Those who have taken the plunge, know that there is nothing glamorous about entrepreneurship. There is however, a strong sense of responsibilty and power that stems from meaningful action. It is the result of this meaningful effort that will be showcased and celebrated at HeadStart Hyderabad.

Headstart will have two exciting parts. In the first part, 15 early stage companies chosen through a national selection process by an independent panel of investors and entrepreneurs will take the stage. They will demo their products live in front of an audience that comprises of investors, potential customers, media and fellow entrepreneurs.

In the second part, there would be panel discussions and unconferences between successful entrepreneurs to derive insights into topics relevant for entrepreneurs today. These panels / unconferences are themed on following subjects:

• Indian growth as a driver of Entrepreneurship,
• Unconventional Sources of funding,
• Challenges in social entrepreneurship,
• Indian Products Going Global, and other interesting topics.

Date: March 12, 2010
Venue: Hyderabad International Convention Center
Event Fee: Rs. 500
Registration: [Register here]. If you are a regular Startup Saturday attendee, please ask your city admin for a special 30% discount code.
List of speakers: [Link]

You can expect the event to be filled with

• Entrepreneurs to chat and learn from.
• Investors and angels to pitch to.
• Media to network with and possibly get yourself covered.
• Corporate customers, technologists, early adopters and representatives of various members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Startups always want branding and if we think that your offering is noteworthy, we would like  offer you a demo booth for a nominal fee. Please write to harinath[@]headstart[.]in to learn more.

Following the tradition of motivating entrepreneurial zeal across this nation, HeadStart hosted the monthly Startup Saturday this month on 13^th Feb. The event was attended by 75 people who came from various domains, regions and backgrounds to brain storm in yet another superb confluence that we had.

The event started with a lecture delivered by Mr. Mahesh Shetty the Founder of MT Educare. He shared his insights about entrepreneurship and the specific opportunities available in the education sector in India. He discussed how he understood the domain he was about to progress in and how he started Mahesh Tutorial in 1988 with three of his colleagues. MT Educare today has flourished into the largest private classes across the nation and beyond. Mr. Mahesh also shared some special nuggets that would free up any ones entrepreneurial mind from doubts about himself, his industry or competitors. He said the most important aspect to win in education or any other any sector is the way you approach the problem. We will definitely share all the insights that Mr. Mahesh shared with us in a detailed post and/or video later, but a very specific thought is worth a mention. When Mr. Mahesh started Mahesh Tutorials and decided to increase his team, he was called upon by his mentor. He advised him that he is simply making a mistake by compiling a team of faculties, who will later become his competitors by opening their own classes once they know the nitty gritties of the business. To this Mr. Mahesh replied that he is not creating competitors, rather by empowering his team what he sees is 3 new branches of Mahesh Tutorials in near future which will be executed by these three team mates. What happened next is history. Even today the same principles guide his organization of empowered employees called MT Educare!

Next we had a bunch of what we call as “Lightening Pitches”, where upcoming startups showcase their ideology and work that they are doing. This segment is very interesting as it has multiple advantages. The audiences get to know how people are cracking new opportunities across various domains and the difficulties that they overcome, at the same time the entrepreneurs get a host of ideas and advice from the audience, as to how to take things forward. It’s a great Brain Storming platform which attracts every startup who attends the event.

In the Lightening pitches segment we had very good amount of diversity. We had a social entrepreneur Akshay from Ads4Good who presented a medium where website owners and bloggers can help uplift the society by providing an ad space on their websites. What was also interesting was that his client is free to choose the area in which he wants this revenue to be utilized. Next we had Anubhuti from DewInk.com a startup which helps develop a child’s brain with stories that they connect with. After that we had Simi and her team from Meter Down the country’s first Auto-Rickshaw magazine. They discussed how they plan to make revenue while keeping us entertained while we are jammed in the Mumbai Traffic.

