Entrepreneur (India) - August 2016 PDF

ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL ISSUE
SMALL MEDIUM
RNI No. HARENG/2011/39608-FBD/286/15-17
www.entrepreneur.com
August 2016 l ` 150 l INDIA EDITION
15
SHASHWAT
GOENKA,
Head (retail),
RP-Sanjiv
Goenka Group
INNOVATIONS
THAT WILL
CHANGE YOUR
WORLD
PARTH
JINDAL, MD,
JSW Cement
THE
ROW
TOMOR
Inc.
ANANYA BIRLA,
Founder, Svatantra
Microfin
RANGANATHANS
REBELLIOUS
PATH TO BRAND
BUILDING
WHAT A START-UP
NEEDS TO KNOW
BEFORE RAISING SEED
ROUND OF FUNDING
ZAHABIYA
KHORAKIWALA,
MD, Wockhardt
Hospitals
2016 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
EDITORS NOTE
THE COST OF FREEDOM
You can be different from the rest of the

world and still be fabulous in fact, youre
fabulous because of it, not despite it
-Anonymous
he most beautiful thing you

will ever witness in your
life is when you begin to
unfold into the person you
were meant to be from your
very beginning. I recently met a young
entrepreneur at a business event and
his approach to life was a revelation,
because he had crossed the barrier
between being psychologically ready
with being ready to escape corporate
life, and he stood for everything that
is much more to entrepreneurship
than just the freedom. Despite being
an entrepreneur with a sizable startup, he was ready to go to Africa or
America tomorrow that could bring
him opportunity, he had created some
valuable tech products for serving his
clients better which could be used
everywhere but his purpose was not just
to make money from them, he was open
to take failure of his projects but he was
not ready to give up on what he believed
in. The worst case scenario, he answered
simply was that he may have to quit
being an entrepreneur and go back to
taking a job , but with what he knew he
could make parallel or more money than
he is doing currently. In simple words,
he was free and this is the new kind of
leader in the twenty-first century.
We need more authentic
entrepreneurs whose leadership comes
from first creating what they believe
and then making time to examine their
experiences and to reflect on them, and
in doing so they grow as individuals
and as leaders. I also realized the same
of young family business scions of
India while we were putting together
our cover story who today need to live
their life, doing what they want and
ENTREPRENEUR AUGUST 2016
believe, making their difference to the

world and subsequently leading it from
the top with what they have learnt about
life and businesses. In this issue , we will
introduce you to Tomorrows corporate
faces who would lead big businesses but
the way they want to rather than the way
they have to.
We also bring forward to you the
innovative products that are cannibalizing
existing markets, disrupting the old
models, and services that challenge the
embedded ways of thinking and working.
Though some of them are still in early
days in India yet they are tomorrows
brands and way of life.
It is Lonely at the Top
No man does it all By Himself
These two statements together are
the real story of an entrepreneurs life.
Collaboration breeds inspiration and
inspiration helps us to grow both as an
individual and as business owner. We,
as entrepreneurs must continuously
strive to come together to stir change. At
Entrepreneur Media, we are back with our
6th Annual edition of our flagship mega
event where Business Leaders will come
closer to their fellow young counterparts,
where money meets ideas, tech meets
talent and society meets change. Join us
on August 23-24, 2016 at Hotel Pullman
Aerocity, Delhi NCR to be a part of
this change. Write to me to share your
interest.
Ritu Marya
Editor in chief
E-mail me at:
rmarya@entrepreneurindia.com
CONTENTS
AUGUST 2016
Start-up
24
OPPORTUNITY
Freelancing is now being
seen as a catalyst to micro
entrepreneurship.
28
LEGAL VIEW
A start-up that is working
to help you in hassle-free
documentation.
30
CROWDFUNDING
Get to know 5 best

crowdfunding websites.
32
FAILURE LESSONS
Three start-ups share

lessons they have learnt
from failure.
41
34
GET STARTED
Your first 10 customers

will define your business.
36
PASSION PAYS
Five tips to turn your

hobby into a milliondollar business.
EXPERT SPEAKS
20
EARLY FINANCIAL
MISTAKES BY
START-UPS
Dr Anil Lamba, Author

and financial expert
speaks about the financial
mistakes made by startups.
21
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
FOR START-UPS
Amit Kapoor, Honorary

Chairman, Institute for
Competitiveness, India
and Arun Singh, Associate
Fellow, Institute for
Competitiveness talk on
customer feedback.
22
A GUIDE TO DESIGN
NEW-AGE WORKPLACE
FOR IMPROVED
PRODUCTIVITY
Praveen Rawal, MD,
Steelcase India stresses
on the need for conducive
new-age workplaces.
Cover Shoot Location Courtsey: Hotel Lalit, Mumbai

6
23
WHY ANGEL-BACKED
START-UPS SHOULD OPT FOR
VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDS
Dr Apoorv Ranjan Sharma,
co-founder & President, Venture
Catalysts shares why angelbacked start-ups should opt for
Venture Capital Funds.
CONTENTS
AUGUST 2016
Growth
41
YOUNG SCIONS
Meet the
generation-next
leaders who are
shouldering the
responsibility of
scripting Indias
success story.
52
BRAND JOURNEY
Entrepreneur finds
out what went
behind creating the
brand Cavinkare.
54
LEGACY
Legacy entrepreneurs
reveal their business
strategies with
changing times.
58
ENTREPRENEUR
DIARIES
Pranay Chulet, cofounder & CEO, Quikr
talks about his journey
as an entrepreneur.
60
ACQUISITION
Find out how Aditya
Birla Fashion and Retail
acquired Forever 21.
62
MADE IN INDIA
Abhinandan Dhoke,
CEO, Organic India
talks about how the
company is growing
and reinventing itself
with the current
trends.
Tech
84
Culture
81
THE ETHICS COACH

When a clients request
crosses the line.
82
A PERFECT FIT
Find the right space for
your company to thrive.
Franchise
Focus
92
KNOW YOUR BANKER

The Indian SME is
witnessing a radical
transformation, says
Amitabh Verma, Head,
SME, DBS Bank India.
70
INNOVATION
We bring to you the
15 most innovative
companies in India.
66
KNOW YOUR
CAPITALIST
Amit Somani, MD, Prime
Ventures talks about
what start-ups need
to know about seedfunding.
68
OFFICE SPACE
Vineet Taing, President,
Vatika Business Centre
talks about plans for
setting up co-working
spaces.
8
64
86
ASK A GEEK
Time for startups
to seriously look
for updating their
websites.
APPS
Three apps buzzing at
the entrepreneur camp.
90
TECH TALK
Find out how IT
consolidation is helping
JK Tyres to grow.
91
SHINY STUFF
Sport an Omega this

Olympics.
84
FRANCHISE FOCUS
Vandana Luthra
shares the road
ahead for VLCC.
Money
Eco-system
64
THE FIX
How LinkedIn
aims to democratize
opportunities in
India.
88
75
74
THE NEW ORG

CHART
Flat or vertical?
How to build your
staff for growth.
CORPORATE CASH
Startups can score big
money from big brands.
76
Lifestyle
93
ADVICE
James Victore has an
interesting advice for
entrepreneurs.
94
ECON
Looking at the most
prominent deals from
15th June -15th July 2016.
FOOD FOR
THOUGHT
Entrepreneurs share
their peculiar food
habits.
78
96
ASK THE
MONEY GUY
I need to relocate.
Can I afford it?
79
VC VIEWPOINT
Know your angels,
seeds and VCs.
80
STARTUP FINANCE
Where to find
open-minded investors.
BOOKS
Eliana Koulas,
co-founder, Luxus
Retail Pvt Ltd talks
about her favourite
books.
98
THE OTHER SIDE

Nitish Mittersain
Founder & MD,
Nazara Technologies
also plays the clarinet.
SMALL MEDIUM
EDITOR IN CHIEF Ritu Marya

EDITORIAL
ASSISTANT EDITOR Punita Sabharwal Kapoor
SR. SUB-EDITOR Sandeep Soni
SR. CORRESPONDENT Amrit Mann
JOURNALIST Sunil Pol
ART
SR. ART DIRECTOR Manish Raghav
ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Rajeev Kumar
ENTREPRENEUR.COM
SR. CORRESPONDENT Sneha Banerjee
FEATURE WRITER Samiksha Jain
FEATURE WRITER Ritu Kochar
SUB-EDITOR Rustam Singh
BRAND ADVERTISING
GENERAL MANAGER-SALES
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aarora@entrepreneurindia.com
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OPPORTUNITY ADVERTISING
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Daman Deep Singh #8860084174
daman@franchiseindia.com
SUBSCRIPTION/CIRCULATION ENQUIRIES
Tel: 0129-4228800 #9311148342,

magazine@entrepreneurindia.net
CHAIRMAN Gaurav Marya
PUBLISHER Sachin Marya
ENTREPRENEUR MEDIA INC.
CHAIRMAN Peter J. Shea
PRESIDENT/COO Ryan Shea
VICE PRESIDENT/EDITOR IN CHIEF Amy Cosper
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Published by Franchise India under license from Entrepreneur Media, Inc., 18061 Fitch Avenue, Irvine, California
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Media, Inc. Consequently, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
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10
DIGITAL
AUGUST 2016
Pokmon Craze Takes

Over India: Get Hired
To Be A Professional
Pokmon Catcher
Rich Dad,
Philanthropic
Daughters
215 shares
1.5k shaers
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Lessons From
Marvel Movies
293 shares
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Start U
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2.3k sh
Whats on Entrepreneur.com?
THESE 4 STARTUPS HAVE

SOLUTION TO WATER CRISIS
This article talks about the some of the
innovative startups that are eliminating
water crisis. With the growth of
urbanization and water scarcity in India,
these startups can become a muchneeded solution for smart cities and
businesses in India and globally.
By: Samiksha Jain,

Feature Writer, Entrepreneur.com
KNOW HOW TO FIGHT LIKE

THE AVENGERS IN YOUR
STARTUP BATTLE
This is the story of a team coming
together as a startup, setting up the
right parameters and solving the
worlds biggest problem, struggle
for existence. The lessons from the
Avengers episode are compelling
enough for startup founders
to sit up and take notice.
By: Rishi Kapal,

CEO, Edugild
12
BUILDING A COUNTRY OF
ENTREPRENEURS
This article talks about celebrating
the spirit of entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship has taken India
by storm. A storm our government
saw approaching and did everything
to only make it stronger. This is
not a storm of destruction, but
one that will build India.
By: Ritu Kochar,

Feature Writer, Entrepreneur.com
The annual gathering on the future of growth is back. This years

conference will include keynotes and panels, ignited talks, pitch stage,
mentoring and networking
Will bring together leading political,

business and social gures all
against the backdrop of societal
revolution
An Urban thinkers campus bringing

leaders in business, real estate,
Government, academia and activism to
share a road map to tomorrows India
Bringing startups in the tech space

to share the evolving landscape
across digital generation
The Summit will be led by brands

who will drive consumer attitudes
and behavior vital for future
business success
FEEDBACK
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING
A bright,
light read
RNI No. HARENG/2011/39608-FBD/286/15-17
SMALL MEDIUM
5 Insights to Kick Start Your Edtech Start-up
SUBSCRIBERS COPY NOT FOR RESALE
Incubators in
Finance
Incubators
in Internet
of Things
Incubators
in Plastics/
Rubbers/
Materials/
Chemical/
Waste
Management
Incubators in
Healthcare/
Medical
Technology
Incubators
in Tech/Techenabled
15
Brilliant
Incubators in
Social/Renewable/
Cleantech
Start-up
Incubators in
Agriculture
Pulkit Arora, Faridabad
41
Refer to you story The start-up office

environment the use of minimal text and
a variety of photographs put the message
across very-well. It is interesting to see how
start-ups are sprucing up spaces to create
a more conducive environment to work. The
Rajinikanth-styled office was definitely a hit.
July 2016 l ` 100 l INDIA EDITION
Incubators in
Pharmaceutical/
Biotechnology/
Microbiology and
Related Areas
Hilarious
feedback
The lifestyle section of your magazine is a

breath of fresh air. It was amusing to read how
entrepreneurs get wild feedbacks. One often
thinks that they dont like to share it with
the public, but I must say it was nice to see
entrepreneurs opening about their experiences.
The feedback that Ramesh Agarwal of Agarwal
Movers Group received about handling idols
with care was a truly funny.
Incubators in
IT/Electronics
Hardware
Incubators
22
How LinkedIn
Accepted
Microsofts
Request
Ways to be More
Productive in
Your Business
Start-ups or
MNCs - Where
are you Headed
After College?
Himani Verma, Uttarakhand
Brilliant
cover
A productive
outlook
Inspiring social
entrepreneurs
Fateh Singh, Chandigarh
Sonali Jain, New Delhi
Parvesh Jha, Patna
The cover story was an in-depth

account of the best incubators
in the country. Just the sheer
research into collating data and
analysing it, is commendable.
The content was well placed and
didnt overwhelm the reader
with information overload.
As a reader, the story 22 ways to be

more productive in your business gave
me interesting insights from industry
experts on how to be efficient. As an
entrepreneur, it is important to scale
wisely and the write-up brought out that
fact immensely well. Such articles are
extremely encouraging for the readers.
JOIN US
Refer to your story Giving waste a second

life it was a very informative read. The
story spoke of social entrepreneurs, who
are out there to make a change. The use of
statistics and images was very well-balanced.
However, I would have liked to see more startups doing work around waste in the rural
parts of India, too.
Indian Restaurant
Congress
Entrepreneur
India 2016
Aug 29-30,
J.W. marriott, New Delhi
August 23-24, Pullman

Aerocity, New Delhi
Startup Kickoff
August 20-21, Nimhans
Convention Centre,
Bangalore
Dear reader, got a thought, a question, an idea, a story or a comment? Write to us at editor@entrepreneurindia.org
IN THIS
ISSUE
14
If you look at
the next source of
wealth that is going
to be created in this
country it is going to
come from startups.
Parth Jindal, Managing
Director, JSW Cement
Given the situation

in India probably
becoming a small
financial bank is the
next step forward
and eventually a
national bank.
Ananya Birla, Founder,
Svatantra Microfin
The advantage with

retail is if you take a
decision tomorrow
you can actually
evaluate it by
next week.
Shashwat Goenka,
Head (retail), RP-Sanjiv
Goenka Group
We feel we can
dominate the
West. Its much
more than
what we would
be able to do
everywhere.
Zahabiya Khorakiwala,
MD, Wockhardt Hospitals
TRENDS & UPDATES

AS THEY
SAID IT
HAPPENINGS
ENTREPRENEUR REWIND
A Billionaire at 88Finger
Licking Good!
Every bank should
give an economic
opportunity to
one woman, one
dalit or one tribal
person to become
entrepreneurs.
This will create
many job
opportunities.
NARENDRA MODI
Prime Minister
Almost 70
percent of startups will fail.
About 20 percent
will survive but
not grow. They
will remain small
enterprises, and
may be only five
to 10 percent will
become large and
scale up - that
is the spastics
globally
KRIS GOPALAKRISHNAN
Infosys Co-Founder and former
CII President
16
he man behind KFC has an inspiring story.

As crazy as this may be, Colonel Sanders
shuffled through the life of a farmer, streetcar
conductor, soldier, railroad fireman, lawyer,
insurance salesman, steamboat operator, secretary,
lighting manufacturer, and even a hotel owner.
At the tender age of 5, his father died. At the age
of 16 he quit school and lost jobs continuously. He
even joined the Army and washed out there. His
family life was also in shambles, when his wife left
him, taking away their baby. Later, in life he became
a cook and continued doing odd jobs. At 65, he
retired and even tried committing suicide. Failure
couldnt put him down. He borrowed $87 and fried
up some chicken using his recipe.
According to reports, he received his honorary
Colonel title sometime in the 1930s or 1950s from
the Kentucky governor.
The task was not over yet. He went door-to- door
selling the recipe. At 88, an age when people retired,
the entrepreneur in him rose and he formed the
globally acclaimed, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).
One cannot miss the sparkling image of Colonel
Sanders, in his trademark white beard and
infectious smile.
Colonel Sanders,
Founder, KFC
GAME ON
Pokemon Go is a Hit and How!
Vishal Gondal
Founder and
CEO, Goqii.
#PokemonGO
is taking
over India @
GOQiiLife is
encouraging
users to adapt
it for a healthy
lifestyle
#GOQiiMon
Punit Soni
Flipkarts former
CPO and Silicon
Valley veteran
Pokemon Go is AR.
You can make it
more complex if
you wish but this is
how it works and
its pretty cool when
u chance upon the
right usecase
TRENDS & UPDATES
HAPPENINGS
Uttarakhand to host Indias first

Women Entrepreneurs Park
Human behaviour & desire

to change give greatest
entrepreneurial ideas!
Gaurav Marya
Chairman, Franchise India
Holdings Ltd
Put in hard work, make peace
with your struggling days and
thrive in the future
Harsh Mariwala,
Chairman, Marico
Entrepreneurs need an
irrational streak and be mildly
delusional
Sachin Bhatia,
Co-Founder, TrulyMadly
Harish Rawat, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand
iving a boost to start-ups, the

first industrial park, exclusively
for women entrepreneurs was
launched recently. The park which will
be spread over 200 acres will give an
impetus to women, wanting to start-up.
Women who are inclined to
contribute to the development and
proliferation of small and medium
industrial units in Uttarakhand will
receive government support. A specific
percentage of jobs will be reserved
for women in the units located in the
industrial park, said Harish Rawat, Chief
Minister of Uttarakhand.
The Uttarakhand government wants
industrialists, particularly women
entrepreneurs, to make use of the cordial
industrial relations in the state to
facilitate investment. The state topped
the Ease of doing Business ranking from
being the 23rd only 10 months ago.
The key sectors the government is
looking at are tourism, aviation, health
and hospitality. In addition to that the
chief minister will also examine demand
for providing land at concessional rates to
women entrepreneurs.
START-UP THERAPIST
HOW CAN A
START-UP ENGAGE
A USER IN THE BEST
POSSIBLE WAY?
A M BA REESH M U RT HY,
Co-Founder, Pepperfry.com
18
The way a business needs to deal with a

customers need to interact with the products
that the company sells, has to be device or
environment agnostic. There is a type of
customer who might be travelling through an
airport, at that time the company is in the
customers pocket in the form of the smart
phone the customer is holding.
Think of fund raising as a

continuous relationship, a line
versus a point
Sanjay Nath,
Co-Founder and MD, Blume
Ventures
Theres no time like the
present, no better day than
today, no righter time than
right now
Richard Branson,
Founder, Virgin Group
It is important for companies

to interact with customers
through a 360 degree view of
the customers life. It is no
longer about online or offline.
It is all about interacting with
the customer at all points.
EXPERT SPEAKS
Early Financial Mistakes by Start-ups

By Dr Anil Lamba
n India, start-ups have become

the new trend, the dream of
most engineering and business
management graduates, and even
of many drop-outs. Year 2015 saw
several being set up every day in every
conceivable field.
2016, however, has witnessed a
reverse trend. Not only there has been
a fall in the number of new start-ups
springing up, but many of them are
shutting shop. Also, the decrease in the
inflow of funds this year has resulted in
some minnows merging with older and
larger ventures.
For every start-up that succeeds,
there are many hundreds and thousands
that fail despite being highly innovative
and well-funded. The reasons are
many, but most are related to financial
mismanagement.
If budding entrepreneurs paid half as
much attention to the financial aspect of
their business idea, as that given
to the technological, marketing,
valuation and fund-raising aspects, the
chances of survival and success would
be far greater.
Be Clear About the

Revenue Model
there has been a fall in the number of

new start-ups springing up, but many
of them are shutting shop. Also, the
decrease in the inflow of funds this
year has resulted in some minnows
merging with older and larger ventures.
For every start-up that succeeds,
there are many hundreds and
thousands that fail despite being
highly innovative and well-funded. The
reasons are many, but most are related
to financial mismanagement.
Pay Attention to the Cash Flows
Where is the money?

is a question that
perpetually haunts an
entrepreneur.
Much thought goes into the idea

that has captured the entrepreneurs
imagination and not enough attention
is paid to the financials and the
revenue modelling. Without a clear idea of how and from
where the revenues are going to be generated, the venture
would be a non-starter.
Businesses cannot be run for long on investors
money alone.
Generate Profits and not Sales
In those cases where there is an understanding of the

revenues, the entire focus is on increasing top lines.
Entrepreneurs must never forget that the business of running
a business is not to generate sales but to make profit. Selling
is a means towards achieving an end, and the end is to make a
decent, a healthy profit.
In India, start-ups have become the new trend, the dream
of most engineering & business management graduates, and
even of many drop-outs.
Year 2015 saw several being set up every day in every
conceivable field.
2016, however, has witnessed a reverse trend. Not only
20
One of the first lessons that an

entrepreneur learns is that there is
no connection between the profit
that a business earns and the bank
balance that it has. In fact, if there is a
connection, it is inverse. The higher the
profit, the lower the bank balance.
Where is the money? is a
question that perpetually haunts an
entrepreneur. Accountants tell you that
the business is making impressive sales
and profits, but where is the money!
Why cant you see it in the bank?
Well, you are making profit precisely
because you money has been deployed.
If you started hoarding it in the bank
it would be a matter of time before you
would stop making profit too.
Working Capital is very

Essential
While evaluating the funds that a start-up needs, it is

relatively easy to understand the amount of fixed capital
required. But often the working capital requirement is not
clearly understood. Consequently many such ventures are
starved of the working capital for sustaining the operations
on a day-to-day basis.
Among those businesses that close down due to shortage
of funds, a large percentage do so due to a shortage of
working capital.
Start-ups must take great pains to ensure that only longterm funds are used for long-term purposes and short-term
funds are used for short-term purposes.
Never ever use short-term funds for long-term purposes.
It would be suicidal to do so.
If start-ups pay heed to the finance management aspect of
their business it will go a long way towards sustaining their
venture and making it a success.
Dr Anil Lamba, Corporate Trainer & Author on
Finance Management
EXPERT SPEAKS
A Guide to Design New-age Workplace

for Improved Productivity
By Praveen Rawal
places and postures that best encourage

productivity. Intentionally design other
spaces that promote quiet, collaboration
and fun, so that people can truly love the
way they work.
While designing for a range of spaces,
include areas for your team to socialize.
ue to favorable elements, India

has emerged as the fastest
growing start-up economy.
According to the NASSCOM India Startup Report, Indian start-up landscape has
witnessed tremendous growth and now
India is among the first five largest startup communities in the world.
. Give wellbeing a thumbs-up:

