2 SEGMENT

Message FROM THE

Advisor
PROF ASHWIN MAHALINGAM
is Associate Professor at IIT Madras’s
Civil Engineering department. He
serves as the Faculty Advisor for
IIT-M’s Entrepreneurship Cell.

A couple of years ago, I spoke to a group of second year undergraduate students and asked them what they planned to do
when they graduated. All of them unanimously voiced their preference for either starting-up a company or working in a
start up, over more established choices such as taking up a job or opting to study further. While not entirely unexpected,
I was surprised (and pleasantly so) that entrepreneurship was taking hold of our student’s imagination. In many ways
this is reflective of a larger trend that we are seeing at IIT-Madras today, where centers such as CFI, programs such as
Nirmaan and organizations such as the IITM Incubation Cell are bustling with activity. Gifted students are continu-
ously engaged in trying to push their ideas beyond their labs, hostels and workspaces, and little surprise therefore to see
IIT-Madras dominating the university campus entrepreneurship space as evinced by 4 of the 5 finalists in the recent
campus entrepreneurship competition conducted by ET, coming from IITM. The current vibe around entrepreneurship
also mirrors something that has been noticed in several parts of the world that have been host to a thriving entrepreneur-
ial ecosystem - college students or early career professionals are strong catalysts for innovation since they may, in many
cases be able to take greater risks at this stage of their career.

While all of this is positive and welcome, it is also important to understand that entrepreneurship is not always a bed
of roses. Entrepreneurs need to be innovative, but also need to be highly persistent (and a bit lucky) to succeed. En-
trepreneurial ventures take time to succeed, and there may be more than the occasional moment of despair along the
way. Successful entrepreneurs overcome these odds to build businesses. It is therefore very important to be constantly
grounded in reality through ones journey in starting up a company. This is where it becomes extremely important to learn
from other entrepreneurs - and where better to start, than our own community where we already have several exemplars.

In this issue, you will find articles on two of the more successful ventures that IITM has spawned
in recent times - Detect Technologies and Planys Tech. Neither has had a linear journey towards
growth but are quite successful today and understanding how they overcame bottlenecks will be
instructive. Other articles focus on faculty and student entrepreneurs or startups that transcend a
variety of phases and domains - social entrepreneurship, early stage travails and so on. We hope
that readers of this newsletter will gain a more nuanced understanding of entrepreneurship from
these articles, which will in turn help them as they grapple with existential questions that entre-
preneurship often brings about. Hopefully they will be better prepared for the challenges that lie
in wait, and successfully overcome them to push IIT-Madras’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship
ecosystem to even greater heights.
Every individual who
aspires to be
an entrepreneur
should be promoted,
and the rest
must be inspired.

WRITERS EDITORS
Nikhil Roul Divanshu Kumar
Raj Kiriti Abhishek Kelkar
Sarath Kumar S Pranav Bhargav
Rahul Dubey
Devi Raghavee V
K Shivani
Siddharth Kapre
Anay M Shembekar DESIGN
Arvind Pujari Naomi Karyamsetty
Rishabh Kumar Rudram Piplad

Divanshu Kumar
Head
Editorial and Research Team
editorial_ecell@smail.iitm.ac.in
While I am writing this note about the second edition of the magazine that
has come out so well, I can be assured that the vision for which the Edito-
rial & Research team of E-Cell was started will be achieved in no time. The
mission of this team is to share the knowledge of entrepreneurship and the
latest developments with the students of the institute and aspiring entre-
preneurs. Since its inception last semester, starting with 3 members to 15
members at present, the team has worked very hard to achieve its mission,
undertaking different initiatives for the same.
The magazine is structured to cater to different kinds of readers that we
have, ranging from tech freaks, changemakers to startup enthusiasts, as-
piring entrepreneurs, and founders. Through wide miscellany of articles,
it is hoped that the magazine will add value to everyone, helping them in
some way of the other. While 'Entrepreneurs speak' and 'Rags to Riches' are
aimed at motivating the youths to take up entrepreneurship, Institute start-
up series is our way of appreciating the youngsters who, at this very young
age, have realized their dream of pursuing entrepreneurship. 'Riders of
Change' is another interesting series which focuses on institute professors
who are using their research to help the society as well. Lastly, I would like
to draw readers' attention towards our miscellaneous series which covers
articles including the things that every entrepreneur must know about to
the latest developments in the startup world.
I would also like to take this note as an opportunity to express how priv-
ileged I feel today to lead this team of extremely talented and dedicated
individuals who have worked very hard for this edition of the magazine.
Each and every one of them has stepped out of his/her comfort zone to
make his possible. In this journey, my efforts have been to imbibe the
entrepreneurial habit among my teammates and I hope that the same gets
inculcated in each student irrespective of whether he/she wants to start-up
or take up a job or pursue further studies. With this, I would like to end my
note, wishing readers to have a good time reading the magazine.
8 ARTICLE
Fostering Innovation
THE GOPALAKRISHNAN-
DESHPANDE CENTER
There’s a system that has evolved
in IIT Madras over the last few
decades, a system through which the
institute does its best to support our
creative, innovative students if ever
they decide to strike out on their
own. This system has been quite
efficient and successful: IIT Madras
has likely been incubating more
startups than any other academic
institution in the country. We
have managed to create a healthy
entrepreneurial ecosystem, and more
and more students are coming forth
with ideas and innovations that
can change the world. Things are
progressing smoothly, and at this rate,
the entrepreneurship scene at IIT
Madras will be able to compete with
even global heavyweights like MIT
in time.
RAJ KIRITI
Dr Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, a
pioneer in this area, believes that IIT
Madras is at that point in its journey
where it’s ready to scale things up.
Having already set up centres for
this very purpose across the world,
we’ve taken his help in setting up The
Gopalakrishnan‐Deshpande Center
for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
The main purpose of the GDC, IIT
Madras is to provide the leadership,
support systems and processes
that will help entrepreneurial and
innovative thinking pervade a wide
swathe of activities, ranging from
teaching to research to product
development to policy‐making.
A conversation with R. Nagarajan,
Dean, International & Alumni
Relations, IIT Madras provided us
with some useful insights into the
reasoning and purpose behind this
ambitious project. He feels that while
the Center for Innovation focused
on the technical aspects of starting
up, and Nirmaan and the Incubation
Cell helps students take the products
past the prototype phase, the GDC
aims to promote entrepreneurship
with the major emphasis being
on the institute’s ecosystem, and
the ways in which societal and
academic expectations impede
our development. To quote Dr.
Nagarajan, “Does our college allow
students the freedom to explore? To
what extent does the rigidity of the
credit system hamper students’ will to
create something new? We need to
start giving credit where due, not just
for grades.” The centre will conduct
sessions, training programs, and other

activities to promote a more desirable
attitude among both faculty and
students.
Aside from that, the centre will
identify a few ideas every year
and perform the role of an Angel
Investor until the program is capable
of standing on its own. All ties to
the program will be severed after
this. The GDC provides unique
networking opportunities for the
students of IIT Madras, in that it
will be a part of the Deshpande
Innovation Network of Centres –
sharing ideas and knowledge from
dozens of other institutions with
a similar purpose. It will also be
part of a robust network of over
100 institutions that are part of the
annual Deshpande Symposium for
Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
This Centre will not embody the idea
of a conventional institution intended
to promote entrepreneurship. The
GDC plans to work on a much
broader scale, and to achieve its
rather lofty objectives, a rough plan
has been formulated.
• Target faculty – inspire them to
be more entrepreneurial in both
their teaching and research.
• Create new courses that
contribute to strengthening the
institute’s ecosystem.
• Shed light on challenges in India,
and encourage students and
faculty to come up with feasible
solutions.
• Set up regular challenges in
collaboration with other parts of
our ecosystem.
• Encourage cross-campus
collaborations.
• Engage in Branding &
Marketing activities
• Create support for innovation/
research initiatives
with translation and
commercialization potential.
• Build a leadership program
to promote entrepreneurial
thinking.
The GDC will be governed
by a Board consisting of one
ARTICLE 9
representative from each donor, one
member chosen by the Institute
Director, and one representative
of the GDC itself. The Board
will be given strategic advice by
a Steering Committee consisting
of Kris Gopalakrishnan, Dr.
Desh Deshpande, Dr. Bhaskar
Ramamurthi (Director, IIT Madras),
and Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala
(Faculty‐in‐charge, IITM Research
Park & Incubation Cell).
The Centre will be fully functional
early next year. Every activity of
the GDC will be full publicised so
that participation is maximized.
Dr. Nagarajan emphasizes that
participation will not be restricted
to students, as even faculty can gain
just as much from such events. He
hopes that the GDC will lead to the
setting of new benchmarks in the
entrepreneurial scene, and accelerate
the change in conservative mind-sets
holding back the brilliance in India’s
young population.
10 COVER STORY

Grassroots
Innovations
RAJ KIRITI
Dressed in a kurta-pyjama with a well-grown beard, with his intriguing talks driven by creativity, compassion,
collaboration and curiosity, Professor Anil Gupta reminds one of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.

Dr. Anil K Gupta is a professor at the Centre for Management in Agriculture, Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad. He is the founder of Honey Bee Network and a member of the Governing Board of IIMA. He is also
the executive vice chair, National Innovation Foundation. With a Mission to expand the global as well as the
local space for innovations at grassroots and collegiate level, link ideas in informal and formal sectors, ensure
recognition, respect, and reward for creative people; to create knowledge networks for augmenting innovations
and unfolding creative potential of individuals, institutions and societies through frugal, flexible and friendly
empathetic innovations, he is striving hard to strike a constructive balance between formal education and
traditional innovations. Let’s hear what he has to say about...

Grassroots innovations...
One of the important factors that
helps in a breakthrough, which
many grassroots innovators have
achieved in their life, is to be an
incorrigible optimist. Many of
the problems which they solve
are challenging enough. These are
optimization problems. If the formal
and informal sciences blend, a lot
of innovations will happen. You
can have some of the most frugal
innovations using the creativity
and imagination of the common
people and the enormous scientific
and technological competence that
young people have in the institutions.
If we pay attention, see patterns,
see connections across disciplines,
across domains of knowledge,
breakthroughs can emerge. One
could come out with discoveries
and breakthroughs by breaking the
boundaries.
Franklin brought to them. They didn’t sectors, the work and educational,
produce it, but they could add value technological, and institutional
to it. She had all the structure in innovations with cultural creativity.
front of her in the crystallography
but she couldn’t see. They saw. Many The Honeybee is a metaphor with
times, we need to be able to see the following elements:
patterns and make contribution.
First: Cross pollination of ideas
Knowledge sharing... and people to people transfer of
Many of the times, we become knowledge. We take an idea of a
possessive about our ideas. I fear tree climber made in Tamil Nadu
where the human civilization would to Northeast or some place where
be, if the rest of the world thought people are looking for that solution.
like that. Knowledge network is Sometimes, traditional knowledge
the essence of life, everything else of one place becomes innovation of
is subsidiary. People must share.
The ratio of the private, common
and public determines not only our
degree of happiness but also our
leadership skills. Those who become
successful leaders in life should
have a much higher share of public
in their knowledge production and
dissemination process.

Value addition... HoneyBee networks...

We are a consumer of global
knowledge but not a producer of it.
If you have high download ratio and
an even higher upload ratio, then you
are adding value to that knowledge.
Watson and Crick just interpreted
the crystallography which Rosalind
HoneyBee network is trying to
make knowledge economy more
fair, accountable, responsible and
respectful of the relation between
formal and informal sectors. This
is what honeybee network is about.
It connects formal and informal

another place.
Second: We learn from people,
we acknowledge. Just because we
are chronicling the data, we are
not the authors of it. They are the
authors. Even scout who connects
us to problems and solutions is
acknowledged.
Third: Whatever we learned from the
people should go back to them in the
local language. Every photograph we
take from the trips to these villages
goes back to them. We can’t be an
extortionist. We can’t just go there
and take photographs and enrich our
lives without sharing back with them.
Fourth: If we add any value and
generate any profit from it, a
reasonable share must go back to
them.
How did you come up with the
idea of grass root innovations and
what led you to the foundation of
honeybee networks?
The minds on the margin are not
marginal minds. People who are
economically poor are not poor in
their minds. This is the fundamental
paradox that we are trying to solve
and prove that scholars like Maslow,
who believed in a hierarchy of needs,
were wrong. They didn’t realize that
even a weaver or farm worker can
imagine and debate philosophical
questions in their minds. Kabir did
that. Rahim and many of them did
that. They composed hymns which
we still cherish and recall. There is
a long tradition of common people
creating solutions and philosophies
in this country. We have not probably
in our curriculum and pedagogy paid
enough attention to them. So one
question we should ask ourselves is,
“Is there a way to blend the frugality
of common creative person and the
complexity, advanced materials and
technologies of formal systems?”
Multi functionality arises as one
of the key characteristics of frugal
innovations. This is actually the
journey of finding creative instincts
and help them to link with formal
science and technology students for a
combined good.
How does the ‘Honey Bee Network’
go about helping the grass root
innovations? What are the
methodologies that you adopt?
Our Network consists of several
collaborating institutions which work
in an organised way to add value
to the peoples’ ideas, innovations
and traditional knowledge. The
Society for Research and Initiatives
for Sustainable Technologies and
Institutions (SRISTI) works in the
areas of technological, educational
COVER STORY 11
and institutional innovations
and cultural creativity. Then, the
Grassroots Innovation Augmentation
Network (GIAN)focuses on the
triangle of innovation, investment
and enterprise. It does the most
difficult job of bringing the innovator,
entrepreneur and investor together.
A person having innovative ideas
may not have an entrepreneurial
mind-set or enough investments
to realise mass production. At this
point, GIAN acquires its role. The
National Innovation Foundation
(NIF) documents, validates and
adds value to the traditional ideas
sprouting out of genius local minds.
It tries to give them recognition for
their work and helps build channels
to incentivise their innovations. Its
augmented Fabrication Laboratory
(Fab Lab) provides support for
product development and in-house
research. It files patents on behalf of
innovators to protect their intellectual
property rights. Micro Venture
Innovation Fund (MVIF) provides
capital to the grassroots innovators.
Together, they try to assign the
rightful place to the grassroots
technological innovators. They
reinforce the innovations evolving
from the grassroots technological
solutions to the problems of local
12 COVER STORY
communities and small niches
through efficient ‘grassroots to global’
models.
What scope, according to you,
do community led technological
solutions have in the commercial
markets?
There is a long tale of innovations.
Some innovations will diffuse more
and some will diffuse less and a
few of them, very little. What this
implies is that there are niches which
are not generalisable. For example,
in some places, there is high iron
content in water. Normal filter will
not work there and no company
will manufacture exclusive filters as
the problem is not scalable and the
demand is only 20-30 thousand (or
we should wait till a billion people
get high iron content in water!!). So
the scale should not become enemies
of sustainability. One of the major
flaws in our classical thinking is that
anything which is not scalable is
absurd. ‘Distribute and manufacture’
is actually the right answer for high
quality solutions, especially for
specific niches of small population.
Otherwise, we will have more
insurgency and militancy.
Do you think the grassroots
innovations can help solve socio-
economic problems such as poverty,
sanitation, education related issues
faced by people all over the world?
I remember a Gujarati teacher
who on seeing the terrible state of
malnourished children in his village
ordered each student to bring a
handful of grains, particularly pulses.
He cultivated them in the school
and fed the yield to the children.
This solved the problem altogether.
He recorded increased levels of
concentration in the students. The
dropout rate went down as well.
Another teacher challenged the
local mind-set of not educating the
village daughters. She asked the
village elders to keep the promise of
sending their daughters to school as
a gift from them on Rakshabandhan.
These educational innovations clearly
went on to solve the broad spectral
problems in the respective village
communities. There are thousands
of such instances where grassroots
educational and technological
solutions have been impacting the
socio-economic environment of
villages in a positive way. Many of
these solutions hold the potential to
solve the socio-economic problems of
the whole world.
How important do you think are
academic endeavours such as
RuTag (Rural Technology Action
Group), IIT Madras, in promoting
technology in rural India?
They are very useful and we need
more of them, but we need action
at much larger space. I wish the
entire batch , 8000 students, of IIT
Madras go out to 80 villages. Map
all the underutilized resources,
unmet needs, biodiversity, and all the
traditional knowledge of the families.
One person per two, three families.
Come back, do brainstorming to
find out which of these underutilized
resources can be deployed using
modern science and technology. Let
me narrate you a small experience.
“Once I went to a small factory
started by an IIT alumni. They were
making small pinion needles for
machinery. Needle was to be cut
in an oil and would come out in a
bowl. They needed some material
which could absorb the oil . They
tried many things. The problem
was that anything which was even
slightly rough would create marks on
the needle surface. So, they needed
a non abrasive material. They had
a breakthrough when one of their
workers suggested to use the cob of
maize just as he did to remove the
oil from his hands in his village. It
worked brilliantly. A tribal from a
small village solved a problem in a
company set up by an IIT graduate.
You never know how a knowledge
of a worker can solve a problem of a
high tech company. You should use
your skills to solve real life problems
of optimal village resource utilization.
Every time an engineer solves a real
life problem, he not only becomes a
better engineer, but also becomes a
better human being.
What message would you like to
give to budding entrepreneurs?
I would like to say that the concept
of entrepreneurship relies on taking
risks. The bigger the risk is, the
higher the uncertainty is. When
the uncertainty is maximised, we
become vulnerable. This vulnerability
makes us humble and compels us to
realise the importance of learning.
Through learning, we gain the
insight to pay attention to the small
details. I believe that if we heed to
the small things, the bigger things
will take care of themselves. Thus,
entrepreneurship is all about adding
value to the fine aspects; so fine that
nobody else notices any value there.
But, the entrepreneur happily figures
out that he has converted a wasteful
resource into an opportunity.
The need of the hour is to create a
knowledge network where anyone
and everyone could share the valuable
knowledge and traditional know how.
The future growth can be powered
through sharing and caring. I believe
that only open innovations would be
able to hold the grounds in future.
Our entrepreneurs must learn the
importance of creating public good;
the significance of giving back to
the society. Your contribution to the
society as a whole will determine
how successful you are.

