How college dropouts Ajay Thakur and Bhupinder Nayyar built a blogging website and reached 76,000 monthly active users

As they say, “Failure is the key to success.” Failure did not stop these backbenchers of Brahmrishi Mission School, Kullu (Himachal Pradesh) from creating a blogging website in the urge to make money and try something new. 21-year-olds Ajay Thakur and Bhupinder Nayyar started Bameslog in 2013 at the age of 18, which they claim to have more than 76,000 monthly active users now, and everything with zero marketing spend. Bameslog allows users to watch videos, read content, create pictures and share stories, one-liners, thoughts and information with followers.

Bhupinder Nayyar and Ajay Thakur

Back in 2013, the duo was distressed about their books and board exams. Neither did they understand those long formulae and accounting entries, nor did they have any interest in what they were studying. They started losing hope and were termed ‘dumb’, ‘insane’ and ‘good for nothing’ by the school teachers.

Owing to lack of experience, knowledge and vision, they failed to build the website on the first attempt. Initially they have created a website called Apie.in and gained huge traction as well. But they were unaware of the fact that one organization already exists by the name of Apie, so they had to shut it down.

Having studied until the 12th standard, both of them landed in the HCL learning center in Chandigarh to learn advanced programming in April 2013. In the span of four months, a proper plan was created and Bameslog came into being in August 2013.

For about six months, they kept experimenting, connecting with new people, and finally, expanded the team in December. In April 2014, Ajay went to Bengaluru, where they had planned to set up their headquarters, and Bhupinder joined university and started working remotely.

The whole year of 2014, we kept working hard in expanding our team, coding, creating prototypes and taking Bameslog to the global level. We managed to convince 15 individuals to write for us for free, which is next to impossible in today’s competitive era,” says Ajay.

Launch of Public Beta Version

The public beta version of Bameslog was launched in August 2015, and within a few months, it started serving more than four lakh readers every month, spread across 12 countries. The initial set of readers came from tier II and III cities, mostly young students who wanted to share their experiences and connect with different people on ideas and thoughts. They managed to get the readers by reaching out to colleges and universities, persuading people to write and join the community.

Eventually, they introduced Bameslog Thoughts and Bameslog Knowledge Graph. Bameslog Thoughts is a whole new way to share short stories, one-liners, photo memories, thoughts and information with followers and Bameslog Knowledge Graph is an intelligent learning system which learns about the content consumption and interests of the user, and improves itself every day to keep the readers engaged on the platform. Bameslog has 90 percent return users.

“We came up with the idea of Bameslog to solve the problem that people across the world were facing when they had to switch to different websites to serve their interests,” says Bhupinder, who in 2016 left graduation half way and went to Bengaluru to start working full time and to strengthen the power of their product. They have used the co-working space at BHIVE.

They claimed that the content platform of Bameslog is powered by Artificial Intelligence and therefore every reader gets a unique feed based upon a knowledge graph (Machine Learning Engine) and interests.

Reaching a million users

Currently, Bameslog has a team of eight members. Bhupinder states that for Bameslog,Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now able to generate knowledge and learn more about every user based upon user activity, but in upcoming months, AI will start suggesting content. This will help users save time as AI will be able to suggest predictable content to users and increase user engagement.

Our core focus will be on building great technology and a product that will help our users in so many different ways. Our philosophy is simple- build a great product and let your users bring more users,” says Ajay.

Bameslog aims to reach 50 to 100 million monthly impressions in the next two to three years. Currently, they are not generating revenues and their burn rate is Rs 30,000 per month, including the co-working space and their accommodations. Bootstrapped so far, Bameslog has been awarded with the Amazon Web Services’ cloud credits, which will be running the servers and technology for the next six to seven months for free.

The company will have tools for promoted content and other native promotion tools that are likely to generate revenue in the future for them. Ajay states that the tools will be similar to facebook adverts, where small business and brands could target audiences with sponsored content or a native ad based on user interest, the only difference being that Bameslog will be sharing revenue with people creating content on their platform.

Although few in India consider blogging a viable career option, it is an easy way to earn money. In the past few years, many have penetrated the blogging space, thereby inspiring others to experience it too. Blogging full-time is not the only way to make money — many are earning well just by blogging part-time. Amit Agarwal of labnol.org, ShoutMeLoud’s Harsh Agrawal, and Clinton Jeff of UnleashThePhone are a few of the country’s well known professional bloggers.

Reference: http://yourstory.com/2016/07/bameslog/

Small town boy from Rajasthan Kavish Gadia aims to earn Rs 45 lakh in revenue by 2017 through his venture Stones2Milestones

Very few people have the courage to choose entrepreneurship at the age of 18. Though no easy feat for a college student, Kavish Gadia experimented his entrepreneurial streak in stock trading business, commodities trading business and an import/export business. A graduate from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore, Kavish got into IIM Lucknow in 2003.

During his stint at IIM, he learnt that it’s not wealth that makes people richer or poorer, but a difference in their access to opportunities. Kavish was an avid reader since childhood and attributed his academic success to his love for reading. At the age of 26, he decided to inculcate the significance of reading among children in their early stage. Hence, Kavish along with his friends Jagruti Gala and Nikhil Saraf founded Stones2Milestones in October 2015. The same year, they decided to set the organisation on its mission of “Creating a Nation of Readers”.

