All Posts in Interviews

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

When we think about e-commerce in India, the only websites that come to our minds are Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Shopclues etc. All of these players are horizontal e-commerce portals. There is plenty of room for players in the vertical/niche e-commerce space

Today we have a discussion with Vineet Singh, Co-founder & CEO of Buildzar. Buildzar is India’s largest marketplace for all the construction and home renovation solutions. It aims to make online buying of construction goods seamless just like we buy items like clothes, books etc. online. So let’s start of with the Q&A

Can you give a small background of Buildzar and its founders

Founded by Vineet Singh & Swapnil Tripathi, Buildzar.com is India’s first & largest marketplace for all home construction and home renovation solutions. It is the single largest online platform for home-owners, builders, architects and designers to make the home building experience smooth and hassle-free. We offer a complete range of construction materials such as cement, steel, sand, bathroom fittings, electricals, tiles and paints.

We have also launched, one of its kind turnkey home building solutions, where anyone planning to build a home can get design, materials & labour services – all in a one-stop shop. This unique offering called as Build Your Home with Buildzar [BYHB] offers an extremely professional way of consumer interaction in this industry and allows them to make decision about building the right home within few minutes or hours.

To remove the information asymmetry that exists as of today, we have created unique products like Beztimate, a construction cost, quantity and timeline calculator & store organised as per the budget [Budget/Standard/Premium/Luxury]. With us, customers get complete peace of mind through ‘B-Sure’ guarantee, which means that all the deliveries are backed by quality and quantity guarantee from sellers. In order to instil confidence into the consumers’ mind, we have also started sending samples to customer’s doorsteps before they make purchases, so that they can touch and feel the products they like.

We have designed use-case based combos according to each stage of construction, so that customer does not have to take care of dealing with multiple vendors & scheduling deliveries.

Vineet Singh, Co-founder, CEO and MD of Buildzar.com, has more than 16 years of experience in the consumer internet industry. Prior to Buildzar, he was EVP & Business Head of multiple businesses in Info Edge including Naukri.com, 99acres.com, JeevanSaathi.com & NaukriGulf.com.

Swapnil Tripathi, Co-founder and COO, Buildzar.com, has an MBA from MIT Sloan. Prior to Buildzar, he headed Consumer Operations at Ibibo Group. He has also been the Business Head at Meritnation.com. He also worked as Business Head of consumer business [Resume Services] in Naukri.com and Sales Head of Jeevansathi.com. After leaving Meritnation.com he was a bootstrapping entrepreneur and founded his venture India Art Village.

Every idea is born out of a problem, what was the trigger for starting Buildzar ?

Two years back, I was building my house in Delhi. It started as a joyful journey filled with excitement and learnings, but slowly began converting into a painful experience. There were myriad issues popping up at each stage of construction – Which materials to buy, in what quantities to buy, from where to buy? There was no single platform where we could go for the solutions.

We had to spend hours doing online search and research, and scroll through several home magazines. There is too much theory everywhere but no implementable advice. There had to be a better way. Few months later, I came in touch with Mr. Puneet Dalmia, the MD of Dalmia Cement Bharat Limited. He was renovating his house at that time and his experience was equally worse. It occurred that if a person like Puneet, who is a big name in the building materials industry, had to face such problems with all the resources at hands, what would be the extent of pain that a regular consumer faces. The common pain-point led us into detailed discussions and it was then the idea of solving this problem for the regular consumer came to our mind, and Buildzar was born.

Does it only operate in the B2C Space or there are plans to venture into B2B [by tying up with builders, real estate portals etc.] ? 

Our current focus is B2C segment. Currently, the major share of our target audience as well as customer base are individual home builders, but as we are successfully aggregating demands from commercial sectors as well, we may become equally relevant for B2B clients too.

Does Buildzar operate on inventory model or marketplace model (or both) ?

As of now, Buildzar is operating on a marketplace model. It will be a challenge to move to an inventory based model with building materials as our niche product, but if need be, we may plan to move to that model too.

Is Buildzar bootstrapped, VC funded or Angel Funded ?

Buildzar got its initial funding from Puneet Dalmia, MD at Dalmia Bharat Group, and We are planning to raise series A funding in the next few months.

How does Buildzar manage logistics (is it in-house or you have tied-up with different logistics partners) ?

At present, all our deliveries are managed by the logistic services of our suppliers. We haven’t tied up with any of the logistics partners as of now. For our samples-at-your-doorstep services and visits to experience centres, we have our own logistic vehicles.

Which are cities where Buildzar is operational ?

We are currently operational in Delhi-NCR and plan to expand in 12-15 metros and tier-2 cities over a span of three years.

Many years back Flipkart exited the Heavy-Product business (like TV, Fridge, Furniture etc.), what do you think is the major challenge when shipping such products?

Delivering tonnes of cement and steel is different than delivering fashion products. One of the major challenges is the non-reachability of the site at which the product has to be delivered. It increases the overhead costs and delivery time. Off-loading the heavy product is also a matter of concern.

Who are some of your competitors ?

At present, we have companies like Supplified and Brick2Wall as our competitors in Delhi-NCR and MSupply, Buildmantra, Material Tree and Apna Stock in southern part of India.

How do you manage to cope-up with the reverse logistics issue which is so prevalent (and also eats up margins) in today’s online consumer businesses ?

Returns and cancellations are inherent part of the ecommerce industry. When it comes to building materials, it becomes a challenge. We have received only 3 return requests in last six months of operations. If a case of return occurs, we are left with no option but to have to ask the customers to pay for logistics, as our order size is large in terms of both product quantity and value.

Buildzar.com team

What are the major changes that you experienced when you became an entrepreneur ?

Leaving a job to start something of your own takes many efforts. I have learnt to prioritize between what is “need to have” and what is “good to have”. In today’s scenario, everybody want to start their own business or join a new startup but no one wants to get their hands dirty.

If young entrepreneurs want to have great dish, they must learn to bear the heat. I have always been a workaholic so exhaustive work hours don’t bother me much but yes, I have mastered the science of learning, unlearning and relearning.

What key advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs ?

Doing a startup is like a roller coaster ride with many ups-and-downs. To have a happy ride, one must go through a process of learning and un-learning many things.

