HSX Event 2019
Tarun Dua - E2E Network
1 - Total Addressable Market is the most important thing.
Do research etc. to find the total addressable market. A reference number, amount, companies are needed.
There may be limited validation for this but always helpful while pitching to Investors.
2 - After TAM - Product market fit is more important. Definition of Product market fit means minimum 6 paying customers. This is also needed while pitching to investors.
3 - Define a North Star metric. This should have a correlation with Revenue. Also known as one metric that matters (OMTM).
Get the right conversation if not the right Customer wheh you speak.
Appointy Bhopal - HR Company - - Success of process can only be gauged by how happy people are by following the process.
Dehlivery Co-founder - Flipkart Arm
5 Co- founders . Each has a unique skill set. Examples are HR, Tech, Finance, Operations, etc. Each one handles one department. So no overlap of skills and responsibilities are clear.
Company Not Sure
Some of the founders had 2 previous start ups. This resonates with VCs somewhat.
To start with the business first started with Food delivery. However later thought it was un-productive for teams as they have work only during Lunch and Dinner hours. So extended business to e-commerce delivery.
Collected lot of data for operational optimisation. Was not aware what to do with that data. Currently investing in automation which will help the business scale in next 3-5 years- not immediately.
Business model evolved every 3 to 6 months. Not sure. However, did not wait and stop. At some point of time, there were 3 business models in progress in parallel.
Your idea should be good and you should be relentless. Believe in the space you are in. It is better to be in a good space/ vertical with lot of opportunities than less. Example - Students who try in IT make more money than same talent, experience, etc. than other verticals.
If there are no seniors in your company as a Founder, it is not a good sign. It is assumed that you can not sell to them, how you will sell to Customers.
Space the start up is in has to be good. In good space with good team, hustle, and support chances of survival exists.
Thick Shake Factory
Yeshwant - Co Founder - Created a new category- thick shakes. Product Quality, Shelf life, and Brand value are most important.
Founder owns an ice cream factory. So wants to maintain quality while scaling the business.
There are total of 130 shakes on the Menu. However actual revenue comes from only 7 shakes. The shakes are expensive as well.
Almond House HYD
Co-Founder- Paneer - Luxury/ Premium Sweet shop. Introduced Gol gappa / mani puri worked well. Understood the customer well. As the shop is premium lot of aged people with kids come and mani puri attracts all.
Created another campaign naming Byte pleasures. Now gives sweets in really small measures.
Major business comes from gifts which people/ corporations gives. Created another campaign like Responsible indulgence. This tickled the health issue like - do not drink and drive.
Also, sweets in all part of the country are not same. So handling larger amount of items on the menu is very hard.
Because of shelf life and quality concerns, he has not scaled the business to other cities/ countries.
Mohan Ram - Growth - Digital Ocean
Digital ocean is a developer centric platform. They created content that developers will get attracted to. This gave them lot of developer leads.
For Content, quality is very important and not the quantity.
Their major hack was viral loop/ double viral loop where one developer got the 25$ credit and referred another developer.
They targeted developers in blog; gave them credit which gave new developers and that was the viral loop.