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Drones, Digital Sky, Roundtables & Public Goods

This is a guest post by Dewang Gala and Vishal Pardeshi (Pigeon Innovative).

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV’s)/ Drones have been making a buzz all over the world. Drones in the past have been looked at as a threat in various countries. The public perception towards drones has been very different in the past and has been changing over the past few years when people have been able to see the real benefits that this technology can offer. However, there is a need for a regulatory body to avoid the misuse of drones.

India is one of the key markets where the future growth of drone technologies is likely to emerge. India’s drone market expected to grow $885.7 mn and drones market in the world will reach $16.1 billion by 2021. Thus this market will create lots of employment opportunities and help our nation’s economy grow. Just like how the Information technology sector flourished in India increasing its contribution to the Indian GDP from 1.2% in 1998 to 7.7% in 2017, the Indian drone industry shows a similar promise.

How can drones contribute to the public good in India?

Previously, drones were an area of interest for defense sector only, but in past decade drones have been able to come into the public and commercial space where they have been able to take high definition photos, map a large area in a short time, calculate crop health, spray pesticides, inspect man-made structure which would be difficult or unsafe while doing it traditionally, play a crucial role during natural calamities to save lives, deliver goods and medicines.

Countries like Rwanda have allowed a full network of drones in their airspace which has helped save lives with the delivery of medical supplies. The company operating there initially had a huge challenge to convince people that the drones were meant for good and the company did not have the intention to spy on them. Once the people of Rwanda saw that these drones could save lives, a whole network of drones emerged across the country. Imagine the impact it would create across different industries in India if we accept and embrace this technology and have regulations in place for its safe usage. The upsurge of new drone-based innovative companies is a positive sign of India heading towards becoming a global leader in this field.

India is a high potential market, still entrepreneurs and businessman in this sector experience oblivion. This is because a few years back drones were completely banned in India as a perceived threat and now steps have been taken in Drone regulation 1.0 to get the industry moving forward. Though there are many roadblocks for the regulations to be in full force as it tries to bring together multiple agencies, the good part of it is that government understands that they lack the necessary skills set to create regulation and is willing to take help from the existing players to contribute in making the regulation more robust and user friendly.

What can be the public goods in the drone industry and why do we need them?

Paul A Samuelson is usually credited as the first economist to develop the theory of public goods. But what exactly is public goods?
A good which is:

  • Non-excludable – it is costly or impossible for one user to exclude others from using a good.
  • Non-rivalrous – when one person uses a good, it does not prevent others from using it.
  • Indivisible – one cannot divide public goods for personal use only.

Traffic lights, roads, street lights, etc. are examples of public goods. With the seamless possibilities that drones can offer, it makes sense to have public goods defined for this sector.

Imagine a future where airspace is accessible to everyone, where we have defined drone ports and air corridors which will allow smooth and safe operation of the drones. A lot of industries can benefit from it. Creating public goods will also allow more people to participate in the system thus increasing the size of the pie. If everybody in the system starts feeling comfortable with the operation of drones in the open skies then we could fundamentally transform the way we do things.

Who should be responsible for creating public goods?

Although classical economic theory suggests public goods will not be provided by a free market. But in a market like India, where the market is neither free nor regulatory, groups of individuals or organization can come together to voluntarily help government bodies to provide public goods in this market. For example, DigitalSky platform is a software initiative developed by the joint effort of iSPIRT and the government, working towards creating an online platform for registration of drones and obtaining permission for its operation, with a vision of making it paperless and presence-less.

There is tremendous scope for innovation and improvement in this sector. In the case of public goods, no firms will find it profitable to produce these goods because they can be enjoyed for free once they are provided and they cannot prevent this from happening. To provide these goods then, we either rely on governments or private organizations which volunteer to work on these issues.

The growth in India’s drone market would be primarily driven by the proactive initiative of existing players who will lay the foundation of this market in India. Thus DICE and iSPIRT have taken an initiative and are spreading awareness through round table sessions.

