LetsShave

LetsShave is started by Sidharth Oberoi. It is an online store that sells razors and other shaving supplies for men and women on subscription basis. Claims to offer India's first 6 blade razor along with patented common docking system. Recently Korean razor manufacturer Dorco has taken a 10% stake in them. Dorco is the first company to introduce a 6 blade razor (worldwide).

Corporate Acquisitions of Startups: Why Do They Fail?

by steveblank

The Innovation PortfolioMost large companies manage three types of innovation: process innovation (making existing products incrementally better), continuous innovation (building on the strength of the company’s current business model but creating new elements) anddisruptive innovation (creating products or services that did not exist before.)

Companies manage these three types of innovation with an innovation portfolio – theybuild innovation internally, they buy it or they partner with resources outside their company.

Five Types of Innovation to Buy
If they decide to buy, large companies can:

1. license/acquire intellectual property
2. acquire startups for their teams (and discard the product)
3. buy out another company’s product line for the product
4. acquire a company for the product and its installed base of users
5. buy out an entire company for its revenue and profits.

Silicon Valley – a Corporate Innovation Candy StoreCorporate business development and strategic partner executives are flocking to Silicon Valley to find these five types of innovation. In response, venture capital firms like Sequoia and Andreessen/Horowitz are hiring new partners just to work with their portfolio companies and match them to corporations. They are actively organizing annual and quarterly activities to bring the portfolio and Fortune 500 decision makers together–  in both large events and one-on-one visits. The goal is to get a corporate investment or an outright acquisition of the startup.

Read more at: http://steveblank.com/2014/04/23/corporate-acquisitions-of-startups-why-do-they-fail/?utm_source=Foundora&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Issue-308

Sean Parker Launches Civic Startup To Disrupt American Political Engagement

Remember Justin Timberlake's character from The Social Network? He was Sean Parker, who in real life co-founded Napster, the computer program that illuminated to teenagers around the world that pirating the latest Metallica and Limp Bizkit tracks was possible outside of a tape deck. After his success with that venture and also as an investor of Facebook, Parker is pouring millions into a civic startup hoping to make America a more Democratic place.
Called Brigade Media LLC, the platform will look to tackle voter efficacy and turnout during elections at all levels in America, according to Politico. Though it's not said how exactly Brigade plans to do that, an SEC document filed Monday shows that Parker – who will act as chief executive and chairman of the company – and a few big-name associates, like Facebook's first Washington Evangelist Adam Conner and former LinkedIn SVP David Henke, believe enough in it to put $9.3 million dollars into the young startup.

via: http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/2014/04/14/napster-co-founder-launches-civic-startup-to-disrupt-american-political-engagement/

Brilliant ideas that were originally rejected

When Evan Spiegel, co-founder of Snapchat, floated the idea in April 2011 in front of the product design class for his final project, classmates balked at the idea of the impermanent photos.
Fred Wilson wrote a post about how he missed investing in Airbnb, one of the “best startups to come [his] way in the past few years.”
And did you know how Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak ended up starting Apple?
“So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So, then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.”
Steve Jobs talks on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer.

via: http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2014/04/14/entrepreneurs-shouldnt-shoot-bad-ideas/

Take A Q - Take A Bow !

Purity whenever, wherever seen, heard or felt always is fascinating! One doesn’t have to search for it’s intensity or motive, because it is always clean, transparent and brimming with positive energy . There is something divine about it’s characteristics, there is some thing mythical about it’s atmosphere , when surrounded it is just as if one is getting enlightened. However we may never know how enlightenment feels like  , nor we may know what it is all about, but one thing which can be related to it is, that purity is free of conditions, in other words it is just unconditional .

It is then what can be attributed to this wonderful little – big group  : Pure . At a time when most of the recreational activities are becoming commercialized , quizzing also is fast becoming a “show of reality” read “Reality Show”. Take A Q is a group which has an ever accommodating approach which welcomes everyone with open arms. People in Take A Q  just seem to be in for plain quizzing and quizzing only, no separate laurels are required when an informal club just completed 5 years of inception successfully, has a following of about 2200 people . It just seems as if this might just be the beginning of a great quiz club for the future, though one may not see any sort of legalization of it’s identity to continue in it’s Endeavour  after all the great  MCC (yes the Marylebone Cricket Club) found in 1787 only got a legal entity status as late as December 2012.

Purity in it’s intentions and purity in it’s execution is what makes this quiz club a one of it’s kind. It is time that Take A Q ! deserves to Take A Bow.