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|In: General|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

YuppTV, the world’s largest Over-The-Top [OTT] provider for Indian content, has launched YuppTV Bazaar, a marketplace for high-quality video content. With the launch of YuppTV Bazaar, YuppTV will now host curated premium video content across various genres such as Education, Short Films, Web Series and Trailers etc.

The move will be music to the ears of independent video content creators, who often find it tough to monetise and market their premium content through traditional video-sharing portals, satellite and DTH platforms. Through assured quality supervision and a large native user base, YuppTV bazaar will allow these entrepreneurs to showcase their high-quality videos on a trusted platform and reach out to an audience ranging in millions across the world through devices such as Smart TVs, smartphones, tablets & PCs.

Speaking on the launch, Uday Reddy, Founder & CEO, YuppTV, commented

With the proliferation of unregulated video content on the digital platform, content monetization and visibility is a prime concern for premium video content creators who often find their content being lost in a deluge of casual user-generated content. YuppTV Bazaar is being launched as a solution that will overcome the traditional roadblocks associated with free-for-all video sharing platforms. We are confident that this development will be a major success and will empower content developers with the perfect medium to share and monetize their offerings.

Shri Vidyasagar Rao, Governor of Maharashtra added

In today’s digital age, with technology having changed the way many industries operate today, YuppTV’s launch of its premium video content platform YuppTV Bazaar comes as a very welcome move. By providing a medium to independent creative content creators for showcasing their works, YuppTV has taken the spirit of entrepreneurship to a new level. I support the initiative wholeheartedly and wish YuppTV and YuppTV Bazaar all success.

Abhishek Bachchan, who was also present at the launch, added

India, at the moment, is brimming with talent looking for an outlet for their creativity. The launch of YuppTV Bazaar from YuppTV is a welcome move that will provide the indie movie-makers with a trusted and curated platform for showcasing their talent.

Since its India launch in October 2015, YuppTV has been creating ripples across the digital entertainment industry owing to its unique approach and extensive network. Today, YuppTV is the world’s largest internet TV and Video On Demand [VOD] streaming provider with more than 5 million mobile app downloads & an audience base reaching 400+ million households through Smart TVs.

It is also the 2nd most popular app in Google Play Store and the most popular TV app on LG and Samsung Smart TVs in India.

About YuppTV

YuppTV is one of the world’s leading Over-the-top [OTT] content providers for South Asian Content. YuppTV was founded in 2006, with headquarters in Atlanta, GA and has branch offices in the USA and India. YuppTV started with two channels and has grown to deliver more than 200+ TV Channels today.  YuppTV is accessible on more than 25 internet enabled – Connected TVs, Internet STBs, Smart Blu-ray players, PCs, Smart Phones and Tablets.

For more information, please visit YuppTV

|In: General|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Money View, India’s leading money management app, is entering this new year with a remarkable achievement of 3 million users for their Android Application.

The overwhelming response to the app is a testimony of how Money View has been helping Indians to wake up to financial fitness. The app which is specially designed for India, helps users ‘stay on top of their money, anywhere, anytime’.

In its continuous effort to make India financially fit, Money View has launched its New Year Resolution Campaign #NazariyaBadlo and is urging Indians to change their outlook towards money and manage it in a simple, smart and secure way. The campaign is aimed at driving a behavioral shift amongst a large segment of people who find it difficult to manage their funds or are still stuck with some old-school ways of money management that don’t really seem to help them.

The campaign, that kick-starts on 24th December 2015 & continues till the 10th of January 2016, wants people to resolve to be financially fit this new year and pledge to manage their money better. And Money View will help them change for good – where they spend wisely and save smart.

Speaking on the achievement, Puneet Agarwal, Co-Founder of Money View said

This is a significant milestone for us. But more importantly, we are happy that Indians are waking up to the possibilities of structured and contiguous money management as traditionally Indians rank very low in financial planning and management. In line with our core objective of helping people become financially fit, this campaign aims to make people think about managing their money better in 2016.

