UGC Play YouMagix goes Vertical

Here is official Press Release

In spite of all the buzz about Internet products, Internet landscape in India lacks basic & reliable services that people take for granted in western world. Today, Indian Internet story requires not merely cool technology but a reliable service delivery & content infrastructure that can deliver powerful productivity enhancements to millions over world wide web.

In this context Ghoomo.com's launch of movies & show time finder services signals an important value addition milestone in Indian Internet consumer space.

What makes Ghoomo.com unique is the breadth and depth of movie finder services that Ghoomo makes available to consumers in India. At present, Ghoomo covers 25 Indian cities and over 500 movie screens. In near future, Ghoomo plans to make movie finder services available to 50 cities & over 1000 movie screens in India.

Another significant aspect of Ghoomo services is an effective marriage of User Generated Content & credible content driven by robust backend processes to provide a powerful and useful movies & show time search experience.

Ghoomo.com is a part of YouMagix.com, an experimental stage family of products. YouMagix product range intends to fill content availability gaps in countries such as India by innovative application of User Generated Content.

As Ghoomo.com rolls out complete service offerings in coming days, a hassle free & seamless movie planning experience can no longer be a dream for movie goers in India.

Why did Lightspeed take AskLaila bet?

Ever since I heard the news of LightSpeed led $10 million investment in AskLaila, I have been scratching my head and searching for answers. For starters, AskLaila is a purely India focused local yellowpage website with an added layer of basic value added services such as user reviews.

How much ever I may wish to laugh away this investment as one of the 90% VC investments that go down the drain, the reality is that nobody, especially hardened breed known as venture capitalist, invests $10million without a clear glimpse of potential high payoff.

Here is a clue, when we look at Indian Market there are two clear realities that strike an aware mind

1. One one hand, we see a growing economy, that clearly has a potential to be one of the largest in the world in next couple of decades. With a vibrant economy comes phenomenal consumption demand that can raise many billion dollar companies in basic customer facing services alone.

2. On the other hand, we have an utterly underdeveloped consumer services infrastructure. A casual visitor from western world can clearly appreciate that India lacks basic services that everybody in the West takes for granted.

Now you start to see some method in the investment madness across sectors in India. We are talking about basic consumer facing infrastructure that can deliver reliable services day in and day out, which does not exist in India today.

When it comes to basic infrastructure, It may take a lot of investment & efforts to build something that works, but successful players will have the last laugh.

Three cheers for hundreds of AskLailas, Lightspeed Ventures, entrepreneurs and investors who have decided to take a plunge.

--
Writer is founder of youmagix.com and can be reached at subodhv AT gmail.com

Produce in Silicon Valley Sell in India

Very interesting news bytes appeared at WSJ. This story is unlike popular talk about production hub in India and marketing and sales centre point in USA. The story also emphasizes the importance of a vibrant ecosystem to support innovations and developments.

The core of the story is that there is increasing evidence that companies are choosing silicon valley for hi-tech product development even if the primary target market is developing economy. Primary reason -- such products are only possible in silicon valley that has a vibrant ecosystem of technology expertize, capital availability combined with hi-tech startup culture that are critical for success.

--
Subodh Vinchurkar, is founder of youmagix.com and can be reached at subodhv AT gmail.com

Corporate Venture Investment Revisited

In one of my earlier writings on corporate venture investment I had discussed economic fundamentals of venturing and why it may and may not work.

Today, I see a very elaborate analysis of Google's venture investment activity in business week. The article lists strategic reasons why corporates may want to invest in early stage startups. Some of the notable reasons given are

1. To get first right to acquire the startup in case it succeeds and a potential bidding war can risk invaluable IP going to competitor's hand

2. To deploy oodles of cash lying undeployed & get better returns on idle cash.

While I accept the first as a valid strategic reason, I reject the second as an inferior way to deploy idle cash as this can potentially harm investors interest.

In short, Google's core competence is technology innovation and not financial investment and that's what investors would like Google to do first (For theoretically inclined, there is vibrant literature available on why it is better to return cash to investors by buying back shares or paying dividends rather than venturing beyond core competence.)

Well, again, as an entrepreneur, one can only be happy to find competition for the right to acquire a share in future.

Entrepreneurial EcoSystem -What is important?

In an interesting article, Blodget, Merrill Lynch tech analyst, compared entrepreneurial ecosystem in Silicon Valley to that of NY. As one of the noteworthy arguments he states that proximity to previous generation of successful players is more significant contributor to startup ecosystem success than that of proximity to great engineering institutions (read Stanford). The basis? -- An increasingly global engineering talent that is virtually accessible from anywhere.