Why startup?
“Where do you work?”
“In XYZ, a startup, as a deve….”
“A startup... why?”, the sickening voice
cuts you off.
Be it with an old friend from school,
or your neighbor aunty (let’s not
defame the Sharmas yet), this short
conversation must seem eerily
familiar to any of you who’re into the
startup scene. If not, then you belong
to that lucky breed of our Indian
society who have understanding
relatives and friends.
People choose to answer such
exasperating questions in different
ways—
They might choose the pragmatic way
by trying to answer it point by point,
explaining the pros and cons.
Some people change the topic, they
don’t care to explain.
Some people just end up ruining their
relationship.
This article is to help those who
actively remain oblivious to the
concept of startups in understanding
its ABCs and considering working in
startups as a career option.
So, why choose a startup over a more
structured corporate position?
Everyone is inspired by great
innovators who turn into
entrepreneurs. I mean, who isn’t
motivated by the likes of Steve Jobs,
Bill Gates and Elon Musk? So,
although there are many who want
to reach this landmark, few are sure
whether they want to tread this path.
The real question remains- why don’t
people choose startups when many of
them dream of one?
RISHABH KUMAR
To name a few
Unwillingness to lead or take
responsibility;
Incomplete knowledge about topics like
plagiarism;
Fear of failure;
Peer pressure to choose one of the
conventional paths.
And the list continues….
Isn’t 20 lpa very less for an
IITian?
Expectation is a double-edged
sword. It can thrust you across every
milestone you ever wanted to achieve
or pin you down and restrict you
from flying high.
Often, people don’t want to go
the distance just because they
feel burdened with this weight of
expectation. They accept this weight
as a part of themselves without
questioning it and choose to live with
it.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA 13
There are few who challenge these
stereotypes. But the fire that burns in
those few incinerates any obstacles
coming their way. All successful
entrepreneurs belong to a special
catalogue - those who have shown
the world that they can change it
single handedly.
Don’t limit your goals to merely
salary-hunting. What you gain from
a startup is much more in worth
than a 20-30 lpa package. Let’s see
what the are incentives of joining a
startup-
Skills: Startups offer an incentive
based system that isn’t based on
dollars; instead, it focuses on skills
attained and opportunities seized.
Variety: In conventional jobs,
people remain stuck in a particular
department with the possibility of
vertical growth. They do not find time
14 ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA

skills, and if, later, it doesn’t work

out for them, they use these skill sets
in established companies. Even big
companies value this experience a lot.

Companies have created new

to venture out into different sectors.
Very rarely is horizontal growth of
employees seen.
Innovation: To bring your innovation
to life and see it as tangible product is
a feeling that’s simply irreplaceable.
Frugality: Being efficient with money
is one of the major skills you acquire
when you work in a startup.
Responsibility: Working in startups
makes you a more responsible person
because of the small team. All your
good is appreciated and even smallest
mistake is criticized. This carves you
into a better person.
positions like “entrepreneur in
residence” to bring some adrenaline
into the working of startups. This
clearly proves even established
companies value the skills you acquire
from startups. Further, with new
ventures like the Make in India in
operation and many angel investors
willing to invest in new innovation,
problems related to funding and
Autonomy: Finally, you get to be
marketing of your product are
your own boss.
gradually getting resolved. We might
even expect starting up to be nearly
There are many misconceptions
risk free in a few years (fingers
among the public as regards to the
crossed).
working of startups. A major faction
fails to see the importance of the
Finally, I just want to say that
incentives offered by startups; they
you are born in a time which is
run toward acquiring immediate
considered by many to be the “golden
financial stability. They fear failure.
age of entrepreneurship”. It is an
This is where people need to
age of dreams and opportunities.
understand that even if the startup
So, whatever dreams you have
you join fails, what you learn from
been knitting together since your
it is never lost. Many have started
childhood, the time has come for you
working in startups just for these
to act.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA

#StartupIndia
DEVI RAGHAVEE V
Mr. Narendra Modi, our Prime Minister, has always amused young Indian minds with his eccentric ideas. C’mon,
keeping our small hostel room clean is such a mammoth task by itself. And this man has a dream of keeping the whole
country clean! The optimism of this leader is what many people admire and need in a country like India. So, when he
called out, “Come, Make in India” on August 15th, 2015, during the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort,
he broke the fear of many entrepreneurs in the country.

If we list some of the important events in Indian history which changed the startup ecosystem of our country, then
the introduction of the Startup India scheme would top the list. The event was inaugurated by Mr. Arun Jaitley. It was
attended by many top CEOs from India and around the world.

Some of the key features of the Startup India plan are

• To reduce the regulatory burden on Startups, thereby allowing them to focus on their core business and keep
compliance costs low.
• To create a single point of contact for the entire Startup ecosystem and enable knowledge exchange and access to
funding – Startup India Hub. (It has been operational since April 1st, 2016).
 ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA 15

• Legal support and fast-tracking patent examination at lower costs. This will help in protecting the IPR
(Intellectual Property Rights) (www.ipindia.nic.in) of the company.
• In order to provide funding support to Startups, the Government will set up a fund with an initial corpus of INR
2,500 crore and a total corpus of INR 10,000 crore over a period 4 years (i.e. INR 2,500 crore per year). The Fund
will be in the nature of Fund of Funds, which means that it will not invest directly in Startups, but shall participate
in the capital of SEBI ( Securities and Exchange Board of India) registered Venture Funds. (www.sebi.gov.in/
sebiweb)
• With a view to stimulate the development of Startups in India and provide them with a competitive platform, it
is imperative that the profits of Startup initiatives are exempted from income-tax for a period of 3 years. This fiscal
exemption shall facilitate the growth of business and meet the working capital requirements during the initial years
of operation. The exemption shall be available subject to non-distribution of dividend by the Startup.
• To hold one fest at the national level annually to enable all the stakeholders of the Startup ecosystem to come
together on one platform. To hold one fest at the international level annually in a city known for its Startup
ecosystem.
• Income tax redemption for startups up to three years.
• 35 new incubators, 31 new innovation centers in national institutes.

The Standup India scheme is a
special part of Standup India aimed
at supporting women entrepreneurs
and scheduled castes and tribes. It
aims at promoting innovation and
entrepreneurship at the grassroots
level, which will lead to job creation.
The plan involves providing
handholding support, financial
information and credit guarantee.
The objective is to provide loans
from ₹10 lakhs to ₹100 lakh to
women and scheduled tribe and caste
entrepreneurs in the form of bank
loans.
With the number of research parks
and incubation centers in the country
blooming slowly with the funding
from the MHRD, the change has
been set in motion. The IIT-M
research park stands as a leader in
this field, housing more than 70
startups, and it sets a good example
to all the other academic institutions
in the country. The Startup Conclave
to be held at Odisha is going to be
one of the biggest entrepreneurial
events in the country for the
year 2017, with more than 3000
entrepreneurs pitching for a prize of
about one crore. A magazine, called
The Cofounder, the first startup
magazine of India, was launched by
Mr. Adhush Verma and Mr. Arunraj
Rajendran to boost entrepreneurial
ambitions and also to help new
startups showcase their talents.
Well, let’s just say that it’s a quite a
slow process. Though a definition
for an organization to be defined as
a “startup” was given by the scheme,
it still isn’t clear and the number
of parameters the government
sets to recognize the startup itself
is a long procedure. A capital
gains tax exemption mechanism
has been proposed for those
investing in the startup ecosystem
and many of their concerns still
remain unaddressed. And the most
important part, the funding. It has
not yet been implemented because
the Government is “trying to get
the model right” as quoted by
Mr. Viswanathan, Vice President
(Industry Initiatives, NASSCOM).
Though almost a year has passed
since the implementation of the
scheme, a growth curve has not yet
begun. It is expected that by 2017,
a good momentum will be gained
and most of the problems with the
scheme will be sorted out.
While all these policies make the
difficult path of an entrepreneur
towards success a little comfortable,
the main problem to be solved starts
way before the idea of a startup
is even born. It is the quality of
education that the children receive
and the skill set they acquire from
our technical institutions. India’s
run towards becoming self-sufficient
will not be met unless we are
able to provide an environment
for innovation and the resources
necessary to acquire a good skill set.
And lastly, every great invention
starts with an idea and a dream to
follow one’s passion. So, the day we
start seeing labels reading “Made in
India” more than “Made in China”
is not far away if every young Indian
mind decides to become a job
provider, rather than a job seeker.

So how has all this worked out?

16 HER STORY Women entrepreneurs who made it
Haskell’s Demon
Meet Rajoshi Ghosh, the co-founder of Hasura, who talks about her
experience in entrepreneurship over a candid chat. She shares fresh
insights into the startup world after having gathered varied
sophistication professionally.
EI. Can you describe your
background briefly?
RG. I did my undergraduate in
computational biology from the
National University of Singapore,
and I was involved in genomic
research. Later, in Accra, Ghana,
I taught Computer Science to
students from various backgrounds,
who were involved in computation-
based courses. With the intent of
building a startup, I came back to
India and I am currently operating
from Bengaluru on my company,
Hasura.
Tell us about your startup.
Hasura is an application development
tool. We provide numerous APIs i.e.
application programming interfaces,
which enable rapid creation for users
without the prerequisite of in-depth
knowledge about their working.
We are providing instant technical
solutions to those who have a general
requirement of software development
to solve different world problems.
We would love to hear the story of
its creation.
While teaching, I was in touch with
a lot of students, especially those
pursuing business and economics. As
a result, I got involved in ideation of
various startups and even helped a
couple of them in pitching business
models, polishing their projects
etc. That’s when the thought of a
startup rubbed off on me. In 2012
I came back in India, to my home
town Chennai, where I met my co-
founder Tanmai Gopal. We initially
came up with the idea of a delivery
service for home-cooked food and
we named our first venture Brass
K SHIVANI
Plates, connecting home-chefs to
the people. While developing the
application we faced several backend
issues and started focusing more on
them. Eventually we realized how
solutions to these problems would
aid so many people who have the
need of applications, whether it’s for
their own enterprises or simply for
app development. And that’s how we
started up with Hasura.
How did you meet Tanmai Gopal
and what convinced you into this
partnership?
My sister studied at IIT Madras and
I got to know about her colleague
Tanmai. He was completing his
computer science dual degree, and
was equally enthusiastic about
We provide numerous APIs,
which enable rapid creation for
users without the prerequisite of
in-depth knowledge about their
working.
startups. Tanmai didn’t even sit for
placements; that was the level of
his passion. We decided to meet
up in the institute café and found
ourselves wound up in a two hour
long discussion. We realized that
even with ideas spectrum apart, the
zeal to solve problems effectively and
extensively drove us into partnership.
We believed in making use of these
two parallel trains of thought;
extrapolate them, along with our
skills to conceptualize a concrete
startup.
How did you come up with the
brand name ‘Hasura’?
It is derived from the word “Asura”,
which means demon, since demon or
the ’daemon’ refers to the background
processes that run in a software, and
that’s what we were working on;
providing backend solutions to the
application development process. The
“h” is for the programming language
we use, that is Haskell. And yes,
interestingly that’s how we conceived
this name.
What is your vision or the principal
aim for Hasura?
We aim at democratic app development
by providing instant technical tool so
that people can save time and effort.
Building apps is naturally difficult
for people without any technical
background, but it should not hinder
their main motive. We intend at
making app development a trivial
process for everyone.
What were the challenges your team
faced while creating Hasura?
I think every day is a challenge,
but that’s how the life of an
entrepreneur is, isn’t it? The extent
of every challenge varies vastly, from
seemingly insignificant yet blowing
into your face to an issue as big as
handling huge partnerships and
investors, etc. At regulatory and
policy level, we are lucky since we are
pure tech company.
On a larger scale of things, I feel
that India is lagging in providing
entrepreneurial ecosystem causing
slight difficulties in the adoption of
ideas. Another challenge I can think
of is the general lack of technological

awareness that still exists in our
country. Nevertheless the number of
people involved in startups is rapidly
growing, both in India as well as
around the globe.
All in all, what we face generally are
everyday start up challenges.
What is your opinion on the current
involvement of females in the
startup world?
What I have observed is that very
few applicants are females; for
instance, in every 10 applicants,
1 would be a female. I have a
hypothesis that this is due to family
pressure. This perception is certainly
changing and startups are getting
more accepted by the society in large
Women entrepreneurs who made it HER STORY
Tanmai Gopal and Rajoshi Ghosh. PHOTO:
as time progresses. Most of the time
our hiring has been more need-based
and conscious effort has been made
to include competent members in our
team irrespective of the fact whether
they are male or female. It’s even
speculated that this is the reflected
impact of the rigid mind-sets and
trends established in the society right
since the childhood. I believe positive
reinforcements will help in greater
involvement of females; micro leaders
and opportunities will encourage
them to do something different. And
my experience is extremely specific
to our company and that too in
Chennai, where we carried out the
hiring process.
17
What will be your message to
aspiring entrepreneurs, especially
college students?
I strongly believe that the university
is the best time to venture into
entrepreneurship, because time is
never an issue; one has an exposure
to different skill sets, lab facilities,
infrastructure etc. This is a golden
period and everybody should exploit
it. Don’t over plan. No matter how
small you start, the experience you
gain out of it would be priceless. The
best part is that there are no major
risks involved, no questioning. Just
seize the opportunity and explore the
world of entrepreneurship.
Carpe diem!
18 HER STORY Women entrepreneurs who made it

Goldman-Sachs
to Cashbacks
From a small district of Ambala to being the co-founder of India’s largest cashback site
“Cashkaro”, the story of Swati Bhargava is an inspirational journey. She is one of the top
women entrepreneurs in the Indian E-Commerce Industry and is also an active speaker at
various forums & summits in India and at global platforms.

Rohan, Swati’s husband and also the co-founder of Cashkaro, started his career with
the asset management fund Washington Square and helped grow its asset base from $50
million to $750 million in a period spanning just over 5 years. He then joined Aladdin
Capital, a large US based hedge fund company where he led a $1 billion acquisition of
Solent Capital there and then ran that fund for 2 years.

RAJ KIRITI

same time. start a venture...

