Startup? Can You Figure Out If You Need An ‘Accelerator’ Or An ‘Incubator’?

Considering that the entrepreneur wave is at an all-time high the world over, the ecosystem too has been responding positively to keep up the tempo and give the rising trend a further boost. The fact remains that a majority of startups that are launched fail to survive past the crucial first year and the ‘great idea’ often dies with it. To better their chances of succeeding in the long run, they need handholding at various levels. They require mentorship and understanding of the business which can help them scale up. And to get the necessary support, they now haveangel networks, mentors/advisors and accelerators/incubators to count on.

Accelerators and incubators offer mentorship, capital, seed funding, tech, infrastructural support and everything else they need to build a strong and lasting foundation.  Though both accelerators and incubators serve as enablers for the startup ecosystem, it is important to understand how they differ from each other, so you know which way to go when you reach out for the necessary support.

A business incubator mentors and fosters a company completely in its initial stage by offering office space, business skill training, professional expertise and financial help; essentially offering the necessary advice and infrastructure for the business to stand on its own.

On the other hand, an accelerator plays a pivotal role post incubation and pre-VC funding to enable the startups to build scalability and healthy business metrics. Just like guiding a teenager is the most trying period for any parent, similarly, this stage is very crucial as most new ventures get stuck in the trenches of day-to-day operations and the need for guidance is far from over. In the midst of all the hustle-bustle, drawing up long term strategic plans (that are extremely critical to give a clear direction to the business), takes a backseat. Here’s where an accelerator comes into the picture. Its pursuit is to grow the size and value of a company as fast as possible, and prepare it for the initial round of funding.

Apart from this, the amount of time a company spends in an incubation program can vary widely, depending on a number of factors, but the period is generally longer as compared to an accelerator program, which typically ranges from a few months to a maximum of 1 year. So, while incubators essentially jump start your business and then kick you out of the nest; accelerator programs are more intensive and aim for the startup to raise venture capital fund at the end of the program and therefore, entrepreneurs who adopt this program for their company should understand that it will demand aggressiveness not only from them but also from their teams.

Moreover, some of the accelerators offer seed funding to the startups that come to them for the ‘run for investment program’ and also take a stake in the company. An incubator normally doesn’t offer any funding or take any stake in the company, but offers more of mentorship and shared resources (common office space and other basic infrastructure for startups etc.), without which taking the ‘entrepreneurship plunge’ can seem intimidating. Since most of the accelerators have a stake in the company, they do all-that-it- takes to ensure that the startups they are mentoring are successful, and just like the name suggests, they are able to accelerate the pace of growth and readiness for Series A funding for their startups.  In fact, a good accelerator would handhold a startup from start to exit.

Yet another differentiator is the fact that incubators have much smaller mentor networks as compared to an accelerator network where mentorship could be coming from more than 100 entrepreneurs who are affiliated with the accelerator. Most of them are successful CEO's or investors who are looking to fund the ‘next big idea/company’ or simply to help the local start-up community. They offer expertise in all areas related to a business – marketing, public relations, legal, strategy-making, engineering, accounting, operations and what not – everything that one needs to take the business to the next level.

The advice that one gets from the accelerator community is not philosophical but straight and clear ‘actionable talks’, because everyone there is interested to see the startup succeeding fast, very fast. This community works extensively on building a solid revenue stream for the company because that’s how they can prepare the startup to raise funds. Today investors in India are not just looking for a million-dollar idea or a power point presentation. Rather, they are interested in investing in companies that have already productized their ideas and have a revenue stream, i.e., they are looking for ‘real’ traction.

Reality checks are important for any company to know whether their business model is going in the right direction or not and an accelerator program is built to keep a continuous check on the company’s health.

Considering the immense support and value that both incubators and accelerators add to a startup at different stages in the early phase, there’s no denying that they make the journey far less bumpy for a startup. As an entrepreneur, if you are driven to ‘get it right’ the first time and better your chances of succeeding in the long run, all it takes is to reach out to a credible incubator or accelerator…Who knows, you might just be the next ‘Billion-dollar baby’ in the making! 

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

Source : INC42. 

Read More

Leveraging technology for a competitive edge (ENTREPRENEUR INDIA)

If there is one thing in common amongst leading businesses across the globe, it is the fact that technology is an integral part of their overall business strategy.

