Prototype, product, profit: how these startups scaled up for market success

#Discussion(Startup) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

Five founders share insights on the challenges met and balances struck on the way to scale stage.

[ Madanmohan Rao is research director at YourStory Media and editor of five book series ]

In addition to keynote addresses and workshops, the third edition of TiE Bangalore’s annual IoT Day conference featured a panel titled ‘Scaling Startups’. Moderated by TiE Bangalore board member and mentor Sanjay Anandaram, the panel included founders of the following startups: CropIn (Krishna Kumar), Tonbo Imaging (Arvind Lakshmikumar), Niramai (Geetha Manjunath), Nymble (Raghav Gupta), and SmarterHomes Technologies (Vivek Shukla).

[More at IoTDay 2019 ]

According to Arvind Tiwari, Chair of the TiE IoT Forum, India now has over 1,500 IoT startups. Later this year, the forum is planning day-long events like Agri-tech Day, Industrial IoT Day, and Open Source IoT day to deepen and scale up the startup ecosystem. “We are also planning partner activities in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune,” he added.

Here are my key takeaways from the panel on startup scaling, framed as eight questions for which there are multiple possible options. See also YourStory’s earlier coverage of IoT activities by TiE Bangalore: IoT SIG, IoT Next Summit, IoT startup showcase, SMAC Day, IESA Vision Summit, and Smart Mobility.

1. Fresh out of college – or mid-career?
2. Pilots – free or fee?
3. Revenue – or relationships?
4. Focus or diversify?
5. Product or pamphlet first?
6. Domain experts or customers?
7. Revenue or recruitment?
8. Solo or partners?

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