The Venture Intelligence Blog

Speaking at the Venture Intelligence APEX PE-VC Summit in March 2016 - at a time when belt tightening among start-ups was the need of the hour - Avinash Luthria, Principal, responsAbility , advised tech entrepreneurs to mimic the frugal practices adopted by traditional Indian business communities like the Banias and the Marwaris.  Now, Anand Lunia, Founder of seed fund India Quotient, has made a blog post on the specific ills that seem to be preventing Indian start-ups from walking the talk on frugality. Extracts:    Interestingly, Revenue per employee and capital efficiency have been identified by practically everyone as a big systemic problem in India. ...Uber did not offer a call center in India. Ola did, and consumers continue to call the helpdesk for every 30 seconds delay in their pick up.  ...Founders hire as per projections. For the first two board meetings, investors also focus on ‘team building’. Unable to meet the stretched targets presente...

From the article by the Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu in Economic Times : Another day , another hot tech company raises $500 million (or is it a billion?) in Series D, Series E -I propose we just call all of it Series QE, because that is where all the money comes from anyway , right?   ..If you are in one of those hot companies burning cash, enjoy the ride as long as it lasts--and make sure you have a safety net if, heaven forbid, something bad happens. But what about companies that cannot or don't want to raise that kind of money?  ...In the world of business and finance, following fashion is the path to the poorhouse. Avoiding the fashionable location, the fashionable field and, dare I say , fashionable employees, may be the best way to survive a bubble. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to Sign Up for th...