Octopus To Raise £70m For Start-Up Venture Investments.

Conventional wisdom is that investors’ appetite for risky smaller businesses is diminished during periods of economic uncertainty and market volatility – they’re supposed to prefer safer bets. Well, tell that to Octopus Investments, the specialist smaller companies fund manager. It’s just announced a £70m fund-raising for its Titan Venture Capital Trust (VCT), with the rider that there is also an option to raise a further £50m should there be sufficient demand.

Venture capital trusts, for the uninitiated, are collective investment funds that attract a special tax status from the UK government – the idea is to cushion the risk of investing in very small businesses with a generous array of tax breaks. So investors get 30 per cent upfront tax relief on their money as long as they hold their VCT shares for five years, are entitled to tax-free dividends, and don’t have to pay any capital gains tax on profits.

Despite these perks, however, VCTs are risky – all the more so since the Government was forced to change the rules of the scheme last year in order to avoid falling foul of the European Union’s State Aid rules. At least 70 per cent of the fund must be invested in companies that are no more than seven years old, have no more than 250 employees, and have assets worth no more than £12m.

In other words, these are businesses at the riskiest end of the market – many are effectively start-up ventures.

Dreaam Big! And Make It Happen With Success

So why does Octopus think it can raise such significant sums for Titan at a time when investors are so nervous? Well, a combination of factors are in its favour. The tax breaks certainly help, particularly since the Government has recently reduced the tax incentives on offer to wealthier pension savers, who are therefore looking for other efficient ways to invest. But it’s also important to stress the attractiveness of the underlying asset class, particularly given that investors get access to it via a diversified portfolio that is professionally managed.
The reality is that in a market place where growth capital is in relatively short supply, VCTs have some great opportunities to choose from. Even talented entrepreneurs with impressive track records don’t have too many options when it comes to raising equity finance – VCT managers are well placed to pick and choose.

In fact, Titan has a good record of doing so. The portfolio consists of around 50 companies at any given time and boasts a number of success stories. This year alone, for example, Titan has sold its investment in SwiftKey to Microsoft and Twitter has bought its holding in Magic Pony Technology.

This is not to suggest that the fund is a sure thing, or that there won’t be portfolio setbacks. The nature of investing in start-up ventures means there almost certainly will be failures. Despite the risks, however, Octopus is confident investors will support its fund-raising, even in this post-Brexit era of anxiety.

As for entrepreneurs themselves, this fund-raising is good news. It suggests the market for equity capital in start-up companies remains open for business – and raises hopes that the best ventures will be able to secure the finance they need to scale up.

Disclaimer: - Following article come from FORBES

Food Startup Flips Business Model To Cut Down Costs, Maintain Growth.

This is a case sort of belt-tightening across different startups sectors that cut across e-commerce to food-tech companies. Faasos - one of the most highly-funded food startups, which so far retailed only self-branded food from its own kitchens - around 175 odd ones across top 15 cities - is the latest one to flip strategies to keep costs down while maintaining the pace of growth. 

The company flipped its business model last year to enlarge food variety on its menu by tying up home chefs - around 100 on its rolls now.

 

The model had limitations, though. Food from home-chefs can get high-on-demand but home chefs do not have the ability to address the consistent point in order volumes. "We will be using the strength of home-chefs for bulk party orders that we started on with about a month ago," said Revant

Bhate, Head of Marketing at Faasos.

Start Your Business In Kuwait

Faasos which handles around 12,000 orders a day is now hooking on to restaurants and independent caterers to sell their best selling products to customers, in a bid to further expand its menu without bearing the cost of setting up kitchens.

"At the end of the day, it does not matter to the customer where the food is coming from," said Bhate. At present, the Faasos menu has broadly 7 to 8 segments -north Indian, biryani, signature rice, curries, wraps, pizzas, desserts, chai and snacks and all-day breakfast.

Restaurant tie-ups are aimed at getting into other cuisines such as Chinese, salads, pastas, continental and south Indian dishes. The move will help Faasos which recently completed tie-ups with 500 restaurants across metros and tier 1 cities to double up order volumes without investing big on new customer acquisition. "The idea is to move up from 3 orders a month per customer to 6 orders from the same set of customers," said Bhate who hopes to close fiscal year March 2016 with revenues somewhere close to Rs.100 crores which was the set target for the company.

The company founded in 2011 by two friends Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee counts leading venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as its early investor and had last year raised two rounds of funding -$20 million led by Lightbox Ventures and $30 million led by Russian firm ruNet which valued the firm at around $130 million.
Disclaimer: - Following article come from ET

Startup PR Mistakes To Avoid In 2016

January is a time for New Year’s resolutions and so drawing on my experiences of a year spent networking, hearing pitches at events like the HoxTech Angels, Hipster Hackers & Hustlers speed-pitching (everyone should try this event!) and many others, as well as helping companies spread their gospel, I want to air my feelings about what startup companies doing PR for the first time should urgently try to avoid doing. Plus a few things I believe they should be doing.

London’s tech scene is booming with nearly $10 billion of venture capital investment being pumped into the city since 2010, and it’s all thanks to the efforts of entrepreneurs, who make the startup scene so special. So stay bold, make time, keep strong, and read on.

Make sure to get your timings right!

Every new business should have a clear set of internal milestones; and a clear idea of when they will be achieved. First 1,000 users, first paying customer, date of app release, first hire. But because they are internal, these timelines are not set in stone – it may take more or less time than you envisaged, and that is ok – no harm done.

Any timelines that a business communicates externally however – to investors or customers for example – must be achieved before or on deadline. Imagine the brouhaha if Tim Cook announced the launch date of a new iPhone – and then subsequently announced he was moving the date back one month. Questions would be asked, speculation would be rife – what are they playing at – stock value would plunge, and competitors would jump at the opportunity to stick the knife in.

The same goes for a startup launching a new app or product – in fact failure to stick to a public deadline will be received even worse because a startup doesn’t have a track record of success to fall back on. It’s absolutely crucial that your first interaction with the outside world goes smoothly. The world is waiting to see if you as a business can do what you say you will do – trapped in your own world scrapping with a back end teething problem you may not notice the attention you are getting– you may not feel the growing anticipation. It might be clear to you the reasons why you need to delay – so you can release a better, less buggy version of your product – but your audience will not see it like that.