May I venture to imagine that the flood of green-field investment by global tech firms in India will eventually lead to a vibrant tech innovation environment. Not a bad thought though.

Interesting article worth a read checkout

Google Flags End of Commodity Yellow Page Local Search Game in India

Google has silently introduced its killer Google local application to Indian web audience. An interesting development for Indian Internet Space & this is how I look at the impact of this launch on Indian web space.

On one hand, I see big cheers from the Indian internet users who will get the most relevant yellow page results on top of Google searches for local businesses and they will get to write reviews on those businesses. On the other hand, it signals end of idea arbitrage era in this lucrative segment. Be prepared to see demise of a lot of pure play yellowpage and local search based web models in Indian internet space.

Copycat and pure no additional value plays such as business listings on Internet were destined to this fate as no one can claim copyright over a business address and a phone number. Google can always crawl all the content or listing from any website making them available to its users and a mind-share battle with Google is a non-starter.

This may not be a good news for models such as Sulekha Business Listings or new Indian startup ventures such as asklaila. Nevertheless, I do not see it as end of the road for all the players in this segment.

Internet players who are innovative and are able to provide unique value to its visitors over and beyond pure business listings or simple value additions such as plain reviews (Google listing features) will survive. Though I am biased, I list YouMagix as one of the probable survivors as it is uniquely positioned and is beyond the clutter of pure yellow page listing models under threat from Google's entry in this space.

I welcome Google local to India as it forces Indian net players to think beyond the obvious and drives them hard to innovate in order to survive and thrive in this interesting space.

YouMagix: Is it Web-2.0 or is it UGC Portal?

There is a debate in blogosphere about whether YouMagix is a web2.0 portal or a yellow page portal or just another user generated content attempt.

Checkout YouMagix team's thoughts about the question.

YouMagix.com - Find your Options

A very late update as your truly was busy in launching his new venture YouMagix

Checkout YouMagix website and YouMagix Blog for more information about this venture.

Your feedback is welcome!

India New Venture Ecosystem Update - 05-July-2007

Vinod Dham on India Plans

Vinod Dham, who is working through NEA IndoUS Ventures fund for India plans, on investing in India. The article also mentions he has $189 million fund for his India plans. Checkout...

VCs on funding ventures targeting lower Income segments

Indian Venture Capital Known Names talk about investing in social entreprises working targeting lower income segments that CK Pralhad refers as bottom of the pyramid. You may find some of it (if not the most of it) interesting.

Advertising to Paid Audience - A Cool Idea or an Economic Non Starter

Advertising to paid audience is an economic non-starter. The businesses have little reasons to advertise on such platforms because on is perverse economic incentive. as the receiver of ads are solely driven by incentive to make money will not have need in most of the cases for services/products that they choose to receive communication for.

enidhi blog has an interesting analysis of mGinger business model. Checkout if you want to understand the economics around a model that leverages paid audience as ad consumers.

Podcasting and India Startups

Podcasting is an interesting medium. Though going by the numbers, it is not a viable venture driver or a full fledged marketing medium yet, it throws up interesting options for startups if target market is around the same psycho-graphic profile.

1. If your target market is upwardly mobile, rich multimedia hungry audience. This can be a great medium to reach that niche audience with biggest ROI on marketing dollars when compared to other potential channels.

2. You can also use podcast to monetize some part of your core IP or Idea. For example, a job board can use custom podcast offering to it's advertisers as a premium service.

The moral of the story, go and leverage this new and interesting medium to get largest buck for your core idea. If you are willing and ready to wait for next 2-4 years, you may also do well to plan your venture around podcasting and vcasting (video streaming).

Economics of Sabzi Wala and Hitech Startups

Just read a very interesting writeup about critical questions a startup must ask while starting & running a new business and felt like sharing it with you.

Age old wisdom ranging from know your customers to know your margins. A very interesting writeup on what hi-tech entrepreneurs can learn from vegetable vendors, checkout...

How Web 2.0 can Lead to Democracy 2.0

Two thought provoking articles, taken together give an Interesting and powerful message. One echoing well understood thought that Indian startups need a Desi angle to make web2.0 work in India, and the second, airing outrage at Shiv Sainiks' voilent protests against free expression on Orkut and Youtube or vandalizm by Ambedkerites at first instance of criticism by free minds.

