Abhilash Bapanasha – Dutch Uncles

An Overview Of The Creator Economy: Challenges And Opportunities

Abhilash Bapanasha — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 13:00:12 +0000

The Creator Economy is built by influencers, vloggers, bloggers, writers, artists, and anyone else who monetise their knowledge, skills, or creations. The phenomenal rise of the internet over the last decade empowered ordinary individuals to create and publish their own content and hence share a story. In order to elucidate more on the opportunities in the Creator Economy space, we had Mr. Tamseel Hussain as the speaker for Innerview – a weekly live 45-minute motivational and inspirational talk show presented by Dutch Uncles which features interviews of industry experts who bring forth informative and life experiences and techniques.

Mr. Tamseel Hussain, the Founder and CEO of People Like Us Create TV (Pluc TV), has successfully built his bootstrapped startup from scratch and is now being used by more than thirty thousand creators. With over a decade of experience in boosting youth-led virtual narratives, Mr. Hussain is building storytelling and technology solutions for the age of the creator economy.

In brief, the session had the following takeaways:

What is the potential of the creator economy?
How can you become a successful creator?
How can creators produce and monetise their content?
What can be the impact of authentic storytelling?

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A lot of ideas are being funded if you have a high user base. But the most important thing is whether you are able to generate your own first revenue. It makes the fundraising journey easy for you.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

What will you suggest about getting funding to the aspiring young entrepreneurs?

It is really important to share your idea and build on it before you actually go to fundraise. If you are going for a fundraise, the trend that we are seeing right now especially in the Indian market is that a lot of ideas are being funded if you have a high user base. But the most important thing is whether you are able to generate your own first revenue. It makes the fundraising journey easy for you. Second, you should be able to solve a problem, people need to seek solutions and they need to come to your platform. Third, once you have actually solved the problem it is very important that you consistently solve that problem so that people keep coming back to you and these are three golden rules which really help.

Please suggest some action points which creative entrepreneurs can consider to design a robust social media marketing strategy.

The first thing we did was put everything on social media. Knowing what your product is, who your audiences are, it needs to be consistently directed through social media posts. Every platform works according to an algorithm, for example, right now reels than other types of content is really popular and you can see so many small businesses using it to the fullest of the advantage. At Pluc TV, we believe in organic growth and a paid social media marketing strategy only has limits. If you have a good story to tell and if you are hitting the right algorithm it grows faster. If you take the ad marketing or influencer marketing route, you are just ending up spending a lot of budget where if you notice your conversions are very low. I really think organic needs to be prioritised.

How do you think this creator economy space can be utilised and coordinated with sectors like Edtech, Agritech, Fintech?

You already see it happening – in edtech and agritech platforms, there is a massive demand for content creators. The biggest issue that the farming sector has, for example, is the amount of training they are given by existing methods which are traditional. It is very difficult for them to absorb it. They need training which helps them on the spot which is through the new agritech apps that are coming up. They are able to sell whatever they are producing in the best way possible and this is where content creators are coming up. We are going to see a rising trend of experts especially after the pandemic really controlling the narrative when it comes to important subjects that are related to edtech and agritech platforms.

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We believe in organic growth and a paid social media marketing strategy only has limits. If you have a good story to tell and if you are hitting the right algorithm, it grows faster.

Audience Asks:

As a part of this creator community where should our focus be – competing or collaborating with each other? How to decide one of the approaches considering that we all are trying to increase our followers?

I think this trend is about competition and having a massive follower base. You would be more interested in collaborating because it actually helps you build your followers as well. We have seen tools that have been added by various platforms on collaborative lines and with all these things it really helps you build your follower base. So, I think collaboration is definitely the way to go. But if you are really thinking of competing that means you are again falling into the trap of competition which is being forced by a social media algorithm because they have created a trend. Find your niche, find your authenticity – you can still create a trend but in your own way which helps you grow faster.

What factors to take care of while pitching for funding to investors?

The most important thing is there is a format of a pitch deck which should have an end to end information from what your idea is, what problem your idea is solving, what is the USP of your product, how many users you have, how you are going to make it something which is going to differentiate. There are apps and platforms like DocSend which really help you to track analytics and actually see who is viewing your pitch deck when. Once people are interested in your pitch deck, you as a founder should be able to say that you are the right person to do it and really scale the company into something massive. Do not fill your pitch text with a lot of text, instead make it simple for anyone to understand.

The five-crore independent content creator community

As Mr. Hussain explained that while the interest and passion to be a storyteller is on the rise, it is equally vital to choose platforms which have an existing user base. You need to make sure to create keeping in mind the algorithm of the platforms so that there is an optimal transformation and influence. This class of businesses as seen today, is built by over five crore independent content creators, curators, and community builders including social media influencers, bloggers, and videographers, in addition to the software and finance tools designed to help them with growth and monetisation.

The post An Overview Of The Creator Economy: Challenges And Opportunities appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Stepping Stones To Thrive In The New Era Of Innovation And Entrepreneurship

Abhilash Bapanasha — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 05:35:12 +0000

Innovation is the key factor impacting the business world and is increasingly catalysed by the omni-presence of the internet. The concept of entrepreneurship is steadily adapting and changing to meet the demands of the new technological dawn and the economic cycle. It is a lemon and lemonade theory today, which focuses on adapting a new age skillset with entrepreneurial skills for resilience. In order to elucidate the relevance of new age skills in this new era of entrepreneurship, Dr. Nancy Juneja was the speaker for MentorED, our weekly live 45-minute workshop where industry veterans share their knowledge and experience and discuss topics that are apt and relevant to the start-up and small business fraternity.

Dr. Nancy Juneja is an Educationist, highly acclaimed Success Coach and Leadership Mentor with more than fifteen years of experience. Sought out by numerous Educational Institutes, Corporates & Industries, she has been mentoring entrepreneurs, youths, corporate employees, coaching start-ups and providing quality skill education to the individuals and communities. Her initiative, MENTORx School of learning is all focused to inspire youth to lead a purpose driven life.

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Entrepreneurship has always been about versatility. Talking about the challenges, it is seeing the opportunity before anyone else.

In brief, the session had the following takeaways:

Scaling the stages of economic cycle
How to have an entrepreneurial mind
How digital economy has opened worldwide opportunities to succeed
New age skillset for ushering the new era
The entrepreneur mindset

The Entrepreneurial Mindset

Change being the only constant, for an entrepreneur too it is indispensable to evolve with circumstances. Be it economic adversity or one owing to the pandemic, there are new age skills that define the sustenance to thrive in this era of entrepreneurship. According to Dr. Nancy Juneja, “An entrepreneur identifies opportunity in every situation. He is the person with a vision, an audacious tech leader successful in bringing brilliant ideas to the market, an initiator who creates something new every moment and converts it into a business idea and the whole process as we gloriously call as entrepreneurship.” While it is important to survive, but more importantly it is necessary to thrive.

The digital transformation has been happening in a very rapid form for several years now but the COVID era reinstated it as the new norm. It is vital for each entrepreneur to believe in the notion that opportunity lies in the middle of difficulty. Innovation emerges as the norm and needs to be aligned according to the stages of the economic cycle. Thereafter, she listed the stages as – Boom (or the period of expansion with the rate of growth rising at a faster rate), Early Recession or Slowdown, Full Recession, Depression and Recovery.

The mentor touched upon the issues of the Indian economy and focussed on the skill sets that can make any entrepreneur bounce back and move ahead. “Entrepreneurship has always been about versatility. Talking about the challenges, it is seeing the opportunity before anyone else. It is much more in today’s world apart from critical thinking, effective communication, analysing your mindset, your patience and persistence. Being a digital entrepreneur, the empathy and the motive of value creation along with the social responsibility – there is much more which is needed in the long run.”

