Today’s roundtable had its usual share of entrepreneurs dreaming about raising capital on concepts without validation. Sometimes, I wonder, when, if ever, we’re going to get this epidemic under control!
MoYoTv
First up, Dollie Darko, from Greenwich, CT, pitched MoYoTv – a television network that develops its own high quality programming for the millennial generation. A new TV network is a hugely expensive business, and typically, people who are interested in producing content start by working with networks. Dollie doesn’t believe in that. She expects some investor to invest in her company huge sums of money to let her do both produce content and run a TV network.
I may be wrong, but I just don’t see this happening. This level of capital risk is a sure-fire way to fail. Without deep pockets, entrepreneurs should not take on projects with huge capitalization requirements out of the gate. Especially not projects that cannot be validated with small money.
Ujilayo
Then Chris Kesihai from Sofia, Bulgaria, pitched Ujilayo, a concept for providing electricity to rural places in India, Africa, Nepal, etc., using a motion-enabled device that then powers batteries in lamps. I asked Chris to study the Selco case study in which Harish Hande has successfully used solar energy for rural electrification.
Sozialpapier
Also, Selvam Muniyandi from Chennai, India, pitched Sozialpapier, a new blogging platform to address the problem of blogs generating traffic. Well, blogs generate traffic when the content is good, and they are marketed well. A new platform has nothing to do with it. I asked Selyam to work on something else.
Sumativijaya Total Transport Solutions
Last up, Sarang Dani from Pune, India pitched Sumativijaya Total Transport Solutions, a special-purpose cab to transport orthopedic surgery patients back and forth for their physiotherapy appointments. The concept makes sense, and I encouraged him to run the numbers, and start a pilot with one cab.
You can listen to the recording of today’s roundtable here.
As always, I would very much like to hear about your business, so let me invite you to come and pitch at one of our free 1M/1M public roundtables. We will be holding future roundtables at 8 a.m. PDT on:
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Thursday, October 24, Register Here.
Thursday, October 31, Register Here.
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Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, a virtual incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant, she writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy, and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. As an entrepreneur CEO, she ran three companies: DAIS, Intarka, and Uuma. Sramana has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.