A brief description of her journey
till date...
I was born and raised in a small
district, Ambala in Haryana.
I happened to apply for an
internship offered at Singapore
and got accepted. This gave me
global exposure and also the
motivation to apply to London
School of Economics which
I eventually joined. College
education is more about the
exposure and networking, which
was of great help to me. I worked
at Goldman Sachs after that for
five years as an investment banker
and married Rohan around the
One day, we came across a
cashback website and I was
surprised that I could get money
for something which I was
going to buy anyway. But I also
realized that many people did
not know about it. So, we took
the idea which we really thought
was good and made it better.
We started a B2B cash back
company called pouringpounds.
com in U.K and when it was one
and half years old, we returned to
India. Since India has a growing
e-commerce market, we knew
that people would love cashback.
We started cashkaro.com and
we realized many people were
using the website without much
advertisement because of the gap
in the market. We were initially
funded by Kalaari Capital, and
were extremely honoured when
Ratan Tata joined in as an investor
last year.
On quitting a flourishing job to
I genuinely feel now that the
startup experience has actually
made me more valuable as an
employee. I think I have learned
much more than I would have
learned if I had continued in
Goldman. Real life experience is
missing in investment banking.
We all work on virtual deals but
don’t actually make a real impact.
The possibility of having your own
ideas and working on them is less
in such profiles.
For me, a check on cash flow was
a big worry, because we weren’t
going to have any stable income.
However, the fact that we could
make our equity worth more in
the future was the underlying
point. So we figured that we had
enough savings to survive for
another two years without making
any money. That sort of gave us
confidence. I used to look at my
MD at Goldman and think that
it might take 12 years to reach
his position. The acquisition
 Women entrepreneurs who made it HER STORY 19

offers which Cashkaro previously more time than you think. It’s us much. So, they switched over
got were more than that. It’s all tough but once you’ve done it, you to online shopping seamlessly.
about the future and what will won’t look back. As individuals On the positive side, people felt
make more money in long run. I always remembered that if one poorer because they had less cash
We thought that if we had a high thing is worth doing, it’s worth to spend. This led them to look
brand value, our profits would doing well. Each of us needs to for offers in which they could save
increase. do the best we can do and be money and it greatly improved
the best version of ourselves, not Cashkaro’s performance.
Cashkaro... because we owe it to our parents,
Cashkaro acts as a filet for not because they strived hard to Present scenario (with many
various e-commerce giants. If send us to college, but because we E-Commerce giants facing hard
you login through Cashkaro and owe it to ourselves. That is why times)...
buy products online, you’ll get you always need to think about We read every day about many
cash back on the items that you how you can make every 24 hour e-commerce organizations laying
have purchased. We tie up with period more productive. A lot of off many of their employees.
these e-commerce websites for us can get distracted easily, but However, many of our investors
commision on the purchases focus is the key for a successful from these types of organizations
through Cashkaro. We then give startup journey. You need a lot feel that filet marketing will
back some amount to customers of hard work and you can only survive these ups and down. It
as cashback and retain the rest as achieve that if you become the has been proved in many mature
income. For these e-commerce best version of yourself. Until economies like China and
giants it is a source of customer you don’t push yourself that America. We can only go with
acquisition which would cost one mile further, you can’t be the confidence given by these
much more and be rather less successful. You can’t always do countries. We have also saved a lot
effective if marketed through what you feel, sometimes you money by smartly planning our
other ways. So it’s a win-win need to do what is right. 2017 is costs. Most retailers also ask what
situation. all about raising that bar, we need more we can do to increase their
to have a better product, better profitability as they have burned
On having her husband as a co- customer service, better marketing more money in other means. This
founder... and do everything that we do, has led to more incentives from
We actually have a must improve. As years pass on, these firms as Cashkaro, which
complementary set of skills. While you become so involved in the has increased their performance.
he is a bit of a techie, I am more business that you can’t think of
into PR and marketing. So the quitting. So you have no choice A few words on women in
technical decisions are left to him other than making it a success. entrepreneurship...
while the marketing stuff is on me. Similarly, people who are on the We need more of them. In all the
But there are many other areas other side, who are not into this enterprises that I’ve been a part of,
where we take decisions together. journey also need hard work, there were only a few women and
Because he is my husband I can passion and dedication to get to more men. But I think women
actually understand him far better where you want to land. need not worry about that. At
when he comes home late or the end we are here to make
when he can’t pay attention to his Impact of demonetization... business, a business that makes
personal life due to insane work, There are positive and negative sense, which creates value for the
On a lighter note I rather feel I effects because of demonetization team, shareholders and customers.
would have divorced him if I was on e-commerce businesses. The That is what ultimately matters.
not into this (laughing). negative impact was that people Successful women must manage
started cancelling Cash On things like getting work done, not
Job vs Startup... Delivery orders. This reduced being taken for granted. They will
The dilemma of building a startup the number of orders. But surely rise up the ladder soon.
or pursuing job depends on how many Cashkaro customers were
convinced you are about your idea. evolved online shoppers and
Starting up is much more difficult were comfortable with digital
than it looks and takes much transactions which did not affect
20 HER STORY Women entrepreneurs who made it

Swimming
Against the Tide
“It was 1991 to 1995, an era of no internet, no social media, a quiet life on campus, and I
thoroughly enjoyed myself. We were one of the first batches to have plenty of women—20
out of 300 odd boys, which was actually quite big at that time.”

So recalls Roopa Karemungikar, Co-founder, Altura Consulting. What started as a two-

membered team in October, 2007 is now a 110-member consulting team spread across 3
continents, with 120+ customers spread across 24 countries. Altura’s track record since its
inception has certainly been impressive, with a YOY growth of 35% over the past 4 years,
and it continues to grow under Roopa’s leadership with support from an ever-expanding
partner network and a very satisfied global customer base.

Let’s hear what she has to say about her journey as an entrepreneur.

EI: What prompted you to begin
Altura?
RK: One of the biggest pushes to
start my own game was the welling
dissatisfaction built up in me
regarding my career. Frustrations, an
inability to work with a setup that I
had not signed up for, and the added
responsibilities of work took their
toll on me. I somehow felt that I was
better off doing something on my
own. I knew that I would probably
be at my best when I’m my own boss
and leading the team. That was my
trigger.
About your past 10 years as an
entrepreneur?
There is a lot to be said. I started
this company with my colleague
Sandeep, who was working with me
in ADP. While working with other
companies, we were exposed to many
opportunities.
The key thing is that there is a lot
of room to develop consulting in
India and to position it as a global
workforce. That was the motivation
to start off and to nurture a team
which has been giving their best
RAJ KIRITI
ever since their recruitment. These
10 years have been like a roller
coaster ride, many ups and downs
like every other entrepreneur. For me
it was very experimental, especially
during the first few years. We tried
different things. When one didn’t
work we moved on to another. It was
all haphazard. And I must tell you,
when we started, the environment
in India was not as conducive to
entrepreneurship as it is today. It was
very difficult. We had to knock on
many doors for a simple permit. It
took tedious paperwork to get things
done. I don’t think, as a country, that
we were prepared at that time. The
ecosystem was not friendly. However
we went against the tide. We actually
had a very tough route because we
formed the company in 2007, and the
recession broke out in 2008. Many
start-ups died in the process. We just
got lucky, because we won a couple of
contracts abroad for implementation
services. We were in fact hiring at
that time.
I think the luck factor played an
important role, but we were very
cautious about hiring and also
very cautious about how we spent
our money. We were not greedy to
become an overnight success. We
knew it was not a sprint, it was a
marathon. That was how we geared
up for it. Even today, we are very
conservative in the way we spend and
would like to push most of the profits
of the company to employees and
share what we earn.
We have not had any funding, this
has all grown out of our savings, and
essentially has organically fed itself.
So our revenues and profits feed the
next year’s business. It’s definitely not
easy. But I don’t have any regrets, this
is the most satisfied I can ever be in
my career. It’s a journey in itself and I
have enjoyed it so far.
Any particular skills that were
handy while building your own
start-up?
I think there are some basics of
entrepreneurship that are needed.
Having passion, a risk-taking
nature, and an ability to drive under
uncertainty are indispensable. Having
strong decision-making skills is a key
because your life as an entrepreneur
depends solely on your decisions.

Some basics of finance, cash flow,
how a company operates, and how
to work with people would help.
Although I must say that the top
rank attribute is speaking skills. The
art of persuasion! One must have the
ability to sell and articulate what one
thinks.
What is your vision for Altura?
Altura has been working around
human resource management
solution space. Our dream is to have
a global outreach and be a name
to reckon with in the HR space.
We need to grow and expand our
operations. But the vision is to
become the leading player in human
resource management.
What are some suggestions for
female entrepreneurs?
There are definitely certain subtle
aspects, and some blatant aspects
that you come across. I think your
decision-making ability is very
important. I have often found
women leaning on someone for this.
I think it is also equally principal
to be emotionally independent
and financially sound. Women
are naturally slightly better at
Women entrepreneurs who made it HER STORY
handling people. It places us in a
very advantageous position because
whatever you do in business, you
always need to deal with people.
Recognise that gift and use that
as an advantage. Cultural aspect is
important too. This depends on the
country you grow in. The Indian
society still has a very patriarchal
mind set. Ten years ago it was much
worse. We must devise ways to get
around that. What women do gets
noticed a bit more. But it’s all a
matter of perception. At the end of
the day it is being confident and clear
about what you want that matters. So,
to summarize, making bold decisions,
being clear about your terms, and
being aware of various mindsets in
different countries while dealing with
people are the important parameters.
You think it’s getting better?
I definitely think women
participation in a workforce has
increased, and hence, the openness
to receive more women is higher
in technology space. However,in
leadership, we are still a rarity. Any
boardroom you go, you hardly see any
woman. It is very different because
it has always been a boys club. I
21
definitely notice a big difference
since my time. There are no particular
issues that I faced within the
company, or anything explicit outside
the company. It’s kind of sad because
the interactions in boardrooms
with some women are different. I
sometimes felt out of place and felt
it hard to break the ice with my male
counterparts. I hope that the next
generation won’t face the same issues
as we did.
Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs...
Entrepreneurship is a very irregular
affair. If you want to dive into it you
have to go all in; mind, body, spirit,
soul, money, passion, everything!
The second thing is, once you start
your business, be very clear about
your business model, where you get
the cash from and how you would
generate revenue. It is very important
to understand and sensitize yourself
with the value of money. The third
thing is bad times will recur and
so will good times. The cycle will
continue. Be persistent and don’t
give up. Finally, whatever business
model you decide, learn as you grow;
because learning is the currency for
your next bet. Devour knowledge.
22 SEGMENT

What makes
As the annual flagship event of
E-Cell, IIT Madras, E-Summit
is the organization’s effort at
instilling an entrepreneurial
spirit and making it an

E-Summit indispensable part of the startup

ecosystem in our institution.

Eagerly awaited by both aspiring

2017 Special?
entrepreneurs and investors
alike, E-Summit 2017 promises
to be full of fun-filled activities
going hand in hand with some
amazing learning content and
opportunities over the second
ANAY M SHEMBEKAR weekend of April.

Flashback to two years ago – E-Cell,
IIT Madras didn’t exist on the scale
it does now. In fact, “C-TIDES”, as
it was called back then, held little
appeal to the masses. Our very own
students had almost no inkling of the
significance of an entrepreneurship
oriented body in the institute. Oh,
it had its fair share of events. Its
flagship event, “E-Week”, was a week
full of impressive events, lectures,
and debates. They were very small-
scale and localised, however, and
never gained the momentum and
popularity C-TIDES aimed for.
Inevitably, C-TIDES gained
competent, driven leadership. Several
“brainstorming” sessions later,
the entire structure and approach
of C-TIDES was scrapped and
revolutionized, starting with its very
name. The new “Entrepreneurship
Cell, IIT Madras” started working
on the pitfalls that were responsible
for C-TIDES’s lack of recognition
– primarily, the branding of the
organization, and on making E-Cell
seem more approachable and
student-friendly.
The E-Summit is one of the
products of the aforementioned
ideating sessions, with a clear
vision – to promote and develop an
entrepreneurship spirit, as mentioned
before. The major difference between
C-TIDES’s events and those
orchestrated by E-Cell is that the
new events were interactive. They
gave prospective entrepreneurs a
chance for networking, gaining
mentorship, and to get a general
know-how in the startup field.
The events at E-Summit 2016 were
designed to cater to four specific
segments of the masses—
• People with no or little
knowledge of entrepreneurship -
Lectures, Panel Discussions and
Internship Fair were targeted
towards this segment of the
audience.
• People with only an idea for a
startup - Bootcamp was intended
for these folks. These were
people who, usually, had little-
to-no work experience, and they
benefited the most from the
Bootcamp.
• People with a feel for
entrepreneurship - These
audiences were catered to by the
event ‘Case Studies’. It gave them
a glimpse into the problems they
might face in the future.
• People who are already
entrepreneurs - Events like
‘Startup Expo’ and ‘Demo Day’
were included for their benefit.

What follows are a few ways

E-Summit 2017 improves on its
predecessor.

Startup Bootcamp
Startup Bootcamp was undoubtedly
E-Summit 2016’s biggest success. It
is likely the most anticipated at our
coming E-Summit. This event was
ably supported by the Incubation
Cell, IIT Madras.

Then
E-Cell’s first Startup Bootcamp was
conducted as a part of E-Summit
2016. The event was conducted in
several stages, the first of which was
‘Startup Wars’. The registered teams
pitched in front of available mentors,
and the worthy ones were picked
for mentorship and a “networking
dinner”, held on the very night of
their selection. The mentors and
mentees would then enter a rigorous
preparation schedule for the final
pitching in front of prospective
investors. The Startup Bootcamp
had 22 registrations last year, out of
which 12 teams participated. Last
year’s winner was Pikkolo - a social
entrepreneurship startup which aims
to reduce the burden on landfills.
The event garnered praise from its
participants, mentees, mentors, and
investors alike.
Now
This time, E-Cell is scaling up this
event – its popularity demanded it.
The event is now conducted in two
rounds – one online mentorship
round, and an offline round of
mentoring and pitching conducting
during the Summit. This helped
deal with the increased participant
turnout – we had an amazing 90
registrations and 49 applications for
the event. 26 of these were chosen
for the online mentorship round
(1st – 18th March). 9 of these, in
turn, will take part in the offline
round. This time’s Startup Bootcamp
offers a much wider range of both
mentors and investors, and better
cash rewards.
Demoday/Pitchfest:
Demoday was right behind Startup
Bootcamp in terms of popularity
at last year’s E-Summit. This
achievement is made no less by the
fact that this was a spontaneous event
– the E-Cell team took what meagre
resources they had and used them to
create a miracle. This was a showcase
event – the gathered participants had
the opportunity to present their ideas
to a celebrated group of mentors and
gain valuable feedback.
This time, Demoday was reinvented
as “Pitchfest”. Rather than just
The E-Cell 2016 organising team.
receiving feedback, valuable though
it was, the startups would now pitch
directly to and receive funding from
the investors themselves. For a new
event, we received a whopping 70
registrations for the event.
The success of E-Summit 2016
wasn’t simply dependent on its
trademark events – several minor
events and lectures were involved as
well. They include –
Panel Discussions
The Panel Discussions were
irreplaceable in the sense that they
offered condensed knowledge. These
discussions added a scholarly flavour
to the E-Summit and will do so
again in this edition. The presence
of top notch panellists ensure an
increased brand value for E-Cell.
Biz-Quiz
Biz-Quiz was intended to be a reality
check for the audience regarding
their business knowledge. The
famous quizmaster, Naveen Jaikumar,
conducted this event with great zest
and energy.
Startup Expo
Startup Expo was another important
part of E-Summit 2016. It will also
form an integral part of E-Summit
2017. The E-Cell team spread the
word among various known startups
both inside as well as outside the
institute. The Chennai Coffee Club
also agreed to send 5 startups a day,
for each of the three days.
SEGMENT 23
The E-Cell team will introduce
several other new, unique events
happening for the first time at
E-Summit 2017. One of them is –
Unconference
A 3 day entrepreneurial event where
participants innovate and try to solve
some of the more pressing problems
in our country today.
Though it started small, the team
went forward with the motto
“Better start than never”. With
the learning experience from the
past and enthusiasm driven by
the growing entrepreneurial spirit
among the people, E-Summit is
all set to get bigger and better. The
previous summit helped E-Cell
gain respect and credibility both
in and out of Chennai. No wonder
many promising start-ups, esteemed
mentors, and quality investors have
agreed to grace this Summit with
their presence.
Noticeably, E-Summit has been a
landmark in the history of E-Cell.
Without E-Summit, E-Cell
wouldn’t be enjoying the popular
status it does today. It wouldn’t
have earned the “trustworthy” tag.
E-Cell wouldn’t be a dependable
and credible organisation if not
for its E-Summit. Missing out on
attending an event that has garnered
such prestige for E-Cell would be a
truly regrettable choice – this is the
opportunity for growth and progress
that both prospective and established
entrepreneurs have been dreaming of.
24 ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
The Way Forward
From the invention of the wheel to
the modern day high-tech railway
networks, gazing at the stars to
sending rovers to far off planets,
messenger pigeons to Internet-of-
Things, mankind has come a long
way. The world economy has gone
global. The number of rich people
is on a steady rise. The incomes are
increasing. We are enjoying luxurious
life with all the technological
advances at our service to reduce
our efforts. But, have these benefits
reached all sections of the society?
Unfortunately, a huge chunk of the
world population is still living under
a perpetual state of extreme poverty.
Let alone the so called ‘luxuries of
life’, they do not have access to the
bare minimum of necessities such
as food, clean drinking water, cheap
housing, proper sanitation and good
quality education. On the other
hand, the greed of mankind has
brought the life sustaining forces
of this planet to their knees. The
natural balance of the planet has gone
haywire. The environmental issues,
previously, unheard of are ubiquitous
now. There are problems. But, where
are the solutions? May be it’s all
about not knowing and finding out.
The new concept of ‘Social
Entrepreneurship’ endeavours
to deliver competitive solutions
to all these problems. The flag
bearers of this novel concept,
called the ‘social entrepreneurs’,
are using modern technologies and
techniques to decode the answers
to socio-economic, cultural and
environmental issues. These for profit
entities working on equi-marginal
principle are attempting to realize
the sustainable development goals
while generating a positive ‘return’
RAHUL DUBEY
to give back to the society. They
represent the humanitarian side
of entrepreneurship whereby the
society is the ultimate beneficiary.
They maintain a holistic approach in
solving the issues through creative
ideas such as empowering grassroots
innovations, promoting niche
specific solutions, developing eco-
friendly and cost effective methods
and so forth. These entrepreneurs
measure their success not in terms
of profits they earn, but in terms of
social impact they kindle. The only
difference between the ‘traditional’
entrepreneurship and ‘social’
entrepreneurship is the impetus
behind their ideas. The former tries to
maximize the profit, while the latter
seeks to transform the society to
ensure inclusive development.
Many researchers believe that
this whole concept of social
entrepreneurship ensues from 4
‘E’s: ‘E’quality, ‘E’quity, ‘E’fficiency
and ‘E’thics. The notion of equality
talks about equal opportunities
for everyone. Equity spells out
the importance of being just and
unbiased to uphold the rights of
the community and its members.
Efficiency denotes the skills
to use business knowledge of
an entrepreneur in solving the
underlying social problems. Finally,
ethics is related to the moral values
and talks about altruism. One should
understand that these terms are not
mutually exclusive. Simply put, Social
enterprises come into existence in
socially turbulent phases to uphold
the dignity and honour of the
community.
Modern business transactions are
based on quid pro quo model which
emphasizes on two way exchange,
i.e. to get anything of value, we need
to give back something of equal or
higher value depending upon the
desire of the owner. We use ‘money’
to facilitate these transactions.
However, social transactions do not
work this way. In fact, most of the
times, it is the social enterprises that
push the value towards the target
community which often does not
have enough financial resources to
pull any.
The domain of social
entrepreneurship includes ‘sustainable
entrepreneurship’ which encompasses
the ability of an enterprise to
attain viability while promoting
environmentally friendly economic
conducts. The key is to overcome
challenges in the path of optimum