Stones2Milestones Team

Gurgaon-based Stones2Milestones integrates the programme with language curriculum for grades one to three, which involves three to four sessions per week. The sessions are usually taken by S2M certified trainers. The programmes use effective methodologies such as reading aloud, group work, discussions, reflections and application of understanding through worksheets. An assessment process also takes place in the school every year to track a child’s transition and skill improvement. The school is provided with the teacher guide, teacher session plans, and student work books for each child.

Journey of a small town boy

Hailing from Siliguri, West Bengal, Kavish moved to Jhunjhunu (a district of the state of Rajasthan) in 1992 at the age of 10, where he was raised by his maternal grandparents. He co-founded a financial services firm Resurgent India along with Stones2milestones and therefore had to go through a financial crunch. But he eventually survived with the support from his family.

While Stones2milestones was in the experimental stage, Resurgent was growing phenomenally. Over the last seven years, Resurgent has grown to more than 40 qualified experienced professionals with its presence in five cities and has closed deals worth Rs 10,000 crore in the last financial year.

Stones2milestones primarily have invested in improving science learning, communication skills, leadership development at schools with reading skills and building programme. After the experimental phase, Kavish quit Resurgent and dedicated his full time to Stones2milestones.

That’s when Kavish met Nikhil, a graduate from MICA who have experienced failures twice - online collaboration tool for students and an intelligent activity recommendation engine. Influenced by the vision of Stones2Milestones, he joined the venture and now takes care of product and marketing functions. Jagruti was the Founder and Managing Trustee of AURA, a non-profit that provides free education in India.

Scaling up

Stones2Milestones till 2009-10 has been operating the programmes as a chain of after-school learning centres across Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Vadodara. In 2010, they presented their work in multiple forums and managed to sign up with schools. And in 2014, nine schools started using their programme. Currently, Stones2milestones has 23 schools with 4,500 children across Gurgaon, Delhi, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Bhilwara, Laxmangarh, Indore, Jhunjhunu and Hisar.

The cost for implementing the full year programme would be Rs 55 per student per month. The training and support fee is Rs 55,000 per annum. Student workbook and other required materials are charged at Rs 450 per student per year at the time of dispatch of material. Stones2Milestones has a team of nine people, including the co-founders.

Going forward

The startup is likely to close the year at Rs 45 to 50 lakh in revenue. And by 2017-18, it has a target of more than 100 schools and revenue of Rs 1.5 crore. They are also planning to launch one product for parents called 'Freadom', which will be available on the smartphones of parents of children in the age group of five to nine years. By 2020, their target is to reach more than one million children.

As a part of expansion strategy, Stones2Milestones is likely to expand the offering to children in the age group of three to 14 years, launch a product for improving reading skills and develop interest in reading for adult age group (from 18 onwards), create an independent large scale platform for assessing reading and extend the product to non-English speaking countries.

Market opportunity

According to India Brand Equity Foundation, India holds a very crucial place in the global education with more than 1.4 million schools and 227 million students enrolled. When it comes to e-learning, India is considered as the second largest country after US.

Startups in the edtech space are betting big not only in finding the best institutions, but also making quality education accessible in Tier II and III cities. Vedantu, Simplilearn, Toppr,Iprof, Talentedge, and embibe.com are some of the names one would likely take to leverage the education methods and technologies like real-time book updates, online tutoring, edutainment, and online test preparation.

The edtech startup space has witnessed a couple of investments in the past few months. Toppr raised Rs 65 crore for expansion in May, Bengaluru-based Vedantu raised $5 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management, and Simplilearn raised $15 million in its third round of funding in April this year.

Reference: http://yourstory.com/2016/07/stones2milestones/

A shaman inspired this 17-year-old million-dollar heir to renounce everything, become a yogi, and startup a worldwide chain of ‘happiness’ studios

“Who are you?” I ask Sarvesh Shashi straightaway, for I know him to be someone who has internalised several identities, each more watertight than the last. And as the charismatic young man greets me with an odd sense of endearment and familiarity, I immediately understand how – he has the knack of making his own everything he sets his eyes on and everyone he meets. Would he open with, “So, I am the son of a wealthy Chennai tycoon who imported the World Trade Centre when it fell”? Would he say, “I am a college dropout who went on tour with the Indian Premier League and almost played for the country”? Unexpectedly and to my delectation, he replied, “I am just a guy who stumbled upon the religion of happiness, and pledged his life to spreading it.”

Taking happiness very seriously

Sarvesh, now 23, has a rags-to-riches story of his own: it may not have so much to do with his outward belongings, as it does with his karmic possessions inwards. “I know most startup stories have a founder sleeping on the roads, but I claim nothing of that sort,” he says.

Sarvesh lived to perform, excelled at every sport he experimented with, played cricket professionally for his school and his State, Tamil Nadu, and was steps away from that dream every little boy dreams, but only those fated 11 achieve – being on tour with the IPL.

But there was something else about him that wasn't like your average 17-year-old. He was hungry and inquisitive. And serendipitously enough, the answer presented itself in an odd turn of events. “I was very intrigued about what enlightenment and sixth sense is. Around then, my dad took up yoga, and paid for a guruji to come over. But he couldn't complete the course and asked me to take the remaining classes," Sarvesh says.

