My 3 Words for 2012

Posted on January 1, 2012 by

2011 has been an amazing year on so many dimensions:

  1. Our second son, Aniket (a.k.a. one who makes the whole world his home), was born on June 13. Aditya (a.k.a. the Sun), our other son who is almost 3, started going to pre-school, where he is learning Mandarin  (he goes to a Mandarin immersion program where he is the only kid who does not have Mandarin speaking parents – we already feel the pressure to learn:-)). Parenting is humbling, exhilarating, exhausting, frustrating and  incredibly rewarding all at the same time.
  2. After 10 years at Barclays Global Investors (BGI)/BlackRock, my wife, Pooja, started Nipun Capital in the fall. Nipun (a.k.a. skilled) is an Asia focused asset management firm that Pooja co-founded along with Dr. Charles Lee, the Former Head of Research at BGI who is now a Professor at Stanford’s GSB. In 4 months, they have hired an amazing product team, raised angel funding and they are on the verge of launching their first product, an institutional quality Total Return Fund. Watching Pooja set up Nipun has been an enriching experience for me: I have so much more empathy for start-up founders, and the roller coaster that they ride every day.
  3. I had the privilege of seeing one of my portfolio companies, TreeHouse which is India’s leading pre-school education company, go public on the Indian stock exchanges. In addition, in 2011,  I led an investment into Aggregate Knowledge (audience and campaign analytics for digital media) and joined the board of Conviva (experience management for online video). I also became a General Partner at Foundation Capital, earlier this year. I am thrilled to join the partnership, and look forward to continuing to invest in exceptional people and their plans to change the world.

As I was reflecting on the whirlwind that 2011 has been for me, I came across a blog post by Elliot Ng which really struck a chord. In it, Elliot describes his “3 words to help guide 2012”. What appealed to me about the concept of the 3 words was that they were guiding pillars vs. specific goals or objectives. Chris Brogan who introduced the concept to Elliot described them as “helping you the way that a lighthouse helps a ship in a storm”. Ideally they are themes that are evocative of a personal vision, and a compass by which to set direction for day to day goals, and tasks. As soon as  I read Chris’s post, I set about to identify my 3 words for 2012. They may not mean much for you. Or they may mean very different things to you. That’s OK. These words are only meant to guide me on my journey.

My 3 Words for 2012: Introspect, Intentional, Re-wire

Introspect

In my universe, Introspect ties several concepts together – self-reflection, Deliberate Practice, blogging, and learning from every interaction with the entrepreneurs and CEOs I work with every day. I have always been a fan of self-analysis tools like MBTI (if you are curious, I am an ENTP) and StrengthFinder.  I find that they create a framework for a dialog with myself. They help pull together and verbalize insights and observations about myself that I have put away in some corner of my brain. Yet these tools are just a starting point. In 2012, I want to find a way to do a better job of learning from every interaction that I have. I want to learn from every entrepreneur that I chose not to fund. And I want to learn from every time that I blow my top. Most of all, I want to distil those learnings to do better the next time.

The notion of Deliberate Practice is something that I am still getting my arms around. I have always been somewhat skeptical of Gladwell’s 10,000 hour theory, and very dubious of the idea that with 10,000 hours of effort, anyone could come up with the Theory of Relativity. Given my skepticism, this post about Deliberate Practice really struck a chord with me.  The post cites a 2005 study of chess players  that found that  “serious study“  — the arduous task of reviewing past games of better players, trying to predict each move in advance — was the strongest predictor of chess skill. The article makes the case that key to exceptional performance is identifying what constitutes Diliberate Practice in your chosen field of endeavor. I have chosen to be a venture investor, helping exceptional people build enduring and valuable companies. And so, as part of introspecting in 2012, I would like to better understand what constitutes Diliberate Practice for a venture investor.

I am an infrequent blogger. Its been almost a year since I wrote something. As a result, people often ask me why I blog at all. After all, given how infrequently I post, I am unlikely to ever develop much of an audience for my blog. For me, that’s irrelevant. I love the fact that you are reading this blog post and hope to get feedback from you. Yet, I write for myself. I blog as a way to synthesize ideas floating around in my head. I blog to force myself to take a stand, to expose what I am thinking to others and get feedback. Well, in 2012, as I introspect more, I hope to blog more often.

Intentional.

