Morpheus Ventures has just announced list of startups for their second batch. The current batch has 7 companies, from varied domains; Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending, Social Content Sharing, SaaS, VOIP, Startup hiring, online identity verification and Health vertical:
- CallGraph (www.callgraph.in)
- Crederity (www.crederity.com)
- Deskaway (www.deskaway.com)
- Dhanax (www.dhanax.com)
- Fachak (www.fachak.com)
Fachak is into Social Content Sharing – a platform where you can share any form of content from a document to a video - LifeMojo (www.lifemojo.com)
LifeMojo’s focus is on creating a platform for delivery of preventive health care services and partner with renowned health experts for their consultation. - SutraHR (www.sutrahr.com / www.sutrajobs.com) : People Consulting firm.
What’s your take on these companies?
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AFAIK MVP didn’t really invested any CASH . they just took a seed equity in exchange of “Guidance” and “reffral” does that qualify as Funding ? why they are making some much noise for it
is there any law in this country where these guys can be held accountale for misleading junta
and on the name of God whats the similarity with Y Combinator here ? I am sure paul graham will be going mad on this one .
seed stage ?? seed stage is when you invest in a idea . we all know that all of them are functional company with a product out in market . they take 4-5% equity in exchange of consulting and
reffrences . any Sr VP with a MNC who has a good network can provide that value .
un proven team : most of the founder in the list are more expeirenced than “you know who”
tech know how : all of these venture are more more challenging than a DVD rental shop
they are on a high on their own kool aid . time to call a “Madhouse” to show the reality . disgusting
Hey Prashant, i know the DeskAway founder Sahil pretty well (he’s commented down here) – when i spoke to him, he looked at MVP as an extension of the team. Spending a certain amount of time at their office. Looking at expertise they bring on board – Product + Marketing – he’s happy to let go of something. They dont need the money. So different strokes for different folks i guess. I do agree with you to some extent. Having said that for a 1 man startup i think the kind of intellectual support, stimulation, and strategic reinforcement is worth the equity (3% in most cases i imagine). Since they presented at Proto early this year – they have added new functionalities every month. Everything from email integration to alerts to process management to task replication to advanced analytics to a social media presence that’s likeable…
They want to figure out some international deals. Most of their users are out of India and they are looking at distribution models one one hand and solidifying the product on the other. Thats where MVP’s product + marketing expertise will come in i guess. Sure DA knows that they are doing aleast!
Hi Aditya
I never questioned the judgment of Founders . I am sure they must be having their own reason .I guess my comment in this thread are largely miss understood . Please look at the following facts
#1)Positioning : YC has a clearcut positioning
IDEA +UnProvenTeam+ Few Months+ Little Money –>
Prototype +SoftLaunch
and you know if your IDEA/Team has a future . PG once said that “No One can make success easier for startup we can only make it easy to fail fast and Failure easy to handle. ”
now YC and PG have made a name for them self and using that TAG is a little unfair i guess
From what i understnad (again based on my Chit Chat with Founders ) their model is more like Allen & Co
[http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/allen-and-company ]
2) Equity : Max levichin Co Founder of PayPaly had 2.3% of stake in PayPal when it was bought by E Bay .[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Levchin] .
I know first hand how fast founder’s equity stake deplet when you are doing well, hiring and things like Esop and Series A/B/C Funding . so in that respect 8% seemed to be on slightly higher side. specially when most of these ventures are in mature in some sense and its unlikely that they will go back to drawing board any time soon to redo there product, they are out with a product , identified the niche and now executing .
3] sujai has an excellent post on this http://www.pluggd.in/2007/11/ground-realities-from-a-technology-product-startup-in-india
in this post he says
“Once I was asked to list the top three things I needed, I said, ‘Money, Money, Money’. Yes, that’s the truth. When I don’t have money even to survive, all these talks about ‘mentoring and coaching’ sound completely ridiculous.”
4] Domain Expertise : sometime we use the term “Domain Expertise ” as if its a generic , cross domain skill . most of the startup in the list are “New” they don’t have a pre existing domain to learn from and in that sense the basic viability and scalability of the model in India is an open ended question . there is no precedence of their product category being launched tried and tested in our country .
