Entrepreneur June 2012

THE BIG

FOODISSUE

BOOM OR BUST: IN SEARCH OF THE ELUSIVE IPO PG 44

STATE SPECIAL: PUNJAB IS OPEN FOR YOUR BUSINESS PG 80

ANIL KUMBLE SPINS IT RIGHT WITH TENVIC PG 40

5 hot startups to watch out for PG 107

UFO Moviez gets digitally disruptive PG 50

India’s top restaurateurs tell you their recipes for successPG 54

Stemade puts the tooth fairy out of work PG 36

SHAUN KENWORTHYRestaurant consultant and chef

JUNE 2012 VOLUME 3 ISSUE 10 `100

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54 Mega BitesSome of the most suc-cessful Indian restau-rateurs have advice for those who want to set up their ventures in this lucrative market. By Sriya Ray Chaudhuri

67 In the Fast LaneTake a bite into the burgeoning Indian fast food restaurants business.By Sriya Ray Chaudhuri

68 Steaming Cuppas, Hot IdeasInvesting in a coffee shop is a good bet in the Indian market.By Sriya Ray Chaudhuri

INSIGHTS

16 The Convergence Myth R. Jagannathan looks into whether a super product can ever become a reality.

18 First Lane Syndrome Bharat Banka writes about the ‘First Lane Syndrome’ and the haz-ards related to it.

19 The Second LifeNandini Vaidyanathan explores the reasons why women get diverted from their entrepre-neurial journey.

20 Raising MoneyManish Sabharwal says that the color of money is of utmost importance.

21 Emotional Versus Strategic Decisions Should your heart rule your head in business? Muki Regunathan has some advice.

22 Direct RouteWilliam Pinckney talks about the direct selling market in India.

23 It’s Never Too LateGanesh Natarajan busts the myths about getting into technology entrepreneurship

54 COVER STORY

IN CONVERSATION

24 ‘In India, people want to sell out too quickly’Nexus Venture Partners Co-Founder Naren Gupta talks about the Indian economic scenario, the entrepreneurship space and a lot more.

By Sourav Majumdar

28 ‘To be successful, hire people smarter than you’Jack Can�eld, author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and Founder and Chair-man of Can�eld Training Group talks about leadership and entrepreneurship.

By Ankush Chibber

WOMAN ENTREPRENEUR

30 For a Global Palette Durva Gandhi is helping Indian artists sell their works to art enthusiasts around the world.

By Shruti Chakraborty

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

32 A Drop to WinPeter Frykman has reinvented drip irrigation through his venture Driptech to help small plot farmers in India and China.


NEW ECONOMY

36 Stems to the RescueStemade can help save your life. All they need is your fallen off tooth.

By Ankush Chibber

SPECIAL FEATURE

40 Game ChangersAnil Kumble may have retired from the cricketing world but he hasn’t really hung up his boots.

By Shonali Advani

6 Intelligent Entrepreneur June 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

IN FOCUS

44 Locked InThe once lucrative IPO market has mostly dried up, leaving investors looking for an alternative exit and promoters looking for other ways to raise money.

By Pranbihanga Borpuzari

SUCCESS INC

50 A Script for SuccessSanjay Gaikwad is leading the charge in the digital movie distribution business with his venture UFO Moviez.


GO FRANCHISE

70 8 Traits of Successful FranchiseesEight traits that are common to most successful fran-chise owners. Check if franchising is right for you.

By Jeff Elgin

SPECIAL REPORTS

72 The Gap-Map-Tap FormulaSuccessful entrepreneurs gave words of advice to the entrepreneurs at a recent event in Nashik.


79 No Coats, Ties or Suits PleaseStartups engaged with other startups, and picked up some business lessons at a two day event in Mumbai.


80 STATE SCAN: PUNJAB

82 A Time for RenewalPunjab has enough options for entrepreneurs, but a lot more needs to be done if it is to compete effec-tively with other states for investments.


86 ‘Terrorism in Punjab lasted way too long’Puneet Vatsayan, President of TiE Punjab and Chan-digarh says that Punjab missed out on opportunities earlier but now the future looks bright.


