Category Archives: HeadStart

Adoption Rate

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Aviation and Health Care. Let us take two industries to compare a simple aspect – Adoption Rate.
Both industries are part of each and everyone’s lives. There are people who might fly or have never flown, but there is no person who has never visited a Doctor / Hospital.
In case of emergency, in aviation, the Pilot who is responsible for the safety of the flight knows that if he makes a mistake, even his life is in danger. On the contrary, let us look at Health Care. The Doctor is responsible for his patient’s life, but in this case, if there is a failure or medical error, the Doctor does not loose life, but the patient does. Is this a case point for why the error adoption rates being long and low in Health Care?
If there is a flight accident, the instance is completely evaluated and analysed by an independent team and the findings are quickly circulated across all airlines across the world. In return, all airlines update the required findings and roll them out to their pilots. Also, long papers and thesis reports are not circulated to Pilots, but the findings are either incorporated into the Pilot’s checklists or they are called for updated training. This happens very quickly so that there is no other life lost because of any error.
If there is a medical accident, the similar approach is not adopted. The hospital may or may not bring out the error in the first place and secondly, even if they did, the error finding reports are not immediately available for everyone. The hospital might incorporate the findings, but for others to follow takes a very very long time and in certain cases, even centuries for the change to come.
Why is there this much of difference in adoption rates when in both industries the cost of error is a life? Is there a case in point?

Where do Ideas come from?

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Most of the complex problems in the world are already solved in the past; Problems which are not on priority are being solved now and the boring problems have been left for this generation to solve.

From Computing to Search to Facebook to LinkedIn to Twitter, all these are not new innovations/inventions, but problems which were solved previously and are now addressed at larger platforms.

Today’s Innovations are stemming from frustrations or inability to connect various solutions. If you look at online market places which bridge the gap in the B2C and B2B segment, this is not a high priority problem. There are existing solutions where we can order goods (by word of mouth, by friends etc). This solution has a limitation. The key limitation is that the choice’s are very minimal and you do not know the variety available in the market. When the problem is magnified, we thought of bringing the world shopping to our finger tips.

For instance, this blog idea is not my invention, but a thought which came about while I was reading about FitMeIn – An online application which offers monthly multiple fitness memberships. What is the pain point they are addressing – Boredom of going to gym everyday. Similarly, quite a few solutions we see today are amalgamation of existing solutions.

Today, there are many platforms from where you can pick ideas if you have the passion to solve them. Use Quora, where you can find many questions and possible answers. Research on this platform to find ideas which you can take forward and solve them. Organisations like HeadStart, Open Coffee Club etc provide a platform for us to solve problems.

Don’t Copy and Paste, but Adapt and Paste is the new mantra.

Social Entrepreneurship is Sexy

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On 12 March 2010, we concluded our Annual Startup Showcase Event – HeadStart, this time at Hyderabad. One of the panel discussion topic was “Challenges in Social Entrepreneurship” and we had an amazing panel for this. This blog post is a summary of the discussion.

Members of the Panel were – Ms Lindsay Clinton, Director of Beyond Profit Magazine; Ms Yasmina McCarty, Founder and Director of Green Mango; Ramakrishna NK, Co-Founder and CEO of RangDe; Ramesh V, Founder CEO and Director of Ecomove Solutions Pvt.Ltd and Asgar Ali of Roshan Vikas.

The discussion started with introduction of the Panelists. Ms. Lindsay was gracious to be the moderator of the panel.

Being Indian’s, working for our society is a natural urge and interest, however, the greatness of Lindsay and Yasmina is that they are not Indian’s and choose to live in India to make a difference to the world where it is required. There are many other countries/regions in the world which they could have picked, whatever the reasons are and whatever their choices are, I am really impressed and respect both of them for choosing India for their work. Not only Lindsay and Yasmina, but there are many other not Indian’s (I can use the word ‘foreigner’, but chose not to so that I can use the country’s name) who are living in India and making a difference to the way we live.

Here is a brief of what each of them is working on:

Beyond Profit -Beyond Profit is a Social Entrepreneurship magazine focusing on bringing out stories of Social Enterprises in India and across the globe.

