Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Pravin Gandhi, Seedfund – Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, India (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Vandana Upadhyay

I am talking to Pravin Gandhi, a founding partner at Seedfund, which is one of the India’s leading early-stage venture capital funds, with operations in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi.

Seedfund was founded in 2006 by Bharati Jacob, Mahesh Murthy, and Pravin Gandhi.  In 2010, they raised Seedfund II, which is a $54 million fund. The fund also runs its own incubator.

Irina: Hi, Pravin. Let’s start with your personal background. Where are you from and where did you receive your education? How did you arrive at this point in your life?

Pravin: I was born in Mumbai and did my schooling here. I did my undergraduate work at Cornell and then returned to India after I finished my undergraduate degree. Then I worked in a couple of companies because I really wanted to be an entrepreneur. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Ross Sanders, Bizdom U – Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Ross: Our entrepreneurs get access to resources and funding for their business. We think it is a huge opportunity. They get a stipend, as I mentioned, for the four months, while in the program. We provide laptops and BlackBerries; really everything connected with to program, so they get a ton of assistance in taking the business from A to Z as a result of being associated with Bizdom U. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Jerry Creighton, Enterprise Development Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology – Newark (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Jerry: When we hire students at the incubator, the university pays the students weekly, and then I bill the company and they reimburse the university for the students’ services.

Irina: How are the faculty compensated?

Jerry: It’s up to them. It could be free. It could be whatever it is. A lot of them, because they’re looking for student programs, could [do it as] a pro bono kind of thing. They could work together that way. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Jerry Creighton, Enterprise Development Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology – Newark (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to Jerry Creighton, executive director of the Enterprise Development Center at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).  Based in Newark, New Jersey, the center is home to nearly 86 high-tech and life sciences companies. The center’s entrepreneurs have access to the institute’s facilities and can partner with researchers to help grow their business. EDC is also in the heart of Newark’s University Heights Science Park and the Newark Innovation Zone. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Stephen Fleming, Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Tech – Atlanta (Part 8)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What about those entrepreneurs who don’t need or want to raise money?

Stephen: Right, the bootstrappers. We have an active community of bootstrapping companies now, that for whatever reason, don’t need to or choose not to raise money – or choose not to raise money right now. We help them. The core proposition is to build something that somebody wants to pay for, build it fast, and bring in revenue. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Tim Lavengood, Technology Innovation Center – Evanston, Illinois (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Irina: How do you usually process entrepreneurs’ applications or inquiries?

Tim: I don’t have a hard and fast rule for that because, again, I don’t want people to articulate aspects of their business that they are not yet qualified to do.

I just don’t want them to spend six hours trying to produce a financial projection for their company because I know they don’t know how. So, most of it is conversational and again, that can be over the Internet or through meetings with me here in this office. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Stephen Fleming, Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Tech – Atlanta (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Stephen: Now, phase 2 [of the Georgia Research Alliance Commercialization Program] – and we go up to Phase 4 – phase 2 is an up to $100,000 grant, again, to the university or universities. Sometimes these are joint ventures between, for example, Georgia Tech and Emory.

It is competitive, so it goes to that same committee. The biggest change between Phase 1 and Phase 2, other than the increased dollar value, is that the company has to have demonstrated its ability to raise an equal amount of money from someone else. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ebony Johnson, Entrepreneurial Programs Champion, TechTown — Detroit, Michigan (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Ebony: We have this quadrant approach. If you think of a quadrant, on the X axis there is the stage of business development. So, the company can be in its early, early idea phase, or it can be in its growth phase. Then, on the Y axis is really the founders’ entrepreneurial experience. So, they can be novices or they can be serial entrepreneurs. And we break down what services we provide based on where they fall in that quadrant. >>>