Friday 20 February 2015

Japan-based World Innovation Labs' investor Masataka Matsumoto to visit India (ENTREPRENEUR INDIA)

Greenhouse Ventures (GHV) has announced that Masataka Matsumoto - Partner at World Innovation Labs (a Tokyo and Silicon Valley based VC and a partner of GHV Accelerator) will be visiting India this week.
While US investors have been active in the Indian start-up scene for long, it is now the turn of Japanese investors to commit significant monies and management focus to get up to speed on the India opportunity. 
GHV, an Accelerator ‘with a difference,’ was adopted very early by World Innovation Labs (WiL).Masataka is the ex- President of Yahoo Japan. He also assumed the role of senior executive of Yahoo! Shopping. He was involved in Softbank’s acquisition of Vodaphone, served as the first director of mobile business development at Yahoo, and headed Softbank’s mobile products and consumer unit.
Typically, WiL invests dollar 5 to 30 million in multi-stage startups with global appeal and disruptive potential. They also provide operational expertise and strategic partnerships to accelerate their portfolio companies' global expansion. Some of the LP’s to WiL are IncJ, Sony, Nissan, Mizuho and Benesse, among others.
“GHV Accelerator’s partnership with WiL and other Japanese investors allows us to ensure that our portfolio companies get access to committed Series A funding. Our strategy of tying up Series A capital is based on the observation that many portfolio companies of most accelerators and incubators fail to get follow-on capital required for them to scale up. The WiL partnership and connect with Japanese giants will also help our portfolio companies with their global expansion, especially in the US and Japan, the world’s 2nd largest developed economy,” said, Vikram Upadhyaya, founder and Chief Evangelist, GHV Accelerator.
Some of Vikram’s portfolio companies like Druva and Stayzilla, have been in the news recently for raising over 25 mn USD and 20 mn USD respectively.
GHV’s partners from Japan are invited to join the Pitch Day of GHV Accelerator, beginning in the week starting from 23rd February and will continue till 9th March. GHV would be organizing 3 pitch days across this time period, which would be attended by Vikram Upadhyaya, GHV mentors and the Japanese partners.
“Over the past few years, I have been in talks with several large investors and companies from Japan, and advising their boards on their India strategy. As the markets and the above-mentioned indicators emerged clearer, I noticed their 'intent’ change to ‘action’. While the likes of SoftBank have already made announcements, other Japanese giants are now rapidly making their moves in India,” added Upadhyaya.

For More Details - http://www.ghvaccelerator.com/
Source : EntrepreneurIndia

Wednesday 18 February 2015

Why due diligence is important for entrepreneurs (ENTREPRENEUR INDIA)

In today’s complex business and financial environment that has witnessed several companies, including some of the most trusted names in the business, compromise on integrity and getting caught under the net for fudged accounts, with the intent to siphon off money and evade even the best scrutiny, it is increasingly important for investors and buyers to insist on a thorough due diligence before making the final move.It is critical for a buyer or investor to know about the financial or legal health of the company they are planning to buy or invest in. Due diligence is a vital tool, based on which investors/buyers gauge the effectiveness of corporate governance and make up their mind on merger or acquisition, after validating whether the assumptions and assertions made by the company are true and fair.
This critical step is what enables the interested parties (buyers or investors) take that leap of faith. It is through due diligence that they can check for any unknown issues, which should have been brought to their notice earlier and evaluate the growth prospects of the company. These important inputs help decide whether the investment or acquisition will be worthwhile or not.
In several cases, where issues are uncovered during the due diligence process, companies are told to put them right before any further moves are made by the investors.

What do investors look for in the due diligence process?
First and foremost, investors need to know beforehand about the company's current and projected financial details, organisation information, market size, team structure and level of competence, potential to compete in the market and future growth prospects.
These are the key areas of interests for Venture Capitalists. They also want a perusal of all stockholder communications, customer and supplier agreements, credit agreements and loan/debt obligations, partnership and joint venture agreements. From a legal perspective, it is important for them to know the structure of the company, staff headcount and cost, further requirements in staff to grow the business, and liabilities and lawsuits if any.
Any conflicting claims already made, hidden or unresolved problem areas cropping up during the review will put a halt to any further progress with the investor. Any missing or incomplete information, missing signatures on contracts or facts that arise, which are inconsistent with previous claims or discussions, undisclosed debts and liabilities, will raise all the red flags with an investor and put a halt to further movement in the process unless resolved and clarified.
That is why it is important to ensure that all these necessary documents are well organised and ready to produce as and when required during the process.
Moreover, the company must have detailed presentations together (factually correct and on time) prepared by various teams, giving a detailed overview of that respective function or department to ensure that the right information is shared with the investors and any queries or doubts addressed. Also, the business should keep all lines of communication open with the investors and immediately act on clarifications sought with factual explanations.

