Start My Venture by Arushi Bajaj

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DELENG2017/70337

SHAPING

Vol. 1 | ISSUE 2 | APRIL 2017

IDEAS

I N TO

REALITY

A ‘people’s platform’

for youth

Vol.1| Issue 2 | April 2017

Contents NEWS 6

News from around the world

Mentor Talk

Avijit Arya is the ‘mogul’ behind a successful venture. He feels that being an entrepreneur is difficult and complicated, but with a mentor, the path becomes smooth.

Master Stroke 8

The successful journey of Rachit Jain, Founder and CEO, youth4work and how he floated his own venture where the right kind of talent met with the right kind of job profile.

Wealth Index A report on global wealth by Credit Suisse said that the uneven growth has left 96 per cent of the adult population in India at the base of the wealth pyramid.

Money Corridor 10 Securities and Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) has recently relaxed its rules for investment by angel funds in the start-up space, by allowing them to invest in up to five-year old entities.

Power Woman

Neha Bagaria, Co-Founder & CEO, JobsForHer, a Bengaluru-based connecting portal enables women on a professional break to restart their career.

FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER DEPUTY EDITOR VAISHALI DAR INDRANI GHOSH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF G. ANURAG RAO

SENIOR DESIGNER ASHOK KUMAR

SENIOR EDITOR PRIYANKA SAXENA RAY

DESIGN UMESH

4 Start my Venture | April 2017

MARKETING BHAWNA SHUKLA, AARTHI BHALLA ADMINISTRATION MAYANK KANDPAL

Brand Talk

Social media is no longer used for mere ‘networking’ but is a potent tool for positioning and expanding business.

DISCLAIMER: All information is derived from sources we consider reliable. It is passed on to our readers without any responsibility on our part. Opinions/views expressed by third parties in abstract or in interviews are not necessarily shared by us. Material appearing in the magazine cannot be reproduced in whole or in part(s) without express permission from publisher. The publisher reserves the right to refuse, withdraw or otherwise deal with all advertisements without explanation. All advertisements must comply with the Indian Advertisements Code. Start my Venture is Published, printed by Indrani Ghosh on behalf of Global Buzz Makers Pvt. Ltd. 19-B/A, Lower Ground Floor, Kalkaji, New Delhi – 110019. Printed at Perfect Impression Services: 43, DSIDC Complex, Kotla Mubarak Pur, New Delhi-110003

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1 | March 2017 Vol. 1 | ISSUE

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2 | APRIL 2017

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MANAGEMENT 22 EFFECTIVE As time management takes a more important place for a business owner, it is only right that we share what we have learnt.

ARENA 24 INVESTMENTS Find out what’s the best way to invest.

From The

EDITOR’S DESK

THE LIMELIGHT 26 INForecasted to be Asia’s largest exposition for the startup ecosystem and hosted by Cocoon Ventures, World Startup Expo brings together the most innovative and disruptive startups.

THE SCENES 28 BEHIND How to formalize the ‘Blue Collar’ sector with technology.

30 TECHNOLOGY The time of the Jetsons is finally here! Check out the first perfect homely social robot!

Dear Readers, “Entrepreneurship is living few years of your life like most people won’t so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t...” is a famous saying in the start up circle, and how true it is! They say that all great things in life start with just an ‘idea’ and currently we seem to be living in a world full of ‘great ideas’ – fast being turned into ‘reality’ by humble entrepreneurs. Saluting this spirit of entrepreneurship, we at Global Buzz Makers proudly present before you a one of its kind magazine called ‘Start my Venture’.

TODAY 32 INNOVATE A look at how the online grocery market evolved in

From buying vegetables online to getting information on the waiting time at the ATM ques – everything has become ‘app’ based, which is the baby of one or the other entrepreneur. As we witness this influx of young entrepreneurs, who come packed with a new zeal, ideas to live by and dare-to-dream attitude, we realised the need for a platform to recognise these young men and women and to make examples of them for future budding entrepreneurs.

India over the years.

34 We live in exciting times, where anything is possiLEGALLY YOURS

ble if you have a business idea for which the right market conditions exist. We list a few things to be kept in mind while trying to scale up your start up.

WORLD 36 GLOBAL Mergers and acquisitions are not new to us. If some have surprised the industry professionals, others have brought profitable impacts to the economy of the country.

38 E-SPACE Online food-delivery platforms are

At Start my Venture, we promise to bring to you an eclectic mix of stories that will not just awe you but also inspire you to go ahead and give shape to that idea brimming in your mind. We will bring forth to you few success stories, mentor’ talk, the legal perspective while starting a business, some do’s and don’ts of ‘management’, new trends in the industry and a brief update on the international scenario and how it will affect your business. We hope you like reading the very first issue of Start My Venture and we look forward to receiving your valuable feedback and criticism that will help us improve!

G. Anurag Rao

Priyanka Saxena Ray

Editor-In-Chief

Senior Editor

fast expanding, increasing choices and convenience, allowing customers to order from a wide array of restaurants.

April 2017

| Start my Venture 5

News

Government modifies rules for startup fund

o enable the greater flow of resources, the government has decided to tweak the Fund of Funds (FFS) of startups. It had set up the fund with an initial corpus of Rs 1,000 crore but the tough rules had made disbursals difficult. As a result, the cabinet has now decided to allow Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs) supported by FFS to invest at least twice the amount of contribution received from FFS in qualified startups. It was decided that Fund of Funds corpus and the money raised by the AIF would be invested entirely in startups. AIFs want a diversified portfolio to spread the risk and the current stipulation was proving to be a stumbling block. This has prompted the government to change the rules. The other issues raised by stakeholders were that the process of funding of startups by AIFs is long drawn. So, it is possible that before the release of the final tranche, the turnover of the startup crosses Rs 25 crore but it may still need funds for growth.

Government okays only 10 firms for tax benefits

he government has approved only 10 start-ups for availing tax benefits since the launch of Startup India programme in January 2016. The government has approved only 10 start-ups for availing tax benefits since the launch of Startup India programme in January 2016. Also, 267 start-ups have been facilitated by pro-

latest report released by Startup Genome, India’s tech capital Bangalore has slipped to 20th spot from 15th position in the Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking 2017. The report stated that Bangalore’s position was undermined due to the entry of cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Stockholm, which performed better on parameters such as exit ratios and quality of talent. The report further stated that Bangalore’s startups have struggled to nab foreign customers. In the talent index, it has challenges with access and quality—engineers haven’t been hired very quickly, experience is average and visa success is low. The Bangalore-startup ecosystem is valued around USD 19 billion. The primary reason startups move to India is because it is easier to find good technical employees, Bangalore has the cheapest annual salary for an engineer, about USD 8,600 a year, which is nearly 13 times cheaper than in Silicon Valley.

6 Start my Venture | April 2017

viding advisory on business plans, pitching support, mentoring support and 104 applicants have received the benefit of 80 per cent rebate in patent fees. Significant changes are made in the FDI policy regime, from time to time, to ensure that India remains increasingly attractive and investorfriendly investment destination.

Bangalore slips in global startup ecosystem rankings

Tough times ahead for IT professionals in Singapore

n less than a day since the United States put a bar on entry-level IT professionals, Singapore has started curbing visas for IT professionals, forcing the government to put on hold the review of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), citing a violation of the trade pact. Indian companies in Singapore have been told to hire new local employees, in effect directing them to stop the hiring spree from the neighbouring countries, reported the Times of India recently. The list includes companies such as HCL, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, and L&T Infotech.

Aspada Investment invests $2.7 million in Waycool Foods

Mukesh Bansal steps down from Swiggy board

ukesh Bansal, co-founder of health and fitness start-up CureFit Healthcare, has stepped down from the board of food delivery platform Swiggy (Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd), a role he assumed about six months ago. According to sources who are aware of the development, Bansal stepped down earlier this month over a “conflict of interest” as CureFit, a start-up he founded with former Flipkart Ltd executive Ankit Nagori in March last year, is also contemplating food delivery that overlaps with Swiggy’s core business. Bansal, who had earlier founded online fashion store Myntra Designs Pvt. Ltd before selling it to Flipkart Ltd, had joined Swiggy and online freight operator Rivigo as an independent director in October last year.

New maternity bill puts startups in a fix

he maternity bill, which allows leave for more than six months from the current three months, has thrown India's startup community into a tizzy. While some startups hailed the development as a progressive step, many said they cannot afford the cost of hiring somebody, who may be absent from work for such a long period. The new bill puts India in the same bracket as Ireland and Poland. Both countries allow 26 weeks of maternity leave. Considering the global average, paid-leave policy is over 20 weeks. The move to 26 weeks of maternity leave is a strong statement of support of working mothers and reduces the possibility of them quitting careers. However some mandates such as making it a compulsion only in firms which have over 50 employees and the employee being at the firm for over 12 months is needed to protect early stage companies and small businesses.

spada Investment Company has invested $2.7 million in Chennai-based fresh produce value chain Waycool Foods and Products Private Limited. The startup will utilise the money to extend reach to other major cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad, build a technology platform to reduce inefficiencies in the supply chain, and augment the company’s existing infrastructure. Waycool is a fresh produce distribution company that sources fruits and vegetables from small-hold farmers and aggregators, and sells through multiple distribution channels spanning small local shops, modern retail outlets, and HORECA (hotels, restaurants, and catering establishments). Waycool currently operates predominantly in Tamil Nadu via a distribution hub in Chennai. The company claims to have employed a hybrid model of working with produce-specific value chain companies as well as directly sourcing from small-hold farmers.

