At its annual event last night, Apple unveiled a new Research app for Apple Watch owners that will allow them to privately participate in health studies.
Apple has announced three new studies in heart health, women's health and hearing. Watch users can opt in to share their private data collected by the Research app as well as the Apple Health app.
Apple plans to "democratise how medical research is conducted" by bringing together academic medical institutions, healthcare organisations, and Apple products.
Image: Apple Newsroom
The company explained in a statement,
"Participants will contribute to potential medical discoveries and help create the next generation of innovative health products. The Research app will be available as a free download in the App Store later this year."
Jeff Williams, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, said, “We found that we could positively impact medical research in ways that help patients today and that make contributions that will benefit future generations. This carries our commitment to health even further by engaging with participants on a larger scale than ever before.”
Apple also promised that it will respect users’ data privacy, and not access any information that can directly identify the person. "You decide what data you want to share” with the studies, Apple stated.
The company shared a brief outline of the three studies.
Apple Heart and Movement Study
Apple is partnering with various leading hospitals to conduct exhaustive research on how heart rate and mobility signals (like walking pace and flights of stairs climbed, etc. that the Apple Watch can track) are related to hospitalisations, falls, quality of life, and overall cardiovascular health.
Image: Apple Newsroom
Apple Women’s Health Study
Apple has developed a first-of-its-kind long-term study focused on women's menstrual cycles and overall gynaecological health. The study will inform screening and risk assessment of common conditions like PCOS, infertility, pregnancy, menopause, etc.
Apple Hearing Study
Apple wants to examine factors that impact hearing health. This study will collect data over time to understand how everyday sound exposure affects people's hearing abilities. The study data will also be shared with the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The Research app rolls out in the US later this year.
The iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max launches headlined Apple's annual gala at the Steve Jobs Theatre in Cupertino. All three handsets will feature Apple’s new A13 bionic chipset, and will run iOS 13 out of the box.
The iPhone 11 is available in six colours at a starting price of $699. It is essentially an upgrade to the iPhone XR, with much improved sensors, a dedicated Night Mode, the ability to take wide-angle shots, a redesigned camera module, and a faster Face ID.
In India, the iPhone 11 starts at Rs 64,900. "It will be available for pre-order beginning Friday, September 13, and in stores beginning Friday, September 20," Apple India said in a statement.
Apple has also introduced a new camera feature known as slow-motion selfies or ‘slofies' as the company termed it. It lets users snap moving selfies with the 12-megapixel True Depth camera in the front.
The iPhone 11 Pro is the first iPhone to sport the 'pro' tag, and also the first Apple handset to feature a triple-camera setup (the new norm in the smartphone universe).
It comes with a 2x telephoto lens along with the iPhone 11's wide and ultra-wide cameras. This is similar to the camera setups of Android flagships like the Huawei P30 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S10.
Additionally, Apple has introduced Deep Fusion, a futuristic camera technology, in the iPhone 11 Pro (starts at $999) and the iPhone 11 Pro Max (starts at $,1099).
It shoots nine images before the user presses the camera shutter, takes a long exposure when you shoot, then selects the best of the shots, and optimises the picture for finer details and low noise.
Image: Complex
Each camera in the 11 Pro can record 4K video with extended dynamic range and cinematic video stabilisation. With a wider field of view and large focal plane, the Ultra Wide camera is great for shooting action videos, Apple said.
Users can seamlessly zoom between each of the three cameras, while the Audio Zoom featurematches the audio to the video framing for more dynamic sound.
In a media statement, Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing, said,
"iPhone 11 Pro has the first triple-camera system in iPhone and is far and away the best camera we’ve ever made, it provides our customers with great range of creative control and advanced photo and video editing features in iOS 13. The Super Retina XDR is the brightest and most advanced display in iPhone."
Both the Pro and the Pro Max also come with a longer battery life. Apple is also bundling a fast charging adapter (18W) in the box. The iPhone11 Pro charge lasts four hours more than the iPhone XS, the company claims. "The A13 Bionic chip sets a new bar for smartphone performance and power efficiency," it adds.
Both handsets will be available in India September 27 onwards.
The Apple Watch Series 5 features an innovative Always-On Retina display that never sleeps, but can drop as low as 1Hz to save power. This means you can check information on the screen any time without having to tap on the display.
The new Apple Watch also comes with updated location features, better navigation tools, a built-in compass, an updated Maps app, a current elevation feature, and a titanium finish. The Series 5 models start at $399 (Rs 40,99).
Image: Apple India
For the first time, Apple Watch buyers stand to enjoy a more personalised experience at Apple Stores, on apple.com, and on the Apple Store app.
"The new Apple Watch Studio gives customers the opportunity to pick their preferred case and band combination to create a look that is uniquely their own," Apple said in a statement.
Apple had unveiled its subscription-based gaming service, Apple Arcade, in March. The service releases on September 19, and can be availed at $4.99 a month. In India, it will cost Rs 99 per month and come with a one-month free trial.
Arcade is Apple's answer to Google Stadia, and will offer users an ad-free gaming experience on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV (even in offline mode). The service will roll out in 150 markets this year.
Over a 100 exclusive games can be downloaded from the Apple App Store, and Arcade can be shared by "up to six family members".
Image: Apple
Meanwhile, Apple's Netflix-challenger streaming service will also be available at $4.99 (Rs 99 in India) per month along with a one-month free trial. This makes it the cheapest streaming service in the market, beating rivals Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, and others.
The first shows on Apple TV+ will start streaming on November 1. Users who buy a new iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV starting today stand to earn a free one-year subscription.
The company had earlier said that Apple TV+ will house content from the iTunes Store, as well as shows from partners, HBO, CBS, Starz, Showtime, MUBI, Eros Now (whose entire library Apple had acquired in 2017), and also pay-TV subscriptions and original shows Apple is developing. It is reportedly spending upwards of $2 billion on them.
Hiring a new employee may seem like an easy process, but in reality, this can be a lengthy and complicated task for large organisations. Picking the right candidate from a pool of candidates, while making sure that they are the right fit for the company, in today’s fast-paced business world, can prove to be counter-productive. And if you think only large organisations face this daunting task, you're wrong - startups have it worse.
As soon as startups start getting funded, there’s an added pressure to start the complex process of achieving hiring goals. In most cases, translating the business plan to talent plan marks the difference between success and failure. Unless you hire the right people, success is an impossible feat to achieve.
A key startup hiring requirement is that candidates be passionate and driven. While they have the unenviable task of picking out such individuals from a huge pile of CVs at hand, this is made even more difficult since they lack hiring experience and resources, they’re yet to build an established brand, and they cannot compete in terms of salary with big businesses. Also, most startups don't have a dedicated HR team to handle recruitment.
For them, the problem is choosing the right person, who will stay with the company for long, won’t add too much by way of financial burden to the company and will add value to the business. Where do you find this perfect combination?
A hassle-free solution for your recruitment needs
The answer lies in Taggd, a PeopleStrong recruitment solutions brand, that combines the power of data and human knowledge to deliver advanced talent acquisition solutions. With over 3-4 years of engagement of leading startups and unicorns, they have been able to deliver solutions tailor-made for startups, especially tech-based startups.
The power of these solutions comes from the comprehensive experience of serving over 14 industries, like technology, engineering, pharma, automotive, BFSI, e-commerce for frontline, lateral and executive roles. All the way from planning to sourcing to screening to the selection, Taggd sifts through its database of 2.6 million candidates to match and assess them against your requirement, at the click of a button. They offer talent attraction services like competitor brand mapping, workforce profiling to strengthen your brand; delivery and experience services to manage your processes; and advisory services like candidate profiling, talent mapping, performance for diversity hiring, evolving staffing team roles, and so on. What’s more, Taggd also promises a 30 percent reduction in time to hire a person, a 41 percent reduction in early attrition numbers, and a 53 percent increase in the number of candidates selected.
Here is how they digitise the entire recruitment process using technology:
Partner with Asia’s leading talent acquisition provider today
Since the last 13 years, they have catered to 100+ clients such as Pfizer, IndiaMART, Swiggy, Oyo, Wipro, Honeywell, Tech Mahindra, Renault Nissan, Aditya Birla Health Insurance and Citi Financial, among others.
Taggd by PeopleStrong is a four-time winner of the HRO Today Services and Technology Awards from 2014-2017, was rated as MPHRO Market Star Performer in Everest Group's PEAK Matrix for 2014, and has published the ‘India Skills Report’, India's only report on the country’s talent landscape. The brand also has the required business understanding, recruitment expertise, talent network access, data intelligence and access to a robust tech stack to deliver business gains, by bringing together businesses, recruiters and candidates under the same roof.
Are you a startup facing a hiring challenge? Looking to fill a senior leadership position, or starting a project in a new, unknown city? Come and be a part of the Taggd journey, where expert head-hunters will help you find the right people for the job.
Fashion e-tailer Myntra on Tuesday said it was investing in a video content-led approach as it "transitions from a catalogue-heavy browsing experience to a content-heavy experience" to enhance customer engagement on the platform.
