5 point advice from Amit to fellow entrepreneurs

No. 1: Enjoy What You Are Doing:starting a business is a huge amount of hard work, and requires a
great deal of time. You had better enjoy it.

No. 2: Create Something That Stands Out:you’ve got to do something radically different to make a
mark today.

No. 3: Create Something That Everybody Who Works for You is Really Proud of:businesses generally
consist of a group of people, and these people are your biggest assets.

No. 4: Be a Good Leader: as a leader you have to be a really good listener. You need to know your
own mind, but there is no point in imposing your views on everyone.

No. 5: Be Visible: a good leader does not get stuck behind a desk. I’ve always worked from home or
anywhere that lets my ideas flow.

Show people what you do,endorse yourself as a brand.

If you don’t survive, just remember that most businesses fail, and the best lessons are usually learned
from failure. You must not get too dispirited. Just get back up and try again.

Their beta site was launched in February 2015, and the team began propagation with initial minor
pushes on Facebook. With the feedback they received about the website and its workings, they
launched SpiceSafari again in May 2015.

During the beta stage, they would see an average of 1200 visitors visiting the site per month, with a
conversion rate of 2 per cent. Post marketing, traffic on the site has increased by 500 per cent, and
the conversion rate has doubled.

Market of Spices

A largely unorganised space in India, the spice market has slowly begun to see a rise, especially in the
international market. The branded segment of the spice market takes up 15 percent of the annual
market of 40,000 crores. Global projections say that market size will be $ 16.6 billion by 2019.
According to reports, close to 10 per cent of the spices exported from India go to the US.

"In addition to the organised market, we at Spicesafari aim to showcase extremely unique region-
based collections of spices, and put them on a platform that will make them accessible across the
globe," adds Tulsi.
The team's future plans include expanding their product portfolio to include preserves, pickles, dry
fruits and savoury items from various parts of the world. They also aim to source even larger
collections of spices, seasonings and preserves, and ship them across the globe.

Some students take the platform seriously. Others… not so much.

“A user registered on our website with the name Osama Bin Laden, and put up an AK-47 for sale!
Thank God we moderate all our ads,” laughs Harsh Gupta, who has founded Fratmart, a college
community-based marketplace for peer-to-peer sharing, buying and selling.

The fact that students from around 320 colleges across the country are posting ads on this college-
specific classifieds portal reassures him that his idea has struck a chord within a huge chunk of the
college-going population.

yourstory-fratmart

The ‘Eureka!’ moment

A few years ago, Harsh was a college student himself, and he realized that there was something
common about the end of every semester.

“Just like other engineering students, after every semester exam, I was always submerged in a pile of
books that I was never going look at again. Selling these to baniyas [traders] involved losing a lot of
money; they would then sell them at much higher prices,” he said.

Tired of bargaining with baniyas, who bought old books at 30 to 40 percent of their value and sold
them at 60 percent of their cost, Harsh realized that he could just build a platform to avoid such
middlemen.

“Every college student will have a corresponding junior, so there was no way money would be
wasted on buying extras. So I decided to tap into this obvious and assured market,” added Harsh.

Birth of the startup

In 2014, Harsh graduated from an engineering college in Delhi, and took up a job as an analyst with
Aspiring Minds, which he worked at for long enough to earn his investment for Fratmart.

“I was under the impression that I needed about Rs. 60,000 or 70,000, because I thought I had to hire
a technical team. I was a Mech [Mechanical Engineering] graduate and didn’t even know the
difference between ‘front end’ and ‘back end’,” said Harsh, who merely on-boarded a tech-savvy co-
founder, Sarthak Mehrish, instead.

Over the next eight or nine months, he not only learned the difference between front end and back
end, but also started writing code for the same. Fratmart was then launched in April 2015.

What’s Fratmart all about?

Fratmart is an online community-based platform that connects students from the same college.
Students can post ads for the buying and selling of used academic material, find accommodation or
housemates, rideshare partners, or even arrange daily carpools. So Fratmart works almost like a
hyperlocal Craigslist for all college-related things.

“On our platform, every college has its own marketplace, where students of that particular college
can buy, sell, share, and connect with their peers. That lends a very personal feeling to the whole
concept; you’re connecting with people from your own college, and meeting them inside the campus
in case a deal is made,” added Harsh.

The platform lets students chat directly and in real-time with buyers and sellers, without them having
to share their phone numbers or email addresses. Students can also look at ads from other college
marketplaces in the vicinity.

Fratmart, which has been live for just about three months, already has more than 320 colleges on
board, with over 1000 ads posted on the site.

What do college kids use the platform for?

According to Harsh, the most popular categories on Fratmart are course material, novels, and study
material for various entrance exams. Students have also sold electronic items like dessert coolers,
USB modems, calculators, LED lights, and lamps.

“We’ve had normal ads like the ones for two-wheelers, engineering drafters etc., but also funny ads,
like the ones for class notes and assignments!” he said.

