Wait Ted, what? Your startup?

If you asked 10 people what the word "startup" means, you'd probably get just as many different definitions. To many college students, it could mean "an extensive tech project that I've spent very significant time on and can see being something more". And isn't that really the same thing as a pre-funding startup?

So when people ask me what I've been up to, instead of responding with a confusing mouthful about a class project idea that evolved, I just reply with "working on my startup". I guess I'm a cool kid now!

Meet Adviz!

These last few months, I've spent a significant amount of time working on a side project called Adviz.

Currently, apps such as Google Maps or Waze can direct us the fastest route or shortest route, but not the safest route. Recently, a woman in Brazil using Waze was actually directed to the wrong address and killed. In a nutshell, Adviz seeks to add an intelligent security layer to your daily navigation.

This idea stemmed out of a course I took last semester: IEOR185, Building Smart Cities Leveraging Open Innovation. As part of the course, I developed a technical solution (Adviz) with a feasible business model. This solution centered around making Visakhapatnam (one of the three smart cities under development by joint India-US teams) smart.

It's been a crazy but rewarding journey that's taken me through countless pivots and pitches, all the way from Berkeley, CA to Visakhapatnam, India. In the next few blog entries, I'll write about some fun experiences and takeaways I've learned on this journey.

My Role

As this was my first interdisciplinary project-based class, I wasn't sure how our team structure would fall into place. From early on, however, it became clear that our team was composed of a many different experience levels and interests.

Over the course of a few weeks, I gradually grew into the role of a Product Manager / Lead Engineer, and was able to leverage many of my previous experience in consulting and software development. From early on, it was clear that our team was composed of a many different experience levels, interests, and motivation; this has definitely been a huge challenge, but I believe I've grown all the more for it. It's been a very enlightening experience being in a position of leadership while having no direct authority.

What I'll Write About

So much stuff has happened on this hectic journey that it's hard for me to cram all of it into a single post. I'm going to split up my reflections into four parts:

• Part 1: Overview [This Entry]
• Part 2: India: Nation in Flux
• Part 3: adViz: The Tech
• Part 4: adViz: Everything Else

See you next installment!

I'm currently in Hyderabad, India, waiting for my flight to Hong Kong, where I'll be spending 3 days. Look for an upcoming reflection on Hong Kong, which I'm confident will be as different from India as India was from California. Until next time!