When Ancient meets Modern...

Baba Ramdev's Patanjali products have taken the consumer goods world by a storm over the past 24 months. While the herbal and ayurvedic brand has been around for a long time, Baba Ramdev gained massive popularity while joining protest meets held by Anna Hazare over corruption issues. He later dilly-dallied with Aam Aadmi Party and later found support from none other than the BJP which went on to form the Government at the Centre in 2014. Ever since, Baba Ramdev has been among the most searched figures in the internet, not to mention his Yoga classes and ayurvedic products. He has been, by the way imparting yoga techniques for decades and his programmes on yoga are a super hit on hindu spiritual channels in India such as Aastha Tv.

Patanjali, is a name which also belongs to the founder of Yoga and hence the correlation with consumer goods brand. At the moment, Patanjali has over 400 items across Grocery, Personal Care including skin care, dental care, herbal products, washing powder, soaps and detergents, pure Cow's Ghee, Honey and many more. These products are manufactured at a state of the art factory in Himachal Pradesh, located in the North of India with access to the Himalayas. The Brand has had its share of controversies with Baba Ramdev himself being the centre of attraction (or distraction) in various events. A section of Imams of the Muslim Community asked followers of Islam not to use these products since some of them included Cow's urine, which is considered in Hinduism as a disinfectant. It is another matter completely that there are hundreds of muslims who work at the Patanjali's massive factory spread over hundreds of acres in Himachal. With the fall-out of Maggi Noodles (a Nestle product), Patanjali wowed people with their Atta Noodles, considered a healthier option and launched them in Jan. 2016 ever since it's been a super hit. 

Patanjali has been giving tough competition to national and international brands such as Colgate, Nestle, P&G and many others. On the Sales & Distribution front, they follow a similar model such as the good old days of FMCG. The products are sent from the factory to a Super stockist in each Metro who in turn passes it on to Distributors who then pass on to Retail Stores. The entire Supply Chain seems to be working quite flawlessly at the moment. The demand-supply ratio is currently pegged at 1:4 as per market estimates, i.e., there is one unit available for every four people who are looking forward to buy it. This is massive. In Indian history of consumer products, Bajaj Motors has the notoriety for having made people to book a scooter and wait for several years for delivery. Patanjali is in the same vein. People of all ages and segments of the society have been embracing them.

Patanjali recently tied up with the largest retailer in the country, The Future Group and the products have been available on the shelves of Food Bazaar which is the Hypermarket chain of the company as well as in other smaller retail formats such as Nilgiris, KB's Fair Price, to name a few. This approach of taking ancient medicine to modern retail has been an interesting move by the brand which now rubs shoulders with other well established brands such as Surf, Lakme, ITC, Nestle, etc. It is imminent that no brand, irrespective of their origin or utility cannot neglect Organized Retail which was less than 5% of the market a decade back and is now at over 10% of the USD 600 billion market and growing at 20% CAGR. Patanjali is sure to make a dent in the market share of the biggies and news articles have appeared in international magazines that MNCs are already fretting over this issue.

The brand's popularity is largely due to the power of Ayurveda, the way it has been positioned in the minds of the consumers and the Brand Ambassador which is Baba Ramdev himself, who is seen and aspired as one of the fittest Indians. It wouldn't be surprising of the brand attracts significant Private Equity and grows in scale in times to come. Watch this space.

TieCon Chennai 2015 - Highlights

It's been a year since I turned an Entrepreneur. Ever since, I have been a member of TiE - The Indus Entrepreneurs, Chennai which is a group of current and future Entrepreneurs. The syndicate is professionally managed by a team of able people and has successful Entrepreneurs as Members, Charter Members and various other roles. TiE conducts atleast 3-4 events every month which is open to all members and non-members can join by paying a small fee. In the one year that I've been a member, I have benifited immensely by getting to know some very interesting and knowledgable people, some who have even turned out to be my business beneficiaries. TieCon is an annual event held by the Syndicate which aims to bring together Entrepreneurs of various walks of life. The current year's edition was held on Saturday, 31st Oct. 2015 which was preceded by an Awards Night were a few Entrepreneurs were recognised and honored for their contribution to the ecosystem. The event was held at The Grand Chola, one of the marquee locations in Chennai and is probably one of the biggest of its kind in the country.

The day started from 8am onwards, with bring entry of participants and a quick introduction and networking. The official proceedings commenced with a Drum show (yeah, Jus Drums! was the name of the team that performed) which woke not just the senses but also set a great day in motion. There were addresses by the Distinguished charter Member, Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice chairman of Cognizant Technologies, which is among the top 5 IT services companies of India,  Current President of TiE Chennai, Mr. Naru Narayanan and Event Chair, Ms. Padma Chandrasekaran. The day started  with a session by Mr. Mahesh Murthy, an angel Investor who has more than 50 companies in his portfolio which was followed with a key note address by Mr. Ronnie Screwala, Founder and CEO of UTv Pictures, a first generation Entrepreneur who was also the first in the country to operate a private Cable Tv Network way back in the 90s. He spoke about his journey, the struggles, the good ones and the not so good ones and the various aspects and facets of Entrepreneurship. 

Mr. Girish Mathrubootham, Founder of Chennai based Freshdesk, a SaaS company that provides tools for customer Service and Support to more than 50,000 clients all over the world was awared Big Billion Baby which included a fireside chat with the man himself, ably conducted by Mr. Chandu Nair, another serial entrepreneur and charter member of Tie Chennai. Girish spoke about his inspiring journey, hailing from erstwhile small town Trichy, having worked with some of the largest companies earlier which provided the same service, his first fund raise, the ups and downs and finally about the recent $50 million funding received by the company. An extremely humble and down to earth guy, he spoke about how Entrepreneurs have to sacrifice quite a bit of their family life and family time. Incidentally, the day marked his Wedding Anniversary too.

