Policy Play: The Planning Commission wants you to start up PG 54
OCTOBER 2012 VOLUME 4 ISSUE 2 `100
www.entrepreneurindia.in
PLUS THE GREAT INDIAN CONSUMPTION STORY PG 58 FAST MONEY WITH FAST FOOD PG 89 SCALING UP CREATIVITY PG 62 5 HOT STARTUPS TO WATCH OUT FOR PG 101
Round Two
Malvinder Mohan Singh is ready to repeat the journey he undertook at Ranbaxy. Only this time he is aiming to go much further with Fortis and Religare PG 46
TABLE OF CONTENTS INSIGHTS
COVER STORY
18 Towards Capitalism 3.0
46 Singh’s Second Season
R. Jagannathan talks about why it’s key to reinvent capitalism for the economy to progress
Malvinder Mohan Singh began a new journey some years ago when he and his brother Shivinder let go of Ranbaxy and decided to wholeheartedly focus on the healthcare and financial services industry instead. Their healthcare business has operations in various countries around the world and plans to grow further By Avanish Tiwary
20 A Few Good Ideas Richard Branson looks at 5 companies that are working for the good of the community
22 Are You Ready to Grow? Ravi Kiran says that once you know why you want to grow, you need to focus on how you will do it
23 Waiting to Exhale Nandini Vaidyanathan helps you understand when your e-commerce website must go live
24 Intangible Issues Rajeev Surana looks into how you can use intangibles to get better valuations
MY STORY
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR
32 Walk ahead, to learn After 2 not-so-successful attempts he emerged triumphant after surviving all odds. T Muralidharan of TMI Group shares his journey as an entrepreneur
IN CONVERSATION 36 ‘In India, social ventures lean towards the venture side’ Fred Rose and Surayanarayanan A., Head of Operations at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements talk about social ventures in India and the US, the challenges they face and more
26 The Mystery of Entrepreneur Salaries
By Shonali Advani
Alok Kejriwal unravels the mystery, says entrepreneurs needn’t be ashamed of getting paid
38 ‘Indian e-commerce is still in its early stages’
28 Liquidity Rationale
By Pranbihanga Borpuzari
Bharat Banka discusses whether liquidity infusion by the government is a solution or not
Ziqitza is providing quality ambulance services to people across income groups
WOMAN ENTREPRENEUR
By Shruti Chakraborty
Joaquin Rodriguez Torres shares his perspectives on the present and future of e-commerce in the country. He shares that barring online travel, e-commerce is still in its infancy in our country
IN FOCUS 54 Mission: Possible
30 Alpha Vs. Beta
A recent Planning Commission report has looked at the challenges keeping India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem from booming and has suggested some urgent reforms
Manish Sabharwal wonders if the difference between luck and skill is just your risk-taking ability
31 Safeguard Your Future
Ranjeet S. Mudholkar discusses the importance of a sound financial plan for your venture and your personal goals
44 Fast Aid
By Shruti Chakraborty
SPECIAL FEATURE 40 The Legal Formula
58 Because India Consumes
Poorvi Chothani began a law firm specializing in immigration services battling a number of personal constraints
In partnership with Sequoia Capital India we explore what keeps India's consumption story going and how it will pan out in the future
By Bindi Shah
By V T Bharadwaj
6 Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS TECH DEPARTMENT
STRATEGY 80 Digital Dreams Chris George is aiming to make a mark in the online marketing space with his venture EBS Worldwide By Bindi Shah
SPECIAL REPORTS 83 By Innovation Only Indian innovations that make a difference in the community were showcased at CNBC-TV18’s Samsung Innovation Quotient
95 In the middle HTC’s One S came late to the Indian market but this thin and light phone seems to have been worth the wait By Ankush Chibber
By Pranbihanga Borpuzari
84 Awarding India’s Young
62 Scaling up Creativity Creative businesses face scaling up challenges that other ventures probably will never have to consider. Find out what it takes for creative businesses to scale up and how you can do it too
The youth of the country is actively making attempts to bring about a change in the country. Young Indian Leaders Awards celebrated that aspect.
By Shruti Chakraborty
OFFBEAT
By Pranbihanga Borpuzari
64 Top Gear Carwale’s business model has some important lessons on building a sustainable and sellable business
97 For an Inch More Is Dell’s XPS 14 an ultrabook? We look into that and more about the product and find that it seems to be as good as the company's flagship product
86 A Game of Strategy The E&Y Strategic Growth Forum discussed an array of topics from investing in other continents, building game changing business models and more
By Harsh Pamnani
SUCCESS INC
By Ankush Chibber
By Bindi Shah
WATCH OUT 88 ‘Make use of no-money marketing’ 68 The Axle Effect GNA Udyog began its story by manufacturing axle shafts in 1946 and is now growing at an annual growth rate of about 30 percent
98 iOS6: Ayes and Nays
By Pranbihanga Borpuzari
Apple launched the 6th generation of its operating system along with the iPhone 5. Read about what worked and what didn’t with the operating system
GETTING THERE
Harish Bijoor, a brand strategy specialist speaks on brand-building, marketing and how SMEs can use the same to become successful
GO FRANCHISE
72 The Identity Makers
By Ankush Chibber
4G Identity Solutions uses biometric technology to provide large-scale identity management solutions and is behind various aspects of Aaadhar By Shonali Advani 8 Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012
89 Quick Bite Partnering with the right brands and your risk-taking ability will determine your success if you’re planning to open a quick service restaurant franchise By Shruti Chakraborty
TABLE OF CONTENTS MONEY
STARTUPS
HOW TO 118 Choose a Law Firm There are things to keep in mind while evaluating which firm will be the best to represent your business By Diljeet Titus
121 Generate Better Leads on Facebook A Facebook feature enables effective targeting for your marketing messages
92 Trim the Fat Cost-cutting can be tricky for a small business. Read about what you should focus on to do it strategically
By Amy Porterfield
By Joe Worth
122 Protect Your System from Cyber Attacks Preventing against a cyber attack is of paramount importance for most businesses
93 Secure your financial future A foolproof financial plan will help you deal with future financial commitments better
By Pranbihanga Borpuzari
102 Call for Help Ankur Singla’s startup Akosha is helping resolve problems people face with customer care
By Mukund Seshadri
By Pranbihanga Borpuzari
94 Deal with Cash Flows
104 An Eye in the Sky
It is important for an entrepreneur to use capital proficiently. Managing your wallet effectively is essential By Vishal Dhawan
124 Retail in Tier III and Tier IV Markets There are things to keep in mind before entering tier III and tier IV Markets By Shonali Advani
A startup from IIT Bombay ideaForge has developed a product to help give security organizations a 'God's view' on things
SPEND IT
By Shruti Chakraborty
108 Poster Perfect Hinesh Jethwani is trying to preserve an old cinema art with his startup Indian Hippy By Trishna Guha
REGULARS 11 FEEDBACK 12 RESOURCES 14 ASK ENTREPRENEUR 16 CAPSULE 134 BACKSTAGE
127 An Ode to the Orient Bengaluru’s Like That Only offers a blend of oriental inspired dishes By Shonali Advani
128 Club Class Mumbai’s Waterstones Hotel is the latest entrant amongst the hotels outside Mumbai’s International airport
COVER CREDITS
By Sriya Ray Chaudhuri
129 In the Midst of Mists 110 Un Vino Storia An Indo-Italian venture is aiming to make it big in the international wine market
Citrus Chambers at Mahabaleshwar may be a good option to consider for your next business offsite By Sriya Ray Chaudhuri
By Shruti Chakraborty
130 Duster Delivers
COVER DESIGN
Arko Provo Mukherjee
COVER IMAGE Amit kumar
IMAGING
Chaitanya Dinesh Surpur
10 Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012
114 Career on Track
Recently out of Renault’s stable, the Duster is a lot better than other Indian-made SUVs
Gautam Munshi and Pavan Bhat have made a business based on their love for analytics
By Pranbihanga Borpuzari
By Shonali Advani
SHELF LIFE 133 Jobs and co. We read two books that will help you learn from the lives and experiences of Steve Jobs and Terry Leahy By Shruti Chakraborty
FEED BACK
" 'FX (PPE -BEJFT
0O B EJTBQQPJOUJOH OPUF
When I started reading your compilation of the best entrepreneurial ventures run by women in the issue, I was shocked at reading that the ideal country to start a business as a woman could be India. I started a venture last year and I doubt if I had it easier than any man. But it makes me proud that there are woman who are beating the odds and actually building businesses of repute in the country. In the social entrepreneurship section, I am surprised though that amongst the best in the last 3 years, there weren’t any women. So many women are doing so much in this space. Overall, it was a good compilation of stories. A good overview of things in this issue, as always. - Snigdha Rao Via e-mail
I have been reading Entrepreneur magazine for a while now and I would really like to congratulate you on the magazine’s third anniversary. I liked the section, ‘Vision 2015’, of this edition a lot. It has covered all the biggies like Adi Godrej, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Malvinder Singh and many more. After reading about such stalwarts of the business world and their ideas, it was quite disappointing to find Shah Rukh Khan on the cover. Agreed that he has many successful businesses, but he is recognized for his acting skills and not for his business acumen. I wish the magazine considers this in future. - Tarun Bahl Via e-mail.
