This Diwali, share the gift of knowledge

Finding the right gift is hard. Here's a great solution Dear Jigar, I have a question for you.  What are you planning as a gift during the festival season? It's hard, I know. In fact, picking a gift for a wedding, a birthday or any other occasion is easier. It's either cash, a gift voucher from an e-commerce website or a bottle of wine.  However, a gift for the festival season is a different story altogether. I remember the Diwali and Dussehra from my childhood. Every evening, during the two week period between the festivals, I saw my Dad come home with fancy looking boxes covered in cellophane and tinted papers. They usually contained an assortment of dry fruits, sweets, eclairs and sometimes, jellies. At first, I'd be super excited to tear through these boxes. However, with each passing day and year, I hoped  that they'd be something else. And hope would soon turn into despair with each unboxing.  In a few years, I joined them. I found myself buying such boxes of dry fruits. Without even giving a thought to whether the person I'm gifting it to would find it useful.  That's why, at The Ken, we decided...just like they say in those infomercials, 'There has to be a better way!'  So, here we are, asking you, have you considered gifting a subscription to The Ken? You can gift an annual subscription to your friend, colleague or a loved one - anyone who will value being "in the loop" about all things and will love you for having thought of it. They'll also get the same privileges as you do - access to our 850+ previously published stories, subscriber-only apps on iOS and Android and the daily morning emails that have become a habit for you. Forget the dried fruits. Just this year, consider gifting them a subscription instead. GIFT A SUBSCRIPTION Have a fabulous Diwali with your loved ones! Sincerely, Manan Bharara manan@the-ken.com   Don't like these? You can unsubscribe

Introducing Corporate Team Subscriptions

Read The Ken. With your team Hello Jigar,   Today is a special day.    Because starting today, for the next one month, there's a new way for you to unlock and read The Ken.     We have always had corporate subscriptions. In fact, it's one of the first products I launched after I joined The Ken last year. At the time, in a blog post announcing the product, titled 'What makes The Ken's Corporate Subscription special?', I wrote that there were three aspects that made our product unique : a) Transparent Pricing b) A self-serve experience c) Corporate-wide access on the LAN.    At the time, we had 30 corporates who had purchased corporate subscriptions to The Ken for their employees. That number has more than tripled since then. It's not just that corporate subscriptions have grown, it's that the overwhelming majority of our corporate subscribers have stayed with us. We asked around, and found a single, consistent feedback:    "Reading The Ken is more valuable to me because my team is reading it too."   This made sense. I imagine corporate teams, armed with a deeper understanding of their company, sector or what their competitors are doing, perform better. And make better decisions. Sales teams. Marketing teams. Executive teams. Board members. Product managers.     So we decided, let's make it easier. I will just repeat what Rohin told us, 'How do we build a Slack-like experience for corporate subscriptions?'    To mark our third anniversary, we have a special offering for your team.   To get a corporate subscription to The Ken, you need a minimum of 5 team members. Starting today, as a bonus, if you add 10 members or more, we will instantly activate a 30-day trial for your team at no charge. This will give you unlimited access to all our subscriber benefits for the next one month. This means our exclusive daily stories, a wealth of 850+ older stories going back three years, and our exclusive subscriber-only apps for iOS and Android.   At the end of your trial, your team can decide whether you want to upgrade to our Corporate Subscription.    I think you will. But, hey, don't take my word for it. Just unlock The Ken for your team and ask them after a month.    For teams of 5-9 members, you can continue to purchase a corporate subscription as before.    You can start by clicking the button below. ADD YOUR TEAM If you're facing any issues with inviting and activating your corporate account, just reply to this email or drop in a note to support@the-ken.com.   Regards, Praveen Gopal Krishnan Head of Product  The Ken (the-ken.com) You can choose to opt-out from our emails. Click here.

Jigar, don't read the comments

There's more to a Ken story Good Morning Jigar,   We don't have a story today because it's Dusshera, but I thought I'd share something with you. There's a famous internet phrase that goes 'Don't read the comments'. It's pretty universal. There's a book with the title, a twitter account and even an xkcd comic about it. However, at The Ken, our comment sections are different. Because they are available exclusively to subscribers, they are a destination of high-quality conversations.   Today, I thought I'd give you a peek into our comment sections, the kind of discussions that happen and what makes them special. These are actual comments, but for privacy reasons, we've changed the names of the authors. Stay ahead of everyone else Our comment sections help set the story in context, and some of our sharpest subscribers connect the dots in ways only they can. Way before everybody else. Ankur Dixit Product Manager at a leading technology firm Here’s where Zomato Gold doesn’t add up to me   If the partner restaurants are indeed among the Top 50 in each city, why would they want to explore gimmicky 1+1 offers to improve footfalls? Especially when there is no rider on the number of deals they need to honour or a “Happy Hour” to operate in.   I actually started feeling guilty about using my Zomato Gold membership yesterday – There is no way this is directed at “premium customers”. It’s for the bargain hunters, who will eat into restaurant bottomlines and pad Zomato’s coffers. I’d be surprised if Zomato Gold survives the Christmas / New Year period.   READ THIS COMMENT ON OUR STORY Get answers to specific questions Read the story and want a clarification, or a perspective about something that got cut in the edit? No problem. Just ask. Our writers respond.   Gauri Oberoi Student - IIM Ahmedabad Amazing story and loved the story built up. To me, half the way, it felt a lot like Rocket Internet of Pharma Industry, would really appreciate if that parallel could be drawn in detail, if seems fit. Seema Singh Cofounder - The Ken Thanks, Naveen. Now that you mention Rocket Internet, I'm tempted to think in that direction but Strides group isn't really that giant incubator which takes cutting edge successful ideas and clones them.   One, cutting edge in pharma is very, very long gestation, the extreme opposite of internet cos. Strides doesn't do innovative/brand new products at all, it does generics products.   Two, he mostly does it all by himself, rarely getting PE or VC money.   Three, he identifies supply gaps in regions and then moves very very quickly to fill that. Easy to do in generics business if you have good quality chemistry and manufacturing. Financing is not an issue in manufacturing in any case. Strides got some $100M in a loan from KKR in 2017.   READ THIS CONVERSATION Go beyond the story itself The best part of having subscribers who are serious, career-minded and knowledgable, is that they tell us what we missed. Plus several of them are CXOs. They usually know what they are talking about. Sriram Ranganathan CEO at a Software Consulting Firm The rural poor don't need ways to keep money they don't have. Rather, they need money to enable them to do stuff they're capable of – even if something as mundane as vending vegetables at the street corner to be self sufficient.   The thesis for Payment Banks' existence is flawed. IMHO financial inclusion begins with access to credit, not deposits. And business built on flawed theses will chase vanity metrics and find shortcuts to keep avoiding this harsh reality.   READ THIS COMMENT AS PART OF OUR STORY That's just three. Over the last three years, there are 5000+ comments like these, over 700+ stories. Which is what makes it the most insightful discussion forum about companies, sectors and shifts in India that you have probably never heard of. If you'd like to read them and haven't subscribed yet, here's how you can start reading them today SUBSCRIBE If you have subscribed, just request for access and start commenting right away.   Oh, and I wish you a happy Dussehra, and happy Diwali in advance.   Regards, Praveen Gopal Krishnan praveen@the-ken.com Sent by The Ken Don't like these? You can unsubscribe anytime Unsubscribe - Unsubscribe Preferences