April 2015 Issue 1

The Editorial Team

•

Priyanka Palshetkar

•

Siddharth Hemrajani

•

Ishita Daga

•

Shantanu Manke

•

Lavesh Hemrajani

The Design Team

•

Akash Shah

•

Sanchi Munghate

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Vision:

Producing successful entrepreneurs imbibed with leadership qualities using innovative and ethical business practices to make global impact

Mission:

Instill the passion and spirit among students to pursue entrepreneurship

Our Goals:

Short Term:-

•

To provide a platform for interaction with entrepreneurs

•

Impart entrepreneurial education/skills amongst students through various trainings and exercise

•

Arrange vibrant interactions with organizations promoting the cause of entrepreneurship

Long Term:-

•

Motivate students to develop their own startups

•

Set up a Technological Business Incubator

•

Create corpus fund to seed ventures 1

The Veteran’s Speak:

As result of economic reforms initiated in 1990 a new era of Liberalization, Globalization & Privatization popularly referred as “LPG” has radically transformed our economy over the past 25 years and put it over fast track. In order to ensure that we gear up for a quantum leap and strengthen the “Make in India” vision of our Respected Prime Minister into reality, a major thrust now needs to be on having new startups in form of Entrepreneurial ventures across the manufacturing and service sector.

I congratulate the editorial board of EDC for their success in bringing out the first volume of “Entracore” a magazine dedicated to foster entrepreneurial instincts amongst students. On behalf of the BRAC Trust, I wholeheartedly wish the students a successful entrepreneurial career.

Shri. Bharatji Agarwal Managing Trustee, BRACT

We at Vishwakarma Institute of Technology are committed to share our part through various activities that we have initiated through “Entrepreneurship Development Centre”. “Entracore” is one of several initiatives undertaken by our EDC team since the inception of EDC in September, 2013. I am sure this magazine will provide a good platform for sharing views, ideas, and experiences by a variety of stakeholders in and outside the institute.

I am indeed glad to witness the growth in various activities conducted by EDC team of Vishwakarma Institute of Technology in the past 1.5 years. I am confident that we will scale new heights in the domain of Entrepreneurship in the coming years.

Prof. Dr. R. M. Jalnekar

2

The Veteran’s Speak:

It gives me immense pleasure and pride to be a part of the Entrepreneurship Initiative started at our Institute in the form of Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC) in September, 2013. All student members under the guidance of our Hon. Director Dr. R.M. Jalnekar Sir, Prof. H.M. Khare and Prof. M.M. Kulkarni have so far taken exceptional efforts in organizing various events in the form of Awareness Programs, Inspirational Talks, Interviews with Successful Entrepreneurs, etc. As emphasized by our Hon. Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi in his first speech on eve of Independence Day, "our country can prosper by eradicating poverty and unemployment only if we promote the spirit of entrepreneurship and generate new ventures thereby creating new jobs". We at VI are committed to contribute to this national goal and are geared up to further accelerate our efforts in the coming year. I sincerely appreciate the achievements of the EDC in first year of its start and take a quantum leap in the coming year.

Prof. Rajesh Dhake Staff Member Secretary, V-EDC

Entrepreneurship in diverse national forms is the need of the day, especially in engineering institutes realizing that companies cannot meet the challenges of channelizing the energy of the youth effectively. Our youth must rise above the traditional notion of being placed in a company. They must become self-employed. India must become a hub of entrepreneurship if it has to overcome unemployment and be an economically powerful country. The students of VIT, especially those at the Post-Graduate Level, have shown great initiatives and I am sure there are several Under-Graduate students waiting to be entrepreneurs and the billionaires of tomorrow!

Prof. Kalyan Sundaram

3

CONTENTS

5 6 From The Editor’s Desk The Bitten Apple Mystery 8 What’s the Big ‘Deal’?

10 India ‘MODI’-fied!

12 14 16 The Amul Story The Entrepreneurial Apprentices The VC speaks 18 ‘Biness’ lessons from Band Baaja Baarat 19 The Macro Tale of Micromax 25 30 32 33 20 22 Socio-preneur: Avanti Fellows Pajama se pyaar, aa bech de yaar!

24 A man of Great Taste- Kalyan Bhel V-EDC ‘s Inaugural year Can you name the Entrepreneur?

Witty-preneur!

V-EDC’s cloud

From the Editor’s desk

:

E ntrepreneurship is glorified in our society today. An entrepreneur is like the new big guy in B-Town! In this issue of

Entracore

, we try to explore the nitty-gritty’s of Entrepreneurship, business and its related aspects.

By launching the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, our Prime Minister, Mr.

Narendra Modi has taken a massive step towards making India an enterprising nation.

‘India Modi-fied’ chronicles the journey of this Entrepreneur in disguise!

19 billion is all that we know about the most important Mergers and Acquisitions of the last two decades- the Whatsapp-Facebook deal. In our mergers and acquisition section, we present to you the complete story of the Koum-Zuckerberg deal.

Apple is the brain-child of the most inquisitive mind on earth- Mr. Steve Jobs.

But what made the genius to opt for something as simple as a bitten apple to be the symbol of the company of dreams? Find out in ‘The Mystery of the Bitten Apple’.

Idea is the first step towards starting a venture. One such striking idea has been the highlight of the lives of four Instrumentation guys of VIT. We talk to Harsh, Mithilesh and Rohit, the brains behind ‘The Health India Project.’ Who can forget the awesome duo of Bittoo Sharma and Shruti Kakkad from ‘Band Baaja Baarat’? We provide you the insights into the do’s and don’ts while setting a start-up in our exclusive article ‘Biness lessons from Band Baaja Baarat’. In addition to that we exclusively provide you insights into the journey of ‘Pajama deals’, a start up initiative taken by a VIT Alumni from Production Engineering.

