“To anyone feeling ashamed of being depressed: there is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s an illness. Like asthma or measles.”

In fairness, I have never had asthma or measles. Do they cause you to lash out at friends? Undergo a sudden, terrifying shift in politics and personality? Lead to time slipping away like a Dali clock?

Do they make you doubt what you see in the mirror? Make you high enough to mistake car bonnets for stepping stones and a thousand other things?

Mental illness is nothing like asthma or measles.

In recent years, the discussion around mental health has hit the mainstream. It isn’t a bad thing that we are all talking more about mental health; it would be silly to argue otherwise. But this does not mean it is not infuriating to come home, suicidal, to a bunch of celebrity awareness-raising selfies and thousands of people saying that all you need to do is ask for help – when you’ve been asking for help and not getting it.

There was a poster I recently saw in an ad that exclaims, “Mental health can be complex – getting help doesn’t have to be!” Each time I see it, I want to scream.

When I am well, sometimes think I will be fine for life and want to abandon all my medication. And when I am not well, I think maybe I really am just a f**k-up, and should not be dealt with sympathetically. We don’t talk about self-stigma, as part of the empowering new conversation. I will admit that I am not well. That writing this, right now, I am not well. This will colour the writing.

But it is part of why I want to write, because another part of the problem is that we write about it when we are on the other side, better. And I understand: it’s ugly up close; you can see right into the burst vessels of the thing. (Also, on a practical level, it is difficult to write when one is unwell.) But then what we end up with has the substance of secondary sources. When we do see it in its rawness – who among us does not wince?

I want it gone, so that I am not dealing with it all the time, or worrying about others having to deal with it all the time. I am done with words. I need your words to count for more.

Then action. Some more action.

This is me. Here I am.

I hope this anonymous first person account of an individual struggling with a mental health issue strikes a chord with each one of you reading this.

If you suffer from anxiety or a panic disorder, it doesn’t mean you can’t also be strong, fun or capable. This is just another part of us – a very human part. There is a fear in us not to disclose problems because we will be perceived as weak. We are not weak. We are all a work in progress.

One in five adults experience mental illness in any given year. Everybody struggles and challenges like mental health issues eventually spill over into the workplace. In this context, not only do employers not understand the full range of mental health issues or what they entail, but also, the idea that someone with an MHI can be productive and good at their job is almost entirely absent from the conversation. So, as a leader/manager/colleague, you can't pretend it isn't happening.

The conversation around mental illness tends to focus on depression and anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder. It is less comfortable with the mental illnesses deemed more unpalatable – people who act erratically, hallucinate, and have violent episodes or interpersonal instability. Let’s not pretend that this stigma is merely a hurdle to be overcome. Stigma exists from a place of real fear, and a lack of understanding about mental illness.

The key isn’t to deny this, but to educate.

The average person spends 90,000 hours of their life working. Poor employee mental health can be due to factors internal or external to the workplace and, without effective management, can seriously impact employees’ productivity, career prospects and wider health.

While there is increasing awareness of the impact of poor employee mental health, there remains a disconnect between employers’ intentions and perceptions and what is actually happening in the workplace. This means that employees often do not get the help they need to maintain a fulfilling and productive working life, and some line managers are frustrated by the lack of support to do what they know is right.

Moving towards a corporate culture of proactive, preventative management of workplace wellbeing requires organisations to recognise the value of parity of esteem between mental and physical health in the workplace and to manage internal as well as external conversations and communications accordingly.

We need to do more as organisations. The conversation needs to be more inclusive for those with lesser degrees of privilege like LGBT+ individuals, people with disability, workers in the unorganised sector and other marginalised communities.

Team Diversity Dialogues presents a video to help organisations end the stigma, break the culture of silence, and take practical steps for building better mental health at the workplace.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

The #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns in India have brought out many cases of sexual abuse, but the issue of delivering justice to victims still remains.

Tendering an apology does not undo the act of harassment. An apology may be treated as an admission on part of the accused. The victim can still press charges, and it does not dilute the case.

Rutuja Shinde, a civil lawyer from the Bombay High Court, said this in an interview with the Indian Women Blog, in support of the ongoing #MeToo and #TimesUp movements in India.

Over the last few days, several victims and survivors of sexual abuse and sexual harassment have come forward with their stories and unmasked perpetrators. What started with Bollywood actor Tanushree Dutta accusing actor Nana Patekar and director Vivek Agnihotri of sexual misconduct has now become India’s very own #MeToo movement. Over 50 perpetrators have been named on Twitter within a week, resulting in investigations and inquiries.

But there still remains a legal gap between justice and victims. To bridge this, Mumbai-based lawyers Rutuja Shinde and Veera Mahuli have extended their legal support.

In an interview with The Better India, Veera said,

A lot of people have been questioning the credibility and justification of the movement, which came about precisely because of the lack of trust these women had in law enforcement. While it is important for their stories to be heard, I realised that they might be grappling with a lot of legal questions.

Now, Veera and Rutuja have been connecting victims with lawyers from their states, easing the process of taking legal action. Further, they will also offer pro bono legal advice.

On what keeps a victim from filing a report, Veera says,

Lack of awareness and the stigma attached to filing such complaints are the primary reasons women refrain from filing complaints. With more information being made available on social media, better legal assistance and sensitisation towards victims has made it easier for women to come forward.

She adds that monetary limitations and lack of awareness of the recourse they have also prevent legal action. She says,

The way forward would be to create a kind of support system wherein there is a flow of information.

Here are three ways they can help.

1. You can contact them for legal queries to file a complaint or FIR against your harasser(s). They will advise and connect you with another lawyer who will take the case forward.
2. Rutuja told The Better India that she is open to taking cases of sexual harassment at workplace, and can advise you on how and where you can file a complaint.
3. Rutuja and Veera can also help you if you receive any threats of “defamation” from your harasser (s) whose name has been made public.

Reach out to Rituja via email at rutuja.s.shinde@gmail.com and connect with Veera Mahuli on Twitter at @veeramahuli.

A year after the #MeToo storm broke in Hollywood, it’s creating huge waves in the Bollywood sea. And as dirty secrets are revealed, it’s important to know the behind-the-scenes scene in the film industry. We asked six Bollywood-specific questions that are topmost on YourStory’s mind:  

#1 Does the casting couch exist only in B or C grade Bollywood?

We spoke to an anonymous casting director of A-grade films who said: “Yes, it exists. But things are way better now than they were earlier.” 

“As a casting director of a TV series and films, I run a clean ship. The directors and crew are instructed not to interact with the talent for any other reason than professional co-ordination.” He added that he had blacklisted a couple of actors he knows to be misogynistic in their personal lives.

He added, “I work for A-grade films and I haven’t come across any incident while casting actors. We look at serious actors with theatre experience; those with training from NSD or FTII are more likely not to fall into this trap. But I am sure it happens to people who work in B or C-grade films.”

Soon after this conversation, Phantom Films, the production company that released the two-part Gangs of Wasseypur and Netflix's first Indian series Sacred Games, was dissolved. The company was co-founded by director Vikas Bahl, accused of sexual harassment. The other co-founders include directors Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, and producer Madhu Mantena.

#2 Can she say no and make it in the industry?

Earlier this year, Saroj Khan, a respected choreographer, commented on a casting-couch protest. She said: “Yeh ladki ke upar hai ki tum kya karna chahti ho. Tum uske haath mein nahi aana chahti, ho toh nahi aaogi. Tumhare paas art hai toh tum kyun bechoge apne aap ko? (It’s up to the woman to decide what she wants to do. If you don’t want to fall into the casting couch, you won’t. If you are talented, why would you sell yourself?)

But it’s not so simple. You can’t add 2 and 2 and always get 4. There are various factors to consider:

Constant normalisation of sexual abuse

Priya Malik, a feminist open-mic poet, sports anchor, and Bigg Boss contestant, told YourStory that “flippant” statements like these from established personalities are the problem. “This constant normalisation of rape and sexual abuse. I know of many newcomers who are so willing to undergo it because they assume it's the norm. THAT is the problem,” she said.

They don’t hear the word no

A director stood up for her actress in a show against actor Alok Nath. She said Alok Nath would harass the lead actor of TV series Tara, and that one night he raped her in her own house after mixing her drinks. Tanushree Dutta, who ten years ago said no to actor Nana Patekar and director Vivek Agnihotri, while working on Horn OK Pleassss found the film industry didn’t listen to her - and worse - put her out of work.

Saying no is a privilege

There is a misconception that if someone was sexually assaulted, they wouldn’t be talking to or interacting with the perpetrator afterwards. But the University of Michigan Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Centre, on its website says, “There are many reasons why a survivor might maintain a relationship with someone who has assaulted them. The survivor may be unable to avoid the perpetrator if they live together, work together, are in class together, or have the same social circles. Or the survivor might still be defining and trying to understand what’s happened to them.”

In the Alok Nath case, the director said she had to write a show for the actor after the incident. “I needed the job and didn’t want to leave it as I needed the money,” she has said. During that time, Alok Nath asked to come to his house and violated her. She quit after that. 

Speaking to ABP, Alok Nath dismissed her allegations, flippantly. #TanushreeDutta starts the #MeToo in India after Nana Patekar allegedly harassed her. ”

#3 What legal options do survivors have?

Supreme Court lawyer Devanshi Popat said: “Normally, an FIR has to be filed, an investigation is carried out, statements are recorded, and charges framed. Then comes the trial.” She adds that without an investigation, no man can be held guilty and punished merely over an unsubstantiated statement that has not gone through the process of law. “A Twitter or a media trial is not one of them.”

She advised all survivors to get all the information they can. “Time, place, the exact incident. Anything they can give to substantiate the allegation. An investigation will then take place,” she said.

Ashish Chavan, advocate with the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, has appeared for sexual harassment cases from the survivors and accused, said the Tanushree Dutta case was a mixed bag. “There is support for her on social media, but she doesn’t have eyewitnesses, unlike her alleged perpetrators. The situation looks bleak, in the eyes of law. Plus, we don’t know if she is an Indian citizen. If she registers a case, probably under Section 354, the law will still work on evidence.”

What about the video that’s circulating? The one where cameraman Pawan Bharadwaj attacked Tanushree Dutta and her father's car, refusing to let them pass. “That may not be considered evidence. Who is to tell that this video is legitimate?” Chavan said.

Last week, the Supreme Court was applauded for taking progressive, feminist decisions. Will this not trickle down to Tanushree’s case? “Let’s keep the ‘isms’ out of the legal battle. Law works on evidence and not emotions. We need to look at it dispassionately and see the evidence,” he said.

The way we see this case, it seems that the onus is on Tanushree Dutta to prove her stance. Why can’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t it be up to Nana Patekar to prove his innocence? “It can’t work like that. That means any woman can say she was molested and publicly shame the other person. It’s like opening the floodgates to character assassination.”

But wouldn’t the number of false cases outweigh the genuine ones?

“The harsh reality is that fraudulent cases are filed every day. This brings down the credibility of unsubstantiated statements knowingly or unknowingly,” Devanshi said.

#4 Why don’t top actresses speak out?

Why aren’t top actresses speaking out, be it on the casting couch or similar gender-based harassment in Bollywood?

“Women in Hollywood have greater financial independence and freedom of speech, maybe more than Bollywood actresses who are used to male actors leading the narrative,” says Janice Sequeira, TV show anchor who has backed Tanushree’s allegations. “One cannot imagine how high the stakes are for these actresses if they decide to speak out. We, the media industry, need to make them feel empowered. Probably then a #MeToo will start from the top of the industry.”

The survivor in the Vikas Bahl case was assaulted during the shooting of Kangana Ranaut’s film Queen. The lead actress not only stepped in but also narrated her own incidents with the accused. Kalki Koechlin, Tisca Chopra, Rakhi Sawant, and Maushami Udeshi have faced and called out casting couch incidents in Bollywood. Sonam Kapoor has said that she believes the survivor of the alleged harassment and Tanushree Dutta.

#5. Do men get propositioned and abused as well?