Market and competition

Though Fratmart does not directly compete with online classifieds portals like OLX or Quikr, it is
difficult to see the two models as very different from each other.

“These existing big players, like OLX, Quikr, etc., are not our competitors since our research shows
that only a negligible percentage of students in higher education use such platforms for
buying/selling used academic stuff. These classifieds are mainly geared towards consumer durables,”
said Harsh.

Numbers from the latest UGC statistics report that there are roughly 20,000 degree or diploma-
granting institutions in the higher education sector, with a student strength of more than 20 million
(two crore). These numbers are said to be growing by 15 to 20 percent per annum. This means that
the figure might have already reached 25 to 30 million (two and a half to three crore) by now.

As far as the used goods industry goes, a recent study carried out by OLX pegs the size of the industry
at $ 9,000 million (Rs. 56,000 crore). Another report in the same domain reported that not even four
percent of India’s internet population is accessing such online classified portals.

As startups like Fratmart do not have data available specifically for their markets, a combination of
the above figures is their only market indicator.

A peek into the future

“Our entire market is still not very acquainted with the idea of buying and selling academic stuff
online. So we can say, ‘We’re not building a venture, we’re building a culture’. A culture that has the
potential to revolutionize the way students across the world engage within their college
communities,” concludes Harsh.

I want also to start something like that .

Indibni is actually a very interesting word. It is an ambigram (mirror image) of the word ‘indi’. The
Founders of Indibni, however, have wrapped an India story around it. The three ‘i’s stand for India,
Innovation and Individuality. The mission of the company is tethered to the idea of Design for Life.

Indibni is a Jaipur-based startup in the gifting space which embraces themes and ideas pertaining to
Indian culture. The three founders Nitin Jain, Ankit Jain and Khushbu Mathur believe that gifting is
not about price, utility, shape or size; it is all about the experience it gives to a buyer, and feeling it
evokes in the receiver. According to Nitin, the founding if Indibni was the result of multiple
explorations and failures – almost like an arduous but memorable journey.

Team-indibni

Starting up and early days

Nitin recalls his early days:

I did my schooling in a Hindi medium school affiliated to the Rajasthan Board. In my pre-university
days I took PCM with Fine Arts - a unique combination. After that I was convinced that I had to make
a career in a creative field. I eventually ended up doing my undergraduate and post graduate degrees
in Animation and Design from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra (Ext. Jaipur). In college, I met Ankit
Jain, a very original individual with an offbeat nature. Both of us wanted to start an enterprise but we
did not have fundamental understanding of product design and materials. Ultimately, we roped in
Khushbu Mathur, my junior from school, and a graduate in Crafts & Design from IICD (Jaipur) - she
became the third partner.

Indian culture and ethos are the motivations behind Indibni. The founders recalled their childhood
days when they used to create cards and mementos to gift, and delight, people around. Indibni is
looking to carry that story forward by creating beautiful products that have utility; or at least, a story
behind them that people can relate to.

The “Indibni” gifts

The target audience for Indibni is, well, just about anyone who needs to buy a gift. And the market is
huge - people are always looking for innovative gifting solutions to celebrate festivals and occasions,
or just to remember and cherish their loved ones. Nitin says, “We have two types of products, or
rather, two types of customers.”

Customers for ready-to-buy gifts

Most of the company's ready-to-buy products are quirky, and range from Rs. 150 to Rs.1500, and the
buyers are youngsters aged between 13 and 35 who live mostly in the Indian metros and larger cities.
Indibni has processed orders from over fifty cities in India through various e-commerce platforms like
Amazon, Flipkart, ebay, Snapdeal, Fabfurnish, PayTM, etc. The products are also sold through some
of the outlets of retail chains like Crossword, Poparazzi, and Shoppers Stop. These products are much
appreciated by the NRIs, who are looking to send gifts to their loved ones in India. So far, Indibni has
received orders from over 15 countries.

Customers for personalized gifts

Nitin says,

Since we are also a design studio, we take up corporate orders and provide exclusive gift ideas and
designs. People, who know a thing or two about design, are ready to pay for the exclusivity and
creativity. We have designed gifts for 3M India, Owens Corning, NBC, JIFF, and many more. We have
also done some exclusive souvenirs for the Bachchan family, Mr. Marc Bachet (Filmmaker and Oscar
Winner), Late Shri Varghese Kurian (Father of the White Revolution), Shri Anna Hazare (Social
Activist) and many others.

Competition

There are some retail gifting benchmark stores like Archies and Hallmark who provides gifting
solutions, but to be specific, they have very generalized products with limited utility. Indibni is very
different. It follows a design process for making exclusive gifts for everyone. Its USP lies in adding
utility and personalization to every gift that is created.