I have always emphasised on the need for startups to clear the Concept of T.E.S.T. and POC to improve their chances of succeeding in the market. In my previous articles, I have already elaborated on three aspects of T.E.S.T., i.e., ‘Team’ and ‘Execution’. In continuation, I’ll be covering ‘Technology’ in today’s post.

There is no doubt that technology will drive the future. Be it our homes, workplace, or any other aspect of our day-to-day lives, technology will rule. In fact, it already does, its scope will expand further.

But what is it that has made technology an indispensable part of our lives? The answer is simple… it simplifies everything we need to do.

It is precisely because of this reason that businesses can benefit tremendously by integrating technology into everything they do, be it Operations, Human Resources, Finance and Accounting, Inventory, MIS, Supply Chain Management or Customer Management. Businesses that leverage technology are inherently more scalable than those that do not leverage technology across various functions.

Technology: An integral part of business

If there is one thing in common amongst leading businesses across the globe, it is the fact that technology is an integral part of their overall business strategy. It has enabled them to consistently derive the maximum value from within and deliver it to customers. It has enabled them to scale up and become the reckoning force that they are, across the globe. Consider names of leading companies across any sector and you will see a strong role of technology in their business strategy. Be it Google, Apple, Accenture, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Airtel, Vodafone, Microsoft, or Nestle, or even manufacturing companies like Samsung, Bajaj, Honda, etc.

Many entrepreneurs of startups and small businesses, even if aware of the advantages that technology offers, are usually wary of implementing it fearing the cost or inability to allocate people who can make the most of it. But time and again, it is proven that the pros far outweigh the cons and it will add tremendous value to the business in the long run. In fact, startups stand to gain significantly by integrating technology into their operations because their superior performance on various parameters on account of technology itself will act as a barrier for entry for other potential market players.

For a business, technology does much more than making things simpler. Overall, it helps improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization multifold across functions, which has a positive impact on its top-line and bottom-line. It ensures better speed and accuracy in operations and enhances the responsiveness towards operational and environment-related challenges.

Gaining a competitive edge

Whether you want to ensure better and faster communication through email, forecast market trends to come up with a winning strategy, track your inventory across multiple warehouses or generate the most complex MIS reports, that can take hours or even days to do manually, technology ensures that you can accomplish all this in a matter of just a few seconds.

Moreover, technology can help cut costs significantly by minimizing the manpower requirement and operational expenses and optimizing productivity. Ultimately, it is a company’s costs and responsiveness tothe dynamic market environment that serve as vital components in getting a competitive edge in the market, and this is where technology can make all the difference.

Technology complements all aspects of a business. While it is not technology alone that gives the business an edge, leveraging it to complement your efforts on all other fronts is what sets you apart and gives you an edge over others in the market. It can help you create a unique identity or value proposition and give you a lead over your competitors. Be it email, VoIP, cloud services, mobile technologies or social media, there are a host of technologies available in the market waiting to be tapped by companies.

The good part is that these technologies are now easily accessible and affordable and some of themcome absolutely free of cost, or at a very affordable cost in the SaaS (Software as a Service) model.

Leveraging the benefits of technology

As is the case with all functions in a business, it is the people within the organization who play a crucial role in leveraging the benefits of technology. Simply adopting technology just because others are doing it will be no good unless people are trained and retrained to use it effectively and optimally to give the business a competitive edge.

However, it is important to note that for a business it is not enough simply to adopt and integrate technology. Since newer and better technologies are emerging faster than ever, making the older ones redundant, it is equally important to identify the relevant ones and implement them sooner than your competitors, to not just ‘get’, but also ‘sustain’ your competitive edge.

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

Source : EntrepreneurIndia. 

Read More

T.E.S.T. your 'Execution' capabilities to build strong business foundation (ENTREPRENEUR INDIA)

This post is with reference to my previous articles on the Concept of T.E.S.T. and PoC and the importance of the first ‘T’ i.e., Team.

Like always, I reiterate my firm belief in the fact that startups that are well positioned on the T.E.S.T. (Team, Execution, Scalability and Technology) and PoC (Proof of Concept) criterion, stand a greater chance of tasting success.

Since I have already elaborated on T.E.S.T. and one of its vital aspects – ‘T’, i.e., TEAM – in the aforesaid links, today I will reflect on the next link in the chain i.e., “E” or EXECUTION.

“Without strategy, execution is aimless. Without execution, strategy is useless.” - Morris Chang, CEO, TSMC (a Taiwan based semiconductor manufacturing company)

This quotation pretty much says all that I want to convey in today’s post.