Reliance Jio creates historic shift from free to paid services

eliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. announced on March 31, 2017, that in just one month, over 72 million customers have signed up for Jio Prime. According to a company press release, this is the largest migration that has ever taken place from free to paid services in history in such a short period of time. The release said, “Considering the unprecedented demand for enrolling to Jio Prime and doing the first recharge, Jio has extended the deadline for purchasing Jio’s Rs 303 (and other) plans till April 15. This extension will provide the necessary breathing room for users to avoid service disruption during the transition from free to paid services.” April 2017

| Start my Venture 7

Master Stroke

A ‘people’s platform’

for youth

Inquisitive in nature, Rachit Jain, Founder and CEO, youth4work, in his early years of employment, felt that young professionals were allocated responsibilities and portfolios that didn’t match their innate strengths. In fact, he observed that almost 80 per cent of the youth were dissatisfied because they were placed in unsuitable departments. Thus he floated his own venture where the right kind of talent met with the right kind of job profile. Read on to know details about his successful journey‒ Priyanka Saxena Ray How and when did the idea of 'youth4work' took birth? How convinced were you with its success while you were floating it? I kick-started my career in the elite positions in Mahindra Group and was one of the top most and fastest growing performers. But, I found that companies are hiring and fitting people in the job roles randomly – the basis of hiring, career paths that a youngster experiences is pretty

8 Start my Venture | April 2017

broken in India. I really believe that if people are found and made to do work that match their talent, they can perform and do wonders and actually live a better life. There is a serious missing link and zero technology being used in the way talents are identified and hired. I soon resolved to venture for a start-up that could address the countless problems of youngsters as regard their career and education. Thus, I entered into the virgin market and christened it “youth4work”. I have always been convinced about its suc-

cess as I strongly believe that the world does not use enough technology to help people make the second most important decision of their life i.e., their careers (first being marriage, I guess)!! I think everyone is unique; every individual has his/her own skills and talents, which cannot be shown on a resume or by a common degree. If people can identify their own skills vis-à-vis the others, improve them and showcase them, there are tons of opportunities out there. Trust me, it is extremely hard to find and hire people as an employer. Thus if people are working in

areas where they are passionate and skilled, they cannot just make their career grow but also attain true job satisfaction. Were you expecting the response you received or was it a surprise to you too? What are the unique features of the platform and the services offered? The surprising factor was the pace at which we grew and that too all naturally and via word-of mouth. We now impact 1.2 million youngsters across India and about 100k outside India as well. Our services offered can broadly be categorised under online education (youth4work offers online certification courses); Prep tests (we offer competitive exam test for both academic and job purpose) and talent acquisition (we help employers find the right talent). Since conception, have you evolved and added some new features to 'youth4work'? Can you please share details of the same with us? Youth4work is a youth centric platform where assessment is a tool that helps identify the talent

that each individual pursues and how good or bad they are amongst the others who have a similar talent. There are basically three aspects of our product – prepare/assess yourself, improve

We are a youth portal that allows people to self assess and form Communities of likeskilled people. If you understand yourself, learn and improve yourself. yourself and showcase yourself. Under prepare / assess aspect, we actually help the youth to prepare for exams and assess

their own skills. The ‘improve’ aspect is based on their skills, rank and pursuit based on which we suggest the right online course to people. Under the ‘showcase’ aspect, the tested and ranked profiles are showcased and can be searched easily online on our platform. Apart from skill tests, which are free for all, we monetise on freemium models on prep and online courses and connect youth to companies. What value does the platform adds to job seekers, freshers and trainees? We are a youth portal, which allows people to self assess and form communities of like-skilled people. If you understand yourself, learn and improve yourself. Career opportunities will be a by product. All that a youth from anywhere in India has to do to start is give a free online test at www.Youth4work.com. How does it help youth from the manual skills background or people with low literacy levels in seeking jobs? Do you only offer online assessment or offer services like English tutorials?

YOUTH4WORK AND IFFCO LAUNCH IFFCO YUVA

FFCO, India’s largest cooperative organisation has set out its Vision to empower rural youth by not only polishing their employability skills but also assisting them in employment using technology. To make this vision actionable, IFFCO recently partnered with Youth4work, India’s leading online talent platform for youth, to create ‘IFFCO YUVA’ – a platform for Rural Youth under its Indian Cooperative Digital Platform. At a stellar gathering of nearly 1500 people in Bareilly, Santosh Gangwar (Minister of State for Finance in Govt. of India) officially launched ‘IFFCO YUVA’. Through this platform, youth can self-assess and improve their skills for better career opportunities. This platform be a single window to empower rural youth to understand various skills related sectors and prepare for related career opportunities offered by companies. On this launch of IFFCO YUVA, Dr. U S Awasthi, MD and CEO of IFFCO said, “It is an innovative platform launched by IFFCO and Youth4work to help crore of youth in Rural India to get better understanding of industry required skills and knowledge as well as promote themselves on digital platform. In line with our Prime Minister Modi’s vision of Digital India and Skill India, IFFCO YUVA will help rural youth to boost their employability.” Rachit Jain, a young entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Youth4work said, “We know tal-

ent is everywhere across India, but there’s no single window to showcase it. Through IFFCO YUVA, we are partnering with IFFCO for the mission to use technology, Web and Mobile both, to impact the rural youth positively by giving them a platform to prove their competencies and improve them to level up with global standards. All local and global companies can explore this large rural talent pool and extend their career opportunities.” For youth, it is a simple process to start exploring new career avenues. First they register on the portal www.iffcoyuva.in then they take online tests of their area of interest or skills which will help over 15000 companies shortlist them for different job roles. Youth can do this through IFFCO YUVA’s dedicated mobile app as well in

case they do not have access to computers. Users can also learn new skills through easy and low cost but effective online courses. Youth will also get access to one free course in English Language for life time to learn and improve their employability. Nearly 70 per cent of India’s population is rural and most of it is involved in agriculture and allied services and other limited vocational skills services. The rural workforce has been migrating to urban areas due to limited access to information and technology that impact their skill enhancement and career opportunities. IFFCO YUVA aims to impact nearly 10 Million youth in next three years across Rural India and build competitive skill equity.

April 2017

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Master Stroke How conducive, in your opinion, is the economic and political scenario in our country for a start-up venture? Are start-ups taken seriously and given the due importance? The everyday feedback we get from users is phenomenal. We, as a team, love the positive impact that we are able to make in people’s lives. This itself witnesses the brilliant scope of start-ups in India. I think with the whole Digital India campaign, millions will come online. I think if youth4work can help some of them identify, improve their skills and aid in finding the right opportunities, then the impact will be bigger than anyone could ever imagine.

Personalisation for each and every user, enabling people to connect and be compared with like-talented, like-profiled people is some of our calling cards. We use advanced machine learning and big data algorithms for enabling the site to function easily for youth from all back-

We enable companies to find and contact Skill certified people We are slowly and steadily becoming the defacto platform for Skill India to aid ducation and find skilled people jobs across India grounds and skill levels. Using a phone, people can test and compare themselves with their peers. We do not have a single employability test for all — we have 50 different talent tests. For example, a person with data entry skills will give a test for data entry and be compared with people having that same skill. Yes, we offer online certification programmes for improving written and verbal English communication skills. Not only this, we also provide assessments to track the progress of the candidates in the respective programme. Does Youth4work has any role to play in the dream project (skill development) of our PM? Please elaborate. We are actually doing a lot for Prime minister Modi’s vision of Skilled India l We are innovation award winners on NSDC l We are working closely with Skill India Mission and have already signed MOUs with multiple SSCs – RASCI, TSSC etc.

10 Start my Venture | April 2017

l We are enabling

a. Youth across India who are preparing for Govt. Skill certificates to prepare for the final certification and exams b. We enable companies to find and contact Skill certified people We are slowly and steadily becoming the defacto platform for Skill India to aid education and find skilled people jobs across India It’s the era of start-ups and you have managed to make a mark for yourself. Any advice you have for the youngsters out there who too are keen on starting a venture? A word of caution would entail not to get driven by the fancy word “entrepreneur” and the flamboyant appeal of becoming the CEO of a start-up. It’s not a cakewalk to have money minting business but a long journey of trials and tribulations involving the goal of carving a niche for yourself along with making difference to the society at large. Last but not the least, believe in yourself, for if you don’t others would have an even difficult time doing it for you.