The venture capitalist, popularly known as the VC is the god you should please to acquire all the funding you require for your start-ups. Peep inside the mind of the VC in ‘The VC Speaks’.

An entrepreneur’s mind is a puzzle worth solving! Ramesh Kondhre, the owner of Kalyan Bhel helps us solve this puzzle and throws light on the journey of his enterprise ‘Kalyan Bhel’.

With such articles, V-EDC brings to you the first issue of its magazine ‘

ENTRACORE

’. Hope you enjoy reading it!

The Editorial Team.

5

6

- Priyanka Palshetkar

7

The Whatsapp Facebook

deal has been highlight the amongst all the mergers and acquisitions happened in the last financial year.

But this was not a decision taken out of the blue. It was a deal that took two years in making.Talking

the about the company background, Whatsapp founded by was Jan Koum and Brian Acton in with the idea 2009, that smart-phone users should be able to text easily without incurring fees phone carriers.

from

In 2011, Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm, invested $8 million in WhatsApp which held worth more than 15 per cent provided stake but Whatsapp the kind of financial investment it required

.

And after that Whatsapp has had it all with its 450 million active users and another 1 million users being everyday!

added The story of the deal however, began in the spring of 2012 when CEO, Facebook Mark Zuckerberg met Jan Koum, the CEO of Whatsapp in a German Bakery in Los Altos over coffee.

Their talk that day was primarily about how they could together closely Zuckerberg’s work more on Internet.org

initiative meant for connecting world on the mobile devices.

However, within the next two hours, the seeds of a new friendship were sown which ultimately led to the magnanimous $19 billion deal this year.

But this is not everything about it.

It was a difficult task for Zuckerberg to woo Koum into signing the deal.

8

+ = Zuckerberg knew where he wanted Whatsapp.

He to see wanted Whatsapp to compete with the tech giants in town like Google, You Tube and Facebook itself.

He knew Whatsapp had the capability to reach 1 billion users in the blink of an eye. In order to bring this dream to realization, he went on hikes and dinners to build a strong bond with Koum but that was not enough.

Koum was a difficult person to convince. So there were many more hikes and dinners. Finally, on February 9, 2014 he invited Koum for dinner at his house, proposed the merger to him and said ,

“

Let's connect the world together.”

He also offered Koum a partnership and a position on Facebook’s Board of Directors .

Even then, Koum did not plunge into the deal that night. He took a couple of days to think over it.

Then, on

Valentine’s Day

, Koum went over to Zuckerberg’s place.

Interrupting Zuckerberg’s romantic dinner with his wife, Koum agreed to sign the merger with Zuckerberg and both of them consummated the deal over chocolate strawberries.

Talking about the details of this deal, the accord includes $12 billion in stock, $4 cash billion and billion restricted in $3 in shares. It is the biggest Internet deal since Time Warner’s $124 billion merger with AOL in 2001.

Well, it is rightly said –

A lot can happen over a Palshetkar

?

9

India ‘

MODI

’-FIED

-Priyanka Palshetkar NOT technically an Entrepreneur,

but the traits displayed by our dear Prime Minister certainly help him to top the list of India’s Biggest Entrepreneurs this year! This 63 year old man has been the sole face of BJP and has taken the lead to change the history of Indian Politics. And that’s the very reason he is being talked about as the Indian entrepreneur!

The journey of Narendra Modi to the top has had its own share of bouquets and brickbats. On one side, he is a man who is worshipped by his supporters while on the other, he has his own panel of critics. Even his claim of having sold tea at a railway station and being born in a backward ‘Modh Ghanchi’ community are vexed questions amongst his critics who are ever ready to take him down.

Talking about his political journey, NaMo has been an RSS Pracharak before he joined BJP in 1985. He worked as a party office bearer and key strategist and was later crowned as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, replacing Keshubhai Patel in 2001. And during his tenure since , he has been surrounded by a lot of controversies including the 2002 riots triggered after 59 ‘Kar Sewaks’ were killed in a fire in a compartment in Sabarmati Express train incident on February 27, 2002.

“

Criticism comes your way but you need to be confident of what you are doing.

”

10

“

You might have done horrible mistakes in the past but that you should be clever enough to not let that affect your business in any way .

” ‘I believe God has chosen me’. And God has not let this master strategist down as he has succeeded in reaching the pinnacle of power. Piping down popular candidates like Lalkrishna Advani for being BJP’s Prime Ministerial Candidate has been quite a task for NaMo but he has been successful in his endeavors. In his 12 year tenure as Gujarat’s Chief Minister he has been clever enough to craft an image of a man with an alternate vision for India.

“

You should have the skill to stand out no matter how tough your opponent is within and outside your company.

”

In the state popularly known as ‘The Hindutva Laboratory’, this man has scored a hat trick for his party in the Assembly polls even after having the image of a hardliner. But owing to reach out to the masses in the long run, he has cast out his hardliner image and has focused on the uplifting of the minorities, especially the Muslims. Not only has it helped him win hearts of the minorities but also led to a sudden hype in the number of his supporters.

“

Accepting your faults and correcting them for your venture’s benefit is the move of a great businessman.

” Who 's unfamiliar with the ‘ Abki Baar Modi Sarkar’ campaign started by this man? His ‘ Ab Janta Maaf Nahi Karegi’ trolls flooded the social networking sites and helped him reach the youth from all the nooks and corners of India with the click of a button. He has been a trend setter with him being called as NaMo short for Narendra Modi! It won’t be wrong to call him the ‘Brand Ambassador’ of BJP, would it?

“

Social Media is the best way to sell your brand in this modern day of Technology.

”

It’s not wrong to call this man the Indian Magician.