As a part of the #NazariyaBadlo initiative, every individual can make their dream of ‘financial fitness’ come true this new year by downloading Money View and make their loved ones pledge for it too, by referring them. Money View is not only urging masses to adopt financial fitness but also appealing to its existing users to spread the message among their family and friends by referring the Money View App.

The best part of the campaign is that Money View will not just help users get financially fit, but also fulfill a lucky user’s new year dream by supporting their financial plans with a large sum of Rs. 1 Lakh. The company will choose 10 finalists from amongst the large pool of its users, both existing and the new ones who sign up and refer within the campaign period, and the finalists will then be made to contest the final leg to win the prize.

For more details on the campaign visit the following link. The MoneyView app for Android can be downloaded from here

About Money View

Money View is an app that acts like a personal money manager on your smartphone, giving users an overview of their financial status which can enable them to take prudent and judicious financial decisions. Using advanced technology, the app automatically tracks expenses, manages budgets and keeps a tab on bill cycles and payments. For more information, please visit Money View

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Hike messenger, India’s first home-grown and fastest growing messaging platform, will pave the way to get India online with the launch of its app in eight vernacular languages namely Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu.

This launch means that people and communities across India can now be in touch with their family, friends and contacts in their own native languages, defying the English language barrier, erstwhile felt in messaging apps. This launch, available immediately on Android phones with the following features:

Multi-lingual interface From the moment you open the app, you can choose the language of your app. Thus your full app experience is in your native language!

Multi-lingual keyboard It allows you to type in up to 9 languages [including English]. It also offers glide functionality at the bottom of the chat panel that lets you swap between the languages with ease, thus upping the fun in chatting. For a bi-lingual or multi-lingual chat experience, this is a wonderful addition.

  • The keyboard comes packed with predictive text technology that works on artificial intelligence and gives you a wide array of relevant words in your native language as you type, thus helping you save time and express better.
  • One expresses one’s emotions best in one’s native language. Hike’s immensely addictive stickers are also available in all these languages and help you express yourself in your native language.

Commenting on the launch, Kavin Bharti Mittal, CEO & Founder, Hike messenger said

We’re excited to launch hike in 8 local languages. For the first time ever millions of Indians will be able to seamlessly chat in their local languages only on hike. Every single hiker will now be able to choose a local language and also with it, see a special keyboard that they can use built specifically for that language. One cannot build for India without understanding the enormous diversity in the country. This is another big step towards catering to that diversity to bring India online.

Check Hike Localization in action below:

Hike’s Growth Story

  • Dec 2012 – Global launch
  • Feb 2013 – Messaging traffic grows 10X week on week
  • April 2013 – Hit the first 5M user milestone in just 4 months of its launch | Raised $7M from BSB
  • Feb 2014 – Hit the 15M user mark
  • April 2014 – Received $14M fresh funding from BSB
  • June 2014 – Crossed 20M user mark, launched first TVC
  • July 2014 – Hit #1 rank on App stores
  • August 2014 – Crossed 35M user mark, receives $65M fresh funding led by Tiger Global & BSB
  • November 2014 – Launches regional stickers on hike
  • January 2015 – Launched free Hike Calls
  • February 2015 – Launched Cricket Scores on hike
  • Aug 2015: Hike announces 20 billion messages per month and launched Hike News
  • Sep 2015: Launched Group Calling with upto 100 people

Additional information

You can download the app at – http://get.hike.in For more information, please visit the Hike Blog

[Image Credit* – Wikimedia]

|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: Food-Commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

For the first time in the history of the Indian food-tech industry, Eatfresh – an online platform delivering high quality, chef-made meals in Bangalore, received an astonishing order of 7000 kg plum cake worth Rs. 22 Lakhs from a city-based MNC.

As part of the Holiday season, these cakes are expected to be distributed internally to employees. Eatfresh bagged this order, courtesy its customers working with the MNC, given the quality of the food and service they experienced first hand.

EatFresh

Sharan Urubail, Head Sales, Eatfresh said

This is a huge moment for Eatfresh and for the food tech industry in India at large. We are seeing a rising trend among several individuals and companies who are now approaching the online space for ordering food and cakes.

