Without it, you won't know if what you are building solves a real problem for a large enough market.
Achieving product-market fit may take years for many startups, but once you do, customers resonate with your product and make 10x efforts to try to find and buy your product.
But Amit Somani, Managing Partner at Prime Venture Partners, believes that while product-market fit is important to a company’s future, it may not be enough to attract VC funding.
“Most venture capitalists prefer long-term investments and returns. Momentary spikes of growth or temporary indicators do not loosen their purse. Just on the product-market fit front, you will need to achieve more to convince a VC to invest in you and give solid reasons for that decision,” he says.
Watch the Prime Knowledge series with Amit Somani, brought to you by Prime Ventures, an early-stage VC fund investing in technology and product-focused businesses:
Why product-market fit is not enough
The most frequent reason VCs turn down startups with product-market fit is that entrepreneurs have the tendency to believe that they have reached product-market fit when, in reality, they have not. It is natural for a founder to get excited about growth. A momentary surge in revenue flow or an increase in the number of subscribers may seem like customers are finally accepting the product after all the hard work.
However, these are not reliable measures. Growth may happen due to the limited period deal offered or temporary shift in market sentiment. These will not last the test of time.
VCs understand that reaching the coveted balance between product value and customer effort is not a one-year job.
Product-market fit only happens when your product is 10x better than all other similar products currently available in the market, or the value of your product outbalances the customers’ efforts by a factor of 10.
This takes time to realise and reach. Once attained, you need to maintain it to prove its existence. Obviously, VCs remain skeptical of founders’ product-market fit claims and want to look at more than just this one parameter.
What else do VCs look for?
Let us suppose you have product-market fit, whether you realise it or not. You are already ahead in the entrepreneurial curve. Along with this assuring attribute, VCs look at three more parameters to test your eligibility for their funding:
The market size of your product
Product-market fit is really useless if there are not enough customers to resonate with your product. You may have solved the pain points of a few people, but that is not enough to generate substantial returns for your investors.
If you claim that you have product-market fit, the first thing your VC firm will test is your market size.
If you can show a large number of potential customers who are or will be willing to buy your product, you have just crossed the first hurdle to receive your funding.
A viable business model
You must also show the VC your capability to sustain your business. What will the revenue flow be like? What will be its rate? Can you continue to maintain your product’s quality? Is customer service top-notch?
Your planned business model must cover all the relevant areas, close as many loopholes as possible, and ensure sustenance under all possible circumstances. VCs like startups with viable business models who know that their customers will continue to pay for the products that they are offering.
The distribution channel of your product
How exactly are you reaching your expansive customer base? This will cover your supply chain, marketing techniques, retention policies, and so on.
The VCs will also look at your go-to market strategy when revenue flow might dry up, and inspect the possibilities of your financial and customer cushions.
True product-market fit can only happen if there is a healthy distribution channel between your product and the market. Otherwise, your product will sit in the inventory while your customers move on to your competitors.
How to achieve all these in minimum time?
Well, you cannot.
As an early-stage startup, you cannot expect to achieve product-market fit, find a large customer base, create a solid distribution channel and build a viable business model. However, you can still attract VC funding by having these essential parameters in your plan.
It is important to frame convincing strategies around these aspects in your pitch and show the VC that you have all the corners covered. It is as simple as that.
What do you do when your kids hate learning math and science?
According to Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 56 percent of children in Class 8 cannot do basic arithmetic. Also, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) shows that Class 10 students in India have math and science levels at par with Class 6 students in Singapore.
In 2012, Gomathi S and Dr. Balaji Sampath sat down and wondered if they could do something to make these subjects interesting to young school children.
“Since a lot of schools have underperforming teachers, most students end up going for coaching. But most institutes make students memorise formulas and question patterns instead of focusing on concepts and reasoning,” says Gomathi, explaining why she and Dr Balaji started Chennai-based AhaGuru Education Technology Private Limited.
“Most coaching classes thrive on making students feel like losers. Even good students lose confidence when they get into Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) or National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) coaching classes.”
Realising there was a need to change the approach to learning, AhaGuru was started to create a new breakthrough in the quality of science and math being taught across the country. AhaGuru’s research team focuses on how every topic can be made interesting and easy for students with a special focus on skill-building.
“The goal is not merely to grab attention through fancy animation, but to deepen subject mastery. AhaGuru ensures that every student feels like a winner,” says Gomathi.
Educational expertise solves the problem
Prior to starting up, Gomathi also founded Eureka Schools, a model for innovative teaching. Her ‘Science-in-a-box’ experiment kit became a huge hit as it used simple tools to demonstrate important concepts and is being used in over 1,200 schools today.
AhaGuru focuses on "conceptual learning through experiments" driven primarily by Gomathi wherein innovative teaching techniques, fun experiments, and visual demonstration are used to help students grasp and remember things better.
At AhaGuru, apart from taking classes, she manages day-to day-operations of the company.
Dr Balaji has been in the education space for nearly three decades. He founded AID INDIA in 1997, and has educated more than two million village children and trained over 4,000 teachers in science and math across 2,700 schools. He also initiated a tutoring programme with 3,000 tutors in small towns and villages to supplement school learning. At AhaGuru, apart from teaching and developing content, Balaji is in charge of technology product and strategy.
With the deep research done by their expert team and more than three decades of experience in the education sector, the founders of AhaGuru claim to have simplified the learning process.
The structure of each lesson is so finely tuned to the exact level of the student that the student “immediately gets” each concept and how to apply it.
A complete learning solution for all
Based in Chennai, AhaGuru has two products: a mentored learning programme and live virtual online classes. The former provides students with a personal mentor to track their progress and answer their doubts. The latter is a two-year programme that helps students directly learn from expert teachers.
“The ‘live virtual’ classes are so popular that many students who used to attend physical classes have dropped them and shifted to this mode,” says Gomathi. AhaGuru also provides a free app that offers free videos and questions every day.
She adds that only metros have access to coaching centres with some decent faculty, making it difficult for families in small towns to access quality coaching. By making the entire learning and coaching system digital, AhaGuru is enabling families to stay together and not compromise on children’s education.
“By ensuring that a complete and best learning solution is accessible to students from their homes, AhaGuru is tearing down the traditional urban-rural divide in entrance exams like IIT-JEE and NEET.”
Students speak
Keerthana Kasi, a student of AhaGuru, was able to score All India Rank 12 in NEET, All India Rank 31 in AIIMS, and All India Rank 5 in JIPMER, thanks to the coaching provided at AhaGuru.
“The AhaGuru online videos are very useful to understand concepts that you may not grasp in your regular class. The concepts are explained in a unique way where everything seems so simple,” she says.
Another student, Srinivas Adireddi, says the online courses for math and science provided by AhaGuru are like no other. “The teachers and their brilliant and simple way of teaching concepts of advanced levels broadened my understanding and developed me to face the future.”
Srinivas was able to clear the entrance exam to a reputed institution in Visakhapatnam, with a high rank.
Doubling business using WhatsApp
Over time, the founders realised that most of their customers were using WhatsApp, so they decided to do most of their content marketing through the app. AhaGuru uses both the WhatsApp business version 2.19.34 and the WhatsApp user version 2.19.17.
With the group feature, communicating with students, tracking their progress, and instantly clearing doubts is much easier. Most importantly, they use WhatsApp for instant doubt-solving.
“We have formed several batches of students with mentors. Every day, our students get hundreds of doubts addressed this way,” Gomathi says.
She adds that the biggest challenge they face in the online learning business is the completion rate by students. There are various studies which estimate the average completion for a 10-hour MOOC course is as low as 15 percent.
But with the help of WhatsApp, AhaGuru is able to ensure that more than 70 percent of students complete 200+ hours of online learning in a year.
Since using the app, the company's business has doubled each year and it has received positive reviews. Within three years, revenue grew from Rs 70 lakh to Rs 6 crore.
The road ahead
Today, AhaGuru has a strong team size of 80 people. The founders look forward to using WhatsApp Business to create campaigns to reach more potential customers. They also plan to integrate WhatsApp into their website, to send timely reminders to students.
“Without WhatsApp, it would have been very difficult for us to help our customers - our students,” Gomathi says .
It’s no simple task teaching math and science, but with AhaGuru’s carefully designed courses and a little help from WhatsApp, students are finding these subjects easier and are succeeding in their exams.
International Women’s Day isn’t just a day to celebrate the idea of womanhood but to also recognise the achievements and success stories female entrepreneurs and leaders in various fields. In this article, we celebrate the achievements of women currently working in the legal-tech space, so that more women are encouraged to join the field.
According to the National Judicial Data Grid, over 31.26 million cases are pending in Indian courts. Even if no new case is filed, it will take over 300 years to just clear this backlog.
As per a state-funded survey conducted by Daksh Foundation, 40,000+ cases are filed each day and Rs 80,000 crore per annum is lost due to delays in court hearings. This is one of the reasons why the legal space needs greater participation of women.
L-R : Meghana Srinivas, Sonam Chandwani, Akshetha Ashok, Namita Shah
Each one of the women listed below is working to achieve that. With their startups and leadership, they are aiming to improve the legal system in India and to bring justice quicker to those who need it:
Akshetha Ashok
Akshetha Ashok is the Co-founder of Sama, a Bengaluru-based legal-tech startup that aims to improve the justice system in India.
Founded in 2015, Sama helps people resolve disputes without having to go to court and in a more amicable manner by providing online mediation, conciliation and arbitration services.
“Mediation is a way of resolving disputes where two people sit across the table and, with the help of a neutral third party called the mediator, reach a settlement. It is a collaborative process that focuses on win-win solutions. Sama helps people save time, money, and relationships,” Akshetha says.
Akshetha Ashok, Co-founder of Sama
While an average case in India can go on for five years, Sama takes between three weeks to three months to settle a case, Akshetha adds.
Owned and operated by ODRways Solutions Pvt Ltd, Sama works on a fully online platform to resolve disputes between businesses and customers, employers and employees, landlords and tenants, professionals and clients, or anyone else. The startup can help resolve disputes of a wide variety in almost any location in India.
Akshetha is also the Chief Coordinator of Indian Mediation Week (IMW), the access-to-justice campaign that aims to create awareness and educate the layman about the benefits of resolving disputes by communicating and collaboration, instead of in court.
