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 […]
SWOT Analysis – Importance and Need
For those who are not aware of SWOT, it stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat and an analysis of all these factors is done for any new product, service or company. I have come across many business plans without a SWOT analysis. People probably underestimate the power of such an analysis. A good SWOT […]
How critical is Mentoring for start-ups?
From my experience of the last 12 years with start-ups, the issue is with the entrepreneurs understanding and acknowledgement of the importance of a Mentor. In most cases, a mentor is supposed to be a like a quick-fix. A first time entrepreneur needs to understand that a mentor is like a partner, hand-holding you to […]
Captain your Ship
As an entrepreneur or the CEO of a start-up, you need to clearly take the lead position, as it is your vision and mission that the team has to take forward. Not all CEOs of start-ups have the experience of leading an organization. But you don’t need to let that inexperience reflect in the way […]
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 […]
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 […]
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; […]
Delhi is the New Hub For Techs
I read this interesting article recently- about how Delhi is the new hub for tech startups– in Wall Street journal. I am curious- what are the experiences/opinions of other members- who may have worked in multiple Indian metros on the subject. — Below article is a mirror of article in Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204485304576644220533569618.html Delhi […]
Business coaching for entrepreneurs
I recently left the venture capital world to set up a business coaching practice and wrote the following piece for a venture capital related publication. Pasting it below, and would love to get the forum’s thoughts on how they perceive the value of coaching. From Venture Capitalist to Business Coach After several years of working with […]
Indian Entrepreneur Mindset
Indian entrepreneurs typically think innovation means invention or product innovation… But, to be a successful grocery store owner also, you need to innovate enough… thanks Pradyot http://www.crunchbase.com/person/pradyot-sahu Innovation Engineering http://www.facebook.com/innoengineering Innovation Engineering Forum http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3759712 0