Round table sessions organized by DICE and iSPIRT serve as a platform where drone based entrepreneurs come together and think towards growing this industry by creating a model that benefits everyone in the system. The aim is to create a win-win situation in B2B and B2G.

The round table primarily serves two purposes:

  1. To enable strategic partnerships between companies and encouraging companies to contribute to public goods.
  2. Bridging the gap between the companies and the government.

Behavioral economics suggests that individuals can have motivations other than just money.

For example, People may volunteer to contribute to local flood defenses out of a sense of civic pride, peer pressure or genuine altruism.

Even if we have a narrow self-interest point of view we have to understand that voluntarily helping government bodies in tackling and solving the issues in drone rules and regulation will in turn help this market to flourish. And companies or individual contributors will have an underlying first mover advantage. So it’s important to act proactively to help the government to create regulation on your futuristic business model. It’s our job to demonstrate government that business can be done safely with a minimum amount of agreeable risk. Working together will not only accelerate the pace at which the regulations are implemented but also ensure that India takes away a big slice of the $100bn drone market. [5]

How does the future look like?

If you have ever seen the cartoon “The Jetsons” from the 1990’s you can already imagine what the future could look like. We are in an era where we can clearly automation and AI takes over mundane and laborious tasks at an exponential rate. The computers around us today are becoming powerful with each day. It can be witnessed that today it has become much easier to survive and it isn’t hard to survive as it used to be back in the days. We are not too far from the singularity where machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence. Thus we should have an environment where we can ensure that the technology is exploratory and exploitation is avoided.

Technology doesn’t happen on its own, people work together to make those imaginations/dreams a reality. We can already see Proof of concept (POC) of drone deliveries, drone taxis, and other futuristic applications. Who knows what else could we have with us in the next decade. Imagine a future where you would own your own personalised autonomous flying vehicle which takes you to your desired place with just the press of a button. You would have mid-air fueling stations which would enable you to drive without having ever to touch the land. Millions of smaller sized drones would be able to deliver products within minutes just like the internet today delivers information. Drones would become smaller and smaller and nanotechnology will enable us to overcome the limitations we see in drones today. Many other applications will rise up as we start working towards.

If you have any suggestions/solutions/ideas on how the system can be made better you can definitely become a part of iSPIRT / DICE India and write to us on [email protected] or [email protected] and also become a part of the round table.

 

1-Mar Drones & the Digital Sky PlaybookRT for Bharat Entrepreneurs

The govt recently launched Digital Sky – an enabling platform for Drones. With the new regulations, who will be the winners and who will lose? What is the best long-term winning play for your startup? Join other companies and the iSPIRT team behind Digital Sky in our playbook roundtable to know more.

Click to Register for the DigitalSky playbookRT. (limited invites)

Our Maven

Tanuj Bhojwani

iSPIRT Foundation

 

 

 

This is a product startup founder/CXO (+1) invite-only events. Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation of your registration.

RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme. All iSPIRT playbooks are Pro-bono, Closed room, Founder (+1), invite-only sessions. The only thing we require is a strong commitment to attend the sessions completely and to come prepared, to be open to learning & unlearning, and to share your context within a trusted environment. All key learnings are public goods & the sessions are governed by the Chatham House Rule.

16-Mar AI/ML & Data Readiness Teardown Roundtable

iSPIRT is announcing the first AI Teardown roundtables. The focus of this first teardown RT will be an honest review of the data readiness for your machine learning strategy.

The AI Teardown Agenda

Of the many problems startups on the AI/ML journey face one of the most critical is with their data readiness.

Most startups on the AI journey struggle to get sufficient data to build effective ML models. Further, data privacy has increased the complexity of sharing data, which now resides in distant silos. While internal proprietary data is a rich source of patterns, often times it is incomplete.