On the business front and the scope for scaling up, Nitin adds, “Our annual turnover is in seven
figures, and till now Indibni is a self-sustaining business. In the last couple of years we have spent
time in defining our market niche, addressing customer needs, and looking at the scaling possibilities.
The best part is that we are now past the initial phase, and with every passing year our revenue is
growing. Now we have a promising and effective business model. From here-on we want to move
fast, with presence in both the offline market as well as the International market. We are also looking
to raise funds from the right investors – experienced groups who can also mentor us in increasing our
market share.”

The Indian e-commerce market

Indian e-commerce market was estimated to be worth $16 billion in 2013, and is expected to touch
$56 billion by 2023. It will control about 6.5 per cent of the total retail market. Gift articles are likely
to be about 58 per cent of the market.
The online retail segment in India is at a promising stage, and there are enough opportunities to build
reasonably large or niche and sustainable e-commerce businesses. As the online experience gets
better for customers, with more choices and quick order fulfillment, gifting as category is likely to
flourish.

Future plans

As of now, Indibni is selling its products through various online marketplaces, and a few outlets of the
big retail chains. Talking about the future plans, Nitin says,

In the near future we are going to focus on increasing our product range, launching our own app and
e-store, placing our products in more stores in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, and increasing our
consumer base, not only in India but also overseas. We are scaling decently in the online space, but
the major gifting market in India is in the offline stores - it’s almost 75 per cent of the whole gifting
market. We are also aiming to increase our offline presence in collaboration with big retail players
like Crossword and Shoppers Stop. Besides, we are also going to go after the international market.

Innovation is at the heart of the Indibni enterprise. To cater to a larger market, and bridge the gap
between art and application, they plan to launch the Indibni Design Society - a social enterprise -
where they will invite various artists collaborate with them, with their ideas and designs. Indibni will
be the producer and marketer of these signature pieces that will be sold under the artists’ names.u

Rent par kaam karna us also a great idea to work make survey on it also

The hyperlocal marketplace is transforming the retail landscape once again. At the time e-
retailers were posing a major threat to brick-and-mortar businesses, the hyperlocal
marketplace emerged as the latter’s saviour. This is because it connects local retailers with
consumers through local discovery platforms, and helped physical stores gain lost visibility,
in order to boost their businesses.Zopper team Zopper teamIn the last few years, the
hyperlocal sector has grown exponentially, and there are now many players in the sector.
Started in December 2012 by Neeraj Jain and Surjendu Kuila, Zopper is one of the
segment’s most established players.

“Zopper is an app that allows a customer to choose the retailer with the best price for a
product, from over 500,000 online and offline retailers, thus creating a unique shopping
experience. It caters to the urban mobile-savvy consumer, who wishes to find the best
local deals through pricing and product comparison,” says Neeraj Jain, Co-founder and
CEO, Zopper.

Talking about Zopper, he says it is India’s first hyperlocal marketplace for consumer
durables and home appliances. It has always put technology at the forefront in crafting
solutions that bring real value to its consumers and key stakeholders. In terms of shopping
for consumer durables in India, no other player has been able to reach where Zopper is.
Zopper’s core differentiators are that it makes consumers aware of the best prices from
local stores, and that it delivers them the goods they desire within 24 hours. The product
was launched to provide a hassle-free shopping experience to consumers, and to provide
them comprehensive product listings, through amalgamation of both online and offline
retailers.

Go-to-market strategy

The company’s go-to-market strategy focuses on bolstering its brand presence across 30
cities in the country, key appointments, and using technology to accelerate the growth of
the company. The product has been active on both online and offline marketing platforms.
It has been employing digital campaigns, social media campaigns, consumer activation
programs, and retail branding to acquire customers.

Growth figures

Zopper has been going great guns since its launch. It has scaled its presence from one city
to 10 in the last quarter, and intends to spread across over 30 cities by FY15-16. It has
about 500,000 merchants listed on its app, with over 1 million app installations so far.

The venture is well-funded too. In June 2014, the venture raised Series A funding of
$6.6mn, backed by marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Blume Ventures and Nirvana
Ventures Advisors. This funding was used to build a strong foundation for the company.
This year, the company clinched Series B funding of $20mn, again from Tiger Global and
Nirvana Ventures Advisors. With the newly obtained Series B funding, the company is all
set to significantly develop through implementing expansion plans and indulging in
strategic hiring.

Overall growth in hyperlocal delivery

Zopper is not the only player in the hyperlocal sector claiming to be growing rapidly and
clinching funding. Other players too are neck-in-neck, and are making the segment more
vibrant and competitive.

In the past two years, the hyperlocal delivery industry has witnessed huge traction.
Delivery models like Grofers, Swiggy, TinyOwl and PepperTap have received large amounts
of funding from leading venture capital firms.
In April 2015, online grocer Grofers raised $35 million, led by Tiger Global Management
and Sequoia Capital. In February, Swiggy raised $16.5 million from Norwest Venture
Partners, SAIF Partners and Accel Partners India. In the same month, TinyOwl raised Rs 100
crore from Sequoia Capital, Nexus Ventures and Matrix Partners India.

