Sramana Mitra: I like the manner in which you are thinking, and it would be good to get additional revenue streams. I would not let go of the subscription revenue stream by any stretch of the imagination. What is the TAM for the subscription business?
San Banerjee: There are 4 lakh apartment complexes, and each has an average of 200 apartments. We could expect 180 rupees per flat on average.
Sramana Mitra: How much angel financing did you raise?
San Banerjee: Just enough to carry us for a 1.5 years in our build out effort. >>>
In a survey of 253 marketers for U.S.-based companies earning more than $500 million in annual revenues, Gartner found that digital marketing budgets accounted for 2.5% of their revenues. These marketers were looking to increase their digital marketing budgets for this year to 9% of revenues. Digital publishing company Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) is focusing on this digital marketing growth.
Entrepreneurs are invited to the 199th FREE online 1M/1M roundtable mentoring session on Thursday, December 19, 2013, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/9:30 p.m. India IST.
If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to “pitch” and sell your business idea to Sramana Mitra. You’ll gain straightforward feedback, advice on next steps, and she’ll answer any of your questions. Others can register to “attend” to watch, learn, and interact through the online chat.
You can learn more here and register to pitch or attend here. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be interested. All are welcome!
VOZIQ is a social media analytics company with a special focus on voice-of-the-customer analytics. It leverages large volumes of customer perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes expressed on social media platforms to provide actionable insights. Within two years of its founding, the business is cash-flow positive. It is targeting $1 million in revenue next year.
In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:
Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about funding. When did you receive your funding and what preceded your decision to raise funding?
San Banerjee: From the very beginning, we have sought out people who could serve as advisors for us. One of our earliest advisors was Sharad Sharma. We also had Manish Singhal, who we met through our entrepreneur contents. He joined us after the competition as a formal advisor. In February of 2013 we decided that it was time to scale our business. The product was proven and mature. We had figured out the support process. We felt we could show value to investors. >>>
Sramana Mitra: Who runs your Bangalore office?
San Banerjee: Ashika runs that office. When we relocated to Mumbai, we knew that our Bangalore office would fall apart unless somebody was running it. We promoted here and she is now our COO. She stabilized that office. >>>
Sramana Mitra: How did your business ramp the following year? How many customers did you end up with by the end of 2010?
San Banerjee: We had around 110 customers at that point. We made around 17 lakhs that year. By the middle of 2011, Venkat and I started drawing a salary. We also noticed an increase in the number of competitors entering the Bangalore market. We had proven the market existed, and now we started to face competition. We saw 24 competitors enter the market in 2010 to 2011, and almost all of them targeted Bangalore. >>>