Ravi Kumar founded DilSeBol, a company that customizes merchandise like t-shirts and mugs with designs provided by customers. He was motivated by similar successful ventures in the US and felt the concept could work in India as internet usage was growing. DilSeBol allows customers to upload designs and complete the ordering process online. Ravi hopes TiE Chennai can help creative entrepreneurs like him access potential investors and customers. Pravin Shekar is a serial entrepreneur who starts new ventures every few years. What began as part-time work led to multiple market research companies. His current company, Krea, specializes in healthcare market research. As a TiE Chennai member, Pravin mentors

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CHENNAI 2011
24th Nov 2011 @ Chennai Trade Center
Design your own personalized merchandise Jumping onto
DilSeBol specializes in making “We are always on the lookout for new ideas,” explains Ravi as
multiple opportunities
customized and personalized creative businesses can be taxing for the entrepreneur and could
merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, calen- easily turn the customers away if they don’t think there is some- For some, entrepreneurship does not stop
dars and the like) using thing novel about it. With the advent of Internet, customized prod- with one venture. Pravin Shekar is one
designs/artwork that the customer ucts to customer choice has become commonly possible. such restless soul. He wants to keep
provides, even it is just 1 unit. Users re-inventing himself every two or three
can upload the artwork they want at Motivated by a couple of successes of similar ventures in the years. What started as a part-time fill
www.dilsebol.com, and complete United States, a mature market, Ravi adapted the idea to India. during college vacation has morphed into
the entire designing and order “With people getting more and more net savvy in India, it would multiple ventures for Pravin. Thereafter,
process online. be a good time to start this business,” felt Ravi as he embarked Pravin’s first employer Dun and Bradstreet
Ravi Kumar, cofounder, DilSeBol, says, “The name signifies what upon converting his idea into DilSeBol. How can TiE Chennai help (now Cognizant) placed him in the
we do – we make what people want to say through merchandise. creative entrepreneurs like him? Ravi feels that “access to capital accounts of AC Nielsen and IMS Health,
We also wanted a non-serious name – something easy to remem- through potential investors, access to potential customers, sharing both market research (MR) companies.
ber and something that implies that it is fun, as gifting is experiences and seeing what other entrepreneurs have done when
supposed to be fun”. they started can only help and this is where TiE plays a big role.” This helped him gain entry into MR and later as an entrepreneur,
he now focuses on businesses in the research/analytics/insights
domain.
Since starting his first MR venture , Pravin has moved on from two
ventures into his third, Krea, a specialized MR firm with focussed
Give us the money - an interview with Venkat Subramaniam
panels. Pravin states: “There is a need for specialists in specially
in healthcare MR and Krea fills that need. Krea connects with
Indian physicians, nurses, pharmacists and patients for studies
that include commercial and social research. Krea leverages tech-
nology to connect with the hard-to-reach segments.”
C Venkat Subramanyam, A council member at ESOMAR, a global non-profit association for
Founder Director, Veda Corp, Scenario 4) MR, he assists in the propagation of international research stand-
an investment bank discusses At the idea stage, how does an entrepreneur arrive at a valuation? ards and creation of a grassroots movement for research. Dabbling
the topic “How should an In early stage funding, there is nothing called a great plan and a also in social entrepreneurship, Pravin is founder-trustee of Social
entrepreneur weigh his great team. It is all relative. One VC may think it’s great and Catalyst, a non-profit trust that works towards professionalizing
di erent options while another may reject it in a flash. Just focus on getting the basics NGOs. He is the winner of “Emerging Global leaders in Marketing
raising money?” right, which is to ensure that the price discovery process has been Research” under the age of 40 awarded by the American Market-
managed e ciently. The entrepreneur then has to gracefully ing Association. An active charter member of TiE Chennai, Pravin
Scenario 1) accept the final verdict. He can then decide to choose the best or enthusiastically spares e orts to help TiE in organizing events and
Venture capital (VC) investor wait for a later date, it’s a gamble he has to take in mentoring entrepreneurs.
