Rahul Bendre

Fests and events are the heart of every college and this where the board game found its value. The strategy game they made (called Kingpin) was used in the business event at the college for 3 years and the thought of starting up a company or anything on similar lines hadn’t cropped up initially. But a continuous popularity amongst all those who played it, made the duo think. Are we sitting on something big? They thought.

But as the case is many times they took offers during their campus placement season and began their corporate journey. “We joined companies and started working; me in Mumbai and Khitij in Bangalore, but Kingpin was always on the back of our minds.” says Rahul. They came to the conclusion that pining alone won’t help; they’ll have to take concrete steps if they wanted something to work out. Priniting the board game and distributing it and expansion on those lines was going to be cumbersome. Giving it a serious thought, they met a few Professors at IIM Bangalore and found a new direction. Two more people came on board; Vishal Kumar, the designer and Shobhit Aggarwal a doctoral student at IIM-B.

After having feedback from the professors, they tailored the board game and created a training module around it based on the best theoretical frameworks from Harvard University and IIM Bangalore to meet the training needs of corporates. The Strategic Thinking Workshop enabled employees at corporates to discover their hidden Personality Traits and hone their potential in Strategic Decision Making and Negotiation.

The feedback received for the workshops was very encouraging and it was conducted at a bunch of companies. The game was also a part of the compulsory course at IIM Bangalore. But again they faced a roadblock; scaling up. And quickly! Scaling up was proving to be difficult and they were seeing lesser returns than the efforts that were being put in. Something new was bound to happen.

Next destination? Online, it had to be. Their passion for making games found solace with facebook apps to startout with. Their first game, Beehive is a simple but engaging game.

No publicity has been done for Beehive till now but they’re launching it soon commercially in a partnership with CareerLauncher. You can play the game here.

Youbet is another campaign/game they run in partnership with Justeat wherein they’re taking advantage of the current IPL fervor. You can start betting and win badges here.

Kshitij Saxena

These efforts are being made to work up the monetization area. They’re also in talks with finance firms online to gamify their offerings as 5shells have a strong stock simulation application. Moving forward, 5Shells will be very aggressive on mobile apps and one can expect some very high quality apps coming from their stable within 3-6 months. We’ll have our eyes open.

Team credentials

As mentioned earlier, Kshitij Saxena, the chief strategist and salesman has a B.Tech from IIT Kanpur and a PGP from IIM Bangalore. He has a two year experience with IP litigation and a long clientside scripting experience.

Vishal Kumar

Rahul Bendre is a passionate game designer who did an Msc Integrated course from IIT Kanpur. He’s a pro at flash programming and server-side scripting.

Vishal Kumar, the creative right brain in the company is also an engineer from IIT Kanpur along with a PGD Graphic Design from NID Ahmedabad. He headed the graphic design department at Myntra and also works part-time as Graphics Guru at an Australia based web-designing company.

Shobhit Aggarwal

Shobhit Aggarwal who is a Phd. From IIM Bangalore heads the corporate training initiative at 5Shells. He has more than 3 years of experience in training and related activities and is also an avid gamer who has played and evaluated more than 250 online games spending more than 10,000 hours since 2002.

More about them on the website (yet to be updated online plans). For more amazing things in the field of gaming, check out Rolocule, Playcaso and Joystics.

Bharti Airtel and Axis Bank announce strategic alliance for financial inclusion

Bharti Airtel, through its wholly owned subsidiary Airtel mCommerce Services Limited, and Axis Bank today announced a partnership for extending banking and payment services to India’s unbanked millions through the ubiquitous mobile platform. This alliance will leverage the companies’ respective strengths in telecom and banking sectors to empower financially excluded citizens of India with banking products and services towards enhancing their livelihood and quality of life.

Key Points

• Combine strengths of banking and telecom sectors to deliver banking services through the ubiquitous mobile platform
• Launches ‘airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank’, a no-frills savings bank account of Axis Bank on Airtel’s mobile platform, in partnership with Infosys
• Money transfer with cash-out now available across leading remittance corridors; customers can save money and earn interest too

With the partnership announced today, no-frills savings account of Axis Bank will be opened for customers on the Airtel Money platform called ‘airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank’ offering customers banking transactions including cash deposit, money transfer and withdrawal. These accounts will provide convenient, safe and secure savings avenue to Financial Inclusion customers’ paying them savings account interest and also enabling them to make remittances. To begin with, savings and remittance solutions will be provided in the top four remittance corridors involving Delhi and Mumbai on the sending side and Bihar and East UP on the receiving side. Thereafter these services may be extended to other remittance corridors in the country. Gradually other banking products and services like micro Recurring Deposits, micro Fixed Deposits, small loans and micro-insurance products will also be provided through this platform.

The ‘airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank’ offers the following key features:

• A no-frills account of Axis Bank on the Airtel Money platform
• Cash Deposit / Withdrawal from authorised ‘airtel money – Axis Bank’ outlets
• Remittance of funds to other ‘airtel money Super Accounts’
• Remittance to other bank accounts through NEFT (to be enabled soon)
• Savings bank interest on balances

Mobile customers can visit nearest authorised ‘airtel money – Axis Bank outlets’  and open ‘airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank’ on their mobile phones by submitting the prescribed application form and KYC documents.

The focused target segment of the ‘airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank’ will be remittance corridors and unbanked areas, where there is greater need of easy money transfers and savings, which will be possible with this account and the need for other financial products like deposits, insurance, loans etc. that will get enabled soon. Going forward, the mobile platform can also facilitate other micro-payments. Such collaboration between India’s leading mobile and banking services providers represents a model partnership meant for making the idea of inclusive banking a reality for customers in India

More on www.airtel.com

Image Credit: mobilemarketingwatch.com

Dasra is India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation, working with philanthropists and successful social entrepreneurs to bring together knowledge, funding and people as a catalyst for social change. Dasra Social-Impact is an executive education program that provides promising non profits and social businesses with the business skills and funding networks to help build sustainable, scalable organizations and accelerate their impact.

The event is scheduled on Thursday, May 24th, 2012 at DREAM:IN Center, Joseph Chemmanur Hall, 1st Cross, 1st Stage, Indiranagar, Bangalore – 560038.

Click here to register.

Schedule:

7:00 – 7:30 pm – Introduction to Dasra

7:30 – 8:30 pm – Finding Funding – A discussion with venture investors, grant makers and social entrepreneurs.

Speakers include: Manas Ratha – senior mentor DSI, Anoj Vishwanathan – Founder & CEO Milaap Ventures

8:30 pm onwards- Networking and drinks reception hosted by the Bangalore Social Enterprise Group (Venue to be confirmed)

Prana technologies, a software solutions provider that took off in 2007 claims that unlike other technology businesses, they not only provide technology solutions, but offer complete business solutions packages. “IT services, business solutions, and outsourcing bring you a level of confidence in our product,” says Founder and Director, Sriram Bharadwaj.

Talking about the ride so far, Sriram says, “We are a small and growing company and we are yet to come to the level of saying we are successful. Having said that, we have few factors such as technology capabilities, and size (being small is at times useful) that make us close deals. Thus, we feel we are on the road to success.”

Sriram, an IT major, strode into the entrepreneurial arena with a software solutions provider, Benchmark Softech Ltd., in 1995. Having been successful in developing it into an offshore partner for various companies in Singapore, Middle East, and USA, Eurostar Diamonds, a Belgian company, showed interest in acquiring the entire company and after much deliberation, Benchmark Softech Ltd was sold.

Prana Technologies focuses primarily on providing ERP solutions to its customers. The ERP consulting that Prana offers includes Oracle and SAP based applications. ”In fact, we are more focused on Oracle Apps and SAP implementation than anything else. We also have a small team of mobile web apps/native apps developers,” says Sriram. Naturally, the target crowd would be ERP implementers. “Because we have the edge of having one of the best resources in these fields, they normally outsource the work to us,” he adds. Prana technologies currently, almost exclusively operates onsite at client locations in places like the Middle East and Singapore. Consequently, depending on the agreement, the revenue model is based on the fixed cost of a project.