Is there any more information that you would like to share with us? We do not want to be positioned as a job site as we feel that the opportunity and the need is bigger. The need is to build people intelligence, which personalises information and guides people to connect and collaborate. That is important as about 300 million people will enter India’s workforce in the next few years. We would like to be the de facto platform where every youngster in India who is connected to the Internet comes to improve themselves and become part of a talent community.nnn

Wealth Index

Indian household wealth

falls to $3 trillion in 2016 The total quantum of wealth is rising in India but so is the disparity between those who have wealth and those deprived of it. A report on global wealth by Credit Suisse said that the uneven growth has left 96 per cent of the adult population in India at the base of the wealth pyramid.

ndia’s household wealth declined by 0.8% ($26 billion) to $3.099 trillion in 2016 compared with last year, according to Global Wealth Report compiled by Credit Suisse Research Institute. The report noted that while wealth has been rising in India, not everyone has shared in this growth. Over 96% of the adult population has wealth below $10,000. At the other extreme, a small fraction of the population (0.3% of adults) has a net worth over $1,00,000, the report stated. The country has 2,48,000 adults in the top 1% of global wealth holders, a 0.5% share. While 2,260 adults have wealth over $50 million, 1,040 have more than $100 million. The wealth of an average Indian adult fell from $4,350 in mid-2015 to $3,840 in mid2016. The wealth of a Chinese adult is nearly six times more than an Indian adult. While developing economies are likely to outpace the developed world in terms of wealth growth, they will still only account for just under a third of growth over the next five years, according to the report.

WEALTH DISPARITY

WEALTH PATTERN IN INDIA

Close to 60% of India’s wealth is owned by around 1% of the total adult population

Number of adults (in million) Wealth range (in $) Indian adults in proportion to total adults in the wealth range %

WEALTH SHARE OF INDIAN (%) 80.7 73.4

Top 5% of adults

58.4

Top 1% of adults

NET WEALTH PER ADULT IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES (in $ thousand) 561.9 344.7

Switzerland

USA

288.8

244.4

22.9

France

China

3.9

21.9

28 3.1 100,000 – 1 million 2 0.6 Over 1 million 0.18 0.5 10,0000 – 100,000

808808

All levels

19.3

Other 90% of adults

778 778

UNDER 10,000

Top 10% of adults

16.7

HIGH-NET-WORTH INDIVIDUAL IN INDIA 1-5 million

148,843

5-10 million

15,983

10-50 million

11,325

50-100 million

1,218

100-500 million

870

500-1 billion

93 80

Over 1 billion

India Source: The Global Wealth Report 2016- Credit Suisse

Mentor’s Talk

‘Have a vision with

ample perseverance’

A mentor is a blessing to entrepreneurs and passionate youngsters. Being an entrepreneur is diﬃcult and complicated, but with a mentor, the path becomes smooth. There are some who are fortunate enough to get a mentor in person, but those who haven’t found their gurus yet, here are some guidelines that can be used as ‘learnings’ from those who have already achieved their goals. Avijit Arya Take risks This is the foremost trait of an entrepreneur. The Risks are simply unavoidable, but an entrepreneur knows how to tame it. Go with your instinct and believe in yourself. Not everything will be easy, and you’ll most likely encounter some obstacles on the way. So accept it, take risks. As it is widely accepted as one of the most powerful traits in business.

Put in time and dedication Each job demands dedication and time. Don’t be afraid to invest time in your company. Remember when you start, you do it with ‘nothing’. The most important investment that you make is ‘Time’. Thus, be careful. Hardwork without dedica-

tion is a waste of time and effort. No one likes people who leave their job incomplete or don’t care about what they’re doing. Remember, if you end up like this, it will cause major issues with your business and reputation.

Be patient Starting a venture and making it a success isn't an overnight affair. No one succeeds immediately, good things take time, so be patient.

Never rush As popular gurus says ‘Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars and to change the world.’

Funds ka funda Spend wisely. When you spend money on business, be carefulwhile spending. Understand the importance of available funds and optimum utilisation of the same will take you

Companies need to constantly be innovating and experimenting in order to stay at the front position of their respective industry. Remember, it’s a furiously competitive market and you cannot survive if you are not receptive to change. 12 Start my Venture | April 2017

furiously competitive market and you cannot survive if you are not receptive to change.

Vision and realism It is always important to have a vision, but do keep a reality check all the time. Don't be over obsessed with your idea. Being a successful entrepreneur takes a lot of work, a lot of vision and a lot of perseverance. An entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a desire to create it. Keep your vision clear at all times. Set goals and remind yourself of them each day.

people and entrepreneurs. Improve your networking game, by communication and strong presence in the entrepreneurial ecosystem as this will help you to build strong relationships with other entrepreneurs from different fields,

Learn and integrate Learn from mistakes and complaints. Don’t get disheartened with ‘hard words’. Remember, a feedback will help you in becoming ‘better’. When one starts learning from their mistakes, they get closer to success. Learning is something that impacts nearly every facet of life, so why not in your business?

Understand your customers

Born in 2009, known as “the” digital agency for the hospitality industry, Internet Moguls is a complete hybrid tech and service agency for hotels, restaurants, travel companies, airlines and tourism boards offering social media, mobile marketing, revenue management, reservations branding and performance guarantees for over 500 hospitality companies in 11 countries. Avijit Arya is the ‘mogul’ behind this successful venture.

Your customers are what makes your business what it is. You need to be connected to your customers because you’ll need to talk to them, promote your product to them, and various other tasks that depend on your understanding. The better you understand their needs, the better you can cater to them. Customers will always demand more and in order to grow your only way is to surpass their expectations each and everytime.

Grow your network Networking and interactions are important. Interact with as many people as you can. Exchange thoughts and ideas that will help you grow better, and sooner. Networking is one of the most essential skills for business

Never give up Overcoming fear isn’t easy, but it must be done.Your fears can be your downfall. People often get scared when their plans are not executed as they imagined, but its ok, face it, work on it, be hopeful, simply fight your fears.

Love what you do Last but not the least, one should love what they do, they shouldn’t do something they don’t love or feel uncomfortable. Never confine yourself to do something you hate. If one is dedicated and truly want to see him/her self as an entrepreneur, they should love the work and business because then only they can achieve success.nnn

long. Young entrpreneurs easily spend too much on things that are irrelevant and thus run out of capital too soon. Be smart and spend only where you have to. One should save money and control their finances, as it can make or break their business.

Team vs. Employee No one succeeds in business alone. Build a great team to bolster your success. Look for the right heads. Don't be desperate while hiring, don’t hire anyone with whom your wavelength doesn’t match, rather hire character and values. As, you can always train someone on skills, but can’t work on their values and attitude.

Pivoting This is an integral part of operations. Keep inventing things and ways around. Companies need to constantly be innovating and experimenting in order to stay at the front position of their respective industry. Remember, it’s a April 2017

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Brand Talk

Online Anyone?

Well, whoever is not, is not just missing out on the latest gossip on trends and news, but is also losing out on a major chunk of potential clients ‒ yes social media is no longer used for mere ‘networking’ but is a potent tool for positioning and expanding business. Here’s how‒ Priyanka Saxena Ray

id you know that 70 per cent of business-to-consumer marketers have acquired customers through Facebook? Or that 84 per cent of CEOs and VPs say they use social media to help make purchasing decisions? There was a time when social media was considered to be an ‘iffy area’ to venture into. Many companies asked themselves whether it was even worth the time and resources or was it really a viable option. Well that ship has sailed and it has become increasingly important to really push your way through the online social media space. With nearly 400 million active users, Facebook is now the size of Germany and adding over half million new

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Regardless of the industry in which you are operating, social media should be an important part of your advertising and public relations strategy.

users per day! Twitter is also growing fast. The phenomenal growth of these online giants is nothing but a reflection of our compelling desire to connect with each other around common interests, not to forget that it presents a whole new paradigm for communicating and selling online. Social media is an amazing way to grow a brand online in leaps and bounds – it simply takes creativity, passion and consistency to keep things moving in the right direction. If you have not yet entered the social media space take the time to start thinking about a plan to enter the space and start building your online community. Regardless of the industry in which you are operating, social media should be an important part of your advertising and public relations strategy. Every business should have some kind of social

media marketing platform in place, and it should be engaged at least once a week, or better yet, on a daily basis. Interacting on social media several times a week can significantly increase brand awareness. There are a variety of reasons why you should do it now rather than later and here are a few to think about:

Direct relevant traffic to your website You may have a great business website and would be updating it on a regular basis but how do you invite fresh set of people to come and visit it? It’s like you have taken a great selfie but how do you get the likes and comments if you will not upload it on a social website? You want the world to see it and bask in its brilliance, but you don’t want to beg for attention (or worse, pay for it). That’s why for selfies and landing pages, well-placed social media posts can make all the difference. Create a page on social media and link it to your website to direct relevant traffic to it.