Let’s hope our hope in NaMo despair!

is not met with

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INDIA’S WHITE KING

:

V-Kurien

Ishita Daga You walk into any of their offices and you definitely see this particular photograph. It shows a line of Gujarati women waiting patiently for a truck to come and collect the milk they have brought in shining brass matkas. The message is clear: Never forget your primary customer. If you enterprise!

don’t, success is certain. The proof? A unique, Rs. 2,200 crores ‘ Anand Milk Union Limited’ our country out of poverty.

or Amul is the ‘billion main organization behind Amul and is one of -litre ’ idea of Verghese Kurien popularly known as the father of White Revolution. From being a milk deficient country to the largest producer of milk in the world, Amul has alleviated Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. is the India’s largest food product marketing organizations.

Amul, which is based on a co-operative model, started in 1946 in the small town Anand of the state of Gujurat. The Kaira District Co operative Milk Producers Union Ltd, today better known as ‘ Amul Dairy’ the same.

started with only two village dairy cooperative societies and 247 liters of milk. Now GCMMF obtains an average of over 10 million liters daily and comprises 16,117 village milk cooperative societies.

In India, buffalo milk is the main raw material unlike Europe where cow milk is abundant. Hence, the key achievement at Amul has been the invention of milk powder from buffalo milk. This was the reason Amul could compete successfully with Nestle which only used cow milk to make Amul is not just a beautiful success story but its seeds lie in a movement to liberate farmers and milk producers from the then prevalent local trade cartel’s practices and exploitation by middlemen. This was way back in 1946, when the Indian independence movement was at its peak. Sardar Vallabhai Patel, who had a key role in Indian freedom movement, advised a group of farmers to start their own cooperative and keep processing and procurement under their own control. This marked as the beginning for Amul. This movement then followed a formal structure under Prime Minister Sh. Lal Bahadur Shastri. In 1965, the National Dairy Development Board was set up with the basic objective of replicating the Amul model. Dr.

Kurien was chosen to head the institution as its Chairman and asked to replicate this model throughout the country. It follows a three-tiered structure with dairy cooperatives first at village level, then district level and then finally at the state level. Amul provides good quality hope. To live.

products to the consumers and simultaneously ensuring adequate returns to the farmers. What makes Amul so special is that at every point, farmers were given their freedom. In a way, Amul is the representation of the economic freedom of farmers. It has given farmers the courage to dream. To 12

Amul’s ‘

Utterly

’ Adorable Girl: Advertising Craft LITTLE girls are not particularly popular in India going by the declining child sex ratio in the country. But one little girl continues to flourish 50 years after she was created by Adman Sylvester DaCunha with some inspiration from his wife, Nisha, and illustrated by Eustace Fernandes. She is the Amul girl who first appeared on a billboard in 1966 and continues to rule the billboards to this day with her pixie looks, her polka-dotted frock and her trademark ponytail. She is someone who sometimes gives you attitude, sometimes empathises with you, most times brings you up with the news and always makes you smile, even chuckle, since she never fails to deliver a line or two that is catchy, simple, and memorable.

And re-invent itself it has, driven by new concepts, new technologies and new ideas.

But through it all, the little Amul girl has endured with her "utterly butterly delicious" slogan, which still has a contemporary ring to it.

The success of the Amul advertisement is undoubtedly because of the skilful use of what is known as the lowest form of wit in India is a illustrations ‘pun – -dit extremely cute ones!

’, that every Amul ad has two lines lasted over the decades – – – that is the pun. Yet, everyone and his aunt and the use of the pun is what has given the advertising its instant approachability. The other trick is one concerning the event in question; the other repeating the catchphrase that has "utterly butterly delicious", or variations thereof. So when you are reading the advertisement you get two smart lines for the price of one. To add to the humour are the lovely and colourful and the book has some 13

THE ENTERPRENEURIAL APPRENTICES

What is Health India Project and how was it conceived?

Health India Project is a vision to establish a digital relationship between a doctor and a patient.

We’ve designed accordingly.

In quick medical aid.

an internet connected pill dispenser. The smart system synchronizes with the data updated online by the doctor and dispenses the pills a broader perspective, vending machines that dispense the pills can be installed on expressways and highways and also in hospitals, offices and homes to provide Well, talking about the conception of this project it all started when we were asked to choose a topic for our B. E. final project. After lot of deliberations we found that in India, the medical and engineering sectors are poorly connected. So, through this project we were keen to engineer a solution for the health management issues with the help of our technical skills and basic medical knowledge.

What is the USP of your project?

The USP, we believe is that with our project all the issues related to health management would be micromanaged and would save the time of the doctors as well as patients. The dispensers can come in handy for quick medical assistance as they are portable and easy to operate and have features like data storage so that the medical history and the health related parameters of the patient can be retrieved by the doctor as well as the patient, whenever required.

If you were to implement this project in the next five years, what are the teething troubles that you might face?

The problems that we might face initially would be creating awareness about this among the people. Another hurdle would be acceptance by the society as it is general human tendency to resist a change. But we believe these are the initial glitches which we can overcome kuch bikta hai!

with solid marketing strategies. After all, ye India hai aur yaha sab

Do you think, lately, there has been a paradigm shift in the society’s perception about entrepreneurship?

-Shantanu Manke

Ideas

technical another, software skills of the third and information about art and mart of the fourth has helped the ‘Fantastic Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Harsh, Rohit, Mithilesh and Ram to take baby through explore their knowledge steps Four’ revolutionizing the fields of medicine and technology ‘Health Project’. We delve into the details of the project and their of towards camaraderie as we try to decipher the theory behind their Big Bang. The three musketeers, Harsh, Rohit and Mithilesh talk about brain-child, one, of of India candid the Health India Project, its conception and germination and a lot more as we confront them with a blitzkrieg of questions, quintessential and quixotic .