The shaman

He got his life's greatest lesson in the course of the training. ‘If you think I can enlighten you, you’re a fool and I am a bigger fool,’ said the shaman to a child who then understood perhaps the simplest yet most evasive principle to live life by.

His guruji saw the spark in him, and started giving him implausible tasks – observing 40 days silence, celibacy, abstinence from all forms of entertainment, no fancy clothes. Sarvesh explains,

I followed the five precepts: no non-vegetarian food, smoking, drinking or other vices, to establish control over my senses.

He knew then, that he had started on his path to self-discovery. One fine day, his Guruji called him over and told him he wanted to release a book with him called ‘Right-Brain Management.’Sarvesh had mused - If we don't have a base, who will buy our book? For who is Sarvesh, and who is guruji?

Creating the 'Room of Requirement'

That 'base' is what we have come to know today, as the chain of ‘happiness' hubs, that over 650 people have come to crave as their second homes - 'Zorba: A Renaissance Studio.'

“I told my father, the only help I need from him is the space," Sarvesh explains. He took an unsecured loan from his uncle, and drew a spartan plan with an initial budget is Rs 5 lakh, which the keyed-up team overshot by Rs 12 lakh.

The first Zorba opened late 2013, at Mount Road, Chennai, and stood like an oasis in the din. "We didn't want to make it a yoga studio - we wanted to convey that this is one's happy place.” Zorba construed disciplines like zumba, yoga, aerobics, meditation into novel training programmes, amounting to 14 different forms of yoga, 12 forms of meditation, 122 types of pranayama, various dance fitness modules, and dance meditation, added a spin to their names, and the modules spread like wildfire.

On April 19, 2014, they broke even, Sarvesh informs me. “This got to my immature 21-year-old head, and I took off to Udaipur for May and June," he adds.

As it happened, the company wasn't ready to stand on its own two feet yet. “We hit the lowest point. Hardly two registrations in two months, my balance went down to minus Rs 3,000. My dad yelled at me for being so irresponsible. I ran back to Chennai," he quips.

The next fortnight was a blur and in 20 days. 6:30 am-7:45 am, Sarvesh would take class, after which, the broom beckoned. He would clean, step outside, register a person, park someone’s car, and come back and take class again. In 20 days, he brought the balance up to Rs.3.2 lakhs. Fun fact - Sarvesh still follows that routine, when he is not traveling the world to crack global deals for Zorba.

The valuation

Sarvesh then wanted to focus on honing one studio, but the opportunity to open up a second one beckoned and his father insisted he take it. So, in 10 months, they opened up a branch at Harrington Road. By June last year, they had a third in Anna Nagar.

“One fine day, my dad read the valuation of Flipkart in ET, and asked me, 'why can’t your name come here?'," Sarvesh recalls. Humouring the idea, Sarvesh went to various valuation companies to get a sense of where he stood.

While meeting companies to get a valuation, his friends at a Dandekar Capital connected him to the gym chain Talwalkars, which was looking into investing in alternative fitness. “They didn't seem keen, but gave me a five-minute meeting that turned into a two-and-a-half-hour meeting and an offer to buy 50 percent stake. I was skeptical at first, as they wanted to start 100 studios around the world in 18 months,” Sarvesh says. He took it. Little did he know his world was about to be upturned- for the better.

Here's how

“Seven immediately, and fifty-one studios eventually, across Bombay, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Guwahati, Kochin, Bengaluru, and Amritsar in three months,” he rattles off. That was the target they were chasing.

Hot yoga, paddleboat yoga, and posture correction were three of the many new disciplines they were introducing in India.

Additionally, he had other tie-ups: a book, in association with tarot card reader Pankhuri Agarwal, a line of organic yoga party wear, with Swathi Jagannathan, and the next Zorba in Chennai as a multipurpose zone with a coffee shop and sports arena.

With 650 registered members in the existing three studios, their youngest student is six and the oldest is 87. “Zorba has healed cancer. We haven’t cured it, but we have improved the reports of a patient drastically. People come and tell me that the only god they know is Zorba. We’ve treated diabetes, healed thyroid, lowered cholesterol, cured fibroids and depression,” Sarvesh says.

The hungry yogi who has a past filled with dance and sport, still moonlights as a cricket aspirant. “I do want to make a comeback and play for the country," he adds, as an afterthought.

“Oh, and that valuation, the whole reason we got into all this,” he messages me all casually, later that night, “is Rs 100 crore.”

Reference:http://yourstory.com/2016/05/sarvesh-shashi-zorba/

How Angle Paisa is helping budding entrepreneurs chase their dreams

Having eight years of experience in financial modelling, fund management and business advisory services, chartered accountant Himanshu Kumar realised that there is a huge gap between the demand and supply of funds in the market.

Angle Paisa Team

According to a estimation by The World Bank, approximately 70 percent of all MSMEs in emerging markets lack access to credit. The current credit gap for formal SMEs is estimated to be $1.2 trillion and the credit gap for both formal and informal SMEs is $2.6 trillion.

Soon, Himanshu stumbled upon the idea of reaching out to a large number of investors to bridge the gap and back startup ideas. Founded in last September, Angle Paisa acts as a bridge between startups and investors by providing early-stage funding to startups. It helps startups raise equity investment from friends, family, community, independent investors and public at large.