Another well-known fact is that mobile commerce is going to command a pretty huge market space in the next few years. Sriram, whose venture also focuses on mobile application development services adds, “Mobile Commerce will rule the roost. Even as a user, I find it more suitable and comfortable than the traditional computing methods. If technologies can bring in necessary security measures, mobile commerce and communication has a great future for itself.”

The founder points out that assimilating the right team with good capabilities will be a major challenge. “Now that we are small, we are able to get our resources through our network of contacts. However, as we grow, hiring the right resource is becoming a challenge.”

In a couple of years, Prana Technologies looks to setup a world-class facility and become a major offshore player. “With the size and success rate, we have been getting good offers for acquisition and mergers. However, we have been slow in accepting such offers and we would like to make the venture bigger before we accept such offers,” says Sriram, signing off.

More about them on the website.

Says Co-founder Shivangi Mehta, “We believe that the Indian online customer is price sensitive. We not only match, but also provide the least possible prices and are happy to mention that we have already achieved this in the fragrances category.  We also provide unique products sourced locally and internationally, again, at the best prices. We understand that the key to our success is a happy and satisfied customer. That is why we focus on delivering a simple yet exciting shopping experience.”

Co Founded by Shivangi and Payal Sheth, the functional version of Fashion Downtown was launched about four months ago. “We have a fresh and vibrant online store- a place where you can find the latest fashion from local indigenous brands to the high street. We know how important it is to look your best; therefore it is essential that our prices are affordable for everyone. We believe fashion is a right not a luxury,” says Shivangi.

Shivangi Mehta

The founders have a combined experience of Marketing, Finance and have educated themselves in IT as well. They started working on the concept 8 months back, where they got involved in areas of e-commerce, right from sourcing, to dealing with IT issues, Marketing, SEO, SMO and Operations. They pride themselves in running an e-commerce website with very low overheads while still achieving their sales. As a duo, they used to consult a lot of their clients for business development and business plans and during this process, they got associated with a lot of designers and brands, based on which, they carved out a plan for Fashion Downtown.

Having three operational offices within Mumbai and an IT base in Hyderabad, Fashion Downtown believes in having a lean organization and is thus, currently, 12 people strong. They also strongly feel that for best customer services, they need to invest in people, so that is their next big step. Their clientele is mainly spread across the US and India.

“Whereas India is concerned more of young adults from the age group of 17 to 35, their buying behavior is western influenced. International brands, designer wear, watches, fragrances are widely accepted by them, they are more open to experimentation and they are vey tech savvy. Internationally, we cater to NRIs who are looking for Indian wear at a reasonable price so the age group there is from 28 to 55,” says Shivangi.

Payal Sheth

The company’s business model is based on various sales channels such as B2C, B2B, Corporate Sales, Import and Exports. Margins vary depending on the nature and volume of sales. They have tied up with brands in Clothing, fragrances and accessories categories for men and women. They also import products from few countries and plan to expand in this direction. So far self funded, they are looking for external funding for expansion.

“We plan to get more international products and continue sourcing unique local products to deliver at the best prices. We also want to fill the gap for Indian designers to reach international markets by giving them a platform to deliver their brands via a worldwide express delivery service offered through Fashion Downtown,” says Shivangi.

“If you love problems and challenges, this is the place to be! Initially, getting technology right was a challenge, followed by convincing designers and vendors, who were never exposed to this idea, to come on board. Currently, delivering the customer immediately is a challenge; dealing with cash on delivery is the biggest challenge we face since we do not maintain inventory at our end. The necessity to survive has taught us a lot and we would like to share how we let our aspirations be sidetracked to survive and got back. We aspired to have Gen Next and mom-and-pop designers and exhibitors all over India who do not have retail space on our platform. But, in due course, we saw the consumer is not ready for unbranded unique products from a site which is new and does not have spending power for marketing. So, we got branded stuff that was demanded and provided at least possible price, got customers to trust our site. We are happy with the response currently and we are looking positively at the way forward,” concludes Shivangi.

Also check out, Footsy, Klouzly, IMStylish.in and Craffts.com for other similar interesting startups!

More on Fashion Downtown, here.

Company Brings Best Face & Fingerprint Time Attendance System in market

Identity and Security is the most important for any firm or industry today. With the increasing rate of identity and data theft, offices and firms too require good security equipment to keep their properties and assets safe. There were several types of security systems available in the market. However, off late, the biometric security systems have become popular.

BioEnable Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Works in the field of advanced electronic Identification, Automation and Tracking Products and Services. Integrated Face and Fingerprint system NAC5000 is based on Multiple Biometric and Smart card technologies. It supports Fingerprint Recognition, Face Recognition, Face Image capture, Password and Contactless Smart Cards offering highest flexibility and security to the businesses. The level of security offered by the Face & Fingerprint Recognition system is found to be quite high. Employees and entrants into the office or factory would not be able to cheat the Face and Fingerprint Recognition system. As everyone knows, the face and fingerprints of no two people are identical, even twins. Now, one can find complete information and even purchase the best in quality Face & Fingerprint Recognition system online.

“We are glad to launch our premier Face & Fingerprint Recognition system. Our customers worldwide can have complete information about our products on our website anytime and from anywhere. The latest technology is used in these systems. We have several products like the Bio Enable Iris One which is the first indigenous Biometric Iris Scanner. It gives us immense pride in launching these latest technology gadgets at real affordable prices. The response to our website too is quite overwhelming”, says one of the team members of the firm.

The website provides information about all aspects of the Face and Fingerprint time attendance systems available on the website. The Fingerprint Technology used by BioEnable has also got the first place in FVC 2012 (Fingerprint Verification Competition). NAC 5000, NAC2500 Plus and Fingkey access are some of the time attendance systems provided by the firm.

For more information about the best Face & Fingerprint Recognition system, log on to the website

Build the tower brick by brick

The CEO needs to be focused on the ultimate goal and keep building the company quarter after quarter without losing focus on the larger picture i.e. the vision. The CEO needs to keep moving and monitoring actions to meet short term goals with the single objective of meeting the vision. Most of the time CEOs get carried away with current challenges or short term gains but great CEOs will find ways to pivot and keep taking necessary actions to reach the ultimate goal. No company got built the easy way, be it Google or Facebook or Twitter or Apple, the leaders were focused on creating long term value for all the stakeholders with their vision in mind. The great CEO will regularly evaluate smaller goals with the objective to meet the larger vision.

Be a stress reliever

Most of the start-ups go through lots of ups and downs during early days. While it is good to be transparent and share the true picture with the team, the CEO needs to take a call on what should be shared. No point stressing the team as it will only be non-productive, the CEO should lead from the front and take up challenges and absorb early stage stress while taking tough decisions. Nevertheless, when the time comes, the CEO should also share the burden, but as far as possible the CEO should face the early day’s stress and challenges, allowing the team to focus on work and targets.

Have the right people on board

Most of the time the Founders/CEOs get carried away with their passion and want to do everything themselves whether it is product development, coding, marketing, business development, finance and even opening the office door; it is good in early days but as organisations grow, the CEO needs to delegate and build a good team around him. The CEO should always keep his/her eyes open for good talent and induct people smarter than him/herself. It is not easy to hire good talent for start-ups but the CEO should be able to sell vision and motivate good talent to join the ship. He/she should have the ability to find good people and take fast decisions in hiring them. Once on board, the CEO should ensure that professionals are given enough room to function and delegate authority to the right candidates, some mistakes will be made but in the long run it will pay in building a good organisation.

Investor’s relationship

The start-up CEO has a lot on his plate to address, and most of the time, day to day works don’t allow thinking about investors. The fact remains however good your venture, Investors have a lot to handle as most of the time they have a big portfolio to manage and if you don’t get attention then it is quite obvious that you might have not engaged with the right perspective. The CEO should keep investors abreast about progress, issues, team and areas where they need help from investors. The continuous update will always allow you to seek timely help or assistance from investors.

Be a good learner

I personally believe the Founders/CEOs are experts on what they build/do, but a company is beyond its products and services and it is not necessary that the CEO should know everything. In fact most CEOs start without formal education and have successfully built great companies like Microsoft, Facebook, and Dell to name a few. What is important is to have the ability to learn while on the job and from failures. The best CEOs will build a smart team around themselves and get smart mentors.

