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Edtech major BYJU'S on Wednesday announced several measures to bolster its <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> business, saying that its K-10 business, which includes Toppr, <keyword id="1573710" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="meritnation" source="Orion">Meritnation</keyword>, <keyword id="192259" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="tutorvista" source="Orion">TutorVista</keyword>, <keyword id="14957" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="scholar" source="Orion">Scholar</keyword>, and HashLearn platforms, will now be consolidated as one business unit. To avoid redundancies and duplication of roles, the move will result in five per cent of its 50,000-strong workforce (about 2,500 people) being "rationalised across product, content, media, and technology teams in a phased manner", the company said in a statement. Aakash Educational Services and Great Learning will continue to function as separate organisations, the company said in a statement. "As a mature organisation that takes its responsibility towards investors and stakeholders seriously, we aim to ensure sustainable growth alongside strong revenue growth. These measures will help us achieve profitability in the defined time frame of March 2023," said Mrinal Mohit, CEO, BYJU'S India business. At a group level, BYJU'S said its top priority is to achieve "overall profitability by March 2023". Over the last three years, BYJU'S acquired multiple companies whose integration with its core business is now complete. BYJU'S said at the group level, it will continue to hire across all levels and will end this financial year as a net hirer. The company plans to hire a total of 10,000 more teachers in the coming year, adding to its current strength of 20,000 teachers. It said it is expanding its teams along with hiring senior leadership to further build operational strength. The company said there will also be re-targeting of the marketing budget towards more efficient growth. "Since significant brand awareness has been created in India over the past few years, there is a scope to optimise marketing budgets locally and prioritise spending to increase brand awareness in overseas markets," the company said. BYJU'S said it is also reinventing its sales model to focus more on inside sales, using video calling platforms which in turn will enhance customer experience and reduce operational costs. Multiple inside sales hubs will now be created across India from where BYJU'S sales associates will reach out to incoming leads through calls, email, and <keyword id="10296" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="zoom" source="Orion">Zoom</keyword> meetings. Inside sales will lead to higher customer satisfaction and lower costs. "None of these measures will have any impact on our revenue run rate," said Mohit. After six stressful and tough months, the company's Co-founder Byju Raveendran recently said that "the worst is finally over" and there is only "growth ahead" as seen in the company's FY22 financial results, where it logged Rs 10,000 crore in gross revenues. BYJU's last month paid the remaining dues of nearly Rs 1,983 crore (over $245 million) to global VC firm Blackstone in the $1 billion acquisition of Aakash. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/hcl-techs-net-profit-rises-6-3-sequentially-increases-fy23-revenue-guidance/articleshow/94813269.cms">HCL Tech’s net profit rises 6.3% sequentially, increases FY23 revenue guidance</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/intel-plans-major-layoffs-this-month-as-pc-sales-nosedive-report/articleshow/94813156.cms">Intel plans major layoffs this month as PC sales nosedive: Report</a>

BYJU's consolidates India business, 5% workforce to be 'rationalised' across teams

​The growing proficiency of Indian technology companies in building innovative products is drawing a great deal of attention from global corporations eager to acquire fresh ideas and skilled workers. 
 
Applications that help ease online payments, offer security for data stored on multiple devices as well as those that help drive greater advertising revenue on mobile devices are some of the technologies on the shopping list of multinationals scouting for the right startup. In the next five years, experts say at least 40 technology ventures in India could be bought over by large corporations. 
 “Couple of them (startups) will be valued at over $1 billion (Rs 6,200 crore),” said Ravi Gururaj, an angel investor who heads the software product council at industry lobby <keyword id="6372077" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasscom">Nasscom</keyword>. He expects about half a dozen technology ventures to be valued at around $500 million (Rs 3,100 crore) while <keyword id="818790" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="the-rest">the rest</keyword> will likely fetch a price of between $15 million (Rs 93 crore) and $50 million (Rs 311 crore). 
 A handful of such acquisitions has already set the ball rolling. Last November, Japanese engineering and electronics maker <keyword id="69870" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Hitachi">Hitachi</keyword> acquired Prizm Payment Services, in a deal estimated at $250 million (Rs 1,547 crore). In mid 2013, South African media conglomerate Naspers bought online bus ticketing firm red-Bus for about $100 million (Rs 618 crore), giving it access to not only the large <keyword id="47445" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Indian-market">Indian market</keyword> but disruptive technology as well. 
 “Multinational companies primarily look for talent and <keyword id="388837" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="intellectual-property">intellectual property</keyword> that can compete at global level,” said Prashant Gupta, group manager at Microsoft India (R&amp;D). “There are early signs in India that such companies are emerging that can meet these demands, especially in cloud-driven application lifecycle and big data,” he said. 
 