A film and theatre actor in Mumbai talks to us on conditions of anonymity. “Most actors and actresses are propositioned when they enter the film industry. When it comes to the casting couch, female directors are nicer to male models and vice versa. There is sexism, definitely. As a male actor, I have been propositioned twice. At times, you cut ties with the person or they stop sending you audition links.”  

Actors Ranveer Singh and Ayushmaan Khurana have spoken about the existence of the casting couch and said they refused when asked for sexual favours during their struggling days.

#6 Why it’s important to speak up and support women who are speaking up

Janice Sequeira tweeted to corroborate Tanushree Dutta’s story, stating that she was there. “Some incidents that take place even a decade ago remain fresh in your memory. What happened with #TanushreeDutta on the sets of Horn OK Pleassss is one such incident. #NanaPatekar.”

She told YourStory the reason why she realised that she had to speak up for Tanushree. “I saw interviews the day before and it was a rude shock. Whatever she was saying added parts to the puzzle I had seen as a cub reporter in 2008. And then, there were the trolls who said she was trying to make it back to Bollywood. How could she be harassed in a set that had hundreds of people? If we don’t believe the survivor's story, we are allowing and conditioning perpetrators to get away. We have to show that boss, you can’t get away.”

"It's not just about the industry or women. Creating empathy with the perpetrator and a derogatory attitude towards the survivor perpetuates a vicious cycle of keeping silent,” Priya Malik said.

Disclaimer: YourStory called up a couple of other actors who insisted they were kept anonymous or left out of the equation completely. Some said, “We don’t get involved with the industry after hours. So we don’t know what’s happening.”

Growth hacking is here to stay and growth hackers are in major demand in today’s heavily competitive market.

Growth hacking or growth marketing is the non-traditional approach to increase the growth rate and market adoption of your product/service. It involves experimenting with different ideas and administering or focusing on the ones that are most scalable.

Sean Ellis, the person who coined the term ‘growth hacking’ states, ‘A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth’. A growth hacker’s primary job entails examining how everything is going to impact the growth of a company.

Here’s your exclusive guide to successful growth hacking:

Skillset checklist

What kind of skills do you need under your sleeve to become a growth hacker? Essentially, a growth hacker is a marketer with creative ideas, analytical skills, and a bit of a coding knowledge.

Similar to a digital marketer, a growth hacker must be a pro in social networking, blog writing, content, UI/UX, viral marketing, SEO, research, and analytics.

The primary difference between growth hacking and digital marketing lies in the fact that digital marketing is focused on brand and positioning of the organisation, while growth hacking involves the process of rapid prototyping and testing of different tactics/ideas.

Break the rules

The secret weapon of growth hacking is plain and easy: be a rule breaker working on ad-hoc experiments with a hypothesis and great potential. Growth hacking is all about having the right mindset of growth and doesn’t come with a set list of rules. The job demands you to think outside the box and unleashes your creativity. Hence, we say that growth hacking is all about one’s mindset.

Follow the three commandments

Every idea/strategy must be driven by the three growth hacking commandments mentioned below -

1. What does your customer want?
2. Where does your customer reside?
3. What language does your customer speak?

Once you figure out these three things, you can laser focus your target. With tools like Xtensio, you can carefully figure out your potential customer persona.

Knowing exactly who your customer is the catalyst, creating personas is very important and that will determine the fate of your efforts as a growth hacker. Persona creation is the crucial part and has to be done carefully; it is the base of your marketing efforts. Most of the startups fail these days because they fail to figure out their potential customers and simply target their marketing efforts towards the unnecessary crowd.

Give attention to the AAARRR model

The AAARRR model is a growth hacking model that is defined as a customer behaviour metric blueprint that allows you to monitor your customer journey and growth. This, in turn, enables you to optimise your company’s growth. The model is not only meant for growth hackers but can be applicable for marketers as well. Growth hackers are responsible for all these six stages in the AAARRR growth funnel. These stages include:

1. Awareness - Make yourself visible. Do people know who you are? What are the different tactics you can make use of to get branding and visibility done to your organisation? This will point out the positioning of your company/brand.
2. Acquisition - How easily can people find you? What is the sign-in percentage? If the answer is anything else than rarely & less, then you’re doing something wrong. Experiment with different channels, tactics and analyse the results. You will figure out soon what works and what doesn’t.
3. Activation - Do people have a good first experience? Did they like the offering and the UI/UX of the webpage? A/B testing, asking for feedback and creative ideas should work here. You don’t want to see a high bounce rate for your web pages.
4. Retention - Do your customers come back to you after the initial experience of your product/service? If not, then you are doing something wrong with your retention channels like email, SMS, retargeting, etc and onboarding. The product features may not be so attractive and hence less interest and fewer click-throughs.
5. Revenue - Are visitors getting upgraded from free plan to the paid subscription? The more the number of users that choose to upgrade, the more revenue you make. Make sure the product has amazing value propositions and you are conveying them properly.
6. Referral -  If customers like what you’re offering, they will refer you to their colleagues, friends, etc. Are they doing it? If not, why not? What lacks the motivation? The growth hacker’s job is to figure out the answers for all these, like an investigation. This is extremely important, as word of mouth is one of the most effective growth strategies. You might want to ask your already existing customers to refer others and talk about your product/service through some incentive programmes.

Be creative - always think ‘growth’

 To be a growth hacker, you need to be mindful, creative, and smart. It’s crucial to know some growth sauce, tools, and secrets for an exponential growth in a  faster and better manner.

Here are a couple of hacks you can employ:

• Roundup article hack - You might not know what to write about, especially if you’re a newbie or a startup. There’s a simple trick: Just ask experts!  Post a couple of questions on platforms such as LinkedIn and Reddit, or you can reach out to them personally also. And wait for the experts to reply.  But for this to work, you need to have a strong network and connect with such people in your industry.
• Storytelling hack - Tap onto the reservoir of the power of storytelling. If you can figure out a way to create the magical portion of storytelling, you can enchant the world with your content. There’s a simple formula you can use - use appropriate line breaks, pull in readers with an appetising clickbait in the first 2-3 sentences, add an emotional touch, and have a strong, genuine content body.
• Infographic hack - It’s as simple as it sounds. Repurposing the content can do a lot better. Find out your top performing articles and convert them into infographics. They have a tendency to go viral and get more shares. Use tools like Canva or Venngage to create beautiful infographics.
• Outreach hack - These days, you can find anybody’s email id through different tools like io, Snovio, etc, and the next step is to come up with email templates and automating your reach out through YAMM.
• Social media hack - Timing is everything. Check out what’s trending and try to make use of that opportunity using the trending news, keywords in your industry. Write up an article and play around by sharing it on different social channels and communities.
• 90 seconds video hack - Videos do really well if you make use of them properly. Have an attention-grabbing intro, 90 seconds or less duration and strong call to action (CTA) at the end. Use tools like Lumen5 to create amazing videos.
• Community engagement hack - Get active on your industry-specific communities and forums, analyse the content and type of questions people are asking, make a list of pain points, help people with your answers. If you spend some time in such communities, I am sure you will find a lot of hints on what your target market is talking about and the interest levels so you can create content on your website accordingly. Get active on Reddit (find a proper subreddit that fits what you do) and Quora.
• Guest posting hack - Find out the publications that allow guest posting in your industry, see what type of content they accept, come up with similar content, then email the editor asking if they are willing to publish your article. Make sure to keep your email crisp, clear and with bullet points why this article fits well with their readers.

Find out the publications and websites that accept guest articles with these simple searches,

“Your keyword” + Guest post

“Your keyword” + Contribute

“Your keyword” + Submit

“Your keyword” + Write for us

Know the growth tools

The main goal of a growth hacker is to lower the cost per acquisition as much as possible. Instead of using paid ads, explore the endless sea of free tools in every dimension of your job title. Buzzsumo, Hotjar, SEOprofiler, CrowdTangle, and Snip.ly, SimilarWeb, Clicktotweet, CrazyEgg, Qualaroo, Typeform, etc

Knowing a programming language is an advantage

 Like mentioned before, a good growth hacker’s advantage is knowing at least one programming language so they can automate most of the boring tasks and do some data analysis and research.  Python is heavily used in such cases and is well recommended to know. This will ease the work for growth hackers and helps them with the data they want for better decision making.

Growth hacking is here to stay and growth hackers are in major demand in today’s heavily competitive market. Startups usually have minimum funding and resources, and they all will be in need of an exponential growth that cannot be accomplished with usual online marketing strategies and hence every startup nowadays will look out for growth hackers.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

Deep science startups are an intersection between exact and life science, and have now started to get genuine support from investment companies for the large impact of their innovation.

For years now, the Indian startup ecosystem has been injected by billions of dollars but only a trickle reaches the deep science segment. At TechSparks 2018, Siddharth Pai, Founder and Managing Partner of Siana Capital Management, a Bengaluru-based fund house that focuses on this segment, highlighted the importance of investing in deep science startups.

Siddarth spoke on the topic - "Why deep science needs patient investment". He took the opportunity of investing in these startups as most funds were focused on businesses that were based on internet commerce or related areas. “What was being neglected was the true innovation that was happening in India from our academic institutions and scientists,” he said, while adding that they have taken a longer term horizon view.

Siana Capital is a $100 million venture capital fund that focuses on early to mid-stage innovative deep science startups. The fund looks at startups at the intersection of exact science and life science. Simply put, these are startups that are experts in both engineering and biology. The other long term feature of investing in such startups is the larger social impact.

According to Siddharth, the most distinguishing feature of deep science businesses is the freedom to create an intellectual patent around the business that gives a sense of security.

Dismissing the notion of the government or the academia not making enough strides in the area of deep science, he says, “The government has provided considerable support to many institutions in the country which has enabled them to come out with their incubators.”

Though Siddharth did share the number of companies they have invested in, he urged everyone to keep a sharp focus on certain benchmarks that these startups need to meet.

Deep science startups form a niche area in the country that has received some semblance of support from both the Government and academia but it is still a long way to go when it comes to industry participation. “Industry participation is critical as any such alliance with startups will given them a wider reach,” said Siddharth, “It is worthwhile to buy these firms as they are truly innovative.”

YourStory's annual extravaganza TechSparks brings together the best and the brightest from the startup ecosystem, corporate world, policy makers, and of course, the investor community. Over the years, it has grown to become India's most loved tech and startup platform for knowledge sharing and networking. The ninth edition of TechSparks also marks YourStory's 10th anniversary. A big thank you for all your support over the years and keep reading and watching YourStory.

As the third largest startup destination globally and with one of the fastest-growing base of software developers in the world, India is a hotbed for some of the most innovative startups the world has ever seen, offering truly inspiring solutions that are redefining how we spend our day to day lives. Facebook, over the last few years, has been playing a significant part in supporting the Indian startup ecosystem through a number of programs and initiatives.

The first-ever India Startup Day was celebrated on October 9, 2018 at The Oberoi, New Delhi. The event aimed to recognise and celebrate Indian startups that are game-changers in their field through their impactful innovations.

Programs, places and partnerships

Facebook inaugurated the event by sharing their vision for the startup community and emphasising their plans for 2019. “At Facebook, we are committed to paving the way for the success of the new generation of startups in India and understand that access to resources, people and networks can be a powerful catalyst for their growth. That's why we are creating programs that can fuel startups to build businesses of tomorrow through mentoring, regular trainings, workshops and meetups,” said Satyajeet Singh, Head of Platform Partnerships - India & South Asia.

Facebook has significantly invested in three areas, namely programs, places and partnerships. Their programs are aimed at startups working in different domains including startups building for the bottom of the pyramid users and those building with emerging technologies like AR/VR/AI etc. They ensure that these programs are designed to support and mentor the startups. Facebook has set up a Design Studio in Bangalore in partnership with NASSCOM, and a VR Innovation Lab in Hyderabad to mentor startups on topics like design thinking. Here, startups and developers can find mentors, get expert advice and network with like-minded peers. Facebook also uses the support of ecosystem players to build partnerships that will ultimately benefit the startup ecosystem.