This brings up a very interesting dimension to Web 2.0, especially in Indian context where democracy is an import rather than a home grown phenomena. Web 2.0 has given populace a medium to take potshot, from a safe distance, at people staunchly blinded by ideology.

A larger than life cause is always a bigger motivator and can move nations. The social democratic dimension gives web2.0 entrepreneurs a new vision to fight for.

Web 2.0 paves an interesting way to a big democracy 2.0 revolution led by thinkers, technocrats & entrepreneurs.

A bold step towards Hindi Web

Startup dunia introduces lipik.in, an online product that provides users facilities to create documents in Hindi, save them and edit them later. Imagine Google documents for pure Hindi audience with no transliteration based interfaces.

A very interesting product. Though I found it extremely difficult to enter anything in Hindi -- owing to my two decades of "qwerty keyboard" mental programming (habits die hard) -- a person who never has used an English keyboard would find it an extremely useful service.

I foresee a lot of interesting action around this concept,

1. It makes internet accessible to half a billion people who can only read and write in Hindi and who have never used "qwerty English keyboard"

2. a complete new web is possible around this concept including that of email, blogs, forums & social networking platforms

I also foresee an interesting niche for VC investment with easy exit option around high value acquisitions.

Financing SmartFundit Way

Traditionally, financing against receivables, firm contracts that produce cash flows in coming months or even years, has been a good source to finance operations.

SramanaMitra blog has an interesting writeup on how entrepreneurs can use traditional and innovative financing options to Boot-Strap their ventures. With the help of marketplaces such as Smartfundit, entrepreneurs can even assist their customers finance their technology investments and expedite selling process.

Though I do not completely agree that these mechanism can substitute venture capital, I do agree that "working capital" nature of needs can be financed using such finance mechanisms. If the venture needs capital to fund asset creation including IP , entrepreneur does need risk capital to finance it.

I also found a useful Jargons section on SmartFundit that you can use to understand various options you may have to finance your needs.

Important lessons for entrepreneurs: Look for Venture capital if you need to finance assets that involve significant monetization risk. If you just need finance for working capital, there are better ways to finance your business.

India Startups Ecosystem Update 19-June, 2007

RouteGuru provides Directions Indian Way

Sparksfly blog introduces RouteGuru an interesting startup that provides driving directions the Indian Way. According to RouteGure website, technology is from Navolve Technologies and ackend mapping data is provided by Eicher Goodearth Ltd.

Helion Venture Partners' Ashish Gupta on Venture Investing and more...

Ashish Gupta, Managing Partner of Helion Venture Partners, talks about entrepreneurship, investing and entrepreneurs.

Helion is a $140 million india focused fund and it has recently invested in Komli, Anantara Solutions and Amba Research.

The Hindu publishes this interesting and informative dialogue with an entrepreneur turned VC, checkout...

Go Global - ISB Mantra for Indian SMEs

An interesting point of view from Jerry George, LBS professor and visiting faculty at ISB, who was at the SME program organized by ISB for SME business to help them go global.

Thinking BIG is a pre-requisite for high potential enterprises and I resonate with Jerry that Indian entrepreneurs do suffer from small thinking syndrome. Even after thinking hard, I do not recall a single encounter with an entrepreneur in India who tells me that he is working on a "Billion Dollar" idea.

Helping SMEs to think global is a welcome step, well done ISB!

adMad.mobi - A new Mobile Startup in India

Pranav introduces admad.mobi venture on Startupdunia blog. The concept is interesting and after going through the details, I believe, this is a very innovative replication of permission based "pay per view" style of marketing in mobile world. Very interesting and exciting launch checkout

ISGN receives $25 million Mezzanine Funding

New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and an affiliate NEA-IndoUS Ventures Fund have invested $25 million in ISGN, a software services player in mortgage sector.

This is surprising considering that software services, as a space, has become unattractive due to various macroeconomic factors. This deal may indicate one of the following

1. From investors' side, difficulty of finding good deals. Basically, too much money running after a few good plays
2. ISGN has agreed to a low valuation
3. NEA considers mortgage segment an exception in software services game

June Entrepreneurship Events

Startup central blog lists couple of interesting events in June including TiE Mumbai Entrepreneur Nurturing Program, BlogCamp Pune & Mobile Monday Bangalore. Checkout

India Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Update June-8, 2007

Via receives $5 million in venture funding from NEA-IndoUS Ventures
Via (earlier Flight Raja) is an interesting venture that combines power of online efficiencies and reach of offline channels to reach a broader audience. Via has a plan to become leader in travel and transportation game including air travel, bus transport and leisure market segment.