Get noticed You or your company might be doing great work but if you are not creating the right buzz

The top 20 valuable Facebook statistics • Worldwide, there are over 1.79 billion monthly active Facebook users (Facebook MAUs) which is a 16 per cent increase year over year. • 4.5 billion likes generated daily as of May 2013 which is a 67 per cent increase from August 2012 • 1.18 billion people log onto Facebook daily active users, which represents a 17 per cent increase year over year • There are 1.66 billion mobile active users – an increase of 20 per cent year-over-year. • On average, the ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ buttons are viewed across almost 10 million websites daily. • In Europe, over 307 million people are on Facebook. • Age 25 to 34, at 29.7 per cent of users, is the most common age demographic. • Five new profiles are created every second. • Facebook users are 76 per cent female

• Highest traffic occurs mid-week between 1 to 3 pm. On another note, a Facebook post at 7 pm will result in more clicks on average than posting at 8 pm (Source: Forbes) • On Thursdays and Fridays, engagement is 18 per cent higher • There are 83 million fake profiles • Photo uploads total 300 million per day • Average time spent per Facebook visit is 20 minutes • Every 60 seconds on Facebook: 510 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded • 50 per cent of 18-24 year-olds go on Facebook when they wake up • 42 per cent of marketers report that Facebook is critical or important to their business • At 1.79 billion, Facebook has more monthly active users than WhatsApp (500 million), Twitter (284 million) and Instagram (200 million)

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Brand Talk your space, as well as journalists who cover your industry. Like they say, these days, all it takes is a tweet to start a friendship!

about it, it is of no use. Constant posts on social media can help you get noticed at events / functions and even generate some well-earned media coverage. Whether your business is sponsoring a charity fundraiser or attending a major trade show, there’s no better way to leverage your presence than with the help of social media.

Response to problems can be immediate

People read what you have got to say

You can respond to problems immediately. If there’s a problem with your product or service, you want to know about it right away. With the feedback you get in the process of social media

Since social media is considered to be a ‘casual’ space, people who are logged in, usually go through the posts and updates and take what you have written seriously – they are more receptive to your messages. Chances of you grabbing more eye balls on a social forum are higher as compared to other means of communication. Also, you are able to reach out to a larger audience with the help of social media. If you’re doing it right, social media can lead to real relationship building.

Know your clients better People who may at times appear ‘unapproachable’ to you in your business space have a totally different facet to reveal on the social media forum. You can read their tweets and status updates to get insights into their daily lives (and maybe adjust your marketing strategy as a result). What products are they buying and why? What are they doing on the weekend? What kind of posts do they love to share, and from what websites? You can also use social media as a tool for connecting with complementary, non-competing businesses, thought leaders and tastemakers in

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Chances of you grabbing more eye balls on a social forum are higher as compared to other means of communication. Also, you are able to reach out to a larger audience with the help of social media.

marketing, you’ll be the first to know when there are issues – and you can take steps to resolve them right away. Study after study has shown that consumers appreciate companies that respond to customer complaints on an immediate basis.

Stay at par if not ahead, of your competition It’s a smart business strategy to know what your competition is up to and try and stay ahead of it. So if your competition is active online – it’s time for you to pull up your ‘social’ socks too! Check sites, such as, Facebook and Twitter to see how many followers your competitors have for their businesses. If you find that other businesses in your industry are actively engaging in social media marketing, you most likely need to get active as well. You do not want your competitors to leave you in the dust, especially when social medial is free, right? A simple Facebook or Twitter page can attract hundreds and even thousands of additional people to your website without you having to spend a dime. It is almost always wise to stay abreast of the latest marketing and advertising techniques in your industry. Many people enjoy communicating via social media or just surfing the web and learning about trends and new ideas. A savvy business owner will find a way to communicate with the large volume of people using Facebook, Twitter and other social sites. Social media marketing is no longer the wave of the future. It is here now.nnn

Power Woman

Many women have displayed exemplary dedication in their respective fields to become torchbearers of woman power with their amazing achievements. Their success have made every family in the nation look at their daughters in a whole new light of radiance and more importantly, hope. Here we talk to Neha Bagaria, Co-Founder & CEO, JobsForHer, a Bengaluru-based connecting portal that enables women on a professional break to restart their career.

Turning Promise

into Practice SMU Desk

hen we talk about gender diversity issue that has been on the business agenda for many years now, we realise that about one third of businesses still have no women at a senior man-

agement level. Indian women have always stood up for their rights and fought their battles despite restrictions and limitations. They are the shining beacons of hope. The story of this venture dates back to March 8, 2015, when JobsForHer, a Bengaluru-based start-up which now facilitates various job opportunities to women who are on sabbatical, and help them reconnect with their

A self-funded startup, it caters to women on a career break looking to restart their careers and provide second career job opportunities. there are careerrelated services like confidence building workshops, resumewriting, etc.

careers, was conceptualised. Post her graduation from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Neha Bagaria worked with Kemwell Biopharma, where she handled the HR, Finance, and Marketing aspects of the pharmaceuticals manufacturing business. However, despite experiencing positive growth and development with Kemwell, she felt that her passion for social entrepreneurship remained stronger than ever. Bagaria took a 3.6-year break in her own career when she had her children. During this personal journey, she became aware of the various difficulties a woman faces in order to reenter the workforce. As a re-starter herself, the ambitious entrepreneur was compelled to create a platform that enables women on a sabbatical

USP We offer a connecting portal that enables women to restart their careers after taking a break for reasons such as marriage/ motherhood/ elderly-care, etc. We do so by connecting them with job opportunities ranging from full-time, part-time, work-from-home, freelance, projects and also work with companies to offer returnee internships for women getting back to work.

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Power Woman TALKING POINTS l Maintaining and promoting diversity

at workplace l Providing a platform to women who

wish to restart their career l Providing a talent pool of experi-

enced women to employers l Sabbatical is no more a hurdle for

women looking to restart their professional life l Gender Diversity

to re-launch their careers and that’s when she founded JobsForHer (JFH).

About The Project As a vision to reverse female brain drain within the Indian workforce by facilitating various job opportunities to women who were on sabbatical, and help them reconnect with their careers, JFH was formed. It offers employment opportunities in various job profiles, ranging from full-time, part-time, work-from-home, or freelance projects; and also works with companies to offer returnee internships to women who wish to upgrade their skills prior to relaunching their career. Its mission is to enable professional women to restart their careers, and achieve their full potential. The dynamic venture works on a freemium model, through which companies are welcome to post job openings for free on its platform and women can apply for free. It also offers various professional solutions to companies to help them promote their job profiles, and partner with JobsForHer to run recruitment drives, re-skilling programmes, and returnee internship programmes. A self-funded start-up, it caters particularly to women on a career break looking to restart their careers and provide second career job opportunities for women on a career break. Apart from these there are career-related services – confidence building workshops, resume-writing assistance, job-readiness workshops, etc – for women on a career-break. “As a platform for companies to hire a relevant female talent pool and support companies in fulfilling their diversity requirements, we identify and curate opportunities for our clients to help maximise gender diversity at their workplace. About 1.5 million profession-

The dynamic venture works on a freemium model, through which, companies are welcome to post job openings for free on its platform and women can apply for them for free. It also offers various professional solutions to companies to help them promote their job profiles and partner with JobsForHer to run recruitment drives, re-skilling programmes, and returnee internship programmes. 18 Start my Venture | April 2017

ally qualified women in India go on a break each year and we intend to facilitate each one of them restart their career through JobsForHer,” says Bagaria.

Sustainability and Expansion It is the only online portal in India to offer job opportunities and career-related services exclusively for women on a career-break. With a number of pioneering diversity outreach programmes and some of the biggest companies in India, to help women on a career break rejoin the workforce we plan to sustain in this world of competition. Our expansion plans include reaching out to the multitude of companies who are looking at hiring experienced talent, and to women who are looking at restarting their careers, so that they can benefit from our platform. We also plan to continue expanding the breadth and depth of our reskilling services as well as leveraging on our female community.

OPPORTUNITIES GALORE JobsForHer currently operates in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. It has 100,000 users visiting the website on a monthly basis and have 1600+ companies hiring women through our portal. JobsForHer is committed to doing everything necessary to enable a woman to restart her career. From finding suitable job opportunities, to re-skilling to

Managing a start-up It is like being on a rollercoaster – extremely pleasurable, thrilling, challenging and exciting; full of twists and turns, ups and downs; never a dull moment; and once you get on the rollercoaster, there’s no turning back until you reach your destination. But with the team behind JobsForHer consists (mainly) of women re-starters who work in multiple part-time, full-time, work-

leveraging community, we employ multiple marketing channels, including digital marketing, social media marketing, alliance marketing, and a robust ambassador network across Indian cities which work as a strong support network for women re-starters. We truly believe that there’s no more powerful marketing channel than the word-of-mouth.

from-home, and job-sharing roles to get the work done, every day. We have managed to do what we do without working weekends (a 5-day work week), taking no lunch/chai breaks, and managing our work and our homes and families at the same time. We are proof that the workforce of the future is flexible, goal-oriented, and based on deliverables versus in-office face-time.nnn April 2017

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Investments Arena

Scale up

your mind

The start-up journey can be as exciting as it is fraught with risk. But paying attention to all important details can prevent sleepless nights. Business owners miss out on such mentorship when they ignore traditional investors and turn to the crowd. Here we see how the three kinds of ‘fundings’ can make a diﬀerence. Team SMV ANGEL FUNDING Small businesses looking for financial help from an “angel” often turn to individuals willing to invest in promising, start-up opportunities. Angel investors can be a good funding source, but they usually don’t write blank checks. They’ll want to see progress and a way to exit the deal down the line with meaningful profits. So expect angel investors to do a lot of research and careful investigation into your business plan. Be thoughtful in approaching potential investors. Industry associations, local trade groups or, in some states, business-incubator centres can help point to potential angels. Angel investors often invest through

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groups or networks. These provide due diligence, extra research, access to potential deals and shared expertise that one person operating alone generally doesn’t have. For instance, one member of an angel group might have background in a particular industry or the knowhow to set up deal terms, sharing that knowledge with the other investors. Angel investors are usually thorough, so don’t expect to get your money quickly. It could take several months to meet with different individuals or groups and answer all of their questions. As they’ll own a part of your company, they’ll likely want a say in major decisions, and they’ll watch to see whether you listen to them. Many angel investors are former business owners who want to help people like themselves. They may be able to provide good advice based

on their previous experiences. Getting funding from angel investors isn’t easy, but it can be done if you take the right approach and are a good match with their interests.

