Excellence in Entrepreunership

• Moderator

• Ujj Nath (myKaarma.com) • Panelists

• Vikash Agrawal (Etransmedia Technology) • Dr. Vaikunth Nath Gupta (The Panum Group) • Dr. Pradeep Haldar (State University of New

York) • Dr. Sanyasi Raju Kalidindi (Natreon, Inc.) • Mohan Krishnan (Encell)

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Ujj Nath

The Entrepreneurship Panel

September 21, 2013

INDIA - 1985 SOLD BUSINESS

to fellow ITBHU Engineer

USA – 1992 AUTOMOTIVE

SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS COMPANY

INDIA – 1979 SPARE PART MFG.

Earthmoving Equipment

2004 SOLD TO SNAP-ON

TOOLS

2008 STARTED KAARYA

SAAS MODEL FOR NEW CAR DISTRIBUTION

2011 INTRODUCED

MYKAARMA.COM SOFTWARE FOR AUTO

SERVICE

SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR

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First company right after graduating IIT- BHU

WHAT ARE MY GUIDING PRINCIPLES

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WORK really hard

Hire the SMARTEST TEAM players

Enjoy WINNING

Teach everyone to LISTEN

Allow for SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP

SUCCESSION PLANNING is a continuous job

PRINCIPLES

You have to teach your principles. Compliant behavior is not learned by watching

WHAT ARE OUR DEFINING BEHAVIORS

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The customer is the most important part of our business and putting yourself in THE “SHOES” OF THE CUSTOMER is our job and not an afterthought?

We all support the customer and hence if a customer calls, YOU TAKE THEIR CALL and excuse yourself from your current task as politely as possible.

BUREAUCRACY for bureaucracy’s sake is not tolerated.

We are a TEAM .. others depend on you. When you have a priority , you stay with it till it is done

Intelligence is not a replacement for TEAMWORK. You need both!

CULTURE

The culture of your company is like a co-founder. He is there when you leave the room

Kaarma is out to change the Car Service Experience Banks: Paperless records, online banking, no waiting in line.

“picture deposits”

Car Rental: Online reservations, “Choose any car”, car return – drive up and walk away

Car Service: LITTLE CHANGE!! WHY??

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CASHIER

Wow that was easy!

Ujjism’s

• Watch the cash • Experts are overrated • Never follow the trends.. They lead nowhere • Never run your business for a sale • Your customer is your best “salesperson” • Trust your instinct.. And watch the fundamentals. Don’t be

afraid to scratch the surface because you are afraid of what you will find.

• Earn your customer’s business every month • Fire yourself from time to time.. • Loyalty to the company logo is overrated • Help people fire themselves, teach them job insecurity • You may get a boss any day. He may be someone that

worked for you.... 7

Ujjism’s

• Never second guess your fellow employee in the field. • Make sure that you hire employees that are smarter than you • You never know what you can get away with .. Unless you try • If you want to solve a problem.. Turn the problem around and

look at it from the eyes of the customer. You will be amazed at what you find

• You cannot solve a customers problem sitting in your conference room

• Never solve the problem stated. Use the “5 Why’s” to get to the root cause http://goo.gl/9nSb7

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Genchi Genbutsu – Go to the place and see for yourself http://goo.gl/5jX5b

Leadership

"Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible"

- Colin Powell

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Recommended Reading

• https://medium.com/p/72c6f8bec7df

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Steve Blank – Serial entrepreneur Professor at Stanford, Colombia, Berkeley Founder of E.piphany

Recommended Reading

• https://medium.com/p/72c6f8bec7df

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For more Ujjisms follow me on twitter: @ujjnath if you need the presentation send me a message on twitter

Pradeep Haldar CNSE Vice President

Professor, Head

WWW.SUNYCNSE.COM

The best business is a post office box to which people send cashier’s checks.

WWW.SUNYCNSE.COM

Where to Look for Opportunities ?