The global software maker runs an accelerator programme in India for technology startups that has graduated 22 ventures so far and is poised to make its first venture investment this year. 
 Interest from <keyword id="6355311" type="COUNTRY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Japan">Japan</keyword>ese corporations too is growing. Apart from the Hitachi deal, others such as NTT too have been active buyers. In 2012 Japan’s <keyword id="913532" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="NTT-Communications">NTT Communications</keyword> bought a majority stake in technology firm <keyword id="423557" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Netmagic">Netmagic</keyword> for about Rs 900 crore. “India is becoming the laboratory for products and services for the world,” said Krishnan Ganesh, <keyword id="36740" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="founder">founder</keyword> of online tutoring company TutorVista that was bought by the UK’s <keyword id="152222" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Pearson">Pearson</keyword> group at an enterprise value of about Rs 1,000 crore. 
 
After the acquisition, the number of students using the services of TutorVista has tripled to four million across both the local and the US market. Pearson now aims to replicate the TutorVista model in emerging markets such as Brazil, China and South Africa. 
 
In 2013, there were 100 merger and acquisition deals across the India’s information technology industry. Of this, 31 whose value was announced were worth $1,906 million (Rs 11,807 crore), according to research firm Venture Intelligence. 
 The trigger for this growing M&amp;A activity is the range of disruptive technology startups emerging out of India. Companies such as advertising network InMobi, data analytics company Mu Sigma and online retailer <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> have achieved a scale where they are valued at over $1 billion. “This is driven by leading-edge globally competitive technologies,” said Naren Gupta cofounder and managing director of Nexus Venture Partners, an early investor in Netmagic and online retailer <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>. 
 For instance, Pune-based <keyword id="741520" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Druva">Druva</keyword> provides data security and retrieval software to customers such as US space agency <keyword id="6360409" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="NASA">Nasa</keyword>, drug maker <keyword id="44612" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Pfizer">Pfizer</keyword> and fashion brand <keyword id="5940" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Louis-Vuitton">Louis Vuitton</keyword>. 
<div style="page-break-after: always;">
	&#xa0;</div> In Chennai, Perfint Healthcare has developed robots that treat cancer by precisely inserting a needle in the affected area to burn or freeze a patient’s tumour, leaving the good tissue alone. The founders, all former employees of <keyword id="166456" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="GE-Healthcare">GE Healthcare</keyword>, quit to launch the firm when they realised the demand for such a product. For global corporations acquiring such game-changing technologies can help them enter new markets and raise barriers against competition. 
 Two years ago, when global software maker <keyword id="183292" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Red-Hat">Red Hat</keyword> bought Bangalore-based <keyword id="6373689" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Cloud-computing">cloud computing</keyword> startup <keyword id="724826" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Gluster">Gluster</keyword> for around Rs 667 crore, it acquired a storage platform technology which it offered to its customers for the first time. The cost of technology infrastructure to set up such ventures and scale them up for acquisitions has also come down drastically. 
 “A bunch of guys can now launch an application from a garage, keep the tablet or a mobile phone as the front end and the product becomes viral in few weeks,” said Anand Babu Periasamy, cofounder of Gluster. A computer <keyword id="6369183" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Engineer">engineer</keyword> graduate from <keyword id="119675" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="annamalai-university">Annamalai University</keyword>, Periasamy who now works at Red Hat is aiming to build Gluster into a billion dollar business unit. 
 