With the help of Angle Paisa, startups can explain one’s business idea, narrate the startup story, describe the target market and strategy and the quantum of investment to be raised in exchange for the equity on offer. They can also engage investors using videos and photos.

Angle Paisa’s experts then evaluate this plan in detail to ensure that the campaign is fair, clear and not misleading for investors. Once the campaign goes live, the investors study the proposal, evaluate it in order to invest in the startup.

We create opportunities using Internet as a medium, to raise investment for businesses online, outlining the associated benefits and risks in a clear and easy-to-understand manner,” says Himanshu.

Seed stage

An expert in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards, Himanshu provided support to many transnational companies. In 2013, he returned to India and started working on Angle Paisa. It took almost one year to channelise the process and kick-start Angle Paisa, where a person is considered as angel investor when he/she invests Rs 5,000.

Angle Paisa was bootstrapped with an initial corpus of Rs 50 lakhs, which was primarily utilised in setting up its website and social media campaigns and online presence.

Angle Paisa has around 34 investors and five startup ideas. While evaluating startup ideas, it considers business model, environment, feasibility, funding required and founding team. So far, it has invested Rs 3.75 crore in the startup community.

Revenue model and traction

Angle Paisa charges a fee between three and six percent, depending upon a few criteria such as nature of the project, quantum of investment required, dilution of stake. The company has a team of four people across finance, management, social media and IT. By next year, Angle Paisa expects to have more than 200 startups and 2,000 investors.

Further from the perspective of increasing our current set of skills and knowledge, our venture has been supported by some well-renowned CXOs from various sectors working with us as mentors,” says Himanshu.

Crowd Funding market in India

Crowdfunding is generally defined as an online platform for small businesses and startups to increase their opportunities, investment base and funding prospects. The concept is believed to have started primarily in the US and UK and entails the use of the Internet and social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

It India witnessed a couple of crowdsourcing success stories, before the term even became popular. Dhirubhai Ambani's Reliance Industries, a small but successful textile business, was crowdfunded by communities across Gujarat.

According to SEBI, crowdfunding is defined as solicitation of funds (small amounts) from multiple investors, through a web-based platform or social networking site for a specific project, business venture or social cause.

SEBI is currently in the process of establishing regulations on crowdfunding, which will be a boon to the SME or early-stage startups to raise funds from small-time investors.

According to a study by World Bank, the global crowdfunding market could will reach $90-96 billion by 2025, which is 1.8 times the size of the global venture capital industry today. The last couple of years have witnessed the srpouting of a few platforms in the space, such as Mumbai-based Wishberry, Bengaluru-based FuelADream, crowdfunding fintech platform Impact Guru, actor Kunal Kapoor’s Ketto and Mumbai-based Catapooolt.

Reference:http://yourstory.com/2016/05/angle-paisa/

After losing a close friend to wrong diagnosis, this trio starts a healthcare platform to ensure correct prognosis

Often the simplest of symptoms and ailments can be a warning bell for something larger. In many cases, if these aren’t diagnosed properly on time, it can cause serious consequences. Something similar happened with Ashish Tiwari. An unfortunate incorrect diagnosis lost him his close friend.

He realised that his friend would’ve been alive if there was a platform that helped him and his family with options to make informed choices. This led to the birth of HealthKhoj, a condition discovery and management platform.

The aim of the platform is to help both sides of the healthcare system by providing a platform that helps detect symptoms and ailments, making it easy for the caregivers and families while consulting a doctor. This helps reduce the cost of care, time taken for diagnosis and treatment, and in some cases even effectively frees up the capacity and space utilisation in hospitals.

Understanding the space

“Our focus is on health conditions, which have longer care cycles and require high involvement from the care givers, patients as well the as the healthcare provider,” says 38-year-old Ratnesh Pandey, Co-founder of HealthKhoj.

The team is focusing on cases where the patients have been suggested surgeries or procedures. HealthKhoj has partnerships with hospitals so that patients can chose the procedure and get estimates on the cost of care and facilities from different providers and make decisions based on that information.

Founded in 2015, HealthKhoj was started by Ratnesh, Ashish, and Prabhash Thakur. The three have been friends since their time at Sainik School in Rewa. Before starting HealthKhoj, Ratnesh, an IIM Lucknow alumnus,had worked for Wipro Technologies and headed marketing for CustomerXPs Software. Ashish,an IIT Kharagpur alumnus,had worked at Cisco Systems and as a Senior Analyst for AIG, and Prabhash, an IIT-B and XLRI alumnus, had work experience at TCS, Genpact, TPI, and IBM.

“As we understood the healthcare system more and more, the condition discovery and informed choices regarding surgeries and in-patient procedures, emerged as one area where people need a lot of help,” says Ratnesh.

(L-R) Prabhash, Ratneesh, Ashish

Figuring the procedure

During their research, they found that seven out of 10 patients go to the wrong type of healthcare provider in their first visit. The healthcare system in India is under severe pressure. Availability of only 0.6 doctors per 100 people, and 0.9 hospital beds per 1000 people tell the story.

“Over 70 percent of the time, they go to the wrong healthcare provider, thus elongating the care cycle, misdiagnosis, increased out of pocket expenditure, anxiety to the family, and loss of productive time,” adds Ratnesh.