Opportunities for profitable enterprises are usually found (1) where things are changing and (2) under the radar of big, powerful companies.

New Knowledge and Technological Change Regulatory Change Social Turmoil and Civic Failure Changing Tastes The Quest for Convenient Solutions Under the Radar

WWW.SUNYCNSE.COM

Characteristics of an Opportunity

Entrepreneurial people are always generating ideas for potential businesses. But how can they sift through these ideas and recognize the few that represent true business opportunities?

• Creates significant value for customers • Offers significant profit potential to the

entrepreneur and investors • Represents a good fit with the

capabilities of the founder and the management team

• The opportunity for profits will persist over a reasonable length of time

• The opportunity is amenable to financing.

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The Opportunity of a lifetime or is it?

Who is the new venture’s customer? How does customer make decisions

about buying product/service? Is product/service a compelling

purchase for the customer? How will product/service be priced? How will venture reach all identified

customer segments? How much does it cost (in time and

resources) to acquire a customer? How much does it cost to produce and

deliver product/service? How much does it cost to support a

customer? How easy is it to retain a customer?

Questions About the Business Every Entrepreneur Should Answer

WWW.SUNYCNSE.COM

What is important?

The People - starting and running the venture, the outside parties providing key resources (e.g. lawyers, accountants, and suppliers)

The Opportunity - profile of the business - what it will sell, to whom, if it can grow and how fast, what its economics are, who and what stand in the way of success.

The Context. The big picture – the regulatory environment, interest rates, demographic trends, inflation, and the like – basically, factors that inevitably change but cannot be controlled by the entrepreneur.

Risk and Reward. An assessment of everything that can go wrong and right, and a discussion of how the entrepreneurial team can respond.

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Visualizing Risk and Reward

Good entrepreneurs discuss people, opportunity, and context as a moving target. Plans will likely change over time as a company evolves from start-up to ongoing

enterprise.

• What happens if one of the new venture’s leaders leaves?

• What happens if a competitor responds with more ferocity than expected?

• What happens if there is a revolution in Namibia, the source of a key raw material?

• What will management actually do?

WWW.SUNYCNSE.COM

The Innovation Pipeline at CNSE

iCLEAN Cleantech and nanotechnology

incubator Worked with 200+ energy, biotech,

and nanotechnology startup companies, which have raised over $200M in funding

Tech-VIP CNSE’s internal idea competition

for students and faculty Top teams are mentored through

iCLEAN

NYS Business Plan Competition Statewide collegiate pitch

competition for all startups Over 40 investors – VCs, angels,

sophisticated public investors Over $500k in cash prizes and $30k

in services annually New Innovation Symposium

Northeast regional pitch competition for cleantech startups

Over 50 investors and bankers – VCs, angels, institutional investors

Encell Technology, Inc. Company Structure and Capitalizing

on Idea

Mohan R. Krishnan, President and CEO

• Be solo founder or group of founders (Dell vs Google)

• Be self funded

• VC’s for funding

• Financial institutions for funding

• To family/ friends for funding

COMPANY STRUCTURE

Assuming you have a brilliant, salable idea, decide on the following: Are you going to

This should drive decision – plan for day of ‘Divorce,’ not

‘Honeymoon’

• C-Corporations

• S-Corporations

• LLC Corporations

DIFFERENT COMPANY STRUCTURES

Majority of startups/ small companies fall into 3 groups:

C-CORPORATION PROS/CONS

PROS CONS

VC Friendly

Multiple classes of stocks – common,

preferred, Class A, Class B

Large number of shareholders

Tax free benefits (travel, insurance, etc.)

