At today’s roundtable we saw three very nice businesses, each with pilot customers, and each working on real problems. At the end of the session, each left with specific action items. First up today was Antonio Lucena de Faria with ActionFlow from Portugal. Antonio has a portfolio of web based business process management applications for […]
Angel investments in India – miles to go
Over past few years, angel investments have picked up in India, but the wide gap between quantum of angel investments and later stage investments remains. Some sense of where we need to head – For US, The data from the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research show angels invested $8.5 billion in the […]
1M/1M Strategy Roundtable: Bootstrapping Comes In Many Flavors
At today’s roundtable, we had some very interesting discussions on creative bootstrapping. I am always fascinated by how innovative entrepreneurs get when faced with resource crunches.  First up today was Justin Beck with PerBlue, a mobile and social gaming company that makes the iPhone and Android game Parallel Kingdom that has been in the market […]
VC Market Dynamics
Interesting article on some of the market dynamics in the global venture capital industry. The author points to some of the corrections that these long term dynamics are making to the model (such as super angels, survival of funds, founder liquidity etc). Central point – venture investing is a competitive market, and the model adapts […]
1M/1M Strategy Roundtable: Professional Investors Do Not Invest In $20...
At today’s roundtable we had some intensive discussions around market sizing and its impact on financing. You have heard, I am sure, that venture capitalists only invest in very large market opportunities – $500 million to a billion. But you have, perhaps, heard less specific discussions on what angel investors are looking for.  Well, some […]
Dreaming a Startup? – Join us at NASSCOM Product Conclave 2010
Starting up is not easy. You have to wear a hundred different hats at the same time. Building team, product design, coding, testing, marketing, selling, finance, admin, HR and everything else that comes along the way (or in the way). Does the very thought of this deter you from setting off on your dream journey? […]
Early stage technology investing – analysis
Interesting discussion here on issues around early stage technology investing in India. Many valid issues that have been discussed there. I particularly like the perspective around “distribution” being a killer app in India – but more on that sometime later. Earlier this year, we analyzed the investments made by 11 early/growth funds in India (across […]
1M/1M Strategy Roundtable: Try To Get At Least $2M Pre-Money In Seed R...
At today’s roundtable we had some interesting companies and a lot of fund-raising discussions, and I will review them shortly. Before I do, however, I want to talk about a thumb rule that I’d like to propose to entrepreneurs about raising money. Bottom line, early stage equity is very, very expensive. So at any point, […]
The Future of Search (Wall Street Journal)
It was Sunday and we were planning to go out for ice cream. I recalled someone talking about Cocoberry, a frozen yoghurt chain. I searched for “cocoberry†on Google and saw the link to Cocoberry’s page on Facebook. I visited the page and saw numerous comments by many of their satisfied customers. I could also see […]
Deadlines – UnPluGGd Nomination and Attendee Registration
UnPluggd is scheduled for October 30th (Bangalore) and we will bring India’s most promising technology startups to the stage. But beyond that, the event will also bring in some of the most inspiring talks from entrepreneurs who have successfully managed to build a great technology business from India (for reference, take a look at the […]
1M/1M Strategy Roundtable: Investors Don’t Fund Broad Ideas
At today’s roundtable I had a disturbing experience.  One of the entrepreneurs presented a business idea that sounded like a business-to-consumer concept, but as I peeled the onion, it turned out that the business was really a business-to-business concept. I asked why the pitch was so confusing and all over the place, to which […]
1M/1M Strategy Roundtable: Do Not Spray And Pray
At today’s roundtable, we had three niche e-commerce entrepreneurs and two e-commerce infrastructure entrepreneurs. I will describe their businesses briefly, below. You can vote on which one you like most by clicking on our Facebook page. If you missed the session, please listen to the recording before voting. First up was Brad Barrett presenting GrillGrate, […]