And there’s really no excuses – after all you get to set the deadline – so make it achievable, factor in delays, talk to as many of your staff as you can. Give yourself the leeway you need. You set the expectations – so make them realistic.

Disclaimer :- Following article come from Forbes

From Smartphones to Smartcars, Here's Ratan Tata's 2015 Startup Shopping List

Local services marketplace UrbanClap announced on Thursday that Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata had invested in the firm. This is just one of the many high profile investments by Tata, who is quickly becoming a familiar face in Indian startups, bringing a certain Midas touch with him.

Based on the inputs provided by startup data tracker Tracxn, of the 23 entities that Tata has invested in overall, four are unicorn startups (that is, valued at over $1 billion). He has made one investment at the seed level, while the rest are late stage investments - most have seen a notable increase in valuations, according to a Livemint feature published earlier this year.

His past investments include wind energy start-up Altaeros Energies, e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal, online jewellery seller Bluestone, online furniture seller Urban Ladder, and healthcare startup Swasth India. In just 2014, he's invested in 14 companies, and many more besides. Here's a look at at Ratan Tata's investments in 2015:

1) CarDekho
Feb 2015
Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed sum in automotive portal CarDekho shortly after it raised $50 million in VC funding. CarDekho.com acquired price comparison website BuyingIQ.com in April, and Times Internet's Zigwheels.com in September this year. HDFC Bank also picked up a minority stake in the company in May.

2) Paytm
March 2015
Ratan Tata's investment in Paytm came a month after Alibaba Group acquired a 25 percent stake in One97 Communications, Paytm's parent firm. Paytm claimed a userbase of 100 million in August, and 75 million monthly transactions in its latest funding round. (Disclosure: Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma's One97 is an investor in Gadgets 360.)

3) Xiaomi
April 2015

Ratan Tata's investment came in after it was valued at over $45 billion in its last round of funding. Xiaomi's Redmi 2 Prime smartphone carries a 'Made in India' label on the back of the box, and is Foxconn facility in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh. The company has sold over 3 million smartphones in India.

4) Kaaryah
June 2015
Kaaryah, an online store for women's formal wear received a seed level funding round from Ratan Tata in June 2015. The startup recently a pre-series A round of funding from Mohandas Pai and The Saha Fund this month.

5) Lybrate
July 2015
Ratan Tata invested in healthcare startup Lybrate in its Series A round with Tiger Global and Nexus Venture Partners. Lybrate provides an online and mobile-based platform that lets patients book an appointment online, ask health related queries from doctors and read health tips given by trusted doctors.

6) Ampere
July 2015
Coimbatore-based Ampere, a manufacturer of electric vehicles, saw an undisclosed sum of funding from Ratan Tata. Founder Hemalatha Annamalai aims make Ampere a Rs. 100-crore company in the next three to four years.

7) Ola Cabs
July 2015
Ratan Tata invested in taxi aggregator Ola two months after it raised $400 million (roughly Rs. 2,645 crores) in its its Series E from DST Global. In November, Ola raised $500 million from Baillie Gifford, Tiger Global, SoftBank Group, making it the most funded startup this year.

8) Infinite Analytics
August 2015
Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount of funding in predictive marketing and analytics firm Infinite Analytics to help scale up its operations. Founded by MIT graduates, the startup is also backed by Tim Berners-Lee.

9) HolaChef
September 2015

Ratan Tata made a personal investment in Mumbai-based food startup Holachef, after it raised a seed round from Kalaari Capital. Holachef is available in Mumbai and Pune, and has apps for Android and iPhone devices.

10) Abra
October 2015
Ratan Tata also invested an undisclosed sum in the the Silicon Valley-based startup, his first investment involving digital or virtual currency. Abra is a digital cash, peer to peer money transfer network that lets consumers deposit and withdraw cash from the Abra app anywhere in the world.


11) LetsVenture
October 2015
LetsVenture, an online deal-making platform saw an investment from Ratan Rata following its Series A investment round from Accel Partners. LetsVenture claims to have funded over 50 startups, with over $17 million (roughly Rs. 114 crores) in investments seen on its platform.

12) Sabse
November 2015
Sabse Technologies Inc is a Wi-Fi first telecom carrier founded by Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia. Ratan Tata's investment size wasn't disclosed. The company offers Wi-Fi only calling plans on its network at $5 a month, and Wi-Fi + Cellular plans for $10 in US and Canada. Phones on the Sabse network only access the mobile network when Wi-Fi connectivity is not available.

13) Crayon Data
November 2015
Crayon Data's flagship product, Maya helps enterprises deliver personalised choices to their consumers using big data. The startup is developing a global consumer taste fabric, which currently maps choices across 15 categories, using complex machine-learning techniques and proprietary cognitive thinking algorithms. The Chennai and Singapore-based big data startup raised an undisclosed sum of funding.

14) UrbanClap
December 2015
Ratan Tata's investment in UrbanClap comes after it closed its Series B round in November. Currently operating in five cities, the startup plans to extend its offering to 25 cities and 100 categories over the next year.

Disclaimer :- Following article come from Gadgets360 

Intel Puts $22 million in 10 Startups.

Intel Resources, as we all know the arm of venture arm of tech has announced $22 million in new investment over 10 startups. The news of it has been conveyed at the company's annual global summit and it is also news that it would invest half a billion dollars in total this year.

This is kind of both profit and loss. As fact of comparing the same event of last year, Intel has announced $67 million of investment in 16 startups, but the total of 2014 investments was $359 million.

Just this past September Intel invested in Chinese startups with the same amount $67 million, looks like it's lucky number.

Today’s investments cover a range of companies running from later stages in larger and more established startups through to newer companies and emerging technologies, and come from five countries: China, Israel, Taiwan, the UK, and the U.S. Intel is not disclosing the value of any individual stake today.

China, Israel, Taiwan, the UK, and the U.S are the five countries where there startups running in larger stages, where it is established via newer companies and emerging technologies.