Be ready to unlearn and learn

Most of the stuff you may have learned or experienced while with a big organisation will be helpful, but be ready to unlearn and learn new things as start-ups needs different skill sets and out of the box thinking. Something which worked for a large organisation need not necessarily work for start-ups as well; the CEO should be prepared to think differently as preconceived notions may hurt start-ups.

Have the ability to say “NO”

The CEO will be flooded with various opportunities, requests, suggestions and advise. You must explore all but only take action on what is in the larger interest of the organisation with one objective- to achieve ultimate vision. This will also help keeping the team focused on goals. There will be times when things will be really tempting but the CEO should learn the art of saying NO for things which don’t gel with the overall vision of the organisation.

Be willing to dirty your hands

The CEO is not supposed to know everything but it is good to have some technical knowledge as it will help in navigating the team during critical situations. It is easy to ask the team to work on a project but it makes a lot of difference when you join the team in building it and it is real fun seeing things shaping up. It will also help the CEO to hire the right candidate when need be.

Have small goals and milestones

A mountain looks huge when viewed from the bottom but if smaller targets are set, and smaller steps taken, the journey seems relatively easy. Always break tasks into smaller goals and keep monitoring progress on a regular basis; this will also help in correcting things at the right time with minimal cost. Also, it helps in motivating team as you celebrate success on reaching each milestone.

Have the ability to handle negative vibes and be a motivator

The company will go through various phases; some will be good and some really bad. The start-up CEO should be able to take up bad news head on to avoid any damage to the organization; he/she should keep motivating the team so as to not lose focus on the larger picture at hand. The worst would be to avoid the situation and allow it to die its natural death. Mind you, that doesn’t happen. In fact, it will only cause damage from all sides; vendors will get jittery and employees will start feeling insecure etc. Hence, the CEO should ensure that the team is motivated and be transparent on situations as people know what the problem is and what is being done to address it.

Be a good communicator

Needless to say, the start-up CEO should be a great communicator, especially when it comes to pumping energy and passion in the team. The CEO should be able to communicate the vision of the company to everyone and in a much simpler way. Don’t be too technical or use jargons to communicate vision, make it simple so that even a child can understand and don’t be offensive if someone challenges you; it will only offer an opportunity to correct something which you may have missed unknowingly.

Don’t run after fame

Be a real CEO like Steve Jobs, concentrate on results and not fame. There will be a time when you will be required to choose between a conference, attending a media interview and joining your team member for an important deal; you should choose joining your team member for a deal as it will take the organisation closer to the goal rather than attending a conference, which can be delegated.

Save, for rainy days

Not all days would be the same. Hence, while in start-up mode don’t overrun budget and if need be cut wherever possible. Time has proved that those who saved for rainy days always excelled in the long run. However, that doesn’t mean you don’t spend; spend on activities which bring business – don’t compromise on productive expenses but cut on non-productive expenses.

Exploit your network

Most of the time, first sales have come through references. So don’t hesitate to exploit your network. Trust me, it always helps.

The above list can’t be construed as exhaustive or definitive. These have come out of my experiences with young, dynamic and successful CEOs.

Anil Joshi, Mumbai Angels :

Anil heads operations at MA. Anil’s professional experience includes involvement in corporate management functions in medium and large organizations, Investment in startups, Project management, Joint Ventures & business development and sits on board of 4 portfolio companies. He has worked with B.K. Birla group of companies (Textile div), Business Access India (Scandinavian Consultancy), Transasia Biomedica (leading Diagnostic co) and Artheon Group (diversified group). While at Mumbai Angels, Anil was instrumental in closing over 15 deals in Mumbai Angels Anil has bachelors degree of Engineering, PG in Management (Marketing) & PGDBM in Strategic Finance and Control .

11 companies with the promise of becoming prime movers of the ‘Future’ will be presented at the Demo Day. “They are all attempting to solve some large problems and have made impressive progress so far.” says Sameer Guglani, cofounder at The Morpheus.

The event will start with Demos followed by an open session in which the audience can interact with the companies and interact amongst themselves.

Future Conference

In the second half, a new conference called “TM Future conference” will be launched. “A number of TM portfolio companies are doing pioneering work in their respective domains and the founders of these companies have gained deep insights into these domains as they build their companies. These founders have some really unique insights into the future of these domains.” Says Nandini Hirianniah, cofounder at The Morpheus.

TM Future conference will bring such founders to the stage for a talk (in TED talk style) and they will share with the world what they have learnt about these domains. For instance, the founders of emo2 really understands the future of “surface computing” and folks at iimjobs can look into the crystal ball when it comes to “how will people find jobs & apply for them in the future”.

Event details

• Date : 26 May 2012
• Time: 10am to 7pm
• Location : Bangalore
• Venue: Robert Bosch, 123, Industrial Layout Hosur Road, Koramangala, Bangalore 560 095 (Also known as Bosch Koramangala)

Register for the event here. To get a taste of the kind of startups that will be presenting, check out SecPanel and Picovico.

Yourstory.in is the media partner for the event.

The story behind the dynamic duo at AGacquisitions & Co.

Young, posh and connected; imagine two suave young men suited up with a cashload of confidence in their step. Wall Street investment bankers you’d say and ‘wrong’ I’d exclaim. This is the story of Kanishk and Harsh Agarwal, brothers who have started out on an ambitious journey to setup a flourishing investment bank; AGaquisitions & Co. The brothers, who grew up in a business family, started AGacquisitions in the middle of 2010 by focusing on capital-raising for growth companies.

Kanishk, who is equipped with a master’s degree in Financial Engineering and has worked with a leading investment bank in London always, had a penchant for deal making and acquisitions. And Harsh, who was one of the youngest private bankers in India has overseen investments of over $100 million at Deutsche Bank, always had an eye for numbers. The stage was set and the challenge was on.

But as fate would have it, at the onset, plans did not materialize as desired. The brothers quickly altered and experimented with various approaches standard to investment banking. “Our style of operations is a mere product of our environment. To start with, investment banking is perceived to require large research and execution team which demands a high cost base.” says Harsh. “We were averse to adopting this convention as in the earlier days, we realized that transactions have a long gestation period and the risks associated were extremely high.” he adds.

Hence, swerving from the convention, they relied on a partnership model, banding together a battery of lawyers, analysts and larger investment banks to deliver on the back end execution. In developing this model, the brothers quickly developed a potent network of global investors and clients which enabled them to taken on riskier and unconventional transactions. These were the kinds of transactions, the larger investment banks restrained from making.

Kanishk has worked with the leading names of Corporate India ranging from industries such as Real Estate, Energy, Clean Technology and Infrastructure Services to name a few. “Our biggest milestones have been in working with reputable institutions across the globe which includes the largest hedge funds, private equity investors and development finance companies like the World Bank.” says Kanishk.

Confident about age not being a deterrent, Kanishk says, “Age was never an obstacle as since a young age, we have always interacted with a generation elder to us. This made interactions with investors and clients a very natural process. Further, being at the business end gave us an insight into how promoters think and conduct their affairs.” Having a hardcoded business plan is circumspect in this field due to the uncertainty with how long transactions take to close. “Our business plan had to be evolutionary and we only know for certainty that whatever the final outcome, our cost structure has to be the bare minimal to support a long gestation period.” Mentions Kanishk.

The business being highly dependent on relationship and comfort, the brothers spend a good amount of time outdoors playing squash and golf where a lot of connections are made and relationships nurtured. “Acquiring clients is a very open ended process that can happen over a single meeting or over months of courting. We like to leverage on our existing rolodex developed over the years. It’s an art “, mentions Kanishk.

Playing the high risk card, uncertainty is something the brothers have an interaction with continuously. “Transactions typically take from 6 months to a years’ time to materialize. In our case, since we take on unconventional transactions the degree of risk is higher and packaging the transaction together takes more time and effort. For instance, having to raise capital for a 70 year old entrepreneur speaks for its self or getting investors to shell out tens of million dollars for a pre-revenue, early stage energy project requires immense belief in the promoters’ ability to see through such a project. The highpoint was when we took to market a 9 month old railway services company and were successful in attracting the biggest global funds to invest over $12 million. It’s a great sense of satisfaction” Harsh informs.

