Attend the WATBlog Panel On "Digital Media in The Next Decade" on 16th October - Register Now!
Well the WATBlog Panel discussion on “Digital Media in the Next Decade” is just 3 days away happening on the 16th of October and just last week we had to increase the seats from 200 to 220 due to extra demand! Also as the event nears we thought it was the right time to introduce our readers on who are the final panelists for this panel discussion so that they can participate via comments and by emailing us on info at watblog dot com with their questions.
Here are the names & profiles of the panelists (in alphabetical order)
Ashish Gupta Managing Director - Helion Ventures
Ashish is a co-founder of Helion and serves on the boards of Anantara, Jigrahak Mobility, Kirusa, Komli, MuSigma, Naukri, and Virtual Synaptics. He has invested in over 35 companies in the US and in India. His investments include Daksh (IBM), Odesk, Obongo (AOL), Speedera (Akamai), Make My Trip, Merittrac, and Kaboodle (Hearst). Ashish co-founded and helped grow two successful companies; Tavant Technologies and Junglee (Amazon.com) that pioneered comparison shopping on the internet.
Ashish has worked at Woodside Fund, Amazon.com, Oracle Corporation, and IBM Research. He has to his credit several patents, international publications, and a book by MIT press. He is a Kauffman fellow, the world’s leading venture education program.
He also holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree from IIT Kanpur, where he was awarded the President’s Gold medal.
Sateesh Andra - Venture Partner, Draper Fisher Juvertson
Sateesh Andra is a Venture Partner at DFJ India. He currently is on the board of directors at MetroMela, mGinger and Pressmart, and is a board observer for Cleartrip. With hands-on start-up experience and in-depth knowledge of the dynamics of VC funding, he has effectively leveraged India to create technology products for global markets.
Sateesh started his Silicon Valley career in the early nineties and has an extensive background in general management, marketing, product strategy, and technology development.
Prior to DFJ, Sateesh was the founder and CEO of Euclid Software, a leader in the IT Governance space. Previously he has also served in product marketing and engineering leadership roles at Tsqware (Conexant), LSI Logic, VLSI Technology (Philips), and Wipro.
He holds U.S. patents in Communications and Networking and has published several articles about Business - IT Alignment. He is actively involved with TiE-ISB Connect, an annual networking event for entrepreneurs and investors.
Sateesh holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering.
Surya Mantha - CEO - Web 18
Surya Mantha, 44 years, is the Chief Executive Officer of Web18, Network18’s Web arm. He has 16 years of experience that spans business management, consulting, product and service development, product management and marketing across range of business and consumer software, hardware and service companies.
In his last job he was the Sr.Vice President - Interactive Services for Sify India. Prior to that he has worked for Real Networks PTR (a leading management consulting firm) in US and wth Xerox Corp US.
He is a Btech from IIT kanpur, has a PhD in Computer Science from University of Utah & an MBA from University of Rochester, New York.
Suvir Sujan - Nexus India Capital
Prior to Nexus, Suvir was Co-founder and Co-CEO of Baazee.com, the leading online marketplace in India that merged with eBay in 2004 to form eBay India. Post the merger, Suvir was Country Manager, eBay India and Regional Director, Asia Pacific, PayPal. Suvir also has experience in Management Consulting at the Boston Consulting Group and in Engineering and Product Marketing at Nortel Networks.
Suvir has an MBA from the Harvard Business School where he was the Co-President of the South Asian Business Association and a BS in Electrical Engineering (High Distinction) from the University of Maryland at College Park where he was voted Outstanding Senior of the Year. He is a charter member of the Internet and Mobile Association of India and an active mentor to several entrepreneurs across the Internet, Wireless and Retail in India. He is also an angel investor and board advisor to guruji.com (Online Search) and Pangea3 (Legal Outsourcing). He also sits on the board of the US-India Venture Capital Association.
His current investments include Dimdim.com, Komli.com and MapmyIndia.com
Viraj Malik - Managing Director & CEO - Percept Knorigin
Viraj is M.D and CEO of Percept Knorigin, A full service digital agency. Percept Knorigin also incubated Adchakra Ad network focussed on aggregating quality web and mobile publishers and offer media planning and buying services to clients.