The Flipkart Group company said it had already started working with influencers and designers to create videos to help customers stay updated on the latest trends in fashion.
"About one-third of our catalogue is already on video. We are making deep investments to ensure that the experience of users is seamless. Irrespective of the devices and networks they are on, they can watch these videos to stay updated on the latest in fashion," said Amar Nagaram, Head of Myntra Jabong.
He added that at present users spend about 20 minutes on average on the platform.
"Through these efforts, we are confident that over the next three-four years, the average time spent on the app will double," he said.
Myntra has about 50 million registered users and about 22 million monthly active users.
The company is also starting a digital fashion influencer talent hunt on its platform. Called the 'Myntra Fashion Superstar', the digital reality series will go live on Myntra's app on September 17.
"In the show, 10 contenders will compete and will be mentored and judged by Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha and celebrity stylist Shaleena Nathani. The concept is aimed at bringing the influencer community to the fore, and marks the beginning of our move to becoming an in-app, content-led destination to engage customers," Amar said.
The winner of the show will get an opportunity to become a key face of Myntra on social platforms, and get to curate styles on the Myntra app among other opportunities, he added.
With this initiative, the intention is to drive stickiness on the app and Myntra will be looking at the impact on time spent per user on the app and return rates. The company expects to reach upwards of 100 million users through the show.
Nagaram said this is the first of many features that Myntra will be releasing over the next few months as it "transitions from a catalogue-heavy browsing experience to a content-heavy experience".
"Myntra will introduce a full-screen video player on the app to offer viewers an engaging video viewing experience. This is the first for any brand in the segment in the country and the first of many features that we will be releasing over the next few months to strengthen the way in which we engage with our audience," he said.
A senior executive of global investment firm Goldman Sachs was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly swindling the firm of Rs 38 crore to overcome financial losses while playing an online game recently, police said.
Ashwani Jhunjhunwala, the firm's vice president, has been arrested and will be produced in court, Deputy Commissioner of Police of Whitefield M N Anucheth said.
Jhunjhunwala's aide, Vedant, is still at large, police added.
Based on a complaint by the legal head of the company Abhishek Parsheera, a case under various IPC sections including criminal breach of trust and cheating was registered against the two.
According to the FIR, Jhunjhunwala had used his three subordinates, Gaurav Mishra, Abhishek Yadav, and Sujith Appaiah, to execute his designs. The vice president had allegedly logged on to their office systems on the pretext of training them.
"While working on their computers, he sent them away on some or the other pretext such as bringing water and logged on to their system. Further he transferred Rs 38 crore in two instalments to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China illegally," the FIR said.
Vedant, who has been terminated from the company for such fraudulent activities, had allegedly connived with him to siphon off the money, police said.
The matter came to light on September 6 during an internal audit.
Subsequently, Mishra, Yadav, and Appaiah were questioned and expressed their ignorance, police said. According to police sources, Mishra told company officials that Jhunjhunwala had asked him to create a Settlement Reconciliation Service (SRS) for payment recall recently, which he did not know as he was new to the firm.
It was during that time that Jhunjhunwala allegedly took control of his system to siphon off the money on September 4, sources said.
The company stated in its complaint that Jhunjhunwala had lost $70,000 while playing online poker. He had also taken a loan of Rs 25 lakh and personal loans from a few others.
Following his losses, Jhunjhunwala consulted Vedant who allegedly guided him to divert the money, police added.
The Startup Guide series of books, published by Sissel Hansen, covers cities such as Vienna, Copenhagen, Paris, Stockholm, Munich, Berlin, London, Lisbon, Miami, and New York. Startup Guide Zürich is spread across 200 pages and makes for an informative and entertaining read, with profiles of founders, coworking spaces, and key ecosystem players.
“When thinking about Zürich, and about Switzerland as a whole, what comes to mind is an efficient, eco-friendly, and balanced place,” explains Sissel Hansen.
As the homeland of the Dadaism art movement a hundred years ago, Zürich has carved a name for itself as a financial and creative hub. Though a costly city to live in, Zürich rates high on the quality-of-life index.
Switzerland is not only the land of mountains, lakes, watches, and chocolates. “The future of work and living is being experimented with, which is a clear indicator of a strong economy, strong education, and residents with a strong sense of responsibility,” according to Mayor Corine Mauch and Councilor Carmen Walker Späh.
Overview
The book begins with an overview of Zürich facts and necessities such as language (English is understood but knowledge of German helps a lot), public transport (extensive), dining out (expensive!), local environment (Lake Zürich, Alps, and 1,500 public fountains), and the local people (polite, punctual, private, and abiding by rules).
With a population of around 1.5 million, of which foreigners account for 26 percent, Zürich’s finance sector generates around a third of the wealth and a fifth of the jobs in the city. Thanks to its location in the heart of Europe, Zürich is easy to reach from any of Switzerland’s neighbours.
It has also become a startup hub, with a range of recent successes from ventures such as Wingtra (drone mapping), Neurimmune (immunotherapeutics), RosieReality (educational app for robotics), Guuru (live chat), and G7 Therapeutics (acquired by Heptares). Many startups are incubated and spun off from Zürich’s Federal Institute of Technology (ETH).
Zürich is one of the Top 20 startup hubs in Europe (according to the Startup Heatmap Europe). As a financial centre, only London is ranked higher in Europe. There is also a creative cluster (design, music, architecture, gaming), as seen via Disney Research Zürich, Swiss Game Developers Association, and Design Biennale Zürich (see also our photo essay on Kunsthaus Zürich here).
There are around 50,000 people working in the ICT cluster of five thousand companies in the canton of Zürich, including Google Research and IBM Research. The city also hosts the HackZürich hackathon and Swiss ICT Awards. The life-sciences cluster benefits from ETH, the University of Zürich, the University Hospitals, and the Zürich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).
The cleantech cluster develops sustainable, high-quality, environmentally friendly services, as seen in the Future Mobility Demonstrator, Climate KIC, Climeworks, and Emerald Technology Ventures. There is also an aerospace cluster, thanks to the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centre and Swiss Space Center, with companies such as Marenco, Wingtra, Twingtec, and Ruag Space.
I. Startup profiles
One section of the book profiles 10 startups based in Zürich. They include Farmy (online grocery market for ethical food and responsibly produced food products), UrbanFarmers (aquaponics solutions for fresh vegetables and fish in urban habitats), and Balboa (urban social and workout platform)
Carbon Delta is an environmental fintech that uses big data to perform climate risk analysis of 25,000 publicly listed companies. This helps mitigate risks and meet regulatory requirements. It has also received support from Climate-KIC (the largest public–private innovation partnership in Europe to focus on climate change).
Wildbiene provides BeeHomes to households in which mason bees can be kept as “pets;” they also help sustainably pollinate fruit orchards. CUTISS bio-engineers skin that scars minimally after transplantation, and helps patients suffering from burns. Modum.io provides IoT and blockchain-enabled solutions for transactions involving physical products
ElectricFeel is a platform for shared electric mobility services in cities, and has partners in Mainz, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, and Lisbon. Over 1,500 e-scooters are in service.
ImagineCargo provides a sustainable, express network for logistics transport between cities using only trains, bicycles and electrically-assisted tricycles. The network extends to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
TestingTime is an online test-user recruitment platform for UX designers and market researchers. It is used by large corporations across Europe such as UBS, Zalando, Microsoft, and Accenture.
II. Startup ecosystem
Two sections of the book profile the support system for startups, ranging from coworking spaces to programmes at incubators and accelerators. One of the earlier hubs is Technopark Zürich, established 25 years ago for emerging tech players.
Climate-KIC is Europe’s largest cleantech accelerator supporting over 200 climate-relevant startups a year. It takes no equity, and grant funding up to €95,000 can be given over the course of the programme. The three phases in its startup programme cover MVP, commercialisation, and investment-readiness. It runs in other cities as well, such as Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, and Vienna.
The F10 Incubator & Accelerator programme covers phases like Idea to Prototype (via a 48-hour Thinking Idea Boot Camp), Prototype to Product, and Product to Market. It connects founders to banks, regulators, investors, and internationally-renowned mentors and coaches.
The InnoSuisse’s Start-up Coaching and Training programme offers grants of CHF 5,000 (for initial coaching), CHF 50,000 (to reach milestones in the business plan), and CHF 75,000 (for scaling and international expansion).
Kickstart Accelerator is an initiative of Impact Hub Zürich, one of Europe’s largest zero-equity, multi-corporate accelerators. Impact Hub is a network of over 100 community and coworking spaces in locations around the globe, including São Paolo, Singapore, Johannesburg, and San Francisco. Its joint venture Kraftwerk connects startups and more established companies.
The Kickstart Accelerator programme is for local and international startups in fintech, food, smart cities, and deep technologies. Participants receive up to CHF 15,000 in seed funding, with the possibility of additional grants later in the program; they also participate in regular community-building events.
STRIDE, the “unSchool for Entrepreneurial Leadership,” is a spinoff from Impact Hub Zürich. The learning centre offers a radically different approach to learning, designed especially for potential entrepreneurs. It includes career counseling, topical courses, and coworking days with partners,
Launched in 2013, the Swisscom StartUp Challenge flies five innovative Swiss startups to Silicon Valley for a customised week-long business acceleration program. It has received over 650 applications, and selected startups have received CHF 73 million from Swisscom Ventures and other investors.