Sama-backed IMW is officially supported by the Supreme Court Mediation Committee, NITI Aayog and Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India.
Based on the motto “Suljhao, Magar Pyaar Se” (Resolve, But With Love), the campaign was conceptualised and initiated in Kolkata and has spread to 102 cities across India, with more than 2,000 volunteers working with it.
In less than 18 months, it has sensitised more than five lakh people about the benefits of mediation, and resolved over 600 cases, ranging from consumer disputes and family issues to mining disputes of over Rs 400 crore, with the help of professional mediators.
Going forward, Sama intends to resolve 25 lakh disputes by 2024 and also aims to build a repository of one lakh mediators and arbitrators in the country. The startup’s online dispute resolution platforms aim to cut down the time taken to resolve a dispute to two-three hours.
Sama is presently working with ICICI Bank, the largest private bank in the country in terms of assets, to help resolve 10,000 banking disputes through online conciliation and online arbitration services. It has 114 mediators and 79 arbitrators working in 21 cities across India. The startup also claims to have a strong online case management system with 849 trainer case managers in 16 cities across India. Sama has a 60 percent resolution rate, taking an average time of 2 hours to resolve a dispute.
Meghana Srinivas
Meghana Srinivas is the Founder and CEO of TrustIn, a seven-month-old Bengaluru-based legal-tech startup for reporting and redressal of POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) cases and also supports end-to-end implementation.
“At TrustIn, we believe everyone should feel safe and empowered to pursue their goals. And we know this sense of safety matters at the workplace - companies and college campuses - where we spend most of our time,” Meghana says.
Meghana Srinivas, Founder and CEO of Trustln
Starting with the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) legislation, TrustIn’s reporting-redressal system encompasses all labour, civil, and service laws to implement safety at the workplace.
“With best-in-class legal and tech frameworks, we're empowering companies to implement a culture of confidentiality and compliance, including a comprehensive, central case workflow that includes annual and case reporting, automated deadlines and documentation, legal upskilling chatbots for Internal Committee members, and role-based restricted access to ensure effective data handling,” Meghana says.
“We're also integrating sensitive support structures that enable all employees to educate, escalate, and advocate for themselves, with real-time updates and support dashboards for complainants and respondents of each active case,” she adds.
Meghana is a UC Berkeley graduate and is passionate about enabling equitable access to all. She has managed multiple programmes and teams in the social impact space at major nonprofits, including Teach For India.
In the past seven months, the TrustIn enterprise reporting-redressal platform has gained three clients, supporting 3,500 pan-India employees.
“We're also beta piloting a super admin platform for POSH partners to manage and scale their services,” Meghana says.
While the US, UK, and some other countries have platforms for complaint escalation, there is little to no support or standardisation for the underserved Asian workplace safety market, according to Meghana.
Apart from India, 15 other Asian countries employ a civil court system of adjudication for workplace misconduct (including Singapore's POHA, or the Prevention of Harassment Act). TrustIn aims to bridge the implementation gap across these countries by empowering both enterprises and employees.
Sonam Chandwani
Sonam Chandwani is the Managing Partner at KS Legal & Associates, a Mumbai-based law firm representing a wide range of geographies and disciplines.
KS Legal has established itself as a legal powerhouse in the areas of dispute resolution, insolvency and bankruptcy, general corporate, banking and finance, media and entertainment and real estate laws. The firm has advised more than 200+ corporate clients, including some of the most reputed Fortune 500 companies.
“Our lawyers and support staff strive to exceed the expectations of clients, which include corporates, government bodies, regulators, trade bodies and non-profit organisations, by providing the highest quality advice and legal insight. We combine global standards with in-depth local expertise,” Sonam says.
Sonam Chandwani, Managing Partner at KS Legal & Associates
The new-age firm makes use of modern legal and business technologies and methodologies, to adapt to the growing and ever-changing needs of its clients and the legal industry. The firm leverages technology to improve quality, efficiency, and client experience.
KS Legal employs over 50 lawyers from across India who are dedicated to delivering quality legal services to clients locally and internationally. The firm has a presence in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai, and plans to expand to three more cities this year.
Namita Shah
Namita Shah is the Co-founder of Presolv360, a Mumbai-based online platform that provides access and encourages the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) via an insurance-based approach to resolve commercial disputes.
“Using Presolv360’s technology, parties can safeguard themselves from prohibitive costs, traumatic experiences, time-consuming processes, and ruined relationships that follow protracted litigation, and instead ensure speedy and effective resolution at a minimal cost,” Namita says.
Namita Shah, Co-founder of Presolv 360
Founded in 2017, Presolv360 offers an insurance-based model that encourages parties to resolve contractual disputes without the need to litigate. Contracting parties pay a nominal annual commitment fee to insure their agreement, and if a dispute arises concerning that agreement, Presolv360 uses its online platform to resolve the dispute via negotiation, mediation or arbitration - as per the choice of the initiating party.
Presolv360, which uses AI and data analysis, claims to be a first-of-its-kind online dispute management platform, accessible from computers, laptops, and even smartphones.
“This not only saves costs, but also serves as a commitment from parties to choose alternative mechanisms over litigation, thereby making dispute resolution affordable, accessible, and convenient in the true sense,” Namita says.
Presolv360 currently works with several MSMEs, digital lending platforms and insurance products, and has been recognised by the Ministry of Law and Justice. It has so far served clients from Mumbai, Pune, Guwahati, Puducherry, Bengaluru, Dubai, and the UK.
The startup currently has resolved over 100 cases, some free and others paid pilots. When it comes to securing agreements, it has recently opened its platform to commercial use and is currently doing pilot projects with NBFCs and banks in Mumbai.
So far, Presolv360 has remained self-funded but is now looking to raise funds to further automate dispute resolution.
Kolkata-based AKVO designs and manufactures atmospheric water generators that require no water source to produce purified drinking water from the atmosphere.
At YourStory’s Future of Work 2020, India's largest product-tech-design conference, Jay Dutta spoke about the importance of the design sector in the tech world.
International Women's Day is finally here and to celebrate, we’ve compiled a list of 12 powerful quotes from the women who rule Bollywood.
From Priyanka Chopra to Tabu, these actresses have shattered the glass ceiling, smashed patriarchy and have, time and again, made the case for equality and women empowerment. These top quotes by top-notch actresses are sure to make you proud and inspire you to work towards change.
"You can be an absolute woman, and also be smart and tough and not lose your femininity." - Priyanka Chopra
"I think being a woman, by itself, the very fact that you are a woman is a gift of God which all of us must appreciate. The origin of a child is a mother and is a woman. And a woman is the one who shares the love and shows a man, what love, caring and sharing is all about. That is the essence of a woman." - Sushmita Sen
“I don’t know why beauty is attached only to women. I don’t believe it’s gender-specific or even species-specific.”- Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
“Women need to be empowered through the strongest tool: education. They don't need to be subservient to anyone, but at the same time, men must change their mindset towards women. If they are more respectful towards them, then things will change at the grassroots level. It will happen slowly, but everyone has to move together.” - Madhuri Dixit
“Never lose focus on what you want for yourself. People will try and pull you down. There might be things in your life that will deter your confidence. There might be days when you want to break down; there could be days when you feel like giving up. It’s extremely important to be emotionally strong and focused. Do it your own way. And don’t be afraid of making mistakes.” - Deepika Padukone
"No gender is fairer than the other. Women are not doormats. We are equivalent to men. It is just that we have different bodies and different biological needs. We have capacities that should be celebrated and rewarded in society." - Kalki Koechlin
“I don't take success and failure seriously. The only thing I do seriously is march forward. If I fall, I get up and march again.” - Kareena Kapoor Khan
“Be comfortable; be you. What's most important is to understand what suits your body type and personality. Stick to that, and you can't go wrong.” - Sonakshi Sinha
“For me, men and women are different. A man is genetically gifted to pull more than a woman. But at the same time, I don't consider women to be any less than men. In fact, I feel we are far more intelligent than them.” - Kajol
“Having failures in life is important to understand where exactly you stand.” - Anushka Sharma
“Whatever you do, do with determination. You have one life to live; do your work with passion and give your best. Whether you want to be a chef, doctor, actor, or a mother, be passionate to get the best result.” - Alia Bhatt
“I don't want to be called a feminist, but I don't disown feminism. Our actions are more important than these labels.” - Tabu
Indian billionaire entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is a pioneer of the biotech industry in India. She founded Biocon Limited, the country’s leading biotechnology enterprise, in 1978 and serves as its Chairperson and Managing Director.
Starting at the age of 25 in a field that was not understood by many, Kiran calls herself an “accidental entrepreneur”. Though she had plans of pursuing a career in brewing, she became the head of India’s leading biotechnology firm and spearheaded Biocon’s growth from an enzyme-manufacturing company to a bio-pharmaceutical.
A highly-respected business leader, Kiran has been named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. In 2019, she was named the 65th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.
In 2004, she established a social responsibility wing at Biocon, the Biocon Foundation. It focuses on health, education, and infrastructure. Known for her philanthropic endeavours, she was awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, India’s fourth and third highest civilian honours, in 1989 and 2005.
Her outstanding contribution to the fields of science and chemistry, along with her will to succeed, distinguishes her as one of the most successful female entrepreneurs of our times.
On International Women’s Day, YourStory brings you a list of quotes by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the woman who broke the glass ceiling and became an inspiration to many.
“An entrepreneur’s life is always a continuous journey.”
“It is always nice to reflect on how one started.”
“As you become more successful, the gender barrier disappears. The credibility challenges you have during your growing-up years start disappearing when you start demonstrating success.”
"I really believe that entrepreneurship is about being able to face failure, manage failure, and succeed after failing"
"One of my objectives when I started Biocon was to make sure that I created a company for women scientists to pursue a vocation"
"Entrepreneurs need to script their own jouney, figure out their own things, and solve problems.If you keep running back to your mentor at the drop of your hat, you're not an entrepreneur. A true entrepreneur is a risk-taker, problem-solver, a person who's willing to face challenges and failure."
“Mentors in an entrepreneur’s journey should only help stay focused. I don’t think any entrepreneur should keep going back to a mentor asking ‘what should I do next’? That is not entrepreneurship.”
“You have to build a culture of philanthropy. In a country like India, we need to be sensitive and caring about the poorer, more disadvantaged section of our country.”