Facebook programs to support startups

1) India Innovation Hub

The program supports startups building products using emerging technology like AR and VR. The accelerator program selects nine startups from different domains like healthcare to consumer internet to recruitment who will get access to a dedicated mentor to advise them on the technology and product side of business. At the end of the cohort, the startups get go-to-market support and graduates become part of the global alumni network where they can exchange ideas with each other.

2) Code for the Next Billion

In partnership with NASSCOM, Facebook supports startups who are building technology for those who need it the most. Ten startups solving a wide variety of social problems are chosen to attend workshops, product bootcamps, design thinking and fundraising sessions, investor meets, and finally get go-to-market support.

3) SheLeadsTech

There is an immense imbalance in the startup ecosystem, with only nine per cent women founders, of which only two per cent go on to get funded. This program encourages women entrepreneurs to come forward and build successful tech businesses in India. The SLT community gets access to mentorship sessions, online AMAs, regular meetups where they can network with peers facing similar challenges and get advice on how to solve them. With over 13 business verticals and 14 mentors, the community now has more than 170 members and startups from 24 small and big towns across the country.

4) Developer Circles

This initiative is aimed at developers across cities looking to build startups for tomorrow. The program is run by local community leads who are passionate about tech and giving back to the community. Regular meetups, workshops and engagements (online and offline) are hosted to collaborate and learn with peers. What started with 30 members in one city has now grown to a community of 50K+ members spread across 15 cities.

5) School of Innovation

The objective is to inspire students to build on top of emerging technology through the awareness and incubation track. The program conducts workshops on VR for around 30 universities and aims to train over 5,000 students on solutions they can build using VR. The incubation track selects 10 student teams and handholds them to go through the actual experience of building a VR product.

With a ‘learn and grow’ approach, Facebook began these programs in 2016 by hosting developer meetups in Bangalore and Delhi. In two years, these have grown steadily with various SheLeadsTech meetups, 15 developer circles and two physical spaces being set up across the country.

Panel: Changing face of India's startup ecosystem

The India Startup Day event also witnessed a panel discussion from renowned names from the industry, moderated by Emeka Afigbo, Head of Developer Programs, Facebook. The panel comprised K S Viswanathan, Vice President, Industry Initiatives of NASSCOM; Meenakshi Jain, Founder of Helper4U; Srinivas Kollipara, CEO of T-Hub Hyderabad; and Pranay Gupta, Co-founder of 91springboard.

The panel discussed the considerable pace at which India is growing in the startup ecosystem since the last five years. India has a list of unique problems to solve that other countries do not face. Deep tech is an area with huge potential, and there are a lot of opportunities to nurture and scale ideas in this field. There is also a rise in the number of technology startups and women entrepreneurs, owing to the availability of funds and increased incubators and accelerators in the country.

When asked about the role and impact of women entrepreneurs in today's day and age, they all agreed that balancing work and family was a huge challenge for women, but they could prove to be the best, if given an opportunity. Pranay believed that women had an amazing balance of IQ and EQ which helped them create products that customers really wanted. Srinivas emphasised on the fact that every woman had a different problem. "India is a very complex market. What women in rural India face is not the same as what those urban India face.”

Meenakshi said, "The percentage has grown but the environment is very conducive since most people are focusing on B2C problems. My strong belief is when you empower women in the house, you are helping the whole family. It's the best time for women to plunge in. Don't treat us any different, give us equal opportunities and we will perform well."

The panel concluded that if India needs to stay in the lead in the tech world, certain changes had to be made. Technology had to be multi-lingual, continuous learning had to be inculcated, emerging technologies needed to be used to tackle new challenges. Educational systems in India don’t create a mindset among students to solve problems. They fail to realise that solutions created in India have the potential to become useful globally.

Conversation: Make for India, make in India for the world

Shivnath Thukral from Facebook caught up with Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog for a quick fireside chat to discuss common goals startups and ecosystem players could work towards.

According to the NITI Aayog head, startups are spurring a radical transformation. The movement is spreading, and the government wants to help the ecosystem grow. “Earlier, you had no alternative but to join the government. Today, there are so many opportunities for young people, they are trying to disrupt India in a way never done before by joining startups." Indian startups are also doing a lot of work in social innovation and exploring unexplored domains.

On facilitating global markets and startups, he said that global companies bring in a lot of innovation in terms of better ideas, cutting-edge technologies, improved HR practices and so on. You need the innovation mindset to interact with global innovators, and constantly change so that India can grow. "Don’t ever think domestic market is the end. No country has grown without penetrating global markets. Think big, scale big."

His key message to startups as they continue to innovate for India is, "India's innovative spirit must fly, and young startups must drive innovation. Make for India, make in India for the world. I want Indian families to contribute resources and invest in startups, so that they eventually draw dividends from them."

Amitabh Kant also launched Facebook’s publication 'The Limitless' during the event. The book celebrates the stories of entrepreneurs across India who are pushing limits and building products to transform millions of lives, entrepreneurs working with emerging technologies, women entrepreneurs and community builders who are doing inspirational work.

Felicitating the winners of Startup Day Awards

With over 500 entries, the five award winners were chosen by eminent leaders from the ecosystem – Amitabh Kant; Naganand Doraswami, Co-Founder and CEO of IdeaSpring Capital; Radhika Aggarwal, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Shopclues; Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman & MD of CII; Satyajeet Singh Head – Platform Partnerships - India & South Asia of Facebook; and Padmaja Ruparel, Co-founder of the Indian Angel Network.

The award winners across categories are as follows:

• She Leads Tech - Greenway Grameen, a startup that designs & distributes products that improve the lives of people in low-income markets.
• Building for Tomorrow - Scapic, a platform that lets people create, share and explore immersive experiences.
• Building for the Next Billion - Aye Finance, a startup built around the mission of transforming the micro and small enterprise lending in India by providing inclusive finance at an affordable price to this ‘missing middle’.
• Building for the World - Nanoclean Global Pvt. Ltd., the only company on the globe that produces the most affordable bio-safe nanofibers with its proprietary polymer technology.
• Community Builder – Hasura, a platform that helps developers build, develop and scale their apps.

The journey ahead

Facebooks aims to inspire more developers and startups to build, and will continue to work and support them. They are planning to launch SheLeadsTech Roadshows in Tier-2 cities of India to inspire more women interested in entrepreneurship, open more innovation hubs, and expand Developer Circles to 100,000 developers by launching the program in 20 more cities by 2019.

This journey is just 1 percent finished. We are excited, optimistic and committed to working together with this community to help build for tomorrow," said Satyajeet Singh.

Formerly, the Chief Minister's Fellow, Government of Maharashtra, Ameya Harkare is currently working as an Innovation Fellow at Maharashtra State Innovation Society, Government of Maharashtra.

I have met a lot of politicians who seem aloof and inaccessible to the public. While they move swiftly from meetings to meetings, work behind the scenes always tends to move at a slow pace. All these notions of mine were debunked when I met Mr. Sudhir Mungantiwar.

We were already running behind schedule for our meeting in Pune, and he had just finished a marathon session at Senior Forest Officers’ Conference (SFOC). I had lost hope of meeting him as Mr. Mungantiwar was returning to Mumbai soon after. However, we not only spoke at length, he invited me to accompany to his meetings for a day before writing my story.

Sudhir Sachchidanand Mungantiwar was born on 30 July 1962 in Chandarpur district in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. He started his political career at the age of 17, when he was appointed as the Secretary of the Students Union at the Sardar Patel Mahavidyalaya in Chandrapur and has remained politically active since. His talents from early on lay in oration, leadership and the ability to take up a just cause. He moved to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and then Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha before joining the BJP. Since 2014, he has served as the Cabinet Minister of Finance & Planning and Forests departments in the Government of Maharashtra.

Our day started at 10 am with a video conference (VC) with forest officers from across the state reviewing a 13 crore plantation drive. Mungantiwar said VCs were a very good way to take reviews from all the senior officials, and ensured projects were completed on time. VCs were also a great way to brainstorm and had resulted in ideas like the ‘Mega Plantation Drive’.

Early seeds for conservation

His love for forests rises from the surroundings of his native Chandrapur. The district is unique; on one hand, it is one of the hottest districts in the country known for its coal mines, while on other, it is home to the beautiful Tadoba Andhari Tiger reserve. Growing up here, Mungantiwar always had a soft corner for forests and environment, and it is evident in the initiatives taken by him to conserve and promote wildlife and environment in the state.

To ensure that the future generations have clean air to breathe, we need to increase our forest cover from 22 percent to a minimum of 33 percent. Mungantiwar initiated a 2 crore plantation drive in 2016 to spread awareness about the importance of trees in the state. Its success and immense public participation led to a 50 crore Plantation Programme. So far, the forest department under Mungantiwar’s leadership has successfully executed Mega Plantation Drives under this initiative with plantations of 2.82 crore, 5.43 crore and 15.88 crore, in 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively.

A mega initiative like this is only possible with the cooperation of the people. The minister initiated a volunteer group called ‘Green Army’, which will help achieve this huge target. The idea being, that if each volunteer plants 10 trees, we can easily surpass the minimum forest cover required. At last count, the Green Army stood 54 lakh strong.

As a direct result of the Plantation Initiatives in Maharashtra, the following changes have occurred in the state as documented in the “Status Report on Forest for 2017” at an all-India level, published by “Forest Survey of India” in February, 2018:

• Tree cover on Non-Forest Area increased by 273 sq. km. Maharashtra is the leading State.
• The mangrove cover has increased by 82 sq. km. Maharashtra is also leading in this sector.
• Water bodies in Forest Area has gone up by 432 sq. km. Maharashtra is also having higher rank.
• Increase in the Bamboo plantation area by 4,462 sq. km - Maharashtra is also having higher rank in the Country.  

Maharashtra is a state blessed with excellent Bamboo cover. As a new initiative to empower youth with various skills and make use of this vast bamboo resource, a Bamboo Research and Training Centre was established in Chandrapur.

Mr. Mungantiwar has managed to convince Sachin Tendulkar, Aamir Khan, Raveena Tandon, Subhash Ghai, Baba Ramdev and Sadhguru to be part of the project. Today, the Government of Maharashtra and Isha foundation are collaborating on a pilot project that will work on river rejuvenation in the State of Maharashtra.

Mungantiwar understands the need for publicity to create awareness, and has invited Amitabh Bachchan as the ‘Tiger Ambassador’ for the state.

Use of Technology

The Minister’s Private Secretary informed him about a Cabinet Meeting of Ministers, which I was not allowed to attend. So, I decided to stay in his office at the Mantralaya and interact with his team. I spoke to his Private Secretary Arun Dube, who informed me that in 2017, under Mungantiwar’s leadership, his office was awarded the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) certification — ISO 9001:2015, making it the first elected office in India to receive this certification. He informed me that the Minister is also keen interest utilising technology in managing his projects. Under his guidance, his team conducted a thorough research on selling forest commodities online. Today, the Maharashtra Forest department has started to sell teak seeds online on Amazon.

These are a few key projects implemented under Mungantiwar’s guidance:

1. Setting up a “GIS based Command Control Room” to control forest fires and poaching at Nagpur
2. Launched the “My Plant” Mobile App
3. Establishment of Maharashtra Green Army
4. Establishment of “Hello Forest-1926” Call Center
5. Establishment of Eco battalions for Marathwada to plant and rear trees

Also, to track the vast plantation drive undertaken by Forest department, they will be using drones that will not only monitor the plantation sites and pits dug before the plantation, but the post plantation growth of the trees also.

Arun Dubey says, “Shri Mungatiwar Ji is a dynamic leader. He is very specific about tasks and tracks their progress regularly He is a devoted leader and meets citizens during Jan Sampark on Tuesdays.”

I was intrigued by this concept of Jan Sampark and decided to attend the next day.

At least 400 people were there, but Shri Mungantiwar made sure everyone’s problem was heard and his team of PAs and OSDs were proactively getting people to meet the minister.