While most business leaders lay emphasis on strategy formulation or planning to build a strong foundation for the business, they often miss out on one key aspect that is instrumental in making plans materialize. And that is EXECUTION. Though planning plays a key role in any business, what is even more important is how, or rather, how ‘effectively’ those plans are executed. Even the best laid plans in a business stand to fail if not executed well.

A research by Dr Kotter, CIO at Kotter International, on this subject suggests that roughly only 5 per cent of all organisations succeed in implementing their strategies. A whopping 70 per cent of them fail in execution. The remaining 25 per cent are able to achieve only mediocre results on this front. The fact has been validated by several other studies.

This clearly reflects that companies currently undermine the importance of execution, not realising that building strong execution capabilities can help them acquire a competitive edge in the market, which can benefit all its stakeholders in the long run.

While developing a strategy or long term plan is considered to be a humongous task; and one that will decide its fate in the long run, the real challenge lies in executing it and bringing the strategy to fruition. This is where the real investment in time, effort and resources actually happens. And this is the stage where companies usually stumble.

Talent: An Important Tool

Talent is a critical tool that can be instrumental in effectively bridging the gap between strategies and the actual outcome by way of execution. Hiring people with the right knowledge, skills, competencies and experience and upgrading these skills from time-to-time, as the market demands, is therefore vital to building strong execution capabilities for an organisation. Moreover, a culture of meritocracy and an effective reward and recognition programme can further help motivate and retain talent and bring out their optimum potential, which can boost the overall execution capabilities of the organization.

But, that’s not all. While the senior management in most organisations usually focuses on drawing up strategies that can give them an edge in the market, the execution is usually delegated to the teams. To draw out the best capabilities of people who will actually be executing the plans, what is most important is that the plans are clearly communicated and understood not just by the core team, but, by every single employee who will work on making them a success.

A study by Harvard Business Review reveals that 95 per cent of employees do not understand their company's strategy? In that case, how can the companies expect them to execute the plans? Plans, therefore, need to be clearly and precisely formulated and communicated to everyone within the organisation. Also, while their execution may be delegated to the teams, the actual responsibility and accountability ought to rest with the senior management to ensure successful implementation.

Since strategies or plans are usually devised for a longer period of time, for them to be easily comprehensible by everyone, they need to be broken down into small term ‘SMART’ goals (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound goals), so that every single person understands exactly what is expected from them in terms of performance to be able to effectively contribute to realizing those goals, and therefore, the long term plans.

It will also ensure that the communication that percolates down is consistent and no game of ‘Chinese Whispers’ comes into play, thereby leading to filtering or misinterpretation of the information or plan. Effective communication of the plan therefore ensures that all efforts are directed towards a common goal, thereby maximizing the impact of execution.

Monitor the Progress

The next step then is to monitor the progress against these goals to know the current position viz-a-viz the actual target. Unless a proper tracking mechanism in place, it’ll be difficult to track the deviation from the actual plan and take corrective action.

Also, what is important to note is that planning and execution are both interdependent on each other. While planning provides the basis for execution, it is important to take inputs from those involved in execution to understand the ground realities and undertake course correction, if required, to address the dynamic market environment. The more these two functions work in tandem with each other, the better competitive advantage a company can enjoy because of its ability to quickly adapt or respond to market conditions. This is what will set it apart from others and put in on the course to success.

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

Source : EntrepreneurIndia. 

Read More

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. 

Read More

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. 

Read More

India calling: NRI entrepreneurs flocking back to homeland (Entrepreneur India)

NRIs Returning to India

“The Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem was the triggering point for my return to India in January 2011,” shares Vikram Upadhyaya, Chief Mentor and Accelerator Evangelist, GHV Accelerator. A Graduate from University of Tokyo, Upadhyaya started his entrepreneurial journey way back in 1999. Besides being a serial entrepreneur, Upadhyaya has a diversified experience in handling Japanese offshore projects to global corporate strategy and specialises in new ventures turnaround.

When asked about his decision to return home, Upadhyaya replies, “It was quite a big decision in my life when I and my family decided to relocate to India from a place where we lived for over 15 years, a city that is described as one of the most safe, developed and prosperous destinations of the world - Tokyo.”