Experts hope small-size technology ventures in India will also attract the attention of larger firms. “Smaller exits are the life blood for healthy startup ecosystems like in <keyword id="6355882" type="COUNTRY" weightage="40" keywordseo="israel">Israel</keyword> and US,” said Sharad Sharma co founder of software product think-tank iSpirt. Sharma is running an active M&amp;A Connect Program at iSpirt that is curating a list of several dozen companies. 
 Some of those on the radar are retail services software maker Capillary Technologies, healthcare applications provider <keyword id="1165142" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Practo">Practo</keyword> and security software maker <keyword id="171228" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Quick-Heal">Quick Heal</keyword>. According to Sharma, many of them have shown healthy growth traction and are attractive for strategic partnerships. 
 Sharma of iSpirt is of the view that a larger proportion of bootstrapped companies is stymieing merger activity in India. “It is harder for large corporations when there is no validation from <keyword id="6357097" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="venture-capital">venture capital</keyword> firms,” he said. 
 The other major problem say experts is that large Indian firms such as Infosys, <keyword id="10862" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Wipro">Wipro</keyword> and <keyword id="6357150" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="TCS">TCS</keyword> have shied away from making any such purchases, despite having huge cash reserves. Infosys has $4 billion (Rs 24,000 crore) cash reserves. 
 
“When Wipro can be in soaps and vegetable oil, why can’t they be in the Flipkarts of the world,” said Ganesh of TutorVista. “They are sitting on a huge cash reserve and not a fraction has been spent on startups. That mentality is not there.” 
 
“Over the next five years, I expect that quantity will dramatically improve and we can be optimistic about merger and acquisition activity out of India,” said Nasscom’s Gururaj.

Indian startups' global competitiveness and innovation make them acquisition targets

The central government has approved eight <keyword id="44749" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Foreign-Direct-Investment">foreign direct investment</keyword> (<keyword id="44528" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="FDI">FDI</keyword>) proposals worth Rs 34.77 crore. “Based on the recommendations of <keyword id="62529" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Foreign-Investment-Promotion-Board">Foreign Investment Promotion Board</keyword> (<keyword id="6360345" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="FIPB">FIPB</keyword>)...government has approved eight proposals of foreign direct investment amounting to Rs.34.77 crore approximately,” revealed an official release. 
 
UK-based CSC Computer Sciences International Operations had asked for the government’s approval to set up a limited liability partnership (LLP) worth Rs 30 crore. Proposals of Mahanagar Gas Limited, Medicamen Biotech Ltd, TutorVista Global Private Ltd, Ventura (India) Pvt Ltd, Syssmart Services LLP and Mahindra CIE Automotive Ltd also the government’s clearance. 
 “In the FIPB meeting, a proposal relating to <keyword id="131506" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lupin-Ltd">Lupin Ltd</keyword> was recommended for consideration of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) as the investment involved was above Rs1,200 crore,” the release stated. Decision on as many as 12 proposals, including Syngene International Ltd, India Value Fund IV, SME <keyword id="6357264" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="capital-market">Capital Market</keyword> Corporation, SNC-Lavalin Mauritius Ltd and Verint Systems (India) Pvt Ltd, were put off.

