Indian University Students Test An App For Controlling Stress

Stress is a devil that has become an integral part of our lives in the 21st century. Most of the time, we're taking stress about what would happen in the future, while totally ignoring to live our present. This is a problem not only faced by the working class but also the young reserves of our country, our children.

In order to help the young minds of the nation, focus more on things that matter, a San Francisco-based start-up called Lantern has introduced an app that will provide the students with simple coping strategies to deal with stress.

The startup introduced the app in India in a three-month pilot project this year, where about 200 students of Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Hyderabad, and another city university used the mobile app to monitor their mental health and communicated with the counsellors via phone and text.

India is a country where mental and physiological diseases are considered a big taboo. It comes as no surprise that the country which has about 16% of the world's population, has one-third of all the globe's recorded suicides, according to World Health Organization statistics from 2012.

Hence, the app was surely a much needed initiative in the country.

The person responsible for bringing the San Francisco app to India is Nitya Kanuri, a 25-year-old research assistant at the Stanford School of Medicine. Her Mana Maali (A hindi phrase which means 'gardner of mind') initiative, which translates to "gardener of the mind," in English, aims to increase access to mental health services for Indian university students. Kanuri is overwhelmed by the response the app has received from the Indian students.

In the pilot program, the students were first required to complete a survey on their phones to measure their stress levels and then do daily exercises on the app, like deep breathing and muscle relaxation. Counsellors recruited from Hyderabad and other Indian cities would then conduct phone conversations with students and checked on their progress through text messages.

Why Flipkart Put Its App-Only Plan On Hold

Flipkart, undoubtedly India's top ecommerce company seems to have dropped its big plan of going 'app only' for the time being. The ecommerce company had been planning to become an 'app only' service, starting this September.

According to a report published in a national daily, this sudden change in plans came because Flipkart wasn't yet able to assess the kind of impact the move would have on the sales of big categories like furniture and big electronic appliances.

Further, according to rumours going around the industry, major sellers who retail large appliances, electronics and white goods aren't in the favour of Flipkart's 'app only' move.

Flipkart has constantly been trying to innovate and reinvent itself in order to provide its customers with the best shopping experience amongst the various ecommerce competitors that have mushroomed in the recent times.

According to recent stats available, the ecommerce giant's mobile application accounts for about 70-75% of the giant's total traffic.

The main idea behind various ecommerce players pushing their mobile apps is basically twofold. Firstly, majority of Indians make use of their smartphones to access the Internet and secondly, mobile apps provide more data on each user which ultimately allows firms to personalize user experiences based on requirements and interests gathered from users' browsing and buying history.

According to Sujayath Ali, CEO and cofounder of mobile app based fashion retailer Voonik, "Some categories are better viewed on a bigger screen." "Also, going app-only will affect people browsing from office as well as price or value comparison," he further added in a statement given to a national business daily.

Earlier in the year, Flipkart owned Myntra had also gone the app-only way. This was decided as nearly 95% of Myntra's traffic and 70% of its sales were coming from the app.

According KPMG and Internet Mobile Association of India, by the year 2016, India is projected to have approximately 236 million mobile Internet users.

7 Things To Know Before You Kickstart A Startup

Opening a new business is no easy task. It isn't like you wake up one fine morning and decide to start a business. It requires a whole lot of research, focus and hard work before you take the final plunge and kickstart your startup. We at IndianWeb2 understand this and have therefore prepared a list of seven things you must know before you start your own business.

Here we go!

1) Make technology your best friend -

Let's face it, nothing is possible without the support of technology these days. Make sure you identify the cheapest and the most appropriate technology required for the working of your startup. Website has now become the pseudo identification card of your startup. So, make sure you have the latest and fastest interface in place.

2) Know your target audience -

The first and foremost thing is to identify the audience or people your trying to sell your product or service to. Once that is done, research your audience well. You should know well about their buying behaviour, their browsing behaviour, things they like and things they don't.

3) Market research -

In order for your startup to be a success, you should know how the market which you're trying to break in, actually works. Know the A to Z of your market and your startup is set for life.

4) Data -

Data analysis is a key to assure the success of your startup. With the data in place, one can effectively strategise the future path of the company. Data analysis allows one to plan in advance about the strategies for the company's stocking, inventory, financial strategies and market approaches.

5) The drive to do something big -

You may have a killer idea and all the finances in place but if you don't have the passion and drive to do something big, all that is of no use. As an entrepreneur, the word 'no' shouldn't exist in your dictionary. Be ready to take on any challenge which might be thrown in front of you. Being an entrepreneur, learning new things should now become a part of your daily schedule.

6) Plan every detail -

You're opening a business. Before making such a big investment, make sure that you have planned everything from the tinniest to the biggest details. Remember, this can make a huge difference to your startup.

7) Be a Prude when it comes to acquisitions -

Acquisition can make a huge, huge difference to a startup. They have the capability to take your startup to the next level or break it down completely. So, while acquiring, make sure you pay attention to every detail like costs, management, investments, culture and revenues etc.

What Types of Companies Do Angel Investors Fund?

With the startup industry flourishing like never before, it is almost every day that we come across a news-piece about an XYZ startup getting investment from an ABC angel investor. This often sets our curious minds wondering what is that made that particular startup make the cut. While like people, every angel investor is also an individual with different thoughts and ideas. Hence, there can't be one generalised answer to this question. Here, we bring to you a list of criteria that might help your startup make the angel investment cut.

1. Leadership - This is very crucial. The leader of the startup is often the face of the startup in the industry. If you have an experienced and famous face as your CEO then things become quite easy for your startup as compared to its contemporaries. This often happens because unlike the startup, the leader has already proven his/her worth in the industry and people are ready to trust him and invest in his venture.




2. A huge Market for the product/service offered - If you need the big investment, you need to have a big addressable market of at least $200 million. A market over $1 billion is considered ideal.




3. Intellectual property - A startup looking for the big angel investment should ideally have intellectual property, which is protected by patents, trade secrets, or have the time barrier to replicate.




4. Sellable product or technology - The product or service offered by the startup should be something that can be easily used by the people and not something which only looks fancy and promising on the paper. The company should have good revenue figures on display in order to attract that angel investment.




5. A no hurdle path to the market - All the licenses, approvals required to market the product/ service should be in place.
   




6. Liquidity - There should be a clear and defined path to liquidity for the investor. A company does not need to have to IPO or be acquired in order for the investors to achieve liquidity. Company buy-backs and revenue sharing have also proved to provide excellent returns to the investors.
   



7. Return on their investment - Let's face it, almost everyone is there in the business to earn profit and the same goes for investors. Angel investors are likely to invest in those startups where they can clearly see a 5 – 10x return on their investment, or where the company has the potential to buy back the shares or IPO at that multiple.