and efficient utilisation of natural
resources. These entrepreneurs tend
to reallocate the under-utilised
natural resources by creating markets
through entrepreneurial actions and
thereby, try to reduce pressure on the
resources which are near depletion.
For instance, the over dependence
on fossils fuels to meet the energy
requirements has not only increased
the energy costs due to the difference
in demand and supply, but has also
polluted the environment to an
extent that the self-purifying action
of nature has failed to restore its
previous state. This has led to the
development of renewable energy
technologies, fuel cells, green
structures, cheap solar devices and
other sectors catering to the energy
needs of the poor and isolated rural
population suggesting growing
opportunities for such ventures.
Newer areas such as bioremediation,
bio fortification, organic farming,
waste management and recycling
have also attracted the attention of
‘sustainable entrepreneurs’.
There are many examples in our
country and worldwide who look in
the eyes of the monstrous problems
of the marginalised sections. Ajaita
Shah is making available the highest
grade clean energy products to rural
India through ‘Frontier Markets’ with
the goal of ‘last mile distribution’.
Harish Hande uses sustainable
technologies to eradicate poverty in
rural India through his foundation
called ‘SELCO India’. Husk Power
Systems create unique models of
ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA 25
compartmentalized thinking prevents
the entrepreneurial activities to
interconnect with highly complex
societal systems.
The dawn of social entrepreneurship
marks a paradigm shift. This more
altruistic form of entrepreneurship
continuously challenges the
traditional way of making profits
without caring about anything else.
It dares the man-kind to confront
the pressing social issues with élan
and at the same time provides the
opportunity to create value where
nobody else has seen any. It not only
triggers a positive change in the
‘decentralised’ energy generation
society, but also acts as a medium
and transmission which can be
to ensure a greater sense of self-
easily managed by the locals using
fulfilment. We have realised that
local resources. The Honey Bee
the solutions to the problems of
Network recognises the innovations
the community have to come out
at the grassroots and protects the
of the community itself. Obviously,
intellectual property rights of these
some people will have the leadership
grassroots innovators. TerraCycle
roles to implement these solutions
recycles waste products to convert
effectively and efficiently. These
their linear life cycles into cyclic
people are doing a great service to the
ones. Grameen Bank founded by
man-kind by catalysing the change
Prof. Muhammad Yunus has been
in the positive direction. Thanks to
working on eradication of poverty
their efforts, we can now imagine a
and empowerment of women in
world where innovative solutions will
Bangladesh through its revolutionary
dominate the global socio-economic
pro-poor credit delivery system
scenario.
since 1976. Unlike most of us- who
acknowledge various socio-economic,
cultural and environmental problems,
but never resort to solve them- these
people have demonstrated that the
community has all the means to wipe
them out from the face of our planet.
The biggest challenge for social
entrepreneurship executants and
researchers alike is to device a scheme
to determine the performance and
social impact of such ventures. Most
facets of social impact are beyond
quantification. Serious efforts in this
direction are required to compare
what is desired and what has been
achieved to fine tune and optimise
the existing practices. The societal
system and its complementary
network institutions have to be
understood in detail to launch new
techniques at critical junctures
to bring into action a plethora of
mutually reinforcing effects in social
orchestration. The deeply rooted
26 RAGS TO RICHES Success stories of startup companies
An interview with Daniel Raj David, a fifth-year
Mechanical Engineering student, and the charismatic co-
founder of Detect Technologies.
Detect Technologies was one of the finalists at the
prestigious Economic Times Start-Up Awards, 2016. Their
clients include giants like Reliance Industries.
EI: Could you please provide a brief
description of your company?
DRD: We build devices to do
intelligent asset monitoring for heavy
industries, mainly in the chemical,
nuclear, or oil and gas sectors. For
all the aforementioned industries,
pipelines are both their biggest
assets and biggest weaknesses. Gases
which flow through these pipelines
might be exposed to the atmosphere,
leading to explosions and casualties.
This can cause huge losses and
lawsuits worth crores.
Mainly, there were two problems that
we had to tackle. One was corrosion
and the other was the inspection
of hard-to-reach assets. The reason
such incidents occur is that there
is currently no technology that can
monitor the thickness change in
these pipes at high temperatures.
Due to the inadequate technology,
industries are forced to shut down
for as long as 30 days, at times.
During this period, scaffoldings are
built, insulation from the pipelines
is removed, and the pipelines are
manually checked for defects. The
pipelines which cannot be checked,
must be replaced without any
compromise on their functionality.
At Detect, we have built the world’s
first sensor that can do an online
monitoring of these pipelines at
high temperatures. Signals propagate
through the pipeline and are then
analysed using intelligent algorithms.
Thus, our technology can do a real
time monitoring of the entire system.
Detect
ARVIND PUJARI
Our systems are being deployed at useful data.
the world’s largest refinery, Reliance
Jamnagar. What was your motivation?
Our primary motivation was to make
How did you first enter this sector? a difference.
This idea was my (in my sophomore
year) brainchild, along with Tarun When we started working on
Mishra (a senior, who was finishing the technology, our sole aim was
his fifth year back then). Tarun did completing the project. Later, when
the research, and realised that there we met our clients and understood
was huge scope in this industry. the extent of the problem, we realised
Tarun, then, pulled me in and we that we were working on a solution to
developed the technology, along with this problem, which was motivating.
the other co-founders. Until then The Bhopal Gas Tragedy and similar
incidents wouldn’t have happened if
If I’m the best at what I like, our technology was in place, and if
then how does it matter if I’m we manage to install our technology
bad at everything else? in every factory and refinery, no such
disasters will ever happen again.
we were looking at it as a project
How did you pick your team?
for Reliance Industries. However,
I met Harikrishnan A S, a co-
we soon realised the depth of our
founder of Detect, during my
talent pool. We had one of the
second year, when I decided to do
best electronics teams, mechanical
a summer project under Professor
and computer vision groups in the
Krishna Balasubramanium. We both
country. We realised that we had the
liked the idea, and I soon roped in
ability to tackle the problem, and the
my extremely smart roommates,
problem needed to be tackled. So, I
Harikrishnan A S, Prashant and
guess I could say, the start-up chose
Karthik R(the founder of Envisage).
us, we didn’t choose the start-up
Kartik knew a lot of people at
(laughs). During the course of our
CFI(Centre for Innovation) and
research, we found a new problem.
I knew a CS student, Sami, who
The scaffoldings built in industries
took care of our data analysis, and
had to be manually inspected for
damage. We decided to build drones
to tackle this problem because we
thought it would be fun. And thus,
we probably built the world’s first
automated drone, which could
analyse the structure and the videos
using algorithms to pick out the

slowly, we branched out. Soon, we
had formed a close-knit team of
about 8 to 9 people. Then, we went
for recruitment and took in another
9 to 10 people. So, it was basically
you know a person who knows a
person and so on. Word spread that
we were doing a good work, and
people wanted to join us. We then,
recruited people from McKinsey
and IIM-A to establish our business
team. Everything was a step by step
process.It was always a teamwork and
the credit goes to the entire team of
Detect.
The start-up chose us, we didn’t
choose the start-up
So, was everything smooth sailing?
(Laughs) No dude, no way. Now, to
some extent, it is. But back then,
absolutely not. When we started up,
people told us that it wouldn’t work.
When we came up with a second
product, again people told us that
diverting our attention would sink
us. However, we stood strong in our
beliefs, and our track record spoke for
itself. So, it was tough, but it wasn’t so
tough that we ever considered giving
up.
Did working on this start-up affect
your grades and was this ever an
issue for you?
They were decent enough. Most of
the people in my team had a CGPA
above 9. Why do you join a college?
Is it to get grades, or is it to use what
you have learnt in your work? If I’m
the best at what I like, then how does
it matter if I’m bad at everything
else? I knew, as all the other members
did, that if this start-up kicked off,
then we would be devoting our
utmost attention to it. What we
gained with our time in Detect, with
respect to technology and knowledge,
was more enriching than any other
experience. There would have been no
losers from this venture, had it failed.
We ensured that we never flunked
though (laughs).
What advice would you like to give
to budding entrepreneurs?
Success stories of startup companies RAGS TO RICHES
There is one thing that students
should know - there is a lot of
help available inside our institute.
The thing about IITs is that once
you graduate and represent an IIT
outside, you are not alone there;
it is the entire IIT ecosystem that
backs you up. I realized it during
my pitches for Detect. When I say
that I’m from IIT, I carry the whole
ammunition of IIT behind me, as I
speak. People in our institute come
up with great ideas. What they
should realise is that they should
push these ideas forward. It’s a
conundrum, I have a great idea,
should I push it forward, or should
I drop it and satisfy myself with a 9
CGPA. In my opinion, even if there’s
a small chance of being successful,
you should take it. Do the market
research, which is basically finding
out whether there’s anyone else doing
what you want to do, and if there is
someone out there, then what are the
advantages and disadvantages of your
product over his/her, and how many
people are going to like your product?
What you should know is that when
you take that gamble and try, and
perhaps fail, you gain knowledge
and the skills of working in a team,
The Detect team.
27
and these are all things that you can
put in your resume. So, you are not
wasting any time. There’s nothing to
lose when you try to start-up. Once
you graduate, things aren’t so easy.
There is a constant pressure to earn.
The best time to experiment is now,
and the younger, the better. There are
professors in the institute, and guides
in the IITM Research Park, who
will bring in the big guns to mentor
you when needed. So there’s a good
ecosystem that has been set up in
IITM, and it should really be tapped
into.
How can a person fund his or her
start-up?
There are two ways to go about
this. We had Professor Krishnan
Balasubramanium and Tarun Kumar
Mishra who supported and provided
us with funding to buy a lot of
equipment. The other way is to pitch
your idea or proof of concept to
IC & SR, and they can get you the
right people to take you further, and
provide you with a bit of funding.
Some of the alumni funds are also
reserved specifically for this purpose.
If you have a non-tech start-up,
directly approach the Incubation Cell
at the Research Park.
28 RAGS TO RICHES Success stories of startup companies

Pi Beam Labs
From a naive but passionate young man who did not know the meaning of “assisted
vehicle” to being a successful co-founder of an assisted vehicle manufacturing startup
now, Vaisakh Sasikumar’s journey is an ideal example of the old proverb ‘Fortune
favors the brave’. His life has been full of choices which were difficult to make.

Vaisakh is the co-founder of the startup Pi Beam Labs which deals with renewable
energy. They design, develop, and sell future mobility hybrid vehicle.

SARATH KUMAR S

The Early Journey
Vaisakh had the urge to start up right
from his college years. He did his
B.Tech in Industrial Engineering
from the University of Trivandrum,
and along with a group of friends
used to take part in every Inter
College Tech-Fest, which he feels
improved both his technical and
business acumen.
“We would go as a group and split
into teams and at the end, we would
divide the prize money among
ourselves,” explains Vaisakh.
Days passed and they were staring
right at the placement session. The
irony that he was the placement
coordinator notwithstanding, the
group collectively swore that they
would not take up placements, but
think about ideas to startup in the
last semester. While, initially, they
were all enthusiastic, one week before
the placements their plans began to
fall apart.
decided to hunt for ideas.
“As a group, we were interested in
junkyards when we participated in
tech fests. So we wanted to think in
the lines of recycling,” he explains.
And finally, one day, they stumbled
upon an idea - Recycling E-Waste.
Initially the idea seemed great.
However, it soon hit them that the
idea was not good enough for scaling
up.
They decided to take up jobs but
continue their quest for that one big
idea. “We, excepting the mech guy,
all took up jobs in Bangalore so that
we can meet on the weekends to
discuss.” But according to him, the
discussions were not leading them
anywhere.
“We discussed different ideas every
week and it was not fruitful,” he
explains. They decided to take off to
Kerala to discuss the ideas.
“Many times in Bangalore while
buying tickets for buses, I had a
problem with changes. Once when
I paid 100 rupees for a 35 rupees
ticket, I was not given the rest
65 rupees due to lack of change,”
explains Vaisakh.
He goes on, “That particular
incident shook me up badly so
I filed a complaint and met the
manager of the depot. He heard
my complaints patiently and at the
end, he quipped, ‘Why can’t you the
younger generation use technology to
solve the idea?’ Those words were the
motivation behind the idea.”
The idea got off to a great start as
they raised 50 lakhs through mutual
friends and a big supermarket in
Kerala accepted to implement it.
“I quit my job the very next day,”
remarks Vaisakh. They were also
engaged in talks with the Forum
Mall in Bangalore, but then the idea
hit a roadblock.

“My mother came to know from the
professors that I had not registered
for the placements,” says Vaisakh.
Similar parental pressure forced
everyone to sit for placements. “We
decided that we would take up jobs
to satisfy our parents but continue
the search for ideas,” adds Visakh.
The placements was a success for
everyone in the group.He got offers
from Mu Sigma, MRF, TES, and
Saint Analytics. Meanwhile, they
In Kerala, they started brainstorming
and within a week had 37 ideas to
work on.They decided to take up the
Paytm-like E-Wallet concept, as it
was close to Vaisakh’s heart.
“In hindsight, I feel those hard
choices I made are absolutely
necessary as many of my friends
who feared to select those
choices are still doing the 8 to 9
job against their wishes.”
“While initially, we all planned
to quit - we raised the funds only
through this promise - the CS guy
was not able to as he had loans.
As computer science is the most
important aspect in the idea, we
decided not to move forward.”
Vaisakh took up a job in MRF and
moved to Chennai.
Third Time Lucky
In the meantime, he met his senior
who was a research scholar at IITM.

