We have one for cricket enthusiasts, another one for Bollowood buffs, yet another one for Hindi music lovers- so can one for the huge legion of IT folks in this country be far behind ? I am referring generically to social networking sites and specifically to techTribe, which is aiming to be the professional avatar of Orkut for Indian IT/BPO/KPO professionals. The site was launched a few months back and is slowly picking up steam.
techTribe is headed by Rohit Agarwal, a seasoned Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and former software marketing/sales professional. He is assisted by a seven member team which is based out of Silicon Valley. techTribe is funded by friendly “angels/VCs†who have been behind companies like Webify, Sybase, CommerceOne etc.
The idea behind techTribe is indeed quite striking. It is essentially a career or professional networking site and its is aiming to help you leverage the power of social networking to enhance your professional life. It is based on the premise that you can develop a network of professional buddies, colleagues etc who can be a source of help throughout your career. The site can be a catalyst in helping technology professionals establish their identity  based on their background, their achievements, their abilities and their network of friends and colleagues.
You might wonder how this is any different from the LinkedIn model. I posed that same question to Rohit ; he believes that LinkedIn is a place to find professionals you don’t know. techTribe on the other hand, is a place where you build a network and utilize that network for counselling, guidance or mentorship. Rohit also thinks that while you can build specialized groups on Orkut, they tend to become too bloated which makes meaningful interaction within the group very impractical.
So how does the tribal system work. It actually works very similar to a social networking site but its general look/feel is very sobered and professional. You can create an account and start a tribe or join one created by others. The name of these tribes are limited only by your own imagination. Sample a few of these – BlackBeltTechies, Jack of all Trades, VirtualTeamforSoftwareDev. You can create a blog, add photographs, upload/write articles et al. Something that caught my attention was the ‘Create you 20 questions‘ section, where you can create a list of questions which are posed to people browsing your profile. The answers given by various users can be browsed publicly.
The future revenue model will be based on corporates who are interested in sponsoring relevant parts of the sites (or maybe relevant tribes), premium membership for paid users or from unobstrusive advertising. Given the fact that the user base is likely to have a very strong technology orientation, its entirely possible that many tech companies would pay to capture eyeballs on this site. Techtribe wants to get en masse membership through corporate alliances with IT companies. They have an early success story with Zensar Technologies, which has announced a partnership to help foster innovation within its developer base.
Overall the website has a lot of promise. It has successfully identified a niche and seems to be having a game plan to build up loyalty with that niche. Something they could do is to try to give a more social networking kinda feel to the homepage itself, which looks a trifle static/bland at present. BTW, I love their logo, its really looks ‘tribal‘.
another LinkedIn.com.. but limiting only to tech professional..!?
linking this with job site /referrall could be more interesting.
almost all leading IT service & product company has this claus in employee contract
doesnt conflict with copyright..or the contract people have with there companies (all innovation inside & outside are companies property)..!?
Nice site , still has to cover some distance before coming into major league. I love the who indian tech niche thing … have been searchin for somethin similar for sometime.
Needs some marketing , some minor usability issues are there but I hope it gets BIG.
Vikas
PS: The whole team is there for you to talk and interact with in case u have problems ( which is pretty cool ).
I’ve noticed that the site has been revamped recently… The navigation structure now is a lot better and easier than before. Its fun to meet many techies, and discuss what can be done on the technical front. Good work!
Thanks for the review. If readers want to. please submit ideas on how we can make our splash page (home page referred to by Amit) more appealing – and we’ll incorporate them.
Pretty interesting website. I like it. But the one issue I am not able to comprehend well is the use of the font type. Why are the fonts in the website moth eaten?
But otherwise pretty interesting concept.
Dev
Rohit,
The homepage in my opinion, should bring out the social aspect of the site better. Think about the casual first time visitor, he’s the guy you would want to sign up. Getting him to probe further on is what you have to drive at.
The people who come in through the corporate tie-ups are different. Once their organisation signs up, they are in, come what may.
amit
well, I have been using techTribe since the last few weeks and find it a very nice place to network with many Indian techies. They have done a site revamp recently which makes browsing through the site more easier.
Hey Amit,
Good coverage of TechTribe.I would not compare TechTribe with LinkedIn 🙂
Definitely,TechTribe will bring a wave of entrepreneurship in India.Just one suggestion,it would have been better to write about RouteGuru as well which got 10 lakh funding from TechTribe.
My attempt to cover TechTibe’s attempt to promote Entrepreneurship is here
http://thoughtsprevail.blogspot.com/2007/01/techtribeinnovate-and-connect.html
-Himanshu
(http://thoughtsprevail.blogspot.com)
hello, i have been using techtribe since last seven days but i felt a great job done by techtribe team..a complete and informative site which connects people with new innovative ideas….!!!!!
~Bhanu kedia
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I’ve noticed that the site has been revamped recently… The navigation structure now is a lot better and easier than before. Its fun to meet many techies, and discuss what can be done on the technical front. Good work!
Can anybody tell me why the deal of investment by canaan in techtribe is not disclosed .Or shall the announcement of investment be considered a part of viral marketing.
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Hi
i was trying to open this website. But it is not opening and it is showing it is not valid link.
Please give me correct URL of Techtribe
thanks
Balu