Next we had team from Deltecs who showcased their product Drona which is a Mobile Application Authoring tool. It helps organizations create short courses that employees can complete right on their mobiles while they are on the go! We even had friends from i-become.org who discussed how they are trying to bridge the gap between companies and students from various education institutes. The audience too provided great inputs to this team.

Finally an interesting part of the meet was the Open House. Recently added to our agenda, an open house is where everyone gets a chance to discuss and clarify their views on a particular theme. The theme this time was HR and personnel issues that the startup has to face. Where can they get good team members, how can they manage them and experiences by different startups were discussed. If you weren’t there, you seriously missed first hand insights from entrepreneurs themselves!

We ended up with our networking phase. Interacted with new faces, and tried to understand new things. All in all it was a very satisfying event to say the least and personally, I definitely look forward to attending the next Mumbai Startup Saturday event. Up until that time, keep buzzing the Entrepreneurial Spirits!

PS – Just missed one important announcement. On March 12th We will be having the bi-annual HeadStart event along with ITsAP in Hyderabad. It will be a great opportunity if you have a budding startup and a smart place to network. Looking forward to meet all of you there. For details log on to http://conf.headstart.in (If you are a startup, nominate your co now!)

About the Author – Himanshu Chanda is a business blogger and a regular visitor at the Head Start Saturdays. He shares his business insights on BizDharma.com and tweets @himanshuchanda

HeadStart Foundation, has partnered with the National Entrepreneurship Network for Entrepreneurship Week India 2010. To be celebrated from February 6 to 13, E Week India is the country’s largest campaign to build awareness and support for entrepreneurship. The campaign connects lakhs of participants through a range of activities and programs to harness their potential as leaders and innovators. It is supported by the Wadhwani Foundation and run by the National Entrepreneurship Network, representing more than 500 member academic institutes and 400 plus NEN student entrepreneurship Cells (E Cells) across 30 cities.

This year’s E Week is set to be the biggest yet, engaging over 400,000 participants and featuring 4000 events in 30 cities.  Along with HeadStart, E Week will see the active involvement of more than 30 organizations that support entrepreneurship; corporate houses; business leaders; industry experts; non-profit leaders and faculty leaders to inspire, encourage and mentor participants.

Especially significant is this year’s E Week theme “India: Opportunities Within”. India faces daunting challenges across many sectors: water, healthcare, energy, education, waste management, transportation and more. As pressure mounts and the cost of technology drops, these challenges provide enormous economic opportunities.  This year’s E Week theme focuses attention of the next generation of entrepreneurs on these often-overlooked opportunities.

During E Week, participants on and off campuses across the country – students, parents, friends and key members of the community – will take the E Week Pledge and engage in thousands of events focused on the E Week theme. These include competitions, expositions, educational movies screenings, leadership and motivation talks with successful entrepreneurs, panel discussions, business plan and skills-building workshops, tech bazaars, awareness campaigns and more. In addition, participants can register on the E Week website to share their experiences and connect to the larger NEN community.

E Week India will culminate on February 13, 2010 with a gala Awards Ceremony in Bangalore.  NEN member academic institutes will be chosen for the E Week India 2010 Championship Awards as well as 2 Special Awards: 1) Nilima Rovshen Creativity and Innovation Award 2) Most Effective Public Awareness Campaign Award. Student representatives of the Award winners will be flown to Bangalore for the Awards Ceremony attended by students from various institutes, eminent people from the industry and the government.

About NEN

The non-profit National Entrepreneurship Network was established in 2003 with a mission to create and support high-growth entrepreneurs, driving job-creation and economic growth.
Today, NEN represents the largest, most vibrant community of India’s new and future entrepreneurs. Its membership comprises:

• More than 500 top-tier academic institutes across India,
• A motivated pool of over 1100 entrepreneurship faculty members,
• Over 380 student Entrepreneurship Cells that count more than 70,000 members, and
• Thousands of NEN Alumni, now coming together to launch NEN E Clubs
• Leveraging the resources and programs of the NEN Trust, these members - the NEN institutes, faculty, E Cells, and E Clubs – each year run thousands of programs that create and support entrepreneurs.
• NEN was initiated by the Wadhwani Foundation, and co-founded by IIT Bombay; IIM Ahmedabad; BITS, Pilani; SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai; and the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bangalore.