Importance of a legal advice
A good legal team can prove to be immensely useful to manage the due diligence and securities offerings and in making the right pitches to the investors.
After the basic information sharing, assimilation of facts and verification of the same is over; the investors will rectify the problem areas, if any. While some problems can be addressed and corrected, others may be beyond the control of business, hence difficult to resolve.
In such case, investors might insist on making changes to the transaction documents, they might adjust the bidding price for the business, the shareholding structure, or investor rights and responsibilities.
It is only when these issues are settled, the due diligence process will be completed to the investor’s satisfaction, which in turn will help the transaction follow through to the signing stage.
Thus, due diligence help investors to get an accurate view on what the company has done so far and how it might fit into a broad portfolio or investment strategy. For an investor, this research helps them from missing something that could be vital to their decision-making process. What was once a short and rather perfunctory process has now grown into a highly detailed and quantitative process offering insight into the future prospects of business.
Though there is no one formula for this process, businesses that understand the criticality of this process and its components are certainly at an advantage, when it comes to attracting investments. They can leverage it as a stepping stone to a bigger and brighter future.
I highly recommend that companies keep this in mind, even as they are just starting up. With good legal advice, keep the records clean right from the beginning. This will save any problems at a later stage and also the aftermath of cleaning up process.

Conclusion
For Investors Due Diligence to be a cakewalk, the entrepreneurs need to have self-discipline in maintaining the records of the venture, such as daily operations documents and details. It is always good to split the responsibilities amongst the Co-founders for recordkeeping and timely reviews. This not only helps the entrepreneur to keep the due diligence outcome positive, but also ensures that they have daily data on their fingertips.
To sum up, the top 10 priority tasks every entrepreneur should religiously follow, irrespective of the stage of the venture, in order to ensure complete compliance for Investors Due Diligence:
  1. Do Indexing of all the signed documents and official records
  2. Keep the records at one safe place
  3. Label your files with color codes and time stamping
  4. Do regular and frequent board meetings
  5. Review all the pre-decided agenda one by one and check if the documents are in place
  6. Entrepreneurs should know the financials and record them
  7. Interact with your Legal Advisor/CA or the financial consultant on regular intervals
  8. As early stage Entrepreneurs, you might not be perfect in processes, but be honest in your data and remain transparent
  9. Never ever hide or fudge your data from your investor, because you think it’s not worth sharing.
  10. Last but not the least; never be ‘Penny Wise Pound Foolish.’

For More Details - http://www.ghvaccelerator.com/
Source : EntrepreneurIndia

Monday 9 February 2015

Online branding for Startups

Thursday 5 February 2015

With the ‘Uber’ Syndrome Catching Up, Indian Startups Should Gear Up Big Time! (IAMWIRE)


A large country like India, and one with several infrastructural challenges, offers some unique opportunities for innovators. One such opportunity area is security & safety. The Uber case that took place in December 2014, brought into focus the need for solutions around safety & security.
A technology startup headquartered in San Fransico, Uber connects passengers with taxi drivers in 200 cities across 53 countries and enjoys a valuation of over USD 40 billion just about 6 years into its inception. The success story of Uber would have been a commendable one had the Company not become synonymous with flouting safety regulations and indulging in unfair business practices in order to make a quick buck, thereby leading to legal tangles in several countries where it operates.
Unfortunately, over the past few years, there has been a rapid increase incases of sexual harassment and assault, economic harassment (e.g. not paying daily wages in time or in full), murders, etc. in India. Women and senior citizens are particularly vulnerable.As a result, safety has become a prime concern for both, individuals and the government. Going by the incident of the rape of a woman executive in an Uber cab by its driver in Delhi, the company cannot escape the liability by virtue of the fact that it is only a cab aggregator and does not directly operate any taxis. It is ultimately a taxi services company, albeit an app-based one, and therefore cannot shirk the responsibility of ensuring the safety of passengers who hire a cab through them.
In fact for any business where customer security is involved, it should be built into the core of the operations rather than going the Uber way and resorting to shortcuts to achieve growth targets. As a result of this fiasco, all app-based cab services were banned in Delhi citing security issues. The ban will be lifted only if they agree to follow the rules meant for Radio Taxis.

