COVID will set up Entrepreneurs for Next Decade of Change, Innovation and Problem Solving - Maya Hari of Twitter APAC at TiECON Chennai 2020

• Further deliberates on the key trends set out to emerge in the near future for entrepreneurs and leaders to tackle
• Brings to fore the need for gender parity in VC space to accelerate change in women entrepreneurship 

Addressing over 1000 entrepreneurs on the fourth day of TiECON Chennai 2020, Maya Hari, Vice-President & Managing Director - Twitter APAC shared her views on the impact of the pandemic on global business and the opportunities that lay ahead for the entrepreneurial community worldwide. Engaging in a deep, insightful fire-side chat with Dharti Desai, Owner, FineVinesnMore & Vice Chair – TiE Women, Maya further spoke about how the pandemic has presented itself as an opportunity for new-age entrepreneurs and leaders to solve real-world problems by leveraging technology.


The fourth day of TiECON Chennai 2020 virtual conference had a series of power-packed sessions addressing key areas of business and its challenges for the benefit of budding entrepreneurs. Keeping in line with this, the fire-side chat between Maya Hari and Dharti Desai on the theme Leadership Trends For the Next Decade: What problems will future entrepreneurs solve? steered into many interesting paths covering a spectrum of topics in connection with the evolving global entrepreneurial ecosystem.


In her conversation, Maya Hari, Twitter APAC said - 

Every time there has been a major crisis in the world, it has been the reason why people find problems to solve and entrepreneurs, being the best of the breed, are always looking for the real need. I see this crisis as setting up the next decade of change, innovation and problems that people will solve in meaningful ways that adds back to the entrepreneurial community. If I really look at the trends of the future, the problems to be solved are enormous. But what is interesting is, as we think of entrepreneurs and leaders, that each one of these problems also creates unintended consequences that also have to be solved. If you are thinking about digitizing health, you also need to think about ways to protect data and build trust on the back of that. If you are thinking about automation, you need to be able re-skill and reeducate people. These are the exciting opportunities for entrepreneurs and at the same time these are the problems leaders would certainly have to tackle on a daily basis in the future.

Sharing her forecast on what the future holds for businesses, leaders and entrepreneurs globally, Maya Hari said “Technification of the world is happening and I see three trends that start to lay out over the next decade. First, digitization of the world and in India it has already started. For e-commerce, in the last five years, it has been amazing to see the growth. Beyond the obvious areas, there are so many areas lined up to be solved for like HR tech, people analytics, accounting and even a very important sector like health. Traditionally, it has been hard to take the notion of health and move it entirely to digital. Look at what is happening now with the start of people embracing tele-health and telemedicine. The second trend I’m worried and excited about at the same time is feeding the world. One of the things that has become very clear is, when every country started to say I’m going to secure food supplies for my own citizens, supply chains got disrupted. Suddenly the conversation around the world has changed to we, as a whole world, don’t produce enough food to feed our population. I really see the next decade to be all about solving to feed the world. Whether that is using technology in agriculture or food tech, there are plenty of exciting problems waiting to be solved. The third thing is automation of the world. Admittedly there is a fair amount of automation when it comes to manufacturing. Robotics and autonomous vehicles will really change the world we live in and also technology will change the world of hospitality; things that we have barely scratched the surface.”

Speaking on the rise of purpose-driven entrepreneurship in the new world, Maya Hari in her discussion further spoke about the fundamental changes that COVID-19 has brought into the ecosystem. She further added that, contrary to how entrepreneurs have been classified traditionally, the future is going to be a combination of leaders and innovators with a nose for business opportunity and purpose. She also spoke about the future of leadership in a post-COVID era, stating that transparency and people centricity will be an integral part of future leadership styles.

Covering a spectrum of topics, Maya and Dharti conversed about how COVID-19 has given entrepreneurs an opportunity to increase cross-border connections that has helped strengthen operations. They also discussed about the various emerging entrepreneurs that are using this time as an opportunity to take their businesses global.

Discussing further on the future of women entrepreneurs and their challenges, Maya Hari concluded by saying, “I have seen incredible women entrepreneurs, not just in Chennai but around the world. When they really commit to building solutions [and] building companies, they do incredibly well. I often feel that women stop before they take that plunge and question themselves, stop themselves. I really think we need more women entrepreneurs. Funding is tough for women. One, women have a tough time asking for money and backing it up with the confidence that they so deserve to have. Second, not enough investors are seeking out women. On the flip side, I see this as an opportunity for women to mainstream VCs. As much as we talk about diversity and gender parity in technology companies, I feel gender parity in the VC space will accelerate a change we desire to see with women entrepreneurs. That’s a big wish for me.”


Following this session, the conference also hosted a panel discussion on New Age of Consumerism and Mass Customization by Kamesh Goyal, Chairman – Digit Insurance; and Sujay S, Co-founder & CEO, Zwende. The panel was moderated by Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner, Speciale Invest. The day’s conference came to a conclusion with a fire-side chat on SaaS in Asia by Dev Khare, Partner, Lightspeed India Ventures and Priya Rajan, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank.

TiE Chennai is an active chapter with 175+ Charter Members and over 600 Associate Members. Based out of the South Indian city of Chennai, this chapter seeks to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship both within the city as well as the larger state of Tamil Nadu. Through independent events as well as partnerships, the chapter holds multiple events every month, looking to inspire, mentor and educate local entrepreneurs. Charter members, entrepreneurs, business leaders, venture capitalists and government representatives often collaborate to present success stories and business opportunities as well as know-how on raising capital, networking, etc. TiE Chennai has been one of the top performing chapters globally since 2014. This recognition stands testimony to the consistent high performance of the chapter across parameters including regular high quality events and membership growth.
For more info: https://chennai.tie.org/

Why New Entrepreneurs Go for Online Market Despite Offline Being A Big Market?

