The promise of 3G is live again, and as consumers, I am sure most of us are looking forward to it. It would be great to get people’s views on what it might mean for startup opportunities. Some of my thoughts: 3G in India is fundamentally about cheaper scalable voice capacity. At a basic level, […]
Call for nominations – Under the Radar Conference
Under the Radar is inviting mobile startups from across the globe for their conference on November 12, 2008 at Microsoft Campus, Mountain View, CA. Apply here before August 15th. Under the Radar: Mobility is a one-day conference in the Silicon Valley that will uncover 32 bleeding edge mobile startups from across the globe that have […]
iYogi raises $9.5M Series B from SAP, Canaan, SVB
Glad to announce that iYogi has raised their Series B investment of $9.5M led by SAP ventures, with follow-on investments from Canaan Partners and Silicon Valley Bank. You might remember the $3.1M Series A investment last April – the company has progressed very well since then. What is really encouraging is that iYogi, along with […]
ESOP Successes – Onmobile On Steam
Someone anonymously posted this comment to our earlier story. Based on Onmobile’s public filings, the person has done an analysis, which indicates the successes in Onmobile ESOP plan. The analysis is based on share price of Rs 520 as of July 8th. While these are estimates, it seems that they are broadly right – I […]
Universal McCann Social Media Report
Interesting report from Universal McCann on social media. With respect to India, while overall Internet penetration remains abyssmal, some of the social media metrics fare better (on base of 17M active users in target group): 85% read blogs, with fairly high frequency of usage 66% have created a profile on a social network, and frequently […]
Proto Delhi – Last few tickets for Venturewoods readers
Proto.in, over the past two years has been slowly building a community of startup entrepreneurs, and has been successful in its mission. The fourth edition of the event, is to be right here in Delhi, in the campus of IIT Delhi, on the dates of 18th and 19th. There is a fair bit of elite […]
ESOP Successes – Quasar Crorepatis
Quasar has been kind to share some of the success stories on ESOPs – these employees made about 1 crore each when WPP acquired a majority stake in Quasar. Thanks to Quasar for sharing the same. Deven DharamdasaniBusiness DirectorAge 29Joined Oct-2004 Gopikaa DavarAssociate DirectorAge 26Joined Jun-2002 Manish SinhaVP – ProjectsAge 35Joined Dec-2005 Piyush RathiBusiness DirectorAge […]
ESOP or something else?
We have had discussions earlier here on attracting great talent to startups, and what the key motivators are. Clearly, there are other motivators besides money in a startup decision – such as sense of purpose, role that one can play, and so on. However, the more I talk to entrepreneurs around, the more evident is […]
Top management recruiting
Businessweek has a nice refresher on recruiting top management. While it primarily seems to be written for large companies, the lessons are equally relevant to startups. Of course, there are some additional points one needs to keep in mind when recruiting for startups: Sell a personal vision – not just of where the company wants […]
Brand advertising on Internet – Position it right!
Kamla Bhatt sent me a link to this post, and it sparked off a few thoughts. What has worked well on the internet so far is performance advertising/ lead generation. Most people who are looking to building a business around enhancing brand presence on the web seem to be taking a PR oriented route to […]
VentureBuzz section
We are launching another section on VentureWoods – the VentureBuzz section – post any buzz you have heard – might be a rumor, might be a gossip, might be just some juice! Is that hot startup on its way down? Or is it getting bought? Did they announce a deal that never existed? Share something […]
Angels fund 57,000 companies for $26b
Don Dodge covers the Angel Capital report from Center for Venture Research for the US Angel space. Some quick stats: 258,200 active angels invested $26b in 57,120 companies in 2007. VCs invested $29.4b in 3,813 companies. The ratios are revealing in the kind of pipeline it takes for a vibrant ecosystem, and proportionate amount of […]