Employees feel encouraged to walk
away from their desks, change postures
or explore other work areas during the
day. Demonstrate your commitment
to wellbeing by offering access to
natural light and your nod of approval
when team members schedule walking
meetings. It has been proven that
working outdoors or near natural light
improves creativity, productivity and
engagement.
Why Indias start-up ecosystem

is booming?
>> Moodys credit rating raised Indias

credit outlook to positive from
stable.
>> Fitch, another leading credit rating
agency, announced Indias sovereign
credit rating at BBB with a stable
outlook.
This has clearly impacted the young
entrepreneurs and have inspired them to
invest in India.
With the influx of these new age
entrepreneurs, Indian economy is not
only setting the benchmarks in startup economy but also is redefining the
interior industry. Indias successful
start-ups have specifically designed
their offices to break-free from the
traditional and conventional corporate
set up. This is not only helping them
to boost productivity but also engage
employees at the work.
The new-age entrepreneurs plunge in the same age-group

category. They prefer the offices that facilitate collaboration,
provide a sense of personal space and offer a pleasant respite
from hectic city life. Earlier, the only thing to retain the
employees were compensation, however now what matters
is creating an employee experience, a community and build
a sense of connection with them. With the growing startups and new age offices, there is an immense competition
where retaining talented employees has become a major
concern. For any start-up, skilled workforce is crucial for
their success. Hence, the new age offices should evolve as a
sanctuary of employees where they can work, share, innovate
in an improved manner.
DESIGN IT RIGHT
. Offer a palette of place: Planning your space to allow for

standing desks, private areas, collaborative spaces and
lounge settings gives employees choice and control. Send the
message that you trust and support your team to choose the
22
. Create opportunities for privacy:

The bathroom stall shouldnt be
the only place workers have privacy. In
many of todays workplaces, its very
difficult for individuals to find moments
of privacy. This reality negatively
affects stress levels, job performance
and engagement. Hence, there should
be spaces at work offering privacy as it
remains important in the workplace for
confidential discussions, quiet phone
calls or times when we need to focus
quietly, alone and helps to nurture thought process.
New age offices should

evolve as a sanctuary of
employees where they can
work, share, innovate in an
improved manner.
CHANGING TRENDS
. Create a Third Place: During the last few years, work

has become dramatically intense and the business tasks
today are more challenging. Hence, employees need spaces
where they can relax or work undisturbed. To provide such
experience, some organizations have embraced the idea of
Third Place an informal working spaces like a cafeteria or a
lounge that help people get through the day or allow them to
gather, to have stirring conversations. The corporate cafeteria
is an obvious place where a company can create a corporate
third place and better leverage under-utilized real estate.
. Integrated technology: Technology is front and centre in

the workplace. Conference tables that can have plug and
play ability, seats that have a docking system, and interactive
whiteboards are a few examples of integrated technology in
the workplace.
Praveen Rawal, Managing Director, Steelcase India
EXPERT SPEAKS
Why Angel-backed Start-ups should opt

for Venture Capital Funds
By Dr Apoorv Ranjan Sharma
o fund or not to fund that

seems to be the question
which frequently confronts
entrepreneurs spearheading angelbacked start-ups. The dilemma is
justified too. After all, most of these
ventures have already managed to
secure decent seed investments from
angel investors and are just about
on the verge of achieving balanced
operations. So why take on more
investments, and all the added
pressure it entails?
The answer to that lies in growth.
Even if an angel-funded start-up has
achieved comfortable operations
and decent market traction, there
is a very high possibility that the
venture is restricted to one or two
key geographies and has a low
brand visibility in its chosen market
segment, which might be inundated
with similar ventures. As such,
breaking the mould and going after
scale can be extremely tough and
time-consuming without an injection
of fresh funds. This is where venture
capital investments come in. The
injection of fresh investments can help
them replicate the success their business
has achieved on a much larger scale and
become a major industry player.
FUNDING REALITY
But access to deeper pockets and

the validation of their approach are
not the only benefits that angelbacked start-ups gain when going
for a VC investment. In addition
to the capital which gives a major
shot in the arm to a start-ups
operations, securing funding from
VCs also unlocks a great opportunity
for business networking.
Entrepreneurs gain a streamlined
access to industry connections
that have been painstakingly built
by their investors over the years.
Start-ups and entrepreneurs chosen
for VC funding also gain a chance to
be mentored by some of the leading
names within the industry segment
that they are operating in; this helps
them refine their business models
and add greater value to their
end-user services/products. As a
result, their start-ups benefit from
the myriad business opportunities
and are able to achieve greater
operational growth and scale.
At present, almost
98-99 percent
start-ups are rejected
by VCs.
Consider the current investment

scenario for a moment. Out of 100-odd
start-ups that apply for funding, hardly
one or two ever secure the backing of VCs. This means that,
at present, almost 98-99 percent start-ups are rejected by
VCs on one ground or the other the concept might not be
novel, the team behind the start-up might not be experienced
enough, or the revenue model might not be sustainable at
scale. The investment landscape has achieved a new normal
after the prolific initial investment spree. As a result, most
VC firms now will only risk their money on ventures that
demonstrate the maximum promise and have proven their
ability to succeed on a micro level. In such an investment
situation, the fact that members of the VC community are
interested in a particular start-up and see the venture as a
part of the elite 2% not only validates its business approach
and operational model, but also the start-ups potential to
scale up to the next level of its evolution.
TAKING THE CALL
Another reason why angel-backed

start-ups should opt for VC
investments is the possibility of a
much better exit, which is something
that most entrepreneurs and angel
investors associated with a start-up
venture pay keen attention to. Startup exits are very common in the
industry entrepreneurs might be
looking to move on and take up a different challenge, while
angel investors might be looking to make a profit on their
initial investments. Securing a funding from well-connected
VCs gives a start-up opens up the next level of exit for the
incumbent investors. Moreover, the growth that VC funding
entails also opens up the possibility of either a successful
IPO, which can really boost the start-ups growth, or a sale
to a larger company within the same industry at a decent
profit. This makes VC funding a win-win situation for both
angels seeking profitable exits and ventures scouting for
opportunities to make their way into the big league and
establish their name in the industry.
Dr Apoorv Ranjan Sharma
Co-Founder & President, Venture Catalysts
AUGUST 2016 ENTREPRENEUR
23
START-UP
OPPORTUNITY LEGAL VIEW CROWDFUNDING

GET STARTED PASSION PAYS
FAILURE LESSONS
WILL
FREELANCING
KILL JOBS?
Call it on-demand economy, sharing economy, gig economy,
freelance economy, peer economy, access economy, or instant
gratification economy sharing of resources accessible
instantly is the fundamental change occurring that might
well make the concept of owning obsolete in few years. And
specialized independent human capital aka freelancers are
the main beneficiaries of this change, served on freelancing
platforms that are democratizing the way businesses would
engage with talent in 21st century.
By Sandeep Soni
24
he uberisation of everything
right from cabs to clothes
including meteoric rise of
freelancers in Silicon Valley,
thanks to smartphone
penetration and start-up boom, has
cascaded onto the Indian ecosystem.
Freelancing today is no more considered to
be the poor cousin of a full time job, done
mostly by people in the creative space or
by those who are unable to find a job for
whatever reasons.
FLEXIBILITY FOR ALL
Freelancing is now being seen as a catalyst

to micro entrepreneurship where people
lend their skills and talent to businesses,
(particularly start-ups and small
businesses), grow their network, get more
exposure, tap on diverse opportunities, and
earn an equal handsome amount of money.
Hiring freelancers for a specific project
especially for start-ups help drive time and
cost efficiency by avoiding multiple days
of time taken to hire right employees and
overhead costs in giving provident fund,
training, physical office space, IT etc.,
particularly because their existence for
initial few years remains uncertain.
Cost is a big factor for businesses
to switch to freelancing. It allows them
experimenting with different things in
business, says Dipesh Garg, Founder,
Truelancer. Garg started the platform
in September 2014 after working as a
freelancer for various start-ups in India and
the US where payment was inconsistent
and there was no proper way to track

how much work I have done. So,
there was a necessity of a third party
intermediary platform to ensure the
truthfulness of both freelancer and the
client since in freelancing, there is no
formal work agreement.
Raghu Vohra, Founder of US-based
early stage venture fund Blackstone
Valley Group, feels platforms like
Truelancer fills in a significant gap
between the educated youngsters
entering the job market and the
available traditional job openings
for them. It gives a platform to
youth looking for ways to get into
the workforce ecosystem. More
importantly, mothers and housewives,
retirees, hobbyists, artists, etc., can
look for income sitting at home, says
Vohra. Vohra along with other angel
investors in the US and India invested
seed round in Truelancer in November
2015.
However, job mindset and trust
factor are the two issues holding back
the sector, though it will eventually go
away! There are two major challenges
that need to be looked at. First is to
get more employers and motivate
companies to change their traditional
mindsets on how jobs are completed.
Second is to build trust of their clients.
To overcome these challenges it is
important to follow strong quality
control and feedback mechanisms,
says Arjun Dhawan, President and
CEO, HCC Infrastructure Company.
DIPESH GARG
Founder, Truelancer
Truelancer
YEAR OF LAUNCH :
September 2014
INVESTM E NT : Seed round from
angel investors in November 2015
TOTAL FR E E LANCE RS/

CLIE NTS
R EG ISTE R E D : More than 3
lakh/13,000
PROJECTS POSTE D
M ONTHLY : 4,000-5,000
STANDAR D COM M ISSION :
10% of the project cost
TOP CATEG OR IES : IT, graphic
designing, content writing,

digital marketing, social media
management
CHANDRIKA
PASRICHA
Founder and CEO,
Flexing It
It gives a platform
to youth looking for ways
to get into the workforce
ecosystem. More importantly,
mothers and housewives,
retirees, hobbyists, artists,
etc., can look for income
sitting at home.
Raghu Vohra, Founder,
Blackstone Valley Group
Flexing It
YEAR OF LAUNCH : October 2012
INVESTM E NT : $500,000 from
angel investors in October 2015
TOTAL FR E E LANCE RS/

CLIE NTS R EG ISTE R E D :
24,721/1,538
PROJECTS POSTE D : 1,735

TOP CATEG OR IES : Strategy
development, marketing comm.

& strategy, talent acquisition,
business dev., financial planning
& analysis
25
START-UP

FAILURE LESSONS
money (taken in advance from the

client) to the freelancer once they
confirm clients satisfaction with
the project. The project is sent to
the client for review three times in
NO LAME-DUCKS ALLOWED
case of any rework. If the client still
Working for a mobile app development
remains unsatisfied, then the money is
company in Mumbai, 28-year old Anjan
returned, says Aditya Saran, Founder,
Dass first brush with freelancing was
GetLance.
in August 2014 when he was referred by
So perhaps, how would freelancing
his friend to a travel start-up looking for
expand its scope in next five years?
an app developer. Das till last year end
Would it be limited by size and
had offered his services to 10 projects via
duration of the project? There will
different platforms like Freelancer and
be more contractual positions which
Croogster, and earned around Rs 2 lakh
will be for niche field freelancers like
per project lasting for 30-45 days against
consulting projects. Also,
his annual salary package of
there would be a demand
around Rs 6 lakh. Das left
INDIAS TOP 10 SKILLS
FOR FREELANCERS IN
to hire large number of
his job in June last year and
DEMAND IN 2016
freelancers for a project,
became a full time freelancer.
>>PHP development
for e.g. 1,000 freelancers
However he cautions against
>>Graphic design
for a data entry project. If
the delay and low quality
>>Data entry
freelancing industry could
work for those turning to
>>Content writing
meet such mammoth needs,
freelancing to make sure one
>>Internet research
then it would grow much
keeps getting projects in a
>>Javascript development bigger, says Kumar Mukul,
timely manner.
>>Web design
Co-founder, WorknHire.
While freelancing gives
But, it still means that
freedom to choose work, time >>HTML5 development
>>Search engine
companies would keep
and place, you cant have a
their core team in place
casual attitude towards it. You optimization
still have to be professional in >>Social media marketing instead of expecting that
Source: Truelancer data
freelancing would replace
your approach and adhere to
the entire job structure.
timelines and quality required
This eventually will not happen.
in order to get new and repeat clients,
says Das.
Once the client posts a project, he/she
can choose from the matching freelancers
profiles for the job or can pick one from
the suggestions made by the platform.
Typically every platform ranks freelancers
based on the feedbacks or ratings given by
clients for the work done. The duration
and cost are then worked out between the
client and the chosen freelancer even as
failure to complete the project without
AROUND 15M
a valid reason red-flags the freelancers
FREELANCERS IN INDIA
profile. We have a proprietary matching
algorithm called FlexScore that matches
freelancers with relevant skill sets to the
clients requirements. We also have a
fee benchmarking tool called FeeBee, as
lot of clients dont know what to charge
in freelancing for a project. FeeBee tells
INDIA IS THE 2ND LARGEST
clients what should be the price range
MARKET GLOBALLY AFTER
for a particular project, says Chandrika
US THAT HAS AROUND 53M
Pasricha, Founder and CEO, Flexing It
FREELANCERS
and a former independent consultant
in the social sector. The platform only
focuses on management functions and
works with freelancers having 7-10 years
of experience. The projects posted are
OF GLOBAL
approved internally by Flexing It before
FREELANCE JOBS
they go live.
TAKEN UP IN
Freelancing platforms release the
Dhawan along with other angel investors
put $500,000 in freelancing platform
Flexing It in October 2015.
ADITYA
SARAN
Founder, GetLance
GetLance
YEAR OF LAUNCH : March 2014
TOTAL FREELANCERS :
Above 500
PROJ ECTS POSTED

MONTHLY : Around 230
STANDARD COMMISSI O N :
10% of the project cost

TOP CATEGORIES :
Website development/designing,
content writing and mobile app
development
ON POPULAR
DEMAND
40%
INDIA
26
KUMAR
MUKUL
Co-founder, WorknHire
WorknHire
YEAR OF LAUNCH :
May 2012
TOTAL FREELANCERS :
Over 1.5 lakh
PROJ ECTS POSTED

MONTHLY :
Around 2,000
STANDARD COMMISSI O N :
5.7% of the project cost

TOP CATEGORIES :
Social media marketing, web

designing/web programming,
content writing, data entry, and
mobile app development
Source: Company
53M
Source: Truelancer data
15M
START-UP

FAILURE LESSONS
Krupesh Bhat &

Ashok Kadsur
Founders,
LegalDesk.com
The Legal
Stamp!
Hassle-free documentation is an alien concept for
us. The thought of getting a legal document, be it
rental agreements, contracts, MoUs, registration
can be a nightmare. The never-ending procedures
and paperwork makes many criticize the
cumbersome process, with many trying to find out
ways to jump the queue. Figuring out the need for
a smooth documentation process, LegalDesk.com,
a two-year-old start-up has solutions for this pain
point. A do-it-yourself platform, LegalDesk.com
offers a review, print and deliver with stamp paper
service to ease out the tedious work. The services
are currently available across India and over 3,000
users visit the website everyday. Entrepreneur talks
to its co-founders Ashok Kadsur & Krupesh Bhat to
find out more.
By Amrit Mann
How have you evolved as a

legal start-up?
We initiated about two years ago
and assembled few simple, but most
commonly used forms including rental
agreement and affidavits. Within six
months, we added 50 documents to our
pool ranging from HR policy to Power of
Attorney and personal will. We evolved
from bare shell downloadable soft copy
service to complete review, print and
deliver with stamp paper service, which
is currently available across India.
About 12 per cent visitors are from
outside India.
How aware are start-ups

today about legal aspects of
entrepreneurship?
The start-up boom has led to

mushrooming of entities. Budding
entrepreneurs lack awareness about
the legal process and documentation
involved in incorporating an entity
and the formalities involved after
incorporating the same. This gap further
escalates as hiring a law firm or in-house
legal team is an expensive affair.
How does the DIY platform,

offered by you, work?
We have initiated a new model called

28
Fact File
Registered users: 15,000
Presence: Across all Indian states
No. of employees: 24, the number is
expected to double by 2016 end
Last funding round: Currently
bootstrapped, looking to raise
USD 3-5 million
Do-it-Yourself Legal Drafting.

LegalDesk.com provides guidance at
any stage of the document-making
process. Subsequently, we print out
the document on stamp paper and
deliver it to the individual. All the
services available are economical,
comparably much cheaper to the fee
otherwise charged by lawyers.
What is the e-signing

product all about?
We are planning to launch an

Aadhaar-based e-signing product
to verify legal documents. The
eSign concept is basically an
electronic signature powered by
Aadhaar. Now, multiple parties
can sign the document instantly
anywhere, anytime. Your eSign is as
authentic as your regular signature.
Even the Government of India has
authenticated its usage. Once you sign
an agreement using eSign service,
you can invite other parties to sign the

document online instantly to make the
agreement legally binding.
What are the legal packages

for startups?
At LegalDesk.com, we offer two Legal

packages for start-ups first, Business
Documentation Pack and second, the
Incorporation Pack. The Business
Documentation Pack caters to the
need of entrepreneurs with respect
to Business documentation. This
pack is segregated in three different
sections which can be selected as
per requirement. On the other hand,
the Incorporation Pack caters to the
requirements of entrepreneurs who
want to get their entity registered.
START-UP

FAILURE LESSONS
The HIGH FIVE

Crowdfunders
Will crowdfunding replace pre-seed start-up

investments or will professional investors lead
crowdfunding campaigns, rather than or along with
leading their own funds investments? It might very
well happen, though not anytime soon. Crowdfunding
nonetheless will be a very exciting and integral
part to the evolving investing dynamic globally. In
this journey, Entrepreneur picks up the superb five
crowdfunding platforms that are scripting the India
story of this global change ahead.
Priyanka Agarwal,
Co-Founder and
CEO, Wishberry
By Sandeep Soni
THE SOCIAL KING
tarted in 2010 as a micro lending platform,

Milaap expanded its scope of lending to
crowdfunding model in September 2014 after
realizing that only so many causes can be supported
via micro lending route that exclude cases like
medical emergencies. Today, it is the largest charitybased crowdfunding platform in India for personal
and social causes even as charity or donation-based
model is the largest crowdfunding model in India.
We are a utilitarian platform in the sense that
people raise money for something that has a purpose
and a meaningful impact, says Anoj Viswanathan,
Co-Founder, Milaap. For good, there is no time limit
to raise funds and hence, the campaigner can raise
funds as long as he/she wants without any penalty.
Medical emergencies and community projects (civic
engagements, renovation of local school etc.) are
among the top reasons people choose Milaap.
The platform is now focusing on two broad areas;
first, it is taking a sector-driven approach towards
partnerships, for instance, with hospitals where
doctors would be setting up campaigns for their
patients or recommending them to Milaap. Second,
in order to attract more support and visibility to the
campaign beyond the campaigners own network
of friends and family, Milaap uses social media
diligently. They call it Amplify as an option for the
campaigner. If people want to take their cause to a
larger audience, we would help them through social
media. No crowdfunding platform has this structure
globally. We will take it to other emerging markets in
South Asia in one-two years, adds Viswanathan.
30
WISHBERRY
Year of launch: 2012,
Mumbai
Commission: Rs 3,500
fee, 10% on reaching
target amount
Total funds mobilized:
around Rs 9 crore
Focus: creative (music,
theatre, films, dance)
Total campaigns run:
Around 315
Total contributors:
Around 17,000
Famous campaigns:
Punyakoti - Sanskrit
animated movie,
collecting life lessons
of refugees in Europe
MILAAP
Year of launch: 2010,
Bengaluru
Commission on total
funds raised: 5% (DIY
campaigns)
Close to Rs 79 crore
Focus: Social and
personal causes
54,000+
Fund contributors
from 135 countries
(60% from India, rest
majorly from US &
Singapore)
Famous campaigns:
2015 Chennai floods,

victims of farmer
suicides in Maharashtra
THE INDIAN
KICKSTARTER
ewards-based
Wishberry
aspires to be
Indias Kickstarter
worlds second
largest crowdfunding
platform (in terms
of total money
mobilized) as both
focuses on creative
projects. In 2014, it
changed its flexible
funding model (for
campaigners to get
whatever money they
are able to raise in the
limited time instead
of raising the targeted
amount) to all-ornothing. We are on
a mission to rescue
creativity in India.
Even though one of
our competitors has
a bollywood actor as
its co-founder, they
havent been able to
attract any big ticket
campaign. So its vital
to have the brand
focus, says Priyanka
Agarwal, Co-Founder
and CEO, Wishberry.
Interestingly, the
platform will soon
launch an incubator
for budding musicians
along with composer
and singer Shankar
Mahadevans (who is
one of the investors in
Wisberry) Bengalurubased Shankar
Mahadevan Academy.
Mahadevan will
curate these music
artists and we will
help them raise
money. The total
amount raised will
be matched by
the academy and
few grant giving
organizations that
we work with, adds
Agarwal who has
already planned
further extension
of the incubator.
In Q1 2017, the
incubator will launch
Taare Zameen Par
segment to work with
under privileged or
differently-abled
young musicians.
THE BIG GUY
hen 18-year old Shweta Katti, daughter of a sex

worker based in Kamathipura Mumbais red
light district was able to make it to the US for
studies in 2013, it was the happiest moment for team
Ketto that claims to be the biggest rewards-cum-charity
based crowdfunding platform in India. Its because Ketto
helped her raise money through a Mumbai-based nonprofit called Kranti. Moreover, in 2014 Katti even won
United Nations Youth Courage Award.
On the top of the crowdfunding chain in India, Ketto
is unfazed by numerous existing similar platforms.
Competition is, infact required to create more
awareness about crowdfunding. It is too early for only
one player to exist in the market. The more the players,
the better it is in order to reach out and educate more
people, which would eventually add more value to it,
says Varun Sheth, Founder and CEO, Ketto. The platform
recently launched its improved version called Ketto 3.0
with new design, user experience and features including
social media sharing and Ask for an Update where
the backer of a particular campaign can request for an
update from the campaigner about the funds allocation
and its progress. Ketto will also soon enable recurring
donations, first of its kind platform, for non-profits to
raise money every month from current donors.
WHEN
THREES A
CROWD
aunched in 2013 by Satish