Elliot also used the word Intentional and so when I started this process, I tried hard to stay away from it. I came up  several words that evoked the theme that I was looking for –  Deliberate (the adjective), Organized, Purposeful, Prioritize, Pro-active, Balance. Yet none of them fully captured the idea or also evoked concepts that did not resonate for me. For example, I liked purposeful, but for me, it also minimizes the serendipity which is so core to who I am and what I do. I liked Deliberate, but as a verb, its meaning is similar to introspect. And so after a lot of meandering, I finally settled on Intentional. For me, Intentional evokes 2 broad concepts – the notion of being proactive and the notion of balance.

  1. Proactive. Like many people, I get more mail than I can ever respond to. I get more requests for meetings than there are hours in the day. And so I find myself reacting to in-bound requests for much of the time. I try to prioritize, and am slowly learning to say no. Yet, that is only the beginning. For me, being proactive means making a conscious effort to allocate my time to reflect my priorities and goals. It means setting aside the urgent to focus on the truly important. It means giving up immediate gratification for more enduring rewards. For me, it often means not watching one more episode of the The Big Bang Theory late at night so that I can get up early and go to the gym the next morning. It means making the time to attend a Churchhill club event that is not directly related to anything I am doing today. And it means saying no to all those cookies in the kitchen at 4 PM when I desperately need a sugar high!
  2. Balance. I have always been an intense person, with the tendency to focus all my energies on my current obsession. Sometimes, that  results in my making choices that may seem reckless to others, such as when I skipped an exam in college because I was in the middle of re-reading Eric Segal’s Love Story for the nth time. In my 20s, it was easier to channelize all my energies on the few things that I cared about at any point in time. Today, I find that I need to balance my varied professional passions, my multiple family commitments (kids, wife, mother) and my personal interests. Yet, for me, its not about doing a little bit of everything. Its about being more deliberate about where I engage, and about being more purposeful about my bursts of intensity.

Re-wire

I have always been fascinated by the idea that the human brain is capable of constantly re-wiring itself. I have always been paranoid about being struck in my own little box, about developing blinders over time. And so, I have sought and reveled in new ideas, people and fresh connections. I am fortunate that my job as a venture capitalist exposes me to new people and ideas every day. And yet, over time, those networks tend to get incestous. In fact, the more “intentional” I get, the less likely it is that I will invest time/energy in engaging with a random person or idea. And so, even as I seek to be more intentional in 2012, I hope to engineer more serendipitous encounters with exceptional people out-side my networks who are working on life changing ideas in areas that I know nothing about.

Re-wiring may mean being more deliberate about attending conferences, something I have generally avoided in the past because of the needle in a haystack problem. Re-wiring may mean diving deep into a completely new area of technology. Or it may mean learning to play chess or swim in my 40s.

I will figure out I will do as the year unfolds. And that is the beauty of the 3 words process. Its about defining guiding pillars upfront, while giving yourself the flexibility to make lots of decisions along the way.

And so, to wrap up, my 3 words are: Introspect, Intentional and Re-wire. I am excited about using them as lighthouses, helping me navigate the storm that is life.  If you are excited by the idea, and do end up writing your own 3 words for 2012, do tell me about them. 

Posted in Miscellaneous, Personal Reflections | 4 Comments

Windows Mobile: the cat does have nine lives!

Posted on February 12, 2011 by

With the recent Nokia deal, Windows Mobile is back! While Nokia seems irrelevant in the US, Symbian still has 37.6 % market share globally (amongst smart phones), and more importantly, Nokia has 40+ % of the global cellphone market (of devices sold by the top 10 cellphone makers). So, while Nokia will continue to loose share in 2011/2012, it will remain the largest cellphone maker (in volume terms) for a while.

I think that Windows Mobile has a credible shot at 30 % + market share of all cellphones by 2015 up from 4.2 % of all smartphones today.

  • By 2015, all phones will be smart phones, and just with Nokia alone, Windows Mobile could have 30% + market share. In addition Samsung, HTC, LG and other Asian manufacturers will all hedge their bets and sell a mix of Windows Mobile and Android.
  • Nokia and Microsoft both have a very strong retail and corporate distribution channel in Asia and Europe. Together, they have also strong relationships with both carriers and large enterprises, which both Google and Apple lack.
  • MSFT has a very strong developer ecosystem in Asia and Europe and amongst enterprise developers in the US. In India, which has the 2nd largest number of developers after the US, .NET has more developers than the open source stack. Not a surprise when you consider that Indian developers cut their teeth at the IT out-sourcers which use .NET extensively.

