Proto - IV Coverage

In my previous article, I had mentioned about Proto[the Startup event] , that I missed but it is nice to see lot of blogs already updated with the coverage To start with, let us look at the startups that demonstrated at the event....

Startups that demonstrated at Proto:

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Source : Webyantra

Amit Ranjan of SlideShare & one of the co-organizers of the event has a crisp coverage of all the startups here

Experiences as a presenter - Prateek Dayal, Muziboo:

Few months back, we had a guest article from Nithya Dayal, co-founder of Muziboo & it is nice to see Muziboo getting shortlisted for the presentation !!! Prateek Dayal has shared lots of interesting views about the event & his experience on pitching in front of the audience !!!

Notable experiences from Prateek Dayal's blog:

Unlike some of the other startups, we had a walk through and no ppt. I think eventually turned out to be good as the response to the demo was very encouraging.

I liked the fact that proto mentioned that 3 companies have shut shop. I think its great to see that failure is no longer considered a bad thing. There was also a Proto for Dummies video which was pretty well done. I think the videos will be up on youtube pretty soon.

I had always heard that talking to investors gives you a good perspective and I think its true. I had also heard that there are quite a few senior startuppy people who give a lot of gyaan and try to pull you down and I think that is true too. In general its not very hard to find a few people in proto who look like they have come down there just to feel important by giving gyaan to clueless entrepreneurs like me.

You can read the complete article here.

Coverage across the Blogosphere:
There are lot of other blogs that have covered the event and you can find them here.

After checking the coverage of the event, I never felt that I have missed the event Thanks to all of them !!!!

What do INVESTORS look for ?

Many times meeting investors becomes similar to applying for a job in a company.There are some set of basic questions which are repetitive and many times, the answer to these decide your fate.The only difference being in a job interview, the mistake may turn out to be less costly[since,it is only YOU who is affected] whereas any mistake while pitching to an investor won't only affect YOU but everyone CONNECTED with you in the STARTUP.

Just came across an interesting and a worthy presentation which gives an insight into the basic questions and the answer to simple those simple questions

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Reader Contribution:

Lakshman Srikanth shares this insights on OpenCoffee Club dated 21st June,2008 here

7 step "Customer Driven Feasibility Study"

Few months back, I came up with an article titled "What before a Business Plan".Today, we would focus on something which is inseparable from the Business Plan called "Feasibility Study". It is true that once we have the B-Plan ready, the very next step is to get going and focus on how to achieve the optimistic figures mentioned in the B-Plan However, few things mentioned the B-Plan is written keeping the investor's in mind but along the entire journey; Customer is and will remain the HERO. !!! This leads to a report titled "Customer-Driven Feasibility Study" [from this point referred as Customer-Driven F.S. ] and my current read The New Business Road Test by John Mullins explained that to the core of it !!!

This article is divided into three parts namely:

1. What is Customer Driven F.S ?
   
2. Thin line of difference between B-Plan and Customer Driven F.S
3. Contents of Customer Driven F.S

What is Customer Driven Feasibility Study
During the course of any opportunity, the Market Analysis/Study phase always remains iterative.However, at one point of time, the evidence gathered through the research would help us understand whether the opportunity is REALLY an opportunity.This feasibility study is Customer Driven because , unlike most organization charts which has the founder/ CEO at the top and people serving the customer at the bottom, the feasibility study begins with the target customer, without whom there would be no business. It is an internal document that should cater to the seven requirements which are discussed later.

Difference between Business Plan and Customer Driven Feasibility Study
Though there are a number of overlaps in the B-Plan and Customer Driven F.S , there are three major areas where they tend to differ :

1. Customer Focus :
The purpose of any business it to win customers and the Feasibility Study completely caters to that requirement which is quite different from that of most B-Plans - to win an investor. If there is no likelihood for customers, there would not be any investors.

2. Fundamental Economics :
The feasibility study addresses the fundamental economics of the business, by identifying the key drivers of cash flow: revenue, required capital investment, gross margins etc. If these drivers are satisfactory, than detailed strategies like marketing, operations and financing can probably be developed to make the venture economically viable.

3. Mindset :
The purpose of the study is not to sell the venture's merit whereas a B-Plan organizes the answers delivered by the feasibility study and goes on to develop marketing, operating and financing strategies in an effort to sell the opportunity, in a focussed way, to the investors and other stakeholders.

7 step "Customer Driven Feasibility Study"

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY :
This briefly describes what follows [tells the reader(s) what you are going to tell them]

2. MICRO- level MARKET assessment :

• TARGET market and it's pain identified; benefits of your solution identified, with evidence that those in this segment are willing to pay a price that works.
• Target market segment, size and growth rate.
• Options to grow into other segments.