I mean what will work in VoIP in india ? what the right way to scale Micro Lending ? Indian are not very keen on prevnetive health care are they ? who is the authority on these question ? NoOne and Unitll someone try it out noone will ever be . But whats the point of reffering to a map if noone has been to that area before .
still I will be more than Happy to be wrong
Agree with Prashant. But I am surprised why some of these companies went ahead with this. Are Indian startups so desperate?
As a co-founder of one of the MVP batch 1 company let me tell you the reason we joined them.
Yes we were desperate.
We were desperate to scale, desperate to double or triple our revenue, and desperate to become no. 1 in our niche.
Did you achieve it?
I am happy with our progress, and at end of the day I feel satisfied with our efforts and direction. And for what we have achieve or not, you can search internet for it.
It’s good to aim for all that. What I mean is do any minimum qualifications or standards apply for someone to become a mentor or guide in this Indian Ecosystem? All it takes is one year running something and an exit of whatever value?
In India we say that a Guru can take you only where he has been. In my humble opinion instead of starting a fund to “help” the ecosystem they should have started another company by putting in the money they made from their exit. In 5-10 years they could have built something valuable and then could have gone out to help others.
And which lucky companies were part of their first batch
? Ashish: did you miss covering that big news?
From Prashant’s blog:
“I am a Software Engg. based at Noida . A Mobile Enthusiast ,Founder Member of “Mobile Monday (MoMo)’s Delhi Chapter.”
Is there more to this guy or that’s all of his credentials?
He looks like a expeirenced loser who wants to blast anyone doing anything constructive.
MVP seems to be doing good work in building ecosystem for startups in India.
@Rahul – Not sure why ppl have to be so cynical.
Sameer of MVP took Prashant’s comments in right spirit and immediately asked me to connect to him.
Please comment responsibly- Prashant raised some question, which I am sure whole lot of people have in mind.
Hi Rahul
“Is there more to this guy or that’s all of his credentials?”
Well Not yet , I mean nothing which is relevant to this discussion (I have a good collection of DVDs ). But i don’t think this thread is about my credibility or my competence . its about the news and what we make of it .
“He looks like a expeirenced loser who wants to blast anyone doing anything constructive.”
Here again ,As far as doing a startup is concerned i am not even a experienced Loser . someday i might live up to the honor you bestowed upon me. keep watching this space
But i don’t understand how your mindless suck fest is more helpful than my valid question . please enlighten me
“MVP seems to be doing good work in building ecosystem for startups in India.”
with all due respect to MVP , After my next appraisal i will also start doing such work for building eco system in india . Please let me know if you would like your startup to be “Funded” .you can get my email id from My blog
Though an indian fitness network on lifemojo’s site you see a big fat american and a beautiful latin gal. looks like you guys really lack resources
. My question is how is it different from host of other fitness networks? Yes,you will customize it according to the indian taste. Any other killer strategy or business model?
I think replica of WebMD would have been a better choice.
“Though an indian fitness network on lifemojo’s site you see a big fat american and a beautiful latin gal. looks like you guys really lack resources
.”
Resources are always scarce
Being a startup, we like to use our resources and energy in the right direction, which for us is getting people to achieve their fitness goals. As for the photos, these were the best of the lot that we have.
“My question is how is it different from host of other fitness networks? Yes,you will customize it according to the indian taste. Any other killer strategy or business model?”
Lifemojo isn’t a YAFN(Yet Another Fitness Network). LifeMojo is creating a platform focussed on prevention of lifestyle diseases. We are creating a marketplace for health experts and fitness seekers that’d enable fitness seekers to consult these experts online and on mobile.
Our initial area of focus is weight management – we plan to provide right diet/nutrition advice to people for helping them achieve their fitness goals. The important aspect here is that the diet is customized for the Indian context and comes from already established experts.
We do not aspire to be WebMD – they have a heavy medical focus. There are a couple of sites in India that aspire to be like WebMD – we aren’t one of them.