Kataria (former venture
capitalist), sector agnostic
Catapooolt (extra O to signify
that threes a crowd) has grown
quite rapidly to have more than
2,000 contributors and raised
more than Rs 1 crore. Kataria
claims to be among the people
introducing crowdfunding
Satish Kataria, concept in India. In 2010, he
Managing launched a crowdfunding model
Director,
through his earlier venture
Catapooolt
Springboard Ventures.
The platform raised Rs 1.2
crore in its seed round from Kolkata Angels, Venture
Nursery, and others. The contributors or backers on
Catapooolt receive quarterly updates on the utilization
of funds by the campaigners. Early this year, it launched
Catapoolt Changemakers Challenge for start-ups
in Internet of things, consumer products, health and
lifesciences, transportation and energy. The top 15 startups out of 250 submissions were selected for pitching to
angel investors on grand finale.
KETTO
Year of launch:
2012, Mumbai
Commission:
8% (campaigns
by individuals,
corporates)
More than
Rs 40 crore
Focus: Across sectors
Over 10,000
Total contributors:
Above Rs 1 lakh
Famous campaigns:
Shweta Katti study
trip to US (a sex
workers daughter
& recent winner of
UN award), Nepal
earthquake
BITGIVING
Year of launch:
2013, Delhi
Commission: 6%
(social campaigns),
8% (creative, startup campaigns)
Undisclosed
Focus: Across sectors
600+
Total contributors:
Around 60,000
Famous campaigns:
Indian Ice Hockey
team trip to 2015
Kuwait championship,
Saving Friendcoes
animal welfare NGO
from shutting down
CATAPOOOLT
Year of launch:
2013, Mumbai
Commission:
Rs 1,499 fee, 10% for
standard plan, 15%
for premium
More than Rs 1 crore
Focus: across sectors
Total campaigns
run: 40+
Total contributors:
2,000+
Famous campaigns
M-Zero: Indias first
supercar
Note This is not a ranking. Featured platforms based on funds

mobilized, total contributors and campaigns, and impact created.
Excluded online deal making/P2P lending platforms.
THE NEW KID
overnment apathy towards less

famous sports, outside the purview
of cricket, in India isnt a secret. So
when it comes to something like ice hockey,
times got even tougher for the India team
in April 2015 when it lacked enough funds
to participate in the Championship Cup
of Asia in Kuwait. So, the team launched
a crowdfunding campaign to raise Rs 3.5
lakh on Delhi-based BitGiving platform,
and within a week it raised Rs 5.69 lakh.
It marked the way for other sportsmen to
know about other ways to raise funds, says
Ishita Anand, Founder and CEO, BitGiving.
Anand believes that reward-cum-charity
based BitGiving was started to bridge the
huge deficit that existed in 2013 in the ways,
for social organizations, creative artists etc.,
to raise funds. It began with social space
since the learning curve was much faster,
and later went sector agnostic.
The platform guide the campaigners
to engage with people through various
channels like Google, WhatsApp etc.,
and which one works best for them. We
automated the process to tell them that
particular percent of backers comes through
their Facebook chats etc., adds Anand.
This makes campaigners less dependent on
BitGiving to amplifying their campaigns
Ishita Anand,
Founder and
CEO, BitGiving
START-UP

FAILURE LESSONS
TROUBLESHOOTING
The End
In the current filtering phase that the Indian start-up ecosystem is going through,
where the real businesses are getting separated from the not-so-real ones, the story of the latter
is equally critical to give an ear to. Three entrepreneurs revisit the time and events that led them
to get some of their lives biggest learning out of failure.
By Sandeep Soni
It was like Life

Coming to a Standstill
RAHUL HARKISANKA
Founder, Eatlo
hen we thought about Eatlos idea of delivering

food made by professional chefs, there were
hardly any food tech start-ups doing the same
thing. In the next two months when we were planning
Eatlos launch, couple of them came up. So, unknown if
anyone was working on the same idea, we launched Eatlo
in December 2014 in Bengaluru.
Ironically, our growth peaked at more than 1,000 orders
per day when we closed during December 2015. We closed
our operations on 15th December and in those 15 days of the
month from the preceding month, we grew by 20 percent.
However shutting down was a very low moment for me. It
was like your life comes to a standstill because you dont
know what to do the next day. I used to think about Eatlo
24*7, whether I slept, ate, or strolled and suddenly my life
was blank.
I shut down because we ran out of funds to continue
operations. We were looking at Series A round to grow and
sustain for next 12 months. While we were gross margin
positive, but there were many fixed costs like salaries of
the core team, technology development cost, office rental
and other cost like Internet charges etc., that we had to
pay from our pocket. We couldnt reach at a stage where
we could recover these costs and to continue with Eatlo we
needed money to pay for these costs. To ensure that there
is no employee dissatisfaction, we were able to give them
their salaries and prior notice.
Since investments in start-ups are also a function of
external market sentiments, investors look for companies
32
which they believe will be able to raise follow on rounds

of funding so that they can have clarity on their exit
route. And, during our time market sentiments were
not very bright, especially in the food space and it
continues to be so. Moreover, 1,000 orders a day was
a small scale for us to be compared as an independent
early stage investment opportunity by investors. So,
during November 2015 we started exploring acquisition
opportunities with potential acquirers, but I didnt see
any vertically integrated food companies of real scale
that could acquire us. They couldnt have offered us
much in return because they too were small.
We Needed
Money Badly
HIMANSHU GUPTA
Co-founder, Flashdoor
he idea of launching
an on-demand laundry
service platform came to
us as there were lots of other
models working in hyperlocal
space, so we thought this to be
an attractive space to foray. We
launched Flashdoor in July 2015
in Bengaluru, but the journey
came to an abrupt end in March
2016 as we couldnt raise funding.
Our growth peaked from around
60 orders by end of July 2015 to
up to 2,500 orders in December
2015.
We thought that had we
started a year before, we could
have gained enough traction and
secured a good funding. But, I
wont call that as primary reason
why we shut down. Our unit
economics was not very healthy
and we were incurring a loss of
Rs 100-120 per order. However,
investors told us that it was a
very good number as according to
them Localoye (on-demand home
services start-up that also offers
laundry service) was burning
around Rs 500 per order. On the
other hand, we had introduced our

own logistics team in November
2015, but we bled a lot of money
out of that. Majority of the order
we used to receive was during
morning and evening, so typically
between 11 am to 5 pm, the
delivery team had nothing to do.
So it cost us a lot.
Around Rs 1 crore that we
raised in August 2015 would have
lasted till July 2016, but Ankit
Agarwal (co-founder) who had
been meeting with investors from
December 2015 till February 2016
end told me that the funding
scene was very bleak. He said that
we had no option, but to run it till
July and hope to get an investor
by then. We needed money badly,
but investors perhaps thought
that hyperlocal was not the right
model and that laundry business
itself too will not work. We had
already exhausted all our contacts,
resources and our savings of Rs
10 lakh each. We didnt want to
waste any more money and so we
took the call.
Customers
Equated us with
Dabbawalas
profitable for us at unit economics level

because we had to get traction through
huge discounts. However, getting good
traction with a totally outsourced model
of sourcing food unlike other start-ups,
which had in-house kitchens was tough.
Since we couldnt get traction, we werent
able to raise funds.
BALASUBRAMANIAN ANANTHA
Also, people in Mumbai are not looking
NARAYANAN
to pay a premium price for a quality homeCo-founder, ZuperMeal
made food. They compare it to the citys
urs was a 10-month story, which began in April Dabbawala service that charges around
2015 and ended in February 2016. While there Rs 100, but we couldnt afford to offer
food at that low cost. So, it was more of a
was news of us raising $2 million from Chef
perceptional challenge that we faced. The
Sanjeev Kapoor and other angel investors in October
housewives also were required to work
2015, but it wasnt that way. We got the commitment
for 8-10 hours of cooking for which they
of $2 million, but the money that we got in our bank
could earn only Rs 500 per day. So if they
account was only around Rs 80 lakh. A few months
worked for 20 days a month they only
before we started in Mumbai, other companies also
made Rs 10,000 which wasnt exciting
came up with the same idea. So it was like a wave of
for them as they were from well off
start-ups delivering home-cooked meals.
families. So, there was
Our chefs werent professionals; they were
hardly anything for them.
housewives who partnered with us like a part time
Adding to the impact
work. Since they had lot of other things to do as
which led us to shut down
housewives, no matter how much we encouraged and
motivated them, they could only take so much in terms ZuperMeal was lot of
negative news and publicity
of orders. So, this was of secondary interest to them
about food start-ups. So,
and hence they perhaps didnt respect timelines of an
the timing also was very bad
order delivery.
for us.
This B2C mode of delivering food was not
33
GET STARTED
Early Adopters
Your first customers will define your business.
ets face it, your businesss first

10 customers are the most
influential ones youll ever serve.
Failure, at least in those early customers eyes, can unravel your life-changing
product or buttoned-up business plan.
Conversely, success can turn those 10
into lifelong evangelists for your brand.
Here are three ways entrepreneurs
turned their experiences into innovation, growthand profitsas a result.
THE LESSON: A clear, concise

message that solved a need was key
to those first sales, Rushworth says.
Once I had the trust of my customers,
the rest was history.
PREPARE FOR CHANGE
The relationship with your first 10 customers can be love and hate simultaneously. Just ask Daniel Gelernter, CEO
of Dittach, a New York Citybased startup with an application to help customers
find attachments in a sea (or archive)
of email. In early 2015, Gelernter turned
to his first customers, who were using a
34
caption
caption
caption
caption
caption
caption
prerelease product, for an honest quality

analysis. They didnt hold back, complaining about almost as many features
and design vagaries as they praised.
(They hated that Dittachs app couldnt
scan the text of the attachments to better find what they were looking for.)
THE LESSON: Your first users are
the first people who break things,
Gelernter says. Some of those findings
can be frustrating, but also invaluable;
if youre not prepared to evolve, you
undoubtedly will fail.
FIND THE GATEKEEPER
Runa, a Brooklyn-based company, brews
beverages from guayusa, produced from
a leaf native to the Amazon rain forest.

One of the companys first customers
was a regional buyer from Whole Foods
Market who discovered the drink at a
food show in 2013. She then recommended Runa to friends and colleagues
in the industry. Ultimately, her references juiced sales with customers across
the country, including Dean & DeLuca
and Mollie Stones Markets.
THE LESSON: In the food and beverage world, there are specific gatekeepers,
notes Tyler Gage, Runas CEO. And if
they are willing to buy your brand as one
of your first customers, they will have
enormous ability to make or break you.
MATT VILLANO
PHOTO GETTY IMAGES/WUNDERVISUALS
SELL FAST
It took John Rushworth three months
to create BottlesTonight, a San Francisco
based mobile marketplace for booking
bottle service and concierge reservations, and just one night to sell it. In
January 2014, once the product was
ready, he knocked on nightclub doors.
Rushworth found that when he was able
to get in front of managers, he could
emphasize how his service would help
the clubs improve efficiencies as well
as control pricing and inventory.
Employing this method, he scored two
of BottlesTonights largest customers.
The clubs get bombarded with technology solutions that disappear after a
few months, he says. My low cost of
entry and overhead convinced them
that I was going to stick around.
PHOTO SHUTTERSTOCK/BREAKING THE WALLS
3436 Startups
[Summer
ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST2016
2016 ]
Five tips
to turn your
hobby into
a million-dollar
business.
BY MICHELLE GOODMAN
uring their annual road trip from

northern Italy to Sicily, cousins Joseph and Giuseppe Ferlito
developed a ritual: acquiring trinkets from
the Mediterranean cities and villages they
visited, which they gifted to fellow travelers they met along the way and friends
and relatives back home. One novelty
from their 2008 trip stood out: a bracelet
featuring a simple turtle bead, which a girl
theyd met in Sicily had given each of them.
AUGUST
2016 ENTREPRENEUR
JULY
2016
ENTREPRENEUR
Startups
[Summer
2016] 35
77
37
Upon returning home

Joseph to Lindenhurst, N.Y., and
Giuseppe to his in Italythe
cousins received countless compliments on their turtle bracelets.
During their road trip the following year, they tracked down the
turtle bracelet vendor and bought
dozens more baubles as souvenirs
for friends and family. More oohs
and ahhs. After repeating this for
a couple more years, the lightbulb
went on: Perhaps they could monetize this bracelet-sharing concept.
To find out, in summer 2013
the cousins put up $5,000 to
design a beaded animal bracelet
of their own. The 20,000 bracelets they placed in 100 New York
City boutiques and 7-Elevens,
priced at $1 to $2 each, sold out
in a week. Joseph and his father
then invested $150,000 to create
750,000 more bracelets. Within
two months, those sold out, too.
Trrtlz, as they branded the jewelry, turned into a phenomenon.
That first year, the company
amassed $3 million in sales.
Today Trrtlz boasts more than 175
bracelet designs and more than $65
million in sales, says Joseph, CEO.
Other major retailers carrying the
Fashion
flash: Trrtlz
bracelets.
bracelets include Walmart, Target, Michaels and QVC. Last year

the company struck up licensing
deals with Disney, Sanrio, DC
Comics, Marvel Comics, Nickelodeon, Universal and multiple
National Football League and
Major League Baseball teams.
Joseph estimates that this year
the company will sell upward of
20 million sports team bracelets.
Its kind of unbelievable, he
says. Im in awe sometimes when
I look at these numbers.
The Ferlitos incredible success
proves that creating a multimillion-dollar business in 12

months time isnt limited to
Silicon Valley or other well-funded
startups. Their success is about
passion, luck and hard work meeting opportunity, the DNA behind
every successful entrepreneur.
That isnt to say its easy, though.
We talked to a handful of business
owners who made the leap from
exuberant hobbyist to milliondollar trep in one year. Heres
how they did itand how theyve
stayed in business since.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP has
a lot in common with chess. To
win, you have to anticipate where
you might get clobbered down the
line. Its staying a few steps ahead
of everybody else, foreseeing
what will happen and having the
solution before the problem even
occurs, Joseph Ferlito says.
Consider Trrtlzs approach to
inventory. Conventional wisdom says not to order too much
product when youre just getting
started and instead to test the
market with small batches of mer38
36 Startups [Summer 2016]
chandise. But from the jump

the Ferlitos increased their
production exponentially to
meet the growing consumer and
retailer demands they expected.
It was a very calculated risk,
Joseph says. But judging from
our initial salesselling 20,000
bracelets in a weekit made
sense to think that those numbers
would double quickly.
Planning ahead also helped
Trrtlz avoid competing with
knockoffs when the product was
still brand-new and the company
Trrtlz CMO
Michael
DellaRocco
and CEO
Joseph
Ferlito.
still vulnerable. The Ferlitos

placed two seasoned team members
on the ground in China
to oversee manufacturing and
to carefully nurture local ties with
key businesspeople. That way,
Joseph says, If there is a knockoff
brand coming out, you hear about
things before they even become
an issue.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TRRTLZ
SOLVE ISSUES BEFORE THEY ARISE.
DONT WAIT FOR PERFECT.

TRIATHLETES Taylor Collins
and Katie Forrest from Austin,
Texas, were tired of grazing on
fruit-and-nut bars while training.
So the couple decided to develop a
low-carb, grass-fed animal-protein
snack: the EPIC bar, which they debuted in 2013 at Natural Products
Expo West, a leading natural food
and products conference.
It turned out that
their timing was
impeccable; glutenfree and paleo
diets had become
all the rage. Based
on their prototype
alone, they snagged
a national distribution deal with Whole
Foods Market the first day of
the conference. Now all the couple
had to do was scramble to fill the
retailers order in 90 days.
Armed with $750,000 theyd
scraped together from savings,
credit and a generous angel
investor, the pair got to work
producing the bars in a rented
warehouse. But there was a hitch:
The perfect machine for packaging their preservative-free bars
didnt exist. To have one custombuilt would take six months. And
the $250,000 pharmaceuticalpackaging machine they settled
on could potentially create an air
leak in one of every 10,000 packages, resulting in rancid meat.
So the duo hired half a dozen
people for the express purpose
of inspecting the packaged meat
bars 40 hours a week to
make sure each one
was airtight.
By the end of
2014, EPIC had
made $6.8 million in sales. This
past January, the
company was acquired
by General Mills. Collins
and Forrest remain executives
of EPIC, which is still headquartered in Austin. The biggest difference is that theyre now sitting
on a hefty nest egg.
Without that imperfect, laborintensive production process
early on, we couldnt have gotten to where we are now, Collins
says. There was no other option
in our mind, and we were not
going to not ship our product.
PHOTO STEPHEN SMITH (COLLINS AND FOREST); PHOTO COURTESY OF EPIC (PRODUCT)
PHOTO BERLYN PHOTOGRAPHYER (LIVING ROOM INTERIOR); PHOTO PAUL SMITH (BAER)
Barkeeps: Taylor Collins and Katie Forrest of EPIC protein bars.
Now showing: A home staged by

Meridith Baer Home in Los Angeles.
SAY YES, AND

FIGURE IT OUT LATER.
LOS ANGELES screenwriter Meridith Baer
loved to rearrange furniture and furnish her
home with plants during lulls between writing projects. In 1998, after the home shed
helped a friend spruce up sold within a week
for $500,000 over the asking price, brokers
started calling to enlist Baers staging services.
So began Meridith Baer Home, a luxury
home staging company that today makes
more than $3 million per
month, maintains
five warehouses of
inventory and
employs some
200 people.
Last year the
company staged
more than 1,500
properties in Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Florida, greater
New York City and Mexico.
Baer certainly didnt make her first
$1 million one year into the business by shying away from unfamiliar territory. It started
that I did maybe a $2 million house and then
they said, Could you do a $7 million house?
and I said, Sure. And then I had to scramble
like mad to find enough furniture, art and
decorations to fill it, Baer says. But I really
believe that the growth came from my saying
yes and not worrying about how I was going
to do it. People want to hear yes. And then
theyll write you a check.
AUGUST
2016 ENTREPRENEUR
JULY 2016
ENTREPRENEUR
79
39
Startups [Summer 2016] 37
ALWAYS INNOVATE.
Back to work:
The Dharma Yoga
Wheel (below) was
just the start.
40
Design bros: Daylight Designs Sven (left) and Brett Newman.
EXPAND THOUGHTFULLY.
BROTHERS and lifelong inventors Brett and Sven Newman
didnt want to aggressively grow
their product design firm just for
growths sake. Nor did they want
their firm to get acquired. Instead,
the pair grew Daylight Design
carefully, focusing on the clients
and projects that most
appealed to them and
maintaining a corporate culture with
a family vibe.
For the Newmans, prioritizing
growth above all
else would have
meant being less
selective about the work
they did and taking on more
projects to feed the overhead
beast. Grow with intent, Brett
explains, and you have more freedom to focus on the projects and
clients that truly speak to you.
That slow-growth strategy paid
off. The Bay Area business hit the
million-dollar annual revenue mark
a year after its 2007 launch, and
it now clears between $3 million
and $5 million in annual billings.
Clients include both mission-
driven organizations like UNICEF,

HopeLab and Back to the Roots,
and household brands like Bosch,
Instagram and Audi.
Growing mindfully is just good
business, the brothers argue. In
their companys infancy, they had
a significant six-figure opportunity to design disposable
water bottles. After a
long, hard think, they
decided that helping
add millions of plastic bottles to landfills
wasnt how they
wanted to make their
mark, and they turned
the gig down.
Turning that down
helped establish our values even
more strongly, Sven says. Our
reputation was made early on.
For the Newmans, that reputation has helped win over the
kinds of customers they want to
work with, and create a company
they can be proud of.
MICHELLE GOODMAN IS
THE AUTHOR OF THE ANTI
9-TO-5 GUIDE AND MY
SO-CALLED FREELANCE LIFE.
PHOTO FABIO FILIPPI (YOGA); PHOTOS PATRIK PETERSON
DURING SUMMER 2014, New York City

yoga studio owners Raquel Vamos and Dov
Vargas created a rudimentary website for
$35 to sell a plastic wheel they invented to
help with deep back stretches. At most, they
expected to get a few dozen orders for the
$99 yoga prop from friends and students.
But after a few months, they were selling
up to 100 Dharma Yoga Wheels a day. After
a year, theyd raked in $1.3 million and
garnered Instagram raves from popstress
Britney Spears and a number of NFL players.
But the couple knew this was hardly cause
to rest on their laurels. They understood
that one product does not make a thriving
company. So Vamos quit her full-time nursing job and threw herself into the business.
The team then hired a seasoned marketer
to help keep the company in the spotlight,
and got to work creating various yoga wheel
upgrades and spin-offs, including an international yoga-teacher-training program based
on their invention.
You cant get too stale with the business,
Vamos says. Youve got to constantly keep
creating. In fact, she says, the best time to
research how to improve a product, create
accessories for it and otherwise expand
your business is the moment you launch it.
Vamos hopes that mindset keeps the company moving forward, with the potential to
bring in $1.7 million by the end of this year.
Im
more
than my
surname
10
of Indias leading
heirs &
heiresses
on succession &
start-ups
Who says it comes easy working in a family business. What if you are made in-charge
of a loss-making unit? Or if you are thrown out in open to make your own mistakes.
Thats the kind of training India Incs leading industrialists provide to the next
generation as nobody has made it the easy way. Here are Indias young leaders who
will drive the next entrepreneurial wave of the nation. These legacy makers are excited
about new businesses and startups. They want to emerge on their own driving the
next change in their family businesses and taking the legacy ahead.
By Punita Sabharwal
AUGUST 2016
ENTREPRENEUR 41
GROWTH
YOUNG SCIONS BRAND JOURNEY LEGACY

ENTREPRENEUR DIARIES ACQUISITION MADE IN INDIA
On the
Road Less
Travelled
PARTH JINDAL
Claim to Fame: Son of Steel
Tycoon Sajjan Jindal
If you look at the next source of wealth

that is going to be created in this country
it is going to come from startups.
Parth Jindal, Managing Director, JSW Cement
ight after coming back from Harvard

post finishing his MBA in the month
of May, Parth Jindal took charge of
JSW Cement as Managing Director in June.
Cut back to 2013, when Parth finished
his Graduation at Brown University, JSW
Group bought the Bengaluru Football
Club. His father, Sajjan Jindal asked him
to run it. Football and Squash lover, Parth
became the CEO of Bengaluru FC. The Club
won the I-League in its debut season, was
runners-up in its second season and won
the Federation Cup in 2015. JSW Sports
also supports around 36 athletes since
2012 and 12 of those athletes have gone
on to qualify for the Olympics. It is also
building a high-performance training center
in Vijaynagar for Indias top 300 junior
athletes. Currently I am raising funds from various corporate to
help run that facility, informs Parth.
Heading the 550 employees strong JSW Cement Parth aims
to raise its capacity From 7 mn tons to 17 mn tons in the next
two years. He plans to do a listing before 2020 and enhance its
product range of Slag cement. Parth is also initialising a new
business segment for JSW, which is paint. We are going to
start building our first facility this year. Hopefully by 2018 the
company will be up and running, shares Parth.
Besides Sports and Cement what excites Parth is startups.
If you look at the next source of wealth that is going to be
created in this country it is going to come from startups, opines
Parth. It all started with Parth making some initial investments
personally. However, there was no real structure to it. In 2012,
Parth funded a sports science Physiotherapy Company called
Heal. In the words of Parth, Whenever I would like a company
I would invest. It was very opportunistic. He felt the need that
as a group they should get into something like this. Sharing how
42 ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST 2016
he pitched this idea to his father, Parth says, It was a

big challenge to convince my father that we should get
into something like this where we are promoting new
businesses, new ideas and its also diversifying risk
away from the family because we are entering spaces
that are not linked to commodity pricing.
In June, JSW Ventures, the venture capital arm
of the JSW Group, received SEBIs approval to begin
investing. After the fund has been started the group
made two investments. One is Overcart, which is into
refurbishing, reselling the returned inventory from all
the big ecommerce platforms. The other one is Purplle,
which is into beauty products. Its criteria remain
new-age businesses driven by technology. According
to Parth, a million dollar is the average investment and
the aim is to make 15 investments over three years.
The 100 crore fund will be deployed over three years
and post that it plans to raise funding from outside.
Making her Mark