3. MACRO- level MARKET assessment :

• OVERALL market size and growth rate.
• Macro trends analysis to assess future market growth and attractiveness.

4. MACRO - Level INDUSTRY assessment :

• Five forces analysis : Whether or not the industry is attractive.
• Likely changes that may happen going forward.

5. MICRO - Level INDUSTRY assessment :

• Any proprietary elements.
• Any superior organizational processes, capabilities or resources identified that are not easily duplicated or imitated.
• Economic viability of business model established :

- Revenue Forecast.
- Customer acquisition & retention costs and time required to obtain a customer.
- Gross margins.
- Break even analysis.
- Operating Cash Cycle characteristics.

6. TEAM assessment :

• Team's mission, aspirations and tendency for risk.
• Team's ability to execute the mission.
• Team's connectedness up, down and across the value chain.

7. SUMMARY and Conclusions :
Tell the reader(s) the key highlights of what you have told them - why this is/is not - opportunity attractive and future prospects of the opportunity.

Should VCs look beyond DotComs?

Few days back there was a post on my blog which had raised some questions on the Web 2.0 phenomenon.May be post the dotcom-bust,Web 2.0 has been a savior for many of the companies.Was reading this week's Business Today and found an interesting article titled "VC's still love Dotcoms"(Page-72) , which gives an insight into dotcoms from the VC's point of view.It has interviews by Ashish Gupta of Helion Ventures,Promod Haque of Norwest Ventures and Alok Mittal of Canaan Partners.Let me try to list down some of the important points mentioned in the article:

Last year, VCs invested $166 million in 27 internet companies,compared to $17 million and 2 dotcoms,the year before.So,VCs are quite optimistic about dotcoms

What sort of dotcoms are VCs interested in(by Ashish Gupta):

1. It must be one that addresses a customer pain point or fills a market gap
2. It must be differentiated and unique , and most importantly scalable
   
3. As per VCs , startups in education,financial services and healthcare are some of the most attractive areas
4. You'd better have a top-notch team that has worked together for some years,if you want to make raising money a cinch.
5. There's so much more to do with the internet , since the old backbone that most companies relied on will soon be redundant

Other emerging areas around internet?
Ashish Gupta says "There are lots of interesting opportunities in the hybrid areas that combine the internet with BPO or the mobile phone".Helion Venture's investment in JiGrahak,a Bangalore based mobile startup is an example of this trend.

As per Rajesh Jain,Managing director of Netcore solutions, there are two obvious problems:

1. Indian entrepreneurs want to imitate the success stories in the west and VCs also feel most comfortable investing in them.
2. However,there are not many success stories in a given vertical.There is only one YouTube,MySpace or Orkut.

Below is the statistics of the VC investments in dotcoms(from January,2005 till date):

Click here to enlarge the image

But there are other areas like Embedded market, Organized retail(though there are VCs already investing in this one), where we have lot of startups waiting for funding.It is obvious that the risk in such companies would be much higher , than in a dotcom This post on my blog focussed on two such startups in that field.May be,it is time when VCs should look beyond dotcoms since, the real innovation comes from such companies !!!

IBM VC group positive about India

With the growing no of startups coming out of India,India has been under a scanner by VCs.The VC arm of IBM is positive about India and below is an excerpt from the article in Economic Times

“Innovation in India is growing at a rapid pace, in fact faster than how it was in China when we went there a couple of years ago. So we are looking to tie up with a few VC firms including a couple of local VC players to help us identify innovative companies and technology,’’ IBM Venture Capital Group MD Claudia Fan Munce told Economc Times.

Read the complete article here

Related Article:
60,000 IT workers return home from Silicon Valley

Think innovation....Think entrepreneurship

What if an undergrad student from India has a bright idea but does not know how to go about executing the idea and getting the funding This article on Economic Times has the answer to all your questions where the article speaks about building entrepreneurs right from the college level.

The most striking part of the article were the lines given below:

The atmosphere the programme is trying to build up in campuses is “think innovation, think entrepreneur-ship”. And the reasons for the college-level focus is because they feeling “entrepreneurship can’t be inculcated at the mid-career level”.

