U.S. And India: Key Investment Opportunities

Shrikant Lohokare

Ph.D., Managing Director,
E-Cubed Ventures

India Market: Focus as a VC

I see a lot of innovation happening in the field of media IT, but comparatively less innovation is seen in the healthcare IT sector. Indian market needs it at a substantial level. One of the companies we would like to advice and help sustain will be related to healthcare IT market as many countries do not provide healthcare insurance. There is a large section of the population which is not getting healthcare insurance and the documentation related services are not even automated. Automation in that sector is going to be more important.

Advice to Entrepreneurs

I believe entrepreneurs are like cholesterol — good and bad. Many entrepreneurs often only consider innovation and capital. Most of the time, an innovative idea with an experienced team gets funding more easily than those with non-experienced team. Many entrepreneurs, especially those who have not enough time in the industry or who not really understand how to take technology or products to market, they cover interesting idea but lacks experience. At the same time they are not willing to go to share that with other and more experienced co-founders and that is where one gap can happen. That is essential because in most cases you need a sort of a committed team or a lean.

In IT, one can make one or two mistakes, come back and rectify it and restart all over again. But this cannot be the case in other sectors. Take the case of solar or doing something that is more capital intensive, in bio-tech or medical devices, you don’t have the luxury of making that mistake and then coming back. You can initially crunch your capital even if it comes from angel, VC and then the startup would fall through the crack.

An experienced team is required that is willing to work with the entrepreneur in good as well as bad times. A co-founding team willing to put in sweat equity before capital come in, makes a big difference. Entrepreneurs especially those that are doing a startup for the first time should be willing to share equity to bring in this experience. VCs also look for a good team first and then the business idea.

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