Freedom-Pop, a provider of 'free' wireless voice and data services that makes its money on options like voicemail, extra data allowances and much more. It's strategic investment Freedom-Pop, which is planning to use the money to broadband services that will challenge the Google Project Fi - precisely, it will use Intel's new SoFIA platform to launch a Wi-Fi based smartphone with free mobile services.

There is a part of Intel's $125 million Diversity Fund, it's LISNR maker of Smart Tones, which sends data over audio using high-frequency, inaudible technology that makes speakers and other media into beacon.

Sckipio, the first ever company which delivers 1Gb p/s with a long range. It also announced and ship commercial G.fast chip-sets for G.fast modems.

There is a platform of 'addressing' which provides exact location than GPS, it's 'what3words'.

Body Labs, which is for collecting, digitizing and organizing data of a human body shape, pose and motion. Its job is to transform the human body into a platform which digitalize and designed a goods and services which can be produced, bought and sold.

Micro-program Information, an internet thing startups which is contain a turnkey hardware and software solution and back-end information management services for transportation services like taxis, rental bicycles, and mobile sale systems.

Perfant Technology, out of China, develops imaging and video technologies with 3-D reconstruction and virtual reality for artificial intelligence.

KMLabs, a creator of laser systems for research and industrial applications, including multi-photon imaging, spectroscopy, OCT, THz-generation, CEP, micro-machining and attosecond, coherent soft X-Ray etc, as well as 'tabletop x-ray laser' light source.

Prieto Battery, a 3-D advanced battery provider " focused on commercializing a patented Lithium-ion battery technology that delivers transformational performance at a competitive cost using non-toxic materials with the ability to customize shapes.

Intel has also invested in Parallel Machines, for the machine learning startup on an early-stage predictive analytic, but they didn't contained in $22 million/10 startups total.

Why Values (Not Perks) Define Your Startup Culture.

Entrepreneurship has exploded in the U.S. market in recent years. According a recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, there are now over twenty four million entrepreneurs in the U.S., making up 14% of the total population.

There may be a number of contributing factors to this trend. Entrepreneurs are often cited as modern day adventurers and explorers. They are willing to takes risks and push innovation. And for many, they exemplify the American Dream. That is, everyone has the opportunity to be successful, no matter how you started or where you might be from.

Unfortunately, glamorizing entrepreneurs—while flattering—doesn’t tell the whole story of what founding and growing a sustainable company entails.

Live With Purity, You Are Going To Be Success Anyway

Despite the number of entrepreneurs in the U.S., the country now ranks 12th among developed nations in terms of business startup activity. American business deaths now outnumber business births, according to Gallup and the U.S. Census Bureau.

As a leader of a growing startup, there are some brutal realities to face. These can include challenges obtaining capital to drive growth, an inability to attract the right talent, or the constant struggle of trying to manage an organization that looks fundamentally different every six months.

In order to grow a successful organization, knowing where to spend your limited resources is critical to success. Startups—especially in Silicon Valley—are often lauded for their culture. And unfortunately, “culture” in this case is many times defined by a set of borderline unbelievable perks.

You Are Not Your Perks.

With so much on the line for your growing business, you cannot put your perks above what you value. Perks seem great at the start, but they tend to lose their luster over time, leaving you with little of substance to sustain engagement, excitement and purpose.

With competitors grappling to offer some wild new perk in an attempt to attract talent, companies are getting sucked into a doom loop. Everyone will end up losing as they try to keep up with the Jones. The perks that were once on the cutting edge become the standard expectation, which only serves to put startups in an even worse position to compete for talent and sustain growth.

Disclaimer :- Following article come from Forbes

How Investors Choose Startup To Finance.

Many would-be entrepreneurs think that people who invest in early-stage companies have a complex and sophisticated decision-making process, akin to what happens on Wall Street. But, unlike the world of high finance where investors gather copious amounts of information and use complex computer modeling to make decisions, investors in early-stage companies spend very little time and gather very little information when making choices.
Perhaps perversely, this approach makes perfect sense.

Before I get into why it makes sense, let me explain how most early-stage investors make decisions. Venture capital firms and angel groups typically screen the business opportunities they receive on the basis of a couple of simple criteria. First, did someone they know and trust refer the deal? If the answer is “no,” the opportunity is almost always ignored or deleted without even being opened or read.

When investors do look at an opportunity, they tend to make a first cut by scanning the executive summary of the entrepreneur’s business plan or the entrepreneur’s pitch deck – the PowerPoint slides the entrepreneur prepares about his or her venture.

This initial screen is very fast. South African venture capitalist Keet Van Zyl explains in one of his posts on the topic that the average venture capitalist spends less than 30 seconds evaluating a business plan.

If the venture makes it past this hurdle, investors still don’t spend much time on it. They simply give the founding team a little time to make a pitch. A study I did a few years ago showed that the typical angel group allows the few entrepreneurs who make it through the initial screen 20 minutes of presentation time and 15 minutes of Q&A before deciding whether or not to proceed to due diligence. Venture capitalists generally allot similar amounts of time to presentations.

Only after this part of the screening process is over do investors spend much time at all evaluating investment opportunities. By then we are down to perhaps 1-in-200 venture

As perverse as it may sound, this approach makes a lot of sense for two reasons. First, early-stage investors will put money in a tiny fraction of ventures they see. Virtually every business they consider will be a “no.”

There are many paths to get to “no.” The opportunity doesn’t fit the investor’s expertise or her fund’s mandate. The team is wrong. The IP is too weak. The market is too small. The venture will take too much money to develop. IPOs never occur in the startup’s industry. The supply chain is too complex. The forecasts are unrealistic. The list goes on and on. A 30-second scan of an executive summary will identify a reason not to invest in 99 out of 100 ventures presented to an investor.

Second, the prospects of new ventures are uncertain. Not risky, but uncertain. As economist Frank Knight explained brilliantly back in 1921 in his classic book Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, something is risky when we don’t know what will happen in the future, but we know the probability distribution of outcomes. Something is uncertain when we don’t know what will happen in the future and we don’t know the odds of different results occurring.

Early stage investors live in a world of uncertainty. No one knows whether an entrepreneur will be able to build the product, or customers will buy it. No one knows if competitors will crush the startup or it will win; if the team will fall apart under crisis or come together; or if later investors come in and crush down the early backers of the company of those early financiers will escape unscathed. And no one knows the answer to a hundred other questions that matter for startup success or the probability distribution of their outcomes. Moreover, the probability distribution of all of these outcomes is unknowable.