Technology Entrepreneur's GuideBook

Was googling on Venture funding and Entrepreneurship,when I came across an interesting pdf which has excellent content on the following:

1. Entrepreneurship
2. Approach to writing a good business plan
3. Raising Venture Capital
   
4. Accounting policies and procedures for early stage companies
5. Legal issue early stage Entrepreneurs
6. Managing explosive growth in Technology companies
   
7. Choosing an exit strategy

You can download the complete pdf from here

Guy Kawasaki on "Mantras for Entrepreneurs"

For guys who have not read "Art of the start by Guy Kawasaki" have to think twice , may be you are missing something in your startup journey.

To give a small GIST,check the slide which contains "Guy's-basic mantras for Entrepreneurs and startups"

• Make a meaning
• Make a mantra
• Get going
• Define a Business Model
• Weave a MAT(Milestones,Assumptions and Tasks)
• Nice thyself
• Follow the 10-20-30 Rule(when pitching to the VC)
• Hire infected(passionate) people
• Lower the barriers to adoption
• Seed the clouds
• Don't the BOZOS grind you down(Trust me,you would find plenty of BOZOS)
  

Megabucks : Day 2 in a Nutshell

First of all,the title of the post should have been "Megabucks:Day 2(+2) in a Nutshell" ,since two days have passed by since the event is over and damn,I have still not updated my blog.Jokes apart, let me try to recollect the event happenings on the second day in Megabucks.

Morning-Afternoon innings:
a.
The day started with case study competition and believe me it was very boring and I thought that the teams were very bad.Some of the teams did not even know to frame proper gramatical sentences , which made me think about our educational system for a while

b.
The highlight of the day was a talk/discussion on "Woman Entrepreneurship", which was spearheaded by Ms. Vineeta Singh,Co-founder of Tenaday.Yes,you guessed it right,she is the one who is behind "The Deutsche Bank controversy"(she is the one who rejected one crore offer from Deutsche Bank to be an Entrepreneur) and she seemed a true Entrepreneneur.Myself and Ashwin managed to interview her and it was our first podcast(which would be uploaded very soon).We also gave her few tips on Blogging and she was quite impressed with us.Who knows,she may consult us for "Blog Marketing" Seen below in the photo are Vineeta,Ashwin and Myself(from L-R).I am looking very serious in the photograph


Afternoon-evening innings:
a.
There was a surprise in the package and we met our old friend(from the unconference circuit) Aditya Mishra,Director of Corporate Innovation,TCS.We three gave a talk on Unconferences,Blogging and opportunities in the mobile space(this is Aditya's domain of interest).The response from the IITK guys was not good and many of them were not interested in the talk.I just tried to collect feedback from few of them-Some felt talk was irrelevant,some felt talk was too techie and some felt the talk was very boring Finally,I communicated the law of two feet(which is used in Unconferences) which says "If you are not feeling comfortable,use your two feet to go to a more comfortable place".
Even though,our message to take unconferences to premier institutions like IIT failed or was not taken in a proper sense,still we managed to have a smile on our faces.Seen below in the photo are Ashwin ,Myself(in center) and Aditya


b.
After the sad ending to our talk,we thought of networking with few people.Again a surprise-We met guys from Jobs4Freshers who were interviewed for startups.in . It was the time for them to pay us back and hence,we picked up a free T Shirt from them and also,we had good conversation on the Web 2.0 market along with enhancements which can be made to startups.in
Seen below are the guys from Jobs4Freshers along with myself and Ashwin


c.
Finally,it was time to take dinner which as usual,very excellent .Just managed to borrow "Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki" from Rajiv,CEO of Jobs4Freshers and read one chapter in the night

Bye-Bye Kanpur:
Left Kanpur at around 11:00 AM on the next day(8th April,2007) and carried some good(and bad experiences) from IITK.

Moral of the story:
I have not studied from IIT and after this visit,I learnt one thing:"Every person studying in IIT is not a genius/highly intelligent,may be he/she has a slight edge over normal guys like us".Would end my article with this learning.

Photo Courtesy:
You can find photos of the entire trip here
This is what Ashwin has to say about the event on 07/04/2007

Megabucks : Day 1 in a Nutshell

Reached IIT Kanpur at around 1:00 in the afternoon on 6th April.The lunch at IITK was excellent and guess what happened after the lunch I slept from 3:00 to 9:30(due to the excess heat in Kanpur and also due to the tiredness of the journey from Delhi to Kanpur).

Spoke to some of the organizers here in Kanpur regarding the session on Blogging.There is a change in the plan and we(myself and Ashwin) have planned to have the session,the Unconference way.Yup,we would have an open session which would focus on the topics discussed in my previous post.

The reason for this change was that many IITK guys(with whom we interacted) did not know about unconferences and hence we decided a change in the plan The session is slated at 7:00 in the evening.The other sessions would start at 8:00 in the morning and we hope to go there on time.

