Like most startups, we started off with a key set of insights and assumptions. In the past one year, we have been able to zero in on the steps, in terms of the activities of the hub, the In50hrs event and the resident and accelerator programmes. Since we’ve gotten to run at least one cycle with all of them, there is a lot more clarity in terms of where to head next. We seem to be on the right track.

Can you share details on your primary revenue channels?

As a business, we put ourselves through the same lens that we put our companies through. We have been revenue positive this year and are operationally profitable. I think that is all there is to be said for now. We really justify our existence when some of our companies make it big. Surviving isn’t a goal really. The sooner we can get our companies to succeed, the sooner we reach our goals – simple as that.

What has been the experience with the resident programme so far, in terms of, A) the success rate of graduating residents, B) the availability of mentors on a consistent basis, C) the quality of resident teams both in terms of ideas and execution capabilities, and D) the buy-in from the investor community?

A) About 50 per cent of our residents seem to be graduating as of now. About 25 per cent of the other half seem to be joining the 50 per cent graduating teams, and another 25 per cent are going off in search of another idea. That’s roughly around the split that we anticipated.

B) This has worked out better than we anticipated. What we didn’t anticipate however was how much cross-learning would happen between teams. Even without mentors in the room, in terms of execution and knowledge, the teams seem to have a very open and transparent means to learn from each other, and that’s been quite surprising.

C) The focus of the resident programme is to convert an idea into a market tested product, following the Lean Startup methodology. The focus of  the accelerator is to build a startup around the product. So, while we get to hear some amazing ideas, we also know we are betting on the entrepreneur and that the idea is a test to how out-of-the-box they can think and connect the dots in the market. We are fairly confident and they seem to be proving that if the idea doesn’t work, they can churn out another equally good one and go after it. No surprises there.

D) You can see from the list of VC logos on the site that we have been quite blessed by the investor ecosystem. Having some reputation of working with the startup ecosystem, adds to it, but in a typical month we have between four and five VC firms and angels drop in, spend time with the teams, and show interest in taking them forward. While we do think that the first cheque that these teams need will be from an angel investor, and not just money, but also mind share, the VCs so far have been quite supportive.

What percentage of the applicants for the resident programme are from Chennai?

While we expected most or all of the applications to come from Chennai, so far it has been surprising. About 40 per cent of our applications are usually from Chennai. The rest seems to be coming from other cities. Hyderabad and Bangalore being the most, and we also seem to get a few applications from the north.

Do you plan to expand the resident programme in your second year? What would be the likely scope of expansion?

Absolutely. To be honest, teams hate to hear that they have qualified for the resident programme rather than the accelerator, but given the statistics shared earlier, it makes more sense for the entrepreneur, the investor and TSC to go through that market validation phase through the resident programme, rather than post an investment phase. One thing we did this year was that we switched from quarterly intakes to monthly intakes. We were having issues figuring out when schools and folks in the corporate world transition and unlike the US, there is no clear, winter or fall timelines here, so we decided to uncomplicate things and do monthly intakes. So far the response to that has been very positive.

What is the current status on the accelerator programme ? Will you scale up activities this year?

We are doing a batch every six months. The next one will open up in August. We got close to 170 applications last year. We wanted to take it slow and took on one team. We made offers to two teams but closed with one. Like every process and machinery, it is good to start these things slow, and we are also setting our processes in place. We anticipate we will work with anywhere between 10 and 15 teams in the year to come.

Are there plans to take TSC to more Indian cities? How many and what is the likely schedule?

Very much so. We get some very angry mails from entrepreneurs asking why the bias towards Chennai, and the kolaveri that goes along with it. I guess we are going to have to deliver on those expectations at some point, but with that expectation also comes a certain responsibility to deliver on promises. In the next two years, the hope is that we can expand to two more cities. Pune and Bangalore are on that list for now, followed by Delhi and one more city.

What were the key challenges that TSC faced over the past year?

Typically, all accelerators are backed by a fund of some sort, and with that comes the trap of management fees and fund returns. It all goes back to the same old cycle. To garner higher management fees, you will end up raising a bigger fund, and soon enough you’ll realize you don’t want to do early stage anymore. While the investment community borrows its thesis from Silicon Valley, we realize that it is going to be much different model here and in order to unearth it, we have to experiment with a lot of models and break down a lot of here say. Part of the team’s focus and internal discussions were around that.

What have been the TSC team’s three most interesting lessons about the startup ecosystem from the past year?

It’s the fact that the world is becoming more flat by the day. You don’t need to be sitting in Silicon Valley to be building a Rovio (makers of the wildly popular online game Angry Birds) anymore. There are plenty of startups that have built games or applications and have a million plus users – that would have been unheard a few years ago – in the kind of budget that these teams are talking about. Along with it also has come the maturity in a lot of entrepreneurs and in some cases confidence, in some cases arrogance to take on the world – but then, the line in between is blurred right? A lot of angel investors and incubators think that entrepreneurs are under-resourced. That’s not at all the case.

What are the major gaps that still remain to be addressed in the support ecosystem for young startups?

If you ask entrepreneurs, they’d say that they would love to be valued the same way their peers in the Valley. But that aside, a very clear-cut exit strategy has been lacking, and that is one of the reasons why angel investors always hesitated with investments. But, we also notice that a lot of middle and senior management teams are coming into the picture and pitching not just money, but also the corridor to the Valley and making some connections happen. If we can build a billion dollar business out of India, the smart entrepreneurs will find the way to follow on that trail and it’s just a matter of time.

Image Courtesy: Vijay Anand