8. Valuation of $4 million or less - With the investors wanting to make a profit of 5 to 10 times on their investment, a startup having a pre-money valuation of $4 million or less is preferred. This varies depending on the type of the industry, geographic location and stage of the business that the investors are investing in.




9. Stock - Most of the investors are in favor of preferred stock equity ownership when investing. In equity ownership, the investors and entrepreneurs mutually agree on a company valuation and the investors’ ownership is determined by the amount of money they invest as compared to the valuation of the business in question. Under a preferred stock system, investors get the money they have invested back before other designated investors and creditors.

Do You Need To Have Rich Family Background To Be A Successful Entrepreneur?

With Entrepreneurship figuring out on the ambition list of many youngsters, the startup business can only be expected to be double and triple of what it currently is. Now, Let's take a break from the future and analyse the current scenario. While the entrepreneurship and startup business is currently at an all time high, a closer and deeper look will reveal a rather abnormal pattern. A pattern in the ownership of these startups.

There's no denying the fact that money or as we call it "capital" in technical terms, is an important aspect of starting a new business but the importation question is, how important is it? It goes something like this, you might be having a pathbreaking idea in mind but if you don't have the money or access to people who have money, your idea might just as stay with you your whole life and never see the day of light.

Don't believe us? Well, here's some food for your thought.

All the elite, successful startups that we know today, whether it is Facebook, Google or Airbnb, oe evn India unicorn startup Flipkart's founders Sachin and Binny Bansal are from IITs, all of them have their roots in some of the elitist colleges, universities of the world. All these elite colleges have a certain kind of fee which makes it difficult for middle class people and people with few resources to attend these institutes.

Secondly, people who belong to the top layer of the economic structure often have all the right contacts with all the right type of people. With startups requiring a huge capital in the start, these entrepreneurs don't have to look beyond their living rooms. Well, in most of the situations.

Thirdly and lastly, let's face it. Most of the middle class people currently stuck in their monotonous jobs, had a killer of a startup idea in their 20s but their situation at home left them a little choice to risk that all for something that might or might not be successful and earn the bread. People from a wealthy background have the luxury to take risks as they always have a wealthy cushion to fall back to if things don't go as they planned.

But, this situation is for sure changing and it is changing for good. With various Scholarships, seed funds, and incubators coming up especially targeted at those who don't come to the entrepreneurial world equipped with bank accounts and wealthy relatives, we can expect people from diverse backgrounds get their due and making it big in the entrepreneurial world. Here's hoping for equality in the entrepreneurial world!

PM Modi Ask Every Bank Branch To Fund One 'Dalit' Startup

The Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, seems to have hoped on the startup bandwagon with all the gusto. On the occasion of his second Independence day speech, after assuming the office, the magnificent orator announced a new campaign, 'Start-up India; Stand up India', in order to promote bank financing for start-ups and offer incentives to boost job creation and entrepreneurship.

According to Modi, each of the 1.25 lakh bank branches in India should take the responsibility of funding at least one woman entrepreneur and one Dalit or Adivasi entrepreneur. "We are looking at systems for enabling start-ups. We must be number one in start-ups... Start-up India; Stand up India,"said Modi.

Along with the startup initiative, Modi also focused on the condition of farmers, unorganised sector, labourers and those still living in unlit villages. He even assured the public that his much talked about ambitious projects like Jandhan and Swachh Bharat schemes are right on track and being implemented in a time-bound manner.

In the speech that lasted for almost two hours, Modi, the orator, had special focus on the achievements of his 15-month-old government. He also announced his government's decision to change the name of the seven decade-old agriculture ministry to the ministry for 'Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare' in order to incorporate the needs of the farming community.

Overall, Modi's Independence speech was a big hit and received thumbs up from most of the quarters. And, as far as the Indian Startup Industry is concerned, we will just have to wait and watch what wonders does the campaign, 'Start-up India; Stand up India' has in store for India.

Apple CEO & Chairman of Google Funded A Startup Which Makes Bathroom Showers

With an era of water shortage dawning upon the world, this particular invention was much needed. Nebia is one of a kinds shower head that boosts of reducing the amount of water used by up to 70%. Yes, 70 percent.

What has caught more fancy of the world other than the product itself, is the kinds of investors that the startup has been able to attract. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, and Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, are some of the high profile investors of the Silicon Valley based shower heads startup.

An average shower takes around 20 gallons of water, but according to Nebia, showers taken using its shower heads only use about six gallons. Nebia reduces the amount of water used through its nozzles that break water down into droplets. That means even though less water is being used, more water is coming into contact with the body of the person taking the shower.

Essentially, Nebia's trade marked H2MICRO technology atomizes water into millions of droplets to create 10 times more surface area than a regular shower. More water comes in contact with your body leaving your skin feeling clean and hydrated.



In testing of a prototype by NYTimes, the multinozzle shower head produced a misty spray (the word nebbia in Italian means mist) that could easily immerse the one who taking shower me in water, unlike traditional shower heads that shoot pressurized streams of water.

The Silicon Valley based startup has chosen to remain mum on the amount of money it has raised from the top tech executives.

The startup has been testing out its product on the campuses of Google and Apple, as well as in Stanford University and at Equinox gyms.

With the discussions on water rationing getting frequenter day by day, California is currently in the middle of a drought like situation. Hence, tech giants are going out of their way to invest in Nebia.

The startup is currently on Kickstarter trying to raise $100,000 to help it ship its first units. The cost of sinle Nevia shower panel starts from $299 and cab be pre-ordered from Kickstarter.

Shabashy Is A P2P Platform Crowdsourcing Employee Recognition

Everyone loves to be recognised and awarded for their good work. Recognition provides us that extra push to work harder and achieve greater heights. This concept also very aptly applies to the work setup. Sometimes the work becomes so monotonous that the employees becomes robotic and starts doing work just for the sake of finishing the assigned task. A little recognition and small awards can work wonders in such a situation.

Recognising this recognition need is a Bangalore based startup called Shabashy. Shabashy /Shābāshi:/ is a pat on the back in the Indian subcontinent to signal commendation for an achievement, similar in meaning to bravo and kudos.

The startup is a simple web/ mobile based peer-to-peer recognition and micro bonus platform. Using the platform, companies can assign a definite budget to each of its employee which then get converted into points which employees can give to each other for the good work they do on a daily basis.

Besides, employees can gather Shabashy points from peers and redeem them for one of the various gift cards.

The company has very interestingly named this act of giving points to each other as giving a shabashy. The platform keeps the act of giving shabashys public so as to encourage transparent behaviour within a company. When an employee has accumulated enough points to redeem, they get two options. One is to redeem the points for a gift card from major retailers and second is donate it to a charity of their choice.

Peer recognition is an easy way to ensure employees are being recognized effectively and Shabashy is essentially crowdsourcing the employee recognition through its platform.

