What is required to start an
ecommerce venture?
Stand Out in the Clutter
A Brilliant Idea – Surveys vs. Serendipity?
Amazing Design and Branding
A Viral Event
Brute-Force Funding/Marketing
Without Compromising
Customer Satisfaction
(Logistics/Technology/Communication/Qu
ality etc.)
Long Term Profitability
Vivek @ IITK | 2015
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Vanilla Cheat Sheet Positioning
Team
Pilot
Branding
Supply Chain
Vendors, Procurement/Manufacturing, Price, Inventory, Payment Cycle, Cash Projections
Logistics
Serviceability, Partners, Returns, Controls
Platform
Try not to write any code, it hurts!
Incident Management
CRM, Policies, Complaint Management, Communication
Vivek @ IITK | 2015
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Stages of… Pain
1. Bootstrap: no revenue, little expense, partial product, no team
Angel: 1-3 cr @ 20-30%
Accelerator: <25L @ <10% e.g. GSF, 500 Startups, The Morpheus
Incubator: Variable @ 90%
2. Early Stage: no revenue, some expense, POC product, partial team
3. Series A: no revenue, full team, ready product
4. Series B/C/D/E: revenue but no profit, full team, advanced product
5. Sale/IPO/Exit: profitability
Vivek @ IITK | 2015
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Top Indian VCs
Helion
• $605m, $2m-$10m, Tech&Consumer, Rev<$10m, MMT/Yepme/Taxi4Sure/NetAmbit
Accel
• N/A, $0.5m-$50m, N/A, babyoye/flipkart/zansaar/commonfloor
Blume
• N/A, $0.05m-$1.5, Tech, audiocompass/exotel
Sequoia
• N/A, $0.01m-$100m, India-US crossborder, prefers to be lead investor, JustDial/CCD/knowlarity
Nexus
• N/A, $0.5m-$20m, No Majority or Participation, Snapdeal/Delhivery/Housing/Pubmatic
Inventus
• N/A, $1m-$10m, Seeks board seat, Vizury/PolicyBazaar
IDG Ventures
• N/A, $0.5m-$10m, N/A, Firstcry/Yatra/Zivame/iProf
Canaan
• N/A, $0.05m-$80m, exit in 7-10 years, Bharat Matrimony/Naaptol/CarTrade
SAIF
• N/A, $0.5m-$100m, 10-40% stake, HomeShop18/BookMyShow/PayTM/JustDial
Vivek @ IITK | 2015
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The VC PitchIntro/Contact, Mission/Vision (if any)
Team
Market/Problem/“The Pain"
Product/Solution
How/Technology
Target Customers, Value Proposition
Marketing & Sales Strategy, Competition, Customer Acquisition Metrics
Business/Revenue Model
Status/Timelines, Funding Plans, Financials/Projections/Milestones
Summary and Call to Action
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Market Research
Secondary research is good enough for most ecommerce startups
Customers and Entrepreneurs are the same segment – your intuition is good enough
Don’t go fishing bottom of the pyramid – at least not yet
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Consumer Behavior
System I and II
Product Search
Catalog Size and ‘Plugs’
Affective Events
Discounting
Cognitive Load / System II
Decision Making
Reviews, Trust
Vivek @ IITK | 2015
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Some Considerations
Privacy, Security & Personalization
Convenience & Uncertainty
Discounts, Lethargy & Opacity
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Vendor Relations
Money FlowPayment Cycles
Inventory and Retail
FDILogistics
Marketing Controls
Examples
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Closing Notes
We have just begun
No room for mediocrity
Capital is looking for the right people, not
vice versa
Differentiation and Customer Connect are
key
“A Startup should not think too much about
how it will Endup”
Vivek @ IITK | 2015
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