Web startup companies are synonymous with the Silicon Valley due to the trend that has been set over the past decade. This is understandably so, with companies like Google, Cisco, Intel, Sun and a lot other renowned multi-billion dollar companies emerging from the Valley. So, do all successful internet based product companies emerge out of here or is this just an assumption?

InMobi is one of the world’s fastest growing mobile advertising networks that has emerged out of India and has proven that this is definitely a false assumption. Make no mistake; Silicon Valley still holds its charm with the unique advantages that it provides. Yet, there have been instances of successful product companies emerging out of the other geographies as well and InMobi is just the example to dive deeper into the phenomenon.

The usage of mobile in the emerging markets is probably what tipped the scales in favor of InMobi. Firstly, the numbers of mobile penetration are compelling. Mobile penetration has overtaken PC penetration in almost all emerging nations. Since the fixed line infrastructure is bad and unreliable, the ubiquitous mobile forms the obvious substitution. This set up the environment for mobile centric product companies. InMobi leveraged this platform and concentrated on innovation in their vision and technology. This helped create a world class product in a geography where the usage is exploding creating the right blend for success and voila!

Naveen Tewari, CEO and Founder, InMobi, says “India and the emerging markets are the hub of opportunity and potential. The usage is just booming making it the right time for entrepreneurs”. When asked the secret behind the success, he said “It is mandatory to completely understand the usage patterns and trends. That was what we did and realized that mobile ecosystem was the on the verge of a mighty explosion and we wanted to be a part of it. Once we had the idea in place, we needed a business model and that sealed the deal for us. We used the reverse market strategy where the emerging markets formed the development and test base for the Product and then it enters the global markets.” While the internet user base in the US gave Silicon Valley its platform for success, the emerging markets have a mobile user base to provide the fuel for progress.

InMobi was started as MKhoj in 2007 with Mumbai Angels backing it. At that point, the business model aimed at solving the local information problem using SMS based search and worked on SMS based monetization as a revenue model which would eventually morph into an SMS Ad Network. Post that, the team saw the growing potential of the mobile web and the business model was taken back to the drawing board. This was the turning point in InMobi’s life, when the SMS based model was dropped and InMobi took a dive into the mobile web ecosystem. InMobi decided to become a mobile advertising network, where advertisers can display their ads on mobile internet sites. The idea was soon bought into by Kleiner Perkins, Caufield and Byers as well as Sherpalo Ventures and InMobi began its journey into the mobile web and advertising world.

Today, InMobi is a global mobile ad network offering mobile web advertising solutions to its partners. InMobi helps advertisers reach their target consumers as they surf the internet on their mobile phones. InMobi believes in the future of the mobile web, and the power that it can provide publishers, advertisers and consumers. InMobi aims to develop the mobile web industry, and work to provide the highest level of value to advertisers, publishers and their audiences.

InMobi has built a strong network in Asia, Middle East and Africa and has grown into the leader as the largest ad network in Asia. InMobi’s success is rooted in the emerging economies where digital marketing is still at its infancy. This has translated into continued innovation as they deliver ground up solutions for their advertisers while effectively servicing global publishers. InMobi’s innovation has allowed it to successfully deliver industry leading results that have helped it to scale in such a short time.

The quality of InMobi’s network combined with their strong targeting capabilities and proprietary quality assurance technologies have enabled them to deliver both, reach and performance for their advertisers. In turn, InMobi’s large advertiser base, global infrastructure and intelligent ad serving technology allow them to deliver exemplary revenue levels, quality of advertising and ad response times to their publishers. All these coupled with InMobi’s principle of transparency with its customers makes InMobi the most preferred ad network to both advertisers and publishers in these regions.