8 FDI Proposals Worth Rs 35 Crore Gets Govt’s Nod

<ul><li>India’s largest online tutoring startup Byju’s is expected to become 4th most valued startup in the country after Paytm, Ola Cabs and OYO Rooms. </li><li>The company’s valuation is expected to be raised to ₹254 billion ($3.5 billion) by the end of the funding round with the company adding $200-300 million to its portfolio. </li><li>The company has successfully got blue- chip investors including the private equity giant General Atlantic. </li></ul>India’s largest <keyword id="23248" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Online-learning">online learning</keyword> startup Byju’s (Think &amp; Learn Pvt Ltd) is all set to be the 4th most valued Indian startup. It’s in the middle of a new funding round that’s <a href="https://www.livemint.com/Companies/kNyn82lsWEVRP34pbxyRsK/Byjus-may-achieve-4th-rank-in-Indias-startups-class.html">expected to raise</a> ₹14.5 million to ₹ 22 million ($200-300 million) from new investors including General Atlantic, a private equity giant. The influx of new funds are expected to increase the company’s value to ₹245 billion ($3.5 billion) making it the fourth highest valued company in the league after digital payments company Paytm, cab service provider Ola and budget hotel chain OYO Rooms. Sources close to these developments have said that private equity has inflated the valuation of the start up to an amount higher than what was expected at first. The secondary valuation is expected to happen at a lower amount since the existing investors, such as Sequoia Capital, may release a certain part of its shares or consider exiting the company altogether. Last month, the edutech startup closed the funding round gushing <a href="https://entrackr.com/2018/10/byjus-4th-most-valued-indian-startup/">$100 million</a> with the valuation reaching $2 billion mark already. It looks like the overpowering interest of the investors in the startup has lead to a valuation higher than anticipated post the closing round. Byju’s story so far Byju’s has been one of the fastest growing tech <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">startups</keyword> in India. The company raised around $30 million from Verlinvest followed by $40 million from Tencent Holdings Ltd in July 2017, as reported by<a href="https://www.livemint.com/Companies/kNyn82lsWEVRP34pbxyRsK/Byjus-may-achieve-4th-rank-in-Indias-startups-class.html"> Mint.</a> So far, the startup has exceeded the investor expectations with its growth trajectory. The company that was originally just an offline teaching centre in Bengaluru, slowly expanded its operations online with the launch of its first app in 2015. The tutoring startup also plans to come up with apps for younger students soon. The company also acquired Vidyartha, TutorVista and Edurite last year as a mark of its growth and is ready with its fourth acquisition Math Adventures this year. By the end of FY18, the <a href="https://www.livemint.com/Companies/kNyn82lsWEVRP34pbxyRsK/Byjus-may-achieve-4th-rank-in-Indias-startups-class.html">expectation</a> is that Byju’s is only going get more lucrative. The company also claimed to have exceeded ₹100 crore monthly revenue this June and is looking forward to reach a mark of ₹1400 crore as the overall revenue. Byju Raveendran, Chief Executive, communicated to the <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/edutech-startup-byjus-quietly-turns-a-unicorn-company/articleshow/63293773.cms">Economic Times</a> that it is the fourth consecutive year that the startup has crossed 100% growth. Currently, the startup has a user base of 15 billion which includes a segment of paid users seeking education through online platforms. (Photo credit: <a href="https://www.startupstories.in/">Startup Stories India</a>)

India’s largest online learning service is all set to become the 4th highest valued Indian startup with a ₹254 billion valuation

