Startup events tailored to women entrepreneurs serve as a powerful platform for networking, overcoming societal barriers, and addressing the wage gap. With a low percentage of female CEOs globally, such events become increasingly important for women seeking guidance and mentorship to bring their ideas to fruition.
Santosh Panda, Co-founder & CEO of Explara, an online ticket and event discovery platform, acknowledges the current lack of gender-specific events in the startup space. He expresses hope that organizations like PS Show will take the initiative to create such opportunities.
By participating in startup events for women, female entrepreneurs can confidently pitch ideas, connect with experienced mentors, and challenge preconceived notions about their capabilities. These gatherings are crucial for empowering women and fostering a more diverse entrepreneurial landscape.
Navigating startup events can be a game-changer for your business. The right investor can provide not only financial support, but also guidance and connections to help your venture flourish. However, approaching investors at these gatherings requires careful planning and execution.
Santosh Panda, founder of Explara, a next-generation event ticketing platform, shares key strategies for engaging investors at startup events. Firstly, he emphasizes the importance of genuine interaction and rapport-building, rather than pitching with an agenda. Showcasing your passion, expertise, and vision for your business will make a lasting impression.
In conclusion, meeting investors at startup events can be highly beneficial, provided you approach them with the right mindset and strategy.
Video on how to foster your relationship with your startup investor.
The initial 100 days of partnership between startups and their investors are critical for establishing a solid foundation. This period sets the tone for a long-term relationship and allows both parties to align their priorities, ensuring the company’s growth and success.
A vital aspect of these early days is fostering a good understanding between founders and investors. Akshay Bhushan, a partner at Lightspeed India, emphasizes the importance of informal sessions to build this relationship. As a lead investor in Series A and an Advisory Board Member of Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator, Bhushan brings valuable experience from investing in companies such as Flipkart.
The initial 100 days with an investor are crucial for entrepreneurs to lay a strong foundation for future collaboration. By focusing on relationship-building and establishing a robust tracking infrastructure, startups can set themselves up for long-term success with their investors.
During a conversation about selecting a suitable tech co-founder for a startup, Pallav Nadhani highlights the importance of finding an ideal partner, akin to choosing a life partner.
A term sheet is a crucial document outlining the terms and conditions of a start-up’s investment process. It covers aspects like business valuation, purchase terms, dilution, payment procedures, investor stakes, board meetings, and ESOPs. The components provide insight into the dynamics between founders and investors.
To determine the right amount of information, consider each party’s needs and the business context. Term sheets are generally non-binding, but they set the stage for legally binding agreements. They help start-ups streamline their workflow and negotiations, guiding discussions on pre and post-money valuations, investor contributions, and dilution.
Sharda Balaji, a lawyer, and founder of law firm NovoJuris, offers valuable insights on term sheet components. Sharda has experience as a legal counsel, founder, angel investor, independent director, and trustee.
Video on building a Strong Team: The Key to Start-up Success
A thriving start-up relies on an effective team, which serves as the foundation for success. However, hiring decisions should not be made based solely on impressive resumes. Instead, it is crucial to find a leader who can unite individuals with diverse backgrounds and personalities into a cohesive unit. Not everyone is suited to working in a start-up environment and scaling it to new heights.
Identifying visionary leaders for a company’s top roles is essential. Knowing when to hire experienced individuals and integrating their expertise into the start-up’s vision can be challenging. In a video, mentor Pallav Nadhani offers guidance on hiring seasoned team members for start-ups. Nadhani, a successful entrepreneur who founded data presentation company Fusion Charts at age 17, began his business single-handedly and now employs around 100 people.
The Start-up 101 series aims to provide a strong foundation for aspiring entrepreneurs by addressing countless questions, including those that might not have been considered yet. The series distills the valuable knowledge of various mentors and founders into a convenient and accessible resource.
Designers are an essential and highly sought-after profession in tech startups and companies. There are various types of designers with distinct roles that often overlap in some way. Two crucial design features are user experience (UX) and user interface (UI), which although can be performed by one designer, have distinct differences.
The role of a user experience designer involves conducting user research to understand consumer needs and preferences, creating prototypes, and testing product functionality. Conversely, the user interface designer is primarily concerned with the product’s visual elements, such as aesthetics, color schemes, and layouts.