88 'We must build a bottom-up movement in Punjab'Rakesh Verma, Managing Director, Punjab Infotech talks about projecting the state as one of the most investor-friendly IT hubs in the country.


90 IT Works Information Technology is �ourishing in Punjab for more than two decades, where a number of ventures have successfully established themselves.


93 At The CrossroadsPunjab’s auto ancillary sector held a competitive edge for long, but terrorism, government apathy, and the cost of energy haven’t helped. Can it bounce back?


95 Incubators IncWant to start up in Punjab? Help is not far away.


OFF BEAT

96 Lie No FurtherGetting resumes full of tall claims? Find out how you can know if they are lies.

By Brian Patrick Eha

STRATEGY

97 Present Like Steve Jobs There are some key communication lessons to learn from the way Steve Jobs presented his products.

By Mikal E. Belicove

TECH DEPARTMENT

98 Behold the OneThe HTC One X is by far the best Android mobile device out there. Find out why.

By Ankush Chibber

100 Ultra XDell has mostly got it right with its �rst ultrabook.

By Ankush Chibber

103 Keep This BugRead about what you can do if you don’t dig headphones and still want a decent audio experience, but without disturbing those around you.

By Ankush Chibber

7Intelligent Entrepreneur June 2012

HOW TO

120 Manage Your Online Reputation Bad reviews on the internet by disgrun-tled customers can hurt your reputation.

By Harshil Karia

124 Hire a Com-pany SecretaryFind out when you will need a full-time company secretary and how to �nd one.


125 Spot a Mis�t EmployeeLearn how to identify a mis�t employee and ensure that you don't let him sabotage your growth.

By Ramanujam Sridhar

126 Remote Control Your EmployeesKeeping a watch on your employees keeping you tied to your of�ce? Find out what you can do to remote control them when you take some time off.

By Shonali Advani

SPEND IT

127 Lager LandLagerbay in suburban Mumbai is a place you may want to head to after a hectic workday

By Sriya Ray Chaudhuri

130 Work Out @ the SpaITC Grand Central, Mumbai is offering entrepreneurs a luxurious set of business bene�ts.

By Sriya Ray Chaudhuri

132 An Eye for FeaturesThe new i20 is a bold offering with stylish looks and new unique features.


REGULARS

10 FEEDBACK11 RESOURCES12 SME DOCTOR14 CAPSULE134 BACKSTAGE

COVER CREDITS

COVER DESIGNArko Provo Mukherjee

COVER IMAGEBmaximage

MONEY

104 ‘There are a lot of question marks on PE in India’Jayanta Banerjee, Managing Partner of ASK Pravi, a new private equity player manag-ing the `900 crore ASK Pravi Private Equity Opportunities Fund and an investor in lower mid-market companies talks about markets and entrepreneurs.

By Sourav Majumdar

STARTUPS

108 Kards on the TableEntrepreneurs Karam Lakshman and Shubhendu Sharma’s venture RationKard brings loyalty programs on mobiles and wants to build a host of services around it.

By Shonali Advani

110 A Sports Star and MoreMost children now spend more time on an Xbox than a football �eld. A few entrepreneurs are trying to change that scenario.


114 Sell EasyThe Jobanputra brothers have built a venture that could be of help to your online business.

By Bindi Shah

116 Finding PawanSuper driver Pawan goes missing. Ram Badrinathan then leads his trainees on a journey to bring him back.


118 Go With the FlohFloh helps single people meet without the pressure of conventional parameters.

By Shonali Advani


TABLE OF CONTENTS

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24

Nexus Venture Partners, with of�ces in Silicon Valley and India, is one of the country’s best-known venture funds,

having invested in names like Netmagic, Gluster, Snapdeal, Craftsvilla.com and several others.

The size of Nexus’s holdings goes up to $10 million in early to early-growth stage companies.

Nexus Co-Founder Naren Gupta speaks to Sourav Majumdar on the Indian economic scenario, the Indian entrepreneurship

space and a whole lot more.

