Archive for the 'General' Category

NEN Program for Women Entrepreneurs

Published by Mukul on September 3, 2010 in General.
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...
 0 Comments

Here is an announcement from National Entrepreneurship Network. Please feel free to write to the below mentioned email

Are you a woman entrepreneur who dreams big or do you know of one?

If so, this is for you!

It is a known fact that most young companies die in the first 4-5 years of their life. This is also the time when startups begin to explore the opportunities for growth. The transition from startup to growth is a tough one and this is when most entrepreneurs have said they could use some focused help.

So here is an excellent opportunity for you to nominate yourself or a friend, relative or colleague to the NEN “Tools for Growth” program developed in partnership with London Business School, under the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Program. Eligibility criteria includes a current turnover of between 5 and 50 lakhs per annum.

This Workshop will help women entrepreneurs address key issues around growing their business. The entrepreneurs will be exposed to different tools and frameworks through case study discussions of real companies. Additionally, they will work with teams of 4 entrepreneurship faculty members from India’s top institutions to evaluate their company’s readiness and action plan for growth
For more information on the following, please visit NEN Resourcesand get in touch with richa@nenglobal.org

Navigating through M&A

Published by Alok Mittal on August 30, 2010 in General.
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...
 0 Comments

Interesting account of how Backblaze navigated through an M&A discussion, and what to watch out for,

read here.

A Billion Dollar Indian Internet Company

Published by Mukul on August 19, 2010 in Ecosystem and General.
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...
 2 Comments

I have always (after coming into the VC industry) heard the concept of $1 bn company while evaluating early stage businesses. “Can it become a $ 1 bn company?” has been a perpetual question. I always doubted on the concept of $ 1 bn market cap internet company out of India. However; last week our portfolio company, MakeMyTrip IPO made me a big believer of early stage investing.

Early last week, the IPO was oversubscribed by a big margin. My team at SAIF Partners in India was happy that the company will get listed at higher price range of the band giving us a 10x return. It was a joyous moment specially because MakeMyTrip is one of our very early stage investment. Thursday turned out to be a different day for us. All of us checked MMYT (MakeMyTrip NASDAQ ticker) multiple times at night. The stock went through a crazy day and finally closed 89% up on the debut day itself. By this time MMYT was already a $800 MN Market Cap company

MMT

It zoomed again yesterday and according to Nikhil (MediaNama) “the first instance of an Indian Internet company crossing the $1 billion Market Cap”

Though I have joined SAIF very recently but I feel privileged to be a part of the joyous moment. I strongly believe MakeMyTrip IPO will go a long way in contributing to the Indian Internet and start up ecosystem.

1.) It will reinforce investors’ confidence in Internet in India. Couple of days back, Alok bounced if more money will flow to Indian early stage businesses. I didn’t have an answer that time. However; now I believe that it will. I am already seeing lot more deals cooking with various VCs

2.) Hiring senior level talent would be easy in growing Indian Internet/Mobile companies. After Naukri, MakeMyTrip would become another example of wealth creation through ESOP. I am seeing great interest in senior level hiring in our other portfolio companies like HomeShop18 and One97. I think ESOP story will become more credible to sell

Personally, it has created lot of energy and motivation in the team and we will see many more SAIF investments in early stage companies in India. One97 would be another early stage investment of ours going to hit markets soon.

Launching GrexIt - Your shared email memory

Published by Niraj on August 17, 2010 in General.
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...
 5 Comments

I have been working for the last couple of months building this tool: www.grexit.com. If you use Google Apps for your email, you’ll most likely find it useful. A small description of where we are trying to get at with GrexIt follows (It uses a browser plugin that we currently build only for FF 3.x):

This is what you can do with GrexIt:

  • When you have an email thread in your inbox that you think can be of importance/relevance to other people you work with, now or sometime in the future, you can add the email thread to GrexIt by pressing the “Send to GrexIt” button on your email interface.
  • This also triggers an email to all participants of the email discussion. You can continue your discussion on email by responding to this automatically triggered mail, and the complete discussion keeps getting saved in GrexIt.
  • You can search the content on GrexIt by typing in the box that is rendered just above your chat box in Gmail/GoogleApps mail.
  • You can also login to GrexIt at http://grexit.com and access the content that your group has added.

How to use GrexIt: http://blog.grexit.com/using-grexit

The kind of content for which GrexIt is relevant (some generic points):

  • Technical set-up/configuration information that might be needed later by anyone in the team
  • Announcements that might be of relevance to people who join the team later
  • Discussions where someone asked a question and the problem got resolved on email
  • Links to articles etc. on the internet which might be useful later - example: all the gang discussions that we have
  • As a thumb-rule, anything in your inbox that you think might be needed by others now/later, belongs in GrexIt

Currently, the plugin works only on FF 3.x and is for Google Apps users. Also, you might see some problems with the attachment support as of now. We’re working to fix it.

Would look forward to knowing from the community here what they think about the tool. A lot of features, including gmail like labels, but shared within the group, are coming soon.

