Flatpebble.com: an idea that clicked

They had come to Microsoft, Hyderabad, from different paths. The job at the IT giant took them to different places and they finally ended up, together, in Kuala Lumpur. In an alien land, Venkatesh Seshadri or Venky and Pranav Mehta bonded and shared thoughts and ideas. One such session was epiphanic for the duo. They stumbled on an idea they were confident would click big, and turn them into entrepreneurs. They had zoomed in on the creative and growing field of photography.

Thus was born Flatpebble.com — an online service that connects photographers with clients. It lets the client post an assignment, which then alerts photographers within the target geography. The client gets to make his choice after reviewing work portfolios and detailed quotes from a set of photographers. Helpfully, the site also provides a rating of the work of the photographers.

 

The big jump

The young duo decided to quit their well-paying jobs and take the plunge. With their personal savings and help from friends, they invested ₹16 lakh to launch the venture. It was a leap into the unknown for the first-time entrepreneurs.

The decision was especially tough for Venky. He belongs to a conservative family that prefers an engineering degree, a higher qualification from a foreign university and an MNC job.

“My parents pushed me in that direction. I had to take the decision to become an entrepreneur when they were away in the US,” recalls Venky, co-founder of TechClove Technologies, which owns Flatpebble.com.

 

A chemical engineer with an MBA from SP Jain College, Venky joined Infosys in 2000 and then moved to Pidilite, where the exposure of talking to dealers expanded his horizon and convinced him that technology was just one aspect.

 

People with technology background have knowledge, but no hands-on experience. He then went to Sweden and worked with Volvo, and later joined Microsoft.

 

What Flatpebble does is to change the way photographers are hired especially for weddings, birthdays, portfolio shoots, fashion events and product launches.

 

“The solution we provide helps people view work samples, get detailed quotes and engage a photographer safely on the web. The photographer is also protected,” says Venky.

In the last four months, 185 assignments for photographers estimated at ₹90 lakh have been processed through Flatpebble. “Our photographer base now covers 175 cities in India with over 1,000 portfolios and we are adding new profiles at an accelerated pace,” says Pranav Mehta, Co-Founder and CTO.

 

The creative person

There are a number of products and companies that focus on photos, but Flatpebble decided to focus on the creative person behind the photo/image/visual or the photographer, says Venky. It is trying the ‘lean start up methodology,’ the latest Silicon Valley concept. Here, the idea is a hypothesis. You take it to the target audience and talk to select people and see if they buy it. Based on the feedback, keep improving. Flatpebble started with the ‘stock image product,’ created its platform, kept talking to its target audience — photographers.

 

“We thought photographers were more online — work with computers and are comfortable with the internet and know enough about the digital world. The result is Flatpebble.com,” explained Venky. An estimate reveals that there are nearly 2.5 lakh photographers for doing marriage photo shoots. Over 30 per cent are freelancers (a majority of IT professionals doing part time).

Flatpebble uses photography as an umbrella name for a bunch of services that include still, video, streaming and albums.

 

Flatpebble connects all these dots and its platform is built on the Cloud, says Pranav, who with a Masters Degree in Computer Applications, focuses on the technology aspects of the venture.

 

Golden memories

The professional photography landscape in India is fast changing, as consumers are willing to spend more to capture their special memories. With half a dozen staff, the company earns revenue through subscriptions from photographers and commissions. It recently raised funds through investors.

“Flatpebble is solving an important problem and bringing order to a disorganised market,” says Raghu Bathina, serial entrepreneur and investor.

 

“The candid photography space alone is a $500-million market in India and it is growing at 25 per cent year-on-year.”

Healthcare tech is hot for venture capitalists

From wearables like wristbands that keep track of your physical activity to wireless weighing machines that help you track your weight fluctuations, technology is getting into healthcare with an eye firmly on the consumer.

 

The trend in far greater in the US, but healthcare influenced by information technology (HIT) is a niche that’s seeing increased activity in India, too.

This is indicated by the large number of deals in this segment, observed Raj Prabhu, co-founder of Mercom Capital Group, a global consulting and communications firm.

In the US, venture capital (VC) funding in HIT nearly doubled from $1.2 billion in 2012 to $2 billion in 2013.

 

Back home, though the total deal size is small at $12 million, the number of deals has increased to seven from one last year, he told Business Line over the phone from Texas.

India stands fourth, after the US, the UK and Canada, he pointed out.