Competition

When it comes to direct competition, there is no such thing in the sector. However,
overall, industry-wise, they compete with anyone who is anti-local retailer. They say their
competitors are thus primary commerce platforms that sell consumer durables, like
Snapdeal, Amazon and Flipkart, as well as secondary platforms, like JustDial and Pricebab,
who are into merchant/price discovery.

Overview of industry

The growth trajectory of the Indian e-commerce sector has been phenomenal in recent
years. It has gone up by more than 600 percent, and reached the whopping $16 billion
mark in 2014. But today, m-commerce is set to overtake e-commerce, in terms of business
provided. Global m-commerce growth has outpaced traditional e-commerce growth by
200 percent over the past few years. The number of mobile internet users in India is also
growing, with th expected to touch 213 million by June 2015.

“As India’s retail market is geared to scale up from $650 million to $1 trillion by 2020,
there is immense scope for the proliferation of our hyperlocal business. We will achieve
this by bringing more retailers into our fold, for them to reap the benefits of going
hyperlocal,” says Neeraj.

What is it?

Gymer is a mobile app and web-based service that provides a cashless system for booking instant or
in-advance workout sessions on an hourly basis. Users can decide when and where to work out, with
a ‘pay-as-you-go’ option.

From the list of verified gyms that Gymer has tied up with, users can pick the one closest to them,
and book hourly sessions for that day or the next. For every booking that gyms receive through their
platform, Gymer receives a nominal fee. Gyms are categorized based on their hourly rates and
facilities. They currently have three different categories, at price points of Rs 140, Rs 180 and Rs 220.
The idea for Gymer evolved over catch-ups between Srikanth and his friends. Their day-to-day
experiences, and issues related to gymming, became a point of discussion. This led them to the idea
of ‘gymming-by-the-hour’, with no upfront membership fees.

Gymer was co-founded by Srikanth Balakumar and Kushal Kumar. Kushal is an investment banker
from the UK, and Srikanth, aged 27, comes from a technical background. They currently are a team of
8. Mehz Sheikh heads operations, and Suresh Gopalkrishnan and Varaprasad A lead business
development, with Munira Mitra managing public relations. They also have two partners’ support,
and engagement executives.

The story so far

yourstory-app-friday-gymer-insidearticle3 The teamGymer has so far partnered up with 180 gyms

across Bengaluru. Mehz added, “The experience of signing up with gym partners has been quite
pleasant. The major issue gyms face is that a large section of people come and sign up, but 60-70%
do not return. So they were happy signing up with us.”

Gymer offers their service through a mobile app, desktop, and mobile browsers. So far, they have
seen equal traction across all platforms. They aim to stay active on all three platforms, to cater to
people who are not comfortable keeping apps installed on their mobile devices.

yourstory-app-friday-gymer-insidearticle1They also have a partner-facing mobile app to help gyms

manage and control their bookings. Gyms can also reach out to their users in case of emergencies,
such as the gym being closed on a certain day, through it. The partner-facing app is also used to start
customers’ gym sessions. The user is provided with a verification code, which is entered into the
partner-facing app. This begins the session.

Marketing

The startup is focussing on organic growth, i.e., through word-of-mouth marketing and in-app
referrals. They have raised a small seed round of funding, and aim to raise a further round in order to
expand their services in the future, once they hit certain metrics. They currently accept payments
through Paytm and PayUmoney, and plan to add their own payment gateway soon.

Users can currently book only one day in advance, or for the same day. Bookings can't be cancelled
or transferred to other people. However, users can reschedule the same by getting in touch with the
gym directly, subject to their obligation.

Others in the sector

The health and fitness sector in India is currently growing. With the government popularising Yoga,
more people are becoming aware of the need to stay fit and healthy.

While we didn’t come across startups that were similar to Gymer, globally, there is Class Pass, and in
India, Fitness Papa. They provide flexible plans to gym-goers. Class Pass provides monthly
membership to fitness studios, and lets users create work-out routines.
Some notable startups and enterprises in this sector are HealthifyMe, a calorie intake and fitness
tracker, which raised funding from Micromax and a second round from angel investors. Truweight
which claims to help lose weight with Superfoods, raised Series A funding from Kalaari Capital in May
2015. Mumbai based Fitternity is positioning itself as 'Zomato for Fitness'. Gaurav Jaswal and Gul
Panag started MobieFit, and launched FirstRun, to guide people to take up running. Goqii, founded
by Vishal Gondal, provides wearable fitness bands, paired with remote personalized coaching. They
recently raised funding from Neeraj Arora of WhatsApp and Marco Argenti of Amazon.

Is it the age of hyperlocal startups? In a country like India, one would think so. The retail market here
is fairly fragmented and unorganised. While the e-commerce segment has ensured visibility and
connectivity, hyperlocal platforms like wWhere, Andnrby, HereNow, Qyk, UrbanClap and HouseJoy
focus more on age-old and traditional retailers, house helpers and recreational classes.