5IF #JH #PTT I am an entrepreneur based out of Kolkata and also a big fan of Shah Rukh Khan. I love the fact that Entrepreneur magazine has amalgamated these two aspects of my life in the cover story. It’s a very good insight into his life and how he manages his companies. I am an avid reader of the magazine and I wish all the team members the very best for future issues of the magazine. - Sharthak Mazumdar Via e-mail
5ZDPPOT 5BML I read the third anniversary issue of Entrepreneur and I must say that this special edition was very impressive. I especially liked the column, ‘Baptism by fire’, written by Kumar Mangalam Birla. I like the fact that he has approached the financial crisis that the world is going through from a very practical point of view and has articulately spelt out the economic problems that India faces. There’s a great collection of inputs from the other business tycoons as well. - Sharman Pandey Mumbai
'SPN UIF 8FC 0O UIF DPMVNO A5IF & $PNNFSDF )PMPDBVTU -PPNT Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch as I found it for him. So let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch! Good write-up, I am a regular visitor of your website. I am really glad I’ve found this info. A good web site with exciting content, this is what I need. Thank you for keeping this site going, I’ll be visiting it regularly for a long time. - Annamarie Holck
0O UIF DPMVNO A" .JMMJPO #PTTFT /PX Looking forward to many more such relevant and down-to-earth columns from you! After reading this, I think that you’re very observant and feel the nerve of the people. Good Luck! - Pramod Kumar 0O UIF TUPSZ A$BC PO 5BQ This story has motivation for all young entrepreneurs. This story is about a great business idea that can lead us to success. - Pradeep Kolanu
CONTACT INFO t 8SJUF MFUUFST UP Entrepreneur Network 18 Publishing 2nd Floor, ‘A’ Wing, Ruby House, J.K. Sawant Marg, Dadar (W) Mumbai - 400028 ..................................................... t F NBJM editor.entrepreneur@ network18publishing.com ..................................................... t 5P 4VCTDSJCF SMS IE to 51818 Call 91-22-3003 4631/33, or Log on to http://eshop.infomediaindia.com ..................................................... t 'PS TVCTDSJQUJPO RVFSJFT customercare@ network18publishing.in Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity.
To read more, grab the October 2012 issue ofď‚„Entrepreneur Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012 11 To Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in
IN SIGHTS
NEWTHINK
Towards Capitalism 3.0 For the economy to progress, reinventing capitalism is key
[ R. JAGANNATHAN ]
ONCE UPON A TIME, it was easy to answer this question: What should your first priority be as a CEO or a business manager? Most people would have answered “maximizing shareholder value,” especially if the company is a listed one, and millions of investors are watching your corporate profit performance like hawks. But after Enron, Lehman, and many such egregious examples of corporate skullduggery, few CEO are willing to give the standard answer today. Many are, in fact, going the other way. Two years ago, Anglo-Dutch Unilever PLC’s CEO Paul Polman made a startling confession by saying he could not put shareholder value as this top concern. He told Financial Times: “I do not work for the shareholder, to be honest; I work for the consumer. I am not driven and I don’t drive this business model by driving shareholder value.” Before Polman, Jack Welch, the iconic former chairman of GE, made an equally strong statement. “On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world.” Having retired from GE, Welch can pretty well say what he wants and still be considered a prophet of profit. But Polman, too, didn’t lose his job. This shows how far western capitalism has come from the old raw focus on profitability that was the hallmark of laissez-faire.
What’s going on? Welcome to Capitalism 3.0. If the rise of welfare capitalism (Capitalism 2.0) was the market economy’s answer to the challenges posed by Marx and Lenin, then the fall of the Berlin Wall should have ended further experimentations with capitalism. But, with capitalists stumbling all over in the wake of huge scandals, ‘Gordon Gekko’ is no longer a poster-hero on Wall Street, and capitalists have realized that society is scrutinizing 18 Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012
them like never before. Capitalism has to be reinvented all over again. In the US, President Obama has taken business to task for loss of jobs and excessive greed, and in India, too, we have seen the public fallout from rapacious crony capitalism in the 2G spectrum scandal and the coal blocks allocation controversy—to speak only about the latest pressure-points. What has changed is the universal realization that no economic enterprise can have only one goal. Shareholder maximization is important, but cannot be the prime or only goal of an enterprise with so many stakeholders. The means are becoming as important as the end—something that Gandhi stressed. In fact, some time back, companies went about saying that customers were their main focus on the assumption that if customers are happy and find value in products, profits and shareholders, value will follow. This, too, is a false grail. Can you delight customers with the help of grumpy employees? Two years ago, Vineet Nayyar of HCL Technologies thought he had got a fix on the employees issue by penning a book titled Employees First, Customers Second. He surely has a point in saying that an enterprise with unhappy employees can’t succeed in making customers happy. Picture a call centre with disgruntled employees—and how they will respond to customers—I have made my point.
