Belly dancing is a dance form that makes anyone who dances look sexy, exotic, powerful and unattainable. Most women and some men(who Belly dance) would agree with that fact. The dance form has its folkloric origin in the Middle East although it is difficult to trace its exact roots.The traditional belly dance is divided into two. The first, Raqs Baladi, is a social dance performed during festive occasions and the second form, which is quite popular in the around the world is called Raqs Sharqi.

The Raqs Sharqi form of Belly dance is a relatively very new in India and is catching up fast. Belly dance in India has been surrounded by glamor, misconception and at times bore the brunt of the morally imperfect moral police. Here is the extraordinary story of Meher Malik, a bold, passionate young woman, who has over come all the odds to set up her own dancing establishment in Delhi which concentrates mostly on Belly dance. Her dance school is called as Banjara. The word Banjara translates to gypsy - a word given to travellers who lead a nomadic lifestlye. She says somewhere within every artist is a gypsy - always searching for more, an inspiration, a story. Let’s hear her speak.

1. Why Belly dancing?

   Ans: Well, I didn’t choose Belly dance, it chose me. Having already lived in the Middle East for 17 years, the exposure was huge. I’ve watched Belly dance performances at parties, weddings and on various other occasions. I thought it was a beautiful dance form and I remember telling myself that when I grow up I would learn this dance form. I was always interested in dancing, belly dance happened by chance. I was learning by seeing videos, when I was 14. I went on a school trip to Egypt at 15 and that was when I started getting serious about it. And finally at 17, I attended my first class by an Israeli teacher.

2. Where did you learn and who did you train under?

   Ans: I have learnt in Paris, London and India. I started with Michal from Israel and then went to study with Madame Leila Haddad in Paris and then I traveled to various dance festivals and workshops across the world.                                                                                                                    

3. Usually, I ask this question in end but here it would make more sense. What were the difficulties and challenges that you faced in India? There are a lot of misconceptions about Belly dance, could you throw some light into this?

   Ans: Yes, of course. There were many horrible experiences with men asking you unethical questions like “What more can you give us?” “Does this package include everything?” I have let go of many corporate deals because I refused to work on unethical terms. Money doesn’t come first to me but my morale and self esteem does. I maintain strict work ethics. I have also had experiences with parents accusing me of teaching this vulgar dance to girls. I have been patient and repeatedly told my story and the history of belly dance over and over again. Due to this attitude of people, I only perform artistic stage shows and very selected corporate shows. I do only 1 event in 2 months as I think that the Indian audience is not yet ready to accept Belly dance only as a dance form. They need to understand it first and then they will appreciate it.

4. What is Banjara all about?

   Ans: Banjara is an art project. It is a place where people can express ideas even the ones that they are ashamed of. Banjara is all about overcoming insecurities and becoming one with the body, gaining spiritual satisfaction through wholesome understanding of the body and mind.We started by promoting a lot of different dance forms but now we are only going to promote activities that have still maintained their beauty and serenity and are extremely rare. We are presently focusing on Belly dance and other classical and Indian folk dance forms.                       
   

5. You were very young and with no prior business expertise, how did you set up Banjara?                           Ans: I had my dad’s support, who has an experience of working with some very big MNC’s .I mostly handle the creative aspect of it but my dad guides me through the whole administrative and financial aspect. He always has great ideas.

6. What is your business model and who is your target segment?

   Ans: Well our business model is mostly set up on a franchise model and we work with different brand names to run our classes and pay them a cut of our classes. Our goal is to have a centre in every nook and corner of the NCR and eventually branch out to Mumbai and Calcutta. We also have our Banjara main studio and thats where all the creative choreographies happen. We currently have classes running in all four zones of Delhi. After 3 years of being in the market, we know that our target segment upper middle class and the affluent section of society. But we are trying our best to mainstream it into the middle class society and also for men and children.

7. Where do you see yourself and Banjara in the next 5 years?

   Ans: I see Banjara spreading across at least three states and becoming India’s biggest name in Belly dance. I see myself traveling to teach at various festivals, to teach a style that i have been working on myself. I don’t have a name for it as yet but hopefully by then I would have created a new style.

   

8. Tell us about your stint with India’s Got Talent. Was there a message that you wanted to tell to the general masses?

   Ans: I was on the show but it not because I like being on TV. Honestly I hate it, the attention is suffocating. I participated in the show because I think that in a country like India, people do what they see on TV. They just do or learn what they think is in fashion. So I thought, if i could spread a good image of Belly dance through television and get more people to believe in it. I think, it has made a difference to people who were first skeptical of taking Belly dance classes but now they have stepped out to learn.