“Once you start succeeding, you start dreaming big. For me, it was that way.”
“My philanthropic efforts are largely directed towards making a difference to global healthcare, especially in the developing world.”
“I call myself an ‘accidental entrepreneur’. I was all set to take up a brewing job in Scotland when a chance encounter with an Irish entrepreneur led me to set up a biotech business in India instead.”
“I believe in never giving up, no matter what the odds. My mantra is, 'Failure is temporary. Giving up is permanent.’”
“I want to be remembered as someone who put India on the scientific map of the world in terms of large innovation. I want to be remembered for making a difference to global healthcare. And I want to be remembered as someone who did make a difference to social economic development in India.”
“I learnt that business was about being emotionally driven about investing, but being emotionally detached when it came to divesting and that’s a very strong learning.”
Ambrane isn’t a brand you would usually look for while buying audio products. It isn’t a household name yet, but that doesn’t mean the products aren’t good.
The brand new Ambrane Fireboom 2-in-1 detachable speaker took inspiration from the design of the TWS earphones and adapted it to a Bluetooth speaker. It’s no surprise then that the Fireboom has won the RedDot Design Award for 2019.
The Fireboom comes with a 3,000mAh battery that can run for eight hours on a single charge. The range isn’t much but with an asking price of just Rs 3,999, is this worth spending your hard-earned money? Let’s answer that for you.
Design, display, and features
The Fireboom is a 20W speaker (or rather a boombox) that can produce 360-degree sound. It has mini-woofers on either end, and can be twisted and separated into two mini 10W units.
A silicon strap holds the two speakers together, but it’s your choice whether to use them at all. The strap doesn’t connect the speakers; it’s only there to serve as a makeshift stand. As a bonus, there’s also a loop at one end that can be used to hook the speaker up to a knob on the wall or your bag.
The two speakers have angled designs and can be kept on a table without worries of them falling off. The design also serves a second purpose. The mini-woofers can be pointed in any direction. Both speakers have volume controllers, which double up as a fast-forward/rewind button. The power buttons double up as a play/pause button.
Each speaker has an individual micro-USB port for charging purposes.
Last but not the least, the Fireboom has an IPX7 rating, which means it is dustproof and waterproof. It can withstand up to one metre of water for up to 30 minutes. But we don’t recommend that you don’t try this.
For optimal sound, it is recommended you place it flat on the power buttons. So what if it rolls over? You don’t want to muffle the mini-woofers. Also, keep the two speakers together. If you’re buying this product to place them in different parts of the room, remember that there will be a lot of audio drops as the range isn’t very good.
With both the speakers together, the 20W output provides for a rich and balanced sound. When one is watching sports, it almost feels like one is inside the stadium. That’s as good as it can get for a Bluetooth speaker of this calibre.
The problem is that the design doesn’t do much to help improve the quality of the audio. The mini-woofers don’t provide the bass you might be hoping for.
Still, keeping all that in mind, the speaker does a fine job with low frequencies and even the highs don’t crack unless it is at full volume. Speaking of which, the full volume isn’t as loud as you’d expect it to be. Don’t expect these speakers to drown out a party when needed. They’ll be good for background music, though.
The problem I faced was both with connectivity and range. Trying to get both the speakers to work together was a huge pain. I tried multiple smartphones and even my Galaxy Tab S6, but both speakers just wouldn’t work in tandem most of the time. The speakers would connect to individual devices, but both wouldn’t connect to the same device.
Ambrane needs to create an app to better control this. It’s a simple fix with a software update/app, and we hope the company pays heed to it soon.
Lastly, the range of the speakers isn’t much. Just a couple of metres for optimal connectivity. Go further away and you’ll notice many drops in sound, some for a few seconds, and some lasting far longer. Keep the speakers close to your device and they work almost flawlessly.
Ambrane has done a good job vis-a-vis battery life. I got close to eight hours on a single charge. That’s what the company claims and it delivered. Considering the 20W output, this is pretty good indeed.
One has to individually charge both speakers, and though there isn’t any fast charging, the speakers don’t take too long to charge. Each speaker takes about two-and-a-half hours to fully charge after being completely drained.
Are the Fireboom speakers worth the price?
At Rs 3,999, the Fireboom Bluetooth speakers from Ambrane are a decent buy. If you’re okay with occasional drops in sound then this should be on your shopping list.
The Fireboom has an innovative design, a solid build, good battery life, and solid audio output.
However, the frequent loss in audio may prove enough to deter potential customers. One hopes that is fixed with a firmware update or in the upcoming Fireboom 2.0 (assuming its successor is in the works).
Blockchain technology, which is being used extensively in safe transactions, data security, and a few other applications, is now being deployed in space. And Accubits, a startup based in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala, has taken the lead. The developers claim that they are all set to launch the world’s first blockchain satellite, called Chainsat.
On the concept of blockchain-powered satellites, Aharsh MS, Chief Marketing Officer, Accubits, tells YourStory,
“Chainsat will serve two purposes. One, it will act as one of the nodes of a private blockchain network or consortium blockchain. Second, it will enable a communication channel between different nodes of the blockchain network.”
The Accubits team at their office location
The startup aims to send a low earth orbit satellite, weighing 12 kg, to space for establishing an enterprise blockchain ledger that can enable a secure transactional network for next-generation financial and IoT systems. It wishes to send it to the orbit by Q1 2021.
Besides, the startup will develop the software and firmware for the satellite while the hardware part will be collaboratively built by Accubits and a vendor. For this, the startup is in talks with multiple firms for collaboration.
One-of-its-kind solution
Not all businesses are established in well-connected areas like Tier-I or Tier-II cities, but are set up across Tier-III cities. Today, companies have sprung in remote areas as well with dire connectivity issues.
Here, Chainsat will enable a secure communication channel for enterprises to use a blockchain network. According to Aharsh, Chainsat will enable businesses across the world to meet the specific requirements, as it acts as a blockchain node, or a point of contact for the enterprises.
For instance, for agro-related businesses, the production farms are remotely located and most of these places do not have internet accessibility. Here, Chainsat can help in establishing communication to access a blockchain ledger for applications like supply chain traceability and other crucial operations.
Besides, the satellites will be no different from the rest in the orbit in terms of its orbital presence, launch and operation. What differs is the software architecture and the internal hardware that is designed to host a blockchain node.
In terms of its functioning, communication with the satellite will be established via three communication channels.
One will be with UHF (Ultra High Frequency) telemetry with 115 kbps data, second, S-Band payload transmitter with up to 5 Mbps data and, third will be an experimental X-band transmitter with up to 150 Mbps data. The satellite will also have an onboard data storage of 4 TB in space hardened memory modules.
Aharsh says, “The satellite will host a blockchain node which will communicate with the terrestrial entities via the satellite communication to access and update the blockchain ledger.”
Using space for secure business
Blockchain technology has the potential to emerge as a reliable solution as it offers many benefits to enterprises. But the dilemma here is that the communication between different nodes in a blockchain network is enabled through the internet.
The issue arises where most of the enterprises, government bodies, and banking institutions have regulations in place that restrict it from storing information on public-facing servers or systems that are connected to the internet.
Accubits Founder Jithin VG presenting the concept of Chainsat at Kerala Space Park
Measures are in place to ensure the data is not accessed by unauthorised parties. Due to this reason, enterprises are not able to adopt the blockchain technology to its full potential.
Aharsh says, “This is when we decided to build a communication channel that is independent of the terrestrial internet to support the blockchain requirements of enterprises”
Blockchain is one of Accubits’ core technology focus. The team has worked with several organisations like Dubai Land Department and International Deal Gateway with their blockchain adoption and transformation.
Accubits has also offered blockchain consultation to several federal agencies and banking companies. In the process, it identified that one of the main bottlenecks in the adoption of blockchain technology is the security vulnerability posed by the internet.
On the cost, Aharsh says, "From the user perspective, cost-effectiveness is not relevant because they do not have an alternative option. Accubits will have to invest Rs 8 crore to 9 crore for Chainsat, but the potential business value of the solutions provided by Chainsat is way more than that."
The road ahead
Accubits now works in collaboration with Space Park to expedite the logistics involved in the project.
Aharsh says, “Space Park is an initiative by the government of Kerala for developing a comprehensive SpaceTech ecosystem leveraging on the expertise available in the region from the various units of ISRO and many professionals with deep expertise in information technology.”
Accubits won the Frost and Sullivan Award for the most promising blockchain consumer application developer in 2018. Several market research agencies like MarketWatch and Research and Markets have recognised Accubits as one of the key players to enable blockchain technology in the banking industry.
The team consists of blockchain developers with ingrained experience. In 2019, the startup opened a research lab, named Accubits Invent, to facilitate research and development in blockchain and AI technologies.
A graphic representation of Accubits Satellite
For now, the R&D for the mission is done at Accubits’ development offices in Kerala. The startup is funding the entire operation from its own resources.
When asked how will it will fair in India, Aharsh says, “India is the second-largest software exporter in the world. Blockchain technology is booming and we can expect more adoption of the technology in the coming years. Chainsat can empower the software vendor ecosystem of India to build blockchain solutions via the services exposed through APIs.”
In February, Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon, who is also currently the world’s richest man, announced that he was committing $10 billion for a new fund - Bezos Earth Fund - to focus and help combat climate change. While the exact details of the fund aren’t disclosed, his Instagram post read:
“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet. I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share. This global initiative will fund scientists, activists, NGOs — any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world. We can save Earth. It’s going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation states, global organisations, and individuals.”
However, Bezos has faced criticism on the impact Amazon cloud services has on the climate because of the solutions they provide to the oil and gas industry.
In recent years, climate change has become a hot topic. Whether it is 17-year-old environmentalist Greta Thunberg, Hollywood actor Leonard DiCaprio or even governments, climate change has been making headlines.
The impact is seen closer home. India is one of the most-affected countries when it comes to the phenomenon of global warming and climate change, considering it has a large population to feed and thereby an extensive agricultural setup. Erratic rains and fluctuating temperatures have been at the helm and is taking a toll on both agricultural productivity and farm revenues.
While there are several agritech startups like DeHaat, AgriBolo, CropIn, Satsure, EM3, and several others that are providing solutions to help farm yields, the question arises whether investors are looking closely at startups that are part of the climate change conversation. It seems they have just got the ball rolling.