The question faced by most new entrepreneurs is whether to go for a fully online business or have online as well as offline presence too. There are several factors that go into deciding whether your new business should be fully online. Understandably, the biggest factor is infrastructure costs.

Getting venture capital, funds from crowdsourcing and bank loans can prove arduous and uphill task in India, despite the government implementing some initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship.

Most new entrepreneurs are fired by ambition while finances throw a wet blanket. Hence, they believe in online businesses more than offline ones.

Here are major reasons why new entrepreneurs believe in online trade rather than offline, which is also a big market.

Brick & Mortar Infrastructure

Take a realistic look at India’s real estate market. Buying or leasing an office is almost unaffordable for any new entrepreneur. Nor is it feasible to invest upon infrastructure such as warehousing and storage facilities. Setting up brick-and-mortar infrastructure is indeed expensive and can in some cases, even the capital set aside for opening a venture would not suffice.

Given this scenarios, online business is the best option. Setting up a website including buying a good domain name, hosting and other essentials costs a few thousand Rupees. Resources like Facebook Business are free. It is possible to set up an online store using e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, without much hassle or investment.

In stark contrast, setting up an offline business requires an office or store and warehouse, signboards, furniture and other paraphernalia that eats heavily into the capital earmarked for a venture.

Setting up a store or office also means hiring a good interior designer for proper layout and aesthetics. Modern day Indians shoppers are highly conscious ambience or a store or office. Hence, spending on creating such ambience is imminent. This can be avoided by online business.

Red Tape

[caption id="attachment_124725" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image - Newindianexpress.com[/caption]

Setting up an online business does not involve cutting through miles of red tape and overcoming bureaucratic hurdles to procure permits, licenses and other documents from government authorities. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has now simplified registration procedures for startup ventures. Several law firms provide the service for a few thousand Rupees. Under Indian laws, there are different types of registrations available for startup ventures.

Anyone looking for funding from Venture Capitalists (VCs), crowd sourcing platforms and other lenders needs to come up with excellent startup ideas that would attract investors. There are several such ideas available online that are relatively new and innovative.

Online businesses need not rush to get any registration, unless they are looking at some brick and mortar presence. New entrepreneurs can wait till their venture is successful and begins making profits before registering. Existing laws allow companies established less than seven years ago to be registered as startups. Hence, new entrepreneurs have plenty of time.

For brick-and-mortar businesses, an entrepreneur needs to get various clearances from the civic administration to register an office or store as well as those from local fire department. Plethora of licenses and permits cost a lot of money and eat heavily into the capital. These can simply be circumvented by opening an online enterprise.

Staffing & Payroll

Online businesses can operate be operated by entrepreneurs themselves or their close family members. At best, an online business can function efficiently with skeletal staff. These can be recruited locally if needed or hired on part-time basis. Online food ordering platforms recruit part-time delivery crew. Ditto with giant e-commerce companies like Amazon India that outsource deliveries to local agents that hire freelance staff that are paid on basis of number of packages delivered successfully.

Minimal staffing means a trim payroll. Rather than doling out fat pay packets to employees, new entrepreneurs can effectively utilize the money for expanding operations or launching new product and service lines.

Another advantage that new entrepreneurs can derive out of online business is by hiring staff at distant locations where they wish to expand. In such situations, it is possible to recruit part-time staff or freelancers till a new market becomes lucrative and starts paying adequate dividends to justify fulltime employees.

Business from Apps

Apps are the trendiest way for e-commerce in India. According to various reliable sources, over 23 percent of Indians bought stuff online using smartphone based apps. This amply proves that apps that work on mobile Internet are fast emerging as most preferred e-commerce channel in this country.

Nowadays, it costs a few thousand Rupees to have a customized app created for a new enterprise. These apps are accessed by potential customers during spare time, especially long commutes. Apps increase the probability of an interested person culminating as customer. App based business is something possible only if new entrepreneurs are online. They can display the app and provide link for its download through the website of their enterprise.

Market Realities

Another major reason why new entrepreneurs believe in online business is due to market growth. According to various projections, over 330 million women and men from different age groups will use e-commerce to buy stuff by the year 2020. This translates as whopping US$45 billion worth purchases. Numbers in terms of e-commerce users and total worth of purchases can be much higher. These figures are sufficient for any new entrepreneur to believe in online business.

Additionally, major e-commerce outlets in India including online retailers and Asset Management Companies (AMCs) are introducing newer, modern forms of payment for clients. These include payment through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) portal of National Payments Corporation of India, a government organization. Hence, new entrepreneurs can offer various channels to clients shopping for their goods or services.

In Conclusion

There are several more distinct advantages why new entrepreneurs believe in online business though offline is also a big market. The biggest benefit of offline shopping or buying at brick-and-mortar stores is the instant gratification. A consumer gets first-hand feel and look of the product. Yet online businesses score because they are able to ship goods swiftly, reducing delivery time. Secondly, customers get the option of choosing a delivery address and time. Online makes it possible to send gifts instantly- which is not possible with most offline ventures. These basic factors are why new entrepreneurs believe in online business despite offline ones also being profitable.