9. What is it that you would like to tell to anyone who wants to learn Belly dance?

   Ans: I would tell them to be patient with their bodies, respect their bodies and not crib about how they have an extra inch of fat. The body is as a temple. The body has to be feed well, rested well, exercised well. And one also has to be very hardworking and open to ideas and criticism.

10. Finally, what is your dance philosophy?

    Ans: My philosophy is to learn a beautiful lifestyle through dance. Religion is one way of attaining god, dance is another way.

Contact Details: 

Phone : + 91 989 985 1475

Email :

mehermalik@hotmail.com

meher@bellydancingindia.comAddress: Banjara studio,

A-62, Shivalik, New Delhi

Website : http://www.bellydancingindia.com/

Salsa is one of the fastest spreading Latin dance forms in India. Everybody has heard about it. Everybody wants to do it! Salsa in Spanish means sauce, a rather spicy sauce. It also hints at a “mixture” of ingredients which had made it spicy. Salsa is more than just a dance form. Some say that it a magic drug which improves the quality of your life. Lets just say that it is subject to interpretation and it is a very accommodating dance form,which generously imbibes into itself, the styling from a lot of dance forms across the world.

Having said that, let me introduce to John Anthony, Founder & CEO and his Latino Rhythms Dance Academy based in Bangalore, India that specializes in Salsa and other dance forms like Jive, Bachata, Rueda de Casino and Cha-Cha. He has made a business establishment out of what he loves the most, dance!

Latino Rhythms Dance Academy was founded in 2005 and has seen close to 1500 students in the past 4 years. John admits that it is no easy task to build a dance school right from the scratch when the odds against them. Now that Latino Rhythms is comfortably established, he has big plans for his dance school and his students. By 2012, he wants to see his students perform at the International Salsa Congress that happen all over the world. He also plans to tie-up with various well established Latin dance school in the US for mutually beneficial exchange programs. Yes! He is very ambitious but already has chartered plans to achieve his goals for the dance school. And most of us know that without passion and ambition, nothing much can be achieved.

This was what John Anthony had to tell  India Startup Diary:

1. How did you get interested in dancing? Did you at that point in time see that you will be having a dance school in the future?

   Ans : I started as just a stress buster, never ever dreamt that I would have a school

2. What is your dance philosophy?

   Ans :When you have feet to walk , you can definitely dance.

3. How did Latino Rhythms come into being and how big is your school right now?

   Ans : The idea sprung when I choreographed a routine for my colleagues in an office party which went on to become a big hit. My confidence grew and I started teaching people who were not my colleagues. From then, there was no stopping.

4. India is still young when it comes to Latin dance forms. Whom did you train under?

   Ans: I started learning Jive under Prithvi and Ree from Rock Around the Clock Dance Academy. I was later drawn to Salsa and was under Richard Tholoor from Lourd Vijay’s Dance Studio. Dancing beyond a point is how you interpret the music and improvise on what you have learnt. I am mostly self taught and I have learnt most of my techniques and styling by watching a lot of dance videos.

5. Who is your target segment?

   Ans :Corporates and students. We are working on a lot of programs for college students, host parties at popular clubs, provide student discounts,conduct workshops and so on.

6. How is it going so far and where do you see yourself and Latino Rhythms in 2 years time? Ans: So far, so good, Latino Rhythms in the next 2 years for sure, will be one of the best dance academies in India. In the future, we would not only concentrate on Latin dance forms but also on other dance forms and fitness activities like Bollywood, Hip Hop , Belly Dancing, Ballet, Yoga, Kick Boxing, Aerobics and so on.

7. What are the challenges that you face currently and how do you plan to overcome them?

   Ans:Its always a challenge to get more youngsters involved in dance , especially Salsa because it takes a little longer to learn and needs a whole lot of patience.

8. Finally, what do you have to tell to a person who wants to dance ?

   Ans : Just dance no matter what, don’t ever be bothered about who is watching you. Just take on the floor and enjoy. Some have a natural rhythm and learn faster and some are little slower in learning but eventually everyone does learn. Dance is not rocket science so learn it. Salsa is not just a dance form , but it also something that can help you with a lot of things like  improving your concentration skills, being confident, basic discipline, widening your thought process and kill the stress..

    

   Contact details:

   email jalatino@gmail.com,

   phone: +91 98454 33370

   website : www.latinorhythms.in

Author’s note : Watch out next week for Part 3 of 4 of this series!

