ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 11, 2011

This week, I've had several meetings with venture funds, incubators, corporate accelerators and other significant players in the startup eco-system. One theme seems to come up over and again, especially from geographies outside Silicon Valley: lack of a reliable pipeline of deals.

Silicon Valley 105

Silicon Valley Columbus Ohio Incubator 105

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

With enterprise customers, this would result in tremendous exit barriers, making sales cycles long and involved, which a small startup will find hard to withstand. Her upcoming campaign of reaching out to 100,000 moms will be one of the first concerted efforts to actually test her business model. Tags: StartUp 101.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Nir is contemplating various different business models and channel options, all the way from Freemium B-to-C to white labeling the solution for universities and colleges. I advised him to focus on the for-profit colleges and business schools in India and sell them a white label solution, hence a B-to-B business model.

Brazil 115

Brazil India Entrepreneur 115

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 14, 2011

TiE Chennai organized a Startup Super Day, during which I delivered the keynote address followed by a live strategy roundtable. At the roundtable, five entrepreneurs pitched their businesses to me, and I interacted with them in our usual format, with active participation from the audience. At 11 a.m., Discuss.

India 126

India Technical Review Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 126

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 24, 2011

Additional work in figuring out the precise go-to-market consumer, academic institution, or enterprise - each is a different business), and consequent business model and pricing model will help enhance the company's valuation. My assessment is that this is a good company that should be able to raise money at this point.

Illinois 114

Illinois Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Chicago 114

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Today, the telecom industry charges customers based on fixed price business models for data services. Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley. She has founded three companies, writes a business blog, Sramana Mitra on Strategy , and runs the 1M/1M initiative.

Cloud 117

Cloud Fractional CTO Entrepreneur Bandwidth 117

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

And EVEN if you ARE an experienced entrepreneur, all but just a few VCs still want to see customer validation, business model validation and traction, before they will invest. Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley. Tags: StartUp 101. Next comes the topic of angels.

Cloud 115

Cloud Silicon Valley Incubator Finance 115

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

I detected a major flaw in Kiran's business model assumption. She is a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and strategy consultant who writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy , and is the author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020. Photo by barunpatro.

Entrepreneur 118

Entrepreneur India Technical Review Los Angeles 118

ReadWriteStart

JULY 28, 2011

This week, I've had several meetings with venture funds, incubators, corporate accelerators and other significant players in the startup eco-system. One theme seems to come up over and again, especially from geographies outside Silicon Valley: lack of a reliable pipeline of deals.

Incubator 128

Incubator Silicon Valley Malaysia Entrepreneur 128

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2010

billion to work across 731 financing deals with US startups, a 50% increase over Q1 2009. To me, this indicates that venture capitalists (VCs) are looking for business, but they are clearly moving away from early-stage (pre-revenue) deals. Angels are also moving up-stage, leaving a bigger and bigger black hole for new startups.

Venture Capital 123

Venture Capital Elevator Pitch Silicon Valley Massachusetts 123

ReadWriteStart

MAY 26, 2011

make so little use of the affiliate business model for monetization purposes? Please use the comments below to give your thoughts and analyses on why you think Twitter is not using the affiliate business model to monetize its immense traffic. This is a question I would like to address to you guys as well. Don't miss it!

Affiliate 117

Affiliate India Nevada Silicon Valley 117

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Soren Harrison, from Boston, Massachusetts, presented SolSolution , a solar electricity venture whereby his company places solar panels on the roofs of schools, generates electricity, sells it to the schools, as well as back to the grid, and takes advantage of the federal rebates, incentives, etc. SolSolution. Who funds the solar panels?

Massachusetts 113

Massachusetts Entrepreneur Open Source Silicon Valley 113

ReadWriteStart

MAY 4, 2011

The business is very different in London, and my feedback was that investors want a repeatable business model. For that to happen, he needs to show investors how his India model scales, without introducing a random London factor in the business. Ashish wants to raise money and scale rapidly. DIYComputerscience.com.

India 116

India Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Massachusetts 116

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 2, 2011

In our Business Incubator series of interviews, we have invited many leaders from the industry to come share their best practices and challenges with us. We have also facilitated open discussions on Why Do Business Incubators Fail and Incubator Business Models , which turned out to be animated, active and extremely constructive discussions.

Incubator 114

Incubator San Jose Silicon Valley India 114

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

They make a lot of money, and nothing in Anuj's business model convinced me that these people have any interest or incentive to go around teaching, especially in rural India. Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley. Tags: StartUp 101. Solution for E-commerce Vendors.

Channel 115

Channel India Bootstrapping Silicon Valley 115

ReadWriteStart

MAY 3, 2011

Nifty idea, but the business model is predicated upon selling merchandise that is curated from affiliate networks like Commission Junction. My question was around the size of the catalog that can be pulled together that will render affiliate commissions and will meet quality standards of this business. Discuss.

Acquisition 115

Acquisition SEO San Francisco India 115

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

And, oh by the way, we also really like the idea of the 1M/1M entrepreneurs building valuation and negotiating leverage through these business development efforts, instead of signing off large chunks of their company in form of equity early on. I would never take investment in a startup from a hedge fund. Photo by nosheep.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114