ANANYA BIRLA
Claim to Fame: Daughter of Aditya Birla Group

Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla
nanya Birla doesnt believe in labels or

tags as she finds them restricting. As an
individual, she wants to claim her own
piece of sky. When Ananya saw on one end there
were people who didnt have any access to even
electricity and on the other end there was so much
opulence with people who had everything, she
found the answer in microfinance.
Ananya started with two people on board doing
a lot of research and going out in the field herself.
The idea of a startup excited Anaya since the early
days as building something from scratch attracted
her. In her own words, What attracted me towards
microfinance is its a very sustainable business,
which has an impact on peoples lives yet it can
be very profitable. When the idea clicked, armed
with a business plan Ananya reached her father
for seed funding. Once Kumar Mangalam Birla
saw it, he realized how serious his daughter was
about the venture. At present, Svantantra has been
able to touch 70 branches in four states with more

than 600 employees. At the time of filing the story
it touched 245.18 crore impacting 1.2 lakh people.
On the differentiator of building microfinance 2.0,
Ananya says, We are integrating technology within
our processes for completely cashless collections and
disbursements.
When asked about her vision for Svatantra, Ananya
says, Given the situation in India probably becoming
a small financial bank is the next step forward and
eventually a national bank. Within three years of
operation, the company will reach break-even this
year. On how she has been able to manage everything
on her young shoulders, Ananya shares picking up on
peoples strengths and inculcating that. When asked
what she learnt and from whom, she replies, My
grand dad used to have a long-term vision. I gauged
that. From my dad I learnt that it is very important to
stay calm. From my mom, I learnt that it is important
to have a high Emotional Qquotient, from technical
view point I learnt how important it is to have a
strong MIS system from a colleague.
Next on the cards is Ananyas second startup, which
is in the lifestyle space and will be launched this year.
The other passion for Ananya is music. The 22-yearold plays guitar and makes her own music. This year
will also mark the launch of her debut album. With so
much in her kitty will joining the family business be
on the cards, Ananya says, I would love to whenever
there is the right opportunity. The doors are open all
time.
Given the
situation in
India probably
becoming a
small financial
bank is the next
step forward
and eventually a
national bank.
Ananya Birla, Founder,
Svatantra Microfin
AUGUST 2016
ENTREPRENEUR 43
GROWTH

Getting his Act Right

SHASHWAT GOENKA
Claim to Fame: Son of Business Tycoon Sanjiv Goenka
ven as a kid whenever

Shashwat used to
go shopping, he was
never interested in buying
things, he was keen to know
why shoppers shop the way
they shop. Even as a grownup he had more affinity
towards consumer facing
companies.
After finishing his
graduation from The
Wharton School, University
of Pennsylvania working
with KPMG and Nestle,
Shashwat joined the family
business in 2012 working
across various group
companies. The above
instances showcase why out
of the various businesses
under the RP-Sanjiv
Goenka group Shashwat got
interested in Spencers. On
how the learning platform
has been, Shashwat says,
The advantage with retail
is if you take a decision
tomorrow you can actually
evaluate it by next week,
so you dont have to wait
for months unlike other
businesses. In 2013, once
Shashwat was made incharge he brought in a lot of
processes, which he found
lacking in the business.
His next focus area was
reducing cost across stores.
When he started
Spencers had a loss of
-23 crore a month. Right
now it is -1.2 to 2 crore a
month. However, Shashwat
still doesnt consider
it an achievement. On
when he will count it as a
major change, Shashwat
says, Last year in May
we broke even just for a
month. But it has not been
consistent. Retail is a very
low-margin business. In
a year it will break even.
Next year we expect it to
be running profitably.
Currently, Spencers has
120 stores out of which 37
are hypermarkets and the
rest are convenience stores.
Though spread across
the country Spencers
dominates in North, East
and South India. Shashwat
also played an active role
in the acquisition of BPO
Firstsource Solutions.
Another acquisition
marking the retail arms
entry into e-commerce was
buyout of meragrocer.com.
Talking about learning the
art from his grandfather
Late R P Goenka who
has been known to be a
takeover master, Shashwat
reminisces, He used to say
just think beyond, there is
nothing thats not possible.
The advantage
with retail is if you
take a decision
tomorrow you can
actually evaluate it by
next week.
Shashwat Goenka, Head (retail),
RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group
44 ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST 2016
We feel we can
dominate the
West. Its much
more than
what we would
be able to do
everywhere.
Zahabiya Khorakiwala,
Managing Director,
Wockhardt Hospitals
My Piece of Sky
ZAHABIYA
KHORAKIWALA
Claim to Fame: Daughter of Dr. Habil Khorakiwala,

Founder, Wockhardt
fter finishing her graduation from

NYU, Zahabiya dabbled into a bubble
tea business along with a friend.
She started a caf and launched products
in Bombay. As her friend moved back to the
US it was a lone journey as there is so much
required to sustain a startup. Remembering
how the startup fared at that time, Zahabiya
says, The acceptance was negligible as it was
a new concept. We were too young, just fresh
out of college. However, working on a startup
gave her a good flavor of ground realities.
Thereafter, Zahabiya went on to do her MBA
before joining the family business in 2010. At that time the South
Bombay hospital was under construction so she got an opportunity
to oversee construction, planning and recruitment. Setting up
service standards, making sure the protocol is placed, launching,
marketing, were areas she worked upon. South Bombay being
Wockhardts flagship hospital marking its entry back in the metro
was the most prestigious hospital for Zahabiya.
On how she earned her present position, Zahabiya shares, When
I joined initially for about six months there was a COO for business
handling all the hospitals. My role was really kind of shadow him.
I also learnt about the business. Within six months I was given
the responsibility of managing director. All the hospital heads
started reporting into me including the functional heads. I had the
responsibility of the P&L as well as the operating responsibility
of all the hospitals. Zahabiya brought in certain technologies
like integrating all the information around the patient including
radiology, CT scan, pathology done by monitors, to free nursing time
for actual patient care rather than documentation. Other than that
she also started a pediatric heart specialist programme.
Wockhardt has a stronger presence in tier-II cities as well and was
the first corporate group to venture out of the metros. When asked
about moving outside the Western region Zahabiya replies, We feel
we can dominate the West. Its much more than what we would be
able to do everywhere.
AUGUST 2016
ENTREPRENEUR 45
GROWTH

Above & Beyond the

Family Business
ANAND PIRAMAL
Claim to Fame: Son of Bilionaire Owner of Piramal Enterprises,

Ajay Piramal and Padma Shri Awardee, Swati Piramal
Real estate is a
very local game,
even if you look
at Emaar, 70%
of its wealth is in
one city. I think
there are lots of
opportunities in
Mumbai solely.
fter doing his graduation from the

University of Pennsylvania, Piramal
founded a rural healthcare start-up,
Piramal e-Swasthya. To Piramals credit
it became a case study at Harvard Business
School. After that he went on to complete his
MBA from Harvard. In 2012, Anand marked
Piramal Groups re-entry in real estate being its
first employee. Presently, the group is building
residential plus commercial real estate forming
75% and 25% of the chunk respectively.
On how it is differentiated from others,
Anand says, It is our approach to build the
buildings which are of international stature
and world-class quality like that of any city
in the world. Piramal Realty went on to raise
Rs 1800 crore from Warburg Pincus and then
within three weeks another Rs 900 crore from
Goldman Sachs, making it the largest FDI in the
sector since 2008.
On keeping the focus only on Mumbai,
Anand says, Real estate is a very local game,
even if you look at Emaar, 70% of its wealth
is in one city. I think there are lots of
opportunities in Mumbai solely. India
is expected to grow further in 7-8 years.
Mumbai will be the great cities of the
world much more than it is now.
Apart from his father, Anand
has received great learnings from
his familys friend, and leading
entrepreneur, Mukesh Ambani. He
told me that proceed with your goal
of entrepreneurship, if you yearn to
be an entrepreneur. When you start a
business, you need to learn how to begin
with scratch, states Anand. In his own
words, Being an entrepreneur is like
playing cricket and being a consultant
like watching it as a commentator.
Anand Piramal, Executive Director,

Piramal Group
46 ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST 2016
Building the Next

Growth Story
Puneet Dalmia
Claim to Fame: Third Generation of the

70-year-old family business
Start-ups are
very high risk
investments. Its
not like you are
putting in money
and getting five
times or 10
times, it can even
go to zero.
Puneet Dalmia, Managing
Director, Dalmia Bharat Group
fter working on his

start-up Jobsahead
and joining the
family business post selling
it, Puneet Dalmia is up at
it again. This time not on
his own; but by investing
in startups and mentoring
them. The man who has
done it himself is pushing
startup ahead with the
same passion. The first
investment Puneet made
last year was in realty
start-up, Prithu. Talking
about how it started,
Puneet says, Nitin Bansal
was my junior in IIM. He
once wrote to me sharing
his idea with me. We met
and I decided to invest.
Besides the money, what

more Dalmia brings to the
table, he states, There are
two or three areas where
we are able to add value.
One, we have helped them
in strategy, so, very clearly,
we were able to mark areas
where we can differentiate
ourselves from others.
Second area where we can
add value is recruitment.
You need credibility to
attract good people. The
third part is leveraging
our connections; there are
times when we can open
doors for them. Similarly,
in other companies, we
have helped them with
banking discussions.
Other startups
investments by Dalmia
include, e-commerce portal
for construction material
Buildzar, private aviation
service provider JetSetGo,
Fashion rental platform
Stage Th3e, citizen
engagement platform
Localcircles, and bike ridehailing app Baxi.
Talking about the risks
involved as a retail investor,
Dalmia cautions, Five
years is the minimum
time frame I would look
at. These are companies
with no revenue. Its like a
child, you have to nurture
it. These are also very
high risk investments. Its
not like you are putting
in money and getting five
times or 10 times, it can
even go to zero.
On plans to take it in a
formal shape, Dalmia says,
We have done this with
Ashoka University. Ashoka,
ISB and Dalmia have set up
an incubator. I am among
the founding members of
Ashoka University. We are
going to continue doing this
with Ashoka for next five
years. This is the first year.
Seems once an
entrepreneur, always an
entrepreneur!
AUGUST 2016
ENTREPRENEUR 47
GROWTH

Fabricating New
Business
PUNIT & KULIN
LALBHAI
Claim to Fame: Sons of
Textile Baron Sanjay Lalbhai
hile Punit Lalbhai was

working for Center
for Environment
and Education between his
graduation and Masters, at
that time, Arvind Ltd set up
its agriculture business which
was organic farming and had a
sustainability and ecology angle
to it. It was a very natural
phase that had transition
from science to business. I
was reasonably qualified for
the project, claims Punit. On
why he thought joining the
family business is a good idea,
Punit says, When I was doing
Masters in environmental
education, I decided that
business was the right vehicle
which can change the world. So,
I decided that joining Arvind,
might be a good idea.
Punit feels there is a much
better opportunity and it is
much easier to incubate a new
business under the umbrella of
a large organization. The kinds
of businesses Kulin & I are
doing are similar to startups.
We are not involved in large
core businesses as such because
we feel promoters are better at
entrepreneurship, states Punit.
Talking about the major
businesses hes working on,
Punit says, We are focusing
on lots of industrial materials
which will be very helpful as
India grows because these
types of materials are used
consistently in the economy
to develop to a certain extent.
The other one is an agri
business where we are growing
sustainable cotton working with
48 ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST 2016
farmers. Third area which I

look after is engineering where
we have two companies, out
of which one is a fabrication
company for metal and another
is an environmental protection
company where we have
innovative technology for waste
water treatment.
It took a lot of time to
develop these ideas and
execution started since 2012.
Explaining where these
businesses stand currently,
Punit informs, They are all
small to medium sized, like,
advance material division will
be 500 crore, engineering
business would be around 300
crore and agri would be around
100 crore. When all these are
put together, all would be close
to 1,000 crore.
After doing his graduation
from Stanford in 2007, Punits
younger brother, Kulin joined
McKinsey & Co for two years.
After that he went on to do his
MBA and started working with
Arvind. In 2012, he started
work on the e-commerce
business.
Talking about the role
played by Kulin in the growth
of Arvind, he says, One of
our biggest assets at present
is brand and retail business,
wherein, I made a couple of
additions. I think, at present,
my primary aim is building new
business, which is to develop
new segments in digital space.
We have launched Nnnow.com.
Through this mode, we are
connecting online and offline
world.
At present, my
primary aim is building
new business, which
is to develop new
segments in digital
space.
Kulin Lalbhai, Executive Director,
Arvind Limited
Groomed to Lead
(Start-ups)
KAVIN MITTAL
Claim to Fame: Son of Telecom Czar Sunil Bharti Mittal
We are not
involved in large
core businesses as
such because we feel
promoters are better
at entrepreneurship.
Punit Lalbhai, Executive Director,
Arvind Limited
n India, where we lately

see an investment
drought, people apps
like Hike have been able
to rope in some of the
big names in the startup industry as investors.
These include Quora
founder and CEO Adam
DAngelo, WordPress cofounder Matt Mullenweg,
and Ruchi Sanghvi, board
member at Paytm.
What started as a
messaging app has now
become an integrated
service provider. Founded
by Kavin Mittal in 2012,
Hike is Indias answer to
WhatsApp. Talking about
his product and current
funding scenario, this is
what he had to say:
Whats your mantra for
app platforms like Hike to
get funding?
Build a great product.
Thats it. Nothing else.
Investors only fund great
teams and great products.
requirements, but the

product was not ready.
Its important to get
the product right, get the
product-market fit, show
the organic growth and
then pitch to investors and
say, Hey, guys! We have
this problem were solving;
the products looking
extremely well and the
best part is that in that
zone you can risk capital at
your own terms.
With the whole bots
invasion coming in India,
what do you see the
prospect of Indian mobile
app market?
I have been clear from day
one that the app model is
broken. I really believe that
were sitting on lands of
new interaction model that
changes the way people
interact with current
service. We already do that
with services like news and
cricket scores. Its really
cool!
Any challenges you faced

while acquiring funds and
how you overcame them?
The challenge we faced was
to show the growth that
people expect, because in
the internet space people
expect a J Curve all the
time. It becomes hard early
on when the product itself
is not good. We faced this
problem, and moving on
we had to grow very fast
because of the funding
AUGUST 2016
ENTREPRENEUR 49
GROWTH

Beyond the
Legacy
TARA SINGH
VACHANI
Claim to Fame: Daughter of
Analjit Singh, Founder, Max
or someone like Vachani, who enjoys being

in the service space, Antara Senior Living
became a great opportunity in setting
hospitality standards, creating a residential
community and creating lifecare and healthcare
on the whole. Besides leading Antara, Vachani is
also the Director on Max India board. Almost six
years ago when Vachani moved back to India, she
chanced upon a conversation with someone who
was looking to develop this concept in Asia. That
was the first time she really had a touch point
with this concept and why it was so important to
think about.
When I started to understand what the
product was, it was essentially the ability and the
opportunity to give people above the age of 55 a
lifestyle thats extremely unique and special. And
then we started to research this product in various
markets in the US, shares Vachani. When Vachani
decided to start a new concept on her own under
the Max enterprise, it clearly showcased one of her
virtues of creating something independently.
Antara is being positioned as a real estate
enabled senior living residential community as it
has three different service offerings hospitality,
concept of residences and lifecare.
We are as far away from real estate as it can
be, says Vachani. Max, being a listed entity,
Vachani had to take the boards approval before
starting something new.
Interestingly, after one year of researching
it, the board of directors said this was very
synergistic to other businesses, and for Antara
to take good shape, it needed the support and
backing of an entity life Max. So Antara became
a part of Max India at that stage, reminisces
Vachani.
Talking about moving ahead, Vachani says,
Now we will see the operations starting in
Dehradun in next six months.
We are as far away from

real estate as it can be
Tara Singh Vachani, MD & CEO, Antara Senior Living
50 ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST 2016
GROWTH
YOUNG SCIONS
BRAND JOURNEY
LEGACY
ENTREPRENEUR DIARIES
ACQUISITION
MADE IN INDIA
Ranganathans
Rebellious Path to
Brand Building
By Sneha Banerjee
19
83
SET UP
CHIK
INDIA
19
98
RENAMED
COMPANY
TO
CAVINKARE
PVT. LTD
20
03
INSTITUTED
THE
CAVINKARE
ABILITY
AWARDS
20
04
WON
ENTREPRENEUR OF
THE YEAR
AWARD
BY THE
ECONOMIC
TIMES
n heir or heiress taking their family business forward

is seen as a natural trend with Indian empires. But
it takes tremendous amount of guts and hard work
to ditch ones family business and start an empire
single-handedly. Cuddalore boy CK Ranganathan, the Founder
Chairman of FMCG conglomerate CavinKare, left his family
business to create a path on his own hypothesis.
Under his leadership, the company diversified into personal
care, food & beverage, and dairy. Over the years, the brand
portfolio expanded to shampoos (Chik, Meera, Karthika and
Nyle), Hair Wash Powders (Meera & Karthika), Coconut Oil
(Meera), Fairness creams (Fairever), Deodorant & Talc (Spinz),
Pickles & Snacks (Ruchi, Chinnis & Garden), Hair Colours
(Indica), Retail Salon Products (Raaga Professional), Beverages
(Maa), Dairy (Cavins), and Beauty Salons (Green Trends &
Limelite) both in domestic and international markets.
Shrugging Inferiority Complex
Ranganathan couldnt cope with the English language and

was hence sent to a Tamil medium school. According to
him, throughout his childhood he was ailing from inferiority
complex. There are certain basic things that I did right. My
attitude changed and hence this helped me change my whole
world. The attitude of feeling inferior! The moment I joined
my family business, which till then was successfully run
by my brothers, I realized this was common sense and not
rocket science. I can do it! The minute he shed his inferiority
complex, from then on there was no looking back!
CavinKare, under Ranganthans guidance, has also aced the
concept of family salons in India and is the first to channel this
industry into an organized salon chain sector with its specialist
brands Limelite and Green Trends.
Trends-in-Vogue, the parent company that operates the salon
chains has a clear-cut focus on providing personal styling and
beauty services to men, women and children. The franchisee-led
format of the salon chain encourages budding and small time
entrepreneurs to succeed in business, a cause which is very
close to Ranganathan from his early years in entrepreneurship.
Choosing Quality over Margins
Ranganathan was under pressure from retailers to offer higher

margins to them. When most local players gave higher margins
to them, Ranganathan never compromised on quality and did
52 ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST 2016
not go on a discounting spree even in his initial

days. Ranganathan started implementing a
scheme wherein a retailer could return empty
sachets of shampoos and get a packet of Chik
shampoo in return. When he saw retailers
outsmart them by dumping hundreds of packets,
Ranganathan tweaked the scheme to make them
return packets of Chik shampoo packets. This
scheme miraculously worked as retailers came
forward and bought the shampoo packets seeing
the demand, and this gave the company cash
flows to advertise the brand on radio and other
media platforms. Once he saw the demand grow,
he stopped the scheme and saw his distribution
platform expand.
Ranganathan always stood by his words of not
taking the end customer for granted and decided
never to budge on quality this he believes will
help them compete in the long run.
BRAND BUILDING
LESSONS
. Ranganathan believed in a simple philosophy

everything starts with the product. We will
either introduce a significantly differentiated product
or a completely differentiated product from the
competition. I also introduced a detergent and you
also introduced a detergent powder; my detergent
should have the ability to convince the customer that
it is better in quality than theirs. Otherwise I dont
get into the game. These are principles I dont want
to violate, he said.
. Ranganathan, who also spends enormously
on research and development, believes that
communicating the product is very important and
hence spent enormous amount of time, energy and
money in telling the right story to the customers
via advertising. The company shrugged the idea
of pricing war and decided to introduce premium
products in the market.
. Ranganathan today abides by the policies of
being asset light and people light and relentlessly
pursue the process of distribution to ensure that his
products are available at every nook and corner of the
country.
Today, in spite of being conferred with several
prestigious titles, Ranganathan feels that he has
several milestones to cover and there is a long
journey that awaits him.
2
3
The moment I
joined my family
business, which
till then was
successfully run
by my brothers, I
realized this was
common sense and
not rocket science.
I can do it!
CK Ranganathan, Founder
Chairman, CavinKare
AUGUST 2016
ENTREPRENEUR 53
GROWTH

Building a Brand
Without Destroying
a Legacy
Rome was not built in a day the French proverb stands true
for legacy businesses, which have withstood the test of time to
not only validate their products but also inspire the next-gen
leaders to be entrepreneurs. Waking up to the changing trends
and technological advancements, torch-bearers of these legacy
business are either taking these conglomerates into new territories
or re-inventing themselves, keeping the core values intact. Tracing
their journey, Entrepreneur talks to these legacy masters.
By Amrit Mann
stablished in 1884 by Vaidya N. Vasudevan Unni, former palace

physician to the Maharaja of Travancore, Vasudeva Vilasam has
an unmatched legacy in Ayurveda. He passed on the science
to his sons, who passed it on to the next generation, making it
relevant with changing times. Starting from just three basic products,
the company has a product line of over 500 and has diversified into
rehabilitation, spas and wellness centres.
Pradeep Jeothi, Managing Director, Vasudeva Vilasam is the man
carrying the legacy on his shoulders. He has a clear plan he wants to
move out of Kerala and expand across the country. His products are a hit
with the European market, but in India their operations are restricted to
the south. He intends to not only setup a manufacturing unit, thanks to
the sudden demand of his products from North India. One of the lessons
he has learnt from his forefathers is the need to believe in the product
and stay true to the promise.
Wellness is a growing sector. We are planning to open clinics that
cure pains, like shoulder and joints in Northern India. We will not
only market our products, but also setup shops, for more prominence,
says Jeothi. The companys forefather used to give three products to
Brahmins bathing at the temple near the Travancore Palace, which were
hair & body oil and a tooth powder. The company is still selling these
core products, however, has rebranded them 10 years ago to make it
relevant. Vasudevas products are also popular in countries, like Russia,
Germany, Italy and several European countries. Already operating
under healthcare, wellness and fitness products, Jeothi wants the
company to branch out into the food supplement market, considering
it as the next big thing. With a pan-India approach, he plans to set up a
54 ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST 2016
factory in Uttarakhand and Karnataka. True power of a

quality product!
FOR HIM PRODUCT IS KING
Players who have been in the market for long are

gearing for change. Cholayil group, which gave us
the medicinal soap, Medimix is also taking note of
changing trends. Remember, Medimixs simplistic green
and white wrapper packing? Well, thats undergone
a sea change over the years. It is now available in a
fancy green carton. Realizing the competition in the
market, Subramaniam Venkataraman, brand custodian,
Medimix says the company wants to keep up the brand
value and recall. You cant move to a nice packaging
and let your products suffers in terms of quality, he
says.
The soap, still manufactured using the same science,
has been re-packaged to appeal to the masses. With
increasing demand for such products, the company also
We are selling
the same three
products we started
with, but they have
been branded and
repackaged to appeal
to the masses.
Pradeep Jeothi, MD, Vasudeva Vilasama
Natasha Tuli,
Co-founder,
Soulflower
holding a
chocolate
cake inspired
soap
structure.
has other brands in its kitty Cuticura and Krishna Tulsi