Viraj started his career with percept by starting an online advertising division in 1996 after finishing his mechanical engineering from MIT, Manipal.
He moved on in 1998 and played a key role in setting up commercial internet datacenter ventures in India with Global Telesystems and Enron.
His last assignment was with Infosys where he headed business development and led key client engagements for Infosys in the European & US markets for IT outsourcing business and was based in London and New York for the last 5 years. He is now based in Bangalore and is passionate about bringing brand advertisers to digital media.
I think we have got an amazing mix in the panelists from the backgrounds of Venture capital to last decade entrepreneurs to Ceo’s representing TV media companies who have ventured online to traditional agencies who have launched a digital arms. Im sure this is going to be one exciting panel which will bring different viewpoints from different but really experience people on the same platform.
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Attend the WATBlog Panel On "Digital Media in The Next Decade" on 16th October - Register Now!
We met Tim Draper the Founder & Managing Director of Draper Fisher Juvertson who was in Mumbai recently. We spoke to him on various issues right from the current economic slowdown to how he viewed the Indian market, his advice to entrepreneurs and Why was he in India?.. and more..
Tim on Global Economic Slowdown
Entrepreneurs Perspective
Tim started with giving us his viewpoint from the entrepreneurs perspective on the global economic slowdown. He felt that this was a great time for entrepreneurs to truely showcase their entrepreneurial skills and be creative enough to make money in this kind of slowdown. He stated that according to him these were the most exciting times for entrepreneurs and they can learn how to manage their cash in a tight manner. He felt that those entrepreneurs who were quick enough to realise that the situation had changed and got out of the initial shock of cash crunch and went to work with a sense of determination would be the ones that would do well.
Global/VC Perspective
Tim stated that Businesses move in cycles and hence this is another cyclical phase in which the markets are slowing down. He said that he wont be surprised if tomorrow the market picks up again and things start looking better than what we expect them to be. He also pointed out that the role of media in today’s day and age was prime in making these slowdown’s or recession seem bigger than it is as all the media talks about it and everyone reads, sees it and reacts. He also felt that due to this high level media exposure the depressions are deeper and the boom periods are over hyped as well.
Tim’s Viewpoint On India
Tim stated that according to him India is a fantastic place to invest right now. He said that a global recession for India means a growth rate of 5%! He said that everyone in India seems to be an entrepreneur and the fact that you have a indigenuous market of 1 billion people makes it even better for entrepreneurs.
He did caution though that US capital being infused by venture capitalists would be squezzed given the US recession though the Indian companies that continue to do well should have little or no impact.
Tim’s Approach/Advice towards companies during this slowdown
He said that cutting down spend wasn’t the solution for all companies. He said that different companies would need to take different approach. Though conserving cash is important for some companies this might be the right time to engage with customers while their competitors are backing off. He stated that the best startup businesses are the one’s that are organically grown and these times are the best times to boot strap. He felt in most cases its usually best to avoid taking venture capital till you can afford to. He also said that if companies find it hard to convince large clients to spend it would be wiser to go after the bottom marketing dollars i.e. smaller clients or smaller deals which are longterm inorder to build cashflow and profitability in these times.
What does Tim Draper Look for in an Entrepreneur?
Tim’s answer to the above question was..
1) Enthusiasm and Singular Approach - The enthusiasm fact is key as an entrepreneur needs to be upbeat about his business whether or no the market, research or competition is or not. Also singular approach which means he should be completely focussed on singular business opportunity with his entire heart and soul.
2) Dedication - Money shouldn’t matter to the entrepreneur what should matter is the realisation of his vision and what he has set out to achieve. Because there will be times when money isn’t there in the business and only real dedication can get such businesses through tough times.
Why is Tim in India?
According to Tim India is the greatest opportunity of the world right now. It has a billion people domestic market, tons of entrepreneurs, a growing economy, english language speaking audience.
He felt that this was the greatest opportunity to bring Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship together.
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