The Windows-Nokia alliance could be the new WINTEL, and in time may be remembered as pivotal as Yahoo’s decision to out-source search to Bing or even IBM’s decision to out-source the PC OS to Microsoft. In particular, this is bad news for RIM’s platform and HP’s Web OS (formerly Palm), both of which I suspect will be history by 2015. Google will continue to be the market leader with 50% + of the market and Apple will end up with 15 % in volume terms and highly profitable.

Off course all this assumes that MSFT and Nokia can execute together, which is a big IF! What do you think? Does Windows Mobile have nine lives?

Posted in India, Mobile | 11 Comments

On-Line Video: Wakeup call for Content Owners

Posted on January 27, 2011 by

While 2010 was a banner year for online video, it was also a year of missed opportunities.

Online video came of age in 2010.

  1. First and foremost, 2010 was the year of Netflix. With almost 20 M subscribers at the end of the year, it is closing in on Comcast  which has 23 M subs. More than 2/3 of Netflix’s subscribers use its streaming service, with 3.5 M streaming during prime time on any given day. Clearly, mainstream consumers are watching online video!
  2. Internet connected TVs are becoming the norm. Over 100 M TVs (globally) are connected to the internet, mostly through gaming consoles. In addition, most OEMs are pushing Smart TVs heavily, and a variety of boxes (e.g. Google TV) that connect existing TVs to the internet are becoming available.
  3. Video quality issues are becoming a thing of the past. Companies like Conviva have made it possible to cost effectively stream HD quality video at scale (i.e. for millions of users) without buffering or other quality issues.  Millions of people watched the Soccer World Cup in South Africa online. I watch Netflix movies on a 55” LED HD TV (with a Wi-Fi connection) without any issues at all.

However, content availability continues to be an issue online. Content owners are rightly concerned about replacing analog dollars with digital pennies. Yet 28% of US consumers say that they are considering cutting the cord, and HBO recently reported a decline in subscribers in the same year that Netflix doubled its subscriber base. Doesn’t it feel like they (content owners) are plugging holes in the dam with their pinkie fingers ?

Content owners should instead take embrace online video and work with players in the ecosystem to develop a viable business model.

  1. Content owners should aggressively make all their content available online.
    1. Free-to-air (FTA) channels like CBS and ABC should take advantage of the online medium to establish a direct relationship with their consumers. FTA channels should make all their shows available online (for On Demand streaming) on their web properties. In fact, they should aggressively resolve content rights issues and release their entire archives on-line. In addition, FTA channels should make it easy for content distributors like YouTube, Netflix, Joost, Hulu and others to syndicate their content while maintaining control over the advertising rights (see below for details)
    2. Premium channels should offer on-line only subscriptions, similar to Netflix’s streaming only offering. There is a risk of cannibalizing existing revenues, but if they don’t, then they also run the risk of becoming irrelevant.
  2. In order to effectively monetize their content through this transition, content owners need to be able to manage the advertising rights associated with their content irrespective of where it is viewed.  For example, content owners need to bundle on-line inventory (across distributors) with TV inventory and ensure that “exclusive” rights are honored on0line. In order to do so, content owners are working with vendors like FreeWheel to put in place advertising rights management platforms and integrate ad operations across online and linear TV
  3. While online video distribution has its challenges, it also offers content owners and advertisers a host of new capabilities. Content owners can offer a broader variety of ad formats, superior targeting/ tracking and potentially a more engaged audience. For advertisers, online video enables them to improve the efficacy of their advertising by:
    1. Enabling more targeted advertising. Today, most advertisers focus excessively on reach, and not enough on audience segmentation. How often have you see TV ads that you thought were utterly irrelevant? With on-line video, Pampers can target moms with young kids while Lipitor can target middle aged men, both of whom might watch Greys Anatomy
    2. Customizing creative/messaging. On-line video allows advertising to add a “call to action” based on location, serve up different creatives to various audience sub-segments, or even change the creative based on where an individual user in in the sales funnel
    3. Blurring the line between advertising and content. TV artificially constrains advertisers to produce 15, 30 and 60 second spots. On-line, advertisers can offer longer form videos, or provide links to infomercials within traditional 30 second spots. On-line video enables advertisers to engage and build a relationship with interested consumers (also likely buyers) while maintaining a respect distance with others

Advertisers are not standing on the side lines.  Several well know brand advertisers have taken the plunge and moved substantial budgets on-line. Some even talk about moving 100% of their budget from TV to online. Managing this transition is hard though. Harnessing the power of the medium requires a technology platform like TubeMogul to track where they place ads, analyze how consumers engage with those ads and then make decisions around creative and media buying based on that data.