Well, we won't call it a paradigm shift but gradually the perception of the society about entrepreneurship is changing. The business ecosystem was not so vibrant earlier but now entrepreneurship is the next big thing.

Why has India failed to produce tech giants like Apple, Facebook, and Twitter? It is because we are busy dreaming to work for them. This approach has to change. Though the start-up culture is in a nascent stage, people are now veering towards entrepreneurship. They are open to taking risks now 14

Irrespective of the setup, the working dynamics between colleagues play a major role. How was your experience working with each other?

It was truly enriching. Our fields of expertise were different, so we learnt a lot from each other. As all of us were equally passionate about the project, the synergy of the group was transcendental. We had never imagined that our project would metamorphose into an idea for a start-up.

I found that your project is a perfect amalgamation of technology and commerce. Do you plan to pitch this to the business bigwigs? What’s the further line of action?

Yes, you are right. The cornerstone of our project is to have a symbiotic relationship between technology and commerce.

What’s manufacture rural areas as well.

the use of this idea if we are unable to transform it into something huge? So we had to focus on the commercial aspect as well. We are therefore scheduling meetings with venture capitalists for the funding. With proper financial assistance, we would try to simpler, compact and user friendly machines. We also believe that with certain modifications, our project would have tremendous applications in the

Can success be attained if a person is driven by the desires for a financial payoff instead of passion for the venture?

A person driven by the desires of a financial payoff can attain success but cannot maintain it. It's transient. On the contrary, if the work is fuelled by passion then one can even digest failure, and bounce back with resilience.

Which entrepreneurs do you admire the most?

For us, esteemed entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet and Elon Musk are a great source of inspiration.

What would you like to say to your peers, the would-be entrepreneurs?

Don't confine yourselves to the realms of pedagogy. Broaden your horizons, explore new ideas and continue to dream big because they do come true.

15

VENTURE CAPITALIST SPEAKS

-Siddharth Hemrajani

While most of us look at venture capitalists as affluent financiers wearing fancy suits and ties, the business world perceives them to be the lords of their realm. Impressing them and living up to their lofty expectations is what keeps our business boats floating in the turbulent market tides.

Firstly, when you hunt for a VC, you need to conduct adequate background research on them to figure out their favoured sectors of investment, their partners and investing history. Secondly, you should have a clear idea about the firm’s priorities towards their investors, as well as their beneficiaries.

But you may still wonder – what is the enigmatic constitution of these venture capitalists who guide us to prosperous shores? Are these financial juggernauts incredibly cerebral or outrageously lucky? If insights into their minds: you’re looking to dig deeper into the psyche of VCs, then here are some

They are in the business of thinking miles ahead of you

Majority of VCs are professionals who come from finance, investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, and other similar industries. Their expertise in other fields is far from the level of an actual graduate in those fields of study. As a result, it is your obligation to clarify the vision of your organisation and nail the niche marketing factor that your product or service encapsulates.

However, terms like company valuation, investor rights, P/E ratio, and cash flow are second nature to VCs. They can give a fair estimate of your company’s revenue projections even when they’re under the influence of a few tequila shots. Therefore, it is imperative to present your key financial data and keep it fully transparent in order to earn the trust of the VC and get a fair assessment of your business from them.

The strength of their networking web is greater than their financial IQ

The track record of a VC’s success rate is a bigger testament to his/her networking power in the business world, rather than raw intellect. Their relationships with influential entrepreneur, bankers and lawyers give them instant wisdom at their disposal and professional finesse to execute said wisdom at the same time.

You may have noticed how several top performers feature regularly in the portfolios of successful venture capitalists.

Their association with champions of different domains buys them a first class ticket to the winner’s lounge too.

A VC may lose the battle, but can never lose the war

Although VCs are talented veterans with a knack for making winning investments, there are always a number of business failures under every VC’s belt that taint their clean record. However, their disappointments are washed away with ridiculous pay-checks, management fees and opulent vacations.

The heavily rewarding 80/20 profit ratio allows VCs to take home a massive chunk of the company earning when their beneficiaries succeed. Even in the face of failure, VCs will still get paid handsomely, minus their bonuses. Therefore, the onus of injecting passion and confidence into your business pitch, and emphasising the value of what’s at stake is on you in order to get their undivided attention.

16

If you are making the decision to raise venture capital for your business, you should first get familiar with what venture funds are looking for. After bootstrapping, there’s seed funding.

What are Series A venture fund investors looking for?

From our experience, here are some of the key things that Series A (typically $1+ million round size) venture investors are looking for 1. The right people. Do you and your team have the skills-ets, energy, perseverance, passion, networks, and self-awareness to build the business for the next at least 2-3 years? If you are have a key role not covered, how will you fill it? Also, do you have the right advisors and board members?

2. Big accessible market.

Series A investor are looking for a business with a BIG market potential. Know If you are making the decision to raise venture capital for your business, you should first get familiar with what venture funds are looking for. After bootstrapping, there’s seed funding

3. Micro-market leadership.

Have you demonstrated micro-market dominance? That is, have you shown on a small scale with a focus on a niche/targeted customer base that you can quickly become a leader? You see, this demonstrates that you can generate loyal customers — a critical factor. These are the early adopters. Investors often believe that if you can do that with one targeted group that

4. Promising unit economics.

you’ve got a reasonable chance of doing that with more and larger groups.

Focus on unit economics, not overall business level economics, achieved to date. The question is, are your unit economics good enough for you to be ready to start scaling rapidly?

Topics to cover include … What does it cost to acquire a customer? How is your customer acquisition approach scalable? What is your current life-time-value (LTV) of customers? How has this improved? What does it cost you to retain a customer? Where do you think you can see the unit economics getting to? What are you unsure of? The more you talk about your insights on unit economics, the more engaged a venture investor will be in your discussion.