“Climate change and its adverse impact is being recognised globally. At Orios, we see an opportunity in the usage of cleaner technologies that helps us eat, commute, cool or warm our surroundings, and entertain or take care of our health in a more responsible and sustainable way while not taking up the cost too much so that there is widespread and early adoption,” says Anup Jain, Managing Partner at Orios Venture Partners.
Data on Indian startups
According to YourStoryresearch data, over 40 startups in the agritech and cleantech space raised $383.15 million in funding in 2019, and in the three months of 2020, six startups have already raised $44.91 million in funding.
In 2018, 28 startups in agritech and cleantech space were funded with $572.91 million. While the quantum of investments in 2018 was higher, in 2019 the number of deals significantly increased.
These numbers do not include the investments made in the electric vehicles space, as electric vehicles are a different story altogether.
Deepak Gupta, Founder of WEH Ventures, adds,
“I think climate change by itself is a macro global problem that no one actor can solve by itself. The specific domain areas that are engendered by the climate change agenda such as EVs, and solving urban pollution problems do lend themselves to investment possibilities and we have looked and are looking at those.”
In these two years, a total of 74 startups were funded, amounting to $1 billion in the space. Andwith each passing year, investors seem to be keen to fund startups in the space.
Until late 2018, startups in the cleantech, agritech, and energy space were the focus of impact funds or boutique firms, primarily due to the nature of their businesses. However, they are now starting to become more mainstream.
The year 2019 saw Tiger Global investing in Ninjacart, and others like DeHaat raise funding. And 2020 is likely to bring the spotlight on agritech and impact-driven startups.
Mark Kahn, Managing Partner, Omnivore, says,
“Climate change is central to Omnivore’s agritech thesis. We believe there is a huge opportunity for startups that will help improve the climate resilience of Indian farmers. For example, with their focus on protected (greenhouse) cultivation, Clover is building fresh produce B2B and B2C brands that can rapidly grow in a world of rising temperatures and erratic weather. Similarly, DeHaat is helping smallholder farmers across eastern India to improve their profitability and sustainability, despite the challenges of climate change. We expect to do an increasing number of climate-centric deals in the coming years.”
Apart from these,companies like Shell are also looking closely at energy tech startups. In 2018, it made a $20 million Series C investment in cleantech startup Husk Power Systems. Nexus Venture Partners participated in an investment of $2 million in the Delhi-based agritech startup Intellolabs.
Are the models sustainable?
While this is a start, there needs to be more investment in the space. According to a report by Qrius, with the current resources and size of its population, India needs to invest nearly $1 trillion to address climate change goals.
Deepak Menon, Chief Programme Officer, EMEA at Village Capital, in an earlier YourStory article, said,
“I think it’s a global trend…maybe more so in Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East. Founders are looking to solve quality-of-life issues and socio-economic disparities."
There also needs to be growing awareness towards global warming and climate change. An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in 2018 said that the global warming trends, if not reversed, can have severe implications to countries like India and Pakistan.
Startups working on the problem is one step. A burgeoning and growing population of over 1.3 billion people currently lack awareness. While NGOs and other not-for-profit organisations are working to build awareness, the impact hasn't reached the grassroots.
Sanjay Nath, Managing Partner, Blume Ventures, says many startups are focused on climate change. Blume had invested in Carbon Clean solutions way back in 2011.
“If startups are finding unique and innovative solutions to the problem, they need to be backed. But, then, like for funding any startup, the idea needs to be towards sustainable models as well,” says Sanjay.
Last week was certainly quite action-packed for the Indian startup ecosystem when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in a rare move, put Yes Bank under a moratorium. While this caused nation-wide panic to its customers, the bank's digital partners were also affected, including PhonePe.
SuperZop Co-founders Prithwi Singh and Raghu Allada
Agri-commerce startup SuperZop’s B2B platform connects thousands of kiranas with the dry commodity supply chain. It has grown 10X in a year and wants to expand pan-India.
The Supreme Court’s decision to lift the ban on cryptocurrency trading has come as a booster shot for startups, entrepreneurs, and investors to reinvigorate this ecosystem.
Amazon Alexa is everywhere, especially in India. But even as you buy the newest Echo device, did you know these six women are the brains behind the beloved voice assistant?
At YourStory's Future of Work 2020, investor Siddarth Pai and lawyer Vatsal Gaur get on a fireside chat with Shradha Sharma to decode startup and funding challenges.
Gunjan Patidar, Chief Technology Officer of Zomato, started as an intern at the company, and went on to build the foodtech unicorn’s core tech systems.
Social commerce startups are making merry as rising smartphone usage and low data costs have created a market of millions of first-time internet users in India.
Officer Aditya Ranjan at one of the model anganwadis
IAS officer Aditya Ranjan is walking the talk when it comes to driving social change by revolutionising the state of education in the Shingbhum district of Jharkhand.
Vodafone may be one of the largest telecommunications companies in India, but it is not out of touch with the startup ecosystem and believes in working with entrepreneurs.
From working with startups in the category of IoT, cloud, and colocation services, to mobile analytics and marketing, Vodafone has helped businesses scale up using its unique flexi kit.
At the third edition of Future of Work, a YourStory initiative that took place recently, Navnath Wadekar, the General Manager of Startup Business, Digital & Alternate Channels at Vodafone spoke about scaling up startups and touched upon areas where businesses tend to fail in the process.
Once a business is ready with a product, it is always looking for a partner and a way to distribute. But as a business grows, technology needs tend to change.
“Earlier, we had simple anti-viruses on our desktop. However, as you grow bigger you need to have full-fledged firewalls to safeguard your data points,” Navnath said.
Further, when a business scales, complexities tend to increase, which, if one’s not careful, may render the growth of a company stagnant.
“That’s why startups and SMEs look for mentorships—experts who can come and handhold them, in terms of navigating through the roller coaster ride that is running a business,” Navnath explained, adding that startups often err by turning to funding to fuel growth. This is a mistake, Navnath believes.
Vodafone is currently helping startups reach out to the end customer. The first step has been to let startups figure out the right target audience for their product.
“As a teleco we have a subscriber base of around 30 crore,” Navnath said.
Vodafone also provides startups a toll-free service, which is integrated with an interactive voice response (IVR). At the back of the IVR is where you have your agents.
“What typically happens when one starts off with the launch of a product is that the company runs marketing campaigns as well as digital campaigns, following which all queries get rounded off to one single number, and from there on you can configure how you wish to route it, and where you want to route it,” Navnath explained, calling this the most effective way for a startup to reach out to its target audience and then figure out its lead management.
Navnath deemed telecos necessary when it comes to scaling a business as they help startups get access to the right leads, and brings awareness about who is the right target audience for their product.
For instance, the telco helped Diabetacare,a leading diabetes speciality hospital in India, by identifying their target audience on the basis of multiple surrogates.
The two came together and Vodafone helped provide IoT solutions to Diabetacare’s devices. This helped the hospital make real-time connections with its patients.
Vodafone helps IoT companies by giving them connectivity, helping them with hardware, and providing them with a strong platform.
“Apart from IoT companies and other market services, the other areas we help provide solutions to scale is through managing the connectivity and security," stated Navnath.
Vodafone, he said, is working on a goal of helping startups connect to employees, manage operations, and bring efficiency to the maximum as well as reach customers with zero seepage.
Finally, Navnath elaborated on the flexi kit the telco has brought out for startups.
“Here is an offer. All of you sitting in this room can get a benefit from Vodafone of up to Rs 65,000 as part of our flexi kit, a unique single recharge service option for prepaid users where they can use both data and voice in the same pack without using them separately, and have more flexibility and convenience under one plan."
Vodafone has big plans to work with startups. "We are also planning to conduct mentoring sessions with our execs who are industry leaders and will help you understand how large corporates function, specifically in the distribution vertical, HR vertical, how they manage their finances, and how to evaluate digital channels,” he said.
When online shopping came into the picture, many predicted death chimes for brick-and-mortar stores. The comfort of shopping from mobile apps and websites from anywhere anytime was a big respite for the time-crunched millennial shoppers. Moreover, for the price-sensitive shoppers, heavy discounts and coupons worked wonders. However, regardless of the convenience, millennials are still loyal to physical stores. In fact, these young consumers quite enjoy the in-store shopping experience.
So, what exactly do millennials want?
Millennials are extremely savvy customers considering that the online channels provide them information they need, and are vying for their attention so that they end up accessing the best products and services. In fact, many of them polish their shopping skills online by surfing through the product ratings, reviews, and feedback to choose the vendors that provide the best value and service.
However, this doesn’t stop them from frequenting brick-and-mortar venues simply because they also want to touch and feel the product prior to purchasing.
When it comes to shopping, millennials are looking for a unified and seamless experience across multiple channels—brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce platforms, or mobile apps. That means being able to effortlessly transition from smartphones and laptops to physical stores in their pursuit for the best products and services.
The level of experience and excitement these millennial customers are expecting now is the new norm even for retail brands in Tier-II/III/IV cities. As consumers, they have stopped viewing online and offline as separate entities, and are considering various touch-points to interact with a brand: offline, online, mobile, via social media, and much more. Thus, to stay competitive in this retail landscape, it will be important for retailers to find innovative ways to connect with new-age shoppers and engage them as they browse and shop in-store.
Millennials tend to make a majority of their choices based on their experience than the product itself. So, retailers must emphasise on developing a customer-centric approach in their business so that consumers can interact with the product or brand and even provide feedback. This will enable retailers to generate better brand recall and escalate their sales. Many retail brands have already started integrating traditional elements with tech-enabled aspects like in-store tabs to add layers and new experiences to their old-fashioned retail models.
Today, online players in fashion & lifestyle and beauty & personal care segments are already acing the game by delivering experience-based shopping through integration of augmented reality and virtual reality. Witnessing their success, offline stores too are following the trend by implementing these immersive technologies to redefine convenience for consumers.
A handful of value retail chains in the country have also started leveraging these technologies to enable the new-age consumers to simply walk in, find their preferred products/outfits through a virtual inventory, and try the outfits via virtual mirror without actually having to do it physically. This is facilitating a seamless retail experience to the consumers even in small towns and cities.
Big data is yet another revolutionary technology that has made its way into the offline retail space to enable businesses to understand their customer expectations by predicting the popularity of products and identifying relevant customers for each.
