Economic Times Startup Awards 2015: Indian startups will transform world, say ... - Economic Times

BENGALURU: The sum total of sentiment at India's most prestigious startup event was akin to the mood in India at the moment — the promise and excitement of endless possibility, mingled with reminders that the road to enduring success is a long, hard slog.

At the Jio Economic Times Startup Awards on Monday night, toasts were raised to celebrate the finest achievement by a new generation of Indian entrepreneurs, and hopes expressed that from among the ranks of the middle class will spring forth startup founders whose companies can transform India and the world.

"We are a country where the demographics are right," said Nikesh Arora, the president of Japan's SoftBank, which has invested about $1 billion in Indian startups in less than a year. "And we are at a point where technology is going to allow us to leapfrog tremendous amounts of developments that have happened in the West."

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Policy-makers need to act responsibly, says Softbank President Nikesh Arora

Entrepreneurs, investors celebrate success, failure and everything in between

The Winners

From startup founders and investors to business leaders and politicians, more than 400 guests thronged the venue in a five-star hotel in India's technology capital for the ceremony in which awards were given away in eight categories. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, Pete Lau of smartphone maker OnePlus and Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal were among those joining in the celebrations. Reliance Jio Infocomm directors and heirs to India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, Akash and Isha Ambani, brought in the power quotient, while Wipro's Rishad Premji brought in his dignified gravitas to the event that saw business leaders, bankers and several Bengaluru notables in attendance. Spiegel's girlfriend, Victoria's Secret Angel and paparazzi magnet Miranda Kerr, brought in the glamour quotient.

India's biggest startup ceremony was the culmination of months of effort, involving an open and transparent process of applications, shortlisting of candidates by a team of ET editors and the selection of winners by a high-powered jury.

Vani Kola, the founder of Kalaari Capital and the winner of the Midas Touch Award for best investor, said the accolade is not only an acknowledgement of individual su ccess but also the struggle of many

"This is like the Oscars of our industry," she remarked.

Ankit Bhati, the cofounder of taxi app Ola which won the Startup of the Year award, joked that had the concept of "Oscar for startups" existed earlier, convincing his mother about starting up would have been a walk in the park.

It is springtime for entrepreneurship in India, as young people with ideas build technology-led ventures that are changing the way Indians live, work and play.

Investors with deep pockets are rushing in to back such ventures — just this year, about $4 billion (Rs 25,000 crore) is estimated to have been invested in Indian startups.

Arora, who is the heir-apparent to SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, reminded entrepreneurs that they are "pioneers in the Indian startup ecosystem" and must set an example to those who follow by behaving responsibly. And an important element of such behaviour, he said, is utter and complete devotion to the product they are building.

"A bad product is not going to be successful with great marketing," he said.

"If you give money away, Indian consumers are very good at finding out you are giving money away and they will flock to collect the money."

Spiegel, the world's youngest billionaire whose company is reportedly valued at $16 billion, concurred with this view during a 'fireside chat' with Arora.

"Customer acquisition costs have really increased online ... I mean globally that is one of (the) big things we pay attention to," he said.

For the valuations-crazed startup ecosystem, he had words of sobering advice that appeared to turn conventional wisdom on its head.

"My job is to make sure we are always undervalued," he said.

Spiegel also pointed to something that most startups do not pay attention to while they chase growth: "Do not forget to have fun and play, (this is) why we do this stuff."

Predictive sales software startup EverString raises another $65 million - Fortune

EverString, another marketing startup that sells software for personalizing business-to-business sales outreach, has closed a $65 million Series B round.

The funding was led by LightSpeed Venture Partners, along with Sequoia Capital, IDG Ventures, and Lakestar. The San Mateo, Calif.-based company previously raised around $13.7 million in seed and Series A funding.

EverString uses analytics and artificial intelligence technologies to sort through a company's prospects and qualify the leads that are most promising based on historical encounters. It can filter far more information than typical inside sales teams, helping an organization build sales pipelines far more quickly.

