categories
HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
early stage venture capital
Concept Arbitrage: eFax
There is another type of concept arbitrage that Indian entrepreneurs ought to think about, which I discussed at length with Sridhar Vembu in the context of Zoho. That is, taking an already successful product, service, or SaaS and dramatically undercutting on the basis of price. Sridhar is mainly trying to undercut Salesforce.com on CRM. Here
Incubators in India?
I wrote a piece back in February called India Needs More Incubator Funds. I’d like to hear from investors and entrepreneurs who have a perspective on the topic, since I am working on some follow-on research on incubators for India. Please write to me here. Before you write to me, however, I would appreciate if
Concept Arbitrage: Qualys
I have talked a fair bit about Qualys in the past, and also brought to you an interview with Philippe Courtot, Qualys’ CEO. I’ve also said before several times, that the SaaS segment is ripe of Concept Arbitrage by Indian entrepreneurs. In fact, it plays to the strengths of folks in India who have domain
Concept Arbitrage: Knorr
Knorr is the largest brand of the Unilever company. They make prepared food that is sold throughout the world in grocery stores. I have often wondered why great Indian, Chinese, Thai, or French recipes are not available as prepared food … not enough, anyway … Jeff Nolan once asked me that if I were doing
First-time Entrepreneurs in India
Aparna Chennapragada is a graduate student at MIT’s Sloan School of Business, who is doing a research project on the challenges in building technology startups in India. As part of her research, she is looking to interview Indian entrepreneurs, particularly first-time entrepreneurs, for their perspectives. From an entrepreneur’s view, some of the issues she is
Concept Arbitrage: Pottery Barn
While we’re on the topic of Concept Arbitrage and retail stores, one that I would like to see scaled in India is the Pottery Barn concept of Home Furnishings. The two brands that I have seen as possible players are Anokhi and FabIndia. Fabindia’s first retail store opened in New Delhi in 1976. Today, Fabindia
Concept Arbitrage: Fedex Kinko’s
Sahad reports that Sequoia has invested in a company called Printo that is building a chain of Kinko’s like stores for printing and copying services. “It currently has a chain of six stores across Bangalore, and plans to open 250 retail outlets over the next three years across the country.” This is an interesting concept
Concept Arbitrage: Lonely Planet & TripAdvisor
The Indian Internet Travel segment is booming. Cleartrip, Yatra, Travelguru, Makemytrip – all have received substantial funding from serious names in the VC world. Their focus is primarily on looking for flights and hotels and making reservations. That means, they are focused on Search and Commerce. The Content & Community pieces of my Web 3.0