Green Mango – it is a placeholder for all daily jobs. Green Mango focus’s on building a database of prospective employers for Carpentry, Milk Vendors, Catering, Drivers etc. The team of Green Mango drills across the streets to find and give you the best possible service providers. Green Mango is based out of Hyderabad, India.

Ecomove -Ecomove Solutions was started in October 2008, with a motive of providing pick-up-drop services of bicycles for users to use for short journeys. This helps in contributing to reducing environment pollution and also provides opportunity for the user to exercise. Ecomove not only rents bicycles, but also battery operated two-wheelers and four-wheelers. Ecomove is based out of Mumbai, India.

Roshan Vikas – Roshan Vikas works with Women community to provide them the technical and marketing skills to run small artisan businesses to gain income independence.

RangDe -RangDe, based out of Chennai, India primarily focus’s on making micro-credit accessible to every low-income household by lowering the interest rates through innovative measures.

Here is a summary of the discussion, Key Questions and Answers by the Panel and attendees.

What does it take to be a Social Entrepreneur?

The very thought of wanting to be a Social Entrepreneur is quite different and this comes out of seeing people struggling with daily lives. Unlike any other businesses, Social Enterprises are build for long term. These enterprises do not diverge into various businesses, but focus core on one problem and address the solution in as many ways as possible. To be a Social Entrepreneur, one needs to have the determination, commitment and passion. These become the primary attributes for the success of the organization. Social Entrepreneurs come with loads of sacrifices and only the passion will keep the organization going.

Ms. Lindsay says that Social Entrepreneurship is Sexy in the west.

How did families support their decisions be to be Social Entrepreneurs?

For each of the panel members, families have been their biggest source of inspiration and motivation. Each one of them have been earning a good living and having beautiful lives, however, when they choose to do something very different, even though there have been initial apprehensions, each one could achieve what they are doing today.

It is a very big sacrifice for each of them personally to leave a fat paycheck and move on to change the world. You had to be present to see emotions of each of these amazing Social Entrepreneurs; I really do not have words to express what each of them shared from their personal lives.

Why is Social Entrepreneurship not regarded as mainstream entrepreneurship in India?

Various reasons – Societal acceptance, No formal education and no mainstream attention.

Not only Social Entrepreneurship, but also Entrepreneurship itself has not been the mainstream profession in India. There is no coverage of Entrepreneurial / Innovation education in our Education System. Colleges/Universities have laid strong foundation for Engineering and Medical professions but there are no places where Entrepreneurial spirit is encouraged. However, today, we have few universities offering courses on Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship (Ex, Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Ahmedabad).

Acceptance for Entrepreneurship at homes has not been big. Students/wanna be entrepreneurs are not encouraged much due to uneven financial in-flow. India has been a country of middle-income families and in the last 5-10 years, things have been changing. Aspirations to take on big things such as owning house, car and financial security are taking a big seat in everyone’s life. In this situation, Entrepreneurship/Social Entrepreneurship is not regarded as a step for financial success. This is one of the key reasons for not being accepted by Society when you start something on your own to build a future that is quite uncertain.

Also, India is a country where parents fund children till they secure a job and have a steady income. Children are not nurtured to handle life independently. This directly has an impact on how can they manage business or drive their passion without knowing how to handle any situation.

Mainstream and Media attention also adds to the non-societal acceptance. Government does not have encouraging policies for aspiring entrepreneurs. Bureaucracy plays a key role. Instead of encouraging Innovation and Entrepreneurship, roadblocks are created and thereby discouraging aspirations.

How do we define Social Entrepreneurship?

Social Entrepreneurship is a form of Entrepreneurship where your vision and mission is about providing a solution to a societal problem. Social Entrepreneurship is just not about making money, but a bigger aspect of solving a societal problem where a common man is benefited.

Social Entrepreneurship is not always “not-for-profit”. This is one common mis-assumption people have. I covered few aspects of understanding/fundamentals of Social Entrepreneurship earlier at Understanding Social Entrepreneurship.

There are two other very informative questions, which came up in the discussion. However, I am not able to fill in all the information today as I am working on gathering information. Will keep updating the blog as and when I find appropriate answers for these questions along with what has been discussed. If you have any points, please do send them to harinath {at} headstart {dot} in.