Its account list currently includes more than 50 customers, said President and co-founder J.J. Kardwell. The ones willing to be named publicly are mainly from the tech sector: IBM, Microsoft, VMware, and Zenefits. "We don't sell analytics. We help companies increase their conversion rates," Kardwell said.

EverString's co-founders were previously with Summit Partners, where they became intimately familiar with the challenges of selling to business-to-business prospects. The three-year-old company is led by CEO Vincent Yang, who has a background in mathematics and data science. EverString now employs slightly more than 100 people. The new money will go toward sales team research and development, and sales team expansion, Kardwell said.

One of EverString's rivals is Demandbase, which cites customer reference accounts including as Dell, General Electric, and Kelly Services. That company raised $30 million in June, bringing its total to around $90 million.

Other companies to watch closely include Lattice Engines (backed by $75 million) and Leadspace (which has attracted a more modest $35 million.)

EverString's healthy Series B round underscores the demand for better customer data to inform both consumer and business-to-business campaigns. San Francisco-based Segment, another startup seeking to automate the collection and analysis of customer data, raised $27 million in its Series B round last week.

The funding was led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Accel Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Jon Winkelried, the former president of Goldman Sachs.

"Segment provides the infrastructure that makes centralizing and syndicating this data a seamless process," said Thrive Capital partner Will Gaybrick, in a statement. "At the same time, it increases the fidelity and flexibility of your customer data no matter what tools you're using to analyze, visualize or take actions with it."

Segment's customers include Bonobos, Conde Nast, and HotelTonight.

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5 Reasons Your Startup Should Add a 'Shark' to the Dream Team - Entrepreneur

Ever hear the following? "For your tech startup dream team, all you need is a hustler (your salesperson), a hipster (your designer), and a hacker (your coder)." You likely have heard this, because it's repeated so often that it's now practically industry dogma.

Related: These 3 Legal Traps Can Stop a New Business in its Tracks

But startups are never quite so secure; the waters surrounding them are fraught with risk -- in the form of legal liability. That's why you need one additional player on that dream team: competent legal counsel (a.k.a your "Shark"). And if you're still skeptical, consider the following five reasons why:

1. Founder conflicts 

In a perfect world, a startup business would roll out following a well-structured plan. In reality, startups are multiple acts of improvisation and agile adjustment; and in a multi-founder company, people's commitment and input to the enterprise may change over time as economic, personal and market realities unfold. Your Shark can help your team create written operating agreements so that roles and expectations are established from the outset and ownership is apportioned fairly and in accordance with the value that's been created.

2. Employee matters 

In addition to other founders, employees provide critical input for your business. At a minimum, you'll need employment and confidentiality agreements to protect the interests of your company. But employment agreements and incentive plans can't be done willly nilly, and a shark can keep you in compliance with state and federal tax regulations. If your startup is cash-constrained and you contemplate offering "deferred compensation" (don't!), your Shark can help you structure agreements to prevent employees or founders from falling prey to any unintended tax traps. 

Related: The Legal Advice Mark Cuban Didn't Take

 3. Patents and trademark issues 

Intellectual property (IP) is foundational to your company's value. Whether it's in the form of software code, trade secrets, trademarks or patents, IP is vulnerable. And the least you need to do is work to avoid infringement of others and, even better, stake out some beach-front intellectual property so that you can defend and build your enterprise value.

You also need to ensure that employees and contractors assign works to your company to make your company the sole owner of your IP. Procedurally, the steps needed to protect your IP aren't complex, but some deadlines are inflexible, so your Shark can keep you on track to protect or build your IP portfolio.

4. Form contracts and agreements

You won't be taken seriously -- especially in the B2B world -- if you don't have professional legal contracts and agreements. And to avoid the downside risk of seeing the value you've created collapse from haphazard legal underpinnings, you'll need boilerplate-form agreements for your terms of service, your privacy policies, non-disclosure agreements and other agreements that can all be easily prepared by a competent Shark but are required to run your business.