I am a strong believer of the fact that beauty lies in the fine print of things. Drill deep down into the problems you are addressing and find solutions for them. Ask questions. Any detail is too small to escape close attention. Leave no stone unturned. Leave no dot unconnected.

To succeed at something, always have an eye for the details.

Can you give some pointers on Scaling up & Customer Acquisition (some take-away for entrepreneurs) ?

  • Identify the Hero product of your business. Focus on your USP and determine what excites your target audience the most.
  • Try automating everything in your business. Focus on technology intensive processes that will act as a force multiplier. Even though it takes a lot of time, this activity will pay for itself in long term. This will help in streamlining all the operations for a scalable model.
  • Create a product with a great customer experience. Focus on offering an experience to the customer, which is not only unique but also compelling.

Bootstrapping or Funding, what are your views on the same ?

According to me, there is no ideal capitalization structure for a startup. As entrepreneurs, you must always start with a bootstrapping mind-set. Focus on building a business that is self-sustainable and generates business without burning of cash.

Instead of sticking to a single option, determine the market size and dynamics and make an informed choice based on the research. Just keep in mind that money is always limited and you have to value money and spend prudently.

Your views on whether to start a vertical e-commerce or horizontal e-commerce startup ?

All the 4 big institutionally funded players (Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal & Paytm) are horizontal ecommerce businesses. So, there is no doubt in the success of selling products from large number of categories. However, customer acquisition comes at cost in these cases.

Vertical market has definitely more opportunity when it comes to addressing a larger section of loyal customers without burning huge funds on customer acquisition. Businesses catering to a niche vertical must understand what it takes to build a sustainable and profitable business. We are big believers of giving our customers a unique experience. By addressing the $100 Billion construction and building materials market, we are making a bet on differentiated vertical ecommerce.

Your view about GST and how it would affect e-commerce startups/companies ?

The Indirect taxation laws in India have become a hindrance in the e-commerce operations, as they have not been able to identify the continuously evolving hybrid business models.

When talking about the challenges, the entire e-commerce segment is facing issues in categorizing their offerings as ‘Goods’ or ‘Services’ for charging the Value Added Tax (VAT)/Central Sales Tax (CST) or Service Tax. Presently, both VAT and Service Tax are levied on all digital transactions, leading to frequent disputes.

It is expected that Goods & Service Tax (GST), which is likely to be implemented from the next fiscal, may be the answer to most of these problems. It may resolve many supply chain and logistics issues of the ecommerce companies.

Some hiring tips for entrepreneurs (especially the core team) ?

Keep your hiring strategy very simple. A great business gets built with good people. Keep meeting individuals with innovative ideas, creativity and conviction to do something new. Keep expanding your network. Rest all will fall into place.

Any parting words from you for budding entrepreneurs

Firstly, value is created by cracking something tough. Easy ideas do not create value. Whenever you come up with an idea, think about what problem will it solve and how. Start putting things into action and focus on sales and marketing manically. In business, nothing happens until a sale is made. You will need to find a good way to get leads, convert leads into sales, and make sure you keep getting repeat sales from your customers.

We are sure that you would have got some handy tips from the discussion we had with Vineet Singh of Buildzar. If you have any questions related to Buildzar or have any general query, please leave them in the comments section.

[Image Credit* – LinkedIn]

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Public Transportation is one of the most discussed topics & connected transport is still one of the issues that needs to be fixed in India. Today we have a chat with the founders of a Mumbai based startup TransitPedia that aims to Transform city travel by use of this smart app making it a Smart City

TransitPedia was co-founded by Mehul Sutariya & Vaibhav Vasa who quit their cushy jobs in USA to make Daily Commute Smarter in India. Without further ado, we start our Q&A with them.

transitpedia

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and its founders ?

Mehul Sutariya and Vaibhav Vasa [Co-Founders of TransitPedia], having been friends for 15 years and having studied and worked in the USA for over half a decade, decided to launch an application that would change the public transportation scene in India, helping the 55 million commuters travelling daily by clubbing all user specific needs in an all-in-one app.

TransitPedia has been operating successfully for 4 months now with a team of 8 people operating from Mumbai and a user base of 9,000 already. The app is designed to cover time, cost, distance, and mode of transit as well as onward route displaying the most effective solutions to reach a destination. From informing a commuter about how to get from ‘Place A to Place B’ using the easiest and shortest routes, to helping one out with information about the most appropriate transportation vehicle, this app gives the user one platform to connect with the people travelling to and from their location and how!

The primary idea behind our venture is to compile multi-city data in a single application and provide a multi-mode transit solution in order to turn the public transportation scene in India to a “well-organized technology aided system”. The app currently covers data for Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.

Mehul, a sports and coding fanatic, completed his MS in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and worked for Google and Amazon, USA as a software engineer responsible for creating scalable and distributed solutions. On the other hand, Vaibhav completed his MS in Operations Research from Case Western University, Ohio, followed by a job as a planning/project manager at Avery Dennison for over 5 years.

Together with Mehul’s vast experience in software development and Vaibhav’s managerial skills in Operations Research, who also happens to have a Six Sigma Black Belt certificate in it, we have managed to set up a rather interesting venture and hope to see the changes we wish to bring about in the transportation system across the country.

Every idea is born out of a problem, what was the trigger of starting TransitPedia ?

Having studied and worked in USA for over 5 years, there was always some discussion about new technology and solution that we could bring about in India that would make life much easier. As we continued using public transport there like anyone else, we were amazed by the organized efficient nature of it.

Comparing this to what we experienced in India, there was a huge gap which also meant that there was immense room for improvement. Thus came up the idea to rectify the dismal state of public transportation in our country. We decided to quit our jobs, come back to India and venture into a startup.

We noticed that when people travelled to new cities, they had no idea about the routes or the best mode of transport to pick.  We also saw that people liked to travel in groups, may they be college students or office employees. Some travelled together because it was fun, while others to share their cost.

Unfortunately in India, people have become so used to the ongoing haphazard way of travelling that their daily commute hardly accesses technology, which could help them make better transit decisions in real time. This is where we thought we could help by providing the solution in the form of an application. We thought of building a platform that could help everyone travelling everyday anywhere in India, which led to the creation of TransitPedia.

Transport being an un-organized sector, what are some of the initial challenges face while working on TransitPedia ?