This teardown roundtable will primarily focus on helping founders resolve many of the queries like:

  • Do I have the right data?
  • How can I source/collect more data to get completeness?
  • How to clean & prepare data for training?
  • How much data do I really need?
  • Are we using the right model/algorithm?
  • Do I have a virtuous cycle of data in my product?

If you are a B2B SaaS startup in the early phases of building an AI-enabled product value then this playbookRT will be a great opportunity to get critical feedback and resolve many queries from our Mavens and fellow peers.

Click to Register for the AI Teardown PlaybooksRT. (limited invites)

Our Mavens

 

 

 

 

 

Ramesh Loganathan IIIT Hyderabad

Shrikanth Jagannathan PipeCandy

Puneet Jindal Eduwaive Foundation

 

This is a product startup founder/CXO (+1) invite-only events. Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation of your registration.

RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme. All iSPIRT playbooks are Pro-bono, Closed room, Founder (+1), invite-only sessions. The only thing we require is a strong commitment to attend the sessions completely and to come prepared, to be open to learning & unlearning, and to share your context within a trusted environment. All key learnings are public goods & the sessions are governed by the Chatham House Rule.

9-Mar AI/ML & Data Readiness Teardown Roundtable

iSPIRT is announcing the first AI Teardown roundtables. The focus of this first teardown RT will be an honest review of the data readiness for your machine learning strategy.

The AI Teardown Agenda

Of the many problems startups on the AI/ML journey face one of the most critical is with their data readiness.

Most startups on the AI journey struggle to get sufficient data to build effective ML models. Further, data privacy has increased the complexity of sharing data, which now resides in distant silos. While internal proprietary data is a rich source of patterns, often times it is incomplete.

This teardown roundtable will primarily focus on helping founders resolve many of the queries like:

  • Do I have the right data?
  • How can I source/collect more data to get completeness?
  • How to clean & prepare data for training?
  • How much data do I really need?
  • Are we using the right model/algorithm?
  • Do I have a virtuous cycle of data in my product?

If you are a B2B SaaS startup in the early phases of building an AI-enabled product value then this playbookRT will be a great opportunity to get critical feedback and resolve many queries from our Mavens and fellow peers.

Click to Register for the AI Teardown PlaybooksRT. (limited invites)

If you are interested in the 16-Mar Hyderabad roundtable click here.

Our Mavens

 

 

 

 

 

Adarsh Natarajan Aindra

Shrikanth Jagannathan PipeCandy

Puneet Jindal Eduwaive Foundation

 

This is a product startup founder/CXO (+1) invite-only events. Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation of your registration.

RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme. All iSPIRT playbooks are Pro-bono, Closed room, Founder (+1), invite-only sessions. The only thing we require is a strong commitment to attend the sessions completely and to come prepared, to be open to learning & unlearning, and to share your context within a trusted environment. All key learnings are public goods & the sessions are governed by the Chatham House Rule.

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A Platform is in the Eye of the Beholder

The distinction between whether you are building a platform or a product should be made primarily to align your internal stakeholders to a particular strategic direction, as we learned in the recent iSPIRT round table.

[This is a guest post By Ben Merton]

“So are we a platform, or are we a product?” I said last month to my co-founder, Lakshman, as we put the finishing touches to our new website.

We’d been discussing the same question for about a year. The subject now bore all the characteristics of something unpleasant that refuses to flush.

However, the pressure had mounted. We now had to commit something to the menu bar.

“I think we’re a product.”

“But we want to be a platform.”

“Okay, let’s put platform then…But isn’t it a little pretentious to claim you’re a platform when you’re not?”

Eventually, we agreed to a feeble compromise: we were building a platform, made up of products.

Job done.

At least, that is, until #SaaSBoomi in Chennai last month.

Manav Garg, who has considerably more experience than both me and Lakshman at building platforms, put up the following slide:

Product = Solving a specific problem or use case

Platform = Solving multiple problems on a common infrastructure

“Here we go again”, I could hear Lakshman say to himself after I Whatsapped him the image.

