The Venture Intelligence Blog

Cross Posted from the Entrevista blog . Interview with Raj Nair, Founder-Chairman of Avalon Consulting , the Mumbai-headquartered, international consulting firm and also research and analytics firm Ugam Solutions and artificial intelligence software firm . Interview begins with how Ugam Solutions' founding & funding - especially how the company "pivoted" to completely new business in 50 days flat! The interviewer is fellow entrepreneur Chandu Nair . Chandu earlier founded, successfully raised venture capital for and exited from Scope eKnowledge, one of the earliest KPO firms in India. The Audio (podcast) version can be downloaded from here   Highlights: Striking balance between Flexibility & Measurement in the Early Years: In the initial years of starting up,  it’s important to have the flexibility to course correct and not put pressure on the business with a rigid business model, ambitious target, etc. “There is (however) a difference between cha...

Cross posted from the Entrevista blog at http://www.entrevista.in Interview with Ratish Nair, Founding-CEO of Interactive Avenues (IA), the Mumbai-headquartered, Sequoia Capital India-backed digital marketing agency which was acquired in March 2013 by US- and Europe-based ad agency Interpublic. Interview focuses on the company's founding (5 co-founders who earlier worked at another digital agency Mediaturf); Angel Funding (from Anupam Mittal of Shaadi.com); VC Funding and relationship with Sequoia Capital; and, of course, the Exit (how IA ran the process, the role of the VC, the role of the intermediary, internal dynamics, etc.). The interviewer is fellow entrepreneur Chandu Nair . (Chandu earlier founded, successfully raised venture capital for and exited from Scope eKnowledge, one of the earliest KPO firms in India.) The Audio (podcast) version can be downloaded from here   Other Highlights Synergistic Co-founding team How, having worked together in the past (a...

Cross-posting from the Venture Intelligence Entrevista series: Lessons from the Startup to Scale-up to Successful Sale of iMetrex Technologies, a building technologies and security venture catering to the Indian enterprise market - The Venture Intelligence Team Rajeev Mecheri, Managing Director, Mecheri Smart Capital ( Bio & LinkedIn ) Interview by Hari Krishnan of Venture Intelligence, followed by interaction with students at the Department of Management Studies IIT-Madras on November 9, 2011. Highlights: Please click on the links below to view corresponding video snippets: Importance of Customer Touch Point “What works for the company, works for you (the founder)” Founders should separate their lifestyle needs from that of the business Invest Appropriately - in infrastructure, etc. Decision to exit and the "strength of a brand" Decision to integrate vertically (getting into manufacturing) Following the Customers Innovative holding structure for acquiring a product co...

Cross-posting from the Venture Intelligence Entrevista series: Interaction with Raju Venkatraman, Founder & CEO, MEDALL Diagnostics Interview by Chandu Nair, Founder of Scope eKnowledge, followed by interaction with students and other entrepreneurs at the Department of Management Studies IIT-Madras on October 24, 2011. Highlights: The ability to "zoom in and zoom out" - As an entrepreneur, whenever the situation warrants it, you should be able to work in a hands on fashion and get involved in the details. Similarly, you should also be able to step back and focus on the bigger picture (and leave the details to others). Please click on the links below to view corresponding video snippets The motivation as an entrepreneur is not in "being the boss" - It's more about "getting to scale" (and hence the impact you can make) "There is no such thing as a right decision. You should make a decision and then make it right." The Esse...

Interactive lecture to feature as part of research firm Venture Intelligence’s “Entrevista” series Venture Intelligence, India’s leading research service focused on Private Equity/Venture Capital and M&A deal activity, has partnered with IIT Madras’ C-TIDES, to produce multimedia recordings of interactions with successful Indian entrepreneurs from across sectors. Branded as ‘Entrevisa’, the interactions in this series will be available for free and downloadable in audio (mp3 “podcasts”) and streaming video formats from the Entrevista website at http://www.entrevista.in. As part of the partnership, Venture Intelligence and IIT Madras propose to invite, on a regular basis, successful entrepreneurs from across the country to deliver interactive lectures at the IIT campus. Mr. R Sarabeswar, Chairman & CEO of leading construction services firm, Consolidated Construction Consortium Ltd., will deliver the first such lecture at the Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras on Frid...