NEA-Indo US ventures is a venture capital firm co-founded by K. Dham and K ola.

AMAI Web 2.0 Conference
AMAI’s is organizing a conference on Web 2.0, on 22nd June in Mumbai. Good opportunity to network with people with ideas and capital. Follow this link for more details

Proto.in Agenda
Proto.in has come up with initial agenda for the event. You can also submit your comments on their blog. Your suggestions may find their place in the final list.

India Opportunity Seminar
Chilli, a platform for entrepreneurial business stakeholders is organizing “New India, new economy: the myths, realities and opportunities” seminar. This seminar takes place in Bath on the 21st June at the Innovation Centre

How Vibrant is Indian Startup Environment

In this post, I start with laying down well understood fundamental building blocks of a vibrant startups ecosystem. Later posts will carry details on how Indian environment fares on various parameter while providing benchmarks and evidence across cultures and countries.

Though results of one social context can not be completely replicated in another, a comparative study can help identify missing pieces. More importantly it can provide interested stake holders glimpses of potential opportunities for making a positive difference to Indian venture environment.

Some of the widely accepted elements of a vibrant environment for Innovation & new enterprises are

• Widespread entrepreneurial spirit
• Availability of Risk Capital
• Academic & other institutions incubating technological breakthroughs
• Culture of innovation & last but not the least
• A mature entrepreneurial social support environment, among other things, that provides
• Availability of useful information, time critical help & mentoring to budding entrepreneurs
  
• Social support for failures and second start
• Availability of Entrepreneurial Role models
• Social infrastructure of competitions, incubation, awards & public recognition

Innovation ecosystem around Stanford University is an excellent example of how these factors contribute. Additionally, phenomenal technological success of innovative Israeli enterprises and examples from European & Asian context also provide other examples of success in diverse global context.

Next in this series -- How does India fare on individual attributes & where you can help

Stanford to Boost Medical Technology Innovation in India

With a goal of creating an ecosystem to identify clinical needs & challenges and convert them into opportunities for innovative medical equipments, implants and devices, Stanford India Biodesign Programme, US Science and Technology Ministry & Ministry of science in India have announced a collaboration program to boost medical tech innovation in India.

The pillars of the program are
1. Center of innovation excellence at each of the IITs
2. Opportunity identification via active observation of patients by multi-disciplinary teams and
3. Design innovation orientation and training for faculty/involved personnel by Stanford University

This is a very interesting development. Academia driven innovation has been a key driver of US high performance entrepreneurial ecosystem. This also has been a critical missing link that India needs to create world class entrepreneurial successes.

A welcome development for Indian new venture ecosystem.

New Web2.0 Venture - Younews

First of it's kind in India, a venture that plans to experiment whether user generated news can become full stream media outlet. Younews, launched as beta this week, is planned as a complete user powered news outlet where users decide what is an important news and nation can see a snapshot of what country, as a collective, think is taking place in the India.

This sounds similar to what Digg gave Internet world but success in Indian context is not guaranteed. Majority of Indian Internet is either office or cyber cafe driven.

You news can do much better if it includes India specific innovations. For example, a mobile driven open news platform can potentially tap 10 crore (100 million) minds or an additional regional language angle can take it to next step.

High Expectation Entrepreneurship - A True Indicator of Startup Ecosystem Health

CNN Money has an interesting write-up on -- what makes entrepreneurial ecosystem click? And what is a true indicator of health of new business environment?

One such indicator is World Bank’s Doing Business report, which measures the entrepreneurial climate of 175 nations in two ways: starting and operating a business. If a country enables easy start, operations & exit environment, it is rated as a business friendly country.

The most interesting part is that this index does not directly correlate with health of new venture climate in the country. Authors propose proportion of "High Expectation Entrepreneurship" as a better indicator of startup climate health. High expectation entrepreneurs are ones who start ventures not because they do not have any choice, but they start new business because they believe entrepreneurship offers better opportunity than their high paying jobs.

In India, historically, new business was a result of lack of options. Lately, I find a new breed of entrepreneurs, who are willing to give up their high potential jobs to pursue a more rewarding enterprise -- start of a new business. A sign that in future India will find a better place, compared to it’s present 46, on high potential entrepreneurship scale.

Welcome Addition to ISV Startup Ecosystem

Microsoft and Asian Venture Capital Journal (AVCJ), Group Intelligence -- including Intel, and Red Herring-- have launched an interesting platform, SoftwareAP.net, to boost new venture ecosystem in Asia Pacific region.

