Entrepreneur's Speak: Sanket Shah & Pankit Chheda, co-founders, Massblurb

About Massblurb:  MassBlurb is an online automated platform that helps restaurants manage their end to end online presence. We are a venture backed, rapidly growing organization with a 100+ restaurants in Mumbai in less than six months of operations. We have recently expanded our operations into four cities in India- Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Pune. Sanket Shah, co-founder, Massblurb Sanket has his Masters in Engineering from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. His high is taking leap of faith and living in uncertainties. The moment things become certain, they become mundane.    Pankit Chheda, co-founder, Massblurb Pankit has his Masters in Engineering from Carnegie Mellon. He is a quite techie who is soon getting married, so he will become quieter moving forward. Super practical as a person overall.

Please share how it all started and how the inspiration or the idea to start happen ? I (Sanket) was looking to move back to India and start a tech business, Pankit had just moved back and was heading tech at Coupon Dunia. We were exploring the SME space considering our families have struggled with the digital piece for SME's. It was more like a personal problem. However, SME's are too different, depending on their verticals. We saw there was a boom in the restaurant sector and started selling it to them. The inspiration was to provide a perfect digital presence to SME's. We had explored education business as well, probably we will pick it up the next time we start something! Could you please describe the early years and the preparations you undertook before you embarked ?  We were moonlighting. We had our day jobs and coded in the evenings. We also found a couple of people in the Bay Area who were ready to work for us for a small fees - Basically we paid their rent. They were MS students and couldn't intern because of the US laws :D That was our jackpot. You see, people have to hustle and I guess we hustled a lot. Moving back to India was also in a good leap of faith. In terms of preparation - I think a lot of things come back to you when you start something - education, culture, mindset etc. One of the best preparation was we both were raised in upper middle class - stingy families. Well that is what you need - to be stingy. This was my best preparation. What has changed since you started the business between then and now ?  A lot, well we have experienced relativity - We grew 5 years in last 2 years as professionals and probably even when it comes to our health! On a serious note, all of this is hypothesis when you start - then you meet the customer and realize, you don't have what they need. In the order of importance, things that changed were 1 - Focus on a single vertical 2 - Field sales force is a mistake 3 - Hire properly - even if it costs more We made all the mistakes, when we changed these the business changed. What are the most important ingredients that make your business successful ? Hustle, Impatience, Persistence and ability to take a chance. I feel, it's all about this sentence 'I will figure it out' The other important factors are: Market Size - When we went vertical, this suffered and our cost per acquistion went high Team  CashFlow What are the major success drivers that you believe worked for you ? We execute!! Everything else is intellectual masturbation that cannot take you anywhere. What word of advice would you give to young entrepreneurs embarking on the Startup journey ? Too young and not so successful for that - But 'Mere yaar to patang udaya kar, kat jaaye toh gham na khaaya kar' is my favorite quote. Also, delay your gratification and execute quietly. All I mean to say is - Start, execute, fail, learn, make new mistakes the next time and repeat. Anyone who is persistent enough will always do well. I wanted to start a company, raise funds and get acquired since last 8 years. Also, Quoting Haresh Chawla - The startups that are being built smartly and profitably all have one thing in common. They do it quietly. Which are the most common mistakes or pitfalls that budding entrepreneurs need to avoid ? Not having a big enough market size, wrong co-founder or not knowing the customer. Also, keeping your eyes off cashflow will mean you are hallucinating - You are not doing well, you are about to die. How do you keep ahead of the technology and what are the measures you take to make your business future-proof? That's a tough one. I feel it is just about the mindset - Pick up the things that customers want and move them from zero to one. For eg: We tried to remove the need of a graphic designer for a restaurant. Pick up things that take the most time and money and automate them - Do it constantly. How should a new founder start building a team ? Would you like to share your experience? Hire people who are better than you at what they will be doing. Also, deep dive into their resume - For eg: If they say, I like directing movies - Ask them: 1 - Have you ever done that? 2 - What are the cameras they use while shooting a film 3 - Where should be the light-man be placed? 4 - Give me the name of camera models or their rental cost Now, when a person has done real stuff - They can deep dive and answer things, when they haven't - They can't. Deep dive into everything they say. If they say - I want to go to the US for MBA ask them - the top 10 B-schools in US, Gmat scores you will need to enter. If they say - Michigan - Ask - Michigan State or UMich. People who are good, no their shit. What qualities do you look for in angel investors ? They should either add value or not bother you. Ideally, stay away from people who want to make money immediately.

