Roundtable Recap: October 26 – Emerging Kerala

I spent the last few days in Cochin, at the inaugural edition of TiECon Kerala. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure how much entrepreneurial energy exists in Kerala today, so I had some concerns about the event. The organizers of TiECon also did not have a clear sense of what to expect. Registration was at about 300 before the event.

Well, putting all our concerns to rest, 1100 people showed up and made the conference a resounding success. All the hard work of the TiE Kerala organizing team resulted in an event that created a tremendous platform to take Kerala’s entrepreneurship to the next level.
>>>

Roundtable Recap: October 18 – Carbon Trading In Bulgaria

Soon I am off to India to deliver the keynote address at TiECon in Kerala and help judge a 1M/1M Pitch-Fest competition next Friday, October 26. Then, on Thursday, November 1, I will be leading the Kolkata 1M/1M Pitch-Fest Competition at iLEAD. As part of a joint effort with local leaders to help invigorate entrepreneur development in Bengal, ten top entrepreneurs will be pitching their businesses for the opportunity to win six scholarships to the 1M/1M program. To pitch and compete, entrepreneurs need to complete the application form and submit it by October 20. I hope to see you in Kolkata (register here) and Kerala (register here)! Now more about the conversations during this week’s roundtable.

Kimbra Studios
First, Kimbra Orr a 1M/1M premium member from Littleton, Colorado, came to discuss a few strategic pieces of her business, Kimbra Studios. Kimbra has a photo jewelry business that she has been restructuring. She wants to focus on design and marketing, and has decided to outsource manufacturing and logistics to a firm in California. On the marketing and business development side, Kimbra has continued to build a nice portfolio of OEM partners – typically sites that offer photo sharing and merchandising services – and act as their photo jewelry vendor. This strategy will continue. In addition, she wanted my feedback on other segments she wants to enter – personalized home merchandise being one of them. She also wanted my feedback on catering to men, which I strongly advised her against.
>>>

145th Roundtable Recording On October 18, 2012

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:

145th Roundtable Starting NOW, Live Tweeting By @1Mby1M

Today’s 145th FREE online 1M/1M roundtable for entrepreneurs is starting NOW, on Thursday, October 18, at 8:00 a.m. PDT/11:00 a.m. EDT/8:30 p.m. IST. Click here to join.

145th Roundtable Starting In 30 Minutes: Live Tweeting By @1Mby1M

Today’s FREE online 145th 1M/1M roundtable for entrepreneurs is starting in 30 minutes, on Thursday, October 18, at 8:00 a.m. PDT/11:00 a.m. EDT/8:30 p.m. IST. Click here to join. All are welcome!

Thursday, Oct. 18 – 145th FREE Online 1M/1M Roundtable For Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 145th FREE online 1M/1M roundtable on Thursday, October 18, 2012, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/8:30 p.m. IST.

If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to “pitch” and sell your business idea to Sramana Mitra. You’ll gain constructive feedback and she’ll answer any of your questions. Others can register to “attend” to watch and learn and participate in the live chat. You can find more details here and register to pitch or attend here. Please join us!

Entrepreneurs – 145th FREE Online 1M/1M Roundtable On Oct. 18

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 145th FREE online 1M/1M roundtable on Thursday, October 18, 2012, at 8 a.m. PDT/11 a.m. EDT/8:30 p.m. IST.

If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to “pitch” and sell your business idea to Sramana Mitra. You’ll gain constructive feedback and she’ll answer any of your questions. Others can register to “attend” to watch and learn. You can find more details here and register to pitch or attend here. Join us!

Roundtable Recap: October 11 – Don’t Wait For Someone To Fund Your Alpha

During today’s roundtable, we worked with two entrepreneurs, both with interesting business ideas.

Khummo
First, Josep Ballestes from Barcelona, Spain, pitched Khummo, a SaaS solution for hotels to collect feedback from customers through a mobile app. Josep already has a customer – a hotel chain with 1000 rooms – that is going to test the solution in November. He also has a business model hypothesis – $5 per room per hotel per month. Josep is getting certain feature requests that are adding to his value proposition, including using his app as the hotel’s portal during the customers’ stay at the hotel. With certain minor adjustments, this can potentially be incorporated into the product. Hotels are, of course, very interested in having satisfied customers write TripAdvisor reviews.

SolutioNXT
Next, Gokul Anantha from Sunnyvale, California, pitched SolutioNXT, a cloud management solution for process control and process performance to be used by the CIO’s office. Gokul has some basic business model and pricing model assumptions, and has validated the customer pain point. However, there is quite a bit of work to be done yet on market sizing and go-to-market strategy. Primarily, Gokul cannot wait for someone to fund his alpha development. He has to get going, if this is the business he wants to build.
>>>