Soap, but Medimix remains their favorite child.
You cannot take a brand for granted. Companies have
to continuously produce quality and communicate with
consumers, he adds. The group has now entered the
intimate feminine wash segment, something which is a very
nascent category in India at the moment.
Venkataraman adds with the awareness around Ayurveda,
Medimix wants to position itself as a company which
comes with a very strong heritage, but answers a modern,
contemporary need in the personal care space.
THE INQUISITIVE ENTREPRENEUR
Meet, Kerala-based Ayurveda Company, Dhathri that boasts

of a 300-year-old legacy. The company entered the FMCG
and modern pharma channel about 15 years ago and started
repackaging their products. Since then innovation in design
has been a key area for them.
AUGUST 2016
ENTREPRENEUR 55
GROWTH
YOUNG SCIONS BRAND JOURNEY

ACQUISITION MADE IN INDIA
VASUDEVA
VILASAM
YEAR OF LAUNCH:1884
FOUNDER
Vaidya N. V
asudevan Unni
MANUFACTURING
UNITS: 2
BEST SELLING-PRODUCT:
Amla hair oil
The foundation of Dhathri Group was

laid by Parameswara Vaidyar, nearly three
centuries ago. He began healing people
using the gift of Ayurveda in a small town of
Kayamkulam in Kerala, India.
Carrying forward the legacy today is, Dr
Sajikumar, the companys MD who is not
only managing products, but also healthcare
institutions and Ayurvedic curative services
like hospitals and clinics. He was deeply
inspired by his grandfather to carry forward
his healing legacy. Studying yoga, reiki and
acupuncture, he plans to make Ayurveda a
part of everyones life. A keen observer of
changing trends and wanting to add value to
the brand makes him a true entrepreneur.
Whatever happens in healthcare industry,
management, science is of interest to me, he
says.
Dhathris flagship product is Hair Care
plus herbal hair oil. The company has over 75
products in its portfolio, ranging from skin
and hair care to wellness. The groups latest
venture is Dhathri ABS (Ayurveda, Beauty
and Slimming) clinics for treating lifestyle
diseases, which is growing at an alarming
pace. They plan is to open such branches in
the middle-east in the coming years.
56 ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST 2016
LEGACY
ENTREPRENEUR DIARIES
DHATHRI
AYURVEDA
CHOLAYIL
GROUP
YEAR OF LAUNCH
YEAR OF LAUNCH
FOUNDER
BEST SELLING-PRODUCT
1800s
3 centuries ago
Parameswara
Vaidyar
Medimix Brand
FLAGSHIP PRODUCT
Hair Care plus

herbal hair oil
BALANCED NEW-AGE
ENTREPRENEURS
Natasha Tuli, co-founder, Soulflower

has an interesting story to share.
Recently, she gave moustache oil and
a few soaps to a few cops near her
residence in the plush Bandra suburb
of Mumbai, for trial. They came
back to her, with a review. Fresh and
rejuvenated is what they felt! That
is the power of natural products and
the legacy in businesses help newer
players to emerge and think out-of-the
box. Tuli started Soulflower in 2001,
offering handcrafted soaps, blended oils
and spa treatments resurrected from
ancient recipes, something that most
people werent aware of. Well thanks
to validation of Ayurveda products by
Baba Ramdev, the scenario is different
today, she adds.
When I started Soulflower, I had to
tell people, it is soap and not a candle.
People are getting aware and they really
want to use it. Along with giving a
natural product, I wanted to make stuff
that looks good.
Lessons Legacy
Entrepreneurs
have to Impart
. Persistence is the key An impulsive,

impatient attitude will yield nothing.
To build a legacy brand you have bear the
test of changing times and mould yourself
to an extent. Balanced creativity will let
you thrive.
. Believe in your product An

entrepreneur is nothing without his
product. For younger businesses, it is
crucial to understand this. To build a
product, core values have to remain intact.
Nurturing your team, keeping this is mind.
. Failure will only make you stronger

A company that sustains for as long
as 100 years - has its shares of ups and
downs, of lows and highs. It is important
not to lose control. Some plans work,
some dont, acceptance is important.
. Nurture your core strengths A

company can only grow if it knows its
core values and keep them intact. Though,
it is important to mould according to
changing times, a company should have its
heart in the right place.
. Remain open to feedback To build

a legacy, be ready to accept feedback,
not only about your product but also
your entrepreneurial skills. Remember,
constructive criticism can lead you to take
important, necessary steps to survive.
GROWTH
YOUNG SCIONS BRAND JOURNEY SECTOR SPEAK

go
GET
SET
QUIKRRRR...
Only a handful of start-ups can boast of the coveted

unicorn tag today. With the title, however, comes the
pressure to excel. We asked Pranay Chulet, Founder and
CEO, Quikr, how he manages to handle the pressure of his
venture being one of the key players in this space, and took
a peek into his past to better understand the roots of his
entrepreneurial journey.
QUIKR
FACTS
Indias leading crosscategory classified
platform, Quikr was
founded in 2008.
It operates in over
12 categories that
include mobile phones,
household goods, cars,
real estate, jobs, services
and education.
Quikr is used by over
30 million unique users
a month and is present in
1,000 cities in India.
With 5 verticals
Quikrc2c, QuikrHomes,
QuikrJobs, QuikrServices
and QuikrCars, Quikr
is enhancing and
strengthening its portfolio
with a deep dive into
each vertical.
By Sneha Banerjee
Evolution of an Idea from Film-making
The whole thing started when I was busy making an indie

film in the US for which I had recruited the entire cast and
crew on Craigslist. I had some scenes to shoot in Delhi and
while casting for them, I realized there was no dominant
platform like Craigslist in India. During my time in the US,
I had witnessed up close how Craigslist had disrupted the
classifieds market there and felt the need for it in India
too. The challenges here were different though. People
werent used to online transactions and there was a lot of
hand-holding required to build trust between buyers and
seller. To overcome this, we initially positioned ourselves
as a handshake platform that allowed people to connect
online and transact offline. Fast-forward to where we are
today and weve become Indias largest classifieds platform
and have now stepped up our game further to enable our
consumers to complete the entire transaction cycle online.
Motive Behind Expansion into Different

Classified Territories
We were already Indias largest horizontal online classifieds

platform. Over time, we had started witnessing a large
number of transactions across multiple categories as people
became more accepting of digital as a medium. As a result,
58 ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST 2016
we decided to verticalize our business to go

deeper into each of our key categories and offer
our consumers a richer experience with our
platform.
We have five focused verticals now:
QuikrC2C for goods, QuikrCars for cars
and bikes, QuikrHomes for residential and
commercial properties, QuikrJobs for blue/grey
collar jobs and QuikrServices for daily and long
term services needs. We have been enhancing
our product and service portfolio with a deep
dive into each of these and are the only cross
category classifieds platform in India and
globally to do so.
Pressure of Being a Unicorn
As a cross-category classifieds business we are

very well positioned and each of our verticals
benefit from strengths of the other to create
organic growth. Our business is doing very well,
our revenue is growing fast and the questions
we ask ourselves are more along the lines of
what innovations we can bring to market and
how quickly we can monetize them.
During my time in the

US, I had witnessed up close
how Craigslist had disrupted the
classifieds market there and felt
the need for it in India too.
Pranay Chulet, Founder & CEO, Quikr
Fund Raising Mantra
Weve done previous rounds of fund raising for

business growth, marketing and bringing the
best quality talent here at Quikr. We are well
capitalized for our needs and are not looking to
raise capital.
Amazons Junglee, Peer-to-Peer

Commerce Does it Raise Eyebrows?
An attractive market always has opportunities.

More players in the market are always a testimony
to the growth of the industry itself.
Acquisition and Hiring Strategy
We believe in acquiring good assets at a fair price.

Weve made acquisitions with only one purpose
- in order to strengthen our leadership in our five
verticals. These acquisitions are now creating more
value within the Quikr ecosystem and offering our
consumers a wider range of innovative products.
While evaluating a potential acquisition, we
look at the synergies it has with one/more of our
businesses, and as importantly, the cultural fit of
the team with the overall Quikr team.
We continue to bring in a mix of both freshers
and experienced professionals based on our
evolving business needs. In addition to skill sets,
we also look at the cultural fit while hiring.
Quikr in the Next Two Years
Quikr is in a fantastic place today. Our strategy of

building five verticals on top of the core foundation
of Quikr has played out extremely well. Not just in
India but even globally, we are the only classifieds
company to have done this at this scale. Our focus
now is on aggressively growing our five businesses,
finding more and more consumers for each of them
from within the other four, further strengthening
our market leadership in each of them, and
continuing to grow our revenue fast.
AUGUST 2016
ENTREPRENEUR 59
GROWTH

THIRD TIME
LUCKY?
Los Angeles, US-based affordable fast-fashion retailer
Forever 21 that focuses on teenage girls and young
women is desperately trying to push up its business in
India for the third time. After failing twice in this endeavor
since 2010 with two different franchise partners, Forever
21, present in 48 countries with over 730 stores is hoping
by Sandeep Soni
SEPT
2010
Forever 21 to
give it another
shot; switched to
DLF Brands and
announced plans of
opening 50 stores
by 2018. However,
it still failed to
scale up.
JULY
2013
>>
MAY
2015
>>
>>
Forever 21 forays into India with

Dubai-based Sharaf Retail, the
master franchise for Forever 21 in
Asia and Hello Retail, the Indian
franchise. The brand however
struggled to expand beyond a
single store in New Delhi.
Aditya Birla
Group merged
its apparel retail
brands Madura
Fashion and
Madura Lifestyle
with Pantaloons
Fashion and Retail
to create Aditya
Birla Fashion
and Retail Ltd
(ABFRL).
JULY
2016
Aditya Birla Group
reportedly plans to
take 12 Forever 21
stores to 20 by end
of 2016.
60
Aditya Birla Group forays

into fashion e-commerce
with the launch of Abof.
com (all about fashion).
As per the group,
e-commerce is the sunrise
sector from investment
perspective and hence
the group is focusing on
categories like fashion
where it already has
specific strength.
>>
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail.
OCT
2015
>>
>>
to stay afloat in Indian market with a life jacket called
JULY
2016
Forever 21 will now be operated under

Madura Fashion & Lifestyle giving boost to
both its offline and online retail channels
(including abof.com) particularly focusing
on women apparels as well as taking on
its rivals Zara (in joint venture with Tatas
Trent) with around 17 stores and
H&M with around six stores.
Forever 21
launches itself on
Myntra.com.
Aditya Birla Group signs MoU with Forever

21. As per the release by ABFRL will,
acquire its exclusive online and offline
rights to the global brand - Forever 21,
for the Indian market and its existing
store network in India from the current
franchisee i.e. Diana Retail Private Limited.
MAY
2016
DEC2015
>>
JULY
2016
Pays
$26
million
for the deal

becoming the
joint venture
partner of Forever
21, replacing DLF
Brands.
MARCH
-MAY
2016
>>
>>
- Pranab Barua, Managing Director,

ABFRL in the same release says, The
acquisition is in line with our strategic
intent to create the largest integrated
branded fashion player in the country.
With the acquisition of Forever 21 India
business, we aim to create a strong
foothold in the womenswear business in
the western wear segment. Currently,
the western womenswear segment is
growing at more than 20%.
MAY
2016
>>
>>
>>
>>
Reports of Myntra and

Madura Fashion &
Lifestyle, a division of
ABFRL and Myntra to
acquire Forever 21 from
Diana Retail, the Indian
franchise for last three
years of the US-based
retailer that runs 12
stores of Forever 21 in
India, emerges. Forever
21 also retails online.
Infographics: Manish Raghav
61
GROWTH

THE BUSINESS
OF BREWING
Formed in 1990s in Lucknow, Organic India a pioneer in the
herbal revolution in India stands true to its promise. With 20 to
25 signature stores across India and a product line ranging from
herbal tea infusions, herbal supplements to packaged foods, the
company is gaining consumers, who believe in healthy conscious
living. Exporting their products to over 40 countries, with US
being a major market, the companys growth trajectory is only
uphill. Hoping to inspire the next generation with the benefits of
herbal, the company is launching new products too. In a quest to
know more about their roadmap ahead, Entrepreneur interacts
with Abhinandan Dhoke, CEO, Organic India. The man believes in
taking fewer but bolder steps.
By Amrit Mann
How has the growth of Organic

India been over the years?
FACT
FILE
MANUFACTURING UNIT
1 in Lucknow
GLOBAL
PRESENCE
In Over 40
Countries, US
Major Market
NO. OF
SIGNATURE
RETAIL STORES
25
62 ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST 2016
We have been around for 20 years; the journey has

been very fruitful. The last two years have been most
productive for our expansion and customer base.
Our portfolio has also expanded. Earlier, we were
looked as a tea company but now our herbal food
supplements are gaining popularity. Our capsules are
100 per cent vegetarian, made from plant cellulose.
Another category that is performing well is packaged
foods. Our cow ghee, which has been around for four
years, has really picked up now. It is due to peoples
understanding of the concept of good fat. People are
getting more health conscious.
Has your customer base or target

audience changed with the recent
Ayurveda awakening?
Predominantly, we built consumer loyalty by our

tea category. There has been a change in mindset in
regards to the concept of tea. In India, tea is defined
as an amalgamation of sugar and milk. Our Tulsi
Tea range has helped in changing these habits. The
consumer base with respect to tea has gone up. Our
focus, while placing products in the market has been
availability, accessibility and continuously engaging
with consumers.
WE HAVE A
MIX OF ORGANIC,
AYURVEDIC, HERBAL
AND NATURAL
PRODUCTS.
Abhinandan Dhoke, CEO, Organic India
How does your retail

presence look like?
Our products are now available in approx

15,000 outlets. We have not restricted
ourselves to organized retail, we are in
all the leading stores. We are promoting
a lot of our products through online, so
e-commerce and digital space is also
critical for us. We are very strongly
associated with Fabindia and we sell
our products in all of their stores. I see
us only growing, because the lifestyle of
consumers is changing towards health
platform.
How do you position

Organic India in
the market?
We are a mix of Organic, Ayurvedic,

Herbal and natural products, which is
unique. It completely defines holistic
true wellness solution. We would like
to be trustworthy and innovative global
leader by providing genuine organic
true wellness products and solutions
for conscious, healthy living. Our
supplements are made up of whole herbs,
we do not do extraction from herbs, so
they are available in the purest form.
All the essential properties of herbs are
retained. Our strategy is to establish
strong distribution footprint with pan
India presence.
future of Ayurveda is
in the country?
For Ayurveda, I see a sustainable and
consistent growth. There have been
several revolutions in India, including
telecom, e-commerce, organized retail
and many others . There is a spike,
consolidation and then saturation
seen in all of those. Ayurveda directly
impacts consumers well-being, so the
acceptance will be on high rise and
would be sustainable.
Any new products or

categories that you plan
to launch?
We are launching Virgin Coconut

Oil, Amla Yummies, Ashwagandhadi
Lehya and Organic Honey soon. We
have quinoa which is an emerging

super food and high in demand. This
category has a lot of potential. Our
herbal supplements are high in demand
and getting good response across the
markets and geographies. In the future,
we will expand actively in the wellness
category, which is a long-term plan. Our
focus would be to stay relevant & build
community for ealthy conscious living.
How well are you

placed globally?
We have our own subsidiary company
in US that is a big market for us. Apart
from that, we sell our products in 40
other countries. We are in Europe,
Middle-East, Australia etc. International
business is a big focus for us in the
future.
What do you think the
AUGUST 2016
ENTREPRENEUR 63
ECO-SYSTEM
KNOW YOUR BANKER KNOW YOUR CAPITALIST

INNOVATION THE NEW ORG CHART
OFFICE SPACE
For Startups we have

Developed an
Entrepreneur
Account
While registering 30 percent year-on-year growth in
small and medium enterprise (SME) lending, DBS
Bank India has added nearly Rs 925 crore and about
Rs 325 crore of fresh assets in SME lending in the
last fiscal year and in the first quarter of the current
fiscal year, respectively. To support Start-up India and
Make in India programs, the bank has developed an
Entrepreneur Account to help start-ups and ease
them into mainstream banking with transactional
efficiencies and digital tools. Amitabh Verma, Head,
SME, DBS Bank India, spoke to Entrepreneur and
divulged the banks plans to help SMEs in their
growth story.
By Sunil Pol
How is DBS Bank

capitalizing on the
strategic advantage of
its established branch
network to lend to SMEs
across regions?
DBS, headquartered in
Singapore, has been one of
the highest rated banks in the
Asia-Pacific region. For the
past seven years, the bank
has been consistently ranked
as one of the worlds safest
banks. We have recently been
named the best digital bank
as well. The brand equity,
64
therefore, helps to establish ourselves as

a reputed name with trusted partners in
the emerging markets, especially among
SMEs in India. A strong brand name,
coupled with strong value proposition and
innovation, has helped us grow in SME
segments across all regions. Our large
presence in the Asia-Pacific region helps
our customers leverage our Asian Insights
and network for business expansion.
How do you support the

growth of SMEs with financing
and consulting?
We have a full spectrum of products
and services that we offer to our SME
customers. While lending is one of the
Indian SMEs are

Witnessing a Radical Transformation.
Amitabh Verma, Head, SME, DBS Bank India
INCOME EARNED
key propositions, we back

the same with a strong
proposition in trade, cash,
forex and transactions. Our
internet banking platform
gives customers a superior
experience. We believe that
technologically-advanced
solutions across the spectrum
of products we offer will give
a winning edge to our SME
clients. We have received
positive promoter feedbacks
on the same.
adoption to change is the

new mantra. While Mudra
Bank will lend considerable
support, the introduction
of Stand Up India scheme
will boost the lending space
further. However, in the short
run, my view is this space
will still be dominated by
private investors and venture
capitalists, and banks will
support the ecosystem in
newer and more innovative
ways in the days to come.
How do you deliver

fresh thinking with
unique expertise in the
Asian market?
How are you

supporting Start-up
India and Make in
India programs?
We undertake customer
journeys to get insight into
customer lives, requirements
and pain points. We come
back to the drawing board
to find a solution that would
resolve the customers real
issues, which may not be
always related to banking. We
realize that giving unique and
customized solutions (and
preferably delivered digitally)
increases effectiveness of SME
clients. We have tried to take
best practices from several
Asian markets and have
tried to productize them
for use by SMEs in India.
One example is Grow App,
which helps SMEs compare
and contrast their working
capital metrics (payable days,
inventory, receivables, and so
on) with the best in industry
to find opportunities for
higher efficiencies
How do you observe the

growth in SME lending
in the age of start-up
boom and the support
from Mudra Bank?
Indian SMEs are witnessing a
radical transformation. Boom
in startups, new technology
and global strategies means
We support Start-up India

and Make in India initiatives
since they provide a boost
to SMEs. We contribute to
the schemes through several
initiatives. An example is a
supply chain program that
facilitates support to SMEs
contributing to Make in India
for larger/ global players, say
in the automotive and autoancillary segments. There are
several other such initiatives
and we are getting good
traction here.
For startups we have
developed an Entrepreneur
Account, which helps startups
ease into mainstream banking
with transactional efficiencies
and digital tools. We are also
in the process of putting out
some specific policies aligned
to the detailed guidelines
shared by the Government
of India, which will further
embed us to these excellent
causes.
Are you fulfilling what

Mudra bank expects
from your bank?
DBS Bank has applied for a
wholly-owned subsidiary,
which will allow us to cater
more meaningfully to all
`2.37 crore
EXPENDITURE
`2.36 crore
PROFIT
`26.59 lakh
`26.59 lakh
A P P R O P R I AT I O N S
segments of SME. In the

interim, we continue to
provide solutions/support
through use of technology to
the lower end of SMEs within
the constraint of our current
branch network.
How much have you

disburse in the last
financial year and
in the first quarter of
current fiscal year?
DBS Bank India added nearly
Rs 925 crore and about Rs
325 crore of fresh assets of
SME lending last year and
in the first quarter of this
fiscal year, respectively. This
indicates above 30 percent
growth rate of assets addition
as compared to last year.
We have had good growth in
the SME segment including
addition of a number of new
SME clients .
What is your current

fiscal year target of
SME lending?
We continue to grow
aggressively and expect over
30-40 percent growth in
the current financial year.
We are set to increase SME
contribution in the overall

DBS India books to over
10 percent in the current
financial year.
How are the Reserve

Bank of India (RBI)
policies encouraging
SME lending?
RBI has been supporting

SMEs by creating an
infrastructure that
understands and supports
their growth. Several policies
for MSMEs, priority sector
lending, etc., have helped
SMEs. The key is financial
inclusion so that majority of
SMEs get access to funding
from banking/formal lending
systems.
Do non-performing
assets in your SME
portfolio concerns you?
DBS has been accelerating
SME growth in the recent
years and we have been able to
build a strong book. Defaults
have been well within the
acceptable threshold levels.
We continue to use technology
and early warning tools to
supplement our aggressive
SME growth strategy and this
has helped us work closely
with our clients.
65
ECO-SYSTEM

OFFICE SPACE
WHAT A START-UP
NEEDS TO KNOW
BEFORE RAISING
SEED ROUND OF
FUNDING
By Sneha Banerjee
ndian start-up ecosystem

is not unknown to Amit
Somani. The former Google
executive and a great fan of
billionaire investor Warren
Buffet, Somani was part of
the online travel company,
MakeMyTrips leadership
team that took it public with
Nasdaq listing in 2010.
For the current dry spell
in funding and valuation,
what Somani says, coheading Bengaluru-based
seed fund Prime Venture
Partners (formerly known as
AngelPrime), largely echoes
the broader sentiments in the
ecosystem, that early stage
dealmaking will more or less
remain unaffected.
If you are looking at
companies raising seed to
some extent series A round
of funding, these companies
are just beginning to get some
growth. Current slowdown has
greater impact on the much
later stage companies, says
Somani. However, he agrees
to the fact that valuation
markdowns leave some
impact on the overall market
sentiment.
The Buffet fanboy quoting
him opines that investors
66
should only invest in

businesses they still want to
hold on to, even if lets say
stock market shuts down
for five years and there is no
way to determine valuations.
If somebody is bullish on a
Zomato or a Flipkart or Ola,
it shouldnt matter what the
stock price is today.
Companies have to be built
on real revenue numbers,
unit economics, and real
customers, adds Somani
citing LinkedIns example of
losing $10 billion of its market
capitalization in February
2016 that, Customers have
not stopped using LinkedIn
as a product due to its stock
market performance.
Getting it Right
Somani categorically points

out the important of the
market size the start-up is
operating in and the quality
of its team. For him, the best
bet can be any one, right from
just an idea on the paper or
few crore in revenue, provided
it isnt a copycat of an existing
one. A seed stage company
can just be two guys and a dog
in a garage. We have invested
in companies that had their
If somebody
is bullish on a
Zomato or a
Flipkart or Ola,
it shouldnt
matter what the
stock price is
today.
Amit Somani, Managing Partner,