Entering this fray is SearchAround, a hyperlocal startup based out of Jaipur, Rajasthan. According to
Aditya Kumar, Co-founder, they started out to solve a problem everyone faces - finding places and
services in one's locality. "In order to connect people with places and services, we decided to start
SearchAround," says Aditya.

Team and development

The team consists of students from engineering colleges: Aditya Kumar, Ronak Mathur and Kapil
Yadav of JECRC College of Engineering, Jaipur and Shubhang Sharma from Sinhgad College, Pune.
Shubham Jaiswal, Hemraj, and Dinesh, alumni of MNIT Jaipur, and Tarun Kedia from NIT Jamshedpur,
are also a part of the core team.

From the day of its inception until now, the team has faced several ups and downs. Aditya says that,
in their initial days, the core team would go out on the streets, collecting data from individual shop
owners, clicking photos, and personally convincing vendors to be a part of the platform.

"If our days were spent on the road, evenings and nights would be spent verifying and cross-checking
the data we’d collected, and adding the perfect map location to each store. Convincing the owners to
source services with discounts was also a complex task for our team," adds Aditya.Yourstory-
SearchAround SearchAround

Traction

Operational for over three months now, the website has had over 300 visitors and over 100
registered users. Users fall under two categories, the free membership scheme and the premium
membership. Under free membership, SearchAround provides information listings, while premium
membership targets specific areas. "SearchAround also provides discounts to customers on certain
services," says Aditya.
Thus, he adds, with SearchAround, apart from simply receiving information on the different services
you wish to avail of, you also get information on prices and discount offerings. Apart from this, the
team is also focused on core values like customer satisfaction, ethics, trust and honesty.

The team isn't specifically targeting any demographic. People from every age group will benefit from
SearchAround. Aditya believes that the Internet revolution has been a big contributing factor to the
growth and development of SearchAround.

The hyperlocal market

Currently, after China and the US, India is the third largest country in terms of the number of internet
users. It has also been reported that India will overtake the US by the end of 2015. The
unprecedented growth in the number of internet users has created many opportunities for the
digitization of the country.

Today, the several hyperlocal platforms around help even regular mom-and-pop stores are a part of
the digital growth of the country. The market size for the retail segment is poised to reach USD one
trillion by 2020, and reports suggest that close to 98 per cent of the Indian retail segment is
dominated by traditional players.

SearchAround is currently operational in Jaipur. The team will soon be targeting metros, Tier II and
Tier III cities. In the first phase of their expansion, the team is looking at Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata,
Pune, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, and Ahmedabad.

Run by students, SearchAround currently is bootstrapped and the team is looking for investment.

The Indian creative industry, which spans a wide range of fields - from arts and designing to
photography to animation - is growing exponentially. There’s no dearth of demand and available
talent in this segment. In spite of the availability of adequate talent, the industry often struggles to
discover and tap into suitable ones. The reason is that there aren’t enough platforms on which
industry players and the creative community can meet, other than consultancies.

yourstory-bananabandy

Launched in February 2015 by Shashank Jogani, 21 and Kavan Antani, 19, BananaBandy is a platform
which caters to all the requirements of the Indian creative ecosystem. With the aim of addressing the
aforementioned challenge in the industry, it has created an integrated creative platform for students,
professionals, institutes and design-focused companies.

“We cater to the Indian creative ecosystem. On our website, any creative can sign up, upload his/her
portfolio, interact with like-minded professionals, and also explore projects of different genres,” says
Kavan Antani, Co-founder and CEO, BananaBandy.
He further adds that the platform also serves as a portal for potential employers to recruit the
creative talents who best fit their needs and budget. It focuses on connecting the right talent with
the right company.

BananaBandy is a combination of a community, where users showcase their work, like and share
projects, and follow other creatives, and a marketplace, where companies can appoint creatives
based on their portfolios. The Indian creative community itself needs to come together, to boost and
inspire the work done in the country.

In India, design-focused companies rely solely on their databases and referrals to find creative talent.
This is the case everywhere, right from MNCs to small studios. “We are a homegrown platform that
showcases more talent than companies’ networks will have access to. Thus we often connect
companies up with exactly the right talent for them. We also expose Indian creative talent to many
more opportunities. In a nutshell, we are a LinkedIn for Indian creative professionals; instead of
resumés we have portfolios,” says Kavan.

Existing competition

Kavan says the creative industry of India contributes more than $1 billion to the economy. Fresh
figures have not been released, but their market research, in addition to various reports released by
the India Design Council, made them realize that this is an enormous market to venture into.

“We are India’s first market network for creative professionals, and we don’t face direct competition
from any other website. We believe that instead of a competitive one, we are in a complementary
space, as we wish to benefit creative individuals in all spheres,” says Kavan.

However, there are portfolio sites in the space like Behance, and Touchtalent, and marketplaces like
Postergully and Cupick, which make the market competitive.