Dancing…

Dancing, everybody loves dancing. Some of us are natural dancers, some of us are trained dancers, some of us are dressing-room-mirror dancers and some of us can only dance after five shots of tequila. Then there are some who stand out. They are the ones who have turned their love for dancing into world class dancing business establishments. They are young, energetic, vivacious dancers who are also smart business people. There are a less than a handful in India and they are the ‘League of the Extraordinary Dancing Entrepreneurs’.

Having said that, Mumbai based Karma Salsa guru Kaytee Namgyal and his Salsa India dance school has to be introduced. Many are ready to swear by his unique ‘Karma-Salsa’. Salsa India has seen more than 5000 enthusiastic students falling in love with Salsa, several of whom, after having learnt from Kaytee, have taken up Salsa as their profession. So what is Karma Salsa? ‘Karma’ is Kaytee’s real name. Karma-Salsa as Kaytee describes with passion, is all about musicality, body movement and dancing through one’s body, mind and soul, in a dancer’s interpretation and representation of the instruments being played and feel of the music. Dancing is as individualistic as the dancer’s personality, so is Karma-Salsa synonymous with Kaytee’s panache and energetic yet fluid style.

This is what Kaytee Namgyal, Founder and Director of Salsa India had to tell about what he does about his love of dancing.

1. How did your affair with Salsa begin and how did Salsa India come into being?

ANS: Salsa began in the year 2000 when I was visiting my cousins in Tokyo. I fell in love with the music when I was at a Salsa Bar in Tokyo. It was the music that drove me to Salsa. Salsa India started when I came back to India and decided to spread my love for Salsa across India.

 2. When you started out, India would not have had anyone teaching Salsa. From where did you learn and from whom did you learn?

ANS: I had my professional training in LA and NY. I trained with Luis Vasquez, Eddie Torres, Frankie Martinez and many others from around the world. After learning with some of the biggest names in the world I started experimenting with my own styles and here I am with Karma Salsa- an unique style.

3 Who is the team behind ‘Force Kaytee’?

ANS: All my faculty at Salsa India. They are the reason why Salsa India is still strong and on top. I give full credit to my heart whose decision I don’t question.

 4. Is Salsa the only dance form that you teach?

ANS: I teach Mambo, Street Cha Cha, Zouk Love, Kizomba, K-Style Bachata, Hip Hop Salsa, Disco,Jazz, Hip Hop, Contemporary and Meringue besides Salsa

5.How is the salsa scene in India and how different is your school from the other dance schools in India?

 ANS: Salsa Scene in India is growing at a fast pace and it still has to go a long way. At Salsa India musicality and technique are the most important. I emphasize on music as the core to dancing and style as well. For me its all about “Different Music, Different Style”. A dancer needs to be versatile. I teach people about the way of life through music.

6. What is your revenue model?

ANS: Work on getting results, rest will all follow. My model in business is to make my customers happy and stay away from their personal life.

7. Who is your target segment?

ANS: Everyone whose minds are open to learning new things.

8. Tell us about the challenges that your dance school faces on a day to day basis and what are risks involved in the dancing business.

ANS: The challenge is to see that every student of mine gets good. My mission is to make every student of mine good at what they have come for. Risks in the dancing business is your health, need to update to be on top from time and again and so on.

9. How is it going so far and where do you see yourself and Salsa India in 2 years time?

ANS: Salsa India is doing very well with centers in Delhi, DLF, Kolkata, Bombay, Pune and Bangalore. Salsa India is the only company in India who gets invited to at least two International Salsa Congresses world wide to teach and perform. In two years from now Salsa India will have its branch in Europe as well.

10. Your dance clothing line that was launched recently, was in the papers. Tell us more about it.

ANS: Since I am into fashion and I tailor make most of my clothes I thought why not spread that love to others too. Since people always ask me where I buy my clothes I thought why not make my clothes available to others so here I am, venturing into another aspect of live. Following my heart again.

11. Finally, what do you have to tell to a person who wants to dance?

ANS: Dance to express and not to impress. Dance from the heart. any one can be a good dancer, its just a matter of time.

Contact details:

www.salsa-india.com
info@salsa-india.com
MUMBAI-PUNE:+91-98203-62629, +91-98333-SALSA(72572)
DELHI:+91-98112-22186, +91-97111-SALSA(72572)
KOLKATA: +91-99038-28223
BANGALORE: +91-97428- SALSA (72572)

Author’s note : Watch out next week for another exciting Extraordinary Dancing Entrepreneur No.2

Green livelihood (http://www.bamboohouseindia.org/home.asp) is a Social Enterprise with an aim of utilizing bamboo as an economic driver for providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to rural & tribal artisans in the bamboo sector through business models designed to work at the base of the economic pyramid, and promote bamboo as an eco-friendly substitute to wood, steel, iron & plastic.

