Venture Capital in Slow Growth Markets: India, EdTech, Cleantech

There are a number of relatively slow growth markets in which we do a lot of business: India and EdTech are two examples. These are also two markets that I am passionate about, and have covered prodigiously for a long time. In a way, these markets, and many others that have similar characteristics, share very similar trajectories vis-a-vis entrepreneurship, venture capital, and exits. Another market in which 1M/1M doesn’t have much presence, but I have invested in, is Cleantech. The story is somewhat similar there as well. Let’s take a look at these slow-growth markets, and how they will emerge over the upcoming years.

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How To Fund A ‘Fat’ Startup

These days, we focus a lot more on lean startups than startups that require capital to get going. The entire industry has moved away from the ‘fat’ startup category. However, infrastructure software, hardware, networking, chips – they need capital. Even in cloud software, to build complex technology like personalization and analytics requires some investment.

How do people fund those?

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The Indian Startup Eco-System Wants Acqui-hiring!

I spent large chunks of time in the last two days with my friend Sharad Sharma, one of the true deep thinkers of the Indian startup eco-system. I first met Sharad when he invited me to co-chair the Nasscom Product Conclave in Bangalore with him in 2010. I really enjoyed working with him, and over the years, have come to appreciate what he is trying to do for the Indian eco-system.

Sharad, by the way, is one of the 20 odd effective angel investors who invest in the technology sector in India. While the total number of angel investors is much larger, many of them come from outside the sector, and hence are not capable of leading deals. If you look at Indian Angel Network or Mumbai Angels, for instance, a vast majority of the angels made their money elsewhere (like real estate), and often find it difficult to fully grasp what’s happening in the software, mobile or Internet businesses, let alone networking or semiconductor. Thus, these lead angels are critical for the eco-system to mature.

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Series A Crunch: How 1M/1M Can Help

If you have the stomach for it, the metal to carry on, the energy to bootstrap to a point where either you CAN get funded, or generate enough revenues and become profitable, we can help.

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Series A Crunch: Bootstrapping Works

Just because you have been rejected by VCs doesn’t mean you cannot build a great business.

Marc Benioff was rejected by pretty much ALL the VCs he approached. Didn’t stop him from building Salesforce.com into a multi billion dollar enterprise with global impact.

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Series A Crunch: Forget Freemium

What is your business model? Do you have one, or is it TBD?

Is it Freemium?

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Series A Crunch: Obsession With Exit

Do you know the difference between a business model and an exit strategy?

Are you building a business that has a real, viable business model?

Or are you trying to do an Instagram?

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Series A Crunch: Tyranny of the TAM

What is TAM? Perhaps, the biggest factor in whether a VC funds you or not. TAM = Total Available Market.

Note: Top Down TAM doesn’t matter. You need to present a Bottom-Up TAM Analysis.

And to get funded, that TAM needs to be very large. Billion. Two billion. Ten billion.

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