Success stories 2016 – #GBGStories16

Hi There,
Announcing GBG Stories Search 2016, an exclusive opportunity for GBG Mumbai members to share their startup story and win a trip to Google’s head office at California.
What is it?
Tell us your story in 200 to 500 simple words. Do cover the following:
  • What inspired you to start-up?
  • What is your startup doing? how is it helping customers
  • What are the Google technologies you are using in your startup (APIs, Android, Maps, AdWords, Analytics, etc.,)

Sample case studies from 2014

Out of 13 storied Mumbai submitted, Two made it to semifinals and one to final. These are currently hosted on Google’s global website.
  1. IA Project
  2. Parinita
  3. Safecity  (final 10)
What next?
Please create a Shared Document on Google Docs, Type your story and provide link here for us to review/edit and suggest changes.
Give ‘Edit’ permission to [email protected]
We will happy to assist you in helping your stories.
Deadline. 24th June 2016
Question? email us at [email protected]

Event: Google #io16 recap on 4th June

This year at Google I/O, there were many firsts; This is Sundar Pichai’s first I/O after he moved up as CEO of Google, the location of I/O moved back to Shoreline Amphitheater which is literally the backyard of Googleplex at Mountain View, California. There was first for GBG Mumbai too, that members (Manan and I) were invited to host a GBG Summit and attend I/O.

There were many more firsts and tons of announcements, exciting new launches and hundreds of API releases. How does it all matter to you and your startup? Join us on 4th June as we do a recap from Google #IO16 and some key takeaways from Google Performance Summit that was held subsequently where new announcements about AdWords and Analytics were made.

Date & Time: June 4th, Saturday. 3pm to 5pm.

Location: Zone Startups, 18th Floor, BSE Building, Dalal Street.

Speakers: Manan Shah, Sreeraman Thiagarajan and Dhananjay Pandit 

Entry: Free. Register here

 

getting your first paying customers

Getting your first paying customers – Marketing Growth Hacks

2015 was a great year for Indian startup ecosystem. 14 out of 144 startups with $1 billion+ valuation are from India. We have another 15 potential startups like Azure Power, LimeRoad and UrbanClap who are likely to make it to the Unicorn list.

It was a great year for GBG Mumbai too, our community now comprises of over 4200 members. Last month’s GDayX has set the tone for 2016 – Growth Hacking!

Our first event of 2016 is about Getting your first paying customers, come and interact with fellow entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts to learn about marketing growth hacks.

What we’ll cover (Speaker sessions + Q&A)

  • How to get early adopters as customers
  • What should be your pricing strategy
  • Discounts and cashback – pros & cons
  • Converting customers into influencers

Speakers:

  • Founding members of Fixy
  • Mayank Batra, Aasaanjobs.com

Date and Time: January 9th, 2016. 3pm to 5pm

VenueThadomal Shahani Centre For Management (TSCFM) Bandra, Mumbai

Entry – Free. Please register below.

Angel Funding Opportunity – Aug 2015

GBG Mumbai is the Marketing Partner for the i5 Summit organised by IIM & IIT Indore. We are happy to bring you an unique opportunity.

Here’s your chance to Raise Angel Funding up to $25,000 in 10 minutes

During the summit, they have Venture-I which is the International Venture plan competition. It is a one of a kind platform where entrepreneurs can raise 15 lakh rupees of investment JUST by selling a minority stake(ie 5%) of their start-ups. It’s the fastest you will ever raise money- in just a ten minute duration (7 min pitch+ 3 min Q&A).

Want more? The Winner will also be inducted into NASSCOM 10k Startups’ Innotrek ‘2016 delegation to the Silicon Valley straightaway!

The platform is open to start ups that are less than 2 years old and have not raised more than 50 lacs rupees. If it is a business idea, the co-founders must have a full time team and a prototype.

Registrations for the Venture-I challenge have already begun and shall close on 7th August, 2015. Click here to signup http://bit.ly/venturei

Do spread the word and help a startup grow.
gbg-mumbai-i5summit-startup-funidng

gbg-mumbai-google-io15-event

EVENT: June 27th. Key learning from Google I/O and what that means for your startup

Google I/O 2015, one of the most coveted developer conference was held at San Francisco during the last week of May. I was fortunate to be there in person to attend the two day long, packed, fun and exhaustive series of sessions including the keynote talk.

A ton of new announcements were made including Android M preview, Brillo – an operating system for internet of things (IOT), Google Photos, Cardboard 2.0, Android Pay, etc.,

Back home, it is only fair as a chapter manager to pass on the learning to the entrepreneur and startups community, hence, a special event this weekend to interact with you all and share key information that may add value to your business.