CROWD FUNDING It deals with persuading individuals to each give you a small donation. Once you get thousands of donors, you have some serious cash on hand. This has all become possible in recent years thanks to a proliferation of websites that allow nonprofits, artists, musicians — and yes, businesses — to raise money. This is the social media version of fundraising. There are more than 600 crowd funding platforms around the world, with fundraising reaching billions of dollars annually. The most common type of crowd funding

The team behind JobsForHer consists (mainly) of women re-starters who work in multiple part-time, full-time, work-from-home, and job-sharing roles to get the work done, every day. We have managed to do what we do without working on weekends (a 5-day work week), taking no lunch/chai breaks, and managing our work and our homes and families at the same time. We are proof that the workforce of the future is flexible, goal-oriented, and based on deliverables versus in-office face-time. fundraising is done by using sites like kickstarter and Indiegogo, where donations are sought in return for special rewards. That could mean free product or even a chance to be involved in designing the product or service. It is also possible to use crowd funding to assemble loans and royalty financing. Some sites like LendingClub, for example, allows members to directly invest in and borrow from each other, with the claim that eliminating the banking middleman means “both sides can win” in the transactions. The best way is to sell company shares or ownership stakes in the company on crowd funding sites, because it could be like a miniIPO without the traditional hurdles. In the past, this has only been legal with accredited investors, people who have more than $1 million in net worth or more than $200,000 in annual income. Crowd funding provides another strategy for start-ups or early stage companies ready to take it to the next level such as rolling out a product or service. It is also possible to pitch a business plan to the masses. A successful crowd funding round not only provides your business with needed cash, but creates a base of

customers who feel as though they have a stake in the business’ success. For crowd funding, have at least a small network of enthusiastic friends and family willing to help get the ball rolling by giving and urging others to give. If you’re giving out perks in return for money, make sure the perks are cool. Present a serious business plan and an explanation of why the money will take your enterprise to the next level. Demonstrate that you have your own skin in the game because of the personal funds you have already poured into the business. Include a video pitch and keep it short and concise, with a call to action. Be prepared to essentially live online, staying active on social media sites, until the crowd funding campaign is complete.

VENTURE CAPITAL It is important to understand how to get venture capital funding, or whether to go for it at all. What does it take for an entrepreneur to get funded, and what are the circumstances in which he may be better off growing his start-up organically? Take a look at what an entrepreneur needs to ask himself before going off in a quest

for venture capital funding. Every entrepreneur believes his start-up is a winner, and that his business idea is brilliant. But that’s hardly enough. Other people have to see evidence of it to back the idea – especially VCs. Your pedigree, academic credentials, and even the idea might get you a meeting with potential investors, but not further. Bootstrapping with your own savings, or raising money from family and friends, would be a better option. VCs need big winners. You can run a small, profitable business comfortably, but that doesn’t interest a VC. Go to a VC only if you have ambitions to scale up your business with big infusions of capital. You should also be prepared to get onto a fast growth track, because your venture capital investors will want to sell their stake and reinvest in new start-ups. Some businesses are too ‘niche’ to be fundable. A US$20 million market size may be good enough to run a business, but remember that institutional investors are looking for a rapid scaling up – and for that, a market size in hundreds of millions of dollars is more like it, because if a start-up manages to capture even a small share of that market, it will be large enough to give a venture capital fund the quantum of returns it needs for its investors. Some people start up because they want to be their own boss. Others do it because they like the status of being an entrepreneur. A third kind of start-up founder is driven by a passion to disrupt the status quo. Probably in most start-up founders you will find shades of all three, but it’s the third characteristic that appeals the most to a VC. They are the ones who will not be satisfied with making a good living from their business; they want to change the world. Some introspection at the very outset can point to the road ahead that is most suitable for you. A VC-funded start-up will go through several rounds of funding, and the founders will have to part with large chunks of stock in the process. Venture capital funds invest large sums of money, and in order to generate returns on those, they need to own significant percentages of their winning start-ups. For a founder, this means getting used to the idea that he can’t call all the shots in the quest to make the company grow large. Of course, that doesn’t mean the founder will not become rich – even a small stake in a high-growth start-up can be worth millions.nnn April 2017

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It’s time to

manage time

As an entrepreneur, time is everything. It can make you productive and help you move towards success or it can take away everything from you. In today’s day and age, distractions are by the number and every task on hand is a pressing matter. As time management takes a more important place for a business owner, it is only right that we share what we have learnt. G. Anurag Rao Early to rise – It makes you a very successful entrepreneur It’s amazing how much more you can do with your day if you start early. Almost every exemplary entrepreneur has inculcated this into an everyday habit. As a growing entrepreneur, nothing is as important as your time and putting it to its best efficiency takes top priority. Waking up early gives you a lot more room to space things out. It helps you to focus on matters of immediate attention while also giving you more time to think and react to them. Moreover, it can also help you to focus on things of personal importance such as fitness. With this practice, not only will you be able to manage your personal space better, you will be able to think and execute tasks at hand better. It’s the first ingredient towards becoming a successful entrepreneur.

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Keep the time killer at bay – Social Media

ductivity better.

Now as important as being connected is, let’s face it; social media is an absolute time killer. If let loose, it can take up quality time and keeps you from being less productive. This is all the more true if the first thing you do once you wake up is to jump at checking your Facebook news feeds, emails or anything else for that matter. Just like everything else, segment your social media indulgences and limit them to a particular time-slot. This is only going to help you be all the more productive and get more from the day ahead of you.

Keep the communications in check – E-mails We all know how important communication is but even they need to have a time-frame allotted to them. While you can’t be sitting on a pressing e-mail all day, you also can’t simply keep shooting e-mails all day. If it’s not an emergency, try and compose your e-mails in such a way that the recipient would see them the first thing when he or she opens their inbox.

Keep a track – Schedule your day

Check the wardrobe – Pre decide what to wear

Often, precious time is wasted by not being able to decide what task should be executed when. The first thing you should do is to plan your day and prioritise what matters at hand you would want to take on first and then plan the day out. This would help you manage your time and pro-

The amount of time taken to decide what to wear is ludicrous at times. Not everyone can afford to lose that kind of precious time. If you are one of those, decide what to wear the night before. After all, not everyone can pull off a Steve Jobs or a Mark Zuckerberg and still look cool.

Make a point – Note things down It’s not just thoughts, but also appointments and to-do lists. Make note of them all since most probably you aren’t going to remember it later. Often, most thoughts get lost at a later time if you don’t jot them down. While appointments and todo lists can be maintained, make sure to check them off or else they will just turn into a long list of ‘tasks to be done’.

Keep Away – The time eaters With an already busy schedule and time constraints, the last thing you would want to do is entertain time wasters – whether an employee or a client. These people are high maintenance

that make your time slip out of your hands. Analyse if they are important or productive enough for your business and take measures accordingly.

Keep things on the move – Delegate Every now and then even Superman would need help. We after all are only human. Make the most of your resources and delegate the work that you think someone else could do better and focus on what you do best to achieve maximum productivity within the least possible time. Also, ensure that the work delegated is met within certain preset deadlines. Way to go super-entrepreneur!

Think back – Backtrack your day

Social media is an amazing way to grow a brand online in leaps and bounds –it simply takes creativity, passion and consistency to keep things moving Social media is an amazing way to grow a brand online.

It’s the end of the day, you’ve done the best you can and you have finally settled down to get a good night’s sleep. But before you do that, just walk through the entire day and make a note of what you have done and what you couldn’t and where you could have saved some time to do something better or prioritise on something more important. This is only going to help you get better and more efficient.