{ {‘In India, people want to sell out

too quickly’

Intelligent Entrepreneur June 2012

IN CONVERSATION


Q: How do you see the economic environment in India of late?A: I think India is, to some extent, at a crossroads right now. The growth we have had in the last �ve years is clearly coming down in a major way. I hope the growth doesn’t fall below something like 6 percent, because in my view, that is the breaking point. The reason is simple. The population is growing at something like 1-1.5 percent, and productivity at 4-5 percent. At 6 per-cent growth, you’re talking about the unemployment or underemployment rate basically not changing. So, we are at a point where it can be very prob-lematic. Once these things cross the line you don’t know where it ends. We are a democracy, which is good, but it can also be a very big problem.

India is at a dif�cult point. The fall of the rupee is also a problem. We are also in a very dif�cult global environ-ment. China’s growth is going to clearly come down, possibly signi�cantly, US growth isn’t going up signi�cantly, people are projecting about 2 percent. So something has to happen.

Q: Talking of India, you’ve had suc-cesses in your investee companies. What at this point are the sectors which you think are exciting stories from your point of view?A: India is a very broad-based story. Where India is unique is in technology. Our belief is that some of the greatest technology companies of the future are going to come out of India. There is no reason for them not to. If you look at Silicon Valley, the number of start-ups with Indian founders, the number of companies like Intel where half the engineers are of Indian origin… so I think it’s a very unique situation for India. No other country has really done that outside the US, except, maybe, for Israel to a certain extent. China hasn’t done that. China hasn’t built global companies. Apart from that, every-thing else is really open as well: e-com-merce, communication and cleantech. Consumer-centric businesses as well. Opportunities are across the board.

Another area which is very interest-ing is the whole rural and agri area. The productivity in Indian farming

is about 70 percent lower than in the US. So there’s a huge opportunity for improvement there. But the policies drive that to a great extent. Farm sizes are small and getting smaller. People can’t create big, 1000-acre farms here. But every problem has an opportunity under it. So I’d think how do you make smaller farms more productive? How do you bring mechanization to those farms? You can cooperate and do a lot.

Q: So your radar is really scanning for investees across the board…A: Yes, but there are areas where we are not investing, like real estate, which is very capital-intensive and involves too much dealing with the government.

Q: But real estate had seen a lot of private equity players and others coming in.A: It will continue to see that, but it’s really a different kind of investor who would do that. Infrastructure is another area like that. We try to avoid dealing with the government as far as possible.

Photos© Neha Mithbawkar To read more, grab the June 2012 issue of EntrepreneurTo Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in

P eter Frykman travelled to Ethiopia in April 2008. The rains had failed in the country

that year and Ethiopia was experienc-ing a severe drought. For irrigation, farmers either were entirely depen-dent on the rains or when there was enough water, they used on the age old method of �ood irrigation.

“Drip irrigation had been around for over 50 years and was known to save water and improve yield so I wondered why the farmers weren’t using drip irrigation,” says Frykman. He admits however that at the time, he did not know much about either agriculture or irrigation.

Social impactAt that time, Frykman was tak-ing a course at Stanford, called

Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability, alongside his PhD in mechanical engineering. The former was a course that focused on creating products and entrepreneurial ventures that could help customers at the bot-tom of the pyramid. He had worked on developing low-cost medical devices, but he soon learnt that it took much longer to get a medical device out in the market and the social impact too wasn’t direct or quick enough.

Frykman then studied the problems Ethiopian farmers faced and under-stood the drip irrigation systems �rst-hand, in order to help create a social impact via a different route.

After understanding the drawbacks of the existing drip irrigation systems that were keeping small-scale farmers from using the technology, Frykman

went back to Stanford and developed a low-cost drip irrigation technology that could help small-plot farmers. He then set up Driptech towards the end of 2008 in the US to help farmers in developing countries. The company currently works with farmers in China and India and has of�ces in all three countries. Frykman spends most of his time in India now, to help grow Driptech’s business here.