 

And, despite the funding fatigue and recessionary trends that worry other sectors, “in terms of VC funding, this is the hottest sector”, he added.

 

Wearable technology is a huge trend in the US and the big push is on consumer-centric, focused technology, Prabhu said.

 

In India, the projects are mainly focused on helping people to connect remotely through computers, telephones and Skype.

 

Last year’s key transactions include VC funding from Burrill & Company for Strand Life Sciences, a Bangalore-based company providing products and solutions for data integration and analysis.

Bangalore’s Doctree Health Infoservices, which connects doctor and patient, raised $500,000. iKure Techsoft, a Kolkata-based developer of technology solutions for the delivery of healthcare services in rural areas, received an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I-cube-N).

 

It also raised funding from IIM-Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE), along with US-based investor Village Capital. Chennai’s Xcode, a preventive wellness programme provider, raised about $170,000 in angel funding from Shead Holdings, a micro-venture capital fund from the US, and an individual investor.

Bangalore’s InterpretOmics, a cloud-based software system for next generation genomics data analysis and interpretation, raised about $1.7 million in angel funding from Amarante and two undisclosed local investors.

 

MeraDoctor, a Mumbai-based provider of health-plus-finance — it combines medical advice with health insurance and discounts on tests and medicines — received funding from Accion through its Venture Lab.

 

In the mergers and acquisition space, Virinchi Technologies, a Secunderabad-based financial IT products, solutions and services company, acquired a majority stake in Asclepius Consulting & Technologies, a software solutions provider for mid-size hospitals and nursing homes in India, says Mercom in its list of local transactions.

Deshpande's Sandbox to inspire social innovation hubs

Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande, a famous Silicon Valley entrepreneur from Karnataka whose Sycamore Networks was the darling of the US stock markets, aims to replicate the success of his technology enterprise to the social innovation landscape in India.

Deshpande, who has developed a framework to promote social entrepreneurs, is set to expand his presence with the help of other noted business leaders. Five hubs based on that model will be built with the support of Raju Reddy (another well-known technology entrepreneur of Indian origin in the Silicon Valley), Rajender Singh of DLF Foundation, Sangita Reddy of Apollo Hospitals, Srinivasa Raju of Peepul Capital and Dilip Modi of Spice Telecom/Ek Soch Foundation.

Christened Sandbox,  the model seeks to work with business people and community leaders to build a comprehensive programme to encourage entrepreneurs to move from ideas to actual businesses. Using broad-based marketing, along with the help of community partners, Sandbox looks to attract a broad cross section of entrepreneurs. Mentors, expert speakers and frequent gatherings will help the entrepreneurs accelerate their knowledge and give their ideas a better chance of success.

The hub champions (the five business leaders) will help launch a social innovation hub each in five locations across three states - Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Each hub will support numerous social businesses and NGOs by providing financial and capacity building resources with the aim of scaling each venture within the immediate proximity of the respective hub, and then leveraging the network to further its growth.

This move by Deshpande will be under the umbrella of Action For India (AFI), inspired and guided by Sam Pitroda, with the goal of helping social innovators in India overcome barriers to scale and achieve greater impact at the bottom of the pyramid, by connecting social innovators with impact investors, mentors, technology resources, government contacts and local partners.

Bottom of the pyramid refers to the poorest socio-economic group.

Sandbox facilitates a critical mass of activity to spur innovations through insights and learnings from social enterprises in the Silicon Valley. In a related move, AFI has embarked on an ambitious mission of "20 by 2020", which will see the development of 20 social innovation hubs by 2020.

Deshpande, advisor to US President Barack Obama and founder of Deshpande Foundation, said, "If we are able to combine the execution excellence of for-profit organisations with the compassion of not-for-profit organisations, we can do magic.

India needs to come up with solutions that are cost-effective and scalable. We can achieve this by setting benchmarks to raise the aspirations of social entrepreneurs and collaborate with the government, private sector and financial institutions. The AFI forum is an excellent platform to bring all these parties together. Connections are made. People pursue those connections to do what they want to do, and AFI helps facilitate that."

As part of the move this year, a select group of young Indian social innovators will travel to the Silicon Valley to interact with venture capitalists and technology entrepreneurs at premier business accelerators, including StartX at Stanford University, SkyDeck Labs at University of California, Berkeley, and the TiE Launchpad. These entrepreneurs will be announced as AFI Silicon Valley Fellows after a selective competition.

