Entrepreneurial Talks - Veena Deepak's story of Vividha

Last week, I had the opportunity to hear Veena Deepak share her story of entrepreneurship at NITIE's Lakshya. Veena Deepak is the founder of Vividha - a store for the entire range of children's needs. Dancer, teacher, chef, cost accountant and a successful business woman - all describe various phases of her journey so far.

She shared with the audience her entrepreneurial life so far and the moderator Manak Singh (Executive Director, TiE Mumbai) helped bring certain insights that were particularly interesting . One important point she stressed on was 'Overcoming the hump of guilt'. Few thoughts could apply to my current disposition than this one. I'll try to present what I could assimilate from her talk.

Being anybody comes with making a few sacrifices and compromises more so when you are an entrepreneur. Much more for a woman entrepreneur. She stressed on the importance of overcoming the guilt that comes with making those sacrifices.An example she mentioned was - the guilt of not having the time to cook and take care of her kids and family.One can't feel guilty in making important choices. It is about building alternate mechanisms that work in your absence.

At the end, Manak and Veena unraveled certain aspects of the market that children in India make. A few insights into the market:

• India adds an Australia in population terms every year!!
• Parental tend to stretch beyond their means to provide for children

Any product/ service of utility to children has an enormous potential in India. Signing off, Veena dwelt on the lack of facilities to promote experiential learning to kids. Perhaps, one could build a successful business of making and running museums for children!

Desi lingo web content for 3G phones

Yesterday evening, I was watching a television discussion on the popularity of new age communication like Twitter in India in the context of Shashi Tharoor's 'cattle class' remarks. The panelists on the discussion were unanimous that the reach of the new age media - Internet - was only marginal in India as of now. The arguments on which this premise was drawn were the following limitations:

• The almost prohibitive cost of owning computer/ laptops for the average rural Indian.
• Little or NO access to computer at workplace or otherwise for the average Indian.
• English speaking pockets in India limited to Urban areas.

In other words, these very 3 points are the enablers for the popularity of Internet to the so-called upwardly mobile, educated and English speaking Urban Indian.

Like all revolutionary ideas come, I think I had a eureka moment here. I quickly tried to understand and see this in the context of the article I read in Times of India the same day. The article mentioned that within an year the 3G phone prices in India could fall to as low as Rs. 4000/-!!!

Like it is often said for Innovation, the enabler is itself the greatest constraint. The evolution of the mobile phone technology to the extent of substituing a computer for high speed internet access has clearly challenged the first two limitations and made them irrelevant.

However, I think the third point still holds valid.

A huge market awaits those who can challenge the 3rd constraint. This could be done in quite a few ways. I think it is far more easier to build content in the vernacular than to teach colonial Englsih to the average Indian. We could have numerous 3G ready websites that host content in the local Indian languages. This wave could really bridge the gap and provide access to information and entertainment to the most deprived sections. Building low cost data-to-voice and voice-to-data applications could enhance the reach to the aged, and even to those who have never know the alphabet.

Need to watch this space for the Innovators, the Early adaptors and the business models that emerge here..

Entrepreneurial Talks - Essentials of Entrepreneurship & Art of Re-Innovation

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen to 2 eminent entrepreneurs at SiliconIndia StartUp City - Sanjeev Bikchandani and Ajit Balakrishnan. This blog encapsulates the key take-aways from the 2 sessions. 

Sanjeev Bikchandani 

Sanjeev spoke about the 8 essential self-explanatory things that are key to the success of any entrepreneur. He'd give instances from his own experience at running InfoEdge to elaborate. 

• Great businesses are built on deep customer insights.
• Are you solving an unsolved problem?
• The best kept secret of many market leaders is 'first mover' (atleast an early mover)
• Are you doing real work for real money?
• Be frugal - you are in control of your costs, not your revenue
• Assume you would not get funded - Have a suitable Plan B
• If you became an entrepreneur primarily to get rich - quit now.
• The most important quality of an entrepreneur is persistence. 

Ajit Balakrishnan

Ajit spoke on the topic: The art of periodic re-invention. 

He drew parallels between the evolution of the automobile (from the horse carriage through Henry Ford's Model T to the current models) and the Internet industry. An important dimension he added to his case was how important customer acceptance of the innovation that the innovator tries to bring in. He highlighted the case of how the evolution of the automobile got stuck at the horse-less carriage stage and how the evolution of internet portals got stuck with the newspaper look because of customer reluctance to accept a change! 

Ajit also stressed on how important the mobile phone platform is for taking the internet evolution to the next stage. He also mentioned that the current craze for networking could be the basis of next potential big business opportunity on the Internet.