Early to bed – For a healthier and a more productive entrepreneur A full sleep cycle has always been of the utmost importance. Not only is it going to keep you healthier, it is also going to make you so much more productive. Make it a point to do so and reap the benefits of a healthier and productive lifestyle.nnn April 2017

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Behind the Scenes

Formalising the ‘Blue Collar’

sector with Technology

Stephen Hawking once said, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”

Vir Kashyap

lot is being done digitally through apps – whether it is ordering groceries, getting movie tickets or even getting one’s personal tasks done. With the rise in low-cost smart phones and easy access to internet, it is not uncommon for delivery executives, security guards, maids, drivers, nannies etc who are looking for a better job, to connect with potential employers online. Only 2 per cent of India’s working population is skilled, according to the government studies. Some of the biggest challenges today are lack of education, inadequacy of knowl-

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Some of the biggest challenges today are lack of education, inadequacy of knowledge and language barrier – which makes it tough to find a good job in unorganised blue-collar space.

edge and language barrier – which makes it tough to find a good job in this unorganised blue-collar space. With technology growing exponentially, job portals are solving most of the major unemployment issues prevailing in India and changing the lives of blue collar workers. As the demand for these workers is on the rise, online job platforms are dropping old school methods and using technology to the best use and to hire. Mobile and specifically, application technology has created opportunity for the greatest job creation and economic opportunities for countries with emerging economies. Job portals are streamlining the process of hiring by using innovative technology and this is helping the blue collar sector find jobs like never before. Mobile app, chat bots and other innovations are making it easier for jobseek-

ers and employers to get what they want. Data driven matching is the most common way of connecting employers to job seekers, who are filtered by variables such as salary, location, experience, and languages known. Some start-ups have mobile applications that contact each job seeker before connecting him/her with a potential employer. And then encourage inbound phone calls from screened candidates to employers in minutes, drastically reducing the inefficiencies of hiring. These are real-time services provided whereby screened candidates contact the employer within minutes. A few start-ups are even looking to introduce a chat feature that allows an employer to text questions to the candidate before scheduling an interview with them. Apart from the app, there is also the multi-lingual interactive voice response system (IVRS) that is being

adopted by many portals. By operating purely through mobile phones, this system can enable job seekers to create a profile, find and apply for relevant jobs, regardless of their educational background. There is also a freely accessible data initiative called NextBillion, where a map shows an overlay of salary data linked to pin-codes, defined category wise. Being linked to a specific location within a city, it allows a user to observe variances within one job category across multiple locations. Through this platform, employers can gauge the right salary to pay their staff based on their geo-location as well as job category, while job seekers are armed with the knowledge of what pay to expect and can choose where to seek better opportunities. The informal-job space is enabled by con-

nectivity and is thriving in this digital world. Households/SMEs and other businesses are increasingly turning towards online platforms for efficiency and hiring manpower quickly. According to a recent report by TeamLease, the blue-collar job domain makes for one-third of the total job market in India and is predicted that the average pay hike for bluecollar employees in 2016-17 will see a steep rise for select profiles. In India, there are close to 260 million internet users and nearly 18 per cent of the population using smart phones.

Technology can be very effectively leveraged to bridge the gap between job requirements and candidate skills and achieve a change in the hiring mechanism. Many start-ups are expanding pan-India, and therefore, it is vital to have a technological support system in place to ensure successful functioning in the ecosystem. There is huge potential in this space as the number of jobs, job seekers, average salaries, and the number of people getting hired each second is on a constant rise. This is just the beginning.nnn

The writer is Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Co-founder, Babajob.com, Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest livelihood marketplace, facilitating jobs for the next billion. At present, Babajob has about seven million job seekers and over 400,000 employers. Virâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responsibility is to give a strategic direction to the company, manage all strategic partnerships, and own finance operations for the company.

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Technology

Meet BIG-i

The Family Robot

he time of the Jetsons is finally here! Okay maybe not so much, but hey we finally have our first perfect homely social robot! Here’s BIG-i. BIG-i is constantly watching you. Now as scary as the thought may sound, it actually isn’t. He’s more like a homely pet with crazy superpowers. On a more serious note, BIG-i should get your attention if for nothing else than for the design that’s completely different than anything we’ve ever seen before. This giant eyeballed doll is more than just a looker; it is utilitarian with simple and useful if-thisthen-that-style of verbal programming. BIG-i is a natural interaction robot with mobility, 3D vision, voice programming and active perception. Acting as a bridge between family members, BIG-i will improve itself, become more thoughtful and intelligent and understand act upon your instructions better. BIG-i will take care of your loved ones even in your absence. It also acts as your personal security by warning you if a stranger is at your doorstep. It can control all smart appliances in the house and oh, it knows when to turn the TV off to get the kids ready for dinner. BIG-i takes away that small daily grind out of your way so that you could enjoy that rare, precious moment with your family.

Now, here’s a bit from the creator of BIG-i: Dr. Tin Lun Lam, founder of NXROBO and creator of BIG-i shares with us on how BIG-i is different than most other home robots and what sets him apart. “We think that the biggest challenge of a home robot is to handle different user needs and different household environments. We can’t preset all the functions or know everything before we really understand individual user requirements. So we decided to make a robot that aimed at adapting itself to all these differences. You can teach BIG-i about the basic information

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of your family, such as recognising family members and the interior layout of your home. With this information and using the voice programming function, you can simply generate new applications to fit your needs with one sentence. BIG-i can understand your individual requirements and provide specific services. We do not see any robot in the market that has this highly personalised capability.” “When designing BIG-i, we did not use any films, books, or existing robots as reference. Instead, we simply looked for a proper way for a robot to exist in a family. When creating a family robot, we have to deal with the relations between the home, the robot, and family members. We therefore wanted to make a robot that can bring a reassuring, warm, and comfortable feeling from its appearance. That’s why we choose fabric material and a soft cushion to make BIG-i’s exterior, and focused on simplicity for the external form design. We expect that the robot’s integration into the family will be natural and unobtrusive. We’d like to respect the users, to put them at the same level as the people who define the product. We designed the shape of BIG-i by focusing on interaction. Eyes are the most important path for creatures to communicate. Gaze gestures can represent different meanings, so we fixed attention on motions with the eye of BIG-i.” “BIG-i has many sensors for different purposes. For robot safety, BIG-i has sensors at the chassis to avoid falling down stairs, tilting sensors to detect if BIG-i is going to fall, and obstacle sensors to prevent collisions. BIG-i also has environmental sensors such as temperature sensors, humidity sensors, pressure sensors, and light sensors. Developers can use these to determine what kind of actions BIG-i should take. A 360-degree microphone array is also embedded in BIG-i, such that it can know which directions voice commands come from. Developers can uses the RGB-D camera inside BIG-i’s eye to do a lot of things: it lets you do object tracking and recognition, 3D-map construction, human body motion tracking, and more. Developers can apply their genius and imagination to create many fun and useful applications.” BIG-i has kickstarted a campaign on kickstarter.com and has already achieved it goal. Soon, NXROBO is planning on giving its users access to an app store and if you pre-order a developer edition of the BIG-i, you will be able to tinker around with the SDK which looks to be ROS-based. If you don’t want to tangle yourself with the technical mumbo-jumbo, get yourself a pre-ordered regular edition for $750. If you hurry, you might get a delivery by an estimated delivery date of April 2017.

Swipe, Snap & Go Plastc Card brings all your payment cards into one sophisticated device, allowing you to pay any way and anywhere you want. Plastc Card has its own magnetic stripe, so you can use it like a traditional card. It will also include hardware to support new payment technologies such as EMV and NFC contactless payments. P l a s t c Card’s powerful technology protects your information, so you can pay with confidence. There are three authorisation steps: a 4 digit PIN, matching name and social security number (for U.S. residents), and card verification. Mobile users with compatible devices can also opt to use the biometric finger-

print scanner to access the Wallet App. The magnetic stripe and NFC chip are disabled until you select your card, preventing fraudulent activity. Each Plastc Card requires a four digit personal identification number (PIN), you will be required to enter this number on Plastc’s E-ink touchscreen when making changes to your card. You will need to enter your PIN to switch cards or unlock your Plastc, ensuring that no one can take your card and just swipe it. The card also has a proximity alert that will send a notification to your phone. Alerts are auto-set to 100 feet for ‘Left Behind’ reminders, but you will have full control over your settings. With the Plastc Wallet companion app, quickly swap cards, add new ones or track your spending. It holds up to 20 cards, while your Wallet App can store an unlimited amount.

THE 3-IN-1 CUSTOMISABLE WATER BOTTLE YOU NEED IN YOUR LIFE

f late, everything seems to be a blast into the future. Get over watches that can do a lot more than just keep track of time, move past IoT and the array of wonders it has to offer. We have what until now you would have only seen in movies such as Demolition Man and Back from the future. Here’s wearable technology, unlike anything ever seen before. The team of Arenar, has quite the creative mind, not just that they have the technical expertise to pull of some crazy next level mind-imagery devices. This is the Amsterdam-based startup that is behind the iBand+. The iBand+ like most other things is wearable. The difference? It’s all about sleep. But instead of the same old boring devices that just track your sleep patterns, it induces you to sleep and lucid dream. The iBand+ package consists of a set of pillow speakers and a headband with sensors to track movement, heart rate and body temperature.

