Dear Investors,
Startups need continuous nurturing and lots of nourishment – emotional, intellectual and financial. As with children, the initial phase puts into place the organisational values, strengthens entrepreneurial belief and lays down the DNA of a process driven organisation with objective decision making capabilities. And so it is with the first 3 startups your fund has invested in. Plans are detailed, checklists prepared, projects activated and monitored, the best teams identified and put through the paces to build synergies -victories celebrated.
In the coming quarter, each of the 3 portfolio companies will have crossed the 300 day landmark post investment, allowing us to assess growth and development, hits and misses objectively.
MyCity4Kids demonstrated true entrepreneurial instinct capturing an opportunity during Diwali. It tested a new entry pack that received tremendous response. Having now got its top team in place and a fully manned organisation, there is palpable excitement about potential growth in the coming quarter.
Proof of Performance (PoP) has won a prestigious contract from DAVP, the advertising arm for the Government of India. During last quarter, the product offering has been customized for media industry & advertisers by a team of three industry veterans working with PoP as consultants. The solutions are being recognised as ‘need of the hour’ by the Industry and we expect this to convert into substantial revenues in the near future.
Bookmycab has already made its presence felt in Mumbai and we are very pleased with the way the brand has become visible in the city. There have been some niggles in the technology platform but those are getting resolved even as I pen these lines. With some key senior team members likely to join in the next few weeks, and technology stabilising, there is an expectation of large scale ramp up in business. There is a positive trend in connected cabs coming for recharge. The advertising space is also showing progress with the first advertiser renewing the contract post a 30 day trial. Life has just begun at Bookmycab.
We had to let go of some apparently good opportunities after investing substantial time. The robustness of our due diligence process highlighted potentially drastic shortcomings in a venture that we had issued a term sheet to in Sept’12. This is the third deal this year that we did not go ahead with, post issuance of the term sheet. On two occasions, it cost the company broken deal cost.
The quality of deal flow is continuously improving. More and more budding entrepreneurs are reaching out to YourNest. We received over 800 deals in the year 2012 and 2013 looks even better.
Sunil K Goyal
January 31, 2013