Pathik Shah

Why I Quit My Job, Dropped My MBA Plans and Joined a Startup!

Recently, I resigned from my very comfortable job at a leading investment bank (no, not as an investment banker, but as an application developer ) to pursue an MBA program at one of the best B-schools in India. Just as I was completing the formalities and preparing to leave for 2 years, to complete my MBA, I got a job offer from a startup I had known about for quite some time.

This particular startup offered me a job profile which was exactly what I was looking for, and allowed me to do and learn more about almost everything I have been interested in. Naturally, I jumped on and joined it. It is definitely a bit risky, as I will probably be the first one to be sacked if something goes wrong, and we don’t manage to get our Series B, but what the heck, I’m young, and this is probably the best time to try out something like this.

Besides, the team is truly awesome, and if everything goes well, I may not need to do an MBA at all, which I consider a waste of time anyways. In the meantime, I’m still working on some of my own startup ideas, and I would rather spend the amount I would have paid as fees for the MBA program on building out my own company.

And finally, the number one (and probably silly) reason why I did it is this. Because, seriously, a million dollars isn’t that cool. It’s just fuck-you money. And the best (probably the only) way to get to a billion is by starting up. Well, that, and a newfound epiphany that I will probably never function well as an employee. I need to have a lucrative stake in whatever I’m working on; I just cannot work for a fixed salary. I need to be my own boss. I want to be my own boss.

And also because the two people I really believe in – Paul Graham and Peter Thiel – would have done the same. Well, they already have.

If everything works out, I will probably be hanging out on my own private island, sipping beer, before I turn 30. If it doesn’t, I will just lose an year. Or two. Or some more working on some other idea. If nothing works, then another two, doing an MBA. And then many in a cubicle, working for The Man. Screw that. I’m willing to take my chances. All or nothing!

PS: I may seem irrational, and probably a nutjob who thinks he is the next Zuck. But I’m excited, and maybe a bit high. And it’s definitely worth a shot.

Dell M101z Review

I had been on the lookout for a nice netbook since a couple of months, but I wanted something much more powerful than the cheap Atom powered ones which are commonly available now.

I had three options

Dell M101z
Asus EEE PC 1215T
MSI x340

After about a day of research, I decided to go with the Dell M101z. I ordered the base version of the Dell M101z (with Windows 7 Home Basic) for Rs 22265 on December 28, 2010 and it was shipped to me in about 15 days.

Dell M101z Specifications

Display: 11.6 inches, 1366 x 768 pixels
Processor: 1.7 GHz AMD Athlon II K125 Neo
RAM: 2 GB DDR3 RAM
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225
Hard Disk: 250 GB SATA, 5400 RPM
OS: Windows 7 Home Basic
Other Features: 3 USB ports, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, HDMI, VGA, Mic, Headphone, Ethernet, 1.3 MP webcam
Battery: 6 cell 56 WHr Li-ion battery
Price: Rs 21,800 (Base) + Rs 465 (Windows 7 Home Basic)

I have been using it for about 2 weeks now, and finally have time to post a short review.

Dell M101z Review

Design

The Dell M101z has an excellent design with a glossy black look. The build quality is great and it is quite light and portable at just 1.56 kgs, despite having a 11.6 inch display. There is no flex near the keyboard or the display area and the chassis is very sturdy.

Display

The Dell M101z has a nice 11.6 inch display with a resolution of 1366 x 768 display. The resolution may seem a bit high for such a small display, but in time, you will get used to it. It’s perfect for watching movies. The brightness and contrast are great, but the viewing angles aren’t very great.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Dell M101z has the best keyboard I’ve seen in any netbook. It has a chiclet style keyboard which is almost full-sized. The typing experience is awesome; I get a typing speed of about 65 WPM, slightly more than on my desktop. The arrow keys are a bit weirdly shaped though, but they hardly takes 2 mins to get used to. The touchpad is also very responsive and the mouse buttons below it are perfect.

Performance

The Dell M101z offers much better performance than standard netbooks. It is powered by a 1.7 GHz AMD Athlon II K125 Neo processor and comes with 2 GB DDR3 RAM and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 graphics chipset. It has a 250 GB SATA, 5400 RPM hard drive. It comes with Windows 7 Starter but I upgraded it to Windows 7 Home Basic. It also has Ubuntu Light, an instant-on OS pre-installed.