There are more than 1500 apps across the country that cater to the transportation sector, providing static/dynamic, mode specific/multi-mode information. Many of which comply with the needs specific to their city. The initial challenge was to figure out which way of presenting the results of the transit problems to the audience would be easy and most effective in helping improve travelling as we know it.

Mapping the exact timings of each transit was the toughest task and in the beginning the results were static and not very satisfying, but we realized that we must show people the next step in travelling by working on this and coming up with results not just related to the best transportation vehicle to opt for but also telling them of the shortest and easiest routes and the cheapest form of transit.

Which are the cities where TransitPedia is currently operational ?

TransitPedia is currently live in 5 cities, namely Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi.

What is the revenue model of TransitPedia ?

As our app provides information about all means of public transport to the daily commuter, it is and will always be free to use. There are several revenue generation streams that we are looking into, like cab/rickshaw bookings, featured destinations, car-pooling etc. We are also lining up with an update for national transit soon, which is when we are going to decide the revenue stream that we’d follow.

How do you keep your app updated with latest changes in train/bus timings as they are dynamic in nature ?

We keep a keen eye on websites and government agencies which cater to mass transportation in every city that we are present in. We keep a constant tab and refer to pre-existing data published by governmental bodies and get our live stream of information via Twitter, which has become our savior of sorts. All of this helps us keep our application and our users updated.

Do you plan to solve the issue of “Onward Travelling” with TransitPedia [Like take bus from Andheri and then have association with Ola for onward journey] ?

We are a multi-mode transit app. From bus to train to a rickshaw to your home – all such information rests within the app already. Associations with cab aggregators are under progress in order to make travelling simpler.

How has been the feedback so far for TransitPedia on Play Store? Any plans on releasing the iOS App ?

The response in the past 4 months we have been able to reach 10,000 downloads. Looking at our rate of growth, we will soon be launching an iOS application as well.

How does TransitPedia stake up against competitors like M-Indicator [in Mumbai] or startups catering to similar segment ?

M-Indicator is a front runner in Mumbai currently. This app has been really helpful for daily commuters in Mumbai and is somewhere installed in the Mumbaikar’s subconscious as the go-to app for public transport.

TransitPedia as compared to M-Indicator is providing a lot more when it comes to features, as the latter provides static timetables and single mode A2B which means one can search from ‘Point A to Point B’ in a city only for any one medium of transport. As compared to the others like ZopHop, Ridlr and other city specific apps, TransitPedia provides more of a consolidated platform that gives the most comprehensive information about your complete transit in major Indian cities which includes mode comparison, time adjustment, sorting of results, fares and maps, all under one roof.

What are the major changes that you experienced when you moved from US to startup in India ?

Startup culture in India has grown rapidly over the past few years and they are now preferred over the traditional corporate companies. This will definitely help India turn into a country that innovates and not a country that does outsourced work as far as tech is concerned.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

One of the most important things while starting up is setting your expectation right in terms of what you are signing up for. This includes your finances, your relationships, social pressures, etc. When you have your startup you are working all days of the week even if you are not at your desk. This will help you have a right mindset and in turn enable you to create great businesses.

What are some of the Growth-Hacking strategies that can be applied for an App-Based startup ?

App virality is one of the key features for any app. Right from the ability to share the content from your app to incentivising the users to install the app. The key factor is to find out by trial what marketing works for your app, what your target audience is and then doubling down on that. Finding the balance in long term vs short term marketing strategies is important.

Can you give some pointers on Scaling up & Customer Acquisition ?

As entrepreneurs, scaling up vs doing things right is always tricky. So, scaling fast while keeping existing customers happy is very important. Defining a target audience is very important for customer acquisition, spreading out thin makes it difficult to focus on what you want.

Bootstrapping or External Funding, what are your views on the same ?

Both are appropriate in their own phases. If you have an idea, you will have to bootstrap it or secure funds for it from your relatives. If you have a hyper-growth startup and your product has a market fit, you will need more funds to grow your business. If your business can grow without funding, even better. Managing the cash flow is more important in the early stages than profitability.

How important it for startups especially web, mobile to follow Lean Methodology ?

Talking about lean methodology is far easier than actually following it as it needs to be inculcated in your daily actions. You need to have a culture where every employee knows and follows it rigorously. I feel 1 startup month is equivalent to 1 corporate year and hence you want to validate things fast. Lean principles will help you to iterate faster without spending significant time in developing.

Any parting words from you for budding entrepreneurs ?

Entrepreneurship completely changes the way in which you think about businesses as opposed to doing a job. One is forced to wear multiple hats especially when the startup is young and that is quite educative. To stay focused is very important.

We thank the TransitPedia team for sharing insights into their entrepreneurial & providing useful tips to the budding entrepreneurs. If you have any questions for the TransitPedia team or want to share feedback about the TransitPedia app, please let them in the comments section.

[Image Credit* – IndianExpress]

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Each one of us wants to make our loved ones feel special 🙂 So what comes to our mind – Gifting, Holiday, Partying etc. But what if someone could make that “Special Day” or occasion unique & memorable!! This is where Oye Happy can come to your rescue.

Oye Happy is a startup that provides a unique platform for making special occasions memorable through gifts, experiences or even simple wishes of the day.

We caught up with Varun Todi & Harshvardhan Khemani, Co-Founders of Oye Happy who shared their thoughts on Oye Happy, Startup mantras & Entrepreneurship.

Note : “I” in the conversation refers to Varun Todi.

Can you give a small background about your start-up and it’s founders?

I worked as a copywriter and creative consultant for several advertising agencies and Harsh was a strategy and operational efficiency consultant at KPMG before Oye Happy.  We are cousins.

Oye Happy was started as a passion project by us in 2009 while we continued working in our respective fields. It wasn’t till 2014 that it evolved from a fun project to a serious business. We launched our e-commerce portal last year and soon grew into a team of 12 delivering surprises across the country.

Every idea is born out of a problem, what was the trigger of starting Oye Happy?

Harsh and I have always been great at making special occasions extra special for our loved ones. A friend once requested us to surprise her boyfriend at the airport as he was flying in from the US. We actually held a mock swayamvar to welcome him! We had a blast getting it together and they couldn’t have been happier. This led to a whole bunch of similar requests coming our way from friends and friends of friends who wanted to pay us.

It didn’t take us long to realise that the Indian customer had evolved. People don’t spend enough time with their loved ones so the time that they do spend together, especially on special occasions, matters a lot. Buying a gift is a form of expression and people look for emotional connect in the gifts they get.