During last year, AFI launched a chapter in California which serves as an outpost for Indian business talent abroad and includes talented academics, technology leaders and business executives united in their efforts to pool resources to accelerate leading social ventures in India.

The primary purpose of this international expansion is to mobilise angel impact investments from the Silicon Valley to fund social innovations in India.

AFI is courting additional philanthropists, corporate sponsors, impact investors and foundations to help create actionable social interventions through market-based solutions. "Action For India's goal is to address the stark realities of nearly 10 million young people entering into the Indian workforce each year through the creation of ventures that seek to solve some of the nation's most pressing challenges around livelihoods, health and education," AFI said in a statement.

Marthanda Varma could have been Kerala's Henry Ford but for family compulsions

Industry-scarce Kerala could have had a vehicle-manufacturing factory much before the automobile revolution started in India if Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma of Travancore's royal family had his way. His interests in industry and business were among the lesser known facets of the life of Marthanda Varma, who died on December 16, aged 91. As the head of the family since 1991, he managed the business interests of the royals.

 

A keen observer of business, he invested in well-known companies and also promoted some of his own. Travancore was the second wealthiest princely state after Nizam's Hyderabad when it joined the Indian union. Marthanda Varma was very active in Kerala's social and cultural circles. As the family head, he was also the hereditary custodian of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, the famous Thiruvananthapuram shrine that caught world's attention in 2011 after it was revealed that its underground vaults contained huge treasure. Controversies over the temple were probably the biggest worries in his life

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After studying Sanskrit and History in Kerala, Marthanda Varma left for the UK in the early 1950s to pursue his main interest, automobile engineering. He then joined Plymouth Company in the UK as an apprentice. According to historian MG Sashibhushan, it was his stint at Plymouth that groomed Marthanda Varma into an entrepreneur. "Uthradom Thirunal had a good trainer in Plymouth who told him upfront that he should not expect a VIP treatment in front of his coworkers", Sashibhushan said.

He used to call Marthanda Varma as "Mr Varma" publicly. Though Marthanda Varma was slightly upset about this irreverence, his interest in automobile engineering made him to continue with the apprenticeship without any complaints. "His plan was to come back to Kerala and start an automobile manufacturing company," Sashibhushan said. But he had to change his plans as the family instead made investments in Aspinwall & Co, first in 1956 and then in 1971 to acquire its controlling stake. Marthanda Varma later became the company's non-executive chairman.

 

Aspinwall is today a Rs 250-crore company with operations in sectors such as logistics, tourism, coffee, coir and rubber estates. The entrepreneur in Marthanda Varma continued to be restless. He founded a company to manufacture rexine in Bangalore. He was the executive chairman and managing director of the company, Varma Industries Pvt Ltd. "The unit functioned for about two decades until he sold it," said his nephew, Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma.

He was well-connected in business circles. His close association with the Birla Group led to him becoming a member of the Mysore Cements board, Rama Varma said. He was also a member of the board of Royal Enfield for a few years as the representative of the royal family, which had made an investment in the motorcycle maker. More recently, he was associated with a hospital project in Thiruvananthapuram, the Uthradom Thirunal Hospital which was later acquired by BR Shetty of UAE Exchange.

 

Senior executives at Aspinwall described Marthanda Varma as a fine human being who remembered them and their family members by name and enquired about them whenever he visited the company. OE Raghavan, general manager at Aspinwall, said Marthanda Varma used to ask sharp questions on the performance of the company. "He always gave patient hearing to all and never lost his temper." His passion for automobiles, especially cars, continued until the end.

 

He had a collection of 20 odd cars, of both vintage and modern variety. He never missed a chance to drive one until a couple of years back. "Below my neck I am 91. But above my neck I am only 19" he said when came to Kochi in November to meet Prince of Wales Charles, who was in Kerala on a visit. Though Travancore was one of the wealthiest princely states, the simple life of the royals had impressed even Mahatma Gandhi, said Sashibhushan, the historian.

 

The developments over the Padmanabhaswamy Temple had become a big concern for Marthanda Varma in the past few years. Some devotees had claimed that some treasures had gone missing from the temple's vaults and filed a lawsuit demanding the appointment of a new custodian. Former Chief Minister VS Achutanandan had accused the royals of taking away gold coins from the temple. The Supreme Court ordered to draw up an inventory of the treasure.

 

Though the royals have largely refrained from making comments, Marthanda Varma's view was that the treasure belonged to the temple.