We also received the Startups.in T-Shirts and it felt very nice to wear the T Shirt.For the other startup-ers who have missed this event,below is a small glimpse of the Front and Back side of the T Shirt


So,what's happening for the next two days?
There are business competitions and interesting sessions on Entrepreneurship(check the image for the details) and not to forget our unconference session at 7:00 PM(on 07/04/2007).

Related posts : The CruiseManiac - Day 1 IIT Kanpur

More updates later

April 6th-8th,Megabucks at IIT Kanpur

There is a good news followed by a slight bad news.The good news is , myself and Ashwin are representing Startups in India at Megabucks(IIT Kanpur).Well,we are planning to give a small presentation on the following:
a. Blogging and its impact on Business
b. Blogging an effective way of marketing
c. Startups in general(this would also include interviews from some of the Entrepreneurs whom we have met during the course of our journey)

Yes,I know it is all in one(but it would work) and we are planning to follow Guy Kawasaki's 10-20-30 rule for our presentation.

Now the bad news is I won't be able to blog might for the next two days since, I would be busy in the event.

My takeaway from the event would be meeting new tech enthusiasts,entrepreneurs and yes,not to forget the VC's , without whom business would never have been possible.

I wish myself(and Ashwin) "all the best"(I know I am being childish) and hope to reach Kanpur and make this event a very fruitful event for my entrepreneurial career.

Scene of VC/PE investments in Q1,2007

With Indian economy booming , VC/Private Equity(PE) investments have gone up to 2.4bn$ in the first quarter of 2007 as reported by Economic Times.This is indeed a good news for the investors

Some excerpts from the article:

The overall VC/PE scenario is doing well, what with investments in the first quarter of this year almost doubling to about $2.4 billion. If this growth continues, we could very well see total investments crossing $10 billion in 2007, especially with several new funds coming in,” says Arun Natarajan of Venture Intelligence India

As far as segments go, IT, manufacturing, financial services, engineering and construction, transport and logistics reign when it comes to attracting investments

You can read the complete article here

A related podcast(related to VC investments in India) by Arun Natarajan ,Founder of VentureIntelligence is available below:

It's raining investments in Web 2.0

With the Web 2.0 market growing beyond social networking,VCs are also raking money into the Web 2.0 market.Read an article on TheChilli and was amazed to see the booming market of Web 2.0.As reported by TheChilli, there has been investments worth $850 million during the last year(2006) in Web 2.0.

The most interesting piece of information was analysis of the number of Web 2.0 deals, that have been carried out in the recent past in 2006(based on the geographic locations):

1. United States: 126 deals with an investment of US$682.7 million(83 percent increase in deals from 2005)
2. Europe: 20 deals in 2006 with an investment of US$100.5 million(more than 200 percent increase from 2005)
3. China: 21 deals in 2006 with a decline in the investment by 26 percent to US$61.3 million(same number of deals occurred in 2005 )
4. Israel: 2 deals in 2006 with an investment of US$22 million(increase by one deal since 2005)

The most active investors in Web 2.0 on a worldwide basis include:

1. Benchmark Capital
2. Draper Fisher Jurvetson
3. Sequoia Capital
4. Omidyar Network

Read the complete article here

Five ways to avoid Business Plan mistakes

When you start a business,the first thing which comes to mind is raising capital.Every person has ideas but most of the ideas don't get implemented either because they don't get capital to implement the idea or they are not serious about it's implementation.Well,I am sure that I would be facing a similar problem for my own idea especially,when we try to scale up.As far the initial funding is considered,it can come from your family members or your close friends.

Just happened to see WebMarketingPlan where Paul A. Broni of Mercury Partners Inc. points out "The 5 lessons to avoid Business plan mistakes" (the important learnings) which are given below:

a. Submitting the Plan to the Wrong People
Check if the investor or the lender has an interest in your business.This can be done by making a call or just sending an introductory email.If you have a referal from accountant,banker than it gives you a better chance.An unsolicited plan would just lie at the bottom of the pile and would not be shown any interest.

b. Incomplete Executive Summary
Every investor would be interested in your executive summary and this should be present at the last in your Business Plan.Also,it should not exceed more than 2-3 pages.It should be broken into five sections given below:

• The Opportunity
• The Solution
• Management
• Market Size and Share Expectations
• Financing Need and Exit Strategy

c. Weak Management
One of the sections that all investors will read first is the discussion on management. If you do not have direct, significant experience in the industry in which you're trying to start your business, add someone to the management team who makes up for your weakness.Either agree to hire full-time executives or bring skilled directors onto the board.Venture capitalists, on the other hand, are not likely to invest until the management team is complete.

