Mary Meeker (who now does growth stage deals for Kleiner Perkins) has released the 2014 edition of her annual Internet Trends report. Lots to read and digest here. KPCB Internet trends 2014 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers 0
Lead Nurturing Strategies for Start-ups
This is the most critical and heart-breaking part of acquiring customers. It can sap even the most persistent. But there is no alternative if you want to convert your qualified lead to an invoice. In the first place, consider yourself lucky you have a set of qualified leads. Most start-ups do not enjoy that luxury. […]
Pitchbook – Quick review of Global VC 2013
Pitchbook has a review of global VC activity in 2013. Key message – activity continues to shift out from silicon valley to other parts of the world, overall a slightly down year, but rising valuations. India still remains small. http://blog.pitchbook.com/2013-sees-vc-valuations-rise/ 0
What is the role of a Product Manager?
When hiring, I have quite often seen people confusing the Product Manager’s role with that of a Product Development Manager. These are two distinctly different roles and it is important to clearly understand these roles to avoid confusion and heartburn. The product manager is the owner of the product and plays a pivotal role in […]
Venture Capital in India – The Summit Push
As the season for year roundups begins, here are my thoughts, originally published in Economic Times… It is now my eight year in succession of claiming a great year for venture capital. I have been in the business for all of eight years. But then, I am also an amateur marathoner and a climber. And […]
When should a start-up go to an investor?
The unfortunate fact is that though being in the business of risk investments, most VC’s and Angel investors in India are highly risk-averse. This is why start-ups in India struggle to get off the ground. Past experience has made investors extremely careful with their investment decisions and despite such extreme caution still end up with […]
VC Firm Branding – What matters?
NVCA facilitated a recent research around what matters in a VC firm brand – both what entrepreneurs value, versus what VCs think is important. Branding and Venture Capital: Key Findings from BIG:VC from desantisbreindel Note that this is a US based study. Overall the study reinforced the importance of VC firm brand, but highlighted the […]
Should start-ups pay for Mentoring or Advisory services?
This has been a much debated point in various forums and is a question that plagues start-ups all over the world. Having taken part in numerous such discussions and understood different points of view, I felt that this would be a topic that would interest first-time entrepreneurs in India. So, should a start-up pay for […]
Finding ‘Product-to-Market Fit’ starts at ideation
In the course of interacting with so many start-ups I have found one common factor. Problem with articulating the problem statement. If you have understood the problem completely then defining it in two sentences should not be a problem at all. But therein lies the problem! A problem is a problem only if it is […]
For Start-ups Processes are critical for growth
You have got your first set of paying customers and have validated all your assumptions and now feel you would like to initiate actions for serious go-to-market. Every young enterprise looks forward to this day when they would be able to scale and grow their revenues. The entire focus is on revenues. But do you […]
Cold-calling is a necessity for start-ups. But how do you go about it?
Having worked hard to get that MVP (Minimum Value Product) in place, most start-ups struggle with getting those first set of reference customers that would help them validate their assumptions and scale their business. Most of the first-time entrepreneurs have not done any selling their entire life and are now expected to go out there […]
Impact Investing in India – three trends worth noting
Recently, impact investing in India has been taking center stage in the news. For example, Omidyar Network recently awarded $800,000 in grant funding to six organisations providing a spectrum of services that support social entrepreneurs, Unilazer investments also recently announced that as a fund they would continue to aim for profit first while expanding in […]