Jay Dutta, Senior Vice President, UX Design at MakeMyTrip.com, shares his insights on how startups can approach UX/UI design, particularly when they lack a designer on their team. He advises avoiding getting distracted by flashy visuals on popular designer websites and instead focusing on understanding the relationship between product thinking and design. Seeking mentorship or brainstorming ideas with friends can also be helpful.
Jay Dutta is an experienced design mentor who collaborates with startups to help them leverage design in their businesses. MakeMyTrip.com is an online travel company that provides travel packages, including flight and bus tickets, hotel information, and more, to customers within India and internationally.
This video is part of our Start-up 101 series, which serves as a user-friendly manual for budding entrepreneurs. Our team of experts and mentors is here to answer all your startup questions and strengthen your basics before guiding you through the nuances of starting a successful business.
How do you determine the equity division among founders? When a set of people get together to form a company this is the first question. Is there a framework or a fixed formula for the same. Instead, it is a function of some factors. There are also some other concerns to keep in mind as well as what if one of the founders leaves in midway?
Sharda Balaji in this video speaks about some tips that can be taken into consideration while deciding on the equity division among founders. She even shares some of the important points and clauses to keep in mind while doing the same.
Due diligence is a critical process that startups and investors go through before a funding round. This process helps the investors to evaluate the startup’s potential, analyze its financial position, and assess the risks involved in investing in the company. Due diligence helps the investors to make informed investment decisions, and it helps the startup to build credibility with potential investors.
Sharda Balaji, Founder of Novojuris, a law firm specializing in advising startups and investors, believes that due diligence is a crucial aspect of any funding round. According to Sharda, due diligence involves evaluating several aspects of the company, including its financials, legal compliance, intellectual property, and management team.
The financial due diligence process involves reviewing the startup’s financial statements, projections, and other financial records to assess its financial health. This process helps investors understand the startup’s revenue streams, expenses, and potential profitability. Investors also evaluate the startup’s revenue growth rate, customer base, and market share to assess its potential for future growth.
Sharda Balaji emphasizes the importance of due diligence in building trust and credibility with investors. She advises startups to be transparent and open during the due diligence process, as it can help build a positive relationship with investors. Investors, on the other hand, should be thorough in their due diligence process to ensure that they make informed investment decisions.
In conclusion, due diligence is a critical process that startups and investors should take seriously during funding rounds. The process helps investors evaluate the startup’s potential, assess its risks and build trust and credibility with potential investors. With the help of an expert like Sharda Balaji, startups can navigate the due diligence process successfully and secure the funding they need to grow and succeed.
If you’re an aspiring author, writer, or storyteller looking to self-publish a book, there are a few key tips and strategies that can help you achieve success in India’s competitive literary market. In a recent video featuring Ushasi Sen Basu, author of “Kathputli”, Febin John James of “Cloud Is a Piece of Cake”, and Kiruba Shankar, the experts share their insights on how to self-publish a book and make it stand out
The video focuses on the importance of self-publishing without the assistance of a publisher or self-publishing agents. The guests also share effective and efficient ways to finish writing the book faster, as well as the importance of marketing and pricing to ensure that the finished product receives the recognition and sales it deserves. In today’s era of social media and blogging, marketing and promoting your new project is easier than ever. These platforms can also be used for sourcing information and ideas about your book.
The art of storytelling is central to human beings, but only a few get published. Ushasi Sen Basu and Febin John James published their books without the assistance of professional publishers. This means they were involved in writing the manuscript, editing, publishing, and marketing. Ushasi Sen Basu wrote a fiction novel and didn’t feel comfortable giving the reins of her book to anyone, so she did it herself. Inspired by a technical book written in a simple manner, Febin John James wrote a book on Cloud with the aim of making it simple and affordable for everyone. He conducted pricing research that would enable local people to afford his book.
Kiruba Shankar also shares his views on different formats available to get the author’s message to the appropriate audience. The three writers outline methods to publish stories using the available resources.
If you’re looking to self-publish a book in India, remember to focus on the key aspects of writing, editing, marketing, and pricing. Utilize the power of social media and blogging to promote your work, and make sure to research pricing strategies to reach your target audience. With these career growth tips and success strategies, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a successful self-published author.
Ushasi Sen Basu, author of “Kathputli”, and Febin John James of “Cloud Is a Piece of Cake” in on how to self publish a book.
