Founder Circle Mee.ng 4 th Feb 2013 1
Founder Circle Mee.ng 4th Feb 2013
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Topics
• Introduc.ons • Revisit the “Why” behind iSPIRT’s crea.on • What are our first year goals – iSMB program – ProductNa.on plans
• How we will work • Press talking points
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“Why” behind iSPIRT’s crea.on
Open Discussion
• Rewri&ng the script of the na&on • 10 year gameplan • Think Tank Vs NASSCOM
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First Year Goals
Policy
Playbooks
Programs
• Why a vibrant product industry is vital to India’s future (wapivif) • Preferen.al buying policy • Tax clarity • SoSware patents
ü Highlight Product Entrepreneurship ü Do focused events, meetups, webinars around product playbooks • Build a deep online community • Launch Mentor Clinics
ü iSMB • M&A Connect
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iSMB Program deep dive Shoaib Ahmed
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iSMB Program
• Why iSMB Program • Focus on Technology Acceptors • What’s holding up adop.on? • Program Architecture • Program Funding • Mistakes to Avoid • Future plans
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Why iSMB Program?
• Size of the prize – Future of Indian economy depends on SMB sector becoming efficient
– This is a big opportunity for soSware products and product enabled commercial intermediary
• Large latent market that can be opened by strategic investment by iSPIRT
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Our focus is on Technology Acceptors
• Aware of Technology • First to implement
Adopters
• Look for Trusted Services • Long term investors
Acceptors
• Adopt when exis.ng prac.ces are obsolete
Resistors
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What’s holding back Technology Acceptors?
No Independent High Quality Advice • Struggling to define needs and picking the right place to start
• Unable to select the product category most appropriate to their needs
Overpromise Under delivery • Opportunis.c pricing • No easy dispute resolu.on
Limited post sale support • Stuck at novice user level • Instead of product support, he is offered expensive consul.ng service
iSMB interven.on
Phase A Phase B Phase C
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Phase A
Scaling Free Advice for SoSware to 100K SMBs Narrowly focused
– Jewelers first, Small pharma, Nursing homes, Schools, Small hotels, etc.
1. Guide for each segment – Why soSware products can help your organiza.on? – What top problems should I address? – Where to start? Where to go next? – How to select a vendor?
2. Organizing the target database 3. Phone consul.ng
– Trained consultants that follow-‐up 4. Focused Workshops for Prospects
– Done with trade associa.ons (e.g. Jewelry Associa.on of India)
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Phase B Mentoring Pseudo-‐Products to be Pure-‐Products Product Company Changes needed: • Start with clear posi.oning and its ar.cula.on • No-‐surprise pricing • Product management discipline • Resolving disputes on Online Dispute Resolu.on plalorm
Only select companies will be empaneled
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How is the iSMB program funded?
• Ini.al funding in place – RS 40L which will be used for seeding steps 1/2/3 of Phase ‘A’ rollout for mul.ple segments
• Cost recovery model – Empaneled vendors pay for cost-‐of-‐qualified-‐lead – Expected to RS 1-‐2K per lead
• Sponsorships possible – Some interest from Intel and Airtel
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What have we learnt from others? • From Intel program – Posi.oned as business consul.ng but was actually communica.ng product informa.on
• From MS program – Instead of porlolio of products they were represen.ng only one product
• From Tally adop.on (over 2m SMBs using it) – Although channel works for Tally, it is unable to carry non-‐Tally products so separate ini.a.ve is needed
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Future
• Launch buyer facing website where interac.ve iSMB guides, product informa.on and vendor ra.ngs will be available
• Provide “good business” cer.fica.on • Setup Online Dispute Resolu.on plalorm
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ProductNa&on Plans Avinash Raghava
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A plalorm to nurture and grow the Indian startup product ecosystem. It seeks to inform, educate, and ini.ate dialogues among key ecosystem par.cipants.