These,he says,are major contributors to Years of Life lost (YLL) and Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY) in India. These conditions include cancer care, diabetes care, respiratory illnesses care, mental health care, and cardiac care.

When a person comes to the platform or the app, you need to input the symptoms on a symptom checker, an algorithm-driven tool. The symptom go as inputs and after three to four steps, it lists out the various possibilities. From there, you can see what kind of doctors you should meet. Another way is to go to the section of the website or app which deals in a particular condition, showing signs and symptoms, types of that disease, prevention, and management.

The third way is to directly select the kind of procedure one is looking for and fill out a simple form, from where they handhold the patient.

Building a differentiator

While the number of players in the discovery, consultation, and online pharmacy space has increased, the number of investments and deals made in the space has also increased. Last year, there were 57 deals across a funding of $277 million in the space.In the beginning of this year, online pharmacy startup 1mg raised its Series B round of funding.

Apart from the funding and deals, the space is replete with players like Practo, Lybrate,Portea, Doctor’s Circle, and 1mg. All these platforms offer comprehensive focus on the segment.

HealthKhoj claims to be different as they state that they provide a guided journey to the patients. This is achieved through three steps that understands their health through a symptom checkerand directs the patient to the right kind of doctor.

If the doctor recommends any surgical procedure, the startuphelps the patients with making the right choice of hospital, understanding of costs, duration, and complications involved.

Ratnesh adds that there is also a very strong suite of content and tools which will help patients be more aware of the disease, thus helping in prevention and management of the disease.

The team has partnered with hospitals to bring in a clear view of the surgeries and their costs. “We have been witnessing a lot of stickiness on the website with as much as 40 percent return visitors,” says Ratnesh

On the Google playstore, the app is in the top 20 when you search for ‘symptom checker’ or ‘health checker’ and has close to 1000 downloads as of now. The team did not share their revenue and number of partner connections.

The startup is bootstrapped, but is in talks with investors for funding. The team soon intends to add different Indian languages on the platform and further develop the platform.

Reference:http://yourstory.com/2016/06/healthkhoj/

Two former students of Cambridge create ‘Tram Tales’ to remind Kolkata of its heritage

Sometimes, all it takes is a simple idea. A re-connect. A reminder. That’s what two former students of Cambridge School of Art decided to do. Hailing from the City of Joy, Kolkata, Aditya Sengupta and Kheya Chattopadhyay realised that the way to re-connect the youth to its cultural roots, is to remind it of its heritage.

Kolkata has always been revered for its trams- a rail vehicle which runs on tracks made along the urban roads of the city, powered by overhead cables. With economic growth and marginalised incomes, the shift to swanky cars, motorbikes and AC buses have become a near-necessity for its several thousand residents.

The urban youth of today do not recognize its heritage in the form of the Kolkata tram, the oldest operating tram network in India, operating since 1902. They don’t realize the joys of watching the roads clear as it passes by, the sleepy faces across the benches and the carefully folded bundles of five- rupee notes tucked between the fingers of the conductor. They miss out on the good-humoured debates on Congress vs. Modi and East Bengal vs. Mohan Bagan.

But that was about to change. Sengupta and Chattopadhyay drew together a team to set up an event that would become a major hit among Kolkata’s social circles- ‘Tram Tales’.

“It just struck us how the backdrop of Kolkata has changed completely....because trams had always been so important while I was growing up. So Aditya and I met with people from CTC, and then the drivers at Tollygunj Tram Depot. They were so excited and sad at the same time that we were doing this. There are no tram stops and hence people seldom board trams these days according to them. People who drive, abuse and hate the tram drivers because the vehicle speed is so slow. No one has time for anything slow these days according to them,” says Kheya Chattopadhyay, Co-Creator and Executor of ‘Tram Tales’.

‘Tram Tales’ is part of a project called ‘The Future of the Past’, which is a pioneering project that creates space for various art forms to collide and interact, so as to give rise to a new form of creative process. The project is presented by Team Future and Yes Foundation, in association with The Telegraph and INTACH.

Tram Tales is a two-day, site-specific mixed media art installation, which is carried out in the style of an exhibition-cum-festival. Held inside the temporarily-closed down Gariahat Tram Depot, there were about seven major unit trams, each sporting a different activity.

The first was the ‘Drama Tram’, where all performances took place inside the tram. About two to three performers from each youth theatre group put up a show, with the audience being seated inside as well.

The second was the ‘Graffiti Tram’, which was kept right next to the entrance and artists were allowed to spray paint all over it.

Next in line were ‘The Filmy Trams’, which were about five in number. Here, films were shown inside the tram, and since the subject was ‘tram’, all the short-films and documentaries were based on this theme. Footages of international trams like those in Norway, Russia, Sydney and London were also showcased.

Then there were ‘The Installation Trams’ which offered a variety of different activities. Some contained chess-boards for people to play, some were turned into a disco for them to dance.

‘The Music Trams’- The backside of the depot was turned into a kind of stage, where different bands would perform. This area was done up with CDs and cassette reels.

The central portion of the depot was kept for a photography exhibition, which again had its theme as ‘tram’. So these contained beautiful photographs featuring trams, taken by amateurs and professionals alike.