Jain Community To Set Up Chain of Startup Incubation Centers All Across India, First One Launched In Mumbai

Starting a new business is a lot of work. Every entrepreneur going through the early stage startup phase can make use of some help and guidance from experts who have done this previously or have some knowledge of how the business world works. In order to provide this guidance to new entrepreneurs and encourage more youngsters to take the entrepreneurship route, the Jain community has decided to set up a number incubation centres across all major metros in the country. The first one among the many will be set up at Andheri, Mumbai.

Called the called ‘Cello JITO Incubation Centre,’ the not-for-profit facility will be providing thorough guidance and handholding to all its occupants. The building for the centre is being provided absolutely rent free by the Cello Group. The centre will be officially owned by JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation (JIIF), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jain International Trade Organization (JITO).

For the uninitiated, JITO, is a multi-stakeholder community of visionary Jain’s who share the commitment to shape the future of the country, especially by working with the younger generation. Having almost 6,000 members, it claims to be single largest organisations of prominent businessmen, industrialists and professionals not only in the Indian subcontinent but also across the globe.

Located at Business Square at Solitaire Park, Chakala, Andheri East, the incubation centre will be spread over 8500 sq ft and have a capacity of 100+ seats. Once operational, the facility will offer its incubatees shared support services like HR, legal, IT and accounts etc. In addition to this, it will also help them in funding and ready market for implementation as per eligibility.

“This facility will help all the budding entrepreneurs in the city and will offer the best of services to the occupants. It is conveniently located and has all the modern facilities that start-ups require,” said Mr Pradeep G Rathod of Cello Group.

This development was first reported in IndiaEducationDiary.

Mobikwik's Upasana Taku Wins Best Woman Entrepreneur 2017 Award

Doing good work and getting recognised for it is something very less of us get to feel nowadays. Mobikwik co-founder Upasana Taku recently lived this feeling when she was bestowed upon the title of ‘Best Woman Entrepreneur Award 2017’ yesterday in New Delhi.

Awarded on the occasion of World Entrepreneurship Day yesterday by ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India), Taku's honour comes just a few days after the mobile wallet company announced its plans of
becoming India's first debit plus credit wallet.

Soon Mobikwik users will be able to have exclusive credit lines, credit cards and EMI cards mapped through the app, which will ultimately result in increasing their purchasing power and enable them to get lending products available at cheaper interest rates.

Prior to this, the Mobikwik was in the news for raising Rs 225 crore from Bajaj Finance. Under the agreement signed between the two companies, Bajaj will be picking up nearly 11 per cent stake in the company, which means acquiring 10 equity shares and 271,050 compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) of the mobile wallet company.

Accepting the award, Taku said, "I thank ASSOCHAM for bestowing this honour on me. It is my firm belief that awards such as these would encourage budding entrepreneurs who have great ideas and vision for achieving success in life, but are reluctant to pursue their dreams or succumb to pressures from the society.”

Founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, Mobikwik has grown to become a major mobile payment network in the Indian subcontinent boosting over 15 lakh direct merchants and 55 million plus users on its platform. The mobile wallet company has recently also entered into a partnership with state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to power ‘BSNL Wallet’ – India’s largest wallet by the telecom company. Developed and issued by MobiKwik on behalf of BSNL, the mobile wallet will facilitate ease of payment and also sell BSNL products.

Last year, Taku also found a place in Forbes under “Asia’s Women to Watch in 2016”.

Mobikwik's Upasana Taku Wins Best Woman Entrepreneur 2017 Award

Doing good work and getting recognised for it is something very less of us get to feel nowadays. Mobikwik co-founder Upasana Taku recently lived this feeling when she was bestowed upon the title of ‘Best Woman Entrepreneur Award 2017’ yesterday in New Delhi.

Awarded on the occasion of World Entrepreneurship Day yesterday by ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India), Taku's honour comes just a few days after the mobile wallet company announced its plans of
becoming India's first debit plus credit wallet.

Soon Mobikwik users will be able to have exclusive credit lines, credit cards and EMI cards mapped through the app, which will ultimately result in increasing their purchasing power and enable them to get lending products available at cheaper interest rates.

Prior to this, the Mobikwik was in the news for raising Rs 225 crore from Bajaj Finance. Under the agreement signed between the two companies, Bajaj will be picking up nearly 11 per cent stake in the company, which means acquiring 10 equity shares and 271,050 compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) of the mobile wallet company.

Accepting the award, Taku said, "I thank ASSOCHAM for bestowing this honour on me. It is my firm belief that awards such as these would encourage budding entrepreneurs who have great ideas and vision for achieving success in life, but are reluctant to pursue their dreams or succumb to pressures from the society.”

Founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, Mobikwik has grown to become a major mobile payment network in the Indian subcontinent boosting over 15 lakh direct merchants and 55 million plus users on its platform. The mobile wallet company has recently also entered into a partnership with state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to power ‘BSNL Wallet’ – India’s largest wallet by the telecom company. Developed and issued by MobiKwik on behalf of BSNL, the mobile wallet will facilitate ease of payment and also sell BSNL products.

Last year, Taku also found a place in Forbes under “Asia’s Women to Watch in 2016”.

This Mompreneur is Offering Friendly Platform for Women with Infertility by Disrupting $775Mn IVF Market

At the age of 23 Gitanjali Banerjee got married to the man in Olive Green and from here her journey to unknown and unexplored began. As every other married girl Gitanjali next phase after marriage was the phase of being mother. But for her it turns into pain of 10 long and gruelling years of fighting infertility. Post 5 miscarriages, 3 molar pregnancies, 1 failed IVF, a brush with ovarian cancer; she finally succeeded on second IVF attempt.