If things are uncertain – that is, the probability of outcomes is unknowable – then spending a lot of time trying to gather information is unproductive. There is no information that you can find to know the unknowable.

Experienced startup investors realize this and don’t waste their time trying to know the unknowable. Instead of trying to calculate the probability that a string of unknowable outcomes will occur, they instead look at the upside. If that which is unknowable worked out in a positive way, they ask, is the investment worth it?

For example, they ask, “If I invested in this company, is it possible that it will be a unicorn that will go public in a Facebook-sized IPO?” Then they spend their time on looking more carefully at the handful of ventures where the answer is “yes.”

Disclaimer : Following article come from Entrepreneur

10,000 STARTUPS A DAY BEING SET UP IN CHINA TO BOOST ECONOMY

BEIJING: More than 10,000 startup firms are being set up everyday in China as part of new reforms initiated by the Chinese government to halt the slide of the economy.
China sees more than 10,000 firms born every day amid government support forentrepreneurship and so far about six million new startups have been setup, Xin Guobin, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology said.
Most of the firms are small enterprises. Data was collected last March through the end of August this year and about six million firms were registered during the period, he said.
The government has been cutting taxes and fees, helping small firms save about 48.6 billion yuan ($7.93 billion) in the first half of the year, Xin said.

Lending to small firms stood at 16.2 trillion yuan ($2.7 billion) at the end of June, up 14.5 per cent from last year, Xin said.
However, he admitted small firms are facing challenges amid economic slowdown, slumping product prices, rising costs and production overcapacity.
The new startup campaign has been initiated by the government as the economic slowdown is causing big job losses all over China.
The startups, were expected to revitalise the economy taking advantage of the booming e-commerce.

The campaign was also expected to boost government's drive to boost the domestic consumption changing the orientation of the economy from export dependent to that of the one based on domestic consumption.
Chinese economy is currently hovering around seven per cent.
According to IMF, China's growth is expected to slow from 7.3 per cent in 2014 to 6.8 per cent this year and 6.3 per cent in 2016 as the country struggles with its shift from export to consumption-driven economy.

Citation from Economics Times :http://goo.gl/CY1aVJ

BOOMING STARTUPS NOT BUBBLES

"Startups are neither a bubble nor a complete game changer. I am sure the traditional things will survive, it (startups) will expand the market," Essel Group, Chairman, Subhash Chandra said last night at the Exchange4media Conclave.

Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra has said the country's booming startup space is not a bubble, rather it will help expand the overall market in the coming days. "They (startups) are neither a bubble nor a complete game changer. I am sure the traditional things will survive, it (startups) will expand the market," Chandra said last night at the Exchange4media Conclave. Chandra added that when he started the country's first satellite television channel Zee TV 23 years ago, the film and theatre industry were wary and felt that it would mark their end. "I remember that when I started (satellite) television in this country, the film industry felt we will kill the film industry and theatre industry but the reverse happened. We promoted the films, we partnered with the movie industry and both grew. Same way the technological startup companies will continue," he said. He said the e-commerce companies have found success as they are able to cater to the needs of people from smaller towns or the rural areas where products were earlier not available due to supply chain constraints. 

Stating that technology will help in expanding the market and things will co-exist, he debunked the myth that linear television will cease to be around after a decade. "People say the linear television as it exists today, 10 years from now it will be dead. At Zee, we do take technology seriously. We are ahead at least in Asia in terms of adopting technology. But I feel this (linear television) will survive but at the same time new media. It will give more opportunities to marketers and expand the market as a whole," he said. 

Essel Group is in the process of launching an English news channel and Chandra said it will be positioned as a technology company providing news. "We are about to launch an English news channel. We were discussing the whole technological engine we are going to use. I understood what technology my colleagues wanted to introduce in the news space. "I said why don't we have a vision that we are not going to be a news organisation but we are going to be a technology company incidentally giving news as a product. That is the positioning we have decided last week, for our English news channel," he said.

Citation from CNBC Money Control : http://goo.gl/GRiLdQ

Important Steps To Exit Your Startup With Proud And Pride

Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. Although many won’t admit it, true entrepreneurs can’t wait to exit their current startup, and build a new and better one with their next great idea. In addition, current investors want to see every startup go public or be acquired, as an exit event, so they can get their due return for that investment which has been tied up for the last few years.

For these reasons, I always look for an overt exit strategy in every startup I might consider for an angel investment. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs, I also encourage an entrepreneur exit focus early, and I really like the specific steps outlined in the new book, “Exit Signs,” by Pamela Dennis, who has helped companies through this critical transition for decades.

Her focus is a bit more on mature companies, but I believe the following eight steps, paraphrased from hers, are especially applicable to every startup and the entrepreneurs who create them.

Your Problem + Our Solution = Success

1. Think about the end game as you start - Running a mature company is totally different from running a startup. Most startup founders don’t relish the thought of managing repeatable processes, greedy stockholders, and endless regulation reports. Yet they often fall into these roles by not proactively preparing themselves for any alternatives.

2. Set a target personal destination and timing - The first step is clarifying your personal goals and the legacy you want to leave. Exiting this startup is not the end, and may be the beginning of something even better, like Bill Gates philanthropy, or your next plan to change the world. At minimum, you need to get an exit advisor to keep you on course.

3. Set your startup health gauges and use them - New startup founders keep all the operating metrics they need in their head. If you intend to exit, or even if you don’t, it’s never too early to think what an acquirer or stockholder looks for to assess your business health. This all starts with building a culture and strategy that can survive without you.

4. Tune up your startup value and salability - Even if you don’t have a formal board of directors, it pays to have trusted advisors who will give you regular unbiased feedback on your team strengths and weaknesses, financial and operating ratio norms, and an external view of current company valuation issues. Listen carefully and act accordingly.

5. Build relationships with potential acquirers - The best sale or acquisition is a gradual one, where the acquirer gets to know you through formal and informal relationships. Don’t wait for a distress situation in the business or your personal life, and hope that the ideal acquirer magically appears. Keep a critical lens on payment options and tax implications.