Who’s the boss? However, here’s the counterpoint: there is no better place for employees than government and the public sector, where fairness to employees is placed above all else. Jobs are guaranteed till retirement. Air India employees did not think twice about ditching customers when Photo Joshua Navalkar
his fellow billionaires to publicly pledge to give they pursued their own interests earlier this a significant chunk of their wealth to charity year—and guess where the airline is today? No or any good cause of their choice. At last count, airline (with the exception, possibly, of Kingfisher there were more than 80 billionaires—ranging today) is probably destroying value faster than from Bill and Melinda Gates to Mark Zuckerberg Air India, thanks to mollycoddling its employto Vinod Khosla to Ted Turner and many others ees. If employees don’t come first, if customers who signed the pledge. don’t come first, and if shareholders don’t come In India, Buffett had urged a similar giving first, who does? pledge, but the results are still to be seen. The answer is all stakeholders—including One presumes the crisis in Indian indusvendors, distributors, and society at large, apart try has focused efforts more in the direction from shareholders, customers and employees. of rescuing their business from the current No company can hope to succeed in the longscams than in redistributing wealth after the term if it is ultimately focused on a very narrow promoters are gone. definition of stakeholders. Companies are a part of More than just serving stakeholders, businesssociety, and their ability to make a profit depends men need to acknowledge the role luck may have on whether society sees its goals as respectable. played in their fortune. This suggests that ownerYou can make employees, shareholders, customship of wealth beyond a reasonable limit should be ers, and even business partners happy, but seen as held in trust for what if you are destroying the the larger good. environment and contributMahatma Gandhi, While pledging 99 ing to global warming? who disliked soulless percent of his wealth to Total recall charity, Buffett made a communism, was all The illegal ore miners of reference to the luck factor: for capitalism with a Karnataka and Goa may “My wealth has come from human face have made many stakeholda combination of living in ers happy (except possibly America, some lucky genes, the taxman) by their nefariand compound interest. ous activities, but they were looting the country Both my children and I won what I call the ovarand ruining the areas mined by careless exploitaian lottery. (For starters, the odds against my tion. Little wonder, some of them are facing legal 1930 birth taking place in the US were at least charge-sheets and an extended sojourn in jail. 30 to 1. My being male and white also removed Take shareholders. Today, shares like ONGC huge obstacles that a majority of Americans then and Coal India are probably relatively undervalfaced.) My luck was accentuated by my living ued not because they are unprofitable (quite the in a market system that sometimes produces opposite, in fact), but because the main sharedistorted results, though overall it serves our holder—the government—is taking minority country well. I’ve worked in an economy that shareholders for granted. rewards someone who saves the lives of others Coal India has faced a legal challenge from the on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great UK-based Children’s Investment Fund for taking teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but pricing diktats from government; ONGC is being rewards those who can detect the mispricing of asked to hand out a big chunk of its profits to the securities with sums reaching into the billions. In oil marketing companies, when the subsidy bill is short, fate’s distribution of long straws is wildly that of the central government. This is corporate capricious.” misgovernance of a high order. Mahatma Gandhi, who disliked soulless Companies cannot adopt an either/or approach communism, was all for capitalism with a human to serving stakeholders, far-sighted businessmen face. He wanted capitalists to hold wealth in trust are taking a more enlightened view of giving back for the poor. to society what society gave them earlier. It’s time India’s capitalism starts looking beyond raking it in to giving it away. If not Buffett, Lucky stroke? they can read Gandhi all over again. A few years ago, the world’s best known invesR. JAGANNATHAN is the Editor of Firstpost.com tor, Warren Buffett, started the trend of asking
To read more, grab the October 2012Intelligent issue of Entrepreneur Entrepreneur October 2012 19 To Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in
WOMAN ENTREPRENEUR
[ GLOBAL GAMBIT ]
The Legal Formula Poorvi Chothani has built a formidable business around immigration services BINDI SHAH
P
oorvi Chothani has many stories to share. Born in Calicut in Kerala, Chothani was raised on a tea estate in Coonoor near Ooty in Tamil Nadu where the first seeds of enterprise were sown into her young mind during the early years of her childhood. Her father ran the tea estate business while her mother grew cabbages and strawberries on the farm and sold the produce. Chothani, however, turned an entrepreneur very late in her life. The second daughter in a family of three, she admits that she could have grown her business better and bigger had she started her own firm earlier. Strongly inclined toward the legal profession, Chothani was raised in an era when daughters were not so welcome. Yet, her father strived to give all three girls a good education and went to the extent of opening a new girls college in Ooty so that his daughters could study in a decent environment. This venture gave Chothani a chance to emerge a multi-faceted leader rather than a mere student and that experience, of course, came in handy when she set up her own law firm in December 2003. 40 Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012
The early years Chothani, aged 41, was the eldest in her class and a mother of two when she entered the University of Pennsylvania Law School in the US in 2002 to pur-
“UPON MY RETURN TO INDIA, I EVALUATED JOB OFFERS FROM FIRMS RANGING FROM BIG TO SMALL. I WANTED TO TEST THE MARKET BEFORE STARTING LAWQUEST. I CONCLUDED IT WAS BEST TO BE ON MY OWN. - POORVI CHOTHANI, FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER, LAWQUEST
sue an LL.M. program. “It was a dream that came true after many years. My husband funded my education and I knew I owed it to the family to earn some money when I got back. I was extremely keen always to have an engaging legal career. I finally saw it happening,” says Chothani, Founder
and Managing Partner, LawQuest, a full-service law firm specializing in immigration services. In 1982, after graduating in English literature, Chothani moved to Mumbai to pursue her Bachelor’s degree in law (LL.B.) and stayed with an aunt, who financed her partly. She took up a secretarial program immediately and started earning part-time. She got married soon after and finished her law degree two years after marriage. Meanwhile, she had already started her civil litigation practice. Chothani kept taking breaks intermittently from work in the years that followed to raise a family and ended up with varied legal experience in her bouquet. “Most of my classmates headed to the US (Harvard) immediately after finishing the LL.B. program. However, my personal circumstances and the prohibitive cost of such an education made it impossible for me to go,” she says. Throughout the 80s and 90s, she never lost touch with the legal profession. “I kept taking small assignments and updating my knowledge even when I was at home.”
Setting up shop Surprisingly, Chothani turned social entrepreneur before turning into a
KNOWLEDGE-DRIVEN: Poorvi Chothani
legal one during one of her breaks. She opened two day care centers and pre-schools (in Navi Mumbai and Kanjurmarg) in the 90s as she felt a strong need to help working women. “Profit was not the objective at that point but I learnt business skills for the first time on the job. I learnt sales and marketing and how to spread a word about my ventures. It was on-thejob learning that came in handy later,” she says. Chothani had carefully evaluated the market and ways to optimize her legal career before going to the US in 2002 for her Masters program. She had resolved to start her independent firm if market opportunities were not good enough. While in the US she decided to specialize in immigration Photo Neha Mithbawkar
law as a subject as she was keen to build a law firm with international capabilities and reach. With her LL.M., she also enrolled for various entrepreneurial courses at Wharton to understand the business side of things. “It was a lot of fun,” she says. On completion of her program, she took training with a US immigration firm which later made her their correspondent attorney in India for $500 (`25,000) a month. “Upon my return to India, I evaluated three job offers from different firms ranging from big to small. I wanted to test the market before starting LawQuest. I came to the conclusion it was best to be on my own,” says Chothani. In the early years, business was uncertain and slow. LawQuest started with immigration
services and approached corporate clients to help them secure US work visas for their employees and also those foreign nationals keen to come to India and work. Meanwhile, Chothani took the New York Bar Exam in January 2004 and got admitted to the New York Bar in the same year. Within a short span of starting out, Chothani increased the firm’s range of services to include practices in intellectual property, real estate, corporate and commercial law, transaction law, family law, global migration and Indian employment law. She also took her UK exam in 2005-'06 and is now Solicitor, Registered and Practising, England and Wales. Today, LawQuest has a presence in more than 30 countries globally through local tie-ups and boasts of an
To read more, grab the October 2012 issue of Entrepreneur Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012 41 To Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in
COVER STORY
46 Intelligent Entrepreneur ď‚„ October 2012
Singh’s Season SECOND
After letting go of Ranbaxy, Malvinder Mohan Singh looks set to script successes in healthcare and financial services along with brother Shivinder AVANISH TIWARY PHOTOGRAPHS BY AMIT KUMAR
To read more, grab the October 2012 issue of Entrepreneur Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012 47 To Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in
IN FOCUS
: N O I S MIS [ POLICY PUSH ]
E L B I POSS
The country's entrepreneurship ecosystem urgently needs a push to help it grow to attain even a fraction of its complete potential. A recent Planning Commission report may help in doing just that SHRUTI CHAKRABORTY
54 Intelligent Entrepreneur ď‚„ October 2012
Illustration Chaitanya Dinesh Surpur
IF
you have already started your business in India, you are likely to know exactly what The World Bank means when they decide to rate India 166th out of 183 economies in the world on the ease of starting a business. If this is a discouraging figure for you and you’re planning to take that cushy job instead of starting your company, the Planning Commission of India may have something for you. In the last week of August, a committee set up by the Planning Commission came out with a report 'Creating a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in India' and presented it to Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia. The report gives hope that entrepreneurship in India is likely to be treated as more than the unwanted son of the government, come the 12th Five Year Plan. Ahluwalia, in fact, said in a statement that the findings of the committee will be reflected in the 12th Plan Document. The committee, chaired by Sunil Mitra, ex-revenue secretary, Government of India, comprised Saurabh Srivastava, Founder and Director of the Indian Angel Network; Ashish Dhawan, Founder of ChrysCapital; Jayant Sinha, Managing Director, Omidyar Networks India Advisors; Alok Mittal, Managing Director of Canaan Partners; Jyoti Sagar, Founder of JSA Law; Rajiv Memani, Country Managing Partner for Ernst & Young; and Harkesh Mittal, Adviser & Head, National Science & Technology, Entrepreneurship Development Board, amongst others. The research behind the report has been done by Bain & Co.