Shabashy is currently the only product in Indian market providing a platform like this. They are also in the process of to create the platform into a mobile app so as to make it a mobile first too.

Founded by Amar Gautam, the Bangalore-based startup is completely bootstrapped right now. Their aim is to take the platform global especially to Latin America which is one of the fastest growing market.

The startup's reward platform is currently free for 100 users or less and cost mere USD 1 for more than 100 users.

This Google Patent Could Make ‘Real-Life Experiences’ Searchable

Think about those moments when you lost your car keys or an important doccument and you thought that life would have been much easier if, just like computers, there could be a Cntrl + F (search) feature in your real life.

Google, the search engine giant, has once again found solution to something similar problem of yours. The company has found a way of making people's real-life experiences searchable online.

With the company's new patent, one could make his/her real-life experiences searchable via a device like the Google Glass. The patent link can be availed here.

Reportedly, videos recorded using devices such as a wearable (think Google Glass) could be made searchable at a later date, using the new patent. The process goes something like this. When a video is recorded, the video is sent to the paired phone, and then further to a server to be stored there in order to make a collection of the users ‘real-life videos’. The video can then be searched later by using the online databases. A user will just have to give a query like " My videos from my India Trip", to the wearable device and it will display the relevant results to its user.

Spreading more light on how the query search will work, the patent reads, "the method may also include transmitting a query of the user to the server computer system to initiate a search of the history or real-world experiences, and receiving results relevant to the query that include data indicative of the media data in the history of real-world experiences.”

The patent further notes, “When the user is determined to be within a popular location, preference manager may automatically turn on media capture without intervention of a user. In another embodiment, preferences manager, may be set to continuously or periodically capture media data for a specific interval of time.”

The patent even suggests that the technology could be used by security forces, who could ask questions like “Show me the faces of all people that were seen between 1 P.M. and 3 P.M.” to see everyone seen by a group of security guards wearing Glass. It could essentially turn everyone wearing Glass into a walking CCTV camera.

While being able to search your own real-life experiences might just be the next step towards the future, this particular thing will take some time to go live as the idea is just a patent right now.

With the current generation making full use of its high definition video smartphone cameras, a searchable index for videos was a much needed invention. But, considering these real-life experiences will be searchable, privacy may prove to be a concern for many users.

Delhi-Based Gorenty Allows You To Make Money By Renting Out Things

Do you have a bunch of stuff tucked away in the last drawer of your almirah, which basically is of no use to you but is so precious to dispose off or sell? Try Gorenty, a Delhi-NCR based online marketplace that allows owners to rent out their good/services and earn money from it. Similarly, renters can also make use of the platform to find attractive rental deals in and around their vicinity.

The easy to use interface of Gorenty allows users to browse across multiple categories of items, along with pricing, details,and contact of the owner/vendor. From home appliances, cars, outfits to furniture, accessories etc., anything and everything legal can be rented out on Gorenty.com.

One similar startup to Gorenty is RentSher, a P2P online renting platform based out of Bengaluru. Rentsher however doesn't allow owners to earn money by renting their poducts through its platform.

The currently self-funded Gorenty is a bootstrapped startupn founded by Vineet Goyal and Amit Kumar, both having more than 12 years of experience in the creative digital industry and Java Development respectively. There are two more core members, Ms.Manju Bala, Co-founder and Product Head and Mr. Joginder Pal, who is President of Gorenty.com respectively.

[caption id="attachment_100934" align="alignleft" width="700"] Team GoRenty - (L-R) Amit Kumar, Manju Bala, Vineet Goyal and Joginder Pal.[/caption]

According to Vineet Goyal, founder of Gorenty.com, "So far the target customers of the online retail market were the Buyers and the Sellers. Now we are tapping into a largely unexplored and huge customer base – the Renters." The objective of the startup is to connect people who own unused stuff at home to those who need that stuff for only a temporary duration… a day, week, month or maybe a little more.

The platform's clean and easy user experience is the thing that distinguishes it from others in the market. Gorenty is a platform which is dedicated for all renting solutions. Rental market is a very unorganized sector and Gorenty aims to transform this unorganized sector into an organised and customer friendly sector.

The startup's immediate future plans include launching the first Rental Marketplace mobile application very soon.

IIM Graduates’ ChalkStreet Is Gamifying Learning Experience Of Online Courses

A Bangalore based startup has set out on its startup journey with a mission of making learning a habit. ChalkStreet boasts of being first India-centric marketplace for online courses.

The platform brings together unique and relevant content from Indian teachers. It aims to be a revolutionary platform for learning that encourages engagement with other learners and ensures continued interest of the learners.

Chalkstreet was envisioned as a solution to the problems for young learners across the country that were seen while scaling up FACE (previous successful venture of the two other co-founders). There were three key problems: 1. No relevant content targeted at Indian learners, 2. Affordability of good online courses and 3. High dropouts due to duration and lack of engagement online to sustain.

As a product, Chalkstreet solves this by bringing in high-quality content from Indian teachers. We have an in-house production team that helps authors shoot these videos as well as an internal course review team that maintains a high bar. Our courses are focused on specific topics and affordable. Our learning platform is social encouraging interaction between learners as well as using Gamification to motivate course completions and engagements.

ChalkStreet was founded by Tyagarajan S (CEO), Venkat V, Rajesh Kumar and Raj Karthik (CTO). All of them are IIM alumnus and have diverse experience across diverse fields. In fact, Venkat V, Rajesh Kumar and Raj Karthik have also co-founded another venture called FACE (Focus Academy for Career Enhancement ) together. FACE is associated with over 600+ educational institutions across India and has trained over 10,00,000+ students since inception.



ChalkStreet offers varied courses like popular programming and arts courses, to unique Indian centric courses like CSS, Tamil 101, 'Sanskrit','Learning Guitar,' and 'Aptitude for placements'. Further, the learners also have an option to learn courses in their favorite regional languages (Hindi, Tamil and Telugu supported currently).

The Bangalore based startup is currently bootstrapped from the successful venture of two co-founders (FACE). They plans to grow exponentially in the next one year with more funding support.

ChalkStreet is the only India-centric marketplace for online courses that aims to make learning a habit. The key USP of the startup is that it is offering relevant India-focused content and a unique learning experience (mobile app) through an engaging social platform with 'Gamification' of the experience.

The content on the platform (from hundreds of teachers across the country) is relevant to the Indian learner. We do this by enabling authors across India to teach both popular and unique topics. In addition to popular courses ranging from programming to arts, we have courses that are unique to India like ‘Tamil 101’, 'Sanskrit', 'Aptitude for placements', etc.

"More than 50% of the jobs in the country today did not exist 20 years ago. Yet we still have an education system whose teaching methodologies and curriculum remain largely unchanged for decades. Employed professionals seek out new avenues to up skill themselves or train themselves in specialized skills. In the last 2-3 years, more and more Indians have looked to the internet for more current and accessible learning. However there is a dire need for one that satisfy all these needs and be affordable", said Tyagarajan, co-founder & CEO of Chalkstreet.