5: Compliance with securities law

Many startup entrepreneurs take pride in being nimble and innovative, but when it comes to compliance with state and federal securities laws, there is little room for experimentation. If you expect to issue options or sell equity to employees, friends, family or investors, the involvement of a Shark is required. At best, without one, you'll be in danger of expensive legal "cleanup" down the road. At worst, you could find your company regarded as unfundable by investors, and you could be liable for civil or even criminal charges.

Regardless of whether your Shark is a founding partner, hired counsel, individual or a composite of these types, his or her addition to your dream team will help you avoid some of the fatal flaws that afflict many startups. So, recruit a Shark at your company's inception and feed him/her well.

Related: 3 Key Legal Issues Online Marketers Need to Know About

Book of the Week: Prepare for the startup plunge with advice from investors ... - GeekWire

You may think you have a great idea for a startup. Maybe it's a way to revolutionize dating or a method of moving huge chunks of data between cloud platforms, but no matter how good it is, you're doomed to fail if you don't consider some vital startup components before you embark on your endeavor.

Sean Wise and Brad Feld detail what you need to know before jumping into startup life in their book Startup Opportunities: Know When to Quit Your Day Job.

Both Wise and Feld know startups. Wise has a storied background in venture capital, which led him to a five-year consulting role on the CBC's Dragon's Den, the Canadian version of Shark Tank. Feld founded Interliant before the dot-com bust, followed by a string of venture capital firms, most recently co-founding Techstars.

Brad Feld

Combined, the two provide an overview of what VCs are looking for in startups before they even start up, and what an entrepreneur should think about before attempting to execute their big idea. Coming up with a good idea is only a small part of the creation of a successful business.

"The cost of what could have been created is small when compared to the resources squandered on bad ideas," they write.

The book includes viewpoints from other investors and founders as well, detailing anecdotes of early startup mistakes and successes from Circa, Twilio and Disqus. Sections include how to evaluate ideas, how to find the right people and products for your idea, and how to pitch it and raise money.

Wise and Feld's advice on hiring the right people is especially important. They push the idea of building a diverse team to fully prepare your idea for the real world and push entrepreneurs to find a co-founder before diving into the startup world.

Sean Wise

"Without people to create the business all you have is a good idea," the write. "While most of the elements around a business are continuously changing, people are the hardest elements to change and are often the slowest to evolve. Never forget that people are complicated."

The advice ranges from practical (be ready to live at least 6 months without an income; if you can't fully execute a your solution, don't be afraid to find a co-founder) to more theoretical ideas (make sure your solution is 10 times better than any others; make sure you're solving a need, not a want) that you just need to have in mind before quitting your day job.

Startup Opportunities isn't meant to be the only book you read on your journey to bring an idea to the world. Instead, Feld and Wise are augmenting the methods outlined in classic startup books like The Lean Startup and The Startup Owner's Manual.

The startup is this generation's embodiment of the American Dream, letting people with great ideas rise up in the world. But before quit your job and dive into the world of entrepreneurship, be sure to think about the ideas discussed in Wise and Feld's book.

GeekWire Picks is a regular feature linking to our favorite products and deals. GeekWire may receive a share of the revenue from your purchase through affiliate partnerships.

The Evolution Of Japanese Startups: Innovation From The Ground Up - Forbes

[unable to retrieve full-text content]ForbesThe Evolution Of Japanese Startups: Innovation From The Ground UpForbesJapan is an extremely entrepreneurial society, with a long history of individuals creating businesses and striking out on their own. Despite this history, the phenomenon of 'Startup entrepreneurship' is not yet the engine of economic growth and ...

Tech Talk: GIA plans 'Startup Import Welcome' party - DesMoinesRegister.com

Tech(Photo: The Register)

The Global Insurance Accelerator plans to host a set of insurance startups from outside of Iowa for a few weeks this month.