Finance

Next, I met Mr. Ajay Dhawane, who is a PA to Mungantiwar and told me about his duties. As the Minister of Finance, Shri Mungantiwar is responsible for the disbursement of the funds for different initiatives that the state implements. He played an key role in planning the 'Shetkari Sanmaan Yojana' - Maharashtra state government's decision to waive around Rs.34, 000 crore worth of loans for 11 lakh farmers across Maharashtra.

In his 2015 budget speech, he announced his decision to implement an 'Evidence Based Project Management System' – a system that takes photographic evidence of completion of projects and then makes payments online, making Maharashtra the first state in the country to implement such a system.

He also played a key role in passing landmark decisions like increasing the insurance coverage for government employees and providing 180 days of paid maternity leave to government employees.

In 2016, he led efforts to improve business and trade relations with Mauritius. This included the decision by the Mauritius government to waive 40 percent tax paid by film-makers who would want to shoot in Mauritius.

He also formed committees to recommend measures to improve efficiency and transparency in the areas of governmental procurement, school and college fee structures, and disbursement of scholarships.

He was the initiator of ‘No GST’ on sanitary pads. He also made significant contributions in the economic development of Maharashtra as Finance Minister. After GST was implemented, Maharashtra became the leading state, in terms of agricultural production.

“Working with Shri Mungantiwar since 1995 has been a transformational experience! He has been a friend, philosopher and guide for all these years. It has been an honour and privilege to facilitate him in his endeavour for public welfare!”  Said Ajay Dhawane

Social reform

After a long and tiring Jan Sampark Day, the Minister went home for quick dinner, after which he resumed his duties and attended a Core Team meeting. This Core team meeting consists of his PS, OSDs, PAs and Project Management team and usually takes place at the Project Management Office at his residence.

Accompanying him for Core team meeting was Mr. RP Singh, a political advisor and brain behind Project Management Office.

“I used to engage with urban educated professionals to support BJP’s governance and development agenda to attract fence sitters who were keen to see India. I recommended 2 such professionals Dr. Dhairya Roy, a Management Professional with International marketing experience and Pritam Shinde, who worked for my company as a tester. Dhairya’s strength was Marketing, Branding and Industry and Media interactions, while Pritam was suited for Software Updates and application testing. Soon the workload grew, Dhairya was made the project management office head and a team of consultants from a Big 4 company was hired. It is heartening to see that a small seed I planted has now grown into a full grown tree.” Says RP Singh.

He is the first minister in the country to have employed professionals from one of the Big 4 firms for the purpose of project management and social media for forest and finance initiatives.

Mr. Singh then introduced me to Dr. Dhairya Roy, Head of Project Management Office, who said “This project office was a result of RP ji’s idea and our minister’s execution. We here in project office focus on Project management, media and PR, Research, events and CSR. We use multiple softwares and trackers to make sure projects are underway according to the timelines and we also promote all the schemes related forest and finance using various media.”

Dr. Roy later elaborated a bit on the softwares the Project Management Office has implemented

1. Task Tracker: This software ensures that the tasks assigned to different officers and departments are tracked and we ensure that the timelines are followed.
2. Project Tracker: This software ensures that the projects are assigned to different officers and departments where detailed project plans are updated and each individual steps are tracked and tracked according to the timelines.
3. Document management system: A software to record all the documents that are related to the project and other media like Letters, Newspaper cuttings and event photographs

“We in this office have a result-driven working culture, focusing mainly on the 4 Ps - Planning, People, Processes and Promotion. We are in charge of Planning the projects. We have team of highly skilled professionals and we make sure we make use of all resources available to us, “said Dr. Roy.

He has adopted 23 villages in Chandrapur, in which he will implement the basic amenities required for the functioning of a village as well as many amenities that are mostly urban in nature such as piped gas connections and water purifiers, etc. This project is set to change the view of a village as the backward part of the country and bring it at par with urban areas.

He also plans to implement a UN project called “From Outlay to Outcome”. It focuses on bringing underprivileged children and women from tribal areas under a blanket education and employment programme so that they can be empowered and become self-sufficient.

Shri Mungantiwar is also encouraging artistes from Nagpur Chitrakala Mahavidyalaya by asking them to beautify Chandrapur and Ballarpur railway stations. These artistes drew inspiration from nearby Tadoba National park. These stations were subsequently awarded the most beautiful stations in India by Central Railways.

He has also been instrumental in bringing The Lifeline Express, a hospital train run by the Impact India Foundation to Ballarpur for an 18-day medical camp where free medical checkup, consultations and surgeries were conducted. Shri Mungantiwar has also approved Rs.100 crore for a 100 bed Specialty Cancer hospital in Chandrapur, in partnership with Tata Foundation. This hospital is meant to reach to cancer patients who can’t afford an expensive medication or to travel to big cities like Mumbai and Delhi for affordable treatment.

Mungantiwar, having grown from grassroots, has a firm grasp of workings of the administration and is not afraid to experiment with new processes and technology. He gets the work done and has created a sound development model and has erected a framework to implement that model. A model which, in my opinion, has high probability of success.

We all learnt ‘best out of waste’ in school, and even made some items as projects. The ideas, and the items we made, were soon forgotten; but now, they are making a comeback. Upcycling is eco-friendly, and as many are showing, fashionable too.

Old jeans, sarees, T-shirts and scraps left out from garment manufacturing form a bulk of what we send to the landfills. In order to limit clothes from finding their way to landfills, designers and innovators have come up with ways to recycle and upcycle them. YourStory lists a few startups that are not only upcycling old clothes but are also making a fashion statement.

Dwij

Dwij, which upcycles jeans to make bags, was founded in September 2017 by Soumya Annapurna Kalluri.

A mechanical engineer from the University of Pune, Soumya was a researcher at Godrej's Innovation and Design Centre, analysing and cataloguing industrial waste when she came up with the idea to prevent old jeans from ending up in landfills and upcycling them into utility bags.

Soumya aims to create awareness about the shortcomings of fast fashion, and the ability of second-hand textile to become usable material. Currently bootstrapped, Dwij is a team of five. It collects 'third-grade-jeans' from traders in Mumbai, and after industrially washing them, stitch them into bags.

Dwij upcycled 2,000 pairs of jeans in the last three months, and has created 300 bags, ranging from Rs 250 to Rs 500 each. The company sells up to 200 bags each month from its website alone. Dwij's products are also listed on other sustainable ecommerce websites.

Doodlage        

Delhi-based Doodlage was founded by Kriti Tula in 2012 and it upcycles and recycles clothes to produce fashionable outfits for those in the age group of 18 and 45 years. What's interesting, is that the waste collected at Doodlage during the process of upcycling is used to make home furnishings and bags.

Fashion designer Kriti collects waste from fabric manufacturers for her raw material and Doodlage's products range from Rs 3,800 to Rs 14,000. Her designs retail at 40 different stores across the country.

KaSha

Launched in 2011, KaSha is a Pune-based upcycling label by Karishma Shahani Khan. From jackets using waste plastic to skirts hemmed with boarders of old Banarasi sarees - KaSha upcycles everything. Some of the pieces from KaSha's collection can also be worn reversibly, and in several drapes. The founder believes in a zero-wastage policy, and does not throw anything away. While an upcycled scarf costs around Rs 7,500, KaSha's Mac Mojo Jacket is priced at Rs 26,400.

BORO

Kolkata-based fashion designer Paromita Banerjee insists on not seeing recycling as 'jugaad'. She mixes discarded materials with Khadi and colours to develop new clothes, the composition of each being different.

The concept of BORO means mending and patching old items of clothing to make them last for years. It is similar to West Bengal's 'Sujni Kantha' concept, which means running free-hand stitches across clothes to patch layers of sarees and make quilts.

Paromita's collection of upcycled sarees ranges from Rs 10,710 to Rs 23,415.

House of Wandering Silk

House of Wandering Silk, founded in 2011 by Katherine Neumann, upcycles old silk into fashion accessories - from necklaces for women, to bow ties for men. It is a social for-profit company based in New Delhi.

House of Wandering Silks partners with women's self-help groups, artisans, and NGOs to not only produce ethic upcycled handmade products, but also to empower women artists. House of Wandering Silks sells its curated collection online, and also partners with stores across the world.

Their products are priced starting Rs 55.

Chindi

Tanushri Shukla's project, Chindi, hires women from Mumbai’s Mankhurd slum to upcycle and hand-make products. Chindi, founded in 2014, has a team of four women, and they hire artisans as per the orders they get.

Their first product - rugs - continue to remain their bestseller. Most of the women employed by the company earlier made rugs from old clothes and were familiar with the concept. Chindi added some design innovations and that is how the company was born. All its products are inspired by the lifestyle of the crafts-women working with the company.

The company produces rugs, mats, bags, pouches and hair accessories and the products are priced in the range of Rs 150 and Rs 1,500.

Bestselling author Daniel Coyle’s new book identifies three foundations for your company to succeed: build safety, share vulnerability, and establish purpose.

Drawing on a wide range of academic literature reviews and business leader interviews, the book The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle shows how organisational culture built on the fabric of relationships can lead to phenomenal success. Daniel is the author of bestsellers The Talent Code, The Little Book of Talent, and The Secret Sauce.

“Group culture is one of the most powerful forces on the planet,” begins Daniel. “Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are. It’s something you do,” he explains.

Google, Pixar, Disney, IDEO and Navy SEALs are acknowledged as phenomenally effective organisations. Daniel unpacks some of their success by showing how they tap into the power of our social brains. Organisations excel not just because they have smart people, but because they work together in a smarter way.

The three core skills are build safety (signals of connection to generate bonds of belonging and identity), share vulnerability (habits of mutual risk drive trust and cooperation), and establish purpose (narratives create shared goals and values).

The analysis is spread across 17 chapters and 280 pages, along with a list of recommended books such as Work Rules (Laszlo Rock), The Social Animal (David Brooks), Grit (Angela Duckworth), Teaming (Amy Edmondson), Switch (Chip and Dan Heath), Team of Teams (Stanley McChrystal), and Drive (Daniel Pink).

I have summarised the key messages in Table 1 below; each section of the book is highly readable and engaging, with a number of case studies and takeaways. See also my reviews of the related books Multiplier, Innovation Code and The Moonshot Effect.

In the real world, it is not just individual skills, experience or intelligence that matter for success, but group behaviour, interaction and collaboration. Simple activities like the Spaghetti-Marshmallow Challenge--an exercise in design collaboration--show that kindergarteners can outperform business school students by focusing more on experimentation than planning or status management.

1. Build safety

Safety is the foundation on which strong culture is built. Relationships in effective groups are described not just as friends, team or tribe, but family. Even the words used to describe colleagues have family-esque identifiers, eg. Googlers, Zapponians, KIPPsters. Bonds in such groups are almost addictive, and allow for vulnerability and risk taking.

Common ‘bad apple’ archetypes in organisations are ‘slackers’, ‘downers’ and ‘jerks’ who reduce collaborative energy. Effective leaders deal with this through warmth and positive energy, and repeatedly send out these messages: We are solidly connected, You are safe here, We share a future, We have high standards here, How can I help.

High-performing groups are characterised by high levels of mixing, good chemistry of interaction, communication across hierarchies, affirmations of trust, plentiful thank you’s across the board, short energetic exchanges, lots of questioning, and intense listening. Belonging cues such as eye contact, body language and mimicry ensure safe connection in such groups.

“Individuals aren’t really individuals. They’re more like musicians in a jazz quartet, forming a web of unconscious actions and reactions to complement the others in the group,” observes MIT professor Alex Pentland.

Companies like Google encourage free-wheeling debate irrespective of status or authority. The culture of challenge and contribution helped beat other players like Overture in the race to dominate Internet advertising. Such a culture creates lasting motivation. Research on Silicon Valley startups showed that the commitment model of hiring can be better than the star model or the professional model in startups.

Wipro improved retention rates in its Bengaluru call centre by focusing not just on company vision, star performers or generic merchandise, but on engaging new employees about their unique skills; they even received personalised sweatshirts. This psychological safety helped build connection, identity, motivation, and deeper engagement.