"At ChalkStreet we plan to address these problems by making learning choice-based, relevant, affordable and accessible. The growing online access in the country offers us a great opportunity to enable access to learning through this medium. While the internet is a great place to learn on its own (as Idea Internet Network has so efficiently branded as their own making) it is difficult to find targeted, high-quality learning experiences today. We will start seeing a shift towards curated, high-quality learning content that addresses need-based learning", he added.

Chalkstreet claims to be the only online learning marketplace mobile app that offers an engaging social platform around learning with gamification and social networking elements built in to drive user engagement.

The startup plans to grow aggressively in the next 12 months with more funding support and confidently aims to be India's largest marketplace for online learning.

Meet Mycroft - A First Ever Open Source Artificial Intelligence Platform

Artificial intelligence has now become a part of our day to day lives like never before. Natural language processing, self driving cars are all miracles bestowed upon us by this wonderful creation of the human mind. But this particular wonder has for long been in the possession of big private companies. Well, not anymore.

Introducing Mycroft, a state of the art Artificial intelligence (A.I.) that makes use of natural language processing to respond to your voice.

The world's first open hardware, open source home A.I. platform is based on two of the world's most popular open development platforms- Arduino and Raspberry Pi 2.

With Mycroft, you will be no longer needed to reach out to your smartphone for every small need of yours. The A.I. makes online services like Spotify, Netflix, Pandora, and YouTube etc. available to its users instantly. So, for example, if you want to hear your favourite music, you just have to say the words to Mycroft and it will do it for you. The A.I. has integrated high quality speaker and is capable of playing the music directly.

Not only this, Mycroft also allows one to integrate the A.I. with their smart devices and control the Internet of Things (IoT) for them. From watering your plants to making the coffee, if it is connected to the Internet, Mycroft will do it for you.

Besides all of these, Mycroft can also double up as your Calendar, Reminders reminder, Weather forecaster and Alarm Clock etc.



Mycroft can also prove to be a boon for developers, makers and tinkerers wanting to explore their own ideas.

Joshua Montgomery - CEO, Ryan Sipes - CTO and Kristie Adair - CFO are the wonder brains behind Mycroft who are currently raising funds to make their wonderful invention a reality for the human kind. You can head to their Kickstarter page here and donate if you think Mycroft is the thing that the human kind truly deserves and should see the day of light.

Mycroft is priced at only $129 per unit, which makes it affordable enough to install 100% coverage in your home or office.

Although the company has created an entry-level model that requires no tinkering or hacking to get it started for just $99, most users will likely be interested in the $249 Hardware Development kit that features more flexible options for creating a customized hardware solution.

Currently, the company has raised just over $36K with a goal of $99K and has about three weeks left to go in their Kickstarter campaign.

Microsoft Releases IoT Edition of Windows 10 For Raspberry Pi 2

Microsoft on Monday launched the slimmed down version of its latest Personal computer Operating system, Microsoft Windows 10 Internet of Things (IoT) core. Meant for development boards, the latest version will be of a great help to entrepreneurs, developers and students who are looking to develop software for internet-connected devices.

First announced in February this year, the light version is not meant for smartphones, but designed to function on Arduinos, and Raspberry Pi 2 boards. According to a blog post announcement by the software giant, Microsoft Windows 10 now brings support for MinnowBoard Max (MBM board) and Raspberry Pi 2, which is a $35 Linux-based tiny computer.

Microsoft has also added support for open-source Arduino in order to let the light new edition of OS communicate with Arduino boards. Reportedly, the company has also gone on to include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, and made a massive improvement in the General Purpose Input-output performance for Raspberry Pi 2.

With the latest edition of the OS, Microsoft aims to offer a unified code base across all types of computers, which can help developers transform dumb objects into smart ones.

The new Microsoft Windows 10 IoT core also comes with support for programming languages, such as, JS, C#, VB and C++ as well as debugging. It also supports Node.js and Python.

The latest version of the OS will allow people to create apps for embedded devices such as connected appliances, toys or anything that one might be able to think up using the Windows ecosystem.

People interested in the new OS can download it from the Windows development center. However, the new Microsoft Windows 10 IoT core requires the July 29 versions of Visual Studio 2015 and Windows 10 to function properly.

Installing

Officially, the only way to install Windows 10 IoT Core is with a computer running Windows 10. There are a few ways around this is with the ffu2img project on GitHub. This Python script takes the special Microsoft .FFU image file format and turns it into an .IMG file that can be used with dd under *nix and Win32DiskImager on Windows.

A Robotic Air-Hockey tables built using Windows 10 IoT Core

Productivity Secrets for Entrepreneurs Running Global Startups

"Time is money". This particular saying becomes even more important when we talk about entrepreneurs running small businesses having a global presence. While they have to face all the regular problems being faced by a small business owner, they also have to make sure that their products/services match up to the international standards of quality. In order to do so, they have to learn the art of multi tasking and time management as being a small business, they don't have truckloads of money to invest in hiring a different person for every profile. In order to help such entrepreneurs get through just fine, we at IndianWeb2 have combined a list of 6 must to follow tips. They are as follows:

1. 
   

   Make a central calendar -

   
   Having multiple calendars at multiple places to remind different tasks is only going to mess up things for you. Instead of the paper one, we recommend you to go with an online calendar like iCal or Google calendars to consolidate all your to-do tasks into one place. Further, you will be able to access the calendar from anywhere at anytime.


2. 
   

   Communication -

   
   Clear and fast communication is the key to high productivity. Most of the times, most of our time is spent on communicating the same thing to multiple people back and forth. Small business entrepreneurs can now makes use of the various online communication tools available in the market to save the valuable time wasted on this back and forth communication. Tools like GoToMeeting, Wrike, Hipchat etc. can be used to hold virtual meetings, collaborate and view documents together and for internal chat between team members etc.
   
   
   
   • GoToMeeting to hold virtual meetings, collaborate and view documents together
   
   
   • Wrike or DeskAway for task and project management
   
   
   • Slack or Flock for internal chat between team members
   
   
   
   


3. 
   

   Automate -

   
   Running a small business means being in touch with multiple people/business leads at the same time and communicating the same thing to them again and again. Hence, wherever it allows, automate your repetitive tasks. CRM software helps one to store details about customers overseas so that anyone in the company can quickly access them.


4. 
   

   Managing the various Time Zones -

   
   Being a small business having a global presence demands time management across different time zones. While it might be 9 in the morning in your country, it might be 5 in the morning in your client's. In order to know the perfect time to arrange a video conform or tele-conference for your international clients, one can make use of the World Clock Meeting Planner and sort their meeting schedule forever.