“That’s his definition. It doesn’t have to be ours,” he replied tersely, “What does he mean by ‘use case’, anyway?”

“I don’t know.”

I’m in awe of the entrepreneurs who seem to bypass these semantic quandaries.

You know, the ones who say stuff like “Stop thinking so much. Just sell stuff. Make customers happy.”

For me, these are the type of questions I need to chew over for hours in bed at night.

I was therefore excited to be invited to the iSPIRT round table at EGL last week, where the topic of discussion was “Transform B2B SaaS with #PlatformThinking”. The roundtable was facilitated by iSPIRT mavens Avlesh Singh, Shivku Ganesan & Sampad Swain.

It takes a lot to get 20 tech founders & their leaders to travel after work from all over the city to sit in a room for three hours with no alcohol.  Fortunately, the organisers had promised a lot.  The topic description was:  

“Enable a suite of products, high interoperability, and seamless data flow for customers. This peer-learning playbookRT will help product to platform thinkers develop an effective journey through this transformation” was the topic description.”

The meeting was governed by Chatham House rules, meaning we can’t discuss the name or affiliation of those involved.

However, along with our founder mavens of large, well-known Indian technology businesses, there were 15 or so less illustrious but equally enthusiastic founders (& their +1s), including myself.

The discussions started with an overview of the experiences and lessons that had been learned by some of those who had successfully built a platform.

“We define a use case as a configuration of APIs…” the founder of a cloud communication platform started. This was going to be interesting.

“Why did you define it that way?” I asked.

“Based on observations of our business.”

I began to understand that the term ‘use case’ was being used differently by platform and product companies.  

“A use case of a platform is usually tangential but complementary to the core business. A use case for a product is something that just solves a problem,” someone clarified, guaranteeing me a slightly more restful night.

As the discussions continued, it also became clear that there were a large number of possible markers that distinguish a platform from a product, but there was no agreement on the exact composition.

To resolve the impasse, we listed out the names of well-known technology companies to build a consensus on whether they were a platform or a product.

Suffice to say, we failed to reach any consensus.  The conversation went something like this:

“Stripe?”

“Platform.”

“Product.”

“A suite of products.”

“AirBNB?”

“A marketplace.”

“A marketplace built on a platform.”

Etc etc

Even companies that initially appeared to be dyed-in-the-wool platforms like Segment and Zapier eventually had someone or the other questioning the underlying assumptions.

“Why can’t they be products?” murmured voices of dissent at the back of the room.

This was going nowhere. A few people sought solace from the cashew nuts that had been placed on conference table in front of us.

“Does the customer care whether you’re a product or a platform?” someone said.

Finally, something everyone could agree on. The customer doesn’t care.  Your product or platform just needs to solve a problem for them.

“Then why does any of this matter at all?” became the obvious next question.

“I found it mattered hugely in setting the direction of the company, especially for the engineering and design teams,” the Co-Founder of a large payment gateway said.

“And investors?”

“Yes, of course. And investors. However, I think the biggest impact that our decision to build a platform had on my business was in the design more than anything else,” he explained, “For the engineering team, it was just a question of ‘we need this to integrate with this’. But the UX/UI and the…language… needed to be thought about very carefully because of this decision.”

“So, in effect, the platform/product debate is primarily a proxy for the cultural direction of the company?”

“Exactly.”

Logically, therefore, the only way you can really understand whether a company is a platform or a product is to have an insight into the direction its management wishes to take it.

A company might appear to be a product from the outside but, since it intends to evolve into a platform, it needs to start aligning its internal stakeholders to this evolution much earlier.

“So, a startup like mine should call itself a platform even if we are years away from actually being one?” I asked cautiously after I had enough time to process these insights.

“Yes,” was the resounding, satisfying response that virtually guaranteed me a full night’s sleep.

“And when should the actual transition from product to platform happen?”

“Well, Jason Lemkin says it should happen only when your ARR reaches USD 15m-20m, but that’s just another of those rules that doesn’t apply in India,” the co-founder of a marketing automation software said.