The iBand+ stands out from its sleep tracking peers due to its headband’s RGB LEDs which stimulate sleep and its electroencephalogram EEG dry electrodes which sense your brain waves. EEG is a test that is used to measure electrical pulses transmitted between neurones. The iBand+ monitors your sleep phases with the biometric sensors: movement, heart rate and body temperature; combined with the EEG sensor and recognises when you’re in the REM (rapid eye movement) sleep phase. REM is the deepest kind of

sleep and usually when the most vivid dreams occur. When the iBand+ recognises the REM phase, the pillow speakers and LEDs get to work with dream inducing sounds and light patterns with the aim of helping you to have lucid dreams. What are lucid dreams? Basically, it’s when you become aware that you’re dreaming. According to veteran lucid dreamers, it allows you to take control of your dreams and do just about anything while exploring the etheric plane. The iBand+ has obviously struck a chord with the Kickstarter community. So far it’s raised €72,833, surpassing its goal of €50,000 with 30 days still left to go. Of course it isn’t the first dream-enhancing wearable to hit Kickstarter; the Aurora Dreamband by iWinks also reached its funding goal a few years back, although it still hasn’t started shipping yet. The iBand’s recommended retail price is €279. Early bird prices with a 50% discount are still available over at Kickstarter (at the time of writing). The estimated shipping date is July 2017. — Compiled by G. Anurag Rao April 2017

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Guest Column

Impact of demonetisation

on the Indian SME

With the current wind of demonetisation in the country, thought it’ll be good for us to analyze its eﬀect on the SME sector of India. The SME, as we understand is a big chunk of the economy contributing to 8 per cent of the GDP whilst employing more than 80 million people year on year. Here’s more ‒ Hardik Harsora

efore we analyze the impacts of demonetisation, we must realize and understand how we reached this stage in simple words. Most SMEs are traditionally-operated family-run businesses. Broadly, there are two kinds of players in the market in this segment. One, the businesses that were formed because their promoters saw the opportunity early on before anyone else could and went on to become successful businesses quickly. The other are the players who joined the race and could do reasonably good because of the vast underserved market. The traditional mind-set and early success convinced them to not upgrade on the way they do their business and therefore they continued to remain in the SME sector and not scale beyond a point. Whilst all of this was happening, the Indian economy was growing and at a macro level policies were made to keep a check on several aspects and this lead

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to introduction of various licenses and their approvals and therefore compliances. Taxes increased in percentage and forms. India is known for its frugal mindset; we are quick at spotting what others cannot and can come up with very innovative solutions to problems. An SME has been a master at this art. He was quick to spot ways to get through with the com-

pliances and taxes and the officials were happy to receive the unaccounted benefits. Soon it was also noted, that the return on investment on taxes paid was meagre and there always were alternatives available to a frugal mindset. This gave rise to the parallel economy of black money. It’s a classic case of poor processes at the government level. Processes are always in-

terlinked and therefore whilst constructing them one has to look at all the sub-processes it will impact. Processes need a monitoring & audit mechanism which is independent and cannot derive benefits from allowing incorrect ways in the system. All of these aspects somehow were missed. Demonetisation, in my opinion is an extremely bold step taken by the honourable Prime Minister of the country, especially when a large portion of the economy is run on cash transactions and the economy is largely how people feel and interpret the situation. My personal views are as follows: Demonetisation is not a surgical strike; it is carpet bombing. It impacts everyone. Replacement not only takes time; it also slows down the spending process as everyone tries to protect the newly acquired currency to secure them from the uncertain future. In case of SMEs, most will be unsure of payments coming from customers for some time; this, as liquidity in the form of unaccounted currency has dried up. If customers don’t pay, SMEs will protect what they have and that will mean they purchase less and produce less. Purchasing less will mean further slowdown for the people who provide them with raw material and producing less will mean shortage of supply leading to inflation on what is available. Reforms in the form of incentives is what we see will happen soon. I am positive that the government is aware of the first point and will take measures to restart the money wheel rolling in the market again. This could happen in several forms, early announcement of GST and BTT, elimination or drastic reduction of Service Tax and VAT until GST is introduced or something else. Taking steps on taxes will encourage people to spend without having the fear of tax which is currently seen as systematic loot with minimum or no returns. Improvement in government procedures and monitoring of the monitor will take place. This will eventually happen as a measure to avoid generation of black money in new currency. Government will redesign processes to acquire licenses and approvals with ease, older redundant requirements will be abandoned. Tax and other compliance officers will need to be monitored to ensure the policing does not give birth to ‘under the table settlement’ culture again. Visible use of collected money in banks on development of infrastructure that brings benefits to people quickly. “Quick” is the keyword, we will see money invested in aspects that bring quick results for all classes. The current change has got quick pain with a promise of long term gain but we have to remember that a large section of our society will need quick gains to survive before they can enjoy the long term benefits. SMEs will invest in self-development and improvement in terms of technology, infrastructure and training to self-utilize the increased profitability with unaccounted income now becoming the part of

With the demonetisation in our country, it is time for our SMEs to experience the advantages of deploying management concepts and process excellence solutions. Robust and thoughtthrough processes lead to arrest of wastages and inefficiencies. Well structured systems help monitor the performance of every activity in the organization. Smart reporting and MIS aids entrepreneurs to take the right decisions at the right time. When all of this happens in synchronisation, that is when an SME sees gradual but sure growth. Our methodology called ‘Propel’ is specifically designed for the Indian SME and ensures implementation of these solutions”.

the books which are taxable. SMEs and businesses now, by design, will have two options. Pay tax or spend on doing more for scaling up and this will have a spiral effect on the overall improvement in the economy. There are loads of positive and negative impacts of the current move, no one currently can be sure of the future and this uncertain environment is certainly not good. Outcomes in uncertainty depend on the mindset and currently whilst people are taking it positively, they definitely are starting to realize possible pitfalls too if measures are not taken at the right time. Communication will be the key to ensure stability. And like I mentioned earlier, while personally I am impressed with the bold step

taken by the honourable prime minister, I am also concerned about the mammoth task ahead of him to make this a success, Because in my mind, the war against black money has not started yet. Demonetisation is only a war cry that declares the start of a war.

(The writer is the founder of the founder of EFFEX Business Solutions, a management consulting company. He has been part of the Quality and Process Excellence world for more than 15 years.)

April 2017

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Legally Yours

Watch out,

entrepreneurs! We live in exciting times, where anything is possible if you have a business idea for which the right market conditions exist. All around us we are surrounded by stories of success of start-up entrepreneurs but none of them talk about the critical aspects of legal framework that needs to be kept in mind while going the start-up way. Below mentioned are some of the things that should be kept in mind while trying to get your start up to get oďŹ&#x20AC; the ground, ďŹ&#x201A;ourish and scale up.

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laws are strict and any deviation can be very damaging. Setting up the right business entity may also take time so factor that in the time lines set for yourself. It is important at this stage to make an informed decision so do your research and reach out to professional firms that help you arrive at an informed decision. l Once you have set up the organisation in the

structure that you and your advisors think is best, it’s time to think about the accounting standards and tax laws. A start-up like any business venture will have to pay taxes to local, state or central government. Tax laws may differ depending on sectors, geography and scale. Be aware and stay up-

Talish Ray

hile there is no guidebook of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ to be followed when entering the field of start-ups, there are certainly some important legal aspects, which if kept in mind, can surely save you from trouble ahead. l The first step is to know what kind of organisation you want to set up. This can range from being a sole proprietorship or a private limited company or a partnership firm or a limited liability partnership. This decision can be tough for you to arrive at so take your time to structure the business vehicle carefully keeping in mind a long term objective of the start up. Each of these types of business entities come with their own benefits and compliance structures. The

Tax laws may differ depending on sectors, geography and scale. Be aware and stay updated on these at all times to avoid any later penalty.

dated on these at all times to avoid any later penalty. It’s a tricky road and never shy from seeking out help from a seasoned accountant. Adopt the best practices for accounting. These will help improve your financial strength and show you in good light if you plan to approach venture funds or angel investors.

l You may choose to bring in other people

and they can come in the capacity of founding members or as employees or consultants. Even if you plan to outsource or employ independent consultants, each one of these relationships will be governed by different laws. Breaching these laws or terms of any understanding with cofounders, employees or consultant has a negative impact and it would make it harder for you to attract fresh talent. Eventually the success of most start-ups depend on the people – the quality manpower that they can attract. l Intellectual property is one of the most valuable resources in the business world. Protect your intellectual property with timely IP audits, filing the accurate trademark/copyright/ patent claims. Be mindful that you do not infringe on any other entity or organisation or business or person’s intellectual property. l Your start-up, like any business will get into transactional and other kind of contracts, which will always carry with it the possibility of disputes. Therefore, make sure to always get your contract vetted by a person who has knowledge of law regarding such contracts, etc. A basic fundamental knowledge regarding contracts, arbitration, mediation, conciliation is also essential. Most importantly never enter a contractual obligation without being fully aware of your liability. l Foreign direct investment, angel investors, crowd funding, venture capitals and even joint ventures are some of the terms and areas that a start up entrepreneur must be aware about. Also educate yourself on securities laws regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). This knowledge comes in handy in case you chose to go for the process of listing. Keep a track of various updated regulations issued by SEBI. Additionally keep in mind and a check on corporate governance practices. This will be essential when you want your start up to scale up. l Information technology is omnipresent in all business ventures today. Thorough knowledge about the IT laws is essential as it is critical for the survival of a start up. Talish Ray is a partner at TRS Law Offices. She has worked extensively with young entrepreneurs and corporate houses, individual clients and not for profit organizations

April 2017

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Global World

Merge and

Emerge

Merger and acquisitions are not new to us. If some have surprised the industry professionals, others have brought profitable impacts to the economy of the country. Some of these not only affect the India market but also impact the international markets as well. Without mergers and acquisitions, many of the well-known brands and companies would not be where they are today. Some merged companies are so successful we can’t remember a time when the two were distinct. Here’s a look at the latest in this field... Team SMV

he history of mergers and acquisitions has had its fair share of failures. It’s sometimes shocking to discover why one company has suddenly disappeared after being acquired and run into the ground by another. Despite some of the most famous mergers that have lost billions, left employees plagued by their failures and even caused companies to go bankrupt, there are many companies that have made headlines for good reasons. It is important to have a grasp of what makes these mergers and acquisitions successful and what causes them to flop. Take a moment to get up-to-speed with these examples of the good, bad and ugly corporate mergers and acquisitions.