Precision pointThe conventional drip irrigation tech-nology was suited for farmers who had large farms, access to electricity, large pumps and other infrastructure that owners of small plots of farmland didn’t have, Frykman found. The sys-tem that was present used something called a ‘tortuous pathway emitter’,

TO WIN

Peter Frykman is helping small-plot farmers by reinventing drip irrigation

SHRUTI CHAKRABORTY

[ DRIPPING POINT ]

A DR P

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR


STANDING TALL: Peter Frykman

FARMERS NOT ONLY BENEFIT IN TERMS OF IMPROVED YIELD AND SAVE WATER THROUGH DRIPTECH’S TECHNOL-OGY, IT ALSO CUTS DOWN THEIR COSTS OF MANPOWER.

Photo© Mexy Xavier 33Intelligent Entrepreneur June 2012To read more, grab the June 2012 issue of EntrepreneurTo Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in

PITCH IT RIGHT: (l. to r.) Diinesh Kumble, Anil Kumble, and Vasanth Bharadwaj

SPECIAL FEATURE


A lot of people have a lot to say about the state of sports in India. But only a rare few put

their foot where their mouth is. That is why it is commendable that instead of arm-chair critiquing the dismal state of sports and the gaps therein, three of the arena’s own have come together to do something about it.

Launched in June 2011 by former Indian cricket captain Anil Kumble, 41; ex-table tennis champion Vasanth Bharadwaj, 43; and sports entrepre-neur Diinesh Kumble, 45; TENVIC’s basic idea is to develop grassroots sports in a structured format. In the process, three business verticals, each with a distinct focus area catering to all segments of the sports education ecosystem, have emerged.

Young learningsGrassroots Sport inculcates children with sports at the school level. For starters, it has identi�ed the disciplines of badminton, chess, table tennis and cricket around which scienti�cally-developed program modules, includ-ing cognitive video-based manuals, are offered to teach sports.

“As far as India’s sports future is concerned, the bottom of the pyra-mid model is going to be relevant. Our �rm belief is that it is essential to have a fair amount of structure and technological, innovative and creative methods to teach children sports,” says a soft-spoken Bharadwaj, Chief Evangelist-Sport, TENVIC.

The �rm’s programs are sub-categorized as beginner modules (for eight-year-olds), intermediate and advanced. These are complete packages which include not just skill enhancement but other physical and mental elements including basic life skills. “We don’t want to give parents the idea that every child can become an international star. We will give them realistic expectations,” con�rms Kumble, Co-Founder, TENVIC.

Sports @ school Averaging at 60-80 hours per mod-ule (`1,500-`1,800 per month, per student), it is currently a voluntary

GAME CHANGERSAnil Kumble has not really hung up his boots. With TENVIC, he and his partners seek to use sports to transform the way Indians approach life

SHONALI ADVANI

[ RIGHT SPIN ]

“WE DON’T WANT TO GIVE PARENTS THE IDEA THAT EVERY CHILD CAN BECOME AN INTERNA-TIONAL STAR. WE WILL GIVE THEM REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS.”— ANIL KUMBLE, CO-FOUNDER, TENVIC

41Intelligent Entrepreneur June 2012Photo© MaximageTo read more, grab the June 2012 issue of EntrepreneurTo Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in

Locked InAs markets around the world fell and the global economy took a beating, the once lucrative IPO market dried up. The result: investors are stuck in companies without an exit and promoters looking for funds are left with little or no choice

PRANBIHANGA BORPUZARI

[ NO EXIT ]

IN FOCUS


C apital markets are seldom known to be rational, despite being called a barometer of the

economy. But yet, it is here that the best and the mightiest entrepreneurs are put to the test: to �nd out whether the general investor community agrees with their ideas and growth plans, and is ready to put their money behind them.Unfortunately, a number of entrepreneurs may never face that test now, given the enormous uncertainty which has gripped India’s capital mar-kets. This continuing uncertainty has been impacting the initial public offer (IPO) market severely. The negative sentiment and the yo-yoing witnessed in the capital markets led 25 compa-nies to call-off their IPOs during the 2011 calendar year.

The amount that these 25 compa-nies were planning to raise was about `32,200 crore. At the time of writing this story, the year 2012 has already seen as many as 17 IPOs being called off as markets remain choppy and few want to bet on the bourses. The estimated amount that these 17 IPOs were planning to raise is an aggregate of about `6,000 crore.