5. Systems ready to support efficient scaling. Do you have the right technologies in place (or at least piloted)? Do you have competent business unit-level leadership in place and a validated system for training new leadership as you grow? Do you have the right policies and procedures to keep quality high and prevent fraud and abuse?

6. Secret sauce. What is your special sustainable differentiator which will enable your business to continue to thrive once competitors take notice of your success? Investors will often ask, “What is your IP (intellectual property)?” relatively weak IP protection enforcement options, patents are interesting but not valued highly by most investors. Sometimes it is better to not apply for a patent as this exposes your secrets.

In places like India with 7. Partnerships. It is a big plus if you have meaningful strategic partnership(s) in place with larger and well respected firms. This is strong additional validation and allows you to be more leveraged in your use of resources — particularly as a small company. Reducing execution risk is always valued by investors.

So whether your team is made up of experienced entrepreneurs, or recent college graduates at attracting some venture capital funding.

— as long as your team members have complementary skills with a track record of collaborating, you should have a solid shot 17

‘Biness’ lessons from Band Baaja Baarat!

Starting a business doesn’t require an MBA but passion

Both Shruti and Bittoo had no great degree or MBA to their credit. But what they had in abundance was passion. Passion is the key ingredient for a business to reach the pinnacle of its glory.

Start small but dream big

Shruti and Bittoo start from a simple 2.5 lakh wedding and first become ‘ Janakpuri ke Raja’, as they coin it. Then, they turn to ‘ Sainik Farm’ to try their hand on the big fat weddings! Dreaming big plays a very important role in being a successful business person.

Team-work matters

When Shruti and Bittoo break their partnership, their individual companies crash down. Their team-work is the sole reason for their success.

When Shruti and Bittoo

Know the cow before you milk her

take their first leap towards ‘ Sainik Farm’, the first question the client poses is how they can trust a first timer? That’s when Bittoo recalls the success story of the client and convinces him well. Knowing your clients well helps.

Making contacts with the correct people is important

When Shruti and Bittoo take up their first wedding, it is Mansuk Bhai(the florist) who introduces them to Gajender (the caterer). Thus, having contacts with the correct people is important. They can help you make better contacts too.

Do ethical business

In a scene, when Bittoo uses illegal electricity to light up the décor, Shruti stops him. It is important to do business ethically to avoid any problems as well as for our self-respect.

There is no business without risks

Shruti and Bittoo take a huge leap from handling weddings worth 10 lakhs to almost 5 crores. They expand their horizons. They take the risk and that is when they succeed more!

Be an egalitarian

In one scene, Bittoo is seen serving tea to all his subordinates. Treat all the people who work for you as equal. Listen to them, seek advice. It helps.

Fight back

There are so many incidences when Bittoo and Shruti face problems. Be it with the untimely rains, the problem with the rotating stage, the lights, the food, etc. But they fight back each time and never give up. In the last wedding, when the entire gallery of flowers comes down with the rain, Bittoo panics but Shruti says, “ Koi nahi. Fir se bana lenge .” That attitude is a must in business.

Love your work. Your work speaks for you

Bittoo and Shruti end up in a lot of issues after their partnership ends. But in spite of that, they get the huge contract at the end. It is because of their work. They loved doing what they did. Once they split, they worked to bring the other down. That is the reason they failed. Love your work. Because when you love it, it’s no longer work!

-Priyanka Palshetkar

18

THE TALE OF MICROMAX

!

Gone are the days when Apple and Samsung claimed to be the big boys of the mobile handset industry. The Indian start-up Micromax has made them run for their money!

Micromax started as an IT software company in 2000 and worked on embedded platforms. It was originally incorporated on 29 March, 2000 and by 2010 became one of the largest Indian domestic mobile handsets company operating in low-cost multi-feature phone segments.

With an understanding of the rapidly changing consumer preferences coupled with the use of the latest technologies, Micromax differentiated itself from the big boys in town with its pricing. Everything started with a truck battery in the year 2007. In the powerless city of Berhampur in the Indian State of West Bengal, Mr. Rahul Sharma saw an AirtelPay Phone being powered by a truck battery. Every night, the PCO owner would lug the battery 12 km to an adjoining village on his cycle, charge it there overnight, and lug it back to Berhampur in the morning. Rahul was fascinated by the nature of innovative adaptation to suit the difficult conditions which the payphone operator had employed and his interest only grew when he found out that to everyone’s surprise, the operator was also able to earn a tidy sum of money. Based on this experience of innovation arising from constraints, Micromax soon launched its first phone with a month long battery back-up known as X1i. In 2011 Micromax entered the tablet market with the Canvas series.

The Canvas range was the first real effort to change, to a certain extent, the image about low-cost phones.

Micromax called it the Superfone with a large 5-inch display solid build, 1GHz Mediatek processor and a 5MP rear camera, for an uber-affordable price of Rs 9,900.

AIMING HIGH: Micromax founders Rajesh Agarwal, Sumeet Arora, Rahul Sharma and Vikas Jain started making mobile phones in 2009 It didn’t look cheap or bulky, yet it was one of the cheapest, branded Android-based handsets with the largest screen on the market available for a price below the Rs 10,000 range.

It was an instant hit. People flocked to the phone, which really made Micromax a familiar household name in India.

The new report by Counterpoint Research points out that with 16.6 percent mobile market share Micromax has overtaken Samsung as the largest mobile phone supplier in Q2 2014 in India. Samsung now owns 14.4 percent market share. Counterpoint also points out that Micromax now has 19.1 percent share and is the second largest smart phone brand in terms of shipments. It should be noted that it closely follows Samsung that enjoys 25.3 percent share.