d. Unreasonable Financial Projections
All lenders and investors are accustomed to seeing financial projections that go in only one direction -- up!!!While every business owner and entrepreneur has the best of intentions when preparing a forecast for the next five years, it is seldom realistic to assume that sales will grow by 50-100% YOY.Hence,before exposing your projections be sure that your business projections are reasonable as well as realistic

e. Greed
Nothing will ruin a deal faster than greed. If your business is little more than an idea at this point, it is not feasible to value the company at more than a few million dollars. If your plan is to raise $2 million in exchange for 10% of the business (i.e., a $20 million valuation), you are going to have a tough time attracting the interest of venture capitalists and angel investors.Spend less time getting worried about the valuation today and focus on increasing scaling up your business for the future.

You can read the complete article here

What before taking the Entrepreneurial plunge?

Before starting this post,I would like to confess that three years back,I was not aware about what is Entrepreneurship and now I blog on it and have started working on my own idea as well So what does it take to think big and take a path which others don't think about?

Entrepreneurship is not a simple subject and being one is the most difficult as well as the exciting thing which one would experience in life.So,what transforms an ordinary person to think big and once he starts thinking big,what does he need to do?

I read that somewhere that in US,to get a company registered takes a few minutes whereas in India,it still takes months to do the same But times are changing in India as well and this post would give an insight as to what an Entrepreneur should do before taking the final plunge.

1. Have an idea:
This is the very first step towards thinking big.So,once you have an idea,discuss it with your close friends(or colleagues) and get their feedback.Try to test if your friend would be interested in funding your idea and if he/she says yes,than you have hit the bulls-eye because "If you can't sell an idea to a known person,how would you sell it to the unknown guys out there" This makes me remember what Guy Kawasaki told "Always discuss your business ideas with women since male have a genetic problem of destruction and they want to kill everything right from plants to companies Well,nothing to be offended here.

2. Build Contacts:
My first foray outside Bangalore was in BlogCamp,Chennai in September 2006 where I understood the power of Blogging.I met new people,some software consultants,some entrepreneurs,some engineers and the list goes on and on.So what was the change.I made lot of contacts and my network kept on growing.Remember,building contacts is not only exchanging business cards at conferences and than dumping them somewhere,you need to multiply your contacts through that one contact and on and on.You would require contacts before you start your company,when you are expanding your company or when you want to market your product etc.

3. Read about Entrepreneurship:
This is one of the basic steps that every person willing to be an Entrepreneur should do.There is no harm in thinking big and you should not try to repeat mistakes what other Entrepreneurs have made during their Entrepreneurial career.Every month,I always make a point to take one good book on Management or Entrepreneurship, so that I learn more about it and take precautions ,what successful entrepreneurs have recommended.I do agree that bookish knowledge is different from real experience but learning is the key and believe me , this has helped me a lot.What I do is carry a book to my office , so that it keeps me more motivated and also I can read it in my spare time.

4. Value your time:
Only people who are really passionate can do something big in life.Time is money and it is rightly said so.We do lot of things in our free time like watching TV, speak over the phone for hours or just sleep etc but one thing which we forget is we are spending Quality time fruitlessly Only people who value time can dedicate more effort for their idea and this is one thing which Entrepreneur would never forget since for him "Time wasted is a loss for him"

5. Do an industry analysis and and try to blog it:
You know what idea is in your mind but what about your competitors(if there are any).Learn more about the industry that your startup would fall into.Blog about your thoughts so that it is more visible to others.Learn about the Financial aspects of th business and this would be the toughest of them(if you come from a technology background).Get the industry information and have it on your own personal blog so that you can make more and more people aware about your interest.Remember,the more you blog,the more you read which means more the information that you have...So understand the power of Blogging.
This reminds me of what Wirkle founders have on their site..."We are a company of Bloggers"

6. Learn to Convince People:

When I was reading my latest read "Make the Move" , I just wondered that this is very much true.In the book,the authors Ishan Gupta and Rajat Khare have mentioned "During the Entrepreneurial days,the founders will have to play multiple roles from Founder-->CEO-->CTO-->CFO-->Officeboy and so on".This means that you should be able to play multiple roles and this will apply before taking the plunge.As I mentioned before "A good businessman is a person who can convince people and before you start,you need to see whether you can sell idea at least to few people since you would have to play multiple roles , at least for the first few initial years of your startup."

