9 Rules for Building a Tech Winner

Tony Seba gave a great talk at Google some time ago and lists these 9 rules for building a tech winner. This talk is still a must-hear for any entrepreneur in the high tech area. Here are the main points of his talk:

1. Design products and services that are easy to adopt.
2. Add value not features
3. Focus, win, grow. Repeat.
4. Have a story for your product.
5. Feel the pain, and then develop the products
6. It's a risky world. Sell confidence and not products.
7. Convert champions and not just deals.
8. Choose the right partners and Manage with Clarity.
9. Having succeeded, change or die.

I find #2 the most valuable since it is easy to get carried away by the allure of adding new features. This is especially true in any software product where it is really easy to add new features.

Education Market in India

According to Educomp Solutions Limited 2007-08 annual report, here are some key facts about the education market in India:

1. 361 million children, making India the largest school market in the world. However, only 219 million go to school and the remaining 142 million are deprived of education
   
2. There are 75,000 private schools and 950,000 public schools. 84% of the public schools are in villages.
3. Out of the 75,000 private schools: 15,000 unaided premium schools, 29,400 unaided regular schools, and 30,660 aided by government.
   
4. There are about 136 students per public school, on an average. And 1200 students per private school.
5. About 200,000 more schools need to be built
6. 5 million teachers in the country with 90-95% needing re-skilling
7. K-12 market is estimated to be $20 billion, comprising of $15 billion of unaided schools and $5billion for aided schools.
8. About 2o million students take private coaching after school due to the highly competitive nature of exams in the country. This market is about Rs 5.3 billion or $500 million.
   

According to New York times, the total education market in India (including schools, universities, tutoring etc) is around $80 billion, with $30 billion coming from the government spending, and $50 billion from individuals.

For futher reading:

1. WSJ: VCs give India Education Market High Marks
2. Venture Intelligence report: Private Equity Pulse on Education (free 52-page report on sign in)
   

All you need to know to start and run a company in India

If you are a budding entrepreneur and and want to start a company in india, it is hard to find comprehensive information on the overall process and the complexities involved. Based on my experience, I have created a Mashedge web book that will help entrepreneurs get a jump start:

All you need to know to start and run a company in India.

It is a dynamic web book, and so any reader who knows links to better websites can add that link into the web book. Thus, the web book will get better over time.

The web book also has recommendations to some excellent (real) books.

Documents and signs required at the place of business

Every physical place of the business should display these documents prominently:

1. A clear signboard with the name and address of the company in 2 languages: the local language and English.
2. In Karnataka, a copy of the certificate from the the Department of Labour. This will state that the office is a legal place to do business and authorized to employ x number of people.
   
3. In Karnataka, a copy of the certificate from the Commercial Taxes department stating that the company has registered under the Karnataka Tax on Professions, Traders, Calling and Employment Act, 1976. In plain english, this means that the business has paid professional tax.
4. In addition to 3, another certificate stating that who the employer is and the employer is authorized to collect professional tax from the employees and remit it to the government on a montly basis.

Statutory Register

Running a company in India involves a lot of paper, I mean, mountains of paper. I think I may have submitted more than 200 pages of documents (many of them, the same over and over again to different agencies to get approvals) just to get through the basic incorporation and other licenses.

One of the important books that the company has to maintain is the "Statutory Register". It is a relic of 1950s that still lives on. It has the following registers:

1. Applications for and Allotment of Shares
2. Register of Members and Share Ledger (Rule 7)
   
3. Register of Share Transfer
4. Register of Debunture Holders
5. Register of Directors, Managers, and Secretary and Companies/Firms in which Directors are interested (Rules 303, 301(3) of Companies Act, 1956)
   
6. Register of Directors' share and debenture holding (Rule 307 of Companies Act, 1956)
   
7. Register of Contracts (Section 297, 299, 301 of Companies Act, 1956)
   
8. Register of Charges (Section 143(1) of the Companies Act, 1956)
9. Register of Deposits (Under the Companies Acceptance of Deposits Rules, 1979)
10. Register of Investments (including register of investments not kept in Company's name and of investment in shares and debentures of bodies corporate in the same group) (Section 372(5))
11. Register of Loan and Guarantee
12. Register of Common Seal (i.e, list of documents on which the common seal has been placed).

This Statutory Register can be bought from a bookstore that specializes in corporate stationery. One such store in Bangalore is:

Industrial and Commerical Prints
No.11, 2nd cross Gandhinagar, Bangalore - 560009
Ph: +91-80-22266513

First Board Meeting

The first board meeting is necessary to pass certain minimum resolutions. It must occur within the first 30 days of incorporation.

Here's the list:

1. Certificate of Incorporation must be presented to the board.
2. Filing the consent of directors to act as Directors.
3. Appointment of the Chairman of the Board.
4. Appointment of the Secretary.
5. Appointment of Auditors.
6. Adoption of the Common Seal.
7. Situation of Registered Office.
8. Authorize opening the Bank account.
9. Allotment of shares to the Subscribers of Memorandum.
10. Approval of statement of preliminary expenses by promoters in connection with the incorporation of the company.
11. Authorize purchase of Books and Registers.

The minutes of the meeting must be captured and filed in the folder.

Things to do in the first 30 days after incorporation

There are rules and more rules for the things you need to do in the first 30 days of incorporating your private limited company. Here are a few things:

1. Open a bank account. The minimum share capital of Rs 1 lakh (1,00,000) has to be deposited in the company account within 30 days.
2. Appoint an auditor formally using a company letterhead. The auditor in turns needs to accept the appointment and inform the government.
3. A registered office must be up and running in 30 days. A signboard must be put up in a prominent location.
4. The initial shares have to be assigned according to the agreed upon investment and recorded in the register.