Well reviews are more of individual feelings or experiences which the person might have had in the organization, which they share. Having a CEO or someone review or approve them doesn't sound like a good review system to me. For the CEO his/her company would always be the best and I dont agree to the point of they approve or disapprove to someone else's review.
What is your opinion?
What is the best way to structure a presentation to venture capitalists?
What is the key information they would want to see in a limited time frame? Revenue opportunities, competition, cost to market, marketing initiatives, etc?
In what ways will app distribution across platforms (Apple, Android) be simplified for the enterprise in 3 years? Will there be a dominan…
What is the best software for doing mobile interaction/UX design for native apps?
I'm getting more serious about mobile interaction/UX design for native apps and there are lots of different programs to potentially use. What are some of the best, and what software would you start using today if you had no prior experience with any program?
What can the young people who spend hours reading or looking at the computer do to relieve eye strain?
Answer by Anuj Agarwal:
The Vision Council, an organization representing the optical industry, recently released a 16-page online document that explains the problems associated with eye strain and makes recommendations for how to combat it.
Full document is available here https://www.thevisioncouncil.org/consumers//media/VCDigitalEyeStrainReport2012FINAL.pdfHere is the summary of the report.
Adjust external factors:
- Reduce glare. Adjust the brightness of your screen by checking the control settings on your digital device. Glare reduction filters are also available and can easily attach to computer screens.
- Clean your screen. Frequently dust and wipe digital screens to help reduce glare.
- Dim your surrounding lighting. Lessen the amount of overhead and surrounding light that is competing with your device’s screen. Dim inside lights and try to avoid outside areas of intense brightness. This can help to reduce glare and strain.
- Keep your distance. Position your device so there is sufficient distance between your eyes and the screen.
1) For computers, try sitting in your chair and extending your arm. Your palm should be able to rest comfortably on the monitor (as if you’re high-fiving the screen).
2)For hand-held devices, try to keep the device a safe distance from your eyes and hold it just below eye level.
- Adjust your screen. Digital screens should always be directly in front of your face and slightly below eye level. Do not tilt a computer monitor.
- Increase text size. Bump up text size to help better define the content on your screen.
Remember internal factors:
- Blink more often. Starring at a digital screen can affect the amount of times you blink, causing eyes to dry. Remind yourself to blink more often, which will also help to refocus your eyes.
- Take a 20-20-20 break. Even short breaks can make a huge difference. Every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break and look at something 20 feet away.
When is the best time in your life to start a business and why?
Answer by Anuj Agarwal:
- Just quit your job – Finally you have time to work on your idea
- Just lost everything – great, now you have nothing to lose, so risk big.
- Just graduated – You studied enough. now USE what you know.
- Just broke up – You got more time for constructive things like business
- Just got hired – Learn everything there is to learn and leave
- Just came into this world– You got more windows of opportunity than the rest of us. Don't waste your time.
- Just moved – Now that you are in a better place, do better things.
- Just got fired – They made leaving the job easy for you.
- Just life as usual – when life is stable, you can easily focus on one thing – business
- Just got sick – now that you are comfortably lying in bed, you have time to think up a business plan.
- Just got a laptop – Now you have about all the equipment you need to start a business
- Just fell in love – Doing business is sexy
- Just started school – School alone won't get you anywhere. doing things will. Start while you are in school
- Just got married – You got yourself a Co-founder
- Just got a kid – Now you have someone to be a role model for. Do something great
- Just turned 25 – Entrepreneurs are like pro basketball players. They peak at 25, by 30 they're usually done. It's easier to pour your life into a company when you're young, creative, fresh, and fired up.
- Just feel miserable – Misery is the best fuel to start your own company. Many grow companies to rebel against former bosses.
- Just have no responsibilities – The more responsibilities you have, the less likely it is that you will start a business. So start a company when you have the time and the energy and the freedom to do so.
