The notion of enterprise customers as large monolithic technology purchasing entities is on a decline. This perhaps was first visible in sales people popping out their credit cards to buy subscription to salesforce.com. However, the trend is expanding with more and more of social web principles being applied to enterprise software. For some time now, Spiceworks has been making inroads - this is is a free ad-supported IT management tools, and has over 700,000 IT professionals and system administrators - who as we know control large purchasing dollars in enterprise customers.
Such behavior has perhaps existing for far longer in SMB/SOHO segments, especially owner driven organizations. In my view, this represents a significant shift in how enterprise software will get developed, distributed and monetized. The most popular web applications like email, chat, news etc are already seeing the personal-professional divide blurring - not to talk to blackberry which blurs the time divide between personal and professional lives, and iPhone logically extends the notion on a feature set basis (is it a consumer phone or a business phone?) Future software will be designed around people, encompassing their personal and professional lives - personalization to the core.
* Smart Insoles
* The BI HomeGuard Anklet
* Zoombak
* The Cameo Picture Frame
* Ford Work Solutions
* The Flaik
* DriveCam
Ubiquitous networks are the future, and IMHO, represents a great opportunity for building specialized businesses. What India specific device-oriented applications do you think would be most compelling on top of a network?
We are very pleased to bring Sharad Sharma as EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) at Canaan. We have had a long standing relationship with Sharad, and share common interest in cloud computing as a disruptive area of growth. Over the next few months, Sharad with work with the Canaan team to identify an opportunity that he would like to build out over coming years.
EIR is really a structure that allows us to choose an entrepreneur ahead of the idea. Sharad’s prior track record, his passion for entrepreneurship, early knowledge of cloud computing, and interpersonal comfort made it compelling for us to take this route. We also felt equipped to contribute to his efforts given our global footprint and existing exposure to cloud computing through companies like Virsto and Soasta.
Sharad last led Yahoo! India R&D and was the India General Manager and VP of Product Operations with Symantec. He was also a co-founder and CEO of Teltier Technologies, a wireless infrastructure start-up that is now part of Cisco. He has also established AT&T’s and later Lucent’s R&D organization in India.
Interesting vision of ten years ahead from Microsoft Office Labs. <a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&showPlaylist=true&from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage" onclick="javascript:urchinTracker('/outbound/video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB_038_playlist=videoByUuids_uuids_a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5_038_showPlaylist=true_038_from=shared');">Video: Future Vision Montage</a>
Proto.in has just announced its Pune event on 25th July. Its a one day event, with the first part featuring prominent speakers such as the likes of Bharat Goenka of Tally and Pravin Gandhi of SeedFund. The second part has promised to be an “Oscar like event” showcasing 20 “mindblowing” technology startups.
What got me excited though is the 3 day bootcamp that Proto.in is putting together. Day one will focus on diving into the business plan you have for the company, and combing through all the fine details. Day two, they teach you and groom you on how best to deliver a pitch (some advertising guys coming in here to help.) Day three, is all about the stage — well known event management company “BuzzWorks” will teach you how to handle yourself in front of the camera, what to do and what not to do when in a public forum.
I do think the bootcamp kind of event can add significant value to startups, many of which often find it difficult to frame and articulate their plans. Its good to see the emphasis on presentation coming in. Best luck to organizers and participants!
Venturebeat has a great summary on whats happening in the venture capital world. While the specific conversation is focused around US, some of the aspects have relevance in other markets like India. From new deal structures, building profitability versus value (when there is a tradeoff), virtualization as a macro trend, kids as a market, evolution of angel investors, capital efficiency, globalization (including India), growing size of venture firms and more - what does come out clearly is the divergence in opinions of various VCs, and thats a good thing in my mind.
I have always been intrigued by the cost of starting up in US relative to India. It seems to me that the seed stage investment required in India is higher than in US, even though at a later stage, Indian startups may have better economics due to lower cost of marketing. With reference to this article, at the seedstage, an Indian startup may have the following disadvantages at being capital efficient:
Lack of Compact Skills - of people who can handle 2-3 distinct aspects of the business (such as building the site, UI, marketing) with high level of expertise.
Inability to attract top talent for equity in early stages of startup.
Low limits on credit cards - yes, thats a useful tool when you are starting out!
Lack of relatively cheap/free infrastructure like garages, attorneys, etc.
I think the key to success on such startups is personal passion (or “immersion”) and ability to pick narrow niches and market to them.
Are you seeing under-5-lakh startups taking roots here in India?
Bernard did a very well-prepared interview with us recently, outlining some of our learnings in India, and how they have shaped our investment themes. His key takeaways are listed here.
Guide to MP3: as per timeline of questions on the audio file
0:22 — How is early-stage financing doing during this downturn compared to the last one in 2001/2002?
1:20 — How is the VC model changing, if at all, and how does the global financial crisis impact this change?
3:30 — What percentage of your investments targets a local or regional market versus a global market?
9:10 — What advantages or disadvantages does a venture starting from India have?
13:00 — If costs are lower in India than in the US, how does this affect the amount of funding required?
14:48 — What market segments are you excited about today?
16:00 — What one or two of your ventures do you want to tell our readers about?
Brilliant presentation on putting third world stats in perspective, and breaking through the myths.
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About
Archive for Alok Mittal.
Alok is a first generation entrepreneur, now in the venture capital business. Alok heads up venture operations for Canaan Partners in India, with focus on internet, technology and BPO space. Alok is also a founding member of Indian Angel Network - an organization comprising successful entrepreneurs looking to invest in seed stage businesses. Prior to this, Alok cofounded JobsAhead.com, a leading job portal which was acquired by Monster.com. Alok is an active charter member of TiE Delhi. Alok is a computer science graduate from IIT Delhi and, postgraduate from UC, Berkeley.
The views expressed on this site are personal views of Alok, and do not constitute an offical opinion of any company or organization.
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