In 2014, Touchtalent, the social networking site and platform for artists to sell their work, raised USD
700K from SAIF Partners and 15 other angel investors.

In June 2015, PosterGully, the curated marketplace for artists and designers, raised a $160K angel
round from a group of angel investors through LetsVenture. During the same month, Chennai-based
Termsheet.io facilitated an investment of $120,000 (Rs. 75 lakhs) for Bangalore-based startup
Cupick.com, a marketplace for creative artists.

Skills such as development of apps running on Android, iOS and the web, and game design are in high
demand now. With mobile and web-based startups mushrooming around every corner, it is no
surprise that developers are seeing a boom in incoming projects. Capitalising on this wave of interest,
the founders of Practical Coding are hoping their mentor-based code learning platform will give a
personalised, impactful experience for all its consumers who are looking to expand their technical
knowledge.
Practical_Coding

Practical Coding has nearly 100+ mentors who are quality engineers, own startups, and work in large
MNCs or are experienced IT professionals.

The story behind Practical Coding

Basavaraj Hampali was an Android developer and Founder of an EdTech venture - KanheriEdu.com.
He also worked for a short time as an Android developer at Traffline. During this time, he understood
that people who did not possess coding experience were teaching coding. He then started teaching
interested Android learners and found that he was able to juggle a fulltime job and his teaching stint
quite comfortably. The concept for Practical Coding took shape in his mind when he realised that
mentors who specialised in web, IOS + Android and game development were increasingly sought
after.

The company is based out of BVB CTIE, an incubator at Hubli, and is powered by Basavaraj and his
sister Saroja, who is a self-taught coder channeling her love for technology and teaching by
overseeing customer care and technology at Practical Coding.

More about the venture

All course content provided by Practical Coding is well-defined and structured. The mentors take
classes at fixed timings so that both learners and mentors are used to a certain regularity during
training. Most of the classes occur during the weekends and are conducted using Google Hangouts.
Students can also rate their teachers on a scale of 10. Mentors teach a maximum of three students at
a time. It is with a sense of pride that Basavaraj states that all the mentors have received nine plus
ratings from their students.

The venture has a thorough screening process for mentors through social profiles and an interview,
and shares earnings with them. Practical Coding’s portfolio of learners includes quality assurance
engineers, entrepreneurs and students. The venture hopes to serve all professionals through their
offerings.

The team has also got on board Lalit Mangal, co-founder of commonfloor.com, as an advisor for the
venture.

Basavaraj believes that their idea has a lot of potential. Codecademy in the US has nearly 24 million
users to date. “According to a study, 66 per cent of QA engineers stand a better chance at getting a
pay two-three times more than their existing one by moving to coding. So they can start learning the
hottest coding skill in the market while still working as QA engineers. At the end of course they will
build a product which will be hosted on app store/web and their source code will be hosted on
Github as to serve as proof of their work,” Basavaraj says.

The future

There are a number of options that Practical Coding could explore. Horizontally, the mentor-based
learning model could be used for a variety of courses, including yoga or music. The venture could also
expand to countries like Indonesia which is experiencing an IT boom. The challenges of finding the
right mentors and scaling rapidly using the current model still remain. The team would have to
increase marketing efforts to bring in more learners to the platform so that mentors with better skills
are attracted to join in. Basavaraj says he would like to explore all options before taking a call on
which route to take. He says he is unfazed by competitors such as Acadgild and Edureka. “The space
is still at a nascent stage and having more ventures might create more interest in the mentor-based
model,” he notes, adding that ensuring quality of the mentors on the platform and incorporating the
personal touch to learning will go a long way in helping them carve out a niche.

What we have make by low budgets goods is their any market space where we work on
low budget things service or any other things

I also want a platform where all the NGOs are work and we share the actual needy people
on that websites

And also want to make a source for the news for media houses because that are also
showed a nonsense news for spending time and give work for low performer in that
section .

Low-budget hotel chain ZO Rooms, has secured an undisclosed amount of funding led by
Tiger Global, with participation from Orios Venture Partners. The company will use funding
primarily for building a strong team and business expansion.

n today's competitive world, talent and creativity are not enough for an artiste to achieve
fame and recognition. Strong network, access to the right set of people and a platform can
simplify one's struggle towards attaining success. Launched in February 2015, Delhi-based
Yahavi.com is creating a platform to help artistes discover the right opportunities and have
access to the right people, be it promoters, fans or audiences, without charging any fees.

yourstory-Yahavi

Yahavi.com serves as a comprehensive platform for various artistes where they can promote
themselves to a large set of audience and peers. The platform also allows clubs, restaurants
and corporations to directly contact artistes and organize events.

Since the launch of Yahavi.com, it has witnessed a significant traction with the number of
registration going up to 2000 which includes musicians, solo performers, and bands from all
across Delhi-NCR. The startup intends to take the number of registered members up to
10,000 from the music fraternity by this August.