- Just during Recession – 16 out of the 30 corporations that make up the current Dow Jones Industrial Average started during a recession
- Just got an Opportunity – Age and situation aren't the factors to consider. Opportunity is what is needed, not experience, security, or age.
In a nutshell, Today is the Best Time to start a Business!
If I want to invest $5,000 as a new angel investor, what chances do I have of making a profit in 5 years?
Answer by David S. Rose:
"Very, very slim" to "almost negligible" if you're talking about investing into one company, increasing to "slim" if the syndicate invests into a dozen or more companies.
I know I'm going to draw the ire of some of the angel crowd, most of the entrepreneurial crowd and all of the crowdfunding crowd with this response, so it's important to back it up with an explanation, namely:
A majority of all new, angel-backed companies fail completely, so if you invest in only one company, the odds are that you will LOSE ALL YOUR MONEY, not just "not make a profit".
Several studies and mathematical simulations have shown that it takes investing the same amount of money consistently into at least 20-25 companies before your returns begin to approach the typical return of over 20% for professional, active angel investing. This means the greater the number of companies into which the angel syndicate invests, the greater the likelihood of an overall positive return. [1]
However…
- Angel investing (like venture capital) follows the classic J-curve. Because unsuccessful companies tend to fail early, and big exits from the successful ones tend to take a long time to develop, when you graph it on a timeline, the overall value of an angel portfolio makes a shape like the letter "J". The value immediately begins dropping for several years as soon as you start investing, and only after a fair amount of time does it change direction and begin to be worth more than the original investment. [2]
- Since the average holding period for an angel investment in the United States is NINE YEARS, after only five years it is quite likely that the value of the syndicate's portfolio will still be underwater, unless it just happened to include one unusual, Black Swan, quick home run.
But…
- A significant part of angel investing is getting access to good deal flow in the first place. The average investment PER ANGEL / PER COMPANY from an angel member of a serious angel group is about $25,000. If you're only investing $5,000 into the syndicate, and especially if you expect that to cover participation in several deals, the reality is that you would not be considered a significant investor either by potential investees, or even by your fellow investors. And a syndicate made up of even a hundred $5K investors would likely not have the resources to be taken seriously by the 'best' companies, thereby relegating it to starting with a second-tier caliber of deal flow.
And finally…
- Companies always need more money, and therefore provide incentives for their investors to step up and participate in follow-on rounds. These incentives invariably come at the expense of the early investors who choose NOT to participate…which is why venture capitalists always reserve the same amount as their initial investment for them to put in later into the same company. Unless you (or the syndicate) are planning to reserve for follow-ons, your interest is likely to be significantly reduced over time.
I realize that this all sounds very depressing, and makes one wonder why on earth anyone would ever become an angel (good question, actually!) But the answer to that lies precisely in all of the cautions above:
- IF you are an Accredited Investor, and
- IF you are prepared to invest at least $50K to $100K per year, and
- IF you make sure to reserve quite a bit for follow-on financings, and
- IF you develop a strong deal flow of good companies, either through an angel group or your own contacts, and
- IF you invest consistently so that you have at least 20 companies (ideally more) in your portfolio, and
- IF you are professional in both your due diligence investigation and your deal term negotiation (including specifically with regard to valuations), and
- IF you go in with the knowledge that you are going to be in it for at least a decade, holding completely illiquid assets, and
- IF you can help add value to your portfolio companies above and beyond simply money (such as board service, contacts, fundraising, etc.)
Then (and only then) will the odds be in your favor for you to join the relatively rarified band of successful, professional angel investors who show average IRRs over their investing years of over 25% per year.
——–
[1] Data Driven Patterns for Successful Angel Investing by Sim Simeonov http://www.slideshare.net/simeons/patterns-of-successful-angel-investing-8306787[2] Resource Complementarities, Trade-Offs, and Undercapitalization in Technology-Based Ventures: An Empirical Analysis by David M. Townsend and Lowell W. Busenitz
Which are the top 20 distinguished tech start-ups of India?