Prime Venture Partners
idea on a paper napkin, and

also in the ones that had Rs
two-three crore revenue.
The very first thing we look
before investing is the market
size. It has to be a big market
which is inherently capable
of monetization. We have
a lot of investments in the
fintech space because a lot is
happening in that domain,
maintains Somani.
Second thing that matters
is whether the start-up has an
outstanding team. The other
important thing is whether
technology could be used
in some form of disruptive
thinking. We as a firm doesnt

like to invest in copy cat
ideas, adds Somani. Some
of Prime Venture Partners
prominent start-ups include
EzeTap, and HackerEarth. The
fund scout deals primarily in
fintech, healthcare, software
as a service and mobile space.
Some of the key areas the
fund looks for in a startups investor pitch are, core
problems that it is solving,
its ways to measure success,
its uniqueness, whether its
timing is right and the target
customer segments. Somani
says that he often questions
entrepreneurs inspiration of
coming up with the idea.
Somani clearly sees 2015
as a year of aberration with
focus on metrics including
month-on-month growth,
unit economics etc., coupled
with more customer surveys
being done today. However,
that hasnt curbed the venture
capitalists interest in backing
promising start-ups.
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ECO-SYSTEM

OFFICE SPACE INNOVATION THE NEW ORG CHART
PUTTING 100
BUSINESSES
IN ONE ROOM
Real estate as its core business, Vatika Group has
diversified widely since its inception in 1986. Venturing
into sectors like business centres, hotels, hospitality,
restaurants, schools, facility management, healthcare etc.
the company has built a reputation over the years. After
setting up business centres, a blessing for mid-sized
businesses, the company now has plans to offer space
solutions for start-ups. Backed by exponential growth
numbers, cashing in on opportunities to expand, Vatika
Group believes to strike while the rod is hot. Entrepreneur
traces the groups growth trajectory and upcoming
projects in a tte--tte with Vineet Taing, President,
Vatika Business Centre.
By Amrit Mann
atika Group started their business

centres in 2004, a concept
which was alien at the time.
Typically, a business centre offers a
fully furnished serviced office facility
for growing businesses. Businesses can
list out their requirements, including
office size, number of workstations etc
and accordingly get a suite to begin
operations. With business centres, a
company can expand and contract within
a days notice.
Growth Story
Growing at 60 to 70 per cent in the

last two years, the group has about
13 centres in the country, sitting at
occupancy of over 90 percent. Talking
about these plush business centres, Taing
says, Primarily, this concept was for
businesses that wanted to expand, have
their offices in different regions, also
start-ups which wanted to grow. This is
viable for start-ups, especially in the IT
space as they get projects overnight and
have to sustain themselves. They needed
space immediately.
According to Taing, 50 per cent of
their business comes from mid-sized
companies, 20 per cent from Fortune
68
500 companies and 25 per

cent from start-ups. Vatika
Business Centres are located
in 8 major Indian cities.
The aim is to open 42 centres
by 2020.
Business Centres
vs Licensing
Finances are a crucial

element for a business,
especially for mid-sized startups. The stakes are high,
one needs to take calculated
risks at least when it comes
to money. Signing a leasecontract for a fixed time with
additional infrastructural
and operational costs can be
taxing for a business. This is
where Vatikas Business Centres
ease the task.
At business centres you can move in
for 15 days, one or six months or more.
If you expand overnight and add more
people, you can get a larger suite in the
same business centre. If you require a
conference room for a day, you can pay for
that one day. With leasing the costs are
high and it becomes difficult to sustain.
The conference rooms

provided by Vatika Business Centres
can be customized according to a
clients requirements.
BUSINESS
CENTRES
Gurgaon
Noida
Delhi
Mumbai
Pune
Bengaluru
Hyderabad
Chennai
Good News for

Start-Ups!
AT
BUSINESS
CENTRES YOU
CAN MOVE IN
FOR 15 DAYS,
ONE OR SIX
MONTHS
Vineet Taing, President,
Vatika Business Centre
Achieving a strong footing with

their business centres, Vatika Group
has interesting news for start-ups.
The group will launch co-working
spaces for budding entrepreneurs.
Taing, feels the existing co-working
spaces are not living up to the
expectations.
None of the co-working spaces
are currently 100 per cent occupied.
That is also because start-ups which
do not get funding for 3 months
move out or shut down. Out of 100
businesses starting every month,
only two-three per cent succeed.
There is a very fast turnaround in
this area of start-ups. This coworking area will have a large open
space as opposed to suites for two to
three people to work.
4
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
The Future Holds Well
The company is also working on

solarizing their existing and future
projects and has already started the
transformation. Vatika has also been
associated with GIC, Goldman Sachs,
Baer Capital and Wachovia and has
plans to look at FDI for their business
centres in the future.
With its business centres, the
company is looking at locations like
Sri Lanka, Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok
and Hongkong. We are trying to
focus on areas which are close to us
and have demand, adds Taing. The
company also plans to expand in
tier-2 cities, including Nagpur, Jaipur,
Chandigarh, Vizag and Ahemdabad.
With edgy office design, premier
locations and customization, one waits
to watch whether this co-working bet
will resonate with start-ups.
69
ECO-SYSTEM

OFFICE SPACE
INNOVATIONS
FOR WHICH
FUTURE IS
NOW
Innovation today has become quite subjective,
defined differently by different people. Outside the realms of information,

imagination and initiative that leads to innovation is the ability to be faster, better
and cheaper for an idea to be scalable. So, in our quest to feature businesses doing
pathbreaking innovative work, the ones weve picked (irrespective of the size and
growth) dont just have all of the above, but have either never been attempted
before in India, are bold enough to sound foolhardy, or seem too tough to
execute. Some of these might even take time to get commercialized as
a business, but when it comes to having the potential to disrupt
traditional businesses and create large-scale impact on
peoples lives, these 15 pockets of innovation
stand out.
By Amrit Mann and Sandeep Soni
70
FOR REACHING
FOR
THE MOON
earned it global applause.

Remember, ISROs
successful Mangalyaan
space probe was built on
one-tenth the cost of the
US NASAs Maven Mars
mission. Team
Induss efforts got
a major boost in
June this year when
it was contracted
by Frances space
agency CNES to carry
its micro-cameras that
will help the rover detect
ground obstacles in
the path of its
wheels.
FOR FOXING FMCG

GIANTS
Enough has already been said about
Baba Ramdev and his Patanjali
empire. The man has given headache
to FMCG companies and forced them
to re-think their strategies. Attempting
to bite into legacy of the likes of
Johnson & Johnson, Patanjali has now
ventured into babycare products with
the introduction of dental creams,
4
toothpaste, and so on. The company
is estimated to have doubled its sales
to about Rs 5,000 crore in the current
fiscal year. With more than 10,000
employees working under him, Baba
Ramdevs Patanjali might as well be
Buzz
Meter
called disruptor of the decade.
Team Indus is the

launch vehicle of
dreams for not
just a few young Indian
braveheart scientists in
Bengaluru building a rover
(image) to land on the
moon, but for every space
enthusiast. What makes it
even more This is special
for India as Team Indus
competes with 15 other
teams from technology
5
advanced countries such
as the Canada, Germany,
Israel, Italy, Japan, and the
US, even as it enjoys the
support of Indian Space
Research Organizations
frugal engineering that
Buzz
FOR BEING HOSPITALS'

POSSIBLE NIGHTMARE
Meter
FOR MOBILIZING LOCAL VERNACULAR

TO DIGITAL REVOLUTION
Buzz
Meter
Never before were diverse dialects and local languages in India

impacted digitally the way Chennai-based speech-recognition solutions
provider Uniphore Software Systems has been doing it. By supporting over
150 dialects and 25 global languages, Uniphores virtual assistant software
Akeira has empowered people living in small towns and rural areas to
access fundamental digital services including agriculture and banking by
communicating in their native languages through a mobile phone. This
directly open the possibility of bringing 700 million Indians living in small
towns and rural areas, into the digital fold without worrying about whether
they can converse in Hindi or English. Currently present in India, Southeast
Asia, and Middle East, Uniphore will soon enter the US market.
The Hyderabad-based startup

Mapymygenome essentially tells you
who you genetically are. The predictive
and preventive healthcare company is
the pioneer in personal genomics space
in India, a space that doesnt even have
enough data available for research.
Maymygenome might well be responsible
for impacting the future livelihood of
traditional healthcare institutions -right
5
from large hospitals to walk-in clinics
if not kicking them out of business. The
company aims at making people live
longer by arresting and taking preventive
steps towards any disease that a person
might suffer from in future, which can
be predicted by studying his/her genetic Buzz
health profile and family health history. Meter
FOR MAKING LODGING FRUGAL

Built entirely by using recycling and environmentallyconducive containers, Beetle Smartotels, Ahmedabadbased first portable concept hotel, is giving a push to innovation
in the hospitality sector. Promoted by Hirise Hospitality, there
are plans to add 2,000 portable hotel rooms across India by
2018. Unlike the traditional brick-and-mortar hotels that take
a minimum of three-four years to become operational, the
Smartotel portable hotels can be built in just three months. The
concept is led by hotel entrepreneur Tanmay Bathway after he
saw the demand for fuss-free movable rooms. Beetle Smartotels
are being built with options to choose between portable service
apartments, to rooms suited best for single business travelers.
Take a step forward, indeed!
Buzz
Meter
71
ECO-SYSTEM

OFFICE SPACE
FOR TURNING THE HUMBLE

TWO-WHEELER SMART
Three years of blood and sweat to realize the
dream of building Indias first smart electric
scooter S340 is finally coming to fruition for
Bengaluru-based Ather Energy. The e-scooter is
all set to hit the market towards the end of 2016
and will soon be open for pre-orders. S340 will
outperform the existing 110 cc petrol scooters in
critical aspects including weight, maintenance cost,
ride quality, and cost. It will have connectivity with
customers smartphone and sport an on-board
cloud-based navigation system with profile for users
and controls built-in, which scooters from current
large players such as Hero Motocorp and Mahindra
dont have. The price for 110 cc scooter and Vespa
ranges from Rs 45,000 to 75,000.
3.5
Buzz
Meter
FOR
AUTOMATING
HYGIENE IN
PUBLIC TOILETS
Buzz
Meter
72
Kerala-based Eram
Scientific Solutions is
the only manufacturer
of self-cleaning public
electronic toilets in India.
The toilets are programmed
to flush with just 1.5 liters
of water after three minutes
of use. It also washes
the floor automatically
after five or ten rounds.
The cost of each toilet
is approximately Rs 4.5
FOR MAKING PARKING A

PIECE OF CAKE
FOR GIVING INDIA ITS

FIRST SUPERCAR
Now this is some real problemsolving rather than tweaking

existing solutions to a problem, like most
technology startups do. Bengaluru-based
Pparke is an intelligent data-driven
cloud-based vehicle parking solution
that takes the frustration out of parking
vehicles by allowing users to search for
the available parking spots in a location,
book, navigate directly to the parking lot
and pay cashless. Moreover, the time,
fuel and energy one saves are the big
bonus. No wonder driving straight down
to the parking spot is of great peace of
mind. The startup currently operates in
Delhi and Mumbai as well.
The attempt might sound foolhardy

enough only to fizzle out in no time,
but Bangalore-based start-up Mean Metal
Motors cant wait to rev it up. A group
of young automobile enthusiasts are
building Indias first supercar, M-Zero.
And its not just any supercar; they
want to take head on with the likes of
Lamborghini Huracan, and Ferrari FF by
being better than them, that too at just
30-40 percent of their cost. With a top
speed of around 350 kph, M-Zero will
initially be priced between Rs 95 lakh and
Rs 1 crore. The prototype is expected to
be launched at the Paris Motor Show in
October this year.
4.5
ENTREPRENEUR JULY
AUGUST
2016
2016
Buzz
Meter
Buzz
Meter
lakh. The firm has set

up over 1,500 eToilets
across 18 Indian states.
On World Toilet Day, the
company launched a new
eToilet mobile app for
such toilets. The app has
unique features - it can
locate nearest eToilets,
understand the mode of
operation and access of the
person using the app. It
also gives information on
sanitary napkin vending
machines and helps you
share feedback on user
experience. The Chennai
Municipal Corporation has
over 150 eToilets.
FOR BECOMING THE

DARK HORSE OF DIGITAL
ENTERTAINMENT
Digital entertainment platform
Hungama Digital Media
Entertainment announced its foray into
original programming in July 2016. The
company was recently picked by Chinese
electronics maker Xiaomi - worlds second
most valuable startup - for its maiden
investment in India by leading a $25
million funding round. Hungama, which
recently tied-up with MTNL to offer its
services to MTNLs customers in Delhi
and Mumbai, is engaged in an intense
battle for supremacy with corporatebacked Apple Music, Gaana, Wynk Music,
and entrepreneur-led Saavn.
Buzz
Meter
3.5
FOR PROMOTING DESI

In a series of commercials for its Canvas Unite series
Buzz
of smartphones, Micromax touched upon the language Meter
nerve in an innovative way. The handset-maker launched
an ad campaign, #AngreziKoAngutha, roping in comedianactor Kapil Sharma. In the ad, Sharma is seen talking
about the importance of staying connected to ones roots.
Micromaxs Canvas Unite Series - Unite 4 and Unite
4 Pro enables users to use their mother tongue with a
simple swipe.
FOR HELPING THE LOGISTICS GUY

3
Ecommerce runs on support to function real-time,
logistics being the primary focus. Catering to this
need is Locus, a Bengaluru-based logistics management
startup, which is helping logistics players by building
algorithms to automate their functions. The company
Buzz
offers entire logistics technology stack in the form of a
Meter
platform-as-a-service. For on-field workforce, the company
has an app that enables companies to dispatch, track and
manage their ground staff. The company also has a safety
app, Ridesafe, powered by their in-house Real-time Route
Deviation Detection engine. Essentially, the app monitors a
passengers travel in real time. Thus, if the passenger gets
deviated, the app alerts him promptly.
FOR HOPPING ON
THALAIVA'S MADNESS
This one is flying high, not on fuel, but Rajinikanth.

Joining the craze around superstar Rajinikanths last
month released gangster drama film Kabali, low-budget
carrier AirAsia launched a special aircraft painted with the Buzz
Meter
superstars livery, just prior to the films release. The fans
of Tamil cinemas demi-god flew in the carrier to catch
the first-day show on July 15. The carrier offered a special
menu for Rajini fans, and also ran a contest inviting fans
to post Kabali-style videos on Twitter and Facebook, thus
increasing their chances to catch the first show.
FOR GOING 'SEA' DEEP

Founded by Captain Nikunj Parashar and his team
3
in May 2015, Sagar Defence Engineering, a maritime
startup that builds and operates autonomous marine
vehicles, launched an unmanned marine surface vehicle
for the Indian Navy in April this year, the first by a private
Indian company. Successfully inducted in the Indian
Buzz
Meter
Armed Forces, the companys marine vehicle systems
can also be used to study radiation levels in nuclear
and thermal power plants, and to test out submerged
structures. Recently, the Ministry of Shipping announced
Sagar Defence Engineering as the winner of the maiden
MIS 2016 DP World Prize, organized in association
with Invest India and Global trade enabler, DP World.
FOR GIVING 'VOICE' TO

PRIMARY EDUCATION
Sampark Foundation - the Noidabased philanthropic initiative
by Vineet Nayar, former CEO of HCL
Technologies is on a mission to equip
10 million government school students
with primary education by 2020.
Currently it sits on three million-mark
across 50,000 schools in Uttarakhand,
Jammu & Kashmir, and Chhattisgarh. The
foundation is aiming to win this uphill
task through Sampark Didi -a frugal yet
innovative voice-based teaching mascot
of its Sampark Smart Class Program. The
students are taught speaking, writing
and reading skills in a fun and interactive
manner through stories and rhymes via a
low-cost audio device whose battery lasts
for a month on single charge. Sampark
Didi also supports teachers in teaching
English through assisted teaching.
Buzz
Meter
4.5
AUGUST
JULY 2016 ENTREPRENEUR
73
The New
Org Chart
Flat or vertical?
How to build your
staff for growth.
he lightbulb went on for Jeff

Greenfield, cofounder and COO of
media analytics firm C3 Metrics,
on a rare vacation. It was the first one he
had taken without his phone or computer.
His major activity turned out to be sleeping. One day he conked out at 5 p.m.
This prompted his wife to suggest
that he shed some entrepreneurial hats.
He realized she was right. When he got
back to work, he removed himself from
the help desk and from having a hand in
every sales lead. In the month after he
stepped back from being a micromanager
and started focusing on strategic thinking, he uncovered opportunities that
he estimates could double or triple C3s
revenue, which now tops $5 million.
Greenfields shift is part of a natural
cycle of entrepreneurship, in which the
seat-of-the-pants mode of leadership that
worked in the startup phase begins to
erode as the venture takes on more employees and customers. Its at this point,
management experts say, that leaders
should shift from the skills-based, reactive
approach of horizontal leadership to
big-picture strategies, known as vertical
leadership. Vertical leaders step outside
74
AUGUST 2016
16 ENTREPRENEUR
Startups [Summer
2016]
Unless you
switch to vertical
leadership, you
can't grow the
company into
a major
enterprise.
the operational fray to do the critical
thinking needed for bigger goals and
to navigate increasing complexity.
Yet some argue that horizontally led
companies are more flexible and collaborative in a fast-paced world. Horizontal leadership not only allows the
company to scale and grow rapidly but
also fosters creativity, innovation and an
environment where everyone feels they
can create something and contribute,
says Greg Schott, CEO of MuleSoft, a
San Francisco software company valued
at $1.5 billion. The horizontal approach
is more egalitarian. It puts leaders on
the front lines, builds autonomy, keeps
management layers trim and offers feedback from all levels.

The Asian style of collective management, for instance, is more horizontal,
while Americans emphasize the vertical
side and the individual superstar. Think:
Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Steve
Case. Which is the better approach? Its
no mystery to management scholars.
Unless you make the switch to vertical
leadership, you cant grow the company
into a major enterprise, says George
Haley, director of the Center for
International Industry Competitiveness
at the University of New Haven.
The problem is that very few entrepreneurs can scale the companies theyve
founded, and therefore cannot transition
to vertical leadership, according to
Stephen Andriole, professor of business
at Villanova University. Many of the
ones Ive worked with mock org charts
as old-school, he says, even though
their customers, investors, suppliers and
channel partners cannot function without
clean organization charts that make it
crystal clear whos in charge, accountable
and responsible.
The real goal, according to experts
such as Nick Petrie, a consultant at the
Center for Creative Leadership, should
be a mix of both styles of leadership
among multiple people. The most
successful and fastest-growing entrepreneurs are the ones getting vertical and
horizontal growth at the same time,
he says. My experience is that entrepreneurs who choose one type of growth
over the other go out of business.
JOE ROBINSON
PHOTO SHUTTERSTOCK/TAI11
TEAM
MONEY
Corporate Cash
Startups can score big money from big brands.
or Jane Yuan, the owner of Seattlebased Simple & Crisp, an order

from Whole Foods Market to sell
her dried-fruit crackers nationally was the
opportunity of a lifetime. But she didnt
have the money to buy two additional
dehydrators at $17,000 a pop, which shed
need to scale up and fill the orders, as well
as those from her other customers. That
became a cash-intensive launch, Yuan
says, and being a small business, we
didnt have access to capital that quickly.

So she turned to Whole Foods loan
program, borrowing $37,000 for five
years, at 5 percent interest. That was in
2014. She took a second loan from the
retailer in 2015 for $50,000 at the same
terms. Today Simple & Crisp products
sell in approximately 300 Whole Foods
stores, as well as in 100 other grocery
and specialty-food shops nationwide.
Since 2006 Whole Foods has doled
AUGUST
2016 ENTREPRENEUR
JULY 2016
ENTREPRENEUR
PHOTO EIRIK JOHNSON
A big haul:
Whole Foods
helped fund Jane
Yuans startup.
out $18 million in low-interest loans

to 235 of its North American smallbusiness suppliers, according to Denise
Breyley, who scouts out independent
farmers and food artisans for Whole
Foods in the Pacific Northwest and acts
as the regional point of contact for the
companys loan program. Terms vary,
but loans have ranged from $1,000 to
more than $100,000, with interest rates
averaging 5 percent and full repayment
typically due in two to five years.
Whole Foods isnt the only household
name to offer small-business loans or
grants. Martha Stewart Living, Miller
Lite, FedEx, Chase and Wells Fargo all
award $10,000 to $200,000 in grants
to select small businesses. Its not just
about money, though. The PR boost that
comes with landing brand-sponsored
cash can put a small company on the
business-media map.
You gain a lot of [recognition] from
winning. Its huge, says Mary Lynn
Schroeder, CEO of In Blue Handmade,
the Asheville, N.C., leather-crafting
business that won $25,000 from FedExs
small-business grant contest in 2015.
Before applying for these loans or
grants, make sure the brands program
is a fit. Breyley points out that Whole
Foods sells only products that shun
artificial ingredients and meet certain
sustainability and animal-welfare
standards. Plus, the company provides
loans only for equipment and other fixed
assets, not for soft costs such as
marketing campaigns.
For grants with an online voting component, such as those offered by FedEx
and Martha Stewarts company, youll
need more than a compelling, well-honed
business plan and proven customer base.
Youll also need a strong web presence.
In other words, get comfortable sharing
photos, videos and the personal details
of your business journey on social media,
because judges eat that up.
To stand out from the crowd, tell your
story with authenticity and personality. You need to explain who you are
and how you got there, Schroeder says.
Because every small business has a lot
of heart, and you need to let that shine
through. MICHELLE GOODMAN
73
75
MONEY
CORPORATE CASH
ECON
ASK THE MONEY GUY
VC VIEWPOINT
STARTUP FINANCE
It was quite hearty to see few large ticket investments

last month by BookMyShow, Meru Cabs, Voonik,
WHERE
IS THE
Lendingkart etc., even as an emerging vehicle tracking

start-up Trak N Tell attracted funding from WhatsApps
co-founder Brian Acton. Small acquisitions by Girnar
Software, Yatra, redBus, Myntra, 1mg were closed
while Tata Group partnered with Uber to offer financing
MONEY
and insurance solutions to its driver partners. The

biggest development was recorded in the funding space
for start-ups as government gave the green signal for
Rs 10,000 crore Fund of Funds for Startups that was
announced at the Startup India, Standup India event in
January this year.
Coaching
provider
Career Point
raised around
$625,000 from
National Skill
Development
Corporation.
00
$25m
Former Aircel
founder C Sivasankarans
Chennai-based cabs
aggregator venture
Utoo Cabs secured
undisclosed amount from
Ajay Piramal, Chairman,
Piramal Group.
76
BookMyShow snapped up
$81.5m from existing investors
Network 18, Accel Partners
and SAIF Partners, and new
ones including New Yorkbased Stripes Group.
Healthcare start-up CureFit
launched by Mukesh Bansal and
Ankit Nagori closed its Series A
round worth $15m from Accel
Partners, IDG Ventures and
Kalaari Capital.
$15m
$6
25
,
Mumbaibased Meru
Cabs raised
$25m from
Brand Capital.
TIE-UP
$81.5m
>>
FUNDING
m
0
2
$
Fashion start-up
Voonik secured
$20m from
Sequoia Capital
and others.
$32m
SME lending start-up