The indispensable skillsets that define an entrepreneur

From her own experience in being in the entrepreneurship arena for more than eighteen years, she urged on evolving and being a learning person throughout. It is the learning curve that defines the skill set. “It is moving ahead, continuously learning and unlearning to learn which is a powerful reminder given to each and everyone. Be it any number of years you are into the business – you need to be learning, testing, sharing, collaborating and in this mode, you need to think upon something to apply and discard.”

Decision making in the entrepreneurship journey is a paramount skill because a present approach determines the course of action in the future. Again, it is also important to stay calm in crisis and lead the team through the challenges. Dr. Juneja listed four means to achieve it –

Having an outsider approach to a problem
Remembering past obstacles that have been successfully overcome
Focusing on what can be done to get started
Keeping oneself motivated and entertained

Also, as exemplary as it stands, it is vital to prioritise team work by coordinating among different departments.

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The thumb rule is to innovate or evaporate. That is how it goes in today's world. It was the scenario earlier too but now we need to be ready. If option A is not working, we need to be ready with option B and so on and so forth.

Critical thinking – the route to sail through any adversity

The mentor then talked about critical thinking that allows one to develop intellectually and to make hard decisions as per the need of the hour. “Even if you feel that the circumstances are not in favour, you can manipulate the present and you can focus upon the future, it is all binding up your team and encouraging them. Being an entrepreneur is taking everyone along and focusing upon your goal. The thumb rule is to innovate or evaporate. That is how it goes in today’s world. It was the scenario earlier too but now we need to be ready. If option A is not working, we need to be ready with the option B and so on and so forth.”

Added to this is the introspection to ask oneself some questions like – Should I have a more agile supply chain? Can we make manufacturing more competitive in higher cost environments? How can supply chains pivot fast yet still be robust and resilient to the next disruption? Can I shift my supply chain to a new geography without huge cost or risk? Well, for all of these questions, digital transformation comes as the single loudest means to proceed.

An interactive session

During the Q&A session, viewers from YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter took the opportunity to seek advice on various concepts and business challenges. Dr. Juneja addressed questions with her experiential insights. Topics varied from steps to revive business in the pandemic, techniques to make businesses processes more efficient, action points to solve challenges in rural, semi urban areas while pursuing digital avenues and upskilling with the new age entrepreneurial skills. Dr. Juneja’s guidance reflected her firsthand experience of working closely with entrepreneurs and giving a glimpse of her role as Vice President of the National Child and Women Development Council.

Thus, as the mentor elucidated through her informative presentation, the only option for an entrepreneur is to either innovate or evaporate. In a nutshell, it is all about developing the entrepreneurial mindset with a renewed perspective of creating your idea from the current problem and nourishing it gradually.

Watch the complete video on YouTube to know more of all the skillsets shared by the mentor in her presentation.

The post Stepping Stones To Thrive In The New Era Of Innovation And Entrepreneurship appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Digital Marketing Automation: The Step-by-Step Approach

Abhilash Bapanasha — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 10:33:43 +0000

Digital Marketing Automation promises great outcomes; more leads, conversions and sales, all with less labour. Automation-using companies have seen their leads and sales grow, delivering sales productivity of 14% and market overhead reductions of 12%. Redirect Focus, Reallocate Budget, Support Customer Interactions and Gather Meaningful Analytics are some of the strategies to integrate digital marketing automation effortlessly into your marketing strategy. In order to address these, Mr. Ram Jalan was our speaker for MentorED, a weekly live 45-minute workshop where industry veterans share their knowledge and experience and discuss topics that are apt and relevant to the start-up and small business fraternity.

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I have always experienced that marketing is always considered as a cost centre. I think it is high time we consider marketing as a revenue centre, because your reason to exist is itself a cost.

Mr. Ram Jalan has seventeen years of experience as an entrepreneur, marketer, researcher and internet evangelist. He is Co-founder of DINTW, a Marketing Automation and Consumer Neuroscience Lead Digital Company; Executive Director of a hyper local news outfit Ten News; Angel Investor in a B2B Footwear ERP platform. He has served several brands like Emami, Reliance Industries, IMImobile-UK, AskMe-Malaysia, Batelco (Bahrain) and has successfully implemented Digital Transformation Projects at Askme, Wave Group and Omaxe.

In brief, the session had insights on the following:

Reactive Marketing, Database Marketing, Targeting and Segmentation, Trigger Based Marketing, Email Marketing, Social Media and Content, Lead Management, Sales Enablement and Business Intelligence

It is all about Customer and Consequences

“Fundamentals of any marketing or any customer outreach revolves around consumer and the consequences.” As Mr. Ram Jalan opined, digital marketing automation has gained momentum in the last several years now and the pandemic has further accelerated the process. A high usage of the internet, rather demanded by adversities brought by the pandemic during the last eighteen months has made it climb slots on the ladder. “There are internet first brands who have generated more than 2000 crore revenue.” Also, there is a paradigm shift Internet pure business with zero fixed costs coupled with low ownership and more subscription approach.

With many changes taking place, it is also a time for a transformation at the organisational front. Thereafter, he listed five different forms of customers and it needs to be streamlined in which category one’s target customers are located.

Thereafter, the mentor elucidated a typical marketing model framework. “I have always experienced that marketing is always considered as a cost centre. I think it is high time we consider marketing as a revenue centre, because your reason to exist is itself a cost. From day one, you are incurring a fixed cost. Therefore, marketing should be considered as a revenue investment.” He further talked about the different stages of marketing from the awareness stage where a brand introduces oneself to the prospective customer mainly registering their presence and offering a solution.

Engagement follows awareness wherein the prospect’s information has to be collected. But that appears difficult without selling a unique or emergency product. But again, to convert the prospect into a subscriber, social media outreach is the way. An advantage that social media automation offers is brand listening which is nothing but a means to know what prospects and customers think about.

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I always feel that insource and outsource is a great marriage, you should have the right combination of resources inside who are great managers, who can manage people, who can manage partners and run the campaign.

An integrative and consistent approach – Need of the hour

“You will find a common thing across all your marketing outreach strategies that your customer journey should be mapped, then your marketing to sales to customer service should be dating with each other. They should not be working in silos, they should be interacting and then only your marketing to sales to customer service handoff will be smooth, you must have a pricing strategy. Forget those days when we used to say that one size fits all, it does not happen for any e-commerce brand.” Thus, digital marketing has to be an integrated approach with each of the channels generating revenue in unison and not in isolation.

Consistency is vital too. “If you keep switching off and switching on your car frequently, you burn more fuel. It is better to hold on to a constant campaign or a digital marketing outreach rather than switching it on and off.”

Audience Asks

For me, marketing or promotion leads to better reach, But the number of sales is very insignificant. What should I do?

That is a problem that exists. See, I do not know the category of your business, whether it is B2C or B2B. But one thing is for sure, in B2B business, the sales cycle is long. Rather than assessing immediately what is the sales conversion, I think it is very important to assess how my prospect is engaging with the brand. Are the prospects opening your emails regularly? Are the prospects engaging with you on social media, all-in-one marketing plans help you gather that information about whether the person is visiting your website. So, look at those matrices, look at those data points, before you start, try to convert the prospect and that would also see and define your buying journey, the next set of sales.

Can OTT platforms help in reaching marketing goals? Isn’t it too expensive?

OTT is a great platform. I mean, with forty-five to fifty percent of the internet users active today. Going on an OTT platform, whether it is free or paid content, you definitely have your share of eyeballs coming there. I think it is a very good alternative to get pricing, which is very expensive. For a ten second slot, what you pay on OTT, is one tenth of what you pay on television, forget about the Primetime events like IPL, etc. But it is a great platform to start. It is not expensive at all, if you look at the ROI of language.