And finally, there were ‘The Adda Trams’, where popular food-joints like ‘Mrs. Magpie’ and ‘Tea-Trove’ put up their stalls, inside a tram. Benches and stools were kept outside for people to relax, mingle, eat and watch the performances.

The first day witnessed a footfall of about a thousand. The second was even more, at about twelve hundred. Tickets were priced at fifty rupees and were available at the depot, itself.

“After executing Tram Tales, we were asked why we don’t do something with the history of trams, some presentations and lectures. The thing is we wanted trams to not only be a form of nostalgia but to appeal to the younger generation. The only way we could do that was by giving life to the otherwise abandoned tram depot through various forms of art,” says Chattopadhyay.

In a City that is bustling to the beam and has dug its claws into tradition and a nostalgic reverie regarding the ‘glory of the past’, this cultural revolution- a modern day heritage Renaissance if you will- speaks volumes for the thousands of Calcuttans opening their minds and arms to a concept that is equal parts modern and equal parts old school. So in the spirit of a massive throwback, we remember what makes the heritage of our City, as it rambles past us.

Cleanse Solutions creates a bike wash machine that saves half a million litres of water per service centre

When Arnav Shah and Siddharth Jain were students at the Michigan State University in the US, they would get their cars washed frequently. However, they noticed that the techniques employed in the US differed vastly from the way cars were washed in India. There were no car wash employees roughing up your ride, subjecting it to what seems like methods of medieval torture in order to get it to squeak and shine. “There was no concept of manual car washing there, unlike in India. Upon returning, we were both keen on doing something in this space, and giving it a state-of-the-art facelift,” says Arnav.

Manoj Geesala (L) and Naresh Talla (R)

Numbers do the talking

Once back in India, Arnav was in line to take over the reins to the family business Kooverji Devshi & Co. which manufactured and supplied fire-trucks to the government. Still harbouring the dreams to startup, he headed to Austria to work with Rosenbauer- the world’s best in the field. He returned to the family firm, but didn’t enjoy his stint. Meanwhile, Siddharth was working for his family business in international markets, but he was keen to come home.

“He returned, and I was looking to branch out as well, so we both zeroed in on our original plan of car washes.” Research showed that India had a thriving two-wheeler market, with 130 million bikes playing on the road. Last year, 16 million bikes were sold. Every bike is washed on an average of six times a year, making it 96 million washes, amounting roughly, to a Rs. 15 Billion market opportunity.

“We started visiting all kinds of service centres – and learnt that they use 50-100 litres of water per bike, which was a criminal waste. There were three or four in charge of the completely manual process. To wash the mud in the area below, they would either flip the bike over and harm it, or buy a hydraulic lifting machine, which was expensive and had limited utility.

Arnav Shah, Co-Founder, Cleanse Solutions

A small centre would wash close to 30 bikes a day, and charged a customer anywhere between Rs. 50 and 200. Very often, bigger companies would outsource their work to them. During the course of their research, they met Naresh Talla and Manoj Geesala, who were who were working on a prototype of an Israeli automated bike wash machine. “But, due to the heavy cost associated, no after-sales service, rusting, and inadequate pressure for Indian bikes, it was not suitable for the Indian market,” says Arnav. Naresh and Manoj decided to come on-board as partners.

The four unite

The four put their heads together to come up with a solution. “After months of R & D, we developed our own prototype, which was meant for Indian conditions with a focus on being eco-friendly.” Cleanse Solutions opened for business in January 2015.

“We added bottom nozzles and modals, and fit in a water recycling mechanism to reuse all that water. We recycle 95 percent of the water used and save half a million litres of water per service centre. We now wash a bike with only seven litres of water, as opposed to the previous 50-100. Our machine cleans the bike completely in three minutes, and requires only one person to push the button and then supervise. We have also installed a water purification mechanism within it. If you go to North India, the quality of water you get has a higher a Ph level. Our in-built mechanism brings the Ph level down to 8, and makes it soft water, which doesn’t harm the bike’s body,” says Arnav. With their innovation, a company owning their machine would break even within a year and a half.

Evolving designs and business models

While their initial strategy was to approach both authorised and unauthorised service centres with their technology, in June, they began considering a B2C approach, and placed an installation at Hyderabad’s Manjira Mall, to gauge customer reactions to their services. Various Harley and Triumph owners starting bringing their bikes once a month, to use the bike wash, owing to its speed and superior quality, and quite happy to pay the slight premium involved.

With this validation of their B2C idea, they decided to explore the franchise model next, and Siddharth’s expertise in this area gave them more confidence. Their business evolved to become 60 per cent B2C with four outlets in Hyberabad – one at Manjira Mall, another at HPCL, and two more at IOCL petrol pumps; and 15 other franchises sold to a master franchise in Gujarat - who has committed to purchase 180 Machines over the course of the year. “We give him location support and we have tied up with IOCL, HPCL and BPCL. We identify all the petrol pumps that get an average of 4,000-5,000 bikes per day. Even if they send us 1 per cent of those – we will break even for the franchises cost.”

While the B2C Machine costs Rs. 8 lakh, the ones they sell to service centres cost less as they do not have to be aesthetically appealing. “We even customise the machines for different service centres depending on the space available. We have a new machine that can be completely dismantled and reassembled after being transported to the interior of the shop.” They now have machines coming up at a Yamaha showroom, a Hero Showroom in Hyderabad, and a Honda showroom in the North East, and a service network at Telangana, Andhra Pradesh Maharasthra, Gujarat and Delhi for 24-hour support in the rare case of malfunction and breakdowns.