InMobi has got itself a very strong client list that it flaunts proudly with name like Reebok, Nokia, MakeMyTrip, Yamaha and many more other top brands in the kitty. Their partner publisher list includes names of MocoSpace, eBuddy, friendster, hi5, Rediff, Zedge etc. that have provided InMobi tremendous support achieving the position that they have today.

The potential for mobile internet advertising is only growing. An increasing number of people are using their mobile to stay connected at all times. The need is to tap into this audience and serve relevant ads so that which is of value to them. This is easy to achieve as advanced services like location based services start coming into the picture. Hence, the mobile environment is such that, it can sustain the business they are in and it is really up their capability to be able to provide an edge to all their partners.

InMobi has a strong sales team that is very proficient in keeping up to date with the market needs. InMobi has a unique way in which the sales, marketing and communications team work together to achieve lead generation and eventually converts into clients. With this InMobi has built a strong network in Asia, Middle East and Africa and has grown into the leader as the largest ad network in Asia.

While, InMobi could peg Google (which recently acquired Admob) as their biggest competitors, they also believe that their unique focus and value proposition provides their partners with an advantage that is not available in the market. Their geography focus helps them prioritize and solve real customer needs and increase their value proposition to their partners. InMobi has consistently focused on providing higher quality and monetization levels for their publishers and greater return-on-investment (ROI) for advertisers, many of whom are trying the mobile internet medium for the first time, or for the first time in their region.

Over the past several months InMobi has invested in getting their technology in place and bringing key team members on board to lay the foundation for scaling up the business significantly. Currently, InMobi has presence in 24 countries and is growing at the rate of 40% each month. Moreover it now has the capability to serve over 8 billion impressions a month and is already catering to ad requests totaling to over 5 billion / month. The number of publisher sites that InMobi has tied-up with is more than 2000 with 150+ active advertisers. InMobi has one of the highest levels of customer retention rate that of 75%

Their focus for next plan of action is to continue to be the #1 mobile ad network of choice throughout Asia for both publishers and advertisers. Building the mobile ecosystem from the ground up in Africa is where they see tremendous opportunities. They are also looking forward to attaining in Europe the same kind of scale that we have achieved in Asia and Africa making sure that they continue to operate with the highest level of integrity and a principle of transparency.

InMobi also recently launched in Europe. As a developed nation, Europe poses different challenges and opportunities. Their plan was to grow in these markets as well. Recently, UK entered their list of top 5 countries in terms of traffic proving that their expansion plans are going in the right direction.

The biggest challenge lies in the diversities of all these markets. To be truly successful in mobile advertising, it is mandatory to understand the nuances of every market. Growth, for InMobi, does not stop at just entering the market, but has a lot to do with what and how much value they can provide to their partners. Hence, the launch in a geography needs a lot of their dedicated effort to understand the working of the market so that they can provide their partners the insights that no one else can give. That takes time and effort but, it is well worth that investment if their partners are satisfied. With all this, InMobi is sincerely looking forward to give its competitors a serious run for their money.

- Sujay Parekh

The topic for Startup Saturday November was Ecommerce / Online Retail in India. We saw a good combination of startups showing their wares, and stalwarts sharing their experiences. We began with a demo of an energy saving app ‘ENPOWER’ by Creative Riot Software. The Creative Riot team has won multiple awards from Microsoft, IIT Bombay, IIM Ahmedabad etc and they have a simple power saving application that can save energy worth millions (billions probably) every year for enterprises and consumers. The demo by ENPOWER is well summarized by Pluggd.in.