I had a long and roller coaster journey towards motherhood. The pain and the social disdain that a woman undergoes during infertility journey is unimaginable and humiliating. Society, on the other hand has no idea about the pain of infertility and people end up hurting by passing shallow comments. It is startling that there is no neutral platform and especially no woman who comes up and says, “Yes, I have gone through it, I know it is not easy but got to keep going”. 1 in every 4 couple in India is fighting some or the other form of infertility. There was a need to come out of the infertility closet,” shares Gitanjali.

For Gitanjali her personal fear was the biggest challenge. But once, she overcame it and shared her story with people, it simply warmed up her which landed her into the land of entrepreneurship. She founded inFertility Dost to reach out to women who suffer in silence, bring real stories, make the society aware and acknowledge the pain, and most importantly to help patients find the right doctor.

“No, entrepreneurship was not in my mind but it became the need, a tool to reach out to millions of people who were sailing in the same boat like me. It became a tool for help others and thus social entrepreneurship project, inFertility Dost came happened to me,” says Gitanjali.

Bridging The Gap

It is believed that nearly 15% of the Indian population suffers from some form of infertility. Research in fact indicates that India has witnessed a 20-30% surge in infertility cases in the past 5 years. The volume of people affected by it sums up to be more than 150 million. Every year 10 million new cases are adding up in India. Gitanjali with her startup aims to cater this growing market. The target group for them including preventive healthcare of infertility stands at 460 million.



InfertilityDost, is an online platform that facilitates couples to brave infertility with support and knowledge. They hold hand, facilitate right guidance so that couples can take good decisions and stay away from misleading advertisements and fraud clinics, answer their queries by connecting them to experts, keep them motivated throughout this tough phase of life, reinforcing their strength and hope and enable them to fight with society’s stereotypes and prejudices.

“InfertilityDost fills the need to handhold a patient through the journey and bring everything under one portal to save time, cost and harassment. The social impact that we can create is huge leading empowerment of women. Also, the IVF market currently is unregulated, unorganized and not transparent. We aim to digitize atleast 10% of this market,” says Gitanjali.

InfertilityDost aims to build a complete ecosystem for infertility patients making support and knowledge accessible so that they can stay informed. There are many pain points in the journey of an infertility patients and InfertilityDost wishes to handhold at each stage, guide and provide services that can alleviate the ignorance and discomfort faced.

Currently, for Gitanjali the challenge is to find the right fit team where she is struggling.

Providing Emotional Connect

Startup is a patient-provider platform exclusively for the infertility and IVF patients. inFertilityDost provides handholding for patients with care, support, information and ancillary preparatory services.

“Our patient base is approx 5000. We conduct around 5 awareness campaigns and talks per month. We are focussed on building a community right now. We plan to leverage this power soon,” says Gitanjali.

Competing with startup like Practo, Gitajali says, “Though they are just listing and there is no emotional connect with patients. Our differentiation point is our community building, content and accessibility of all information in one portal.”

Future Plans:

Gitanjali believes that by using artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool can to do predictive analysis and serve the patients better in customized environment. Currently been incubated at IIT Delhi under their WEE program ( Women empowerment entrepreneurship), Gitanjali is looking to raise Rs 50 lakhs. Being India as their core focus, inFertilityDost get a lot of traffic from metros especially Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Delhi. Startup plans to expand its geographical reach to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where treatment information is hardly available.

“Egg and sperm donation market is marred with irregularities that often lead to violation of government rules. Often, samples are passed without proper medical testing leading to occurrence of genetic and other problems in IVF children at a later stage. We aim to bring pre-tested and verified samples to the market. We will take this awareness among corporate to help them balance their biological clock and career better with options of freezing,” concludes Gitanjali.

Sector Overview:

Rise in the number of couples suffering from infertility, owing to urbanisation, pollution, stress, and lifestyle patterns has led to rapid growth of Indian market for IVF services. If we look at the figures stated by a report of Allied Market Research (AMR), IVF services market in India is projected to reach US$ 775.9 million by 2022, registering a CAGR of 16.6 percent from 2016 to 2022.

Further, owing to low service cost and availability of skilled workforce, India is becoming one of the preferred destination for medical tourism. Cost of IVF treatment for infertility in India is one-fourth as compared to the developed countries, as per the government of India’s Medical Tourism Department.

Not only this, clinics operating in the UK, Australia, Spain, Denmark, Israel, and France find it difficult to provide their patients with donor egg IVF services. Therefore, these patients approach India, where donor egg IVF is more convenient. There are several hospital chains like Apollo; Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd; Cadila Healthcare Ltd; Trivector Origio Scientific; Lab IVF Asia Pte Ltd; LG Life Sciences;, Bourn Hall Clinic; Morpheus IVF Fertility Center; Cloudnine, a multi-city hospital chain for women and children specialising in obstetrics, gynaecology, fertility, and neonatology have come up to capitalise this untouched market.

Despite of all these encouraging factor, IVF market struggle to grow due to ethical and legal issues related to surrogacy. Apart from this, lack of established regulations and reimbursement policies leading to manipulative practices (such as sex identification and sex selection), also restrains the IVF market growth.

But mushrooming of startups like inFertilityDost has come as ray of hope of the IVF market. Now time will tell, how best these startups can capture Indian and market and provide people with sigh of relief.

Bill Gates Has Entrepreneurial Advice For Wanna Be Startup-ers

In a world where everyone has opinions and is ready to give you advice at the drop of a hat, you should only listen to those who have lived the experience that you're looking to live. And, when it comes to career advice, who better to take inspiration than from the "Bill Gates" himself.