We noticed that unique experiences were valued much more highly than traditional gifts and various studies backed up our observation. People chose to create memories rather than invest in expensive material presents. Our surprises helped in building that connect in a way flowers and cakes simply couldn’t.

How did your team come up with the name Oye Happy?

We considered a lot of names at first. We wanted it to be bigger than gifts or even surprises because, as we like to believe, what we’re ultimately delivering is happiness. Harsh came up with “Oye Happy” and I thought it was perfect.

What are some of the unique services offered by Oye Happy?

At the moment we have two distinct products – our gifts and our experiences. These gifts are unique ideas conceptualised by our in-house product development team. We then create them ourselves and have it mass manufactured by external vendors or tie-up with professionals who handle end-to-end making of them. Experiences too are similarly conceptualised and executed.

This essentially makes the majority of our products unavailable elsewhere. Our customers are usually more than impressed with what have to offer considering they have never encountered similar services especially in India. You can treat your loved one to a play date with puppies, get a pani-puri stall set up at a chaat lover’s doorstep and do so much more beyond the usual cakes and flowers through us.

Which are the cities where Oye Happy is currently operational?

We have delivered our gifts to more than 50 cities and towns since our launch. Our immediate plan is to have a physical presence in every metro to start offering the experiences as well since we have already gotten queries from across the country, including smaller towns for them.

Does it cater to enterprise segment or Oye Happy only caters to B2C segment?

Besides our retail operation, we have launched Oye Happy ‘Excite’ which are experience boxes for businesses. This will allow companies to gift a memorable experience to their employees and clients instead of conventional gifts. Employees can choose to do what interests them from a host of options like wine tasting, horse riding, Zumba classes, etc. available in the experience box.

What are some of the customer retention policies followed by Oye Happy as special moments for every person might be few.

70% of our repeat clients order again with us within 3 months of their first order. They do not necessarily employ us for special occasions that only involve their inner circle [spouse, best friends and kids/parents] but also beyond that like valued colleagues and relatives with typically lower cost products.

The key customer retention policy we have followed so far is only limited to good and prompt service. Even without customer referral or loyalty programs we have seen a steady increase in repeat and referral customers.

How does Oye Happy stake up when compared to other startups in more or less similar market segment?

We are the only company that not just creates our own unique gifts but also creates experiences. While companies like Giftxoxo, etc. are essentially curators, we go a step beyond by also creating products that fit our customers’ need perfectly. What is currently and widely available in the market no longer cuts it for the customer and we constantly provide them with more options that are not otherwise available.

What are some of the factors that entrepreneurs should consider while naming their start-up?

Two important questions to consider would be – “Does this work for the brand I’m building and will customers be able to relate the name to the service I provide?” and “Is this a name my target audience will like and be able to recall?”. And they should also probably ask themselves, “Is this a name I can repeat over a hundred times a day for a long time to come and not cringe?”.  We’re glad “Oye Happy” fit all three criteria!

What are the major changes that you experienced when paved your way into entrepreneurship?

Both Harsh and I were leading our teams in our respective workplaces before we started Oye Happy so running the show wasn’t new to us. And as far not having a boss is concerned, we’re still answerable to each other so it helps having a co-founder. You keep each other in check.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up?

The only advice we have for entrepreneurs is that they should be truly passionate about the industry they are getting into and to be able to admit it when they are wrong. If you’re willing to invest several years of your life in an idea, you need to enjoy every moment of it and constructive criticism is always more helpful than blind agreement.

Can you give some pointers on Scaling Up & Customer Acquisition?

Every entrepreneur must acquire the first few customers themselves for proof of concept. It is imperative that the business grows organically in the initial stage through repeat purchases and word of mouth marketing for an objective view of your product in the market.

How important it for startups especially web, mobile to follow Lean Methodology?

The idea behind using technology aggressively is to make a business process-driven. Scaling up a business need not to be in proportion to scaling up the manpower. A company that follows the lean methodology from the beginning allows you to focus on perfecting the process without it being dependent extensively on manpower, especially applicable for startups that use web and mobile platforms.

Thanks Varun & Harsh for your time and sharing your thoughts with us. We hope that Oye Happy grows leaps and bounds to make ‘Gifting’ unique & memorable.

If you have any questions for Oye Happy or their founders, please leave them in the comments section…

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

The e-commerce landscape is rapidly changing in India & there has been an interesting set of companies built around Design, Portfolio Development, Logistics etc. The next wave after e-commerce is definitely “Food-Commerce” or “Food-Tech” & many startups have evolved in that category. Today, we have a chat with Sandeep Ghoshal, Co-Founder of Grubbr.in which aims to be the one-stop destination for “Food Discovery” for consumers!!

Let’s have a Q&A with Sandeep on Grubbr, Entrepreneurship & other aspects related to tech….

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and its founders ?

We are three partners – two of us co-founded the company. My co-founder and I come with rich experience in Sales & Business Development & Communications. We are first time entrepreneurs. Our third partner however is a seasoned entrepreneur, having founded two companies already. He brings immense expertise of starting a business and running it successfully.

Every idea is born out of a problem/inspiration, what was the trigger of starting Grubbr.in ?

There were a few light bulb moments that brought us to the idea of Grubbr.  We love eating out and we’ve used all kinds of apps and websites to hunt for good food.

However, there were multiple occasions where we felt that these apps pointed us to a list of restaurants but were of little help when it came to deciding what to order, which happens to be the most universal eat-out question. Yes, there are helpful user reviews, but one needs to sift through a long list of reviews to get to the dish recommendations! When you’re hungry, that’s a big ask!

Besides, most reviews touch upon aspects like service, ambiance, price and other factors – not to say these are not important – but the dish recommendation tends to get buried under all this.

Grubbr cuts through all the bells and whistles and goes straight to the food. The app gives you a list of solid dish recommendations. As the user base grows and ratings increase, making a sound dish selection will become quick and easy!

Food Tech startups are the next wave after e-commerce wave, your comments on the same ?

2015 is all set to be the year of the food tech start-ups – several gurus and trend analysts have stated this. Right here in Bengaluru, we can see prime shopping streets slowly transform into ‘food streets’. As the restaurant business burgeons, ancillary services including food tech start-ups will also witness an upswing.