Rewards should be given not just to individuals but to groups and teams; this will encourage more collaboration and unselfish behaviours. Basketball coach Gregg Popovich is known not just for the gifts and restaurant bookings he does for his team, but for his “high-volume truth-telling.” He regularly asks players for input and ideas not just about the game but even about politics and social relationships. Connections are not just to each other but to things bigger than the game itself.

“One misconception about highly successful cultures is that they are happy, light-hearted places,” cautions Daniel. They are indeed energised and engaged, but the focus is on solving hard problems together.

This involves high-candour feedback, uncomfortable truth-telling, and confronting gaps and problems ahead. Standards are set high, and everyone is trusted, supported and expected to meet these standards.

Tony Hsieh sold one of his earlier startups to Microsoft (LinkExchange) and went on to found shoe retailer Zappos with the distinctive culture of “fun and weirdness.” He was inspired by TV shows like MacGyver, and had the belief that tough problems could be elegantly and creatively tackled.

Hsieh uses a method called collisions (serendipitous personal encounters) to drive creativity, community and cohesion. This amplifies the sense and scope of possibility both inside and outside the organisation. “When an idea becomes part of a language, it becomes part of the default way of thinking,” he explains.

Creative clusters are effective if there is close proximity between participants, This affects frequency and quality of communication. “Closeness helps create efficiencies of connection,” explains Daniel. It can transform strangers into a tribe. “Create spaces that maximise collisions,” he advises.

Other useful actions are giving thanks to everyone (chef Thomas Keller thanks dishwashers at restaurant openings), hire and fire painstakingly (“No Dickheads” at New Zealand All-Blacks rugby squad), give everyone a voice (Navy captain Michael Abrashoff asking each sailor for inputs about the ship), capitalise on threshold moments (employees’ first days at work), embrace fun, and even pick up the trash (sports coaches cleaning locker rooms).

A sense of humour is also important. “Laughter is not just laughter; it’s the most fundamental sign of safety and connection,” says Daniel.

2. Share vulnerability

“Exchanges of vulnerability, which we naturally tend to avoid, are the pathways through which trusting cooperation is built,” Daniel explains. Cooperation is a group muscle that is strengthened through risk taking and being vulnerable together. Trusting cooperation is the next step after building connections. This is not easy, and is often marked by tension, struggle and hard feelings.

Pixar’s BrainTrust meetings provide candid feedback at the early stages of movie development. Navy SEALs’ After Action Reviews (AAR) provide raw, painful feedback with lots of emotion and uncertainty; but this also leads to a “hive mind” and “unconscious genius” further down the road.

“These awkward, painful interactions generate the highly cohesive, trusting behaviour necessary for smooth cooperation,” says Daniel. Vulnerability is a sign of strength, not weakness.

“Vulnerability doesn’t come after trust – it precedes it. Leaping into the unknown, when done alongside others, causes the solid ground of trust to materialise beneath our feet,” he explains. For example, Steve Jobs would often begin conversations with the phrase, “Here’s a dopey  idea.”

Leaders leverage vulnerability to send out messages like Anybody have any idea?, See if someone can poke holes in this, Tell me what you want and I’ll help you, I’m doing this crazy project and I need your help, You have a role here.

Comedy group Upright Citizens Brigade builds not just on speed and simplicity but on long and complex routines based on the Harold Method for “group brain workout.” It stresses excellence, teamwork, mutual support, trust, active listening, and avoiding judgement.

Success in effective groups comes from thousands of micro-events and small inter-personal leaps. Rank is switched off and humility is switched on. This helps create a shared mental model based on experiences and even mistakes.

Swedish engineer Harry Nyquist helped build cohesion at the legendary Bell Labs through his warmth, curiosity, and endless flow of ideas and questions; he was a polite, reserved and skilled listener. Such catalysts are “spark plugs,” says Daniel. IDEO’s Roshi Givechi is also a roving catalyst, involved in a number of projects and connecting people to new possibilities.

Such “gentle guidance” with lots of nudging, emotional signaling, and even choreography helps build connections and excitement, and “surface” new ideas and projects. “Listen like a trampoline,” Daniel advises; absorb what others say, listen to all they say, and add energy to the conversation.

“Make sure the leader is vulnerable first and often,” advises Daniel. Messages can be on the lines of I was scared, and It’s safe to tell the truth here. The tone is set right in critical moments like the first vulnerability and first disagreement.

Leaders should also over-communicate expectations, and encode the principles in the form of books given to all employees (eg. “Going out of your way to help others is the secret sauce” is a principle in the Little Book of IDEO).

Useful tools here are Before Action Review (intended results, anticipated challenges, earlier lessons, success factors), After Action Review (intended results, actual results, causes, same actions in future, different actions in future), and Red Teaming (alternative disruptive approaches).

“Embrace the discomfort. Aim for candour, but avoid brutal honesty,” Daniel urges. Pixar promotes debate but not at the cost of causing hurt or demoralisation. Reflection and critique may seem inefficient at times, but improve professional development and performance in the long run. Daniel also offers other leadership tips like flash mentoring and even disappearing for some time.

3. Establish purpose

From connection and cooperation, companies need to move on to commitment: purpose, vision and mission. Codifying a sense of purpose in a vision-mission statement, along with storytelling, can create a culture of collaboration. Leaders should get employees on the same page when it comes to questions of What are we about, What do we stand for, and Who comes first.

“Stories are the best invention ever created for delivering mental models that drive behaviour,” explains Daniel. Stories trigger cascades of perception and motivation. (See also my reviews of the related books People with Purpose and Storyteller’s Secret, and the tool YourStory Changemaker Story Canvas.)

Sticking to the company’s commitment to customers in its credo helped Johnson & Johnson successfully navigate the Tylenol poisoning crisis in 1982. The business eventually recovered by doing what was morally and ethically correct (calling for a nation-wide withdrawal of the pills, and committing to safer packaging).

Desired behaviours create almost flock-like coordination, and are nurtured through continuous communication of mottoes and catchphrases, as seen in organisations like New Zealand All-Blacks rugby team (Pressure is a Privilege, and It’s an honour, not a job) and KIPP schools (Prove the doubters wrong, and Be the constant, not the variable).

Techniques like mental contrasting help envision reachable goals and the obstacles along the way, which can trigger motivation and resolve. Setting noble goals creates more contribution, warmth, interactions and feedback in high-purpose organisations. A clear beacon of purpose can provide a magnetic field that aligns the organisational compass.

For example, Portuguese football organisers effectively dealt with English soccer hooligans by staying away from confrontation and focusing instead on cascading social cues of warmth and better behaviour.

“One of the best measures of any group’s culture is its learning velocity – how quickly it improves its performance of a new skill,” Daniel notes. This depends on the framing of the skill, intended impacts, and team roles, along with rehearsal, active reflection, and debate.

A simple, steady pulse of real-time signals is also effective in orienting the team to the task and to one another, and channeling attention to the larger goal. “What seems like repetition is, in fact, navigation,” he says.

Different approaches will be needed for consistency as compared to innovation, i.e. for proficiency in well-defined performance (eg. restaurants, where employees need to know exactly what to do and keep doing it consistently) as compared to creating something new in high-creativity environments (eg. movie studios, where people need to discover what to do). A lighthouse model and vivid memorable rules of thumb work in one case; an engineer approach to team dynamics and creative autonomy works in the other.

For example, restaurateur Danny Meyer promotes a sense of warmth and home ambience in his restaurants via principles like Read the guest, Athletic hospitality, Turning up the home dial, Creating raves for guests, and Making the charitable assumption. Other catchphrases are You can’t prevent mistakes, but you can solve problems graciously, and The road to success is paved with mistakes well-handled.

Union Square Hospitality Group’s Richard Coraine uses phrases like We are all paid to solve problems. Make sure to pick fun people to solve problems with, and Stone after stone to form a bridge.

Pixar has a stunning office building, but its co-founder Ed Catmull candidly admits it could have had wider hallways and bigger cafes. “All the movies are bad at first,” he adds. The creative focus is not just on brilliant breakthrough ideas but on having a systematic process to churn out lots of ideas and give candid feedback on them to unearth the right choices.

Experience can sometimes get in the way of hearing and accepting other points of view. Debate and discussion in a “safe, flat, high-candour environment” helps team see mistakes and move in the right direction.

Pixar University increases creativity and diversity by providing continuous learning across a wide range of disciplines. Pixar also invests in shorts that run before its feature films. These experiments transmit, amplify and celebrate the purpose of the whole group.

Catchphrases at Pixar include Hire people smarter than you, Listen to everyone’s ideas, and Fail early, fail often. After being acquired by Disney, Pixar’s Catmull created a common gathering place at Disney called Caffeine Patch, and handed over the responsibility of coming up with ideas to directors instead of studio executives. New behaviours and ways of working led the same people to produce a string of hit movies.

“Building creative purpose isn’t really about creativity. It’s building ownership, providing support, and aligning group energy towards the arduous, error-filled, ultimately fulfilling journey of making something new,” Daniel explains. Ultimately, the team journey is about trying, failing, reflecting, learning, and moving on.

The author ends his book by showing how he implemented the above three principles in his own stint as a writing coach for school students; he acted more as a guide on the side than a sage on the stage. He encouraged roundtable discussions by the students, shared thoughts on books and writing habits, had the students read essays aloud, and invited feedback from one another; he also set guidelines such as the VOW (voice, obstacles, wanting) elements of a story.

He encouraged the students to behave like “creative athletes,” and let some discussions wander off-target to gauge their passions and interests. As a result, the team performed well in tournaments and some students explored their creativity in new areas like theatre.

There are examples of small cohesive cultures all around us, the author signs off. Leaders should ultimately learn how to open up to their own shortcomings and create honest conversations.

This book provides principles and examples for successful facilitation in large organisations, industry groups, and innovation networks.

Facilitation is a key activity and skill across the board, in large companies, industry associations, startup networks, international conferences, special interest groups, policy advocacy movements, and non-profit organisations. The 140-page book Facilitating Collaboration offers useful frameworks, checklists, and stories for effective facilitators, and has been authored by Brandon Klein and Dan Newman.

Brandon Klein has been facilitating groups of people to effect change for over 20 years, He is a partner at Difference Consulting and Co-founder of Collaboration.ai. Dan Newman is a partner in Matter Group, and member of the Value Web.

The book draws on frameworks such as MG Taylor’s Design Shop methodology. Case studies are provided from facilitation at the World Economic Forum, Arab League, Cisco, HSBC, and the healthcare industry. I have summarised the key principles in Table 1 below; the nine chapters make for an informative and useful read.

Foundations

Effective facilitation is built by convening the right people, managing the event ecosystem, providing useful content, harnessing data in real time, designing creative activities, and capturing insights via methods like graphic illustrations.

The core skills of a facilitator are listening, storytelling, and problem-solving; years of experience will surface other skills unique to that facilitator. See also my reviews of the related books Multiplier, Let the Story do the Work, and The Storyteller’s Secret.

The facilitator role is a combination of catalyst, conductor, explorer, and disruptor. Facilitators should be proficient in sensing energy and guiding conversations through a judicious mix of “focus, adrenaline, and stream of consciousness.” They should be able to actively listen to participants and also get them to listen to one another.

“The facilitator is the rock protruding from the stream, creating eddies, cross-currents, and rapids while at the same time offering a foothold to whomever wants to cross the stream,” the authors poetically describe.

In a successful event, participants will remember not just the outcome but also the experience. But facilitators should be prepared for a roller-coaster ride of emotions during the activity: confusion, fear, anger, disappointment, fun, joy, frustration and exhilaration. Political tussles with the sponsors may also occur before and during the event.

Scoping

The most important step in facilitation is setting the event scope, which includes objectives and outcomes. This can include, for example, developing a credible go-to-market strategy for a new product.

A good way to visualise the outcome is to write down what the sections of the Executive Summary may look like. It is also important to discuss what will not be brought up at the event, and what are possible extensions of the event duration (eg. working till late at night to work out difficult clauses in an agreement).

There are many layers of objectives, including hidden ones (eg. establishing the credibility of a new manager). Outcomes can be plans, vision statements, decisions, product specifications, and the like. Deliverables are the artifacts created during the event, eg. posters, websites.