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, Bill Gates recently took to the 140 characters social networking site Twitter to offer advice to the new graduates getting ready for their journey ahead in life. The richest man in the world, who has been on the Forbes’ top spot for four consecutive years now, was able to pack his rich career advice in just 14 tweets, which can be considered a feet in itself.

Gates' 14 tweets, which some have even called a tweetstorm, offers students advice on how they can avoid making some of the same mistakes that he had made in his career. He also offered the newly graduated an inspiring pep talk about how in order to do well in their future, they need to surround themselves with good people, value family, and always believe within that if there are problems there is a way to solve them. According to Gates, if there is one graduation present he could give to each graduating student this year, it would be to read Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature. He feels that the book is the most inspiring book he has ever read and shows how the world is getting better.

The core of Gates' advice was to get into the science fields, especially artificial intelligence, biosciences and energy. According to him, one needs to use their talents to fix the problems in society and make everyone's life easier and better.

He signed off the tweetstorm by acknowledging that now is a great time to be alive, and everyone should try to make most of it.

Gates is a visionary person, who has worked extremely hard to be where he is today. According to people close to him, he doesn't believe in mere luck or God’s grace, but believes that those who employ intelligence and hard work on a regular basis are the ones who make it big.

1/ New college grads often ask me for career advice. At the risk of sounding like this guy…https://t.co/C68mjJ5g44

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

2/ AI, energy, and biosciences are promising fields where you can make a huge impact. It's what I would do if starting out today.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

3/ Looking back on when I left college, there are some things I wish I had known.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

4/ E.g. Intelligence takes many different forms. It is not one-dimensional. And not as important as I used to think.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

5/ I also have one big regret: When I left school, I knew little about the world’s worst inequities. Took me decades to learn.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

6/ You know more than I did when I was your age. You can start fighting inequity, whether down the street or around the world, sooner.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

7/ Meanwhile, surround yourself with people who challenge you, teach you, and push you to be your best self. As @MelindaGates does for me.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

.@melindagates 8/ Like @WarrenBuffett I measure my happiness by whether people close to me are happy and love me, & by the difference I make for others.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

.@melindagates @WarrenBuffett 9/ If I could give each of you a graduation present, it would be this--the most inspiring book I've ever read. pic.twitter.com/P67BuvpELJ

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

.@melindagates @WarrenBuffett 10/ @SAPinker shows how the world is getting better. Sounds crazy, but it’s true. This is the most peaceful time in human history.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

.@melindagates @WarrenBuffett @sapinker 11/ That matters because if you think the world is getting better, you want to spread the progress to more people and places.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

.@melindagates @WarrenBuffett @sapinker 12/ It doesn’t mean you ignore the serious problems we face. It just means you believe they can be solved.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

.@melindagates @WarrenBuffett @sapinker 13/ This is the core of my worldview. It sustains me in tough times and is the reason I love my work. I think it can do same for you.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

.@melindagates @WarrenBuffett @sapinker 14/ This is an amazing time to be alive. I hope you make the most of it.

— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 15, 2017

[Top Image: Tukaramatthews]

3 Things To Know If You're Starting A Company

While starting a new business is a tough task in itself, sustaining it is where the true task lies. Once you have zeroed on a killer idea, matched it with your talent and skills, there are still a few things which can go downhill and take your dream of owning a successful business away from you. Today, we at www.indianweb2.com gear up to tell you about the 3 vital things you should know if you're starting a company.

1) Don't try to do it all

While we understand that since it's your idea and hardship involved, you consider your company more than just business; it is figuratively your baby. But, the one thing that you have to keep in mind when you become the pilot of the plane is the fact that you can't do it all. While multitasking can be achieved, but a pilot can't also do the cabin crew job, maintenance job while flying the plane, can he? Exactly! This very rule also applies to entrepreneurs as well. While in the starting you might want to do all the jobs and make sure that everything is being done in the best way possible, but as the work load grows, it becomes harder and harder to be involved in each and every task of the company. This is why, it is necessary to hire people who can do it for you. Find the people who are considered some of the best available human resources at a particular task and hire them to do it for you; of course you can give your inputs time to time but you will not have to take the tension that if you aren't available the task won't be done. One can have a referral system at place in the office, where the existing employees can refer people whom they consider to be apt for a particular vacant job profile, and earn themselves a certain bonus amount.

2) Once you've got the right people, make them stick around

This is one of the toughest tasks in the daily lives of an entrepreneur: employee retention. While you can hire some of the brightest minds in the industry, you still have to train them and work on them almost daily so as to make them understand the company's aims and objectives. All this hard work involved and resources spent end up going down the drain when suddenly one day the employee stands up and decide to leave.

Being the captain of your ship, you have to ensure that your staff is happy because only when the staff is happy and enthusiastic about the work will they be able to keep the clients happy. One of the ways to ensure that the office environment is always at its cheerful best is to keep the lines of communication open. Your staff shouldn't fear talking to you about their problems, and consider you approachable at all times. Make the team take office trips, lunches, picnics and develop a friendly bond among themselves.

3) Ensure there’s money in the bank

Once you become an entrepreneur, you're not only responsible for your own lives and expenses, but also for all the people that you have hired. As an entrepreneur, you have to make sure that there's enough money in the banks to pay the salaries and keep the work wheel running. But, if you take care of the two points mentioned above, the third one takes care of itself. Of course, as an entrepreneur, you still have to keep working on forging great investors relations.