His time in MRF had reignited his
spirit in core mechanical field and
a positive chat with the senior led
to the formation of Pi Beam Labs.
They registered the name even before
having a clear-cut idea and that,
according to Vaisakh, was a grave
mistake.He quit his job at MRF and
with the senior started working on
the idea. They lived on a Rs.8000
stipend from the senior and a 60
rupee meal in the Andhra mess for
lunch was the only food they had
most days.
They contacted the Entrepreneurship
Cell, IITM for support and an office
was provided to them. “Since no
money was involved with the E-Cell
and only mature enough companies
can be involved with the incubation
cell, we couldn’t procure enough
material,” explains Vaisakh.
The days of struggle continued
until Vaisakh, while browsing,
found the Incubation Cell's call for
applications from mature companies
for incubation. “Even though we were
young, I decided to shoot a mail and
that proved to be fruitful,” remarks
Vaisakh. As a follow-up to the mail,
they met Mrs.Tamaswati Ghosh,
head of the Incubation cell.
“While Tamaswati mam liked our
idea and was impressed by our
passion, she wanted us to work
more in the business aspect.” They
were asked to meet professor Ashok
Jhunjhunwala. The meeting turned
out to be the watershed moment for
the startup.
“We went there with 35 slides but
Ashok sir asked us to explain the idea
in 5 minutes. It was completely alien
to us and we struggled for the first
4 minutes. In the last minute, I told
him the idea of the solar rickshaw.
He was impressed with the idea
of the solar rickshaw and asked us
whether it will be assisted or non-
assisted. I didn’t know what either
of the terms meant but ended up
answering assisted and that is when
the real journey of Pi Beam Labs
begins.”
Success stories of startup companies RAGS TO RICHES
Once they were incubated, material
was not a problem.But the real
problem of developing a working
assisted vehicle started to weigh in.
After many failed attempts, they
built a model which could run on
electricity. “We merged a passenger
carrying rickshaw and a rusted
tricycle in Velachery.”
Vaisakh then met Rajan Sreekanth
(Pi Beam Labs’ current mentor)
through a mentoring clinic and was
asked to do a demonstration at the
IC&SR building. The demonstration
was a failure as the vehicle broke
down immediately. “All the people
who have helped us from the
beginning were present, and no one
was impressed as even the modeling
was not proper.”
This particular incident made them
go back to the drawing board, and
after many trials and errors, they built
a minimum viable product that runs
on solar energy.
Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala again
played an important role in the
growth of Pi Beam Labs. “While we
were very happy with the prototype,
Ashok sir wanted us to find someone
who could implement it.”
After multiple requests, Ozone,
an NGO which works in waste
management, decided to implement
and it turned out to be a success. At
the same time, Vaisakh separated
from the research scholar due to
personal reasons. In 2015, he enrolled
in the MS entrepreneurship program
Vaisakh and Jacob with their vehicle.
29
offered by IIT Madras.
While the startup was growing,
Vaisakh struggled due to the lack of a
partner. His struggle ended when he
met Jacob Thekkara.
“He called me to his lab to discuss
about the patenting procedure for
the braking mechanism he had built.
We ended up discussing Pi Beam
Labs. He expressed his interest and
I roped in him as a partner.” Jacob
is currently the CTO, while Vaisakh
serves as CEO.
From then on the startup was only
moving forward. In November
2015, they sold their first vehicle to
Michelin Tires.
“After this, we realized that funding
is essential. The hunt for funding
begin and in December 2016 we
received our first funding. Currently,
we have 15-20 orders,” jubilates
Vaisakh.
Future Endeavors
“Pi Beam Labs may shift from B2B
model to B2C model in the near
future,” says Vaisakh. He adds that
they are working more on sustainable
mobility, mainly material handling
and passenger carrying. They are
also developing lithium battery
and indigenous controllers. “Five
years down the line we will not be
restricted only to three wheelers,
but will continue to manufacture
environment-friendly vehicles,”
concludes Vaisakh ecstatically. We
wish him success.
30 ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA
Pasteur’s Quadrant
“The Pasteur’s Quadrant” by Donald E. Stokes
There are two types of people who
revolutionized technology and
the world of science itself- people
who rose to help us understand the
amazing universe and everything
in it and people who facilitated us
with a comfortable and enjoyable life
through their innovation. The first
type of scientists spent their lives
trying to explain why things as the
way they are. This section of research
is sometimes called basic research.
The second type of research is
technology or innovation driven and
sometimes called as applied research.
These were works done to specifically
solve a social problem without much
thought being given to understand
the science behind it.
What if we could take the best
of these worlds to unravel the
astounding things on this planet?
This was explained by Donald Stokes
in his book, Pasteur’s quadrant. The
entire theory behind his analysis can
be summarized into this graph:
The graph basically has four
quadrants:
Bohr’s quadrant
Research that is mainly focussed on
understanding the nature of things
or more oriented towards connecting
the dots and unravelling the secrets
the nature beholds.
Edison’s quadrant
A purely application-oriented
research without bothering much
about the ground level functionality
of the individual components.
Pasteur’s quadrant
Research that starts with an aim to
solve a problem and becomes a quest
for scientific truth during the process.
The common man’s quadrant
Mundane research which does not
Inspired by the book
DEVI RAGHAVEE V
contribute either to basic knowledge
or application.
Bohr typifies the scientists whose
major in motivated quest for
knowledge. Though his work on
atomic model had led to many
practical applications, his initial
thrust behind the discovery was
to quench his thirst about the
particulate behaviour on the atomic
scale. These type of scientists focus on
refuting theories and masterminding
experiments fuelled to promulgate
the mysteries of nature. Bohr’s
quadrant summarizes everything
that man has done through science
to enlighten himself about the
wonderful universe he lives in.
On the other hand, Edison never
allowed himself or those working
with him in Menlo Park to consider
the underlying reason behind what
they were discovering, in their
headlong rush towards commercial
illumination, he exemplifies the work
of scientists whose stock and trade
is a solution to a problem. They use
their basic knowledge and conduct
fundamental research when necessary,
with choices of action and investment
driven by the goal of solving the
problem at hand as quickly and
efficiently as possible. Therefore,
Edison’s quadrant consists of every
invention that raised as a necessity
- from to the invention of fire to the
latest smartphones.
When Louis Pasteur joined as
the new head of department of
Chemistry at Lille University, he
brought with him a fermentation
problem in the wine brewing
industry which wais a major source
of income of the country at that time.
A better example of applied research
cannot be asked for. Pasteur solved
this problem, inventing a new branch
of science (microbiology-through
germ theory) in the process. He
also saved the French silk industry
from a mysterious disease killing the
silkworms, developed vaccinations
which had miraculously prolonged
human life and helped the whole
world to have a nutritious diet
through the process of Pasteurisation,
through his experiments to
unravel the science behind these
problems. He made the entire
research community realize how a
basic understanding of the science
of something, can be beautifully
translated into an application which
would change lives of billions.
The beauty and significance of
Pasteur’s quadrant lie in the fact
that it answers one of the important
questions a researcher especially
an engineer in research field asks
himself – “How will my work
contribute to a better tomorrow?”. A
conflict of either to follow the quest
to understand the science behind
things or to take a direction which
will solve a technological problem
arises frequently. The answer is that
this clash is meaningless by looking
at the Pasteur’s quadrant. A solid
background in science and a deep
passion for contributing something
useful to mankind can never collide
with each other but only increase the
Pasteur made the entire research
community realize how a basic
understanding of the science of
something can be beautifully
translated into an application
which would change the lives of
billions.

quality of the products produced in
research labs. Those who argue for
the value of basic research have no
trouble finding examples of work
inspired only by an intellectual
curiosity, that turned out to be
extremely practical. Bohr’s work on
quantum physics is a case in point.
Without Edison, we would still
remain in the dark today. Therefore,
through constant efforts, we can align
our research work such that it strives
to be in the Pasteur’s quadrant.
At this point, it becomes necessary
to discuss government’s research
funding policies also. It is a well-
known fact that applied research
is always given more privileges
than basic research. In the USA
alone, it has been estimated that
the funding for applied sciences is
six times more than that for basic
sciences. An understanding of the
Pasteur’s quadrant shows that, this is
definitely not a good thing because
any great product from the research
laboratories will definitely require a
solid foundation of basic science at
ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA 31
some point for their development.
Efforts should be taken up by the
government to understand this
complex interconnection in research.
To conclude, it would not be wrong
to say that it is high time we start
Before Sam
to completely exploit the Pasteur’s
quadrant. The need for science and
technology to solve social problems Walton founded
has never been more than now. In Walmart, he
the developed countries, this trend
has started a long time back. But
milked cows,
in developing countries, people still delivered
look to solve the problem through newspapers and
human effort much before taking sold magazines
during
help from science and technology.
Entrepreneurs have a major role to
play in this by taking the products the Great
from laboratories to the commercial Depression.
market, and becoming Pasteurs or
Edisons or Bohrs in the process and
make this world a better place.
32 ENTREPRENEUR SPEAK

An Entrepreneur
to the Core
MR & MRS DESHPANDE • KRIS GOPALAKRISHNAN •
NAVEEN JHA
RAJ KIRITI

While going down the path of entrepreneurship, unless you have a passion towards
something, it will be extremely gruelling. When it comes to social entrepreneurship in
particular, this is even more important. The path of a social entrepreneur is doubly
challenging. They solve tough problems with limited resources, as opposed to non-social
startups that raise millions of dollars from VCs. Hence the first quality to have is the
passion towards the problem one is solving. The second and most important part is to
understand the relevance of your problem and the customer base that you are going to
work with/for.

As a famous general rightly said, “ No plan survives contact with the enemy”. You might
have had various surveys and plans but the ground reality is always different. The most
important thing, however, is to go on the field and understand the problem, its context
and people’s milieu.

Let’s dig deeper into this with insights from a star-studded panel, made of Mr and
Mrs Deshpande. (Often referred as “Desh” Deshpande, an Indian-American venture
capitalist and entrepreneur, life member of the MIT Corporation, the Board of Trustees
of MIT, appointed by ex-President Barack Obama to the Co-Chairmanship of the
National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a group established
to support the US President’s innovation strategy). Adding their views to this are Kris
Gopalakrishnan, Co-founder, Infosys and Naveen Jha, CEO of Hubli Sandbox.

Read on to find out what these eminent personalities have to say about social
entrepreneurship.

Technological innovation is all about
coming up with ideas that were
never seen before, and connecting
them to relevance and having impact.
But for social innovation, it is their
relevance, and not their innovation,
that dictates. Because the new idea
that you bring to solve the problem
does not have to be patentable or
have been introduced for the first
time in the world, but you have to
build the capacity among the people
that you are really trying to serve.
So for every smart person you need
hundreds of other people who can
take that knowledge and actually
spread it out.
If you build the capacity to absorb,
then you have a platform where you
can innovate. Let me explain this.
Suppose you want to sell clean water
to rural areas. For every 1000 people,
you’ll need an entrepreneur who
makes $4 a day. For every 100 such
entrepreneurs, you’ll need someone
who makes $8 a day and then 10
people who make $16 and one who
makes $32. But if there already exists
a solution which costs 5 paisa a day
and you innovate to make the cost 1
paisa a day then that would readily
get absorbed, because people are
waiting for that. But without having
the whole structure if you right away
innovate there is no way to distribute
the solution. So somehow building
out the bottom of the platform and
the capacity to absorb innovation
becomes important.
If you have a top down kind
of approach, without sufficient
contextual understanding, the
solution doesn’t work. It is not that
the solution is not useful or the
people who are working on it don’t
know how to; it is just that the
relevancy of the solution is misplaced.
What we observed is that, many a
time, there is very less absorption
capacity. You have to co-create the
solution with the customers. For
every innovation, there is a 100-crore
entrepreneur, then a 10-crore
entrepreneur and then a 10-lakh
entrepreneur. If you can build the
bridge and know who is next in the
value chain, that person can really
help you get to the next level. But if
you bring the 100-crore entrepreneur
to the 10-crore level it becomes
chaotic because of various reasons.
Understanding the ecosystem
means understanding the people
you are going to impact or serve.
You have to co-create the solution
with the people you are targeting.
Initially, they prefer to be reached in
local language. Later on, they start
understanding your accent and start
building trust in you. When working
in villages, trust is the most important
parameter. These people have been
“exploited” often. If somebody from
outside the system is coming, they
are obviously not ready to trust them.
You have to go down to their level to
understand their problem and build
their trust, especially when you are
working for a social impact. You have
to fine tune and redo the solution to
suit them.
Another way to think about this is,
if you have a for-profit entrepreneur
and a nonprofit entrepreneur, they
both start with an idea saying the
world doesn’t have to be this way -
it can be better. But the for-profit
entrepreneur has to find the solution
in a couple of years for which
somebody is going to pay. This is
a very impactful force because, the
customer drives them to a point
where he gets a solution that the
ENTREPRENEUR SPEAK 33
customer desires. As a result, either
he survives or he goes bankrupt.
Even if he is successful, the customer
always has options and choices.
Because of that competition you
would always focus on the customer
while performing; since if you are
not doing the right thing, you are
out of the race. That is the difference
between the for-profit and nonprofit
sectors. Execution excellence is given
importance in the for-profit sector.
On the other hand, in the nonprofit
sector, the beneficiary does not pay
for the solution. The sad part is you
could be doing things that they
don’t need and you will never find
out because there is no feedback.
Secondly, the person you help does
not have a lot of options. Hence
the execution excellence lacks in
this sector. So, bringing execution
excellence to the nonprofit sector and
bringing compassion and empathy to
the for-profit sector is what we need
to do to make this a better world.
Social innovation is all about
building trust. It involves managing
your own ego and co-creating a
solution with people who need it.
But once you find the solution, you
need all the entrepreneurial skills you
have to build teams and scale up the
organization. Once you get going,
you can increase sophistication,
but it’s impossible to start off with
sophistication.
34 ENTREPRENEUR SPEAK

Bootstrapping
and Survival
Shanmugavel Sankaran, the Founder and CEO of FixNix InfoSec
Solutions, has always wanted to be an entrepreneur. But like most of us,
he was forced by societal pressure into the “safe” path since childhood. He
ended up with an enviable career, with experience at Microsoft and IBM.
For most people, this would have been enough, but not for “Shan”. He had
never let go of his dream to stand on his own, and he finally broke free of
the pressure and founded his company. Entrepreneurship Insider took
the opportunity to interview this man about his journey and his views on
entrepreneurship.

EI: If you had to describe FixNix to
someone in a few words, how would
you do it?
S: FixNix provides GRC
(Governance, Risk, and Compliance)
solutions at an affordable rate to
information security teams. This
started out of my desire to solve real-
world issues, and on experiencing the
issue that availing this service at an
affordable rate was almost impossible
in India, I started this company.
You have worked for 10 years at
places like IBM and Microsoft,
and have graduated from IIIT
Hyderabad. What made you want
to give up such a life and take up
entrepreneurship?
Even when I was working at these
corporate places, I’ve always had
an urge to solve these real-life
problems. This drove me towards
entrepreneurship. I still do not think
of those 10 years as a waste, because
I had to gather some real-world
experience before deciding what to
dedicate myself to. Those years helped
me decide and to gain the conviction
to start FixNix.
Being an entrepreneur, you must
have been through tough times.
What were the major problems you
PRANAV BHARGHAV
faced? How did you deal with them?
One important thing to remember
is that I never felt that all these
challenges were difficulties, because I
took those as advantages that would
help me develop my skills.
The main problem that I faced at
the beginning was financing. It was
hard to gain sufficient capital to start
my venture. To deal with this, we
had to explore bootstrap financing.
Apart from this, the social ecosystem
was also a huge issue. There was no
support for starting up, and people
tend to look down on you. Most
people, when they found out I had
quit a job at IBM to start a company,
they looked at me as if I was a crazy
person. My biggest regret is not
having spent enough time with my
family. That time we can never get
back.
What problems are you currently
facing, and how do you deal with
them?
Currently, I am not facing any
immediate problem as I am running
a well-established company. But there
is a major worry that I think most
entrepreneurs will fear. Especially in
the last 50 years, even the Fortune 50
companies, many of them are being
displaced. I always had this small,
no large level of insecurity “Who is
going to do this next? Will he do it
better than me?”
There is always the fear that someone
will be able to do what I am doing,
better. So I have to keep improving.
It can be anyone, friends, mentors,
you have to be careful. When it
comes to business, people only look
at how to be more successful. This
one small concern keeps me up at
night a lot of times.
What was your most satisfying
moment during your journey? What
was the moment when you finally
felt that it was worth quitting your
job for this?
There was no single moment, actually.
I felt like that many times. When
you know that you are changing
someone’s life and making it better,
it always feels wonderful. When
we recruit a kid from college and
create a good social ecosystem for
him, like the students who come to
my company for a 15 day internship
programme, we know that they
will not forget their experiences at
FixNix. They are able to take care of
themselves better, after they move