The thrill of competing with global names and beating them to it is what motivates this duo. “We believe in building our equity, which would never happen, working for others.” they say. The duo has set ambitious targets for themselves. It’s never about the return; rather it’s all about taming the risks!

AGaquisitions have addressed the main-street banking needs and would now address the wall-street banking needs of their clients. “With an immediate focus on setting up a fixed income investment desk, we aim to build assets under management of a billion dollars in the next 5 years. There is a very interesting opportunity on the equity markets side, which we plan to address via the hedge fund. We are currently waiting for the regulations to firm up before we can execute on the hedge fund.” says Kanishk as he signs off on a high note.

Check out their LinkedIn profiles at Kanishk Agarwal and Harsh Agarwal. More about them on their site.  They can be reached at invest@agacquisitions.com

This article is the fifth in the series of 20 articles by Santosh Sharma.

Any success needs mental and emotional balance and so it is with the start-ups and entrepreneurs. We may be having a wonderful idea and we may be having all the resources to execute the idea but if we are not mentally and emotionally free we will end up messing everything. I, having been following different organizations, business leaders, entrepreneurs, sportsmen etc. would like to share the situation of two entrepreneurs, one from Mumbai and the other from Begusarai in the interiors of Bihar which I found interesting and which has a lot of learning for all of us.

Raghav and Raman (name changed) the two brothers at Mumbai have a very interesting idea in the e- commerce domain but they are somewhat traditional, erratic and unbalanced in their approach. They lose their temper very easily, they are biased in favour of a few of their employees and they respond to situations from their stereotyped (automatic and compulsive) thought patterns not allowing themselves to act to the situation objectively.  This has created a lot of complications within the organization. The employees are not motivated, the direction of the organization is not very clear. Labour turnover is very high and they are failing to attract good talent. Employees respond depending upon the mood of their bosses and the list of the negative consequences are pretty long. They react just like Munaf Patel of IPL Season 5 losing temper only to perform worse.

In contrast Raghuvendra of Begusarai is managing his startup like Rahul Dravid performing consistently, fairly and in a balanced manner. He, along with his team are overcoming the obstacles in the neglected agricultural sector to attract good talent and drawing more and more farmers to work with his team overcoming their traditional faith and belief.  He has been successful in bringing back the smile on the faces of the farmers in this remote village giving them a reason to dream. He is making good moves tying up with tractor, seed and fertilizer companies, irrigation projects of the government and the warehousing and marketing companies to fetch a good price for their produce.

What makes this difference in their approach?

It is the degree of mental and emotional freedom. More free we are mentally and emotionally, better are our response. Our stereotyped thoughts have reduced us to new age slaves. Mental slavery is more dangerous than any physical limitations. It is because we export our mental traps into everything we do knowingly or unknowingly.  Once we are free within we will be in a better position to manage the outside constraints.

Entrepreneurs have to take tricky decisions very often and they have to study the situation in detail before they take a call. Acting to the situation objectively will give them an edge over others who react from their mental and emotional boxes. If we react, the situation starts guiding us and therefore we sink and fail to swim across the situation unlike when we act, when we guide the situation. Reaction forces us to see problems all around as we are not free to design solutions.

If you are an entrepreneur you have to take the ups and the downs in your stride and you will be successful only when you are free from your mental and emotional limitations. So get ready to give yourself a fair chance. Once you are aware of the limitations and its impact it will be more meaningful to Dissolve the Boxes.

An Identity Lost

What is Yahoo! and what does the company do? That question hasn’t had a coherent answer for almost a decade now. The best answer was probably “Yahoo! is a web portal”. This is unfortunate, because the word “Portal” was last relevant about 10 years ago. While defining a company’s identity and what it stands for sounds like some senior-management exercise with no real-world value, the truth is that it matters a lot to the rank-and-file employees. In fact, it matters not just to employees, but also to your customers, investors, your peers and most importantly, your ability to attract talent.

It is amazing how closely correlated the movement of talented employees is to a company’s success. A few quarters after a company loses it sheen as a good employer and employees start to abandon the company, its fortunes start to tank. And unless you are able to communicate what it is that your company does and what it stands for, employees work without any sense of purpose. Facebook, Google and Microsoft all have strong identities, and everyone knows what they stand for. This makes it very clear for employees and job seekers to know where to go. If you’re a passionate engineer that wants to work in social, you go to Facebook. You have enterprise ambitions, Microsoft is the place for you. What does Yahoo! stand for? What kind of people should work at Yahoo!?

Without a good answer to that question, you are going to have a lot of trouble hiring and retaining good employees.

Deal-making

Not only has Yahoo! struggled to create an identity, it tried to augment the company by making a whole string of acquisitions that ultimately led nowhere. Delicious, Flickr and Zimbra were all acquisitions that Yahoo! made that just withered out. Yahoo’s Wikipedia page lists 64 acquisitions till date, and there is absolutely no pattern in that list. It didn’t seem like Yahoo was working towards any overall goal at all. It just bought companies that it liked and left them to find their way in the giant maze that is Yahoo!.

A little known fact is that Yahoo! almost bought Facebook in 2006. In fact, Zuckerberg had informally agreed to be bought by Yahoo! for $1 Billion. But an abrupt fluctuation in Yahoo’s stock price reduced the deal’s value, and Zuckerberg walked away from the deal. If Yahoo! had in fact bought Facebook for 1% of what it is worth today, it would almost certainly have died a slow and painful death inside Yahoo!

And of course, there is the huge blunder in 2008 when Yahoo rejected Microsoft’s $33-a-share acquisition offer. The share price is now less than half, at $15. Steve Balmer now says that he “Dodged a bullet” and “Got very lucky!” that the deal didn’t happen, otherwise Microsoft would have had to deal with the huge pile of mess that is Yahoo! today. Instead, Yahoo is now outsourcing its search to Microsoft, which is what Microsoft wanted in the first place.

This confused state of deal-making points to a lack of agreement and coherence at the top levels of the company. It seems like each part of the company is acting independently, often not knowing what the other part of the company is doing, without anyone looking over the big picture and whether things are making sense.

Too many Pies

Can you count how many products Apple has? You can count that number on your hands. Do you know how many Yahoo! has? That number is in the hundreds. Yahoo had, in fact, shut down 50 properties earlier this year, and even that barely made any dent in Yahoo’s vast empire of products. The truth of the matter is that Yahoo! has too many fires cooking too many products. And most products have nothing to do with each other, and rarely work together in any way. With such a diversified portfolio, it is impossible for Yahoo! to focus on anything, consequently it does nothing well.

This is a very valuable lesson, especially for startups. There is always this temptation to diversify – Create new products and brands to take advantage of new markets or customer segments. If you do this without having a solid, well functioning core product, you’re very likely to get distracted and do neither product well. As a thumb rule, companies should spend 70% of their resources on the core product, with the other 30% on non-core and experimental products.

Yahoo! doesn’t even have a “core” product, let alone the focus on it, and it is no wonder that Yahoo! doesn’t have even one outstanding product today.

What’s Next?

At the end of the day, there is no easy way out for Yahoo! It’s going to go through another round of very painful layoffs and closures. Yahoo! needs to ditch at least half of its products, identify what it wants to focus on, and pick the top 3 products that it will spend all its energy on and make those work. Without that, it’s going to be the end of the road for what was once the Internet’s pioneer.

The eCommerce scene was picking up and the thought of building a differentiated eCommerce portal was swirling in Hari’s head ever since 2008. “There were and are a huge number of eCommerce companies running with fundamentally loss making models. Very similar to the dotcom bust of the 2000s, many eCommerce companies in India today are spending millions of dollars of investor money to attract new customers. I strongly believe that a customer should come to an online store because s/he is assured of getting a good mix of value and convenience; this has to happen organically – by word of mouth and through referrals. Bombarding online users will advertisements on every page, spamming millions, jacked-up / dressed-up discounts and deals to attract customers will not be beneficial in the long run. I’m running an ethical business; I want to deliver value to my customers but not by splurging away investor money. Laptopwale is modeled as a differentiated & uniquely positioned portal focused on assisted selling of laptop, tablets and associated peripherals at the lowest rates without making losses!” exclaims Hari Rastogi, founder and COO at Laptopwale.