The mentor is hopeful of the arena as an effective means of client communication that is emerging with an upward thrust. He suggested, “A low resource or trying to impose all marketing activities on one individual or two individuals does not give you optimum performance. I always feel that insource and outsource is a great marriage, you should have the right combination of resources inside who are great managers, who can manage people, who can manage partners and run the campaign.”

Watch the complete video on YouTube to get the complete idea of how to actualise it in your business.

The post Digital Marketing Automation: The Step-by-Step Approach appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

What Does It Take To Create An Investor Ready Pitch Deck?

Abhilash Bapanasha — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 12:51:27 +0000

A pitch deck is a presentation that helps potential investors learn more about your business. These slides of several presentations help you to tell a compelling story. What the company’s overview is, its vision and mission, team, problem, solution, market opportunity, product, customers, marketing and sales strategy. Our Innerview with Mr. Dilnawaz Khan highlighted his entrepreneurial journey, and during his learning and evolution how he mastered Pitch Decks. Innerview is our weekly live 45-minute motivational and inspirational talk show which features interviews of industry experts who bring forth informative and life experiences and techniques to help shape and gear you up, to succeed.

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You have to think of breaking out the problem into smaller parts and that is an art. The problem is - a lot of first-time entrepreneurs get discouraged when we tell them this - you do not go and solve what will happen on the thousandth day, you start from day zero and slowly build on top of it.

Mr. Dilnawaz Khan is the founder at Codesign Labs and Power Deck. With over 12 years of professional experience across the design, technology, and start-up incubation industry, he is also a Subject Matter Expert on Pitch Decks, Start-up Fundraising and Lean Start-ups. He acts as an Advisor at various academic institutions where he supports them with the creation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem focussing on student entrepreneurship and innovation.

In brief, the session had the following takeaways:

Dos and don’ts for an investor pitch deck
How to create and irresistible and compelling pitch deck for investors
Structuring of an investment pitch, its importance
What to cover and what to ignore
Importance of the start-up pitch deck or slide deck

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

According to you, what should weigh more – the problem or the solution when we create that pitch?

Identifying a great problem is an art, creating a greater solution on top of it is a bigger art. Eventually the goal is to create a business. So, everything is of equal importance. May be five things I can say that an entrepreneur needs to look at – looking at a great problem, creating a world class solution, creating a desirable solution for a feasible or viable business, and last but not the least there has to be some sort of a long term vision to enable all of these and on top of it a great team to execute all of these. So, if you have a great idea, a great problem, a great solution but a bad team, you are in a bad state. But you have a mediocre idea and a mediocre solution but it is a rockstar team behind it, you will be definitely going to kill it.

Are there any errors that you have seen that people can be aware of?

I can point out what are the mistakes first time entrepreneurs commit. You have to think of breaking out the problem into smaller parts and that is an art. The problem is – a lot of first-time entrepreneurs get discouraged when we tell them this – you do not go and solve what will happen on the thousandth day, you start from day zero and slowly build on top of it. Again, regarding solving too many problems at a time, I met some interesting startup founders. A lot of them say that I am thinking of making a startup which is Zomato plus Paytm plus Book my Show and I have no competition at all. Of course, when you look at that particular thing, it will have zero competition. But individually if we look at them, there are vertical leaders to compete with. So, do not try and solve everything. Another big problem is that the motivation to do a startup until and unless they jump into the ecosystem is derived from external sources like funding stories, Pitchers, Silicon Valley and so on and so forth. Do not solve a mammoth problem on day one, start from a small problem and build on top of it. Create a better start of your journey when it comes to beginning the startup game.

As we say that the first impression is the lasting impression, would you like to share any thumb rule?

I think one thing that a lot of investors like is authenticity. There are a lot of things you do not have an answer for. Be authentic, just say ‘I don’t know’ and move on. Always make sure that your communication is crisp, clear, to-the-point. Thirdly, which overall again is a very cliche advice but again very very underestimated is to make sure that you leave a great impression. Make sure people see that you are invested, you have put in time, money and energy. And you have prepared well. So, your deck should be very nice, if not designed well, at least aesthetically nice. Your communication should be well. Your pitch should start on time, end on time. You should be very clear as to what you want to talk about. So, practice enough. As per the industry, you have to make at least a hundred pitches to get your first deal. Make sure that you are invested enough. If not, people will again catch hold of you and they will realise that you are faking and nobody likes fakers.

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On an average, an analyst at a VC firm evaluates five thousand decks in a year, so it is very very important for you as an entrepreneur to figure out the right method and the right mechanism and make it customisable.

Audience Asks:

What do you suggest about connecting to investors for pitching? Which will be better – a live presentation or just mailing the slides?

When you are reaching out to investors, there are multiple methods. Incubators and accelerators are the lowest hanging fruits. If you get selected, the incubator will definitely host a demo day where you get access to investors. If you apply to an accelerator programme, similar things will happen. Another method is reaching out to investors via cold mail – which is hunting them on LinkedIn, reaching out to them, looking for their email IDs, writing to them. If you mean going in front of them and presenting, then every time you will not get that opportunity. So, if you are sending cold emails to investors then make them customised as if they are for that person. Do not spam investors, do not create one fits all, people like customisation. When you are reaching out in that sense, I think mailing slides is perfect – that is a very good method but make sure your slides are crisp, five to seven, maximum ten. Everybody has their own mechanism and it is very very important for you to identify what they like. On an average, an analyst at a VC firm evaluates five thousand decks in a year, so it is very very important for you as an entrepreneur to figure out the right method and the right mechanism and make it customisable.

I sent mails to a lot of incubation centres and investors but there is no response for the mail from them. What do you suggest for contacting better?

Out of every hundred mails, you will just get a response from two people. That is the conversion of cold emailing and we have to admit it. If you have not heard for first time, you have to send a second email, then third and fourth. Your chances of conversion will definitely increase. Most of the incubation centres have a proper enquiry form or a programme where you can apply. But let me tell you the flipside of it. In a lot of cases when a lot of people write to somebody, they write with a sense of entitlement that I am entitled to receive a reply and they do not do an introspection. We have to even introspect ourselves and review what we are sending out to them. There is a possibility that the idea might not be good enough for the incubation centre, or your business is not at the right fit for the incubation centre or you are really early in the game to accept you. So, you have to again find a fine balance between both the things – right approach, evaluating yourself and making improvements in the keeping update – this is a cyclic process, it keeps on going and eventually you will reach there.

The Key to Compelling Pitch Deck

In this way, Mr. Dilnawaz Khan, from his own experience of sitting on both sides of the table – pitcher as well as investor, has elucidated the importance of this visual document providing essential information about your business plan, product or services, fundraising needs and key metrics like valuation, target market and financial goals. However, the success of a pitch deck depends on its storytelling, so as to streamline the informative overview of your company to potential investors, such as venture capitalists or angel investors. It remains the key for acquiring funding.

The post What Does It Take To Create An Investor Ready Pitch Deck? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Why Investors Invest in a Loss-making Company?

Abhilash Bapanasha — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 06:15:09 +0000

Profits are no doubt vital to the growth of any company, but some of the biggest names in business are yet to make money. This being the backdrop, does profit still matter? Well, it does, then why do investors invest in a loss-making company? Chinmay Ananda has elucidated on this question in MentorED, our weekly live 30-minute workshop where industry veterans share their knowledge and experience and discuss topics that are apt and relevant to the start-up and small business fraternity.

