Time has an interesting article highlighting that in the US, startups are being built for under $10,000. As several people compare the differences between the previous dotcom bust and this one, I think this is a key element – its much cheaper to do internet startups (of a certain kind), and this could be a […]
Interview in ReadWriteWeb
Bernard did a very well-prepared interview with us recently, outlining some of our learnings in India, and how they have shaped our investment themes. His key takeaways are listed here. Guide to MP3: as per timeline of questions on the audio file 0:22 — How is early-stage financing doing during this downturn compared to the […]
Hans Rosling – Third world stats
Brilliant presentation on putting third world stats in perspective, and breaking through the myths.
Criteria for Investment – Reid Hoffman
Interesting post by Reid Hoffman on his rule of three for investing in internet businesses. Does the business have a strong distribution plan, a unique value proposition, and is it capital efficient. I think the hardest part to assess for internet businesses is the uniqueness. For each business that is successful, there are many (with […]
What’s happening in the venture market?
This is the questions that journalists are asking us most often these days. Broadly, what are seeing is as follows: Portfolio companies are still going strong, and have made the adjustments required to tide through the current environment. This applies both to potential business impact (in cases where there is slowdown in customers’ purchasing behavior), […]
Looking through the fog
Business standard invited us to do a guest column on the state of early stage technology investing in India today. Key perspectives: – Slow, but still there. Odds aren’t very different from before. – Watch your target market and customers – key markets continue to be vibrant. – Valuation meltdown is more pronounced in later […]
Notes from GSMA
Eli Novershten from Canaan Israel office was at GSMA last month, and has shared his takeouts from the conference. I hope it is useful. Please use the fullscreen mode at bottom right of the widget for clarity. It seems that cell phones are beginning to come across as a shock to mobile telecom companies! The […]
Barcamp Indore – 22nd Mar
We invite you to be a part of the first ever BarCamp Indore being hosted by IIM Indore. A BarCamp is an ad-hoc ‘un-conference’ born from the desire of people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. Anyone with something to contribute […]
No Criminals Campaign
This is a public interest post – The core idea of the ‘No Criminals’ campaign is to launch a nationwide effort to enable large numbers of citizens to appeal to political parties not to give tickets to people with criminal antecedents in the upcoming elections. Read and sign the appeal on website. Join the facebook […]
NEN EWeek Pledge
On February 7, the third edition of Entrepreneurship Week India was launched across the country with almost 400,000 students and professionals showcasing their entrepreneurial spirit – double the number of participants from last year. Run by the non-profit National Entrepreneurship Network, a Wadhwani Foundation initiative, E Week India is designed to improve the country’s entrepreneurial […]
Entrepreneurship Summit, IIT Mumbai
Date: 7th February, ‘09 Website: www.esummit.ecell.in The Entrepreneurship Summit is a unique initiative by E-Cell, IIT Bombay which serves as a social forum for the Entrepreneurial Community. This year, the Summit aims at Empowering Entrepreneurs. Workshops at E-Summit 09 will emphasize on critical issues faced by entrepreneurs and start-ups at early stages of development and […]
Local Language Internet
There’s an interesting discussion on local language internet in India by Mahesh following IAMAI report on the same. Some perspectives on the same: Should there be local language internet – Absolutely! The power of internet lies in micro-segmentation, and there is no “need to dump Kannada” as Mahesh puts it. Is there a market on […]