After this session, there was various Masterclasses, Mentoring sessions, Luncheon meetings and so on which was well attended enthusiastically by budding Entrepreneurs. 

I couldn't attend any of these sessions, for my latest and upcoming Hyperlocal Ecommerce Venture Oyethere.com was among the Top 20 Finalists for the Pitchfest which is a highlight of Tiecon. We were selected among 100s of applications that were submitted over the past few months and it was an honour and privilege to meet potential Investors and to have a one on one discussion with them. I had the opportunity to pitch to 8 Investors, and the feedback for the venture from each one of them was overwhelming. The Investors acknowledged the hotness of this category and wished me luck for the future. Some of them have said that we could meet in the coming days to discuss further. Will know the course of action and next steps in the coming days. 

After the Pitchfest was over, I joined back the main session which had an interesting standup Comedy session by Arvind Subramaniam of the popular theatre group Evam. The valedictory session was led by Mr. Raju Venkatraman, Serial Entrepreneur and Founder of Medall, a Chennai based Healthcare Company. The final session of the day was on Leadership Lessons from Actor Rajnikanth, presented by Mr. Mohanram, Theatre personality, Actor, Trainer and Entrepreneur. 

The day ended at 6pm with a lot of learning to more than 1,500 people who had gathered for the event. I, for one was double delighted with the recognition that my venture was given as well as meeting and hearing snippets from Entrepreneur stalwarts. 

The Seven Tenets of a Start-Up Entrepreneur

I wrote a column 10 days ago about my completion of one year of Entrepreneurship. It received unprecedented reach from my professional world. Over 2,500 people had viewed it, over 750 “Likes” and more than 75 people took time to comment on the article. A few requested me to keep writing and share more about Entrepreneurship and I am hence writing this as a follow-up article.

I would like to highlight the seven tenets of Entrepreneurship, as I have seen it in the past few years myself as well as from the experiences of those around me. Of course, there could be more but then these would summarise and may include other points as well within them.

All ideas are not monetisable

Most often, as to-be Entrepreneurs or existing Entrepreneurs, we try to build a case on an issue which we think could solve a problem. In some cases, it would solve even an unknown problem that the customer never knew (Read: Apple/Steve Jobs/iDevices). But before you build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or a Prototype, do check if the product you are building would be profitable (at some stage), scaleable (across geographeis, for example) and saleable (potential buyer for the business and not just customers). If these three points have a green tick, then you are good to 

Funding an Idea vs. a Person

Most often, one would hear that the Investor is not funding just the idea but the person as well. This is quite true. Most investors look at how the Founder/Promoter approaches the idea or concept and in general, their view of life. Only a few founders who go to build massive companies focus on the larger essence of life which excludes monetary and material pleasures. It doesn’t mean that the Founder takes a Public Transport to work or operates in a dingy pigeon-hole work environment. It means how frugal they are in their thought process about spending every penny that has been invested into the venture by Investors.

Looking for an Angel Friend

Most Entrepreneurs, mostly first gen like me, do not come with the backing of a family office or hereditary wealth. They save up a bit and start off at some point in their life mostly depending on someone else to fund their ideas. While friends and family would encourage them to move ahead, you would also see them exercising caution, not to be myopic in their view of business and life. Those who talk big stuff, usually end up doing nothing for the Founders. Some avoid emails and calls, let alone introductions to potential Investors. But that’s just fine. Don’t mix up Funding and Friendship.

Age No Bar

There is no age for starting up. If you think you are willing to give up your lifestyle (that doesn’t mean a compromise though) and work a bit harder than you are working for someone else ((I mean like, really hard), then give it a shot. Fix a timeline by when you will return back (unfortunately or otherwise) to a day job if things don’t go your way. There is no fixed time for this. It could be a year to five at the max. In five years if you haven’t got it right, with just one idea or probably a handful, then I guess it is time to move on.

Money, Money, Money

Save quite a bit before you start-up. Things could go horribly wrong with your idea, product or service. You may need money to demonstrate, scale-up and prove that what you have founded works. In the meanwhile, you could have other compulsions – family, health issues, insurance, vehicle repairs, etc. It is wise to keep aside your minimum monthly requirements for atleast 36 months before you start your venture to be on the safer side. That is if you are willing to sail that path for so long.

Reboot – Plan B

If one idea doesn’t work over a period of time (as an Entrepreneur, you would know what’s best), then have Plan B, C, D and so on. Never get stuck with just one idea that you believe could change the world dramatically. Have alternate ideas and plans. Remember, it is you who has to click as an Entrepreneur and not just the idea. It’s a two-pronged approach and you need to keep this in mind. Always.

Never Give Up

You will hear advises from all over the world around you. Believe me, talk is cheap and free. At the maximum, data charges for emails and messages and perhaps call charges. The Advisor loses nothing to preach. However, they could be people like you who have started up and failed and their wisdom is speaking. They could also be those who started up and succeeded but probably know the difficulties. If you keep the above six points in mind, then go ahead with what you believe in. Never Give Up. But do remember, all ideas do not work for various reasons. So have the grace to accept and move on.

Hope the above points have helped you as a budding Entrepreneur or if you are already one. Cheers.