Whilst speaking about the initiative and ideation of the concept, Divyesh Sharma, Chief
Executive Officer, says,
In the artiste circle, there is a defunct supply chain of middlemen which feeds off the talent
and the income of the artiste while adding no value to the entire process. With Yahavi.com,
we aim to bring about a change in the system by facilitating a seamless exchange between
demand and supply by virtue of reach and engagement on the platform.

Hazy idea with clear vision

With an urge to do something meaningful for the society (all the while not losing sight of the
need for commercial viability and sustainability for the project), Sharma kick-started
Yahavi.com with an initial investment of $ one million dollars. Initially, the idea was to be a
cultural barometer of the society and solving the aching point of performing artistes by
putting up showcasing skills and resources.

From the execution perspective, the challenge was to explain to the audiences the plan of
how to discover, develop and promote the artistes online. The idea was to eventually help
the artistes to grow and flourish.

Gaining competitive edge

In India, the concept of live performances has started gaining significant acceptance from
pubs and restaurants across cities.This has further motivated people to opt for performance
arts as a serious professional career option.

The market has evolved in the last couple of years with the entry of players like Qyuki,
Gigstart in this domain, with revenue generation being evaluated close to rupees1000 crore
per year.

Yahavi.com, a new entrant in this market, is trying to differentiate itself by solving all the key
issues surrounding an artiste starting, from creating a market for performances, getting
opportunities to showcase her/his talent and fan interaction.

Primarily, Sharma has to reach out to the artistes social media websites likeFacebook to
promote Yahavi.com. The platform does not adhere to any strict norms in terms of selecting
artistes. It charges no registration fee from the artistes who are signingup on the platform.

Climbing the ladder of success

In the last one month, Yahavi.com has organised four events in South Delhi. Moreover, it is
in the process of organising music festivals across genres like jazz and heavy metal to
diversify the music culture in the city.
Speaking of the revenue model, Sharma says,

Presently we are not charging the artistes or the clubs/restaurants. Going forward, our
revenue generation model will be solely through subscription and ad sales.

As a part of its geographical expansion strategy, Yahavi.com is working across Mumbai,

Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata and parts of North East to get artistes on
board.

Currently, the startup has a team of 40 people on a flat organisational structure. The core
team heads business, operations, products and marketing with support from the specialists
in each department.

Going forward

In the next one year, Yahavi.com aims to popularise the platform through registrations
across the demand and supply side.With a leadership team that has extensive experience
across technology and management, Yahavi.com is working to go national and global in later
stages. Adds Sharma,

We plan to go international by 2016 starting with South East Asia and Central Europe, after
extensively covering artistes across music, dance and standup comedy

Damn! This was one of my startup ideas!

This was my immediate reaction a couple of months back, when I saw the news of a one-
year-old startup being acquired for USD 30 million.

I had the same startup idea two years ago in my dorm room in college. There are a dozen
successful companies that are working on ideas that were born and immediately discarded
in my dorm room.

idea

Image credit "ShutterStock"

And a few more on ideas which I built MVPs for but gave up on soon after. I was wondering
if I should feel good about myself for having such amazing ideas, as my ideas taken together
are worth billions of dollars.

The fact that not even a tiny percentage of that money is reflected in my bank account
affirms the fact that ideas not followed up with proper execution have zero value.
It was a surprise, but nevertheless a huge relief, to know that I am not the only one who kills
ideas before they can evolve and realise their full potential. I have seen my friends do it.
Why, even Ev Williams did it before he founded Blogger, Twitter and Medium.

“After folding my first company (at 25), I did a retrospective and counted 32 different
projects — most of them, whole new products or product variations — I’d started (and
almost never completed) in the prior year. I realized this may have had something to do with
my failure.” -Ev Williams

The birth and death of ideas follows a very familiar pattern.

Eureka!

Ideas hit you when you least expectthem: you may have been staring into the all-consuming
darkness of the night when you suddenly come up with one.

You sift it through your personal, highly subjective filters of good versus bad ideas. If it does
not pass, it dies then and there, not even getting an opportunity to evolve into something
substantial. If it does, the real fun begins!

ideas_alive

Source: https://cheshirelibraryscience.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/image_38935.gif

Now you are in a state of what I’d like to call idea euphoria. You can’t stop thinking about
your latest strike of enlightenment. You can immediately see how far reaching your idea is.
All pieces seem to be falling into place. This might just be the next Google or Facebook!

You can’t wait to discuss it with your friends. Many of them share your excitement. You will
tend to ignore the ones who don’t.

You get a few people on board and start building a product around the idea. You want to
launch it out in the real world as soon as possible.

The launch

Okay, so the product is live. It is not unexpected to assume the world will immediately sit up
and take notice of it.

You share it in your immediate network and see a spike of interest. You get a couple of
hundred likes on your Facebook page.