The transition to online video is challenging for content owners, yet inevitable. At the same time, by making advertising more effective and accountable, this transition has the potential to increase total (TV+ online video) ad spend. I guess, the real question is which content owners are going to say, “fortune favors the bold”, and take the plunge!

PS: Through Foundation Capital, I am on the board of/or involved with Conviva, TubeMogul and FreeWheel

Posted in Internet, On-Line Advertising, Video | 6 Comments

Great article in Infoworld…

Posted on January 8, 2011 by

…on the impact of tablets on the PC ecosystem and Android vs. iOS. Well worth the read. See The key mobile trends emerging from CES 2011

Thanks to Srinivas Mantripagada for sharing this.

Posted in Internet, Mobile | Leave a comment

Tablets: not a cheaper PC, but a better mobile phone…

Posted on January 7, 2011 by

…so said a senior consumer electronics executive in India. He went on to say that electronics retailers in India are bullish on the market opportunity for tablets, and are gearing up to work with both OEMs and mobile carriers to launch a host of android tablets in the coming months. The first few launches, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and the OlivePad are both selling well. In comparison, netbooks have not done well in India as they were perceived to be inferior PCs.

In general, the sentiment in India seems to be that wireless broadband enabled tablets will do for internet access what mobile phones did for telephony. Far from being crazy, predictions of 200M+ broadband users by 2015 are now commonplace.

A leading indicator of the potential is recent announcements by Indian tablet vendors.

  1. At one of the spectrum, is Notion Ink’s Adam tablet which Engadget described as  “one of the most unique Android tablets on the market”. With its PixelQi screen and its Tegra 2 dual core CPU, its performance is impressive. However, the most impressive part is its user interface which is definitely a step on the Android UI.
  2. At the other end of the spectrum is the $ 35 (yes thirty five dollars!) Saksha tablet. The Saksha was funded by a Government grant,  designed jointly by the IITs and HCL is now launching it commercially in early 2011.  Press reports suggest that the Saksha has a 9” screen, 2 GB memory, a 500 MHz processor, a front video camera, and is built on the Android OS.

“Not a cheaper PC, but a better mobile phone…”. Maybe, perceptions do change reality. What do you think ?

Posted in India, Internet, Mobile | 2 Comments

Tablets: the next netbook or a true rival to PCs ?

Posted on January 2, 2011 by

The iPad was clearly “the product of the year in 2010″ with 12-14 M units were sold in within 9 months of launch. As a point of comparision, 33 M netbooks and ~325 M PCs were sold in 2010. Furthermore, with every major computer, mobile and consumer electronics company launching a tablet at CES, the category is set to explode. Many analysts predict that more than 50 M tablets will be sold in 2011 with the iPad continuing to dominate, with 60% + market share.

Given its success, the iPad has clearly created a new category in the computing ecosystem. The broader question is how will it impact the rest of the ecosystem ? Here is my take:

  1. The iPad will further weaken the Wintel monopoly. If you consider tablets, PCs, and netbooks as a single category (which I believe one should), then Apple will be a top 3 computing device vendor in 2011. Equally importantly, most competing tablets are being designed around the Android/Chrome OS which is likely to make a further dent in the Windows market share.  Tablets have also enabled Nvidia, TI, Qualcomm and other ARM based chip vendors to take share from Intel.
  2. Tablets +4G will dramatically increase internet, especially video, consumption. While I have no hard data to this effect, my experience has been that tablets significantly increase digital media consumption, especially video, even for existing PC users. For example, with days of getting a tablet, my mother in law become a Netflix addict, and started use the YouTube and TED.com apps to see short clips. And even die hard newpaper/magazine readers are starting to read on tablets.
    PC based “digital home” and interactive TV (think Current TV) models have failed as most consumers don’t walk around with notebooks in their hands (I can’t imagine why not!).  Tablets and smartphones could change that paradigm. 