The task at hand The report highlights some of the key challenges faced by entrepreneurs in India and looks at the relevant changes that need to be made to help entrepreneurship flourish in the country. It looks extensively at the shortage in the availability of capital at the level Photo Maximage
of angel and early-stage investments. Jayant Sinha, in fact, says “we are well below where we need to be.” The report looks at the potential for job creation by driving entrepreneurship and says that all big organizations, including the large companies in the public and private sector are incapable of generating enough jobs to meet the demand that is likely to come up in the coming decade. The report states that the banking sector in India has recorded almost no employment growth in the last two decades despite multifold growth in its revenues and assets. Agriculture employs nearly a half of India’s workforce but employment is likely to decline in this sector, due to improvements in productivity. The report also looks at the changes that can be brought about in other sectors like healthcare and education through a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem and by encouraging impact investing. Says Sinha: “If we can get the entrepreneurial ecosystem fired up, we could make a huge difference."
The size of the challenge The report throws up a few figures to give an estimation of the scale of the problem faced by Indian entrepreneurs as opposed to entrepreneurs in other economies. It states that in 2011, Indian angels, constrained by regulations that make both investing and exits cumbersome, invested only about `100 crore (approximately $20 million) in around 50 deals as compared to Canada, where angels invested `2,000 crore ($390 million). As a proportion of early-stage investing, angel investments in India comprise just around 7 percent as against around 75 percent in the US. Early-stage venture capital investing is around `1,200 crore ($240 million) annually as against `29,000 crore ($6.3 billion) in the US and `3,000 crore ($700 million) in China. Another major problem, Sinha says, is that “we don't have a local venture capital industry”. Around 90 percent of the early-stage venture funds in India come from offshore
"WE ARE WELL BELOW WHERE WE NEED TO BE.” - JAYANT SINHA, MANAGING
DIRECTOR, OMIDYAR NETWORKS INDIA ADVISORS
sources rather than from domestic investors. “Being an angel investor in India means that you are handicapped in many ways. The tax treatment of angels is very murky right now. The treatment of capital gains is an issue, amongst others, which is a dampener for the community,” he says. The reason for most of the early stage venture funds coming in from offshore sources, Sinha explains, is that RBI regulates what the pension funds and insurance companies can do. “Pension funds can't even invest in the equity market, let alone invest in an asset class like early-stage venture capital. Then there are the capital market provisioning norms. Everywhere else in the world, pension funds have played a tremendous role in fostering the venture capital industry." The report also states that in the next decade, `3 lakh crore will be required to promote entrepreneurship in India. A significant part of this would be impact investing—to address the country’s key development issues such as sanitation, clean drinking water, affordable healthcare and technology.
What the committee says Broadly, some of the recommendations made in the report include that agencies at all levels—central, state, and local—reduce transaction time Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012 55
SUCCESS STRATEGY
[ UPHILL TASK ]
THE SCALE OF
Perhaps the toughest question creative businesses have to ask themselves is whether to scale or not SHRUTI CHAKRABORTY
IT
was back in 1995 that Madhu Uday set up her Bengaluru-based design studio Earthen Symphony. What started over 17 years ago with a measly initial capital has now become a business of decent revenue on the back of theme-based wall murals for which she charges anywhere between `20,000-`30 lakh. But did it scale up fast enough? Perhaps not, if you consider that it took Uday 17 years to get to her first `1 crore turnover. Mumbai-based entrepreneur Vivek Goyal works in a very different, albeit creative, space from Uday but there is something that he shares with her. He is also facing an issue with how he should go about scaling up his comic book venture Holy Cow Entertainment, which was started last year.
The funding question As the primary artist for his business, Goyal does most of the artwork in the comic books
himself. A year into his business, Goyal has realized that he was getting a lot more work done when he was freelancing, up to five pages of illustrations for comic books in a day, compared to the 14 pages a month he does now. There is a problem and he knows it. He needs to expand and hire more people, but that means bringing investors on board. That means that there will be a voice other than his mentoring the business with him. But can he afford that? Both Uday and Goyal face a quandary that many other creative professionals looking to run their own ventures have. Where does creative freedom stand vis-a-vis growing the business? Do they merge at some point? Where do you draw the line? Goyal says that one of the main reasons he has tried to not get investors on board is because protecting his creative freedom has been very important to him. Uday too harbors similar fears. Krishna Tanuku, Executive Director at ISB’s Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development
"CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS TRY TO GET A LARGE SHARE OF A SMALL PIE. THEY SHOULD INSTEAD GET A REASONABLE SHARE OF A LARGE PIE.” — KRISHNA TANUKU, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT ISB’S WADHWANI CENTRE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT
62 Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012
(WCED) agrees that creative ventures often lack the funding support others in the startup ecosystem get. Tanuku says, "Supporting creative ventures is not everyone's cup of tea." While looking for investors, entrepreneurs must be able to demonstrate that their designs are capable of generating revenue. They must also look for investors who understand and respect the creative freedom of the entrepreneur.
Understand the customer The realm of creative businesses covers a vast range that includes most handicraft ventures, artists, painters, jewelry designers, fashion designers and many others. And they all face Uday and Goyal’s problem. Geetha Krishnan, Director at the Centre for Executive Education at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, says that one needs to recognize the core issue with such businesses—they are too dependent on the entrepreneur’s creative zeal. Krishnan worked closely with Uday during Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women program at ISB, where the organization worked with women entrepreneurs to understand the business principles that could help them expand and grow their businesses. “While these entrepreneurs have the technical know-how and the passion for designing, the lack of business knowledge and business skill is what
NEW IDEAS: Madhu Uday (left) and Jayesh Sachdev
keeps them from scaling up,” he says adding that a business like Uday’s needs a clear business plan and also should pay heed to customer expectations. Tanuku says that from getting investors to setting up a distribution channel, a lack of understanding amongst people about the needs of creative ventures puts the creative entrepreneur in a tougher situation than other entrepreneurs. He says that from another perspective, creative ventures have the problem of measuring the customer needs. "Customer perception for most creative ventures differs from person to person, therefore the entrepreneur has to constantly think of ways to create value for the customer," he explains.
Target a segment, not an individual Uday designed a wall mural for the Goodrich Aerospace Services' Bengaluru office, which is a global supplier of services and systems to the aerospace industry, on, not surprisingly, an aerospace theme. Chris Rao,
Vice-President, Goodrich, says that while Uday’s close involvement in the creative process helped him better explain what he was looking for, he adds this was probably the hindrance Uday faces in scaling up her business. Tanuku has a definite opinion on this. He says that it is difficult to create a brand through customization. Entrepreneurs must look at customizing for a market segment rather than customizing for individuals, he adds. Jayesh Sachdev and Rixi Bhatia began Quirk Box to design apparel and accessories in 2010. Sachdev comes from a design and art background, while Bhatia comes from a pure fashion background. Quirk Box’s Sachdev says that requests for creating customized designs come to them often but they steer away from taking on those projects and focus on designing for their target segment. It has helped, he says, keeping that focus. They began with a capital of `2.5 lakh in December 2010 and their first year turnover stood at `30 lakh.
My idea, my worry Uday works with a team of 22 people and has one workshop and one retail outlet in Bengaluru. However, despite the immense nature of her work, she doesn't want to bring another designer on board. She says, “I am scared that my designs may be replicated or stolen.” But is there merit in Uday’s worries? Sachdev shares that prior to Quirk Box, he too faced the fear of ideas and designs being stolen. He also admits “it’s almost unavoidable in the creative industry”. If ideas are stolen, Tanuku explains, and new ventures started, it helps the sector as a whole as more players bring in more competition. Thereafter, he says, the entrepreneur can build his brand not only through his designs but also through other aspects of the business like quality, delivery, service etc. Stealing of ideas, Tanuku adds, is rampant in many industries. “Ideas are and were stolen often in the software industry as well.” And we all know how the Indian software industry turned out.
