Avantika Banerjee

  • A company and it’s values.

    When I think of startups, terms such as ‘Culture’, ‘Values’, ‘Collaboration’, ‘Connection’ etc. come to mind. If one was to consider startups that could be considered a success, then you have Warby Parker, Gilt, Etsy, Tumblr, Air Bnb, Uber as some examples. What do these start ups have in common?…

  • The E-commerce Battle for the Indian Consumer

    The Amazon versus Flipkart e-commerce battle waging in India has been covered exhaustively (Economic Times, firstbiz  etc) by numerous news sources. What is pertinent in this battle is not the investment, the VC’s, the business model, the retail competition, the lucrative market share or the advertising; instead it is whether either…

  • Philanthropy Millennials Crowdfunding

    Last week (July 10th) I met with Jeffrey Falkenstein, Vice President for Data Architecture at the Foundation Center. During our conversation, we discussed the philanthropic model, it’s necessary evolution and the changes to the traditional model of philanthropy. To put it in simple terms: (i) The challenge in collecting data about philanthropic dollars: While…

  • Crumbs – Lessons from failure.

    On July 7th, 2014 Crumbs Bake Shop Inc. officially notified its employees that it would be shutting down. Briefly, Crumbs, which started off in 2003 as a small store in Manhattan, expanded rapidly to 65 stores and went public in July 2011. By September stock prices started falling and the…

  • The Culture Coder

    Clotaire Rapaille spoke about marketing with a refreshing perspective at the Yale Club of New York City last evening (Jul 1, 2014). What was most engaging was his underlying core premise for every marketing professional: You need to understand (1) the culture of a region ie the “code” (2) the fundamental…

  • Start Up Tool Kit – Hiring

    Forming a startup is exciting business. The focus generally is on the formation of the business entity, securing of funding and the associated agreements surrounding these crucial initial processes (which is also the most glamorous part!). It is the legal, policy and governance/compliance frameworks that a start up develops and implements after the…

  • Berliner Gazette Article: Right to be forgotten-Differences between the US & EU

    My article on the recent EU court of Justice decision concerning Google and the commonly known “right to be forgotten” ruling was published in the Berliner Gazette on June 2. A reprint of the article from the German Version follows. Construction and stylistic errors may exist because of the translation. Article reprint: The recent…

  • Global Voices Citation

    GlobalVoices recently (May 24,2014) cited my  article  “Internet Policy in India: What direction will the new Government head in?”   on the India Law and Technology  (ILTB) Blog as an opinion piece for establishing the correlation between India’s economic growth and its evolving internet policies.

  • Internet Policy in India: What direction will the new Government head in?

    My article titled “Internet Policy in India: What direction will the new Government head in?” on the India Law and Technology Blog regarding Internet Policy in India is now out and is available here. The article sets a frame work for the policy issues that the new administration in India needs to consider…

  • The right to be forgotten

    In a recent decision the European Court of Justice determined that an individual within the EU can approach google and other similar large search engines to ‘remove certain search results found upon a search of their name’ (Zittrain). While the facts of the case have been laid out by various new sources,…