In life, we quite often make decisions based on unknown rules and theories. Life is so complicated to have a pre-defined output with given circumstances and effort you put in. Its equally true with you career, especially in the current world - where no one stays in a job for ever. A year back or so I was in such a situation - I decided to change my job, and what should be my choice? There was a offer I have turned down during the time, which could be the worst decision I made at that juncture. It was from one of my ex-colleague, Naman to join with him at a start-up - FindYogi.com. It was just a couple of months old at that it and was time of forming the initial team. Later based on reassessment of priorities, I decided to join somewhere else. Its a tough decision to define how good the opportunity was, until something the results are visible.
To tell about FindYogi, it was purely based on emerging E-commerce culture (was targeting initially India). If you are already aware of the isbn.net.in, you are aware of the business of FindYogi. FindYogi was a product comparison based on specification - which was already available in lot many site- and the feature to get the E-commerce website where you get the product(mobiles) for the cheapest price. It searches across various E-commerce sites selling a product and get the cheapest price among all sites along with the coupons/offers available for each of them. The website was so well suited to Indian crowd where people try to save single paise possible. And finally, the recommendation engine, which was/will be the most complicated part ( from a developer's point of view). To provide the best recommendation - we need to consider what he search across multiple website, his choice of brand and price range and other factors.
How FindYogi Prove I was wrong?
After launching their first version a week after last year Diwali, over the period they have provided a great logo and index page. It give a lot cool feel in the blue theme with the mascot(whatever be its name). A good UI - in terms of look and feel and usability - sells half the product. It can cover lot many issues in the back-end as well. And in less than 8 month time - by last June or so - their next puzzle was also solved. The mobile search functionality with comparison or price and product was available. May be, the better customized recommendation still on the way , FindYogi has already provided with a reasonably good recommendations on my search. Feature Score and Value for Money were the two indexes the provide a fair enough knowledge on whether I should buy it or not.
How FindYogi Prove I was right?
The speed of growth might be one alarming factor for key members of the team. In a web-based world with a Start-up tag, a year might be too long for initial versions, especially when there is some is competitor for you. The success of web-based product is mostly based on the popularity you have in the world also. FindYogi is not that famous till now - as they are only 2-3 months from the first stable release - things might change by this year end or so.
When looking from developers point of view, UI is good, but an extra bit is missing. For example, in a product details page, it looks like too many text and images and overload the data. Also UI is an ever-evolving process and will be better and better over time.
What I would have asked for ?
One big feature missing is registered usage. Facebook or Google plus log-in is an easy to implement feature which opens up for lot many features like user votes, reviews etc. The success of review from public has been already proved by Zomato, IMDB.com etc. Also a social network based log-in can provide you with more publicity as well. Another index I would have added will be reliability of vendors in the list. There are so many sites selling the fake products and its very important to ignore them in future.
I am not sure how I should look as FindYogi proceeds to success - to be happy about my friends growing or to be sad about a opportunity I kicked away. I will be keep on monitoring the growth of FindYogi to feed my sadistic mind, but hope FindYogi team will have the final laugh. Best wishes guys!!
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