Since I get nearly 60% of my visitors to the blog and nearly 80% of email requests for connections to funding sources from India, I thought I’d do a quick round up of what’s getting funded in India, so people can determine which areas they would have an easier time to get funded, and which… Continue reading What’s Getting Funded – India Edition Q3 2015

There are many skills we ask of entrepreneurs – sales, hiring, marketing, product management etc. Of them fund raising is probably the most detested among technology entrepreneurs and the most desired among investors. If there are 3 things most seasoned entrepreneurs will tell you that you need to focus on as the CEO is to… Continue reading Manage Investors: Important Skill for Entrepreneurs

Legal Zoom, Inc. $LZ, an online platform for legal and compliance solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses, start trading as a public company on Wednesday, June 30. $LZ IPO pricing range of $24 to $27 per share implies a market cap ranging from ~$5.0B to $5.7B $LZ is planning to sell up to 19.12M shares… Continue reading New IPO Legal Zoom $Lz, Legal Services For Smb and Consumers

I had a chance over the last 3 weeks to talk to many colleagues and associates in the Venture industry. Most were smaller, seed funds, with the largest fund size at $35 Million and the smallest at $8 Million. They have between them about 210 companies they have invested seed capital in, with the average… Continue reading The Ultimate List of Questions about “Market Research”

If you are an early stage investor (Venture Capitalist, Angel investor or other Seed fund), there are now a host of databases which claim to have the information required to scout, identify and track startups. There are 2 open data sources – Crunchbase and AngelList and 5 known new age companies – Datafox, CB Insights, Mattermark, Tracxn, Rocket Companies and Owler. Crunchbase and AngelList have proprietary… Continue reading A Comparison of Early Stage Private Company Startup Databases

I am not a fan of Donald Trump and dont agree with many of his positions, but he sure is entertaining to follow. I do actively follow politics, so I am keenly interested in campaign strategies, tactics and political news. There’s a lot to learn from Donald Trump, in terms of startup strategy. There’s a… Continue reading What Startup Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Donald Trump

I was never one to care about a “great office space and environment”. I used to think that if you did great work, and have a great open culture, that’s all it took to build a great startup or foster innovation at a large company. Turns out office spaces give out vibes.  In a recent survey of… Continue reading How Much Does Office Space and Your Work Environment Matter?

Initially when you are looking to hire a person in your company, you will hire “from your network”. The challenge is to have a good network that’s diverse and varied to help you bring those critical “early believers” on board. One of the most difficult hires for most developer / technical people is hiring that… Continue reading Build a Deep Network of Relationships as an Entrepreneur

One of 21 skills I try to look for in entrepreneurs is listening – more specifically active listening. The reason for testing this skill is obvious. More than wanting to be listened to, I look for whether the entrepreneur is listening to respond or listening to understand. Most entrepreneurs find it hard to listen, in… Continue reading How Investors Test for “Listening” Skills in Entrepreneurs

Most investors and others who attend the demo day dismiss the “our market is very large Gazillion dollars” hype that startups state in their size of market slide. Since the size of market is part of the 3 step process to raise capital from institutional investors, spending enough time on documenting the assumptions you have made… Continue reading How to Present the Market Slide at Demo Day?