In 2008, when Upadhyaya was trying to establish the TiE - Tokyo chapter along with mentoring and investing in Indian start-ups like Druva, Stayzilla, Merinews, IndiaCollegeSearch etc, he met Kanwal Rekhi, who was also visiting Tokyo along with other TiE - Tokyo Founding Members. Also known as the father of Indian entrepreneurship, Rekhi is an Indian-American businessman, venture capitalist, angel investor and an entrepreneur. He is currently serving as the Managing Director of Inventus Capital Partners.

“Over my three days of interaction with him, I realised that if I wanted to do something impactful for the country and empower entrepreneurs, I will have to be in their ecosystem. In 2011, I finally decided to be a part of the change and committed myself towards working to empower the Indian entrepreneurial and start-up ecosystem,” asserts Upadhyaya.

Through Green House Ventures (GHV), Upadhyaya looks to close investments in 10 promising startups from India every year. He plans to put $100K against 20 per cent equity in each startup and complete the acceleration programme, which will help startups close Series A and go global.

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

Source : EntrepreneurIndia. 

Read More

Why should startups join an accelerator programme? (ENTREPRENEUR INDIA)

Starting up is a challenging journey. The odds are stacked up against you. The chances of failure are significantly higher than success. And that is true the world over.

This is because the startup is dealing with a number of risks – concept, market, product, etc., and the founders have to navigate all these odds to be able to succeed. As my friend RehanYar Khan, Managing Partner, Orios Venture Partners, says, “For a startup to succeed, various functions such as product development, pricing, technology, operations, customer service, marketing, finance and HR management have to be cohesively performed. Execution of each of these elements has a direct impact on the performance of the venture.”

According to Rajiv Sodhi, Managing Director, Godaddy India “In a startup, there are several mainstream and support functions, and if any of these functions is a weak link, the whole venture may derail.”

Even with a great product and a great team, if the pricing is wrong, the startup can fail. Even if the product, pricing, target segment and market are right, and the customer support programme is wrong, the startup can fail. In my experience as a mentor, I have seen that time and again startups focusing on key areas that seem apparent and immediately visible, but falter in thinking about the areas that are not so obvious.

And that’s where accelerator programmes come into the picture. Accelerator programmes are mentoring in a much more structured and longer-term format. An accelerator programme is expected to help startup founders see the bigger picture and help them understand the complexity of doing a business, so that they are better prepared for success. Of course, it is another issue that only a handful of the accelerator programmes end up doing this well.

Accelerators have a responsibility in ensuring that the startup is well positioned to deal with not only seed stage investors, but venture capitalists (VCs) as well. Many times, brilliantly conceived business plans have taken a hit due to lack of funding, simply because they failed to convince VCs to put their money in the second round after the initial seed funding stage is over.

Only 1 per cent to 2 per cent ventures out of all the business plans that VC’s see, get funded.

Does going through a good accelerator programme help?

Chances of getting direct VC funding in India is very low, only 1.4 per cent. This is because startups in India take much longer to mature. They are, therefore, not very viable for VCs to invest in. In fact, because VCs need businesses to be slightly more mature than startup stage, they tend to rely on accelerator-backed companies as their source of deal flow.

Based on data from 2012, accelerators in India have helped fund 89 companies vis-a-vis less than half this number getting funded by angel investors and VCs. So, it is clear that though direct VC funding is little, going through an accelerator doubles the chances!

VCs have woken up to the potential of investing in Indian startups and the figures will soon show an upward trend. In this scenario, accelerators will play a major role.

Accelerators are not just for startups

Contrary to popular belief, it is not just startups that can benefit from accelerators. Existing businesses too can leverage from their expertise and fast-track their way to success.

The good part is that the accelerators will not let you compromise along the way, since what matters most to them is that the foundation of the company should be firmly in place. Even businesses that are in early-growth stages can benefit from a good accelerator programme.

They can work as a perfect springboard if you are looking to expand or diversify and can help take your business to the next level altogether. The case is similar to that of a person who is already health-conscious and fit and regularly goes to the gym. Do they really need a personal coach? You might say ‘no’, but the reality is that it is this set of people who are already very driven and committed to achieve complete fitness and who can benefit the most by engaging a personal trainer. It is these people, who can get the best result and outperform the rest.

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

Source : EntrepreneurIndia. 

Read More

Green House Ventures Accelerator ties up with LetsVenture (Economic Times)

Gurgaon-based Green House Ventures (GHV) Accelerator has joined hands with deal discovery platform LetsVenture(LV) in a collaborative model to create easier access to capital for seed ventures.