For ISV entrepreneurs, it provides a platform where they can submit their business plan. This business plan gets rated and routed to appropriate VCs, Angels and Govt agencies who may be interested in such ventures.

For VC community, this initiative provides an excellent deal sourcing platform. VCs can customize the kind of deals they are interested in and create relevant deal pipeline

For Govt, it aims to create a platform to provide information such as sector capital needs and important indicators of economic activity in this space.

Clean Tech India Private Equity Investment

Though venture capital has almost been inactive in clean tech space, private equity players invested $250million in year 2006 in India. Take a look at a related news item

Deal Syndication and Indian Venture Capital Industry

Venture cap firms use deal syndication -- a VC jargon for joint investment -- as a risk mitigation strategy while investing in early stage startups. Getting another VC firm to invest in early stage idea provides a strong second validation.

In India, deal sizes in early stage ventures have been small and venture equity firms have gone solo in most of the venture equity deals. Its high time firms look at syndication to get a strong second opinion about the idea they want to engage in.

Is Joint investment in iYogi by Canaan Partners & SVB Financial ($3.1M) an early sign of similar trend in Indian space?

New Venture Ecosystem India Update May 19, 2007

Vibrant equity market - a Pillar of New Venture Ecosystem

Easy availability of exit options is critical for healthy venture environment. India Inc raised a record Rs 25,000 crore from market in FY 2006-07 and thats a good news.

New Design Institutes may boost Design Centric Startups

Ministry of commerce is considering a new action plan under National Design Policy to make India a specialized innovation hub for sectors such as automobile and transportation, jewellery, leather, soft goods, electronics and IT hardware products, toys and games.

The plan also calls for four additional National Institutes of Design (NID). These centers would provide new design venture incubation and financing support through mechanisms such as venture funding apart from market development assistance for design oriented startups.

SBI Foray into Private Equity and Venture Cap

One of the biggest names in Indian Banking Industry is set to enter private equity and venture cap space with a fund size of about $1 Billion. My guess is that it is going to be more of private equity and less of venture cap, nonetheless, a sign of vibrant future for Indian venture industry.

Corporate Venture Activity a Good News for Startups

In venture private equity space, corporate venture funding has always followed the rise of fund activity by independent venture capital firms.

Though the jury is still out on effectiveness of corporate venture capital, a generally accepted belief is that fund philosophy & corporate strategy alignment is a must for success.

Corporate venturing -- early stage investments in startups from companies such as Intel, Cisco, Google and Yahoo -- is heating up again in varied flavors.

Debate on effectiveness of corporate venture funding aside, its a good news for startups

Fund activity in Mobile Content space

Phonethics Mobile Media, which creates mobile content in short multimedia format including short films, has received angel funding to take its plan to the next step. This segment though is part of very well received mobile sector, but it has not received as much attention as other infrastructure related segments. Take a look at a related story.

Proto.in Business Plan Competition


Here is the press release from Proto.in

Proto.in 2007 Summer Edition – Nominations Begin

The widely anticipated Nomination process for Proto.in 2007 summer edition is officially open. If you are a Technology start-up, be it in the initial stages, seed funded or planning to go IPO, we are accepting nominations from all across Asia. Proto.in is not just about funding your start-up, rather creating Mindshare for your Products among your clients, potential partners, with industry specialists, veteran entrepreneurs and the mainstream media. The last date for nominations is June 05th 2007.

About Proto.in

Proto.in is about giving entrepreneurs a platform to express their visions and showcase their imagination, with a working prototype, for the world to see. It's about increasing partnership, collaboration and mindshare among a distinguished, qualified and well-connected audience. Proto.in provides a unique platform for promising startup talent to communicate their creativity and innovation potential. As a meeting place for the smartest entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and professionals, Proto.in stands true to its mantra "Create, Contribute, Collaborate."

A Look back at the First Edition

During the first edition, Twenty seven companies, selected from more than one hundred nominations that came in, presented their vision and demonstrated their products to an audience which consisted of VCs, potential partners, clients and in some case even have courted potential acquirers.

There were about ten companies which presented during Proto which are courted by three VC firms on average. There were more than a handful of companies that were struggling to get clients and have signed up clients - either with someone who came for the event or with someone outside who heard about the company after Proto, have managed to establish a network of fellow and like-minded entrepreneurs, and gain valuable feedback on the business and product roadmap as they presented.

Second Edition – What’s in store?

