In my experience working with Entrepreneurs for the past 9 odd years and possibly have seen a few thousand startups, there is one key attribute that instantly sets apart the startups that just might make it, to the ones that would struggle – the clarity on the problem they are trying to solve. While we […]
Building a Scalable Sales Process
To ensure a predictable business plan it is important to have a repeatable and scalable sales process in place. Thereafter, increasing revenues as per the business plan would only mean increasing the sales team and the geographies that you intend to address. Once the sales process is in place, the sales team would only need […]
HR Ideas : Fresh Talent Acquisition, Campus Hiring, Tests for Hiring, ...
In this blog post we would focus on one of the key aspect of any building fresh talent pool for growth. Every growing organization cannot ignore this essential method for talent building. This method is successful based on the Job market, Industry awareness & Social Influence on the Young Generation in that market. There are […]
“Accelerators should not try and be all things to all people”
At the recent Venture Intelligence APEX’13 Summit, Sateesh Andra of VenturEast Tenet Fund provided what I thought was very useful guidance to entrepreneurs on which type of early stage investor to approach – depending on the type of company they were creating. Accelerators should not try and be all things to all people. They are […]
Things to know about Angel Investors
As a start-up, if you are looking for angel investors, it would help to remember the following: Have a complete Business Plan: Remember, you don’t need a 30-page plan. Investors do not have the time to go through such huge plans. They need all the information in a precise and concise form. It would help […]
Surviving the Series A Crunch
In the recent past, I have been asked on several occasions about how a founder can improve his/her chances of securing Series A financing. In many cases, these entrepreneurs have successfully raised seed or angel funding, but have struggled to raise the next round. I have written a column on my views/suggestions on how to […]
Tech Startups: We are on our own.
I remember this TED talk by Hans Rosling as he echoed the sentiments that I’ve heard working closely with Market Research firms: Even with quantitative data, you have to be careful because as much as they are hard numbers, they usually are averages of two extremes – and the markets are full of extremities. Truth is, if you […]
MobilePOS – a few questions
One of the primary reasons for this post on mobilePOS – is that we as a company are being inundated with requests from various mobilePOS start-ups from India, Europe and US, who seem to be replicating/inspired by the Square Inc. model and want to leverage , ‘Our network of merchants’. To explain ‘Our network of […]
Does your product have a market?
Unfortunately not all new ventures end up as success stories. The reasons are plenty and well known. But start-ups continue to commit those very same mistakes. Ensuring success involves implementing the critical parts of the business plan in a systematic way. Like, identifying the product functionalities that will have takers; building a scalable sales process; […]
Stars Aligned to Foretell Future of Indian Private Equity & Venture Ca
Dear Colleague, In 2004, the buzz around one mega exit – of Private Equity investor Warburg Pincus from Bharti Airtel – got institutional investors across the world excited about the Indian Private Equity opportunity. Naturally, there was a boom in PE fund offerings from India- typically focused on minority growth capital type investments – to […]
ReadWrite – Predictions for 2013
Interesting post around startup predictions for 2013 here. Somewhat US centric, and I thought I’d overlay my comments for India alongside. 1. Accelerators will slow down: India may see a lag in slowing down of accelerators, and this may not happen in 2013. We might in fact see more accelerators come up. However, I am […]
HR Ideas for Business : 6-10 : Induction, Probation, Hiring, Grievance...
Here are the next 5 Ideas for better Business performance in building Human Synergies. In this posting you would find basic information about Induction, Probation, Grievance Redressal, High Requirement Hiring and Setting Expectation of Performance. These are very day-to-day issues and needs to be addressed on the go.  Please do read and add new inputs and perspective […]