on. At all these moments, I feel
happy for starting this. After I started
this company, we have worked with
almost 50-100 engineers, and I can
feel happy that all these engineers
will have a better career because of us.
Another happy moment was when
I could finally prove to the people
who doubted me that I was running
a marathon sprint, that even though
things got bad in between, I pulled
through and now I can see where the
company is heading.
When you started FixNix, you must
have had a goal in mind that you
worked towards. Did you? Could
you explain it?
Money, certainly, is not the only
motivator. It is not the major
motive, not just for me, for most
entrepreneurs. People may not believe
me now, but frankly, all entrepreneurs
want to see what they created is
useful to people, and that a lot of
people are using their service. They
want to make a “dent”. People think
we are lying when we say that we
want to solve real-world problems.
That is not true. Most entrepreneurs
try to make money in the process of
solving issues, not to solve issues in
order to make money.
The intentions is not to make money.
Money making will happen. We take
big risks trying to solve these issues,
and we may make big money.
How was the entrepreneurship
scenario during your college days?
Did you have support from your
college?
There was zero support for
entrepreneurship during my college
days. I always wanted to take
up Plastic moulding and Hotel
Management courses, which my
parents never allowed me to pursue.
I was made to go down the safe path.
Even these days, students are boxed
in and compartmentalized by their
parents, especially in Indian society.
They have a secure, risk-free mind-
set. Low-risk, low reward. Think
about most middle class people.
They think about getting a job with
a regular, reliable income so that they
can set up a family, and taking any
kind of risk is discouraged by society.
This lack of parent support is a huge
disruption. Parents should allow their
children to experiment, to fail, to try
again. They should be supportive. This
conservative attitude is the reason we
don’t have our own Google, Apple,
etc. It’s not about the technology or
intelligence. We have the capability
to provide world-class services.
Hundreds of search engines must
have failed before one Google came
up. Thousands of social networking
plays must have failed before
Facebook succeeded. But the problem
is that our culture doesn’t allow us
to try. We have to fight against this
culture. Parents should stop being
scared for their children and allow
them to experiment.
What do you think are the
challenges faced by women in the
startup sector?
Being women, they definitely have
to go that extra mile to prove to
everyone that they can do it, and to
earn their respect. Women, in this
sector, are looked as outsiders. They
are not encouraged and face hostility
often. There is also a lot of gender
discrimination going on, especially
in India. Change is happening.
More and more brilliant women are
entering the field of entrepreneurship,
but it is very slow. It is still a very
male-dominated area.
What do you think of the startup
scenario in India?
I always try to compare us with
Israel. We are 10-15 years behind
them in the startup scenario. We
need to change our culture if we
want to catch up with them. They are
in the process of creating one more
Silicon Valley. The major reason this
is possible is because of society and
government support for people who
want to start up. This is not the case
in India. You may say that Bangalore
is the Silicon Valley of India, but if
you go and talk to people there, for
example in IIM Bangalore, they don’t
have a clue about entrepreneurship.
ENTREPRENEUR SPEAK 35
They have limited ideas for
development.
People’s perception is a major issue
with India. If someone comes up
with an idea, no one is supportive at
the start. Even sometimes, they are
openly ridiculed. Only after he has
some success, do people take interest.
Or else they will just look at him like
he is an idiot.
A few words for budding
entrepreneurs.
You may face a problem today, but if
you work hard and have conviction,
you will definitely succeed. Being
able to solve problems quickly as
they come up is the most important
thing. You need to work out a system,
by which you can at least put things
into perspective and think of the long
term effects of the problem and all of
your solutions.
Use yourself as a touchstone. Put
yourself in your customer’s shoes, and
try to solve the problem in the best
way for yourself. Try to make your
solution more and more efficient by
applying it to your life. This is the
best way to get past any issue.
Jeff Bezos'
biological
father was
once a circus
performer. Having
left his family
when Jeff was 4,
he had no
idea what
he'd
become.
36 ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA
Back from the Dead
The name Nokia needs no
introduction. Its famous ringtone
resonated in every home, in every
TV show and cinema and almost
everywhere across the globe.
At its peak, Nokia equaled the
mobile phone business. The world
market used to be in two fractions-
Nokia(the bigger part) and the rest.
Before Samsung and Apple took
over the reigns, Nokia was the only
legitimate brand for the people. No
wonder the entire world is buzzing
about Nokia’s comeback.
Until about a decade ago, Nokia
relished virtual monopoly in mobile
phone markets. Unlike other
monopolies, this was a peculiar one,
where both the monopoly and the
consumers were contented with
their partnership. Its sturdy build, its
premium finish, its great camera, its
mammoth battery life – these were
just some of the many features that
made a Nokia so special. Almost
everyone longed for a Nokia. Other
companies were almost nonexistent
in front of this giant. With the
market in it’s grip, Nokia made huge
profits and eased into the role of a
market leader. It brought numerous
bold designs and concepts into the
market. The legendary Nokia 3310
is seen even today- its compact,
curved design and the memorable
snake game form a part of one’s
fond recollection.The Nokia NGage
was designed especially with gamers
in mind. Nokia 7600 was aimed
at the fashionable ones. The Nokia
1020 sported a whopping 41 MP
rear camera, way back in 2012- it’s
competitors are still trying to match
those standards.
So what caused the plunge?
NOKIA
ANAY M SHEMBEKAR
Perhaps Nokia’s biggest blunder
was erroneous reading of market
trend. What followed it was a series
of missteps so baffling that Nokia
entirely lost its throne. Initially,
Nokia phones strongly invested in
it’s very own, Symbian OS. However,
the world was blown away by Apple’s
iOS and later
by Google’s
Android
(same
mistake
made by
Blackberry).
In an attempt
to save itself
from this OS
situation, Nokia
turned to Windows 7
Mobile, which, in time,
provided little struggle to it’s
competitors. The
competitors The situation went so
out of hand that for a brief duration,
Nokia even introduced a Linux based
OS MeeGo. While this situation
progressed, Nokia went on to commit
another major blunder. It seemed like
Nokia had lost its designing brains.
Its latest designs, featuring huge size
variations(for the same shape) as well
as odd colours, clearly reeked of a
hit-and-miss strategy. Its app store,
Ovi, never really took off. It failed
to capitalise on the hugely successful
3310 by improving it. By the turn of
the decade it was pretty much clear
in which direction Nokia was headed.
With the falling of stock below
$2 in 2011, Nokia almost became
bankrupt. To make matters worse,
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s memo
to employees in February 2012 was
leaked, which referred to Nokia as
‘pouring gasoline on it’s own burning
platform’. Finally, Nokia sold its
entire mobile business and a few
related licenses to Microsoft in 2014
for $7.2 billion.
That should be that – or at least
the world expected so. A market
leader had crashed and could do
nothing to slow down its descent.
When Nokia announced its intent
to focus on its more profitable
division, Nokia Networks, everyone
expected Nokia to earn a fate similar
to Ericsson. In October 2014, Nokia
and China Mobile signed a $970
million framework deal for delivery
between 2014 and 2015. However,
wheels were turning internally.
Unaware to the world’s sight, the
giant began restoring itself and
began the tiresome journey uphill.
An unexpected revelation followed,
when on 17 November 2014, Nokia
Technologies head Ramzi Haidamus
disclosed the company’s plans to
re-enter the consumer electronics
business as an original design
manufacturer. It would involve
licensing in-house hardware designs
and technologies to third-party
manufacturers. There are even some
reports stating that Nokia began
work on the N1 tablet just a couple
of weeks after signing the contract
with Microsoft. And finally, after a

long gap, Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri
finally confirmed on 14 July 2015
that Nokia planned to re-enter
the mobile phone market around
December 2016.
Why the wait? The contract that
Nokia had signed with Microsoft
in 2014 involved a non-competent
clause wherein Nokia brand was
forbidden to enter the mobile
phone market till December
2016. Even afterwards, Nokia was
prohibited to manufacture its own
mobiles but would be required to
outsource its designs to third party
manufacturers. It may not seem a
great strategy at that time, but one
is now forced to realise the genius
of this contract. Because of such
temporary withdrawal from market,
Nokia could quietly focus on creating
a product worthy of the Nokia
brand. Also, Nokia didn’t have that
financial prowess to manufacture its
own mobiles; so hiring third party
manufacturers to do the same seems
the logical step forward.
In the intermediate period, Nokia
kept itself busy. It announced a
product called OZO, which is a 360
degrees VR camera. It was designed
Nokia N5, the upcoming model.
with professional users in mind. In
April 2015, Nokia announced the
purchase of Alcatel-Lucent in an
all stocks deal for about $15 billion.
In August 2015, Nokia announced
that a deal had been finalised to sell
HERE maps to BMW, Daimler AG
and Volkswagen Group. In April
2016, Nokia announced, its intent
to acquire connected health device
maker Withings for $191 million. It
was integrated into the new Digital
Health unit of Nokia Technologies.
Around the same time, Microsoft
learned that Windows phones
were not particularly popular with
consumers. The share of Windows
phones dropped below 1% in April
2016 when in the market. Amidst
these severely falling feature-phone
sales, Microsoft announced in May
2016 the sale of Nokia-branded
feature-phone division to FIH
Mobile, a division of Foxconn and
HMD. This cleared the way for
Nokia for another stint in the market.
With Microsoft announcing this
sale, Nokia began working closely
with HMD and Foxconn to recreate
Nokia branded devices. Nokia agreed
to provide brand and patent licensing
to HMD and in turn, received a
board seat. Basically, Nokia, in a
ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA 37
smart move, had withdrawn from the
Windows phone business as well as
earned itself some money, resources
and time.
In January 2015, Nokia announced
its first Android product, the N1
tablet. Manufactured by Foxconn,
it was released only in China and
Taiwan and turned out to be quite
popular. On 8 January 2017, HMD
Global announced their first Android
smartphone, Nokia 6. It has been
initially released in China. It received
over 1.4 million registrations for
its first flash sale and was sold out
in under a minute. The occurrence
of such an event is enough proof
of people’s sentiment- people still
want a Nokia in their pocket. With
Nokia announcing it’s presence at
MWC2017, the world watches with
eyes fixated at MWC 2017. Needless
to say, the world is still largely a
Nokia romantic.
38 ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA
Popular vs. Profitable
THE SNAPCHAT IPO
$24.48, $27. 09, $23.77, $21.44,
$22.81, $22.71, $22.07- these are
the closing prices of the first seven
trading days of SNAP - Snap Inc.,
the parent company of Snapchat.
Those of you who missed a peek into
the financial section of your daily
may be unaware that Snap’s IPO has
been the buzz of Wall Street since
last month. Every investor, every
broker and every trading agency
had their sights set on 2nd March.
However, after a strong beginning,
the ‘next Facebook’ quickly lost its
steam. And with it, a huge chunk of
its valuation.
Snapchat is an image messaging and
mobile app created by Evan Spiegel,
Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown.
Snapchat allows users to send and
view ‘snaps’- images and videos
available for small time durations.
The great thing about these snaps
is that they last for a maximum of
10 seconds. Then, they get deleted
automatically. This allows a user
to freely express himself or herself
without deleting any embarrassing
post later. So popular is Snapchat
among the youth that it has more
than 150mn active users and an
average of 2.5bn snaps per day. Their
primary user base lies in 18-34 age
range- the section of society that
spends hugely on consumption,
thus providing a target audience
for advertisements. The revenues
generated from such advertisements
on the platform and content created
by third-party channels such as news
organizations contribute to its profits.
It also recently introduced its first
hardware product, Snapchat Specs,
and has a payment feature called
Snapcash.
INTERVIEWER
Perhaps the reason that Snapchat’s
valuation shot right through the
sky is Facebook’s unsuccessful bid
for a buyout worth $3 billion in
2013. Such an attempt must have
convinced various investors of the
company’s potential, leading to a
string of increasing valuations. Its
skyrocketing value is also due its
ever-increasing popularity and user
base. Such has been the trend that
Snap’s valuation has increased 8-fold
in 3 years to a valuation of $24 billion
at $17 per share. Naturally, an IPO
seems like securing a future jackpot.
However, the ground reality is very
different. Snapchat’s net worth (assets
minus liabilities) is just $1.5 bn.
Even though a company’s intrinsic
value always exceeds its book value,
a price tag of $24bn, roughly 16
times of the original value, requires
some explanation. An income
statement further blows into your
face as it becomes crystal clear that
the company has never made any
profits. And no, trends don’t justify
this kind of valuation. While Snap
lost $372mn in 2015, it lost $500mn
in 2016. Increasing losses would
only mean increasing worries. It may
be worth mentioning here that the
company did increase its advertising
revenue by 6 times between 2015 and
2016. The company’s ad business may
boom even more and it may even
manage profits this year. However, it’s
just another possibility. The question
that remains is whether you’d risk
paying $24bn to a company that just
lost $500mn and may never turn in
profits.
Looking away doesn’t turn out to
be very helpful either. The company
sold non-voting shares to the public.
Snap Inc. has a peculiar structure
as far as its shares and voting rights
are concerned. Its shares are divided
into 3 classes- A, B, C. Class A
shares have been sold to the public
and as mentioned earlier, have no
voting rights. Class B shares, held
by certain company executives and
early investors, have one vote a share.
Class C shares are held exclusively
by the co-founders. A class C share
accounts for 10 votes. As a result, the
co-founders control 88.5% of the
voting rights while having a total of
44.8% share in the company. This
is an eye-opener. The company is
controlled wholly by the co-founders;
they view it as their own. However,
this is not the ground reality. The
public owns at least a part of it. Such
an arrangement reduces meaningful
accountability by the management
towards the public.
Because of the mammoth success
many tech startups have attained in a
short time, tech startups are currently
the hottest commodity to buy. If you
are to get your hands on one, you may
not think twice before investing in it.
The startup community knows this.
No wonder these inflated valuations
keep entering unchartered territories.
Yes, a lot of them show promise; yet
only a handful make it big. To arrive
at a good decision, one must properly
weigh current state of affairs against
possible returns in future. One must
be prudent enough to not let their
dream of making big bucks overnight
get in the way of an informed
investment decision.
Snap Inc. isn’t a bad company. It just
seems to be a bad investment.

Shifting the Goalposts
Often, students are apprehensive
to starting up as their quest for
the game-changing idea is not
fruitful. But, is it necessary to have a
disruptive idea to startup? Is starting
up and abandoning it to take up a
job a bad deed? We along with many
other industry insiders do not feel so.
Ever heard the term “intrapreneur”?
If the answer is in the negative, fret
not. Here is the definition:
Intrapreneur. A manager within a
company who promotes innovative
product development and marketing.
Clearly, one can be an entrepreneur
within a company too and the
companies cherish it. An intrapreneur
brings in fresh energy with him and
the startup in your resume can be an
attractive point for the same reason.
We spoke to Ruturaj, a 2016
graduate from IIT Madras, about it
and he agreed with us. He started
up an experimental travel platform
“BLAFFER” in his college years.
The idea behind the startup was
to organize ‘travel’ and ‘adventure’
tour operators and connect them
to the customers using the internet.
Their market was usually the niche
audience comprising mostly of
foodies and explorers. While the
startup was initially a great success,
over time Ruturaj felt that it lacked
any secret sauce to disrupt the
overcrowded market- an essential
for any sustainable startup. He also
found the model to be operationally
heavy and the return on investment
was not high enough to satisfy him,
let alone investors. He eventually
gave up the idea and is currently
working as an assistant manager at
IFB Industries under the Digital
Division.
SARATH KUMAR S
One important aspect to be noticed
is that Ruturaj has a clear idea on
why he dropped the startup and
according to him, that is an absolute
should have. “The fact that you
started up from scratch is a valuable
resume point but the reason behind
you dropping your dream idea is
the clinching factor. Often, the
companies are in search of people
who do stuff, not in whims, but have
a calculated reasoning behind every
step.”
Why do the companies like
entrepreneurship skills? “Because
they need intrapreneurs to grow,”
remarks Ruturaj. An entrepreneur
brings leadership, innovation and
lateral thinking into the company
and the above skills are needed for a
company to grow. “I actually have a
job where I am an end to end owner
of a project. Entrepreneurial skills
and thinking come handy many
times. I feel like I am using them
ENTREPRENEUR
even in my daily life. It brings clarity
in the approach.”
All the top companies in the world
embrace intrapreneurship and the
biggest lover among them is Google.
Google embraces intrapreneurship
through a separate program known
ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA 39
as “Innovative Time Off ”. It feels
that the program will help improve
the creativity and innovation of
its intrapreneurial employees. The
program encourages Google's
employees to spend 20% of the work
time on projects that interest them
apart from being beneficial to the
company and its customers. "I feel
the Indian companies nowadays
are also charting this course," says
Ruturaj.
"The most remarkable innovations
such as Gmail, PlayStation, Post-
it notes were all products of
intrapreneurship. I can vouch for
the fact that intrapreneurship is
being valued more than ever in India
currently as the companies don't
want to be seen conservative in the
growing market," remarks Ruturaj.
If your startup is not going anywhere
but you have put your heart and soul
into it - Don't worry. After all, the
INTRAPRENEUR
fact you started up proves that you
have the ability to build products
and, who knows, you can be the next
Ken Kutaragi (Playstation-Sony) or
Richard Branson (Virgin).
40 INSTI STARTUPS

PostInc
Meet Yash Tamrakar, a third year undergraduate from the
Department of Physics, IIT Madras and the founder of the startup
PostInc. With a few questions and a candid chat with this young
entrepreneur, we gain interesting insights into the making of startups
that sprout within the institute.

K SHIVANI

EI: Can you give a brief description
of your startup ‘PostInc’?
YT: We are a design based startup.
To start with, we will be an online
poster store, where anyone can
obtain customized posters. We will
take this forward towards building a
freelancing platform that will cater to
startups and small businesses in need
of quality design.
How did you come up with the idea
of creating such a startup?
I am a graphic designer; I began
designing in my second semester.
Soon after, I somehow got interested
in decorating my room with posters.
When I browsed online, they were
pretty costly. So I made my own
posters and got them printed. A lot
of friends liked them, and based on
my friends’ needs, I started selling
‘customized’ posters to people. When
my design skills were a little more
polished, I started freelancing. I felt
the need of a platform where the
freelancing process would be simpler
and more accessible.
The reason I am focusing on design
is because I think there is a need
for design in society. People do not
grant this field the importance it
deserves. I feel the society we live in
tends to focus more on tech-based
startups, sidelining the importance
of design in the market. I wish to
provide a solid ground for designers
and channelize their work in assisting
startups.
How did you come up with the
name PostInc?
During this time, I found that posters
were incredibly popular among the
students. So, I got encouraged to sell
posters on a slightly larger scale and
decided to start a Facebook page. I
needed a name. At that time, I was
very much inspired by Iron Man and
Batman. So for my business, I wanted
to have a classy name similar to ‘Stark
Industries’ or ‘Wayne Enterprises.’
Since I was into posters initially,
I thought of naming it as ‘Posters
Incorporative’, but I shortened it to
‘PostInc’. (On a side note, Batman >
Iron Man).
How did you find and build a team
that would reflect your vision?
I had been working alone since
my second semester. In the sixth
semester, I felt the need of a
competent team. Being students, we
do not have much experience in the
industry. Obviously, I would have
not been able to find highly skilled
people in the respective fields. I
pitched my idea to a lot of people. I
found some who simply wanted to
learn and grow. And hence I found
my team. We are now a group of 9
people - having backgrounds like web
operations, marketing, operations,
content creators and obviously
design.
Were there any challenges that came
across your path? If yes, how did you
face them?
Time management was the only
difficult part. With academics
hanging over your head, you cannot
devote sufficient time for the startup
without considerable planning.
Tests and quizzes increased pressure,
and in a way, decreased quality. The
speed of work also reduced, resulting
in a break in flow. Of course, I
couldn’t neglect studies. Proper
planning helped a bit. I prepared
a proper schedule and focused
on the separation of work from
academics. Managing extra activities
with academics is a huge challenge
but it can also be a great learning
experience.
What or who was your source of
inspiration?
In a way, Flipkart and Amazon were
my driving forces (laughs). If I had
got cheap posters there, I probably
wouldn’t have been motivated to do
this. Some alumni who have taken
up designing as a career have also
set an example for me. I got to know
from these seniors that design is a
promising option, and can be taken
up as a full-fledged career.
What message would you like to
give to the students who have a keen
interest in entrepreneurship?
I’ll quote Steve Jobs here: “Stop
trying to fit in when you were born
to stand out.” If you feel you are not
meant to follow the crowd and if you