versus a strategic investor
Scenario 5)
Firstly,the objectives of a VC While raising money, how far down the road should one think?
are vastly di erent from that of
a strategic investor. On the The entrepreneur should not be too obsessed with what could
other hand, strategic investors happen in subsequent rounds. But being aware of a few pitfalls
rarely take minority stakes could help. E.g., excessive dilution ,complicated deal structures,
and will definitely be more fancy valuations in Series A can become a bottleneck in future
rounds.
hands-on.So, if the company has good growth prospects there is
no reason why he/she should look beyond a VC investor. Balancing the interests of the existing investor, the incoming
investor and the entrepreneur becomes a herculean task later on.
Scenario 2) But then, it’s too much to ask entrepreneurs not to accept fancy
A small-scale industrialist who’s grown through debt financing valuations when the going is good.
and internal accruals, wants to scale up by raising equity, not an
emotionally comfortable option for him. What should he do? Scenario 6)
Your thoughts on raising debt, when can debt be raised and some
This kind of apprehension has subsided substantially. By and advantages in doing so?
large the small-scale sector has struggled to meet VC/PE expecta-
tions and hence is undercapitalised. Debt has several advantages. Firstly, it ensures more discipline. It
is cheaper than equity and can also be smartly deployed as an
The bottleneck is not the discomfort with external shareholders interim replacement for equity. Obviously, the amount of debt one
but with the kind of return expectations that VC/PE investors have should raise will depend on the industry, the company, its cash
and the entrepreneur’s confidence in delivering such returns. flows, end use of funds, security and the market conditions.
Scenario 3) Today’s generation of entrepreneurs seem to embrace equity more
How to choose among multiple potential investors o ering di er- spontaneously and more debt averse. It is clearly a sign of chang-
ent valuations? ing times.
Obviously, price is the single most important factor for any entre- S. Prem Kumar, a TiE Chennai member
preneur and the instinctive response would be to choose the one *Source: The Smart CEO Magazine (www.thesmartceo.in)
who pays the highest. However, please use a few more filters to
eventually decide which one to pick.
Firstly, the valuation itself has to be normalised for comparison;
check for exit related rights and other onerous clauses. Secondly,
take a closer look at the investor, their brand equity, market repu-
tation, domain knowledge, operating style and check if there
could be any potential issues in the future.
Finally, the team that is managing the fund is also a factor. Often,
deals are crafted not only on mathematics but also on chemistry!
Registration Flexicareer woman entrepreneur to look up to
A seed sown by an unrelated experience some- network further. Diversity issues slowly started gaining ground
times becomes a huge business idea. When and I-winners took o . The precursor to this, AVTAR I-WIN, which
Spot Registration: Saundarya Rajesh visited the UK on a Cheven- provides women with flexi-time and second career opportunities,
At the Chennai Trade Center ing scholarship in 2005, she had an opportu- was a research done by Saundarya in 2005 which showed that
between 8 AM to 9 AM. nity to interact with interim managers, profes- 45,000 to 50,000 professionals stepped o their career track owing
sionals who worked only on part-time or to marriage or childbirth never to return again!
project-based assignments. Thus was born
For Queries: AVTAR I-WIN network (Interim Women Starting with creating flexi-career tracks within an organization,
AVTAR subsequently helped define the process for a flexi-career
Call Ms Latha at 044 6515 4900 manager’s Interface Network), India’s first career service for
paradigm in organizations. Saundarya says, “AVTAR works
enabling work-life integrated careers for women.
or mail her at latha@chennai.tie.org towards a vision of making education and work worthwhile for
AVTAR was started in December 2000. The experience of her father women. Making women’s careers sustainable is AVTAR’s goal.”
as a first generation entrepreneur held her in good stead that she TiE Chennai has also hired through I-WIN network, which should
Online Registration: put her faith on people rather than products. be heartening for Saundarya who has won the TiE Stree Shakthi
www.tiechennai.org award this year.
The concept of interim managers, called I-winners, did not find an
easy passage initially. The I-winners themselves proved to be
ambassadors for the concept and word of mouth expanded the