The summer of 2009 was quite remarkable for Perry Chen, Yancey Stricker and Charles Adler. It was that time of the year when their dream website Kickstarter was launched! Kickstarter is a New York based public benefit corporation known for building a global crowdfunding platform. The company brings creative projects to reality and is the go to platform for many entrepreneurs! There ain’t no middlemen, no loans and no grants. Sounds cool, right?
The inception of Kickstarter!
Back in 2005, the mastermind Perry met Yancey Strickler and they became good friends. In a friendly conversation, the duo started scribbling on a whiteboard their exceptional thoughts with regard to a crowdfunding platform! Later, Perry convinced his friends to give him a little bit of money. Months later, Perry was introduced to Charles Adler and so the rest you know! The three of the great minds started working on their ideas and turned it into a website.
After years of research, they finally launched the website in 2009 which was then flooded with tons of investors and projects.
Perry Chan, along with the American media editor, Yancey Stricker and American Web designer, Charles Adler came up with the idea of launching a website for the purpose of crowdfunding. Post the launch of their website, the founders spread word about Kickstarter in their friends circle. However, projects started coming in and people stepped up to support projects consequently. In January 2010, the team moved into a tenement building in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. From 3,910 successful projects and $ 27,638,318 pledges in 2010, the firm was reaching new heights already! This was followed by 18,109 successfully funded projects and $ 319,786,629 pledges in the year 2012. In the year 2013 Perry stepped down from the position of the CEO and went on to become the Chairman. He was replaced by Yancey Strickler. The year of 2014 brought the company a huge raising $ 13.28 million, which became the most funded Kickstarter project in history!
Here’s what makes Kickstarter so interesting!
Kickstarter does not rely on affluent investors. The company opts for crowdfunding, in which loads of smaller investors make contributions. The investment could be as little as a $ 1 and there are basically no restrictions. The company generated its revenue by assessing a fee of 5 percent from projects that reached or surpassed their funding targets. Projects that did not meet their funding goals within a specified time period did not receive any money pledged to them, and they were not subjected to the fee. The company so far has funded thousands of projects from investor donations resulting in several hundred million dollars. Isn’t that huge?
Kickstarter has become extremely important in the startup ecosystem! From entrepreneurs to investors, Kickstarter is one damn platform that could get you what you desire!
Farming has been an integral part of India’s history and culture for ages. It’s been the foundation of the Indian economy, supporting millions of people with food and jobs. Crops and agriculture hold immense importance in Indian society, not just in terms of money, but also in terms of culture, community, and spirituality.
Farming is a way of life for many people in India, but it can be a difficult and unpredictable business and farmers face a number of challenges, from erratic weather patterns to low market prices for their crops. Kheyti is a social enterprise founded in 2015 by Saumya, Kaushik Kappagantula, and Sathya Raghu. The organisation provides sustainable solutions to small farmers in India, helping them overcome challenges and improve their lives.
Kheyti’s flagship product is the “Greenhouse-in-a-Box,” a low-cost modular greenhouse that allows farmers to grow high-value crops year-round, even in unfavourable weather conditions. operates on a subscription-based model, where farmers can purchase a “Greenhouse-in-a-Box” kit or sign up for crop advisory services on a monthly or annual basis. Kheyti.com also earns revenue by connecting farmers with markets and buyers, taking a small commission on sales. They work to keep the costs low by partnering with local manufacturers to produce their products and leveraging tech to provide personalised crop advisory services at scale.
They also provide crop advisory services to farmers, offering personalised advice on crop selection, planting, and management. In total, The company has helped over 6,000 small farmers increase their incomes by an average of 300%. You call them small farmers, Kheyti calls them Smart farmers!
While there are other companies in India that offer similar solutions to small farmers, Kheyti stands out for its focus on sustainability, innovation, and community involvement. It works closely with farmers to develop tailored solutions that meet their needs while focusing on sustainable farming practices. Through its efforts, Kheyti has improved soil health, reduced water usage, and increased yields of various crops.
Looking ahead, Kheyti plans to expand its reach to more farmers in India and beyond and aims to continue developing new products and services that can help small farmers overcome the challenges they face. With its commitment to sustainability and innovation, The visionaries at Kheyti claim it has the potential to transform the agricultural sector and contribute to a more equitable future for all.
Imagine the joy and hope Kheyti brings to struggling farmers in India. With Kheyti’s help, over 6,000 small farmers have transformed their lives, becoming Smart farmers who handle challenges and succeed. With sustainable solutions, Kheyti is not only revolutionising agriculture but also spreading hope for a brighter future.
