We received a mail recently asking for more specific examples of how we helped startups. I feel the response is of general interest so I am posting it here.
…
We work with teams of entrepreneurs to help them get established. This includes investing a small amount of money (upto 5 Lakh) to help them cover their costs during this initial period before they have a product or are able to raise investment money from traditional sources. The kind of help we provide tends to vary depending on the startup.
For example, we have one startup which is very senior and has developed a product in the business intelligence space. We have been working with him to identify those areas where he needs to focus his energies as we develop a go to market strategy. During this process we are introducing him to potential partners and clients who can help give feedback on the features we need and may be able to sell his products into markets he wouldn’t be able to reach on his own.
Another company already has a product in market which earns revenue. We found them a mentor & investor who got really involved in the company helping them understand how they can better monetize their existing userbase.
A third company we work with is made up of extremely smart and passionate people who recently graduated from University. With them we have spent time ensuring that they have good operating practices in place including project management, issue tracking, and source control
management.
Perhaps our most valuable contribution so far has been to create a very positive work environment and connect teams with other smart energetic people creating their own technology startup companies. We have found that more than the top down mentorship we explicitly provide, people learn from their peer group. For instance, on arriving, only one of our teams was hosting their web service on a grid computing platform (Amazon’s EC2). During our program they helped other teams make this transition and now we have 5 teams hosted in the cloud.
Thanks for asking these questions. If you have further
questions or want more clarity on any aspect of the program, please ask. Its helpful for us as well.