The accelerator will welcome the companies with a "Startup Import Welcome Party" this week, opening its doors for members of Iowa's startup and financial community to come by and introduce them to the city.

Startups coming by the accelerator include San Francisco-based Parachute, Philadelphia's Livegenic and London-based Tractable, among others.

The party is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at the accelerator, 321 E. Walnut St., Suite 130, Des Moines. Attendees can RSVP via https://tikly.co/events/930.

It will have some dashes of classic Des Moines fare, including beer from Confluence Brewing Co. and food from Tacopocalypse and Fong's Pizza.

Marlowe buys back his company

Iowa City-based investor and entrepreneur Anthony Marlowe recently bought back his company TMone, renaming it Mass Markets.

During an interview, Marlowe said he has big plans for the company, including quickly hiring another 100 people Iowa City and Spearfish, S.D.

While he focuses on the company, Marlowe said he may slow down on investments he makes through Iowa City Capital Partners, the investment company he runs by himself.

"I think I'm going to put a slow down on the Iowa City Capital Partners thing," Marlowe said. "I'm all in and 120 percent focused on Mass Markets."

Iowa City Capital Partners took part in Clusterflunk's seed round and provided convertible debt to Pear Deck, among other investments listed on its website.

Marlowe also said he won't exit Mass Markets until it can go public or he can sell it for nine figures.

For more on Marlowe's reacquiring the company, check out this Iowa City Press-Citizen story: http://icp-c.com/1jez9yz.

Matthew Patane covers technology, innovation and startups for The Des Moines Register. Contact him at 515-284-8211 or mpatane@dmreg.com. Follow him on Twitter via @mattpatane.

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Misery Loves Company: FuckUp Nights at Austin Startup Week - Silicon Hills News

By SUSAN LAHEY Reporter with Silicon Hills News

Elijah May, Managing Partner at The Experience Firm, photos by Susan Lahey

There was the story about a really fun, crazy marketing plan with no ROI, the entrepreneur who thought she could let her bills and health slide while she built her business, the visionary pivoter who didn't bother to do any market validation before buying $100,000 worth of inventory, and the startup techie who didn't get things in writing because her co-founder seemed like someone she could trust. It was Austin FuckUp Night, Startup Week Edition.

FuckUp Night is a global phenomenon that began in Mexico in 2012 where entrepreneurs can share their failure stories and lessons learned. Austin's first FuckUp Night was in August. Thursday night Elijah May, Managing Partner at The Experience Firm, Frances Smith, formerly of Diesel Foods, Laura Beck, founder of Striped Shirt, and Nicole Forbes of Violet Crown Consulting bore their entrepreneurial wounds before a group of about 100 people at Mutual Mobile.

Marketing for Fun, Not Profit

May, chagrined to be sharing that brand strategist screwed up someone's brand, told a sad tale that had the audience laughing the entire time. The idea started—like many startup brands do—with a crazy idea that had no real tie to the business plan. His favorite part of what he does is to create amazing experiences. And he was hired by a sign company that gave him carte blanche to create such an experience for customers.

"After a lot of conversations, I found this cool idea: Signs and Bacon…," May said. People loved it, but it didn't make people buy signs. "We didn't do any homework," he said. "We didn't figure out what this thing was or understand the company's culture. We had a cool logo and some fun stickers and we ended up getting a pig and naming him Kevin Bacon."

At Christmas time, they tried to tie the campaign to selling yard signs by decorating the old-fashioned pig logo with a Santa cap and writing "Pork Your Neighbor," on the signs. This didn't go over as well as Kevin Bacon.

"No one wanted to pork their neighbor at Christmas," May said.

At one point they had Kevin Bacon, the pig, make a star appearance, pulling up in Whurley's (founder of Chaotic Moon Studios and Honest Dollar) car to a red carpet. The pig relieved himself in the car. That, May said, was kind of the moment he knew.

