Tag: Startups

June 1, 2013

People generally have a limited vocabulary when talking about internet businesses. I think learning to categorise online businesses properly is important to find inspiration for new ideas; especially for those who are just starting to explore options of their own.

If you’re bitten by the startup bug, consider the following different fields of online business that have been successful in the last few years:

1. Big Data / Analytics

Big Data is basically the huge amount of data generated on the internet, by sensors, by electronic devices etc. which is difficult to process, store or analyse by traditional computing methods. There’s no dearth of topics that you might chose to analyse: Sports, Politics, Consumer behaviour, Demographics, Economics, Financial Markets. In my opinion, a certain disposition for analytics and understanding of tools used for data analysis is important to start in this field. 

2. Hardware Startups (Internet of Things)

Talks of smart homes and connected devices have been around for several years: but only now have some really interesting new gadgets begun to take shape: check out — Fitbit, Nest, Leap Motion, BodyMedia, SmartThings.

If you are interested in starting something on these lines, you may find ideas around use of advanced sensors, remotely controlled devices, smart homes and wearable gadgets. The returns vs. invested capital (as in the case of the clumsier but cool humanoids) is always a sticking point. Getting the pricing right and the right PR is crucial. Moreover, the adoption in countries with low PPP tends to be low, so most probably you might have to build something for the global markets, which would be a huge project. A solid plan and good funding would be necessary to execute this. Consider Arduino and Raspberry Pi as interesting kits to carry out initial experiments on. (Also, consider how Micromax, Karbbon et al. manage the supply chain.) This article has some interesting points.

3. E-commerce

Buying or Selling anything over electronic media. Shopping sites are all over the place now: Amazon, Flipkart, PepperFry, Fab, Etsy and many more. You might want to look at the WordPress WooCommerce plugin or the Magento platform to quickly integrate shopping cart like features into the website. Also, understand how the purchasing decision works. It’s nice that the logistics infrastructure has already got a priming. Btw, I find selling fashion online to be tricky; it’s difficult to prove the product to the user without them knowing how it fits and feels in hand. The sector is abuzz still, and there’s so much that could be done here!

4. Software Services

A model that has worked well in India: you can start by taking up contract job for creating or managing website or mobile apps. Building momentum for a company is tricky though. You need to have staff to get good clients and vice versa. Chicken and egg story! And to sustain in business, you would need people who can deliver — a recruiting and HR challenge!

5. Social Media

The talk for the next big Facebook is always on and new social networking sites such as Airbnb, Pinterest, 500px keep springing up every year. It’s not easy to bump into a fresh idea here, but who knows, you might soon be gunning for a $1Bn deal.

6. Web / Mobile Apps

Basically a frictionless service that you can create over the connected web. Communication apps, taxi service, Mobile payment systems, etc.

Btw, consider issues from Local/National scope. There’s a reason why the American muscle cars won’t work in the streets of Rome, just as the small European car doesn’t jive with American roads. For India, my favourites are the likes of Redbus.in, PayTm.com and Practo.com who addressed the local markets and have seen strong growth.

7. Finance related

If you understand the Financial Institutions, Banking systems, Stock exchanges, Payment systems well then there’s a lot of potential here. The systems are archaic and can be challenged. They are also very regulated, huge and laden with security/trust concerns though, which makes entering into this field quite tricky.

8. Ad-Tech / Digital Marketing

Algorithms/Databases to help companies with targeted advertising, or just assist them with their online marketing needs. If you’re entering this domain, think hard how you want to position your company, there’s lot of competition in this field already.

9. Design Consultancy

Ok I’m fatigued of reading the “We’re a creative design firm” line, but there’s scope of course. Maybe differentiate yourself in a particular aspect, say logos or sites or mobile UX or whatever. You would want to design everything, but I think it’s not an easy position to sell to your clients.

10. Games

Computer games have sustained for years as a form of entertainment and it sustains against odds. There are big companies (like king.com) that exclusively make Mobile games and are performing very well.

So those are the top 10 that come to my mind. Did I miss something important?

The Startup Festival held at Bangalore from 7-10 March 2013, was an interesting peek into a lot of the startup companies based at Bangalore. Here’s what I saw.

The Good

I wasn’t expecting to see such a big turnout! A shoutout to the organisers (Vlad, Shashidharan, and the volunteers) for the well-organised event. It was a great place for entrepreneurs to meetup and know how the startup scene is shaping up, and possibly collaborate on each others’ skill-set. Met some interesting people. There’s so much effort people are putting, I hope the government starts embracing small private companies and entrepreneurs.

Though, the best part was that it set my expectations around the idea of starting up in India correctly. It was nice to get a sneak peek into business practicals and to size up the number of people involved.

The Bad

It’s sad that the Indian market just doesn’t have the kind of funds that SF, London or Berlin have. Many companies are self funded, which considering the low PPP in India means having to cut down on the basic infrastructure i.e. home offices and no Macs. Bootstrapping might have a potential advantage but I still feel that there has to be more funding to have world class innovations, especially at an early stage, and the government needs to pitch in.

Also the network effect of the IITs is rather overwhelming. The funding is very unevenly spread within a small set of colleges. 

It was also a bit overwhelming to see so many people running after the same ideas. Of course, execution differs and matters a lot. It would be cool if people addressed the right market gaps. I was a bit disgruntled by the cockiness of a few founders.

The Ugh

There was a stage for presentations: During presentations, Some pitches/presentations were quite lousy. This was an opportunity to highlight your company! At least prepare a good pitch. Oh, and the run down questions “how should I start?” or “what’s the risk in starting a business?”

 

Here’s a small personal log of the 4 days:

Day 1: at Indranagar, Bangalore

Attended talks at Exotel, Red Bus and Collaborative Community and few of the Powerhouse sessions at the main auditorium.

Day 2: at Jayanagar, Bangalore

The biggest takeaway of the day was that I figured out Jayanagar and JP Nagar’s roads. Both companies I attended delivered very flat talks.

Day 3: at Koramangala, Bangalore

Beard Design’s founder gave a good talk. The 7 person company is located at Goa! The Unreasonable at Sea team was in India, and they came up to Bangalore for the event; it was cool to hear their stories.

Day 4: at Pebbles, Bangalore

A nice closing party at Pebbles and Kitsch Mandi.

It was an interesting peek into the startup community. There’re talented folks out there, hope the scene stays bouyant and more funding flows into the market.