This was presented by Mahesh Murthy of Seedfund during one of the mini-keynotes at the 2011 Nasscom Product Conclave in Bangalore.

1. 15 minutes, 15 new rules for startups.
mahesh@seedfund.in
@maheshmurthy
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2. Learnings from brands managed
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3. Learnings from brands created
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4. 1 Geography is history
You can design your business to start from anywhere.
Even Yeshwantpur.
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5. 2 The trend means the end.
Prepare to be a trend-setter, not a trend-follower.
Toil a few years in anonymity till then.
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6. 30 80
70
25
60
20
50
15 40
30
10
20
5
10
0 0
A B C D E A B C D E
3 The winner takes it all.
No room for complacence.
Be no.1 or no.2. Or don’t bother.
Big rewards for success.
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7. 4 Hard to enter a pre-existing sector.
Easier to create a new one.
Forget billion-dollar market size. Discover how
big it is as you go along.
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8. 5 Biggest determinant of success is insane
customer delight and resulting word-of-mouth.
Will your friend rave about your product or service
to a stranger in a bar, unbidden?
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9. 6 Your marketing IQ needs to be inversely
proportional to your marketing budget
Are you remark-worthy to your TG?
If not, start again.
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10. + >
> +
7 Digital is not just cheaper than TV as a
marketing medium. It’s bigger.
Can you get digital word-of-mouth working?
Facebook = 2.5 X IPL match, Google = 15 x ToI
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11. 8 Don’t think just 360. Think 360 by 365
It’s not just about talking.
But listening, responding, analysing, then talking.
Do so 24 by 7. Restructure.
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12. 9 Most important technical skill you need:
recruitment & retention.
Have charisma & vision to recruit for less or free?
Can you stave off “market salaries”?
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13. 10 World’s most successful VC’s: customers
Vast majority of Indian and global Fortune 500 never
got VC money to start.
We’re the second-best option.
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14. 11 Before getting a VC in, think about
getting them out.
Can you IPO? Really?
Can you be acquired? Do you want to?
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15. 12 Forget about “team”. Here it starts with
one person.
VCs may parrot the Silicon Valley line. But it’s
different here. One’s a good start.
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16. 13 Hereditary brilliance isn’t bankable.
Institutionalised brilliance is.
Can your firm survive without you?
Do you get richer over the weekend?
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17. 14 Be eco-friendly with money. Break
even by burning as little as possible.
Downturns can happen at any time. Survival is
80% of winning.
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18. 15 The pot of gold is the rainbow.
The payout is an awesome life.
Nobody dies of entrepreneurship.
It’s the best kind of life there is.
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19. @ Thanks, I’m mahesh@seedfund.in
@maheshmurthy
+91 98922 49969
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