Presently the action is centered around restaurant recommendation and food delivery. The future, we believe, will be about food discovery.

Can you please elaborate on the Revenue Model of Grubbr ?

Grubbr doesn’t have a revenue model yet. For now, we are focusing on getting users and giving them the best possible dish recommendations – which means acquiring credible information and increasing coverage. We do have a few ideas on how to monetize, but at the moment all eyes are trained on gaining critical mass in information and user base.

How does Grubbr stack up against the other competitor’s that are also in the Food Tech space ?

Grubbr is in a very differentiated space of ‘dish’ recommendations. Till now the food space has seen players who recommend restaurants – Zomato, Burrp, Times city and such-like or deliver food; however, one space that is still largely unexplored is the food discovery space – a space that is relevant to both sets of ‘eat out’ consumers – the ones looking to go eat at a restaurant as well as those who want to order in. We believe Grubbr as a product, is ahead of the curve.

What are some of the issues [especially logistics] faced by food-tech startups ?

This really depends on the sub category of food tech that the company operates in – for companies that deliver food, the obvious pain points are delivery of the food, on time, to the users and ensuring a smooth financial transaction. For companies that operate purely in the information services space, like Grubbr, the issue is having enough feet on the street and getting credible information for our users. One thing common to all startups though is finding the right, committed manpower.

What are some of the USP’s of Grubbr ?

Grubbr is only focused on dishes, unlike other sites or app. Since users rate each dish on Grubbr, our dish and cuisine-based search is far more accurate. As a product, we are the first app to show dish photos, as they are served at the restaurant, helping users “see” the dish before they order

While food discovery is big in the US, Grubbr has bettered the model by combining crowd sourced information and collecting primary information on our own – this way we control data and quality of food images. Because we’ve invested in data collection, we are able to offer a comprehensive database of dishes and restaurants. In the past six months, we’ve covered over 900 top restaurants in Bangalore with over 3500 dishes. We still think this is a tiny number, but we’ve had several teething issues to address. Things are smoother now and we hope to scale fast.

Our hybrid model ensures that we collect primary data and at the same time allow Grubbr users to recommend dishes. This gives us far greater coverage and better recommendations.

Grubbr

What are the major changes that you experienced when you moved from an Employee to an Employer [or Entrepreneur] ?

While, as an employee you are [our rather should be] completely invested in your work and company, the level of ownership you feel for your own venture is something you never experience as an employee.

As an entrepreneur, I have personally learnt a lot more in the last 1 year, than I may have in the last 10 years of working.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

Since we are “new entrepreneurs” ourselves, it’s perhaps a little premature to offer advice to other budding entrepreneurs. However, one basic truth is that the perceived threat of failure is larger than the actual. Today, you are as much at risk in your job as you are as an entrepreneur.

Also, the vibrant startup system today allows you more confidence to trade your well paying jobs for the excitement of doing something on your own…this wasn’t as easy back in 2008.

What are your views about the start-up landscape in India ?

Answered above.

How important it is for startups especially web, mobile & Food-tech to follow the “Lean Approach” ?

We are big believers in the ‘Lean approach’.  For instance, while the Grubbr app today serves the purpose of recommending dishes far better than anyone else in the market, this is still version 1 of the product. As we go along, we will adapt and improve, and add features that create more magic. It’s prudent to launch a basic product and then build on it, rather than wait endlessly for the perfect product and miss the boat completely! Besides, only once you launch the product can you infer the best use case.

The beauty of being a start up is that founders have their ears closer to the ground than CEOs of big companies…therefore you should be able to adapt more quickly.

As per you, when should a startup [especially in consumer business] plan a pan-India expansion ?

As soon as you have the requisite funds.

Which are some of the books which you would recommend for wanna-be entrepreneurs ?

There are some useful titles – such as The Outliers, The Lean Start-up etc. That said, a lot of learning happens on the ‘battlefield’, as you work through all the problems and glitches. Of course, you can also learn from other entrepreneurs, their success & mistakes.

One thing you need to bear in mind is the ability to keep things simple and focus on a few, important things.

Any parting words from you for budding entrepreneurs ?

Each entrepreneur finds their mantra in their own way. For us, it is about being passionate about what we do. Even when we are worried for our survival, we keep reminding ourselves of the reasons why we started Grubbr. That always cheers us up!

If you wake up feeling bored and tired with your project then it’s pretty much the end of the road. But if you’re excited, even when facing tough challenges, then you will find the courage to push on. The fear of failure is also strong and effective motivating factor that drive people, as long as you don’t let it bog you down. And finally, keep it simple and focus on doing a few things right.

We don’t know if Grubbr will be a hit or miss. We just love what we do, and we want to have lots of fun along the way. And yes, eat delicious food any chance we get !!

Do give Grubbr [iOS App & Android App] a shot & share your experience with us. If you have any questions for Sandeep or about Grubbr, please let them in the comments section !!

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated:

The e-commerce landscape is rapidly changing in India & there has been an interesting set of companies built around Design, Portfolio Development, Logistics etc. Today we have a Q&A with Akash Kalra, co-founder of a startup Pungraffiti based out of Pune which has a single mantra – “Spread Happiness via T-Shirts”. We discussed with him about Pungraffiti, Startup & e-commerce landscape in India & many aspects of Entrepreneurship.

PunGraffiti

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

Some may call us as a T-Shirt selling startup. However, we do not just sell T-Shirts, we spread happiness with it. The idea is to bring smiles all around using our creative ideas on the T-Shirts 🙂

We are 3 of us, namely, Akash, Gagan and Varun. We are all school friends. I am Akash. I am an economist by education and Gagan & Varun are engineers.

Apart from us, we have another couple of friends, Meetali and Vivek, who have invested and entrusted upon us to do the job.

Every idea is born out of a problem/inspiration, what was the trigger of starting Pungraffiti ?

Well, in our case, there was not any problem as such but there was a realization, a common realization I would say. I had quit my job with KPMG in Pune and had joined a startup in Delhi. Gagan and Varun were here in Delhi. Gagan was working with Mitsubishi that time and Varun with a shipping company.

While discussing about the fun times we have had in school and discussing about how our careers have progressed after that, we realized that the only thing that all of us are actually good at is to make people happy, and that in turn gave us happiness and satisfaction ourselves. We then discussed that making a career out of this would be great. And thus, came the idea.

