Varun Prabhakar’s Journal

Introduction:

The pre-launch website of our company’s upcoming product just went live. We call this product “TrackEveryCoin” and it will be released in July 2009. It’s almost been a year since we all jumped into this venture and it’s exciting to see our efforts shaping up into something tangible.

What is the product?

TrackEveryCoin is a complete personal finance system to help you easily manage your money. It combines the ease of recording expenditure with detailed analysis of data on the website.

Why this product?

With this product we aim to solve the pain point of expense tracking and analysis. Today, most people who want to keep a watch on how much they are spending do it through rudimentary methods like notebooks or spreadsheets. And, even after maintaining this expense record for a period of time, actionable analysis of data is difficult, at least it is not very easy to derive patterns from past spending to help spending in the future.

How does it help you?

Our tool enables you to use an electronic gadget or a mobile app to enter your expenses while you make them so there’s less chance of losing data.  Once the data is captured, the same can be synched to the website. The website enables complex analysis like expense records and trends, categories of spending, etc. In addition to expense analysis the website also has features to help you settle shared expenses on trips/events, budgeting, goal setting, reminders, income tracking and more…

Who is it for?

Anyone who wants a healthier financial life! Our product is for the common person and assumes no technology expertise. We have aimed to make the system very user friendly and thus anyone should be able to use the gadget, mobile application and the website with ease.

So, if you like what you see please spread the word and pre-book for special offers when we launch.

In my experience of living 24 years in India I have had a lot of time to experience and think (and whine?) about the pain of adjusting and tolerating the nuances of rapid development. Be it the pollution, the lack of civic amenities, the almost crumbling infrastructure, the unreliability of public transport…I could go on and on about the list of problems but today I don’t want to talk about these negatives. I want to focus on some signs of hope I observed in my recently concluded trip to Delhi. I saw a change that has happened and is continuing in an Indian city; a change worthy of not only appreciation but also possible replication in other Indian cities.

Here are some of the things that I think have helped Delhi reinvent itself:

Delhi Metro:

Delhi Metro (Delhi’s new public transport system) is one of the best examples of hi-technology making a difference in people’s lives. It is clear that people have embraced this technology-driven change and are increasingly getting addicted to it. I used the Metro for most of my commute in my two days’ stay in Delhi and loved it!

Here are the highlights that stand out:

• Trains are very much on time, operating at a frequency of 3 to 4.5 minutes from 6:00 to 23:00.
• In a country where public property is always at risk of neglect and vandalism Delhi Metro is very clean and is being very well maintained. People have been using it since 2005 and 3 years cannot be a fluke!
• Technology behind ticketing and efficiency of the staff is exemplary.
• Security is world class with security checks at every entry point. This is supplemented by more than 1200 closed circuit cameras.
• As per a billboard at a metro station about 700,000 people use the metro every day.
• The metro covers about 65 kms of Delhi but by 2010 another 128 kms would have been added and by 2010 the Metro will cover about 414 kms which means almost all of Delhi and suburbs will be connected.

The qualitative comments about the Metro are mine but most of the statistics are from Wikipedia.

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Today is when it all begins.

Today is my first day back in India.

I have quit my job at Continental USA and have decided to work on a new venture from India.

I have plenty of reasons for the move, some better thought out ones are:
• Do the work I want to and believe in
• Work for myself and be directly responsible for the risks and the rewards of the business
• Live my life on my own terms as opposed to it being directed by company policies, holiday lists etc
• Proximity to family
• India is where the opportunities for startups are better at a lower cost (as compared to the west)

I evaluated my reasons against the financial risks associated with a new venture but I am convinced that the opportunity was far more exciting and potentially rewarding than the risk of getting used to my unexciting- yet-fairly-safe job. The reason to work at a startup is a natural one once you’ve realized how unremarkably average your life is and I could not bear this burden anymore.

So ionlab is my full time love now! I am cautiously excited about our prospects but I can not think of a better word than liberated to describe my state of mind today. Liberated of
• the overtly complicated ways of the corporate world
• the burden of closing the work you didn’t chose but was thrust upon you
• the rules I don’t understand the logic behind(but still had to adhere to!)
• dess codes
• politically correct talk
• mass email
• heck even the swiping of a badge to enter the building

It was hard for me to move out of a place I had lived at for the last couple of years and made some of the most amazing friends I could have ever hoped for. The farewells were touching and I would always miss the fun times in Detroit.

“Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on.” –  The Sunscreen Song

So, I hope I can remain in touch with my Detroiters while I move on the road that starts from this new beginning…