6. Mature your business processes and customer base - Secure your company’s sustainability through multiple revenue streams and customer sets, and solid core business processes. Build an exit-transition plan for yourself, and a plan to retain key talent on the team. Anticipate customer and valued-supplier reaction to any change.

7. Build a positive data bank and presentation - Well ahead of any planned move, you need to assemble hard data to support your historical and projected performance and sustainability. Your valuation and salability depends on the credibility of this effort. Plan to spend 30-60 percent of your time away from running your business during this phase.

8. Lead your way out rather than wait for a push - The win-win startup acquisitions and successful transitions to public companies are led by the entrepreneur, rather than happen passively. You need to proactively engage the right people, drive improvements where required, and pay attention to all the external and internal factors gating success.

According to Dennis, an astonishing 87% of small and mid-size business owners don’t have an exit strategy or plan, leaving them to die at their desk, or get pushed out on terms they don’t like. If you are like most entrepreneurs, who look forward to a life of pride and profit after their current startup, it’s time to take some steps to make a startup exit more than a wistful dream.

Disclaimer :- Following Article Come From Forbes

His Highness Amir Encourages Advanced Ways To Attain Development

His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah said Saturday the world should explore innovative means to implement sustainable development beyond 2015 in order to end poverty by 2030.

The world should engage in a collective work and active partnership while taking into consideration burden-sharing in order to achieve sustainable development, His Highness the Amir said in a speech before the Sustainable Development Summit.
He added the targeted sustainable development was facing big challenges "due to the patterns of conduct of man throughout the ages, in addition to impact of natural disasters and the rise in earth's temperature thus increasing our responsibilities." Leaders taking part in the summit had adopted yesterday the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aimed at primarily eradicating poverty by the year 2030 and further push development worldwide.


His Highness the Amir highlighted Kuwait's contributions to helping developing countries worldwide, calling upon developed countries to honor their commitment and contribute 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to enable sustainable funding for developing countries.
Kuwait, he added, has been living up to its regional and international responsibilities towards achieving sustainable development and addressing related problems.
"My country has hosted a number of high level meetings - economic, development and humanitarian - and launched many initiatives to boost partnership in development and humanitarian fields, and continue to make sure they are implemented," said His Highness the Amir.
Kuwait, added His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad, did not spare any effort to provide aid to developing countries and least-developed nations through its institutions, foremost Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), which provided grants and soft loans to carry out infrastructure projects in the developing countries.
"My country continue during the past few years to provide development assistance that amounted to 2.1 percent of its GDP, which is more than double the percentage agreed-upon internationally," he said.

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"We are proud that Kuwait, even through it is a developing country itself, has been ranked in first place in providing humanitarian assistance in 2014 according to the global humanitarian assistance report," he noted.
Kuwait's total assistance in 2014 amounted to 0.24 percent of the country's Gross National Product (GNP), the highest among all donor countries in the world," His Highness the Amir.
His Highness the Amir, meanwhile, said Kuwait was proud of the UN achievements over the past decades, through which it enhanced international cooperation against challenges and crises.
He said the SDGs' three dimensions - economic, social and environmental - represented a starting point to support global development.
"Our success in achieving sustainable development reflects our responsibilities towards the world," concluded His Highness the Amir.

Top 10 Things For Building A Startup Incubator

A year ago we had a long thin space in South Delhi, a network of mentors and a bunch of willing startups. Today we have a budding incubator and four successful startups who’ve gone on to seed-round funding. Here’s what I’ve learned along the way.


1. Most startups fail

We named our incubator-accelerator ‘Startup Tunnel,’ as a joke about eventually seeing the light at the end. But I now think ‘Startup Funnel’ would have been just as appropriate. Most startups fail. That’s a truth that one can’t really appreciate until one has gotten wet with this game, and even many successful startups will never realise how lucky they really are.

We interviewed 220 startups between December 2014 and February 2015, out of which we made 14 offers. Twelve startups accepted our offer and began working with us. We graduated five startups with our credentialed seal of approval in April 2015. Four of those are now negotiating seed round funding at valuations between Rs 8 crores and Rs 25 crores.

What of the rest? We haven’t followed up carefully, of course, but I would guess that no more than half are still around, and many more of them will fold over the coming year. The odds of coming through with your original team and idea intact are very, very, small, which is why I encourage teams to keep their ear to the ground and to stay nimble, and open to reacting to new opportunities and options as they may reveal themselves.

2. What’s in the Pitch has to be in the Product

When you’re starting out all you really have is your vision, and you have to communicate that vision through your pitch. You get into Startup Tunnel on the strength of your pitch and you graduate into seed-round funding the same way. We spend a lot of time helping startup teams with their pitch, because what you envision and articulate will actually describe the business you go on to build.

But what’s in the pitch must eventually translate into your product as well. So we look for teams who have the ability to describe what they want to build in detail, in ways that show they know with precision and clarity what they’re going to try to do. Pitch and product have to hang together, else the startup will sputter and fail.

3. Straight-up e-commerce and on-demand plays are over

I don’t know how many on-demand service pitches I’ve sat through. People are serving you groceries, hot food, half-cooked food, coming over and making drinks for you at home, giving you massages and perms and doing your make-up, fixing your car, watering your plants, and really taking over every aspect of your life. I don’t say this isn’t the way our economy is trending — I only say that it’s impossible for me to evaluate which of these many competing services will eventually win out. And if there isn’t a clear differentiator, I’m afraid I’m not playing.

4. The best startup pitches aim to help people in real ways

After you’ve seen party apps, event discovery apps, and dating apps fill up your pitch slate, you really want to bite your teeth into something meaningful. You want to see startup pitches that will really change things for people, even if they’re hard to achieve. Those are also the spaces in which new opportunities are hiding, two standard deviations from what’s hot right now. As an early-stage incubator we are hungry and thirsty for bold new propositions that might feel like a brainfreeze the first time we hear of them. We look to take risks and go places where angels may fear to tread.