Lendingkart attracted
$32m in its Series B funding
led by Bertelsmann India
Investments.
Car tracking
and safety
solutions firm
Trak N Tell got
Series A funding
from WhatsApp
co-founder
Brian Acton.
Vehicle tracking
start-up IM Here
partners with AXA Groups
global emergency response
arm AXA Assistance to
offer road side assistance
to IM Here vehicle tracking
customers
and online buyers.
Uber tied up with

Tata Group to provide
customized financing
and insurance solutions
to its driver partners.
Uber raised undisclosed
investment from Tata
Opportunities Fund in
August 2015.
$15m
Manish Kheterpal, among

Indias most prominent PE
professionals launched a
$15m early-stage fund called
WaterBridge Ventures.
$18m $40.5m
`10,000
Sixth Sense
Ventures closed its
debut fund worth
around $18m.
FUND LAUNCH
Impact investor Lok Capital

raised first close of $40.5m
for its third India-focused
fund with a total size of
$100m and expects to raise
the entire amount in the next
12 months.
IPO
>>
M&A
>>
The government approved Rs

10,000 crore Fund of Funds for
Startups to invest in start-ups
via Alternative Investment Funds
registered with Securities and
Exchange Board of India.
Girnar Software, the parent company

of auto portals CarDekho.com
and others acquired Jaipur-based
business consulting firm Valueserve
Management Consultants.
Goibibos redBus.in acquired a majority
stake in Peru-based bus ticketing platform
Busportal for an undisclosed amount.
Myntra acquired mobile content
aggregation start-up Cubeit for
an undisclosed sum.
e-pharmacy 1mg bought
Medd.in that offers online
booking of diagnostic tests.
`2,500cr
PNB Housing
Finance Ltd filed
draft proposal for
its IPO worth up to
Rs 2,500 crore.
Travel
company Yatra
acqui-hired
autorickshaw
aggregator
mGaadi.
Among the
largest bottlers of
Pepsi, Varun Beverages
filed a draft red herring
prospectus with SEBI
for its IPO.
The National
Stock Exchange
announced filing the
draft prospectus for
domestic listing by
January 2017.
77
Making + Managing
ask the money guy
I NEED TO
RELOCATE.
CAN I AFFORD IT?
By Joe Worth
top packing for a moment, and ask

yourself: Do you really need to move
your business? Relocations are expensive, disruptive and risky. If theyre done
poorly, your business can failand that new location
may turn out to have just as many problems as your
current one.
But, OK; lets say moving is the only option.
Now start with a systematic look at where to move.
Analyze regulatory differences, access to your market,
workforce availability and cost, utility and transportation infrastructure and costs and, of course, real estate.
A good commercial real estate broker can help
gather most, if not all, of this information on your
behalf, over and above just locating properties for
78
Photograph by Floto + Warner
8/16 ENTREPRENEUR
49
you to consider.
Once you zero in on a potential location,
run a cost/benefit analysis with a budget for
the actual move. The basics are easy: You
know what itll take to pack, transport and
unpack the business. But now come the
Big Three:
1. SPACE COSTS
These will be significant, so think through
everything. Get a good real estate lawyer to
review your next leaseand dont scrimp
on one, because a good lawyer can help
negotiate the price and any unfavorable
terms. Then consider all the related
coststhe lease deposits or down payment;
the design and renovations; potential
improvements to the space, including
data wiring and connections; local permits
and fees; and the initial costs of hooking
up all utilities. All of this needs to be paid
while youre also paying overhead on your
existing location.
STAFF
COSTS
this can2.still
turn your
taxes into hell. Be sure to consult
your employees to put in forand
with anExpect
accountant.
be Spitzer
paid!significant
overtime
to execute
When
and Wagner
sat down
with their CPA,
thedrew
move
theiralljobs
at the
the team
upwhile
a plandoing
to cover
their
costs. Its a good
same
also any
loseentrepreneur.
some of those Here it is:
one, and
can time.
work Youll
for almost
employees in the move. Recruiting, hiring
and training their replacements will be
M O N T H LY P R E TA X E A R N I N G S :
time-consuming and costly, as will the lost
productivity (and business) until the new
Invested in employees through raises,
hires get up to speed.
bonuses and team-building events.
20%
Build the companys cash reserves until
LOSSES
20%3. BUSINESS
theres enough to cover at least six months
Theseofcan
be hugelike
bankrupt-theexpenses.
operating
company huge. Make a careful analysis of
Set aside base
to cover
taxes.
your customer
andestimated
sales, and the
likely
effectSplit
the move
willthe
have.
Will
your current
between
two
partners,
distributed
customers
stick
you?
may
thinkwhich
monthly
onwith
top of
theirYou
base
salary,
to equal
the median
salary of
so, buttheyve
theresset
nothing
stopping
a comemployees.
their
petitor from snapping up the experienced
doesntfor
relocate,
and taking
thoseof doing
Thisstaff
planthat
accounts
everything:
the cost
customers
you
left
behind.
business, taxes and an uncertain future. The guys also
Once
youve
collected
thethey
figures,
have a plan
for any
excess
funds:all
After
pay estimated
do
the
calculations
with
a
goal
of
breaking
taxes, they pay themselves a midyear bonus.
Its based on
even onperformance
the cost of relocation
within
two
the companys
to date, as
well as
a conservato three for
years.
brutally
honest with
tive projection
theBe
final
two quarters.
By doing it midyour numbers. Entrepreneurs may be all
year, they have time to make any necessary adjustments
about high risk and high reward, but moves
by years end. Now, finally, theyre getting paid for all their
should involve as little risk as possible. If
hard workand have a reason to work even harder.
youre going to go, go slow.
PHOTOGRAPH BY GETTY IMAGES/GABRIEL OLSEN
30%
30%
Steph Wagner is a private equity investor and a financial

Joe Worth is a partner with B2B CFO.
strategist. @StephLWagner
52
ENTREPRENEUR 8/16
vc viewpoint
WHAT YOUR
INVESTORS EXPECT
How to navigate the differences between
angels, seeds and VCs. By Sa m Hogg
I love HBOs
Entrepreneurs often
they find a promising
Silicon Valley
mistakenly believe
company to invest
and my favorite charthat means were
in, and then enmesh
acters are (of course)
hands-off. Wrong:
themselves. This can
the investors. A quick
We just prefer to exert
be a blessing or a
primer for those who,
influence via more
curse, depending on
for whatever insane
defined and traditional
the investor. Some
reason, havent
board member roles
will become valued
watched the show
and to direct more of
mentors. Others are
yet: There are passive
our time to cultivating
just, well, bored.
but calculated VCs at
interest from our VC
But heres what you
a
firm
called
Raviga
peers in the next
your money
Capital, and then an
investment round. We
ultra-involved angel
know that directing
investor named Erlich
a CEO on day-toBachman. Fresh off
day operations will
an exit of his own
result in a tense and
company, Bachman
less than productive
has turned his house
relationship. (The
into an incubator,
exception: If your
and lives, eats and
business is sinking,
breathes with its
we will gladly step
should know about
primary tenant: the
in to take a more
dealing with folks like
team from Pied Piper,
active role if we think
Bachman or Raviga
our heroic, hapless
itll help.) Plus, every
Capital: Both will be
startup. Bachman
VC is working with
hands-on. The only
ByisSteph
is involved in the
more than a handful
difference
how. Wagner
business in every way
of startups at any
Keep in mind, no
imaginable.
It
drives
given time,
we
matter
how
small
an
acques Spitzer was having a great
run.so Hes
the
everyone a bit nuts,
simply dont have the
angels investment
founder
of
Raindrop
Marketing,
based
in
San
Diego,
but theres little they
bandwidth to hold a
is in your company,
which
scored
triple-digit
growth
infounders
each hand
of the
can do
about it.
He
on a past
when they wake
up
four
years.
yet,
thechecking
success day-to-day
worriedbasis.
him. The
fronted
the space
to Andthat
morning
launch theHe
business,
In Silicon
Valley, it or
up onwhat
your company
problem:
had no idea
to pay himself.
Believe
so
he
gets
to
set
the
every
investor
a
might
be
the
most
not, growth became frightening, not fun, Spitzerissays.
I
house rulesliterally.
cartoon character.
interesting part of their
wasThis
afraid
to
touch
our
increasing
profits
until
after
each
setup is
But in the real
day. As such, they are
quarters
were often
filed.
And
even after
paperwork
hilarious totaxes
me
world,the
theres
a
anxious
to roll
was
done,well,
Spitzer
his
partner,
Adam pretty
Wagner,
still
because,
I am andup
easy way
to wortheir
sleeves and
thatthat
dispassionate
pitch in where
theyscrew understand
ried
their own salaries
would
up their investors
company.
form of VC being
expectations: With
think they should. And
So they
played itonsafe, paying themselves
bare all
minimum
to
lifestyles.
lampooned
ancover
angeltheir
or alean
seed
a startupthe
needs
the
When
you
start
your business,
calculating
to pay yourself
is your
simple:
Start with
screen.
And
I see
investor,
lunch
help
it can get,what
so its
versions
those operating
will what
likelygoes
be inside
often
impossible
to
your
sales andofsubtract
expenses
and taxesand
thats
into your walhyperactive,
early- cross their
theirtofridge.
A VC
sayfingers
no to an
angels
let. Most entrepreneurs
and
hope its enough
cover the
bills. When
stage investors all the
will just invite you
whims and desires.
your business expands, things get
trickier. Sure, you could increase
your take-home pay
time. These people
out to lunch
Later-stage
right
offgreat
the topand
taxes that
But what if business drops
had
successpay the additional
investorsthe
VCsgo with it.occasionally.
in the
next
quarter?
have enough in the bank to cover its obligations?
and
now
have aWill
lot ofyour company
like memanage
moneywhy
andI suggest
time on that owners
Thats
something
morecreate
passively.
We called a variable component to a
Sam Hogg is a partner
their handsstructure.
and dont Hereswont
compensation
what talk
that daily,
meansorin English: You set up a modest, recurat Open Prairie Ventures
to along
just play
even
weekly,payment
and webased on
ringwant
salary,
withthe
an additional
monthly
a percentage of your comand Huron River
market. They want to
certainly wont hang
panys
earnings.
But
beware:
If
you
dont
have
the
right
business
structure, a system like
get involvedand so
out at your home.
Ventures. @SamHogger
How Much to
Pay Yourself
ITS NOT A SIMPLE DECISION, BUT THERE
IS A RIGHT ANSWER.
AUGUST
2016 ENTREPRENEUR
JULY 2016
ENTREPRENEUR
85
79
Illustration by Ben Wiseman
8/16 ENTREPRENEUR
53
Wheres I
an OpenMinded
Investor?
startup finance
THEYRE OUT THERE

BUT YOULL NEED TO
LOOK HARD.
By Michelle Goodman
nvestors love familiarity. Its their money, which leads

them to play it safe and scour the same homogeneous
networks for deals, says Ross Baird, executive director of Village Capital, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C.,
that trains and funds startups with an altruistic bent,
many of them led by women and minorities. Stats tell
how rare those companies are: Of U.S. startups that
landed an initial funding round between 2009 and 2014,
only 15.5 percent had a female founder, according to
CrunchBase. Only 1 percent of funded startups have
a black founder, according to CB Insights. So, how to
find a more open-minded investor? Baird says to consider these questions.
How do they usually
find investments?
Beware those who say, We like introductions from people we know and trust.
Youre better off with investors who, Baird
says, offer more openings to connectsay,
an application process or direct contact
information.
What excites them?

Look for interviews theyve done with
the media. If they tend to highlight their
investments market potential, rather than
the founders and problems they solve, then
you should move on. You want an investor
who loves supporting people, no matter the
category or market size.
Are they open to

hearing your story?
People make the mistake of pitching their
product but not telling their story, Baird
says. If youre an outsider, your own story
can be an advantage. Send a note outlining
your startup, the market and your personal
history. Rather than asking for a pitch
meeting, ask for their feedback. If theyre
interested in helping or hearing more,
theyll get back to you.
What do you need to do to

become investment-ready?
If an investor (or their website) doesnt offer
this information early on, theres no harm
in asking during a pre-meeting correspondence, Baird says. If someone has advice
on how to grow your team or gain traction
before they write a check, theyre more likely
to root for you to get there.
How I Saved
Andy Fathollahi, founder and CEO,
Incipio Technologies, Orange County, Calif.
$1 Million
We design and manufacture accessories

for smartphones and computers, and ship
11,000 different SKUs. Shipping costs were
rising, so I analyzed the expenses with
the firms that warehouse and send out
our products. Then, armed with my data,
54
80

ENTREPRENEUR 8/16
I worked out a deal with UPS. The results

were amazing. Even though our business
grew 35 percent last year, we were still
able to reduce our overall freight spend
by 9 percent over the previous year.
As told to Grant Davis
Illustration by Pep Montserrat
the ethics coach
THE WRONG KIND OF HELP

WHEN A CLIENTS REQUEST GOES TOO FAR.
By Gael OBrien
A big client is pressuring me to

hire his son, a recent graduate,
as a favor. But it feels like
a demand. The son made a poor
impression and isnt a fit for
my business. How do I handle it?
lets be generous and
assume this client wants
his son to succeedand not, say,
just have an easy path in life. And
yet, the worried dad has pushed
his reasoning and ethics aside.
(Hopefully, for everyones sake,
its a one-time thing.) Hiring
a bad fit as a favoror really,
hiring at all as a favorinevitably ends badly. What will you
do when employees become
frustrated that the son cant do
the work, and the golden child
complains to his dad that hes
being treated badly? Or when the
client asks about a promotion for
his boy, and dangles additional
business to seal the deal? Soon
youll be wondering how much
youre willing to sacrifice for
this client. And this is why many
businesses have anti-nepotism
hiring policiessomething you
might consider going forward.
When the outcomes of an
ethical dilemma all seem to
lean undesirable, its time to get
creative. Decide what youre
willing to invest, both in time
and networking, to support the
clients goal.
Some ideas: Instead of
handing the son a job he isnt
ready for, consider offering
some coaching to help him
Illustration by Brian Rea
go for one thats a better fit. If

you didnt formally put the son
through your interview process,
perhaps doing so would help
him understand and practice
preparation for other interviews.
Can you learn enough about him
to see strengths and interests,
and then suggest potential fits in
fields where you (or someone in
your network) might make some
introductions for him? Are there
members of your team whove
been out of college less than five
years, who can chat with him
about what theyve learned about
honing the impression they
make? Can someone near his age
take him under his or her wing?
Is there a short-term project
youd be able to offer him (unrelated to his fathers account) that
would give him some relevant
experience for his rsum?
And can you keep him on your
radar, checking in periodically
and sharing ideas, contacts and
useful reading materials?
When you decide what you are
able to do for his son, it is time to
talk to your client. Let him know
why fit is so important in your
company, the care you take with
it and how he and other clients
benefit. Carefully indicate why
you arent able to hire his son.
Share the strengths you saw

in him and what you learned
that gave you an idea how you
might be helpful to his job hunt.
Be sympathetic: Say that you
understand how important it is
that his son have a good launch
to his career, and that youd want
that for your child as well. Then
spell out what you are able to do

to help his son succeed.
Theres no guarantee the client will accept your alternative
or, frankly, keep his business
with you. But youll have made
the right decision for everyone
involved. And by responding
with boundaries, compassion,
generosity and professionalism,
youll be sending the right message to the people that matter
most: your team, made up of
people who truly are a good fit.
GAEL OBRIEN IS PUBLISHER
OF THE WEEK IN ETHICS AND
FOUNDER OF COACHING/
CONSULTING FIRM STRATEGIC
OPPORTUNITIES GROUP.
8/16 ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST
2016 ENTREPRENEUR
JULY 2016
ENTREPRENEUR
19
81
81
LOCATION
A Perfect Fit
Find the right space for your company to thrive.
CompleteSets
cofounder Gary Darna.
8222ENTREPRENEUR
AUGUST 2016
Startups [Summer
2016]
PHOTO JESSE CHEHAK
hen Gary Darna and Jaime Rump secured $650,000

in funding for CompleteSet, the online collectibles
marketplace they founded in 2012, they were
happily operating in a coworking space provided by Cincinnati
startup catalyst Cintrifuse. But the growth sparked by that
cashthey jumped from a staff of two to 10 in two months
required them to move out.
Its a familiar scenario to many startups: As the business
grows, relocation becomes inevitableand where you go is
important. Your location will affect your companys productivity,
creativity and community, not to mention budget. Heres
the lowdown on four options for your next address. >>
LOCATION
nondisclosure agreements between the

factory he operates in and other designer
brands in the space are a challenge.
When I bring in retailers, I cant
show them my own production line
because it would allow them to see the
other production lines that are not open
for disclosure, Bauer says. Next time
well look for a space of our own.
DEDICATED SPACE
Experts say dedicated space offers an ideal
environment for startups to nurture their
burgeoning brands, as well as their own
work culture. Because a companys values
are implied in the choices made about its
environment, having an office lets founders take ownership of their brand in a way
that shared space doesnt allow.
That was Tynans goal when she
moved the Framebridge corporate team
into a historic building in Washington, D.C.s Georgetown neighborhood.
Design is a very important element of
our business, so that was an important
factor in choosing our office space, she

says. Making our space beautiful and an
extension of our brand makes sense.
Dedicated space also enables a business to build a corporate culture, according to Don Lam, managing director of
the Bay Area region for IA Interior Architects. Whether youre passionate about
sustainability and well-being or want to
attract a surfer-dude culture, once you
identify the culture you want to create,
having your own office lets you embody
that culture in your space, he says.
OPEN CONCEPT
The open-concept space has become a
hallmark of entrepreneurship because
having visual and physical access to
colleagues can help foster innovation
and collaboration. Darna chose an open
floor plan for CompleteSet to give his
team the ability to collaborate. An idea
we have on a Tuesday could be up and
running on our website by Friday, he
says. Its important for us to be able to
collaborate in person, and that doesnt

happen that well in cubicles.
Mark R. Leary, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University
in Durham, N.C., says that while the
movement toward open spaces and social
collision can improve creativity, different
spaces are needed for different work functions. There are certain important tasks
that require undistracted, focused attention, and having nothing but open space
interferes with those activities, he says.
Thats why Leary says taking the time
to understand how your employees work
best can go a long way. Research shows
that entrepreneurs tend to score higher
on characteristics related to extroversion, so they might not recognize that
their personal preferences for space
configurations are not shared by all of
their employees, he explains. Startups
need to consider what kinds of activities
and interactions will best facilitate their
effectiveness, and provide the spaces
that are needed. PAULA ANDRUSS
AUGUST
2016 ENTREPRENEUR
JULY 2016
ENTREPRENEUR
PHOTO REVOLUTION/ADAM MASON
COWORKING SPACE
While a coworking space was no longer
an option for Darna, many startups love
its distinct advantages. Scott Barron,
CEO of Alpharetta, Ga.based School
Growth, which provides professional
development programming for schools and
school boards, once discovered he shared
a client with someone across the room at
his coworking space, which allowed them
to combine efforts for the benefit of both
startups as well as the client.
But coworking spaces dont work for
everyone. They dont always offer privacy
or the ability to protect intellectual
Creative commons: Framebridges Washington, D.C., office.
property from prying eyes. There are also
alongside their manufacturing spaces
operational issues: Susan Tynan, founder SHARED
have seen benefits, including an increased
MANUFACTURING SPACE
and CEO of Framebridge, an online
speed to market for product and faster
Like shared office space, setting up shop
framing company based in Washington,
in a shared manufacturing environment
D.C., set up her team of five at a coworkaccess to information and decision making.
can work for many startups. Julia Payne
ing space in 2014 but realized almost
When those spaces are shared with
SU025__19R40.indd 5/11/16 10:44 AM PAGE 1
immediately it was not right for her busi- Cooper, senior workplace specialist in the
others, however, problems can arise,
Seattle office of design, architecture and
ness. We had a lot of packages coming
as Andrew Royce Bauer, CEO of Royce,
engineering firm HOK, says the majorto our space, and coworking spaces are
a Secaucus, N.J.based handbag and
ity of her clients who locate their offices
not built for that, Tynan says.
accessories designer, experienced. He says
75
83
TECH
THE FIX
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SHINY STUFF
HOW LINKEDIN
AIMS TO
DEMOCRATIZE
OPPORTUNITIES
IN INDIA
Akshay Kothari,
Country Manager
and Head of
Product, LinkedIn
India
Akshay Kothari, Country Manager and

Head of Product, LinkedIn India tells
Entrepreneur about the companys vision
to create economic opportunities for all
professionals of the global workforce.
By Sneha Banerjee
inkedIn moved into their plush,

new office space in Bangalores
Global Technology Park in June. The
bigger office space in the city has stirred
conversations about the Californiabased professional networking sites
new big ambitions in India. This new
chapter focuses on building products
that are locally relevant for our members
in India. So far, weve been building
products globally and because they are
built in English language and we are
primarily focussed on English speaking
members in India that ended up being
a pretty good start for us. We ended up
growing from three million members
to almost 35 million members here,
without necessarily investing locally in
customizing the product, says Kothari.
Kothari further adds, The company
sees numerous opportunities in India
in terms of investments. The one that I
would highlight, which keeps me going is
the talent and energy of the youth in this
county. In India, more than eight million
students graduate every year. According
to most of the studies conducted,
more than half of these graduates are
unemployable. They dont even have the
right skills and I think thats a big issue
LinkedIn can help solve.
84
Partnering for Growth