Chinmay Ananda is a Financial Educator, Business Storyteller, Speaker, Author and Investor. He has trained and consulted over 950 business owners in Australia, India, China and Indonesia, and teaches in top business schools like the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Torrens University, University of New England and Insight Academy of Entrepreneurship in Australia. Ananda also conducts monthly webinars for indianstartups.com that has 100,000+ members. He also mentors start-ups and is active in the Venture Capital ecosystem. In 2016, he was awarded the prestigious Kerrie Nairn Scholarship for his public speaking skills.

Playing the high-risk game

Chinmay Ananda initiated the workshop by asking a question to the audience, “Why do you think investors invest?” Although many may opine different views altogether, it is worthwhile to have a measurable answer. Thereafter from his illustrious story of purchasing his motorcycle which later proved to change his own mindset in investment, he answered, “Investors invest if you make them believe that you can help them make more money with their money than they would have done with their own money.”

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Investors invest if you make them believe that you can help them make more money with their money than they would have done with their own money.

For any investor, there are multiple avenues to invest in order to get a profit in return. Most frequently, when someone invests, they look for a future prospect even more than considering the present status of the company or sector. They look at startups as a high-risk game. “If at all I have got ten crores to invest, I would probably choose ten startups and invest one crore in each one of them. They know for sure five to six of them might fail miserably which means they may not even get back the money that they have invested. One or two might give them one and a half to two times a return and there might be another that might give two to three times but there might be that one startup that might end up becoming a unicorn which might give them even a hundred times the return.”

Investors are also interested to make sure that the startup eventually passes into the subsequent stages of funding and thereby expanding into similar markets. “They also want to prepare to make sure that they can take you to the next round of funding series B where the big players like the venture capitalists also known as vulture capitalists emerge because they do not just come after the share in the company they also come after the management. So, this is one of the main reasons why investors invest even if a startup is not making profit because they want to make sure that startup is valuable for the next investor who would like to invest.”

Audience Asks

Newbie investors can invest in a loss making company. Don’t you think it is risky for them?

The newbie investors should be asking themselves what is their risk appetite. This is where I usually tell people, please do not take the gambler’s approach. Please do not do it with your own money unless and until you know that you can take that risk for many people. Yes, startups are very risky. As I said, out of ten, they know five, six, seven of them will miserably fail but one has to take that risk. Higher the risk, higher the return, lower the risk, lower the return.

The investor has that mindset that it does not matter even if the company is burning cash – I will invest because when we take that company to the next stage, we know to a great extent that it is going to be valued at least three to four times the money that they have invested.

When a profit-making company merges with a loss making company will there be any benefit in the portfolio of investors of both the companies?

Sometimes it might be a strategy with regards to buying a competitor or it might be simply because they want to create more monopoly. For example, Ola, when they launched, there were many other players who were offering very similar services.

Two founders of two such companies, they were techies. I had met one of the founders so I was listening to their story and they said, we knew Ola was one of our competitors and then it is like – you are playing a cricket match against each other and you really hate them but all of a sudden in IPL you have to play next to them. You have to share the same dressing room, so even the same thing happens in the investment world. When our investors in Ola decided that let’s buy them out, they bought TaxiForSure.

Of course, even Taxi (TaxiForSure) was making a loss for 200 crores, the main reason behind the strategy was to make sure that they are capturing the market and they are kind of creating a monopoly. So, with that perspective, yes, it was definitely a success. Now that does not mean that we can apply the same strategy to every business or industry.

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The investor has that mindset that it does not matter even if the company is burning cash - I will invest because when we take that company to the next stage, we know to a great extent that it is going to be valued at least three to four times the money that they have invested.

The first customer is the key

For any startup, the difference begins to happen with the first customer. As the mentor opined, “The moment they have that first customer that is like the proof that someone is there to exchange money for the service or the product that they are offering. So, someone is seeing value and they are ready to give money and if more people are giving money because they see value in the problem that the startup is solving then yes you will have more people who will be buying it and if at all it is repetitive, it is going to be even more valuable.” This repetition can create all the difference as the company will now have the monopoly that investors would love to catalyse.

The post Why Investors Invest in a Loss-making Company? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Opportunities for Agritech Start-ups

Abhilash Bapanasha — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 09:10:19 +0000

With about 150 million farmers and majority owning less than two hectares of land, the Indian agriculture sector needs to adapt innovations to become sustainable and profitable for farmers. Crippled with many challenges like climate change, water stress, deterioration of soil health and price volatility, a farmer with average land holding of about one hectare is hardly left with a surplus for productive investment into new age solutions. Fortunately, agritech start-ups driven by entry of high-quality entrepreneurs and increasing investor interest, have come to the aid with innovations in improving farm economics. In all probability, agritech will continue to attract venture capital in the foreseeable future while trying to solve multi-dimensional problems prevalent in Indian agriculture including low productivity, sub-optimal efficiency in supply chain and lack of access to markets, institutional credit, crop insurance, quality inputs and market linkages.

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I really worry about start-ups who spend eighty percent of their time fundraising and twenty percent of time building business. It should be the other way around.

In order to highlight the opportunities of agritech start-ups in the Indian context, Mr. Hemendra Mathur was the speaker for MentorED, our weekly live 45-minute workshop where industry veterans share their knowledge and experience and discuss topics that are apt and relevant to the start-up and small business fraternity. A PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad and Bachelor in Engineering from Rajasthan Agricultural University, Mr. Hemendra Mathur is currently the Chairman, FICCI Task Force on Agri Start-ups and Venture Partner of Bharat Innovation Fund. He is the co-founder of ThinkAg – a platform for accelerating the adoption of innovations in the agriculture space. He has authored many papers on the subject and speaks regularly at conferences pertaining to the food and agribusiness sector as well as the start-up ecosystem.

In brief, the session had the following takeaways for the audience:

Current status of Indian Agritech
Ecosystem support available for start-ups
Innovation themes and opportunity areas
Learning from other agritech entrepreneurs

Innovation and Young Entrepreneurs: Key Drivers for Growth

Mr. Mathur started his highly informative presentation highlighting the status of agricultural sector in India, “It is a very vast area, as we know agriculture is one of the key pillars of Indian economy contributing to almost 15 to 17 percent of the GDP and almost 50 percent of the population continue to depend on the agricultural sector. I think one of the key drivers for growth in agriculture at least for the next decade or two will be innovations and these innovations are going to be driven by young entrepreneurs who are joining the sector.” In an encouraging ecosystem that has picked up momentum in the last three to five years, the agritech start-ups have come to the aid trying to solve problems across the value chain from pre-production to production to post harvest.

Although the Indian agritech start-up space is almost a decade old now with the first names popping up in 2011-12, several of them are building interesting models considering the needs of small and marginal farmers who constitute eighty-five to ninety percent of the farming community in the country. As of the present day, there are more than a thousand agritech start-ups in the country and Mr. Mathur is hopeful of that figure to grow to ten thousand in the next ten years. Terming the sector as a resilient one that had even bowed down unlike several others during the pandemic, the perception of investors has also changed. “I think investors are becoming more and more amenable to invest in the sector and as we speak about more than a billion dollars has been invested in the sector in the last eight to ten years. Out of that maximum amount has come in the last 18 months. I am sure as we go along this number is going to change and again my prediction is, we are going to get at least a 10-billion-dollar investment in the next 10 years.”

Considering the supply chain, Indian agriculture exhibits a highly fragmented scenario with concerns like high water stress, degrading soil quality, unavailability of labour coupled with low mechanisation. Similarly, inadequate storage, processing and transportation facilities cause a significant amount of food loss which makes the supply chain very inefficient. “If you look from a farmer perspective, one of the biggest challenges most of the farmers in India end up selling their produce at the nearest mundi (market yard) which is typically thirty to fifty kilometres from the farmer’s field and it is not necessary he gets the best price from that market.” Thus, there is an urgent need for logistic solutions to discover more buyers.

