This document provides an overview of pitching a new idea within a company presented by Sandhiprakash Bhide. It begins with a quick introduction of Bhide's background and experience innovating and launching internal startups. It then discusses some of the challenges of pitching internally versus externally, as well as available resources when pitching internally. The presentation provides tips on key elements to include in an internal pitch, such as outlining the opportunity and defining the problem statement. It also discusses what it takes to be successful, including leadership style and passion. Bhide shares some reasons for his own success with internal pitches and startups.

1. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Sandhiprakash (Sandhi) Bhide
Independent Consultant/Innovative Business Leader
Pitching a New Idea Within Your Company
Presentation to the Oregon Executive MBA New Venture Planning class

2. ©2014 GERSON LEHRMAN GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.© 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Quick Introduction
1. GM/DIRECTOR OF INNOVATION/CTO, $2M INTERNAL STARTUP, IOT
2. Invented new Ambient Computing Platform: World’s first truly
intelligent Smart Light Bulb/Tube Light/Streetlight.
3. Developed Biz Plan: Biz Model, customers/competition/channel,
financial/market analysis, and execution plan.
4. Secured Funding: Took the idea to the CEO and got $2M in
funding an internal start-up.
5. Led Start-Up as GM/CTO/CIO: 40+ in India/US to develop three
IOT system platforms + Client-cloud connectivity.

3. ©2014 GERSON LEHRMAN GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.© 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Quick Introduction
6. Defined/Implemented Platform Architecture: HW/SW in 3.5/6
months versus 18/24 months with usual processes.
7. Executed New Technologies: Intelligent end node capabilities:
remote/configuration/asset management, actuation, …
8. Created a unique sauce: With processing, communication,
analytics, sensing, device management,…
9. Developed Biz Relationships with Customers: Developed
Proofs of Concepts and shared technical vision with 10+ customers

4. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Pitching a New Idea Within Your
Company
Versus Outside

5. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Layers of management
Lack of processes
Lack of oversight, strategy changes
Lack of decision making and owner
Not Understanding the Talent Within
Bring me Data, Evidence, Proof
Internal Politics, stakeholders
Silo mentality, Lack of Top Leadership
Familiarity breeds contempt/interruptions

6. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Available Resources: office, benefits,…
Network of people
People you can depend on for advice
Security and fall back (most cases)
Wide choice of team members
Leveraging existing know-how
Does not have to start from scratch
Taking advantage of internal processes
Existing customer base, S&M, Channel

7. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
When you are off your own

8. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Office set-up, IT, tools, location
Obscene hours of work
Form the team, board, advisors
You are everything – janitor to the CEO
Watchful eyes of angels/VCs, manage $
Develop technology, form venture
Create products, channel/distribution
Scaling the business, getting customers
Watch cash flow

9. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Be Aware of the advantages and
disadvantages of pitching a new
idea inside a company, be mindful
and act

10. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Learning from (other’s) experience
(how many rockets exploded on the pad, or went up a mile
and fell into the ocean, or went into the wrong orbit, how
many lives were lost, and how many $ were spent before
Saturn V successfully took 3 men to the moon and brought
them back safely)

11. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide

12. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Track Record
4/6 ideas I presented saw the light of the day
Two startups that did not get anywhere
Last one: Six Slides + 15 min 1:1 with the
CEO = $2M

13. ©2014 GERSON LEHRMAN GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.© 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Key Elements of Pitching a New Idea
1. Set the environment – where is the world going
2. Outline the Vision – Big, Hairy, Audacious, impossible
3. Outline the opportunity: Units, Market Size, Revenue…
4. Define Problem Statement, Usages, Pain Points
5. Ask the “Ask”
6. Success Metrics/Score Card
1. Business Model/Assumption
2. Relevance – why/how is it attractive to the company
3. What does the solution look like (is there a solution pipeline?)
4. Competition/What is the differentiation
5. How does the innovation pipeline look like?
6. What markets will be addressed/not addressed
7. What the project is/is not
8. Independent assessment
9. Customer Pipeline

14. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide 14
Set the Environment
Nature of Computing is changing…
“We are at an inflection point in the history of Data and
Computing. For the last 66 years since ENIAC, Data has
always come to Computing. Not so going into the future.
In the future, Compute will have to go where Data is. The
future is about scaling and about Distributed Intelligence.
We neither have enough wireless bandwidth and
spectrum to push data up from 50B Devices and 1
Trillion+ Sensors nor does it make economic sense to
send senseless bits up the channel”
Sandhiprakash Bhide
Trillion Sensors Summit Japan Feb. 20-21, 2014, Tokyo Japan