Krishnan <keyword id="6356252" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ganesh">Ganesh</keyword>, has played a lot of roles in his life; from an engineer, to an entrepreneur, to now a venture builder, and his life has been nothing short of an trial. While his shoes have been too big to fill and as they keep changing, he is currently pioneering a unique model with Growth Story in India, which is probably only made popular by Rocket Internet in the country. GrowthStory is the venture-builder platform that Ganesh and his wife, Meena set up in 2011 which has promoted some of India's most disruptive start-ups including Portea Medical, Big Basket, Fresh Menu, Home Lane, AcadGild, HouseJoy, Social Frontier and many more. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This model is unique due to the fact that while Ganesh and Meena come up with entrepreneurial ideas, they hire executives to pull it off. It is not primarily "investment" only, but where GrowthStory is the "promoter," but where the Partners are often the originators of the idea, work to get a founding team in place, drive fund raising early in the game, work closely with founders to scale the venture, guide strategic direction et al. This ‘express’ entrepreneurship that the power couple pull through is extraordinary and the back- story to it is a roller coaster that, you can’t forget. Early life and career Ganesh’s father died in an accident when he was just nine years old and as the eldest of three siblings, he felt the need to set an example. His mother was a hard-working government servant and bought them up to the best of her capabilities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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So Krishnan, became a mechanical engineer passed out from Delhi College of Engineering, and even got a post graduate degree from IIM before realizing that he didn’t want to be an engineer or just an MBA graduate. Ganesh credits his entrepreneurial trials to <keyword id="44903" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shiv-Nadar">Shiv Nadar</keyword>, under whose guidance he experienced different business function, “I worked for five years in various functions and also as executive assistant to Shiv Nadar. My first venture started in 1990, a company called IT&amp;T where me and my friends pooled in money to get it started,” he told Business Insider. He ran the company till 1998 and remained the largest shareholder and director of the company till 2003 when it was sold to iGate. He went back to the corporate life but after two-years stint went back to entrepreneurship with his second business venture called CustomerAsset with Meena and another partner. It was later acquired by ICICI Bank in 2002 and Ganesh made $ 20 million for his stake in the company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In 2003 he stumbled upon an innovative new company called Marketics which was started by IIT and IIM graduates. Ganesh was approached for investment, mentoring and guidance. This company was also sold off to WNS, for $65 million where only half a million dollars were invested in this business without venture capital funding. Then Ganesh again started his own business with TutorVista in 2006 which was bought out completely by Pearson for Rs. 1000 crore. His multiple hits have led him to be where he is, but that isn’t without the missus by his side. When the the last acquisition happened, Ganesh and Meena decided to take the hard road and continue their entrepreneurship journey albeit this time, differently. "Only 5 per cent of start ups succeed and Ninety-five per cent end up failing. I see still young entrepreneurs after starting a company against all the odds. I'm addicted to fueling that until I can," says Krishnan when asked about why his family still makes risky businesses instead of just ‘settling down’. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Perfect Pairing When it comes to Meena and Krishnan Ganesh, their complementary skill sets have given fuel to the train that is Growth Story. Professionally, Meena is more lauded as the CEO of <keyword id="6398216" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tesco">Tesco</keyword>,No.2 at <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword> and now CEO at Portea, but Ganesh is the visonary that knows they can achieve so much together. As co-founders and life partners, they know that team work is the key to making a venture start and keep it running.

Exclusive: K. Ganesh Made BigBasket and Portea Medical Blockbusters in India, and This is his Unique Life-story

Do you ever wonder what it would be like if we have a <keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword> for <keyword id="504808" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Foodies">foodies</keyword>? <keyword id="6354630" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mark-Zuckerberg">Mark Zuckerberg</keyword> hasn’t started one yet, but an Indian-origin start-up has come up with a social platform for <keyword id="2067882" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Recipe-sharing">recipe sharing</keyword>. Meet <keyword id="2067846" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cucumbertown">Cucumbertown</keyword>.com, a delightfully simple <keyword id="2067867" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Recipe-blogging-platform">recipe blogging platform</keyword> that connects <keyword id="2067869" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amateur-cooks">amateur cooks</keyword> and <keyword id="2067871" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pro-chefs">pro chefs</keyword> with the foodies of the world. On this fast-growing <keyword id="6354615" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Social-network">social network</keyword>, users can publish their recipes without the least hassle and browse through the entire repository of <keyword id="2067874" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gourmet-creations">gourmet creations</keyword> and <keyword id="2067875" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Culinary-delights">culinary delights</keyword>. However, it is the ‘social’ part that puts one’s <keyword id="1527920" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="cooking-skills">cooking skills</keyword> to test. There is a rating system used by the Cucumbertown tribe that effectively makes out whether a recipe is good, average or bad. 
 But what intrigues one most on this recipe <keyword id="1188271" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="publishing-platform">publishing platform</keyword> is the ease of use. On Cucumbertown, one can write a recipe in a standard format, add images/multimedia and upload everything with a few clicks. Once your ‘post’ is up, the social platform starts buzzing with <keyword id="824939" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="opinions">opinions</keyword>, <keyword id="6400508" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Conversations">conversations</keyword> and ‘<keyword id="31407" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="craves">craves</keyword>’ (similar to <keyword id="1110433" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Facebook-likes">Facebook Likes</keyword>). You can also follow your favourite cook/s and get customised notifications when content is published by your friends. Well, of course, <keyword id="629729" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Epicurious">Epicurious</keyword> has it all, but Cucumbertown is aiming even higher and wants to be the <keyword id="279713" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tumblr">Tumblr</keyword> in <keyword id="2067884" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cooking-and-food-space">cooking and food space</keyword>. Here is a snapshot that captures the start-up’s vision and viability. 
 