Agri-fintech: The Next Big Opportunity for Agritech Start-ups

Mr. Mathur also mentioned that only about thirty percent of Indian farmers have access to institutional credit and the rest have to pay as high as twenty-four to sixty percent of credit per annum. He stated, “Just imagine the cost of capital is so high which makes the whole farm economics look very vulnerable. So, can we improve the excess of institutional credit to the farmers and that is where I see a very interesting intersection of agritech and fintech, I call it agri-fintech.

I think this is the next big opportunity in the sector.” Again, data figures out as a scarce commodity in the entire agricultural value chain where it fails to meet the requirements for decision making. “That is where I see a huge application potential for data sciences. I think agriculture is another area which is heaven for data scientists, there’s so many variables and you can do so much with it which can essentially help in decision making for the farmers as well as for other value chain members.”

The mentor listed down seven opportunities in his presentation for the audience and thereafter he elaborated on each of them. The seven opportunities are:

Access to Quality Inputs
Farm to Fork Market Linkages/Post Harvest Management
Access to Financing (Agri-fintech)
Data & Advisory
Mechanisation
Novel Farming
Platforms

Mr. Mathur underlined the nitty gritty of the Indian agritech ecosystem. He is thrilled at the promising presence of many high-quality entrepreneurs, supportive incubators and accelerators to whom he insists to connect. “One area which I feel is catching up is the village ecosystem. None of the agritech models are going to scale without participation from village level entrepreneurs. Because a farmer is not going to trust a person who’s coming from Bangalore, Delhi or Mumbai. He is going to trust someone who is there in the rural area. So, I think that it is very important that we build the local ecosystem, create opportunities for rural entrepreneurs.” He believes that entrepreneurship and agritech go hand in hand and it will create millions of jobs in the rural areas. Furthermore, Mr. Mathur also listed down some of the key incubators who can be reached out for assistance.

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You should be obsessed with what problems farmers are facing. You need to have a farmer-centric approach. Unless you are solving for him you will never be able to create a scalable solution.

Agritech start-ups must focus on creating value

He concluded his presentation citing his own experience as a mentor, advisor and board member in various forums. “One thing which I really like about agritech start-ups is – it is a learning for everyone who wants to be in this sector and that a lot of them have a high degree of resilience and a frugal approach. Do not burn cash in farmer and customer acquisition but create value, as farmers are not looking for discounts, they are looking for value.” That appears as a unique trait of Indian agritech start-ups exhibiting a mortality rate of less than fifteen percent.

The supply chain of agritech being longer, there is a higher scope of unit economics utilisation. “I really worry about start-ups who spend eighty percent of their time fundraising and twenty percent of time building business. It should be the other way around. You should be spending less than twenty percent of your time fundraising and eighty percent time on building business, product development, hiring team, etc.”

He also highlights that most of the start-up founders come from a technology background and not agriculture. “Agriculture in India is a multi-dimensional problem so you need a multi-disciplinary approach.” He insists on a bridge approach whereby a holistic team works with multiple skill sets and which also understands technology, data science, behavioural sciences, meteorology among others in addition to agriculture.

Audience Asks

How do you encourage the youth to see the future in agriculture when a general notion seems to attribute it as a traditional sector?

People will laugh at me if I say that we are going to see reverse migration in 10 years. But that is the truth, people like you and me who are fed up with city life will migrate to villages, run farms, produce and sell. The reason I am saying it is because technology will help it. Probably we do not like traditional agriculture the way it is done but there are so many tools now available where you can go and manage very efficiently.

All said and done in agriculture, unlike the notion that we have, the gross margins at the production end are very good. If you add the cost of inputs labour and everything you can still make a thirty to fifty percent margin. Unfortunately, those margins are eaten up by the interest cost, by the food losses or by the price shocks that you see. So, I am very bullish that agriculture is the future not just for rural India but for urban India.

There is a good example that people with urban background and urban thinking have ventured into rural areas which demonstrates that there is a role for youth, not necessarily rural youth but also for urban youth to look it as a potential opportunity to create value and I can tell you it is going to be very satisfying career for people like you.

On what factors do you assess and agree on a tech starter for deciding to invest in?

I think first and foremost, from an investor perspective, the solution has to be scalable. Whether we like it or not, technology has a role to play and when I say technology, it does not mean just digital technology, it can be biotech or foodtech, it could be some other, but I think technology has to be integral. It need not be proprietary or patented but scalable. What is that differentiator in the business which can make it scale and answer typically is in the use of technology. I am not saying over-invest in technology but you should be clear how it will drive scale.

Second, of course, is the composition of the team. You need multiple skill sets, so do you have those skill sets in the team or do you have the ability to hire those skill sets is the biggest challenge for the sector. Today it is not capital, it is talent. That is where a start-up which has scaled and a start-up which is struggling to scale – the difference is talent.

Third is, you need to demonstrate unit economics. Everyone in the supply chain has to make profit. Since the supply chain is elongated and complicated, the unit economics at multiple levels becomes a bit of challenge but again with use of technology I am sure that can be solved and that’s where we will see models scaling faster.

Last but not the least, build a gross margin strategy. That is where I see a lack of articulation or lack of strategy in the ecosystem. Even now most starters have figured out how to scale but how to build a profitable business is still a question mark. You need to figure out how you unlock value so that it becomes a sustainable and profitable venture.

A Unicorn in Agriculture: To Create Wealth for the Ecosystem

With over 25 years of experience in venture capital, private equity, management consulting and investment banking, Mr. Mathur has invested in several early stage agritech and mid-sized companies in the agricultural supply chain. From his experience he stated, “You should be obsessed with what problems farmers are facing. You need to have a farmer-centric approach. Unless you are solving for him you will never be able to create a scalable solution.

To me, a unicorn in agriculture means someone who has created wealth of a billion dollars for the ecosystem not necessarily for his own shareholders which means creating wealth for the farmers for the local entrepreneur, for the entire value chain rather than creating wealth for yourself. And that’s why I always say there are already multiple unicorns in the sector because they have created wealth for everyone, not just for themselves.” The mentor is hopeful of the next decade as one for agriculture and that it will be disruptive!

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Start-up, A Dream of the Young and Progressive India

Abhilash Bapanasha — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 06:52:16 +0000

Indian youth is oozing out with ideas for businesses and new market concepts. More of them are shifting towards entrepreneurship with the hope to achieve freedom and fulfil their worldly pleasures. The very same reason why India has many start-ups but only a smattering survives. But that doesn’t mean the aspiring start-ups give up, most manage to nurture themselves. 83% of the Indian youth are willing to step into entrepreneurship, the global average being 53%. The number of youths willing to start their business fall between 25 to 34 years of age, followed by the age group 35 to 44.

Dr. Hari Shankar Shyam, a leading educationist and business consultant was the speaker for MentorED, a weekly live 30-minute workshop where industry veterans share their knowledge and experience and discuss topics that are apt and relevant to the start-up and small business fraternity. Dr. Shyam, Educationist and Business Consultant, has counselled more than 10000+ students across the world in his role as start-up mentor. With a Ph.D. in Marketing, an MBA and a Masters in Population Studies, he is currently an Associate Professor of Marketing at Sharda University.

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Now the question is, why should we not have a dream if the OYO promoter Mr. Agarwal can start at such an early age? It changed the entire hotel and tourism industry of India.

