Gigaom has recently written about some of the ongoing efforts at Band of Angels, India. Most of the regular stuff regarding our desire and passion to create large businesses out of India, the progress so far, and whats in the pipeline.
We have also been getting regular feedback from the entrepreneurial community, including some pretty harsh anonymous stuff. We are listening. Recently, some of us met to discuss how we can improve our interface with the entrepreneurs and meet their expectation of getting direct facetime and sensitivity from the investors themselves. I am pleased to say that we are going to experiment with a format where every plan with the requisite minimum information will get that chance, rather than undergoing a prescreening process. Our belief is that this should help us identify opportunities better, and at the same time, help entrepreneurs find sponsors, which is central to how BoA works. I am not sure on whether this experiment will be successful, and how it will evolve. I only want to let you know that we are as passionate about entrepreneurships as entrepreneurs themselves, and we are keen to evolve a model that brings the best out of us and you.
- Promoters or Entrepreneurs – A choice for Private Equity players - August 3, 2019
- Startup Marathon Mindset - March 25, 2019
- What’s your Customer Culture? - March 4, 2019
No doubt that BoA is a great initiative, but just like everything else, its success depends on how well it’s implemented and deployed. From the harsh comments, it looks like there are some administrative issues that need to be resolved.
My analysis of BoA website is that it needs more content for entrepreneurs.
Here are some suggestions: (If you do decide to implement any of these, I volunteer to be the workhorse)
I am a big fan of knowledge management. If BoA find itself answering/discussing same questions/issues with entrepreneurs over and over again, it would be great to compile and publish FAQ’s and case studies.
To manage entrepreneurs expectations, bring them to reality and to prepare them to find investors beyond “love” money, there is a need for a boot camp/online lesson on “How to raise equity”.
Alok, how about organizing something like http://startupschool.org/ in Delhi? I will be glad to help set it up and BOA can play a significant role in education current and future entrepreneurs.
I think it is great to have something like BoA. A few years ago when I was hoping to raise money for a venture that I started, I kept blaming myself for perhaps not knowing how to go about doing it – maybe nothing existed. Today at least there is an environment where one can reach out and understand whether the idea itself will fly or can get funded.