Next, Mr. Sanjay Mehta, Jt. CEO of Social Wavelength spoke about Online Retailing in India. In a previous avatar, Sanjay has been one of India’s pioneering Internet entrepreneurs, with an online apparel retail store, Homeindia.com (a company he sold in 2007). His presentation had a four point agenda:

1. Whats going wrong right now, with online retailing in India
2. Is there hope, and what will it take?
3. Simple questions every online retailer needs to ponder upon and
4. A bonus: An e-commerce business idea

All in all, a thoroughly informative session, about the dos and don’ts of building a successful online retail business! His presentation is embedded below.

The final session at was by Mr. Prashanth Kumar from eBay India. Prashanth was given the task of setting up the online payment gateway for baazee.com in 2002. PaisaPay currently is one of the most efficient payment systems in the country. Amongst the ecommerce sites that allow third-party merchants to sell only eBay manages to remit payment to its partners twice a week via electronic transfer. This is in a industry scenario where payments are remitted anywhere between 20-40 days via cheque.

Prashanth shared key insights in the functioning of banks and  challenges faced in running a payment gateway on a busy e-commerce portal. His session was full of information which would be useful for entrepreneurs looking to innovate in the Online Retail / E-commerce space. It was also revealed at Startup Saturday November that PayPal is looking to offer its services in India within the next 6 months. This should bring some relief to many online portals who are troubled by poor standards of payment gateways in India.

The discussions on online retail in November was a good followup to the retail theme in October. It also served as a bridge to the December Startup Saturday in Mumbai, which aims to demystify Digital Marketing opportunity for Startups. See you there! (Register here for Startup Saturday December)

– The Startup Saturday Mumbai Team

“You have an idea or a maybe even a lot of them. But you don’t know where to start. You are confused.” continued Surya, adding “Then you can assume you are in the right place… you are fit to be an entrepreneur.” A huge collective sigh of relief spread through the audience. You could almost hear them thinking “thank god, am not alone.”

The next hour and half went by quickly, packed with questions, discussions, and some more questions. Surya answered all of them patiently with a wisdom that can only be gained through experience. Surya, short for Suryanarayanan A, a three time entrepreneur, is the Chief Operating Officer at the NSRCEL, a world-class Centre of Excellence for seeding, nurturing and promoting entrepreneurship in Bangalore. Surya is also an active supporter and mentor for many in the Bangalore startup ecosystem. So it is only expected that the audience could not wait until the end of his presentation to ask their questions. What was planned as an expert talk almost became a streaming Q & A with Surya. With diverse questions ranging from seeking mentors to venture funding, some were even unreserved in voicing out their personal dilemmas of starting up!

Some of the planned key topics that were covered though include:

• What makes an entrepreneur entrepreneurial? The difference between the managerial mindset and the entrepreneurial one
• Nature of opportunities - creating them versus discovering them
• Crossing the entrepreneur chasm - Steps/aids to cross the chasm
• The four important factors you cannot ignore while starting up - People, Operations, Finance and Dealing with Competition

Let me try to outline each of the above as discussed at the session briefly here.

What makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial?

Most entrepreneurs start off knowing only one thing for sure and that is “they want to do something on their own.” Though they may have an idea for a product or service, they aren’t really sure what their end objective is. Their passion is more inclined towards pursuing an idea than a clearly set target or goal. They frequently encounter roadblocks, either of their own making or from the ecosystem, that make them change their mind, change their product or service, or even change their very basic idea. But they go on with their pursuit. This exactly, this state of chaos and uncertainty, is what sets an entrepreneur apart from others, from other ‘though-successful-but-not-on-their-own’ people, more widely called “managers”. The art of dealing with uncertainty is then what makes or breaks an entrepreneur. While a manager performs his best amidst rules, targets, and easily available resources, an entrepreneur flourishes in the very antithesis of these.

So if you have been wanting to start out on your own or have recently ventured into it but increasingly find yourself confused and frequently changing your stance, don’t be perturbed. This is the right way to start.