No light in sightAll these companies had valid SEBI approvals in hand for their IPOs. Despite that, they could not launch their issues within the validity period of one year from the date of the SEBI approval as the markets gave them little comfort. What is worse, several investors who put in money into these companies, hoping for an exit via the IPO route, are now stranded without an exit option.

Of the companies which are wait-ing to tap the IPO route, many are real estate and power �rms. Other major companies include Reliance Infratel, Glenmark Generics, Gujarat State Petro Corp., and One97 Communications.

This choppiness in the markets has dealt a severe blow to the Indian investment community, especially venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funds, as they are unable to exit the investments they made in unlisted

companies in the hope of exiting through IPOs.

Among such companies are Lavasa Corporation (the investors were Axis Bank and ICICI Bank), BPTP Limited (the investor was JP Morgan through Harbour Victoria Investment), One97 Communications (SAIF Partners, Intel Capita, Silicon Valley Bank, SAP Ventures), Micromax (TA Associates, Sequoia Capital India, Sandstone Capital, Madison India Capital), You Broadband (CVC), Avantha Power (KKR) and IND Barath Power (the investors were CVC, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, UTI Ventures).

IPO fix“Whatever enthusiasm we are seeing is only in the secondary market and probably the money coming in is hot money. For IPO markets to take off, you need the secondary market to stay strong and secondly, stable money has to come in to enable IPOs to take place,” says Jagannadham Thunuguntla, Strategist & Head of Research, SMC Global Securities Ltd.

Thunuguntla points out that the pri-mary market is dependent on the sec-ondary market and will always follow it very closely. In 2011, the secondary market put up a disastrous showing and, understandably, primary markets followed the same pattern. “Equity markets started 2012 on a positive note and I hope it will continue to do well. If this takes place, the IPO market should also do well,” says he.

But Thunuguntla’s optimism is not shared by too many. Many in the 2011 list are shying away from the markets even in 2012. There are

THE GLORY YEARS: IPOs since 1996-97

Source : PRIME Database

THE YEAR 2012 HAS ALREADY SEEN AS MANY AS 17 IPOS BEING CALLED OFF AS MARKETS REMAIN CHOPPY.

YEAR NO. OF IPOs ISSUE AMOUNT ( `CRORE )

1996-1997 660 4,082.24

1997-1998 51 882.90

1998-1999 18 379.30

1999-2000 51 2,587.16

2000-2001 109 2,374.87

2001-2002 6 1,012.55

2002-2003 6 1,038.68

2003-2004 19 3,191.10

2004-2005 23 14,662.32

2005-2006 76 10,797.88

2006-2007 76 23,706.16

2007-2008 84 41,323.45

2008-2009 21 2,033.99

2009-2010 39 24,948.31

2010-2011 52 33,097.77

2011-2012 34 5,892.92

45Intelligent Entrepreneur June 2012Photo© Neha MithbawkarTo read more, grab the June 2012 issue of EntrepreneurTo Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in

COVER STORY


ANJAN CHATTERJEEfounder and managing director,

speciality restaurants ltd.

VITHAL KAMAT executive chairman and

managing director, kamat hotels (india) ltd.

Dig into this lucrative market, but ensure that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. Some of the most successful Indian restaurateurs, Anjan Chatterjee, AD Singh, Vithal Kamat, Ketan Kadam and others, tell you how you can also become a force to reckon with

SRIYA RAY CHAUDHURI

BitesMega


SHAUN KENWORTHY restaurant consultant and chef

AD SINGH managing director, olive bar and kitchen

Photo Imaging© Chaitanya Dinesh Surpur To read more, grab the June 2012 issue of EntrepreneurTo Subscribe, visit www.entrepreneurindia.in

India's food bowl is trying to shake off its moniker and attract entrepreneurs from across sectors. Pranbihanga Borpuzari tells us why you could take your business there

BEYOND THE GRAIN

STATE SCAN

80 Intelligent Entrepreneur June 2012 Photo© Joshua Navalkar

PUNJAB

HIGH FIVETo scope out what Punjab has to offer to the Indian industry, we travelled to the five locations that have been driving the state's economy in the past and are expected to do so in the future



T he furore over new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson's inaccurate resume is shining a spotlight

on inadequate employee vetting. Thompson, the third Yahoo CEO in the past year, claimed to have a computer science degree, which he doesn't, along with his actual degree in accounting.

