Vineesh's Thoughts

8 lessons in funding your own dreams - Perhaps my presence at Proto despite the odds was not just coincidence! ;)

An insightful presentation into how Tekriti grew giving good glimpses of the inside story. Each lesson demonstrated on their own turf was quite enlightening to say the least!

Lesson #1 - It's not about the big idea, but grabbing the smallest opportunity and building on it.
It is not about thinking, planning or funding. It is all about doing.

Lesson #2 - Start small, think big. It is prudent to start small when you are boot-strapping but plan to grow big and work accordingly.

Lesson #3 - Inexpensive != Cheap. Identifying and nurturing raw talent lies at the very heart of building a boot-strapped company. Fresh talent may be lacking in knowledge, but the make up for it with their energy and passion.

Lesson #4 - Sex appeal is important. 'Cause it attracts talent, it attracts clients, it attracts attention and most importantly - makes you feel good.

Lesson #5 - A company without culture is like a body without a soul. Building a culture requires a lot of hardwork, but fortunately, very little money.

Lesson #6 - Don't take the startup thing too far. Start becoming a "real" company so that you can scale up. Rules and policies are eventually required to create a feeling of belongingness.

Lesson #7 - If you can't sell, you might as well go home! You are on a boot-strapped startup. If you don't sell like hell, where shall the money come from?
Golden rule - Sell before you produce and sell before you hire!

Lesson #8 - Funding product dreams with services money is hard, but POSSIBLE!
First and foremost, don't kill the Cash Cow. When the services business is the first born - don't treat it like a step child.

But the most important lesson was "SLOG!SLOG!SLOG! Nobody died of hardwork. But several entrepreneurs came close."

Ohh well those were all the words from Gaurav.

Mine - "Thanks for the whole day! I'll owe it to you guys for whatever I achieve."

Ohh boy! This was a don't-miss-for-anything session for those who are desperately looking to get funding.

Here was a VC who clarified so many doubts that run around in the minds of entrepreneurs and those in the making.

An important point he made - "Less than 2% of startups will raise money from an investor".

I was of the outlook that a VC will tear apart the founders :( (I am just starting out!! So just caught onto a few wrong notions. ;))

Some gyaan I gained:

• How do I select an investor?
• One I am comfortable working with. Someone I can trust.
• How do I find someone I'd be comfy working with?
• Look at the portfolio companies of the VC and talk to some of them.
  

• No VC is into a business for perpetuity, so an entrepreneur can't just sit with the money and do what he feels like. Only, if you aren't moving does the VC push you around. VCs put in money for 3-5-7 yrs and they need to make money out of an investment. When you and I put money in a Mutual fund, aren't we looking for returns? Ditto for the VC!

• The VC negotiations - Term sheet is basically a list of terms that you must agree to for VC to invest and most of these are non-negotiable and primarily investor rights.

• Founderitis - Founder's tend to believe that what is good for me is good for company. It is extremely important to realize that this is not always true. However, what is good for the company shall always be good for me. VCs have invested in the company and not in you, so decisions like stepping down from CEOship sometimes seem to be bigtime issues, however once you are into the journey with a VC on board, you need to realize his perspective. If he's making money (which you had accepted while bringing him in), he will make money for you too. If you didn't want the money, why the hell do you need a VC anyway? ;)

This session perhaps made me realize a lot more than I can put down in words. I wish every entrepreneur would have been at this session.

This talk was quite wrongly placed ( atleast for me). I love math, but after a lovely meal, even math sometimes becomes quite boring. :P

I am not too much into the thick of Virality, but the concept comes from the ability of an object to self-replicate or spread copies of itself.

The Viral Coefficient is the number of additional members, a new member brings in and a successful app is one with Viral Coefficient > 1.

Well, putting together the math on this one, I could simply say that Virality of your product is about having growth as a ***Geometric Progression***, where the multiplying factor is greater than 1 else you'd just reach a limiting value!