Digital Marketing start-up MintM raises angel round from Mumbai Angels

Digital Marketing start-up MintM raises angel round from Mumbai Angels and Times Internet for its cloud based smart signage solution. In the era of digital innovations, a cutting-edge solution for advertising is bridging the huge gap in the brick and mortar world,which was earlier possible only online. MintM, a startup which is a straight comparison to the Google ads has come up with a crowd pulling platform - Magnet, a cloud based, responsive, and analytical solution in the brick and mortar world. MintM has recently raised its pre Series A funding to grow its smart signage platform Magnet across the world. This funding was co-led by Mumbai Angels and Times Internet following MintM's step out from TLabs, the leading startup accelerator.  The funds will be used for making the product more intelligent and expanding its already fast-growing international markets where Magnet is witnessing significant traction. MintM has come a long way and has bagged a lot of awards and recognitions through it’s journey. It was among the top 50 start-ups by TiE Silicon Valley and was also NASSCOM Emerge Top 50 most promising start-ups. The company has the world's first smart signage platform - Magnet (http://magnet.mintm.com/) which sees and responds to people. This cloud based platform is a simple app that brings the capabilities similar to online advertising to the physical world.  Much like a digital advertisement, Magnet's signage software brings context, tracking and analytics to any digital screens installed in spaces in the real and physical world. A lot of leading retailers, banks, brands, salons and spas are already using Magnet to increase the engagement with their audience, measure it along with the revenue generation possibilities.  Sundeep Holani, Deal Lead, Mumbai Angels –  “Traditional advertising suffers from a few handicaps – it’s consumed far from the point of purchase, it’s impossible to do in a highly targeted way and it’s hard to measure impact. MintM beautifully addresses all these shortcomings… and ushers in the digital age’s analytics driven, pay per view model into the old-fashioned retail world. We’re very excited about the possibilities this creates!” Sachin Garg, CEO, MintM and the brain behind Magnet says "This platform has been described as a peep into the future by prominent people in the industry. It gives me great pleasure to provide a solution to advertising that is not just displaying relevant content but also responding to the people who are in front of it, tracking their response and ultimately generating valuable statistics for the advertiser to compare and compile." Garg says "The fact that Magnet can analyse its audience, respond to them and allow the ability to be run remotely on a cloud has been greatly appreciated.  There are other players in the digital signage play field but none have the capability to be contextual and generate instant, intelligent feedback tracking.  If I have to put it in simple words- Magnet is installed on a screen that is looking at you- real time, responding to you and gathering feedback, all at the same time, without intruding your privacy! This kind of contextual advertising was earlier only possible online. Being cloud based, the end user is able to access and deploy content on Magnet anytime and from anywhere. Ever pictured being on a beach in Goa while running a display on a busy Bangalore shopping mall? Not just that, you can react to your audience in real time and change your content depending on the response or timing. All this just using a friendly app that makes it look like a game, except it's as real as it gets." Magnet provides an unparalleled level of engagement as compared to online channels with many of the customers getting around 20X engagement as compared to 1-2% by other platforms. The adoption of this technology can be seen in big branded outlets like Star bazaar, Jawed Habib, Spar, HyperCITY, Aviva Insurance, Printo and many overseas outlets including Target, the retailing giant. Several brands and advertisers like Harpic, lizol, L’Oreal, Tata tea, Himalaya use it to engage customers regularly. About MintM MintM is world's fastest growing In-store customer engagement company. It was recognized by TIE50 and NASSCOM among "50 Most Promising Global Start-ups of 2015". With presence in US, India, Brazil, Ireland and Dubai, MintM helps global brands and stores reach customers at the last time of truth. About Magnet Magnet is an intelligent customer engagement platform, bridging the huge gap in the brick and mortar world, which was earlier possible only online. About Mumbai Angels Venture Mentors: Mumbai Angels (www.mumbaiangels.com) is one of India’s largest angel networks with 300+ members across three active chapters - Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Their portfolio comprises of 80+ ventures across multiple sectors focused primarily on seed and early stage companies.

