The document summarizes discussions from a Founder Circle meeting at iSPIRT. Key topics included revisiting iSPIRT's goals of rewriting India's technology narrative and 10-year plan. First year goals include highlighting product entrepreneurship through events and playbooks, building an online community, and launching the iSMB program and Mentor Clinics. The iSMB program aims to accelerate SMB adoption of software by providing advice, evaluating vendors, and connecting SMBs to trusted solutions. It will be funded through an initial investment and cost recovery model. ProductNation plans were also discussed to further highlight product startups through content, events and an online community.

1. Founder
Circle
Mee.ng
4th
Feb
2013
1

2. Topics
• Introduc.ons
• Revisit
the
“Why”
behind
iSPIRT’s
crea.on
• What
are
our
first
year
goals
– iSMB
program
– ProductNa.on
plans
• How
we
will
work
• Press
talking
points
2

3. “Why”
behind
iSPIRT’s
crea.on
Open
Discussion
• Rewri&ng
the
script
of
the
na&on
• 10
year
gameplan
• Think
Tank
Vs
NASSCOM
3

4. First
Year
Goals
Policy
Playbooks
Programs
• Why
a
vibrant
product
industry
is
vital
to
India’s
future
(wapivif)
• Preferen.al
buying
policy
• Tax
clarity
• SoSware
patents
ü Highlight
Product
Entrepreneurship
ü Do
focused
events,
meetups,
webinars
around
product
playbooks
• Build
a
deep
online
community
• Launch
Mentor
Clinics
ü iSMB
• M&A
Connect
4

5. iSMB
Program
deep
dive
Shoaib
Ahmed
5

6. iSMB
Program
• Why
iSMB
Program
• Focus
on
Technology
Acceptors
• What’s
holding
up
adop.on?
• Program
Architecture
• Program
Funding
• Mistakes
to
Avoid
• Future
plans
6

7. Why
iSMB
Program?
• Size
of
the
prize
– Future
of
Indian
economy
depends
on
SMB
sector
becoming
efficient
– This
is
a
big
opportunity
for
soSware
products
and
product
enabled
commercial
intermediary
• Large
latent
market
that
can
be
opened
by
strategic
investment
by
iSPIRT
7

8. Our
focus
is
on
Technology
Acceptors
• Aware
of
Technology
• First
to
implement
Adopters
• Look
for
Trusted
Services
• Long
term
investors
Acceptors
• Adopt
when
exis.ng
prac.ces
are
obsolete
Resistors
8

9. What’s
holding
back
Technology
Acceptors?
No
Independent
High
Quality
Advice
• Struggling
to
define
needs
and
picking
the
right
place
to
start
• Unable
to
select
the
product
category
most
appropriate
to
their
needs
Overpromise
Under
delivery
• Opportunis.c
pricing
• No
easy
dispute
resolu.on
Limited
post
sale
support
• Stuck
at
novice
user
level
• Instead
of
product
support,
he
is
offered
expensive
consul.ng
service
iSMB
interven.on
Phase
A
Phase
B
Phase
C
9

10. Phase
A
Scaling
Free
Advice
for
SoSware
to
100K
SMBs
Narrowly
focused
– Jewelers
first,
Small
pharma,
Nursing
homes,
Schools,
Small
hotels,
etc.
1. Guide
for
each
segment
– Why
soSware
products
can
help
your
organiza.on?
– What
top
problems
should
I
address?
– Where
to
start?
Where
to
go
next?
– How
to
select
a
vendor?
2. Organizing
the
target
database
3. Phone
consul.ng
– Trained
consultants
that
follow-­‐up
4. Focused
Workshops
for
Prospects
– Done
with
trade
associa.ons
(e.g.
Jewelry
Associa.on
of
India)
10

11. Phase
B
Mentoring
Pseudo-­‐Products
to
be
Pure-­‐Products
Product
Company
Changes
needed:
• Start
with
clear
posi.oning
and
its
ar.cula.on
• No-­‐surprise
pricing
• Product
management
discipline
• Resolving
disputes
on
Online
Dispute
Resolu.on
plalorm
Only
select
companies
will
be
empaneled
11

12. How
is
the
iSMB
program
funded?
• Ini.al
funding
in
place
– RS
40L
which
will
be
used
for
seeding
steps
1/2/3
of
Phase
‘A’
rollout
for
mul.ple
segments
• Cost
recovery
model
– Empaneled
vendors
pay
for
cost-­‐of-­‐qualified-­‐lead
– Expected
to
RS
1-­‐2K
per
lead
• Sponsorships
possible
– Some
interest
from
Intel
and
Airtel
12

13. What
have
we
learnt
from
others?
• From
Intel
program
– Posi.oned
as
business
consul.ng
but
was
actually
communica.ng
product
informa.on
• From
MS
program
– Instead
of
porlolio
of
products
they
were
represen.ng
only
one
product
• From
Tally
adop.on
(over
2m
SMBs
using
it)
– Although
channel
works
for
Tally,
it
is
unable
to
carry
non-­‐Tally
products
so
separate
ini.a.ve
is
needed
13

14. Future
• Launch
buyer
facing
website
where
interac.ve
iSMB
guides,
product
informa.on
and
vendor
ra.ngs
will
be
available
• Provide
“good
business”
cer.fica.on
• Setup
Online
Dispute
Resolu.on
plalorm
14

15. ProductNa&on
Plans
Avinash
Raghava
15
A
plalorm
to
nurture
and
grow
the
Indian
startup
product
ecosystem.
It
seeks
to
inform,
educate,
and
ini.ate
dialogues
among
key
ecosystem
par.cipants.