Online orders for Christmas cakes and on-demand home delivery are a novel experience for Bengaluru this holiday season as such options were not available earlier. Consumers have now experienced and validated the quality of Eatfresh in terms of taste, culinary experience and the service we provide. Their trust in our products and service is of immense pride for us and our people. We will continue to deliver such experiences in the future to our valued consumers.

This Christmas, Eatfresh is offering a variety of special seasonal treats to its consumers across all its outlets in Bengaluru. Now you can order your special cake by logging on to the website to celebrate and spread some holiday cheer.

Definitely something to cheer about in the turbulent times faced by other food-tech startups !!!

About Ubiquitous Foods

Eatfresh was launched in August 2015 and delivers in 15 delivery areas around Bangalore. Fresh meals are created and prepared from scratch, by a carefully curated team of top professional chefs working from hygienic, A-Grade commercial kitchen facilities. All dishes are prepared with quality ingredients sourced daily from carefully chosen vendors.

Eatfresh’s delivery logistics are built on a world-class technology platform that guarantees that meals are delivered fast, hot and fresh. Eatfresh is a part of Ubiquitous Foods, which operates the bakery retail chain Ovenfresh in 50 locations serving 10,000 customers every day. For more details, please visit Eatfresh or follow them on Facebook and Twitter

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

After successfully setting up start-up warehouse in Bengaluru, National Association of Software & Services [NASSCOM] has announced the inauguration of its second warehouse in the city in presence of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka Shri Siddaramaiah, Shri. K.J. George, Hon’ble Minister for Bengaluru Development and Town Planning, R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM and Rajat Tandon, Vice President, NASSCOM 10,000 startups

What is Startup Warehouse

‘Start-up Warehouse’ is a mosaic, which binds startups and entrepreneurs together in a novel working space, with an electric atmosphere that ensures sustained inspiration. Apart from the coffees, the synergies could be endless here More about it here

Over the years, Bangalore has developed as the start-up capital of India. The city has nearly 3,100 to 4,900 dynamic tech start-ups and has attained the second highest growth rate for exit volume and VC investment among the top 20. The warehouse currently has 20 start-ups and with the new space, the warehouse will consist of 100 start-ups. There will be 5 seats allotted to one start-up.

Startup Warehouse Programme

The start-ups will operate for six months. The entrepreneurs will have a list of benefits which could help polish their entrepreneurial skills as well as polish their marketing ability including; Connect sessions, early stage mentoring, access to resources from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM cloud, Kotak banking etc. The selection would be finalized by a selection committee comprising of stakeholders from the government as well as the industry, viz. Government of Karnataka and NASSCOM. They will be required to sign a lease agreement with the Start-up Warehouse.

The NASSCOM warehouse is a four folds expansion from 10,000 Sq. ft. to 40,000 Sq. ft. area. The warehouse will be equipped with Internet of Things Labs, Design Labs & Mobile Experience Labs.

  • Internet of things Labs : A space for incubating IoT/hardware-play start-ups as they build, test and validate concepts and prototypes. It’ll be a meeting place for industry practitioners to share best practices, case studies with these start-ups and for peer founders to learn and assist each other. These will be feeder to the NASSCOM-Diety IoT Labs.
  • Design Labs : The Design Labs will be a co-working, co-learning space for ideation and creation of user centric design products. It will house multi-function spaces, innovative tools, usability studios and digital whiteboards for cutting edge design collaborations and ideation sessions. It will also serve as a center for excellence for design practitioners to gather and share best practices.
  • Mobile Experience Labs : The Mobile Experience Lab will allow developers, designers and startups access to a wide range of mobile devices from multiple major vendors across all major platforms for testing and building of next generation mobile products and technologies. Testing mobile applications across different platforms and devices helps ensure apps are accessible and fully functional.

Chief Minister of Karnataka Shri Siddaramaiah said

Karnataka has traditionally been an entrepreneurially rich ecosystem. Over the years, the city has seen an unprecedented growth in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We are committed to scaling this even further and are pleased to co-opt with NASSCOM to make this dream a reality. NASSCOM start-up warehouse will further provide a platform for the talented entrepreneurs and give them the space they require. The Government is happy to cooperate and support such programs in order to boost the entrepreneurial culture of the city.