Pungraffiti looks a very peppy name, how did your team zero in on this name ?

Thank you. That’s how we wanted it to be. 🙂

It took us quite a lot of time to come up with it. It is more to do with the designs on our T-Shirts. We have tried to present a certain thing in a different, creative way. It takes you a couple of seconds to think over it and when you realize it, you smile or laugh about it. That’s where pun came from. Graffiti stands for the designs.

Thus, PunGraffiti

Does your startup have in-house designers, if so do you plan to move to a “crowd-sourced designer model” ?

Yes. Varun designs these for us. Me and Gagan sit down and think of ideas to put on the T-Shirts. The next very important step is determining how to present those ideas on T-Shirts and then, Varun takes over from there. He starts working on the designing software and we assist him in whatever we can.

While, crowd sourced designer model is an interesting model, we do not have any immediate plan to get into it. We trust our creativity to be able to relate to our target audience. 🙂

How does Pungraffiti stack up against the other competitor’s that are also in the same space ?

Our value proposition will have to be the designs. Now, the reason we believe that we stack up against the competitors is the creativity we use on these T-Shirts, the way we present what we intend to.

To be comparing ourselves to the competitors, it is important to understand our target audience and the business model. These T-Shirts creatively derive emotions from people and if those people would want to show these emotions, again creatively, to others, they will wear it.

I can explain this with the following example from our collection:

We have a Rahul Dravid T-Shirt for his fans. Now, we could have just written Rahul Dravid or made his picture on the T-Shirt as our competitors would do, but we instead presented this in a different/creative way. We made a wall with his name on it and wrote “Not just another brick in the wall”. This is where we differ from our competitors.

Somebody who would want to show his/ her love for Rahul Dravid and show it smartly/ creatively will buy this T-Shirt.

What are some of the issues [still] faced by e-commerce startups ?

While e-commerce has given businesses the luxury to cater to the entire world as their market, there are challenges that come alongside. I think the major challenge that this e-commerce boom has got is that it has made getting recognized amongst your target audience a little slower and expensive. Even though I personally believe, if a certain business has the commercial potential, it will be successful eventually.

With almost every merchandise business now being online and already existent businesses investing heavily on online marketing, a deserving e-commerce startup could face a lot of problems to be recognized initially.

I think what is important in this market scenario is patience, a lot of it. If you have the business confidence, you would be able meet your goals, sooner or later.

How according to you, should a startup deal with a disgruntled customer ?

I think the kind of competitive market we are into, a startup cannot afford to have a disgruntled customer. I will try expressing my views on how to deal with one from one of our experiences. Recently, one of customers bought a T-Shirt with us. However, due to some bug on the server, he did not get the order confirmation on the e-mail. He then wrote us a mail complaining about this.

First thing that we did in this case was quickly reply to his mail, addressing his concern. Secondly, I personally called him to explain him the issue and ensured my personal attention in his order.

Thirdly, what we did was apart from the T-Shirt, we sent him a cake at his address in Bangalore with “Sorry :)” written on it. And he gave us a nice feedback to us not just for the T-Shirt but also for the kind of attention we gave him for his order.

We cannot afford to have any unhappy customer, especially when we say we spread happiness with the T-Shirt.

What are the major changes that you experienced when you moved from an Employee to an Entrepreneur ?

I think the biggest change that I have experienced is that as an employee I used to actually work for around 5 hours a day and as an entrepreneur, that is how much I sleep. 🙂

Working as an entrepreneur keeps you on your toes. You are responsible for anything and everything that goes wrong. Your hard work can be seen getting converted into results. And the happiness and excitement that you experience when something works out is just incomparable.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

I think it is very important to understand the business potential of your idea. While there are many creative ideas that one can come up with, having an audience for that idea is equally important to really sustain.

I also think that the market for startups has become very challenging. The big players are into everything these days. Thus, it is very important to have a USP. A USP that is efficient enough to derive enough audience towards your product/service.

How much does social media channels [Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.] contribute to marketing in startup ?

Immense. We can say that from our own experience. It has not even been a month that we have started and just through social media publicity, and that too unpaid, we have sold over 100 T-Shirts all over India, starting from Jammu-Punjab-Delhi-Gujarat-Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Bangalore-Odisha & even Siliguri.

We have over 1700 followers on Facebook and we have got a very encouraging response on Instagram as well. The number of site visits is another encouraging reason we can really say that.

Any parting words from you for budding entrepreneurs ?

According to me, believing in your idea, having the courage to execute it and having enough patience are the 3 key things in this startup market.

It is certainly not a comfortable and an easy ride but it has enough thrill and joy to make your life exciting and happening.  🙂

If you have any questions for Akash or about Pungraffiti, please let them in the comments section !!

|In: Interviews|Last Updated:

There has been a buzz around e-commerce, Hyper-local Commerce etc. More & more SME’s are joining the bandwagon & trying to take advantage of this Online Revolution by setting up their e-commerce stores [or becoming a seller on reputed online e-commerce sites]. “Setting up an e-commerce store” is a daunting task & this is where e-commerce enabler(s) pitch in and help you to scale your business.

Today, we have a chat with Namrata Soni, Founder & CEO of Twikster, a startup based in Bengaluru. In few words, Twikster is primarily into e-commerce enable-ment & want more SME’s to come online !!

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

Co-founded by Priya & Namrata, two digital product managers, Twikster is an e-commerce enable-ment platform for SMB’s in India & appeared on the e-commerce scene in 2014. Facing boldly the challenges of setting up an e-commerce business in India, Namrata, after having lived in the US for nearly a decade, along with Priya [who continues to live in the US], jumped head-on into working on Twikster.

Creating Twikster wasn’t easy, but the vision was simple and sufficient – to make e-commerce accessible and affordable for SMB’s in India. What started off as a basic platform for small businesses to create their e-stores, has evolved into a sophisticated, solution-driven and user-friendly path to setting up, managing and growing an online business for anyone who is interested in doing so.

What was the trigger for starting Twikster ?

Some very simple questions – Why are such few retailers selling online? How do retailers expect to compete with the marketplaces ? Why is it so expensive to create an e-commerce store? Why are the existing pricing models making it hard for small and medium players to compete fairly?

How does Twikster stack up against the other competitor’s that are also in the e-commerce enabler space [e.g. Zepo, BuildABazaar] ?

