As everyone knows, venture returns are determined by building innovative products and services that reach scale. The operative words being INNOVATIVE and SCALE. Stuff that has not been built or tried before, stuff that delivers much greater “value” to the customer. We also know that India early stage returns have not exactly been stellar. I’ll present one framework here which tries to link...
January 13, 2014
The link between corruption & early stage venture returns in India
13January
January 10, 2014
The Most Important Metrics Immediately After Launch
10January
Just released or about to release a mobile app? Do you have a checklist of which metrics you should be tracking? Deciding which metrics to track is simply deciding which questions you want to answer. And the key is in asking the right questions. Getting information about your app usage shouldn’t be like this. 1. User Acquisition The main activity after launch is user acquisition. Even if you are...
January 9, 2014
Raja of v-shesh on how social impact can be “greater through a business model”
09January
Mr. P Rajasekharan (Raja) is the founder of v-shesh, a social impact enterprise that enables people with disabilities find employment. Working with both job-seekers and employers, v-shesh has placed over 90% of its trainees in banks, ITES, hospitality and manufacturing sectors. Prior to founding v-shesh, Raja worked in development sector and project finance at Japan Bank for Regional Cooperation...
January 8, 2014
Earning a rupee in India is more difficult than earning a dollar in US! – Kumar Vembu, Founder and CEO, GoFrugal Technologies
08January
ProductNation interviewed Kumar Vembu, Founder and CEO of GoFrugal Technologies. In a candid conversation, Kumar shares his experiences of dealing with Indian retail market and shares key mantras for succeeding in the Indian market. Read on… Could you explain the rationale behind venturing into the Indian retail space through GoFrugal? I started GoFrugal during the late 2004, inspired by the...
January 7, 2014
Yammer is facebook for Business! – Product Positioning and Messaging!
07January
Yammer is facebook for Business! – This was apparently the Product Positioning choice of its own CEO. The CEO thinks that this is good shorthand for conveying what his product is all about. It could also be meant in a pejorative way. Users could feel that the user interfaces and functionality are too similar to each other, and so may not be too original! Here is a funny example of bad...
January 6, 2014
Sanket – A disruptive health/wellness product to monitor health ailments
06January
Sanket – a revolutionary product in the healthcare/wellness space is the brainchild of Agatsa, a Noida based product and Solutions Company. ProductNation interviewed Rahul, co-founder of Agatsa to understand the product and their plans to make it available to the masses. Read on… What was the motivation to start Agatsa? My wife Neha (Co-Founder) and I started Agatsa back in 2010. When we...
January 4, 2014
My final comments on a Twitter discussion about Design & India focused startups
04January
Here’s the starting point of the discussion on Twitter: @avinashraghava @dkhare better Q:what is the role of design in d larger socio-eco context? Which business & consumer problem does it solve? — Dhiraj Kacker (@dhirajkacker) January 3, 2014 Just to summarize my thought: the original referenced article talked about design being a key pillar of a startup. My contention is that that is a...
January 4, 2014
Innovation in India: Where do we stand at the end of 2013?
As the new year approaches, its customary to review the year that has passed. Here is my take on where we stand on innovation at the end of 2013. Positive Highlights of the Indian Innovation scenario in 2013 Innovation in the public/strategic sectors took two important strides. The first was the successful launch of the mission to Mars (Mangalyaan) which demonstrated India’s ability to undertake...
January 3, 2014
101 Takeaways from the First ProductNation Boot Camp #PNCamp
03January
The inaugural edition of PNBootcamp at Pune is the best thing to come out from iSPIRT yet – in my opinion. For all the startups that missed this bootcamp, I strongly recommend staying tuned to pn.ispirt.in for the next playbooks and bootcamps. There were two themes in the bootcamp: ‘Discovery Hacking’ for those companies who have not yet figured out the product-market fit. ‘Scale Hacking’ for...
January 2, 2014
Announcing InTech50 – A showcase of 50 Innovative Product Companies to Global and Indian CIOs, Product Company executives, Investors and Analysts
02January
InTech50 is a showcase of some of the most promising software products created by entrepreneurs from India. A panel of Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Venture Capitalists, and Product Leaders from previous successes will decide the fifty companies that make the cut to InTech50 selection criteria. These chosen companies will receive advice, on-going mentoring, product marketing support, and...