If you have any query or feedback for us, I’d love to connect with you – please drop me a note at sachin[at]lifemojo.com
Thanks,
Sachin Arora
Cofounder, LifeMojo
Hi Sachin,
Can you share experiences with us?
Why did you go for MVP?
Lets say had you not opted for their services, would your approach have been different?
4-8% is hell lot of equity,have they taken preferential shares?
lastly, how often you interact with them and what sought of help they provide?
Hi Poseidon -
I’d be happy to share our Morpheus experience with you.
Please drop me a note on sachin[at]lifemojo.com and we can take this forward, offline.
Thanks,
Sachin Arora
Cofounder, LifeMojo
Crederity is startup by ABCD with backend based in India. In my language, not an indian startup. Love the business model though. These guys will end up making lot of money
!
SutraHR:
Is startup market big enough? Most of the startups that i know are cash starved. With very few VC deals, You guys will have tough time
@poseideon
Yes,the startup market is quite big enough,more than 500M $ has been invested in different startups in last 2-3 Yrs.As a company we offer solution to all kind of Startups Venture/Angel Funded and Cash Starved.Our offline service offers customized solution to Startups at a cost,for the startups which are cash strapped we have sutrajobs.com which is a free service.
Waqar : can you share your experience on recruiting people for startup ? i mean which exp bracket is most likely to opt fro a startup Mid Level Executive or Fresher ?
any specific college segment ( IIT/ NIT /Tier A or B College) you seen to be more enthusiastic about startup ?
how comfortable the guys are to take Paycut for equity and how comfortable the promoter are to part with equity in order to get a good hire . what the general sentiment
i guess it will be a good info for startup community .
i guess mid level people are more inclined towards working for startup and most fresher are inclined to work for big brands as they dont want to take a risk so early in there career.can think of any particular college segment enthusiastic for startups,but i have come across many iitians who are pretty keen to work with startups.Most of the guys are more interested in salary hike than equity and vice versa for the employer.But some of my clients do give stock options to there employees.
So many opposition on Morpheus Ventures !
I definitely bet, these are going to success !
-Raxit
May the force be with Rajiv and Callgraph, all the very best to him!!
I do feel that MVP is doing good work. There are not many people who are even doing this (even if they are given equity).
However, I do feel that MVP should represent themselves correctly. Last night, I saw this post on Mashable which said MVP is some Indian YCombinator. Since MVP does not give any cash, they should just be honest and say they are a consultant who are taking sweat equity.
People appreciate honesty. Everyone is clever these days.
I think it is more to do with ‘misleading communication’ than Honesty. There is no doubt on the integrity of MVP promoters. But they should have called themselves something like ‘Startup Consulting’. But yea, to get immediate press its a good strategy to call yourself a YComb of India.
Unless you FUND at seedstage, you dont deserve to be called a YComb. Their model always goes hand in hand with Mentoring + Seedfund + Equity. All 3 are so critical for a startup at seed stage. As far as i know, NONE does all 3 together in India NOW. (NirmaLabs used to do this earlier though)
But that doesnt undermine the value which MVP brings in. They clearly position themselves in a niche and am sure they bring in value in terms of ‘mentoring,networking and connections to VCs’ which are all essential for a new inexperienced team. IF they are putting time and effort to build, scale that team..well they deserve equity or proper remuneration. None does this for charity (infact they should be self-sustainable).
I had a long chat with Sameer (to share my incubator experiences) and found that his efforts would only fuel the growth of ecosystems in India….its not gonna harm in anyways… so what’s the problem, guyz ?…
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So what if MVP is a new company and they have about a year of experience etc. etc. What matters is that do they have what it takes to get the startups from point A to point B. Are they good people. Will they work with the team to get things done. Can they become an extension of the team? You can find this out if you meet and work with them for some time.
@Rohit Whats desperate is seeing so many startups wanting funding without even a prototype or a revenue model ready.
Terrific discussion – the basic issue here has been the “misleading” communication adopted by MVP, in the same manner that a startup says they are the “amazon of india”. What makes startups successful is executing on a promise, and MVP will have to do the same if they want to succeed.