The performance is very good. It is very fast once you remove the crapware that Dell bundles it with. Windows 7 boots in about 25-30 seconds. The processor is quite fast and the RAM is more than adequate for basic computing. I can easily play Counter Strike and Warcraft: DoTA, and many old games, without any issues. It’s perfect for watching movies, browsing the web, video conferencing, working on Office and some light programming. It handles 720p videos with ease. I get a Windows Experience Index score of 3.4 on my Dell m101z.

Other Features

The Dell M101z comes with 3 USB ports, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, HDMI, VGA, Mic, Headphone, Ethernet, 1.3 MP webcam and a card reader. It is powered by a 6 cell 56 WHr Li-ion battery which lasts for about 5 hours with casual usage. Watching videos drains the battery in about 3.5 hours.

Should You Buy It?

Hell yeah! It is the best netbook I have used in ages and offers much more than a standard netbook. It is almost like a laptop, only much more portable, much cheaper and much more awesome. I would definitely recommend it.

If you are looking for a full-sized, desktop replacement notebook, I would suggest the Dell XPS 15. It is much more powerful than the Dell M101z and a bit more bulky.

Happy New Year!

Except for the fact that I haven’t been able to meet any of my personal, professional, and most importantly, financial goals, 2010 has been pretty decent. 2011, please be awesome.

New Year Resolutions

1. Get a life
2. Blog more often*
3. Make shitloads of money
- Step 1: Startup!
- Step 2: ????
- Step 3: Profit!

And now,

The Top 10 Best Posts of 2010!

• Install Android 2.2 Froyo on Samsung Galaxy S
• Intel Core i7 vs Intel Core 2 Duo – The Difference
• Top 20 Private and Public Torrent Sites
• How To Mod Sony PSP 3000 – ChickHEN + CFWEnabler
• Intel Core i5 vs Intel Core 2 Duo – The Difference
• How To Install Android On PC / Laptop
• Use Mobile Phone As Webcam
• Free Airtel GPRS tricks
• How to Root Samsung Galaxy S
• How to Install Android OS on EEE PC

Have a great 2011.

* 1 and 2 seem contradictory

2 Years of Blogging…

I started my personal blog – Pathik Shah – exactly 2 years back. It has been a great experience so far, having my own place on the interwebs. It hasn’t quite been my ticket to the internet millionaire club as I was hoping it would be when I started out, but I have been able to easily recoup my domain and hosting costs, internet bills and be ramen profitable (not sure if it applies in this sense, but like everyone else, I would like to be called an entrepreneur, even if all I have is this shitty blog, so…).

I have also gotten better at putting my thoughts (which no one gives a shit about) into words (which no one reads), so I guess it’s all well. I am now getting close to 100,000 visitors every month which is quite decent considering my abysmally low posting frequency (about one per month). I hope to start regularly blogging again, but it is tough to put your heart to something which isn’t making you millions. But then again, I don’t have much else to do, so blog I will.

Since I don’t have much more to say, here’s a list of my top 10 blog posts so far.

• Intel Core i7 vs Intel Core 2 Duo – The Difference
• Free Airtel GPRS tricks
• How To Mod Sony PSP 3000 – ChickHEN + CFWEnabler
• Top 20 Private and Public Torrent Sites
• Use Mobile Phone As Webcam
• How To Install Android On PC / Laptop
• Install Android 2.2 Froyo on Samsung Galaxy S
• Opera Mini now on Android
• How to Install Games on your PSP
• Intel Core i5 vs Intel Core 2 Duo – The Difference

Thanks. Keep checking my blog. Twice. Every hour.

The Hero Hawk Nu Age is one of the cheapest road bikes available in India. It’s one of the best options for beginners who want a road bike and don’t want to spend a fortune on their first one.

I am in no way a pro-cyclist so this review is only aimed at beginners who want to take a shot at cycling. It’s a superb bike which offers great VFM. In the 3 – 3.5k price range, it is one of the few options available along with the BSA Mach. I had read on a lot of cycling forums that the Hero Hawk was a much better option than the Mach, so decided to go with it.

I purchased the gearless version of the Hawk for 3.2k; will probably upgrade it with 5×2 Shimano gears soon. The bike is very sturdy with good build quality. I had the mudguards and carrier removed and will probably remove the aerobar too; didn’t find much use of it. Needless to say, it looks much better without all that.

Here’s a pic of my Hero Hawk Nu Age at one of my first attempts at amateur randonneuring at SGNP, Borivli.