Swiss Startup Factory is an independent startup accelerator. Exit Accelerator connects founders to relevant industry professionals. It promotes awareness, trainings, and exposure to exits.
Zürich’s coworking scene started 10 years ago, with a range of players now in operation, including Citizen Space, Impact Hub Zürich (with four locations, including the joint venture project Kraftwerk), Spaces, Hush, Rocket Hub, OfficeLab, Büro Züri, and Kampagnenforum.
Büro Züri is a free coworking space for the public, provided by Zürcher Kantonalbank, the third largest bank in Switzerland. DayCrunch, co-founded by Vishal Mallick in 2013, puts vacant offices to work as temporary coworking spaces until landlords find the next tenant for the office space.
FabLab Zürich is one of more than a thousand FabLabs sprinkled around the world. It provides low-threshold access to modern digital fabrication technologies, according to Thomas Amberg, lab manager. Professionals, amateurs and even children can access 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC machines, knitting machines, plotters, and woodworking tools.
Rocket Hub, run by the ETH Entrepreneur Club, was founded in 2015 on the campus of ETH Zürich. Spaces Bleicherweg is the local chapter of the Amsterdam-founded coworking spaces network. StartupSpace is run by the IFJ (Institute for Young Entrepreneurs).
Some of the space managers are also profiled, such as Giada Polini (‘Chief of Happiness’ at BlueLion Incubator), Thomas Amberg (an organiser of the IoT Meetup and a Maker Faire in Zürich), and Christoph Birkholz (co-founder of Kickstart Accelerator, Viaduct Ventures, and the Global Impact Hub Fellowship).
III. Expert insights
One section of the book provides expert tips from accelerators and startup consultancies in the region. The advice covers customer engagement, marketing, innovation velocity, and talent.
Startups need to test early and often to see who actually wants to buy their solution, and to define their typical customer, advises Patrick-Giorgio Baumberger, of Raiffeisen Switzerland RAI Lab and President of the Swiss Fintech Innovations Association.
It is essential for startups to have enough resources to distribute and test products, and to grow the company when it is ready. “Make sure you understand the feedback you’re getting and adjust accordingly,” he advises. Raiffeisen Switzerland, the third largest banking group in Switzerland, helps startups get access to test customers; the bank has 3.7 million customers nationwide.
“The market operates at hyperspeed, so you should keep ahead of the game,” advise Bernd Brandl and Maria Luisa Silva of SAP Startup Focus. The programme was launched in 2012 to help startups target the enterprise customer market with solutions in big data, predictive and real-time analytics, AI, ML, AR, VR, IoT, and blockchain.
Within five years, the programme has engaged over 6,000 startups operating in 25 industries across 58 countries. SAP Switzerland’s Co-Innovation Lab (COIL) has 13 facilities. Examples of successful startups from the programme include DayOne, an innovation hub for precision medicine.
“One of the crucial factors for success is a startup’s ability to network,” according to Adrian Müller and Jacques Hefti of Startup Campus, a training platform backed by the main universities, techparks, and incubators of the region. It has trained nearly 2,000 entrepreneurs whose survival rate after three years is more than 50 percent
“As an entrepreneur, you have to focus on what’s really important, and that’s tough to do when you’re young and sometimes a bit naïve,” Adrian and Jacques caution. An example of a startup in their programme is Kinastic, a gym activity tracker that pivoted from a consumer to business focus.
“When you’re growing, it’s essential you have a good CTO and CPO,” advises Andreas Schlenker, Head of M&A and Investments at Tamedia, a leading private media group in Switzerland. It was founded in 1893, and has print and digital platforms. Its startup investments include Doodle, the global online scheduling assistant.
IV. Founder advice
The last section of the book interviews a range of startup founders, tracing their entrepreneurial journeys, advice received, lessons learnt, and tips for the next wave of aspiring entrepreneurs.
Melanie Kovacs, Cofounder of Aspire and Master21, worked in digital agency Ginetta, and participated in a number of startup weekend activities. “There were women participating as attendees but not many who were confidently pitching their ideas. We didn’t know a lot of female entrepreneurs we could invite as mentors or judges. That’s why I cofounded the Aspire association to foster female entrepreneurship,” she explains.
Her startup Master21 teaches skills like coding, critical thinking, and creativity. “I don’t think everybody needs to become a programmer nowadays, but it helps to have a certain understanding of computational thinking,” she explains.
"Just start. For me at least, if you overthink it too much, you see more and more obstacles, and people will try to talk you out of it. But if you start, you get these little ‘yay’ moments – these small successes – and you build confidence along the way,” Melanie advises.
“It’s impossible to foresee everything at the beginning, but once you’re on the way, you see lots of opportunities that you didn’t see before,” she adds.
David Allemann,Caspar Coppetti, and three-time World Duathlon champion and multiple Ironman winner Olivier Bernhard started running shoe company On in 2010. Within seven years later, they were available at over 3,000 retailers in more than 50 countries.
“You have to be super versatile and do something completely different in the afternoon from what you did in the morning,” David explains. “We don’t hire for skills but for personality and the ability to constantly learn and grow as a person,” he adds.
Zürich has been a great launchpad for the startup “You’re out in nature immediately, you have a lake, you have mountains. It’s obviously the perfect playground for a sports company,” David says.
Christian Kaufmann co-founded WeAct, a platform to help companies create fun and engaging sustainability and health programmes via techniques like gamification. “Because I was raised in several countries, I developed a lot of empathy and understanding,” he explains. He also worked at Apple and Credit Suisse.
Though he did not enjoy the formal and constrictive environment and financial myopia of corporates, he sees opportunities for corporates and startups to work together. There are also particular challenges in the social startup sector.
“You have to get by with a much lower income, at least much lower than you’d be paid in the corporate world. But that also leads to one of the positives: the people who work here are very, very purpose-driven,” Christian explains.
Cristina Riesen headed Evernote’s Europe operations for five years, before moving on to found the education startup We Are Play Lab. It promotes curiosity, persistence, creativity, and critical thinking among children.
Its prototype of Project Parkopolis in Switzerland is part of a global initiative called “Transforming Cities into Learning Landscapes” via offerings like life-sized board games. Cristina also helped launch the Swiss Tech Collider, an edtech community in Switzerland with more than 60 startups.
“It’s 10 times more difficult to be a nonprofit startup,” she explains. “Every day presents itself with a new challenge. There are extreme highs and extreme lows. Entrepreneurship isn’t for everybody, and it should not be romanticised,” she cautions.
Cristina says the best piece of advice she received was: “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
Serial entrepreneurs Pascal Mathis and Lukas Weder in 2016 co-founded Wingman, a startup advice and consulting firm. Lukas founded food delivery portal EAT.ch, which was sold to London-based Just Eat. Pascal earlier founded tourist attraction portal GetYourGuide.
“A wingman doesn’t help you fly the plane but stays behind you and guards your back. We’re not copilots; we’re wingmen,” Lukas explains. He observes that the fundraising process can be one of the most difficult stages for a startup.
“Investors understand that a new company might need time to refine its offering, but it should have the basics proven already,” Pascal emphasises. The founders observe that though Swiss startups may not be as strong as the US in selling new technologies, the first generation of successful founders is now able to mentor the new generation of startups and invest as well.
The book ends with a directory of useful resources for startups. For example, active investors include BlueOrchard, Creathor Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, Redalpine, ResponsAbility, SICTIC, Swiss Startup Invest, Viaduct Ventures, Zühlke Ventures, and Zukunftsfonds.
There are a range of events and forums targeting startups and investors, such as Design Biennale Zürich, Digital Festival, Finance 2.0, GameZ Festival, HackZürich, Ludicious Zürich Game Festival, Maker Faire Zürich, START Summit, Startup Grind Zürich, and WorldWebForum.
In sum, the book provides informative and entertaining insights into Zürich’s startup ecosystem, as well as a useful framework for other cities to reflect on and improve their own startup ecosystems.
“Last two decades were China’s, the next two should be India’s: Arvind Panagariya” – this type of news headline seems quite common these days.
Almost without exception, the major international economic agencies and think-tanks believe India will be the fastest growing economy in the foreseeable future. It is hard to argue with this conclusion; more so, given China’s slowdown. The Indian economy is pegged at an annual GDP growth rate of at least 7 percent (on a sustainable basis).
Today, most startup pitches almost inevitably feature a default chart comparing Indian GDP growth forecast to China. All the macro indicators point to the possibility of this growth - young population, a decisive political mandate for bold economic reforms, foreign capital inflows, a growing entrepreneurial spirit, and most importantly the new-found insatiable hunger among the new generation to change the world using technology.
But what does all this mean for the Indian startup eco-system? A large number of startups count on growth in disposable income to convert their user base (DAU/MAUs) into revenue numbers. Even for advertising, the CPM rates are ultimately a function of how much business the new, expensively acquired user can drive. This is where we need to be watchful.
