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 […]
CEDT@Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore launches business in...
My last post here on VentureWoods dwelt on the problems that early stage companies face in India and their requirements. One comment made on the post reminded me that all we are doing is analysis and seldom anything else (well, to be fair, HeadStart does quite a bit, it hosted 60 Startup Saturdays since last […]
Inviting Early Stage Ventures/ University Startups
A close friend and mentor, a member of the Management Board of one of Europe’s largest media companies and my Chairman designate, is on a private visit to India between the 8th and 14th of May. This will be his first visit to the country and we are actively exploring the possibility of investing in […]
Hans Rosling – Third world stats
Brilliant presentation on putting third world stats in perspective, and breaking through the myths. 0
Coming Unemployment Problem
With roughly 55 percent of India’s population of 1.2 billion made up of people aged 24 or younger, India was viewed as a country with a massive demographic advantage. Unfortunately, the global slump has turned the advantage into a big disadvantage.India’s economy will probably grow at the slowest pace since 2003 as a global recession […]
Criteria for Investment – Reid Hoffman
Interesting post by Reid Hoffman on his rule of three for investing in internet businesses. Does the business have a strong distribution plan, a unique value proposition, and is it capital efficient. I think the hardest part to assess for internet businesses is the uniqueness. For each business that is successful, there are many (with […]
Capitalism 2.0
Indian entrepreneurs and readers, I’d love to hear from you on what you envision as Capitalism 2.0, give your somewhat different perspective than those of my American readers. I started writing this series and am, one by one, tackling the various issues that constitute not only the economic framework, but also the philosophical framework. From […]
VC investments falling off cliff in the US
Alok asked earlier about what change in behaviour we’re seeing among VCs. My own sense is that VCs in India are much more cautious than VCs in, say, the US. “No” is always a safe answer. Of course, the “venture” or “risk” part of “Venture Capital” is then drastically downplayed. Nowhere is this more true […]
What’s happening in the venture market?
This is the questions that journalists are asking us most often these days. Broadly, what are seeing is as follows: Portfolio companies are still going strong, and have made the adjustments required to tide through the current environment. This applies both to potential business impact (in cases where there is slowdown in customers’ purchasing behavior), […]
Strategy Roundtables for Entrepreneurs
Friends, some of you have attended the strategy roundtables I have been doing for several months now. Here are some recordings. This morning’s roundtable, in particular, had some very good discussion on when to raise money and when not to, instead choosing the bootstrapping path. I encourage all of you who are toying with your […]
Multilingual & Offline
Here is a link to a page which has links to the Dr.E. Sreedharan’s appeal in Hindi, Tamil & Malayalam. More languages are being worked on and will be added. This FRNV page also has links to information to help citizens become informed voters. You can print the PDF’s and distribute them offline as well. […]
Lok Sabha 2009 – Be an Informed Voter
Google has made an effort with partners to enable voters to be more informed. Take a look. I am on the electoral reforms team of the Foundation for Restoration of National Values( FRNV). The president is Dr. E. Sreedharan, the man behind the Delhi Metro. I admire his execution capability which is why I volunteered. […]