Howz that!! ;)

This was the post-lunch session and I was certainly a bit stuffed up with "Pre-lunch Gyaan" plus the food. ;)

However, the talk was quite pedantic in terms of putting across the importance of branding for startups.

What is a Brand? The singular idea/concept that one wants in the mind of the consumer.

Why does a brand matter? Its an unlimited choice market out there and your brand helps you come quickly into the consideration set of the consumer. Quite importantly, a brand helps you command a premium as well as motivates employees.

How do you build a brand? Build it around customers by addressing their need and not what the customer asks for and put in a meaningful differentiator for the audience.

There were some other points about branding, but all that comes to my mind at the moment is, build a brand that you'll love for the next 10, 20, 30 yrs to follow and be associated with. Now go figure. ;)

Another insanely fantastic talk (I'd still rank it 2 after Bhavin's)!

The most crucial point made here was "If your product is not insanely great, don't even bother about it." Advertising is not important if you can get the ultimate testimonial - A Satisfied Customer.

Mahesh made some really important points about pricing. Pricing is the first position weapon and serves to bring in customers as well as scare the competition. His suggestion - "Charge early and charge a lot".

Some more crucial tips for startups from the man himself -

"Be a trendsetter - you can't be successful in following a trend"

"The funds set aside for marketing are inversely proportional to the competence as a marketer"

Blog, attend conferences (for free if they are expensive, by becoming a speaker - how? Well, you are the trend-setter! Right. ;) ). Create a great product, put the word out and sell hard!

The short introduction about Bhavin by Vijay was mindblowing. Among the youngest Indians to own a Porsche! :-o

Directi (Www.directi.com), a $300 million company without any funding - WOW!

Straight to business with Bhavin - an absolute stunning session!

• Business is like a game -
• Gather the right players
• Enable them to make the right decisions most of the time ( more often than competition)
  

So how do you do this?

1. Teach the game - All players must know how to play the game. Employees must understand the dynamics of business so that there is no lack of transparency and better understanding of the game.
2. Share the macro-vision - All players are aware of the final objective. Unless everyone is knows what they are in for, how would they do their best? But the vision still requires near term targets, just as each season is broken up into multiple games, each independent from the other.
3. Keep Score (The one I hadn't ever thought of) - In a game, the score is always visible on a public scoreboard. Everyone can see where is the team headed and players know what they must do.
4. Line of Sight - Each player can link their actions to the outcome of a game. Provides employees clear information on how they are a part of the bigger picture and hence encourages them to work harder and put in their best.
5. Celebrate your victory - Victory party! An essential act of recognizing of victory and the hardwork that has been put in.
6. Align everyone's interests - To the victor(s) belong the spoils. It is essential for all employees to realize how direct is the correlation between success of the organization and individual.
   

Did I miss something? :(

Look out for the presentation here.

Too many take home lessons here, or rather a new line of thinking!

Mr. Karnik highlighted the extra-ordinary requirement of mentoring for startups. He suggested that despite the usual egos of startup founders, mentors are extremely helpful and slowly but steadily the mentorship scenario is improving.

The important take-home lesson for an entrepreneur here was that India is a country with adversity and diversity.
The diversity allows for a variety of ideas to take shape and times of adversity (read recession and slowdown) welcome new ideas and solutions.

An important suggestion by Mr. Karnik suggested that technology startups should not just look outside India for their markets.

One question that was raised was about getting into the market created by Government agencies, which is dictated by the rules of Brick and Mortar businesses. Mr. Karnik's suggestion to this was that it is necessary for entrepreneurs to come together and get the rules changed with the government, because it would be an extremely difficult process of change, however would unlock an extremely profitable market.

Hey Proto team! I am extremely sorry for being among the one of the unregistered attendees, who was quite vehemently refused entry, but somehow managed getting a pass of a person coming anyway! ;)

It was a FABULOUS day to sum up in one word and worth way more than anything I have been through so far in my short span of existence. To put this quite into perspective, I'd say the last four years at IIT couldn't come close to one day at Proto!

A Million Cheers for the Proto Team!