Byline
Some of the stuff that puts food on my plate:
Startups, Venture Capital & Private Equity
- Small Beginnings Businessworld, March 20, 2010
- Exploring New Frontiers Businessworld, December 05, 2009
- The Sequoia Way Outlook Business, August 08, 2009
- The Freezing Point Outlook Business, December 13, 2008
- From Dalal Street to Wall Street Outlook Business, June 14, 2008
And, other stories:
- The Supersizing of BPOs Businessworld, May 29, 2010
- A Continent Arrives Outlook Business, July 12, 2008
- Website Story Outlook Business, May 31, 2008
Legal: Businessworld, Outlook Business and Mint own the copyrights for articles linked to this page. Any reproduction in part or full requires prior permission from the respective publications.
hi snigdha,
)
you seem to be blog hoppping.. i hope u stick on to this
do you research companies for investments ..i.e Sensex , nifty ones.
cheers
satish
Snigdha, you would be an interesting person to meet. You do exactly what i would have loved to do. VC’s, equities… amazin stuff.
Hello Snigdha,
Ashish from Citipals here.
Read your blog and really liked it. Its a very interesting one indeed. I see that you are interested in stuff that pertains to Indian startups and entrepreneur ventures.
Citipals is a website that caters specifically to Indian audiences and contains information on lifestyle entities such as restaurants, bars, theatres and of course movies in cities like Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata( Plan to extend the cities covered to many others in the near future).
We also enlist the new releases in Bollywood and Hollywood that are screened across the country.
Our objective behind emailing is to request you to post a story on the venture and effort, that specifically caters to the Indian audience.
We have created a new and interesting feature called MovieMatch. MovieMatch is a place where you can rate popular Bollywood and Hollywood movies. This feature enables you to compare your taste with your friends and at the same time, its also a great platform to make your opinion known to people.
We have created a facebook app for MovieMatch as well where facebook users can play MovieMatch.
ou can read our latest press release on a facebook app by us at http://blog.citipals.com/2007/11/moviematch-new-facebook-app-for-indians.html
We also tried something sarcastically funny in the recent past and you can read a bit about it at http://blog.citipals.com/2007/11/social-networks-mania_07.html ( this is a small jscript animation slideshow which shows what will happen if social networks become “really open”)
Further, you can read out press release on MovieMatch- a small game which lets you and your friends share ratings and opinion on a set of hit bollywood and hollywood movies; both blockbusters and new releases at http://blog.citipals.com/2007/11/moviematch-compare-your-tastes-in.html
Press release for MovieMatch is posted at http://blog.citipals.com/2007/11/answer-to-users-quest-for-trusted.html
I hope that you will like the matter that we have gathered at citipals.
Looking forward to your reply.
PS: If you like the website, but due to some reason, are unable to post a story/article or our press release on our website, do let us know. We would love to have you as a contributing user on our website. citipals ensures that users have fun while sharing things that interests them.
Thanks,
Ashish
Hi Ashish, thanks for writing. I’m picking up your comment very late. Have not been been regular on this blog for a month. Citipals looks interesting. Will check it out in more detail.
Snigdha,
I also write a bit on Entrepreneurship (Social Entrepreneurship in particular) at http://www.societyforward.blogspot.com. Let me know if I can be of any help.
Hi Hari, just checked out your blog. Do let me know if there is something interesting that you would like to cross-post here sometime.
Hi Snigdha, do you write about dot com start ups? If yes, pls refer me some good reading on this.
Thanks,
Jeet,
Hi Jeet, thanks for writing. For dotcoms — though I think they call themselves consumer Internet companies these days
— one good resource is http://www.redherring.com. In India, I’m not sure if anyone specifically tracks dotcoms or Internet startups. Have not seen very many good sites around or much in mainline media. You could also try http://www.venturewoods.org. They cover startup activity in India very well. May help. I do write on Internet startups as well, but haven’t done so much on this blog yet. Hope that helps. BangaloreBeats is a nice site btw.
Hi Snigdha
What is your take on the role IVCA has played (or is playing) in the PE/VC industry? Have they lived up to the same reputation and acceptance that other country-VCAs have? My personal opinion is that they have been laggards, unable to establish credibility in the industry. I would love to hear your expert’s opinion.
Sincerely
Subrata
Hi Subrata: Thanks for writing in. IVCA started off with good intentions and even undertook a few surveys on PE/VC investments in India. Those surveys are perhaps the most comprehensive sources of data on the Indian PE/VC industry. Unfortunately, continuity has always been a problem with IVCA. And that actually is a relection of the PE/VC industry’s own commitment to working together to address common issues. I think it is also a factor of the industry being very young still, it is still taking shape and something like the US NVCA may come about in another 5-10 years. Finally, Nasscom succeeded because one or two people made it their mission. In PE/VC we don’t have that yet, and that’s probably because they don’t have as much to fight for as Nasscom did. Hope that helps.
Hi Snigdha,
Pretty intriguing stories you have got up there.
We are a mumbai based startup in the mobile learning segment to be precise to be specific after the launch of mad on the 30th of may.
Do visit us here
Regards,
Divyesh.
Director – mobility
Cofounder – Delta Technologies
Hi Divyesh, Thanks for writing. Will visit. Thanks for the link.
Hey Snigdha,
Tried contacting you earlier on twitter but i was caught with something so could not take the conversation ahead.
We are working on creating a platform focused on Indian Entrepreneurs.