  • What organizations are in India which can help build Social Enterprises?
  • Are there organizations where I can share my idea and they help realize my dream?

As promised in the event, here is the link to the mailing list on Social Enterprises and Social Entrepreneurship.

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A Change for Tomorrow

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I have been reading The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley recently and was amazed with the amount of research which went in to write the book. This book speaks on James Tooley’s experiences in the developing countries as to how they are over-looking the Public education system and turning towards Private education to provide a better future for the young generation. Two case studies, one of Hyderabad, India and one of Nigeria caught my utmost attention. When James tried to turn to the Government to understand how and why the poor families are turning towards paying small amounts of fees for their kids to be educated in private schools, most of the times he received answers in the affermative. When he continued his journey, he found amazing results and he was astonished. I cannot summarize a 300 odd page book here, but the one thing which I took away, is that no poor family of the so-called developing country is leaving any opportunity to rewrite their future.

In the recent issue of Career 360 I was really impressed with the cover story. It is the same old story which we all hear that the education system in India needs to be revamped. But, few stories of children of poor farmers from Bihar on how they went against the odds give a refreshing perspective. The story of Anand Kumar who started Super 30, a school which coaches top 30 poor children to get into IIT is really inspiring. Can you beat this, in the last 7 years, 182 students of 210 have made it to the IIT’s and in the last 2 years, all 60 students made it to the IIT. These are the results we speak about.

In an interview Tarun Tejpal mentions that the education in our country is more of academic and marks oriented. This is the most disturbing part.

I hail from South India (Andhra Pradesh) and when I completed my graduation (I did not take up Engineering/Medicine) most of my friends have either taken up Engineering or Medicine and after education, one has to take up a job in either Infosys / Wipro / TCS which are the best IT compaines. What you do in the organization does not matter, but as long as you have one of the 3 brands, you are entitled for a settled, secure life and when time comes, a huge dowry for the wedding.

Just to give the other side, if one has to apply for B.Sc Economics in Delhi School of Economics, the cut-off percentage is usually more than 95%. When I took up Economics and Computer Applications in my graduation (this course has been terminated after 2 batches because there were no takers), I was termed the most un-fit and unsuccessful in my batch. After 10 years, when I look back, I think I made the best decision of my life and I really need to thank my Parents and Brother who gave me all the support to do what I want in life.

Now, why did I get into this topic? One thing I realized after co-founding HeadStart and founding Dazasya is that we are not yet ready for Building a better tomorrow with the current way of how we deal with things. In the last two years of being with the Startup community, what I notice is that the willingness to take risks is not yet ready in our minds. Even if one is ready to take the risk, family and social pressure’s take up a lot of time to get you forward. Once you get forward, what misses is the Bigger Picture. Should I attribute this to our up-bringing? From our childhood we are “told” what to do and if we do not, we are not guided enough to come out of the situation.

We are not taught problem solving, but taught only the application of a formula. We are not taught how to think differently, but only taught how to follow what has been thought over by our teachers and elders.

This is one of the primary reasons as to why we do not have an Apple, Microsoft, Google coming out of India.

Many entrepreneurs today are in the path of Entrepreneurship for freedom to work and chase their dreams. When we look at their dreams, ideas revolve around something which exists today, rather than trying to create something new. Why don’t we have even a browser bring created in India?

Let me take my own example, I co-founded HeadStart 2 Years and 6 months ago and founded Dazasya 2 Years and 2 months ago. In either of the two organizations, I am able to Innovate anything new which can help the Startup community.

Let me begin the change here….

HeadStart – Compute 2009

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HeadStart has been our annual event for showcasing Startup Talents in the country. We started organizing the annual event since 2008, along with ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Bangalore Chapter.

Why HeadStart and ACM?

HeadStart is a community of Entrepreneurs, Investors, Industry Professionals and Evangelists. We came together to contribute back to the community which has brought us to this level and given us lives.

ACM is a focused group which concentrates on future of technology and how it fits into today’s world.

