DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

DARE Entrepreneur Week July 2011 Edition: Chaired by established entrepreneurs, our free monthly webinars guide existing and aspiring entrepreneurs. A report

Suman Chennamaneni Mambo Library

Day 1: How to build a socially responsible brand
Suman Chennamaneni, co-founder of Mambo Library says, “The investors were not interested in putting cash for the library because that was not a selling point for them. Then I went to the market and saw 30 odd schools, none of them had libraries — that was a breaking point for me and Wisdom Box happened” Wisdom Box distributes books every fortnight to government schools and private rural schools with the help of the teachers. The teachers collect books from Mambo Library and take these to their respective schools, free of cost.

Naveen Gupta Frameboxx Animation and Visual Effects

Day 2: How I started my now successful company in 48 hours
The trials and tribulations of Naveen Gupta, Executive Director and CEO, Frameboxx Animation and Visual Effects, is something which every entrepreneur can relate to. What is astounding is how he started India’s fastest growing animation and VFX training company in 48 hours. While, it usually takes 3-4 months for a company to get established with its website, Gupta’s team pitched in and within 48 hours everything was ready. Frameboxx was launched formally in Chandigarh a week after. Three years since its inception, the company today has 65 centers across India.

Siddharth Shankar Mystic Spa

Day 3: Little known secrets of the businesses in wellness industry
Siddharth Shankar, Founder of Mystic Spa, says that the wellness industry today is closely associated with today’s lifestyle and has seen sudden development over the last 2 - 3 years. It has already had a long standing in India — yoga, ayurveda, meditation. He adds that it has an excellent growth rate of 30-35% p.a. and is set to become a 2 - 2.5 billion dollar industry soon. “Within a time horizon of 5-10 years, this would be a good industry to get into,”says Shankar. He advised start-ups in this sector to associate themselves with larger brands in the initial stages as the work processes become less time consuming and there is also a lot of experience gained indirectly through such associations.

S. Grover CoCubes.com

Day 4: How ESOPs can turbo charge your business
S. Grover, Co-founder and CEO of CoCubes.com started the session with, “I am not an expert of the field, I’m far away from it. But I’m definitely the person who stumbled upon the concept in the last three years. That culminated in finding and formulating an ESOP plan, touting it, getting legal advice and in the last month, implementing it in my organization.” ESOP as the popular name of Employee Stock Ownership Options gives choice to employee to own a certain stake of the company that the entrepreneur has started. It’s about giving ownership of the company to the people who work there. So it’s very important to understand the difference between salary and ownership.

Amit Bhatia ASPIRE Human Capital Management

Day 5: Facing failures and learning from them
Amit Bhatia, CEO and Founder, ASPIRE Human Capital Management talked about his venture and used it as a case study to give the audience some gyan! First, never raise money too early or from friends and family- Amit raised capital fast from his inner circle and was able to do so quickly because of his previous work experience and reach. This led to people blindly associating with him without knowing the details of his venture or profitable it would be. Second, always choose profits over scale- Amit stresses on “start small think big” and never let the past get the better of you. Third, develop a thick skin- Although it sounds like a trivial advice, Amit says being a part of the social enterprise makes it difficult for him to not get emotional.

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