On creation of an online magazine focused on Indian entreprenuers. The magazine will be the first focused platform of its kind and will be launched by end August.
YourStory proposes to profile the achievements of entrepreneurs detailing their personal lives,motivations,ambitions and their business model in an effort to build a community centered around entreprenurialism. Eventually the magazine aims to evolve into an involved forum that connects business leaders, entrepreneurs, start ups, financial institutions, aspiring entrepreneurs, students and media.
I was wondering if you could help us connect to some of the entrepreneurs,that would be great.
I cudnt get a better place to connect to u .Twitter only give 140 letters.
Hi Snigdha
Saw your Blog about Rentimental.com
Am one of the co-founders and I appreciate the honest comments about Venture.
The whole journey ( A short one) has been a roller-coaster ride.
Can share the same with you.
You could get in touch with me at 022-3216 2266
+91 98215 06923 or shubham@rentimental.com
Regards
Shubham Rai
Co-founder & Director
Munificent Ventures Pvt. Ltd
+91 98215 06923
022-3216 2266
Hi Snigdha,
Good information. Since long I have been contemplating to invest in a PE or/and VC Fund. Currently there is one PE Fund of Milestone which is open to subscription with relatively low ticket size. I was wondering if you could throw some light/opinion on it as to if it is worth investing. People have been telling me that instead of locking up my funds for a long tenure (it is 5 yrs for this fund) I should rather pick up good Large Cap shares which will give similar returns with liquidity. Especially now when markets offer good opportunity to invest.
I am also very keen and excited about investing in VC and have been subscribing to ‘Indian Investment Network (IIN)’ and TATA NEN Hottest startup site in search of a good investment in a reliable VC Fund.
I would be glad if you could suggest some good names who accept retail subscription of a reasonable ticket size.
But primarily, I would like to know your opinion whether to opt for PE Fund/VC Fund or invest in equity directly at this point of time.
Awaiting your views.
Best,
Prakash
Hi Prakash,
Thanks for writing in. Most PE and VC funds are not open to retail investors. You need to have a certain net worth, which is quite high, to invest in one. There are a couple of funds, such as Future Ventures, which are in the pipeline and plan to raise money from retail investors via an IPO. However, in my opinion, retail investors should not invest in a PE or VC fund. The risks associated with such investments are much higher and more complex than investing in the stock of a listed company, for instance. Further, retail investors do not have the skills required to take bets on such investments.
Thanks for a prompt response and views. I appreciate your opinion but would like to point out some facts. a) I was referring to PE Funds which are open to investors. Milestone is one such fund which is accepting investment from Retail Investors at ticket size of 10 Lacs for it’s debut PE Fund (with a focus on Education and Healthcare). They already have 2 more funds which are Real Estate based and headed by Ved Prakash Arya (ex-Kshitij fame).
I also hear that IDFC too is coming out with it’s PE Fund (with a focus on infrastructure) with a ticket size of 25 Lacs which is also open to Retail investors.
I would specifically like to know your opinion in respect of these PE Funds which are open to retail investors. I do understand that they carry high risk but if they give a higher return too (Milestone’s expected IRR is 30%) in line with risk then do you feel they can be considered against investing in equities ?
Also I slightly differ on what you have mentioned that retail investors do not have skills required to take bets. In my opinion it is like investing in a MF where fund manager and his team takes the call. Similarly in a PE fund too it is not retail investor’s skill but it’s fund manager & his team to decide on investments. So how does it differ from MF (ofcourse not taking into account high risk, lock in etc) ?
Specially in light of fact that I already have exposures in Art Fund & Reat Estate Funds which are similar and in line of PE Funds.
Also I would like to know generally what percentage of the total asset should ideally be allocated to such funds individually as well as collectively.
Hi Prakash, I’m not an investment advisor and don’t have the skills to tell you what percentage of your assets should be allocated to what asset group. Suggest you try talking to a professional investment consultant. Also, will not be able to comment on the specific funds that you mention. All the best.
Hi Snigdha,
I thought since you have quite deep knowledge about the PE/VC Funds, you may be in a position to guide me. I appreciate your views.
Thanks.
Hi,
This blog was recommended to me by someone who wrote for BusinessWorld – Mohit Malik. He said I should check it out and write in to you because I’ve started my own website for good quality seconds called http://www.seconddealnsteal.com six months ago and I’m on the look out for wacky, smart marketing ideas to increase my database. I would appreciate it if people checked the site out and used it and if people reading this blog helped me out as well. Starting this site was a labour of love but one can’t totally neglect how much money needs to be poured in to make anything work! I’ve talked about thtis on my blog called http://www.writtenpath.blogspot.com as well. Do get people to help me via your blog…
Hi Snighda
Excellent information. Well, I’m still a student pursuing my graduation and also am an investor and invest a couple of thosands in teeny weeny startups. CurrentIy I came across this startup called http://www.blogertize.in , seems to be a very unconventional venture but have been in news recently. I also came across an interview of the owner of this site on digg – some Bhatia fellow.
The business model looks strong in a longer term. What do you think about the same? The story I came across claims that this Indian startup has earned $27,000 within 3 months of launch. Right time to invest in it or do think it’ll go bust in longer term
Ashish
I forgot to give my contact id, please contact me on sneha@jobeehive.com
also You can contact me if you need any information on layoffs across the sectors and any info about different companies.
Sneh