Rajat Tandon, Vice President, NASSCOM 10,000 Start-ups said

Karnataka is an entrepreneurial hub. Bangalore is easily the best place to start-up in India right now. There is easy access to capital and a relative abundance of talented youth who are passionate about working for start-ups. The expansion will help nurture over 500 entrepreneurs under one roof, thereby, driving growth and foster innovation under one roof, where start-ups can share knowledge and help build an inclusive yet vibrant economy.

The start-ups can bring in up to four team members into the incubation program. All start-ups will get showcased at select NASSCOM events and other events of partner organizations.

The Start-up warehouse will also host meetings and workshops with innovators and leaders from the technology and business community. With this expansion, NASSCOM aspires to impact 200+ startups by the next quarter from Bangalore adding to the overall 10K impact number.

More information about the NASSCOM Startup Warehouse can be found here & you can apply for the program here

Download the 2015 Startup report from here

About 10,000 Startups

Started in April 2013, 10,000 Startups is an ambitious attempt by NASSCOM to scale up the startup ecosystem in India by 10x. 10,000 Startups aims to enable incubation, funding and support for 10,000 technology startups in India over the next ten years. The initiative brings together key stakeholders of the ecosystem including startup incubators, accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists, startup support groups, mentors, and technology corporations.

Since its launch in April 2013, they have done about 450+ events in 22 cities of the country which were attended by a whopping 25,000 attendees and received 9000 Applicants, 800 Startups Shortlists, and 150 Impacts.

Nasscom-Partners

For more information about IBM Cloud, please visit http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing

|In: Review|Last Updated:

Many of my friends who plan to come to Bangalore ask me “How is the night-life there & what are some of the hip-hop places around your locality”. Well, we have all come across this situation where we have landed in a new city & want to enjoy the ‘Night Life’ in the city 🙂 Every city has something unique to offer whether it is culture, food or even night-life.

But if you cannot enjoy the night-life than you have an option to relax at home & prepare tasty lunch/dinner. When I was a bachelor, it has occurred many times with me that during the weekend, we used to short-list many dishes clubbed with cocktails but the end-result used to be very surprising 🙁 Blame it on our ignorance to prepare awesome food or laziness on our side to not look for quality recipes freely available on the internet. This was way back in 2005~06 where there were not many smart-phones [to be more precise there were lot of feature-phones:)].

Fast forward now, we are all busy in our lives & in most of the scenarios – be it searching for a Doctor/Carpenter or even a Life-Partner; MOBILE PHONE has become our default companion. Few weeks back, a friend of mine [who is an entrepreneur] visited Bangalore since he had to pitch his idea to a VC firm. As an entrepreneur he was busy building the product & working his heart out to get the Minimum Viable Product. As expected, his meeting with the VC firm was awesome & hence he decided to treat us with lovely Cocktails !! Instead we treated him first 🙂

My wife & myself looked out for Cocktail Recipes on-line & we came across LiveInStyle – Your single point contact to discover great events Happening around you and the best Night Life in your city. It’s section on ‘House Parties’ was very helpful for us as we could get some great inputs on how to make great cocktails. We had an in-house celebration with the Cocktails but that was not the end of celebration 🙂

Me, my entrepreneur friend & others decided to go Clubbing. Blame it on my ignorance or my reserved nature, I have not been to many pubs since I am not a ‘Party Animal’. We could co-relate this situation with the problem we had in finding Cocktail recipes; so we decided to check out Pub Finder in India section on LiveInStyle. We checked out the INSIDE PUBS category where they have everything listed about the PUB. PUB FINDER & INSIDE PUBS combination did help us to zero in on a Pub in Indiranagar.

