also, another vote of thanks goes to the IIT alumni network, who have helped me beyond my expectations, in terms of guidance, networking and even funding. The Entrepreneurship Cell helped me come into contact with several like minded people which enhanced my idea and develop it into its full fledged form. After our initiative, IIT Kharagpur has introduced the credit system, wherein students can finish their course in 3 and a half years. It feels good to see that we had a role to play in this regard.
Q: You have been to the USA and seen the startup culture there. How different is it from the startup ecosystem here?
A: The USA is a frontrunner in startup culture, especially in tech-startups where there is a lot of competition and innovation. Any global product has to be in Silicon Valley. In fact, whatever technology is released in America, takes at least three months to reach India, because over there everyone is using cutting edge technology. Also another advantage in the US is that it is much easier to raise funds there, because normally, US investors take your idea into consideration instead of other factors like work experience, revenue generation and returns.
A: We have been playing in major markets in the USA and India. In the near future, we would like to expand to Europe and Southeast Asia. Also, we have set ourselves an achievable target of reaching out to nearly 20,000 app developers. As for long term aims, we want to expand our domain in terms of moving on to wearables, automobiles,television and consequentially the Internet of Things (IoT).
A: Don’t startup because you think its cool to do it. It seems easy on paper, but trust me, there will be times when you will just want to quit everything and go back to your routine life again. So, do it only if you have the acumen and capability to run a company, the persistence and determination to get up if you fall, and the confidence to fulfill your dreams.
Banking and Finance industry is one of the most sought after career paths in Nepal.Various vacancies have been announced by leading bank a...
National Examination Board (NEB) has published an urgent notice regarding Grade Increment for the students of Grade 11, having first two initials 74 in the registration number and has appeared as a regular student in the grade 11 examination held on 2074 Ashad Month.
Such students who failed to attend examination of one subject or secured less than D+ in one subject are eligible to sit for the grade increment examination.
Earlier , National Examination Board (NEB) has published the regular examination results of Grade 11 of the Science, Management, Humanities and Education .
EEOC v. Catastrophe Management Solutions: Does prohibiting dreadlocks discriminate against black employees?
EEOC v. Catastrophe Management Solutions, No. 14-13482 (11th Cir. Sept. 15, 2016), is an important new decision addressing the bounds of what constitutes intentional race discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In this case, the EEOC argued that CMS intentionally discriminated against Chastity Jones, a black applicant, based on her race by refusing to hire her unless she cut off her dreadlocks, which were prohibited by CMS's race-neutral grooming policy.
In numerous decisions over the years, including most recently in Richardson v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., No. 15-1142 (6th Cir. Sept. 9, 2016), the Sixth Circuit has applied the "honest belief" rule in evaluating whether a defendant intentionally discriminated against a plaintiff in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or another EEO law. Pursuant to the honest belief rule, a plaintiff cannot prevail if the evidence establishes that the employer honestly believed that its asserted reason for taking an action was based in fact, even if it turns out that the employer's belief was mistaken. In Reva, for instance, the court held that the employer's decision to terminate the plaintiff under its coaching policy was protected by the honest belief rule, and therefore, the plaintiff could not prevail on her age discrimination claim.
This post examines the Sixth Circuit's application of the honest belief rule and explains why it appears to be inconsistent with fundamental principles of disparate treatment and of burdens of proof.
In Carcaño v. McCrory, No. 1:16cv236 (M.D.N.C. Aug. 26, 2016), U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder adopted a novel line of reasoning in concluding that the University of North Carolina would be engaging in unlawful sex discrimination by excluding transgender individuals from single-sex bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Under Judge Schroeder's reasoning, single-sex bathrooms, even if "separate but equal," presumptively constitute unlawful sex discrimination in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendment Acts of 1972, and therefore, they are only permitted if there is an applicable exception, such as a regulation, allowing for them. Following this reasoning, it would appear that sex-segregated facilities may violate sex discrimination prohibitions under other federal or state laws, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
As the Senate weighs whether to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the Supreme Court, his views on civil rights are likely to be ...
例：The medical school's graduates are considered to be the cream of the crop and can get jobs wherever they want to.