Who runs Cucumbertown (www.cucumbertown.com): A team of four co-founders, hailing from three continents (two from <keyword id="6355033" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bangalore">Bangalore</keyword>, one from <keyword id="57516" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Zurich">Zurich</keyword> and one from Pennsylvania). In fact, none of them had met each other during the build-up period. <keyword id="5645" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="CEO">CEO</keyword> <keyword id="326430" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cherian-Thomas">Cherian Thomas</keyword> worked with <keyword id="188699" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Zynga">Zynga</keyword> before setting up Cucumbertown in 2012. Other three co-founders include <keyword id="238078" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="CTO">CTO</keyword> <keyword id="2067847" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Arun-Prabhakar">Arun Prabhakar</keyword> who had earlier worked with several Indian start-ups such as <keyword id="736993" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="taggle">Taggle</keyword> and TutorVista; <keyword id="2067892" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chris-Lscher">Chris Lüscher</keyword>, founding partner at <keyword id="2067891" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Information-Architects">Information Architects</keyword>, one of the world’s leading design firms, and <keyword id="2067853" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Dan-Hauk">Dan Hauk</keyword>, <keyword id="2067932" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="theme-designer">theme designer</keyword> of <keyword id="825836" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Wordpress">WordPress</keyword>, Tumblr and the likes. Dan left the start-up in August 2013, but still helps whenever he can. 
 Although Cherian calls it a labour of love, he is hell-bent on building a <keyword id="2067893" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="global-product">global product</keyword>. The Bangalorean has sought world-class talent and built a strong team – one that has a good understanding of the <keyword id="35145" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="global-market">global market</keyword> and is totally aware of the challenges to be faced. The start-up currently operates from <keyword id="108002" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mountain-View">Mountain View</keyword> (<keyword id="2379" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="California">California</keyword>) and Bangalore. 
 
What inspired the venture: Pure passion. A die-hard foodie who loves to <keyword id="9230" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cook">cook</keyword>, Cherian has always wanted to blog about cooking, but it turned out to be a cumbersome process. Creating a blog, <keyword id="97496" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Writing">writing</keyword> &amp; uploading recipes and putting up images/videos on the site require a lot of technical knowledge. That’s when he realised how difficult it must be for cooks and chefs who may not be tech savvy. “So I decided to build a user-friendly platform, contacted the best guys to help me out and here we are,” reflects Cherian. 
 
What’s the pitch: Cucumbertown aims to be the ‘Tumblr’ for cooking and food space. It offers an attractive alternative to posting recipes and food-related content on WordPress, Tumblr, <keyword id="58677" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Blogger">Blogger</keyword> and so on. The start-up provides an easy-to-use interface for publishing recipes – so that even an amateur cook can gain traction online and wow readers by sharing his/her culinary creations. “We all know what blogging has done to content publishing. Cucumbertown can do the same in cooking &amp; food space, and leverage the potential of <keyword id="1175407" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Internet-commerce">Internet commerce</keyword> in the process,” the CEO says. 
 
