Lessons For Marketing From Spectacular Comeback Of QR Codes Via Mobile Payments

The world’s leading mobile wallets use QR codes. This includes Alipay and WeChat Pay in China, PayTM and PayZapp in India and Starbucks App in the United States. QR code has been popular in China for the last 4-5 years. In India, the nineties-era technology has become very visible in the last one year, driven by … Read more

A Killer Feature For PFM On The Eve Of PSD2

Personal Finance Managers and Mobile Money Management Apps (herewith “PFM”) have been around for over a decade. So far, PFM has focused on budgeting by helping users control everyday expenses such as the proverbial $5 coffee. For reasons explained in Innovative Fintechs Don’t Need No Open Banking Regulation, PFM’s value proposition is disproportionately low compared … Read more

Can Chatbots Replace Humans?

If you think bots will never replace human agents, you’re amongst the lucky few who has been served by intelligent human agents. Let's stop pretending that the average Customer Service Rep has an IQ of 140 when we believe that chatbots are not intelligent enough to replace human agents. https://t.co/ErzpUfMmLP via @verge . #CustomerService pic.twitter.com/ujDj2l3593 … Read more

How To Fire Developers And Assemble Software From APIs

A few months ago, I’d visited the South Indian temple town of Tirupati with my family. On the way, whenever the train stopped at a station, the engine was switched off. But the air-conditioning still worked because it was powered by huge battery packs installed in the AC coach. Coincidentally, the manufacturer of these battery … Read more

How To Replace Excel For Collecting Master Data For Your SAAS

In Why Overcoming The Tyranny Of Excel Is A Lousy Positioning Theme, we’d cautioned software companies from pitching their software as a replacement for Excel. Since then, we’re happy to see more innovative positioning around Excel by technology providers. For example, BI vendor Domo pitches its suite of data visualization products as complementary to – … Read more

SAAS – What’s In It For Vendors?

SAAS promises zero upfront cost, freedom from maintenance and relief from headaches of updates, and so on. These are all benefits for customers of SAAS. What’s in it for providers of SAAS? Shorter sales cycle is the most obvious benefit. Because buyers don’t need to incur huge licensing costs while signing up for a SAAS … Read more

Fintechs Need Guts More Than Lawyers!

In Part 1 titled “Fintechs Need Marketers And Lobbyists – Not Lawyers”, we saw why marketers and lobbyists play a vital role in a fintech startup’s success, and how successful startups in fintech and other heavily regulated industries don’t seem to have consulted lawyers while conceptualizing their offerings. In this second part, we’ll examine the … Read more

Don’t Throw The Baby Out With The Bathwater

Many people have reacted vehemently against the government’s move to regulate the creation, distribution and usage of Indian maps under the proposed Geospatial Information Regulation bill. Some have even insinuated that the move is a veiled threat to police Google Maps and amounts to “throwing out the baby with the bathwater”. I don’t know whether … Read more