Ankur Kumar presented on his experience starting and growing BigBHK, an online PG/hostel management SaaS product. He discussed ideating the concept, building a team, creating an MVP, achieving product-market fit, developing a business model, and ultimately exiting via acquisition by Housing.com. Ankur provided advice on startup dos and don'ts as well as recommended learning resources for entrepreneurs.

1. STARTING
UP!
Image Source: http://goo.gl/Lqw2fr
Ankur Kumar
’06B3A7G
Founder, BigBHK
www.bigbhk.com

2. BIGBHK
• Started in January ’14, 8 team members
• SaaS Product for Online PG/Hostel Management –
Rental Accounting, e-Invoicing, Reports, Reminders, Ticketing…
• Stakeholders: PG Owners, PG Employees, Tenants
• Acquired by Housing.com in July ’15

3. AGENDA
• Startup Journey
• End Result
• Do’s/Don’ts
• Learning Resources
• Q/A

4. STARTUP JOURNEY

5. • Scouting ideas -> Read market, startup trends, hot sectors,
niche startups
• Already have an idea but not sure -> Market research, Domain
expert’s review
• Best: Talk to prospective customers directly
• Confident about idea -> Just start!
Caution:
1. Too much intellectual thinking will not conclude much
2. Keep hard timelines to your plan
IDEATION PHASE

6. TEAM BUILDING
• College/School Friends, Colleagues, Acquaintances, Family members,
Someone with startup experience
• Create an Advisory Board
Platforms/Groups: Morpheus, StartupSaturday, Cofounder.in, Fb Groups
Events: Techsparks, Unpluggd, many more..
Caution: Decide in advance -
1. Role division : Product, Tech, Business, Recruitment, Finances,
Marketing, Fundraising
2. Go-to-Market strategy
3. Equity vesting terms -> Avoids Co-Founder conflict
4. Set clear expectations for Co-Founders/Core team members joining later

7. FINANCIAL PLANNING
• Have you calculated your burn rate?
• Is depleting finance going to bother you?
• Are you afraid to go bankrupt?
• How long can you stay afloat on your own?
Caution:
1. Do not jump until you do adequate planning
2. Work on idea part time until you have things laid out
3. Be frugal
Image Source: http://goo.gl/JqcKmJ

8. JUMP!
Image Source: http://goo.gl/LgttVO

9. BUILDING MVP
• Before MVP, launch alpha/beta product
• Follow: ‘Ship & Test’, ‘Code & Sell’
• Observe live product usage by customers - Must!
• Quick feedback and re-building/improving
Caution:
1. Don’t delay beta: Should be ashamed of launch
2. MVP development process is iterative, don’t lose patience
3. MVP only caters to a subset of intended customers

10. ADOPTION &
PRODUCT TO MARKET FIT(PMF)
• Spend more time in Selling
• Increase stickiness: Assess user engagement using tracking tools
• More product offerings
• Quick experiments, A/B Testing
• Crave to maintain a product differentiation : Keep innovating
Caution:
1. Driving adoption and achieving PMF takes time - months, years! This is where
90% startups fail
2. Pivot only if you find :
• You can offer something else to same segment, faster
• This is not what market needs

11. BUSINESS MODEL
• Prerequisite: Some traction, Have understood market psyche
• Experiment on right pricing for your product
• Works differently for B2B/B2C products
B2B: Long sales cycle, more ticket size, recurring payment
B2C: Number of monetizable consumers, thin margin
Caution:
1. For B2B: Think about impact at B2B2C level -> more revenue or utility for
business?
2. For B2C: Maintaining customer loyalty if there is competition
3. Calculate average CTA for your customers - Cost to Acquire, check
sustainability

12. CROSSING THE CHASM
Image Source: http://goo.gl/tZXQpX

13. CROSSING THE CHASM…
Watch:
https://goo.gl/zs8s73

14. GROWTH / FUNDRAISING
• Slow vs Fast Growth
• Do you really need money?
• How much you need?
• Incubators, Startup Competitions, Friends/Senior Executives, Seed,
Angel, Series
• Get experienced entrepreneurs on Advisory Panel – show progress,
growth – influence them to fund
• Make profile on AngelList, LetsVenture, Tracxn, f6s
Caution:
1. From a 'Yes’ to bank inflow : 3-6 months
2. Find investors with interest overlap, important to keep entrepreneurial
spirit alive

15. EXIT
• Every investor will ask you about it
• Figure out as you progress
• Organic growth vs Investment vs M&A
Caution:
1. Take logical decisions and not emotional ones
2. Exit with a notion that you will start something again!

16. END RESULT
• Joy of building, selling and owning a brand
• Test yourself against thick and thin, a roller-coaster journey
• Understand the seller perspective, practical business knowledge,
insight & expertise
• Fast skill-set development
• Lifetime experience, confidence to do anything
• Stick this on your wall: “Trying and failing is better than not trying
at all”

17. DO’S & DON’TS
• Do a startup, if you
-Can improvise: you will always have limited resources, how best
can you use them matters
-Not afraid of your idea failing in the market, prepared to start again
-Are keen to work hard and persevere
----
• Don’t do a startup, if you
-Find it cool
-Are bored from your job
-See it as a gateway to become wealthy
-Are risk averse

18. LEARNING RESOURCES
Must Read Books
• The Habbit of Winning - Prakash Iyer
• Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey A. Moore
• The Lean Startup - Eric Ries

19. LEARNING RESOURCES
Blogs/Magazines/Newspapers
• http://www.entrepreneur.com/
• http://www.yourstory.com
• http://www.nextbigwhat.com/
• http://techcrunch.com/
• http://www.investopedia.com/
• http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
• http://www.businessworld.in/

20. REFERENCES
• Crossing the Chasm in Consumer Markets: A Visual
Example - Geoffrey A. Moore - https://goo.gl/zs8s73
• Scaling the chasm: http://goo.gl/MF0D7H

21. THANK YOU!
• Email: specialankur@gmail.com
• Contact No: +91-97392-13628
• LIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/specialankur
• Fb: https://www.facebook.com/specialankur
Starting something? Write to me for anything!

22. Q/A