We also have a guest speaker: Shashank Chinchli, who’ll give a detailed perspective about Android M and what it means to both,  entrepreneurs and developers.

Do register and join us (entrey free) on Saturday, 27th June. 4pm to 6pm at

Thadomal Shahani Centre For Management (TSCFM),

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Search Ranking Changes by Google, What you have to do?

Google recently started displaying ‘Mobile Friendly ‘ on search results and this update means you have to optimize your website for easy access from mobile phones. See the announcement here

We recently received an update from Google’s search team about the entire roll-out process and it is called as #MobileMadness. Here’s a list of things for you to know more about the search ranking changes by Google and successfully make your website mobile friendly.

 

We Hope this helps you in better SEO efforts for your website. Do share this page (click on the twitter logo) and make the web a mobile friendly place. Tweet: SEO update from Google Search team to make your website mobile-friendly. #MobileMadness http://ctt.ec/aHON3+

EVENT: Data Driven Business Decisions – March 21

Data driven business decisions  is an approach to business governance that values decisions that can be backed up with data that can be verified. More often than not, a startup may have enough data within their setup to look up and take critical decisions, be it hiring, advertising, customer satisfaction, etc, but the challenge is to rightly analyse the data to arrive at meaningful insights that can be at heart of business decisions.

We are partnering with IBM’s Global Entrepreneur Program to bring you an event that gives you a bigger better picture about how to leverage data for business decisions.

Who should attend?

  • Entrepreneurs and startups
  • Marketers and business professionals
  • Developers interested in building data driven applications

What will we cover? The event will cover the basics of where to find data in your business and how to meaningfully interpret them for business decisions. We also have a panel discussion and live demonstrations.

Agenda

  • Talk by Mr. Sachin Uppal, Marketing Director at Play Games 24×7 (Rummy Circle)
  • Panel discussion between a senior executive from IBM, Sudarshan (Founder of Amplifi fund), Sachin and a VC
  • Live demo of some of the cutting edge solutions by IBM
    • Introduction to Watson Services
    • Demo of Watson Services and Live Demo of Bluemix Platform as a Service
  • Introduction to Amplifi Fund (Accelerators for SaaSy startups)

Do get your laptops to try the live demo directly on your machines

When and where?

Saturday, 21st March. 4 to 6pm. Seminar Hall, Harkishan Mehta Institute of Journalism, Mithibai College, Vile Parle, Mumbai.

Entry is free and by confirmed registration only. (please register below)

Event Partner Strategic Partner

ibm-gbg-mumbai
Global Entrepreneur Program by IBM

Harkishan Mehta Institute of Journalism

All about Angel Funding

Excerpts from talk by Ajeet Khurana, Angel Investor for 22 startups and CEO at IIT Bombay’s SINE. He was a speaker at GBG Mumbai’s session about Angel Funding on Jan 24th.

Glossary: AF=angel funding, VC= venture capital, PE=private equity (two meanings see link), MVP=minimum viable product

There is no exact definition of Angel Funding, it could be money raised by an entrepreneur through one of the means – family, friends, co-founders, etc., or through an institutional way such as an investor who provides capital in exchange for a percentage of equity / share ownership.

Beside the 3 famous Fs – Friends, Family and Fools, there’s a 4th F – Father-in-law!

Ajeet Khurana

AF is risky for the investor, earlier one enters a venture and invests, the more likely it is for a startup to die. This is because, after MVP, they may have no traction, unable to meet projected growth figures, fail to get paying customers, difficulty in scaling up, churn in team, etc.,

Due to this trend of ‘Infant mortality’ among early stage startups, An angel investor asks for higher rate of equity to compensate or set-off losses caused by other angel investments they made.

A typical VC expects upto 36% returns, an Angel expects similar or more returns.

Generally, people only focus on wins and windfall gains, they tend to ignore returns and failures, this leads to some amount of skepticism.

An Angel can afford to lose money. That is because they invest only a small percentage of their wealth; In many cases, they can completely lose their principal.

Getting investments kills the business at times. Its not like bank loan which is recovers principal+interest; PE (& AF, VC) needs exponential growth on the capital itself. An illustration Ajeet gave for this was “imagine getting on a cab and  instructing the driver to hit the top speed and hold it there and at no circumstances the cab driver is supposed to hit the brakes or slow down. What the the chances that the cab will reach its destination? What are the odds that the cab gets to freeway miraculously and is able to hold the top speed? Think of companies like Flipkart to have been the ‘luck cab’ that hit the freeway and drive on top speed all along”

AF jobs is to see dramatic growth. If they see it then they will be keen to invest, many a times, they will seek a startup and offer to invest if they see such exponential growth (refer drawing below)

angel-funding-gbg-mumbai

Investors bother about revenues, not profits. Grow on the capital. e.g – Flipkart was 1bn one year ago, now they made it 11X.