As an Entrepreneur, it is very important for us to understand the Business Model, writing the Business Plan, speaking to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors, bringing the product/service to the end user, legalities in building your organization, employee management and last but not the least – the future of your innovation.

You have a cutting edge idea and you are excited about it. You speak to various stakeholders and lo! you idea has hit everyone. What next? You are starting up your baby. That’s great news. One important and key aspect you need to consider is what is the future? Today, we see many Insurance companies advertising –For your retirement solutions and your child educational / child future plans, do contact us. In the same way, you need to understand the future of technology to ensure safety and security to your baby (your enterprise) and yourself. We feel safe when we have life insurance and few plans for our children, but we ignore our tomorrow.

Yesterday, I met an aspiring entrepreneur and he invited me to be his Devil’s advocate (I am not going into details of his idea or our conversation with due respects to him). He shared his idea with me and I honestly did not see a tomorrow in that. I did not see a strong bonding of the idea with the stakeholders. But he is passionate. Passionate about the idea and his tomorrow. I am sure he would succeed in what he is doing, but definitely few of my questions have kept his bells ringing.

During HeadStart – Compute 2008, we had two eminent personalities from GE to speak on the future of Database. The two scientists shared their research information on how the future of Database would change. This is what is needed for an Entrepreneur.

A classic example of not looking into the future is the Y2K. Many organizations realized and started working on this issue a bit late in the 90’s. What if these organizations had the guidance to think about this earlier during their startup stage? Things would have been different. If everyone took the necessary precaution, I am sure there would not have been many people who would have got job’s in the west during late 90’s.

HeadStart and Compute are dedicated to create the perfect ecosystem for Entrepreneurs. If you recollect the Project Triangle, then it is very easy to relate to what we do. We do exactly the same – Ensuring for a healthy startup focusing on the key parameters – Technology, Capital and Eco-System.

HS Model

Be there on the January 09-10, 2009 and participate to help create the ecosystem for Startup’s.

HeadStart 2009

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HeadStart 2009 is going to be organized on the 9 / 10 /11 January 2009.  Details will be published at the earliest to provide you with ample time for the preparation.

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, entrepreneur, student, industry leader or an academician, you need to be there. Please visit HeadStart for more updates and join Friends of KickStart mailing list to receive updates regularly.

HeadStart – Testimonials

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During the closing session of HeadStart, there were loads of comments which came in from participants present there. I am not going to write them here, but will consolidate and get them at a later stage. Also, we have received few emails personally. This is the first time we organized this and these feedbacks motivate us to do more. If you have any feedback regarding our “need for improvement” do not hesitate to send us and we will try to work on them. If you would like to keep hearing from us, please subscribe to friends-of-kickstart.

HeadStart Day 3 – Afternoon Session

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Afternoon session started with Mr Deepak Srinivasan‘s thoughts on Product Management.

Role of a Product Manager:

  • Owns the business plan of the product.
  • Has a 360 degree view of the prodcut
  • THE go to resource for all questions, decisions
  • Directs Life cycle, Engagements
  • Is the “CEO Jr.” of the prodcut.
  • Creates
    • Spots the opportunity
    • Sells the plan
  • Manages
    • Life Cycle
    • Socialization
    • Executive Board
  • Coordinates
    • Finance
    • HR
    • Sales
    • Development
  • Directs
    • Program Management
    • Product Marketing
    • Internal Evangelization
    • Business Development
  • Product Requirements Document
  • Market Requirements Definition
  • Role in Innovation
    • Socialize – Meet people and talk to them
    • Gather – Listen, Find, Stimulate and Conveive
    • Culture – Receptivity, Recognize and Rejection
  • Hiring
    • Engaged
    • Passionate
    • Reflective
    • Gatherer
    • Hunter
    • Visualizer
    • Communicator
    • Integrity
    • Rule Breaker
    • Leader
  • Product Management 2.0
  • Markets have changed forever
    • A segment of One
    • A Million Segments
    • All need addressing
  • Delivery has changed forever
    • Real-time
    • Re-usable
    • Re-combinant
  • Real-time PM
    • Strategy
    • Delivery
    • Operational
  • Startups
    • Help replicate thinking
    • Helps reduce I/O, improves productivity
    • Engineering delight
    • Independent voice to Shareholders, Board
    • Greatly improves chances of success
  • Grow up
    • PMs most often manage people that outrank them or dont report to them.
    • CEO, Executive team should communicate and reinforce the universality of the role.
    • Share the role and introduce the PM to your Board of Directors.
    • Have project, program management and product marketing report into PM.
  • So you reap..
    • Its never 2 early, its habit forming – that’s good
    • Retrofitting a PM culture is often impossible
    • PM’s make some of the best founders, CEO’s
    • You owe it to your business, your shareholders.

