‘Changing Face of Indian Entrepreneur’ Depicted at India Internet Day (IID) 2016

The much awaited annual event- India Internet Day (IID) 2016 is back with a bang! The event which has been happening in association with TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Delhi over the years is yet again being held at NCR on the 29th April, 2016. TiE Delhi which is one of the most captivating and active aspects of TiE in India has been contributing towards the crucial role of building such a network that enables to fosters the entrepreneurship of several eminent industry leaders. The event brings forth the opportunity for the internet players to interact and discuss about existing internet based trends and how to leverage upon resources for accessing internet.  Also, make it accessible to those who still haven’t yet tasted its flavour.

With a view to grow and enrich the standards such that the members are presented with varied prospects to excel in different spheres, TiE Delhi ensures to actively organize plenty of events at varied times. The India Internet Day (IID) is amongst them that is being held on an annual basis.

At the India Internet Day (IID) 2016, the theme of which is ‘Emerging from the Froth’ ; there were several sessions, one-on-one interactive sessions, keynotes etc. with the audience present along with panel discussions comprising of influential speakers and industry leaders who shared their insightful views on topics pertaining to the role of internet in varied platforms.

Amongst several, there was a session on ‘Entrepreneur 2020: Changing face of Indian Entrepreneur’. The panel discussion was moderated by one of the active speakers- Rajesh Sawhney, Founder, InnerChef

Rajesh Sawhney – Founder, InnerChef 

• He kicked off the panel discussion at India Internet Day 2016 by welcoming the panelists addressed as the 4 young entrepreneurs.
• The idea of this panel was to explore about the 4 startups i.e. Truly Madly, POPxo, SilverPush and Delhivery; and what strived these entrepreneurs.
• He introduced Sachin as one of the very few serial entrepreneurs in India who has evolved over the years and becoming better with every passing year.
• To him, POPxo’s Founder & Editor in Chief, Priyanka is a representation of new set of founders who came back to India from London.
• Turning to Hitesh’s company SilverPush, Rajesh stated that it was almost on the verge to get shut or be acquired.
• He then shared his own story stating that he made all possible mistakes that he could along with his co-founder Bal. He now has made over 50 investments.

Post detailed feedback, he then moved from Reay to cook to Ready to Eat business.

Thus, he acclaims that taking decisions in first 6 months is really crucial that can either make or break things for startups.

Sachin Bhatia – Co-founder, Truly Madly

• One of the serial entrepreneurs in India, Sachin is heading his 4th start-up since Make My Trip, now.
• Fundamentals of business remain the same, however, the internet economy, market and people’s perception of online internet security have changed.
• First challenge during the early days of Make My Trip was to get people online as they did not see the benefit in India.
• Later, the concern was to convince people to buy online and assure them that Make My Trip is the best place to plan your trip. 
• Easy internet accessibility and availability of resources has enabled to set-up a start-up easily now!
• Excitement of working with a co-founder model is always at its peak. Superbly critical decisions cannot be made alone, so with the support of a co-founder, it becomes all so smooth.
•  It was difficult to create market presence for Truly Madly during its early days of inception. However, when they realized that the Indian audience was ready for an online dating app, they fought through that struggle during 5-6 months and revamped the communication, 2 years back.
• Theirs is a model based on bootstrapping. Later they looked up to venture capitalists. However, it was just recently, that they started monetizing in January 2016 itself.

Priyanka Gill – Founder & Editor in Chief, POPxo

• Women-centric start-up POPxo is evolved based on the answer to ‘what do women do and read online’. Primarily, this platform puts forth content for women to read online. Hence, they proudly call themselves as a ‘girl’s digital best friend’.
• POPxo is India’s largest women online portal. ‘POPxo is about relationships and friendships, beauty and hairstyles, the clothes you wear and the brands you love – everything the modern Indian woman .’
• For them, one of the largest clients is Truly Madly, whose one of the co-founders happended to be a fellow panelist.
• Prime target audience is 18-24 years is co-consumers. Overall, 90% traffic is generated from women community.
• For Priyanka, good investment is what acted as the luring factor to move to India from London.
• She stated that all traffic was young, and post launch it became energetic as this platform brings everything that a young girl talks about and wants to read about.
• Launched in March 2013, when they had the ‘aahaa moment’, that made them realize that young girls are changing. They want content online that relates to them.
• This is a successful start-up as talking to girls in their language is what they leveraged upon. Mobile accessibility readily enables that as based on the research, they don’t read, neither do they watch television. So, this is where they tapped this opportunity.

Hitesh Chawla – Co-Founder, SilverPush

• SilverPush was introduced as one of the start-ups that was about to get shut or acquire. Co-founder, Hitesh was questioned by the moderator as to ‘Why did he start the company?’.
• Just like a kid gains satisfaction and attains happiness on solving questions and mathematical queries, similarly, his company was set-up based on the model of making consumers happy satisfied and in turn gaining contentment.  
• Their’s is a profitable investment within 3.5 years of existence now.
• However, 2 challenges that they face as start-ups are:

1. which country to start with and mobile innovation
2. bring new innovations

Kapil Bharati, CoFounder, Delhivery

• Met 4 of his co-founders on the professional network- LinkedIn.
• Discssions on how to apply the right maths and make shipments possible, was the prime focus for the 5 men.
• Currently, they cater to 450 cities adhering to 2 lakh shipments per day, handled by an employee base of team of 12-13K employees.
• On being questioned about the challenges faced as Founder’s challenge, geography was one of the concerns.
• Primarily, the focus was laid more on Delhi NCR- management.
• Though, they initially started with food delivery but gradually shifted to e-commerce due to its wide scope and accessibility.
• They are striving for how to:

1. improve productivity
2. expand reach,
3. integrate role of technology to accelerate the processes and much more

• They have been doing discussion outside office premises to analyse on what to do next and better? Usually, most start-ups do this to identify different models.
• They grew with e-commerce altogether and as a start-up they were not one step ahead.

Are you inspired by the story of these entrepreneurs who have tasted failure and success both, as a resultant factor they are competing with big names in the industry now? Share your views, opinions and experience with our community. We’d love to hear!