If you are an entrepreneur and looking for some Angel Funding, the below is a list of Angel Investors in India:
Indian Angel Network
Accel Partners
Ojas Ventures
SeedFund
Axon Ventures
Mercatus Capital
Epiphany Ventures
Garage Again
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.
Be there on the January 09-10, 2009 and participate to help create the ecosystem for Startup’s.
After a long time, I am back in action with my blogging. However, I am back with some real good information which could definitely help you if you are looking at understanding and being part of Entrepreneurship eco-system in India, especially , in Bangalore.
As you are already aware of KickStart, our initiative to support Entrepreneurship and its activities, I will not dig deep into them; but would highlight our new activity – Startup Saturday.
Our main motive behind this activity, is to provide a platform for entrepreneurs and entrepreneur wanna-be’s to come together and discuss various aspects of entrepreneurship. I know I am being a bit vague here, but I can assure you of what I wrote. We wanted to have this as a monthly event and started of the activity in February 2008. Startup Saturday happens on second Saturday of every month at the Indian Institute of Management campus in Bangalore. This is completely supported by NSRCEL, the incubation center of IIM B. Along with discussion, we provide a platform for entrepreneur’s to showcase their innovation to fellow entrepreneurs. Total time allocated for this event is 3 Hours.
We had 3 Startup Saturday’s till date and below is a summary of each of the Saturdays. I could not attend the second one, and hence will not speak about it much 🙁
Startup Saturday – Feb 16, 2008
This has been our first SS and we have been a bit tensed with the number of attendees who would turn up. We did no great marketing for this event, just used all mailing lists we have been part of. We invited Prateek and Nitya of Muziboo to speak of their experiences and it was very nice of them to accept our invitation and be part of the first event (knowing the uncertainties of attendees and the organization of the event).
There were around 25 people who joined us to share our passion. The room is full and the atmosphere is exciting on this warm Saturday morning.
Here is a summary of their experiences…
Muziboo is an online music community with more than 1200 registered members and 1000+ music uploads.
Features of Muziboo
Growth Plan
Competitors
None as on date
Soundclick, Esnips come close
Few questions asked by audience…
Do you want to build Muziboo as a brand/comapny?
Prateek – Brand.
How many are writing code for you?
Prateek – Only me. Have been using Ruby on rails.
Can I just listen to music and not signup?
Prateek – Definitely.
How much did you sunk in till date?
Prateek – Less than Rs. 40,000.
How are you marketing?
Started with Orkut. Searched with “music” and scrapped each of them individually.
What amount of traffic is from search engines?
Prateek – Around 30%-35%.
Do you want to start your own Radio channel?
Prateek – Yes.
Prateek – We are also working on creating an online music composition tool which will help musicians to record online and upload.
Even though I did not sign-up to submit my music composition 🙂 I like the concept and I on behalf of KickStart team wish Prateek and Nitya all the very best in their endeavor. If you have not yet visited Musiboo, it is time you go and have a taste of good music.
Startup Saturday – March 09, 2008
As I mentioned earlier, I missed this event, but I know that it has been an exciting one and there were close to 50 participants this time – a whooping 100% increase 🙂
Startup Saturday – April 12, 2008
This has been more streamlined. We had the SS website up and made this a wiki which will help people to register if they were coming to the event. We had 91 registrations on the site and close to 50 attended the event.
Ms. Dhanya Menon, a startup legal expert and partner at ALMT Legal, Bangalore accepted to speak on Term Sheet. Here are some notes I made during her talk.
What is a Term Sheet?
Term sheet is an ‘indicative’ document.
What is ‘indicative’?
Indicating the terms and conditions of the venture.
From an entrepreneur’s perspective, a term sheet is very important – I will not go to any other investor, discussing about investments in the organization.
One needs to be very clear about the terms and conditions in the term sheet, and without one, no investor would invest without a term sheet sign-off.
While there is a term sheet signed off between investor and entrepreneur and in-between (with in the time lines), if the entrepreneur goes to another investor and signs a new term sheet, the first investor has all rights to sue the entrepreneur.