5. 
   

   Delegate some of your duties -

   
   While being a small business entrepreneur demands you to multitask but always remember, you're human and you can't function 24x7 without any breaks. Make sure you employee some trustworthy and talented people whom you can delegate work and take some time off as and when required. You can even consider employing freelancers or virtual workers in the same city as your clients. This will help you in saving a lot of time.


6. 
   

   Partners -

   
   Being a global business, time and again you may have to ship products/things to your customers' countries. This isn't as easy as it seems. One has to adhere to product restrictions, customs classifications and other red tape of their customers' countries while shipping products overseas. Going into all these details might end up eating a lot of your time and hamper your productivity- unless you decide to employe someone or have a partner who has had a consider a experience in handling such tasks.

Spending First Million In Your Startup

With the news of a new startup getting funded every now and then, we start believing that getting fundings worth millions and billions is actually not that tough a job. But, you're mistaken. While getting someone to trust you and invest a part of his money in your idea is for sure a tough job, what's tougher is making sure to spend that money judicially for the good of your startup.

It has often come to notice that many startups who were doing exceptionally well for them before the funding, just lose their way after funding. This is basically because they start behaving as an unsupervised kid in Disneyland. They start spending on things like office upgrades, unnecessary technology tools and various other unproductive things that are totally not needed by the startup at that point of time. They spend on these things just simply because they can.

According to industry experts, the first million (Rs. 6.4 crore approx.) is like a cushion foundation on which your startup's future is built. It is also the basis on which the future funding rounds of the startup will be based. Hence, the sane thing to do is not to spend on unnecessary things like a fancy office with a fancy coffee vending machine but to invest that money in making your product/ service better.

Further, they can also make use of the money to take special care of their current customers. A part of the funding can be used to establish a customer care service for the customer. After all, if the customer is happy, you're happy.

As per Sahil Lavingia who is founder of online startup GumRoad - "allocate 99 percent to people, and maybe a little bit to server cost."

"People should be the only expense at an early technology company...You're not providing a human-powered service, you are building products. Products need code to run, not money," he added.

So, spend your funding with care because if the story of rags to riches is true, so is the story riches to rags.

Unfortunately, large capital raises often result in the money being spent less efficiently.

Investors who make large investments often place pressure (subtle and otherwise) on startups to"spend the money and get big, quick." Such an environment can lead to bad decisions, including hiring ahead of needs, ramping up for an unrealistic level of product adoption, etc.

A realistic "use of funds" is essential component of your 'Plan'. It should be tied to major milestones and the impact of such milestones should be baked into your financial pro formas.

As an idealistic appoach, an early stage startup should invest the money raised in its very first funding in :
(1) Hiring the right team for the business
(2) perfecting the product, which may involve re-engineering
(3) Customer Acquisitions and marketing.

Online startup Quora's Co-Founder Adam D'Angelo gave a good breakdown of what Quora will do with its latest $50M in funding

Empanelled With Over 5000 Top Doctors, Qikwell Claims To Be Only Guaranteed Dotors Appointment Booking Service In India

We're so busy with the materialistic wonders that the world has to offer to us that we often completely ignore that one thing that is truly ours i.e. our body. Qikwell, a Bangalore-based health tech startup seems to have taken things into its own hand and make India a healthier place with healthy people.

In this fast paced world, who has the time to take references from people, wait at long queues outside a clinic and deal with the to and fro pendulum motion from a hospital to a clinic and a clinic to a hospital in case of last minute cancellations. This is where startup like Practo, Ziffi and Qikwell comes to the rescue. These startup makes use of technology to provide its customers with confirmed appointments with good doctors and other healthcare service providers.

Qikwell however claims to be the only guaranteed and assured appointment booking service for doctors in India which helps consumers to be in touch with the doctors and get answers to simple queries that may not warrant on a visit to a clinic.

Using the Qikwell platform, one can search for doctors with required specializations according to their location preferences and book appointments directly with them. The Bangalore based startup makes sure to provide its customers with a hassle free medical experience by making them available with up-to-date information about doctors, their availability and their schedules.

Qikwell currently empanels over 5000 top doctors across all specializations and who practice in top hospitals and private clinics.

Founded by Raghavendra Prasad, a computer science graduate from MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore, and Krishna Prasad Chitrapura, an IIT-Bombay graduate and ex-Yahoo scientist, Qikwell claims to have a unique solution which clinics and hospital installs to ensure a pleasant patient experience. This includes information on doctors, live information on doctor's availability, online appointment booking, instant appointment confirmation, delay/or schedule change notifications and fair & transparent queueing system. Qikwell also helps you keep in touch with your doctors - simple queries that may not warrant a visit, can be answered by your doctor.

Started in 2011, with a mission of connecting people who are in need of healthcare with the people who can best provide it, the company is backed by SAIF Partners.

According to the startup, its USP is its technology which lets people to get instantly in touch with the doctors even for getting answers to simple queries that may not require a special visit to a clinic. Qikwell currently provide appointments booking of doctors and other healthcare services in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Delhi, Mangalore and Mysore.

Qikwell is also available as an Android app and interestingly all appointments booked its app are 100% guaranteed or the company claims to give you Rs.1000.

Manipal hospitals, Fortis, BFMC, Saket city, Cloudnine, Narayana Health are the key partners who use Qikwell technology solution.

Rich People (HNIs) Invested More Than Rs 1200 Cr in Indian Startups

The Indian startup industry seems to be on a roll. A recent report in a national daily has revealed that funds worth more than Rs 1,200 crore have been pumped in by high networth individuals (HNIs) into venture capital funds focused on helping early-stage Indian entrepreneurs.

According to the report, Orios Venture Partners, Zodius Capital, Your-Nest Angel, Kalaari Capital and Blume Ventures are the Venture capital funds that have received these investments. These VC funds have together raised Rs 4,360 crore, the report stated.

The above mentioned VC funds have the authority to invest in radio taxi companies, app-makers, food-ordering platforms and healthcare aggregators and such Internet businesses and other Indian startups. In case of some of the funds, over fifty percent of the money raised has been contributed by high net worth individuals.

A high-net-worth individual (HNI) is a person with a high net worth. In the western, and primarily American, private banking business, these individuals typically are defined as having investable finance (financial assets, excluding primary residence) in excess of US$1 million.

This particular trend of investing in startups has been started by businessmen and top executives. This trend is further confirmed by the ET CXO poll on startup investing. According to the poll results, over 60% of the 100-plus CXOs polled revealed that they have already invested a portion of their wealth in startups and another 25% expressed interest in investing in future.

Even though the HNI response to startup funds has been pretty phenomenal, but awareness level about these funds is still very low. These funds haven't yet faced the popularity enjoyed by equity or real estate funds.