16. Objec.ves
• Highlight
Product
Entrepreneurship
and
provide
more
visibility
for
the
product
startups
• Do
focused
events,
meetups,
webinars
around
product
playbooks
with
eco-­‐system
partners
• Build
a
deep
online
community
that
fosters
conversa.ons
amongst
prac..oners
• Launch
Mentor
Clinics
for
product
companies
• Create
SoSStore,
a
microsite
for
iSMB
program
16

17. The
Impact
so
far
• 175+
blog
posts
done
in
<
5
months,
20+
contributors,
40+
Product
Companies
featured
on
the
site
• ProductNa.on
traffic
/month
around
10K
pageviews,
6k
visitors
and
around
3.8
unique
visitors.
• Social
Media
has
got
good
following
–
Twiter
~800
followers
&
Facebook
~2400
likes.
• Around
7
Issues
of
Newsleter
sent
out
so
far.
Subscriber
base
–
13.1K+
subscribers.
• #PNMeetup
organized
in
NCR
every
third
Saturday
of
the
month.
Gewng
an
average
of
~45-­‐50
people
for
these
meetups.
17

18. SoSStore
Mockup
18

19. Topics
• Introduc.ons
• Revisit
the
“Why”
behind
iSPIRT’s
crea.on
• What
are
our
first
year
goals
– iSMB
program
– ProductNa.on
plans
• How
we
will
work
– Gaps
to
plug
• Press
talking
points
19

20. Our
Working
Model
Powered
by
Volunteer
model
Policy
Playbooks
Programs
• High
quality
results
• Alignment
with
mission
20

21. What
makes
it
different?
Open
source
inspired
model:
• High
competency
volunteers
• Fluid
hierarchy
based
on
contribu.ons
• Strong
performance
culture
Repeatable
successes:
• Founda.onal
Principles
• Opera.ng
Prac.ces
21

22. Founda.onal
Principles
1. Pulled
by
Passion,
Pushed
by
Program
Management
– Passion
:
strong
sense
of
mission/cause
– Program
Management
:
being
“anal
with
a
smile”
2. Build
Around
Challenges
– The
volunteer
will
select
a
challenge,
not
be
given
a
task
– Expose
people
to
the
problem
and
let
them
find
a
solu.on
3. Challenge
Hygiene
– Framing
the
challenge
is
key
– Each
challenge
has
a
clear
set
of
benefi.ng
stakeholders,
and
green/clean
goals
4. Good
to
Great
Volunteering
– Easier
challenges
given
to
first
.me
volunteers
– Great
volunteering
is
a
learnable
skill
– Challenges
must
not
outgrow
number
of
available
Program
Managers
22

23. Opera.ng
Prac.ces
1. First
.me
volunteers
– Expect
early
churn
among
new
volunteers;
over-­‐staff
by
50%
– Work
on
short
challenges
(<
3
months);
only
work
on
one
challenge
at
a
.me
2. On-­‐boarding
Volunteers
– Lead
volunteer
should
be
the
hardest
working
member
of
team
– Lead
volunteer
is
NOT
a
manager;
works
through
influence
NOT
control
– External
hierarchy
is
surrendered;
what
maters
is
volunteer
hierarchy
3. Program
Managing
the
Challenge
– Status
monitoring/follow-­‐up
is
offline;
Mee.ngs
focus
on
hashing
out
ideas/
direc.on
– Radical
transparency;
no
informa.on
asymmetry
4. Closing
Out
a
Challenge
– Living-­‐dead
mode
must
be
avoided;
challenge
is
killed
quickly
or
revived
23

24. Why
People
Volunteer?
• Similar
mo.va.ons
as
Kar
sevak
model
• Working
on
something
bigger
than
any
firm
or
individual
• Power
of
shared
purpose
• Peer
recogni.on
is
the
reward
• Not
for
personal
glory
24

25. Back
to
First
Year
Goals:
Leadership
Status
Policy
Playbooks
Programs
• Why
a
vibrant
product
industry
is
vital
to
India’s
future
(wapivif)
• Preferen.al
buying
policy
• Tax
clarity
• SoSware
patents
• Highlight
Product
Entrepreneurship
• Do
focused
events,
meetups,
webinars
around
product
playbooks
• Build
a
deep
online
community
• Launch
Mentor
Clinics
• iSMB
• M&A
Connect
25
Color
Legend:
Leadership
in
place
Leadership
not
yet
n
place

26. Press
Talking
Points
Open
Discussion
led
by
Peter
Yorke
26
At
the
heart
of
it
all….
THE
BRAND!

27. At
the
heart
of
it
all….
THE
BRAND!

28. Why
are
we
talking
to
the
media?
“Circula.on
is
like
the
sun.
It
con.nues
to
rise
in
the
East
and
decline
in
the
West.”
In
India,
print
media
growth
is
rapid,
but
uneven;
350
million
Indians
read
print
publica.ons,
and
53
percent
of
those
readers
are
‘rural’
–
in
a
country
where
65
percent
of
the
popula.on
lives
in
rural
areas,
this
is
significant.
N.
Ram,
former
Editor-­‐in-­‐Chief
of
the
Hindu
newspaper
CII
Entertainment
and
Media
Report
October
2012

29. What
do
we
want
to
tell
them?
• We
all
believe
that
SoSware
Products
will
transform
India
at
large
• iSPIRT
is
a
new-­‐gen
Think-­‐Tank
• iSPIRT
came
together
through
the
voluntary
efforts
of
30
Founders
Circle
Members
• iSPIRT
is
a
Sec.on
25
not-­‐for-­‐profit
organiza.on
• iSPIRT
will
operate
3
pillars
– Convert
ideas
to
policy
proposals
– Convert
conversa.ons
into
playbooks
for
entrepreneurs
– Convert
ac.ons
of
self-­‐help
communi.es
into
market
catalysts

30. 30