want to make a change in society,
just do it now. No matter how simple
your idea might be, just go with it.
You do not know at the moment
what shape it could take later.
Worst-case scenario: you will fail.
Correction—you will learn.
There are also other advantages that
students have. When you move out
Flexboard
Here's Vaisakh Suresh, currently pursuing an MS degree in Ocean Engineering at
IIT Madras. A frank tête-a-tête with him about his entrepreneurial journey with
Flexboard, an app-based start-up, unveils the hurdles faced by an entrepreneur
at every stage and educates us on how we can overcome them.
What does your startup do?
Flexboard is a community based
social platform that emphasizes
ease of information broadcast and
selective reception by its members,
enabling better engagement and
participation.
Using the Flexboard platform would
add value to each member of the
community as they are provided with
actionable and relevant information.
It also benefits the community as
a whole, as people would be better
informed, more engaged in the day
to day activities and consequently
more productive. Simply put, it’s
a much better way for large group
interactions when compared to
existing methods such as Email,
Whatsapp and Facebook.
How did you build your team?
This was something that took a lot of
time. It involved meeting people with
common interests, talking to friends
and sharing ideas and interacting
with acquaintances.
Does starting up affect your acads?
Since I am an MS student, most of
my academic activities are flexible.
Hence, I feel that it has not affected
my academics.
How do you plan to scale up your
idea?
of the institute, building a team
becomes a huge challenge. There
is a lack of better insight into the
team building process after that.
It’s easier to find people who share
similar perspectives inside the
campus. Another plus point is that
the students are young, zealous and
more enthusiastic about pursuing
SIDDHARTH KAPRE
This will be achieved by expanding to
multiple colleges and communities.
What was the most satisfying
moment in this journey?
I feel that the journey has just begun
and the most satisfying moments are
yet to come.
Where do you see yourself a few
years down the line?
I hope Flexboard as a platform would
increase its user base significantly,
delivering value to all its users. It
should be a product that people
would love and depend on. The
company should be making good
revenue from its operations with the
support of a strong and innovative
team.
Being an entrepreneur you must
have been through tough times.
INSTI STARTUPS 41
great ambitions. They observe society
more and are more proactive. Lastly,
one need not go about researching or
worrying about the right decisions
because one would have developed
instincts to rely upon by the time
they make their more important
decisions.
How did you manage to overcome
them?
There will be good days as well as bad
days. After a point of time, you get
used to it.
What do you think of the startup
scenario in india?
I think there has never been a better
time to start a startup. There are
good initiatives by the government
that is improving the ease of doing
business in the country. The internet
is a great tool to learn and research.
There are good free tools online that
you can use to develop your ideas.
The connectivity has improved with
millions of first time internet users
courtesy the smart phone. People are
familiar with internet and technology
with more awareness programs and
skill building workshops. Hence,
there are plenty of opportunities. The
only minor hurdle is if one is looking
for VC funding. These opportunities
have decreased considerably from a
few years ago and most big players
are cautious. However, companies
with solid business models with
strong revenue generation potential
need not worry. Having said that,
raising angel or seed rounds are easier
due to active angel networks, HNI's
who are keen on promoting startups
and, the launch of multiple online
platforms in India that simplify the
entire process.
42 ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRIVIA
The Next Mantra:
ENTREPRENEURIAL THINKING
Let’s begin by imagining an
entrepreneur. What do we picture?
Perhaps a person who’s their own
boss. Perhaps someone who made
it big from the very start. Perhaps a
tech mastermind. Each of us likely
visualized a different picture. But
what is the common trait these
people possess that presses us to
recognize them as entrepreneurs?
Can we speculate on, and pinpoint
this similarity? Of course we can. It’s
their entrepreneurial thinking.
Thinking is easy, common. But what
would make it ‘entrepreneurial’?
Entrepreneurial would roughly refer
to a blend of creativity, adaptability,
perseverance, team spirit, discipline,
curiosity, passion and self-belief. Some
of these would include qualities like
effective time management, good
listening and communication skills,
valuing our time as well as seeking
help when stuck. Naturally, it would
be a mistake to associate it merely
with entrepreneurs. In fact, these
qualities are present in each one of
us in different permutations and
combinations. Simply put, we are all
entrepreneurial to varying extents,
in varying directions, without even
starting up a company. These qualities
are not only entrepreneurship
essentials, but also everyday essentials.
Learning from others is also a big
part of entrepreneurial thinking.
Each one of us has a different
journey, a different goal and most
importantly, a different strategy
to prevail in the constant battle of
everyday life. However, the tools
to negotiate the obstacles in our
varied paths come from these
qualities. Entrepreneurial qualities
can come in handy as weapons to
RAHUL DUBEY
fight these battles on our journey of
life. Some of the basic principles of
Entrepreneurial thinking are:
• It talks about converting
obstacles into opportunities.
Each obstacle makes us stronger
and smarter. It is an opportunity
to improve upon our existing
weaknesses and modify the
current strategies to adapt better
to the dynamic scenario of
globalized world.
• It dictates that small causes can
have large effects. We need to
focus on small details at every
stage. They can’t be overlooked.
• It urges that healthy competition
is important for perpetual
growth. It provides the driving
force which opens our creative
outlets to find the best possible
solutions.
• It also pleads that nobody is
perfect and it is human to make
mistakes. The trick is to learn to
avoid committing them again in
the future and move on.
Most importantly, it makes us life-
long learners. Self-development
stalls in the absence of constant
learning. It highlights that nothing
is impossible. One just needs to have
the proportionate faith.
Now that it seems to be worth
our time to hone these skills and
promote them, how do we go about
doing it? This is the part where we
introspect and discover ourselves. Not
everyone is cut out of the same mold.
Fortunately, the digital revolution
and Internet have opened a treasure
trove of information, which can help
us build the necessary skills. Being
open to new experiences and ideas is
yet another way. We can learn more
from a mere 5 minutes of interaction
than perhaps an entire collection
of articles. We can affect ourselves
by getting in contact with such
contagious entrepreneurs. Another
way to achieve these qualities
may be considered a pragmatic
way. Depending on our goals and
requirements, we can carve out a
strategy that requires us to acquire
some of these. We need to identify
the strategy that works for us. If we
follow this strategy religiously, we will
acquire the necessary skill in no time.
It helps to break down the goal into
a number of easy targets. One piece
of advice—keep practicing. Tracking
the progress is again a good idea to
know the attained performance levels.
The desired performance level can’t
be achieved and maintained without
dedicating time to practice. We have
to abide by the thumb rule of getting
the right tool for the right job. We
can always ask for the required help.
The economy is fast transforming
into a skill based configuration
whereby only an entrepreneurial
ethos can bring us lasting success.
This has led the conventional
organizations to promote
entrepreneurial thinking among their
employees to bring out their best
potential. This simple yet powerful
approach guarantees wonderful
results. Only those who can evolve
and adapt easily will rule the world
in the future and encouraging
entrepreneurial thinking is the best
way to do so.
 RIDER OF SEGMENT 43
CHANGE 43

Prathap Haridoss
RIDER OF CHANGE
With a vast ocean of experience both in academia and in the industry,
Professor Prathap Haridoss of the department of Metallurgical and Materials
Engineering shares his views on the Entrepreneurship scene in insti and
beyond. A 1992 batch alumnus, he is currently working on an exoskeleton-like
contraption akin to the ones used in the defence sector to carry heavier weights
as compared to the average human capacity.

SIDDHARTH KAPRE

About twenty years back or so, most
fresh blood from premier engineering
universities would choose the
conventional path of opting for either
higher studies in the states or a career
in computer programming. Back
then people were risk-averse and
understandably so. This was around
the time when India was still in the
process of reaping the benefits of
liberalisation. “We have come a long
way in terms of entrepreneurship
in the institute since my time.
Nowadays, both students as well
as faculty are following their
entrepreneurial instincts in a way
that is encouraging. It is certainly a
very exciting and challenging career
option as against confining yourself
to a particular area and just adding a
delta-something to it ”, Dr. Haridoss
articulates. Entrepreneurship ,in that
sense, is certainly all about breaking
rules. Most successful students
follow a framework of rules which
lands them a job and allows them
to create a niche for themselves in
the existing system. Entrepreneurs,
however set their own boundaries,
which apart from the satisfaction
of creating something, also grants
you the additional bonus of freedom
of working hours. A comparison
between the entrepreneurial set-up
in India and abroad reveals that India
is competitive on the world stage in
terms of the number of startups and
their valuation. “During my visit to
Aachen University in Germany last
year, I came across only four products
that were being looked at for their
market potential, whereas at IIT
Madras hundreds of products are
studied for their viability and market.
So, in that sense, the institute is
ahead”, he compares.
Dr. Prathap has also worked on a
project of creating “gait slippers”
designed for people who are
disabled to a certain extent below
the waist .The slippers contain a
sensor which analyses and studies
the gait and walking patterns of
the subject. Accordingly, it relays
this information to the computer to
which the doctor has access to. The
doctor can, thus, prescribe corrective
medication or physiotherapy. This
increases the accuracy of detecting a
defective gait by eliminating human
error. By using these slippers in
combination with physiotherapy,
one can quantify the entire recovery
process by setting recovery targets
for the patient . In order to make
the product economical for a middle
class Indian, low cost parts were used
in the product. The aim is to reduce
the cost of such devices from several
thousand rupees to just a couple of
thousands, which otherwise drains
a patient financially. “I'm open to
collaborating with other individuals
in order to commercialise this
product, but handling the business
and monetary aspects of the venture
solo, would prove to be difficult, given
the fact that I've been moulded into a
person with a scientific bent of mind
all these years and would do justice
to the tech aspect” ,he says while
discussing the prospect of making
this product accessible to the masses.
Dr. Haridoss’ current project is
based on developing an exoskeleton
based on the one that has widely
seen application in the military. “The
vision is to engineer a contraption
similar to an exoskeleton that would
enable senior citizens, and bedridden
individuals to perform basic daily
tasks with relative ease, thereby
improving their quality of life”, the
professor explains, animatedly.
He, further, adds that
commercialization of this
product may be on the cards.
“After consulting doctors and
physiotherapists and analysing the
quality of the device, we may get into
talks with a third party organisation
that would handle the business
aspects, of course granting the
intellectual property rights to IIT”
The fact that not only students, but
also faculties are contemplating
entrepreneurial ventures is one
of the reasons why IIT Madras
is living up to its tag of being the
'Stanford of India’. This is also an
encouraging sign in a country, where
the requirement of skilled jobs is
increasing exponentially, with the rise
in population reinforced with higher
literacy rates. Human capital can
be used to fuel entrepreneurship in
India.
44 ENTREPRENEURSHIP
44 SEGMENT TRIVIA
Bridging the Gap
ACADEMIA TO INDUSTRY
There are two important ways to
improve the quality of life in a
country: innovation and production.
Innovation helps in solving the issues
faced by the society. Producing these
innovated products in the country
helps in job creation, the pillar of
any economy. Governments, of both
developing and developed countries,
constantly work towards bridging
the gap which exists between these
two important processes. Most of the
time, all these complex connections
come down to knowledge and
technology transfer between
academic research and industrial
production. It is important to face
this challenge to help our country
become a leader in innovation and
production.
Industries in India, in the last
few decades, has faced enormous
changes with respect to the type
of technology that is required to
function effectively. The exponential
growth of fields like Information
Technology, Bio Technology,
Robotics and other related sciences,
which are highly dependent on
state of the art technologies, have
made industries look at academic
DEVI RAGHAVEE V
institutions for support in research
and knowledge. On the other hand,
complaints about the number of
unskilled students that graduate
every year has forced the government
to improve the quality of academic
institutions and more importantly,
seek the help of industries for this
process. A recent survey has shown
that the technology used in industries
is 50 years ahead of the technology
taught about in the classrooms of
most institutes in India.
So, what are the reasons for the
gap which exists between academic
institutions and industries? “At
the undergraduate level, there is
no interaction of students with
industries. People at workshops
have more knowledge than
engineers in building products.
The terminologies used during
fabrication and design are completely
different. This practical details are
missing from our curriculum. The
term “entrepreneurship” is also not
fostered in the academic institutions.
Whatever we study should be related
to some industrial process or solution.
We should allow students to spend
time in industries at least during a
part of the course to experience the
industrial applications “, says Visakh
Sasikumar, Co-Founder and CEO of
Pi Beam Labs.
David Raj Daniel, a fifth-year
mechanical engineering student
from IIT-M and Co-Founder of
Detect Technologies adds,” There are
many professors and some specific
labs which do only industry related
research. Whether this goes on
to become an industrial product,
depends on the student and the
professor. The initial focus should
be to produce a unique and very
different product from the solutions
out there and then go on to the
startup mode. This is a tedious
process. It takes a long time in the
research phase itself and many
people get distracted by the other
opportunities along the way, that
they don’t think about starting up.
“Willingness to pay” for your research
is important. It is also important
to bring in collaboration between
industrial and academic research
labs. Many global institutions like
Stanford are way ahead of IITs and
other Indian institutions in this
aspect. “
In India, most of the funding for
research and development comes
from the government. While China
spends more than 1.5 percent of
its GDP in research, India spends
less than 0.5 percent. This situation
has to change, and more and more
industries should be ready to invest
in academic research. Academic
institutions should also be ready to
welcome industrial collaborations,
which will not only improve their
reputation but also change the way
our country innovates and produces.

Making Insti Proud Arvind Pujari, a writer from Entrepreneurship
Insider, was present at the Gandhian Young
Technological Innovation Awards. His account of
The Gandhian Young Technological
Innovation Awards (GYTI)
were held on the 5th of March at
Rashtrapathi Bhavan, New Delhi.
The GYTI awards celebrate the spirit
of student innovation in the fields of
engineering, science, technology and
design through extremely affordable
or frugal solutions. This year, 39
innovations were selected out of
2715 projects and in 54 categories.
Twenty-three projects were selected
under the biomedical and healthcare
category and 16 projects were
selected under the engineering
category. The awards were presented
by Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, head of the
National Innovation Foundation
(NIF), Dr. Francis Gurry, head of the
WIPO (World Intellectual Property
Organization), and Dr. Anil Gupta,
Creator of the Honey Bee Network.
This year, IIT M bagged 6 awards,
the highest among any institution in
India, followed by IIT D, IIT K and
IIT KGP with 3 awards each.
During the award ceremony Dr.
K. Vijay Raghavan, secretary of
Department of Biotechnology
noted the presence of the range of
innovators – from the grassroots
innovators coming from small villages
with little formal education to the
other spectrum of students coming
in from the top universities of India.
Dr. Mashelkar, Chairman, National
Innovation Foundation, who is
labelled as a ‘dangerous optimist’
talked about the importance of going
back to the Gandhian way of life
and work and also that India has the
ability to solve it’s own problems . He
said that excellence and affordability
in innovation must go hand in hand.
the proceedings
ARVIND PUJARI
Projects done by research scholars
often go unnoticed despite the
ground-breaking research and
innovation performed by them. Out
of the six projects selected from IIT
Madras, three were the culmination
of years of hard work and research
done by our PhD Scholars. One of
the projects entitled “White Light
Emission from Vegetable Extracts”,
by Dr. Vikram Singh, assisted by
his guide Professor Ashok Kumar
Mishra(Department of Chemistry),
was awarded the GYTI-BIRAC
award for innovations medical and
healthcare. He received a grant worth
Rs. 15 lakh to further his research.
His research could lead to a more
extensive range of low-cost and
efficient WLE biomaterials with
ease of adjusting colour temperature,
which will obviate more expensive
alternatives currently being pursued.
Avisek Balra, a final year student,
secured the rare distinction of
being awarded the GYTI award
for the second year in succession,
a remarkable feat considering the
amount of competition involved to
secure this prestigious prize. Last
year, he won the award for developing
a low-cost paper based test for
milk adulteration. This year, he was
awarded the prize for developing a
paper based test for blood glucose
and cholesterol levels. His stall at
the exhibition which followed the
award ceremony drew a large number
of visitors, including the head of
the Department of Biochemistry at
AIIMS Delhi, who invited him to
give a presentation at AIIMS! Avisek
currently heads his own start-up in
the field of Biotechnology.
SEGMENT 45
ARTICLE 45
Ramesh Kumar and Anupam
Chandra, a final year student,
received the GYTI award under
the “More from Less” category for
devising a “Portable Geo Specific
Water Filtration Bottle”. They
devised a simple hand operated water
purifying device which can purify
water from a variety of contaminants
ranging from microbial growth, to
arsenic. The utility of this device
cannot be understated during times
of natural calamity, when access
to clean drinking water is severely
restricted. This project could go a
long way in saving countless lives.
Their guide for the project was Dr.
T Pradeep, one of the most well
recognized scientists in India, and a
recipient of the lifetime achievement
award at IIT M.
Mannam Naga Praveen Babu, a
research scholar at the Department
of Ocean Engineering and Naval
Architecture received the GYTI
award for designing a Fish-Inspired
Propulsion System for Remotely
Operated Surface Ships and
Underwater Vehicles. His inspiration
was the caudal fin of a thunniform
fish. His research could herald a
new age of autonomous underwater
vehicles which could prove extremely
useful in exploring the oceans of
distant lands such as the moons of
Saturn, especially Titan. His project
guide was Professor P. Krishnankutty.
Plaque is a fatty substance that
forms between artery layers. The
growth of plaque at the interface
of the two layers blocks blood flow
and finally leads to heart attack.
Mallikarjunachari G, a research
46 ARTICLE
46 SEGMENT
scholar at IITM, received his award
for designing a Nanorobot for
Diagnosis and Removal of Plaque
from Human Heart Artery System.
His invention could go a long way
in ensuring the health of every
individual. His guide was Dr. Pijush
Ghosh.
A project from Team Sahaay, from
CFI, entitled “A Mechanism for
Toilet Sanitation”, was also selected
for the awards. The team which
worked on the project consisted
of myself (Arvind Pujari), Kushal
Kumar Reddy, a fellow freshie,
Subham Sahana, a 3rd year
undergraduate, Shashwat Jain, a
first-year MS scholar, and the head of
Team Sahaay, Tanay Garg, a fourth
year undergraduate. We devised a
completely mechanical, foot-pedal
operated system for cleaning and
sanitizing toilet seats in public places.
The mechanism consisted of a spray,
which sprays a sanitizing liquid onto
the seat and a wiper which wipes the
seat, cleaning it off excess water and
spreading the spray. Work on this
project began in September, and the
initial prototype was displayed at the
CFI Open House in November.
One of the highlights of the award
ceremony, for me, was interacting
with some of the greatest scientists
and innovators in India and across
the world. Before the award
ceremony, Dr. Anil Gupta had visited
each exhibition. I was given the task
of presenting our innovation to him
and other dignitaries, which included
a group which had flown all the way
from Germany. As German airports
are known for their self-cleaning
toilets, Dr. Gupta exclaimed, “When
are you going to export to this to
Germany?” We also had visitors from
the Discovery Channel!
The GYTI awards was one of the
most enriching experiences of my life.
The sheer amount of research and
innovation done by various students
from different institutes across the
country, to solve real life problems
ranging from healthcare to sanitation
showed, and although there is a lot
more to be done, we are progressing
in the right direction.
Progress requires innovation, and
innovate we must, for the future of
the country is in our hands.