But, a milestone in its own right is the deal they cracked with Bajaj. They are now developing a machine specifically for Bajaj models – altering the nozzles so that water doesn’t enter their electronic components, and making some pressure regulations as well. “This deal will make us the only company to be vendor-listed by an automobile giant, which is a huge deal.”

What else is cooking?

Last year, they had clocked revenues of Rs.76 lakh, and now, they’re clocking Rs. 76 lakh a month. They recently closed their first formal round of funding through Intellecap, raising an undisclosed amount led by Satveer Singh from the Singapore Angel Network, which has a lot of support in Indonesia, and is helping them build a unit there to meet the demand in that market; Calcutta’s Pansari group, HDFC CIOs; and Nimisha Madhwani, the ambassador to Uganda, who will also help them expand in the African country. “They play bike polo after which the participating bikes could certainly use a thorough wash.” This month, they will be moving into a factory that can produce 40 machines a month, in one shift.

They are also in the process of patenting their first-of-its-kind machine right now, with an L-shape conveyor that goes 270˚ around the bike, which means that with an increase in efficiency, water usage comes down. “We have installed one at a Royal Enfield service centre in Hyderabad that washes 60 motorbikes per day using only 7 litres per wash as compared to 60 litres. when done manually. We will be installing another one at a Yamaha service centre in Hyderabad by the end of May,” says Arnav. It will be priced lower as well at Rs. 5 or 6 lakh.

There are other players in the market such as Express Bike Works, a company that carries out bike washes in 2 - 7 minutes, with about 10 stores in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

Cleanse’s long-term plan is to become a one-stop shop for cleaning solutions. Expect new technology right from a remote-controlled duct cleanse with tentacles and a video camera, to a solar cleanse coming off their assembly line soon.

Reference:http://yourstory.com/2016/05/cleanse-solutions/

Agriculture has seen little reform in 25 years but there are crorepati farmers who have come up the hard way

It is the 25th anniversary of the initiation of big bang economic reforms and if people were asked to list the vibrant sectors, agriculture would not be one of them. It is an area that has seen little liberalisation, though in the July 1991 ‘reform’ budget, Manmohan Singh as finance minister allowed the prices of potassic and phosphatic fertilizers to float and raised urea prices by 40 percent, only to roll it back by 30 percent following an outcry. Reforms however improved the terms of trade which were adverse to agriculture, by reducing import duties (and prices) of manufactured goods. Devaluation of the rupee made agricultural exports profitable. Farmers could get international prices for their produce, so long as jittery governments did not impose curbs to tame domestic inflation.

But farming is associated with gloom and doom. It is painted as a hopeless activity that drives farmers to suicide. Yet as a category, more housewives kill themselves than farmers, according to data on the website of the National Crime Records Bureau.

Of course there is distress in the countryside, caused by weather and price risks, poor access to markets, and the non-availability of working capital at affordable rates. Cultivating small parcels, which a majority of farmers do, is not profitable, unless it is high- value agriculture done in climate controlled poly-houses. National surveys show more farmers want to leave agriculture than remain engaged and they certainly do not wish the vocation on their sons.

But travelling extensively through the countryside over the past eighteen months to report on ‘smart agriculture,’ I have come across pockets of vibrancy. Ismailbhai Rahimbhai Sheru, 63, advices graduate sons of farmers not to hanker after government jobs. Based on experience, he says, a guy with five acres of farmland can earn Rs 5 lakh a year, or Rs 40,000 a month. A resident of Rampur Vadla village in Banaskantha’s Amirgarh taluka, Sheru made headlines when Narendra Modi as prime ministerial aspirant, felicitated him at a public event in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He had grown potatoes each weighing more than two kg. Sheru was growing them on contract to McCain, a supplier of French fries and potato patties to McDonalds.

Ismailbhai Rahimbhai Sheru

Sheru started off 36 years ago, despite the wishes of this father, who wanted his son with a first class B.Com degree to take up a salaried job. But through dint of hard work and scientific farming, Sheru made enough cash flows to turn an inheritance of debt and six acres of indifferent land into thriving agriculture spread over 400 acres.

Sheru likes contract farming because it takes care of the price risk. In January 2015, when there was a potato glut in the country and prices slumped to less than Rs 2 a kg, he got the contracted Rs 8 a kg. There are years when he gets less than spot rates but over time this evens out.

Parthibhai Jethabhai Chaudhary, 58, a police officer who doubles up as a farmer credits McCain with teaching growers the art of potato cultivation. Before the company came, flood irrigation used to be the norm, says the resident of Dangiya village in Banaskantha’s Dantiwada taluk. The amount of water used in a potato field would stack up to 750 mm by end of the season, a field-level McCain executive said. Farmers have now switched to drip or sprinkler irrigation, which not only saves water but also fertilizer and pesticides (as insects do not thrive in low humidity). Chaudhary, who has a reputation for extracting large yields from his 87-acre farm, says the trick is to be in sync with nature and the rhythm of the crop. He plants between 1 and 10 October so that the crop can make the most of the ‘bulking’ period starting 20 December, when weather ensures that potatoes add around 1,200 kg per hectare per day.