To read more, grab the October 2012 issue of Entrepreneur Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012 63 To Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in
GETTING THERE
[ GLOBAL MOVES ]
DIGITAL DREAMS CHRIS GEORGE is hoping to revolutionize the online marketing space BINDI SHAH
FORWARD LOOKING: Chris George 80 Intelligent Entrepreneur ď‚„ October 2012
Photo Joshua Navalkar
C
hris George started his entrepreneurial journey when he was just 16. However, he changed course many times before settling in to anchor a digital marketing services company, the EBS Worldwide Group, at the age of 28. One thread that remains constant through the ups and downs of George’s journey is his vision and his ability to always stay ahead of the times. He was a pioneer in the Indian e-commerce space and chose to exit it even before others had entered the domain. When EBS got into the digital marketing space, Indian companies barely knew about the sector. He went global and catered to foreign markets from day one of starting out.
Danzig days Born and brought up in Mumbai, George’s first exposure to entrepreneurship was in junior college where he organized the college festival successfully with a few other friends. This led to four college students coming together and forming an event management company titled ‘Danzig,’ a partnership firm. “We were making money,” says George, now 36, Group CEO at EBS Worldwide. The eventual passing away of one of his close friends and partners in the firm led George to do some serious thinking. He chose to switch to business studies from the field of science and went on to the US to pursue a BBA and then an MBA. “Like most Indian students in the US, I started working part-time at a gas station. That job was like a parallel education in entrepreneurship,” reveals George, adding that this was the first time he learnt to go right down to the basics of operations. After his MBA, George took up a job in the telecom sector in the US, but destiny had other ideas for him.
Back to base A short trip to India in the Christmas of 1999 made him touch base with his partners at Danzig, which had shut down by then. One of them had joined Sony Music. His friend identified an
opportunity for music distribution in India. This was a nascent area in India as music DVDs were only sold at select retail outlets. “We decided to adopt a Domino’s kind of model. In essence, we were working towards a direct-to-consumer delivery model for music. We registered a toll-free number [we were only the second or third entity in the country to do so] and started our business,” he recollects. George says the first person he approached for help was Haresh Chawla (currently Partner, India Value Fund Advisors and former group CEO at Network18), who was then heading Times Music. “I requested Haresh to print our toll-free number along with his half-page ad in newspapers. That month, Times Music sold more CDs through us than through Rhythm House in Colaba, their prime point of sale,” explains George. This terrific response was enough for George to
"EBS HAS ACCELERATED ITS BASE IN INDIA, BUT FACES COMPETITION FROM PLAYERS WHO STARTED MUCH LATER.” — CHRIS GEORGE,
GROUP CEO, EBS WORLDWIDE
drop all plans of returning to the US and starting EasyBuyMusic in early 2000, an online portal that sold music directly to consumers.
E-commerce beckons For EasyBuyMusic, George approached Channel [V] for a partnership. Mahesh Murthy (Co-Founder, Seedfund), who was then with the channel, decided to fund George’s venture in his personal capacity. He put in `45 lakh and EasyBuyMusic got a boost to grow operations. George’s participation at a fundraising-VC event got the firm Arthur Andersen, to notice him and the latter decided to incubate him. “I
spent long hours over the next seven months at the Arthur Andersen office. They prepared the blueprint for my scale and growth,” says George. The folks at Anderson told George, “We’ll help you prepare for a roadshow; you raise money and then pay us”. ICICI Venture stepped in to fund George’s e-tailing venture in 2000. According to market sources, the venture fund put in about `6.7 crore into EasyBuyMusic then. Bala Deshpande, Senior MD, NEA, who was formerly with ICICI Venture, says that ICICI Venture had, at the turn of the century, taken multiple bets on the e-commerce play in keeping with the business sentiment at that time. “The music industry was shaping up; both from a volume and value perspective. EBS represented an opportunity to participate in this industry with the advantage of tapping the market with a reach-efficient internet model,” she says. After becoming a wholesaler of music, EasyBuyMusic evolved into EasyBuyStore, which sold various products through the e-commerce model by 2003. But the story never really made it to its happy ending.
No juice in the squeeze “The juice was not worth the squeeze,” admits George. The founder realized that there was too little revenue coming in, as payment options like Cash-onDelivery and credit card transactions turned to be unprofitable. Deshpande admits EasyBuyStore was too early for its time. According to her, the market was barely born and the internet infrastructure challenges at that time were just too large to be ignored. George asked ICICI not to write him off while he revamped operations and looked for a new investor. They cut down from 170 to 35 people in the next six months and EasyBuyStore was transformed into EasyBuyServices by 2004. “We realized that we already had our technology platform and back-end in place. We understood the internet. Keeping this in mind, we stumbled upon a sweet spot where technology met marketing,” says George. According to
To read more, grab the October 2012Intelligent issue of Entrepreneur Entrepreneur October 2012 81 To Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR
8BOU UP 4DBMF 6Q Subscribe to Entrepreneur today to find out how.
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7ITH 6IRGIN 'ALACTIC THE MAVERICK 3IR 2ICHARD IS GOING WHERE NO ENTREPRENEUR HAS GONE BEFORE
you were debating start“The opportunity for social entreprein terms of investor interest. Impact ing that social business of investment funds are working closely0' neurs is immense in India since there yours, perhaps now is the are more than 850 million people surwith commercial investors to help time you should heed the angel on your viving on less than $2 a day.â€? social ventures get established. The shoulder to do the good deed. According But how has the opportunity government is pitching in. +$ ( % # $ (# wtoo & ( ! w ( . % +(* . w %! . #, % ( % w () & %" w %+ &' # &&* w ( + +$! to a study by Intellecap, a social busiunfolded on the ground? To search for The National Innovation Council +# !! (& &*- % w %! , " % % w % %) # w % '&&( ness advisory major that works to bring that answer, Entrepreneur revisited three (NIC) has announced a `5,000 crore fund, which will support innovations entrepreneurial solutions to social of the most promising social businesses in critical goods and services for the organizations, social entrepreneurship featured over the last three years to population living below the poverty in India really took off in 2005-06, and see whether the winds of change have line. The fund will operate as a prihas grown exponentially since and will carried them towards their goals or +# !! (& &*- % w %! , " % % w % %) # w % '&&( %+ &' # &&* w ( + +$! #, % ( % w () & %" vate fund with a wgovernment stake of continue to grow at a fast clip. farther away from them. +$ ( % # $ (# w & ( ! w ( . % +(* . w %! . /P PG no( than 20 percent. According GaneshTenure Rengaswamy, Partner atCover Lok Price Discount 'SFF (JGU `more ) 4VCTDSJQUJPO 1SJDF ` ) Issues A microcosm of innovation to the NIC, the fund will seed earlyCapital, an early stage investor focus" TFU PG $VGĂĄJOL stage ideas and 999 expand successful ing on financial 1 year and social 12 inclusion 100 1,200 17% We featured Bengaluru-based /FDL UJF MicroGraam in February 2011 when the ones going forward, trying to plug the0' tells us that when looking back on the HAS GONE BEFORE and sports. The inside story NO ENTREPRENEUR group around entertainment social enterprise was just a year old. A large gap in demand for capital and its social entrepreneurship space in100 the IS GOING WHERE 2 years 24 2,400 1,899 21% " 1BTTQPSU 8BMMFU a formidable business AND PASSION 3IR 2ICHARD Shah Rukh Khan has built 3TORIES OF VISION GRIT micro-credit venture, MicroGraam has availability for the sector to fullyTHE MAVERICK last three years, he can clearly see that 7ITH 6IRGIN 'ALACTIC been growing at a steady rate, unlike realize its potential. things have changed. several ventures in this space, both in The fund could maximize its impact “Social enterprises are coming of terms of impact and milestones. and alleviate gaps in the funding landage in various sectors beyond micro "2!.3/.k3 WILL SEE 4(% “We have grown about 200 scape by prioritizing investments in finance - whether it is livelihood, edupercent with regard to the number pilot-stage and startup enterprises, the cation, energy, water, or health. Most THE of people impacted,â€? says a proud government has said in the past. of the endeavors are mature. Most of 'SFF (JGU " TFU PG 'SFF (JGU Ranganthe Varadan, and The other biggest challenge social them are building a financially sucSurviving Slowdown PGCo-Founder 60 " 1BTTQPSU 8BMMFU Richard Branson’s tie-breaker Pg 18 $VGĂĄJOL /FDL UJF CEO, MicroGraam. As of date, it has ventures face is being able to hire and cessful model along with a social goal,â€? disbursed loans to 1,300 micro-entreretain talented employees. It's not he says. preneurs and students across 150 Self really an attractive work life when you The Intellecap report found that 3 ANNIVERSARY ISSUE Help Groups (SHGs), up from 228 across compare RD it to mainstream careers. A energy and agriculture have experi40-45 SHGs as reported last year, shortage of funds often restricts social enced the greatest growth in terms of amounting to a grand total of `2.02 ventures from being able to match salthe number of new enterprises since crore they launched in March aries paid by larger companies. Many 2006. Other sectors that have shown Magazine Subscription Made since Simple 2010. Itslog current social enterprises also work diffigrowth in the social entrepreneurForin exclusive offer on toloan out-standing stands at `1.36 crore. cult business terrains. Their business ship space include health, livelihood IUUQ FTIPQ JOGPNFEJB JO The most noteworthy developenvironments are deficient of supply development, water and sanitation. Subscription Department: Infomedia 18 Ltd : ‘A’ Wing, 2nd Floor, Ruby House, J K Sawant Marg, Dadar (W), Mumbai 400 028. ment has been an exit—a first for chain and distribution networks, andr &NBJM Education,r 5PMM 'SFF on the other hand, is catch: 1800 200 1021 r $BMM : 022 30034631/33 r '"9 : 022 30034499 : customercare@infomedia18.in micro-venture capitalists. reported elaborate ing up and appearsYourpoised for Terms & Conditions: subscription willtake-off. start from the next available issue. No physical cancellation willinfrastructure. be entertained after commencement of the subscription. Infomedia18 reserves the rightAs to extend, cancel or discontinue the offer. Though Infomedia 18 Ltd. will take utmost care to dispatch the copies safely. Infomedia 18 Ltd does not take the responsibility of any postal delays and damaged copies in February 2011, one of its is pilot Jayant Sinha, Managing Director at Other cogs in the wheel are finally dispatched. 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GO FRANCHISE