Though there are several similarities between India and China, India will evolve in its own unique manner. China registered much higher economic growth over the last two decades than India is anticipated to achieve. Also, there are certain macro and historical roadblocks for Indian GDP growth to translate into per capita disposable income as it did in China.
The translation in India might be slower than anticipated, which might disappoint investors’ return expectations in the near-to-medium term. However, we do believe it is a matter of when and not if regarding the companies meeting investor expectations.
Per capita GDP growth differential
China has registered much higher GDP growth over the last two decades than India. Moreover, due to low population growth, the superiority of China’s GDP growth to per capita income is even more pronounced.
Chart 1: Nominal per capita GDP in India and China over the years
China registered 13.7 percent annual growth from 1998 to 2018, which translated into a 13 percent annual per capita income growth over this period, thanks to just 0.6 percent population growth. In the same period, India registered 9.7 percent annual growth in nominal terms, but per capita income growth has been just above 8 percent due to high population growth.
Though the difference numbers (between GDP and per capita income growth) might look small, but this is where compounding over a long period of time comes into picture. Thanks to the compounding effect, Chinese per capita income, which was less than double of Indian per capita income in 1998, grew to about 4.5x of Indian per capita income in 2018. As visible in the chart above, the increase in Chinese per capita income has been quite steep.
Even from a PPP perspective, which arguably is a more relevant indicator, the story is not much different. India undoubtedly has shown and will continue to show healthy per capita income growth, but it might not be able to match the Chinese trajectory.
As per IMF data-book, China took six years to grow its per capita income from 5,000 to 10,000 units. However, India will likely take nine years to do the same despite marking the highest GDP growth (among large economies) in seven of these nine years.
Chart 2: Per capita GDP for India and China in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms.
IMF forecasts that Indian population will grow 1.5 percent annually over the next six years, while China will grow just 0.2 percent in population every year despite the move away from ‘one-child policy’. Hence, Indian per capita income growth over the next six years is estimated to be about 8.4 percent in nominal terms, moving up from 8 percent over the last 20 years.
Consolidation of wealth effect
Due to the one-child policy coupled with female employment, China has witnessed consolidation of wealth at a household level over the last several years. In China, the one-child policy was implemented in 1979, after which the wealth got consolidated from one, and sometimes even from two generations. The impact of consolidation gets magnified by employment of both male and female in the family. The charts below encapsulate the broad viewpoint.
Chart 3: Consolidation of wealth in China from previous generations to this generation
As depicted above, the wealth got consolidated in the hands of current generation from their parents and in some (fewer) instances from their grandparents also. This likely provided financial stability and ability to make discretionary spend for the Chinese young generation. One might argue that Chinese young generation has more people to take care of due to old age; but the annuity spend on old generation should likely be much lower than the wealth accumulated by them (and ongoing annual income generated by that) over the last several years of high-growth phase.
Chart 4: Division of wealth in India
On the other hand, the wealth continues to get divided in India due to multiple children. Though the law suggests otherwise, but the wealth is mostly inherited by male children. Our observation is that most families have multiple male children among whom the wealth gets divided. Also, more often, both the parents are not accumulating wealth or are earning members.
A large percentage of females (some of them despite being educated) are homemakers due to existing social framework in sub-urban and rural areas. It is not to say that a homemaker doesn’t create value; however, the opportunity cost of that value creation might be materially higher (or the replacement cost of her effort might be materially lower); hence, it is not optimal utilisation of female population’s capabilities as in China.
Chart 5: A much large proportion of females are employed in China compared to India despite younger population in India
Absolute income level key for take-off
We discussed above how wealth gets fragmented down to future generations in India in contrast to China. This has resulted in more wealth in the hands of the current generation in China vs India – providing freedom to spend. Another equally important factor is the absolute income level. Assuming that the critical threshold level of per capita income (in PPP terms) of 10,000 units is needed for discretionary spends to take off.
China’s per capita income (in PPP terms) is close to 18,000 units, whereas India lags far behind at around 8,000 units. Even as India is projected to grow ahead of China, it will take India 4-5 years more for its per capita (absolute) income to touch China’s level six to seven years back. India appears to be a long time away. Thus, for both income and wealth reasons, India is at a significant discount to where China is or for that matter where China was seven to eight years back.
How this plays out for higher-order discretionary spends? It might be appropriate to explain this through the prism of Maslow’s need hierarchy.
In China, due to consolidation of wealth and inheritance, the need for safety, which causes lower consumption or less efficient/remunerative savings, got skipped. Due to strong per capita income growth, the physiological needs were quite easily taken care of, while Safety needs were not so relevant due to consolidation of wealth. Love/Belonging is a non-monetary need. Hence, the spend shifted directly to Esteem needs, which drives discretionary/aspirational spend.
It might not play out in a similar manner for India. Though the income and wealth levels have increased materially, we have not witnessed the consolidation of wealth, and thus, we are unlikely to skip the safety needs. A sizeable proportion of the population is moving above the so-called physiological needs, but it might take materially longer time for them to start making discretionary or aspirational spend. They will likely be hesitant to spend money on aspirational consumption items before they have some fixed deposits or real-estate or any other asset providing comfort that they won’t slip back to needing to fulfill physiological needs again.
It is important to highlight that the above analysis is relevant for consumer-internet verticals dependent upon discretionary spending only. The businesses, which caters to the lower-level needs, i.e. physiological needs (as per Maslow’s hierarchy), should be relatively immune to the slower growth of discretionary income. The destiny of such businesses should be less influenced by discretionary spend and more dependent on internal and business-model specific factors.
One possible indicator of the ability to spend on aspirational items is the market share of Apple iPhones. In India, this market share hovers between 1-2 percent, while it touched close to 13-14 percent in China in 2015 (it moderated recently due to Huawei issue).
Even in 2010, the first year after Apple started selling iPhone in China, it’s market share was more than 5 percent. More than the numbers, it is palpable that the Chinese consumer is more open to make aspirational purchases compared to Indian consumers. The sales of luxury brands in India is a fraction of the spend in China. These indicators are partially a function of above analysis.
What is this all about?
To be clear, we are not pessimists, but realists. India is among the most attractive global markets and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future, thanks to its population size, potential scale, young work force, low data prices (thanks to Jio), entrepreneurial spirit and several other factors.
Unless something unexpected happens, we can comfortably assume that the next two decades will belong to India. Our above analysis, in no way, intends to counter this view point. However, two decades is a long time period of time for the startup ecosystem.
The limited point here is that India is likely to evolve slower than what some investors, who believe India will go the China way, currently believe. This shall be particularly relevant for verticals and businesses that are disproportionately dependent on discretionary spending from masses. In addition, we believe investors need to adjust their expectations for the fact that India is a much more heterogeneous market with multiple languages, cultures, preferences and context; but similar importance need to be given to the factors mentioned above.
We strongly believe that ultimately the market will exhibit the growth that the Chinese startup ecosystem delivered. However, it might take five to seven years instead of three to five years. Given the importance of time in VC investments, the expectations need to be pragmatic and well grounded. An investor expecting a specific return in three years might not be too happy to get similar returns in five years, driving negative sentiment about an otherwise well-managed company.
The misplaced expectations might drive heating up of valuations causing disconnect between valuations and economic potential. We are incrementally hearing the phrase ‘valuation trap’ for India while talking to some of the relatively conservative/ pragmatic Chinese investors, which might be a manifestation of economics of their investee companies not moving north at the pace they initially believed.
Chart 7: A depiction of potential actual and expected revenue trajectory of investee companies
More importantly, two years can be a really long time in the life of a startup, and misplaced expectations can cause drying of VC capital for a company (and sometimes even a vertical), which really had the potential and just needed more time.
The rush to make it and/or outspend others can also cause unreasonable burn by founders assuming the market is ready, while the more advisable course of action could have been to create the market and put in place a solid execution engine for longer-term, sustainable growth. Such miscalculations can be fatal in certain cases for a business. Hence, the investors in verticals and businesses dependent upon discretionary spend need to be incrementally patient with performance of their portfolio and realistic about valuations.
The above logic might not be as appropriate for certain target markets or some verticals in the country. For example, the businesses focused on rich population and balancing growth versus profitability trade-off might be exceptions.
The chart above provides the distribution of wealth in India as outlined by Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, 2017. The richest 10 percent of Indians own more than 3/4th of total national wealth. There are about 4 million adults who have wealth more than $100,000 and this number is increasing relatively fast. These consumers are keen to spend on discretionary and aspirational products and services.
A business focused on the rich is unlikely to encounter the issues we mentioned above. One such player in the market is Cred. The fintech platform focused on people with credit cards and minimum credit score of 750 is definitely a product for the higher-end Indian population and has aspirational value. Credit card penetration in India is less than 5 percent currently, and Cred has incremental filters for credit score, and hence, its target market is just about top 1-2 percent of Indians.
Though there is significant focus on taking financial services to the masses, Cred believes that even the elite are not receiving quality services currently. Hence, it targets to resolves this problem and early results are quite heartening. Understandably, it is getting significant interest from investors as well.