Dr. Hari Shankar Shyam touched on the following points during his thirty-minute workshop which was followed by questions and answers from the live audience:

Why start-ups can be a good career
How one can exploit India’s strong IT infrastructure
How to become agile using digital innovation
How to get support from government, VC and other sources

Addressing the audience comprising mainly youth entrepreneurs and aspiring business minds, Dr. Shyam shared, “We have realised from the last 15-20 years the word startup was coming. And from the last 10 years, it was THE word in a country like India and today for many youngsters we need not tell, they are already aware, but yes, there are a lot of challenges.” Even during the pandemic, many young entrepreneurs have come forward with solutions to problems with the usage of technology as an intervention. He expressed how the pan-Indian mentality of career orientation has changed from getting a good education in medical or engineering followed by getting a good job to envisioning the idea of a startup during graduation and actualising a startup idea into reality.

In his illustrative presentation, Dr. Shyam talked about the success stories of Indian startups established between 2014 and 2019. Unicorns like OYO Rooms, Snapdeal, Ola Cabs, BYJU’s, Delhivery among others are role models for a young population. “In 2015, there was a Fintech boom. One of the Fintech companies, One97 Communications, came with a brand called PayTM and what wonders it did! Today even if you go anywhere, even a vegetable vendor, you see across even the smallest vendor, they are using PayTM. After the pandemic, it is a revolution.”

“Now the question is, why should we not have a dream if the OYO promoter Mr. Agarwal can start at such an early age? It changed the entire hotel and tourism industry of India.” In a country like India, young minds are inculcating high ambitions and are at a lower risk as compared to one generation prior. With a high motivation, passion and a little craziness to stand out of the crowd, an aspiring startup founder can do wonders. Dr. Shyam also underlined the catalytic role of a mentor as for pursuing a startup dream. A mentor can also be someone from the peer group who has failed in his/her venture, but it is equally important to learn from such an individual so as to not repeat the past mistakes.

“Yesterday was the man of finance, today is the man of marketing and tomorrow is the man of HRD.” Many years ago, only those who had money could think about a business venture but in the present scenario, investors come forward to fund. The years ahead, as Dr. Shyam envisions, are that of technology. India has a strong IT infrastructure and has to be exploited to the fullest. Dr. Shyam stressed on how different cities like Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Noida, Pune, Hyderabad, Kochi have emerged as convenient ecosystems for boosting startups and support opportunities have to be utilised in these cities. Apart from that, there is an easy availability of manpower and technical support aided by a supportive supply chain and digital marketing avenues.

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Yesterday was the man of finance, today is the man of marketing and tomorrow is the man of HRD.

Audience Asks

How feasible is it to launch a startup in a hi-tech city and start to run it from a small town?

Many of the big cities are having this ecosystem but the smaller ones are not having it. The best part is even though that ecosystem is not there, there is internet connection. There are also many digital tools and platforms, you have to join them. There are also many angel funding communities in Chennai, Mumbai – associate with them and become a member. At the same time, take a mentor and you can really start from a small town. For a big town which is already established, the advantages are much more undoubtedly.

What do you suggest: start a business in a new (untouched) industry or in a tried and tested (already booming) industry?

One thing you need to understand is that we are not competing only with an Indian counterpart. You have to see where the scope is. Startup itself is that your idea is unique and innovative. While deciding which area you have to do, I will not say untried or untested areas. First, you have to find an area, an untested and untried area might be a problem for a newcomer, you need to analyse the situation very well. To begin with, you can enter into an area where some work has already been done. Later on, when a focus will be there, you may take a change in your path.

Dr. Shyam concluded by sharing his experience of being to the best Universities of the world and he has felt that Indian students, with a little awareness and guidance, can rub shoulders with students from across the globe. Though young and talented, Indian youth languish due to low dexterity, indiscipline, sense of responsibility and lack of strategic planning. Despite the failure and shut down rates of start-ups, being an entrepreneur is undoubtedly the current dream and aspiration of the millennials.

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Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: Transforming Academia to Industry

Abhilash Bapanasha — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 03:14:52 +0000

While even a decade ago, the scenario of robotics would sound like the figment of a sci-fi writer’s colourful imagination, but today, it is our reality. The advent of superlative technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics, has caused us to make significant strides in the robotics sector. We are now at the cusp of a revolution through which robots will give us complete freedom from laborious, mundane tasks and even they are doing the tasks beyond human capabilities. Building these technologies is our speaker for MentorED, Dr. Munish Jindal. MentorED is our weekly live 45-minute workshop where industry veterans share their knowledge and experience and discuss topics that are apt and relevant to the start-up and small business fraternity. Each workshop focuses on entrepreneurship development for ambitious entrepreneurs, small business enthusiasts, founders and small business owners.

Dr. Munish Jindal is the Founder and CEO of HoverRobotix and the Founding President of MENTORx Global. He is awarded and honoured with the highest civilian honour ‘Karmaveer Chakra’ by the United Nations. Born and raised in Ludhiana in an Entrepreneurial family, Dr. Jindal is a PhD in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence from the USA besides having an MBA from University of Technology, Sydney and a CPA – Chartered Accountant from Australia. He launched the concept of Hoverboards, Autoboots and Mobility Robots in India.

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At this very moment when we are talking, there are 52 million opportunities available just in the domain of artificial intelligence and who is developing these robots? It is on us humans so all we need to do is learn to learn, continuously learn and unlearn to learn. We just need to develop ourselves so that we can keep on innovating, creating, producing and forcing disruption so that we keep on moving to the next level.

Dr. Munish Jindal thrilled the audience at the initiation of what was a largely informative and illustrative presentation about how ordering a pizza over phone would sound like in the near future, thanks to the rapid strides in artificial intelligence. Although largely portrayed in Hollywood science fiction movies as the wow factor for the audience, it is a reality now as he rightly points out, “It is embedded in our lifestyle and that is how you are going to see that artificial intelligence is in every sphere of our life and how it is transforming our lives.” It needs to be mentioned here that his venture, HoverRobotix is the pioneer of e-mobility in India with hoverboards, autoboots, mobility robots and many more in the list.

“Imagine a camera in your room, the way we get up, the way we walk, the way we move or we exercise, it is taking note of everything and analysing it and letting us know what kind of areas in our body needs improvement. What kind of future events are we going to face so that we can even correct them before we face any kind of disease.” Dr. Jindal shared his encounter with IBM Watson in February 2020 and shared, “We can ask IBM Watson everything it can analyse our personality as well as it has answers to everything. So, this is how we are entering the brave new world of mind matter and computing whereby robots and humans are going to work hand in hand. So, it is not humans versus robots, it’s man with machine synergies. Once volumes of data are fed into these systems, they tend to learn from the environment and in no time produce the desired outcomes.”

Dr. Jindal from his own experience as a pioneer in the robotics space of the country feels that there is a need for a common platform to share awareness about AI in order to ethically, successfully and knowledgeably harness its benefits. He envisions that such a platform will bring the mentors, trainers and educators together and build a bridge with the industry leaders.

While there are speculations that continue to remain about robots posing as threats to human employment in jobs, Dr. Jindal negates such apprehensions,“At this very moment when we are talking, there are 52 million opportunities available just in the domain of artificial intelligence and who is developing these robots? It is on us humans so all we need to do is learn to learn, continuously learn and unlearn to learn. We just need to develop ourselves so that we can keep on innovating, creating, producing and forcing disruption so that we keep on moving to the next level.” Thereafter he shared the curriculum of AI giving examples of popular applications in our smartphones like Facebook, WhatsApp and their own set of data processing techniques. Whether it is just a mouse click or a photo upload, data is continuously being processed and retrieved in systems all within fragments of seconds.