The Indian start-up had already received its booster shot in June this year when Google Inc. named it one of the three Indian handset makers, along with Spice and Karbonn, as its partners for its new sub-$100 smart-phones specially designed for emerging markets. For Google, this was a critical part of its Android One program, but for Micromax, it was the stamp of approval it needed to make the move from being perceived as the maker of cheap handsets to being a worthy replacement for existing market movers like Samsung.

And when Sundar Pichai, One handset and declared, Google’s for Android, Chrome and apps, held up a Micromax Android “I Senior Vice-President have been using this phone for a while and it is really good”, it fetched Micromax more publicity than the commercial involving Hollywood superstar, Hugh Jackman! Definitely a cherry on the cake!

-Lavesh Hemrajani

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Socio-preneur:

-Priyanka Palshetkar In an age where money is all that matters, entrepreneurs often forget the responsibilities they possess towards the society. However, the ethical and social conundrum is avoided because in this very world, run endeavours like Avanti Fellows (Avanti) which strive towards making the society a better place to live.

Avanti is the brain-child of an enthusiastic team of six IIT graduates, Akshay Saxena, Krishna Ramkumar, Vaibhav Devanathan, Rohit prime objective of providing ‘a Singh, Aishwarya Ramakrishnan and Rahul Srinivasan. It is a student run enterprise founded in March 2010 with the income meritorious students.

world class’ quality education in science and mathematics to low India is short over 1.2 million teachers, with the pupil-teacher ratio remaining at 43:1. This scarcity leaves low-income students priced out of a market for learning that relies predominantly on the availability of high quality teachers. Avanti helps to disrupt this model through the use of technology and peer collaboration through their work and strives to create a more inclusive educational system for millions of students in India at Avanti Learning Centres. Currently, there are 13 such centres in various cities, including Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai.

At the centres, the students are provided with the tools to learn independently through peer groups, instructional videos, and textbooks rather than relying on lectures from subject matter experts. Students have access to over 300 volunteers from the most prestigious colleges in India who serve as mentors and coaches. Because Avanti is not teacher dependent they are able to operate at a fraction of the cost of traditional coaching centres. While three of these centres in Mumbai and two in New Delhi make profits (even at a fee of Rs. 2,000 per month per student), the other centres work in collaboration with public schools with the sole aim of inculcating the capacity to reason among children from poor families.

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Says Akshay, “

IIT’s, the premier institutes of Engineering in India have acceptance rates of less than 2%.

This has spawned a multi-billion dollar coaching industry which has in turn created a financial barrier for students from low-income families to enter the IIT’s .

Moreover, low-income students who do manage to clear the entrance exams often struggle to cope in college due to lack of fluency in English and limited personal and professional networks. Given the vast number of low-income students in urban and rural India, an effective and scalable solution to this problem is crucial. Avanti aims to address this systemic

bias which exists against the low-income students.

” And the efforts of this dynamic team have helped them gain recognition from time to time. Avanti has won the ‘ Stanford BASES Social E Challenge’ , one of the world’s premier social business plan competitions in May 2010. In July 2010, Avanti was selected as a Pan IIT Alumni India Initiative and within the next four months it was selected as an UnLtd India Level 1 investee.

Enthuses Abbas Dadla, the Mumbai Operations Head, “

The atmosphere is that of a typical start-up where there are no clear solutions. The amount of responsibility is enormous, which is not something you could get this early in your career at a large established corporation. I have always believed that instead of looking for jobs, we must be looking for problems to solve. If the problem you are trying to solve is meaningful enough then everything else will fall into place.”

Presently, Avanti fellows has its chapters at 5 College (New Delhi).

IIT’s – IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur and IIT Roorkee, VJTI (Mumbai), KEM (Mumbai), NSIT (New Delhi), DTU (New Delhi) and Maulana Azad Medical

Inspiring

is the word for Avanti! We hope this silver lining in the educational cloud twinkles forever!

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Pajame se pyaar, Aa bech de yaar!

-Siddharth Hemrajani

In conversation with Bhushan Lodha, co founder PajamaDeals: Tell us about you and your team.

I am a VIT alumni from the batch of 2011 – Production Engineering. I have worked for a couple of start-ups in the last 3 years. Recently I graduated from Hacker School, NY – which is a 3 month kind of a program. Viksit is an MIT, USA undergraduate, in his last programmer’s semester of retreat Computer Science over there.

stuff.

We have been friends for around five years. We are working on PajamaDeals, a platform that enables students to effortlessly buy, sell, rent and trade college

How did you finally arrive on this particular idea? And what makes you think this problem is worth solving?

I think I have a good knack for spotting out inefficiencies in a system. I had an epiphany for this idea while I was in my third year at VIT. Students were selling and buying stuff, especially books, via third party vendors all the time who usually took a hefty cut for their services. And even still the experience sucked. That’s when it hit me of creating a simple classified for our college.

Viksit and I had recently picked up programming and were messing with ruby on rails at the time. We cooked up a simple version over the course of a week, put it on Heroku, and sent out some emails and posted on some Facebook groups. It turned out to be pretty popular - got around 100 listings in two weeks. It felt pretty great to have made something that people were flocking to.

We didn't have the acumen to see what its real potential was and decided to shut it down after some time since we both got pretty busy with other things.

Fast forward four years to today. Viksit and I, both, having worked in the industry for some time, wanted to get back and do something together again. We brainstormed and shortlisted to work on online payments (stripe for India). But that didn't work out so well because the way the payments industry is regulated in India.

