From Proto.in: Mahesh Murthy’s Advice For Entrepreneurs; Left Handed Hockey Sticks

Some great tips from Mahesh Murthy of Seed Fund and Pinstorm, during his talk at Proto.

1. Spend as little as possible on advertising.
2. The only thing that builds your brand, with no advertising, is price. Price is unique - look at super premium products with super premium pricing. Competition is not as worried about companies that price their products cheaper, as they are about companies that price their product higher. Price is your first positioning weapon - and should not be based on your cost. No company has won the market by simply pricing a product cheaper.
3. Have great User Interface (Ed: later in the day, someone also mentioned that there aren’t enough UI experts in India)
4. Market your product - go to conferences and be a speaker (they get in free). Challenge speakers, and be seen as a thought leader
5. How to get media attention ( ed: I took that as - how to con journalists *grin*) - when you go to journalists, have data to back you up. Have a unique positioning, no matter how niche it is. Be the world expert in “left handed hockey sticks”. Position your product well, and back that up with data. They want to communicate new and interesting things to their audience, and how you position your product is important. (ed: very true)
6. Dont follow a trend: if you cant be 1st, 2nd or 3rd in the market - get out. Don’t follow a trend. Chances are, if you’ve read about a segment covered in a newspaper - it is probably too late already. You can almost never be successful by following a trend. In short - “The Trend Means The End”
7. Market Research is Crap: Every future expectation of market size is bullshit. You have to create a market, you’ll got to get feet on the ground.
8. Finding the right employees - if you’ve found someone who wants a raise to join your startup, that’s a clear indication that he’s not the right guy. You can’t hire a mercenary to fight your battles. It is your passion that will get people on board. Don’t go for the IITs, but get guys from small colleges, who have something to prove.

I also wanted to listen to Sanjay Anandram of Jumpstart Ventures, but had to leave early for our own Seminar and mixer. Hope the WiFi at Proto is up…will be there for the second half of day today.

Where Is the Times Group Going With ZigWheels.com?

Update: so we guessed correctly - there is a print plan for ZigWheels. BCCL today launched a supplement with the Economic Times, called ET ZigWheels.

ZigWheels, an auto portal from the Times of India Group (BCCL) has gone live, in beta. The site features, on the content side, Motorsport News, Reviews, Launches, and a gallery. They’re offering users Wallpaper and screensaver downloads.

On the business side, they’re allowing users to search for used and new cars, take tips from experts, a market-price checker, an EMI calculator, insurance and loan.

Standard Auto Portal Revenue Streams
The auto portal business is traditionally a lead generation model, and on-site advertising hasn’t been a significant contributor.
Lead Generation
– On Used Car Listings
– Test drives for New Cars
– Car Insurance
– Car Loans
Advertising
– On website
– On Magazine/publication (if any)

(note: if there are others, please leave a comment)

A Fortnightly Newspaper? Where Does Top Gear Fit In?
Do a search at the the Registrar of Newspapers for India, and you’ll notice that the Times Group has registered (screencap) fortnightly newspapers with the following names - ET Zigwheels, Times Zigwheels, Times Zigwheels.com, Times Zigwheels.in, Zigwheels, Zigwheels.com and Zigwheels.in.

While this could be similar to just blocking domains to prevent squatters, there are instances of auto portals with publications. For example, Carwale.com has a used car price guide that is distributed among auto dealers.

At the same time, the Times of India group does have a joint venture with BBC Worldwide - WorldWide Media (WWM) - which pubhishes Top Gear, based on the iconic TV show hosted by Jeremy Clarkson.

Where do they go from here?
Offline appears to be the way to go - an on-ground presence is necessary to build relationships with dealers, who provide used car listings, and pay for lead generation. Content is fast becoming a commodity in this market, and perspective and tips will help establish relationships with users; Tips and tricks, advice from experts and usability will be differentiators. Of course, nothing works as well as word-of-mouth from a happy customer.

Note that Autocar India and Overdrive are car and bike publications with portals, and they haven’t really leveraged their brand (and TV shows) online. Should we expect a ZigWheels TV show on Times Now?

It will be interesting to see how car companies, who are advertising on some of these portals (listed below), react to negative user reviews online.

List of Auto Portals
AutoCar (Magazine, TV Show on UTVi)
AutoIndia (Angel Investment)
Automart India
Bharatautomobiles
Carazoo
carsalesindia
cartradeindia
Carwale (30 percent equity with Seed Fund)
DriveInside
Gaadi
indiaautomobile (Consim/Bharatmatrimony Group)
Indimoto
Insibeam
Overdrive India (Infomedia India Magazine, TV Show on CNBC-TV18)

Disclosure: I own an inconsequential number of shares of Network18. Also, I am related to Vivek Pahwa, who has launched Gaadi.com