As a product person what excites Kothari
the most is the kind of product companies
that are being built in India. And so his
team is always actively scouting for right
businesses to partner with.
At the very high-level we are trying
to do everything that we can to achieve
our vision, which is to create economic
opportunities. There are a lot of things
that we do really well in terms of job
matching or supplying right content to
each member. I believe if we find other
companies where we feel they can add
value, such associations can help us
accelerate our ability to achieve our
vision, claims Kothari.
An Entrepreneur at Heart
Kothari joined LinkedIn in 2013, after it
acquired Pulse - a company that he had
co-founded and where he was responsible
for several content and product related
initiatives.
Recalling his journey as a dream,
Kothari says that Pulse was never meant
to be a company. It was made as a class
35m
project at Stanford University. It went

from being an idea to launching it at the
app store in about six weeks. It was a
simple product which attempted to get all
your favourite publishers in one place,
remembers Kothari. He recalls working
with the U.S. edition of Entrepreneur
Media and other international publishers
back in 2010, when it was very difficult to
read content on mobile phones.
When Kothari and his co-founder were
about to hit their growth benchmark for
Series-B round of funding, a phone call
from LinkedIn helped them close the deal
with the company in four days.
Kothari and his team in India are
trying to customize the social media
platforms content to reach out to more
Indians and help them make the most of
the website from making copy changes
to building more products. The company
also plans to share valuable insights from
their data to help impact certain policy
changes. The first set of LinkedIn City
Insights has already been published on
their SlideShare channel hoping to be
of great use for government bodies and
other organizations.
LinkedIn India
members from just
three million.
FOR THE
Find answers, discover solutions and explore new ideas
to keep pushing the boundaries of your business.
TECH
THE FIX
ASK A GEEK
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SHINY STUFF
The Master Recreator
he flexible and lean nature of digital start-ups that lends them the agility to
pivot and do experiments has got less to do with how often can they revise or
reconstruct their website. Why? Because it takes time for start-ups to build
brand remembrance through websites that act as first customer touchpoint. Sharan
Grandigae, Founder of Bengaluru-based user-experience design firm Redd, and
former Adobe India executive, explains when start-ups should look for updating
and revamping their websites.
Would hiring an agency for

it be better than having an
in-house team?
By Sandeep Soni
When should a start-up update or

reconstruct its website?
It is not really a time-based thing to
do. When a startups product becomes
successful, it needs to establish its brand
presence through its website. Hence, their
website becomes the sales person for
them. This is the first time for a startup to update or redesign its website.
For instance, three years ago, people
werent willing to buy furniture online.
This was something that we had to fight
as a perception among people that time.
So, we had to design Urban Ladders
website keeping that in mind. Second,
redo your website typically once in three
years to keep up with the trends in web
designing. It is just like we see fashion
getting updated in 12-18 months cycle.
In web design, the trend of a multi-page
website was challenges around two-three
years ago, with the idea of a single page
website. Today most start-ups go with
the latter. The third scenario when you
want to update your website is when your
product is your website. For instance, in
ecommerce, the primary product offering
is the website itself.
Sharan Grandigae, Founder, Redd
Why should a start-up rebuild a

website instead updating it?
Updating a website occurs within the

brand design, wherein you keep changing
features - add new colors, fonts, and so
on. But the rebuilding of a website has
to happen more holistically. If you are
doing something new and different on the
website, the content can communicate
some aspect of it, but the bigger impact
happens when you rebuild or do the
complete overhaul, which communicates
to the user your intent and idea.
CHILD PRODIGY
It is always better to hire professionals

who have worked on several projects
instead of an in-house team working
only for your product. If you want to stay
current, you need a broader perspective
and design agencies have a better idea of
how to do that. While you can get a vendor
for redesigning from Rs 3,000 per page
onwards, for a complete rebuild it can cost
anywhere between Rs three-six lakh and
may take 6-12 weeks. Spending less money
and expecting a great design is not the
solution. I have seen customers not liking
a particular product because it is badly
designed. Start-ups must get over their
chalta hai attitude with design.
Should start-ups involve

customers as part of the exercise?
We prefer not to ask suggestions from the
customer. We simple try to understand
what problems they face and design
the solutions accordingly. For that, you
dont need focus group test wherein you
call people and ask their opinion. Your
websites usage data is enough to give you
a clear idea of what the user wants, than
asking him for opinions. This is just like
a doctor who looks for symptoms for the
disease and diagnoses according to it.
The plight of Indian fishermen who unknowingly drifts away in Sri Lankan waters
crossing Indias international maritime boundary triggered Advay Ramesh, a 14-year-old
Chennai boy to create a hand-held terminal called FishErmen Lifeline Terminal (FELT)
using Standard Position Services to help fishermen with location-based information at
sea. His innovation in July 2016 won him Google Community Impact Award from Asia
offering $1,000 grant and one year of mentorship.
86
19
Year of
Success in
Franchising
www.franchiseindia.com
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TECH
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APPS
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SHINY STUFF
THE APP WAY

THREE APPS BUZZING AT THE
ENTREPRENEUR CAMP THIS MONTH.
By Sandeep Soni
Price:
Free
Platform:
iOS, Desktop
WHATS THE
LATEST IN TECH?
This is the Holy Grail for keeping a tab on the
new mobile apps, websites, and technology
products that are trending. For anyone
who loves technology, particularly digital
entrepreneurs, Product Hunt brings to the
fore the latest and most happening stuff in
technology that might be of great use to them
and help them stay updated with relevant
products. Users share hundreds of products
daily on the app, which are upvoted and curated
by the community and the Product Hunt team.
Price: Free
Platform:
iOS, Android
HOWS MY NEW IDEA?
Getting feedback on a business idea was never this quick and unbiased.
Thanks to Flare - a community-driven platform by Internet domain
registrar and web hosting company GoDaddy which gives instant
feedback on a new business ideas overview submitted by anyone. Idea
submission is free, and advisers (entrepreneurs, experts, potential
customers, and investors) can swipe right to like it, and left to
unlike. For ideas that get 10 feedback or followers in 24 hours, the
user can ask for more questions and check who the followers are, and
even look for other ideas submitted.
88
Price:
Free
Platforms:
iOS
WHERE WILL I GET

FREE WIFI?
Is this the question on your mind when

you are out? For most entrepreneurs who
are running back and forth from different
locations for meetings to office and home,
WiFi Finder Free is the app to be thankful
for. Simply enter your current location and
the app will give you available hotspots,
along with their passwords at nearby
restaurants, airports, cafes, and so on.
TECH
THE FIX
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WHEELING
TOWARDS SUCCESS
W
ith an initial target to manufacture four lakh tyres and tubes annually, the
company now produces more than 20 million tyres each year, a feat it has
achieved after 30 years of hard work. Competing with international players, JK Tyres
is trailblazing with its tyres plying practically everywhere from the busy lanes of
New York to the highways of Europe. The rubber giant made a foray into the two and
three-wheeler segment recently, and has huge plans. As a strategic partner, Fujitsu has
helped JK Tyres to procure SAP S/4 HANA licenses. Entrepreneur talks to JK Tyress IT
Head, Sharad Agarwal to know more.
By Amrit Mann
JK Tyres has been around for

over 30 years. How do you look
back at the growth so far?
How has IT consolidation helped

you achieve targets?
The company is headquartered in

Kolkata. We have nine plants in India
and three in Mexico. In Mexico, we are
expanding the manufacturing capacity
up to five million from the existing 3.5
million units per year. We cater to all
segments, including farm vehicles to offroaders. We export our products to more
than 100 countries and are present in six
continents across the globe.
Globally, rubber prices have

shot up by 15%. How will this
impact your company?
FACT FILE
Rubber prices directly affect our bottom

line, it being our primary raw material.
It accounts for almost one-third of the
raw material cost. It is difficult to pass on
such an increase in todays competitive
market via the finished product price
route.
Number of Employees
9000
Manufacturing
Capacity:
More than 1,000 MT per day
Annual Turnover:
What have been the

companys milestones?
The acquisition of Vikrant Tyres from
the Karnataka government in 1997 was
a major milestone. We not only turned

the facility into a profit making venture,
but also made Vikrant a well-known
brand country wide. In 2008, we
acquired Mexico-based brand, Tornel. We
commissioned our latest plant in Chennai
in 2012. We were also the first Indian
company to introduce motor racing
championships. Several drivers, including
Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok and
Armaan Ebrahim have taken part in our
motor racing championships.
`6,500 cr.
(India operations)
We implemented SAP in 2007. It

helped us to consolidate business
processes, and workflow across all
plants and sales locations. The process
on a single, common ERP platform has
helped in boarding new locations with
a standardized process, and even in
acquisitions and green field projects,
without losing any business critical time.
Our long-term business growth cannot be
achieved without IT-enablement. We are
focusing on digital marketing to promote
our products and services globally.
Several technologies have converged
to drive innovation in JK Tyres - social
networking & Collaboration, mobile
computing, analytics, cloud technology
and digital manufacturing.
How well are you

placed, globally?
As mentioned, out of 12 plants, we have
3 plants in Mexico, and our currently
exporting to 90 countries across the
globe, including the US, South Africa,
West Asia, Asia, Oceania, and Europe.
GROWTH STORY
1997
Acquired Vikrant
Tyres from Karnataka government
in 1997
90
1999
In 1999,
launched radials for trucks
and buses
2007
IMPLEMENTED
SAP IN 2007
2008
Acquired
Mexico-based
Tornel in 2008
2012
In 2012, JK Tyres
commissioned
its latest plant in
Chennai
Soon, the
company
introduced
motor sports
championships
Recently acquired
Cavendish India Limited,
adding an additional
capacity of one-crore
tyres per annum
SHINY STUFF
The OMega
Watch This
Olympics
As part of OMEGAs
Olympic Games
Collection, the Bullhead
Rio is a unique
celebration of heritage,
precision and sporting
excellence. At first
sight, it is instantly
recognisable for its
individual style and
design. The blue leather
strap links directly to
the Rio 2016 logo,
and features subtle
stitching along each
side, coloured yellow,
green, red and black
to represent the iconic
Olympic rings.
This colour theme
is continued on the
rotating inner-bezel,
serving as a meaningful
reminder of
the unity and
harmony that
the Olympic rings
signify.
Like its predecessors,
the Bullhead Rio also
features a white dial,
as well as a central
chronograph seconds
hand, and a 30-minute
recorder at 12H.
Built with OMEGAs
exclusive Co-Axial
calibre 3113, and
stamped with the Rio
2016 logo on the
caseback, this is sure
to become an instant
collectors item.
91
FRANCHISE FOCUS
Waving The
Wellness Flag
n graduating from Delhi University, Vandana

Luthra pursued further education in
Nutrition and Cosmetology from Germany.
Subsequently, she took a series of specialized courses
and modules in beauty care, fitness, food & nutrition
and skin care from London, Munich and Paris.
Having attained professional expertise, she made her
entrepreneurial debut in 1989 by opening Indias first
Transformation Center, in New Delhi, which married
scientific weight management programs with cuttingedge skin and hair treatments. Luthra shares her
endeavors towards placing the fitness and beauty
industry at par with those of the most advanced
countries internationally. By Joyshree Saha
Share about your entrepreneurial journey.
I started VLCC (in 1989) with a simple dream. I

wanted to create an environment where people
felt supported and nurtured. Where they would be
encouraged to achieve their full potential. I envisioned
a place that inspired people to be the best versions of
themselves, for themselves. Being an entrepreneur,
that too in the late-eighties, was an uphill journey for
me. Not only was the beauty and wellness services
industry in its infancy, people were unwilling to take
my work seriously as I was a woman. While people
were familiar with the ubiquitous beauty parlour, the
idea of a holistic wellness solutions provider which
combined scientific weight management programs
with advanced skin and hair treatments was new.
Being in what was largely an unorganised momand-pop shop kind of sector, I struggled to raise capital
- private equity was a relatively alien concept, and
banks were wary of something that was hardly deemed
as scalable and sustainable. We worked on developing
a unique business model for the company, one which
is widely used today (especially in the hospitality
industry), called infrastructure facility management.
That was the turning point in the business.
Tell us what barriers you have faced and

how did you overcome them?
Back in the late 80s when I started, women would find

it hard to be taken seriously. Funding was definitely
hard to come by, especially for first-gen entrepreneurs.
For professionals, the biggest challenge was sexism in
92
TOTAL NO OF
CENTERS IN INDIA
the workplace and the glass ceiling.

Women would drop out mid-career,
many of account of the guilt from
family, in-laws and motherhood.
While things have improved
over the years, much needs to
be done still. Gender biases and
stereotypes for women, particularly
mothers, still exist. Women are
still considerably under-represented in the senior management
and boardrooms of companies and are still less likely to be paid
as much as their male colleagues with the same qualifications.
Having said that, progressive companies are increasingly providing
facilities to retain their female staff. So far we are seeing these
initiatives in the metros, but I am confident that they will
percolate down to smaller cities too.
273
Please explain us traits of trade that you use to expand

your business and how do you deploy franchising in it?
At VLCC, we have very aggressive growth plans. The move into
franchising was driven by the realisation that there was a latent
demand for quality beauty & wellness services in tier II and tier
III cities, but growth has been limited owing to a limited presence
of established and organized brands. With the digital and print
media boom, the awareness levels today are high in these cities
which want the not just the best service, but also product and
service offerings which are at par with larger cities. We have
franchise partners for our wellness centres, salons and vocational
training institutes.
Resolutely Difficult Advice

By James Victore
David, whose
a sparky,
id, David
n calls with
finishing up
up fuse box,
igning the
d you do
tists sign
s reply.
s. Take pride
sponsibility for
ellent
d if theres
up to it:
utation is
uld be a sign,
ability and
I have an English pal, David, whose

dad was an electriciana sparky,
as theyre called. As a kid, David
occasionally went out on calls with
his father. Once, while finishing up
work on a large, wired-up fuse box,
David noticed his dad signing the
inside of the box. Whyd you do
that? David asked. Artists sign
their work was his dads reply.
These are wise words. Take pride
in, ownership of and responsibility for
your work. If its an excellent
job, say I did this. And if theres
something amiss, own up to it:
Say I did this. Our reputation is
all we haveand it should be a sign,
literally, of our accountability and
pursuit of excellence.
Today David runs Hiut Denim out
of Cardigan, Wales. Every pair of
jeans that comes out of their small
factory is signed by the master
craftsman who made them
because artists sign their work.
ut Denim out
ery pair of
their small
master
hem
eir work.
James Victore is a designer for bold believers, an advocate for creativity and
an artist whose work has been exhibited at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art.
104
ENTREPRENEUR 8/16
LIFESTYLE
ADVICE
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
BOOKS
THE OTHER SIDE
71%
over 71 % people above
the age of 15 in India are
non-vegetarians
Meet the
Foodies!
A
meal well-done needs precision, knowledge, detailing and creativity.

A wrong element could ruin the dish, leaving a bad taste. Similarly,
to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to take risk and an outof-the-box approach. Food is an essential part of who you are. Some eat it
for nutritional values, some for taste and some love to experiment. So, why
leave entrepreneurs? From snake meat to fried grasshopper and bettle soup,
some entrepreneurs have experienced et al. From donning the chefs hat to
berserk binge eating, entrepreneurs have had different culinary experiences.
Let us explore the foodie that lives in some of these great minds!
By Amrit Mann
The Quintessential
Street Food Lovers!
For Rana Atheya, founder & CEO,

DogSpot.in it is all about experimenting
with food. Though, his heart beats for
Mughlai, he is open to all foods be it
the dumplings in Gurgaon, Bun Maska in
Lucknow or salads, chicken & prawn fries
in Bhubaneshwar. For comfort, he turns
to street food.
A self-confessed foodie, he says that
travelling has made him quite a foodie. I
taste food from stalls, thelas, or small sit
out cafes, says Atheya.
Atheya can draw parallels from cooking
great food and being an entrepreneur.
Cooking good food involves consistency
in gaining experience, trying it out and
learning. One needs to be very patient
to create something which is deliciously
94
presentable. I relate to all these and many

more things when it is about learning
entrepreneurship lessons from good
food. He stays away from counting his
calories, but works out an hour a day.
You know someone knows their food,
if they describe it well! Waqar Azmi, CEO,
SutraHR calls himself a crazy foodie.
Always on the go, he hardly gets the
time to have a hearty meal. Juicy, meaty
rolls are his weakness and also comfort
food. Caught up between long, stressful
meetings, he doesnt mind getting his
hands on one or two during the day.
Travel is an intrinsic part of his work.
He believes in titillating in taste buds
with a new city every time and boasts of
knowing more food places than locals.
The food he most relates to is
street food which also represents his
personality quick, convenient and
hassle free. On happy days, he doesnt
mind preparing barbeque

on his offices terrace.
Mouth-watering indeed!
His appetite for different cuisines has
made him taste snake meat, bettle (an
insect) and fried grasshopper. Not sure if
we recommend that culinary adventure!
Being a foodie, I need to maintain a very
healthy and balance lifestyle. I keep a
strong check on the portion size.
The Rice and Cola Dish?
A few years back, when a late night

hunger pang hit Loveleen Bhatia,
Co-Founder & CEO, Edureka, with no
elaborate food available, he satiated his
hunger by doing what most of us wouldnt
even think of doing mixing rice with
Coca Cola. That was some experiment!
Barring this one odd time, Bhatia
wears by the traditional yet appetizing
homemade daal-chawal. Well, why
not! Its desi, nutritious and filling!
Every time I eat home food, it makes me
happy and content two moods that are
extremely important for me. Nothing like
mild, simple and tasty food I can relate to,
in order to calm my nerves and indulge
I recently went
to Vietnam and
Cambodia and had
snake, beetle and
fried grasshopper.
Waqar Azmi, CEO and Co-founder, SutraHR
at the same time. A conscious effort

to keep dinner light helps him stay
healthy.
pressed juices and kale salads. She

maintains the balance both in food
and work!
Sushi fied!
The Simpleton Foodie
Tanvi Malik, Co-founder, Faballey.

com is a sea food lover. High in fiber,
low in calories and amazing to taste,
Sushi is her go-to food. Once a while
she indulges in guilty pleasures like
tempuras, ebifurai, korokke. Perfect
for cheat days, me thinks!
A fitness enthusiast, she doesnt
mind upping her carbs at times, and
biting into a pizza or popping in some
fries. I try to follow a food regime
on work trips, but with rushed
meetings and business dinners it
doesnt always work out very well.
So instead, I focus on working out
regularly even while travelling to
offset the unhealthy eating which
may follow.
A large portion of her food
includes flax seeds, goji berries, cold
Sujayath Ali, Co-Founder, Voonik

is a simple guy and that very well
reflects on his food choices. Being
a vegetarian, he loves to gorge
on everything possible in South
Indian menu card. He prefers
to add in a bit of extra spice to
whatever he eats.
A dosa lover, he is not too
fussy and can anything that is
vegetarian. In a perpetual war with
time as an entrepreneur, he relates
most to Maggi noodles - simple,
always available and consistent
taste! He once tasted something
called as a vegetarian chicken, not
really sure what that really means!
A yoga enthusiast, he believes in
positivity!
My food includes
flax seeds, goji
berries, cold
pressed juices,
and kale salads.
Tanvi Malik, Co-founder, Faballey.com
95
LIFESTYLE
ADVICE
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
BOOKS
THE OTHER SIDE
BOOKS
THAT>>
INSPIRE
Eliana Koulas, Co-Founder, Luxus Retail Pvt Ltd
ME
EVOLVE THE BRAIN,

THE SCIENCE OF
CHANGING YOUR MIND
DR. JOE DISPENZA
I have been fascinated about brainworks

my entire life, and this book opened up
a whole new world on how the structure
and function of the brains neural
networks, how they reorganise patterns
and sequences in order to create new
thought-pathways. Everything we do
takes place through the brain, its the
CEO of our body. How we think, act or
feel, our relationships and perceptions
of the world around us, our whole being.
96
Though born in Greece, ELIANA KOULAS grew up in Australia and

moved to India about a decade back. With the aim to bridge the
occasional gaps in the luxury market and to redefine the concept of
luxury fashion in India, she set up Luxus Retail in 2012 and brought La
Martina, an iconic international luxury Polo brand, to India in 2014.
I AM THAT
SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ
It took me years to read this

and I must admit its dense,
provocative, cuts to the core
and hard to digest. But what it
will do is, stretch the curtains
of your mind wide open,
break paradigms, and catalyze
new thoughts, which need to
simmer and be experienced in
real-life application while you
engage the world with a new
set of eyes.
ANATOMY OF
THE SPIRIT
CAROLINE MYSSPH.D
This packs such a powerful punch,

delving into the energy languages of
the Spiritual Anatomy and how its
dysfunctions affect the physical body.
I had never considered that we weave
our spirits into everything we do, and
everyone we meet until I read Anatomy
of the Spirit. It created such a stunning
picture of the human bodys hidden
energetic structures, while revealing
there is a spiritual compass living in all
of us which points to the divine.
LIFESTYLE
ADVICE
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
BOOKS
THE OTHER SIDE
Playing the
Right Tune
Playing a range of wood-winds
instruments such as the clarinet,
soprano saxophone, and flute
has been a form of relaxation for
Nitish Mittersain, Founder and
MD, Nazara Technologies. Being
a jazz music aficionado, Nitish
plays an alto saxophone and
is a part of a jazz band called
Jazzy Joe and Jazz Junkies that
performs in many of Mumbais
clubs and pubs. The 37-year-old
shares more on why he finds
music as the food of the gods.
cardiologist Dr BK Goyal
How you got introduced towards
the world of music? Through
my mom who is a bhajan singer
& has released many albums.
I grew up with music being an
integral part of home.
How often do you perform
with your jazz band? We have
workshops at least once a
month and gigs once in 2
months.
Nitish Mittersain
Founder and
MD, Nazara
Technologies
Your inspiration positivity

from my friend and mentor the
legendary actor Shammi Kapoor
& my grandfather the renowned
by Punita Sabharwal
Playing a Clarinet is like: time

spent meditating
Favorite film: Godfather I even
named my labrador Vito .
Favorite Sport: Cricket & Tennis
Favorite Gadget: my recently
acquired iPad Pro
Favorite Travel Destination: Vienna
Books you love: The Heart of the
Buddha by Thich Nhat Hanh & PG
Wodehouse anytime
Leisure time for you is: spending
time at home with family especially
with my 3 year old son Veer
Fitness mantra: eating right and
gym thrice a week
Things you dont leave your house
without: a sense of calm I prefer
to stay at home if agitated for any
reason
VOLUME 05, NO. 8, August 2016 issue, and it contains 100 pages including cover.
98
THE FUTURE YOU

PLANNED FOR
JUST BECAME
THE PAST.
2016 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
GROWTH IS LIVE.
Work, grow, and evolve
as one. SAP S/4HANA
helps midsize companies
automate and integrate
business processes live
and in the moment. So
all your functions and
departments can grow
together. Without
falling behind.
sap.com/India/live

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ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL ISSUE

RNI No. HARENG/2011/39608-FBD/286/15-17

2016 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

THE COST OF FREEDOM

You can be different from the rest of the

he most beautiful thing you

ENTREPRENEUR AUGUST 2016

believe, making their difference to the

Get to know 5 best

Three start-ups share

Your first 10 customers

Five tips to turn your

Dr Anil Lamba, Author

Amit Kapoor, Honorary

Cover Shoot Location Courtsey: Hotel Lalit, Mumbai

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Tel: 0129-4228800 #9311148342,

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Pokmon Craze Takes

THESE 4 STARTUPS HAVE

By: Samiksha Jain,

KNOW HOW TO FIGHT LIKE

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The annual gathering on the future of growth is back. This years

Will bring together leading political,

An Urban thinkers campus bringing

Bringing startups in the tech space

The Summit will be led by brands

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING

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Refer to you story The start-up office

July 2016 l ` 100 l INDIA EDITION

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The cover story was an in-depth

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Given the situation

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he man behind KFC has an inspiring story.

Pokemon Go is a Hit and How!

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