Deepak recommends Crossing the Chasm for understanding how to sell to customers.

You can write to Deepak at deepak {AT} mobiance {dot} com

Cost based funding and Startup Culture – Ashwin Masheh, MapUnity

  • Recipe for Success 🙂
    • Don’t have any money
    • Want to retain autonomy/control
    • Want to survive, even prosper
    • Want to work with large firms and develop scale
    • Want to attract talented people at affordable pay
  • Problem with selling
    • Pre-conceived ideas of rich/poop and their needs
    • Cash cow syndrome
    • Low impact, as a startup
    • Financial uncertainty
    • Cultural implications
  • Technology Ecosystem
    • Offline workbench
      • Client-side software that can allow data to be created offline, and synced with online platform data.
    • Independent, domai-specific APIs
      • OpenLayers-based application interface allows other software developers to build on top of the Mapunity platform. Custom APIs for specific domains – traffic, shopping, health, etc – will also be developed
    • Geo-search and indexing
      • Hierarchical as well as spatial searches possible, as is searching across databases and communities hosted on single platform.
  • GIS Telecom synergies
    • Call origin Mapping
    • Mobile data collection and query
    • Device-linked software development
  • Other focus areas of MapUnity
    • energy hub
    • mapmedia GIS
    • e-City
    • udhavi
    • relief GIS

This concludes the 2 day HeadStart for 2008. Look for more updates on www.HeadStart.in and www.KickStart.in

Do write to me (hari {AT} kickstart {dot} in) or leave a comment on any of these posts if you want to get in touch with our team.

HeadStart Day 3 – Morning Session

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Here we are; the last day of HeadStart 2008. The morning session started with key note presentation by Dr Peter Hofstee, Chief Scientist, IBM Research at Almaden Research Center, USA on Cell Broadband Engine.

Srini Vudayagiri – LightSpeed VenturePartners

  • The largest Venture Capital is Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) with $1.2 Trillion in portfolio
  • Create a value for Stakeholders is the key in Entrepreneurship
With wireless sleep technology, people in my dreams can sent email to people in your dreams 🙂
  • Screening Ideas: 5 Questions
    • What important customer problem can you solve?
    • How are you going to do it?
    • How many customers are there that are willing to buy from you?
    • Why can only you provide the solution?
    • How can you defent against others?
  • Identify stakeholders – Who are they?
    • Do i want to become famous or do I want to be rich?
  • Identify Consumers
    • Consumers for Mobile space today in India are majorly in ABCD (Aaya, Bhai, Carpenter & Driver) consumer segment.
  • Funding Partner
    • Startup costs
    • Marginal costs
  • Capital / Financial Markets
    • M&A options for growth
    • Exists
    • Scarcity value: education/retail
    • Liquidity – local/global
  • How many Digital Signage companies got funded in India in last 5 Yrs? – 6 Companies
  • Employees
    • Talent Pool / quantity
    • Perceived positioning of sector
    • Compensation
  • Regulators
  • Analysis of Business Ideas
    • Truly new, novel and innovative ideas < 3%-4%
    • Rest 96% are Enhancement to existing ideas
  • Few thoughts of Srini
    • Most businesses fail in les than 2 years
    • Less than 1% of the business plans submitted to VCs get funded
    • Failures are PLANNED by lack of planning
    • VC funding does not mean me the business is path breaking/disruptive.