We were back to the drawing board again. That’s when it hit us – 4 years and probably a thousand Indian start-ups later, there was still no college classifieds in the market. We spent some time validating that the problem still exists by talking to students and understanding how they dealt with buying/selling today. It was almost as broken as then. Students should buy and sell amongst themselves since it is a win-win situation certain a better platform should exist that enables students to be a part of such an ecosystem with minimal effort on their end.

– better prices, much decreased cost of ownership, and of course much less wastage of resources. With the technology of today we are 22

What are the most obvious ways you can think of to monetize your idea in the near future?

We haven’t really sat down on this, but we think there are quite a few ways one could go about, once you have traction. We could follow the standard classifieds model and charge for premium listings, we could allow for partner postings housing.com results, that are relevant to an apartment search on our website, appended to the organic ones; and there is advertisement, etc. But our complete focus is on the product currently. All we care about now is how to make Pajamadeals 'the way' for college students to buy and sell amongst themselves.

How do you plan to control the classifieds to be limited to college material only?

Actually, we don't know yet how to even classify what is “college material only” – a couple of always regular . Anything that students will commonly sell and buy while being in college, ranging from books, drafters, aprons, furniture, even bikes and mobiles etc pretty falls in this. So we are still experimenting with the possible categories.

What industry experience did you have before you started Pajamadeals in its current form?

I worked for Better Labs as a rails developer right out of college for around a year and a half. Then, I worked remotely for Simplero, a Denmark based start-up for around a year. Viksit has worked as a rails developer for Oroeco – a Stanford based start-up that helps people make smarter buying choices that are better for the climate. He has also worked for Amazon as part of the Search and Discovery team based in Seattle.

Lastly, how did you manage to convince your parents for this patchy or unstable lifestyle? And a message for our engineer friends?

I think we have always been a little off road kind of people just like most entrepreneurs are. We gave enough signals growing up that our parents probably knew somewhere deep inside that we could choose something unconventional when it came to making a living too. Only a year ago, I had quit my job at Better Labs, a great start-up, to work remotely just because it would give me more time to travel. It worked out pretty fantastically for me but at the time it was a very risky move and it took some doing to get my father to accept that. A lot of similar stuff can be said for Viksit too.

There aren’t many start-ups in this particular niche you have caught, but still what do you think would be an obstacle in creating a buyer seller ecosystem on your website?

Students are used to, and in fact have gotten pretty comfortable using manual ways to buy and sell stuff.

Buying and selling via a dedicated college portal will require somewhat of a paradigm shift. But given how online buying is getting more and more pervasive in our lives, it should not be too hard a goal to achieve. During the process of initial growth we will have to overcome the classic chicken and egg problem of any market place. There are some standard ways to go about it – we plan to have a higher focus to get the sellers first and will transition to buyers once we have a few hundred listings.

You have launched with VIT, so can you enlighten us with your plans as to how would you reach out to the thousands of colleges in India?

We plan to tie up with college groups and initiatives like VIT's EDC to have a strong team on every campus that serves as the flag bearer of this new initiative. Changing people's behaviour takes time.

Having a pervasive presence in colleges that continuously represents and markets Pajamadeals will turn out to be one of the most crucial factors in making it the platform we envision Pajamadeals to be in colleges across the country.

Why is the name ‘Pajama Deals’?

The name Pajamadeals is a carry over from the first version actually. When we built it then, we were so absorbed in getting it up and running – we didn't think of any name up until the last minute of putting it on Heroku. We brainstormed for around an hour going through quite a few, when I suggested Pajamadeals since we had been coding in our pajamas for the last 3 days or so. We decided to stick with it because it felt catchy enough, and we were still too excited to send out the link of the live version to our friends and see the response.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.

Discover.”

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The success KALYAN BHEL

-Priyanka Palshetkar

story of a man with great taste!

Teekha, medium or meetha ?’ is one amongst the very few questions we students relish to answer.

‘ Chaat always been a unifier in our otherwise multi-diverse country. And when it comes to having a plate of ‘ ’ bhel ’ has in Pune, what would be best than paying a visit to ‘ Kalyan Bhel ’?

The success story of Ramesh Kondhre, the owner of Kalyan Bhel, is as simple as the product he sells ‘bhel’ .

Dressed in the traditional dhoti and a Gandhi topi on his head, Ramesh Bhau is a perfect example of a down-to earth businessman. When asked, he dedicates his success to his mother who earned a living from a ‘ sabji ka thela ’ for 26 years of her life. Ramesh Bhau left school when he was in Grade 5. He worked as a coolie and then helped his mother at the stall. That is when he developed a liking for having something of his own and he started a stall which sold ‘ bhel ’ .

Being from Mulshi, the childhood of Ramesh Bhau was simple and filled with hardships. He started his business with the money he collected from his sabji-stall and soon his bhel caught the attention of every taste bud in Pune. In his initial days, he faced quite a lot of problems. Quotes Ramesh Bhau, proper outlet and sold the same of being the ‘ Chaat King’ ‘ “Twice a month my handcart got confiscated by the Police and I had to pay huge sums to get it back. But the silver lining was that the police complimented me on the bhel I sold. Such a feedback is what has kept me going all these years.

bhel ’ ” In event of a demand from his customers, Ramesh bhau decided to expand his business. He invested his profits and bought a land in Bibwewadi . There he set up a the city packed with customers all day.

and the response he got was huge. That is when Ramesh Bhau decided to take his enterprise to the next level. And now he boasts of Pune with six outlets all over Every shop has 12 workers who work their heart out to serve the best chaat to foodie Punekars. Enthuses Ramesh Bhau, “Quality has been our strength from the very beginning. So to maintain our standards, even a simple task like choosing onions is done after properly scrutinizing the quality. And everything happens right here in this shop. We are here for the benefit and satisfaction of our customers. Hence, I have even named my shop as ‘ Kalyan Bhel ’ . We work for the ‘ Kalyan ’ of our customers.