    1. Tablets (and smart phones) could become the control point for home automation systems
    2. Companies like Peel are enabling consumers to discover TV content on their tablets/smart phones, socialize with friends while watching TV and more easily integrate on-line video into TV experience. This is great news for Netflix, Hulu, and other online video service providers
  3. Tablets, and not PCs, will be the primary computing device in emerging markets. PCs are an intimidating, expensive and inconvenient (especially if you have small homes) experience for consumers who want to merely consume content. This coupled with the lack of internet access has stifled PC penetration in markets like India and Africa. Low cost 3/4G enabled tablets have the potential to change this paradigm. For example, Reliance Infotel is planning to launch a $ 200 4G tablet with data speeds greater than 1 Mps in India later this year. As others follow suit, I  think that there will soon be 100s of millions of consumers in emerging markets for whom a 3/4G tablet is their primary computing device. In fact, I think that its possible that even small business, will adopt tablets. For example mom and pop stores that do not use PCs today might start to use tablets as a substitute for POS terminals, while also use them to run basic accounting and inventory management applications.

To sum up,  I think that tablets will rival PCs as the computing device of choice with significant implications across the technology stack  (just think about the impact of Windows market share falling to less than 50%). What do you think?

Posted in India, Internet | 5 Comments

Bollywood in Cabo…

Posted on December 29, 2010 by

Earlier this week, in a post I postulated that, “in 10 years, it (Bollywood) will be the 2nd largest entertainment hub exporting movies, music, and fashion to the rest of the world”.

Based on today’s experience, it may already be happening. As we (Pooja and I)  were walking along the Marina in Cabo San Lucas at 11 AM, we heard the tune of Churake Dil Mera. We turned around and it was playing in Puerto Paraiso, Cabo’s best mall. We were the only Indian’s around, and it wasn’t for our benefit. Apparently, the Mexicans listen to hindi music!

When I got back to the hotel, I did some research, and international sales already account for 15-25 % of Bollywood ticket sales. And movies are exported to over 100 countries. However, the current market is largely NRIs (Non Resident Indians). What my Cabo experience indicates is that Bollywood may be developing a broader appeal.

Nirpal Dhaliwal of the Guardian UK argues that cultural differences make it impossible for Indian movies to appeal to a Western audience. Even if that is the case, there are large markets in South America, Africa and Asia where there are tremendous cultural similarities. In fact, the one thing that struck me through our trip to Cabo is how similar Mexico is to India, just cleaner. Hindi movies with Spanish sub-titles/dubbing could be a huge hit across Latin America.

What do you think ?

Posted in India | 4 Comments

India in 2020

Posted on December 25, 2010 by

Everyday, I oscillate between exhilaration and despair.

The market opportunities are evident. The energy, optimism, and passion of all Indians is infectious. The collective ambition to re-gain our rightful place in the world economic order is truly inspiring.

Yet, its hard not to despair. The infrastructure is abominable. The poverty and depravation is gut wrenching. The way the middle class treat their staff (maids, drivers, etc.) is inhumane.

Furthermore, the contradictions are inexplicable.

  1. In a country where incomes are 1/50th of the US, prices are mostly higher.  Yes, apples for apples, almost everything is more expensive in India.
  2. The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) attracts some of the brightest minds in the world, and yet our bureaucracy is our worst enemy
  3. Dr. Manmohan Singh, our prime minister, is an educated and erudite man who many regard as “the model of what a political leader should be”. And yet, our politicians are vile, uncouth, incompetent and corrupt.

Amidst all these dichotomies, the trajectory is irrevocable. In our lifetime, India will once again account for over 20% of global GDP, similar to India in 1700 and the US today.