Borrow model. Revenue share. Equity traded.

If there are such high expectation, then Why are entrepreneurs seeking it? the logic is simple, As long as they can show growth, they will continue to get money.

Entrepreneurs who can show high growth can avail infinite amount of money/funding from investors. (in a humorous example he says – As long you can keep the dance going, i can pump in more money)

Many investors choose to become an Angel and use the fire in belly of an entrepreneur to get returns on their capital.

Entrepreneurship is a disease one never gets cured of!. Maybe if you had bad experiences with investing in stock market couple of time, one may give up, but a failed startup only leads to starting another. The symptoms starts showing up soon enough.

The different stages of PE investing & Objectives of investors therein.

Note: not all startups follow the exact flow, there are high mortality rates between every stage.

  1. Seed investments: The fund to get started with, convert an idea into MVP. typical money given is Rs. 5-25 lacs. In exchange of this, 5-12% is taken by seed guy. This is a LOT of percentage to give away.
  2. Angel funding: 6-18 months later after MVP is ready. Now the startup needs Angel funding. Typical amount is Rs. 30-150 lacs. 10-20% of equity is given away. Now it’s far less risky for the investor.
  3. VC Funding: Growth focused fund. Not all seed and AF companies go to VC stage. 12-30 months after angel funding, a startup is set for VC funding with a business model in place. typically Rs. 6-40crs is invested for 10-30% of equity.
  4. PE, List, Merger: After achieving a high growth, a venture can opt to complete merger, get listed on stock market and go public or sell it off for a private equity deal by institutions. (e.g Flipkart is still at VC and not gone to PE). Typically a PE acquisition happens at 90% equity.

The Role of an Angel Investor.

  • AF advice could be a nuisance for the entrepreneur at times. An investor must help by providing key referrals that will aid in business growth.
  • An investor must not in interfere in running things.
  • Angels and investors have a say over valuation and capital. These are very rigid.

Some thoughts before getting investment.

  • Any form of PE is a slippery slope. No stopping. Or altering the plan or path. Be mindful if you really want investments that comes with taunting investors.
  • Its good for entrepreneurs to know & understand the nuances of investment and valuation. A recommended book is ‘Damodaran on Valuation
  • For early stage startups. the valuation is a mere negotiated value. Opinion of the investor decides the value.
  • Startup in the space of SMAC gets more funding because growth is high here (refer drawing above). As opposed to, say a solar energy producing company or a hospital. They start at PE level directly.
  • If any startup beside the SMAC can prove that they have exponential growth, then investments come by easily.

A few notable quotes:

“A risk for an Angel is losing money when the venture tanks, a worst nightmare for an Angel is when the venture does good yet they dont make money.”

“Its a lie when Investors say they invest on teams”. Team matters since thats the only thing that stays constant.”

“I reject proposals based on subject on emails.”

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Check out more pictures from the event here

Check out a what a venture capitalist has to say about VC Funding 

Divum is Hiring for App developers

Founded in 2008, Divum is a pioneer among India’s Mobile App Developing startups. Divum is now hiring for Fresh and Senior Software Application Engineer at Bangalore.

 

Team Divum
Team Divum

Divum is known for building over 900 mobile apps across IOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry and Symbian for prestigious clients such as Askme, Freeads, YellowPages, MakeMytrip, BookMyShow, India Games – Disney, NDTV, Art of Living, Times Internet, India Today Group and many more. They also work closely with Samsung, Microsoft, Google and Blackberry.

Click on image to see expanded view
Click on image to see expanded view

Click on links below to see the detailed job Description and contact details to apply.

For more queries write to [email protected]

Legal Framework for Startups

So you have an idea, maybe your are the in process of executing it already from a garage. But what’s your venture’s identity? Who owns what? Should you be a LLC or Pvt Ltd.? Which one is better yet easy to manage?

Even if you have sorted the company formation and incorporation, What about taxation, trademarks, intellectual rights and patents?

This February, we are bringing you a professional CA & a Patent expert to provide you a comprehensive overview about Company formation, Taxation, Trademarks, Patents and IPR.

Confirmed Speakers.

  • Hardik Shah, CA by profession, Entrepreneur, Formerly with Ernst & Young.
  • Prashant Patankar, Registered Patent Agent and Partner at Ink Idee

Date: 7th Feb, Saturday, 3.45pm.

Venue: Seminar Hall, Harkisan Mehta Institute of Journalism, Mithibai College.

Register now