”When asked to share a striking experience and the secret recipe of his delicious ‘ bhel ’ Ramesh Bhau laughs and says, “The entire journey has been a hell of an experience because running a business is not something that can be taught in schools. We learn to survive in this competitive world everyday only when we actually experience it. And there is no special recipe or ingredient that makes our bhel so delicious. We do it with all our heart to see that twinkle in our customer’s eyes after he eats our bhel and that satisfaction is what inspires us to make delicious bhel all the time.

” As for the future, Ramesh bhau dreams of exporting packed bhel to every corner of the world. He beams with pride and adds, “I want the taste of my bhel to make a mark overseas as well. I have served at the Mantralaya thrice and people have always appreciated the taste of my bhel. May be I could soon have the opportunity to serve our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi.

When asked to provide his special insights to V-EDC and all the budding entrepreneurs Ramesh Bhau concludes, “ Kuthla hi kara pan business kara.

Baaki sagla anubhav shikve inspiration for many!

l ” He definitely is an

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INAUGRAL YEAR 2013-14

The Entrepreneurship Development Centre of Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune (V-EDC) initiated its functioning with a concrete foundation on September 7, 2013, with a vision and mission of

‘Producing successful entrepreneurs imbibed with leadership qualities using innovative and ethical business practices to make a global impact.’

In its inaugural year, EDC took a great leap forward and conducted many activities to build the ‘entrepreneurial culture’ in VIT. 25

Entrepreneurship Awareness Program:

The term of EDC began with an introductory meet conducted on October 15, 2013. The objective of the meet was to familiarize the students and the faculty with the idea of Entrepreneurship. Prof.

Rajesh Dhake, the faculty member secretary of EDC introduced the students to the idea of Entrepreneurship. A GETT was conducted to help students realize their worth on the Entrepreneurial scale. At the end of the session, the students were informed about the event line up of EDC for the academic year 2013-2014.

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Inspirational Session by, Mr. Prashant Bora and Mr Kunal Todi:

On January 10, 2014, an interactive session on Entrepreneurship’ ‘The Spirit of was conducted by Mr. Prashant Bora, the founder of Byond Technologies and Mr. Kunal Todi, the founder of BKP Technologies. Mr. Prashant Bora gave an overview of the bouquets and brickbats earned by an entrepreneur when he begins his venture.

He mentioned the 4 E’s – Energy, Energize, Edge on, Execute which happen to be the success mantra for an entrepreneur. Mr. Bora concluded his talk with a brief idea about his journey in the entrepreneurship sector. Mr. Kunal Todi brushed upon the importance of empowerment in entrepreneurship. He gave a gist of different types of Leadership which prevail in our society. At the end of the session, the students formed a consensus on entrepreneurship to be the need of the hour .

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Candid talk with the founders of Jopasu Systems:

Following the interactive session was an interview conducted with the founders of Jopasu systems on January 18, 2014. Prof.

Rajesh Dhake Sir questioned Mr. Anand Panchabhai and Mr. Ajay Jogdand about their journey in the entrepreneurial sector. Both the guest speakers shared the experiences their company faced in the initial years of their business and how they overcame obstacles to raise the bar of Jopasu systems on the global market scale. At the end of the session, the students were enlightened on the opportunities available for them in the current market scenario.

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Brand Building Workshop by Radha Giri:

On the auspicious occasion of International Women’s Day, Radha Giri, Founder and CEO of Midas consultancies conducted an interactive session on the concept of ‘Brand Building’ . She threw light on the significance of having our own online profile using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and Linkedin. She discussed the mantras of exploiting the social media to its global maxima. The program was concluded by the felicitation of the women achievers of VIT.

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Can you name the Entrepreneur?

Created the Model T Co-founder of Def Jam recordings Founder of the Dell Computer Corporation Founded Wal-Mart Responsible for changing name of CTR to IBM Created the fashion line Polo Ralph Lauren Created American Idol Founder of CNN Founder of McDonald's Founder of Facebook Founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company Responsible for the rise of Starbucks Co-founder of Apple Founded a catering business in 1972. She went on to have a magazine and TV program

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Founder of Taco Bell Founder of amazon.com

Co-creator of Google Responsible for the rise of DC Shoes Created Disney World Co-founder of Microsoft Created Mrs. Fields Cookies Responsible for the rise of Under Armor Co-founder of Ben and Jerry's Founder of ESPN Created her own line of cosmetics identifiable by her name Co-founder of Nike This six-time NBA champion now owns a racing team TIE BREAKER !

1.Which international corporate has 42 dots in its logo?

2.The famous symbol of Four Linked Rings is the logo of Audi. What is the significance of these rings linked together?

3.One of the most successful small cars on Indian road is ZEN from Maruti. What does it mean?

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Witty-Preneur:

Of Engineers and Entrepreneurs!

Witty-entrepreneur!

!

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The EDC Team

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Govind Bharadia Lavesh Hemrajani Rutvik Parmar Kushagra Sukhani Shubham Dandagval SiddharthHemrajani Dhwani Ajmera Aishwarya Gupta Mokshit Shah Priyanka Palshetkar P.V. Pukmini Ishita Daga Supragya Jain Akash Shah Sanchi Munghate Komal Vernekar Harsh Chandak Aditi Mishra Pushpask Chaudhari

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V-EDC’s Cloud Director

Faculty Secretary Student Secretary Deputy Student Secretary Faculty Advisors Student Advisors

Working Committees

Multimedia and Aesthetics Marketing and Event Management Accounts and Documentation Editorial

Departmental Representatives

Mechanical Computers Electronics Industrial & Production Chemical Instrumentation D.E.S.H.

Contact us:

[email protected]

Room No. 2305