Brick-and-mortar retail is here to stay…
The retail environment is perhaps changing faster than many companies would have expected in the coming years. It is primarily because companies are constantly making deeper changes across the organisation to deliver products and services in a seamless manner to millennials and the tech-savvy future generations. While the future looks promising, with brick-and-mortar stores having a firm place in the future of shopping, retail businesses will have to actively introduce millennial customers to their products in ways that utilise technology, in order to nurture profound engagement and a more personalised, connected experience.
(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a weekly feature from YourStory, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week (see the previous post here). Share these 65 gems and insights from the week of March 2-8 with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights. See also our compilation of Top Entrepreneurship Quotes of 2019here.
No matter what your background is, you have the power to follow your dreams and create a better life for yourself. - Mahalakshmi, Ola
It's not just about feeling passionately about the problem that the other person is facing, but also doing something about it. - Shruti Nair, Youth Years at Ashoka
It is very important to set short term, achievable goals and do everything in your power to achieve them. Each time you do so, you will gain more confidence in yourself. - Priyanka Shetty, Mimmo Organic
Never can enough be said about the importance of evolving. - Ritu Chawla Mathur
Your work has the power to initiate a dialogue, spark a change, and challenge us with reimagined possibilities. - Padmaja Nagarur, ArtFlute
The doors are wide now, but it is up to you to unlock the treasures inside. - Hardik Mehta, Kaamyaab
The most important element around holistic development is that the student should learn certain soft skills. - Prateek Shukla, Masai School
Math is the language of everyday thinking and problem-solving. The ability to hold a job in the near future will depend on a person's math ability, making it one of the most valuable skills. - Manan Khurma Cuemath
The reward of the young scientist is the emotional thrill of being the first person in the history of the world to see something or understand something. Nothing can compare with that experience. - Cecilia Payne
In a country struggling to outgrow millennia of entrenched gender hierarchies, being a woman entrepreneur is one of the most challenging career paths a person can take. - Vaibhav Vasa, Biz Analyst
Understanding the need of each women entrepreneur and providing her with the right amount of capital with guidance is key. - Ritesh Jain, FlexiLoans
Education begins at home. If the society has to change then parents must teach boys about mutual respect for all. - Vishal Saurav, Xboom
Women must take the ownership to drive their growth trajectory and make conscious efforts to not shy away from speaking their mind. - Sonali Thite, Flipkart
Right from television to films, media has helped change the outlook of people towards women. - Sonia Huria, Viacom18 Media
The future of the PR industry clearly includes many female leaders, and the forecasted figures only point towards an unprecedented perpetual increase. - Anindita Gupta, Scenic Communication
When one woman helps another, amazing things can happen, and professional careers can leap forward. – Gargi Dasgupta, IBM
While the world has mustered the political will to send many girls to school, it has come up embarrassingly short on equipping them with the skills and support they need not only to shape their own destinies, but to live in safety and dignity. - Henrietta Fore, UNICEF
Never try to be a man in the so-called ‘Man’s World’ of corporate leadership and entrepreneurial journey because it’s a privilege to be a woman. - Swati Biswas, Terrago Logistics
Always playing safe is never a great recipe for success and neither is being reckless - you need to arrive at a middle path. - Jaya Singh, Texas Instruments
In today’s ever-evolving business environment, only companies that are inclusive are set to succeed in the long run. - Apporva Ranjan Sharma, 9Unicorn
Despite the global economic climate, India's startup and VC ecosystems continue to thrive as investors take a long- term view based on the country's growth potential. - Arpan Sheth, Bain & Company
Only concerted efforts by the government and private sector can build a future-ready workforce. - Siddhartha Gupta, Mercer|Mettl
Taxing people before they have made money is a stressful thing. - Deepak Agarwal, Auric
The coffee lovers’ landscape has evolved across the globe and the cold brew coffee concept has gradually seeped into the Indian markets as well. - Ajai Thandi, Sleepy Owl
With the increasing presence of local growers and passionate home-brewers taking interest in their morning cuppa, coffee has come a long way from simply being just another drink in a tea-loving nation. - Abhinav Mathur, Kaapi Machines
Healthy food need not be boring. They can be tasty and be equally pleasing in terms of aesthetics. - Sunayana Hiran, Enerjuvate
Despite buses being the most popular means of intercity transport in the country, the market is highly fragmented and non-standardised. - Aloke Bajpai, ixigo
Everyone is finally realising that they have to work with the kiranas instead of trying to replace them. - Prithwi Singh, SuperZop
The water resources in the world are fast depleting, and it is time to make the world water positive and renew our groundwater sources. - Navkaran Singh Bagga, AKVO
Collaborate to Create is a requirement in today's times to achieve the goal of sustainable growth and lay the foundation of our future. - PM Narendra Modi
Lack of egalitarian healthcare is a major problem, and the silence of the medical community is unsettling, to say the least. - Savitha Kuttan, Omnicuris
These days private greed seems to be winning over public good. Unfortunately, the former is influencing the government to a large extent. - Harish Kumar, Namma Bengaluru Foundation
Europeans like cooler colours but in India, we like warmer colours. Within India too, there are myriad tastes and preferences. - Madhur Goel, STENNA
Weavers always have a story to tell. Like why he chose a particular colour. Why was a saree not in green or pink but in red or blue? - Nishant Malhotra, WeaverStory.com
Mithila art is unique and the coming generation should also think about keeping it alive. - Godawari Dutta
Public art festivals bring to the fore a collective excitement of reaching out to a much larger audience than the confines of either a museum or an art gallery. - Sumi Gupta, VR Bengaluru
It isn’t about how many hours you code in a day. It is about what you code. - Gunjan Patidar, Zomato
No one questions the value of data – but many companies need to re-invent their approach to data governance, analysis, and decision-making. - Sanjeev Vohra, Accenture
Technology in the construction space has coincided with growing demand for faster construction and world-class quality. - Gurjot Bhatia, CBRE
While innovation has in some way or the other tweaked our clothes and accessories, socks have remained neglected. - Vidushi Kanoria, Soxytoes
As long as crypto firms are maintaining thorough identity checks and performing audits (as they were doing earlier), any company should be allowed to trade. - Arpit Ratan, Signzy
As businesses become increasingly tech-heavy, there is only ever going to be a growing need for no-code platforms to take the burden off of development teams. - Joyeeta Das, Gyana
Telemedicine is indeed a bright spot in the future of healthcare today, and is already playing a significant role in improving the accessibility of healthcare services for remote and under-served populations. - Vikram Thaploo, Apollo Hospitals Group
The companionship of the people who are with the founder or the founding team is very important. It is just like a marriage. - Avnish Bajaj, Matrix Partners India
Leadership is the self-confidence of working with people smarter than you. - Azim Premji, Wipro
Making quick decisions and taking risks is an integral part of any business and we cannot afford to shy away from doing either. - Komal Agarwal, Pebble
Sometimes the only kind of innovation comes when you have some solitude; when you step away. - Anand Mahindra
False optimism can easily lead you astray and prevent you from making contingency plans or taking bold action. - Sequoia Capital
One has to be a fighter and not be afraid of taking risks, one needs to constantly innovate and hire a team of trustworthy people. - Harjinder Kaur Talwar, FICCI FLO
A company that looks at problems of other companies and learns from their mistakes is a successful one. - Dilip Shanghvi, Sun Pharmaceuticals
Conscious, systematic marketing is not a distraction from your product. It is your product. - Philip John, ‘Labyrinths’
You have to go way deeper than conventional marketing strategy if you really want to build a brand that customers and employees truly like and respect. - Mohit Jayal, Motherland Strategic Design
Companies squander a third of their customer acquisition costs on preventable lead losses. They also face the unpredictability of sales outcomes and an inability to replicate success at scale. - Surga Thilakan, Salesken.ai
A collaborative approach between corporates is essential to enhance the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country by linking talent, technology, capital, and know-how. - James Unterreiner, Shell E4 Startup Hub
Each hardship will make you stronger. Have a clear winning attitude and believe in yourself. You are your biggest supporter. - Julia Carmen Desa, TRES
Nobody tells you how hard entrepreneurial journey is as one has to make a lot of sacrifices. It is like going through a sauna, sweating day and night. - Asheesh Mehra, AntWorks Group
YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple,Android).
Nawal Lodha spent over a decade at Cisco as its sole enterprise architect in India. He dabbled in emerging technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), built next-gen platform APIs, found use cases and customers, operationalised the products, and moved to new domains.
In 2018, as India’s IoT ecosystem picked up, Nawal focused on a use case that concerns us all – power banks and mobile charging. With a surge in smartphone-led media consumption and gaming, handsets are continuously running out of power.
“If you don’t always carry a power bank with you, it can be an issue because public charging stations aren’t a thing in India, unlike in China,” Nawal tells YourStory.
He had, of course, identified a pain point and was readying a fix.
This was also when the chatter around the sharing economy was growing louder by the day. Volumes were being written about how millennials didn’t like owning things anymore. Cars, bikes, houses, furniture, workspaces, etc. — they shared all.
Nawal Lodha (right) and Abhishek Kumar, co-founders of Plugo
Combining a definite void and an emerging trend, Nawal founded Plugo, an IoT-enabled and fully automated power bank rental platform. He also roped in US-return techie Abhishek Kumar as his co-founder and head of engineering.
Plugo was incubated under Nasscom’s 10000 Startups initiative in August 2019. By September, it had launched pilots in Bengaluru, starting with Nasscom centres.
Nawal, who also serves as the CTO, says,
“A distinct behavioural shift has happened, and with players like Bounce (scooter sharing platform) scaling up fast, investors are realising that the sharing economy is a real thing and will lead to the creation of new business models.”
The startup has built a network of internet-connected vending terminals to dispense power banks across physical locations like airports, metro stations, offices, coworking spaces, shopping malls, restaurants, hospitals, colleges, etc.
Users can locate the nearest dispenser through the Plugo app on their phones. They can do an OTP-basedsign-in and pay a refundable security deposit of Rs 199to be able to eject the power banks from the terminals.
The platform is entirely subscription-driven, and follows the rent-charge-return model, which the Co-founder calls “the Bounce model”.
Plugo operates 900+ terminals in 800 locations in India
He explains,
“You can pick up a power bank from any of our dispensers and return it at another dispenser in any city we are present in. All our servers are IoT-connected and do not limit your usage to locations… just like Bounce scooters.”