If Yahoo, one of the world's larg-est technology companies, with $1.22 billion in revenue in the �rst quar-ter of 2012, can be misled, what's to stop your potential hires from lying on their resumes? If your business doesn't have a dedicated human-resources department, you can still

vet potential employees. What's key is to slow down and think through your choice of applicants, according to John Challenger, CEO of outplace-ment consulting �rm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "Sometimes when you're in a hurry to make the decision, you're not thorough," he says. Here's more advice on resume lie-detecting from Challenger:

1. Conduct multiple interviewsInterview multiple people for a single position, and call promising candidates back for a second, or even a third, inter-view. Although this is time-consuming

for both of you, it's a valuable way to gain insight into the person you're thinking of hiring. And when you interview someone, try to have other managers in the room. It's important to get feedback from colleagues about potential hires. Another manager's gut instinct could save you from making a potentially costly mistake.

2. Do a background checkInternet search tools and social net-works are good resources for checking on applicants. After all, Thompson's resume offense was caught by a Google search. But it's wise to do a background check on each new hire. Decide �rst how wide and deep you want to go, and then choose a service that meets your needs. Challenger recommends checking potential employees' crimi-nal records and citizenship status.

3. Seek out employment and charac-ter referencesChallenger advises interviewing can-didates who have been recommended by people you trust. But even then, you should still conduct your own back-ground check on the person. With a candidate who doesn't have a personal recommendation, you should search out personal references. Go beyond those listed on his resume. Reach out to former co-workers or others who can verify the applicant's employment history and give you insight into the person's character.

Although it's necessary to take precautions when adding someone to your company, lying on resumes is uncommon, especially in our age of information transparency. "Some people feel their only way to �nd a job when they've been out of work for a long time is to take action they know is wrong," he said. "But most people—whether it's out of their sense of integ-rity or fear of being caught—don't take the risk."

©Entrepreneur Inc. All rights reserved.

Have a handy and quick lie-detector test for resumes

BRIAN PATRICK EHA

[ CHECK LIST ]

LIE NO FURTHER

OFF BEAT

96 Intelligent Entrepreneur June 2012 Illustration © Chaitanya Dinesh Surpur

BRIAN PATRICK EHA is an editorial intern for Entrepreneur.com.

‘PAWAN KO

KAHINDEKHA KYA?’To know the answer turn to PG 116

Photo© Neha Mithbawkar


C hildren in our country spend a whopping 7.2 hours studying as opposed to 39 minutes in a day playing a sport, a recent government research revealed. A few

years ago, entrepreneurs Prabhu Srinivasan and Susir Kumar found that their children were happier spending more time indoors playing a video game than taking time out to play a sport. They weren’t the only ones who saw this problem when they set up KOOH Sports in Mumbai. So did Dev Roy in Bengaluru who set up LeapStart.

There seem to be two key reasons why sports education has become increasingly important. One is India’s failure to

rise as a sporting nation so far, which is affected by the minimal exposure to quality training that students receive at a young age. The second reason is the grow-ing number of health problems that arise from a lack of physical activity in the lives of most chil-dren, especially as indoor video games and mobile phone applica-tions catch their fancy.

Children today are more exposed to technology than sports. A few entrepreneurs are trying to change the scenario by increasing the focus on sports education in schools

SHRUTI CHAKRABORTY

A SPORTS STAR AND MORE

[ PLAY ON ]

START UPS


SPEED UPStartup cost: `4-5 lakh

Number of students: 4,000

Employees: 15

Target: To reach out to 1 million children in about 3-4 yearsTRAINING HARD: Shayamal Vallabhjee

Photo© Neha Mithbawkar

Shayamal Vallabhjee has spent years working with the cricket teams of India and South Africa as an exer-cise specialist, besides having worked with the Indian tennis team at the Davis Cup level.