Objec.ves
• Highlight Product Entrepreneurship and provide more visibility for the product startups
• Do focused events, meetups, webinars around product playbooks with eco-‐system partners
• Build a deep online community that fosters conversa.ons amongst prac..oners
• Launch Mentor Clinics for product companies • Create SoSStore, a microsite for iSMB program
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The Impact so far
• 175+ blog posts done in < 5 months, 20+ contributors, 40+ Product Companies featured on the site
• ProductNa.on traffic /month around 10K pageviews, 6k visitors and around 3.8 unique visitors.
• Social Media has got good following – Twiter ~800 followers & Facebook ~2400 likes.
• Around 7 Issues of Newsleter sent out so far. Subscriber base – 13.1K+ subscribers.
• #PNMeetup organized in NCR every third Saturday of the month. Gewng an average of ~45-‐50 people for these meetups.
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SoSStore Mockup
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Topics
• Introduc.ons • Revisit the “Why” behind iSPIRT’s crea.on • What are our first year goals – iSMB program – ProductNa.on plans
• How we will work – Gaps to plug
• Press talking points 19
Our Working Model
Powered by
Volunteer model
Policy
Playbooks
Programs • High quality results • Alignment with mission
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What makes it different?
Open source inspired model: • High competency volunteers • Fluid hierarchy based on contribu.ons
• Strong performance culture
Repeatable successes: • Founda.onal Principles • Opera.ng Prac.ces
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Founda.onal Principles 1. Pulled by Passion, Pushed by Program Management – Passion : strong sense of mission/cause – Program Management : being “anal with a smile”
2. Build Around Challenges – The volunteer will select a challenge, not be given a task – Expose people to the problem and let them find a solu.on
3. Challenge Hygiene – Framing the challenge is key – Each challenge has a clear set of benefi.ng stakeholders, and green/clean
goals 4. Good to Great Volunteering
– Easier challenges given to first .me volunteers – Great volunteering is a learnable skill – Challenges must not outgrow number of available Program Managers
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Opera.ng Prac.ces 1. First .me volunteers – Expect early churn among new volunteers; over-‐staff by 50% – Work on short challenges (< 3 months); only work on one challenge at a .me
2. On-‐boarding Volunteers – Lead volunteer should be the hardest working member of team – Lead volunteer is NOT a manager; works through influence NOT control – External hierarchy is surrendered; what maters is volunteer hierarchy
3. Program Managing the Challenge – Status monitoring/follow-‐up is offline; Mee.ngs focus on hashing out ideas/
direc.on – Radical transparency; no informa.on asymmetry
4. Closing Out a Challenge – Living-‐dead mode must be avoided; challenge is killed quickly or revived
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Why People Volunteer?
• Similar mo.va.ons as Kar sevak model
• Working on something bigger than any firm or individual
• Power of shared purpose • Peer recogni.on is the reward • Not for personal glory
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Back to First Year Goals: Leadership Status
Policy
Playbooks
Programs
• Why a vibrant product industry is vital to India’s future (wapivif) • Preferen.al buying policy • Tax clarity • SoSware patents
• Highlight Product Entrepreneurship • Do focused events, meetups, webinars around product playbooks • Build a deep online community • Launch Mentor Clinics
• iSMB • M&A Connect
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Color Legend: Leadership in place Leadership not yet n place
Press Talking Points Open Discussion led by Peter Yorke
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At the heart of it all…. THE BRAND!
At the heart of it all….
THE BRAND!
Why are we talking to the media? “Circula.on is like the sun. It con.nues to rise in the East and decline in the West.”
In India, print media growth is rapid, but uneven; 350 million Indians read print publica.ons, and 53 percent of those readers are ‘rural’ – in a country where 65 percent of the popula.on lives in rural areas, this is significant.
N. Ram, former Editor-‐in-‐Chief of the Hindu newspaper
CII Entertainment and Media Report October 2012
What do we want to tell them? • We all believe that SoSware Products will transform India at large
• iSPIRT is a new-‐gen Think-‐Tank • iSPIRT came together through the voluntary efforts of 30 Founders Circle Members
• iSPIRT is a Sec.on 25 not-‐for-‐profit organiza.on • iSPIRT will operate 3 pillars – Convert ideas to policy proposals – Convert conversa.ons into playbooks for entrepreneurs – Convert ac.ons of self-‐help communi.es into market catalysts
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