Bamboo and bamboo products have many environment friendly characteristics, and can be used as substitutions in many situations and in turn generate livelihoods.
Bamboo House India, a social enterprise, was established by two First Generation Entrepreneurs, Aruna Kappagantula & Prashant Lingam in the year 2008 with an aim of using Bamboo as an economic driver for providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to rural & tribal artisans in the Bamboo sector through market linkages.

BHI is striving to create chain of bamboo showrooms across the country which shall promote & market all bamboo based products under one roof starting from Bamboo pen to Bamboo Housing Structures. Purpose is to create a long term sustainable non -migratory business model for rural and tribal artisans in the Bamboo sector by using locally available raw material i.e. bamboo and develop contemporary life style products to suit the market tastes and demand rather than age old basketry items.

Check out their online store it’s very impressive. They have a bamboo solution for all our needs in everyday life, be it the plates you eat on, the spoons the bags you carry, and even houses and home décor. The designs are artistic and professional. I was amazed at the variety and quality of these products. Eco friendly, pocket friendly and trendy bamboo products are certainly an ancient solution to our modern age problems.

With everything going online your baby record journal cannot be far behind. www.hiraj.com/ helps the cause. Hiraj.com is an exciting tool for parents who want to record all those exciting steps and exciting milestones of their baby. The best part is all the information is online for your baby to cherish and share it once they grow up.

Hiraj.com is more like your baby record book. You can maintain growth chart, health chart, create photo albums, photo collages et al. All this and more with a social networking feature added to this. The concept is very good. But the challenge is to create a community. I don’t think even indiaparenting.com has an online baby record book. Correct me if wrong.

Jaago Re! One Billion Votes is a non-partisan national campaign launched by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (a non-profit organization) and Tata Tea, to awaken and enable the citizens of India, especially the youth, to register for voting. Its mission is to register everyone in India to vote in the next 5 years, for better governance. In the launch year (2008-09), the campaign targets the top 35 cities of India, and aims to register millions of youth before the 2009 general elections.

If you are a enthusiastic citizen who wants to help towards voting cause in your neighborhood, Jaagore.com helps you run your personal registration drive! You can also opt to become a Booth Level Volunteer (BLV) for your polling booth, and help citizens in your community to register directly through you.

Jaago India Jaago! Stop complaining about bad roads, poor infrastructure, corrupt politicians! Cast your vote today and http://www.jaagore.com is ever ready to help your cause.
A brilliant initiative! Hats off!

FieldTurf Inc.,( www.fieldturf.com ) innovated the new-generation artificial grass in the late 80’s and early 90’s that was dramatically different from the old generation coarse, abrasive turf. This new “grass” was soft, yet extremely resilient. Importantly, it replicated all the biomechanical properties of natural grass and therefore became an instant hit with players, administrators, coaches, facilities owners etc.

From 2004, Suravaram Marketing (Pvt) Ltd (SMPL), based in Hyderabad, represents FieldTurf - Tarkett in India (and other SAARC countries) as an exclusive Licensee.

How did they get convinced that they could make money out of Grass? This is what Anil Kumar of FieldTurf has to say.

What is in the Name?

FieldTurf is the world’s leading artificial grass provider. It merged with Tarkett Sports, to now become FieldTurf Tarkett, providing world-class artificial grass for sports and landscaping as well as other non-grass sport surfacing solutions across the world. FieldTurf Tarkett India is the licensee for the total SAARC region.

How & why did you come up this business concept?

I undertook a structured search for an innovative product (irrespective of the industry) that would be suitable to introduce in India, and hit upon Artificial Grass. I was looking for something new - not just a ‘me-too’ kind of a product – but something that would offer new solutions to existing challenges.
With FieldTurf Tarkett, we are able to do exactly that in terms of providing a lawn ambience where natural grass could not be solution: Home rooftops, school playgrounds, sports academies, restaurants, road medians etc. Plus it had to be environment-friendly; it is not just doing well but doing good that was equally important.

How are you funded?

Personal finances and funding from family and friends.

What is your present revenue figure?

As a brand, FieldTurf is now at 20 crore revenue during these 4 years. This includes direct sales and sales through our distributor network.

About the team behind the venture?