One of the main reasons for increase in investment is that the Individual ticket sizes have also grown over the past few months. Nowadays, an average investment ticket size is of Rs 10-20 crore as the Wealth managers seek larger investments because these funds have a high failure rate.

How does these first batch of funds delivers in terms of returns, is a thing that we will have to wait and see.

23 Powerful Tips To Help Women Entrepreneurs Succeed

Starting up a new business isn't a child's play. While one does need to have a killer idea and resources in place, over and above this, one needs to have the required gumption to able able to pull through the difficult times as owning a business isn't going to be a smooth ride. This entrepreneurial route becomes even more rocky when it comes to women entrepreneurs. A while back, we had even carried an article about how India was among the least favourable places for women entrepreneurs. In order to help all those women bitten by the entrepreneurial bug tide over the difficult times without much difficulty, we here at Indianweb2.com have made a list of 23 business tips that can help women entrepreneurs survive this overly dominated men's world.

Here we go!

1) Get a mentor -

Everyone needs help. You aren't Superman to know everything from legal to production to marketing. Take advice from someone who has already successful started a business. Their experiences, successes and failures will help you learn a lot about the field you're about to enter.

2) Remain focused -

Make it a point to remind yourself why you are doing this. Keep a journal or make a poster or list to keep yourself motivated.

3) Dive in with an open mind -

Having pre-conceived notions and assumptions hasn't helped anyone till date. Dive in with an open heart and mind and success will surely never leave your side.

4) Set small goals in order to achieve that big one -

Always set small goals for yourself and reward yourself each time you achieve something. This will keep you motivated and hungry for more.

5) Take your employees along -

Always remember that your employees are the oxygen on which your company is surviving. If they're happy, your company will automatically make profits. So, make it a point to take proper care of your employees.

6) Deliver your hundred percent at every level. It's your business, always remember that.

7) Be aware about your strengths and weaknesses.

No human being is perfect. Acknowledging ones weaknesses doesn't mean that that person is weak, it means the person is strong enough to talk about it and work on it. Further, also try to know about your employees strengthens and weaknesses and allot them work accordingly.

8) Follow a collaboration over competition model and always go for the win-win situation.

9) Encourage and Appreciate -

While your words of encouragement might just be simple, plain words for you, they could mean a lot to your employees. Always remember to encourage and appreciate them on their good work as it provides them the gusto to do the work with double the motivation than they were previously putting in.

10) Be aware -

Always remain updated about what's happening around, even outside your industry too. More awareness leads to more creativity and ideas.

11) Maintain healthy relationships -

Arguments and unhealthy competition in the workplace leads to unnecessary tension. Always maintain a happy and professional relationship with all your clients and employees as they are your ticket to personal growth.

12) We all are emotional human beings -

People are known to operate 90 percent from emotion and 10 from percent logic. Make sure that you provide your employees an emotionally stable environment at workplace.

13) Choose your employees carefully.

Make a team of people having different skill sets and style.

14) Set your goal -

Always have the bigger picture in place and work towards achieving it.

15) Only work on an idea that you're really passionate about.

Don't do something just because of the financial goodness that it brings in as in the long run it won't help you.

16)Make Healthy Enviornment

Make sure you have a healthy environment at your workplace and no one is dominating over anyone. As long there are dominators and people who are getting dominating, there isn't a place for peace and good work at the workplace.

17) Find those peaceful escapes -

Always remember to take small breaks in between to keep your creativity fresh and alive.

18) There's no age for learning -

Make it a point to learn everyday from everyone. Whether it's your mom, your employees or even your driver, everyone has certain things and attributes that one can learn from.

19) Have faith in your sixth sense.

Trust your intuition in situations where you can't find your way out.

20) Money is important for your business. Keep it coming.

21) Be responsible.

Take responsibility of your actions and don't play the blame game ever.

22) Have faith

Have faith in your beliefs but don't shy away from listening to someone else's perspective. Listen to everybody and do what you feel is right for you.

23) Network -

Networking has becoming an essential part of our lives nowadays. So, come out of your cocoon and talk your way to success.

This Pen Can 3D-Print Cells Onto Injured Body Parts

What could be considered as a big breakthrough in the medical industry if it turns out successful, a group of researchers in Australia are currently working on a 3D-printing pen called the Biopen, which will allow surgeons to draw regenerative cells onto injured body parts.

The team from University of Wollongong in Melbourne is currently showcasing its new invention in a funding competition on Thinkable.org, a site that provides scientists a research platform to showcase their innovative ideas for fans to vote on and even sponsor if them if they want to.

The Biopen will create artificial replicas of human body parts and once implanted, they will stimulate the body to regenerate itself, then to degrade naturally, dissolving in the bloodstream and eventually getting excreted from the system. The pen will allow the researchers to print with cells.

The wonderpen will let surgeons fill a bunch of healing stem cells into the wound of a patient which will help in repairing the wound.

By taking some fat cells off of a patient, scientists will be able to replicate these on a large scale, thus stocking up the ‘ink’ that can fill up the Biopen.

From thereon, the pen works pretty similar to 3 dimensional printing methods. It will deliver cell material inside a biopolymer, protected by a second layer of gel material. Both these layers are then combined and applied layer after layer onto the wounded area.

According to the team, these cells then multiply around the wound and create a “thriving community of cells".

"We are just on the outset of this project, and early funding sources (such as this competition) could make all the difference in helping us turn this idea into a clinical reality, said Cathal O’Connell, part of the team behind the revolutionary invention.

This Meerut Born IIT-Graduate Made A 50-cent Microscope That Folds Like Paper

What if I say that you can now not only own your own personal microscope but also carry it around in your pocket? You would assume I'm talking crazy but with the pace at which the technological advancements are taking place all around the world, this is just the beginning.

Manu Prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, and his team has developed a 50-cent print-and-fold paper microscope called the Foldscope. The tiny microscope is capable of performing brightfield, darkfield, fluorescence, and polarization microscopy. It can also reach the submicron resolution.

Embedded with applications like K-12 education, global health and citizen science, Prakash aims to fulfil the dream of anyone, anywhere passionate about discovering and studying the microscopic world.

Meerut born Prakash is a BTech in computer science and engineering from the esteemed Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. He has further done his masters and PhD in applied physics from MIT. This is when he finally decided to shift his base to United States and founded the Prakash Lab at Stanford University.

In the year 2012, the ultra-low-cost, “print-and-fold” paper microscope, foldscope, had won a whopping $100,000 grant from the Gates Foundation.

Talking about his inspiration behind building foldscope, he said, he is humbled and inspired by nature’s own solutions to the world’s biggest problems.

"I build and design tools to uncover how and why biological systems so often outsmart us. I believe one day we will be able to understand the physical design principles of life on Earth, leading to a new way to look at the world we live in," Prakash said in an interview to a leading news magazine.

