A Hitchhiker's Guide to Entrepreneurship & Raising your first round of Capital

59^th Startup Sathi Webinar Series organized by iHub & SSIP on 30th May 2020

Speakers: Ravi Ranjan, Founder- Starting up with Ravi Ranjan, Ex- Nasscom, IAN

Moderator: Mr Hiranmay Mahanta, CEO iHub

Dignitary: Shri M Nagarajan IAS, Director Higher Education; Education Department, Gujarat

About Webinar

The webinar was focused on Entrepreneurship & Raising your first round of Capital. Mr Ranjan has work experience in a diversified area but his intentions for contributing to society lead him to the entrepreneurship path.  During the session he shared about some interesting/ unique startups and how early stage startups can raise funds to support their dreams/ ideas.

Some highlights from the session:

●        It’s the time for youth to start looking for other opportunities instead of applying for any random job in this cutthroat competition.

●        Many of us think that what one person possibly can contribute to make the difference? MAILCHINGS; ZOOM; GO-JEK; INTERCOM; XERO; AIRWOOT; SPASH; WHAT3WORDS; PALANTIR are some of the examples which are private companies started very small and now are Unicorn companies. Private small companies with 1 Billion Dollar valuation are called Unicorn Companies.

●        Textbook rules are not enough in this cutthroat competition and even post COVID the scenario is going to change. This disruption could be used as an opportunity to build something better for the society.

●        Here are some of the unique startup examples RYAN (Toys review); CHU CHU TV (world’s most watched kids channel on youtube); OYO (founder at the age of 16; didn’t get funding for the first time for his project but today we all know where OYO stands). So, No matter how many times you fail or have no idea about what & how in terms of building products/ getting funding; it’s important to have faith in your idea.

●        There are some Startups of India which join the unicorn club in 2018: POLICYBAZAAR, UDAAN, FRESHWORKS, OYO, PAYTM MALL, BYJU’S.  

●        Innovation is about finding the simplest possible solution for the problems and not just building any platform. Some interesting examples for such innovative solutions are ZIPLINE (delivers blood using drones); ZERO MAN WATER(Drinking water from sunlights & Air); BLUE RIVER TECH (Computer vision to reduce herbicide sage by 90%)

●        It’s important not to have the intention of building a startup for funding only because Investor would invest in the business to grow but not build company/product/launch

●        There are many options for raising funds for the startups.

○        Bootstrapping is one of the options where startups can be built with available financial resources and grow with time

○        One can convince Friends/ Family /relatives to believe in their idea and get funding for the startup

○        There are Incubations which help startup to build the product with seed funding as well as raise funds

○        Government also provide Grants/ supports to enable startup ecosystem and encourage startups/ entrepreneur

○        Build magical product and pitch in the Industry for funding

○        Angel Investment is also a funding option for Startups  

○        Crowdfunding is completely new concept for funding

●        Startup doesn’t prefer to go to banks for funding due to nonavailability of Assets/ debts to show.

●        Education qualification may not matter but corporate experience in the field you are planning to build a start-up could be an advantage. Passion is enough to be an entrepreneur and if you don’t have experience in a particular field you can always add someone who can complement your skills or an area expert in your team. 

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About iHub Gujarat: http://ihubgujarat.in