In fact, in just 10 years,

  1. India will be the 3rd largest economy, with 1.5 B people of which 400 M can be considered “middle class”, and 500 M+ will live in urban areas.
  2. The NCR (Delhi and its surrounding towns) becomes a global metropolitan hub with 25 M + people and world class infrastructure. In all, there will be 100 + towns larger than San Francisco (~ 1 M pop.) all connected by 4 lane highways.
  3. There will be 10 (vs.3 today) world class international airports and 50 + (vs. 25) domestic airports.
  4. India will be the 3rd largest global hub for defense, aerospace and power equipment, the global hub for small car design and manufacturing and the 2nd largest global hub for ship building and repair.
  5. Every Indian will have a UID (vs. none today), 400 M + will have a bank account (vs. 75 M today),
  6. 300 M+ will have access to electronic fund transfer (vs. 10 M today) and 250 M + will have access to credit (vs. 15 M today). As a result, India will have 2nd largest electronic payments volume (after China), the 4th largest credit economy ($ 2 T +), and 5th largest market for insurance.
  7. India is already a huge mobile market. By 2020, it will be the # 1 cell phone market globally with 1 B + connections, the 2nd largest no. of broadband users (400 M+), and the 5th largest market for IT products and services.
  8. Bollywood already makes more movies than Hollywood. In 10 years, it will be the 2nd largest entertainment hub exporting movies, music, and fashion to the rest of the world.
  9. Indian companies are already global leaders in IT services. By 2020, several Indian carriers will be global players (e.g. Bharti, Reliance, TATA Telecom), 4- 5 Indian banks will be in the global 25, and TATA Motors will be a top 10 global automotive company.
  10. India is a land of entrepreneurs. Over the next decade, fueled by growing local markets, access to capital and growth in higher education (e.g. 10,000 engineering PhDs annually vs. 1000 today), India will produce its very own Google, a start-up that creates over $ 100 B in value.

In 10 years, I hope that despair will be a thing of the past, and we will all wake up exhilarated very day. In 10 years, I hope that we will all come to regard Hans Rosling’s predictions as incontrovertible.

Posted in India | 5 Comments

Android crushes Apple…

Posted on August 14, 2010 by

In several posts in July, including one titled, “Mobile OSs/Platforms: will Apple win in India?”, I shared data indicating that Android is gaining market share. I went on to predict that in India, Android will have 50% market share within 3 years, and that Apple will be relegated to 5th position behind Blackberry. I also predicted that this would mark, but a milestone for Android as it took global leadership. Well, recent data from IDC and Gartner suggests that this might happen sooner than 2013.

  1. IDC just announced, that in its opinion, Android will become the 2nd most popular mobile platform by 2013. That prediction will probably be true by next year since Gartner just announced that in Q2 2010, Android is a close #3. Android now has 17.2% market share vs. 1.8% a year ago; its ahead of Apple, nipping at RIM’s heels and has half of Nokia’s market share.
  2. In the US, Android is now the #1 platform ahead of RIM with 34 % market share while iOS has 22% share.

Its still early days in this platform war. Too early for Android to declare victory. And too early to rule Microsoft out. Microsoft’s secret weapon is its developer ecosystem which it put to good use against Netscape, Linux, and is now trying to align behind Windows 7 Mobile. Who knows if the developers will come? But if they do, the legend of the rising phoenix may still hold true. What do you think?

Posted in Mobile | 2 Comments

Make My Trip IPO: Flash in the Pan or Harbinger of the Future?

Posted on August 12, 2010 by

Make My Trip (MMYT) IPOed yesterday on the NASDAQ, and posted the biggest first-day gain for a U.S. initial public offering since 2007. It is valued at over $900 M, and more than 9 X forward revenues. By comparision, Naukri is valued at $ 750 M. MMYT also happens to be just the 4th Indian company to list in the US while there are 200+ Chinese companies listed on US exchanges, and at least 14 Chinese companies went public in the US in 2010 alone.

Back to my question. Is MMYT a Flash in the Pan or the Harbinger of the Future? I happen to believe its the latter, and over the next decade, 10s of Indian internet and technology companies will list on US exchanges.

  1. The internet in India is taking off and while there is unlikely to be an Indian Baidu (because English is so widely spoken), there could well be an Indian Tencent or Shanda or Amazon or Zappos or….
  2. Venture capital has been around in China since the early 90s while venture funded companies were as rare as the Indian snow leopard till a few years ago
  3. The biggest change in India in the last 5 years (IMO) is the change in scale of ambition. To illustrate the point, let me share a story. I recently met a college classmate who is now a very successful investment banker after more than a decade. Over a drink, I asked him what his goal was, and without batting an eyelid, he said, “I plan to make $ 100M in this gig“. I almost fell off my chair!
  4. Till recently, the Indian economy was both too small and growing too slowly to create global scale companies. In 2000, China’s GDP was just over $ 1 T (more than 2 X India) and in 2010, it will be around $ 5 T (more than 3 X India). With Indian growth rates finally creeping above 8 % on a sustained basis, the Indian economy will be $ 3-4 T (current prices) by 2020

What do you think? What needs to change to make this happen? Who do you think will ring the bell on NASDAQ in 2015?

Posted in India | 3 Comments