[ FAST FOOD ]
QUICK
BITE
Opening up a quick service franchise? Partnering with the right brands and preparing your risk appetite is what the chef ordered SHRUTI CHAKRABORTY
IF
you're an aspiring food entrepreneur and don't have the expertise or finances to start out with your own restaurant, owning a quick service restaurant (QSR) franchise may be just the thing was in the dairy segment. An SHG in for you. `3 Kolar bought 10 doubt cows that on aIndia's loan of There is little food lakh for a three-year tenure on a and beverages services market isprofitgrowsharing model. “The Technopak investors in the ing rapidly. A recent report dairy venture afterwould two years predicted that exited the sector grow with net return on investment 11 at 25a percent annually for the of next percent few years.per annum,” says Varadan. TheWithin total the profit for social organized food investors market— amounted estimated to at `a66,000. value of $1.9 billion in Beginningaccount January this$860year, 2012—QSRs for about milMicroGraam has added health and lion. This is estimated to grow to over sanitation new Pratichee areas of Kapoor, focus, $2.2 billion as by 2017, largely avoided by traditional microfiAssociate Vice President at Technopak nance institutions, as it doesn’t generAdvisors says. ateBut income them. “We think you— it’s a don't for let the name deceive critical issue which will quick. directly result the going is not all that Some of in generation for beneficiaries,” theincome key challenges faced in general by he thenotes. industry are availability of quality In estate January, 120 familiesand in real in ita helped suitable location Tumkur, build home toilets finding a Karnataka property size according to the with loan of `10,000 each, repayable QSR’saneeds. over 18 months and hence created sigNot so quickly nificant awareness around hygiene and Since most QSRs need to be at prominent health. It has extended this initiative Photo Deepti Desai
locations, they almost always have the challenge of paying high rents and deposits to property owners. This makes it essential for the franchisees to focus on maintaining a healthy rent to sales ratio in their operations. A lot of the procedures in QSRs are standardized. Many of the skills required in the employees are common—meanRevenue 2011-'12: `1.2 lakh ing that an employee at your franchise Revenue 2009-'10: `90,000 could easily work at another chain. This Number of loans disbursed till February makes retaining employees a challenge. 2011: 228 across 40-45 SHGs Employees have to see the incentive of Number of loans disbursed till August 2012: working at your organization or they
PENNY WISE
1300 entrepreneurs and students across 150 SHGs. The Big Leap: 200% growth in terms of THE QSR MARKET number of people impacted
WOULD GROW TO OVER $2.2 BILLION to drinking water in North Karnataka. BY 2017 “Ground water in this region has high
TECHNOPAK ADVISORS) fluoride content (SOURCE: that leads to several ailments,” explains Varadan. MicroGraam has developed a suscould easily scoot off to this a peer or rival. tainable model to solve problem in Managing with delivery time isDeshpande a key area partnership Gururaj of focus for aNGO QSR. However, Foundation, Sankalpa,this andcannot Aqua mean that the restaurant cuts corners Safi (the Indian arm of US-based nonand provides a substandard product to profit organization H2O for Humanity). theThis consumer. turnaround, while month Quick MicroGraam will finish
keeping quality, is the key to success for TAKING MICRO a QSR. TO MACRO: Also ensure that MicroGraam's the brand you partner with is open toRangan adapting to local Varadan tastes and the conditions in the immediate market. This can be a major factor installing three water purifyingofunits in influencing the performance your in Karnataka’s Gadak district, funded franchise. by social investors set up by entreWe take a look atand the models followed preneurs identified withQSR the industry, help of by some players in the Gururaj Foundation specifyingDeshpande what it takes to becomeina 50-60 square sized franchisee, the feet support youcommunity will receive `4 water shops. “Waterand willthe beprofits sold atyou from the company, 5 for to a make. 20 liter can—the average to are`likely amount required per says household for Technopak’s Kapoor that while cooking and drinking,” he to says. a lot of people may want get a slice from the investment of Apart the pie, partnering with required, the right MicroGraam had determine a bigger challenge brands can largely your suchere—getting cess or failure. rural folk to pay for water, a basic necessity. “It required a Kaati Zone change in mindset as water should be Kaati he Zone is an Indian QSR chain free,” mentions. based and two operated outeducating of Bangalore. It spent months the The companythrough serves wraps few community street and shows, other items on its menu. It is aiming to engaging with gram panchayats and expandhighlighting across Indiathe anddirect abroad in the SHGs, relation future. good health and household between “Currently focusing the income. It’s gotwe theare backing of sixon inveslakh south and west of theinvested country,`6where tors who have together for villages. ourthree supply chain is already working
To read more, grab the October 2012 issue of Entrepreneur 93 Intelligent Intelligent Entrepreneur Entrepreneur September October 2012 89 To Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in
TECH DEPARTMENT
[ ONE MORE ]
IN THE MIDDLE The second of HTC’s One range of smartphones, but the last to come to India, packs a real hefty punch of its own A NKUSH CHIBBER
ONE S PRICE `28,999 DIMENSIONS 65 x 130.9 x 78 mm WEIGHT 119.5 g SCREEN Super AMOLED, 4.7 in,1366 x 768 pixels PROCESSOR Dual Core, 1.5 Ghz S & M 16GB and 1GB RAM CONNECTIVITY Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA BATTERY 7 hrs on continuous use
HTC HAS DONE A lot of things right in its time in India, but the one thing we are miffed about is the delay with which it launched the One S here. Why they did so, is open to speculation. But our estimated guess is that it wanted to protect the sales of the One X—yes, the One S is good enough to dent the market for what we called “the best Android mobile device out there.” We have had the One S for a month now and we are happy to report that HTC has not had any hiccups with the last of its ‘One’ range. To start off, we would like to clearly state our preference for the 4.3-inch screen over the 4.7–inch screen on the One X. It is just about the manageability of it. The One X’s size does not endear itself to all. No body blues The One S is also an incredibly thin and light phone at about 7.8mm and 119g, with a smooth ceramic finish that just feels right in your hands—without being flimsy. The screen is smaller,
but the Gorilla Glass goes edge-to-edge enhancing its visual appeal. The front panel also houses the capacitive buttons as well as the frontfacing VGA camera. Other than that, the body also houses a microUSB port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a speaker grill, and an 8MP camera with LED flash. Unlike the One X however, the One S has a removable flap for the microSIM. Like it though, there is no expanding the storage with a memory card slot. Much like its older cousin, the screen accounts for a lot of the good that you would associate with the One S. Here you have a 540 x 960 pixel resolution screen exudes sharpness for images and text both. We dig it. The One S comes with Android 4.0 along with Sense 4.0 skin running on top. If your read our review of the One X, you would know of all the right things about it—it is just a treat to work on. The interface is butter-smooth and swiping through screens is a breeze, even though the One S uses a chipset
different, and older, to the One X’s quad-core system. Media and more On the audio-visual experience of things, the One S performs above par. The One S also incorporates a lot of connectivity options including 3G, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, and TV-out. HTC has also put in a lot of its own stuff in the One S including a Task Manager to kill apps and services, and Notes— that syncs with your Evernote account. The One S camera, to put it simply, is the One X camera—top of its class. So what is our verdict? Compared to a peer device like that Sony Xperia S, the One S is simply a better phone. Compared to the One X? Yes, we would recommend it if you are not a stickler for large screens. It is cheaper by a few thousand as well. The only downside in our book is the battery life—the older chipset is not as battery efficient, though you would not notice the difference in using the phone.