As an entrepreneur, always keep your existing investors updated about your company's progress. Also, keep meeting new people and forming new investor relationships even if you're not explicitly looking at raising funds. Always remember, fundraising is an ongoing process and not a one time event.

So, if you're a young entrepreneur, these three learnings can make a huge difference in your career path. The road to success is hard, but with the right people and right resources, it can be much easier to tread.

Top Factors to Succeed in Your Entrepreneurial Expedition

Who is an Entrepreneur? Where do you find them? Are they important? Why are they, workaholics? All these questions are so common yet so confusing. The truth is no one knows what a true Entrepreneur means. They aren’t workaholics (Not that much!). They are us. You can find them anywhere and everywhere. If you have an idea that is unique, creative and something worth implementing, then you are an Entrepreneur. All you need is an idea and the dedication to execute that plan to become an Entrepreneur. But what about success? Executing and successfully executing are two different things. What makes the successful ventures different from others? What are the top factors for Entrepreneurial success? Well, same is discussed below.

Far away from fear:

An entrepreneur can never execute his idea if he is in fear. Fear of failure, fear of losing. Fear will stop the Entrepreneur from taking any risks. But Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks. You can take precautions, but the risk is essential. Without taking risks, you cannot hope to succeed. Failure is very much acceptable. Failure makes you learn more things than you will learn from being successful at the very first attempt. You cannot learn to walk without falling. Similarly you cannot hope to succeed without failing. Fail without any fear. For, then only you will value success.

Far away from being perfect:

Entrepreneurs are not perfect. They are far away from it. They know nothing about perfection, and honestly, they don’t care about perfection. They make mistakes and learn from it. This way they get to value things, to plan things, to organise things. They come close to perfection with time, but they don’t become perfect. For, perfect people will think a hundred times before doing something. Entrepreneurs believe in action. They believe that but not more than twice. They believe in learning by implementing. They aspire to become successful and not perfect. So, you not need to be perfect or goody two shoes. All you need to do is implement, try, make mistakes. They are allowed rather they are necessary.

Filled with determination and skills:

You want success; you will get it. But you need to love what you do. You need to eat, think, pray, live and love your work. You need that determination, that excitement. Mondays should be exciting for you. Soft skills are mandatory. Your discipline and morals are two soft skills that will reflect in the visions and goals of your company. Be yourself, love what you do, appreciate it yet be a critic. The harshest critic. Drown yourself in enjoyment that is your work. Don’t work because you have to but because you want to. Passion, confidence, Hard-working and clear aim are few common traits of successful Entrepreneurs.

Finance and Funds are a joke:

You need to know what you are doing and how you are doing it. You need to know how to convince other people. How to show them the uniqueness of your idea? For then only, you can raise funds. Don’t be scared of funds. They will come if you know how to bring them. Make yourself and your idea so high that investors come behind you. Apparently, you will face rejection but make them regret that rejection by not losing hope and finding someone else. It should be a kind of ‘fun-hunt’ for you. Know how to attract others. The day you are capable of making people believe that you don’t need them or their money but they need you and your companies that are the day you know you are headed the right way. You know that success is not far away.

Find legalities fun rather than necessary:

Staying legal is one thing that is crucial for being successful. As an aspiring successful Entrepreneur, you need to know all the legalities affecting your company. You may not love them, but you need to understand them. If you don’t find them fun, you can always rely on legal advisers but only the reliable ones. We, at LegalRaasta- site for company registration, trademark registration, itr filing and tds return can help you deal with these legalities and make them fun and quick for you.

In the end, stay original, be yourself and aim for the sky.

This article has been contributed by Pulkit Jain, founder of LegalRaasta – an online portal for company registration, trademark registration, ITR filing  and TDS return

Image Source: ShutterStock

This 17-Year-Old Solely Created A 'Zomato' For Schools, Tutors and Coaching Institutes

Every year the top education magazines and papers come out with a list of the best colleges in India. These lists are not just restricted to engineering colleges but span all the fields of graduation. This is a great help to students and parents in deciding which college stands where and which one is the best fit for them. Sadly, there is nothing of this sort for schools. Schools are in an integral part of our education system and conceivably the most important one. Even if there are some that come up with a list, they aren't very reliable. A 12th grader from Mumbai faced the same situation and came up with a solution to this problem; a solution called ClassFever.

MEET THE MAKER

The founder is a Mumbai-based 12th grader, Akshay Agrawal (in picture above). He is a 17-year-old entrepreneur who was fed up with this chaotic system and decided to improve it. He had to switch schools from Avalon heights Intl. School (Navi Mumbai) to St. Gregorios High School (Chembur) since Avalon was only till 10th. This is what motivated him to work towards building ClassFever. He has been a TED speaker twice at such a young age. He has also been part of MUNs and is an avid debater as well.

THE IDEA

ClassFever is a School ranking website, that ranks the various schools in a city based on a lot of variables. Akshay claims that ClassFever is the world's only review-driven Big Data School ranking website. It is aimed at helping parents and children decide which school is best suited for them. The website provides information and data about the school which makes the decision-making process much easier. It also provides actionable data about schools by scientifically correlating factors to determine which school is better than the rest.

Also, ClassFever is a reliable source of information and is unbiased. It can be used to weigh the pros and cons of different schools. The ClassFever Big Data Engine crunches One Hundred Ninety Eight Million data (198,000,000) data sets from 32 variables per school based on 6 factors to rank each school.The data set has grown 190x times in 2 months. It stood at 1 million data sets on 31st October 2015.Each school is first ranked based on the 6 factors individually and then these factors are combined using a proprietary relational-algorithm to rank the school overall.ClassFever ranks more than 3000 schools across Maharashtra and few other states.