Criticality of getting product roadmap right in early stage ventures

Published by Andy Narayanan on July 20, 2010 in General and Musings.
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (6 votes, average: 1.67 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...
 7 Comments

This is a cross post from my blog. Thought it might be relevant to share it in this forum. 

It is common knowledge that the success or failure for a new venture is primarily dependent on three factors – market, product and team. Entrepreneurs are traditionally good at identifying a market need and hence the two potential areas of fatal failure that one should watch out for are team and product.  In this post, I discuss the importance of getting the product roadmap right.  

Many of us would have heard of or had experience with ventures that collapsed because they ran out of funding before they could complete product development or released an over-complicated product that users could not understand or, released products that fell way short. The common underlying cause for failure might not always be the product itself, but rather the way it was rolled out and its inability to meet user expectations specifically at the time of its launch or release.

User expectations from a product are always dynamic and continuously changes with time.  In fact, one could draw a chart on how a user expectation varies with time. Initially, users (typically a small number) expect the product to address their core ‘pain points’ along with some ‘nice to have’ features, while taking into consideration any constraints that they might have. With time, expectation increases significantly (with more number of users) with need for more ‘nice to have’ features.  I call this the expanding ‘band of user expectations’.

To be successful, it is critical that the product roadmap be aligned with the band of user expectations (like Company B indicated by the green line). Deviating from it spells potential doom. In the example above, Company A attempts to deliver a complete product at a very early stage and ends up over engineering its product and potentially leaving its users confused. Considering that startups have limited resources, it unlikely that a company like this would have enough funds left in the bank to develop the next version. Company C on the other hand adopts a ‘throw it and see if it sticks’ approach and falls way short of user expectations. Both are not helpful scenarios.  

Companies that successfully align their product roadmap against the band of user expectations typically adopt a hypothesis-driven approach to product development. They test which features are desirable for their users, and aggressively seek feedback about their product and its features.  They also constantly iterate on development to ensure that their product fits well within the band of user expectations. Of course, there might be some companies like Apple that will exceptions to this kind of an approach, and are well capable of telling their users what they need. But 99.9% of the startups would be well advised to take structured approach to product roadmap.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences on this topic.

The ‘Cost’ of Facebook Marketing (Wall Street Journal)

Published by Pradeep Chopra on July 15, 2010 in General.
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...
 1 Comment

There are frequent debates in our workshops about whether the time and effort spent on building a Facebook marketing or brand experience is worth it. Is it really positive when it comes to return on investment?

Let me walk you through an interesting example of an ROI evaluation of an Indian brand’s community on Facebook. Ching’s Secret’s Facebook community has around 120,000 fans.

According to Ajaay Gupta, chairman and managing director of Capital Foods Ltd., the brand owner of Ching’s Secret, Smith and Jones and Raji brands, this is how he compares the ROI of its community on Facebook with the ROI of advertising in print:

1. A half page ad in a city tabloid (with a circulation of around 100,000 readers) costs around 200,000 rupees ($4,350). The “opportunity to see” as defined by the same tabloid is around 300,000 (100,000 multiplied by three, the average number of readers per household). In reality, only a fraction of readers actually see the advertisement.

2. The OTS of any message posted by an administrator of Ching’s Secret’s community on Facebook is 18,000,000 (120,000 multiplied by 150, an average number of connections on a Facebook user page). Surely, this number is theoretical and will never happen. However, to whatever fraction you may want to discount this number, the final number of people who will see the message will still be much larger than the reach of an advertisement in print.

But the real ROI of the Facebook community, based on the parameters below, is extremely positive when compared to other competing advertising media:

–Recurring Cost: To reach out to the same readers they reached earlier through print, they will need to pay for every new advertisement. In the case of Facebook, it doesn’t cost them any money for a new message.

–Engagement Level: The quality and quantity of engagement on Facebook far surpasses the potential engagement opportunity in print. According to the company, they can expect 0.5% to 1.5% of fans to engage with their message on Facebook. In the case of print, if they present an opportunity for readers to respond through an SMS, they can only expect 0.2% as the response rate.

–Visibility: In the case of Facebook, they have complete visibility of their audience’s profiles while they get negligible visibility through print.

–Virality: Finally, the opportunity of their existing Facebook fans bringing new fans or influencing other people’s decisions toward their brand almost doesn’t exist in the case of print but is exponential on Facebook.

These are smart rules of thumb that can be applied to any business, small or large, while measuring or planning a Facebook presence in a marketing plan. I look forward to hearing about any arguments or models of evaluating Facebook effectiveness for business growth.

This article was originally published at WSJ.

The Guy who sold 2 Cos. to Flextronics

Published by Arun Natarajan on July 14, 2010 in General.
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 1 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...
 0 Comments

At Venture Intelligence, we recently did a podcast with K.V. Ramani, Founder of Future Software and Co-Founder of Hughes Software Systems - both of which were acquired by Flextronics in 2004. KVR’s story is a fascinating account of the tribulations and success of an early mover in the Indian software industry, who chose - in the mid-1980s - to tread a different path than the common “body shopping” route.

