The Startup Journey

We are delighted to announce a stellar list of speakers for APEX '08, the Indian Private Equity Summit, scheduled for January 31 at Mumbai . The Annual Summit brings together the cream of the Indian Private Equity/Venture Capital-Entrepreneur Ecosystem to introspect, brainstorm on the way forward and reward its best. Confirmed Speakers at the Summit include: Leading PE/VC-backed Entrepreneurs NIKHIL GANDHI, SKIL Infrastructure KRISHNAKUMAR NATARAJAN, MindTree ROHAN AJILA, Indiamarkets.com/Capvent GOPALA KRISHNAN, mobile2win Other Entrepreneur Speakers: Goutham Reddy, Ramky Group Jairaj Kumar, Ocean Sparkle Leading Venture Capitalists SUDHIR SETHI, IDG Ventures India VANI KOLA, NEA-IndoUS Venture SUMIR CHADHA, Sequoia Capital India SARATH NARU, Ventureast Leading Private Equity inves...

The founder was agitated. He had just read in the papers that some VCs had funded a company that appeared to compete head-on with his company. Some of his partners had also recently told him that other companies had contacted them with a better value proposition than what he had offered. And they were therefore re-thinking their position. A couple of his employees had also left to join a competing firm. It seemed that the whole market was, all of a sudden, conspiring against him! After all, he was the first company in the market (and the only company, as far as he knew). What was going on? What was going on is all too common in the world of startups. Founders usually believe that their companies are unique. In fact, so unique that they believe there’s no competition of any kind whatsoever. Which is why VCs get to see pitches where the entrepreneur has positioned only his company in the top right quadrant of the familiar 2by2 market positioning landscape! Two of the most important thing...

The young founders of the young company looked happy. They had just finished a long meeting with a top class candidate for CEO of one of their soon-to-be-launched businesses. They had decided to bring on board seasoned professionals to help them achieve their long term goal of building a nationally admired and respected company. The CEO candidate too felt energized after the meeting with the founders and was excited by the passion and drive exhibited by the founders. He was impressed by their open style, frank assessments of themselves, their understanding of the market landscape and by their willingness to share financially. Yet, he was a little uneasy. He called up the next day and wanted to meet the founders. He was concerned about “governance”. The founders were taken aback – what was this guy talking about?! They were taken aback only because of their lack of awareness about the intangible issue called governance. Sure, they had heard about it but hadn’t really worried about it en...