ClassFever has also diversified into the job market. It also has a jobs portal dedicated specifically for teachers and principals and others related to the education sector to find jobs.

FUNDING

This young entrepreneur's startup is in a bootstrapped stage and is currently self-sufficient.

TARGET MARKET

As of now there is no reliable source of information for which school is good and on what basis. All of this just works on hearsay and word of mouth. If someone in our friend circle praises a school it is assumed to be good. A good school is very important for a child as it builds character and plays a huge role in determining what a child's outlook is towards life.

Their main target is parents and students and at the next level, they have faculty and other people involved in this particular sector. Every parent wants their child to attend 'the best school in the city'. But there is no reliable, widely available, a single source which can answer this question — "Which school is the best in the city?" This is the problem they aim and hope to tackle. Their end users will end up being Schools, Students, parents, everyone and anyone in the education space.

FUTURE PLAN

ClassFever has helped many parents and their kids in choosing the right school and making an informed decision. With ClassFever's big data engine, they now plan to expand their scope and their reach as well. They can soon statistically and analytically determine better cities to study in based on the rating distributions of schools and localizations of top ranking schools. They are still experimenting with the engine and hope to use it to good use.

With 8 Billion Daily Video Views ,Snapchat competes Facebook Video

If your business doesn't have a video presence on Snapchat, now might be a good time to get into the game.

Snapchat has hit 8 billion video views per day, said CEO Evan Spiegel, putting the ephemeral messaging sharing app on par with competitor Facebook, which hit that 8-billion figure back in November.

In a keynote speech at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco this week, Spiegel said that the Snapchat has over 100 million daily visitors who log an average of 30 minutes on the app per day. Spiegel also said that 41 percent of the 18- to 34-year-olds in the United States are on the app every day, with more than half of new users joining the app over 25.

As of last month, the company was valued at $16 billion. February also saw Snapchat make several moves with an emphasis on advertising. The company made a deal with Viacom that allows the media company to sell ads on Snapchat's behalf and it started using Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings to measure how many users the service is reaching through its mobile advertisements.

Shadab Hassan - A Young Social Entrepreneur Is Truly Changing The Education Status Quo Of Indian Villages

Shadab Hassan is a much respected young social entrepreneur. His school provides free education to poor and orphaned children through his social venture - SPEAK. IIM Ranchi is one of the many institutes that have partnered with him in his endeavor. He believes that "In social work, there are no competitors, only colleagues".

Shadab says "What we expect from people is to do what they can, with what they have, wherever they are because that’s exactly what we do".

Sahiba Sethi from IndianWeb2 talks to Shadab about his journey of being social entrepreneur and his plans and future strategies for promositing his social venture 'Speak'.

Tell me something about your education, early life and past avatars.

I   graduated in Functional English from St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi (Jharkhand) then did my MBA from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra and then registrered for a Ph.D. in Management from Ranchi University, Ranchi. Despite the early financial hardship my parents faced, by the time I was born things had changed – and changed for better. They sent me to the best schools they could and made sure I did not have to go through what they went through as kids.

Once I completed my MBA I did not opt for a job and decided to start my own school instead, in my native village Brambe (20kms from Ranchi). Along with it I also started a small initiative called SPEAK under which I used to conduct workshops on effective communication for school children, graduates and post graduate students studying in different schools and colleges around Ranchi.

What was your purpose to start H.High School, Brambe

My father had a very tough childhood as a kid. He sold balloons and candies while still in school, and with that money he used to buy flour on his way back home and them my grandmother used to cook chapatis. So imagine how things would have been on holidays! Despite the struggle my father managed to find his way up, completed school, went to college and finally reached a decent position in life. But most of his friends and their children who lived in Brambe continued to live a similar life which my father had gone through.

To this I felt they deserved an equal chance to live a life I was fortunate to be blessed with. This is when I decided to do the little I could to help them get a life they deserve and education I felt was the most efficient way to achieve it.

How are you bringing a change in the lives of people in the village ?

We are using the school as an instrument to bring about the much needed social change in the area. We aren't just teaching kids in school but we are also grooming and training them on how to lead a respectable life.

Education was nowhere to be found in the list of priorities of the people staying in and around the villages of Brambe. They were happy with the fact that their children were ‘going’ to school, irrespective of the fact that whether they were learning or not. We tried to change that. We tried to help them realize the difference between going to school and learning in school. We went door to door helping people understand what good education could do to them and their children. With months of persuasion and counselling, the kids started coming to school. We had kids who did not even know how to use a toilet because they never got a chance to use one. We had to begin with basic things like ‘potty-training’ followed by basic cleanliness and hygiene sessions and for little kids. Now that they were regular, we used these kids as a bridge to connect with their parents

During our visits to these villages we realized that there were a lot of orphan an single parent kids who were not able to come to school because of financial limitations. We started getting all such kids to school and taught them absolutely free of cost. The idea was to make sure that no kids in the nearby villages stays off from school because of financial problem.

We at H.H.High School, Brambe also conduct free health check-up camps every year for all the children and their families. With this we try to diagnose/ check problems (if any) at an early stage so that those can be taken care of at comparatively lesser expense.

Being the first school in Jharkhand to start a LIVE Classroom (online classes) we try to give our kids every possible exposure a kid of their age should be getting. We believe a school in a village need not look or behave like one. We try to make our kids aware of all that is happening around them in the world. We screen movies, conduct quizzes, provide sports and games facilities. Through our Wonder Over Web initiative we make them talk to kids from different parts of the world. All this to help in the all round development of a kid.