15. 15
With the LED revolution in action, we are seeing the demise of
incandescent, halogen and traditional light bulbs, being replaced by
the state of art super-efficient, long-life LED Bulbs on the planet
We have a tremendous opportunity to create a simultaneous
revolution by ensuring every LED bulb on the planet also becomes a
sensor, compute, and communication node as a part of planet-wide
sensor network benefiting cities, homes, communities, businesses,
and citizens around the world. Electric bulb, the most abundant end
node of the electric supply chain with its proximity to humans can
offer tremendous new value which would offset the deployment cost
and provide further electricity savings.
Vision for the Next Decade

16. ©2014 GERSON LEHRMAN GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.© 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Outline the Opportunity
1. Market Size: $/KU in each market
2. Opportunity: to disrupt the ___ market with new form factor
3. Revenue Opportunity: $__B from Si  Services
4. # of additional Units
5. Broad Markets: Home/Building/Office, Smart City, Industrial, Retail,…
6. Differentiation: Universal Socket, Unique Form Factor, E2E security,…
7. Market window just opened

17. ©2014 GERSON LEHRMAN GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.© 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Key Growth Areas
1. 40% of the opportunity is in developing and remaining 60% in the developed
2. 2X more value from B2B than consumer
3. Interoperability is required to capture 40% of the value
4. <1% data is currently used, more can be used for optimization/prediction
5. $3.9 trillion–11.1 trillion per year in 2025
Source: The Internet of Things: Mapping the value beyond the hype, McKinsey Global Institute, June 2015

18. 18
What is the problem Statement?
Smart Cities
Emergencies/Safety
Smart Homes/Buildings Industrial/Retail

19. ©2014 GERSON LEHRMAN GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.© 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Ask the “Ask”
1. $__M over __ years
2. $__ for travel, equipment, tools, prototyping
3. New Hires: Permanent: __ Temporary: __ Period: __ to ___
Uses for Headcount
1. New Innovation PoCs/Pilots SW development/QA
2. Validation
3. Middleware Development
4. App development: Client and Cloud
5. Partnerships: Comms Modules, Apps, Analytics
6. New Features Enhancements

20. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
9-month Score Card and Q2-4-2017 Plan
Demonstrate Proof of Concept
(Phase 1, 2, and 3)
2
Establish biz relationship with
top OEMs*
4
Submit 3-5 Patent Disclosures1
Complete the financial analysis
and a business plan
3
Develop the Middleware5





Looking Forward – Q2-Q4 2017 Focus
Q2-17
Productization with xxx
Customers: Three Design Wins/MOUs
Pilot-1
Q4-17Q3-15
Pilot-2
Middleware Development
2-3 additional Patents

21. ©2014 GERSON LEHRMAN GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.© 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
What it takes to be successful?
1. Leadership Style:
1.Energize/align teams behind a shared vision, show direction
2.Mobilize teams/resources for agile implementation and focus
3.Team advocate, partner in tackling challenges, celebrate
successes, team growth, learning from mistakes
4.Front face: For successes: Team. For failures: Me, the
Leader
2. Decisions: People with domain knowledge drive the decisions
3. Management: Unique balance of task + relationship, assume
responsibility for problem solving

22. ©2014 GERSON LEHRMAN GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.© 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
What it takes to be successful?
1. Passion/Purpose: Create innovative products/services that
solve customer’s problems and bring praise and long term
relationships with customers. Leave the planet/place better
than before I came in.
2. You the leader: Optimistic, positive outlook, intrinsically happy,
hopeful, fun loving but serious when the situation demands,
ethical, calm and collected even in worst situations, healthy
attitude towards life and people

23. ©2014 GERSON LEHRMAN GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.© 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Why was I successful?
1. Insatiably Curious: How things work/why things are the way they are
2. Innovative Business Leader: Broad engineering, marketing,
management, strategy, and leadership experience with
demonstrated ability to run businesses.
3. Start to finish focus: Drive the Vision to Strategy to Implementation,
Productization, & Innovation of new products.
4. Unique blend of (Business, Business models), (Users, Usages, UX),
Technologies + Strategy + Innovation
5. Operational philosophy (NAV): Nimbleness + Agility + Velocity
6. Keen ability to spot trends: Visionary/Thought Leader/connect dots
7. Broad STEM understanding: Science/Technology/Engineering/Math

24. ©2014 GERSON LEHRMAN GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.© 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Why was I successful?
1. You get what you see. No hidden agendas. High Trust. Enjoys
work and relationships. Open and transparent.
2. Strong ability to analyze/synthesize: Use data to create
information to create knowledge and to create wisdom
3. Have conviction
4. Be Bold and ask lot more than you need
5. Ask to be in control ($ usage)
6. Minimize meetings – no engineer in the blocked state > 15 min
7. Spend money to see customers/users
8. Near to real time development in 4 week sprints (agile process)

25. © 2017 Sandhiprakash Bhide
Thank you