BYOB RecordedPresentationSlides Module6 PDF

You and Your Business
Are Ready
© 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public 2
The first steps
The how, what, when, where, when

and how much?
The steps are small, achievable,

measurable and repeatable
This is the most crucial, small

adjustments
Small Fast Steps
Achievable
Measurable
Repeatable
When a team is Not all the skills
not working present – its OK to
ask and look for help
Everyone is trying Poor communication –

to do everything! Try listening to each
Everyone ends up other and stop talking
being frustrated – at each other. Silence
write a plan is NOT consent
When a team is not working
Opinions and feelings are

expressed as facts – do the
research
Important subjects are avoided,

often teams think they know the
rules – be clear, spell them out
You are not aware of feelings and

non verbal behaviours – you must
be sensitive to those around you
Using technologies to enter, survive and
thrive
Technology will:
• Enable rapid research
• Reach out to existing and potential
customers
• Begin a relationship
• Allow the competition to see what you
are doing on a global scale
Technology will not:

• Replace customer care
• Maintain relationships
Technology is a wonderful enabler

Sales
Profitability
Key Indicators
Cash flow
Breakeven
Can you imagine driving a bike or a car without instruments?
Creating sales, especially the first sale is
often difficult.
Think about – demonstrating your skills,

having a trial to reduce risk
Manage expectations – do not promise

what you cannot deliver
When projecting sales always talk about a

range, average, best and worst case
The most powerful sales person is when

you are yourself, be authentic.
1 2
Rule #2
See Rule #1
Rule #1
Make more money than you spend
 Profits are crucial for the sustained growth of any

business, it also gives you independence.
 There is constant pressure on all businesses to make

a profit / surplus. The traditional way is to keep
reducing costs, the Technopreneur will look to
increase sales first while keeping a keen eye on costs
This is the same for any
business, cash flows in and
out, the goal is always for
more cash to flow in than
Imagine the waves on the out. To achieve this is to
beach, they flow in and out ensure profitability exists
and your business
continues.
It is simple to calculate and difficult to achieve.

Starting cash (10) minus cash out (7) plus cash in (13)
equals ending cash (16). This is what is called positive
cash flow.
“Happiness is a positive cash flow”
Sales coming in equals the cash
going out (costs) where no profit or
loss occurs
Increase
sales
 The longer it takes to breakeven the greater the

time to reach positive cash flow and greater risk.
 Most people think we should always reduce cost,

Technopreneurs will always look at increasing
sales.
 Never take your eye off the costs of any
organisation
1
FORMING
What is going on?
What is acceptable?
The Leader will be tested
FEELINGS
Excitement
Anticipation
Fear
Anxiety
Suspicion
STORMING
We all realise that the tasks will be harder than we first thought – we have
not been in a team before.
Team members are often now feeling uncomfortable and often not
confident.
A turbulent time, arguing and disagreements are common, we are slowly

getting know each other.
Did you know that every time a team is changed or a new person joins we
all go back to the storming phase?
Easy to talk, help and
The ground rules are avoid difficulties
now established, team
members roles are
clearer and we begin
to help each other.
Relief that we can achieve our goals.
Friendlier, confiding in each other.
We can now produce effectively
We can now perform as a team
We are comfortable
asking for help,
acknowledging our
strengths and
weaknesses
We are satisfied with

our individual and
team performance
People
Which is the most difficult as

a Technopreneur to manage?
Process
Service or Product
• Grew up in India; Studied at IIT
Madras & Washington University
in St. Louis
• Contributed to various Linux
open-source projects in college &
graduate school: GNOME, Mono,
curl, etc.
• Set up the first departmental
computing facility at my
university
• Lived in 6 world cities in the last
10 years
• Startup guy:
• Early employee at Hillcrest
Labs, Washington DC
• Co-founder & CTO, MobStac
• 1999-2001: Fascinated by the impact of open-source on the
world: learnt how to translate an idea into product
• 2002-2003: Computer Science graduate school: dove deep to
become the best at my chosen trade
• 2004-2005: Morgan Stanley, New York
• 2005-2009: Hillcrest Labs, Washington DC
• Early 2009: Started working on startup ideas that came from one
personal insight: the mobile device was going to take over the
Internet and all digital consumption
• Funding product • We chose to raise funding
development takes time and from angel investors in
a decent amount of money return for equity in the
company
• Companies need to decide:
either raise capital in return • Our reasoning: product
for equity or run a consulting development takes extreme
business on the side focus – we wanted no
distractions in finding our
product/market fit
Chased numerous enterprise
prospective customers but
weren’t able to make a single
sale.
Were we chasing the wrong

market? Should we drop this
altogether and try something else?
• Worried about running out of funds: needed more money to
sustain product development and finding customers
• Turned down lots of service opportunities: stuck to our core vision
of selling our product
• India not being an early adopter market for technology, we
wondered if we could sell outside the country first. But that
needed more money!
Daily&Unique&Visits& No.&of&Countries&
12,&100& 112&
Woah: what just

700"
happened? 600"
500"
400"
Iterate, iterate, iterate 300"
200"
100"
0"
1*Oct" 8*Oct" 15*Oct" 22*Oct" 29*Oct" 5*Nov" 12*Nov"
• Learned about real
customer needs and
opportunities
• Improved technology
under the hood
relentlessly
Venture capitalists we
approached only cared about
revenue: all our traction meant
nothing to them
Had to figure out what to do.

Should we now pursue revenue
growth? Came close to running out
of funds
• Some of the termsheets we got had pretty stringent terms: we
would have to give up a lot of control
• Wanted one investor more than all the others, but they were
moving very slowly: worked hard to get them to agree to investing
• Picking an investor is like getting married: except there’s no
divorce! Wait until you’re sure the investor shares your vision for
the company
1500+ customers, 12 languages, 40+
countries, 400 million mobile pages
Raised over $1.2 million of capital from Accel

Partners, a top-tier global venture capital fund
Offices in India & the US
Thank you.

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You and Your Business

The how, what, when, where, when

The steps are small, achievable,

This is the most crucial, small

Everyone is trying Poor communication –

Opinions and feelings are

Important subjects are avoided,

You are not aware of feelings and

Technology will not:

Technology is a wonderful enabler

Can you imagine driving a bike or a car without instruments?

Think about – demonstrating your skills,

Manage expectations – do not promise

When projecting sales always talk about a

The most powerful sales person is when

 Profits are crucial for the sustained growth of any

 There is constant pressure on all businesses to make

It is simple to calculate and difficult to achieve.

 The longer it takes to breakeven the greater the

 Most people think we should always reduce cost,

A turbulent time, arguing and disagreements are common, we are slowly

Relief that we can achieve our goals.

Friendlier, confiding in each other.

We can now produce effectively

We are satisfied with

Which is the most difficult as

Were we chasing the wrong

Woah: what just

Iterate, iterate, iterate 300"

Had to figure out what to do.

Raised over $1.2 million of capital from Accel

Offices in India & the US

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