Discussions should be planned in such a way that some include prior writing down of points and then discussing them openly (to avoid bias from the first few speakers), while others involve directly addressing the subject. Structured sharing can change the nature and direction of the dialogue.

Working with sponsors

The event should involve a mix of decision-makers, domain experts, and implementers. For example, this can span board members, sponsors, lawyers, HR, financiers and entrepreneurs. Having a diverse mix helps with creative dialogue, and also ensures buy-in to the decisions made at the event.

Some participants can be difficult and even hostile (“snipers” or “terrorists”), especially during times of change; the event can become like an inquisition rather than collaboration. Such people can be sidelined by giving them other activities to do. “A good facilitator always needs to be ready to accept the blame for anything – even the weather,” the authors joke.

Good sponsors will help co-design the event, and serve as the facilitator’s eyes and ears during the event to provide insights that the facilitator team may have missed. In turn, good sponsors will be willing to let the facilitator take the event to new frontiers via iteration and recursion, and also accept criticism from the facilitator if the sponsor’s expectations are unrealistic.

Preparation

In addition to desk research, the facilitator must invest in “face time” – extensive rounds of interviews with a wide range of stakeholders. This helps build multiple layers of perspectives, network maps of relationships, and identification of influencers.

Such preparation can help deal with institutional rivalries, distrust, political agendas, and knowledge gaps. Appropriate reading materials can be designed, and extroverted participants identified in advance. Preparation also includes selection of knowledge objects during the event, such as photos, facts, illustrations and diagrams.

Event environment considerations should cover space, light, sound, food and “stuff.” Natural light works well, as well as ambient music and healthy food (fruits, vegetables). “Stuff” includes everything from flip-charts and panels to creative crockery and plants.

“Keep everyone together. Keep the plenary and the break-outs in the same room,” the authors advise. A data analyst is also useful during large events for accelerated knowledge transfer and effective networking.

Designing

The event can have an overall theme, eg. ecosystems, Mission Impossible, transformers. Themes should be approached in an iterative and recursive manner to allow participants to see multiple perspectives and arrive at unexpected insights and linkages. The physical and psychic space of the event should help with flow of ideas and even embrace “elegant ambiguity”.

Metaphors, stories, and choice of language help guide the discussion in the desired directions. For some events, the aim is not direct teaching but the emerging of learning and breakthroughs via discussion and collaboration. “We put knowledge in their way and let them stumble over it. We don’t teach,” the authors explain.

Delivery

During the event, facilitators engage in a mix of storytelling, guiding, commenting, listening, and promoting conversations around the room. They use stories that effectively act as a microscope, telescope or the naked eye at different stages, to shift perspectives and actions.

Visual facilitation to create new mental models can use giant process maps or interactive animations. Terminology and jargon should be standardised. Facilitators should judiciously strike the balance between focus and divergence during the discussion. Participants should be encouraged to listen actively; “listening is not waiting to speak,” the authors joke.

The advantage that facilitators have is the objectivity of being outside the system; in contrast, consultants are on the edge of the system. Facilitators can thus ask “stupid questions” that may actually surface participant assumptions and blocks, and guide the conversation to desired directions, the authors write.

Music also helps set the tone during moments of transition, eg. when something big is about to happen, or when participant activity is beginning. The authors use covers, re-mixes, jazz and classical music. Music helps overcome awkward silences, and builds energy. “Music moves us all, so we use music to move our participants,” the authors explain.

Value capture

“The best of intentions at the end of a successful event are no match for the inertia that the participants face on Monday morning,” the authors write. Facilitators should capture key takeaways and commitments for the follow-up, and filter out the signal from the noise.

It helps to use the participants’ own words in the action items to be taken. A short satisfaction survey can also be held at the end of the event,

“The days immediately following our events are critical to ensure that they represent a true inflection point rather than an interruption,” the authors explain. Sponsors should decide on the key insights and high impact actions to be executed.

The book ends with personal reflections by the authors on what satisfaction means to them as facilitators. They also describe some of their memorable event venues, such as the tops of New York skyscrapers, the Atlanta Aquarium, and even the Great Wall of China.

Trends to watch during facilitation at large events are the use of analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). They can be used in real time to design activities like networking and break-out sessions, sentiment analysis, and extraction of actionable patterns.

Seed and early-stage investment platform LetsVenture on Thursday announced that it has registered itself as an angel Alternate Investment Fund (AIF) under the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) regulation. Simply put, this would mean that LetsVenture can invest in startups by creating a pool of investments drawn from private players--both from within India and outside.

Starting this month, LetsVenture began moving its investor commitments through the angel AIF. 

In a press statement, the company said that as an investor on the platform, and a member of the AIF, investors can continue to log in and engage with the startups. Once they decide to commit, they will need to go through the process of signing up through the AIF before the closure of the round. 

LetsVenture aims to enable early-stage investments worth Rs 1,000 crore in the next two years through this new vehicle.

The SEBI angel AIF is a category 1 AIF, which essentially allows angel investors to express an intent to commit a minimum of Rs 25 lakh over five years. This means that an angel investor can allocate over Rs 5 lakh to the startup every year for the next five years.

LetsVenture stated: 

“There is no pre-scheduled drawdown – they will be required to keep the allocation over the next five years and can distribute as they decide to commit. They can always decide which startup they want to invest in and engage with other investors during the process of the fundraise. Once the commits are made, the investment goes through a scheme in the AIF and they will hold units in the scheme. When we say “a scheme within the Angel AIF”, think regulated SPV. This is a better model than the current LLP model which some investors use when they work with friends to pool investment into a startup.”

Given that there is only one entity on the cap table, investors can now invest smaller amount and diversify their portfolio. This will enable startups to become an asset class accessible to more and more investors with smaller corpus size.

“Lead investors are also going to get the benefit of angel AIF. Under the new regulation, it will be easier to incentivise the lead investors by providing them with a carry option. This will make them entitled to a percentage of profit the other investors make at the time of their exit,” said the statement. 

With AIF, there is consolidated reporting and ease of portfolio management. This also allows access to better negotiating power in future rounds and access to better deals. 

“This new vehicle will empower the investors to diversify their portfolio better as well as take away a lot of burden from the founders as now the fund will do the reporting and coordination with investors,” said the press release. 

India has one of the busiest startup ecosystems in the world. As a result, accelerators and incubators are aplenty too.

A joint 2017 report by NASSCOM and Zinnov Consulting revealed that India ranks third in the world in the number of incubators and accelerators it has. Only China and the US have more than India’s 150-odd accelerators (primarily located in the startup hubs of Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR).

How critical are these accelerators for the growth of startups? Are corporate accelerators better than private ones? What do startups really look for during their acceleration phase? What do accelerators gain out of their association with startups? And, most importantly, how do they measure success?

All this and more was spoken about at ‘The Fast Lane: Accelerating the Startup Ecosystem’ panel at TechSparks 2018.

Amey Mashelkar, Head, Jio GenNext, said, “Accelerator is a Western term. We have inherited it from them. Corporate accelerators are just a channel for startups to reach the end customer. They help you get to the right influencer for the value proposition you have to offer. In some cases, the transaction does not happen, but it is not the accelerator’s job to ensure that a transaction happens.”

“Startups come to us essentially looking for two things - early customer access and funding,” he added.

Sometimes, startups may even look at accelerators as initial customers, the panel opined. Saket Agarwal, Managing Partner, Onnivation, said, “Startups want the corporate accelerator to get them a great product fit. They also look at you as the first customer, and want you to pay for the pilot.”

How is a startup selected?

How does an accelerator decide which idea to back, and at what stage?

Ravi Kanniganti, Director & Head, Target Accelerator, explained,

“We select startups that can match the business case that serves Target’s overall purpose. We look at where Target needs to go, and we want startups to solve a real business problem, instead of just providing a superficial MVP. We mainly look to achieve growth and operational efficiencies through them.”

Target, Ravi said, pays for pilots. “But, we do not take any equity,” he added.

Like Target, Cisco (one of the leaders in startup acquisitions) too looks to solve problem areas. Krishna Sundaresan, VP of Engineering, Cisco, said,

“We consider how startup solutions can be integrated with our own products. We deal with only B2B startups that work in IoT and other niche technologies where we can actually help them take their product to the market. Or we can get them to create something for us. We are in this [acceleration] for the long haul and we want to build an ecosystem.”

Not all startups find an easy market fit though. Riya Aggarwal, CEO of BLS Accelerator, said, “Every startup is not meant for one market. We help startups scale up in other countries and develop partnerships through us.”

Contrarily, several international corporations run accelerators that are focused on India-specific investments. Qualcomm’s $150-million fund is one such.

Ajit Rao, Senior Director of Engineering, Qualcomm Ventures, said,

“We are actively investing out of our India fund. We are also very closely aligned with the government’s ‘Make in India’ vision. We give startups a worldwide scale and instant access to a very new market.”

Long-haul versus short-term

The panel was in agreement of the fact that corporate accelerators usually do not “disengage quickly” and most are in it for “long-term” benefits.

JioNext’s Amey said,

“Large corporates are more involved compared to private accelerators. That is an advantage. Reliance is all about scale. We back PoCs that can scale up. But, it is not an easy journey. It takes time. So far, we have worked with more than 100 startups, and 10-11 percent of them have entered into deep technical partnerships with us.”

Target too gets into “strategic” partnerships with startups. Ravi explained, “We cannot measure ROI on a yearly or a monthly basis. We have to see if the startups benefit from us. At the end of the pilot, are we adopting the product? That is what we call success. We may strategically invest in some of these startups.”

However, Target does not “take any exclusivity”, Ravi revealed. “If the startup can solve a problem for us, they can do for it other retailers too,” he said.

The long-term approach perhaps enables corporate accelerators to be more effective than private ones. Ravi said, “In India, the corporates have a better success rate than private accelerators. They will soon be churning out unicorns.”

BLS Accelerator’s Riya elaborated,

“This is because corporate accelerators already have large funds available. It is a strategic alliance for them. Private accelerators only look for returns, but corporates look for large-scale value addition. They are much more invested in the startups.”

Qualcomm, for instance, chooses to back only those startups that “can manufacture for” it. Ajit said,

“We are really looking to build synergies. We back those that can manufacture for us, and create large products. We are also looking at innovation as a key driver. We want to create an innovation culture.”

Path ahead for corporate accelerators

The panel reckoned a “co-creation” and “co-development” model is gaining ground, and will define the startup-accelerator equation going forward.

Target’s Ravi said,

“The cohort model has a fixed start and end time. But, now with more mature startups coming to the accelerator, co-development and co-creation will be the model ahead. These startups are not looking for funds. They want a business case, a real use case, and accelerators give them that.”

Furthermore, accelerator programmes are likely to become more specific. JioNext’s Amey observed, “The generic programmes will slow down, it will become more focused and sector-specific. And it will evolve towards a transaction. The challenge is to get more and more startups to go through it.”

“We should also look at SMEs and micro-SMEs,” he added.

Qualcomm’s Ajit said deep tech and automotive would be the hottest sectors in terms of accelerator interest.

“The deep tech space will get stronger in the years to come. I see a lot of VR/AR startups coming out of India. Automotive is another strong area.”

Interestingly, a lot of startups seem to be approaching more than one accelerator. And that, the panelists believed, will be the trend going ahead.

Target’s Ravi said, “Startups can learn something from one programme and go to another programme to solve other problems. It is a positive sign that startups are exploring different problems and verticals. Accelerators are a small community, and it helps if we are collaborating and creating an ecosystem.”

The cafe famous for the spirits of its owners, the acid attack survivors, has now come under the notice to be shut down. 

In 2017, a café in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, was given the Nari Shakti award by the President of India. Why? This cafe, located opposite the Ambedkar Memorial Park, is solely run by survivors of acid attacks. The Sheroes Hangout Café of Lucknow is the second of its kind. The first one is in Agra and is run by 12 full-time workers and 8 part-time workers - all are survivors of acid attacks.

