Folks, thanks for the comments and questions both on the blog and that were sent to me through email. I do appreciate the feedback and it is always welcome. I decided to answer the questions in a post as opposed to a comment and hope that is appropriate. There were 4 main questions 1. Does […]
Cisco Capital to raise 2nd India fund
from ET: CISCO Capital, the technology financing arm of Cisco Systems, is planning to raise a second India dedicated fund worth $200-250 million. The company, which provides easy financing solutions to companies like LG and Symphony Services, has already infused $110 million out of its first $150 million India fund. “Though the first fund was […]
Returns to capital in microenterprises
A very interesting new paper, Returns to Capital in Microenterprises, examines some key issues around investing in microenterprises, which should be of interest to all who are watching the BoP ecosystem take shape as a market. From the abstract: Small and informal firms account for a large share of employment in developing countries. The rapid […]
Tandem Entrepreneurship
After my last company was acquired, I found the time to look at the world around and I was quickly came to realize that it’s a perfect time to start a company. Traditionally startups have required teams of 15-20, two+ years and millions of dollars before they have their first hundred users. There was a […]
The “Anti-Portfolio”
Bessemer Ventures has a fascinating page on what they call their “anti-portfolio” — basically, companies that they refused to invest in, that went on to become HUGE successes. In Bessemer’s case, these include Apple, eBay, Fedex, google, and Intel. I think this is a great idea, especially if the various GPs at Bessemer (and other […]
Indian ventures – losing out on Indian market?
As per alexa, China top 50 sites has only three global companies in there – Google, Yahoo, MSN/Live/MS – rest all seem to be Chinese companies. By contrast, India top 50 includes Google/Orkut, Yahoo, MSN/Live/MS as well as sites like youtube, blogger, rapidshare, wikipedia, tom(!), megaupload, monsterindia, xboard, facebook, screensavers, ebay, starware, digitalpoint, imdb, flickr, […]
Categories of Consumer Internet
There have been numerous good blogs and discussions on the Web 2.0 or other Internet/media opportunities in India. I’ve tried to create a more formal categorization of consumer facing Internet companies, based on the value they provide to the users and their role in the value chain. I believe the (at least short-term) prospects of […]
Content Aggregation sites in India: Legal problems ?
There have been quite a few content aggregation sites that have cropped up in the recent past – both in India and US. ixigo.com, Yahoo Farechase, zoomtra for travel, Yahoo Jobsearch, bixee etc for jobs, spoteazy for electronics and there are many others in US in this space. My question is: What are the legality […]
Kittu Kolluri Podcast
NEA’s Managing Partner Kittu Kolluri is an engineer turned entrepreneur turned investor. I met with Kittu at NEA’s Sand Hill Road Office in Menlo Park to find out how he made this transistion from being an engineer to entrepreneur to an investor. 0
Vertical social networks
Great post and comments on prospects of vertical social networks. These are social networks that revolve around a specific interest groups, such as bikers, running enthusiasts, etc. The article argues that this is the direction in which social networks will evolve, and naturally, users will be part of multiple social networks. This leads to a […]
Seedcamp – Europe
Interesting model on lines of YCombinator in Europe. The management resource base of the initiative is perhaps the single biggest success factor. Something to think about for people contemplating similar models in India. 0
The Druvaa Story
We started with a Data Replication and Disaster Recovery product for Asia Pacific SME market. Had a good start, built a solid team … and then got beaten down by Angels/VCs & some market “veterans”. Thanks to a lot of guys (specially some on venturewoods) who advised, We decided to go ahead and pooled in […]