We live in a rapidly transforming era where humanity is making exponential leaps in technology. Thirty years ago, no one would have believed you could talk to an online voice assistant to create tasks and get things done. Ten years ago, no one would have believed humanity would land robots on Mars. Technology truly has improved the quality of living of every human who owns a smartphone and has access to an internet connection. Voice assistants are slowly replacing manual tasks and making lives easier and efficient. Siri, Alexa, Google Voice Assistant are just some of the widely used artificial intelligence based tools which are employed on a daily basis. Artificial intelligence, which is hailed as the technology of the future is now slowly making its way into much more complex domains like self driving vehicles, quantum computing and also health care.
Suki, a United States of America based startup founded by Punit Soni, developed their own voice assistant which runs on artificial intelligence to simplify healthcare for doctors and other healthcare professionals. In simple terms, Suki is akin to Siri for doctors. While you could order a pizza or schedule an appointment on Siri, doctors could modify, edit and add health records of their patients. Suki is a powerful tool to help doctors with documentation of health records which often take hours of their (doctors) time.
Suki currently focuses on documentation but has the potential to expand its usage to data queries, ordering, prescribing and billing. According to a white paper published by Suki, using its technology increases the time a doctor spends with a patient by 12% by cutting note taking time by 76%. The time which is saved also brings in a financial benefit of $30,000 more in revenue a year on average for doctors.
Suki raised a $ 20 million Series B round from Flare Capital Partners, First Round Capital, and Venrock, doubling its total funding to $ 40 million since its 2017 launch. Suki is also looking to expand its reach in India and has decided to establish Bangalore as their base of operations. India holds a lot of potential for Suki considering the amount of manual work which goes into almost any sector.
It would be interesting to watch how Suki and other similar AI based startups would transform healthcare across the world.
In the past grooming products were traditionally targeted at the female gender. However, with changing times and perceptions grooming is now a gender neutral term. Grooming is now essential for looking great and making a good impression. However, in a market which is traditionally saturated with products from FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) for women, a startup saw potential in men’s grooming products. Bombay Shaving Company, found the men’s grooming market in India was largely unorganised and was largely limited to just shaving products. Today there are products like body wash, soaps, oils, shampoos, creams and perfumes for men’s grooming and the popularity of grooming products is due to brands like Bombay Shaving Company, Beardo and Ustraa.
Beginnings
Bombay Shaving Company was founded in 2015 by Deepu Panicker, Rohit Jaiswal, Shantanu Deshpande and Raunak Munot who are all friends. It all began with Shantanu, who was a software engineer working for McKinsey in the United States of America. A chance discussion with a friend who was interning at Harry’s, a New York based shaving brand piqued Shantanu’s interest. The friend spoke about how shaving brands in America are challenging the likes of Gillette and PRO, which led Shantanu to the realisation that India could also use a disruption in the grooming space.
Shantanu then spoke to his friends, family and general consumers about shaving habits and came to the conclusion no one likes to shave because men hated the daily ritual of shaving. This led to the birth of Bombay Shaving Company. Shantanu soon roped in his school friend, Raunak Munot, who was the Director of Social Strategy, GroupM New York, and college friends, Rohit Jaiswal, the Head of Channel at Emel and Crompton Greaves, and Deepu Panicker, a senior analyst at McKinsey.
The team worked with world class experts and manufacturers about fragrances, raw materials and worked with chemical engineers as well as packaging innovators. The first five hundred customers were acquired purely through word of mouth. Most of their products are constantly innovated depending on customer insights. One example would be when a sizable amount of customers wanted the shave to be closer and aggressive, the team designed a new razor part and shipped it to their customers free of cost.
Secondly, the Bombay Shaving Company team wanted to give their customers a great unboxing experience and it worked. Customers began to share unboxing videos and pictures on social media and it worked wonders for their branding which led to an increase in sales. The team also gave users the option to get their names engraved on the shaving razors to add a personal touch for free of cost. Bombay Shaving Company raised $ 9 million in funding since its inception and now sells more than 40 products across four categories (shaving, bath, beard and skincare.)
Today Bombay Shaving Company has redefined the shaving experience and continues to grow. In January 2021, Bombay Shaving Company raised $6.1 Mn (INR 45 Cr) in a funding round led by a UK based consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser. This funding will be used to launch three new consumer brands in the market, invest in marketing and branding and penetrate deeper into the market, beyond the metros.
Let us know in the comments below if you have ever used any of the products of Bombay Shaving Company or plan to use in the future.