You then post the product on Product Hunt, Hacker News and also get some PR. Many
people are trying out your product and giving you feedback on it. Things, so far, are going
pretty well.

Post-launch
Unless you are Instagram, the early interest in your product slowly dies down. Even your
initial spurt of excitement is also wearing off. You are slowly going into the “Trough of
Sorrow”.

ideas_alive

Once you are past the initial euphoria and glamour of the idea, the real slog starts. Now that
you have some exposure with users, you start to notice some real issues in your product
idea. And you hit a wall when you try to figure out definite answers on how to solve them.

Your product does not have product market fit. For that matter, you may not even know
what product market fit looks like or how to reach there. Neither would you know where to
get a steady stream of new users.

This stage is where most startup ideas get killed. Either the founders give up or get excited
with another idea and make a pivot (which is, in most cases,not a pivot but a completely
different idea).

Ideas in their initial stage are like infants, in that they are unable to stand up and walk on
their own. They need to be nurtured with patience. They have to evolve with time in order
to take off.

If you patiently evolve your product and idea, you might have a shot at success. Here’s how
to cope when the going gets tough:

Try not to give up

It is natural to have thoughts about giving up on your new idea when things are not working
out as expected.

ideas_alive

Source: memegenerator.net

Do not give up because of the problems; they are a part and parcel of every startup. You
should only consider giving up if you have lost all faith in the startup’s vision.

Do not run after a different idea

When your original idea is giving you problems in execution, you interest will suddenly waver
tomore attractive ideas for you to go after. And these ideas, at your current state, will be
devoid of the seemingly unsolvable problems that you are facing right now.

I have done this a couple of times. Unsurprisingly, every ‘perfect idea’ gave birth to loads of
problems once I went deep into execution. The rogue ‘Dunning Kruger Effect’– a feeling that
you are capable of a lot more than what you really can offer - was at work again, but are
better off pursuing your current idea where you know the underlying problems rather than
pursuing a new one where you have no idea what problems may crop up.

Be open to making minor modifications to your existing idea

While you should not go into a completely different direction, you should be open to making
minor changes in your idea or business model as you iterate and get customer feedback.

Don’t be tempted to raise money to solve your problems

When you are not getting validation from the market, you might be tempted to get
validation from investors. Considering the current investment scene, you might very well be
successful in raising money despite your problems.

And you will feel a bit happier. Investors are pretty smart people. Their belief in your idea
gives it some validation, right?

No.

Never ever confuse investor validation with customer validation.

As one hears of startupsraising millions of dollars easily, it is easy to confuse fundraising with
success. This is far from the truth. Along with the money, the investment also brings higher
accountability and pressure.

There are lots of examples of startups that tanked after raising hundreds of millions of
dollars. Remember Better Place, Webvan and Solyndra?
Having said this, you should definitely raise money if you do not have enough runway to
experiment and take your product to product-market fit.

Don’t be tempted to spend money to solve your problems

Going on a hiring spree or spending thousands of dollars on ads to get users will not get your
product to product-market fit. Unfortunately, some problems cannot be solved by throwing
money at them.

Users acquired through ads might lull you into a false sense of security. And if your product
is not right, most of those users will leave soon. You can’t nail traction without nailing your
product first. As the age-old quote goes:

“The worst thing that can happen to a bad product is good marketing.”

Hiring more people than absolutely required will shorten your runway and add inefficiencies
in the team.

Be easy on yourself and give yourself some time

This phase can be one of the most frustrating ones in a startup. There’s this foreboding
feeling of imminent failure in the air.

One natural reaction is to consume yourself in the work, and dropeverything else happening
in your life. What this would lead to is low productivity and burnout.

You will not get solutions on demand. You have to give yourself time to experiment different
things and find out what works.

ideas_alive

Source: http://web.mit.edu/manoli/mood/www/mood02.jpg

One needsa relaxed state of mind to get creative solutions to problems. It is often wise to
take a break from work to sort out things and then get back with a fresh mind.

Leaving the Trough of Sorrow

There is no silver bullet on how to get past this phase because each startup is unique and has
its own unique set of problems.

The path to follow is at the same time obvious and vague. You need to keep iterating on
your way to product-market fit. As Ben Horowitz says:

“Like playing three-dimensional chess on Star Trek, there is always a move.”

Not all startups get past this phase and succeed. But if you fight through it, you have a fair
chance of hitting that sweet spot and seeing your startup take off.

We are also fighting our way out of the trough of sorrow in our current startup,FundaMine.

FundaMine is a community for professionals to discover what experts in their profession are
reading and discussing.

It has communities (mines) on entrepreneurship, product management, android

development and IoT. Check it out, give us feedback and help us in our fight.

About the Author:

YashKotak is Co-founder of FundaMine. Before FundaMine, he co-founded a home

automation startupLumos. He did his B. Tech. in electrical engineering from IIT Gandhinagar.
Yash can be reached at yashpkotak@gmail.com or followed at@YashPKotak.)