Global Marketing Team (S) (500: Fill & Download for Free

ME.I'm the worst example of bad leadership.Back when I was in school, I answered an ad in the newspaper for an administrative assistant who could type at least 80 WPM, had office skills, and was willing to work part time with flexible hours, for an international company that specialized in home decorating needs.Perfect!I'd spent the previous several years working part time with a company that manufactured custom window coverings, and wanted to take on a fourth job to supplement my income as a student.I was going to be rich!So, I took a half day off from my day job, got my interview scheduled, dressed up in my best professional attire, and drove down to their office for my appointment.I got to the office and met the receptionist at her desk and was asked to fill in a questionnaire, then was asked to take a seat in the waiting room.I sat in a room filled with other similarly-dressed professional-types who looked just as anxious as I felt.After a twenty minute wait, the receptionist read off a list of names, mine included, and said, “1:30 interviews, please check in at office 3B.”Twelve people simultaneously stood up and began to walk down the hallway.That's when I lost it.“Wait a minute!”Everybody froze as I directed my gaze at the receptionist.“I was told I would be interviewing at 1:30. Why are all these people coming with me?”“Oh, that's your interview group. You're going to be watching a movie together.”“A MOVIE?”It didn't sound like any “job interview” to me.“Hold on here, I'm supposed to interview individually..”“No, you're in a group interview. You're with the other 1:30's and we need to get started. The 2:30's are up next.” Sweet, pretty, bitch receptionist actually smiled a fake smile at me and tried to take my arm and physically escort me down the hall.I don't like being wrangled.I was catching on.“Is this one of those pyramid schemes like Amway where we have to pay money to sell YOUR PRODUCTS, and you're not really paying us to work for you at all?”The receptionist stopped dead in her tracks, balked, and looked embarrassed. She went around behind her station then. She tried to busy herself at her desk and said, “If you'll just watch the movie you'll find out what the company is about.”Several of the interviewees coughed uncomfortably and shifted their weight from foot to foot, not knowing whether to walk down the hallway or listen to our exchange further.“NO! You tell me. You got me here under false pretenses. Tell me. Is this a PYRAMID SCHEME?”I was getting steamed up at this point. I was losing money. I'd skipped out on a half day's work to be there.“You can meet with Mickey, he can answer any questions you may have…”“YOU ANSWER MY QUESTION, LADY! IS THIS LIKE AMWAY? OR AVON? DO YOU GUYS EXPECT ME TO PAY TO SELL YOUR PRODUCTS?”Finally, relenting, she looked down at her desk and with shame on her face and in a very tiny voice, “Yes. It is. You will pay $500 to be part of our global marketing team.”I turned to the other people in the room, satisfied that I'd gotten her to admit the fraudulent job interview, and announced to my fellow One-Thirties, “There! You heard it yourself! It's a scam! We've been duped, people! They have brought us here on false premises! This isn't a job interview at all, but a SALES PITCH! LET'S GET OUT OF HERE, PEOPLE!”And I turned to go, triumphant that I'd just made the best speech ever, and could almost hear the Glory Hallelujah music playing in my imaginary soundtrack in the background. I started marching out.I took nine steps, and looked back, confident that everybody was following me.Except, nobody was.Instead, they all stood there, mouth agape, looking terrified, as I stood there and held the door for them.(Come on, little puppies, you can do it, let's go..) I gestured at them to move out the door.They just stared at my hand and remained frozen. Rooted to the spot.And that is when Mickey opened up the door at the end of the hallway, and every last one of those One-Thirties simultaneously turned their head towards the light, and shuffled down the hallway and into office 3B, to watch the movie, and probably, ultimately, had to pay their 500 Simoleons (money they didn't have to begin with) to sell crappy products they couldn't possibly unload, and would be stuck with for eternity.The bitch receptionist gave me a victorious smile.That pissed me off.I marched out to the parking lot, alone, wondering why the hell my leadership skills were so lacking I couldn't convince a roomful of people to save themselves from being scammed.I spent the rest of my day off in the brew pub, alongside a pint, with the classified ads page in front of me, circling the Help Wanted ads for jobs I might find, and which might be more suitable for someone with my leadership skills.