5. Data has to be part of the story

While many startups are focused on their short term play, there is also the question of managing the data they produce. If startups can’t think strongly about analysing and monetising their data they will eventually be edged out by competitors who can. So this has become a really hard line for me: are you thinking about collecting, analysing, and monetizing your data in ways that will give you differentiation and prevent your business from becoming someone else’s lunch?

6. Growth is to be hacked not bought

The other side of a strong product is the ability to reach audiences, convert users and drive traffic through your platform or to your product. This cannot be a spend item for a startup team — founders must have the smarts, and be savvy to be able to connect with their market for negligible costs, or else the startup will burn through all the money that’s ever put into them.

7. Teams win over even the most gifted individuals

Paul Graham of Y Combinator deserves all the credit for articulating this insight first in the startup space. But I suppose every investor has to validate this general truth for themselves. We have backed individuals and we have backed teams, and in general teams perform better. This is because teams can possess a greater diversity of skills and abilities, the manpower to fundraise and work on product at the same time, while also enjoying more objective, reality-based decision making, and a better validated initial business concept.

But this is just a high-level generalization. There are still successful single-founder companies that come along and of course there many, many multiplayers teams that will still go belly-up.

8. Incubators can help with seed-round funding

Over the past year, I’ve sat on multiple meetings with our startups as they’ve pitched to angels and institutional investors. It’s surprised me how much of a difference my presence has made. In some cases I’ve been in a position to give feedback to the startup about what parts of their pitch were working and where they needed to refine things further. In other cases I’ve heard chatter from the prospective investor that I’ve back-channeled to the startup, which has helped the two sides come closer to an agreement. In all cases, having someone in the room who has spent a lot of time with you, who has your back, is an advantage that can only come from an institutional incubation process.

9. There’s a lot of ‘stupid money’ out there

Yuvraj Singh and Kapil Dev have become angel investors, along with Bollywood actors and the sons and daughters of every other industrial house. Every old family seems to have some young gun trying to increase its corpus through a few quick deals. Needless to say, most of this money will be spent in subsidizing your car rides, funding your discount coupons and in chasing you around the Internet with redirected advertizing until it is all gone, gone, gone. Even though much of this money will never see any return, I’m glad it’s floating around. Easy money is the only thing that can change our old industrial-feudal ways of doing things. In the process, we’re seeing a less risk-averse society where failure isn’t quite the devastating condemnation it once was.

All the same, for first-time investors in startups, it’s important to learn about the space, learn about the sector you’re taking a stab at and develop the ability to evaluate startup teams. People who invest seriously need to spend a lot of time with a lot of startups and a good deal more time with those they actually invest in. Failing that, you’re shooting in the dark with two blanks out of three.

10. Funnels mitigate risk

At Startup Tunnel we really believe we’re helping build better startups on account of the emphasis we put in product, user and market orientation, data analytics and growth hacking. We also perceive that our startup teams are savvier with investors and with their long-term planning going forward several rounds of investment funding. So every pea coming through this pea shooter is going to be a better pea.

But not every pea is going to come out. And this is where I see that we have an advantage that other investment vehicles just can’t match: we have the opportunity to sit and wait out the process of startups maturing and either crumbling or coming good. We spend time watching founders deal with different kinds of challenges in the course of trying to build their product and business. That’s the sense in which the funnel of Startup Tunnel gives us a ring-side view into who are going to be the winners coming out of each cohort of startups.

Disclaimer :- Following article came from YourStory

Some Helpful Information For Successful Start-Up (Australia)

Bondi mother Belinda Everingham stopped using commercial cleaning products when she realised they were causing her headaches. She started cleaning with some ‘natural’ cleaning products on the market but noticed they contained ingredients that were not so natural.

So she came up with the idea of Bondi Wash -- a range of genuinely all-natural cleaning products.

Just two years down the track, Bondi Wash is stocked in 76 retail stores across Australia, as well as China, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Taiwan; with more than 50 stores in Japan.

As a successful CEO, Everingham is regularly inundated with start-up businesses asking her for advice.

“I love seeing others go through the same journey I’ve been on, people investing time and energy so their creativity comes to life,” Everingham said.
“I’ve learnt a lot since I launched the business in 2013 and, while I’ve made some mistakes, I’ve gotten plenty of things right too. So I’d really like to share some of my tips.

"The first step is all-round creation and concept. How do you know if your idea is good or not and how do you get started?

Tips :-

1. Try to develop something that is innovative across a number of dimensions, such as design, functionality, scent and packaging. Bondi Wash has a number of levels of innovation -- the scent, the anti-bacterial qualities, the product packaging and the natural ingredients.

2. Focus obsessively on product (or service) design -- customers will always be attracted to a great product regardless of marketing. I was asked by a friend how I was going to market the business and I had no answer at the time, other than I hoped the product would sell itself. It did.

3. Look for simplicity and symmetry -- I used these principles to help guide decision-making. Bondi Wash launched with three products in three fragrances.

4. Understand where your competitors are but don’t copy -- create your own style and own path. People love authenticity and you can’t replicate this.

5. Create for the long-term -- will the business still be relevant in 50 years? Our vision for the product design was something that could still be relevant in 50 years.

Brand and culture

1. The first 18 months are critical for a new company. Be aware that every decision affects your brand in these early days, from packaging design, products you launch with and pricing, through to where your products/services are stocked or seen. Saying no can be just as important as saying yes.

2. Find the best possible people to work with. You cannot expect to have all the answers. Find talented and like-minded experts to help with what you know you are not so good at.

3. Create some guiding principles to help with decision-making. We used the concept of simplicity to guide key decisions. In the long run, having simple solutions will make the company stronger.

4. Don’t rush things. Often time solves problems and a better solution becomes clear. At the same time, it is important to feel like you are in a hurry to get your products/services out there as fast as you can. Every product or service can be improved on -- launch with what you have. And continue to perfect it over time

5. Creating a company means creating a culture. Think through what’s important to you and how you want your organisation to behave. For us, that meant building a company based on high integrity, doing the right thing in every regard and building strong trust-based relationships. This means we treat others with kindness, we pay bills on time or early if we can and we offer strong support to those we choose to work with (staff, stockist and suppliers).

6. Treat mistakes as opportunities. Without fail, whenever we have faced what has seemed like a problem or failure, it has led to a better outcome in the long run. Believing this also helps us in dealing with mistakes. People do make mistakes and moving forward from them is far better for everyone than reprimanding or making someone feel bad.