The launch, promotion, sales and execution in our business involves diverse skill sets. We are fortunate to have very complementary skills across the core team.
Rupesh Tikku, our National Sales Manager has over 18 years experience nationwide in Sales, Marketing, Franchise Management at various FMCG corporations like Blowplast, McDowells, Parle Agro, RC Cola etc. And he has extensive experience in launching new products and brands.
Our other directors include Vikram Muratee and Sujatha Reddy, both of whom are engineers by education, and with extensive skills in project and business management. Vikram also brings in tremendous experience in running businesses in diverse industries.
And finally with an Engineering and MBA background and some years of work experience in India and US (especially as a business unit head in the later part) I am able to bring some perspective in conceptualizing what we want to do, figuring out a go-to-market strategy and of course some insight into running a business. Additionally, my engineering background comes in handy as we design and execute fairly exacting infrastructure works for our sports projects.

Whom are you targeting/What is your target segments

Just about every home-owner with a balcony or a rooftop where they would like to have a lush green lawn is a potential client. And of course businesses (restaurants, corporate campuses, showrooms etc), schools, sports facilities, the government and so on.

In the last four years, over 1,000 clients are enjoying the benefits of a FieldTurf lawn and sports surfaces as our lawns don’t need watering, fertilizing, mowing or any of the maintenance normally associated with natural grass.

Our product range also includes artificial grass for different sports as well as non-grass surfaces for Tennis, Indoor Sports Flooring, Synthetic Athletic tracks etc.
To sum up, if you wish you had a lawn, but without all the hassles that come with it, think of FieldTurf. If you need any sports surface, think of FieldTurf.

Who are your competitors? how are you different from them?

Natural grass is conceptually our main competitor, so to say. We don’t position ourselves as a substitute to natural grass…but as an ideal alternative where you cannot grow or maintain natural grass.
Of course, seeing our success with over 1,000 installations in India, there are a couple of artificial grass companies that have tried to emulate us. But the product quality, a 16 year history of successful installation worldwide, top-class customer service and expertise keep us way ahead of imitators.

What is your revenue model?

Import, Marketing, Sales and Installation of artificial grass and sports surfaces. We basically work on the distribution system across the SAARC region. In addition we have an extensive base of sub distributors who works in accordance with the distributor of that region and help the team get the leads.

How has the going been so far? And what are your goals next 2 years?

We have completed 1,000 installations and growing fast. We have wider acceptance now, and looking to go beyond the architect-designer forum, trade-shows and publications to the mainstream market.

On the sports side, we installed SAARC region’s first (and only) FIFA standards artificial grass football ground. We have also added all other sports surfaces required for top-class sports infrastructure.

In the next 2 years we aim to create maximum awareness in such a way, that, for anyone looking for maintenance-free lawns or world-class sports surfaces, we want to make sure FieldTurf becomes the automatic choice.

What challenges do you see for your growth?

The critical challenge will be to create the awareness about FieldTurf and to educate about its benefits. Reaching out to our entire target market in a cost-effective manner is another challenge.

How do you plan to promote this?

While we have been reaching our audience through various trade shows, advertisements and articles, we have devised a strategy to promote ourselves on the online platform on an aggressive mode.
Through an extensive thought leadership and case studies, we plan to penetrate into our prospect’s mind space.

We would focus even more on our current on-going programs:

• More education and awareness: After targeting architects and designers, now we are going mainstream in terms of our advertising and promotion.
• Wider reach: We have distributors covering 18 states in India and recently launched in Sri Lanka as well. Installations are now in 81 cities and towns in India…and growing.
• Offering expert advice and turnkey services: We have built a good expertise to advise clients on various aspects like where FieldTurf would be most appropriate, better return on investment, site related issues, taking up as much end-to-end responsibility as possible (eg., for football field clients, all aspects, right from the soil tests, contour maps, engineering drawings, sub-base & drainage construction, to the turf installation is done as a turnkey project).

DeskAway is a smart online collaboration tool. If you have a team working on a particular project, all your team members can sign into DeskAway and collaborate online. The best part is the software is delivered on the internet so you can access it from anywhere anytime.

DeskAway gives you an accurate view of your project progress and eliminates common problems when working in teams: email spam, multiple file versions, lost files, task accountability issues, lack of clarity & work transparency.

Sahil Parikh of DeskAway spoke to us.

What is in the Name?

Since DeskAway is for global distributed teams, it gives a sense of working from anywhere, anytime.We wanted something that would sound simple and be easy to spell.

How & why did you come up this business concept?