Most popular e-commerce enable-ment solutions in India follow a pricing model that forces users to choose a plan & pay a monthly subscription fee for a set of pre-defined features. Often, users have to move to a higher, more expensive plan to get basic support or for just a few features that they may need on their store. And these plans don’t come cheap; some painfully costing as much as Rs.60,000/- to 84,000/- annually.

Consequently, this model results in alienating a large section of people and makes it harder for small and medium players to compete fairly. This is where Twikster’s new pricing model is set to give users an edge. Users are liberated from forced monthly subscription fees and bundled features. With ‘Twikster GO’ anyone can create a ‘Forever-Free’, feature-packed, mobile-friendly online store at ‘Zero’ monthly subscription fee. From there on, users may choose to pay for specific support, services and features when their business demands it or their pocket allows it. It provides a wholesome package in the absence of forced pricing plans and monthly subscription fees.

Should the user decide to upgrade to the Twikster ‘Preferred’ plan, a nominal one-time set up fee of Rs.6999/- and a small annual maintenance fee of Rs.2399/- kicks in. The Preferred user is empowered with end-to-end support to create an e-commerce store, set up on multiple marketplaces, tie up with logistic providers, open merchant accounts with payment gateways and access a host of add-ons that may be purchased as and when required.

What is the revenue model of Twikster ?

Our sources of revenue are set up fee, annual maintenance fee, transaction fee and commissions in certain cases, and annual fees for use of add-ons.

What are the other areas [e.g. Product Portfolio development etc.] that your startup plans to venture into in future ?

Plan to keep this question for future 🙂

Can you please explain about ‘Art Space’, the latest offering by Twikster? [you can also touch upon features as compared to Postergully etc.]

When we started out with Twikster, both Priya and I hoped that small, upcoming yet talented artists in India would take to selling online if we made the platform simple and affordable. We learnt quickly that their challenge lies in marketing the online stores – so we decided to create ArtSpace by Twikster, a marketplace on which we would showcase and market the artwork of these artists. Our goal with this marketplace is to make art accessible outside India [starting off with the US] by the end of this year.

What are the major changes that you experienced when you moved from an Employee to an Employer ?

Its a mindset change. For one, it meant putting in more hours of work than I had ever before. It meant having to make decisions for the business and everyone involved in it. It meant always always being willing to learn. Becoming an employer brings with it a lot of responsibility and at some level, even though I did not know what exactly it would entail, I was ready for it.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

Get started. It is important to get started. Its ok to make mistakes, learn from them, and keep forging ahead. There will never be a time as good as now to pursue your dreams.

What are your views about the start-up landscape in India?

It has a very promising future. See the support structure that is slowly becoming available, start-up events that are helping address questions/ concerns of new and old entrepreneurs, the maturing trends in funding and investment. There really hasn’t been a better time for start-ups.

You have a decade long experience in US, what made you shift to India & why you chose Bangalore for your startup ?

I always knew that I would return to India someday. It did not matter how long I had stayed away – India was always “home” 🙂 I chose Bangalore, not for the obvious reason that it is the start up hub of the country, but because my family lives here and being close to them was just as important to me as starting up!

What are your thoughts on the “Digital” movement of the BJP Government & how much it would help SME’s in India ?

There is no denying that this government has taken to the internet/technology & understands its importance better than any govt has in the past. But I think will be a little more while before we can conclusively state whether the Digital movement started by this govt is actually helping start-ups and SME’s in India.

With this we conclude our Q&A with Namrata !! We hope that our reader’s would have got some useful tips on starting up.

If you have any questions for Namrata or are an SME planning to setup an e-commerce store, please leave a comment & we would get back to you on the same.

For more information, please visit Twikster

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

In this article, we have a Q&A with a social entrepreneur Harish Kumar from Ahmedabad [Thanks to my friend Paras Shah for the connect :)]. Harish Kumar has 20+ years of corporate experience who left his cushy job to start social venture Ability On Wheels with the mission – To connect people with disabilities, educate and create opportunities for them to make the most of their abilities, while advocating social change by enhancing the quality of life with developmental or physical abilities through an array of services.

Today we have a discussion with Harish about his social venture, it’s plans, issues faced by social ventures, tips for aspiring entrepreneurs etc. Let us start with the Q&A with Harish

Can you give a small background about yourself ?

I wish to introduce myself as a specially abled person [congenital absence of right upper limb below elbow joint] with a passion for driving. In 2012 I became the first physically challenged person in the country to successfully complete an All India Driving Expedition thereby creating a new National Records in Limca Book of Records. As on date I have on my name 2 National Records in Limca Book of Records. I completed my Masters in Science from IIT Roorkee in 1993 & Masters in Technology from IIT Delhi in 1995.

After working in Telecom Sector for ~ 20 years, I quit the corporate world last year & decided to work on providing mobility services & solutions to the specially abled people of the country. For this purpose I’ve floated an NGO Ability on Wheels Charitable Trust

Give us a small gist about Ability On Wheels [AOW] ?

As you would be aware of Specially Abled people do face lots of challenges & hurdles in mobility. There’s not even a single driving school for the specially abled, there are no wheel chair accessible vehicles & also the public transport is not disability friendly. Since I have myself experienced these hurdles I decided to work on this cause & be a contributor to the society.

There are an estimated 60 million people in the country who are specially abled with mobility restrictions & every year ~ 1 lac people get added in the list. Ability On Wheels is an effort to encourage the specially abled people to take a big leap towards leading a normal life by providing mobility & accessibility services & solutions.

What was the trigger of starting AOW?

After creating records in Limca Book of Records I got recognition in the media. Subsequently a few differently abled people approached me with  a desire to learn driving & the process for the same. They also conveyed that they had approached many driving schools & all had turned them back saying we cannot teach you driving.

Then I started exploring & to my horror I could not find even a single driving school for the differently abled. That was the trigger point of AoW. My research also threw up a startling fact – Differently abled people have to first buy a car, get it modified & then only they can get a learner’s license which is a big injustice to them. This driving school will provide them with the option of first learning how to drive & then decide on buying a car.