Nature of opportunities - creating them versus discovering them

You can either discover an opportunity that already exists (but has not been explored before) or create an opportunity. As an entrepreneur, your idea could fall into either of these two categories. The success of your startup and idea will depend entirely on how you execute your idea and not really on what type of opportunity it is. But understanding what type your idea falls into will definitely aid you in the way you execute it.

A discovered idea is independent of an entrepreneur. It is widely available in the market for anyone to pick up and execute. It is quickly, very quickly, imitable by the others in the marketplace. So if your idea falls into the ‘discovered’ category, you would need to really ensure that you are quick to market and have the right and deep skill sets and resources you need to gain a first entrant/leader position. Speed is the essence with such ideas.

A created idea is indigenous to the entrepreneur. He/she dreams up the idea and its execution will totally depend on how he/she develops it. These ideas are not easily imitable and they frequently change form and factor during their execution. The motivation level and the entrepreneur involvement is what will make these ideas successful or otherwise.

Crossing the entrepreneur chasm

So you have an idea. You even have access to some funds to see you through the uncertain times ahead. But how exactly do you go from idea to startup?

Most people who dream of becoming entrepreneurs encounter their first difficulty when they transition from ‘being just an idea’ to ‘starting up’. The difficult period in between these two stages is what is called the entrepreneur chasm. Most people either give up in this stage or fail to make it across to the other side. They have great ideas, funds, resources, etc - but their venture fails miserably as they don’t pay enough attention to the factors that make the initial startup succeed. The four important factors that can help you manage this transition successfully can be defined clearly - People, Operations, Finance and Dealing with Competition. The way you handle these four factors will determine whether you end up as an entrepreneur or just remain a manager.

Steps to cross the chasm

1.        Access and make use of the basic resources available to you (Net/Networks)

a.       Do sufficient research. There is no excuse for a poorly researched idea.

b.       Don’t spend money. Spend your time.

c.        Network with experts and the support ecosystem if available. Talk to experts, sound out mentors.

2.        Access funds (Affordable Loss)

a.       Understand the concept of affordable loss. How much or how far can you go, sustaining yourself and your dependents, without going broke/bust.

b.       Set a limit on how much you are willing/afford to spend and loose. Write away this money - do not expect a return. This will be your affordable loss.

c.        Never cross your affordable loss. The moment your startup demands more than your affordable loss, it will be time to look at alternatives - quit, move on or bring others who can provide the required resources.

d.       Always remember that you will never get money (angel investors, venture funding, etc.) when you need it most crucially. Plan for contingencies.

e.       Never assume that you will get funds and then startup. You must have funds while starting up - either saved from your previous employment or occupation or loaned by well-wishers.

f.         You need to become ‘money ready’ before you seek venture funding.

3.        Access the right people

a.       Being an entrepreneur is less about you and more about others in the ecosystem.

b.       Do not be possessive with your idea - you can never own it completely or 100%. You would need to let it go so that others (employees, investors) can grow it too. Your idea and the well-being of your startup come before your own personal desires and ego if you are an entrepreneur.

c.        Always remember that you cannot demand loyalty from your employees. Loyalty will come only by creating opportunities for other people.

d.       You would need to sell your idea to your employees too. Your ability to share rewards, ideas and value with your employees will decide how long they stay by you.

e.       You must find out and learn what your stakeholders want and need- whether they are employees, investors, mentors or other market factors.

f.         You will need multiple mentors at different stages of your idea/startup. It does not pay to cling to a single mentor who may not be able to advice you once your startup moves beyond the initial stage.

g.        If you form an advisory board, do it purely based on the need of your startup (ex, domain experts)

h.       The most common reason for investors not funding your venture could be this: they think you are not amenable to advice. So in your presentation to investors, be firm and passionate about your idea, not inflexible and rigid. Be open to change parts of your idea/execution plans upon advice.

4.        Dealing with competition

a.       An effective way to deal with competition during the startup stage is by forming strategic alliances

b.       Identify other vendors or service providers in the market who have complimenting products and services. Tie up with them. Form joint go to market strategies.

