Praval's Musings

It’s 0915 hrs and things are on schedule! The proto.in has just kicked off! Day one of the start up event and everything here is just perfect, except the wi-fi though! I’m blogging live from within the audi at IIT, Delhi – the venue for this event. Due to failure of the Wi-fi over here, I am on a GPRS network to help you keep updated with the proceedings here.

Mr. Kiran Karnik, former president NASSCOM has just appeared for the keynote.

Mr. Karnik emphasizes on not just look over outsourcing. One should try and look beyond the existing opportunities and work over the unleashed avenues.

The talk is now followed by A Q&A session:

• Why doesn’t the govt. support startups?

Ans: Govt. procurement processes have been bothering us since long. But things may improve over a span of time. Traditional thoughts are   definitely a barrier.

• What should one do after starting a startup? move with the market or decide himself.
  Ans: End of the day, you need to move with the market as it’s not just about a hobby. You need to market yourself or get a good marketer for you!

We’re now moving on to a series of talks by various startup entrepreneurs who have done substantially well with their work/business.

Bharat martimonial – Murugavel Janakiram on Building services for India – The art of Pricing.

Murugavel is having masters in computer sc. with a flair in programming. Inspired by match.com in US, he started a company with a cash flow of 10$ per month with a pricing of INR 300 for onetime, or as he says, “until you get married”! Today the pricing is more than INR 1000 for 3 months of subscription. Monetarising the web traffic was a major concern for him and still happens to be one of the key hurdles for people getting with Internet based startups. In his words, “think big but speak small.”

Derecti.com – Bhavin Turakhia on At the helm of a fast growing business.

Bhavin is one the most talented young entrepreneurs India I’ve ever come across. He’s the CEO of directi.com in his late twenties with focus on crisp business strategies. He describes business as a game, which needs just two prime concerns:

1) Get the right players.

2) Get your team think and work effectively and in a way better than your competitions.

Talking about the 2nd point, Bhavin says you need to concentrate on getting your team play their roles and not you controlling them. Secondly, you need to diversify your approach into various segments or modules. Thirdly, you need to keep a scoreboard for your game – business, for that matter. This involves measuring everything and anything that’s related to your growth or failure in a game. This creates that motivation to achieve better heights. Bhavin says ” Celebrate your victories!” Just as you do not intend to delay your work schedules, do not postpone celebrations alike. An organization should align everyone’s interest. Success of an  organization is proportional to the success of its individuals.

Morpheus Partners – Sameer Guglani

Targeting users is an important step towards success. Building a product for investors is a lame thing. Instead, building  a product, getting a lot of users for the same and then looking onto investors leads to better business results. In his words,  Sameer says, “getting 10 users for your product should be your first concern.”

Next we have is Mahesh Murthy throwing a talk on general advertising strategies for startups.

He is one of the best marketer and advertiser who’s known to market anything from vacuum cleaners to insurance. He introduces himself an engineering drop-out who thereafter slipped into marketing. He has traveled across the world for this very reason. Mahesh has held a key position in revamping channel V in India. Thereafter, he has worked for a lot of clients before starting his startup named seedfunds.

He talked about how to market your product. He starts with – “If you do not have a product which you do not think is an innovative attempt, drop the idea of advertising it.”  He recommends building a product which is impressive enough. Think of Google, Yahoo, Amazon, etc. which do not advertise themselves. Rather they do not need to. They indirectly advertise themselves indirectly with the kind of services/product they offer for the users.

Price is another factor which would probably affect your product. He insists on building a premium product at a premium cost. You can only challenge your competition if you can dare to keep the price ahead of it, of course for a premium product. The volume of production may be less, but the cost shall definitely be high to help you stand out. Mahesh emphasizes of creating trend rather than following one. For him, business research forecasts is crap as no one knows what’s coming up tomorrow.

My cellphone is magically getting switched off! And the Wi-fi is still not up! I’m sorry Vijay, I can’t carry on more for today