Some highlights from the podcast:

# KVR’s story emphasizes how the founding idea - especially for an IT product company - should be based on something that is likely to become popular 3-5 years ahead. He believes the founders should focus on the vision for the company in the next 5 and leave the job of managing the next few quarters to the operational managers.

# The podcast has an interesting account of how KVR converted the huge problem of its largest customer, Hughes (which accounted for 30% of the business), wanting to set up its own shop in India, into an opportunity.

# KVR also highlights how Flextronics acquired and stitched together what is today Aricent by acquiring 5 Indian communications software companies (including Future Software)

You can view more highlights and download the full podcast from http://www.entrevista.in

Startup talks from TED

Published by Alok Mittal on July 14, 2010 in General.
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...
 0 Comments

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…

Tracking Your Company Facebook Page (Wall Street Journal)

Published by Pradeep Chopra on July 9, 2010 in General.
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...
 0 Comments

In my previous posts on community building on Facebook, I mapped out a way to create a Facebook strategy and promote your company’s Facebook Page.

Monitoring it continuously and making sure it occupies the right position in the consumer’s mind, though, will require you to use the right analytics.

Your business objectives for launching a community on Facebook will define the metrics you use to measure and optimize the success of your community.

For example, if you are building a community to promote your brand, you may want to measure the number of relevant target users that are part of your community and the quality of interactions with those users.

Similarly, if your objective is to generate leads for your business, you may want to track the number of relevant queries you receive through your efforts to build a community on Facebook.

How will you know that you are on the right track?

“Unexplored India – A Treasure Hunt” is a travel community on Facebook that was launched in one of our workshops and stands out as a niche yet, strong example. Within the first three weeks of its launch, this community grew to over 2,000 fans with an exceptionally high degree of engagement (i.e. over 600 interactions per week).

Examining the data more, it also became clear that:

–With around 400 page views per day (out of which half were from unique visitors), this community had a high proportion of repeat visits –With over 250 photo views per day, it is evident that pictures of unique places are one of the most popular pieces of content offered –Also, with a gender ratio of 70:30 (male to female), it is clear that this community is currently used more by men

Practically, this gets translated into the following trends on Facebook Insights (a free metrics dashboard available to all Facebook users):

1. Fan Growth: The number of fans (as well as unsubscribed fans) on your page over a period of time. In the latest version of Facebook Insights, you can also see where fans came from.

2. Demographics: Given that Facebook is aware of the demographic details of its users, it provides highly relevant and useful demographic information comprising age, gender, location (country as well as city) and language.

3. Interaction: The extent of interaction is measured by page views, number of wall posts, likes and comments, which also tell you about the engagement pattern of your page. You can also get insights into what kind of content (text, photo, video etc.) is working or not working.

At a macro level, there are a few interesting tools which help you assess the value of your community on Facebook and allow you to do a thorough competitive analysis as well:

1. Facebook Grader: A tool designed by HubSpot to help you assess the ranking of your company’s Facebook page among other pages.

2. Social Page Evaluator: A tool designed by Vitrue to help marketers get a better understanding of a Facebook page’s ”value.” Although it is not a perfectly scientific tool, it can be used as a good indicator to compare two Facebook pages. Here is another study by Vitrue to help you gauge the dollar value of each fan on your company’s Facebook page.

To summarize the complete process of launching and nurturing a community on Facebook, let me give you a framework which you can use as a guide to connect all the pieces of community building covered in this article series.

I would like to end this series by encouraging you to continuously experiment and evolve your strategy as you move along in the community-building process on Facebook. I will be writing next on “Online Reputation Management.”

Do let me know the topics in digital marketing you would like me to write about.

This article was originally published at WSJ’s India Chief Mentor.

Hemu Ramaiah – Story of an Indian Retail Pioneer

Published by Arun Natarajan on June 25, 2010 in General.
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...
 2 Comments

At Venture Intelligence, we recently had a great experience interviewing Hemu Ramaiah, founder of the Landmark bookstore chain (in which the Tatas acquired a majority stake in 2005). For me, the interview (which is part our Entrepreneur Podcast series “Entrevista”) served as a confirmation that a customer facing role is the best start to an entrepreneurial career.

Other key takeaways from the podcast:

* “Make Your Own Mistakes”
o Trust Your Gut (based on your understanding of customer needs)
o “Don’t let Accountants take over your business”
o Examples: Deciding to get software designed by a start-up firm (which made the effort to understand her requirements better), deciding not to charge extra for courier delivery for Internet orders, deciding to buy (rather than rent) space for the stores, etc.

* Importance of Growing the Market vs. worrying overly about competition
o Amazing story of how she decides overnight to start supplying books to her competitors (in order to boost volumes for the import orders)

* Choice between Private Equity and Strategic Investors

* Planning the Personal Exit
o Because “business is a treadmill” and “life shouldn’t pass you by”
o Basing the decision on an age cut-off (rather than some target corpus)

* Converting Problems into Opportunities
o When she learns that her daughter’s schoolmate has never visited a bookshop, Hemu decides to turn the problem (of parents not exposing their children to books), by “taking the bookstore to the school”.

You can download the full podcast from the Entrevista blog at http://www.entrevista.in