This is but a sketch of the rich essence that was the session on “To be or not to be an entrepreneur”. As mentioned earlier, the varied questions from the audience provided a whole new dimension to the topic and helped us cover a wider spectrum of knowledge and wisdom on being an entrepreneur not outlined in the above brief.

The session concluded with Surya’s last slide which resonated with all of us long after the Saturday. It simply stated thus:

“Don’t be disappointed if the world refuses to help you out. Remember what Einstein said -I am thankful to all those that said No. It’s because of them that I did it myself.”

Two IITD graduates - Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal, started Flipkart in 2007. The company has around 80 employees today. “We noticed that most online e-commerce players in India didn’t get even the basics right. Customers were not getting what they ordered, in the time that they were promised. Our customers can trust us. We provide them satisfaction and unmatched usability”, says Binny.  Narrowing the domain to books ensured the absence of “touch and feel” for shopping and also a quick go to market strategy - an example of good market research.

Last month, Flipkart received an undisclosed amount of funding from Accel Partners and Invited Subrata Mitra from Accel onto its board.  In Subrata’s words – “they have the right combination of being great internet founders; having proper handle on both the supply and distribution sides associated with their primary line of business; and utmost diligence in maintaining competitive pricing together with great customer satisfaction.”

Some of the other companies that are doing well in the online books market for India are Amazon, Pustak, IndiaPlaza, Landmark, FirstandSecond, Strands and InfiBeam. The online stores score over physical stores in terms of the number of titles they can stock and in convenience. Why would anyone drive through the crazy city traffic, only to buy a book at a price higher than that available from the comfort of the couch? The following figure shows the comparative analysis of the page views on some of the above sites in the last three months (courtesy: alexa). The chart shows Flipkart and Infibeam as close competitors for the top slot in the online book market. It would be good to have the next post on Infibeam and find what they are doing right.

Flipkart.com combines an intuitive user interface with excellent customer service, competitive prices, vast variety of titles and a free and efficient delivery system. The entire site is accessible using a single search bar.  Sections like ‘Top Authors’ and ‘Recently Sold on Flipkart’ put the available intelligence to good use. Flipkart has built an advantage over its competitors based on its SEO. Flipkart can be found on 130 keyword searches on search engines. However, the factor that sets Flipkart apart is it’s reliable, fast and free of cost delivery. Here are a few customer reviews that we came across:

chicalit: @Flipkartdotcom Good site, quick delivery.

saimanohar: Haven’t tried many but shopping @Flipkartdotcom is good..discount + free shipping ( order > 100) , fast delivery too

hsanat: Flipkart http://bit.ly/VBNog because they rock.. And the free shipping and the discounts….

praval: Nothing beats #flipkart for its rocket fast delivery and the pile it has online! Not to forget discounts and free shipping

bsandeep: online books: I use flipkart. No nonsense, reliable & pretty good.

thevaibhav: flipkart.com.. Amazing simpllicity for buying.

FlipKart’s current model is based on partnership with local book vendors who keep updating the inventory. The process is being automated for efficiency. There are around 3.5 million books in its database. Flipkart is rigorously working to make its coverage as wide as possible. It operates two distribution centers in Delhi and Bangalore and targets three more centers, one each in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata by the end of this fiscal. Flipkart also plans to explore further in book retail to include regional language books and to improve services delivery. Some users have experienced trouble accessing the site lately and a there is a focus on scaling the backend.  Flipkart works with popular open source products such as Ubuntu, Mysql, Apache and PHP and is proud to be a part of the open source movement. The company is actively looking to hire talented people in operations, supply chain, marketing, sales and technology at all levels.

Mansi Baranwal

Cofounder, Headstart Network Foundation

The report is being built by YouGov (London based Research and Consulting Organization) and the Legatum Institute (a policy think tank run by the Legatum Group).
This report is not for internal purposes but for wide distribution. It will be appearing in the Wall Street Journal. HeadStart is glad to assist in this project.