Parthibhai Jethabhai Chaudhary

Chaudhary learnt scientific cultivation through McCain, but currently supplies to Balaji Wafers which gives him a better price. He takes leave from work during sowing and harvesting. The rest of the time, he leaves the farm to his manager and 16 worker-families. Every operation, from fertilizer application to the quantity and duration of irrigation, is mapped. Workers have been trained to stick to the process. They get a bonus for targets achieved.

Chaudhary keeps potatoes in cold storage and sells them when prices are high. When met last year, Chaudhary said he had sold potatoes worth more than Rs 3 cr the previous year and had made a handsome profit.

Laxman Chaudhari

In Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district I met Tenu Dongar Borole, 62, and Laxman Onkar Chaudhari, 64, both of them crorepati banana growers. One was a tea seller at the village square and used to be condescendingly called ‘Tenya.’ He is now Tenu Seth. The other was a thwarted primary school teacher. They lease in more land than they own. They owe their prosperity to the Grand Naine variety, which Jain Irrigation imported from Israel in the 1990s. The company sells tissue cultured saplings which are disease-free and grow uniformly. Unlike local varieties, Grand Naine yields fruit every year and requires re-planting after three years. Two stump (or ratoon) crops yield fruit in between. Jain Irrigation also supplies drip irrigation equipment which not only saves water but also fertilizer, which is applied in a soluble form (called fertigation). The company’s agronomists teach farmers how to maintain the required humidity within the gardens in dry Jalgaon and get the plants to cope with heat stress. As a result, Jalgaon has become a big producer of bananas. If it were a state it would rank fifth in the country in banana production.

Tenu Dongar Borole

The point I wish to make is that agriculture can be profitable if scientific principles are applied and technology is deployed. Contract farming takes care of the price risk. If farmers band together they can engage agronomists, obtain discounts on inputs and have buyback arrangements with food processors or large retailers, who in turn can tell them what to grow and how to grow it. Sadly our governments treat farmers as supplicants to be placated with subsidies. Our policies must strive to make agriculture profitable to enterprising farmers while creating off-farm jobs for those who do not have a stomach for it.

Reference:http://yourstory.com/2016/07/india-agriculture-reform-crorepati-farmers/

Capture the Galaxy with this pocket sized camera

A fantastic education system combined with tremendous support for startups makes Singapore one of the best startup destinations globally. The result of this enviable combination is TinyMOS, which is a hardware and IoT startup. TinyMOS is set to launch their first product Tiny1 later this week, which is a pocket sized camera made for astrophotography and the stargazers. It’s like GoPro for capturing the galaxy.

The team behind it

For every startup, it’s their team that can make or break it. TinyMOS’s website describes their team the best “A passionate photographer, a frustrated engineer and an electronics geek”. Grey Tan, Ashprit Singh Arora, and Lih Wei, Co-founders of TinyMOS, met at the National University of Singapore. Three of them got together in 2014 to create a smarter and more economical way for astrophotography. Grey came up with this idea when he realised even his Nikon DSLR was not serving him well when he tried to capture the Milky Way on a trip to Malaysia, as astrophotography knowledge was obscure even for a seasoned photographer. He realised that there might be thousands of astronomy enthusiasts around the world who would be facing the same issue. He combined forces with Ashprit and Lih. Ashprit is a NUS graduate who spent time building and prototyping things at Sustainable Living Lab in Singapore. Lih was a star with both hardware and software, building satellite systems in NUS and proving his skills in Silicon Valley.

It wasn't a smooth road

Apart from the multiple iterations and rejections from investors, the team faced their biggest challenge last year. Hours before their flight to TechCrunch Disrupt, their manufacturing and development team informed them that one of the key features of the camera could not be delivered in time. The team regrouped and started work from almost scratch and decided to delay their product launch by six months. Hard work finally paid off as they were able to figure out a more economical technology, which meant a lower price point for their customers.

What makes their camera special

But what really makes their camera special is the Augmented Reality Star Map, which helps you search for and locate stars and planets, and Capture Presets, which automatically selects the right settings for capturing night images. This has been combined with social features to check out and share what images other users are capturing. Founded in 2014, Singapore-based TinyMOS has got great responses from their early testers and are gearing up for a crowdfunding campaign. They are looking to launch successfully on Indiegogo and become a successful hardware startup. In the long run, the team believes they could be like GoPro, which also started with a niche group of surfers and has become a multi-billion dollar company today.

It’s interesting to see that despite having some investor money, the team has chosen crowdfunding as they believe this brings them closer to their consumers and creates a community which is essential for their success. TinyMOS has been backed by a grant of $1,80,000 by Singapore Government and also raised seed investment $150,000 from a group of angel investors.

Team TinyMOS at Indiegogo

It is encouraging to see a team of fresh graduates doing the groundwork for two years to launch their dream astronomy camera. Currently available bulky and expensive equipment ensures that astrophotography is a niche, but TinyMOS is out to change that perspective.

Since we last spoke with the TinyMOS team, they have launched an Indiegogo campaign for their first product Tiny1, and smashed through their 100k USD target in 4 hours. You can check out their campaign at - get.tinymos.com.

Reference: http://yourstory.com/2016/06/tinymos/