Having been involved closely with colleges, the site design and logo have been crowdsourced from the student community and the site went live on April 18, 2012. “Since our launch, we have been seeing over 400% week-on-week growth in our user base and all this has been achieved organically. We have not spent a single rupee on generating paid traffic. Growing traffic aside, most importantly, we have been able to achieve higher than industry standard conversions,” he adds. At the time of going to press, Laptopwale.com has an India Alexa ranking of 16800, which has been steadily improving at the rate of 500 – 750 every day.

Laptopwale sells laptops, tablets and IT peripherals at highly competitive prices.

What allows them to do this? “We know what the customer wants and we buy in bulk. The fast running devices are sometimes bought in lots of 200 or more.Our strong focus, domain knowledge, attractive pricing strategies coupled with our strong tie-ups with OEMs & our unrelenting focus on customer delight differentiate us in this highly fragmented marketspace. The foundations of how we do this are built on fast moving products, a superior shopping experience and customer service aimed at WOWing every customer. To enable this, we’ve brought together a team of people who have deep experience in Retail, Warehouse Management, Logistics and E-Commerce.” says Hari.

Vinod, an alumnus of IIM &CMU with 17 years of experience in the IT sector is the CEO at Laptopwale. They also have an enthusiastic young team consisting of fulltime employees and interns from leading IITs. Vinod adds four core values that guide Laptopwale:

• Wow each and every customer
• Grow through word-of-mouth & repeat customers
• Ensure Fast & Accurate Order Fulfillment
• Deliver Friendly & Expert Customer Service

Laptopwale are also involved in bulk deals with colleges and the student community. Offering exclusive deals laptops, tablets and accessories have propelled them on the profit-making growth. Laptopwale manages a part of its logistics in-house but also has tie-ups with leading courier companies to cover pan India locations. They see a bulk of their business coming from Delhi, Orissa, Maharashtra, apart from Bangalore.

Moving forward, Laptopwale aim to be the biggest in the field and do no-nonsense business providing value to both the buyers and the sellers and in the process consolidating their presence.

As a popular Monster advert showcased, what skills people possess and what they do at their jobs are sometimes not even vaguely related. A large group is ‘stuck with their jobs’. Based on the concept of ‘Crowd Recruitment’, youth4work is an initiative to bring about a change in the ways of hiring.

“It’s about connecting youth for work, directly to companies via a platform and changing the ways employers crowd source, freelance or hire freshers. It’s a potential game changer and will alter the way recruitment happens,” says Rachit Jain, founder and CEO of youth4work.

youth4work has an efficient team of fourteen people who are working full time towards the objective of building a fault-free process of matching a skill-set to the correct job. It aims at figuring out the best work for a youth from the samples earlier provided by them. ”Users have earned over Rs. 3.6 lacs via Youth4work. 9 out of 10 companies that have posted a project on the site love the concept so much that they return and post more projects,” says Rachit.

Taking a critical stand, the samples that are uploaded by students/applicants, need to undergo strict moderation for the concept to work. The potential is huge as 30 lakh students graduate every year and more than half of the joinees leave their jobs within the first two years. Interest is an important determinant of job satisfaction. Also, when people do what they are good at, there is a certain probability of increased productivity apart from the enormous happiness they get while doing it. In the founder’s words, “The pleasure of sending the first work income to a youth is immense. The pleasure of making a student land up on the job they love is huge and the feedback of companies has been very encouraging as well.”

Taking a cut of about 20% over and above the total project cost from employers, youth4work plans to monetize other streams in the near future. In a highly competitive sector, youth4work has seen encouraging results ever since the crawlers discovered the website without any advertisement. Good feedback from their users, who are spread over 1450 colleges and 650 companies proves their efficiency in delivering real value and also advocates their potential as a strong force. “The core is to add value. If we add value the money will come“, believes Rachit.

During the course of the next few months, the team plans to grow organically, while focusing on user interfaces and further technical development.

More about them on the website. And for everything happening in the field of education startups in India, check Edustars.

-Shivangi Sharma

OLX.in, an Indian online free local classified site has launched iPad and iPhone application to cater to the rapidly emerging internet population in India which is bound to reach to about 300 Mn by 2015. Also a large portion of this projected number of the new Internet users are going to be Mobile Internet users who will access Internet on their GPRS enabled phones and Tablets.

OLX has been the pioneer in mobile classifieds space and has clearly focused on mobile very early with the mobile feature phone OLX site available as early as 2008 and OLX mobile apps since 2009. With a growing market of over 55 million iPads globally, 60% market share in Tablets and growth rates of over 150% over last year, it becomes absolutely essential to provide the OLX users an app optimized for their iPads. Tapping this expanding segment of Tablets, OLX has innovated further and strengthened its online presence further with the launch of its new app in the Apple Store now optimized for the iPad, the first for any online classifieds site in India.

iPad users can now download the OLX App in the Apple Store. They can also buy or sell their used products like Mobiles, Household appliances, Laptops, Furniture, Vehicles or even promote services they provide or rent apartments conveniently on their iPad.

Posting a classified ad through the app is free and quick. Just upload a photo and video of your product from your iPad, enter the title and description of the product after selecting the product category and fill in your contact details to post an ad.

“We are excited to release this new universal app to address the booming iPad market. iPad owners have now a great free app to buy and sell everything with OLX.”, says Mr Simon Berger-Perrin, VP Mobile at OLX. The new app for iPad is even compliant with the iPad with retina display which makes viewing images of products posted on OLX absolutely clear and with no blurs or distortions.

Mr Amarjit Batra, Country Manager, OLX India, elated on the launch of this app says, “India is poised to become a large mobile internet market with smartphones and tablets driving the next wave of growth in Internet consumption. OLX.in is already having apps on all smart phone Operating Systems and the launch of the iPad app is a demonstration of our focus on providing Indian internet users the best classifieds experience anytime and anywhere.”

With increasing Mobile transactions, it becomes important that the buyers have the option of meeting the sellers via a mobile device and vice versa. Using the OLX iPad app makes it easy to post an ad in less than 2 minutes with the option of even uploading pictures, videos and description right from the device. Even searching is more convenient and relevant as buyers can search for ads in their locality or in a particular location using GPS to depict all the ads around them on a map. Being a Universal app, users only need to download one app and it works on both devices; iPhone or iPad. The advantage for the users who own an iPhone and an iPad is that they do not need to download 2 different apps. Even the updates for both iPhone and iPad apps happen at the same time which makes it a very convenient option for mobile users.

Mobile apps are a more convenient, faster and personalized way to enhance the user’s experience of accessing the site on the go. With a dedicated app, it would be possible to enhance iPad users experience and strengthen the market share further. For users wanting to experience OLX on other phones, there are also options to download the OLX Mobile app on Android, Windows, Blackberry and Nokia mobile operating systems.

As part of the project, a team of around 150 volunteers, including principals/teachers from various CBSE schools, will constantly be on the move, meeting principals of various government owned schools and schools in slum areas. The 3 month programme consists of various training sessions, workshops, coaching on different subjects, free distribution of books and other test material, sessions on various career options available after 12^th etc. The topics covered will be Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Commerce, Workshops on Multiple Intelligence, Training on Life skills, Physical Education and more.

Starting with Madhya Pradesh, the project will cover most parts of India. At the end of the programme, a national level test will be organized for the students. The top 5% will be selected and awarded scholarships of INR 500 per month till they finish their education, up to the PG level.

The Team at Project Prarambh

Sandesh describes the project as the beginning of an era which is all about improvement, betterment, equality, smiles and opportunities. “It’s all about working for the all round development of under privileged children. To start with, free education will be given to 25000 students this year,” he says.

Project Prarambh is headed by the 4 Co-founders of National Olympiad Foundation- Sandesh, Amit Patel (COO), Saransh Jain (CSO) and Rohit Betala (CTO) and it is their first indigenous effort together.

“We started doing this long back, even before the official declaration of this project. We have been teaching students for free and availing study material in various schools of Indore and areas nearby. Our association with CRY, SMILE and Teach For India is a proof of the same,” says Sandesh.

Bootstrapped so far, Project Prarambh is looking for trusts, philanthropists, institutions, crowd funding etc. to fuel the project.