“The important thing is that this transition – when it does happen – is very hard for businesses,” he continued, “There is a lot of risk, but it opens up new revenue streams, helps you scale and build a moat.  We hugely benefited from our decision to become a platform, but it was tough.”

It’s unlikely that we completely resolved the product vs platform debate for all founders. However, I feel that all of us came away from that meeting with a deeper insight into the subject.

Ultimately, whether you’re building a product or a platform will depend on your perspective. Most companies lie somewhere in between.

Where does your company lie on this sliding scale? And if that makes you a platform vs. a product, does it make any difference to the way you think?

We want to thank Techstars India for hosting the first of the roundtables on this critical topic.

Ben Merton

Ben is a Co-Founder of Unifize, a B2B SaaS company that builds a communication platform for manufacturing and engineering teams. He is also a contributor for various publications on business, technology and entrepreneurship, including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Business Standard. You can follow him on LinkedIn here, and Twitter here.

© Ben Merton 2018

Featured Image: Source: https://filosofiadavidadiaria.blogspot.com/2018/01/o-principio-mistico-da-verdadeira-causa.html

31-Jan Transforming to Platform Products B2B SaaS PlaybookRT

Traditionally, how many Indian SAAS companies have managed to become platforms so far? Very few.

Customers needs are changing as they seek more flexibility to use their data to solve a wide range of business problems. They prefer a suite of tools instead of buying multiple single point products. For SaaS startups, the way to compete with larger incumbents like a salesforce is not by doing another better CRM product, but by being a better AI-enabled platform which is based on interoperability across a gamut of systems.

Startups building platforms to enable collaboration with partners and solving a comprehensive customer problem will disrupt those building piecemeal products. This playbook will help product to platform thinkers develop an effective journey through this transformation.

If you are a SaaS startup that is ready to embark or already started on the platform approach, this playbookRT will be a great forum for sharing & learning from our Mavens and peers on the challenges and focus areas.

Click to Register for the Platform Products PlaybooksRT. (limited invites)

Our Mavens

Avlesh Singh, Founder WebEngage

There’s been a significant difference in the way we build our product now. We have unlocked a lot of value by converting ourselves into a platform from being a tool.

 

 

Shivku Ganesan, Founder Exotel

The platform approach allows us to differentiate use cases from products.

 

 

This is a product startup founder/CXO (+1) invite-only events. Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation of your registration.

RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme. All iSPIRT playbooks are Pro-bono, Closed room, Founder (+1), invite-only sessions. The only thing we require is a strong commitment to attend the sessions completely and to come prepared, to be open to learning & unlearning, and to share your context within a trusted environment. All key learnings are public goods & the sessions are governed by the Chatham House Rule.

4-Dec Unlock Bharat Market Using IndiaStack (Delhi)

India has leapfrogged the rest of the world by creating ‘India Stack’, a technology stack consisting of open APIs launched by the Govt of India. The idea is that established and startup enterprises can use these APIs to build innovative solutions focused on improving access to services for the general population.

This is creating a huge impact on what has been referred to Bharat #2 or India #2. This is an audacious effort. It requires alignment and creation of entire value chain such wholesale capital availability, removal of regulation cholesterol, platform, reference implementation & pilots. As part of the session, You can also gain deeper insights into the application of India Stack and potential solutions for E – Sign, United Payment Interface, Good Services Tax, RBI’s Public Credit Registry, Dronestack for Agriculture Lending and Bharat Bill Payment Service as part of this exciting Digital Transformational Journey, that has the power to transform the way we function as a nation.

If you are a startup in the fintech & other sectors and are committed to the goal of tech-enabled financial inclusion for the Unlocking Bharat Market. 

Click to Register Now. (Limited invites, Open for All)

Our Maven

Praveen Hari

iSPIRT Foundation

 

 

 

This is a product startup founder/CXO (+1) invite-only events. Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation of your registration.