7. Join as many Networking sites as possible:
I have already spoken about "Building Contacts in point 2" , so what is special about Business Networking.Well,sites like LinkedIn and TechTribe helps you to be in touch with people you might never have met but the guidance you get from these sites is enormous.I had an article on TechTribe here , which is really informative.Who knows a someone from these site's might be your partner.

These are purely my thoughts..I would love to hear from the readers , if there are some points , which I might have missed and you can add those in the comments section

9 points that Web 2.0 startups should remember

Just came across this when I was reading the latest edition of SmartTechie and this article is by one of my favourite authors Rajesh Setty.Since,he is involved in many startups in same space,he shared his experience through his article and believe me,it was a good learning for my own Web 2.0 startup idea

Below is the list of some of the important points which is mentioned in the article:

1. Don't chase exceptions-make them:
YouTube got sold to Google without making any money.Same is the case with the other high profile startups like Plenty Of Fish and Fark,which have only one employee.So,should we target our startup based on this model?Well,these were some of the exceptions and hence,rather than chasing an exception,create your own!!!

2. You can't forget the team:
This is important just like a normal project.He had a nice Jim Collins quote saying "You got to have the right people in the right places on your bus"

3. You still need a sound business model:
During the dotcom days,there were business plans on the back of the business envelope which got funded.There is lot of venture capital now but as open source goes mainstream,the technology costs have reduced.And nowadays,many entrepreneurs use self funding rather than using other people's money.This is the basic principle , which should be followed in other businesses as well.

4. Do what works,not what's cool(Ajax):
Ajax is cool but customers wont use your product only if you use Ajax.Hence,it is very important to see if the customer really needs it or not since,something might be cool for you but might be irritating for others.

5. Lay the right foundation for the next few versions:
In my point of view,this is the most important point for any startup
Design the first version of your product with very high standards and with that,you have made an implicit promise with your customers on what is about to come in future.Mainitaining the same quality in all the future releases would be very difficult but it is very important for the success of your product.

6. Emphasize agility:
If your model is so cool that just two people can execute it brilliantly , than any other twosome may be able to challenge you quickly .You can't always ride on the first to market train!!!The best way to protect yourself is to design and configure everything to be agile,so that even if you are met with surprises,you can change course quickly and maintain your lead.

7. Build to scale(rapidly):
This one made me think for my own Web 2.0 startup and it will be an eye-opener for all those guys planning to jump in that space
It hurts to fail because you don't have customers.It hurts even more to fail because your idea attracted too many people,too fast and you couldn't service them.This is very much possible in the Web 2.0 market so,make sure from the outset that the solution you're building is built to scale.

8. Choose the right metrics:
This is the second point which I liked the most.
Just because another startup earned a lucrative exit based on number of website visitors or page views,there is no guarantee those metrics will work for your company too.Don't do something just because everyone in the Web 2.0 world is doing it.That's the best reason to do something different

9. Involve the customers right from the start:
This is the third point which I liked the most.
Always try to meet your customer expectations.It is very easy to get carried away with your idea without having enough information.The best way to delight customers with your product or service is to work with them from the outset and get their feedback.
Knowing their expectations and beating them is a great way to create a "wow" experience-for them and for you.

Rohit Agarwal:The making of an Entrepreneur

TechTribe has been in the news since its launch and I was very fortunate to speak to the CEO during Rohit Agarwal during BarCamp Bangalore.I still remember his words "Every Indian is an innovator" and you can find what he spoke at BarCamp,Bangalore here

I am an avid user of TechTribe and I would not like to miss a chance to network with you.You can connect with me here.Returning back to business,this post is regarding one of the interviews given by Rohit Agarwal,CEO of TechTribe in Express Computer, where he speaks about "Rising wave in Indian Entrepreneurship".The main reason why this interview featured here is:"After reading this it,I felt it is true keeping in mind the Indian context"

I have divided the interview in a Q&A kind of session...It contains only important excerpt of the conversation
(NOTE: "I" in the interview refers to Rohit Agarwal)

What should India to do to shift from"Service based" to "Innovation based Economy"?
Entrepreneurs are made, not necessarily born.The growth in the Indian technology and services industry (IT and BPO) has created a strong “service-centric economy”.It is that India needs to shift from a service-based economy to an “innovation-based economy” and that’s very new to us.
I believe India will claim the title of the global hub of IT and will be the de-facto destination for innovation and entrepreneurship in software and services. I also believe that in order for that to come true, India will have to “make” many more entrepreneurs.
Every Indian is a born entrepreneur.entrepreneurs in technology make a living out of “short circuiting” a process—something that the world was used to doing a certain way, they figure out how to do it in less time, with less resources, or with better efficiency/accuracy.The combined revenue of the Indian biggies is less compared to the revenues of Google which itself answers the question.