When I moved back in 2005 (from the U.S.), there were just too many service companies floating around here. Plus, I never liked and completely disagreed with what people abroad thought of India: a low-cost service country, perfect for off-shoring, and incapable of building a quality product unless directed from abroad. This fueled my desire to grow a product-based software business (that was scalable and not capital intensive) that had the potential to affect tens of thousands of small businesses & teams globally.

In addition, it was dissatisfying to see other products that didn’t work - they lacked a drive to serve the customer, they got away with meager simplistic features stating that that was their policy, and basically left the customer high and dry. With globalization, virtual teams were becoming more and more popular. I saw the need in providing them a simple, powerful & affordable collaborative online service all backed by personalized customer service.

With DeskAway, we could power small businesses/teams to have a system that would track people, projects and processes. This is huge, since until now the software to do this was too expensive, cumbersome and out of the reach of SMB’s.

How are your funded?

DeskAway is completely self-funded at this time.

What is your present revenue figure?

Sorry, we don’t give our revenue figures. Confidential!

About the team behind the venture?

Synage was started in 2005 by my wife and me after we moved back from Chapel Hill, USA. We started Synage as a service company (easy to kick-start) which funded most of the development of DeskAway. In 2007, Synage transformed itself into a Web company delivering software as a service (SaaS) over the Internet to the global audience. I have had around 9 years of web application experience and hold a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematical Sciences-Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My wife, Sitanshi is a writer, with a particular knack in business administration and client relations that served us well when we started.

Later this year we signed up with Morpheus Venture Partners and have Sameer & Nandini on our team as well.

I am proud of the fact that each and every team member thinks long term and believes in what we are doing. This is critical in building a successful product business. They like working in a startup environment. They can see their hard work live every month! Its very results-oriented.

Whom are you targeting?

We are targeting global web-savvy small businesses & teams - digial media agencies, web designers, software companies, education & non-profit firms, to name a few.

Who are your competitors? how are you different from them.

Currently, we are competing against SMB SaaS providers from the US and UK, namely – 37 Signals (Basecamp), GoPlan, Central Desktop, Zoho Project, Wrike and Huddle. We are currently one of the best positioned (price, support, features) in the small business project collaboration market worldwide.
DeskAway combines a mix of simplicity, feature-richness and affordability into its project collaboration service with a focus on key social features in the SMB project 2.0 space. Since our entire operations happen from India, we can keep our costs very low, while providing the same or better customer experience.

What is your revenue model?

DeskAway’s revenue model is based on the Freemium model. Sign up for free and try out almost all aspects of the service. If it shows value, then upgrade to a paid subscription plan (recurring monthly or yearly). We will be showing targeted (not Google Adsense) ads within our Free accounts from January 2009 onwards. A hybrid model like this is much more predictable than only an ad-supported model.

How has the going been so far? And what are your goals next 2 years?

This is best summarized in our Journey 2008 here –
http://www.deskaway.com/blog/2008/12/22/journey-2008/

In 2009, we will be extending DeskAway to other apps, getting third-party apps integrated within DeskAway, adding more social features and also come out with a mobile & iPhone version. One the marketing side we are looking at more partnerships and a full-fledged affiliate program.

What challenges do you see for your growth?

Biggest challenge is talent acquisition. Finding the right people to join your team. Working in a small growing product company should be a passion for them and not a job!

How do you plan to promote this?

Being an online service and with customers who are online, our marketing is automatically also predominantly online. We are exploring the following online marketing initiatives:
1. SEO – organic search engine optimization though keywords and link building
2. SEM – search engine marketing through Google Adwords and Banner Ads
3. Affiliates – building online affiliates to resell DeskAway for a commission (through affiliate programs like Commission Junction, Sharesale etc.)
4. Channel Partners – enabling DeskAway on on-demand delivery networks
5. Online PR, Reviews & Social Media Outreach – Blogs (posting as well as paid blog posts), Social Networks, Community Building, Q&A Websites etc.

How would you like to improvise (product or business model)

We have been adding new features (requested by customers and in line with DeskAway’s vision) on a monthly basis as seen here
http://www.deskaway.com/blog/2008/12/22/journey-2008/ .

What is in the Name?

ITCONS is into development of software products meant for Recruitment Space with an aim of becoming business and technology leader in Recruitment solutions space. ITCONS builds software tools that empowers and allows companies of all size (small, mid and large) to automate, streamline and optimize their Recruitment and Staffing processes resulting into increased productivity and better efficiency of the sourcing team, lower TCO and hence stronger top/bottom lines.