RoundTables & Learning Sessions are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme. All iSPIRT playbooks are Pro-bono, Closed room, Founder (+1), invite-only sessions. The only thing we require is a strong commitment to attend the full session completely, and to come prepared, to be open to learning & unlearning, and to share your context within a trusted environment. All key learnings are public goods & the sessions are governed by the Chatham House Rule.

8-Dec Digital Lending PlaybookRT for Bharat Entrepreneurs

With the maturity and large-scale adoption of digital payments & UPI, GST,  and an upcoming public credit registry, there is a unique opportunity to re-imagine credit products for Bharat MSMEs like never before. The digitization is set to generate significant value, moving from the traditional asset-based lending to flow based lending. Join us for an interactive roundtable on what is required for this transformation?

Click to Register for the Digital Lending playbookRT. (limited invites)

Our Maven

Praveen Hari

iSPIRT Foundation

 

 

This is a product startup founder/CXO (+1) invite-only events. Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation of your registration.

RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme. All iSPIRT playbooks are Pro-bono, Closed room, Founder (+1), invite-only sessions. The only thing we require is a strong commitment to attend the sessions completely and to come prepared, to be open to learning & unlearning, and to share your context within a trusted environment. All key learnings are public goods & the sessions are governed by the Chatham House Rule.

4-Dec Drones & the Digital Sky PlaybookRT for Bharat Entrepreneurs

The govt is soon to launch Digital Sky – an enabling platform for Drones. With the new regulations, who will be the winners and who will lose? What is the best long-term winning play for your startup? Join other companies and the iSPIRT team behind Digital Sky in our playbook roundtable to know more.

Click to Register for the DigitalSky playbookRT. (limited invites)

Our Maven

Tanuj Bhojwani

iSPIRT Foundation

 

 

 

This is a product startup founder/CXO (+1) invite-only events. Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation of your registration.

RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme. All iSPIRT playbooks are Pro-bono, Closed room, Founder (+1), invite-only sessions. The only thing we require is a strong commitment to attend the sessions completely and to come prepared, to be open to learning & unlearning, and to share your context within a trusted environment. All key learnings are public goods & the sessions are governed by the Chatham House Rule.

17-Dec Developing Strategic Partnerships for B2B SaaS PlaybookRT

How is developing partnerships different from selling to customers? What are the Dos & Dont’s? What can you expect on this journey? Get inspired by direct insights from CloudCherry’s experience on building partnerships with companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Nielsen, Salesforce and more. Interact with founders on this critical aspect of building partnerships for growth & scale. The partnerships playbook will help clarify these and other deeper questions on building Deep Strategic Partnerships.

We are building a new cohort of 20 startups for our Potential Strategic Partnerships program. If you are interested to be part of the cohort this playbookRT is a requirement.

Click to Register for the Strategic Partnerships Playbooks Track. (limited invites)

Our Maven

 

Vinod Muthukrishnan

Founder CloudCherry

 

 

This is a product startup founder/CXO (+1) invite-only events. Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation of your registration.

RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme. All iSPIRT playbooks are Pro-bono, Closed room, Founder (+1), invite-only sessions. The only thing we require is a strong commitment to attend the sessions completely and to come prepared, to be open to learning & unlearning, and to share your context within a trusted environment. All key learnings are public goods & the sessions are governed by the Chatham House Rule.

24-Nov Deep Strategic Partnerships PlaybookRT In Bangalore

Strategic Partnerships is one of the 3 shifts for SaaS, and Vijay Rayapati provided very grounded insights on partnership building at SaaSx5. One of the takeaways was that pitching to a strategic partner is very different than pitching to an investor or even to a customer.

The partnership mindset is different from sales, says Abhishek. Come, join us to learn ‘How do you change your perspective from acquiring customers to cultivating partners? Why partnerships are critical? What are the tangible and intangible outcomes?’ The partnerships playbook will help clarify these and other deeper questions on building Deep Strategic Partnerships.