You can write to Srini with any questions/project proposals – srini {AT} lightspeedvp {dot} com

Startup Funding – Ganapathy Subramaniam, myDuniya

  • Entrepreneurship
    • Possessed by a Grand Vision
    • Market driven approaches
      • Products for a upcoming market
      • New ways of addressing an existing market innovative delivery
    • Capability Driven approach
      • Build a compelling busines model
  • Funding sources
    • Seed Investors (Friends, Family, Angel Networks, Early Stage VCs , Corporates, Incubators, Customer, Partners)
    • Venture Capitalists
    • Special funding programs (TDB etc)
  • An important aspect of checking your business plan is going to Seed Investors.
  • VCs Checklist
    • Vision Congruence
    • Large and growing opportunity?
    • Tam fully committed to the cause?
    • Experience relevant and sufficient?
    • Can the business model be validated?
    • Is it scalable and defensible?
    • Are the risks acceptable?
    • How can the risks be mitigated / eliminated?
  • VC Interaction Challenges
    • Small no. of deals get transacted per partner/firm/industry
    • Getting to reach/deserved attention is tough
      • Art of getting introduced
      • Elevator pitch
    • Research/Reference/Focus
    • Selling the idea to the partner/firm
  • VC Engagement Cycle
    • 3-9 Months for fund raising
    • No/interesting in a week
    • Multiple intensive interactions
    • Progress to Term sheet in 4-10 weeks
    • Closing in addition
  • Valuation
    • Rule of thumb/comparables
    • Competition/market factors drives prices
    • Serial entrepreneurs get a healthy premium
    • Alighment of interest and balance of motivation
    • Valuation + Conditions!

With this, the morning session concluded. Its lunch time. In thepost-lunch session, we have Product Management by Deepak Srinivasan and Cost based funding & culture in startup’s by Ashwin Mahesh. So, stay tuned.

HeadStart Day 2 – Afternoon Session

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Afternoon session of HeadStart kicked off with Embedded & Silicon systems segment presentations / demo’s and concluded with a fantastic panel discussion for which Dr S Ramesh of General Motors, Giri Krishna of Texas Instruments, Ganapathy Subramaniam of Cosmic Circuits and Devesh Garg of Bessemer Venture Partners providing key insights into technology and VC presence in this segment.

Vayavya Labs – Device Driver Generating Tool

Developing the world’s first automated device driver generator too.

Benefits of DDGen

  • Productivity enhancement tool, designers to move higher abstraction levels
  • Enforces right framework for development
  • Lowers customer support costs
  • Practice true re-use
  • Specification to aid silicon verification and device and system modeling

BioEnable
Developing products & services based on TCP/IP, Internet, Biometrics, RFID, GPRS, GPS, RF Wireless.

iWave
iWave specializes in providing turnkey embedded hardware and software design services and design solution.

Mango Technologies
The Mango Advantage:

  • Reduced time-to-market: Handset software is ready within 3 months as compared to 6 to 9 months- Mango Application Framework comes with a designer tool, a phone simulator and test interface. With these tools more than 80% of the UI development and app integration can be done on the PC.
  • Customized UI for different segments of users- New UI experiences for the end consumer with distinctive usability aspect in the UI/application design
  • Customized apps for ULC market requirement- Provides distinctive features and applications for a market segment and facilitate quick construction of mobile handset software. (E.g. very lightweight download client, mobile payment, SIP stack etc.)
  • Component based open and extensible architecture-A shift from the traditional, linear and layered architecture, this facilitates easy addition, removal and modification of parts of features and third party applications. Smart integration with new applications
  • Low cost solution for price sensitive market
  • OTA downloadable native Applications and themes- A feature that excites users and operators alike.
  • Low memory footprint-which is very critical in entry-level devices.
  • Portability across hardware platforms- With the protocol stack and OS interfaces abstracted into and restricted to one layer designed on POSIX standards to make it generic.
  • High Scalability in architecture and thru Linux binding for quick OSS app integration.
  • Rich Toolset

PS: I am no authority on Embedded not do I posses enough knowledge to comment on this subject. So, reproduced what the presenters spoke and also referred to their websites for more information.

Day 3 of HeadStart will be very exciting. We begin the day with Identifying and validating business opportunities keynote session by Srini Vudayagiri. So, tune in without fail.

Also, there are 100 free passes to give away for this session. Write to sbhagavatula [AT] gmail [dot] com