Users can enjoy unlimited pick-ups and drops on subscribing. Based on usage, Plugo offers hourly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly plans.
Each power bank has a capacity of 5,000 mAH and comes with inbuilt cables.
Plugo has self-designed its power banks and roped in a Chinese partner to manufacture the devices. Each power bank has a capacity of 5,000 mAH and comes with three types of inbuilt cables, which can charge USB Type B, Type C, and iOS devices.
Nawal shares,
“Each dispenser has 10 slots, but we fill about six. The empty slots are for users to return the power banks. Our servers track demand and movement in real-time, and we have operations teams on-ground to take care of the rebalancing.”
Plugo terminals have 10 slots each, and its servers track real-time movement of power banks
Plugo has more than 900 terminals in close to 800 locations across five cities: Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Surat, and Goa. It plans to start operations in Delhi-NCR over the next few months.
While metros are its ‘prime markets’, the startup has set up kiosks in Surat and Goa to understand demand in Tier-II cities and tourist towns. “We are trying to gauge if there are any specific patterns in small and tourist towns, so we can replicate the learning in other locations,” Nawal shares.
In seven months, the bootstrapped startup has processed 40,000 rental requests, and clocked 31 million minutesof charging, with 90 percent of the usage happening in the last two months. Plugo looks to add two lakh users in the next two months.
Plugo terminals at the India Mobile Congress 2019
The founder says partnering with major industry events hasgivenit quick visibility and traction. Plugo has serviced events including India Mobile Congress, Indian Railways IREE Event, Bengaluru Tech Summit, Nasscom Product Conclave, Nasscom Technology Leadership Forum, TiE conferences, and various college festivals.
Plugo is also inking long-term business partnerships with foodtech companies and logistics operators such as Swiggy, Zomato, Flipkart,eKart, Rapido, and others. “Delivery executives face a critical problem when their mobiles run out of battery. We are placing Plugo terminals at delivery hubs and inside cloud kitchens,” Nawal reveals.
Plugo charging stations at Bengaluru Tech Summit 2019
The startup has roped in other institutional clients like Fortis Hospitals, Phoenix Marketcity, OYO, Bengaluru Metro, Mumbai Metro (run by Reliance), and is also in talks with telecom companies to launch bundled service offerswith handsets.
“We are looking at B2B partnerships at the top so that we can proliferate across centres and levels. The feedback we received is extremely positive, and users have said that they felt a sense of independence with a service like Plugo,” states the Co-founder.
While Plugo claims that it was India's first power bank sharing platform, it is not the only one. The market has witnessed the mushrooming of similar services like Grover, MobiJuce, ChargedUp, Spike, and others.
But, Plugo believes that its biggest opportunity lies in improving asset utilisation and reducing the carbon footprint of power banks.
Plugo has a 28-member team and is operational in five cities now.
Nawal elaborates,
“India is estimated to have 100 million power banks, but the utilisation is just one percent. That means your power banks are idle for 99 percent of the time when millions of others can use them. We can bring down the Lithium footprint by removing the need for people to own power banks and replace it with a shared economy of power banks through platforms like Plugo.”
Given that India’s sharing economy is projected to reach $20 billion by 2024, according to EY data, opportunities abound for startups like Plugo.
But it won’t stop at power banks. “Our aim is to get into EV battery swapping at some point. That is picking up well. Renting is the way to go,” says Nawal.
In his seven years at Y Combinator, Dalton Caldwell says he has seen the Indian entrepreneur mature from building tech for local needs to scaling it globally.
Dalton is a Partner at the US-based accelerator that makes early-stage investments in startups. He has worked with over 400 Y Combinator companies and has met with around 100 Indian startups, guiding and investing in the likes of ClearTax and Razorpay before they became well-known names in their sectors.
Before Y Combinator, Dalton was an entrepreneur. His first startup, Imeem, was sold to MySpace in 2009. He joined Y Combinator in 2013, and drawing on his experience so far, he advocates young entrepreneurs to go beyond the narrative and focus on the business.
With the deadline for applications to Y Combinator’s summer 2020 batch just around the corner (March 16, 2020), Dalton speaks to YourStory about how the accelerator has seen a 5X jump in startup applications from India, and his thoughts on the ecosystem in the country.
YourStory: Do you remember the first set of Indian entrepreneurs that were assigned to you?
Dalton Caldwell: The first company I met with and helped was Razorpay. Five years have gone by so quickly and now you can see they have become a large company in India. I interviewed the founders when the product was just an idea and not yet live. They were driven when they came to Y Combinator and although it took them longer than usual to build the product, they were able to launch it here. This was in the winter of 2015.
Now you see their success and wonder how one makes sure to pick a startup that wins. Starting up is not easy; there are many ups and downs. You should not doubt yourself or be discouraged.
What I liked about the Razorpay founders (Harshil and Shashank) was that they were concise when they presented the idea of facilitating payments in India with a two-factor authentication. They kept it simple and told me they had some funding and had built some part of the idea from IIT-Roorkee, where they went to college. Apart from the articulation they were credible, and this goes a long way when you are building a business.
For me, people should communicate well and have the knowledge of having built or shipped a product. These two things are very important.
DC: Connectivity is key and you have seen how Jio has changed the game in India. I remember meeting ClearTax, who were also part of Y Combinator, and discussing the growth of the product. We often talked about how for any country to have a robust startup ecosystem you need a strong network.
To deliver a great product a country needs great connectivity and a great payment process. In India, we now see both. I also see that countries like India are maturing to bring forth an era of super apps. Rappi, one of our startups from Columbia, has became a super app for Latin America thanks to great connectivity and proliferation of mobile phones.
In India you have four things going right: smartphone penetration, digital payments, lot of consumers, and fast internet. I have met a lot of companies solving the online and offline interaction and I believe software companies are truly international from inception.
If you look at B2B SaaS, they have scaled up enormously and serve global needs. In India you have Freshworks and Zoho that are now global companies. I have met companies in Europe that have gone global too. They start with local markets and finally serve the world. So, when any startup comes to Y Combinator they see the global perspective, they meet global investors, and work with some of the best people.
YS: Who, according to you, makes a good startup founder?
DC: I don't believe in the cut-throat competition side of the startup world. A founder must make friends and understand how to build a team with values. I believe this will build a long-lasting company. I have seen so many startups raise money on narratives and fail because the product did not meet expectations. I like founders who create an environment for competence and commitment. I tell them to go beyond networking and narratives, and build a great product.
I started my first company before there was Y Combinator, or a AWS, for that matter, as there was no concept of the cloud. As a founder I had to understand that we needed to have in-house servers and a lot other things. I did not have access to good mentors and the internet was very different.
I believe it is easier to start up today than it was two decades ago. I see a lot of startups growing because of the cloud and there a lot of co-creative business models happening with startup founders, developers, and the apps that they deploy. I see new business models emerging with two or three companies converging to offers services together. One of our startups, Zapier, is already doing this integration of apps and workflows.
It is important to go beyond fundraise and build financially viable products. As a founder you are in it for generating value with the product, and not a narrative. There have been significant changes in India and I believe it is only going to become better with each passing Y Combinator batch. It is by far the region with the largest number of applications in this batch.
YS: Do you see big ideas coming out of India, since the last date for applications for the summer batch is March 16?
DC: I see many trends that have seen massive success in India. It has a big consumer base and mobile penetration is very high. You don't have to look beyond the success of software as a service.
It's great to see Freshworks and Zoho scaling up and inspiring others. That tells you that there is a lot of maturity with Indian founders.
We look for founders who are focused on social impact with their startup. We are the only place where a startup need not come to us with a reference. You can apply at any stage of your business to be part of Y Combinator and also come back for the next batch if you are not selected when you apply the first time around.
In this current batch we have had so many applications from India; it is our top region for the number of applications received.
We’re hosting interviews in Bengaluru from May 12-14. These will be like the regular Y Combinator interviews in every way. The application is the same, as well as what we look for in the application and the criteria for acceptance.
Accepted companies will join the Summer 2020 batch immediately. The in-person programmestarts in June in Mountain View, California, but funding and access to Y Combinator partners and resources happen right away.
Fintech startup Karbon Card, which is based out of Bengaluru and Shanghai, has raised a seed funding of $2 million led by angels in India and China. Some of the angels included Kunal Shah, Founder and CEO of Cred, Amrish Rau, Co-founder of Citrus Payments, and Jitendra Gupta, Co-founder of Jupiter.
The funding will primarily be used for product development, market expansion, and operations. The fintech startup was founded at the end of 2019, and issues Karbon Card, a corporate card to startups.
Speaking of the fund raise Pei-fu Hsieh, Co-Founder and CEO of Karbon Card said in a press statement,
“Building a startup and pursuing your passion can be quite challenging. Along the journey, many founders wish the banks could be more appreciative and supportive of the startup's ambitions. Unfortunately, the banks’ position to protect their customers’ savings at all cost make their requirements and policies rigid and unfriendly to startups."
Karbon Card core team
He added that Karbon Card is a startup founded with a vision to empower all Indian startups to achieve more through a Karbon Card.
"We will strive to improve your cashflow with credit, help you to spend wiser and manage better through our suite of products. Let us worry about these issues while you focus on changing the world," Peter added.
The startup offers an interest-free corporate credit card that includes rewards specific to startups such as AWS credit, Uber, HubSpot, Freshworks discount, and MakeMyTrip, and also expense management software among others.
Prior to starting Karbon Card, Pei worked with US-based VC fund Kleiner Perkins and Chinese fund 01VC, which focused on investments in India. He was earlier with McKinsey and also built from scratch and managed many ventures at Rocket Internet.
Amit Jangir, Co-founder at Karbon Card stated, “The journey to building Karbon Card has been dotted by many ups and downs, as is the case with most startups. However, our greatest moment of pride was when we observed that the majority of our early customers have begun to refer and unequivocally praise the Karbon Card to other startups. This validation along with the continued support from hundreds of other startups such as Cred, Jumbotail, MyGate, among others have been incredibly encouraging to our team, assuring us that we are on the right track.”
Karbon doesn’t charge fees of any kind at present. The card and the rewards across platforms like Hubspot, Segment, and the like are completely free for startups to use. The revenue model primarily revolves around taking a cut of MDR when the card is swiped at any merchant.