Samsung Electronics to buy Harman for $8 bn in car electronics push Samsung Electronics has agreed to buy Harman International Industries for about $8 billion, a leader in connected car solutions, for about $8 billion, marking a major push into the auto-related technology. Harman shares rose more than 25 per cent in premarket trade. Samsung said in a statement that it will acquire Harman for $112.00 per share in cash, which represents a premium of 28 per cent to Harman’s Friday closing price. Ac-

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cording to the release the deal would “give Samsung a significant presence in the large and rapidly growing market for connected technologies, particularly automotive electronics, which has been a strategic priority.” The deal comes at a time when Samsung’s mobile phone business has been hit hard by the disastrous withdrawal of the fireprone Galaxy Note 7. Underscoring Samsung’s interest in the auto sector, the electronics giant has had talks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles over a potential sale or partnership for its Magneti Marelli auto parts maker, said a source.

Mentor Graphics’ shares soar after Siemens deal Shares of Mentor Graphics soared 18.29 per cent after German engineer group Siemens agreed to buy it in a $4.5 billion cash deal. Siemens said it would pay $37.25 per share for U.S.-based Mentor Graphics, a 21 percent premium to the last closing price in November. Siemens said it plans to use the company, which makes software for designing semiconductors, to extend its “leading Digital Enterprise Software” portfolio. “Siemens is acquiring Mentor as part of its Vision 2020 concept to be the Benchmark for the New Industrial Age,” Siemens President and CEO Joe Kaeser said in a statement. “It’s a perfect portfolio fit to further expand our digital leadership and set the pace in the industry.” Mentor Graphics’ stock is up 97.01 per cent year to date.

Microsoft offers EU concessions over its $26 billion LinkedIn bid Microsoft has offered concessions to EU antitrust regulators over its $26 billion bid for social network LinkedIn, the European Commission, as the U.S. software company seeks to allay concerns over its largest ever deal. The move came after the EU competition enforcer expressed concerns about the deal in a meeting with Microsoft executives. The Commission, which will rule on the deal by Dec. 6, did not provide details. It is expected to seek feedback from rivals and customers before deciding whether to accept the concessions, demand more or open a full investigation. The LinkedIn acquisition will allow it to add a suite of sales, marketing and recruiting services to its core business products as it gears up for next-generation computing. LinkedIn makes most of its $3 billion annual revenue from job hunters and recruiters who pay a monthly fee to post resumes and connect with people.

British American Tobacco offers $47bn for Reynolds American British American Tobacco has offered to pay $47bn (£38bn) for full control of Reynolds American in a takeover that would create the world’s biggest tobacco company. The cash-plusshares deal would plunge BAT back into the US market after a 12-year absence and is also expected to speed the development of e-cigarettes

and vapes. BAT, whose brands include Lucky Strike and Benson & Hedges, already owns 42.2% of Reynolds and is offering to buy the remainder of the firm, which traces its roots back to before the American war of independence. The British firm has owned a stake in Reynolds since 2004, when it merged its US subsidiary Brown & Williamson with RJ Reynolds Tobacco to create Reynolds American. “From the moment Reynolds American was born, this was always the most likely outcome,” said Cenkos Securities analyst Rae Maile. “The US marketplace is fundamentally very attractive and offers a source of sustainable profit growth.” BAT said it was prepared to pay $56.50 a share, comprising $24.13 in cash and $32.37 in shares. The offer, structured as a merger, is worth 20% more than Reynolds’ closing price on Thursday and values the US company at £66bn. The combined firm would be valued at about £157bn. BAT’s shares, the biggest gainers in the FTSE 100 index this year, initially rose before closing down nearly 3% at £46.66, despite a strong trading update for the first nine months. Revenues were up 8.1% stripping out exchange-rate movements, while it sold 497bn cigarettes, 2.2% more than last year. Speculation has been rife for months that BAT might decide to buy out Reynolds as tobacco companies jockey for position. BAT said that buying the number two US tobacco company, after Philip Morris, would give it a leading position in the American market, the world’s second biggest after China. Reynolds has a 35% market share in the US, where it owns the low-cost market leader

Pall Mall, Newport, the top-selling menthol cigarette, and Camel, a mid-market brand popular with younger Americans.

Amaya’s ex-CEO offers to buy the Canadian gambling company Amaya’s former chief executive, David Baazov, has offered to buy the Canadian online gambling company in a deal valued at about C$3.48 billion ($2.56 billion). The offer price of C$24 per share represents a premium of 30.9 per cent to Amaya’s Friday close of C$18.34. The company’s U.S.listed shares were up 16.6 per cent at $15.90 in premarket trading. Amaya said, it would consider Baazov’s offer, adding there was

BAT said it was prepared to pay $56.50 a share, comprising $24.13 in cash and $32.37 in shares. The offer, structured as a merger, is worth 20% more than Reynolds’ closing price

no assurance of a deal. Baazov, who already owns about 17.2 per cent of Amaya, including options, said he made the offer on behalf of a tobe-formed entity led by him. Four funds had committed $3.65 billion to help the new entity buy Amaya, Baazov added. The new entity will set aside $200 million until its deal with Amaya goes through, and Baazov said if the deferred payment is due before the deal closes, the entity will release funds in advance. Amaya, which owns gambling websites PokerStars and Full Tilt, said in February it had received a non-binding proposal from Baazov to take the company private. British bookmaker William Hill Plc (WMH.L) and Amaya abandoned merger talks in October, after the deal was thrown into doubt when a leading investor in William Hill said it would oppose the plan. Separately, Amaya reported a better-than-expected third-quarter profit as it added more customers. The company raised its full-year adjusted share forecast to $1.78-$1.83 from $1.71-$1.82. Amaya’s net income from continuing operations was $12.5 million, or 6 cents per share, compared with a loss of $34.4 million, or 26 cents a share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, Amaya earned 42 cents per share, beating the average analysts’ estimate of 38 cents, according to Thomson Reuters. Amaya’s total revenue rose 9.5 percent to $270.8 million from $247.3 million, marginally higher than the average analyst estimate of $270.1 million. The company said its customer registrations increased by 1.9 million to about 105.5 million in the quarter.nnn April 2017

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E-Space

Just A Click

away

lll

Online food-delivery platforms are fast expanding, increasing choices and convenience, allowing customers to order from a wide array of restaurants. BhukkadBelly is a start-up initiative by a group of young professionals bringing sumptuous cuisine at your doorstep with just a click!

Vaishali Dar

34 Start my Venture | April 2017

magine if you were to get your favourite Afghani Chicken, piping hot, at your doorstep and that too from your much loved restaurant. All this and more is now, just a click away! BhukkadBelly is an online food ordering platform, which caters to the hogger in you. With a firm belief that a delicacy is

savoured best when one is at his own comfort zone, the platform caters to food cravings provided with the best on time delivery, every single time. It all started in February this year, when many were cribbing about the pathetic food delivery services around. “If you place an order on other platforms, the food takes about an hour to get delivered.

Also sometimes discount coupons don’t work. This is when we thought of the food delivery portal BhukkadBelly (which means hungry belly) because it relates to the hungry souls,” says Oindrilla Roy, one of the founders. Having invested their own savings into the company, the team of three individuals — Oindrilla Roy, social worker, Mou S Bhattacharya, content writer, Abhishek Chakraborty, hotel management graduate — decided to go niche in their areas of delivery. With over 25 restaurants under the belt, this small start-up has made the right kind of noise in the online food bazaar. Currently, they cater to residents and professionals in CR Park, Kalkaji, Kalkaji Extension, Alaknanda, Savitri, Greater Kailash (I & II), Nehru Place, East Of Kailash and Okhla (all in Delhi). However, with so many online delivery platforms, the idea is to survive and that doesn’t diminish hopes for a start-up. Currently focusing on the areas of service and delivery, the future expansion plans depend on the amount of profits made by the company and attain a strong foothold in these areas. So next time when you order online, make way for this superlative service with a wide range of lunch, snacks and dinner menus to those who fall in this area.nnn