Can you let us know what changes need to be made in the car in order to cater AOW’s requirement

The proposed driving school plans to deploy two modified / customized cars [registered as Invalid Carriages] to impart driving training to people having various kinds of physical disabilities

Car No. 1 – Manual Transmission with the following modifications

  • Auto Clutch (with engaging / disabling feature (on / off switch)
  • Hand controlled accelerator & brake. The controls would be dual in nature and will not affect the normal foot controls of the vehicle.

AOW_1

Car No. 2 – Automatic Transmission OR Auto Gear Shift with the following modifications:

  • Auxiliary accelerator pedal on the other side of the brake [can be locked & folded when not in use]
  • Hand controlled accelerator & brake. The controls would be dual in nature and will not affect the normal foot controls of the vehicle.
  • Steering Knob

AOW_Right

Do you plan to raise funds for AOW from external investors who fund social enterprises?

Yes, we are open to raising funds through external investors, corporate, government, like minded NGO’s & Individuals.

Since, there are many differently-abled people in India, how do plan to take AOW to other cities?

Plan is to create at least 1 such driving school in every state capital & few other major cities of the country.

What are the major challenges you faced when starting AOW ?

  • Legal & Statutory [convincing authorities that what we plan to do is well within the ambit of law & very much possible practically].
  • Research & Planning – We studied about various such driving schools running in developed countries. Got very good information from a similar school being run by Queen Elizabeth Foundation, London. Went to Mumbai, Bangalore & Ahmedabad to meet renowned modification kit manufacturers. From their inputs was able to decide & plan on 2 cars & modifications as mentioned above
  • Funding

[Ability On Wheels in News – Click on Image to enlarge]

AOW in News

What are your views on social entrepreneurship & social enterprises in India ?

Still a long way to go for acceptance in the society. People look down on us as fools to have left a job of Rs 2 million / annum & get into this. They also say you are looking towards less than 1 % of the population as your customers. Why not get into some business which can cater to a large clientele. As for funding a lot of challenges still remain for social enterprises.

What are some of your thoughts on expanding AOW pan-India [How do you plan to do it ?]

Following options are being explored once the first driving school gets stable & we start getting a decent response.

  • Franchisee model operated by local people under the umbrella of Ability on Wheels
  • Own model [subject to getting attached to a corporate who is willing to fund the scale up]

State Government owned driving schools set up with our guidance [this seems to be least probable].

Some advice to aspiring social entrepreneurs ?

Before jumping into it please be aware of the fact that challenges would be many times more than anticipated. Funding will only happen only when you reach to a certain level of success which may take as much as 3 – 5 years. Social acceptability is very less in our country which is again an added challenge. Revenue or RoI models will not work the way they do in other businesses.

We hope that Harish’s learnings would help you in your venture. If you are an entrepreneur and are open to a Q&A, please email your request to himanshu.sheth@gmail.com

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

How many of us have come across the problem “There was a conference/meetup but did not get any reminder for the same … I could have met lot of like-minded folks at the event :)” This problem statement gave birth to a Bengaluru based event discovery platform – EventsHigh

Today we have a chat with one of company’s co-founder Arvind Batra where he talks about EventsHigh, it’s founders, technology & Entrepreneurship. Let’s start our Q&A with Arvind…

EventsHigh

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

Nikesh Garera & Arvind Batra are co-founders of EventsHigh.  EventsHigh is an event discovery platform that brings all events at one place & helps users to find relevant events based on their interests, location and availability. Nikesh & Arvind  have a strong background in machine learning and big data, they were part of the Kosmix team in Bay Area, that was later acquired and became WalmartLabs. They moved to Bengaluru couple of years back and have started EventsHigh recently.

Parag Sarda joined us recently. He brings in solid engineering experience with his previous work at Google, WalmartLabs and Microsoft. You can find more about Nikesh, Arvind & Parag here, here and here.

Every idea is born out of a problem, what was the trigger of starting EventsHigh ?

Nikesh & myself had missed Google I/O back to back which is a flagship Google event and its registrations sell out very fast. We got the seed that it would be nice to have a notification service that will remind users about events based on their interests. We did a hackathon at Techcrunch Disrupt SF to see our enthusiasm and since then we have been thinking about it.

How did your team come up with the name EventsHigh ?

Both Nikesh & myself are part of this group called Runners’ High and we like it. You experience a high after attending a great event, the whole experience stays with you for a long time. We wanted to share that feeling with everyone. Plus the fact that the domain EventsHigh was available 🙂

How does EventsHigh curate the information on various events happening in any city ?

We crawl various sources on the web to extract event data. Some sources such as Facebook and Eventbrite also have APIs that we use for sourcing events.

Currently how many cities in India does EventsHigh cater to  ?

We are live in seven cities – Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad.

Though it is too early to talk about revenue, but how does EH plan to make revenue [Revenue Model of EH] ?

The problem from event organizer’s perspective is how to promote their event. Our revenue streams will be in providing event outreach solutions to event organizers in terms of sponsored listings and advertisements. We will also be working on affiliate partnership with different ticketing sites and take a commission in ticket sales.

How does EventsHigh stack up against BookMyShow, IndianStage in terms of differentiation ?

In a given week, a city like Bengaluru has about 1000 events happening, but sites like BookMyShow or IndianStage cover only, at best, 50 of them. EventsHigh not only has lot more events but with our categorization and semantic technology, users can subscribe to events based on their interests such as hackathons or comedy shows etc. We want to provide ‘relevant’ events to you – based on your interests, near your locality.

What are the major changes that you experienced when you moved from an Employee to an Employer [or Entrepreneur]

The freedom to work on what I really want is something that I cherish a lot. The startup experience is pushing me to try out new roles every day and it is a great learning experience.

What are your key advice(s) to aspiring entrepreneurs ?

Just do it. Don’t over think it. But be patient and focused.

There is lot of hype around IoT, Big Data etc. what are your views on the same ?

Big data is a reality of our times. People are producing more data than ever before and big data solutions are efforts to manage them. The challenges posed by big data are fascinating and a lot of research is needed to match the scale of things to come.  IoT is a new frontier in innovation and it is very exciting based on early results.

What are your views about the start-up landscape in India ?

The ecosystem in Bengaluru is very good. We have got help from unexpected corners, people have been very forthcoming to give their feedback. The whole ecosystem is quite collaborative. This is a great time to pursue a startup in India.

Here is wishing EventsHigh team all the best & hope they reach “High” in their startup endeavors. Do give EventsHigh a spin & share your feedback in the comments section.