I think the questions are very relevant towards making policy decisions. They touch Government Policies, Business Ecosystem, Cultural Background, Corruption, Tax etc.
It will help Indian entrepreneurs in 2 ways:-
1. By suggesting the policies that are needed to encourage entrepreneursip in India and
2. By highlighting opportunities in India to worldwide audience.

This research is being conducted by YouGov plc in accordance with the MRS Code of Conduct which means the data entered by you is kept strictly confidential unless you authorize them to share it. To make it appealing for the survey takers, they have kept 4 prizes worth 35,000 INR.

http://my2.yougov.com/survey.aspx?resCode=YGI0900055

Each of you who fill the survey will receive a copy of the report.

Trivia: There is a question that used the word “Jugaad“!

This article is to highlight the opportunities available in the Clean Tech space, as pointed out by Shashidhar Kumaraswamy, Founder of Blueray Solar who was also one of the panelists.

So, what makes Clean Tech so lucrative?
Well it indeed is a high growth sector. A quick google search reveals over 200 million $ waiting to be invested in Clean Tech in India in the form of VC and PE investments. Add to it, the fact that its a nascent market and the Indian government’s encouraging stance when it comes to implementing anything green.

What opportunities exist in the Clean Tech space?
“Essentially 4 types of opportunities exist in this sector”, points out Shashi.

1. Manufacturing: Solar and PV (Photovoltic Systems), Bio Fuels, Bio Gas, Power Generation, Fuel Cells, Advanced Batteries, Hydrogen Generation and Storage etc fall under this category. These are capital intensive investments for sure, but with the kind of money that is being pumped into the sector, manufacturing may not seem like a far cry.
2. Enablers: This set of business ventures capitalize on making equipment that supports the mainstream Clean Tech product. A good example will be devices like Solar Trackers which increase the yield of Solar Panels by tracking the movement of the Sun. Cutting the cost of environmental footprint of building materials like Cement etc too fall under this category.
3. Software: These are purely software (slightly embedded) based products like “Google Power Meter” or similar smart grid technologies. Green Home software and devices that track energy usage and conserve power where ever possible would comprise this segment.
4. Deployment: Raw Material Suppliers, Transportation, Transmission and Distribution, Desalinization, Waste Reduction, Recycling etc. This is where all the service providers come in. The Gujrat government recently sanctioned 2.4 billion $ towards 34 Solar projects. Can you imagine the opportunities that exist for everyone in the supply chain.

So you have a Clean Tech Idea, what next?
“You should do appropriate market research, build your Sales Strategy while working also building your Intellectual Property. The IP is critical, protect it. Build synergestic partnerships to go hand in hand with your sales strategy and don’t forget to make use of Government’s incentives” suggests Shashi.

The Indian government is serious about Clean Tech. It has created the world’s first Ministry of Renewable Energy to concentrate investment in the Clean Tech areas that show promise. The government has a budgeted expenditure of 85 Crores for Clean Tech in 2009-1010 which goes up to 160 Crores in 2011-2012. Can you guess how much of the 85 Crore budget has already been utilized? Less than 10%! So go for it.

What could the next big opportunities in Clean Tech be?
Concentrated PV technology, Solar Trackers, Micro Inverters, Smart Grid projects, Social Networking Initiatives for energy audits, Educational tools and programs are some of the fields that you could consider.

After reading this much, I would like to share what John Doerr of Kliener Perkins feels about Clean Tech. “Clean Tech is going to be bigger than the Internet” he says. Check out his inspiring TED talk. Vinod Khosla of KPCB sees a lot of promise in this sector too.

You can get in touch with Shashidhar at shashi AT blueraysolar DOT com. Blueray Solar is an eco friendly company that specializes in getting you off the power grid by generating your own power quickly and efficiently.