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Whenever we face a problem our first reaction is why does not someone do something regarding this problem? Any problem you face is the next unicorn idea. Whenever you face a problem, if you want to solve it is going to be the next silicon idea in your hand.

Audience Asks

What are some basic requirements to bring AI into an already established business?

You need to understand what exactly you want to do, what processes you want to automate. Certain times it does not even require much. We people feel that okay to automate their processes they may require huge investments or they might need to bring the new systems. No, it’s not that you just have to check out what processes you want to automate. Accordingly, you can develop the software or required hardware and the processes can be streamlined into established business. The best part is artificial intelligence is becoming very affordable and it can be used in any sphere in every sphere of establishment business as well as upcoming start-ups as well.

“Whenever we face a problem, our first reaction is why does not someone do something regarding this problem? Any problem you face is the next unicorn idea. Whenever you face a problem, if you want to solve it is going to be the next silicon idea in your hand.” As the mentor rightly points out, it is that one idea that is essential to fill the void and make the difference. He urges everyone to embrace technology to decode the future of a beautiful world.

The post Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: Transforming Academia to Industry appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Women Entrepreneurship, Biotech Innovations and Global Patents

Abhilash Bapanasha — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 15:51:37 +0000

Dr. Shrilakshmi Desiraju a pioneer in Probiotics Space is the Co-founder and CEO of Triphase Pharmaceuticals. After relocating from Canada to India, Dr. Desiraju started her journey of innovation with Triphase in the field of Probiotics in 2009. Triphase has successfully raised funds (up to 1 Crore) from debt financing under CGTMSE scheme, funds from angel investors and also secured series A venture funding by a fortune 500 pharma company to develop robust Research and Development in the field of Probiotics.

Triphase was awarded a US, Canadian and European PATENT for the technology by which Probiotics bacteria could withstand temperatures of up to 240 degrees. This is the first time in the world that a disruptive platform innovation has been successfully completed. In one single stroke the company had eliminated any need for cold storage which meant a huge cost saving in the probiotic industry. A state of art research and development wing for probiotic research at Mysore has been established since 2009.

Dr. Desiraju was the speaker for ‘Innerview – Only the Paranoid Survive’, our weekly live 45-minute motivational and inspirational talk show which features interviews of industry experts who bring forth informative and life experiences and techniques to help shape and gear you up, to succeed. Dr. Desiraju is an MBA in Technology Commercialisation from University of Alberta; PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from Vikram University and a postdoctoral from the Indian Institute of Science. The first big challenge that Triphase solved was in eliminating the cold chain from the Probiotics industry.

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Investors look out for clarity is what I have understood and believe me I understood it after pitching it to 180 people. So, you have to make sure that you keep it as simple as possible.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

How did you solve this challenge of eliminating coal chains from the probiotic industry?

The probiotics are nothing but good bacteria. We realised that probiotics or these bacteria have to be kept at two to eight degrees that is the refrigeration temperature. That refrigeration temperature is the only way that we can actually take these probiotics in our body where it is known to increase immunity. So, the first research topic that we understood was that can we make this probiotics temperature stable. We did this by simple fermentation process but it is a proprietary intellectual property issue as well as these are simple fermentation media that we play around with to make these probiotics which are the natural gut bacteria which we make high temperature stable. So, our probiotics which otherwise would have been left at two to eight degrees are now stable up till 240 degrees centigrade and that changed the whole game in the area of probiotics because now you can put probiotics in confectionery and bake your breads or make cookies out of it and this otherwise was not possible.

When we talk about this patent, Triphase, your company was awarded a US, Canadian and European patent for this technology. So, can you please tell us more about it?

We found out the problem that we wanted to solve. The solution to it, we saw that there is a competitive advantage because there were not many companies who were doing it. It is not just that there was only one technology which was at par but that technology also could not take the probiotics to 70 degrees or not more than that. This was another thing that allowed us to stay competitively way ahead in the game. Once that happened the next thing was to do IP protection. As the gestation period in biotech or life sciences is longer, there is a need to protect your intellectual property so that you have some time limit that you can actually monetise it. The first thing we did was to find a provincial IP both in India as well as in the US. The US patent attorney lawyers told us to put it on a fast track and in a year’s time or in a year and a half, the US patent came through. The beauty of the US patent is that they not only patented our process in the technology that we developed but they also allowed us to patent the microbes which is unheard of because microbes are something which are natural. You do not get patents on microbes but since this thermal variant of these microbes were developed through a technology and the name of the technology, we call it strain boost technology, and a US patent was given to us. European patents took some longer time but actually we got it by defending our patent in a much stronger way. Canadian patent came out after that and the Indian patent must be on its way. So yes, patenting was the strategy for Triphase right from the beginning.

Audience Asks

Pitching your research and solution to investors is challenging. What was your experience?

Absolutely pitching your research and solution to investors is challenging. Please follow this path. Whenever there is a project, I make these five slides for myself. If you do this then you will be able to tell the investor in 30 seconds – this is the market pain, this is the solution, this is the market I am going after and I can do it because of the credentials. So, this is how you channelise it.

Investors look out for clarity is what I have understood and believe me I understood it after pitching it to 180 people. So, you have to make sure that you keep it as simple as possible. Another thing which helped me to pitch into the investor was I was very upfront, saying I can do this and I cannot do this. I had told my investors very clearly that I am good at doing research. I do not know how to handle manufacturing or labourers or I even do not know how to handle sales. So, we ended up making a model which actually benefited both of us.

Look out for investors who you want them to be investing in you not just because they have money but because every business is different. Some businesses in the IT sector require a different strategy of investors. The businesses like ours which have a long gestation require a different strategy so you need to understand what your business requires.

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This is the best time in India to start up your company.

When should one consider patenting this and what are the challenges one can expect in the process?

You should start putting the initial patent application as soon as you are able to go ahead with your idea. When you put in the first application at least you know you have 18 months to prove whether it is happening or not happening so you should take that step very early. It requires only twenty thousand rupees or thirty thousand rupees initially to put this actually on paper and file it so that your idea is safe. Well, challenges are immense. You have to defend your patent so you need to know exactly what you want to do in that patent and keep your area of work only in that direction. This is the best time in India to start up your company. I have benefited from the MSME website. So whatever patenting I did, all the patent money has been reimbursed to me from the government. Under the MSME scheme they have this provision that if you are patenting and if the patent is granted, for Indian patent they give you upto 2 lakhs and for an international patent you get up to 10 lakhs.

When asked to summarise her journey from Mysore to Canada in one line, she flawlessly uttered ‘Be flexible and look out for opportunities.’ Being an inspiration for many womenpreneurs across the length and breadth of the country, Dr. Desiraju highlighted the present time to be best for them. Only that the opportunity has to be made use of by understanding and getting oneself involved. In her words, “We really need to see some unicorns coming out. We have seen a few and we really need to see some real good women unicorns coming out. I am hoping that very soon we will be seeing that.”

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Farmer Inside, Engineer Outside!

Abhilash Bapanasha — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 08:25:51 +0000

Milk, a daily essential in every Indian household, has a unique pattern of production, processing and marketing. India is the world’s largest milk producer and consumer of dairy products and with a unique consumption pattern, the country consumes almost 100 percent of its own milk production.

Mr. Kishore Indukuri was our speaker in our recently held tete-a-tete talk show – ‘Innerview – Only the Paranoid Survive’. The 45-minute motivational and inspirational talk show which features interviews of industry experts who bring forth informative and life experiences and techniques to help shape and gear you up, to succeed. Mr. Indukuri spoke about his journey and the pinnacle of his achievements. This in-depth, casual interview is a deep dive to the stimulating aspirations during the pursuit of his entrepreneurial goals.