Inaugurated on March 8, 2016, on the occasion of International Women’s Day on a two-year lease, this cafe was built to help acid attack survivors piece their lives back. These cafés are jointly managed by the NGO Channv Foundation, a support center for acid attack survivors, and the Uttar Pradesh Mahila Kalyan Nigam (UPMKN).

But, in a cruel twist of fate, the Lucknow café was sent a notice by the UPMKN, directing them to vacate their premises by September 29.

Why the notice?

After the café's lease ended in March, Chhanv Foundation tried to sustain it by themselves by supplying resources. This prompted the state’s Monitory Committee, which was entrusted with the responsibility to oversee the café, to declare that the foundation has violated the rules, and stated that there was no reason to continue the café.

The UPMKN's notice stated that it didn’t find any reason to continue the café, and that the project wasn’t serving any purpose to the society. It also promised that the café's employees would be trained in association with the National Skill Development Corporation and State Resource Centre for Women and Child.

Online petitions and plays to extend support

On October 3, people gathered near the café to extend their support. Employee and acid attack survivor, Anshu Rajput, said,

This place may get closed within three weeks if the state government does not intervene. All our efforts to lead a life of dignity will come to an end if the café shuts down. We need your support.

Another survivor, Kavita, who was attacked in 2012 that damaged half of her face, said,

This café is our hope, as it gave us a new identity. People who came here accepted us. But the uncertainty that looms on us now is making life difficult.

The café also staged a street play offering a horrifying glimpse of their future if it did shut down.

Chhanv Foundation founders, Ashish Shukla, and Alok Dixit had initiated the #StopAcidAttacks campaign that spread awareness, advocated for acid attack survivors, and demanded the right to treatment. The campaign’s main perspective was to rebuild a victim’s lost spirit by providing opportunities for self-employment, and business exposure.

Addressing the gathering, Ashish said,

There are nearly 15 girls here who fear that they will have to relive the life they had left behind if the cafe shuts down. We must remember that this project has received the ‘Nari Shakti’ award by the President of India and has also received global appreciation for its unique way of bringing help to acid attack survivors who had been marginalised after disfigurement.

So, what’s next?

Today, the Supreme Court of India brought some relief in the form of a stay order for 9 months, and directed the Allahabad High Court to depose the case during this time period.

To ensure that the only source of livelihood for acid attack survivor doesn’t shut down, many supporters turned to online campaigning. Anshu Rajput started a petition on change.org to save the café, and the café’s Facebook page filled up with several posts urging people to show support.

The women also took to social media to point out the government’s discriminatory attitude. Café employee and acid attack survivor, Farha said,

Our right to work here is being taken away from us. If we stop working here it would be a setback for the workers who provide for their families. We have been broken down before, Sheroes proved to be a source of support for us and we don’t want to leave it.

In a talk at TechSparks 2018, she said that she believes it’s important for every organisation to take inclusion seriously.

Gender diversity and inclusion are an important part of every organisation’s narrative. The benefits of gender diversity have become apparent over the years, and companies are working towards having an equal representation of men and women in their organisations.

Tina Vinod – Diversity and Inclusivity Lead at ThoughtWorks India, is a feminist who believes in the power of an inclusive organisational culture.

At the exclusive HerStory track at TechSparks 2018, Tina spoke about, “Harnessing diversity and building inclusive organisations,” which brought to the fore her passion for social change and inclusivity.

“India is a complex country and there are too many nuances to diversity and inclusion that we see on a day-to-day basis. These get interpreted very differently too,” she said.

With an average age of 29, India will become the youngest country by 2020. “Therefore, we will become the winners,” she added.

Tina cited the The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), an industry lobby group, which says that roughly 35 percent of the workforce in the Indian IT industry is women, making the sector one of the largest employers of women.

“Gender spectrum, however is beyond male and female and for those who belong to the formal sector, each organisation takes it seriously because they know it’s a business advantage,” she said.

She also threw light on the number of initiatives that ThoughtWorks that centred around gender diversity and inclusion.

“Through our Pathashala programme, we hire from colleges across India. And I have found that rural students outshine due to grit, hard work and determination. Here the retention is better than students from students from the cream of colleges,” she said.

“Our Vapasi programme is a structured technical programme to give women technologists a platform to redefine their (post break) career paths, connect and identify with role models, exchange experiences, and support each other in becoming active members of the tech community,” she added. The STEP – Software Technology Excellence Programme is again a two-year paid internship from the company.

Tina believes the LGBTQIA+ communities have had fewer opportunities in the workforce. “We have had representations where four of them have completed their internships, and they have joined ThoughtWorks as developers,” she said.

She concluded by saying: “Being inclusive is not a state, it’s a journey and it’s important to look at it holistically. Diversity is at that intersection between innovation and a successful business and doing the right thing.”

YourStory's annual extravaganza TechSparks brings together the best and the brightest from the startup ecosystem, corporate world, policy makers, and of course, the investor community. Over the years, it has grown to become India's most loved tech and startup platform for knowledge sharing and networking. The ninth edition of TechSparks also marks YourStory's 10th anniversary. A big thank you for all your support over the years and keep reading and watching YourStory.

To ensure empowerment in the true sense, we have to build the scope and outreach for girls to make choices through better skills, capabilities, and self-esteem; help them develop equitable relations within the family, the community and other stakeholders in the society.

Girls or women mean half the humanity. Needless to say, no society can be considered truly developed if its women are not active participants and contributors. They are the key catalysts for socio-economic change. However, it is sad to see that despite advancements in other sectors, women still face numerous challenges in not being able to access rightful entitlements or gainful employment.

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report found that more women have enrolled in higher education, from 7.5 percent in 2002-03 to 20 percent in 2012-13. According to an ILO paper on employment trends for women in India, about 85 per cent of rural and 59 per cent of urban women workers are illiterate or literate only up to primary level. It further states that just a small percentage of women have benefited from higher education.

A majority of women in India who are regularly employed are with the informal sector, undertaking domestic, household work, with no fixed, fair wages or facilities, limited social security benefits, no rights or entitlements and most importantly, no safety. This is perhaps the reason why many girls today are not being receptive to the idea of “working” or “being employed”.

According to a World Bank Report, India is ranked 121st out of 131 countries in Female Labour Force Participation (FLFP). It also has the lowest workforce participation rate of women among the BRICS nations at 29 percent. But if we look at agriculture, construction, manufacturing or other home-based occupations such as cottage industries making papads, baskets, pickles, bidi rolling, handloom and crafts, they provide employment to a large percentage of women and girls.

Their occupational share compared to men has increased due to the latter migrating to cities and taking up other forms of employment but these are low-paying and do not ensure growth. The economic boom of liberalisation in India has significantly bypassed many women as only some have made it to white collar jobs, while many drops out of school at early ages are unable to learn skills to earn dignified, economically viable livelihoods.

Providing quality education with skill development in a safe environment is still an unreached goal. Limitations on women’s mobility, lack of property ownership and enforcement of laws related to girls and women, unrecognised and unpaid work, unequal wages, multiple forms of violence against women, lack of many safe and secure options to work, all of these are key socio-cultural constraints preventing women from working.

To ensure empowerment in the true sense, we have to build the scope and outreach for girls to make choices through better skills, capabilities, and self-esteem; help them develop equitable relations within the family, the community and other stakeholders in the society.

There have to be enabling conditions with progressive policies and ensure these are implemented effectively. It is essential to adopt a lifecycle approach for girls, as the needs vary in each phase of their lives – right nutrition at birth and very young ages, quality early childhood education and care, capacity to address discrimination and help them recognise their rights.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

Traditional pre-Internet era technology, i.e. telecommunications companies best illustrate economist Joseph Schumpeter’s process of “creative destruction,” which states that relentless improvements result in new products and technologies, rapidly replacing the out-dated, a process that Schumpeter considered to be an “essential fact about capitalism.”

This is about avoiding building a generation of industrial style infrastructure by setting up a post-industrial, lighter and innovative technology system. For example, leading innovation in jet propulsion engines and its adoption could have helped us avoid building thousands of miles of road infrastructure, and so on.

The tech industry is perhaps going through its own phase of “creative destruction” led by a dynamic avatar of internet, and the many digital technologies and automation standards it has spawned, including big data and predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and the Internet of Things.

They are, by far, the most defining innovations, or “creative destructors” of the modern era, truly giving new meaning to the word change. Today, change centres on our ability to freely work, collaborate, scale and expand, and freely operate from anywhere using any device, connecting to others, and ultimately skip a few steps on the development curve.

In 2008, futurist author Robert Frenay argued about this change in his fascinating and wide-ranging book, ‘Pulse’, where he writes that a new era in human history is upon us, one where biology, technology and culture are converging rapidly to create a profound impact on agriculture, neurology, economics, jobs, and in almost every other discipline of human endeavour.

This shift may have started over decades ago with ideas that foresaw how new systems based on the “Machine Age” would alter life as we know it.

Not surprisingly, these technologies have also brought about their own share of fear mongering and doubt, especially about AI, automation and robotics that could replace jobs, or how AI-fuelled social networking platforms could incite disharmony and even invade our private lives, triggering an intense man versus machine debate.

Yet, this fear is unfounded because throughout history, we’ve seen how people have adapted to such disruptions in the status quo. The rapid use of technology and automation, and the resultant growing number of user end-points or devices is naturally forcing the traditional business environment to resist, and then creatively reinvent, innovate and compete in a new normal.

This fear is in partly due to the short-sightedness of workers and businesses on how they view their future in relation to the role they have now, as opposed to how it will evolve.

Indeed, while the mechanisation of cottage industries such as textiles to large-scale enterprises housed in factories created economic growth like the world had never seen before, leading to rapid expansion and globalisation, digital era technologies like AI and automation offer the same opportunities today, helping create better products, quality and standards, services and experiences.

As the boundaries of our physical and digital lives blur, central to the man versus machine debate is the question of emotion. Can machines really be like human beings and possibly replace us sooner than later? Do they have integrity? Can we trust them?

Finding the right answers may take a while but it’s clear that technology startups and other digital tech-centric organisations are leading the effort to strike the right balance to ensure trust, which is possibly the new benchmark for competitiveness and growth.

They have an edge because they are ahead of others on the digital transformation curve led by their focus on a market-based approach to adopting technology and better experience with collaborative digital platforms—allowing them to free up people, instead of eliminating them, recognising quickly that the goal must be to let people focus on big problems and solutions that artificial intelligence or automation cannot solve at the moment.

It is evident that jobs and lives are likely to be more disrupted than they ever have been, and one part of the solution is to look at automation and other digital technologies as enablers of business growth, and in ways, people are unable to. Companies that anticipate these risks or opportunities and embrace them are beginning to benefit most.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

In a country with a population of 1.3 billion, educational infrastructure can hardly ever be enough. As far as jobs are concerned, India’s highly regulated education system is churning out young professionals with insufficient skills and knowledge. As per some studies, approximately 75 million of its 400 million workforce needs re(skilling). As far as employability goes, only 7% of engineering graduates and one out of ten MBAs in the country are employable.

Luckily for the past couple of years, EdTech startups have been looking to fill this gaping hole created by conventional educational institutions, courses, and degrees. While some of these startups such as iNurture, Byju’s, Embibe, Unacademy, have registered healthy growth in terms of number of users as well as funding, experts feel that India needs more ‘patient’ entrepreneurs and investors to address the employment and employability gap in India.

“It took us five years to convince the first university to come onboard with our model,” says Ashwin Ajila, Co-founder and MD of India’s largest virtual university, iNurture. “Unlike startups in other domain, Edtech is not an easy entry-exit model. Everyone knows that there is a demand and a clear employability issue, what we truly need to understand is that the investment is for a long haul. It took us six years to turn profitable, but we did it.” adds Ashwin.

On the other side, tech interventions in the HR space are also signalling a decisive shift towards creating a more skilled workforce who can redefine the future of work. “From the initial belief of MNCs being the front runners of adopting HR technology, we today have Indian entrepreneurs investing in people practices and agendas,” says Pankaj Bansal of People Strong, a company that is transforming HR operations for companies in India.