Jitendra Gupta, Founder of Jupiter, said, “I can see first-hand that within a short span of a few months, Karbon Card has been embraced by many Indian startups. We see massive potential for this sector in India. I myself am not just an investor but also an avid user of Karbon Card.”
"A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous" This adage by the iconic Coco Chanel is timeless and the base of strength for women everywhere – from the demure belles to the boss ladies in boardrooms – as they take on the world. Be it women in high-heels and designer handbags, the casual or athletic achiever and even the voluptuous diva – they’re all unique and beautiful in their own way as they break glass ceilings and blaze the unique trails that they take.
Even as women continue to smash stereotypes, doing so is no easy task. What we often don’t take into account is the fact that, at times, it takes support to help them reach the top.
Behind every successful man there may be a woman, but behind every successful woman, there’s a crucial support system.
A strong support system, the kind that keeps pushing you to be your best self, is the most important of all. One may find it in your close-knit group of friends, family, colleagues, or anyone who makes you feel good about yourself and has your back, always. It is unbelievable what just a little bit of support can bring.
Enamor, India's premium lingerie brand, ushered in Women’s Day by celebrating the power of this crucial support system with its #AllForSupport campaign. The campaign celebrates the woman of today and showcases their trials and tribulations – working mothers, entrepreneurs, new brides and more – and how all they need is some support to make it through the day.
These women are driven by their dreams and their career is carved by individuality. The roles she plays, be it at work or at home, have evolved over the years, much like her relationship with her bra. As strong as she is, it is her support system that makes her stronger.
Support makes all the difference in her life and the support that an Enamor bra can give to your confidence is unparalleled too. Part of life is experiencing ups and downs. And Enamor is a friend they can rely on during the tough times. Independent, confident and with a mind of her own is Enamor’s definition of a successful woman and it celebrates this success by providing impeccable fitting, support, unmatched comfort and style. Through the campaign, Enamor is committing itself to be #AllForSupport.
Channeling this value of celebrating women in all their glory, Enamor is the only company in India that offers multi-size fits and wearer trials. Enamor has invested heavily in not only understanding the body shapes and sizes, but also the habits, usage and attitudes of women across different ages, groups, and ethnicities to ensure that every style meets body requirements of every Indian woman.
Every woman has her own unique personality, quirk, style, attitude and more - the same goes for size. Without putting women in stringent brackets and shackles of size and ideal body types, Enamor is focused on creating an experience that lets every woman feel fabulous inside and out, every day.
Keeping with the theme of their brand positioning – Fabulous Everyday – the lingerie brand has been paving the way for women to feel empowered, supported and understood. No wonder that Enamor is special to every woman – a proposition that has worked well and has proven to be successful for the brand. They have a talented team of leaders who are passionate about building Enamor as the most trusted lingerie brand.
In fact, Enamor is leading the way in celebrating women not just with its products, but also within its own company. Since the brand’s inception in 2003, Enamor has done all it can to support women not just through its size-inclusive collections, but also through the working environment they have created for their team, 85 percent of whom are women, and all of whom are working towards meeting the evolving needs of the modern Indian woman.
In its decade long journey, the brand has won numerous Awards and Recognitions for its commitment to celebrating the fabulous in each and every woman. Voted Superbrand for the third year in a row, Enamor has not only won praise from the industry but also the love and loyalty customers too.
Winning the Best Organisation For Women Empowerment at The Great Indian Women Leadership Awards in 2019 was an affirmation and this #AllForSupport campaign a further celebration of all the values Enamor holds close.
At the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, ensuring our efforts have lasting, positive outcomes for the families and communities we serve is core to our mission. As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of our guiding principles is “staying the course,” which means that we invest not only financial resources in companies that are making a difference, we also invest the necessary time to help them scale and achieve sustainability. This guiding principle led to the creation of our MISSION framework used to guide our impact investing decisions.
Below, I’ve outlined three key factors in the foundation’s impact investing strategy that have helped us in keeping our focus on social impact while helping organisations scale up to achieve financial viability and investor interest.
1.Being an impact-first investor
For the foundation, this means analysing potential investments by asking: Is this an opportunity that aligns with our programmatic goals? By using a mission-first approach, we only consider potential companies that have social impact embedded in their DNA and that are working in the spaces where we strive to see the most improvement and transformation.
An example is our work to address housing finance services for low-income urban families led us to the Micro Housing Finance Corporation (MHFC) — an affordable housing finance company that provides micro-mortgages to those families without access to formal banking in India. The concept of their model was driven by extensive research that showed the need and viability of low-income housing at affordable prices. We were drawn to their thoughtful approach to serving low-income, first-time homeowners in a risk-mitigated manner by working in close partnership with approved builders and housing projects. With a strong leadership team, along with investments in their technology and product design, we felt confident that MHFC would be able to successfully bring to market housing finance services designed to help those who are underserved and financially excluded.
In 2009, we invested, jointly with Caspian in MHFC as one of their first institutional investors with clear alignment on the families they would be servicing.
Over the course of the next few years, MHFC stayed true to their customer base and continued to finance homes below a threshold price of Rs 5-10 lacs. By 2017-18, MHFC was disbursing 250-400 new loans each month. They continued to strengthen their credit assessment and scoring models with appropriate levels of home visits and physical checks built into their credit process to offset the lack of documented income and cash flow data. Despite the perceived risk of the target segment they served, MHFC maintained its portfolio quality and best-in-class industry standing with less than two percent non-performing assets, and was able to develop several strong banking partnerships as a result.
For social impact to stick and make a difference in the communities we serve, it’s essential that companies are financially healthy and sustainable. This takes financial discipline and planning. We find that working closely with our investment partners helps to build and strengthen positive connections between social and financial returns. Once we have invested in a social enterprise, we work alongside them as thought partners on their financial models.
In many ways, social impact investing straddles the line between traditional financing and philanthropic funding and carries with it the best of both worlds. Often, there is a misinterpretation around impact capital, especially from philanthropic foundations, as requiring little to no financial discipline. However, our experience has led us to believe that strong financial discipline from the beginning is critical to long-term social impact at scale. This financial discipline enables the companies to become financially viable and capable of attracting more capital, thus scaling up their outreach and impact.
As we identify companies to invest in, it is extremely important that the culture of the organisation at all levels—from management to those working in the field—is centred on the impact to the customers, as well as their path towards financial viability and growth. We have typically encouraged this through investments in management information systems (MIS) to enable transparency and accuracy in data (financial and social), which can then enable stronger decision making.
For example, in several of our skill training and education companies, we have worked closely with our investment partners to introduce efficiencies around staff allocation and utilisation through automation of their processes and regular review of data. Our work with Avanti Learning Centres, a blended learning company focused on math and science education in senior grades, involved review of centre-level data to help them move to a hub-and-spoke model better leveraging synergies around staffing and management. Similarly, Labournet, a skill training company, employed real-time, detailed MIS to establish minimum pricing norms for contracts as well as identify cashflow efficiencies through streamlined collection processes. These collaborations helped to build stronger financial controls and discipline within the organisations to foster viability and higher growth options.
3.Structuring responsible exits
As part of our relationship with our partner companies, we work together and strategise on responsible exits once they have reached the desired scale, maturity, and stability. One of our key learnings has been that meaningful scale can be achieved in different ways, but it takes time. In most cases, we are investing in companies or business models that are considered high-risk — where other investors might not consider investing. Often, such enterprises take time to mature their business models and prove the scalability of a double bottom line of both profit and social impact.
Given that our investments are not structured as a fund with a limited life, we are not restricted to a typical five-year estimate of a traditional investor, thereby giving companies access to patient (but disciplined) capital for their early-stage ideas and models.
The option to exit becomes feasible after a company has scaled up, is able to attract other capital, and the business model is on a strong growth trajectory. This can take anywhere from four to seven years or possibly even longer, but patience is key as business models need time for iteration, product research and validation from their customers. As an example, in 2008, we incubated Svasti, a microfinance institution focused on the slums of Mumbai. After supporting and nurturing the company for more than 10 years, we exited the business in 2019.
We first met the founder of Svasti, Arun Padmanabhan, when he was still working at ICICI bank and looking to explore the idea of micro-credit and financial inclusion. We helped him in working with a consulting team to further research his idea. They spent 15 months in the field to better understand the market dynamics and challenges and to design a product that would meet customers’ needs —which aligned with our key principle of deeply understanding the people we look to serve.
Svasti worked to develop and refine their processes and technology, and improved operational efficiencies and data analytics to scale up. During the course of this 11-year journey, Svasti saw induction of capital from Bamboo Finance, Poonawalla Group, and Norwegian Microfinance Fund. Their reach grew to more than 185,000 customers across 52 branches spread over four states. Our confidence to exit came after Svasti had demonstrated a large-scale presence in Mumbai markets in a viable, risk-controlled manner.
We have also experienced exits where companies have reached scale and viability sooner, such as Intellegrow, a non-banking finance company set up to offer loans to social enterprises, where we partially exited within four years of our investment. Similarly, we made a partial exit from Janalakshmi Financial Services four years after our first investment in early 2007.
In both these instances, our role as a foundation is to stay close to the operations to support the strongest and most responsible impact focused outcome.
Our mission drives everything we do, so leading with impact is core to the way we do business. To create lasting change for the people we serve, we invest in companies that share our mission of transforming the lives of children and families living in urban poverty. This also means investing in companies with a path to a viable, healthy financial model so as to ensure accessible services remain available to those who need them most. That’s why it’s so important to work alongside our partners to think through how to achieve sustainability over time.
The work can be incredibly challenging, and staying the course often comes with unexpected challenges. But when the real-world impact becomes evident in a family or community, it becomes clear that mission focus, financial discipline, and thoughtful growth—and exits—are essential to creating long-term impact.
(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
AWS Cloud Day 2020, held on February 6 in Ahmedabad, brought together AWS solution architects, industry veterans and startups for a discussion on AI/ML, SAP, migration, cloud architecture, and how Amazon’s Cloud solutions are helping startups scale. The event was packed with the latest AWS announcements, great customer stories and breakout sessions for users with different levels of technical proficiency.
Operational excellence at AWS
The event began with the keynote by Matt Fitzgerald, Principal Technical Evangelist, AWS, in which he spoke about how AWS has had a pretty good track record of operational excellence since its genesis. Operational excellence, according to him, is exceeding operational goals, anticipating problems and fixing them before they become issues.