Entrepreneur's Speak: Shivakumar Ganesan, Co-founder & CEO, Exotel

About Exotel:
Exotel is one of India’s largest cloud telephony companies. Our aim is to help businesses, both large and small, manage their business phone system via a virtual phone system. Exotel’s cloud telephony eliminates the need to invest in any hardware or maintenance. And that is one of the biggest pain points of traditional systems like EPABX/PBX.

• Exotel is one of the top 14 startups to look out for in 2014
• Picked by Nasscom as one of the 10 promising tech startups
• Mashable picks Exotel as one of the 10 startups to watch out for

Shivakumar Ganesan

Co-founder & CEO, Exotel

Shivku built Exotel for him to receive and make a lot of calls and not miss any calls. He is a passionate techie, has a wonderful sense of humour and can be found in one place every 45 minutes doing two things. He has fun solving all sorts of problems related to the company.

Please share how it all started and how the inspiration or the idea to startup happen?
Exotel is my second venture. I quit Yahoo to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams. One day, when I was figuring out what I should do, my fridge broke down. I wanted to buy a second-hand fridge because I didn't have enough money for a new one. That's when I realized how broken the C2C buying market was. These were the pre-Olx and Quikr days. And that is how I started Roopit, a medium-agnostic, C2C marketplace. I wanted people to be able to get in touch with us over calls, SMS or emails.

I wanted a solution that would allow me not to miss calls and at the same time manage my calls more efficiently. This was necessary as often; I was the only one taking calls, coding, and doing whatever else needed to be done.

When I couldn't find an appropriate product in the market, I decided to build it myself. This led to the genesis of Exotel.

When I told my fellow entrepreneurs about Exotel, they seemed very interested in using it for their businesses as well. They were facing similar problems themselves. Hence, the pivot to Exotel was a natural one.

Could you please describe the early years and the preparations you had undertaken before you embarked?
The first years were spent in the product-market fit of Exotel and building a sound team. When I decided to pivot to Exotel, the first 20 customers were friends or acquaintances. Selling to known people was relatively easier.

Between the founding team, we met at least 300 prospects in the first few weeks and began selling. The word started spreading in the startup community. So, the next set of customers came through word of mouth and references.

What has changed since you started the business between then and now?
When we first started, cloud telephony was not a very commonly known term. There was a lot of customer education involved. Today, the level of awareness in the market has improved drastically. With the increasing number of tech startups, cloud telephony has gained popularity due to its efficiency and ease of use.

What are the most important ingredients that make your business successful?
Instead of having a widespread target, focus your efforts on segments that have the best chance to grow. It is important to focus on sectors that are growing fast. Define and create a culture that is conducive for growth at your startup.

What word of advice would you give to young entrepreneurs embarking on the Startup journey?
* It is about people - Normal people make extraordinary things happen in a conducive environment.
* Each one of you is different - Some logical, some passionate, some empathetic. The world needs all of them.
* The excellence in our work is measured by what the customer says. Not by what we tell each other.
* Startups begin with chaos and travel towards clarity - Appreciate and spread clarity. Reduce confusion.

Which are the most common mistakes or pitfalls that budding entrepreneurs need to avoid?
Hiring is one of the challenges that all startups face. At times, hiring can happen out of desperation. That is the worst thing a founder can do. Ensure you do not hire people who haven't understood your vision or share the passion for the same problem.

Spend a lot of time talking to your customers. Listen to their feedback. It is important to tweak and make changes based on customer feedback, especially in the early days.

