Kaun Banega Entrepreneur !!
Being here at the campus , I also got an opportunity to attend the finals of “Kaun Banega Entrepreneur“ conducted by TIE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Bangalore Chapter last week . TIE is one of the biggest community of Entrepreneurs in the world. This was a great initiative by TIE , which should also be started by all other chapters of TIE giving chance to entrepreneurs all over the country.
I would like offer some of my observations and learning’s gained from this event
The finalists of the competition were five groups
Artoo - Development of Cloud Application for Workflow of Microfinance Transactions
Star Wishlist – Online shopping site for giving marriage gifts based on a wishlist created by Bride & Bridegrooms
Ixora – Development of Cloud application for Biogenetic analysis
Schools - Web portal for submitting online applications to schools
Fifth Group – Waste Management
Panelists : Subrato Bagchi,Vinita Bali,Sudhir Sethi,Bipin Chandran
The panelists had done an excellent job in awarding the Artoo, the first prize . To my surprise , the presenters from four other groups just dint have confidence in their business plans at all. Most of the presentations were not complete in the aspects which a VC or an Investor would like see. Marketing strategy was completely missing from most of the presentations. There was hardly any market survey carried out by the teams with the prospective customers whether they would accept their product , which they were planning to make. Financials were not clearly drawn up explaining the sales forecast or cash inflows forecast. There were no statistics to support their forecasts. One of groups was ambiguous about the sources of revenue, and had diverted from the objective of the business. Infact i was wondering , how did these guys even qualify for the final round out of so many aspirants with business ideas.
Some of the learnings gained from attending this session:
1. Business Plan should be complete in all aspects most importantly – Market Research,Existing Competitors,Target Segmentation,SWOT Analysis, USP,Positioning Strategy Revenue Model,Cash flow statement,Income & Expenditure Statement,P&L Statement,Marketing Plan,Exit Strategy. I dint see all of these components in any of the presentations
2. The Business plan should be presented by a person, who is confident about the business plan and has strong presentation skills , aggressively selling the business proposition to the panel.
3. Basic principles of preparing power point presentations should be followed – Not cluttering the slides with too much information where the panel is struggling to actually see what is written. The slides should have short points backed up by verbal explanation by the speaker, so that the speaker has the attention of the audience.
4. Any startup which is seeking funds , should always have a professional and an eminent person on the board of advisors, who is professionally strong in the domain of the business.This is a plus point to attract investors.
5. Estimations/forecasts of the cash flows should be realistic in nature , should be carefully drawn up after looking at the actual market potential and then the extent to which the market can be penetrated using marketing plans, Sales and Business development
6. Wherever a specific process of the business plan has to be explained, it is better to do it with diagrams instead of putting up the text on the slides(This was being done with Waste Management group here in the competiton)
7. All the group members/founders should have extensively carried out market research , moving out of their cool ac spaces and running on the fields, to actually know the pulse of their target market.
8. Explaining why a customer would like to buy your product, if alternate options are available. This could be explained with a Cost Benefit Analysis.
I am eagerly waiting for the next such event , where i want to participate.