We reminiscenced the good old College Days & my friend continued his ‘Product Pitch’ even when he was drinking… In fact, great ideas are born on a drinks table 🙂 We did give him some feedback about his product, so his visit to the Pub did not go Futile (An entrepreneur is always looking to improve his/her product every single moment :)) It was almost 2.30 AM & it was time to head back home. Being a responsible citizen, it was very important we kept our motto of Live Responsibly alive !! We booked an on-demand taxi obviously via the mobile phone & reached home safely 🙂

LiveInStyle saved my day by being a ‘Partner in finding Pubs’ and ‘Partner in Home Parties’ which made every moment special !!

Few weeks have passed by & we are still awaiting good news from my entrepreneur friend as to when he would be back to Bangalore for his ‘second meeting’ with the VC firm:)

Disclaimer : This blog caters to audience above the legal drinking age in India, i.e., 25 years.

[Image Credit* – liveinstyle.com]

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Bangalore-based Stay Simple Resorts have announced that it has raised angel funding from marquee investors, including the family office of Sudhir & Ms. Shalini Sethi [Sudhir Sethi is the Chairman of IDG Ventures India] and Praveen Someshwar [Sales Head, PepsiCo, AsiaPac].

Stay Simple Resorts is a value- focussed mid-budget leisure resort chain,founded in 2008 by four professionals led by the Founder and Managing Director, Gopalkrishna Kulkarni. Gopal is a serial entrepreneur who promoted the private equity backed Perfint Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., after a long stint at GE Healthcare.

Stay Simple currently owns, manages and operates about 500 rooms in 16 resorts in 12 popular tourist destinations across India: Coorg, Goa, Hassan, Sakleshpur, Wayanad, Mysore, Mussoorie, Jaipur, Pushkar, Jaisalmer etc.

With this funding, Stay Simple is aiming to expand to newer geographies, and enhance capacity to more than 2000 rooms in the next six months.

Gopalkrishna Kulkarni, the Founder and MD, said

This has given us an impetus to grow and maximise our potential. The aim is to be present in at least 400 destinations in the next 3 years. We have already served over 1,00,000 customers, many of them being loyal customers.Closing a significant round of funding is acknowledgement of our proposition and underscores the huge potential of the mid-budget segment of the market. We are really excited and now better-equipped to realize our ambition of becoming the largest and most-preferred brand in the leisure space.

Mr. Sudhir Sethi said

I am delighted to be associated with Stay Simple’s vision of creating a countrywide brand in the value- focussed mid-budget leisure segment. Stay Simple has pioneered the concept of a hospitality brand that resonates with travellers who are looking for value-for-money stays. This is exemplified by the brand ‘Stay Simple’.The team at Stay Simple is experienced and has grown the company in a steady and pragmatic manner.

About Stay Simple Resorts

Stay Simple Resorts is a value-focussed mid-budget leisure resort chain, founded in 2008 by four professionals led by the Founder and Managing Director, Gopalkrishna Kulkarni. The other founders are Mr. Vinayak Harshavardhan, Mr. Shriram Subramanian [founder of InGovern Research Services] and Mr. Krishna Kumar [senior executive at Nokia Networks]. The founders have collectively over 80 years of experience. The company has also built a formidable team of experienced executives in the leisure, tourism and hotel industry.

Stay Simple currently owns, manages and operates about 500 rooms in 16 resorts in 12 popular tourist destinations across India such as Coorg, Goa, Hassan, Sakleshpur, Wayanad, Mysore, Nagarhole, Mussoorie, Jaipur, Pushkar, Jaisalmer and Sams Dunes.

Stay Simple Resorts was founded to meet the demands of a budget conscious holiday-maker. The company prides in providing a clean, warm and affordable holiday experience to travellers, which is often missing or taken for granted in the largest unorganised mid-budget resorts.

Stay Simple’s strategy is to:

  • Create a “large” inventory of rooms, pan India leisure destinations, using the long-term lease and managed model – Asset Light
  • Select property in major tourist destinations, with existing facilities equivalent to that of a 3 star property [swimming pool, conference room, restaurant, etc.] – Choice Destination
  • Use technology to ease operations and aid scalability – Technology
  • Invest in the brand to significantly improve occupancy rates – Brand

[Image Credit* – Stay Simple Resorts]