We have widened our horizon and are looking at companies from across Asia. We are bringing in companies from countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China to enable cross-border collaboration in technology and perspectives.
The confirmations from the camp of Venture capitalists have come in hard and fast from Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Clearstone Ventures, Canaan Partners, NEA-Indo US Ventures, Gabriel Ventures, Mentor Partners, Venture east ,Silicon Valley Bank, Plus Ventures, Matrix Partners, FootPrint Ventures, Bluerun Ventures apart from other Angel investors and Private Equity Firms.

International and Indian Organizations supporting Entrepreneurship and technological innovations such as IAMAI, TiE, TeNeT, ASES, TeDD, Malaysia IDA, Singapore have come forward and extended their support for Proto.in

New Venture Ecosystem India Update May 7, 2007

Venture Equity Firms Structured as Trusts to Get Tax Exemption

GOI favors trusts as a favored venture private equity firm structure. According to an official, trusts can avail pass-through status on any income they earn from investments made in unlisted firms in India and abroad. Pass-through status means business earnings will not be taxed at the fund level. Earnings will only be taxed at the hands of final beneficiaries (typically limited partners of the fund). Here is the full story

Where are Indian Cleantech Startups?

Going by the global startup scenario, lately, cleantech & energy has been one of the biggest buzz around. Silicon Valley venture equity circles have realized that next wave of billion dollar companies would come from clean technologies & technologies that can contribute towards solving world energy problem.

I have not seen much talk around either energy or clean tech in Indian venture private equity circles or startup ecosystem in general.

Leave alone US Silicon Valley; Closer to home, consider these facts about China

1. Last year Chinese Clean-Tech firms received 220 million in Venture funding

2. Emission trading is expected to reach $100 billion a year. China receives about 60% of present carbon credits; it translates into $60 billion a year in climate-change aid. (Read my earlier write-up on how you can use Carbon Credits as source of capital)

Absence of Indian activity in energy and clean technology space puzzles me.

Am I missing any thing? What has been your experience that can explain lack of interest of Indian venture community in this mega opportunity?

IP & GSM Marriage to Boost Rural Entrepreneurship

Two separate announcements by Nokia & Siemens, when combined together, create a very promising picture for rural economy and rural entrepreneurship.

First, Nokia announced a sub INR2000 phone, with inbuilt features to support mobile PCO operations in villages. Some of these features include time tracking / automatic time linked call ending to enable entrepreneurs to preset a time or cost limit on calls. Since a large section of rural populace can not afford individual phones, this has potential to make mobile community phone ownership (PCO centric model) a realistic dream.

Second, Nokia Siemens announced internet protocol based innovative solution to increase GSM rural coverage. This is how it is proposed to work. A village entrepreneur can take license from established GSM operator and setup a local switching network to route calls within a village. This network can connect to regional hub/GSM hub over IP to provide broader GSM connectivity. So far, high GSM network cost made rural forays economically unviable. This IP based solution is said to have a significant cost advantage over traditional option.

Marriage of these two seemingly unrelated introductions can have tremendous positive impact on rural economy.

It creates a compelling mobile infrastructure that rural entrepreneurs & enabling agencies can use to tap outside markets. For example, micro-finance organizations can use this infrastructure to promote business models beyond basic dairy & food processing to power rural economy.

Far flung villages now have a real shot at becoming next frontiers of value creation and innovation.

New Venture Ecosystem India Update - May 3, 2007

Foreign Investment in Pref Shares now on par with Debt

According to a Ministry of Finance circular, government will now treat foreign investment in preference shares that are not fully convertible into equity shares, issued by Indian companies on par with foreign debt. It has implications on typical mechanism of venture fund investment. Checkout, this business standard’s educational piece about this developing story

Clearstone Venture Partners - Sectors of Open Interest

According to Sumant Mandal, managing director, Clearstone Venture Advisors, Clearstone, is actively looking to invest in tech-driven businesses in financial services, communications, content & entertainment segments.

In India, Clearstone has so far invested in Iindiaideas.com (bill desk $5 million), DigiBee (mobile handset $5million) Games2win ($5 million) India in March. Globally it has invested in a series of successful ventures such as eToys, Overture, PayPal, United Online and MP3.com

Here is a link to original TOI news item

New Venture Ecosystem India Update - May 2, 2007

BCEI calls for Entrepreneur of the Year award nominations

Unlike other entrepreneur of the year awards, this one is for first generation entrepreneurs preferably from non-business families.

Bharti Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiatives (BCEI), a joint initiative of the Bharti Foundation and Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (BCEI & EDI), Ahmedabad, has invited nominations for the Bharti Entrepreneur of the Year Award – 2007. Last date for nominations is May 31, 2007.