Shoe Dog
PHIL KNIGHT
People have been waiting to get
Nike’s origin story from Phil Knight
himself for decades now. Oh, we’ve
had other people write about it.
Bowerman and the Men of Oregon,
Swoosh, The Story of Nike, all these
are wonderful books which give us
a pretty accurate idea of how Nike
became the global we’re now familiar
with. But it’s one thing to read about
how Knight technically tricked
Japanese manufacturer Onitsuka into
supplying shoes to his fictional “Blue
Ribbon Sports of Portland, Oregon”,
it’s another entirety to hear it from
the man himself:
Mr Mizayaki interrupted. “Mr
Knight—what company are you
with?” he asked.
“Ah yes, Good question.”
Adrenaline surging through my
blood, I felt the flight response, the
longing to run and hide, which
made me think of the safest place
in the world. My parents’ house.
The house had been built decades
before, by people of means, people
with much more money than my
parents, and thus the architect
had included servants’ quarters
at the back of the house, and these
quarters were my bedroom, which
I’d filled with baseball cards, record
albums, posters, books—all things
holy. I’d also covered one wall with
my blue ribbons from track, the
one thing in my life of which I was
unabashedly proud. And so? “Blue
Ribbon,” I blurted. “Gentlemen, I
represent Blue Ribbon Sports of
Portland, Oregon.”
Despite its tag as a memoir, ‘Shoe
Dog’ seems more like an adventure
Book Reviews MUST-KNOWS FOR ENTREPRENEURS
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PRANAV BHARGAV
novel at times. We follow Knight
as he leads his band of misfits and
mavericks through the rocky initial
years after Nike’s inception. Even
before that, really, starting from his
running background, and how his
passion for running was really the
fire that kept him going where most
would have given up.
The book commences with the classic
crossroads moment. A young Phil
Knight, out in the world, travelling
through Asia, Europe, and Africa,
decides that the conventional, the
normal path isn’t for him. He decides
to strike out on his own and create
something he could be proud of.
Something new, different and lively.
Of course, it’s not often you see
mottos like “Just Do It” actually
But Knight stresses on the most
being followed, but in Knight’s own
important reason for his success and
words:
dedication; his passion for running.
His “belief ”:
So that morning in 1962 I told
myself: Let everyone else call
Driving back to Portland I’d
your idea crazy… just keep going.
puzzle over my sudden success
Don’t stop. Don’t even think about
at selling. I’d been unable to sell
stopping until you get there, and
encyclopaedias, and I’d despised it
don’t give much thought to where
to boot. I’d been slightly better at
“there” is. Whatever comes, just
selling mutual funds, but I’d felt
don’t stop.
dead inside. So why was selling
shoes so different? Because, I
We see Knight and his folk’s break
realized, it wasn’t selling. I believed
all conventional trends trying to
in running. I believed that if people
keep their floundering company
got out and ran a few miles every
afloat. Here come his important
day, the world would be a better
relationships. His camaraderie with
place, and I believed these shoes
his running coach, Bill Bowerman,
were better to run in. People,
his company’s partnership with
sensing my belief, wanted some of
suppliers Onitsuka Tiger Shoes and
that belief for themselves. Belief, I
the help Phil received from his first
decided. Belief is irresistible.
employees. Knight is very candid
about the nature of company’s
Shoe Dog is full of Knight’s
success, especially when giving credit
constant 6-mile runs, especially
to these employees. Nike was possible
during times of professional stress.
only because of them.
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48 MUST-KNOWS FOR ENTREPRENEURS

We see his desire to have a career
where he could merge his work
with his interest in athletes. We see
his honest admiration of Sporting
legends, especially, in his eyes, Steve
Prefontaine. He dotes on him, like
any one of us might.
The book only takes us through
events starting from 1962 up until
1980, the day Nike went public
(incidentally, in the same week as
some “geeky” computer company in
California, Apple). This is possibly
the book’s only frustration, it misses
out on most popular anecdotes and
stories told about Nike.
makes the impossible seem plausible.
Shoe Dog is a must read for anyone,
not just the people who are a part of
the entrepreneurship world. A truly
wonderful job by Phil Knight.
The most
Overall, aside from being an entrepreneu-
interesting and informative read, this
rial country in
book will give you an almost first-
hand idea (courtesy of Phil Knight’s the world, per
amazing writing) of the problems, capita, is
both substantial and psychological, Uganda.
that a budding entrepreneur might
face, and will at least set you on the
right path to overcoming them.

After that fateful day, we skip

forward to 2007, and see where the
motivation behind writing the book
came from. Phil knight and his wife,
Penny, run into Warren Buffet and
Bill Gates after watching The Bucket
List (Wow. All three? Why isn’t this
story more popular?). He says this
meeting got him thinking about all
the mistakes he made on his way
to the top, all the regrets he had. It
made him think about his oldest
son, Matthew, who’d died in a diving
accident in 2004. This postscript,
this epilogue, “Night”, serves as a
reminder that life isn’t a fairy tale.
It doesn’t end how we want it to.
Every one of your successes is usually
accompanied by tragedy – they go
hand in hand.

There are a lot of other great things

in the book, but one of the most
impressive things is how Knight
never let his pride get in the way of
giving us an accurate account. This is
something a lot of autobiographies
fall prey to. Shoe Dog isn’t the self-
gratifying, “pat-yourself-on-the-back”
book that we’ve come to expect from
memoirs and success stories. We get
to see the things he’s not proud of
doing, but was forced to do for the
sake of his company.

Best of all is how easy Knight is to

connect to. You can see yourself in
his shoes every single step of the way.
That is the true magic of the book;
it motivates us without trying to. It

On Entrepreneurship
and Impact
DESH DESHPANDE
As Desh Deshpande’s first foray
into the world of writing, On
Entrepreneurship and Impact does
an admirable job of introducing a
novice/would-be entrepreneur to the
rigors of the start-up scene.
This book is written more as a
collection of articles and advice rather
than with a structured story. You can
snap to whatever you really want to
read after a glance at the index, if
you feel like you don’t have time to
finish the entire book. But I strongly
recommend any newbies read the
entire thing. Beginners are the
audience this book is intended for,
and through it, the author lets you
draw on his considerable experience.
The foreword is written by the
Founder of Infosys, and the
author’s brother-in-law, Narayana
Murthy. This serves as a useful set
of guidelines on the best way to
approach the book. This gets you
thinking from the very start.
My advice - read this book in
the context of your own projects.
Consider putting these insights into
action on your own project or share
these insights with those that can
put them into actions.
On Entrepreneurship and Impact
is divided into 6 parts, each one
corresponding to one stage in your
entrepreneurial journey; Start,
Manage, Grow, Develop, Impact and
Engage. Each part, in turn, is written
as a series of questions, addressing all
the basic questions that may occur to
you at each stage.
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PRANAV BHARGAV
It starts with the questions that you
must ask yourself no matter what
field you choose to dedicate your life
to, not just entrepreneurship.
1. Are you ready to be an
entrepreneur?
2. Is entrepreneurship worth it?
3. Is entrepreneurship an art or a
science?
If you do not have the right answers
to these questions, answers that you
arrive at yourself, your conviction
will fail you when the going gets
rough. The answers depend on why
you choose to enter the field, but
you have to be sure of them, and
have confidence that what you’re
doing is right. The author especially
your company. When your focus
stresses on the importance of having
shifts from the excitement to the
conviction in this part of the book.
managing risks, you’ve lost the heart
of what made you start up in the
One of my favourite parts of the
first place. All growth needs risk of
book was when the author addressed
some form. A lot of fear results in a
the question of when it was
stagnant company, stuck where it is.
acceptable to give up on a venture.
We may not want to think about
All the answers that Desh
such a possibility, but it’s better to
Deshpande gives us, like the above
quit when disaster is inevitable.
one, detail the mind-set with which
Sticking with your start-up through
we should address the problem,
all the problems that you will face is
rather than just giving us a tip or
no easy task, and sometimes it’s clear
personal experience. This shifts
that it just won’t work out.
the focus from short-term benefits
to long-term gains and stability.
If you spend your time worrying
As Narayana Murthy says in the
more about the risk factors than
foreword, the very first sentence in
the growth opportunities, it is a
the book:
sign that you should be thinking of
an exit, either personally or for the
In business, you might be able to
company.
gain some kind of advantages using
shortcuts. These advantages are
This hampers the development of
short-lived. If you want to gain
50 MUST-KNOWS
50 SEGMENT FOR ENTREPRENEURS
long-term advantage, you need
the right foundation of values and
principles at play.
The book has several points in
its favour. It is short, with to-
the-point paragraphs and little
to no digression. Even though
it is a “collection of the author’s
reflections on entrepreneurship and
social impact”, all the answers are
structured and clear. The snippets
are thought-provoking, especially
at the start of the book. The book
isn’t just a cheat sheet of how to get
past the most common problems
of entrepreneurship. The author
allows us enough room to think for
ourselves and alter his concepts in a
way that would be best for our lives.
Despite its effectiveness, I couldn’t
help but feel that this book would
have been better presented as a series
of articles.
The Impact and Engage sections at
the end of the book feel rushed and
obligatory. One might think that
these are the topics that would invite
the most reflection and thought, but
the book gets a little lacklustre at this
point. Of course, these sections have
their share of meaningful content as
well, but there is more padding and
fleshing out of the core ideas. The
author still rolls out some gems in
these, like his thoughts on attracting
talent to your venture:
More than the for-profit sector,
your ability to convey your vision
of the change you are going to make
in the world, is what will attract the
most talented people to be a part of
your mission.
I would suggest On Entrepreneurship
and Impact to people who are very
new to managing their business,
and are in need of quick, quality
advice/guidelines to follow. For more
experienced entrepreneurs, this book
might be common knowledge.
Terminology Check
MUST-KNOW TERMS
FOR ENTREPRENURS
The following is a list of the six most vital terms that every entrepreneur
should be aware of. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, then you might just
want to pay close attention to these cornerstones of entrepreneurship!
Shares
The equal parts into which a company's capital is divided, entitling the holder
to a proportion of the profits, are called shares
Equity
The value of the shares issued by a company is known as equity.
Incubation Facilities: This term is familiar in poultry farming, where an
incubator is a specially-equipped home for baby chickens. In the business
world, an incubator is an enterprise that is set up to provide office space,
equipment, and sometimes mentoring assistance and capital to new businesses
that are just getting started. Business incubators are set up by universities,
non-profit groups, and increasingly by venture capitalists
Willingness to Pay
It is the maximum price at or below which a customer will buy a product.
Angel Investors
An angel is an investor willing to support a company in the early stages in
exchange for joint ownership in the form of stock or convertible debt. As a
major source of capital for a start-up, an angel investor is a perfect way to
bridge the gap between the money lent from friends and loved ones and an
actual venture later. A relatively small amount of businesses are graced by
angel investors. Because of the partial ownership, an angel investor will want
to be involved in major decisions within the company, so the business owners
must be accepting of this. Angel investors typically target businesses with
room for growth, so a small-scale company with no plans for expansion will
likely not be of interest to an angel investor.
Internal rate of return (IRR)
It is a metric used in capital budgeting measuring the profitability of potential
investments. Only if a startup has a high IRR, will Angel Investors invest in it.
Venture Funding
Venture capital funds are investment funds that manage the money of
investors who seek private equity stakes in start-up and small- to medium-
sized enterprises with strong growth potential. These investments are generally
characterized as high-risk/high-return opportunities. Venture funding is
riskier than a loan provided by a bank, as there is a risk of no return. Hence,
the interest rate on venture funding is higher than that on bank loans.
Most of these terms are common-sense, according to Daniel Raj David, the
co-founder of Detect Technologies. He feels, that for companies which are
just starting up, the only terms that they need to know of are equity and
shares—because the allotment of shares to the cofounders is done internally,
and must be done as quickly as possible, to avoid future conflict.

Intellectual Property
& Plagiarism
In 2008, Coldplay launched what’s
currently their most popular song,
Viva la Vida, which then topped
all music charts and became a rage.
Coldplay won two Grammys for this
song, one under Best Rock Album
(as a part of the album Viva la Vida
or Death and All His Friends) and
the other for best Pop Performance
by Group categories. Although, this
song had its journey through the dark
when it attracted the attention of
the guitarist Joe Satriani, who could
not help but notice clear similarities
between some parts of his song “If
I Could Fly” and Coldplay’s hit.
Coldplay called it a coincidence, and
the case was soon settled out of court.
There are infinitely many such cases
where people have used parallel
concepts either in its entirety or a
part of them. From the Newton -
Galileo Gravity theory dilemma to
Amazon’s 1-Click patent controversy,
there is an urgent need for people
to be familiar with the concept
of Intellectual Property rights.
Today, when everyone knows that
creating new IP has ground breaking
potential, understanding plagiarism
has become the need of the hour.
Intellectual Property (IP)
refers to creations of the mind:
inventions; literary and artistic
works; and symbols, names and
images used in commerce.
This definition was proposed by
the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO), a global body
under the United Nations, which
is a global forum for intellectual
property services, policy, information,
MUST-KNOWS FOR ENTREPRENEURS
RISHABH KUMAR
and cooperation. IP laws being
complicated and the procedures
being excruciatingly painful, it is
important to address the elephant in
the room.
The exchange of information after
the advent of the internet has made
the process of recognizing plagiarism
very difficult. Internet has blurred the
boundaries of ownership. “Copy and
Paste” may seem legitimate, but it
lands people in huge trouble most of
the times. An assistant professor from
the University of Pittsburgh lost his
position because of “plagiarizing text
and falsifying data”.
Protecting Intellectual Property
is critical as it promotes unique
innovation and creativity. If a creation
is not protected, the attitude towards
creativity dies down because of
reduced incentivisation. Research and
development would be the first one
to take the hit, as its major incentive
and work recognition will be lost. If
an individual or an organization has
stumbled upon a groundbreaking
idea, the organization should have
sole rights to promote it and an
authority in checking its utility.
According to NY Times report
(2012),
Last year, for the first time, spending
by Apple and Google on patent
lawsuits and unusually big-dollar
patent purchases exceeded spending
on research and development of new
products, according to public filings.
Clearly, the big guns like Apple and
Google give importance to patenting
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51
$
for the growth of their company. In
the year 2016, IIT-M topped the list
of institutes with the highest number
of patent filings, with close to 250
patent applications.
The product or the idea is established.
What next?
• Google has created a separate
section, where one can look
up patents that have already
been filed. At www.google.
com/patents, one can find an
exhaustive patents list which
would help reduce plagiarism.
• Working with an attorney
who specializes in Intellectual
Property makes the process of
filing a patent considerably easier.
• Auditing to identify all the
registered and unregistered
trademarks and copyrights would
avoid conflicts.
• Investments in well-written
non-disclosure agreements are
pertinent. Making sure that the
employment agreements, licenses,
sales contracts and technology
transfer agreements all protect
the Intellectual Property helps
the cause.
• The process of filing should be
done as fast as possible. It is
important to note that a patent
application holds your place in
line.
Most institutional organizations have
a managerial body for the express
purpose of guiding students through
this process. For example, the IPR
department of IITM has helped
an enormous number of research
students and tech enthusiasts in filing
their patents with ease.