3 Industries Startups Can Disrupt With The 'Internet of Things' In India

Internet of Things or IoT as it is famously known, is the power of the future. The term basically means a wireless network of "things" with embedded technology that can communicate without any human interaction. From our phones to cars to even our refrigerators, everything is turning smart all thanks to IoT.

By 2020, it is estimated, that there would be more than 26 million wireless devices connected to the Internet. This rise in the usage of IoT is the result of its quick adoption by various industries. These industries are adopting this technology in a bid to become more smarter and quicker. Further, these industries are full of enthusiastic and new entrepreneurs filled with the passion of making the best use of the technology available to them in order to improve the company's communication and service.

Here we present you a list if three companies who are rocking this IoT wave.

1) Healthcare -

IoT can prove to be of a great benefit to the healthcare industry. The healthcare industry is marked with the constant demand for improvement in safety, health and care and hence, IoT can provide a helping hand in improving all these departments. Hospitals and clinics are now capable of collecting, recording and analysing important data, in a more efficient and quicker way, all due to the Wi-Fi enabled medical devices and tools available due to the explosion of IoT. The usage of IoT enabled devices in the industry has resulted in a marked improvement in the productivity of the employees and dispensation of treatment and diagnosis services.

Furthermore, the wireless healthcare devices are gaining more popularity day by day as people with chronic diseases or those in old age are making good use of these devices to alert the medical officers in case of any emergency with just a push of a button.

2) Manufacturing -

The Manufacturing industry is said to be one of the earliest benefiter of the IoT technology. Currently, there are a large number of wireless devices and sensors deployed around the globe, which are network linked to factories. These networks are making the day to day operations of these industries more easier and smarter. Sensor based technology is used in these industries in order to implement a more smart manufacturing system. King’s Hawaiian was reportedly able to up its production of bread by an extra 180,000 pounds, on a daily basis, after it started using IOT based technology.

3) Retail -

The concept of online shopping has taken the retail world by storm. IoT has added to the success of this sector as now the retailers can keep a track of their customers and inventory, in real time, using the IoT technology. Not only the online shopping sites, even the regular brick and mortar stores are now making use of the IoT technology to get customer feedback and give a more personalized experience to the buyer. Details like shopping history, location and other information regarding target demographics allows the retail sector to improve the customer experience significantly.

With 3 of Its Lingustic Apps How This Glasgow Startup Tapping India's Multi-Lingual Market

A Glasgow, UK headquartered company is changing the way humans connect with the global village that the world has become. Founded in 2004, KeyPoint Technologies or KPT, is a linguistics innovator working to enable intelligent communication between the humans to the connected world and that too beyond the mobile devices.

KPT has been working towards developing next-generation, out-of-the-box text input solutions for mobile handsets and other consumer electronics devices for the past one decade now. Its impressive list of product range includes Lipi, which is India's first Indic keyboard, the revolutionary text input technology called Adaptxt and Xploree, the industry’s first user-initiated and multi-lingual search and discovery platform.

In March this year, KPT introduced India’s first Indic keyboard, Lipi, on Android devices. Lipi supports 25 major Indian languages and 11 transliterated languages like Hinglish, Marathinglish, Punglish, Banglish, etc., which will empower local audience to communicate in their preferred dialect. With Lipi, the company wants to tap a wider user-base in a variety of vernacular languages spoken in India and aid users' comprehension.



KPT claims that it differs from others in the market as their applications deliver an engagement rate that is nearly 10 times the current industry average. This is achieved through their innovative user-driven brand engagement model and high proximity to user intent, coupled with a robust language intelligence engine platform.

The company's latest offering is Xploree, which it claims is industry's first search and discovery platform that works to connect mobile users to the most relevant brands and services across search, messenger and other platforms, that too without exiting the current conversation application. With Xploree, one can discover unique offers, products and services, search for the latest movies playing at nearest multiplex and type faster, more accurately and easily.



The app is currently available in English only for Android device users, and is expected to support nearly 140 languages (both global and Indian) by the end of the year.

For its Xploree app, the company has tied-up with India's big consumer brands such as Cafe Coffee Day, Snapdeal, Zovi, Groupon, Ferns n Petal and Grabon among others.

In order to garner more visibility and offer valuable consumer engagement schemes through a pre-targeted content discovery on mobile devices, the company has partnered with various organisations. Their most recent tie-up is Groupon India, which is a daily deals website offering real time deals on wellness, dining, shopping and travel segments from Groupon to the Xploree platform.

Headquartered in UK, the company also has offices in India, China, US and Japan. Their research and development centre is based in Hyderabad.

In India, the Glasgow headquartered startup have 100+ engineers in its Hyderabad centre and for this financial year, the startup is also looking at hire 15 technical and non-technical resources.

Nokia's Here Maps Sold For $3 billion To Audi, BMW & Daimler

Nokia, which was once upon a time the most trusted phone brand, has finally inked the much anticipated Here Maps deal. The company has finally sold its Here Maps business at a whopping price point of €2.8 billion (around US$3.08 billion) to the three major German automakers Daimler, Audi and BMW, Nokia officially announced in a press release yesterday.

The three automakers are expected to hold an equal share in the deal, with none of them seeking to acquire a majority stake in Here Maps. In fact, according to some reports, the German automakers are all set to invite other automakers to invest in Here Maps. They will reportedly keep the platform open to anyone willing to invest in Here Maps.

According to a joint statement released by the three German automakers after the official announcement of the deal, Here Maps is "laying the foundations for the next generation of mobility and location based services". The data and expertise of the company will be used as the basis for "new assistance systems and ultimately fully autonomous driving," added the statement.

According to Dieter Zetsche, Chairman, Daimler, the joint acquisition will secure the independence of the central service for all vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and customers in other industries.

Nokia is all set to receive around €2.5 billion from the €2.8 billion Here Maps deal. The remaining €300 million will go into compensating for "certain defined liabilities" of the division, according to some sources.

Next on Nokia's to-do list is the planned acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, a telecommunications equipment company for €15.6 billion.

This New App Lets Anyone With A Startup Idea Instantly Chat With Investors at VC Firm Kleiner Perkins

Have an amazing startup idea in mind? But, don't know where to or how to start from? This is the case with most of the young minds out there. Lack of right mentorship and direction often brings an abrupt end to their entrepreneur dreams. In order to make the startup scene a little more easier for all those first time entrepreneurs, a young individual and his team have developed an app called the "KPCB Edge Office Hours".

The KPCB Edge Office Hours is basically a first of its kind communication application where startup and entrepreneurship enthusiasts can ask their queries about anything related to setting up a new startup and get instant reply from one of the three partners of the Kleiner Perkins' Edge Fund, which is the firm's early stage fund focused on emerging technologies like drones, virtual reality and digital currency.

