Developed by New York Academy of Sciences, The Yaroslavl Roadmap 10-15-20 describes the innovation policies, successes, and challenges of four countries—Israel, Finland, India, and the U.S.—and Taiwan Province, China. Based on analyses of how those regions developed innovation economies, and on a study of the current state of Russia’s economy compared to the priorities of […]
A Billion Dollar Indian Internet Company
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 […]
the First Startup Camp @HeadStart Ventures
I am happy to announce the first set of startup workshops from August 20th till the 29th in Bangalore. The agenda is here. The objective is to find startups the HeadStart Ventures team can work with from now on. These will also form the pool of companies the fund that we are setting up can […]
My experience of raising an Angel fund.
I am an entrepreneur working on my third product venture. I also helped bootstrap one of India’s largest entrepreneurial platforms. In the past 3+ years of interacting with hundreds of startups in India, I found that the three biggest gaps in the ecosystem are – 1. seed capital (anything between Rs 20 lakhs to Rs […]
How to Build a Great Company Facebook Page? (Wall Street Journal)
“Does your company have a Facebook page?†In order to be truly successful in building a live and engaging community on the web, you need to have both a positioning strategy and an execution plan in place. To formulate a strategy for your online community, you need to answer a few critical questions before you […]
Dotcom has Enabled ‘Choice Entrepreneurship’ in India (From WSJ)
It was September 2000 and I was waiting for my U.S. work permit to join one of the big five consulting firms. Obviously, I was excited and had already started dreaming the American Dream. Interrupting the day dream was a call from one of my Indian Institute of Technology batch-mates – “We are opening a […]
Incubators – hot or not?
WSJ India Chief Mentor has an interesting article on incubators being an important engine of growth of entrepreneurship. It is an interesting observation, and makes me think about what will make these successful. Incubators have been known before to have an adverse selection problem. Simply stated, if an entrepreneur has an option to either get […]
Rs. 18000 crore broadband push – is this in the right direction?
ToI reports a 18000 crore broadband push by government to improve broadband access to every gram panchayat. While the initiative is welcome, it raises several questions: Investing versus creating an environment to invest: Government spending at such massive scale has been shown to be inefficient over and over again. What are the incentives that the […]
IIT Kanpur Golden Jubilee Initiative: The Next50 Global Innovation Cha...
The Next50 Global Innovation Challenge is an IIT Kanpur Golden Jubilee Alumni Initiative to identify 50 early stage innovators in Agriculture, Cleantech, Financial Inclusion, Education and Technology, who can change the way we work and live. Innovators stand to win awesome cash awards, named prizes and access an exclusive ecosystem of mentoring, business support and […]
Morpheus announces dates for next batch. To invest 5 L per startup
Its really good to see a bunch of active initiatives and discussions around providing support to the young entrepreneurs who are just getting started. The Morpheus (previously known as, Morpheus Venture Partners) is one such initiative. The Morpheus is a business accelerator and we work with companies at idea / early stage. Thus far in […]
Building the Green Entrepreneurial Ecosystem city by Indian city
“The nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. “ This is what President Obama said in his recent State of the Union address. Building the clean energy economy is not easy. Entrepreneurs have to start building businesses, investors will have to understanding them and professionals will […]
Sneak Preview: Proto.in Mumbai – January 30th, IIT Bombay
Like any Start-up before it’s big release, we at the Team Proto have been extremely busy with the big event which is coming to town. As some of you should be aware, Proto.in is taking place on the 30th of Jan in IIT Bombay. For Start-ups, Investors and the Audience alike, we have an action […]