How it works: Cucumbertown is to cooking what Tumblr is to blogging and keeping things easy is the start-up’s USP. One can log in via Facebook or create a new account before using the site. Once there, you can publish recipes, upload images and search the <keyword id="2067873" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Recipe-database">recipe database</keyword> by cook, cuisine, course, <keyword id="493272" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ingredient">ingredient</keyword>, <keyword id="2067917" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cooking-time">cooking time</keyword> and <keyword id="2067918" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Difficulty-level">difficulty level</keyword>. Search results can be listed based on relevance, popularity or comments. Publishing on the site is especially easy as Cucumbertown provides a plethora of tools, including a <keyword id="2067859" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="recipe-editor">recipe editor</keyword>. Moreover, if a recipe is already up, you can post a different version, showing your culinary creativity. 
 
Claim to fame: Traction and global reach-out. The company claims it is one of the fastest growing food <keyword id="50752" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Networks">networks</keyword>, with users from around 40 countries. And right now, it is eyeing further expansion in the US and Europe. Interestingly, Cucumbertown is one of the heavily funded pre-revenue start-ups and has raised money from the same <keyword id="6359051" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="investors">investors</keyword> who had funded companies such as Facebook, <keyword id="6354616" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Twitter">Twitter</keyword>, Zynga and <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword>. Till date, the start-up has raised $300K in <keyword id="948731" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="seed-funding">seed funding</keyword>. Its key investors include <keyword id="1452668" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="500-Startups">500 Startups</keyword>, <keyword id="2067923" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Naval-Ravikant">Naval Ravikant</keyword> of <keyword id="1922133" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AngelList">AngelList</keyword>, <keyword id="2067926" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Farmville-co-creator">Farmville co-creator</keyword> <keyword id="2067925" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sizhao-Zao-Yang">Sizhao Zao Yang</keyword>, <keyword id="2067927" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Maneesh-Arora">Maneesh Arora</keyword> of <keyword id="1734576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="MightyText">MightyText</keyword>, <keyword id="2067860" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Richard-Chen">Richard Chen</keyword> (ex-Google PM), <keyword id="2067928" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sonique-Player-co-creator">Sonique Player co-creator</keyword> <keyword id="2067848" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Tabreez-Verjee">Tabreez Verjee</keyword> and <keyword id="2067850" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Mokriya">Mokriya</keyword> founder-CEO <keyword id="2067849" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Sunil-Kanderi">Sunil Kanderi</keyword>, among others. 
 
Show me the money: As an early consumer Web start-up that emulates <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword>, Cucumbertown is yet to have a solid monetisation model. “In fact, we will look at revenue generation in 3-4 years from now,” says Cherian. “We are now following a similar model that Twitter, Facebook and others pursued, which means we are currently focusing on how the product evolves and gets accepted in the global market. That’s what our investors also want – once the product gets the final shape, money will come in,” he adds. 
 
Cucumbertown has immense growth potential though, as the food and cooking space is getting bigger month on month. For instance, in November last year, 41% Americans visited such websites, up 2 million in terms of unique visitors from October 2013. These numbers won’t go down all of a sudden and the start-up can expect more traction when it starts expanding this year. 
 
Biggest challenge: Scaling to <keyword id="6409094" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="International-Markets">international markets</keyword>, especially non-English markets like <keyword id="87" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Germany">Germany</keyword>, while maintaining content and image quality. “We are a small team building a very big product. So we are not thinking about break-even or revenues at this point. The <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> we raised would last for a while. Meanwhile, we must ensure that our users have the <keyword id="2067933" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="best-publishing-tools">best publishing tools</keyword>. That way, they will keep coming back to us and the <keyword id="1413000" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="User-base">user base</keyword> will grow manifold,” explains Cherian. 
 
A word for wannapreneurs: If you have the passion, go for it. And don’t let failures discourage you. In India, shutting down your business may seem like a disaster, but things are quite different across the globe and especially in Silicon Valley. So many people have failed here, but they have found the courage and the means to start up all over again. Both our entrepreneurs and investors should grow a robust <keyword id="170907" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="risk-appetite">risk appetite</keyword> and must have <keyword id="2067937" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Risk-tolerance">risk tolerance</keyword>. Moreover, we should give our ventures adequate time, so that they can generate value in the long run.

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