The second business we invested earlier this year is Box8. The cloud kitchen has more than 110 outlets in four cities – Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Gurugram. It operates two food brands - Box8 and Mojo Pizza. The company currently delivers almost 20,000 orders every day. Box8 owns the entire value chain - from acquisition of raw materials to delivery of food. We agree it is a relatively crowded space currently, and some of the adjacent players, primarily on delivery side, have raised large amount of capital.
However, Box8’s founders’ focus on execution is unwavering. The company has seen one cycle of VC capital drying up already, which probably contributed to the strong focus on execution and visible discipline.
A number of players in this vertical are burning large amounts of capital even at EBITDA level to drive growth, while Box8 operates close to break-even at net level. The company operates at high gross margins and tight efficiency. The company’s ability to run operations profitably in the period of heightened competition and still maintaining decent growth rate makes it a strong candidate for long-term win in the market.
Also, it reduces their dependence on VC capital for survival. Not only the founders’ pragmatic focus on economics and efficient usage of capital is impressive, but also their willingness to ensure strong quality and focus on issues at the outlet level differentiate them from the others in the fray.
In summary, we believe that the potential of Indian startup ecosystem is great, but it will find its own pace and trajectory. It will be unfair to expect this to evolve at the pace China was able to grow due to multiple macro, sociological, and historical reasons. The investors need to set their expectations pragmatically, while founders will find it in their interest to ensure that the valuations don’t go out of sync with the near-to-medium term economics.
The higher valuations might seem attractive in the short-term, but in the longer-term, this can be a problem and even fatal. The long-term exit expectation continues to be an IPO for a number of businesses. And one thing we have learned from the IPOs so far globally is the public markets are not as forgiving as the private markets. Private markets might overlook the red bottom-line, but public markets will surely ask uncomfortable questions.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
Legendary scientist and thinker Albert Einstein once said "Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” In today's world, those words ring more true than ever.
With older codes of masculinity being questioned, there is a breed of men of who have identified a much desired narrative to what masculinity can really stand for and is capable of. They define it by values, values that set a man apart, values that build character. These set of men are unafraid to look within, and believe in their potential to leave behind a legacy and be inspiring leaders.
Here’s a look at a few rare men who chose to live a life led by rare values, their success story is one that inspires, and display values that other men aspire to embody. Real stories where - perseverance helped achieve true potential, humility begot followers, commitment to give back uplifted an entire generation of young boys, and courage made the country take notice of the real problems.
Perseverance
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, actor
When Nawazuddin Siddiqui first moved to Mumbai to look for work in Bollywood, he had no money to pay rent. He was forced to turn to his senior from the National School of Drama, who let him stay in his house, on the condition that he would cook two meals a day. And work was also thin on the ground. He knocked on various studio doors and visited sets, often on foot, to find a job. That only yielded small roles, often as part of a crowd. His first big break was in Aamir Khan's Sarfarosh in 1999, where he played a terrorist. But that turned to be a flash in the pan, despite receiving appreciation, and he was relegated to small roles for the next few years, but he didn’t ever back down. He looked at these lows as hurdles that would eventually be overcome. It would be another eight years before his next big break in Black Friday (2007). Known to be an epitome of perseverance in Bollywood, today he is one of the most recognized actors in Bollywood, respected for his choice of unconventional roles.
All of them said ‘kya hero banega (how will he become a hero)’ when I set out. When I go back now they say ‘isne toh karke dikhaya (he has done it)’. I made it possible."
Humility
Roger Federer, tennis champion
Now known as a quintessential nice guy, Roger Federers appeal transcends tennis. Widely considered to be the greatest of all times, it’s his commitment, self-belief, hard work, natural talent and ability to soak up pressure have always defined him. But one of his greatest traits is how he handles himself with humility whether he wins or suffers a loss. In his media interviews, he has cited imbibing this value from his father, a champion sprinter whose philosophy was – “refrain from boasting and always give credit to your competitors”.
In a recent interview, he said that admitting he does not know something and wanting to improve and keep learning will always be a part of who he is. He added that just because he was once World NO. 1 or had won a certain number of titles didn’t mean he was clever or smart when it came to other fields. He is currently exploring an interest in learning art and playing the piano.
“Sometimes you have to accept that a guy played better on the day than you.”
Commitment to give back
Jithin C Nedumala, CEO and Co-founder of MAD (Make a Difference).
Jithin C Nedumala is one of the three co-founders of MAD. The idea for MAD came when they visited a boys’ home in Kochi as students. They noticed how talented the children were and when they heard about their aspirations decided that they wanted to help the youngsters. And that is how they started MAD. Today, more than 2,000 professionals volunteer to teach over 5,000 children across the country through MAD. MAD has also got a lot of global recognition, including from the likes of Michelle Obama who personally backs them through her International Youth Engagement Program.
“Imagine somebody gave you the opportunity to leave the world a lot better than you had found it, wouldn't you take it? MAD gave me the opportunity to support and empower the most vulnerable children in India and, knowing it is possible keeps me going.”
Courage
Ravish Kumar – Journalist
Winner of 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award, Ravish has been a revolutionary journalist. The citation for Ravish Kumar explained his work as “harnessing journalism to give voice to the voiceless” and his “unfaltering commitment to professional, ethical journalism of the highest standards”. Media - considered to be the fourth pillar of our democracy, in the recent times has been quite tainted with biasness and intense polarization. Amidst all this chaos, Ravish Kumar has been a beacon of light for showing the mirror of reality to those in power without getting scared. Raising real issues and speaking the truth - he has displayed what real journalism of courage is.
“Every day I’m stalked by a new lie. Every day I fight a new lie. It would be exhausting, but for the occasional sign that the fight is not in vain,”
Authenticity
Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid is probably one of the most loved cricketers of all times. His legacy is proof of a man who remained true to his values. Time and time again, the Dravid name stands out, differentiated. Most of the time remembered for the traits he displays – humility, tenacity, and authenticity, because they come in an era where they are exceedingly rare. Whether it's sharing classy birthday videos, giving due credit to the support staff, taking a pay cut or praising his team members, Rahul Dravid has shown us that it's only authenticity that shines both on the field and off it!
“If I had been dropped…I would’ve still continued to play first class cricket. Not in the intention of trying to make a comeback…but because I still wanted to just play the game.”
These few men have definitely demonstrated that finding platinum within is what makes a man of character. The journey might not be easy, but living a life of values is the only way to personal greatness.
Marsplay, a New Delhi-based community-led commerce platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of pre-series A round of funding led by Venture Highway with participation from Alvin Tse from Xiaomi, and Jonathan Lau, Partner, Cadorna Ventures.
Existing angels including the personal offices of Shailesh Rao, a partner with TPG Growth, and Nikhil Mohta, Director, ICICI Ventures also participated in the round.
Marsplay plans to use the funds to build its product engineering team and build a strong creator community.
Samir Sood, Founder, Venture Highway, said,
“Fashion-led product discovery has been shifting away from ecommerce websites to social networks, however, the discovery to purchase process is still disconnected. More consumers are now seeking inspiration for fashion trends from people who are more relatable than celebrity influencers. In Marsplay, we have found a single platform that provides users with a seamless discovery of fashion trends and the ability to purchase their chosen product with a single click.”
Marsplay Founders: Misbah Ashraf (L) and Ayush Shukla
Marsplay’s seed round was led by Amit Agrawal, former YouTube India Head,Vivekananda Hallekere, CEO, Bounce, and Shamir Karkal, Founder, Simple among others.
Misbah Ashraf, Co-founder, Marsplay, said,
“We envisioned a platform that provided easy-to-shop fashion advice on ‘What to wear’ and ‘When to wear’ that was crowdsourced from a community passionate about fashion and beauty. We see our relationship with this crucial community as a symbiotic one - not only do we provide them with a platform to build their personal brand, but also the one with the tools to monetise their creativity.”
Founded in 2017 by Misbah Ashraf and Ayush Shukla, Marsplay said it revolutionizes fashion shopping, by moving it away from catalogues to a personalized, curated, visual feed of fashion trends from your circle of acquaintances and your local community.
The community fully captures local and personal aesthetic influences to give users a more relevant shopping experience.
What makes Marsplay unique is a shoppers ability to purchase everything you see in your feed with a single tap, it said in a statement.
"Fashion trends, ideas, and inspirations are often derived from people rather than brands. Consumers look up to their favourite influencers not just for the relatable content but content that aids their buying decisions. At Marsplay, we believe in empowering every single person to be a brand of their own and build the most humane way for millennials to shop online," added Ayush Shukla, Co-founder, Marsplay.
Founded by Samir Sood, a former business leader from Google, early-stage fund Venture Highway is focused on investing in technology businesses in India. This July, it leads seed and pre-series A funding rounds in two startups such as MyPetrolPump and Original4Sure.
More than 40 percent Indian respondents polled agreed that they could get fired for controversial content on their social media channels, according to a survey by cybersecurity solutions firm McAfee.
Interestingly, more than a quarter (30.6 percent) admitted to only deleting posts after a crisis, and 25.7 percent "confessed" to posting negative content about their current workplace.