Mr. Kishore Indukuri, the Founder & CEO of Sid’s Farm – the Engineer Farmer who has disrupted Dairy Farming in India. His brainchild Sid’s Farm is a sustainable agriculture and dairy farming start-up. He is an IIT Kharagpur graduate with a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from University of Massachusetts. After quitting his job at Intel and having lived in the US for over a decade, he wanted to return to his roots and decided to head back home. While in his home town Hyderabad he started looking for sources of affordable natural and organic food for his family and found that the options were very limited and not easily accessible. This quest for the best initiated his venture, Sid’s Farm, named after his son.

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A lot more people are also coming (into dairy farming) because it is an essential item and it was not disrupted as much as some of the other fields were (during the pandemic) because still farmers and dairy producers were able to sell these essential services. There will be a lot of demand for good food produced in the country.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Today in 2021, how will you summarise the dairy farming industry? Where does it stand today?

If you look at the dairy farming itself, it is predominantly still unorganised but if you look at farming per se you know the one good thing about dairy farming is that it contributes at least four percent of the economy. This is one industry where at the current levels, at least greater than 50 percent of what the consumer pays actually goes to the farmer. If you look at any particular sector in agri-space, dairy is by far the largest commodity and there’s a lot of scope in dairy. In India, the demand for milk is continuously increasing and most of the milk produced in India is consumed in the country, so there’s a lot of scope for dairy to grow in India.

When we look around the situation right now, we are surviving amidst this global pandemic and we have seen a lot of focus being shifted to taking care of one’s health so how do you think the agriculture sector as a traditional sector is addressing the betterment of human health?

There is definitely a lot of focus on eating healthy food, so definitely the focus is back on having those great sources of food like milk etc. People are looking for high quality pesticide-free and contamination-free vegetables. Everywhere in the country and in the world, we are witnessing the demand which got spurred by the pandemic. A lot more people are also coming because it is an essential item and it was not disrupted as much as some of the other fields were because farmers and dairy producers were able to sell these essential services. There will be a lot of demand for good food produced in the country. Luckily there is food now in the country for most of the population, I think now the focus is on how do we make the good, better.

Contamination is again a serious issue that we are facing with the use of pesticides and chemicals being injected that is questioning the quality of food products. So as an entrepreneur, what solution do you suggest one can adopt to address this?

This is a question that we have also faced as a producer as to how do you evoke that trust in your consumer. We use testing and primarily showcasing that to the consumer as a big way to make sure the customers know that our milk is pure. So, we do a lot of testing at the farm and at consumers’ homes. During pre-COVID, we used to bring customers to the farm, show them how we milk a cow, how we grow our grass, how we do concentrated feed at our farmer facilities, how milk that comes from our facility is tested and all the series of testing that they go through. We test for them different kinds of preservatives and antibiotics that can be added and injected in a cow. Similarly, any food product that you take, if you can develop or there are already test techniques out there, if you can take those things, leverage them and show to the customer, that our food products or our milk goes through this and that, is why you can believe that our food is good. I think that is a great way to connect to a customer and bring that trust in your blood in our products.

In the presentation shared by Dr. Indukuri, he elucidated the story of Sid’s Farm. Some excerpts:

When we started, our initial business plan was to have an integrated farm that produces great milk and food without any hormones, antibiotics and pesticides. Our plan was that we will have three to four acres of land that will have sheds for animals, it will have processing equipment and any other land that we need we would take on lease. Each farm will have an in-house pasture facility for milk and milk products. We also wanted to see if along with milk and milk products we also should be growing other vegetables as well. With a little bit of information that we knew about, we put together this business plan in early 2012. So, the idea was we would buy 50 cows and for each animal in those days, it was about 45,000. Then we would know what is the investment in preparing feed for these animals. It is important to make sure that you grow your grass or feed before you buy your animals when you start a dairy farm. This is so as to know what is the cost for an acre of land, what is the cost of seeds, what is the cost of manure, what is the labour cost and number of acres.

In 365 days, cows have to be milked two times a day, every day no matter what. There are no breaks here, people who have been in this field know they can’t attend marriages, they can’t do all the things that you think are important. In 2013, when we started selling milk direct to our customers and we would a milk our cows started us 4 am in the morning we would manually packet our milk and then we would take that milk from our farm to the city which was about 40 kilometres away and by 6-6:30 in the morning we would have the milk reach our customers. As demand for our milk increased in an automatic packing machine, packing is not a problem now.

Fodder is the most important thing. You have to make sure the land that you choose the location of your dairy farm is also very important so you make sure that you have a good amount of water in the facility where you are starting your dairy farm because both for your cattle for drinking as well as for growing grass you need quite a bit of water so water source is important if you are closer to a river belt you can do it at a fairly low cost. You should also put up a low-cost protein source, like at our farm we have azolla ponds and along with it we are also growing a few tree fodders like suspenia, moringa (or moonaga as they call here).

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It is important to make sure that you grow your grass or feed before you buy your animals when you start a dairy farm.

Audience Asks

Any suggestions on what methods to use for testing on or analysing the business models regularly.

I am assuming that this is the dairy farming business model so one of my suggestions is you start with a basic exercise excel model. That is what we started with and continuously adding the new numbers. It will give you a fair estimate of where you are today compared to what your estimates were, if you keep plugging in. In a dairy farm, I think in the first six months there is a lot of valuable data – you have your first set of cows that are producing milk, once those animals start to dry off you know you have to bring in your next set of animals that keep your milk cycle going. That time frame is a good check. If you capture daily productivity data, your weight cost data, that will give you a decent amount of data to make sure whether your initial business model you started out with is working or not.

What are your thoughts in adopting environment friendly packaging options? What will be the effects on costing?

We do get a lot of questions about this as well, so we are looking for what are the great solutions out there that are environmentally friendly. If you take the example of packing your milk in a plastic pouch, one of the things that we get is why don’t we do glass bottles. There are technologies out there where you can do it in biodegradable packaging options, so we are continuously evaluating them. But you have to look at every aspect as you make this decision. It is about the entire supply chain. When I say, for example, when we look at the plastic pouch versus glass model it is not just the filling stage or what the consumer would see at the end, it also costs you to transport it. If you look at our delivery boy, he could probably carry a lot more milk. He would be able to deliver probably 80 to 100 litres of milk when it is delivered via plastic boxes but when you do via glass bottles you can only deliver maybe 40 litres of milk at the most. Again, what does it run and how much water are you using, if for example you use a glass bottle or a stainless-steel bottle then it has to be cleaned daily and then repackaged. How much water are you using, what are your costs of doing this entire thing has to be looked at and then arrived at a solution. Having said that, we are constantly pushing ourselves to see what is the best technology out there and are looking for good options to take up biodegradable packaging materials once they are out there tested and available.

Have you approached the state government previously for incentives and for expanding your business at an all-India level?

We have definitely applied for state government incentives. We have applied some of the incentives for the processing side of our business but not availed any incentives for the dairy farming side. Because when we started, we didn’t know enough about incentives and stuff, so we didn’t apply. There are a lot of Central Government schemes from the Ministry of Food Processing. We were part of an incubator, which was a central government institution where we applied for a grant there as well, so as many as you can get it’s great because it will help allocate money for the right things in the business.

In the words of Dr. Indukuri, “Dairy farming can be a successful venture but it needs a lot of personal attention at least in the initial few years.” From his experience as a successful dairy entrepreneur whose venture, Sid’s Farm now clocks Rs 40 Crore in revenue annually delivering milk to nearly 10,000 plus customers every day, he is hopeful of the dairy sector in the coming future.

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