“We always knew that we have to work for the betterment of the society and what else can be better than providing opportunities to such students who have caliber but do not have a platform to prove themselves? This was something which aims at providing equal opportunities to all kinds of students in the country,” says Sandesh.

Affordable but Quality education to every under privileged child in India is the ultimate aim of Project Prarambh and we, at YourStory.in, wish them the best for this noble initiative.

(image credit: GigaOM)

80% of music sales happen via the digital medium in the United States. This cannot be extended to India where piracy is rampant but the scenario is changing. Multiple players are coming in and social discovery coupled with increasing internet penetration is auguring the growth of music streaming. Music is no longer scarce and there are numerous means for distribution. Artists no longer rely on record sales; they earn more through merchandise sales and live shows.

Saavn is the biggest player in the Indian context with close to 10 million active monthly users while Dhingana has around 1.5 million active users. If ‘likes’ are any indication to go by, they corroborate the understanding with Saavn leading (1.4 million likes) followed closely by Dhingana(0.3 M), Raaga(0.16M) and Gaana(0.15M). Saavn has the largest user base but someone like Dhingana who also has 9 million users but has an advantage of a varied audience as they support 35+ languages. Saavn has depth with only Hindi and Kannada.

Why is the Indian Market for music streaming really huge?

• Sheer numbers. With 120 million internet users in India and the number bound to grow by 35-40% each year, music streaming will reach people. Currently, people indulge in piracy and download from illegal sources but this is changing very fast. Better internet connectivity, stringent piracy laws and also a sense of moral binding to an extent will curb piracy and will usher in the dawn of the digital age in the true sense.
• In the US, Hollywood and the music industry are entirely separate. This in a way puts a cap on the music sales. While in India where music and Bollywood are married, the reach is far wider. A movie fan will be a music fan. If he likes the movie, he’s most likely to download (pirated for now) the songs.

What’s in it for the sites?

A monstrous user base a.k.a money. With millions of daily active users, there’s all to fight for. In the US, iTunes changed the game in 2003 with its pay per download model. The whole Apple i-device wow factor also played in its favour and the digital age for music had truly arrived.And in all its glory. Sites like Spotify and Pandora (ad+subscription model) came in to make the online music experience a delight and people got hung to it.

Closer to home, Saavn, Dhingana and the like rely on ad models to generate revenue. There are various options for an advertiser to take up on the site, for instance the option of taking over the landing page is no less than overwhelming. It all comes down to users again because why would labels or music makers give rights to these websites? It’s huge place for promoting music so that people can then buy it.

The licenses/streaming rights for many of the low profile songs are generally bought by giving a lump sump amount. In a few cases, the arrangement is made of a ‘minimum guaranteed’ number of plays. The sites are sure to move on soon to the pay per download model soon. This is where Flipkart’s Flyte has done very well. Still very young, the music store is seeing close to 10,000 downloads a day! Each song is valued at an average of Rs 6 and this has turned out to be favourable for the buyers as results show that individual songs sales tips album sales.

The war is going Mobile and personal

Mobile handsets are one thing India doesn’t have to worry about. With more than 65% penetration and quickly rising along with the falling rates for smartphones, the Indian mobile user will get savvier and technology friendlier. Saavn, Dhingana, Gaana and Raaga, all have mobile apps doing very good and almost half of the traffic they receive comes via mobile phones.

Alongside this, huge focus is being applied on social discovery and personalization. The top three players have integration with facebook timeline and ‘social’ is in. Also, user’s choices are being tracked to the minutest details to give them the best possible recommendations. The future can only more interesting and intrusive but are we complaining?

Over time, for any customer facing brand, the trademark of the business is the most important intellectual property. A business eventually becomes so closely associated and intertwined with the trademark that they become inseparable. Can you imagine a McDonald’s store without the large yellow ‘M’? The goodwill and value of the brand are entirely captured in that trademark which the brand gets.

What rights does a trademark user get?

As stated above, to protect this branding, it is essential to register your trademark and once a trademark is registered it gives the registered user the right to sue anyone else and/or obtain an injunction against anyone who uses the trademarked name/ logo in a way which is deceptively similar to that of the registered user.

For example, if you started a store called “MacDonald”, it would certainly be deceptively similar to the real thing. Once a trademark is registered, the law provides this protection for twenty (20) years from the date of application for such trademark.

Coming to the question at hand:

Another question that is commonly asked by entrepreneurs is whether if their logo contains their brand name, they should register as a single trademark or two separate trademarks? For example, the logo of ‘Coca-Cola’ contains the name Coca Cola as well. As does IBM’s logo. And GE’s logo. So if your logo contains your name as well, it is best to register the logo as a “logo composite mark” where you get protection for your name and logo together in one application, rather than through two different applications.

Remember, that the ideal choice is to have two separate applications, one for your name and one for your logo. But as entrepreneurs, when cost is a major factor, this is the next best option. If you are designing a logo for your brand, keep this in mind to save some precious rupees.

Some other considerations:

There are some of the important considerations to keep in mind prior to registering a trademark, such as what can or cannot be registered and conditions to be fulfilled for registration of a trademark. Whilst a detailed commentary of these cannot be achieved through this article, it is important for entrepreneurs to understand that in essence a trademark is a unique representation of their brand and logo, it should be something which is not already in public domain.

There are public policy concerns too, for instance, one cannot register as a trademark a logo or a name of something which is used in common parlance, for instance a company cannot register an apple logo and the name for a business which produces apples as it will be against the interests of public policy. But as we all know, this can be done for a manufacturer of computers. Basically, the Government does not want you to prevent other apple makers from using the name “Apple”, but doesn’t really mind if a Computer maker uses the name.

So therefore:

If you are considering branding your products and services in a unique way to distinguish yourself from other players in the market, it is time you considered registering your trademark. Registration of trademarks in India has become a relatively easy affair with the launch of e-government initiatives thereby making it possible for you now to register it online with the help of a registered agent or a lawyer.

With over 120 million internet users and as many as 10 million of them transacting online, the opportunity for you is huge. I couldn’t get a better sense of how deep the online retail buzz in India is, until my neighbor who is a manufacturer of textile utilities (B2B play) talks about setting up an online shop. The concept of buying and selling online is going mainstream and it is perhaps the right time to explore niches.

When I started selling online in 2002, the market was a lot different. There were no payment gateways, logistics was lot more difficult and internet penetration was low, however sales did happen. And you wonder who bought majority of the stuff? Tier II and Tier III cities. The logic for this was very simple back then and it remains the same now. For a metro buyer, the accessibility to quality stores offline and availability of technology products is lot easier than the Tier II / III cities. In fact we had several orders for low-end mobile phones from small towns in South India, Orissa and UP way back in 2005. It wasn’t uncommon to receive cheques with long hand-written letters that bestowed us with trust and pleaded to send the product, as if they have little hope of actually receiving the product.

Any commerce is driven by value and the clear value that one can deliver is making available something that isn’t easy to get in the local market. The demand exists, for these shoppers, online is at times the only medium. That’s exactly what is happening. eBay India today revealed that as many as 57% of its transactions for gadgets (smartphones, laptops, cameras and accessories) are coming from non-metros.

That’s a very useful insight for entrepreneurs. Figure the demand for accessories, mobile gadgets and other technology products in remote areas and make them available online. Internet and mobile have spread far, but traditional distribution channels for many product lines haven’t. There is a gap to be explored!

There is a lot to be done, spend some time studying where logistics companies are shipping most of the products, plan your approach, talk to consumers and find the right products to sell. If you are in online retail, do not ignore the non-metros!

Author: Annkur P Agarwal has been an online retailer for the past 10 years, he founded OnlyGizmos in 2007 and is currently working on his shopping intelligence startup Price Baba. You can talk to him on twitter - @annkur.

Company founded by former Google and AdMob scientist unveils cross-device advertising and monetization solution for advertisers and publishers

Drawbridge, a startup founded by former Google and AdMob scientist Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan is officially coming out of stealth today and announcing $6.5 million in Series A funding from Silicon Valley’s premier venture capitalists, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital. Drawbridge aims to solve the two biggest hurdles in mobile advertising today: targeting and tracking. The company is developing a first of its kind self-learning cross-device advertising solution that brings desktop-like targeting to mobile advertising.