Mumbai Angels Partners with Flexing It to offer top tier talent on-demand

Mumbai Angels Partners with Flexing It to offer top tier talent on-demand

Mumbai, 29 April 2016: Mumbai Angels announces a new partnership with Flexing It, a curated marketplace for high caliber management talent - on demand. Flexing It connects 19,000+ highly skilled business consultants to 1,400+ companies across the region, including hundreds of high growth start-ups. As part of the newly forged partnership, Mumbai Angels portfolio companies,members & wider startup ecosystem will be able to access Flexing It’s premium talent-matching services to connect with world class talent on a flexible, on demand basis while keeping overheads low. A typical consultant profile registered on Flexing It includes 10+ years of management experience across strategy, leadership, finance, marketing, HR and IT. The majority of consultants are alumni of top tier institutions such as the IITs, IIMs and ISB in India, as well as Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, INSEAD and more. Organizations using Flexing It consultants to solve business problems include Tata Group, GE, Oxfam and Avendus, among others. 40% are start-ups including PolicyBazaar, Mubble, Shuttl and PharmaSecure. Start-up roles posted on the platform include part-time or project based business requirements across market research, industry analysis, and analytical support, process re-engineering, talent acquisition, CXO & business heads, digital marketing strategy, content development, UI/UX Designand more. About Flexing It Technology is enabling a new era of work, and the HR space is ripe for disruption. Flexing It(www.flexingit.com) is a curated global marketplace that connects 19,000+ highly skilled business consultants to 1,400+ companies across the region. Currently the largest platform for flexible management talent in South & South East Asia, Flexing It has offices in India and Singapore, and a growing global community. Unlike the traditional domain of freelancing, which has focused on technical and creative skills and lowering costs- Flexing It's technology driven approach has pioneered several proprietary tools which are changing the way professionals and organizations discover, vet and work with each other. In 2015, Flexing It launched FeeBee, a smart fee benchmarking tool which has been compared to Glassdoor.com, and gives its users access to data on project fees charged by independent business consultants across industries. FeeBee data shows that consultants registered on Flexing It are currently earning between USD 100 - USD 4000 per day depending on experience levels. About Mumbai Angels Venture Mentors:- Mumbai Angels (www.mumbaiangels.com) is one of India’s largest angel networks with 300+ members across three active chapters - Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Their portfolio comprises of 80+ ventures across multiple sectors focused primarily on seed and early stage companies. Their aim is to invest in and build great companies. In doing so, they hope to benefit a wide variety of stakeholders including founding executives, investors, customers, suppliers, and employees. They provide portfolio companies with a level of assistance that surpasses their highest expectations. The network of relationships and the ability to leverage those relationships on behalf of their portfolio companies is unparalleled. The portfolio companies are recognized as “Best in Class”leaders in their respective industries. The organization and people have come to represent the ideal business partner for entrepreneurs who wish to start and grow a new company.

Allizhealth raises $350K from Mumbai Angels and marquee individual angel investors