To read more, grab the October 2012Intelligent issue of Entrepreneur Entrepreneur October 2012 95 To Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in
START UPS
[ ON WATCH ]
AN EYE IN THE SKY
ideaForge has developed a product to assist defense and security forces in their activities by giving them a 'God's view' on things SHRUTI CHAKRABORTY
W
hat would you do if you were given a product that could fly overhead and send you images or a real-time video of what is happening around you within a radius of upto 2.5 kilometers? You could, perhaps, be thinking of deploying it to monitor your employees' work or take a peek at how the traffic situation is up ahead or find out which route to take on a trekking trip. For reference you can think of a similar product used in the film 3 Idiots. A few former students of IIT Bombay have developed a product capable of doing that, but the product is so far being provided only to defense forces, security agencies and para-military forces to help their operations on field. Ankit Mehta, 29, Rahul Singh, Ashish Bhat, Amardeep Singh, 28, and Vipul Joshi, 30 are promoters of the startup ideaForge that has developed NETRA, an unmanned aerial vehicle in partnership with the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
at the institute. What ties them all together, Mehta says, is that “we’re all crazy about technology.” While in IIT, as students they had worked on developing unmanned aerial vehicles. In 2004, the prototype of their product had failed miserably, Mehta admits.
TECH ALERT 1
The GPS system allows the product to fly autonomously once it receives the instructions
2
The battery, fitted on top, allows it to fly for upto half an hour. Just below the battery is the brain of the product. It is a small and extremely light auto-pilot
3
4
Learning to fly The initial work for setting up ideaForge began while Mehta, Singh and Bhat were students at IIT Bombay. Mehta had joined IIT in the year 2000. The others were two years his junior 104 Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012
5
The product flies with the help of four rotors. This helps easier take off and landing
A camera is fitted at the bottom. which is capable of taking video footage from various angles
A set of antenna send the footage gathered real time to the ground control platform
The team continued working on developing a number of products and in 2005 had represented India in Robocon, a robotics contest in Beijing. Mehta had also filed a patent for a renewable energy product while in IIT, that the company was producing in its early days. The energy product has now taken a backseat as the team focuses on developing NETRA and taking it to the right markets. Mehta, who is the CEO of the company, graduated from his combined B. Tech and M.Tech degree from IIT in 2005. After a stint at a sales and marketing consulting firm to gather some money to support him in his bootstrapping efforts, he got back to focusing on developing the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In the meantime, Singh, who was studying at IIT, also worked on UAVs there. “Amardeep had done some self motivated work and was rather proactive and entrepreneurial even as a student at IIT, which is why we saw in him an interesting partner” Mehta says. In 2007, ideaForge was incorporated and incubated at the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIT Bombay. In the meantime, Mehta’s childhood friend Joshi completed his management education abroad and joined the team after a short stint at an automotive parts manufacturing Photo Neha Mithbawkar
1
2
3
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW (l. to r.) Ankit Mehta, Vipul Joshi, Rahul Singh and Amardeep Singh
4 5
To read more, grab the October 2012 issue of Entrepreneur ď‚„ October 2012 105 Intelligent Entrepreneur To Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in
START UPS
N
ot many entrepreneurs start up with 250 acres of owned-land, equipment imported from Europe, and `40 crore in funding—all without the backing of a venture capitalist or angel investor. You cannot argue with Fratelli Wines’ need to start big however, as their openly disclosed goal is to build a wine making company that can compete with the top international players in its space. Fratelli’s roots go back to 2007 when Kapil Sekhri and his five partners decided to turn into vintners i.e. wine merchants. In all, the founding team is made up of three sets of brothers—Andrea and Alessio Secci, Kapil and Gaurav Sekhri, Ranjitsinh and Arjunsinh Mohite-Patil. Hence the name Fratelli, which literally means brothers in Italian. “To us it meant brotherhood,” says Kapil Sekhri, Co-Promoter and Director at Fratelli Wines. Sekhri used to work with the Secci brothers' father in a business of exporting footwear, because of which Sekhri had to travel to Italy often, which is when he says he developed a love for drinking wine.
UN VINO [ ABOUT A GRAPE ]
India's wine scene has a new entrant, and it is aiming big SHRUTI CHAKRABORTY
The grapes to grow Drinking is one thing, but no one really knew how to make wines. For this, the founders brought on board viticulture consultant Piero Masi, who is now a stakeholder in Fratelli Wines. Next came the location, and the obvious choice was Maharashtra, where Nasik has been a hub of winemaking. After six months of research on the soil and other conditions, the team narrowed down on Akluj to set up the estate where they would grow the grapes. Today, their vineyards are spread across 250 acres at three sites in Motewadi, Garwad and Nimgaon. The mother plants were brought to India from a nursery in France, which Sekhri claims is 130 years old and supplies to some of the best international wine makers across the globe. “We moved half a million tonnes of soil for the vineyards. The vineyards 110 Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012
"WE MOVED HALF A MILLION TONNES OF SOIL FOR THE VINEYARDS. THE VINEYARDS ARE THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE COMPANY." KAPIL SEKHRI, CO-PROMOTER AND DIRECTOR, FRATELLI WINES
Photo Neha Mithbawkar
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are the heart and soul of the firm. We knew that if the grapes are good you will make a good wine, but if they are bad, even a magician can't make it into a good wine,” he says. It was in December 2007 that the first plantation went on ground. The second went on ground in 2008. Sommelier Nikhil Aggarwal says that the company is quality conscious and having their own vineyards enables them to supervise quality thoroughly. For the winery, the company imported 58 tanks of varying capacity, to make the wines, from Velo, Italy. The winery has been designed and built by architects Sunil Patil and associates, and the first batch of Fratelli wines rolled out in 2010.
