1Mby1M Udemy Courses with Sramana Mitra: Domain Knowledge

At 1Mby1M, we believe in learning from case studies of successful entrepreneurs. These case studies involve discussions on opportunities and challenges specific to the domain such as Generative AI, E-Commerce, Digital Health, Cyber Security, and FinTech. 

Introducing a Company that is Doing Justice to Web 3.0

On February 14, 2007, I wrote a widely read post titled: Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS). On the Internet, it remains, after seven years, a widely read piece, defining a vision for the evolution of the web.

However, the web has not evolved according to this vision quite as rapidly as I had imagined. We have hardly seen the fragmented web mature into a more deeply personalized user experience.

Given that backdrop, I was excited to encounter a company recently that does realize the true potential of a context-specific, deeply personalized user experience that brings together content, community, commerce and vertical search.

Have a look at our recent Entrepreneur Journeys story: From Berlin, Bringing Art Auctions Online: Auctionata CEO Alexander Zacke.

Auctionata competes with Christie’s and Sotheby’s, engages a community of art collectors – both buyers and sellers, and art experts who know how to appraise and value art. It takes 20% from the buyers, and 20% from the sellers, and pays a commission to the experts who help them in each transaction. Given their items are high ticket, the business model is fabulously lucrative. I would even go so far as to say that this is one of the best business models I have seen on the web in a long time.

The entrepreneur, Alex Zacke, is from an Austrian family that has been in the art business for generations, and has deep domain knowledge of the art business. This background has enabled Alex to raise funding from VCs in Berlin on a powerpoint. The company is doing phenomenally well.

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1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2014: Yathes, Chennai, India

Yathes is a gift registry portal targeting the South Indian market. It aims to provide a one-stop solution for management of events like weddings by streamlining the various tasks involved such as gifting and sending invitations.

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Cross-Border E-Commerce: Strong Emerging Market Opportunity

I have been consistently bullish about e-commerce as a global phenomenon. However, compared to the scale of what is to come, we’re still only scratching the surface. Remember, the forecast is five billion consumers on the Internet by 2020 …

Read Building a Cross-Border e-Commerce Success Selling to Russia to get a feel for the appetite international markets have for American products (and extrapolate to European products as well). The company was built with a total of $2.3 million in investment, and it is about to hit $40 million revenue run rate this year.

Being in the UK this past week, with talks of the euro imploding, and so forth, I am reminded of how precarious the Western world’s economic situation is right now. But stories like this are reminders that there are many cross-border e-commerce opportunities that would meet the demand for European and American products in emerging markets.

Entrepreneurs, please note.