The applications of the ITCONS are not only meant for Staffing and executive Search Agencies but also for Corporate too. More than just an Applicant Tracking System, the Solutions are powered and packaged with Resume Parser (converting unstructured candidate data from various file formats into structured data), Applicant Tracking using keyword and Intelligent concept search, Billing Management, Vendor Management, Timesheet Entry System, Communication Management, Reporting and Scheduling etc into one powerful and affordable tool called as “Recruitment Relationship Management Suite”. It provides corporate and staffing companies to harness the power of centralized database in a distributed environment.

How & why did you come up this business concept?

We explored the various options like BPO’s, KPO’s, LPO’s and came upon RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) as the next big word. It was a market estimated to be worth $28 billion, the market potential for the employed tools with $1.5 billion.
Though our intention was to work where our core expertise lay software development; since we were not an established firm, hence we found recruitment to be a good start point. When we had started working with recruitment, we came across the sample problem that the industry faced: managing a vast database of resumes and retrieving specific resumes as per criteria and felt the need for software that can manage data and retrieve the right resume based on specified criteria. We found no good applications, here in India or globally to meet the Indian requirement, so we considered this as a business opportunity to develop the tool ourselves. We strive to be ERP for Recruitment market; Bid good bye to legacy and conventional ways of resume management.

How are your funded?

So far, we are a self funded company but looking forward for Angel/VC funding to take the product to the new heights in the global market.

What is your present revenue figure?

We started our operations in July 2007, since then we have touched the top line figure of INR 50L+; we hope year 2009 will bring more opportunities for us. Making the product available on SAAS model is one such step to lead toward the desired goal; we hope we shall be able to touch a top line of $1-1.5M during calendar year 2009.

About the team behind the venture?

 My core team comprises of five members including me. Ujjwal Prakash, who leads Business development efforts and software projects, has over 17yrs of experience in managing technology for business process solutions. He has been involved in Application & Application Framework Design, Distributed Loosely Coupled component based architecture using SOA, Design and Code Re-factoring with Design Patterns & UML, Object and Database modeling etc. Swati and Renu ( Director), with over 15yrs of experience in business needs assessment, process management, cost analysis, and leveraging emerging technologies to deliver bottom-line savings and customer, handle marketing, presentation, customer relations and identifying potential partners in India and US respectively. Manoj carries 18+ Yrs of rich experience and is taking care of office admin and HR.

Whom are you targeting?

All of our products are meant for Recruitment industry. Irrespective a company being small or big player, they need manpower; our products are meant for managing the candidates’ resumes. In nut shell, any company which requires manpower or a company which provides that manpower (Recruitment firms) are our potential clients. Our product manages internal database of potential candidates by reducing the manual efforts.

Who are your competitors? how are you different from them.

We are not worried too much about competition, as we have established ourselves on the leader board. Immediate competition in domestic market is with players like HireCraft, CBIZONE and ResumeFox etc. File finder, Taleo, Recruitmax, HireAbility, Sendouts, BigBiller are the major competitors in international market. Our USP is that we enable recruitment at a lower cost by way of an innovative product that drastically reduces manpower and empowers the job-seeker by having his skills recognized. Our new clients who were previously using our competitors’ products have told us about the lack of functionality in other products and have opted for us. Our new offering is Intelligent Concept Search - ICS (based on auto taxonomy, words semantics), which no competitor is able to offer so far.

What is your revenue model?

 We get the revenue by the sales of our proprietary software products. We also offer enterprise application development services. One such example of our creativity is a social networking site called www.iamne.in, which has recently been launched.
Our products will eventually solve problems (conversion of unstructured data into structured one) on a global perspective irrespective of industries; hence there is a big market scope thus generating more revenues.

How has the going been so far? And what are your goals next 2 years?

For product development companies, Initial focus is on technology, enhancing functionalities etc, so was with us too. Since now our products are rich enough in functionalities required by the market, more focus is on improving the GUI and marketing activities. The goal for the next 2 years is to be the market leader at least in India with a global presence in US, UK and Australia market.

What challenges do you see for your growth?

We don’t see competition as a challenge since we are confident about our product (This comment is based on the existing clients’ feedback and people taking demo of the product). The major challenge, which I foresee is because of the market slow down, because of which companies defer their plan to buy new products. The other major challenge is to arrange funding to have a good presence in global market.

How do you plan to promote this?

I would not like to put much light on our exact marketing strategies, but yes, we are exploring all best possible ways to promote our product/services starting with SEO, SCM and media etc. There is a lot going on, on this front.

How would you like to improvise?