The wine to drink Fratelli’s winery has a capacity of 80,000 cases, for which case is 9 liters and each bottle is priced between `460 to `1650. The cheapest of its brands are but the ones we tried were good, if not anything special. where the traditional Chenin (whiteIndian wine)sweet and DINE OUT IN DELHI the Classic is sandwiched between two layers The small fashion bites to go with your food are thoughtthe Classic Shiraz (red wine). The Sette 1. Lamb rack 2. Veg mezze platter of mango ful concoctions. We tried the green papaya prawn puchkas is Fratelli’s mostslices. expensive offering. 3. De Villa’s second floor It is these dishes and (`475), tandoori Wasabi curry leaf prawns (`475) and the The wines are innovative priced competitively goat cheese-smoked cashew cigaroll with chilli chutney ultra-chic interiors that have whenthe compared to other Indian wines, (`400)—all innovative and flavorful. The rosemary glazed made this newcomer toSekhri the Mumbai gastronomical scene but emphasizes that the wines tava seekh kebabs (`450), however, was too full of masala such a big success already. Butpriced do we like the constant FTV were not looking at the other and is best avoided, unless you pair it with cold beer. For the ramp show that plays on the wide screen like“We a bar along wines available In India. did our mains, we tried the fusion Indian items in which regular one part of the restaurant? Notlooking really, at but that is quite a pricing not competition, but dishes are given a slight innovative touch, like the Patiala minor sore blot on an otherwise great meal.We considered thinking as consumers. chicken with whisky flambé (`650). But the taste here was what a consumer would pay for it.” De Villa, New Delhi not too different from that of a regular chicken gravy. The When they launched in 2010, Fratelli nariyal mirch jhinga (prawns in a yellow coconut-based Situated in Hauz Khas in the national De had Village three varieties of their capital, wines and gravy, `700) is a must-try, have it with steamed rice. Villa is cricketer Ashish Nehra his brother Bhanu there are now and 10 varieties available in Nehra’s attempt at entering the culinary scene inwill Delhi. The There are all the regular trappings, like different Indian the market. The company launch breads, biryanis, pastas etc. Also on offer are naaninis (`480 restaurant serves usual cocktails like this Pinayear. Colada two more varieties The(`550), comonwards) and pizaans (`450 onwards); both variations of Margharita (`450) and Long Island Iced Tea it (`550) for pany informs us that has but alsogowon naans, the one created like paninis and the latter like pizzas the unusual ones like the Cucumber Mojito five international awards(`550). for its varietwith different toppings. If you don’t prefer Drop (`175); ies alcohol, includingtry theDew Chardonnay 2011 this and mocktail is a must-have in the Delhi summers. The hookahs There are some continental dishes on the ‘world menu’ Chenin Blanc 2011. like the bourbon marinated chicken with a carrot and here have interesting flavors likebeen the Pan Red Sales have goodRasna so far.and In 2011, ginger mash (`950), the tandoori pesto cottage cheese (`475) Bull ones. the company sold 10,500 cases of wine and the fish/cottage cheese marinated and cooked in wax For starters, try the Cigarro/mushroom cigars and Hongos is looking to sell 40,000 cases this THE (`275) which are enhanced withshould apricotbeand served in30,000 vodka paper (`950). Each of these items is like a signature dish; WINEMAKERS: year. “We able to sell mezze (`425) includes they are light yet filling and can be paired with the wine (leftglasses. to right) The non-vegetarian cases this year platter comfortably,” Sekhri pitaSecci, bread, kibbeh, says. meat The fatiyaar and chicken wings, but on offer here. When at the F Lounge.Diner.Bar, always leave Alessio company clocked a turnover Arjunsinh it’s not special. The with hummus, space in your stomach for the desserts. Each of these are Mohite-Patil, of platter `4 crorewas last served year and is targeting a tabbouleh and tzatziki—all which were nice highly recommended; try the Bailey’s kulfi with tiny gulab Kapilbabaganoush, turnover of `10 croreofthis year. Sekhri Sekhri Piero Masi not innovative. An ‘exclusive’ at De Villabreak-even is the nazza—a jamuns and a blueberry cashew on top of the kulfi (`600), or and but says that operational will combination of naanhappen base and toppings. We tried the the mango rasmalai lasagna with blue curacao rabdi (`600) by pizza this financial year.
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BACK STAGE
Do you have what it takes to be a young millionaire? 1. Are you young? A. Yes (5) B. No (-100) C. No, but I’m spry! (-50) 2. Are you currently or have you ever been worth $1 million? A. No (0) B. Yes (100) 3. How amped are you right now? A. Not all that amped. You? (-5) B. Totally (3) C. TO-tally (-5) 4. Do you currently make more than $75,000 a year and save at least 15 percent each month? A. Yes (10) B. No (0) 5. 401(k)? A. Yes (5) B. No (-5) 6. Quick, here’s an asset! A. Buy it! (2) B. Appreciate it! (2) C. Protect it! (2) D. Do all three! (10) 7. When you hear the term “hedge fund” you think: A. A little money set aside for landscaping (-5) B. A speculative investing portfolio involving high risk and a very large initial investment (1) 8. Which word best describes this photo?
10. Which activity do you most enjoy? A. Hemming (-5) B.Hawing (-5) C. None of the above (0) 11. Which of the following stocks have you purchased in the last five years? A. Priceline.com (50) B. Apple (40) C. Facebook (?!) D. Other (0) 12. Which set of zeros seems most appealing? A. 00 (0) B. 000 (0) C. 0000 (0) D. 00000 (0) E. 000000 (10) 13. Who’s your favorite notable American? A. (0) B. (0) C. (0) D. (0) E. (0) F. (0) G.(100)
14. Which of the following virtues do you possess? A. Hunger (2) B. Drive (2) C. Prudence (2) D. Patience (2) A. Mountains (0) B. Sunset (0) C. Success (4) 9. While growing up, you had a favorite: A. Stuffed animal (0) B. Horse (10) 134 Intelligent Entrepreneur October 2012
Check all that apply, then add up the points to determine if you’re millionaire material BY ROSS MCC AMMON
A. Ivy (10) B. Other green plant (-10) 17. Choose a boat:
A. A metaphor for a cold world (0) B. One less thing you have to purchase to get a restaurant off the ground (4) 24. Describe this glass: A. Half empty (-5) B. Half full (5) C. Hello? Coaster?! (-10)
A. (10)
B. (8)
C. (6)
D. (4)
E. (0)
18. Choose a boat name: A. Knot Paid IV (-1) B. Aquaholic (-1) C. Lamberdinghy (-1) D. Feelin’ Nauti (-1) E. Wake Me When It’s Over (-1) F. Sea –E-O (5) 19. Which of these two self-help books seems most up your alley? A. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by T. Harv Eker (8) B. The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living by Mark Boyle (-2) 20. In your professional life, do you go by your first initial and your middle and last names? A. Yes (5) B. No (0) 21. Might you be T. Harv Eker? A. Yes (20) B. No (0)
15. Did the last question make you think about going to Taco Bell? A. Yes (-3) B. No (1)
22. You consider an empty storefront to be: A. Urban blight (0) B. A thing of beauty (2)
16. What comes to mind when you think back on your college experience?
23. You consider the walk-in freezer in that empty storefront to be:
25. Building wealth is most like… A. Climbing a mountain (2) B. Rowing a river (-2) C. Thinking about climbing a mountain or rowing a river- while lying in a hammock (-5) 26. What are you most likely to do with a pile of cash? A. Invest it (4) B. Spend it (-1) C. Sit atop it and giggle (-3) D. Ignite it to provide light and warmth (-10) 27. Here’s what I need you to do. I need you to take this briefcase. Then I need you to get a flight from JFK to Belgium and meet up with a guy named Janssens. Give him the briefcase. Then lie low for a little while. And don’t ask any questions. When you get back, I’ll give you $1 million. Also, Janssens can be a little prickly. A. No (0) B. Newark is slightly more convenient for me, especially on weekends (-20) C. Done (30)
KEY LESS THAN 0 POINTS: “Hundredaire” is not really a thing. 1 TO 50 POINTS: That’s hunger, drive, prudence and patience. And maybe a little fear. 51 TO 100 POINTS: One word: biotech. MORE THAN 100 POINTS: You did not need to take this quiz. ROSS McCAMMON is an articles editor at Esquire and a regular contributor to Entrepreneur