Anjney Midha, Roneil Rumburg, and Ruby Lee, the three partners of the firm, take out at least two hours a week from their busy schedule to answer questions in real-time, while they respond to non-office hour messages throughout the week.

Midha, youngest of the three partners, has himself gone through the initial entrepreneur hiccup phase and understands the frustration that comes with it very well. Even after getting through Stanford, Midha couldn't get the type of access with Venture Capitalists as he got with professors during office hours arranged at the campus. In one such on-campus "office hour" set up by Kleiner Perkins' general partner Mike Abbott, Midha was hired as the youngest partner at Kleiner Perkins.

The app allows people to have a one-on-one conversation with one of the firm's partners as nothing is broadcasted and the person's identity is fully protected.

Since the app's launch on 24th July, the app has already been downloaded in 17 different countries around the world.

Midha's ultimate goal with this app is to change the way the venture capital works.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) To Mentor 10 Handpicked Startups in India

Startups in India have a reason to rejoice and the reason for this happiness is PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). To break it down for our readers, PwC is planning to handpick ten Indian startups and mentor them by providing assistance in the matters of taxation and fundraising.

PwC is planning to mentor the startups as against investing in them because as per the Indian laws, auditors aren't allowed to invest or pick up stake in any Indian company.
Reportedly, a ten member expert team has already been set up within PwC. The team will supervise the selected ten on important matters like taxation, regulation, investment and risk advisory etc. Thus, they will act as advisors to these startups and won't charge any fee in return.

Considering PwC isn't planning to charge a single rupee in exchange of its mentorship to the startups, what does PwC get in the deal, is a question that is in the minds of many. Responding to this, a PwC executive, on the condition of anonymity, said "Well, the only hope is that at least two of the ten startups would become tomorrow's Flipkart or Snapdeal. And when they do, they would prefer PwC for their activities like IPOs or other services."

According to PwC, a startup faces a lot of small, small problems like fundraising, public relations, taxation, hiring, auditing and overseas expansion etc., which can turn into big problems if not tackled properly. These problems are however solved on a daily basis at a much larger scale in bigger companies in consultancies, and the consultants will be able to bring their this experience to the table while mentoring the startups.

10 Bootstrapping Marketing Tips For Entrepreneurs & Startups

It's a famous saying that you can even sell a comb to a bald person if you know how to market and advertise your product well. On the same hand, you can have the best product to offer in the market but it might still fail to have a connect with the audience as the customers aren't even aware of its existence.

The startups who are still testing the waters of the industry would understand this very well. As a startup, it's a task to manage your marketing strategies within the set budget you have. In order to help those bootstrapped startups market their products well without causing much burden on the purse strings, we at www.indianweb2.com have combined a list of ten marketing tactics that the bootstrapped startups can adopt.

Here we go!

• Go the Intern way -

  This is a widely adopted marketing tactic nowadays. They are easy on the pocket and fresh with enthusiasm and vigour to learn something new. A startup can prove to be a great learning opportunity for young graduates or undergrads.
  




• Make yourself a Marketing plan -

  While we understand the immense love you have for your product and how you think and feel it's the best in the market but the customers aren't going to stumble on this by their own. You need to have an objective marketing plan in hand to make them realise this and choose your product over anyone else's in the market.





• Social Media -

  This part needs no explanation. Everybody knows the importance of social media in the business world nowadays. It's like an Identity card for your existence. More and more people check if a product is genuine by searching it on various social media platforms and reading the previous customer reviews and ratings. An account on the top 5 social media sites: Linked in, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter is a must.





• Work on Your Press Releases -

  In order to register your existence in the minds of the people, start writing your own press releases. If you think you cannot write, outsource them from professional writers.
  




• Free PR is good -

  There are a lot of websites out there (like IndianWeb2) which offer press releases absolutely free of cost. Go for them right away.





• Your Website Is Your Passport To Success -

  The main aim of having several social media accounts is to make those socially active customers land on your company's website and turn them from potential to sure-short customers. Therefore, don't cut down when it comes to spending on designing your website. If your website is appealing then people visiting your website might not be able to resist themselves from buying your product.





• Prepare A Detailed List Of All Business Prospects -

  This is where the student interns that you have hired will come to use. Make a detailed list of all your personal and business contacts that you see have the potential to turn into clients. The Internet can also come in handy.





• Have a social media marketing plan in place -

  Just having several social media accounts won't suffice the purpose. Make sure that you regularly update these accounts with relevant information. Delegate the task of responding to all types of messages and comments on the various pages to the interns. Be active.





• Videos -

  Visuals always help. A video or photograph has much more registration power in the minds of the people when compared to text. Make small, economical and product relevant videos and upload them on YouTube to attract the attention of more people.





• Benchmark -

  Being a startup, you might not be having enough money today but being a startup, you have the liberty to try out new things, new marketing strategies and see how they work out for your startup. Make sure you try out as many new things as possible so that when the money comes pouring in, you know exactly where you have to invest it.

Here Are The World’s Leading Startup Cities

Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area have been synonymous with the term "startup" for as long as one can remember. These places have been instrumental in giving birth to some of the top notch companies in the current times like Facebook, Intel, Apple and Twitter etc. But, the numero uno place of these startup desirable places have been in danger for last couple of years since the mushrooming of more and more startups in different parts of the world.

The 2015 edition of the Global Startup Ecosystem Rankings from Compass provides a new ranking for the world’s leading startup cities and throws open some interesting points for the startup world to wonder upon. The previous edition of the report was released way back in 2012. The new rankings have been calculated on the basis of data collected from 11,000 global startups, interviews with more than 200 entrepreneurs, and data from Crunchbase and other such sources.

According to the new report, Silicon Valley has again emerged as the best startup ecosystem in the world by acquiring the first position. New York takes the second position, climbing three positions from its previous ranking in 2012. Los Angeles rests on the third position and Boston on fourth. Boston’s ranking may come as a surprise to many, as its much-heralded Route 128 high-tech cluster was considered amongst the top two most desirable places for startups. The United Sates again walked away with the largest share of the cake by having seven cities in the top 20 list.

[caption id="attachment_100588" align="aligncenter" width="664"] via - startupcompass.co[/caption]

But if we have a second look at the list, we observe a significant rise in new startup ecosystems around the world. Tel Aviv at fifth position, London at sixth, Berlin at ninth, and Singapore at 10th position are some of the examples of the change in the World startup scene.

There's good news also for India. Bangalore emerges on the list of the world’s top 20 leading startup ecosystems at a decent 15th position. The rankings of Tel Aviv, Singapore, São Paulo, and Bangalore holds testimonial to the fact of how the startup scene is emerging in the so-called emerging economies.

The report also predicted the trajectories of the world’s leading startup cities. Silicon Valley again marches away way ahead of others at the first position. Startup cities like New York, Austin, Bangalore, Singapore, and Chicago were ranked as fastest moving startup cities, according to the list.