One thing about the Product is that one can never say that it’s the end of the story. It’s always evolving based on market needs, clients’ requirements and feedback. Our marketing and sales teams keep in touch with clients and keep taking their feedback on regular basis. If a similar need is expected by multiple clients, it then becomes the enhanced functionality of the product. In regard to the business model, recently we have launched the hosted model of one of our applications called “RecruitPlus”. Users can use the product on monthly subscription model at a throw away price without incurring any capital expense on purchase of hardware, software licenses etc. The best part is that there is no long term commitment required from the client

Be it a rewritable CD or a 42” Plasma, CafeGadgets.in facilitates you to compare and evaluate hundreds of products spec-by-spec and rupee-by-rupee all at one place. It presents extensive information on products available as well as reviews from users. Assorted products from different brands are housed under various categories for your convenience. Besides this, the homepage has an eclectic selection of deals that you can avail at the click of the mouse. The portal intends to keep adding more products with time such that it has an exhaustive range on offer for you

CafeGadgets.in is the only portal of its kind to offer free doorstep delivery of products in the shortest possible time without any charges whatsoever. As a result, you pay exactly what is listed on the site rather than misleading and escalated costs. Customers can make payments for products bought at CafeGadgets.in through Cheque, Demand Draft or Credit card. All products sold on CafeGadgets.in carry Original Manufacturer’s Warranty

This is what Hitesh Dhingra, the CEO of CafeGadgets.in has to say:

What’s CafeGadget all about?
CafeGadgets.in deals in over 4000 IT & digital lifestyle products from 80+ top brands in the category. Our target customers are between 18-35 yrs, credit card holders. Thus, CafeGadgets stands for a one-stop-shop for all gadget needs & it appeals to the Youth, our end customers.

How & why did you come up this business concept?
I have worked in both IT Product Company and an online advertising agency in my previous assignments. Realizing the pain points as well as the business opportunity in E-Commerce in India, I decided to come up with CafeGadgets to empower E-Commerce for all the leading brands in this category.

Gadgets are the second largest selling product category online after travel but still there was no focused E-Commerce site selling new branded products with original manufacturer’s warranty in India. Also, most of the brand owners in this category are MNCs and they couldn’t get into direct retail. Thus, giving us the opportunity to bridge the gap with our expertise in E-business & product management.

How are your funded?
We recently got funding from a Delhi based IT retail chain – Crazypricing

What is your present revenue figure?
We expect to end FY2008-09 at Rs.14.5 cr

About the team behind the venture?
Hitesh Dhingra, Founder & COO: Hitesh is a commerce graduate & an MBA; he started his career in Singapore with an IT distribution company, where he was responsible to launch the range of desktops and notebooks for the group. In 2005, he joined a startup online advertising agency – Quasar Media, where he co-founded Tyroo, India’s first contextual advertising network (recently funded by Yahoo).

Sachin Singhal, Head – Marketing & IT: Sachin is a gold medalist in MCA from VIT. He is an expert in online marketing & internet technology. Prior to CafeGadgets, he was working with TCS as a Project manager.

Bharat Khani, Head – Operations: Bharat has over 7 years of experience in operations, sales & vendor management.

Who are your target segments?
Our target audience is 43 million internet users in India, NRIs for gifting to India, Corporates & institutional buyers.

Who are your competitors? How are you different from them?
Our major competition is from offline retailer stores. As for E-tailers, we have already converted them to our sales partners by powering their gadgets section.

What is your revenue model?
Transactions, vendor registration & advertising

How has the going been so far? And what are your goals in the next 2 years?
Within a short span of time, we have managed to partner with 80+ brand owners and are exclusive online partners for most of them. Our customer database is over 2 lacs with 30%+ repeated or referral purchases.

In next 2 years, we’d like to capture 10% of the gadgets market online with exclusive tie ups with all our vendors and position CafeGadgets as the largest consolidator for IT & digital lifestyle products in India.

What challenges do you see for your growth?
Low margins in the product category we deal in is the biggest challenge. Our objective would be to increase the volumes to negotiate better margins & increase traffic on CafeGadgets.in in order to earn from other streams like advertising.

How do you plan to promote this? (your marketing strategy)
We have partnered with Youth destinations like colleges, BPOs, community portals etc, apart from our presence on most of the E-commerce websites & SEO/SEM activities.

How would you like to improvise (product or business model)
Without improvisation, we wouldn’t have been in the position we are in today. As a startup, we didn’t have deep pockets to spend on advertising, so we expanded our reach through other E-commerce websites, thus reducing our acquisition cost, which is the major cost for any other E-commerce company