We are building a new cohort of 20 startups for our Potential Strategic Partnerships program. If you are interested to be part of the cohort this playbookRT is a requirement.

Click to Register for the Strategic Partnerships Playbooks Track. (limited invites)

Our Maven

 

Abhishek Kumar

Founder ToneTag

 

 

This is a product startup founder/CXO (+1) invite-only events. Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation of your registration.

RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme. All iSPIRT playbooks are pro-bono, closed room, founder-level (+1), invite-only sessions. The only thing we require is a strong commitment to attend the sessions completely and to come prepared, to be open to learning & unlearning, and to share your context within a trusted environment. All key learnings are public goods & the sessions are governed by the Chatham House Rule.

Guiding the customer “Wow” journey from Discovery → Signup → Onboarding for SaaS Startups – Product teardown roundtables (Bangalore)

 

This set of PlaybookRT will focus on “Guiding the customer journey from Discovery to Signup & Onboarding – for SaaS Startups“.  We start the new year, post Diwali, with a set of Product Teardown PlaybookRT. These teardowns are being planned for all our startup cities in quick succession (see schedule below). We will begin with a teardown RT in Chennai which will be facilitated by Suresh Sambandan (KiSSFLOW), Bharat Balasubramanian (FreshWorks).

Apply to get your slot here.

SaaS is awesome – you can build a real business with a small team sitting in India serving customers all over the world, turning in real profits and growing real fast. To get your SAAS revenue and growth engine running, you need to find a product fit with a good market, and ensure that your website and marketing convey the right message. With a few things like integrations, marketplaces and email marketing figured out, you can hit an awesome growth rate without having to spend tonnes of money on hiring an army of sales-people.
In this playbook, we look at how to get your messaging right, and building a website and signup/on-boarding flow that converts with very little human intervention. This roundtable would begin with a deep dive into the company’s Idea, Discovery Process and navigate through the Landing Page, Sign Up, and its “Wow” experience. The format of the playbook is built around quick 10 minute demos, followed by peer-feedback moderated by SAAS founders & experts who have already built successful SAAS businesses.

Registration and Pricing

If you are keen to attend this RoundTable, do let us know by filling in your details here. We will confirm your seat subject to availability. All RoundTables are conducted pro-bono. They only payment you have to make is to provide your undivided attention and active involvement in the process. Playbook-RoundTables are a dialogue and there’s no monologue. None!

Teardown Roundtable Schedule (tentative)

City Date Time Venue
Teardown RT in Chennai 4-Nov-2017 (Sat)  11am – 4pm  TBC
Teardown RT in Bangalore 11-Nov-2017 (Sat)  TBD
Teardown RT in Delhi 18-Nov-2017 (Sat)  TBD
Teardown RT in Hyderabad 25-Nov-2017 (Sat)  TBD
Teardown RT in Pune 2-Dec-2017 (Sat)  TBD
Teardown RT in Mumbai TBD


Notes

These are founder invite only events. Date, Time & Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation.

Playbook-RoundTable is one of the most sought after community events of iSPIRT. It’s a gathering of 12 like-minded product startups who are beyond the early stage. RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme.

Guiding the customer “Wow” journey from Discovery → Signup → Onboarding for SaaS Startups – Product teardown roundtables (Delhi)

This set of PlaybookRT will focus on “Guiding the customer journey from Discovery to Signup & Onboarding – for SaaS Startups“.  We start the new year, post Diwali, with a set of Product Teardown PlaybookRT. These teardowns are being planned for all our startup cities in quick succession (see schedule below). We will begin with a teardown RT in Chennai which will be facilitated by Suresh Sambandan (KiSSFLOW), Bharat Balasubramanian (FreshWorks).

Apply to get your slot here.