Advertising fuels the economy of both the desktop and mobile Internet, from websites to smartphone apps. Desktop advertising is over a $30 billion industry; mobile advertising is still only a small fraction of that size. In order for mobile to take off and grow to its full potential, Drawbridge aims to solve mobile advertising’s biggest obstacles. Today, there is a big disparity between the sophisticated targeting and performance metrics for the desktop, and the relative absence of these capabilities for mobile display advertising. Drawbridge bridges this gap.

“Today, targeting in mobile display advertising is more about the device than the audience behind it,” said Sivaramakrishnan, founder and CEO at Drawbridge. “Consumers now have multiple touch points across various screens. We want to leverage this emerging user behavior and unlock the power of cross-device data to impact targeting in mobile. The Drawbridge platform makes it possible to understand behavior on any device and use those insights to effectively reach mobile audiences.”

“Mobile advertising is a decade behind Internet advertising in both targeting and scale,” said Matt Murphy, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. “Drawbridge will close that gap by combining the best of both worlds to deliver industry-leading targeting and ROI across the entire digital landscape.”

Drawbridge’s approach to targeting mobile audiences is unique in its ability to draw from vast amounts of anonymous cross-device data to achieve extraordinary precision and granularity. This creates a more relevant and personalized experience for users, improved ROI for advertisers, and better monetization for publishers.

“Mobile devices are much more personal than desktop computers. Furthermore, screen real estate is much more limited,” said Vikrant Gandhi, principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “For these reasons, to be effective, ads must become highly personalized, selectively targeted and relevant. The ability to apply insights from cross-device behavior to mobile users, as Drawbridge does, is a giant step toward achieving that goal.”

“Kamakshi and her team have many of the same qualities I witnessed in Omar Hamoui and his team when we partnered with AdMob six years ago,” said Jim Goetz, partner at Sequoia Capital. “They have a game-changing technology, a strong focus on engineering, and virtually instant traction with advertisers and publishers.”

Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan founded Drawbridge in November 2010. She is an expert in machine learning and was lead scientist at AdMob, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Sivaramakrishnan has a doctorate in information theory from Stanford University.

AdMob pioneered mobile display advertising, but since then, there have been no significant advancements in targeting capabilities. Drawbridge brings the innovative technology, and understanding of data that is necessary to solve this problem.

Drawbridge’s cross-device advertising platform is currently in beta. Advertisers and publishers interested in learning more about Drawbridge can visit www.drawbrid.ge.

Online help desk solution protects consumers from identity theft; is first solution to integrate privacy into social support 

When it comes to customer support, social media has primarily been an outlet for consumers to publicly speak out about product and brand troubles. Today Freshdesk, the fast growth online help desk solution, announces support for Facebook messages on brand pages, bringing private customer support to the social platform.

Posting publicly is great for consumers looking to share opinions and experiences about a brand, but many questions and support issues can be personal in nature, and customers have made the mistake of posting bank numbers, passwords, login details, credit cards, and all kinds of sensitive personal information in the wrong places. When customer support was limited to the traditional channels, forms in company websites and old school email were able to enforce a degree of privacy when customers shared their details with the support department. But with social customer support gaining steam, Freshdesk offers a private customer support solution right within the popular social media destination.

By taking advantage of the new Facebook messages feature for brand and business pages, Freshdesk has integrated a crucial feature for customer privacy into the social domain. Consumers no longer have to worry about disclosing personal information on a public platform, decreasing the risk of identity theft and creating a safe platform for customers to interact directly with brands.

Freshdesk, the SaaS-based social customer support platform, allows businesses to support customers through email, phone, Facebook and Twitter from one place. Now, Freshdesk is the first helpdesk software to extend customer support to messages in the Facebook business page as well.  Up until recently, the only way for an individual user to talk to a business on Facebook was “in public”, by posting directly on the timeline. Now users can talk to the business both in public, and go “off the air”, through messages on the same social platform. There’s no longer a need for the customer to change support channels. Freshdesk automatically converts these Facebook messages into support tickets that agents can respond to. What’s more, this Freshdesk integration allows businesses get all the details they need without compromising the identities of their customers.

“Social support is becoming an ever more popular and valuable customer support platform,” says Freshdesk CEO, Girish Mathrubootham. “Yet, there’s a need to incorporate privacy into the social platform to protect customer identity and personal information. As customers shift to talking to brands directly through Facebook messages, Freshdesk has a created a way for businesses to get the information they need while still catering to the customer’s every need.”

Additionally, the message feature gives a brand more control over the conversation on its Facebook timeline. Instead of consumers filling the page with queries that are of no concern to other customers, the message feature allows users to shift individual conversations to the company’s message box, leaving the timeline free for information pertinent for the brand community.

Until recently, email was the primary medium for customers to interact with a business for support, and social media was the place where brands were made or destroyed by customers sharing their opinions with the world. Now that customers can both talk to the business and to the world at large right from within Facebook, the gap between customer support and the brand is fast closing. Freshdesk already allows businesses to support customers through social media like Facebook and Twitter. Now with Facebook messages integrated in Freshdesk, companies can interact with individual customers as well as engage the community in Facebook simultaneously.

To learn more about Freshdesk, visit: www.freshdesk.com

Founded by Rajarshi Chatterjee, Manit Kathuria and Mudit Khurana, Rooja has a 15 member strong team.  Having had global exposure in terms of education and also starting up, the founding trio has a varied skill set. With a technology background and a corporate stint with Cisco, Rajarshi is the Head of Technology. Having founded Axiom Ads previously, Manit heads design and marketing while Mudit is the Creative head and looks after Business development.

Based out of New Delhi, Rooja was founded in March 2011 and launched in December 2012. “We are on a mission to surprise our customers with the best fashion inspiration and a fast, easy and affordable way to realize it. Every day, we offer handpicked and highly curated selections in line with the latest fashion trends from across the globe. Customers can access their favorite high street and luxury brands and discover new designers and products not found elsewhere. We focus on quality fashion with accessible prices,” (Ticket Price Rs. 1500 – Rs. 5000) says Rajarshi.

Here is a look at the market size they’re targeting:

Mudit and Manit

“We work on margins ranging from 25-75%. At the moment we are working on a daily flash sales business model, which is mostly on a consignment basis” informs Rajarshi. Their average ticket size is INR 3350. Rooja has over 150 brands featured on the site and have tied up with several high street, luxury and independent brands in the US, Europe, Australia and Asia. “At the moment we are trying to expand our existing customer base and build our brand to make Rooja synonymous with the best fashion inspiration in India.” says Manit.

Rooja is currently self-funded and is on the look for a funding round to expand and accelerate their growth.  Why did they pick fashion? Here’s what they had to say:

• In 2010 we realized that the e-commerce players existing in India were selling the same products everywhere the customer experience was poor in terms of how these websites were designed and the products they were offering. We felt that these websites lack taste and aren’t focused for a more premium and focused customer.
• In the madness to scale up a few of the websites have worsened and they offer everything from luxury handbags to towels to lamps to speakers to toys to electronics to lingerie to bed linen to kitchen appliances to hookahs to toys and everything you can imagine of. It’s hard to concentrate on a focused quality customer experience when you sell products across so many categories.
• Another huge problem we felt was that the websites are selling the same mass brands like Nike, Levis, Lee, Arrow, United Colors of Benetton. These brands are often non-exclusive and it is hard to look different wearing them.
• Lastly we felt there is a genuine lack of choice for unique designer fashion at an affordable price. Very few cities have access to brands like Zara, Vero Moda and Mango, Charles and Keith etc. Indian designer wear and luxury is not accessible for a lot of people who appreciate great fashion and aspire to look different.

With these points in mind, the founders started Rooja and are moving up with an impressive trajectory. They have generated close to 40 Lakh INR in revenues and are buoyant about the future.

Find more about them here. Indian Hanger is another startup in the fashion industry doing well, check out their story here.

Save&Search solves this problem beautifully. How? I’ll take an example here. Say, you’re working on a b-plan and type in “How to make a bplan” on Google. There, the first link looks good from a dependable source. You open it in a new tab and it looks fantastic; just what you wanted. You go back to the search page to close it but below the first link you see an interesting link to “Download a BPlan Creator”. You want this but not right now. Save&Search is made just for these situations. Go the link, copy the URL and paste it on Save&Search. Give it a tag and enter your email id. Job done; you’ll find the mail with the link happily sitting in your inbox for you to check out later.