Clauses
1.Breach of Contract (Exclusivity)
2.Confidentiality
3.Drop-debt fields (What ever expenses investor have incurred in this contract, the entrepreneur needs to repay)
4.Public Announcements
5.Term Promoters
6.Size of funding (try to mention money in INR)
7.Valuation
What is the typical timelines in term-sheet.
Between 3 – 6 months.
Promoters
Only people who run the organiation on a day-to-day basis should be calld ‘promoters’.
Right of first refusal (RoFR)
Right of first offer (RoFO)
Series B investment should not happen immediately. Focus should be on business. The investor can make the clause for series B funding.
What are definitive documents?
Share subscription document
Employment agreement
Anti-Dilution
This is not good from investors perspective.
PS: I know that my above notes are not very information, however, I will work towards getting more structured information and post more information on Term Sheet as I learn about it more in detail.
Along with her knowledge sharing session, we had a demo of Storzz by Chandan Maruti, CEO of the startup. Storrz is an on-line mall. Yes, I used the term “mall”. Even though there are many differences in a real mall and a virtual mall, this mall gives you the flexibility of serious shopping. If you are looking for a particular product and looking for its rating in the market and customer feedback, this is the place to go.
Storrz is created as a platform for opening a virtual mall. If you have a business, and want to sell on-line without any hazels of creating an online shop, Storrz is the place to go.
You will be surprised with what is available on Storrz – From vegetables to groceries to Camcorders and Digital Cameras and with price comparison along with customer feedback. Check out the site and experience for yourself.
If you want to keep yourself updated about KickStart activities, please do sign up for our mailing list and I am sure you would benefit from it.
The next Startup Saturday is scheduled for 10 May 2008. However, on 19/20 April we have BarCamp Bangalore 6 coming up. So, stay tuned and be there.
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.
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.
Afternoon session started with Mr Deepak Srinivasan‘s thoughts on Product Management.
Role of a Product Manager:
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
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.
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
You can write to Srini with any questions/project proposals – srini {AT} lightspeedvp {dot} com
Startup Funding – Ganapathy Subramaniam, myDuniya
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.
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
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:
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
Day 2 at HeadStart started off with a bang. The inaugural key note presentation was given by Ram Shriram of Sherpalo and he had many things to share. Key summary of the presentation is that Mobile and Web Applications are going to be the future of Technology.
I am here at the venue trying to live blog to share my experiences here. So, if the writings are a bit raw, you will need to bare with it 🙂
Sonim – The all weather phone
As part of technology presentations, Sonim demonstrated their all weather phone technology.
They are looking for Innovating Entrepreneurs who can build applications for their phone.
Q: Do you use a high level OS/how can u support third-party applications?
A: Our next gen phone will help solve this problem
Q: Do you support OTA?
A: Yes
Q: Are your applications only for your phone or for other phones?
A: Our applications run on Windows Device and NXP. We are concentrating on Windows Mobile.
Q: What is the exact OS this phone works on?
A: Philips NXP
A technology innovation and licensing company focused on enhancing the usability of hand held devices.
Q: Have u targeted countries like Russia?
A: Yes, in Ukrain
Q: Did you do any statistical analysis for your product?
A: Yes.
Mobile + Easy = mobisy
Q: Is MobiTop platform independent?
A: Yes and No. People can develop applicatios for MobiTop using Java Script
I am really impressed with this application. Am definitely going to signup 🙂
Panel Discussion
Rajesh Srivatsa – Ojus Startup Ventures
Muralikrishna – Sasken Communications
Jagannath Rao – Motorola
Alok Mittal – Cannan Partners
Viswanath Ganapathy – HoneyWell
Karthee – QualCom Capital Funds
Rajesh Srivatsa – rajesh[at]ojusventures[dot]com
Muralikrishna
Jagannatha Rao
Alok Mittal
Viswanath Gapanathy
Karthee
HeadStart 2008 started with a bang this morning at the JN Tata Auditorium, IISc Campus, Bangalore. Registrations began early at 8 AM and are still continuing as I write this post (10:30 AM IST). There are many technology enthusiasts who are here and also the media is covering the complete event. There are quite a few Live Bloggers too 🙂
More to follow, keep an eye….