Comments on: We Make Money When Our Startups Make Money: Nandini Hirianniah

By: R Narayanan

R Narayanan — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:18:47 +0000

Go for it Morpheus. I cannot agree more with your model. In a limited manner I have been able to do that a couple of times in the past, where I have traded mentoring/consulting for equity.
Several VC funds could beneift from your shortlist, so I wonder why you need to raise 2 cr at all. Once you get into providing funds though, the entire expectation of the startup changes completely.
VIjay I am sure, threw a ball park figure of 1-2%. Must have been sorely pressed for a view, to have proffered that figure. But I am sure, even he will not treat it as sacrosant. I would argue that startups need this value. A lot depends on what advice you are able to meaningfully bring to the startup. Obviously it is considerable, given the 15 ours per week that you are willing to put out.
I have been involved with startups in the past, and this is a service that they could well do with.
Naru

By: Indus Khaitan

Indus Khaitan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:08:23 +0000

@Ranjan,

At Morpheus, we spend 10-15 hrs per week with a startup — we don’t come in as advisors, but as a “limited co-founder” for the same, where we do pretty much everything end-to-end from creating your pricing model to hardening your architecture.

By: Ranjan

Ranjan — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 06:42:45 +0000

4-8% for Mentoring looks a bit steep. Especially after looking at Vijay Anand’s presentation at Dare event where he talks of 1-2%.

Or am I missing something? The difference between Mentors and Advisors?

By: Abheek

Abheek — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:40:28 +0000

Nice coverage Nandini – crisp and to the point.

@Startup Dude: I dont know which part of the globe you are from but here in India people think thrice before investing even a 100 bucks – leave aside a funding of 2 cr. As Indus mentioned – raising funds is a very elaborate and tedious process – getting people to hear you out is an achievement itself

Regarding 4 -8% equity: MVP may not be world famous or have a significant track record like the big fishes – but then again neither do we!

We are new in the business world and having a partner like MVP gives us the necessary edge and expertise to grow our business. We have a 2 – 3 week session with MVP with no strings attached where we can have a fair idea of whether the partnership is working out or not

In our case, for Robots Alive, MVP has significantly accelerated our growth and we have been able to penetrate the market through MVP very quickly – something which we could never imagine otherwise.

Over and above that MVP is a young dynamic team where we also develop ideas for other business opportunities while having a lot of fun! I would recommend all entrepreneurs to at least take a look into MVP

The only regret I have with MVP is that I should have approached them earlier!!

Cheers

By: Indus Khaitan

Indus Khaitan — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:09:55 +0000

@Startup Dude,

Fund raising is a grill, takes anywhere between 3-6 months to raise a small size fund. While we wanted to raise a fund sometime ago; we did not not want to take focus away from our core – the Business Accelaration Program. for startups.

Regarding your second observation, I’ll leave at that as only time can vouch for that.

By: Startup Dude

Startup Dude — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:10:04 +0000

Isn’t this old news. They’ve been talking about raising a fund for a year or so… I remember hearing this comment last year.

I am really surprised entrepreneurs are so gullible that they give 4-8% equity for advice with no track record.

-Startup Dude