edit: this answer is like 2-3 years oldIt really depends on which kind of a company you'd like to run. An e-commerce startup? A clone? or an innovative product. Some of them fits the ecosystem, some doesn't, always with exceptions.I had a couple of experience, started a number of companies. One of them moved to SF (Socialwire) and got investment from a number of investors such as first round capital and 500 startups. I'm also an endeavor entrepreneur, which is an organization that you must definitely take a look at.But, it was a pain in the ass. If you are an innovative tech company located or started in Turkey, there are 2 major problems.1- Investment. Turkey is a clone market and nobody would invest in a tech company..Unless you prove yourself somehow. We started receiving investment deals from Turkish investors only after we had investment from important people in SF such as Dave McClure and First Round Capital. Please note that, by that time we had $400K / Yearly paying clients. Also please note that, it took us 9+ months to start raising money in SF.This is not something to be mad about. Well, you can be a little bit mad about it but the reason for you anger shouldn't be the investors, its the ecosystem. Turkish investors have a bunch of reasons for acting this way. Your option is to to accept this reality and act accordingly, either giving up or pushing hard. Hopefully, there will be a number of successful companies which struggled through these difficulties and provide case studies and facilities that would help tech entrepreneurs in Turkey. However, investment itself wouldn't be enough for a tech startup to be successful, which leads to our second point.2- Volume, clients and user base: You need clients who are willing to be your beta clients and teach you what they like/dislike. This is one of the most important things if you want to build an new, innovative product. Sadly, it also happens to be a very scare resource compared to SF.Lets say you have a b2b startup, selling recommendation engine for e-commerce firms. When you look at the market from a top-to-bottom approach, you see that the e-commerce volume is sky rocketing. However, majority of e-commerce firms are struggling with infrastructural problems and very few of them have the courage, or enthusiasm to try new stuff.In fact, they are not wrong. Our ecosystem didn't teach them that bidding on a new product would generate positive results. Instead, they learn from experience that it is a better experience to buy a global product. I figured out that a very few company that were willing to try new products from local teams either had founders or executives who are either very visionary(exception) or spent some time living abroad.Lets say you are going for a b2c product. Anything you try, that is not mainstream will be crushed by numbers. Our internet penetration is high, but not high enough. Many of the global startups you see on a global scale have a very good chance of being too niche in Turkish market and not getting enough traction for a successful operation, valuation and exit.So, what the fuck? Tell me something positive.Don't worry, there are a few good stories as well. Turkish ecosystem created a bunch of (sadly very limited) innovative startups such as Yemeksepeti (online food delivery) and successful clones with a twist such as Gittigidiyor. (acquired by Ebay)We had also recently seen excellent execution + clone models might work like a charm from time to time. We had created one of the biggest private shopping startups in the world (Markafoni mainly and Trendyol) and around 30+ clones of Groupon. We successfully managed to build a very successful gaming company, mainly adapting games to local market(s), Peak Games.There are also a couple of tech startups started from Turkey, but focuses on global markets, such as Sendloop, Kodigen (Koding), grou.ps etc.Most of these exceptional startups had been founded by very exceptional teams and exceptional conditions. They did something very hard in an environment that doesn't help you out much. Now its on their shoulders to help building a better ecosystem.So, there is still more to learn and discover about Turkish ecosystem.ps: I think i might have missed the point of this question. 'Turkish startup scene', sorry :) If you'd like, we can meet when you are here.

There are many easy ways to invest in US markets from India now. I have personally been using Winvesta since the last couple of months and have found it to be quite good. It took only a few minutes to sign up and get a US brokerage account. That’s faster than getting a domestic brokerage account!Being an investment manager in the past, account security was my primary concern. Winvesta team helped me provide all the required information. The account is held with a FINRA regulated broker-dealer in the US, and the money is secured by $500,000 SIPC insurance.There are a few things to keep in mind when you are looking to invest in the US (good and bad):US listed companies have the largest total market cap by far. Many of the big US firms get their revenues from across the world (almost 40% of S&P 500 revenue is from outside US). So you are really getting a global exposure, and not domestic.There is a vast universe of stocks available in US markets. Some of those are not compliant with Indian regulations. Winvesta has excluded such stocks and ETFs containing such stocks from their selection so you will not have to worry.Investing in the US also means you are investing in USD, so you will get all the upside (or downside) from USD-INR appreciation.Think long term, invest consistently and do not panic on brief periods of volatility. Remitting money overseas may cost you 2–3% at the outset, but US markets have outperformed Indian markets by 10–12% annually in INR terms in the last 10 years.There is no capital gains tax for foreigners. The dividends are taxed at flat 25% for Indians, and tax is withheld by the broker, so there is no need to file tax in the US. In India, cap gains will be taxed as usual, and dividends will be taxed as ordinary income. You can offset dividend tax withheld in the US against your Indian taxes with foreign tax credits.For remitting the money to your brokerage account, you may need to visit your bank branch (depending on the bank, ICICI is fully digital). That is the only physical step required. I had to go to IDFC First branch, but my money was remitted the same day and I was able to start trading the next day after downloading the Winvesta app.Hope this was useful. Times have changed, and investing in US is not for the wealthy only anymore. Having a global portfolio in today’s global world is both prudent and smart.