What India needs to focus on to create more Entrepreneurs?
In order for us to make more entrepreneurs, we need to focus on creating an environment where innovation thrives and entrepreneurship can be developed. This innovation environment will be the backbone of what will make India claim it’s position as the global IT superpower.
There’s an inherent entrepreneur in every one of the workers, which isn’t being brought out by the same old work, every single day.

What companies need to do to promote Entrepreneurship?
a. To make entrepreneurs, we have to educate people about how they fit into the innovation ecosystem, and what it takes to build companies.
b. They’re expected to do their daily work, but discouraged to venture into anything creative, sometimes for security reasons, mostly for corporate paranoia.
c. Companies block access to chat, message boards, and other forms of collaboration with peers, which is a requirement for the employee to tap into their creative energies. They’re not encouraged to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions of any kind, and I mean encouragement in tangible form, not just words. I don’t expect Indian IT companies to require employees to spend 20% of their time on “innovation projects” like Google does, but do expect them to reward “collaborative innovation”—within and across corporate boundaries to innovate and be entrepreneurial.

To make entrepreneurs, we have to encourage people to connect with others, showcase their work, and promote themselves.

You can read the complete article here

You can also find Rohit's guide to startups on this personal weblog
Do have a look at TechTribe news section for more of such motivating and entrepreneurial stuff!!!

Learn how (NOT) to get acquired

When YouTube acquired Google for $1.65 billion,it seemed Acquisition has become a buzz word.After this global acquisition, there has been a no of acquisitions in the Indian circuit as well namely Tata Steel takes over Corus,Mittal Steel takes over Arcelor.Well,these were not in the IT space but when I was just a post on Guy Kawasaki's blog he had mentioned "When you create a company,it should make a meaning and should make a difference".

Guy Kawasaki also mentioned that "Many times Entrepreneurs feel that it is somewhat easy to get acquired by the big giants like Microsoft,Oracle,Google etc. ,if their company does not go public within a specified period of time" but this it is not true.Red Herring provides a good insight into the whole M&A scenario(taking the example of Microsoft and Google) and what should be the focus of upcoming companies.

A small excerpt from the article:

It’s tempting for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to design a company today with a notion of who will want to buy it tomorrow. But that irritates deep-pocketed acquirers, who would prefer companies simply innovate, and let buyers worry about what’s worth spending money on.
Google bought roughly thirty companies in the past three years. Microsoft buys between 15-20 companies per year.As per Bruce Jaffe, vice-president of corporate development at Microsoft:"Companies should do what they do best, and innovate".

Factors deciding acquisitions:

Microsoft : Mr Jaffe - "There is a preference over management teams who are looking beyond get acquired."
Google : Mr Ullah - "Software can be coded at any part of the world and hence location is not an issue.The only important thing is that the product being developed should fit into Google's architecture"

You can read the complete article here

Why are'nt there more semiconductor startups in India ?

We have been coming across so many new companies getting funded by VCs and thats make us feel that "Entrepreneurship is on a rise in India" and VC's are more confident on investing in upcoming startups in India.

But,if you see the trend , most of the companies operate in the Web 2.0 space and there is a lot of confidence shown in this market.There was a news about RouteGuru(which lies in the Telecom space) getting Rs 10 Lakh funding through TechTribe but where exactly is Semiconductors in this entrepreneurial field

From the new Semiconductor Policy which was announced recently , there were lot of positive points coming out for the Indian semiconductors industry.Below is a small snapshot of the policy

Now after good news, some bad news has to follow.Just came across this article , which mentions about the Semiconductor entrepreneurs Vivek Pawar of Sankalp Semiconductor,Uma Mahesh of Indrion,PVG Menon who is working on his own venture and many more in the list.

Leaving the managerial side(which does not have much problems),the article reveals the problems in the funding of semiconductor startups in India.A small excerpt from the article:

Though there is a lot of VC money floating in the market, and U.S. VCs being increasingly India bound, there is not much enthusiasm among the community for funding semiconductor product start-ups. Says Mahesh, who has been negotiating actively with many VCs for the past five months without having been able to close the deal, “The VCs here still have a software services mindset, and are unwilling to bet in the chip product field.”
Gani has a different viewpoint, “There is no dearth of money, what is lacking is a sound business plan.” In accordance, the skepticism on part of the VCs is understandable, also given the fact that this space involves more risk, and a higher capital. As opposed to a typical software services firm, where money is required for paying salaries, in the silicon space, technology development takes up a big chunk.