You can visit this PR release for more details

Sanjay Anandram on focus approach to picthing VCs

You have a great business idea and now you want to pitch it to VCs, get funded and get started. Sanjay Anandram, a noted VC and entrepreneurship advocate, suggests an approach you can consider while pitching your plan to VCs.

An interesting read, take a look...

Raising Money on London Alternative Investment Exchange

If SEBI does not recognize your product as valid underlying asset for listing, you can try London Alternative Investment Exchange.

According to an IANS news snippet, Shyam Benegal's movie venture is set to raise 55 million pounds on Alternative Investment Market this month .

Carbon Credits - Guilt Money Can Fund Your Venture

If your business model revolves around a green technology, thanks to Kyoto Protocol and green movement, you can get access to an additional revenue stream and access to clean technology.

Kyoto Protocol sets a limit on amount of greenhouse gases a country can emit. To limit emissions to predefined set quota, signatory nations limit emission from polluting industries. The protocol also prescribes a regulatory and market mechanism of tradable carbon credits to effectively implement a global emission control program.

This is how it works. Assume, there is a company 'A' in USA that emits 100K tons of carbon dioxide. Now, USA government brings a legislation, that forces company 'A' to restrict emission to 80K tons of greenhouse gas.

To comply, company 'A' has two options, either reduce emissions by 20K tons, that has a cost, or buy 20k tons of carbon credits from someone who has earned a right sell carbon credits.

Sellers in this market earn rights to sell carbon credits by undertaking any effort that will help reduce greenhouse gases in atmosphere. This could be a simple mechanism such as undertaking tree plantation or advanced mechanisms such as creating a business around clean technologies.

The amount of greenhouse gases emission you help prevent is the amount of carbon credits you can sell in the international market.

For developing nations the mechanism to participate in emission marketplace is Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Under CDM, a developed country can take up a greenhouse gas reduction project activity in a developing country where the cost of greenhouse gas reduction project activities is usually much lower.

The developed country would be given credits for meeting its emission reduction targets, while the developing country would receive the capital and clean technology to implement the project. You can visit Wikipedia to know more about world of carbon credits, mechanisms such as CDM and much more.

You can call it making money out of someone else' guilt, nevertheless, going green was never so greener.

Entrepreneurship Resources : Free PR sites

Irrespective of the type of business you run, to succeed, you need to promote your business effectively.

Press release is one of the most underrated promotion tools. For success, make sure the press release you write is linked to a "news worthy" big story that can attract media attention.

Checkout following free media outlets that you can use to post your press releases, you never know, you may find your business on the front page and that too for free.

- Business portal 24 - Free press release outlet
- The Open Press - Free press release news wire http://www.theopenpress.com/
- PR distribution service PRCAI: http://www.prcai.org
- PR Web: http://www.prweb.com
- PR distribution service PRSI: http://www.prsi.in
- News Distribution Network - News Wire
- Ezine Articles - http://www.ezinearticles.com/

Go make that big impact!

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India Entrepreneurship Resource Series

During my first two ventures, I always found it difficult to get information about sources that could help me overcome some of the common challenges that new entreprises face.

With Enrepreneurship Resource Series of posts, I plan to contribute to this need in whatever small way I can.

Drop me a note if you come across resources that you think can help entrepreneurs in India or new ventures in general. I would be happy to publish them here.

Access to all the resource that I post is easy. Click on the label, below this post, named "India Entrepreneurship Resources" and you can see all the resources in one place.

Incubation with a Difference

Incubators typically provide operating facility, at times provide part capital and help as a networking platform for very early stage ventures. The success of incubators has been at best hazy with valid arguments for and against their effectiveness.

According to a news snippet, Marc Benioff, the highly visible CEO of Salesforce.com has given incubation a new dimension.

Instead of providing funds or space, Salesforce incubator provides access to technology and know-how to startups who plan to develop complementary applications. A more powerful dimension is access to market. Complementary applications that supported companies plan to develop will find ready market in SalesForce customers.

Access to market is a far greater force when compared to subsidized space or funds that can sometime become crutches rather than helping hands. This is an interesting new success factor that other incubators can use to empower their mission.

Highways to Opportunity for Innovation

Highway development, including Golden Quadrilateral, in India is one of the most powerful change agents the country has ever seen. Rethinking geographic allocation of production, storage & manpower deployment can unleash sources of competitive advantage across sectors.

