Our recently launched study titled, ‘Indian SMB Sector 2013’ captures some interesting facts and figures on the burgeoning SMB segment in India. The study reveals that with a total base of 48.8 million SMBs, India is expected to emerge as the largest SMB country globally. The SMB sector in India is growing at an exceptional rate and has the potential to be one of the primary drivers of the Indian...
April 13, 2013
Indian SMB market at 48.8 million units growing at a CAGR of 4.53%
13April
April 12, 2013
Cloud Services and Mobile Apps
12April
In addition to vendors of traditional on-premise products that are shipped or downloaded via web, a different generation of providers is fast emerging. They are leveraging new technologies and business models, often interchangeably referred to as cloud services, Web 2.0 or SaaS (Software as a Service). (Not all SaaS products are truly cloud based but the differences are not relevant for this...
April 11, 2013
The day Zest.Md picked on smartest brain for inputs at #PNMeetup
11April
I met Avinash a few weeks back to share details about zest.md, and to discuss some of the challenges which we are facing. Avinash, helped me to understand a lot of issues better, and invited me to be a part of the #PNMeetup to discuss it with a larger group. To be honest, I was apprehensive initially, but seeing the conviction with which Avinash said that it would help us, I agreed and I am so...
April 10, 2013
Some Takeaways from the First iSPIRT Playbook Roundtable on Positioning & Messaging for Products
10April
“99% Practice, 1% Theory”. This was the ground rule laid down for the session by the workshop facilitator Shankar Maruwada at the beginning. Sounds very much like the tagline of a popular softdrink brand that’s No Bakwaas! No wonder it came from someone who has loads of experience in the FMCG space, built and sold an analytics company and has more recently given life to what is arguably India’s...
April 9, 2013
Financial Inclusion in India – Challenges & Opportunities
09April
What is Financial Inclusion? Financial inclusion is the delivery of financial services & products to sections of disadvantaged and low income segments of society, at an affordable cost in a fair and transparent manner by regulated mainstream institutional players. The term “financial inclusion” has gained importance since the early 2000s, and is a result of findings about...
April 8, 2013
What should you expect from an accelerator?
08April
I have written previously about how to evaluate accelerators and choosing the right accelerator since there are so many of them these days and also about what the goal of an accelerator is. I wanted to share somethings that entrepreneurs should expect from an accelerator from a perspective of a startup founder. I think the best thing that has happened is that so many accelerators have opened in...
April 8, 2013
Why does India struggle to develop its own complex high technology products like fighter aircraft?
Dr Raghuram Rajan, Chief Economic Adviser to the MoF, GoI, was the chief guest at the IIMB convocation this year. I had the privilege of meeting him briefly before the convocation started. We talked about jugaad, Indian industry’s innovation capabilities, and which companies stand out on the innovation dimension. One question that Dr. Rajan asked was something that I have thought about...
April 7, 2013
Collating Problems Worth Solving
07April
In my experience working with Entrepreneurs for the past 9 odd years and possibly have seen a few thousand startups, there is one key attribute that instantly sets apart the startups that just might make it, to the ones that would struggle – the clarity on the problem they are trying to solve. While we have made it a mandate in events like In50hrs that explaining the problem is crucial, we...
April 6, 2013
The Business of Accelerators
06April
Accelerators are in the business of creating Startups – or atleast taking the first bet. Its a startup of startups; Which means, everything they talk about as risk, in venture capital nicely gets bundled up and will get put on the head of what is the accelerator. Going back to the basics, Now depending on which accelerator you are involved with, there might be two or three key milestones...
April 5, 2013
Sapience Analytics is driving over INR 10 million in annual value per 100 employees
05April
CEO and Co-Founder, Sapience Analytics, Shirish Deodhar, is pleased with the market response to their first software product, Sapience, and says their objective is to become the default standard for Automated Enterprise Effort Visibility and Gain Sapience Analytics was set up in 2008, as a software products company. It was formed by four serial entrepreneurs, who had come to realize that the...