Second Hand Car-Tech UK

According to British Car Auction reports 7.4 million used cars were sold in the United Kingdom in 2014, an increase of roughly 4% on the previous year. Private-to-private used car sales made up roughly one third of that total, around 2.8 million, with dealerships making up the rest. The value of the entire UK used car market at the end of 2013 was believed to be £42.7 billion, £6bn more than the new car market.

These are eye watering figures, but fairly logical. Nearly 80% of households in the UK have at least one car, and half of those have more than one, changing them every five years or so; there are nearly 40 million vehicles on the UK’s roads. It’s projected that there may be as many as 44 million cars in the UK by 2020.

With so many cars being traded in the market, it is an extremely competitive one, even more so when we consider that as cars in the UK are right hand drive, they tend not to get exported.

Interestingly, for such a huge market, not many dealerships enjoy the kind of reputation that makes them stand out from the crowd. Cargiant is the largest dealer in the UK, responsible for the sale of approximately 700k cars each year (nearly 10% of all cars sold), but there are thousands of other recognised dealers. The market is fragmented and in terms of customer service or value for money, no one brand stands out.

Double Is Always Better Than Single

A new startup, Carspring, wants to change all this by taking a digital approach to the buying and selling of cars. While their online platform acts as an intermediary between buyer and seller, their customer service is on hand to handle all of the paperwork, getting the cars inspected according to a stringent 150+ checklist, fixing any issues that arise, and then personally delivering the car to buyers.


They say it is a more customer focused approach which relies on leveraging technology to ensure both buyer and seller receive an end-to-end service that is an improvement on the “caveat emptor” attitude of many car dealerships, and particularly private sellers.


It seems like today there are startup businesses everywhere invading industries regarded as too traditional and closed to new ways of doing things. You’ve heard of FinTech, Fash-Tech, and Health-Tech; get ready for Second-hand car-Tech,

Disclaimer :- Following article come from Forbes

NIESBUD Programme

Objectives :

* Identify and train the potential entrepreneurs in region;

* Impart basic managerial knowledge and understanding;
* Provide post-training assistance;
* Develop and strengthen entrepreneurial quality and motivation;
* Analyze the environmental issues related to the proposed project;
* Help in selecting the right type of project and products;
* Formulate the effective and profitable project;
* Enhance industrial development
* Acquire necessary managerial skills required to run the industrial unit.
* Acquaint and appreciate the required social responsibility / entrepreneurial discipline.

Start To Finish

Important Topics :

Small Business Planning : Market Survey , Project Report Preparation & Basic Startup Problem.

Small Business Opportunities : Project AppraisingTechniques, Marketing Opportunities & Competition, Financial Feasibility Analysis.

Small Business Management Skills : Fundamentals, Financial With Costing & Accounting, Raising Funds, Marketing Management, Taxation.

Legal Business Structure : Sole Propietorship, Partnership, Corporation, Co-operative, Limited Liability.

Regulatory Requirements of Business : Statutory Compliances, Clearance & Approval.

Banking Process.

Banker Involvement.

Venue :- NIESBUD, A-23 Sector-32, Noida.

Date :- 12th Sept To 13th Sept 2015.

Time :- 10:00 am To 5:00 pm

Email :- satish.niesbud@gmail.com

Website :- NIESBUD

Global Entrepreneurship & Development Institute (GEDI)

GEDI INDEX

Enterprise is a crucial engine of economic growth. Without enterprise and entrepreneurs, there would be all little innovation, productivity growth and new jobs.

Entrepreneurial success does not take place in a vacuum. Entrepreneurs exist in the context of their particular geography – be that their local, national, or even supranational economy and society.

This mix of attitudes, resources, and infrastructure is known as the entrepreneurship ‘ecosystem’. The Global Entrepreneurship Index is an annual index that measures the health of the entrepreneurship ecosystems in each of 120 countries. It then ranks the performance of these against each other. This provides a picture of how each country performs in both the domestic and international context.

Entrepreneurship With Better Benefits

Institute 

The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI) is a research organisation that advances knowledge on links between entrepreneurship, economic development and prosperity. The institute was founded by world-leading entrepreneurship scholars from the LSE, George Mason University, University of Pécs and Imperial College London.

The main contribution of The GEDI Institute is the GEI index, a breakthrough advance in measuring the quality and dynamics of entrepreneurship ecosystems at a national, regional and local level. The GEI index methodology, has been validated in rigorous academic peer reviews and has been widely reported in media, including in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Forbes (see media tab).

Methodology

The methodology has also been endorsed by the European Commission and has been used to inform the allocation of EU Structural and Cohesion Funds. The theoretical approach of The GEDI Institute has also influenced entrepreneurship policy thinking in trans-national organisations such as United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Further details can be found in the research tab.

The GEDI methodology collects data on the entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities and aspirations of the local population and then weights these against the prevailing social and economic ‘infrastructure’ – this includes aspects such as broadband connectivity and the transport links to external markets. This process creates 14 ‘pillars’ which GEDI uses to measure the health of the regional ecosystem.

Disclaimer : The following article come from this websites GEDI
Email : ainsley@thegedi.org 

Reinvigorating Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Market in Oman.

Info. About Oman SME -  In today’s fast-paced, dynamic market environment, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) undoubtedly play a vital role. Growing and dynamic SMEs are essential to the growth and sustainability of any economy, as they provide a myriad of opportunities and value addition. A high-income economy like Oman, whose SME sector is still in its nascent stages, is yet to come to a stage where the SME sector is the primary contributor to the nation’s GDP.
This conference will not only showcase various best practices of economies such as the US and members of the EU, which benefit from significant contributions from their mature SME sector, but also initiate a dialogue on ways in which the Omani economy can bring about regulatory changes and incorporate some of these practices into their own system.

Enterpreneurship

Important Agenda's -

Day 1 - 

* Overview of SME Financing in the Sultanate of Oman.
* ICV Development Strategy.
* Challenges to SME Development.
* Enterpreneurship Enabler.