A powerful touch point ripe for innovation is locations of warehouses and locations of last mile value addition facilities.

Highway system has shrunk a distance of 250 kms from 10 hours to 4 hours. This time compression opens up an area of 500 sq kms around consumption hubs such as Bangalore for value addition processing and warehousing.

For example, goods for consumption in Bangalore can now be manufactured in Indore Industrial belt of MP, transported to a value addition processing center cum warehouse within 250 kms radius of Bangalore and packaged/labeled inline with to local needs and culture.

A fresh analysis and ensuing list of lowest cost locations is another area of opportunity for early birds. Well developed highway system gives interior areas of country and not just port cities opportunities to attract capital and generate employment. Capital gets opportunity to avail lower cost labor coupled with excellent transport connectivity to these locations.

Highways have opened up opportunities across sectors. A lot of these fall in the category of billion dollars opportunities. Web2.0 opportunity size in India is a mere change in comparison.

With core sectors flush with opportunities, going virtual is virtually not so exciting.

Small Business - Leads & Not Clicks That Matter

Typical small businessmen, for example, beauty-salons or dentists do not generally have a website. Apart from the fact that web search is ineffective in helping consumers find a local business, most of the small business owners are not tech savvy enough to take advantage of web search to get business.

Wharton Entrepreneurship and innovation research features NatPal, a business with an interesting twist to yellow pages and local search biz model. It's time Indian Entrepreneurs take notice. Here is the link, checkout!

Venture Fund Tax: Goverment Plays an Inefficient Big Daddy

Much has been said about why taxing VC funds is a bad idea. It inadvertently can choke-off risk capital and only puts domestic funds at disadvantage as foreign funds can always operate out of Mauritius to avoid govt domestic dictates.

What has not attracted press attention is the fact that govt is playing a macro-economic spoilsport by assuming it knows the best when it comes to efficient capital allocation.

By exempting nine sectors -- biotech, IT-ITES, seed research, nano tech, chemical research, dairy industry, poultry, bio fuels & hotel cum convention centers -- from tax net, govt is forcing capital to stay away from other sectors.

First of all, when it comes to new venture funding, I find the idea of sector specification itself as naive. Revolutionary ventures often end up creating new sectors. Secondly, specifying a sub segment such as bio fuels against broad sector such as alternative fuels amazes me. What about solar cells, what about water desalination and what about revolutions such as micro finance Mr. Finance Minister?

Govt must stay away from playing a short sighted & high headed big daddy who forces his intellectually capable super-kid to take up sports and turn into a mediocre sportsman, when the kid could have well become an Einstein.

NSRCEL Empowering Women Entrepreneurs

One of the prominent entrepreneurial hubs at Bangalore NSRCEL is offering an entrepreneurial management program exclusively for women entrepreneurs.

Women entrepreneurs are special and challenges they face are unique. Management program to assist them handle new business challenges, managerial functions & real world know how is a welcome visionary step. I have a woman entrepreneur at home and know first hand that it is not an easy path to take.

Vital statistics below

1. Dates of the program: Apr 16 - May 4 and again from May 21st to May 30th (Mon - Fri)
2. Details at NSRCEL website

Well done IIMB & NSRCEL, keep it up!

Indian VCs Return to Real Venture Funding

Some of the Indian VC funds are returning to real venture funding after an almost 5-6 years of pure private equity play.

According to a news snippet, Q1 2007, VCs invested $130 million across 20 deals in India. Out of these 20 investment deals, 14 deals amounted to $73 million in IT & ITES space. This compares well with the number Q1 last year, which stood at $125 million.

The good news is that couples of these deals are in the range of $1-$3 million. An indication that Indian VC community is now showing signs of opening up to early stage ventures.

Is it a trend? Need to dig a little deeper. Will write an update on this soon...

Only Way to Start Something - Start

I have been thinking about starting a blog dedicated to my experiences with venture ecosystem for about an year. As they say, only way to start something is to start & here I start!

Going by the statistics and my experience with other blogs, the most difficult part is not to start but to keep the momentum. I believe the trick is to blog around something that one is passionate about and something that one will remain passionate about for a good part of ones life.

For me, that core is entrepreneurship, I have always been amazed by ability of new enterprises to make a significant difference to the way we live & behave. After education, few would dispute, entrepreneurship is the most powerful value creation engine of the world.

I welcome you all to stories & my experience, with the entrepreneurial ecosystem, as it unfolds.

I request you to openly comment, give feedback & provide information that will make this place more useful, entertaining & vibrant.