The survey, which included 1,000 adults in India, underlined the risks to professional reputation on account of controversial content on social media profiles.
"McAfee reveals that 40.7 percent Indians agree that they could get fired for controversial content on their social media channels... (About) 33.7 percent of respondents said they haven't done anything to change social media privacy settings despite knowing how to," it said.
The survey found 21.4 percent respondents worrying that content on their social profiles would negatively affect career/job prospects.
However, more than half (55.4 per cent) of these respondents said they had at least one dormant social media account, with 41 percent admitting they've not even thought about deleting inactive accounts or giving them a clear out.
On the positive side, McAfee also revealed that 63.1 percent respondents have set up a social media profile specifically for professional use, with 46.9 percent preferring to keep personal and work life separate.
Of those aged 16-24 years, 31.4 percent agreed that social media content was important to their career prospects, compared to 24.6 percent of those aged 35-44 years. Of those aged 16-24 years, 41.1 percent said they are very careful about social media content they post and are tagged in, as compared to 35.6 percent of those aged 45-55 years.
Despite this, Indians still have a lot of unsavoury content on their current social media channels, which is NSFW (Not Safe For Work), McAfee said.
The top 10 NSFW posts Indians are most embarrassed by on their social media included comments that can be perceived offensive (like insulting someone or controversial views), wearing an embarrassing outfit, being in a fight, and a wardrobe malfunction.
"Now, more than ever before, we need to be mindful of how we represent ourselves online. It is important to indulge in sharing content that paints you in a professional and positive light and avoid posting any content that can tarnish your professional image," said Venkat Krishnapur, Vice President of Engineering and Managing Director, McAfee India.
Consumers must conduct regular digital health checks on their social media accounts, personal and professional, Venkat added.
Plans and tariffs of Reliance Jio's fibre-based broadband services are 'non-disruptive' and "unlikely to shake things up" the way they did in wireless space, according to CRISIL Research.
"CRISIL Research believes the plans are unlikely to lead to a significant churn in the market," the report said.
In August, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio announced launch of Jio's fibre-based broadband service, offering minimum internet speed of 100 Mbps for Rs 699 a month. JioFiber will offer free voice calling anywhere in the country, unlimited data and video conferencing.
Annual subscribers will get 4K set top box, for streaming TV channels, free while a 4K television set would be complimentary with plans with higher payouts such as 'Gold' and above.
The service started rolling out commercially from September 5 to mark the third anniversary of Reliance Jio.
"The lack of pricing aggression and non-attractive bundled pricing would result in limited disruption in the under-penetrated wired broadband market. Further, higher non-refundable deposit fee of Rs 2,500 and additional cost for premium content would also dampen prospects," the report said.
It noted that consolidation in the sector is some time away. "Further, emerging developments in terms of pricing in the television distribution space will remain a monitorable. So intense attrition is unlikely in the road ahead," it added.
At the time of launch, Ambani said that the JioFiber rollout is expected to be completed within 12 months. It will reach 20 million Indian households and 15 million business establishments in 1,600 towns in the country.
"During the last year, we installed JioFiber – on a trial basis – in nearly half a million homes to fine-tune our services based on actual customer feedback," Ambani added.
(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)
Sandipan Chattopadhyay has developed a habit he is in no hurry to quit. He is a serial founder and one of the brains behind JustDial, MoneyControl and Xelpmoc Design and Tech Pvt Ltd, (which he co-founded with Srinivas Koora and Rajesh Dembla), where they work with startups who are building the solutions. The reason he can’t kick this habit is simple. He is determined to build solutions for the next 500 million Indians.
Speaking about his startup journey, and what inspired it, he says, “It started with a small step and a big vision. The products and solutions I build should be for Bharat, and not only for India.” His passion for building solutions for the masses can possibly be traced back to his childhood, which he spent in a small town in West Bengal’s Hooghly district. His formative education was also in Bengali, which fuelled his love for the language.
He believes that both problems and solutions will come from the 130 crore Indians, ‘whether it is building information platforms or reducing the cost of logistics’.
It’s all in the game
Despite the success of his ventures, Sandipan’s journey, like every other startup founder, has seen its fair share of ups and downs. So how did he keep himself stay motivated?
“I’ve always believed in having a gamer mindset. I keep on trying until the problem is solved. This mindset encourages me to find ways to beat the system and that’s what keeps me motivated.”
He is also quick to give credit to all the people who encouraged him when there were others to pull him down. “I owe a lot to my peers, fellow entrepreneurs, civil servants, and CXOs. Value protection and value distribution can be learnt from anyone around you. You just need to have the heart to learn.”
On creating discipline, inspiration and motivation
It is crucial for entrepreneurs to have a strong sense of discipline if they want to succeed, and Sandipan shares where he finds inspiration and motivation.
“My motivation hack from day zero has been to think about the people will be impacted by my creation. The prize is the derivative of that hack. It is a post facto realisation of every small step taken towards that goal,” says Sandipan.
When it comes to moments of self-doubt, which are inherent to every startup journey, Sandipan believes that one of the key aspects of not quitting on oneself when the going gets tough is to quit the things that hold you back. “You should quit your dependency and comfort zone. You should strengthen yourself. For example, one should decide to quit smoking in a single second.”
However, unlike most people who recommend diet, meditation and exercise, Sandipan believes self-care can be achieved by other means. “I believe focussing on happiness is more important than just fitness goals. And for me, being happy could be about eating biriyani at 2-o-clock at night from a roadside joint.”
And while the future of this habitual founder holds limitless possibilities, one thing is certain. He has no intention of quitting his one true dream – empowering and enabling future generations of Indians.
Don’t Quit On Quitting: Nicotex brings you inspiring stories from people who refused to quit on themselves
Nicotex, a brand committed to helping people give up smoking is partnering with YourStory to bring out a series of inspiring articles. Visit them at www.nicotex.in and create your own quit journey.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Tuesday said the slowdown in the automobile sector was due to many factors like the change in mindset of millennials, who now prefer taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber instead of committing to monthly installments to own a car.
Sitharaman said the automobile industry did have its "good times" till two years ago.
"It was definitely a good upward trajectory for the automobile sector," she told reporters.
The minister said the sector had been affected by several things, including movement towards BS-VI norms and registration related matters and (also) change in mindsets.
She said some studies had revealed that there was a change in the the mindset of the millennials not to commit any EMIs (equated monthly installments) towards buying an automobile and instead taking Ola, Uber or the Metro (train) services.
"So, a whole lot of factors are influencing the automobile sector. We are all seized of the problem. We will try to solve it," she said.
The Bharat Stage VI (or BS-VI) emission norm will come into force from 1 April 2020 across the country. Currently, vehicles conform to BS-IV emission standards.
On August 23, in a bid to address the slowdown in the auto sector, Sitharaman had announced lifting the ban on purchase of vehicles by government departments and allowed an additional 15 percent depreciation on vehicles acquired from now till March 2020.
Also, the government clarified that BS-IV vehicles purchased up to March 2020 would remain operational for the entire period of registration, while also considering various measures, including scrappage policy to boost demand.
Last week, Seeking urgent stimulus from the government in the form of GST reduction, the auto industry also cautioned that if the current slowdown in the sector continued, there would be further job losses that could have societal and social consequences.
The auto industry, through the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), has been asking the government to reduce GST on automobiles to 18 percent from 28 percent.
According to SIAM, vehicle manufacturers have laid off around 15,000 temporary workers, while dealers have witnessed around 2.8 lakh job losses with nearly 300 dealerships closing in the past three-four months.
JLL Spark, the Silicon Valley-based venture capital arm of JLL, has invested an undisclosed amount in Gurugram-based flex-space technology platform Qdesq.
Through this investment, the proptech-focused fund has marked its first India focused investment, it said in a statement.
Ramesh Nair, CEO & Country Head – India, JLL, said,
“The investment in Qdesq taps into the growth opportunity that the flexible workspace segment offers. JLL’s strong corporate relationships across the globe, combined with Qdesq’s technology platform and preferred partnerships with flex space operators, will help us provide a more comprehensive solution to our clients across 35 cities in India.”
Qdesq founders Paras Arora (L) and Lavesh Bhandari
Founded in 2015 by Paras Arora and Lavesh Bhandari, Qdesq is a digital platform that allows companies to transact flexible workspaces, managed workplaces, virtual offices, and individual offices.
At present, Qdesq has approximately 2,200 centres, lists over 500,000 desks in real time, and covering the 35 Indian cities including Gurugram, Delhi, Noida, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad, among others.
With this investment, the company said it plans to invest heavily into the analytics capabilities of its technology platform to allow enterprises to better self-solution their future real estate footprint and to allow commercial asset owners to create viable co-working and flex spaces within commercial complexes.
Paras Arora, Co-founder of Qdesq, added,
“The average time it takes to close a fixed time lease today is anywhere between three and six months. In comparison, Qdesq is able to close even large enterprise occupancy requirements within days. Our transaction volumes have been growing over 400 percent year-on-year and, with our shared vision with JLL, the opportunity is to scale the platform across Asia."
The company recently launched in the Philippines and plans to be present in most of Asia’s gateway cities in the near term.