I also remember reading a post somewhere on how startup CEOs suddenly become celebs on getting investment, and kinda distanced from people they earlier used to hangout with. Now Sameer is Sam, and I think some of what is happening above is a reaction to that. Honestly, I think it is worth waiting to see how they perform, without pre-judging them. If a fresher out of college can run a startup without experience, why cant one run a mentorship organization – after all, a dozen startups have paid 4-5% of their equity for sweat, so they must have seen value! jab miya biwi raazi, to kya karega kaazi?
What surprises me most is that the real play has not been mentioned above. It is the westbridge->sequoia; erasmic->accel story. If MVP can demonstrate they have a network amongst startups, ability to win deals (4-5% for just mentoring, thats great!) and make the right picks, some VC fund will pick up the team – much safer route to venture world than to submit resumes. To be clear, I do not think there is anything wrong with it. And now we know why Sameer is Sam, and MVP is YComb of India. It immediately helps the Goras form a positive association,
In any case, best luck to MVP and the startups,
I actually like Crederity – low risk, perhaps low upside, but wouldnt mind putting personal money in.
Dhanax – interesting play but very complex – we have an investment in this space in US, and regulators have woken up to it.
Fachak – check out the Indiatimes’ new product on this – they seem to be ramping up nicely.
Hey Ashish,
Just noticed that the links for Crederity, DeskAway and Dhanax have a ) and hence don’t open up. Could you please fix that? Thx.
Lifemojo seems like a good idea.
@Lifemojo-founders: Why don’t you guys drop your application for our Oct batch.
this is funny .
Ashish can you confirm if its real . through GeoIP mapping or something ?
No, this is not Paul Graham. We checked with him over email…
from Paul Graham
to Namit Nangia
date Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 4:29 AM
subject Re: Your comment on pluggd.in about LifeMojo. Was it you ?
mailed-by gmail.com
signed-by gmail.com
hide details 4:29 AM (5 hours ago)
Reply
It was not me, –pg
- Hide quoted text -
On 9/12/08, Namit Nangia wrote:
> Hi Paul,
>
> We noticed a comment about LifeMojo.com on Pluggd.in (
> http://www.pluggd.in/2008/09/morpheus-ventures-new-batch-of-startups#comments
> ), by Paul and the link points to your website ( http://paulgraham.com ).
>
> Just wanted to confirm if it was you, or if someone was impersonating you ?
>
> –
> Thanks,
> Namit Nangia
> CEO, LifeMojo.com
This is a fake comment.
MVP & Lifemojo had written to Paul Graham and he has confirmed its a fake.
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I also found the article in Mashable misleading. Sameer/ Nandini should have left the first comment there to correct the information on that post. Anyways …
For one, I appreciate the guts of MVP team to take such a big step. It’s a very natural thought that they’ll face the allegations against whatever experience that they have.
I’d like to ask all the founders of batch 1 especially to Ankit who has been actively responding: Have you shared 4-8% equity for the support that you received?
I also have to echo some of the thoughts in this public forum.
1. Are you guys aware of how much equity is given to a VP level person, for what value they bring on board and in how many years it gets vested upon?
2. Can we afford to give 4-8% equities to someone without having the skin in the game?
Sometimes the judgment of these founders has to be questioned as well.
I think that being incubated itself is a step in the right direction as far as funding is concerned. While professional angels and VCs are one way of raising cash, first time HNI investors are another. Such first time investors don’t always fully understand the product, therefore place a lot of emphasis on ‘what do others think?’ Therefore, if they see that these startups are formally associated with ‘Morpheus Venture Partners’, it adds to their level of confidence.
Gautam Kshatriya
gautam.kshatriya@moneyvidya.com
http://www.moneyvidya.com/blog
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Well I know abt lifemojo it is a heealtha dn wellness company. and not much abt the other companies. I appreciate the concerned team taking their foot forwards.
Well I know abt lifemojo it is a heealtha dn wellness company. and not much abt the other companies. I appreciate the concerned team taking their foot forwards.
Thanks