"LetsVenture has access to good quality startups. With this partnership we will get access to good curated startups, and it reduces our time frame for evaluation since one level of curation will be done," said Anurag Kapoor, executive director and co-founder, GHV.

For startups listed on LetsVenture, this partnership gives them access to high value mentoring and increases chances of funding.

Vikram Upadhyaya, Chief Mentor at GHV, said: "We are going to look at all the startups in LetsVenture, who have the potential to grow 10x."

Founded in 2013, LetsVenture is an online platform that connects startups with investors to facilitate early stage funding and currently has over 2,200 startups and 760 investors from 19 countries registered on it.

GHV's selection criteria for startups will focus on - team, execution, capability, scalability, technology, and proof of concept.

"The idea is to partner with a lot of players in the ecosystem who can help these startups go to the next level. We're also helping GHV curate some of these startup companies," said Shanti Mohan, founder and CEO, LetsVenture. Once they have completed the acceleration program, GHV will bring them back to the platform for early funding.

GHV's program houses 10 startups at a time through a one-year long program. Each startup can get seed funded with up to $100,000 in exchange for equity to the tune of 20% at a maximum.

"We will only see actual results in a year, to know how effective the partnership actually is," said Mohan.Shonali.

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

Source : Economic Times. 

Read More

Why are most startups not able to raise Series-A funding?

Most startups, even those who get angel funding or seed-stage funding or investments from accelerators/incubators, are unable to get follow-on funding. Why is Series-A funding so elusive? When Angel Investors invest in a startup, they do so after assessing whether the startup will be able to raise follow-on capital. That’s how they have a chance of getting an exit for their investments.

Why then, are startups not able to raise follow-on capital despite the mentoring and advice they receive from their angel investors or accelerators or incubators? At GHV Accelerator, we analyzed this problem and spoke to investors and startups to understand the reasons. And based on our conversations, we had some very interesting observations. Kindly note that these are reasons of decline by VC’s, even when they believed that the opportunity was large and the concept/product was exciting.

Reasons for startups to not get Series-A funding

(This is in no order or priority, but investors mentioned that they often see at least two of these reasons in angel-funded or accelerator-supported startups that they end up declining)

• The team has failed to build the skill-sets and competencies that are required to take the venture to the next level i.e. some skill sets are missing
•  The venture has not done enough to demonstrate that there is a potential to grow i.e. whilst focusing on developing the product, the venture missed out on building traction as an evidence of the potential
• Lack of defensibility of the differentiator – often lack of IP or anything that can give the company a defensible, unfair advantage
• Lack of in-market validation of the product
• Interestingly, poor product or service was rarely a reason for decline

When we spoke to startups, we realized that most were totally unprepared to engage with VCs. Here is a checklist of what we think startups should be prepared with. Of course, there are a whole lot more things that they need to be ready with, but these are absolutely necessary for even getting follow-up meetings after the initial interaction with VCs – research their past investments, understand their perspectives and thoughts on the market, etc. This helps startups align their thoughts and conversations in line with the VC perspective.

• Understand their investment criteria – some may give more weightage to traction, some to the team, some to market sentiments, some to global opportunities while some may look for domestic focus, etc.
• Understand what they are looking for i.e. the kind of ventures they are seeking – some may be keen on product ventures while some may be open to a services business. Some may look at operationally intensive businesses, while some may not.
• What is the investment scenario – remember startups are ‘competing for capital’ with other startups, even those from completely different sectors than yours – and therefore, it is important to understand the investors view of your sector. (e.g. in the current environment, some VCs are shunning e-commerce ventures while some believe that there is still some potential in verticle spaces, and yet some others are keen to invest in ventures that support e-commerce e.g. logistics, analytics, etc.)
• Be clear on what you seek from the VCs beyond the money – clearly articulate how they may be able to add value – this helps them understand why this could be a relevant investment for them e.g. “You have investments in XYZ and ABC company. Clearly, there are synergies in what we do and two of your portfolio companies. Hence, we believe that your fund will be the ideal investor for us as it will help us leverage some synergies.”

Check the webinar –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy8W75wqAzw

About the Author :

Vikram Upadhyaya, Accelerator Evangelist, GHV Accelerator

Vikram is having diversified experience from Japanese Projects Offshoring to Global Corporate Strategy and New Ventures Turnaround, specialized for the Japan-India Cross Border Business execution.

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

Source : YOUR STORY 

Read More