He says that often “the only differ-ence between someone who �nishes �rst and second is a very fundamental �aw in biomechanics”. Vallabhjee is a biomechanics specialist who works with children to get the technique of basic sport activities right through his startup, Speed Kids.

In most Indian schools, there is no structured physical education pro-gram. The only option for those who are interested in taking up sports seri-ously is through specialized academies for a certain sport. While things are changing slowly, Vallabhjee says that children in India are told to run and play but not told “how to run or how to get the techniques right”.

One small leapRoy began LeapStart when he came back to India after a 15-year stint out-side the country. “When I left, children could still play outdoors and they would do so too. When I came back, I found that I would always need to take my son to the club for any outdoor activity,” he explains.

Roy says that creating play areas in the city was one of the things he thought about, but real estate prices made that unfeasible. This is when he decided to work with schools and created a sports program that schools could outsource for their physical education setup.

Roy’s target has been schools in tier I cities and the LeapStart program has expanded reach to 100 schools in the last two years.

For the curriculum, Roy partnered with SPARK, a physical education pro-gram in place in a number of schools in the US. The program is disseminated through coaches who are trained and sent to the schools to deliver the curric-ulum through a number of activities.

The primary classes focus on move-ment foundations. Once a child is about six-seven years old, he is introduced

to different sports and after a while specializes in one kind of game. The charge per student for the program is about `150-220 per month that is paid to Leap Start by the school. They have coaches for seven sports in all.

Roy says that India can’t afford an unhealthy population right now. He says wishfully that he is a big Arsenal team supporter and dreams of seeing an Indian play on the team some day.

Up the TempoVallabhjee works with students between the ages of three-eight years with his startup Speed Kids that he set up two years ago.

He reveals that the reason he works with children of such a young age group is because they have not learnt all the wrong things yet.

The Speed Kids program is not replacing the physical education set-ups in schools.

What Vallabhjee does instead is work with children to help them learn the fundamentals of sports that can help them become good sportspersons; no matter what sport they choose.

The program, which helps identify a sport that the children have a natural inclination towards, is delivered over 10 weeks through a center or a school.

Vallabhjee currently works with a team of 15 people and gets the equip-ment manufactured as well. He has


GIANT LEAPSNumber of schools: 100

Number of sports in which training is provided: 7

Number of trainers: 250

Turnover target: `60-80 crore by 2017

HEALTHY OPTION: Dev Roy

Photo© Maximage

THE SECRET SAUCEIf you manage to wade through these people with your resolve intact, running that restaurant would be a cakewalk

ANKUSH CHIBBER

YOUR DADIt’s not easy coughing up the cash to start a restaurant. He needs to lend you some cash. But he is entirely unhappy with you quitting your medical career. There is some talk of changing the will too. Good luck!

THE BABUGetting the concept up? That’s the easy part. Getting your licenses from the municipality to set it up? Probably as enjoyable as playing Russian Roulette with the Mafiosi while juggling hand grenades on a unicycle.

THE HEALTH INSPECTORYou might not have any drainage problems. You might not have rats. You might not have fungus. You might not even have a smudge of oil. But you should have ‘grease’ if you want to clear a health inspection.

THE CHEFHe can be your best friend. Or he can be your worst enemy. Without him, your restaurant is a dud. Sometimes, it is a dud with him too. Really, it’s just like poker. Hope for beginner’s luck.

THE WAITERHe is always late. He is mostly on his mobile. He always wants an advance on his salary. His smoke breaks easily surpass the limits of your patience. Just pray he knows how to treat your customer right.

THE CUSTOMERThe final ingredient to your great dish. You will meet all types. The VIP. The Finger Snapper. The Reviewer for no one in particular. The Hanger On. The Sensitive Flower. The Always Dutch. The Brady Bunch. And lastly, your ‘friend.’

BACK STAGE

134 Intelligent Entrepreneur June 2012 Illustration© Chaitanya Dinesh Surpur

Documents

Entrepreneur June 2012