Where Can Startups Innovate
While the government has to take necessary steps to ensure that it is able to keep the citizens safe & secure, it is not going to happen in a hurry, as India is too vast a country for the government or public infrastructure or policies or resources (security agencies, police etc.) to address these issues immediately.
And this is where I think that technology-enabled solutions can contribute significantly, in making India safe & secure. Innovators are already thinking of how to address security issues using technology. Some of these innovations could be in areas related identity verification; databases of track records of publicly accessed private individuals (e.g. cab drivers); performance and compliance tracking; reporting; alarms & alerts etc.
Software, as well as hardware products can create solutions across different types of cases, and the scale of the opportunity provides opportunities in India for tremendous cost-efficiencies to make these solutions affordable.
Biometrics and digital identity technologies are now commercially available, and inexpensive to use as one of the platforms for safety and security solutions.
Some of these solutions could be company specific (e.g. Uber or OLA may use a proprietory tool or process solution for due diligence on drivers and tracking), while a number of these solutions can be managed by third-party innovators/entrepreneurs who can offer their solutions as a managed-service offering.
Think about it. India is a developing country with a population of 1.2bn. We have 925mn mobile phone connections and a smartphone penetration of 350mn. Our GDP is 1.87tn USD and is expected to go to 3tn USD by 2020. The size of the market opportunity is large. One effective solution can make a whole world of difference to people who no longer feel safe outside their homes (or even inside). Moreover, India has the capability to create and outdo many such ‘Ubers’, keeping the integrity of the system intact.
We believe that the opportunity is real, the opportunity is NOW and the problems need to be addressed. And we also firmly believe that only technology innovations can address some of the major challenges related to security at the scale and speed at which we need to address them.
Here is what Startups can do, to avoid getting ‘Uberised’ –
  • Have tech-enabled processes in place, to ensure accountability. And make it a norm. This can be critical for future collaborations
  • Regular mystery audits to ensure compliance by even the ground staff
  • Legal compliances and processes to ensure interest protection and liabilities of not only your company, but all stakeholders
  • Gauge the risk factor – from your point of view AND also from the customers
  • Have an escalation matrix, whereby customers can connect directly with you
For More Details - http://www.ghvaccelerator.com/
Source : IAMWIRE

Tuesday 3 February 2015

Why Intellectual Property is critical for startups (ENTREPRENEUR INDIA)

When entrepreneurs embark on that unique business idea that they have no doubt would be a commercial success in the market, their prime focus initially is how to actually start giving shape to the venture. In the midst of numerous things that go into building a startup from scratch, the word ‘Intellectual Property’ (IP) is often not their priority. And even if they consider IP protection, it seems too expensive a proposition for a startup to act on.
But what entrepreneurs should remember is that assessing IP implications is not just about protecting the work you are doing. It is also to check if someone else has an IP for similar work. Often, there could be others in different parts of the globe working on a similar idea, which you may not be even aware of. What will happen if you find out one day that someone else has already patented that idea or product or solution that you have painstakingly developed?

Importance of IP protection
In today’s competitive and dynamic environment, IP can be a unique selling proposition (USP) of the product or service, and it helps create a sustainable and defensible differentiator for the company. By owning IP, a high entry barrier is created, thereby helping you to grow your venture faster with respect to your competitors’ offerings. Note - IP is always given high weightage by the investors and creates good value for your venture.
IP has, in fact, been identified as the key ingredient for startups across the world to get a competitive advantage in the market, according to the Start-Up Genome Project that aims to map, model and analyse what it takes to make startups tick.
IP assumes even greater significance for technology startups, where new innovations are being made every day. There is a huge brand value attached to IP, in both the manufacturing and technology sector. It gives investors, clients, and other stakeholders a tremendous sense of confidence in your commitment and passion to not just succeed, but also become a market leader in your area of operation.
There are essentially three ways in which a startup (or any other organisation) can protect its intellectual property (i.e., the idea or concept/ product/ process/ associated symbols, logos etc. that define the brand), namely, through:
1) Patents
2) Trademarks
3) Copyrights 
Intellectual property is, in fact, an asset for its owner and has a commercial value attached to it.
Payal Chawla, Founder, Juscontractus says, “Protecting IP requires thought and strategy. A novel technological innovation, like Tetrapak, would be worth protecting through a patent, which can be very expensive. In certain situations, it may be possible to seek a trademark protection or simply protect through a trade secret. This can be done through investing in marketing, and creating a recall between the owner and the product. The point is - there are different strategies available for different goals. Intellectual property can be very valuable. It is not unknown for a brand to be three times the turnover of a company. IP, if correctly and strategically protected, can take the valuation of a company to a completely different level.”
Also remember, if someone else happens to do so before you, then you are likely to be pushed out of the game (even if you had started working on the idea first), lest you are found guilty of patent infringement or copyright violation.
Companies can even leverage these patents as a means to further boost their revenues through licensing. For instance, Ford and Toyota have both bought licenses from Paice LLC to use its patent covering hybrid cars.

In summary
While startups are constrained by a paucity of funds when it comes to protecting intellectual property, what is important is that they should still continuously work on identifying IP and at the same time consciously work on setting aside funds to protect IP.
Since international patents may prove to be expensive at this stage, a good start would be to apply for a domestic patent/trademark/copyright. As the company scales up, it can set aside a budget for patent/trademark/copyright in the international market. Failure to do so can affect the company’s prospects to scale up.
It’s not just at the startup stage that IP is important. Businesses are constantly reinventing and redefining themselves in today’s day and age, where change is the only constant. This means greater focus on innovations, which in turn, means a greater need to protect IP.
The importance of IP cannot, (and should not) be undermined by startups, and established companies alike, because of the long-term sustainable advantages it offers.

For More Details - http://www.ghvaccelerator.com/
Source : EntrepreneurIndia.