I know this piece is going to be controversial, and might lead to several heated debates. But, as part of my endeavor to remove information barriers between entrepreneurs and the VC community, I will still go ahead and write it. Most VCs see thousands of b-plans over their investing period, eventually funding only an extremely… read more »
The title sounds awkward, doesn’t it? Look up the Internet, and you will find hundreds of articles (including some by yours truly) about elevator pitches, how to reach out to VCs, how to trace them in events, most effective ways to get introductions to VCs etc. And you can’t blame authors for writing on these… read more »
Consider the following scenarios: Scenario 1: Tech Networks is a high potential software products company in the education space. It’s already starting to see traction pick up with Indian higher education institutions when lo and behold, it receives an inbound query from a potential channel partner in the Middle East. The Partner asks for exclusivity… read more »
- Soumitra Sharma, IDG Ventures India Feels great to be writing my first article of 2012 for YourStory! As we step into the New Year, what better topic than to address the first step several entrepreneurs looking to fund-raise, will be taking this year – creating the perfect Teaser for VCs. For the uninitiated, a Teaser… read more »
The global Big Data explosion and associated analytics opportunities have been well spoken and written about by now, courtesy the Economic Times, NASSCOM Product Conclave and the usual suspect – Gartner. To cite one example, global retailers such as Walmart and Tesco collected tons of customer data through the 80’s and 90’s and then realized… read more »
Guest article by Soumitra Sharma, IDG Ventures India As a young venture, getting the first customers is hard. As one can imagine, getting the first ‘right’ customers is even harder. For bootstrapped entrepreneurs, any dollars that come their way are literally worth their weight in gold. However, from the perspective of revenue sustainability, it’s important that… read more »
As a high-potential startup talking to numerous investors across the board, how many times have you heard the following statements – how will you scale the business? We see scalability challenges in the business model. It’s good that you have established a strong presence in NCR; but, how will you scale up across other major… read more »
Guest article by Soumitra Sharma, IDG Ventures India After spending more than 30 years building the world’s most valuable technology company, Steve Jobs recently stepped down as Apple’s CEO. Steve has indeed changed the way the world views technology, the way businesses view innovation and the way entrepreneurs build businesses. In fact, he has laid the… read more »
- Soumitra Sharma, IDG Ventures India The best startups will always get funded. Most often, they will have an enviable combination of multiple factors such as large and growing markets, excellent teams, innovative products or services, defensible competitive advantage, high exit potential etc. However, most venture-backed entrepreneurs would agree that during the fundraising process, they… read more »
- Soumitra Sharma, IDG Ventures India Ah! Total Addressable Market (TAM) – the usual suspect in all business plan presentations. The slide where larger is never enough. The slide which should force VCs to hand out the cheque immediately, considering the number of billion dollar pies that are apparently out there, ready to be eaten. Surprisingly,… read more »
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Popular on CloudStory.in