Many other interesting facts about management,funding and recruitment in semiconductor startups can be found here

India's best Product Companies

Just few days back,there was a discussion here as to why there aren't more product startups/companies in India.The two main reasons for not having more product companies in India are listed below:

1. Development of a software product requires more investment and also needs excellent marketing.The risk involved is too high(This is the most obvious reason)
2. (This was really shocking for me)To launch a software product,you need to be in a First world nation and not India.This makes me wonder,though there is a huge IT boom in India,it is still not considered an ideal destination

Business Today has given a very good analysis of "India's hottest software Product Companies" and some of the prominent products like FlexCube, Tally were the obvious contenders in the list but there were some surprises too in the list.Keep on reading.....

The list of the India's 10 prominent product companies is given below(the complete article can found in Business Today-February25,2007):

1. 3i Infotech:
Revenues: Rs 445.1 cr
Flagship Product: Kastle-A universal banking product that covers origination, srvicing and collection of funds
Facts: As per a survey by Dataquest, 3i has become the forth largest player in the Indian products market.What helped 3i is acquisition of small firms like DataCons, FDG and Stet,half of 3i's revenues comes from Products!!!

2. Infosys Technologies:
Revenues: Rs 391 cr(4.83% of Infosys's revenues)
Flagship Product: Finacle- A universal banking solution
Facts: In the year 2006, Finacle fetched $81.86 million in revenues.As per Merwin Fernandes(VP-Global Head,Sales & Marketing), "Finacle is growing faster than products like FlexCube and Temenos,but at a smaller base"

3. IBS Software:
Revenues: Rs 225 cr
Flagship Product: aIRES-Passenger reservation and inventory management system.
Facts: After 9/11, IBS decided to improve its domain expertise in travel and tourism industry by building three software products- aIRES, iCargo and iLogistics.

4. Ittiam:
Revenues: Rs 36 cr
Flagship Product: DSP(Digital Signal Procssing) solutions for portable media players
Facts: The company name Ittiam is inspired by a one liner philosophy "I think therefore I am".For third year in a row,Ittiam has been voted as world's most preferred provider of DSP based IP in a survey of DSP professionals.

5. Ramco Systems:
Revenues: Rs 194 cr
Flagship Product: Enterprise Series-ERP package targetted at primarily small businesses
Facts: Ramco has never tried to compete with the bigger players like SAP , Oracle in the ERP market but has always focussed on smaller companies and domestic markets for its expansion.As per the COO of Ramco Systems,"Cost is not the only reason why customers come to Ramco but Ramco also provides an excellent software application that not only addresses functional requirements but also enhance IT capability of the customers"

6. Sasken Communication Technologies:
Revenues: Rs 339.69 cr
Flagship Product: NA - Solutions in millions of cellphones used globally
Facts: Sasken was founded by Rajiv Mody in 1989 in a garage in San Jose , California as "Silicon Automation Systems" and later moved to Gujarat as ASIC Technologies and than to Bangalore as "Sasken".Its modem software is into 55 million handsets globally and its application suite is installed in more than 8 million smart phones

7. Subex Azure:
Revenues: Rs 172 cr
Flagship Product: RocWare - Operational efficiency and service agility software suite
Facts: In seven years(since 1999), Subex is made seven acquisitions worth $323.5 million!!!With the acquisition of Canadian company,Syndesis(for $164.5 million) Subex's products have expanded from telecom fraud management(Ranger) and billing solutions(Concilia) to revenue enhancing solutions(Moneta and Optima)

8. Tally Solutions:
Revenues: Rs 120 cr
Flagship Product: Tally 9.0 accounting package
Facts: Tally has 90% market share in the domestic market for accounting software .Tally claims to have 2 million users in 92 countries.Now,Tally is looking at ERP solutions for small businesses and another one in the retail industry.

9. Talisma:
Revenues: NA
Flagship Product: Talisma CIM-Multi Channel customer interaction management solution
Facts: Even though, Talisma is in competition with the stronger players like SAP, Siebel etc in the CRM and CIM market ,it has around 800 customers worldwide and also expects to add 50+ customers(big and small) every quarter.For its progress,Talisma believes in word of the mouth marketing and on Search Engine based marketing.

10. Tejas Networks:
Revenues: Rs 250 cr
Flagship Product: Optical networking products
Facts: It as co-founded by Sanjay Nayak along with Gururaj Desh Deshpande of Sycamore Networks.Even with bigger players like ZTE, Huawei and Cisco operating in the same domain,Tejas has around 25% market share in the segment it operates in!!!