His biggest takeaway, May said, was: Don't forgo the branding process. "Is the culture clear? Is the brand clear? We jumped right to the fun reputation stuff but you have to be sure why you're doing it and provide people with a solution they want in their lives."

When Your Business is Everything

Frances Smith, founder of Diesel Foods

Frances Smith spoke next. Hers was the freshest failure, since she closed her business, Diesel Foods, only six months prior. Smith said she'd had one talk prepared but switched it the night before to an admonition that entrepreneurs have to take care of themselves. Entrepreneurs, she said, sometimes pride themselves on the insane hours they work and how long they go without sleep. They shouldn't. But they also shouldn't neglect the other parts of being a person, like working out, getting a haircut, and possibly getting a counselor.

"All I ever talked about was my business so my friends never wanted to talk to me again," she said.

Plus, friends who weren't entrepreneurs didn't understand that $50,000 in revenue didn't mean she was getting paid. And that was one of the biggest issues: Not paying her bills. Tanking her personal credit score made it nearly impossible to get money for her business.

When an audience member asked her if she would have heeded her own advice had she heard it at the start of her business, she acknowledged "Probably not. But I'll do it next time."

Well I Love the Idea….

Laura Beck, founder of stripedshirt

Laura Beck zipped the audience through a tragically hilarious dip into fashion entrepreneurship that she described as "One and done."

Beck had been in PR for years and her agency was "killing it" with $3 million in revenue. But she was working constantly and didn't have the time she wanted for her two young daughters. So, without the benefit of any market research beyond consulting her own opinions, she dumped it all and spent $100,000 on boxes and boxes of striped shirts that would let people show their support for a school or a team or a city, without having to wear some ugly logo. She imagined whole families going to games dressed in the shirts, which were priced at around $20.00—again, according to her opinion of what they should be priced.

She built a $10,000 website that was way more than she needed. "I did it thinking 'I can scale this baby! I can have striped bathing suits and water bottles….' I over architected the smack out of this thing. It was like I was building The Gap." But she never took time to implement a lot of the other marketing tools she actually knew—on some level—that she needed.

She'd thought, being a PR expert, she could push her business without sales. But PR, she realized, is "air cover" for sales. The only time sales rose was in September. She thought it was tied to people going back to school and sports teams getting revved up, but in fact people were buying them for Halloween costumes, Where's Waldo in particular.

In May she threw what became a viral "Kickstopper" or and "Indienogo." "I wanted to bookend this fucker," she said. She did a tongue-in-cheek Facebook video that got 138,000 views and sold 1,000 t-shirts. Then she took her family to China. (She still has a lot of shirts for sale).

Trust But Verify

Forbes told the tale many entrepreneurs struggle with about going into business with someone she trusted without pinning her co-founder to nitty gritty details like vesting schedules and control.

Ultimately, she said, the business, SMRT Mouth, a biometric mouth guard that collected data from players on the field and sent it to coaches with tablets on the sidelines, succeeded, but she was out. Forbes' co-founder started by wanting 51 percent of ownership, promising her full control as to how to run a business.

Once they got their patents on a smart mouth guard, she was off like a bullet from a gun. "I was really eager, versus excited," Forbes said. "It's okay to be excited, but when you're over eager, you start to overlook red flags." For example, there was no proof of concept. "You couldn't even put the thing in your mouth," she said. She had no equity, there was no vesting schedule, she wound up working for a year for free, and every time she was on the verge of getting investment that might cut into the co-founder's 51 percent, he put the kibosh on it. What finally convinced her to leave, she said, was learning that the co-founder had given someone else equity in the company.

The co-founder wanted to split the company into a hardware company, a mobile app company and a data company, giving her the hardware piece. "Everybody knows the money's in the data," she said.

Her biggest mistake, she said, was avoiding offending her co-founder. That and "Never go into business with someone who knows shit about business."

FuckUp Night happens monthly in Austin.