Preventive Healthcare Start-up Allizhealth raises $350K from Mumbai Angels and marquee individual angel investors including Dr. Ranjan Pai, Chairman - Manipal Education and Medical group and Mr. Rahil Shah, Director at NM Medical. June 2nd 2015, Allizhealth (www.allizhealth.com ), a healthcare technology venture based out of Pune, is building a healthmanagement platform with an aim to help people manage their conditions better and empower them to make the right health choices, at the right time. In order to grow faster, Allizhealth raised $350K from Mumbai Angels and other individual angel investor such as Dr. Ranjan Pai. The funding round was led by Dr.Aniruddha Malpani, member at Mumbai Angels. Allizhealth plans to use these funds to further enhance its service offerings by improving their mobile app, expanding their team and building a robust health analytics backend. “We are very thrilled with this round of funding from Mumbai Angels, and consider it a validation of our idea and vision. Healthcare in India is primarily curative and with increasing burden of NCD’s and other lifestyle related conditions, it is imperative that we start working towards a culture of preventive health. This round of funding is a step in that direction, to make AllizHealth a pioneer in the space of preventive care and risk management.“ Chinmoy Mishra, Co-founder, Allizhealth Chinmoy is an NIT Rourkela graduate and an MBA from Babson College, Boston. Prior to co-founding the start-up, he worked with a US-based technology and health insurance company Aetna. He returned to India in 2008 and was associated with another healthcare venture before starting Allizhealth. Allizhealth has 3 more co-founders: Dr. Rasmi Mishra, Gaurav Vij and Dhairya Gupta. “The Indian healthcare system is ailing. There are too many patients, and not enough doctors. The increasing tension and mistrust between doctors and patients is just making a bad situation worse! The industry is ripe for disruption, and start-ups such as AllizHealth, which focus on putting patients first, will do very well. They can leverage technology to create a trusted platform for patients and doctors. This will help health insurers keep their customers happy; and employers keep their employees productive. The focus should be on prevention, rather than on illness care, by empowering users with trusted information that is tailored to their needs” Dr. Aniruddha Malpani, Deal Lead, Mumbai Angels “We are happy to have completed the funding in a crucial space such as Preventive healthcare. We at Mumbai Angels believe that technology is changing the way we live and operate in our daily lives and preventive health care is one industry that will benefit highly from this. We are very excited about the healthcare sector as a whole” Prashant Choksey, Co-founder, Mumbai Angels Mumbai Angels is one of India’s largest angel networks with 200+ members and operating in 3 active chapters; Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. They have completed over 76 investments in the start-up ecosystem spanning across multiple sectors focusing primarily on seed and early stage companies.

Massblurb secures funding from Mumbai Angels & Lets Venture

Massblurb secures funding from Mumbai Angels & Lets Venture

Massblurb, an marketing automation & online presence management tool for restaurants, secures undisclosed amount of funding from Mumbai Angels & LetsVenture. •  Round led by Mumbai Angels in co-participation with LetsVenture and other individual angels. •  Currently serves close to 200 restaurants across metro cities in India and aim to reach 1,000 restaurants by December 2015. •   Half of the to be invested in for sales & marketing and the rest in Product and technology development and client servicing August 13th 2015, MassBlurb is a marketing automation tool which provides a 360 degree marketing solution for restaurants to get more footfalls and engage customers. It’s a one-stop solution for online needs of a restaurant as it solves critical problems like information inconsistency and ubiquity in the online space with a few clicks. It makes it very easy for restaurant owners to regularly engage with their customers. Founded in 2014, the founding team comprises of Sanket Shah, M.S. from University of Michigan and a former Head of Growth at Right Relevance and Pankit Chheda, M.S. from Carnegie Mellon, who was formerly the Head of Mobile at CouponDunia. Pankit Chheda, co-founder of Massblurb said, “Getting relevant angels from the hospitality industry brings a lot of strategic value and helps us in building a good product and having a good reach in the market.” Sanket Shah, co-founder of Massblurb said, “Funding is important considering the best thing about the start-up is growth and probably one most important thing that distinguish them as compared to other companies. Growth even gets better when your investors are ready to get their hands dirty and provide not just finances but also other resources. We are glad we have them.” Massblurb has recently forayed into 3 cities apart from Mumbai - Bangalore, Delhi and Pune. They plan to target another 4 cities in the month and a half. They have recently signed up with multi-city F&B chains like The Beer Cafe, Impresario Group, Chaayos, etc. "Massblurb is a differentiated business idea that has enormous potential. The model is grounded in analytics and it is this intelligence that has impressed us at AdvantEDGE. I truly believe that Massblurbhas an exciting future" said Abhimanyu Munjal, COO - Herofincorp & Deal Lead at Mumbai Angels " We believe that Massblurb will become a defacto for every restaurant that wants to have a meaningful social presence. The company has shown phenomenal traction within a short time and the promoters are young and enthusiastic. " said Prashant Choksey, Co-Founder of Mumbai Angels “As an avid investor in the food and beverage space and a restaurateur myself, I was struck with the unique value proposition of the MassBlurb offering. I truly believe they are out to make every restaurateur in the country get a better social profile, and offer unique deals to their customers.Pankit and Sanket are some of the most grounded people I know, and they have really worked hard to buildMassBlurb into something we at Mumbai Angels are already proud of.” quoted Keshav Baljee, CEO - ZiP Rooms & Deal Lead at Mumbai Angels "In the offline world, one happy customer will tell 3 others about his experience and an un-happy one will complain to 8-10 other customers. On the internet, these numbers get amplified a thousand X and can make or break a small business like a restaurant. Sanket and Pankit started Massblurb with the vision of providing a single dashboard to restaurants to manage their online and social presence wherever their customers may be talking about them. Launched as a SaaS service, Massblurb is rapidly becoming an essential tool-kit for its restaurant customers who are signing up for its service in droves. " quoted Vikram Chachra of LetsVenture. Mumbai Angels is one of India’s largest angel networks with 200+ members and operating in 3 active chapters; Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. They have completed over 79 investments in the start-up ecosystem spanning across multiple sectors focusing primarily on seed and early stage companies.