Matt delved into the strong culture of ownership they enforce at AWS and how the leadership principles form the DNA of the company. To achieve operational excellence, AWS follows Jeff Bezos' 'two-pizza' team rule, really good tools and honed processes. The leadership principles at Amazon apply to every individual – right from the CEO to interns. Their tools focus on software deployment which helps Amazon achieve scale. The third aspect is processes. Quoting Jeff Bezos, Matt said, "People always have good intentions. But if good intentions don’t work, good mechanisms do.'"
Since 2006, Amazon has grown from having three offerings to 180 now. "We achieved this through operational excellence i.e. having an operationally-focused culture, rich set of tools, and right processes in place," he said.
Customer success stories
AWS has several success stories of organisations who have leveraged AWS Cloud services and scaled their businesses. Among them is Havmor Ice Cream which started its journey with AWS in early 2018 when the company realised that it had scattered business stakeholders where downtime could not be afforded, and they required a reliable high-performance scalable infrastructure to support their business needs. Partnering with AWS, the ice-cream brand has experienced faster implementation, increased business connects, high performance, reduced capex, enhanced security, faster go-to-market, among others.
"Market share and innovation at scale are the main reasons why we went with AWS," said Dhaval Mankad, Havmor.
Deepkiran Foods is another customer that migrated their entire infrastructure to AWS in 2013. On why they chose AWS, Brijesh Patel says that they had the opportunity to analyse various cloud computing services, but AWS stood out. "Since we follow a project management policy, it was easy to migrate and use, and it was more flexible, scalable and secure." The partnership reduced their downtime and enabled their applications to develop much faster.
OpenXcell uses several AWS services like Amazon CloudFront, Amazon S3, AWS Lambda, Amazon ECS, among others. The team said that AWS has provided them with a fully-flexible environment where they can set up any operating system. The company has benefited from the highly secure environment, scalable performance, cost of ownership and process optimisation that AWS offers.
AWS AI and ML services
The next session by Abhishek Mahanty, Senior Solutions Architect, AWS, covered the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) services provided by AWS. "AI and ML are super popular now because it's the centrepiece for digital transformation," he said.
Abhishek spoke about how the mission of AWS is to put ML in the hands of every developer. They have built three layers - AI services for application developers, ML services to build ML models, and ML framework and infrastructure for ML experts and practitioners.
"We realised we needed to have a proper stack, with which developers with various maturity, skill level, and expertise could relate to," he said.
AWS is the preferred platform to leverage ML as it’s built on the most comprehensive cloud platform and provides the broadest and deepest set of services. Last year, over 200 new features and services were launched. Apart from that, Amazon SageMaker helps simplify the way you build and develop training models.
AWS Cloud economics
Cloud is good, but is it really cost-effective? In the next session, Harshad Satam, Manager - Territory Business, AWS, emphasized on financial management in the cloud.
Cloud projects, he said, unlike other projects, are not procured every one or three years, rather every 15 days, and it’s important to keep the cost of existing projects under control. "Since the cost of failure is low with cloud, you essentially encourage innovation, but keep cost under check," he said.
Harshad spoke about the four pillars to manage cloud cost - See, Save, Plan and Run. Some of the questions to consider are – “Users are growing, but is your cost per transaction coming down? Are you measuring and making teams accountable for what they're using? Are you using the right pricing models and services? Are you tagging resources that cost a lot?" and so on.
AWS provides tools that help businesses forecast and ensure it as a mechanism to keep things in control.
"You can automate guard rails and put project-based budgets with AWS,” he said, adding, "If you take your workload lift and shift to AWS on-demand, it will always be expensive, but that doesn’t mean that cloud is expensive. If you do it the right way, by talking to solution architects and certified partners, they can guide you."
AWS Cloud security and governance
“Security is not one person’s job, organisations have to ensure that everyone contributes to it," said Premal Gandhi, Security Solutions Architect, AWS as he took the next session on security and governance on AWS Cloud.
Customers have different conceptions when cloud comes to mind, on who would own the security aspect. Understanding this challenge well in advance, AWS documented a Shared Responsibility Model (SRM) between AWS Cloud and the end customer. "Security is top priority for us. That’s the only way customers will trust us and continue using us to innovate," he said.
AWS is responsible for the entire infrastructure management, but securing the application is the customer’s responsibility. On why that is so, Premal says that while customers move their application to cloud, they would like to retain the ownership and control of data, which is a regulatory requirement. AWS's SRM gives you the freedom to store and access data your way. On behalf of the customer, AWS also hires a third-party auditor to audit if their infrastructure is in line with industry best practices.
Besides this, AWS being a customer-driven company, provides a host of encryption services and capability based on customer feedback.
Building a SaaS/ISV solution on AWS
Abhishek Mahanty also took a session on why an increasing number of SaaS players are building their products on AWS. He said that there's a lot of commonality between what SaaS and AWS has to offer, including pay-for-what-you-use, work with resources on-demand, build highly durable services, scalability, and so on.
Three main reasons why you should consider building your SaaS solution on AWS is because of its flexibility, subscription-based usage and innovative services.
Abhishek spoke about what makes SaaS applications different from the regular application. In SaaS, you have multiple user tenants and AWS helps you focus on your core IP and not on ancillary aspects. "Scale and security are important, but we bring the tenancy flavour to the conversation," he said.
Migrating SAP and purpose-built database on AWS
“Customers spend a lot of time and energy on where to run their SAP as it’s a sizable capex investment in most cases,” said Harshad Satam in his next session, as he highlighted what aspects to consider while moving SAP workloads to AWS.
Compared to other platforms within the market, Harshad said that with the virtue of being the first cloud provider to partner with SAP, AWS stands out in terms of the number of partners, market performance and certifications.
He also delved into a purpose-built database for modern applications. "Scale, performance and availability are the three parameters you should look at when checking what kind of database fits your requirement." Every use case requires a different kind of database, and AWS has created services like Amazon Aurora, Relational Database Service (RDS), and so on.
Containers, serverless and data lakes in AWS
The event concluded with a talk by Saira Shaik, Senior Technical Account Manager, AWS, on containers and serverless on AWS. "Containers and serverless has become popular because you're pushing all the applications together in production," she said.
Since developers use a lot of tools, they wonder how fast they can execute it using a command line. The AWS CLI 2.0 launched at AWS re:Invent last year enables you to entirely configure your application. You can define the dependencies and pipeline, and deploy it into production. "It will deploy all the code as per the best practices, test for the best practices and create the whole pipeline. That’s the advantage of CLI 2.0," she said.
She spoke about the operational model in AWS. As customers have several aspects to take care of including capacity, cost, security, compliance, competitors, they didn’t want to burden them with operations. They realised that customers want to build the application, and not the infrastructure, and AWS takes care of that by ensuring that your application guides the infrastructure.
Saira also delved into data lakes and analytics on AWS and why you need it. Because of the explosion of data from multiple sources, the challenge is how much to store, who can access it, how do we present the data to the right audience, how accurate is it, and so on. Data lakes solves this by ensuring that data is in silos. They bring the data together to analyse and create predictions so that businesses are better prepared.
"The future of cloud is with data lakes," concluded Saira.
If you are a young brand, selling – a central element to the success of a business – is one of the biggest challenges.
Rachit Mathur, Dilkash Malhotra, J P Rout, and Aasheesh Watts, who had known each other for a decade while working in different fields, realised sales is the primary problem for a startup.
To solve this, they started Avenue Growth in 2018, a sales-as-a-service platform. All a company has to do is go to the platform, fill in the requirement of its sales objectives, and Avenue Growth finds the perfect salesperson for the job.
The startup trains graduates from rural towns before deploying them to a company based on requirements.
"Hiring the right sales talent can be time consuming, expensive, and tiresome. Sales outsourcing can help your brand get recognised with affordable rates," says Rachit.
The co-founders claim that the Gurugram-based startup has created employment opportunities for more than 25,000 salespeople so far. At present, it has over 25,000 growth specialists serving more than 500 brands.
"Outsourcing helps your product get recognised without you worrying about it constantly. You can focus entirely on the development of the product and we can help you get established. With Avenue Growth, you get to pay as you move forward," adds the co-founder.
Rachit had known Dilkash for a decade after working in sales for the same company. The duo constantly discussed the idea of starting something of their own.
JP and Aasheesh, who were senior professionals in the marketing and sales industries, decided to join the duo after meeting up at a sales event.
Rachit spent the whole of 2017 in research and finally, the four launched Avenue Growth a year later.
He says, "We started speaking to large business holders and got a positive reply. That is how we started. It took us about seven months of whiteboarding and then we launched Avenue Growth.”
The first client acquired by the startup came through a reference and Avenue Growth was paid $30,000.
The business model
Avenue Growth wants brands to focus on their product and not on sales. Its business model is completely app-driven – companies have to fill in their sales requirements while on the employment spectrum, individuals can apply on the app for sales jobs.
Once a requirement is posted, the startup trains young individuals with that in focus. It also helps accelerate a company’s growth when a product is launched by ensuring that the product gets all the attention it needs in the sales department.
Avenue Growth ties up with several employment generation agencies in smaller towns to find prospective salespeople for brands. The startup trains young graduates in soft skills and about a brand's ethos. These individuals are trained so that they can work at an FMCG company in one quarter and a finance company in the next.
According to the co-founders, Avenue Growth works on an annual fee to manage the sales personnel and takes a margin out of the outcome.
It competes with the unorganised industry, where boutique agencies can use its fleet of trained sales personnel to deliver focussed sales objectives.
According to the Avenue Growth, the outsourcing market is currently valued at $150 billion and is projected to double itself to $300 billion by 2021.
The co-founders believe that more than half of small businesses (52 percent) plan to outsource their business processes, presenting a huge opportunity for the startup to grow.
Rachit says that the potential market size for Avenue Growth is around $40 billion in India and $650 billion globally.
The startup claims to have worked with brands like Google, Flipkart, and eBay, amongst others.
The next step, says Rachit, is to make Avenue Growth an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based platform that will be able to predict sales requirements by regions.
Over the next 18 months, it wants to stabilise its client base and expand to new brands. At present, the startup has over 200 clients and want to reach more than 2,000 brands by 2025.
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