Check your ‘ego’ at the door

More protracted paperwork – more

expensive to form

More tax liability – Double tax structure

S-CORPORATION PROS/CONS

PROS CONS

Fewer than 100 shareholders

Not VC friendly

Tax benefits – single tax structure

Easier to establish founder relationships

Fewer than 100 shareholders –

no foreign ownership

Formal structure, compliance of C-Corp

Board of directors

Not VC friendly

Pre-determined I/L distribution

LLC PROS/CONS

PROS CONS

Solo entrepreneur

More VC friendly

Informal structure – flexible I/L distribution

Multiple classes of stocks

Large number of shareholders

Partnership structure, carried interest taxes

IRS recognizes as ‘State’ creature

Not preferred by all VC’s

Pass-through losses to personal income - (VCs no like)

Individuals liable for all taxes owed on profits

CAPITALIZING ON YOUR IDEAS

Best Ideas Common Theme • Something you want • Something you can build • Something all others think is TOTALLY

useless • Something you have expertise and passion

Now, Then, What? • Develop that into viable prototype, product

ASAP • Highlight/develop story of what it does &

why – e.g. Solves World Hunger

• Why should anyone put money into it? • Keep it simple – simple ideas produce

maximum returns

Cleverly adapted ideas reduce risk of failure

FINAL THOUGHTS

Follow your intuition and dream – by far the most exciting thing you will ever experience

Have conviction in yourself – if you don’t, no one else will! If VC funds required, pretend you’re married. You shall have

• No ego • No brains • No control (Limited at Best)

Structure agreements smartly, remember VCs have only 2 functions: • Give money • Manage dilution

Dr. Vaikunth Nath Gupta:Financing 101 Every business needs capital and most businesses are under - capitalized Cheapest money is your own Get the investors’ money when

you can – it lends credibility to your venture

However, successfully raising venture capital doesn’t guarantee success Venture capital funds already

assume that 17 of their investments will fail, 2 will break even and one will give them the massive returns they seek

Investors seek winners. Are you one of them? But if you are not successful in one venture, try again!

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Color of Money Your own assets Those of your immediate and

extended family and friends Bank Loans – if risk scares you,

you would do well in the corporate world. We may think there are no risks in working for a large corporation. Are there? We take just as many risks when we run others’ businesses as our own!

Professional money The best money is where you

receive strategic advantages for growing the business

No matter what the color of money, it will always takes longer than we would like it to – so have a PLAN B!

Financing – Do’s

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Focus, focus and focus.. Identify the unique product or service Identify the largest market Assemble a team – the most important

person is not the idea person or the implementer of the idea – it is the sales person

Key to successful funding: 1st to the market with a competitive advantage e.g. a

patent, A large market A balanced team who has successfully executed on an

idea before - if you haven’t, find someone who has

Financing – Don’ts

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Don’t raise money simply because you believe someone else’s money is cheaper than your own – recall that VC’s write-off 17 of their investments before they even make them

Don’t hire people only because they are your friends – if you can’t fire them, don’t hire them. Surround yourself with people who can challenge you.

Don’t let yourself believe that you have a great idea just because you came up with one – substantiate/validate

Don’t think raise money is an easy exercise. It is a full-time job and you will constantly be raising money.

Vikash Agrawal, Executive Chairman Etransmedia Technology

Vikash Agrawal (IIT-BHU ‘95 Chemical Engineering) Masters in Biotechnology, Rensselaer

Polytechnic Institute (Albany, NY)

◦ Principal, Solution Sales, ARIBA (Pittsburgh, PA)

◦ Executive Chairman, Etransmedia Technology (Albany, NY)

◦ Materials Engineer, General Electric (Albany, NY)

◦ Product Manager, Symantec (Cupertino, CA)

MBA, Harvard Business School (Boston, MA)

2012 -2013 2007 -2013

• Provide Software/ Service to over 15,000 doctors in 42 states, 7 offices and 500 employees

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Get Started !

◦ Process of Trial and Error!

◦ Business Partner, Advisors

◦ Start-up Capital

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Create Systems and Processes - to ensure scale and sustainability

Team Building

Stay Cutting Edge – someone is always waiting to eat your lunch

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Dr. Sanyasi Raju Kalidinidi – M Pharm 75