Day 2 -

* Enterpreneurship in Education.
* Understanding an SME Ecosystem and Creating One.
* Opportunities for International Aspirant SMEs.
* Creating an Enterpreneurship Enviorment and It's Challenges.
* And Much More.

IFM Events
Location and Dates : AL Bustan Palace Hotel, Ritz Carlton, SEPTEMBER 13-14 2015.

Industrial Toys Gaming Company Raises $5 million

Mobile games developer Industrial Toys has raised $5 million in a round of funding led by Accel Partners.

As part of the financing, the Pasadena company is also announcing the launch of its first title, "Midnight Star," which will be available this summer in beta.

Industrial Toys is an independent studio that designs mobile games for serious gamers. It was founded by Alex Seropian, who also founded Bungie Studios, the team behind the hit "Halo" franchise.

"We’re huge fans of mobile gaming, but we think there aren't enough great mobile games for core gamers and we’re committed to changing that," the company says on its website. "We'll be mobile to the core, with games that let you have an immersive session at home that blows your mind apart as well as a 30-second experience that still moves you forward while you’re waiting for the bus.

We Advice You Grow

The Series A round represents Industrial Toys' first institutional financing and comes from a firm with a long history in the games space. Accel Partners was an early investor in Supercell, Rovio, Playfish, Gameforge and Mind Candy.

"Each new platform shift yields a crop of large, independent gaming companies. The shift to mobile and tablets is no different, but has largely targeted the casual or mid-core gamer. The opportunity to ‘activate’ core gamers is even bigger -- the content just hasn’t been there,” said Vas Natarajan, a partner at Accel Partners. “Alex and team are developing for the gamers who’ve largely been underserved in this push to mobile.”

Industrial Toys had been angel-funded as it worked on its first title.

Mobile games are the fastest-growing segment of the gaming market, with revenue set to nearly double from $13.2 billion in 2013 to $22 billion in 2015, according to market research firm Gartner.

Kuwait Infra Push to Growth and Development

Government plans to generate 15% of energy via renewable sources 

Kuwait has approved the construction of a series of power plants, desalination facilities and other infrastructure projects worth a total of around 3 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($9.9 billion), the finance ministry said yesterday. Like neighboring Gulf countries, Kuwait is struggling to meet soaring demand for electricity and the planned projects will add around 3,580 megawatts of capacity, as well as waste treatment and developments for the education ministry. The ministry did not set a timescale for most of the initiatives, except for a sewage plant which will start by 2020. It also did not say how they will be funded beyond saying 50 percent of the finance will be raised through stock market offerings.

Kuwait National Day Liberation Day Celebration

Among the projects, Kuwait plans a second phase of the gas-fired Az-Zour North power and desalinated water plant that has an initial capacity of 1,800 megawatts. It will also build the first phase of the Khairan power plant with 1500 MW of capacity, which will use different types of fuel, and the Al Abdaliyah power plant with a capacity of 280 MW, of which 60 MW will be from solar energy while the rest will be fed by gas. Kuwait plans to generate 15 percent of its energy needs via renewable sources by 2030, with the first of up to 100 solar-powered fuelling stations operating by 2017, Oil Minister Ali Saleh Al-Omair said in June. A pilot 70 megawatt project in the Shagaya desert zone west of Kuwait City was expected to be completed by next year.

The minister also said that preparatory works of partnership projects between Public and private sectors have borne fruit - 'thanks to the legislative and executive authorities that enacted a law to set up a body to run these projects.' The body has formed its structure in accordance with the international standards to help Kuwait implement projects in a competitive and professional manner, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance said.

 

Growth Harmon 

The body's higher committee has approved six projects and their tenders were offered at the beginning of this month, he added. He affirmed that these projects will be co-implemented by both Public and private sectors as the State of Kuwait seeks to boost the participation of the private sector in sustainable development. Kuwait also plans to create a quantum leap in terms of technologies used in these projects and services provided to citizens; transfer knowledge; create jobs for nationals; attract investment opportunities in the country and support local economy to alleviate burdens on the budget, he noted. This move will be in favor of the local economy, he expected.

Startup Strategy

KUWAIT, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Kuwait has approved the construction of a series of power plants, desalination facilities and other infrastructure projects worth a total of around 3 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($9.9 billion), the finance ministry said on Saturday. 

Like neighbouring Gulf countries, Kuwait is struggling to meet soaring demand for electricity and the planned projects will add around 3,580 megawatts of capacity, as well as waste treatment and developments for the education ministry. 

The ministry did not set a timescale for most of the initiatives, except for a sewage plant which will start by 2020. It also did not say how they will be funded beyond saying 50 percent of the finance will be raised through stock market offerings. 




Among the projects, Kuwait plans a second phase of the gas-fired Az-Zour North power and desalinated water plant that has an initial capacity of 1,800 megawatts. It will also build the first phase of the Khairan power plant with 1500 MW of capacity, which will use different types of fuel, and the Al Abdaliyah power plant with a capacity of 280 MW, of which 60 MW will be from solar energy while the rest will be fed by gas. 

Kuwait plans to generate 15 percent of its energy needs via renewable sources by 2030, with the first of up to 100 solar-powered fuelling stations operating by 2017, oil minister Ali Saleh al-Omair said in June. 




A pilot 70 megawatt project in the Shagaya desert zone west of Kuwait City was expected to be completed by next year.

Kuwait awards re-tendered airport project to same consortium at cheaper price

DUBAI, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Kuwait's government said it had awarded a contract to build a new terminal at Kuwait International Airport to the same consortium that had an earlier more-expensive bid dismissed. 

Turkey's Limak Holding and local construction firm Kharafi National won the deal after bidding 1.312 billion dinars ($4.34 billion) for the work - 74 million dinars cheaper than the offer it submitted in November. 

The government dismissed all bids proffered in November without explanation - though Kuwait's Al Watan newspaper quoted ministry sources saying they had been too expensive and had not met technical specifications. 

 

Small Business Development

The government's Central Tenders Committee said late on Monday the Limak-Kharafi consortium had submitted the lowest bid during the re-tendering process. 

Kuwait has planned tens of billions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects in recent years but many have been held up by bureaucratic delays, political tensions and allegations by some members of the parliament of corruption and inefficiency.