Read write web has a good compilation of startup talks from TED - enjoy!
On the topic, who do you think are the best presenters in startup space in India - on the big stage, not workshops…
Author Archive for Alok Mittal
We are bringing the startup leadership program to India, starting with delhi.
Admission Deadline - July 31, 2010
74 Fellows and counting…in Boston, Silicon Valley and now in Delhi. The Leadership Program is an initiative to groom startup CEOs in their mid-20s to 30s who have demonstrated outstanding potential and achievement, in life sciences, tech, cleantech and social sectors. Graduates will form an alumni network that will support each other’s entrepreneurial endeavors and have a significant impact on the global and regional economy in the years ahead. This program is going worldwide. Join us and help u grow. If you are interested, why not apply now? Early application is not necessary but can’t hurt! You can apply at the following link:
http://startupleadership.com/applyform.html
The Startup Leadership Program (SLP) is a not for profit 6-month fellowship. We train and mentor young professionals in their 20’s and 30’s to be leaders and entrepreneurs in the life science, tech, clean tech, and social enterprise sectors.
For more information on SLP, visit the SLP blog
To apply for the 2011 Delhi class of Startup Leadership, click here
Sincerely,
Organizing Team
Startup Leadership Program
A presentation outlining salient elements:
Interesting business around creating content and answering questions regarding agriculture. I guess the kind of content people will find relevant and will pay for - check out aAQUA.org
A Coller Capital report suggests that India and China might be net beneficiaries of the degradation in PE returns in developed markets. It predicts that PE investments in India and China will continue to climb despite higher risk. Key question: will it happen just in growth investing, or also in venture capital?
WSJ - iPad for Small Businesses in India
Published by on May 17, 2010
in Ideas & Companies.
(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5) Loading ...I penned some thoughts on how iPad kind of device can be used to create SAAS offerings for SMB customers in India, across healthcare, hospitality and other sectors. The ease of use led by touch interface, the table top usage scenario, bundling hardware with software and service, and disconnected operations could be some of the driving factors. I do find the consumer market a little harder to reach on this kind of a device - seems there might not be enough lead adopters willing to fork out the change from their pockets (rather than their company paying for it.)
Full article here.
Would love to get thoughts,
Online travel market has been one of the most exciting ones over past few years from a growth standpoint. Starting with IRCTC, and then followed up by Online travel agents (OTAs), this category has seen a decisive shift online. Amongst other things, it has also helped bring a large base of shoppers online, and demonstrated the viability of the “assisted ecommerce” model in India through retail points.
As a category becomes large, specialized plays become feasible – focus on specific products, business models, customer segments or experiences can create a second tier of businesses that can create and realize value. In my view, online travel is reaching that stage. Following are some of the opportunities that we are seeing in the market and in many of these, entrepreneurs have started to build new businesses.
- Product centric online properties: Be it bus ticketing or hotel bookings, India still does not have large swathes of inventory available electronically. New startups are working to bring this inventory online. Typically, this involved automating the inventory management of primary suppliers (bus operators and hotels) as well, unless the startup works on allocation basis. The key risks in this area include scale questions with regards to online adoption, and ability to amortize customer acquisition costs over few products. However, global success stories exist, and if successful, these businesses would be ripe acquisition candidates by large OTAs. In some cases, such startups are taking a character of GDSs, and the margin concerns might be more acute there.
- Metasearch is becoming a reality – once you have multiple supplier websites and OTAs, the customer wants to be able to search across those and find the best deal. Again, a globally proven model, the key risk here is perhaps the ability of these businesses to compete with relatively large marketing spends of OTAs, since the central promise of both remains “cheapest fares”.
- Experience driven sites – such as content sites and travel planning sites. Timing and business model risks are the most significant here, though with the right consumer driven model, it could be a very valuable play over time.
- New segments – Corporate travel and B2B businesses are coming up to service different segments of the market, other than the consumer segment that has been most focused on so far. This space has the potential to get crowded quickly, given that most OTAs are also servicing these segments in part. Intimate understanding on unique needs to these segments (such as expense management) and ability to cater them well lead to success here. Similarly products focused on travel suppliers themselves, such as revenue optimization or cross-sales enablers could be interesting opportunities.
Travel is the biggest and one of the fastest segments to take off on the Internet. Entrepreneurs and investors are now looking for niche opportunities that can scale over time. Would love to get your views on what plays you find most interesting and scalable.
crossposted here.
Incubators - hot or not?
