By Tanya Agarwal
One of the biggest problems faced by startups throughout the world is funding. For startups, the biggest challenge is to pitch their product in front of stubborn, not-so-easily convinced investors and this activity is a dread among the young aspirants. But what if this whole traumatising experience of marketing and defending the product was made fun? Ever imagined talking to the investors and pitching in the startup idea over a pint of beer?
Nodd, a Mumbai-based application has revolutionised the basic idea of pitching for funds. Combining seriousness and comfort in the perfect proportions, this unique idea lets one have a word with top entrepreneurs over food and beverages. This constructive and out of the box experience is the main USP of the application.
After organising three successful events across the country in cities like Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi, the fourth edition had been hosted for the first time in the city of pearls, Hyderabad.
Startups in India
India has become the third largest startup economy in the world today, closely following the United States and the United Kingdom. According to reports, Indians are the most willing to start their own businesses after quitting their jobs. Almost forty-one per cent of Indian workers claimed to have been looking for new jobs to some extent. Thus, around seventy-two per cent of the worker population is willing to migrate for professional reasons. However, interestingly, these figures juxtapose with the eighty-two per cent population that is actually satisfied and happy with their current employers.
However, there is a dark cloud over the much celebrated and glamorous startup race everyone is running for, that is about ninety per cent of the startups fail. The trend is usually attributed to lack of innovation and uniqueness. A whopping seventy-six per cent Indian workers confessed that the risk and failure of failure were enormous. This particular figure is twenty-two per cent more than the Global Average.
Funding of startups in India
Startups across the globe are finding it difficult to find funding and hence most shut down before their dreams are realised. In India, the situation is only worse.
In the period 2015 to 2016, the investments in startups increased exponentially with investors looking out for more and more startups to invest in as they could foresee their returns increasing multi-fold. However, the situation reversed in 2017. All of a sudden, the market started running out of funds and entrepreneurs started facing difficulty in raising smallest of amounts.
According to an article on Economic Times, figures from Tracxn showed that in the first half of 2015, 563 deals were signed. In comparison, the first half of 2017 saw only 509 deals in the first six months. This is way lesser than the figure of 689 deals that were signed in 2016.
Interestingly though, the amount of investment has increased in 2017. Investments increased by thirty-seven per cent in 2017 from 4,709 million dollars in 2015 to 6,445 million dollars last year. As compared to 3,947 million dollars, there was an increase of sixty-three per cent in 2017. Notably, the maximum part of the investment was raised in the second quarter of 2017. A total of 4727 million dollars were raised in the last six months.
According to reports, however, about eight per cent of the startups in India failed or closed down due to loss of investor interest and about twenty-nine per cent failed because they ran out of cash.
About Nodd
An application based networking platform, Nodd is for achievers across the globe to connect and grow together. The exceptional app has successfully combined technology with peer-based learning and networking. This is a breakthrough method to empower strategic learning and professional growth.
The application has the vision to provide the most effective and engaging network platform to about one fifty million professionals including businessmen, academic achievers, entrepreneurs, visionaries, professors, etc.
The members of the application believe in helping others without expecting anything in return.
About Tu Bhi Beer Hai
The main concept of the event is that the startup ideas are pitched to potential investors over a beer. The event breaks the ice of formality and professionalism that has to be maintained for events or meetings to find investors. Various professionals like entrepreneurs, startup advisers or mentors, investors and startups are invited to the event.
The event has successfully changed and revolutionised the standard definition of investor pitching, strict investor panels, boring superfluous presentations, idea grilling and brainstorming sessions, and has brought up a whole new concept of an informal environment in which the pitching can be done over food and beverages. Such a relaxed environment instigates the various professionals to add a personal touch to the earlier boring pitch and is an amazing way of creating networks. The idea also induces creativity in the way a startup may like to pitch its idea. This also ensures fruitful results at the end of not so monotonous discussions.
Idea formulation: From the founders desk
Shubham Rai, the founder of the unique app had faced the same set of difficulties and emotional and mental stress that all those who have a dream of having their own startups do. Gaining from his experience and with the vision of increasing interaction between the investors and the startups and thus bridging the gap between them, he formulated the idea of Tu Bhi Beer Hai. He wanted to help others by eliminating the factor of fear and dread that goes into the process of asking for funds. He, instead, wanted to facilitate the process by making it more convenient, easy, casual and at the same time not lose the whole idea of it.
Mr Rai, however, believes that the process is not just fun, it is about the unique learning and networking experience that can not be found otherwise. The idea and concept are about building new and nurturing old relations. It is about helping an entrepreneur achieve his or her most important goal, build and maintain healthy relationships. It is about bettering the communication of the startups that have great ideas but are not able to present them due to lack of connections.
He stated that he wanted to expand the idea beyond the metros.
Fourth edition: Hyderabad
In the fourth edition of the Tu Bhi Beer Hai event held in Hyderabad, the investors and startups met over beer and biryani.
The event, following the trend of the previous editions, was divided into two partsthe pitching is done in a respectful manner in a confined space and then the professionals proceed to the networking area that contains the food and the beverages. The idea is to give each startup adequate time and space to represent their ideas and pitch their startups to investors without the fear of remaining unheard. Moreover, the networking area facilitates the interaction between the investors and the startups to enable both to make contacts with each other. This will help the entrepreneurs who had never done the exercise before, to loosen up and be confident.