Answer by Manish Sharma:
Simple answer – none. Complicated answer – None. Indian entrepreneurs are not in the business of making a game changing product or having a great ethical team of founders. But if you are looking for some names who have been successful in making some VCs rich and some extremely poor – Flipkart, Makemytrip, Fashion And You, JustDial, iBibo, Bookmyshow etc. None of these companies have a sustainable business model or a business model that cannot be disrupted easily (if you had the money). If you are an entrepreneur and want to do business in India with Indian customers, you would have to think about a business that reaches out to 100 of millions of people in our country in all sorts of cities and towns and that credibly uses mobile (not a smart phone) as a medium of technology. If you can figure that out you would be the most successful tech founder ever.
Contact Lenses Could Be The Future Of Augmented Reality – do you really see this as the future?
The future of augmented reality isn't on a smartphone screen or on a pair of cumbersome glasses. The future is a contact lens. This is a statement I recently read somewhere. Just wondering do you really see contact lenses as future of AR. Also how would it blend with the most talked about term "accessibility"?
What are some things that truly committed angel investors do for startups?
Answer by David S. Rose:
The ideal angel investor would spend a great deal of his/her time working on behalf of the company in support of the CEO, in every way other than being a full-time employee.
In addition to doing the kinds of things that anyone (employee, friend, parent, founder, etc.) could do (referring customers, tweeting out news, suggesting ideas, checking out competitive sites, pointing out relevant news articles, providing moral support, etc.) the best angels are good for the same categories of contributions that not-for-profit institution look for when recruiting board members: the Three Ws of Wealth, Work and Wisdom.
Although most novice angels (and, to be fair, many experienced ones as well) expect that they will write one check up-front, and then sit back until the IPO, in the large majority of cases the Real World™ intervenes, and additional funding is required. Typically, when this happens, there are not a lot of other sources of cash immediately at hand, so all eyes turn to the original angels. At this point, having an investor who does not have the Wealth (or a willingness to part with it) to double down, can be very disappointing.
When it comes to Work for the company, angels can be most productive with the types of contributions that they are uniquely able to provide. These could be skill-based, such as presentation coaching for the CEO, or helping write or revise the business plan. More typically, they are networked-based, with the angel offering to connect the startup with resources, partners, investors or acquirers that would otherwise fall outside the company's reach. In fact, the first thing that Ron Conway does after making an investment is to give the new portfolio company a large binder containing the names of every person Ron knows in the industry, with the offer to make whatever introductions are needed. For the rest of us, LinkedIn can offer a good substitute :-).
Finally, when it comes to Wisdom, good angels can be worth their weight in gold, and great CEOs start taking advantage of this right away. The average serious angel in the US has over fifteen years of entrepreneurial experience, and has personally started two or three companies. As a result, angels can provide insights and experience that may be virtually impossible to obtain elsewhere. I know angels (and not ones who serve on the company's board) who meet weekly with the CEO for executive coaching sessions. And others who facilitate off-site management meetings, provide a much-needed perspective from outside the company, or keep the entrepreneur focused appropriately on real world metrics and financials.
Of course, all of the above items are "some things" that truly committed angels do for startups. In the real world, an angel will not be successful unless he or she invests in literally dozens of startups. And it should be obvious that no human being can simultaneously do everything I've described for dozens of different entrepreneurs.
This means that realistically, a good angel investor will (1) intelligently understand the entrepreneur's vision, (2) provide early stage funding based on that understanding and faith in the entrepreneur, (3) respond quickly whenever approached by the entrepreneur, both before and after the investment, (4) try to not get in the way or be a pain in the ass, (5) reserve at least some additional cash to re-up during on a follow-on round if appropriate, (6) do some or all of things in the second paragraph (referrals, spreading the word, etc.), and (7) do at least some of the things I've listed under the Three Ws.
If you have an angel who does (1)—(7), you are a very lucky entrepreneur, and have found an investor who is "truly committed".
Shyamala's Blog 