Published by on April 19, 2010
in Ecosystem.
(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
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(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5) Loading ...WSJ India Chief Mentor has an interesting article on incubators being an important engine of growth of entrepreneurship. It is an interesting observation, and makes me think about what will make these successful.
Incubators have been known before to have an adverse selection problem. Simply stated, if an entrepreneur has an option to either get cash investment or incubator support, what are they likely to choose. Incubator “money” is likely to be at a far higher cost than investment, and hence unlikely to attract the best ideas/teams.
There are a few things that can still offer an interesting opportunity for incubators:
- Lower cost in startup phase: Web 2.0 has reduced the cost of internet startups in the west. If incubators can help achieve more with lesser money, or entrepreneurs can achieve more “under the radar” (with much less money than is typically supported through angels/VCs), they might be better off on a net basis being with an incubator. In a market like India, it remains to be demonstrated how much can be achieved (without compromising value) with 5 lakhs of cash.
- Dramatic shortage of cash investments: If the ecosystem is too weak to support the top tier ideas/teams, than incubators may land up getting some of those as well. I do not believe that is the case in India though - the key gap might be in offering the adequate investor diversity, and in that scenario the screening skills of incubators become critical. From what I have seen of some of these incubators, that is not necessarily the strongest point in their favor.
- Value beyond: In my mind, this is the most important element if an incubator has to succeed on a sustained basis. It has to provide value beyond money. That could be access to highly capable technical/scientific personnel (think IITs, or in a mature model, Israel). Or perhaps market access through a corporate incubator. I have heard claims that networking between incubator participants itself could be a key value, but am not sure of that one. Access to high quality mentorship at early stages - would the best teams get access to this anyway?
- Own the idea factory: If ideas are generated in the incubator itself (such as a company, or a university setting, though in India most university incubators are tapping outside ideas) then the adverse selection issue might be avoided.
I would love to get thoughts on the merits of such an initiative. One can justify the government programs as a developmental initiative, but I would ask the question if they should operate as independent selection entities, or double down to increase probability of success of companies that have gone through a high quality selection process. Another key success factor will be the length of time for which an incubator supports the company - if business building is taking a few years, can an incubator effectively influence the outcome through a 3-6 month involvement? An interesting article here which outlines some similar thoughts.
Very interesting post on why “fail fast” philosophy might be ill-founded. I think partly this mantra is open to interpretation - if an idea is not working, do you wish to spend $10M on it and then realize it, or quicker? In the manner that this article refers to it, its valuable to learn and adapt, rather than to give up. In the manner perhaps originally intended, you dont want to dig too deep a hole before you realize you are in it.
Part of this mantra owes its origin to environments where staying alive is expensive - think high burn startups! One of the key levers I believe exists in the Indian market is to survive at very low burn rates, or even turn cash positive while still experimenting with the core idea. Secondly, many times, the key risk being taken is the timing risk - essentially how fast the market adopts a solution - think about all the dotcom startups that rejuvenated 10 years later. In this construct, the ability to survive and wait it out is even more important.
In the kind of opportunities described above, persistence is perhaps the biggest virtue of entrepreneurs. At the same time, the ability to adapt and improvise is the key to making progress. Like many other contradictions of entrepreneurial success, this balance between conviction and flexibility is the key.
Hilarious!
ToI reports a 18000 crore broadband push by government to improve broadband access to every gram panchayat. While the initiative is welcome, it raises several questions:
- Investing versus creating an environment to invest: Government spending at such massive scale has been shown to be inefficient over and over again. What are the incentives that the government can create to attract private investment in this sector? The initiative around Common Service Centers is an interesting one - what will it take for that initiative to include backend infrastructure in addition to just the centers?
- Access versus ownership: The big success story around access is the PCO. That was 20 years back - that story has been substituted by the mobile revolution, which is a story centered around ownership. Ownership creates a level of value that can not be matched by access alone. What are the incentives and policy initiatives to encourage ownership? Incentives on broadband, on ownership of laptops/desktops, applications? Broadband access targets at every district level?
- Rural versus inclusive: The exclusive focus on rural areas is surprising. The state of broadband access in urban areas is dismal, and perhaps represents the bigger bang for the buck. Why are such initiatives confined to rural areas? What will it take to make these initiatives inclusive?
There are several recommendations that the industry has put out around solving these issues - I am no expert at that. I also welcome this initiative, rather than not doing anything. However, having seen what all of us have in the mobile world, it seems like a huge loss of opportunity to not address this issue with greater force.
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