Babychakra raises fund from Mumbai Angels and others

BabyChakra,(www.babychakra.com ) , the premier portal for young parents, has raised a round of funding (amount undisclosed), led by Mumbai Angels, Patni Family Office & Singapore Angel Network. - This round of funding will be used to accelerate traction, hire top industry professionals and launch        Babychakra's android mobile app. This is Mumbai Angels' 77th start-up investment. June 16th 2015, Founded in 2014, BabyChakra aims to disrupt the ways young parents in India discover & select local services such as child specialists, playschools, day-cares, prenatal classes, play areas etc. It helps parents make informed choices on local services through their proprietary MomStar program, verification and social integration. The founding team comprises of Naiyya Saggi (Harvard Business School and a former McKinsey consultant), Mitesh Karia (FMS Delhi, formerly with HSBC) & Mohit Kumar (IIT-Delhi, DzignUp co-founder). In the last year, they have scaled to 3 cities in India: Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi and have helped more than 2.5 lakh Indian parents connect to over 5500 quality local services. The Company has been recognized as one of the hottest Indian start-ups at multiple platforms, including Wharton India Economic Forum, Google Launchpad, Business World Young Entrepreneur Awards & The Exhibit Awards. The funding round is led by Mumbai Angels and participating investors include The Patni Family Office, Satveer Singh Thakral from the Singapore Angel Network, Karan Maheshwari, Jatin Aneja, Kishor Ganji, Roopa Nath among others. Naiyya Saggi, co-founder and CEO of BabyChakra said, "The funds raised through this round will be used primarily to hire top industry professionals for key roles and accelerate traction in our current markets. Our vision is to be the platform of choice to help Indian parents make better everyday decisions for themselves and their children. It’s great to have the backing of an incredible group of investors who believe in us and our ability to disrupt at scale". “We backed the team at BabyChakra for 2 reasons. Firstly, BabyChakra is a truly innovative product that solves a real need for young parents today: making better, more informed care decisions for their families. Secondly, the team has, in a short span of time, executed fast, shown strong traction & loyalty in users and is set to scale rapidly. We are excited to join BabyChakra on their journey to being a game-changing made-in-India venture", said Karan Maheshwari, Deal Lead for Mumbai Angels. "We are happy to be a part of the exciting business that BabyChakra is building. At Mumbai Angels we pride ourselves in identifying and partnering fantastic start-ups with the promise and ability to become the next big “Made-in-India” success stories " Said Prashant Choksey, Co-founder, Mumbai Angels. Mumbai Angels is one of India’s largest angel networks with 200+ members across 3 active chapters; Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Their portfolio comprises 77 ventures across multiple sectors focused primarily on seed and early stage companies. Media contact For Mumbai Angels                                                                                             For Babychakra Yash Ghatalia                                                                                                       Naiyya Saggi yash@mumbaiangels.com                                                                                naiyya@babychakra.com 07506711246                                                                                                       09769844098