SaaS is awesome – you can build a real business with a small team sitting in India serving customers all over the world, turning in real profits and growing real fast. To get your SAAS revenue and growth engine running, you need to find a product fit with a good market, and ensure that your website and marketing convey the right message. With a few things like integrations, marketplaces and email marketing figured out, you can hit an awesome growth rate without having to spend tonnes of money on hiring an army of sales-people.
In this playbook, we look at how to get your messaging right, and building a website and signup/on-boarding flow that converts with very little human intervention. This roundtable would begin with a deep dive into the company’s Idea, Discovery Process and navigate through the Landing Page, Sign Up, and its “Wow” experience. The format of the playbook is built around quick 10 minute demos, followed by peer-feedback moderated by SAAS founders & experts who have already built successful SAAS businesses.

Registration and Pricing

If you are keen to attend this RoundTable, do let us know by filling in your details here. We will confirm your seat subject to availability. All RoundTables are conducted pro-bono. They only payment you have to make is to provide your undivided attention and active involvement in the process. Playbook-RoundTables are a dialogue and there’s no monologue. None!

Teardown Roundtable Schedule (tentative)

City Date Time Venue
Teardown RT in Chennai 4-Nov-2017 (Sat)  11am – 4pm  TBC
Teardown RT in Bangalore 11-Nov-2017 (Sat)  TBD
Teardown RT in Delhi 18-Nov-2017 (Sat)  TBD
Teardown RT in Hyderabad 25-Nov-2017 (Sat)  TBD
Teardown RT in Pune 2-Dec-2017 (Sat)  TBD
Teardown RT in Mumbai TBD


Notes

These are founder invite only events. Date, Time & Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation.

Playbook-RoundTable is one of the most sought after community events of iSPIRT. It’s a gathering of 12 like-minded product startups who are beyond the early stage. RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme.

27-Oct MiniRoundTable on WhyAI for B2B SaaS

The MiniRT Agenda

  • Seeding & creating an active discussion on Why AI/ML? What is the higher order value being created?
  • How to identify the value & opportunities to leverage AI?
  • How to get started with an AI playground (if not already running)?
  • How to think of data needs for AI/ML investments,
  • How to address the impact on Product & Business…

This is part of our AI/ML roundtables for B2B SaaS. Insights from these sessions are meant to help refine our approach & readiness to leverage AI/ML for building higher order value products. And in doing so building a vibrant community focused around navigating this shift.

Click to Register for the AI/ML Playbooks Track. (limited invites)

Our Mavens

Adarsh Natarajan

Founder & CEO AIndra

 

Notes

This is a product startup founder/CXO (+1) invite-only events. Venue details will be sent along with the confirmation of your registration.

RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme. All iSPIRT playbooks are pro-bono, closed room, founder-level (+1), invite-only sessions. The only thing we require is a strong commitment to attend the sessions completely and to come prepared, to be open to learning & unlearning, and to share your context within a trusted environment. All key learnings are public goods & the sessions are governed by the Chatham House Rule.

18-Oct MiniRoundtable on AI/ML Tools & ML/DL challenges

The MiniRT Agenda

  • The current state of AI/ML tools & frameworks.
  • Share & discuss ML & Deep Learning challenges in your products.

Insights from these sessions are meant to help refine our approach & readiness to leverage AI/ML for building higher order value products. And in doing so building a vibrant community focused around navigating this shift.

Click to Register for the AI/ML Playbooks Track. (limited invites)

Our Maven: Viral Shah
Co-creator of Julia Language,
Co-founder Julia Computing

Notes

This is a product startup founder/CXO (+1) invite-only events. Data scientist leads in a product startup are also welcome to register. On confirmation, the venue details will be sent along with the confirmation of your registration.

RoundTables are facilitated by an iSPIRT maven who is an accomplished practitioner of that Round-Table theme. All iSPIRT playbooks are pro-bono, closed room, founder-level (+1), invite-only sessions. The only thing we require is a strong commitment to attend the sessions completely and to come prepared, to be open to learning & unlearning, and to share your context within a trusted environment. All key learnings are public goods & the sessions are governed by the Chatham House Rule.