Developed by Pushpendra Agrawal and team, the beta for Save&search has got great reviews. “We haven’t thought about monetizing yet but once we get enough traffic, we might have strategically placed ads to generate some cashflow.” says Pushpendra. Developed using PHP and JavaScript, Save&search is relying highly on the word of mouth for publicity. Going forward, “We are planning to bring all mobile apps, gtalk boat and easier interface to delete a save.” informs Pushpendra.

The initial feedback have revealed some interesting thoughts:

A feature that will be admired by many is that no login is required; it’s simple utility. Go, save your link, carry on with you work.

Sticking to the philosophy, here’s the link: Save and Search. And just to keep you updated about the interesting things happening in Search, check out Hudku.

“Klouzly, an online fashion and accessories shopping portal, brings a conventional approach of looking into catalogs before buying products by creating wish-lists to assist you in your online shopping just like your best buddy would,” says Pushpendra, the founder of Klouzly.

The name Klouzly has been derived by tweaking around the word closet. “I was looking for something unconventional, related and yet meaningful: wardrobe and closet were the two options and I played around with closet to come out with klouzly,” Pushpendra adds.

Their USP, the klouzly wish-list, which hopes to streamline a customer’s shopping process, makes organizing, discovering and shopping products easy, fast and effective. “While shopping online, it is in the shopper’s nature to browse  while keeping multiple tabs open and bookmark some of them. And they very often repeat the process if they decide to shop later, since most of them are not impulsive shoppers. This was more or less the reason wish-lists came up on Klouzly,” says Pushpendra.

Key Highlights 

• One can organize and push items into klozets, a virtual online closet, according to specific categories and name them as Holiday 2012, UK trip etc, for instance.
• The idea is to organize everything categorically and logically so that the klouzly account becomes your ultimate reference point for all purchases you might need for any occasion.
• Another use is to crowd source opinions for special occasions like a date, a party, or a wedding.
• Klouzly also does socialize the shopping decisions and fashion trends. There is an emphasis more on the community which is being built. “The current focus is to assist people in managing their purchases, improve shopping decisions and to build a dedicated community and by doing so, maximize member base,” says Pushpendra.

Klouzly is currently self funded but is on the lookout for funds to scale up the business, make the platform bigger and better.

The beta version was softly launched in the second week of April, 2012. “I have given very limited publicity to klouzly, and so far all the traction has been through friends and word of the mouth only.” With more than 3500 fans in the first month, social media will surely play a large part in the marketing strategy.

Looking ahead, klouzly plans to expand its business endeavors by opening a few more models structured around the same category. “I do not intend to transform klouzly to working horizontally in all the e-commerce categories and would love to carry forward what I’m already doing by user experiences and opinions. Many new cool features are coming down along the road and with everything going mobile, it is but obvious we do the same,” says Pushpendra, signing off.

Check out their Klever site here. Social shopping has been gaining prominence with Koolkart doing some good work here. Also, if social discovery interests you, here’s a piece on social discovery and on similar lines, interest graphs.

Here’s what Janakiram, founder at Minewhat had to say about understanding these interest graphs:

Interest graphs are a dynamic linkage between user and their interests. They are built on top of a social graph like Facebook and Twitter. Currently Facebook is the best available social graph with user likes and interest.

Interest of a user is based on his/her profile, personality, location, education, profession, environment, and so on. Lifetime of Interest is another important factor to consider while building a graph. Certain interests have longer lifetime like painting and dancing; some have shorter life time like a movie or newspaper articles. So understanding a user interest is a continuous activity.

When it comes to commerce, need is the primary factor, next comes interest. Mapping user interests to products will help both merchants and buyers. Merchants procure products based on buyer taste; which in-turn will increase the competition because of pure demand. So user gets the high valued products at competitive price. This chain reaction also affects the product manufacturers. So it can result in a good user driven bottom up eco-system. One good example would be thefancy.com, where user can post items of their interest and some potential brand can make that item available for purchase. And this is fascinating!

Interest based products have high relevance for the user. So the user experience in an e-commerce store can be much better than showing standard set of items of various categories to all the users. Freshness in suggestion can be achieved by updating the user interests frequently and adding products using social curation.

Personalization increases the relevancy of the product but it can potentially cut the global view. So the right mix of personalized products and socially trending products can decrease the chance of boxing the user. A portion of commerce can potentially become bottom-up user driven system than the current top-down approach.

Adoption to interest graphs in terms of recommendation is only a matter of time and we’re pushing the word with Minewhat.

Minewhat has already partnered with Offergrid to offer personalized offers and will be integrating the solution with two eCommerce sites in the coming weeks. Know more about Minewhat here.

1. Do you have a written plan for your overall product?

It is absolutely essential that you have your plan written down. Without a written plan, the nasty details of execution don’t really reveal themselves, and these can be dangerous traps that you don’t want to fall into. A good plan has the overall product idea, it identifies the market/niche that the product will address and how exactly the product will solve the problem. Further, you’ll also have to write down what your V1 product looks like. The V1 plan should be self-contained, be executable in a reasonable timeframe (say 3-6 months), add value to all stakeholders and solves a substantial portion of the bigger problem.

You shouldn’t confuse your V1 plan with your overall product plan. For example, there have been several attempts at getting rid of the Time Zone as a concept by inventing new ways of counting time. While this is a great idea, and the world as a whole would benefit greatly without the confusing concept of timezones, enterpruners haven’t been able to come up with a viable V1 plan for it – A small, executable plan that works for early adopters and makes it work with the rest of the world. Beware this trap – While you might have a great idea that solves a big problem, without a viable V1 plan, your idea will not take off.

Also remember, this plan is not the same as a VC-pitch that you’ve thought about if you’re planning to raise money. While the VC-deck is intended to communicate trust, capability and a marketable idea, the product plan will be your roadmap for execution.

2. Identify features

Now that you have a V1 plan in place, you need to identify all the features that will be a part of the V1 product. This will incorporate the next level of detail for the V1 plan from the previous step. Ideally, this is a big spreadsheet – With a full listing of all features you’re planning to build. Against each feature, you need to identify which all stakeholders it affects (including your product itself) and how exactly each stakeholder benefits from it. For example, if “Collect user profile information” is a feature for your new social network, then you’ll have to write down the following:

- User -> How will the user benefit by sharing their profile information? Why should they share their profile information?

- (Friends of User) -> How will other users benefit from reading a user’s profile information? Why is it necessary to have another user’s profile for this user?

- Your Product -> How will you use the profile information? How does it impact revenue/engagement/recommendations etc…

- Other Stakeholders -> How does having a user’s profile information benefit other stakeholders?

The other thing this list will identify is whether you have feature-closure. You’ll find many features depend on other features to make use of them, or some features are meaningful only if other features exist. So, you’ll have to ensure that the list of features you’re picking for V1 are complete and self-sufficient, and you’ve not missed out on anything. The second thing this will ensure is the value to each stakeholder. There has to be sufficient value in each stakeholder’s column to ensure that they get substantial return on their engagement with your product.

3. Create a “priority list”

There’s a saying “No plan survives the battlefield” and it is just as true in the world of technology startups as it is in a battlefield. There will be lots of disruptions to your plans, and you’ll need to make several heat-of-the-moment decisions on adding/dropping features. In anticipation of this, you should have a “priority list” in handy that immediately tells you what features/stakeholders are more important. This list is an ordered stack-rank of all the features of your product (v1 and beyond) in order of how important they are for your product to succeed. Creating this list beforehand is important – you can dispassionately rank all your features with a calm sense of trade-off so that when you’re in the middle of a stressful decision, you have an impartial list at hand that will help you make the right decision of what to chop off and what to keep.

The most important thing to remember is that there is no “perfect time” to jump in and do a startup. You have to do your prep work, prepare for any foreseeable problems, and trust your instincts. It is highly unlikely that when your product becomes successful, it will look exactly like your original plan, but the plan is important as a compass – It will guide you towards the direction of progress.