Pankaj believes that the startups in the HR tech space are not only developing one-stop solutions to all HR-related challenges of companies but will soon disrupt India’s L&D sector in a big way. “In the future, L&D and EdTech will go hand in hand. The corporate employees will learn like students, and startups who will crack this will be the billionaires in the EdTech space”. In this episode of Building it Up with Bertelsmann, find out about the opportunities and challenges in both Edtech and HR tech, the evolution of gig economy in India, solid insights on how emerging and existing startups should innovate to make a dent in this sector and much more.

Click here to hear the full podcast.

Second-time founders have a certain edge. Especially if their first outing was a successful one. Peers know (and either secretly or openly admire) them, and investors keep an eye on what they are up to. Yes, there is a certain pressure to perform but, clearly, Kumar Rangarajan, Giridhar Murthy and Satish Gupta thrive on it. 

The trio took the stage as Slang Labs, YourStory’s chosen TECH30 at the 9th edition of TechSparks. For Kumar and Giridhar, this was the second time they were included in the TECH30 list. For those who don’t remember, they were the founders of Little Eye Labs, which went on to be acquired by Facebook in 2014. Satish too was part of the founding team. 

“When we met YourStory in 2012, Shradha (Founder and CEO, YourStory) liked the idea of our product, but we hadn’t yet built it. She told us that if we could build it in a month and get real testimonials for the product, we could pitch at TechSparks. That one month was crazy for us; we hustled our way into building the product and meeting people, it was an experience,” recalls Kumar. 

With Slang Labs, the journey is different. The buzz about Kumar, Giridhar and Satish’s has been getting louder ever since it raised Rs 8.12 crore from Endiya Partners.

Slang for voice

Slang is a voice-to-action platform that allows app developers to add a natural voice interface to control their apps via voice commands. The decision focus to build for voice came with the launch of Amazon’s Alexa, says Kumar. Everyone had taken to it with absolute ease, he says, adding even his seven-year-old didn’t need any training. 

“One day I heard a snippet of a music on Alexa, and I instinctively purchased it. Another time the music was loud in my car, and my daughter just asked Alexa to lower the volume. It was then that I realised that voice was instinctive.” 

The co-founders realized that voice could break down a lot of barriers in technology. For instance, there are millions of people who are first-time users of mobile phones (or smartphones) and traditional visual interfaces may not necessarily work for them. 

“What if you can speak to your app? That is where we got the tagline - a word is worth a thousand clicks. The idea is to add a layer of voice and bring visuals. If you want to buy a pizza, we don’t read out a menu, you ask for pizza on voice, and get visuals for the pizzas. You just call out what you want looking at the visual,” he explains. 

Speaking out what you want is significantly faster than navigating buttons and menus and filters, explains Kumar. 

Second calling 

Kumar, Giridhar, Satish and Aditya Kulkarni (also a Co-founder of Little Eye Labs) had moved to the US after the startup was acquired by Facebook. Four years later, once they hit upon he idea of a voice-driven interface, they were clear that they would start up in India. 

This time around, starting up has different. “(Earlier) we would do everything ourselves and the focus was on everything. With Slang, there is slightly stronger focus on what we need to do ourselves, and what parts need to be outsourced," says Kumar. 

There are pitfalls too. He says, often, co-founders feel they know everything. “It can be dangerous because you unconsciously start planning basis what you know, but that might not necessarily work,” he points out. Hiring, therefore, is easier this time.

For Slang Labs, the team is building a SaaS-based business model where an enterprise will be charged based on the number of times the experience is used. The first 10,000 transactions are free, after which there are transaction slabs priced at Rs 1 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.

Enterprises who can use this include those whose apps have a lot of functionalities (e.g. telecom providers or aggregators of multiple services) who want to simplify their user experience. 

The love for coding 

Walking down memory lane, Kumar says his love-affair with technology began in the third year of college when he got a book on coding in Pascal. “I was an engineering student at Chennai’s Bharat Engineering College,” says Kumar. An average student so far, Pascal soon became an obsession.

 “It was a completely deep and maddening love. Something inside flipped, and it was like a whole new world opened up in front of me. I would carry that book with me everywhere, eat with it and sleep with the book under my pillow. From my third year onwards, I became a nerdy guy, who would passionately argue with my professors,” says Kumar. 

Kumar went on to work at HP and then Rationale, where he met the co-founders of Little Eye Labs. “Titles just didn’t matter, it is then I decided to join S7 Computers. In 2010, the company got acquired by IBM and became a product company. During this time, Giridhar who was with me at Rationale, dropped an email saying the product we all had worked on was being sold,” says Kumar. 

They wanted to buy the product, but it alone had a revenue of $25 million a year and wasn’t something the four co-founders could do. “It nevertheless kickstarted the notion of starting a company,” says Kumar. 

From there on, as they say, there was no looking back. 

“We wanted to understand how well self-serve works for the Indian market. There are several self-service platforms in the west, but one that is purely built in India is rare. Also, the product itself has its own steps. Building a tech on a voice base is tough, and it needs to be built on top of an app,” says Kumar. 

He believes voice is the future of all transactions and with Slang Labs is raring to change the way India uses its voice. 

Bengaluru-based Mesibo is a cloud communication platform that lets developers add real-time chat, voice, and video to apps and websites, in quick time.

What if you could do a secure video call with the person delivering the food or book you ordered through an app? Imagine a scenario where employees of enterprises could communicate with each other through a secure app-based telephony channel, much like Slack, CometChat, and Sendbird. And what if this solution was made in India and specific to app developers in Asia?

Yusuf Motiwala, 46, made it happen with Mesibo, a cloud communication platform lets you build real-time chat, voice, and video in your mobile apps, and websites. Yusuf, who worked in several medium-sized technology businesses in the Bay Area for almost 15 years as a software engineer, returned to India to start up in 2007.

Getting started

Yusuf was mentoring an Indian healthcare startup four years ago when he realised that managing the security of health records was very important. While consulting, he surmised that the records needed to be encrypted and kept inside hospital servers. Simultaneously, he had also built a startup called TringMe – a cloud telephony business – where the company’s cloud platform handled over 16 million customers to communicate over messaging, voice, and video.

In April 2018, Yusuf combined the best of cloud and security for real-time messaging and founded Bengaluru-based Mesibo. Mesibo enables internet-connected devices, such as mobiles, handheld, websites, or IoT devices, to add industrial-strength, real-time messaging, voice, and video calling using its powerful API and SDK.

“Mesibo takes the mess out of messaging by offering a fully customisable open platform for highly secured peer-to-peer and encrypted communication. It allows businesses to build seamless communication interfaces into all internet-connected devices,” Yusuf says.

Whether you are developing telemedicine or customer support, AI powered chat bots, multiplayer games, ride sharing apps, dating apps, or CRM, Mesibo integrates real-time communication in your app.

According to E&Y, the global app market is growing at a CAGR of 15 percent and is estimated to exceed $300 billion by 2024. As many as 80 percent of these applications need real-time communication. Before Mesibo, developers had only two choices when adding communication abilities to an app: either sign up with exorbitantly priced subscription services or design a resource-intensive custom solution.

The technology

Mesibo provides an app with open source APIs and UI, and voice and video calling with end-to-end encryption. For startups, incorporating open source-tested, scalable WhatsApp-like features allows them to scale up and communicate with customers faster.

Enterprise customers can leverage these capabilities of Mesibo’s platform by downloading its SDK and copy-pasting a few lines of code from the SDK to their own app. In just a few hours, the app will be enabled with real-time messaging/chat, voice, or video calls.

For example, if a business is developing a dating application, it only needs to focus on the dating algorithm and leave the communication responsibility to Mesibo.

“The enterprises can focus on their skills and easily integrate these encrypted messaging services,” Yusuf says.

The Mesibo platform works on public and private clouds, and helps enterprises build personal communication. Customer support, banking, telemedicine, CRM, and dating are a few examples of the sectors enterprises/startups can leverage the scale, quality, and reliability of Mesibo's platform.

Significant traction

Since its formal launch in August 2018, Mesibo has got significant traction from the developer community. As many as 177 pilots are being developed on the platform right now. The startup is also in discussions with customers in the telco, hospital, and banking industries to build a paid customised solution to provide unified communication across all connected platforms in their premises.

The 30-member Mesibo team has worked with big names, including Stanford, Alcatel-Lucent, Aricent, IBM, Infosys, Texas Instruments, and Viacom.

Mesibo’s business model is unique. Unlike traditional services that ask to choose from one of a few pre-decided plans, Mesibo’s charges are based on the platform resources used by the app. Developers can start developing and even deploying their Mesibo-powered apps for free. However, once they cross the limit of free plan, they need to switch to the “PAYG” plan, subject to a minimum monthly commitment of US$ 49. The six-month-old company refused to disclose revenues.

The company has also created a revenue share model with developers when they launch their services with the Mesibo-encrypted messaging service. Developers will be encouraged to create Mesibo-based solutions to generate additional revenue.

Competition in India comes in the form of Kaleyra ; abroad, it is from Slack and Comechat.

In the future, Mesibo plans to establish customers across geographies and industries. It aims to leverage successful use cases to expand business across the board; their main geographic focus at the moment is the US, Europe, and Latin America. The company is currently self-funded.

V Ganapathy, of Axilor Ventures, says: “These companies have to build enterprise technology and scale up.”

That’s just what Mesibo has in mind.

Website

This is the first acquisition of the Gurgaon-based startup, which said it has earmarked $15 million to scale up its wealth management business.

Payments company MobiKwik on Thursday announced its entry into the wealth management business with the acquisition of Mumbai-based wealth management platform Clearfunds. This is the first acquisition for the Gurgaon-based startup.

In a statement, MobiKwik said that it will be investing $15 million over the next year to scale up its wealth management business. Through this acquisition, the MobiKwik platform will allow its customer base to start saving in mutual funds seamlessly from the app.

The company also said that post the acquisition, Kunal Bajaj, the founder and CEO of Clearfunds, will lead MobiKwik’s wealth management business. Founded in 2016, Clearfunds is a direct mutual fund investment platform that uses analytics and automated processes to deliver investment experience at the lowest possible cost.

Its 'Smart Portfolios' feature is a fully automated investment advisory service designed to make investing easy for everyone.  Prior to the acquisition, Clearfunds already had close to $45 million worth of Assets Under Advisory and its platform allowed clients to access over 3,000 direct mutual fund schemes across all 36 mutual fund companies and four registrar and transfer agents (RTAs).

In a statement, Upasana Taku, co-founder and Director, MobiKwik, said,

“This acquisition will help us get a head start in the wealth management domain. Clearfunds has done exceptionally well in a short span of time and has an edge over its competitors, owing to its superior technology know-how and advanced data analytics. MobiKwik users will now be able to start their investing journey with as little as Rs 100. This is the first-ever acquisition by MobiKwik as we look to build out our full-stack fintech platform and deliver more financial products to our 107 million plus customer base. We will continue to look at strategic investments or acquisitions that can add value to our business.”

Kunal Bajaj, founder and CEO, Clearfunds, said,

“We are confident that with this acquisition, we will be able to take wealth management to millions of Indians located across the country, create awareness about the benefits of direct mutual funds and help them manage their investments better. I am confident that MobiKwik will be one of the frontrunners in the full stack digital financial services industry in the times to come.”

This news comes a month after MobiKwik’s rival Paytm launching its own dedicated wealth management app. Paytm Money, a wholly-owned subsidiary of One97 Communications Limited, is a direct mutual funds investment platform that has tied up with close to 25 asset management companies (AMCs).

Before the launch, Paytm Money claimed that it had more than 850,000 users registering for early access.

With the launch of the wealth advisory business, both Paytm and MobiKwik are now competing with Bengaluru-based brokerage firm Zerodha, which launched direct mutual fund platform Coin last year and has close to Rs 1,100 crore in assets under management.

Further, private players announcing their entry will help in the uptake of mutual fund distribution in the country. To get some perspective, in FY18 alone, the mutual fund industry added close to 8.32 lakh SIP accounts each month with an average size of around Rs 3,200.