According to a JLL study, the share of coworking office leasing has risen to 15 percent in the first six months (January to June) of 2019 from the eight percent level seen in 2018. India is one of the largest potential markets for coworking spaces in Asia, second only to China.
The study finds that the average size of transactions in the co-working segment increased from 37,000 square ft in 2017 to 52,000 sq ft in 2018 and further to 97,000 sq ft in the first half of 2019.
Qdesq provides real estate occupancy requirements for a wide variety of clients like Zomato, PhonePe, Zerodha, Bank of Baroda, Nagarro, and Hyundai.
The IAN Fund, a seed and early-stage fund, has led an investment worth Rs 12.4 crore in Pune-based Nocca Robotics, with participation from angel investors of Indian Angel Network.
Founded in April 2017 by IIT Kanpur graduates Harshit Rathore and Nikhil Kurele, Nocca Robotics leverages technologies such as AI, machine learning, deep learning and robotics to provide automated, water-less and shareable solar panel cleaning solution for utility-scale solar parks.
Speaking on the investment, Saurabh Srivastava, Controlling & Designated Partner, IAN Fund, said,
“Nocca Robotics, born in IIT Kanpur, has its unique IP for water-less robotic cleaning of solar panels and other surfaces, and is well poised to leverage the government’s focus on scaling the country’s solar power generation capacity to 100 GW by 2020. Its innovative, tech-based, unique solution will address the auxiliary challenges associated with solar energy operations.”
The startup will use the capital to set up a robust manufacturing facility to launch robots dedicated to clean rooftop solar panel installations. It also aims to bolster its R&D and strengthen the production team to deliver best-in-class products.
“Our water-less and shareable robotic solar panel cleaning solution enables plant owners to operate at peak efficiency while generating attractive RoIs, by curbing unnecessary spends on manual cleaning and increasing the power generation. Moreover, the impact that the switch to water-less cleaning option can drive on the ecological level, is immense. Water is a precious resource without which we cannot survive. Coming up with innovative alternatives to all water-based industrial processes should be a top priority of our age.”
According to Nocca, Indian solar plants spend about Rs 500 crore annually to clean solar plants multiple times a month. The plant owners also reportedly incur production losses due to dust accumulation.
Nocca Robotics addresses these burning issues by providing water-less robotic cleaning solution to utility solar park developers and large rooftop installation companies in India.
It is an incubatee company of Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre, IIT Kanpur.
The IAN Fund, a Rs 375 crore fund, invests in companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, agritech, fintech, cybersecurity, edutech, hardware products, consumer focused, leveraging VR, AI, Big Data, and deep tech.
The government may back startups operating on cattle-based business model, with up to 60 percent of initial funding, the National Cow Commission told the media. It has suggested startups to make commercial use of cow dung and urine, along with other dairy products.
“We will encourage the youth to go for cow-based entrepreneurship and earn not only from products like milk and ghee, but also by-products like urine and dung that can be used for medicinal and agricultural purposes,” Vallabh Kathiria, Chairman of the commission, was quoted in a national daily.
Kathiria has also been in talks with academicians and students regarding strategies that will draw aspiring entrepreneurs towards use of such by-products in startups. This was first reported by Times of India.
Encouraging more research in the area of medicinal values of these cow by-products, the board plans on providing platform to scholars and researchers for the same.
Shifting the focus from startups to traditional business, the commission plan on organising training programmes and skill development camps to those already running gaushalas (cow shelters).
In September 2018, the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations released a report that showed poor conditions of managing these shelters. According to its investigation in 13 states and two union territories, animal records are not maintained, the sick and healthy ones are not segregated and the cattle are poorly treated.
The recently announced developments are initiated by the ruling government to preserve and protect cows as they are discarded after they are past the age and ability to produce milk.
The commission, also known as Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog was established for the same purpose in February this year, following an approval by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The body works in collaboration with veterinary, animal sciences or agriculture departments and organisations of the central and state government engaged in research in the field of breeding and rearing of cow, organic manure, biogas, and others.
'Make $100 an hour with a social media campaign!' Most of us turn a blind eye to ads or articles that promise anything like this, deeming them scams. But 27-year-old Saurabh Bhatnagar realised that what seemed impossible was possible after he made $200 in a single night. And that one incident led him to rethink Dehradun-based Uprist Service Portal, the business he had started in 2012.
Back then, Uprist provided a multitude of services, from loyalty programmes and event management to manpower solutions. Today, the company has shifted base and its central idea. Headquartered in Goa, Uprist now focuses on online marketing services, events, and training services for early-stage entrepreneurs and businesses.
But what led to the shift from the loyalty programme model?
Uprist was started by Saurabh with his brother, Rahul Bhatnagar, and his friends, SaurabhNailwal, Dhiren Chaudhary, Yogesh Prakash, Akshay Ahuja, and Amit Nautiyal. All the co-founders were in their 20s, fresh out of college, and were keen to do something of their own. But the first four years were a challenge, with monthly profits averaging at a meagre Rs 500.
Today the team comprises Reshu Singhal, Vikas Kumar, Aditi Sharma, Dhiren Chaudhary, Suresh Mahala, Kamini Kalra, Kapil Sharma, Nirit Datta, Bhushan Boudhankar, Saurav Sen, Rohan Pandey, and Vipul Singhal, all in their 20s.
“We kept working without any direction (lack of mentorship) and were not able to do anything significant. After four years, in 2015, we decided to conduct a mega event in Dehradun. We did not have the kind of money required to organise the event, so we took money from various sources. Eventually we ended up with a loss of Rs 10 lakh,” Saurabh says.
That, he adds, was the time for a reality check and the big switch.
Alongside, Saurabh, who had an interest in online marketing, was learning and understand the different nuances of the business. He would spend his nights learning internet marketing.
“On one of those nights, I ran a Facebook ad campaign in which I invested $20 and made $200 back,” he says, adding that he had never made that kind of money before. The $200 (about Rs 12,000) was huge, considering that Uprist was making an average income of Rs 500 a month.
Saurabh saw this as a way out and began to use his self-taught Facebook marketing skills with a few clients. He started by offering Facebook ad services for a consulting fee.
“Eventually after trials and testing of over 50 business models, we stuck to product launches and trainings,” Saurabh says. The team shifted to Goa in 2017, as they felt they had more opportunities there.
Uprist today works on three models. For the software, the team claims to keep an average price of $500 to $600 for the full suite, starting with $47 to $97 for the basic access.
For the funnel mastery, of online business and sales conversion programme, they charge $297, for timeline domination $497.
The events and courses are again priced differently. The communication mastery course is Rs 6500, the EBW Goa event is Rs 16,000 and the sales and leadership masterclass is Rs 12,000.
The startup sells quick and easy-to-use marketing software that help business owners increase online income. Their focus is increasing leads, traffic, or sales of business owners.
Their latest product AdsCrisp helps users create professional quality video ads in three easy steps.
“Our recent launch of AdsCrisp software generated revenue of $250,000 in seven days. Software owners from all over the world reach out to us and if we feel the software is a right fit for the market, we partner with them to launch their product,” Saurabh says. They tied up with is Dream Big Tech Ventures Private Limited for the "AdsCrisp" Launch.
Apart from the software, the startup offers online marketing training and mentorship. It has set up an online marketing university, Saurabh Bhatnagar University, for this.
The team also provides support in terms of communications and events. Their event, EBW (Enrichment Begins Within) held early this year in Goa, has speakers from different domains talking on topics like Facebook ads, affiliate marketing, SEO, domain names, SaaS businesses, webinar funnels, and product launches.
This May event, the team claimed to have had over 500 attendees. The team also conducts a sales and leadership masterclass in Delhi in August.
The team claims to now be making revenue of over a $1 million every year.
Social media marketing is all the rage these days, and has become a powerful tool for companies to measure their performance. However, the only way to know what works best for companies is by using analytics to measure the engagement, users, traffic, and sales coming their way.
According to Allied Market Research, the global social media analytics market is expected to reach $9,383 million by 2022, at a CAGR of 29.2 percent.
There are several startups working on solving this problem. There is Mohali-based Vaizle, which was released on global platform AppSumo. The startup sold product licences worth $150,000 in just 15 days. Others in the space include Social Bakers and Quintly.
The team is looking to launch its software platform in January 2020. They are also focused on their next EBW event, and are expanding their sales and leadership masterclass to several cities.
“The plan is to take the event to the four major cities of India,” Saurabh says.
Coworking spaces, the future of the workplace, have mushroomed across India at an astounding speed. With over 850 coworking spaces, most concentrated in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, and over 179 in Tier II and III cities, India is the second largest market for flexible workspaces in APAC, second only to China. Reason enough for Mumbai’s iconic Famous Studios to launch Famous Working Company (FWC), a coworking space that aims to foster creativity and offer creators “access to the entire spectrum of services that cater to their art”.
India is the second largest market for flexible workspaces in APAC, second only to China.
The 73-year old studio, located in Mahalaxmi, aims to step into the future by combining creativity and innovation, and helping Gen Y build companies “that are forever inventing new ways to tell great stories”.