Once these kids are moulded in the right way, they become our ambassadors and carry our message back home. They are the ones who initiate change in their respective houses. That’s how the real change begins. We call this the ‘Chain of Change’.

 

What makes a person take up social entrepreneurship at such a young age when you feel like enjoying all the luxuries, you have a wife, kids, etc?

Like I always say, every social initiative has a story behind it. Some are driven by experiences one faces in his own life or they draw inspiration from the struggle of others. In my case, it was the latter.

But having said that I strongly feel that working for a social initiative, in no way means one cannot enjoy the ‘luxuries’ of life. Luxury again is a relative term and the kind of families we are dealing with, we are indeed leading a ‘luxurious’ life. We eat what we wish to, we wear what we feel like, we travel wherever we want to. I think that’s too much of a luxury already.

What are your future projects?

We are planning to upgrade the school upto +2 level. We are trying our best to start intermediate commerce and intermediate arts from the coming session onwards (2015-16).

Along with this we are also working on starting a vocational training centre for the widows of the nearby villages so that they start paying for their children’s fee.

What a country like India needs to make sure that each citizen is educated?

A little realization and adding of small bits by each one of us. In a country like ours I feel there I a willingness to bring about a change but most of us are never able to begin because we keep waiting for the right occasion. Instead we should make an occasion right by starting right away. What we expect from people is to do what they can, with what they have, wherever they are because that’s exactly what we do.

Shadab Hassan speaks at TED event -

A Small Investment Of Rs.5000 Leading To An Annual Turnover Of 122 Crore, The Story Of Jaipur Rugs

With a vision to improve the lives of people living in extreme poverty, Mr. Nand Kishore Chaudhary founded Jaipur Rugs in 1978 with 2 looms and 9 weavers. "I borrowed Rs. 5000/- from my father to start my own business. I wanted to help the poor via personal economic, educational and social empowerment instead of giving away charity," says the founder. After three decades that initial vision has blossomed into a unique vertically integrated global organization that includes an extensive network of artisan weavers, an educational and social foundation, and an end-to-end supply chain including product concept, design, production and delivery. All three of these work together as a single powerful mission-driven entity focused on the empowerment of women and rural communities in India.

Headquarter in India with a distribution office in Atlanta USA, Jaipur Rugs has an Annual Turnover of 122 crore. "My family was part of a traditional society, back in a Churu. My father had a shoe-selling shop and I started my career from that shop. By the age of 25, my parents suggested me to continue and grow the small business as a livelihood source for my own future family," says NK Chaudhary. He wanted to grow out of it and do something of his own. His love for weaving and weavers was proved when he got a permanent job in a national bank which he declined to join.

We asked Mr Chaudhary about his journey, and he told us a little story. "One of the first challenges I faced was from my own family. In those days rug weavers belonged to the 'untouchable' class and were not given the same social standing as others. Given the strong class system in India, interaction was not only discouraged but was looked down upon. I faced a lot of resistance from my own family members and neighbors but I could not understand how they could be different human beings. I fell so much in love with weaving and weavers that I used to take my lunch and eat with weavers and their families besides the looms on which they made their carpets. I used to spend entire day working with them and learn the basics of weaving. I discovered and realized that some of the most beautiful rugs in the world were made by those who did not have the most basic rights in the society. The only encouragement I had was my wife who not only supported me but also sometimes provided the weavers with tea and food," he says. Within 2 years Mr Chaudhary established 10 looms in and around his village in Rajasthan. After that he moved to Jaipur to start his own exports with his brother.

In 2007, Jaipur Rugs implemented Microsoft's Dynamics Navision enterprise resource planning (ERP) offering, which includes a customer relationship management (CRM) application. Today, designers in their company's headquarter (Jaipur) design carpets using CAD Autotex. The designs, known as maps, are then sent to weavers in far-flung villages who follow the maps to weave carpets using traditional looms. Quality supervisors located at 22 branches across India routinely send out reports on the progress of these carpets, as well as monitor quality. Jaipur Rugs Foundation, a voluntary, non-profit organization, trains weavers through its skill up gradation programs to enhance their earnings and improve the quality of their carpets. Through technology, Jaipur Rugs has established links from grassroots to retailers of the product.

Jaipur Rugs is a wide network of 40,000 skilled artisans in 6 states and 600 villages of India, along with 500 head office and branch employees. Headquarter in Jaipur, the company has distribution networks in more than 40 countries worldwide. The company's vision is to allow the artisans to a greater share of the wealth they produce. "Also, I want Jaipur Rugs to be a platform of connecting the end consumer with the artisan so that they can both emotionally connect with each other. I consider myself privileged to have worked with some of the most talented artisans in this country," says the founder, humbly.

In 2004, NK Chaudhary initiated Jaipur Rugs Foundation to provide educational and skill training facilities for the children of the weavers, as well as access to health services and literacy programs. To date, more than 1600 women have benefitted from the educational program, and almost 5462 artisans have benefited from health camps organized by the Jaipur Rugs Foundation. The Foundation is funded by Jaipur Rugs Company Pvt. Limited.

As a message for future entrepreneurs, the founder says, "Develop the human capabilities & skills at the grassroots. No matter their economic level, women are naturally more receptive, patience, have a more acute sense of future, emotional intelligence, and know how to put care in all their activities. Again the key to develop others is an empathic approach. Once you understand the poor, you will want to see them grow."