“Members of the coworking space have access to shooting stages, in-house motion capture facility, the Phantom Flex Lab, ready-to-shoot sets, and the editing suite at a discounted price,” says Anant Roongta, Founder and Director of Famous Working Company.
Anant is a third-generation entrepreneur, and the grandson of JB Roongta, the Founder of Famous Studios.
Along with all the other facilities that a usual coworking space provides, FWC offers facilities like a private 55-seater movie theatre, a sound recording studio, studio spaces for shootings and events, “ready-made content spaces” such as a walk-in closet, beauty terminal, kitchen, interview set, and access to events and concerts at Famous Studios.
Lights, camera, action
The era of studios dawned in early 20th century, after Dadasaheb Phalke made India’s first film, Raja Harishchandra, in 1913. Phalke later moved to Nashik, where he established Hindustan Films, a studio that offered every facility —locations, actors, technicians, and post-production - under one roof. Soon after, other studios came up in Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, and Lahore (then part of undivided India). Mumbai houses numerous studios currently, including iconic ones such as RK Studio (now sold) and Mehboob Studio.
The story of Famous Studios goes back to pre-Independence India. Set up in 1946 by JB Roongta, the studio was a bold foray into the world of Indian cinema and television. During it course till now, the Roongta family tried keeping up with changing times and needs and along the way bagged awards such as Dadasaheb Phalke and the Indian Motion Picture Association’s recognition for its outstanding contribution to Indian cinema.
In 1990, JB Roongta’s son took over the business and expanded it further with new-age film-making technologies. Famous Studios restored films like Pakeezah, Sholay, Masoom, Woh Saat Din, Coolie, and Mr India, among others during this time.
The show must go on
When Anant decided to join the family business in January 2018, he decided to keep up with Gen Y, which is increasingly making and consuming digital and OTT content.
Anant says he saw a wave in media industry with a lot of individuals creating videos, YouTube channels, small production houses, and a rise in coworking spaces. However, he felt that none of the coworking spaces met the needs of media entrepreneurs and freelancers.
Anant Roongta, Founder and Director of Famous Working Company.
In June this year, he decided to start Famous Working Company in a small section of the 110,000 sqft Famous Studios.
“FWC is spread across 10,000 sqft and offers facilities like flexi desks, private cabins, an outdoor glasshouse courtyard for lounging, and a games arena. We have 140 seats as of now and rentals start from Rs 10,000 per month at present,” Anant says. Members can choose desks in the Nest, Beehive, and Den spaces.
Anant says FWC is a blend of a creative co-working space and existing infrastructure for creating content such as studios, production, and post-production facilities.
“We have services like visual engineering and India’s second-largest Dolby Atmos Home Mixing Facility for the OTT original content space. Any member gets direct access to this,” he says.
A seed investment of about Rs 1.5 crore has gone into the coworking space, and has been fully funded by the Roongta family.
The coworking market
Apart from global players WeWork, CoWrks, and Awfis, and others like 91Springboard, the Hike, and InstaOffice, the coworking space is seeing many new entrants. With the industry expected to reach a valuation of $2.2 billion by 2022, it sets a strong tone for growth within the sector across India.
But FWC stands out as a coworking space for the creative professional, one that provides individuals and groups with all the infrastructure and help they need.
“Our clients are of a mixed variety, ranging from tourism companies to production houses, law, and financial firms,” Anant says.
He says that a coworking space inside a studio doesn’t only attract professionals, but also other people as this gives them a chance to rub shoulders with celebrities, see behind-the-scenes activity, and indulge their inner film geek.
FWC is aiming to create a community of creators with its incubation centre that provides access to entrepreneurs, creatives, mentors, investors and tech gurus.
As of now, the coworking space generates revenue from seat rentals and events and workshops at the coworking space. The co-working space is already breaking even and “should have a positive bottom line in the next couple of months”, Anant estimates.
Picture abhi baaki hai
Since launch, FWC has been at 50 percent occupancy and Anant hopes to have the space “full” by the end of November.
Anant says the Roongta family will make future investments into the coworking space as needed. Going ahead, he plans to increase the capacity of FWC by another 200 seats by April 2020. As of now, the plan is to keep the coworking space at the studio premises only.
“We will focus on converting our property into a cultural hub, and will have an array of events such as stand-up comedy gigs, concerts, product launches, film and advertising productions and art shows,” Anant says.
Bengaluru-based woman health tracker app Maya (by Plackal Tech) has come under scrutiny for sharing confidential data relating to sensitive personal information with third parties, including Facebook, according to a report from Britain-based privacy watchdog, Privacy International.
The information includes menstrual, emotional cycle as well as the sexual health of a user. The report further stated that Maya, which has over five million downloads on Google Play, informs Facebook when a user opens the app.
Referring to the above action, Privacy International further explained that there is already a lot of information Facebook can assume from a simple notification: that the user is probably a woman, probably menstruating, and possibly trying to have (or trying to avoid having) a baby.
Moreover, the report claims that even though a user is asked to agree to their privacy policy, Maya starts sharing data with Facebook, even before that, which has raised some serious transparency concerns.
However, after Privacy International shared the report with Maya, the company claims to have removed Facebook core and Analytics SDK from Maya. In a response it said,
“We understand your concern that in addition to providing the Analytics SDK, Facebook is also a social network and an ad network. We have hence removed both the Facebook core SDK and Analytics SDK from Maya. Version 3.6.7.7 with these changes is live on the Google Play Store and will be submitted for review to the Apple App Store by this weekend. We continue to use the Facebook Ad SDK, post opt-in to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. Maya does not share any personally identifiable data or medical data with the Facebook Ad SDK. The Ad SDK helps us earn revenue by displaying ads that our users can opt out of by subscribing to Maya's premium subscription.”
Facebook is not the only third-party having access to all this data. It is also shared with CleverTap, a customer retention platform that helps consumer brands maximise user lifetime value.
Maya was acquired in an all-stock deal in January, this year, for an undisclosed amount.
Earlier today, as a part of its blogpost, Sheroes, responded to the crisis and denied about selling data to Facebook or any third party. The blogpost said, “Recent reports of Maya leaking user data or breaching it for commercial reasons are absolutely false, baseless, and very, very inaccurate. They are also one-sided and sensational.”
“Like most apps, websites also use analytics and email tools like Google, CleverTap, FB Analytics, and many more. Every website, app, and platform uses analytics to improve user personalisation and experience. There is absolutely no breach of customer data, identity or commercial use of it,” Sheroes added in the post.
The women social network said that Maya is on a mission to build products that make a positive impact in the lives of women, and Sheroes takes pride in the trust its users put in Maya as it follows best practices on data privacy.
The annual festive season sale from the ecommerce industry has started to rev up with Flipkart announcing its flagship event The Big Billion Days this year will spread over six days starting from September 29 up to October 4.
A press release from Flipkart said, “This year, more than ever, the Big Billion Days will be celebrated all across India, from metros to Tier IV markets and beyond. Over the last few months, Flipkart has scaled up its supply chain considerably, both in first- and last-mile delivery, largely in underpenetrated parts of the country to cater to the needs of consumers and sellers.”
In preparation to The Big Billion Days sale, Flipkart said it has doubled the number of pincodes where it offers pick-up capabilities to sellers and has added around 30,000 kiranas to its network to handhold consumers through their online purchase journey.
The company said that during this sale period, consumers will have access to the widest selection of brands and products across categories. The key categories to watch out for will be mobiles, gadgets, TVs, appliances, fashion, personal care, furniture, etc.
According to the ecommerce major, for the first time, consumers will be able to buy insurance for appliances during the Big Billion Days.
On the Big Billion Days sale, Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said, “Every year, Big Billion Days marks the beginning of India’s festive season and every year, we set out to deliver the best possible experience for our consumers and our lakhs of sellers. This year, more than ever, we are partnering with brands, MSMEs, sellers, and artisans to deliver unparalleled selection and user experience to our consumers.”
To increase the affordability factor during the sale, Flipkart is also providing various loan options like Cardless Credit, Flipkart Pay Later, and No-Cost EMIs on leading bank debit and credit cards. There will also be a 10 percent instant discount for Axis Bank debit and credit card users and ICICI Bank credit card users.
Over the past year, Flipkart has scaled up the selection available under its private brands, with 10,000+ products under 200 categories, specially designed for consumers. In addition, for the first time this year, India’s community of artisans, weavers, and craftsmen will be able to participate in this festive event through Flipkart Samarth.
For the Big Billion Days 2019, Flipkart has partnered with India’s favourite Bollywood and sports superstars, including Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, Virat Kohli, and MS Dhoni, among others.
1568149997375.jpg?fm=png&auto=format)
1568150933947.jpg?fm=png&auto=format)
1568146945674.png?fm=png&auto=format)
1568143262235.png?fm=png&auto=format)
1568144796351.gif?fm=png&auto=format)
1566550630791.jpg?fm=png&auto=format&h=100&w=100&crop=entropy&fit=crop)
_(1)1565602090478.png?fm=png&auto=format&h=100&w=100&crop=entropy&fit=crop)
