Entrepreneurs
Mohan Kumar and Nishant Rao: A Dynamic Duo Transforming India’s Startup Funding Ecosystem
Mohan Kumar and Nishant Rao are not just seasoned investors; they’re visionary storytellers in the world of start-up funding. With decades of experience and an unparalleled perspective, their journey in the Indian start-up ecosystem has been nothing short of extraordinary. In the midst of a funding frenzy that engulfed India’s start-up landscape, Kumar, a corporate leader with two decades of experience, including a role as the Corporate Vice President of Motorola, and Rao, who contributed significantly to Freshworks and LinkedIn, set out to change the game. This “insane” funding scene unfolded in the wake of the pandemic, where SaaS companies, benefiting from the world’s growing reliance on software solutions, saw their valuations skyrocket.
Prior to 2018, the valuation multiples for SaaS companies were typically seven to ten times their revenue. Market leaders might have pushed this to 15 times. However, during the pandemic, SaaS companies started commanding 40x and, in some cases, even 100x revenue multiples. Hedge funds, such as the renowned Tiger Global, swiftly realized the potential and “gatecrashed” the funding party, leading to a significant shift in the funding narrative. Kumar and Rao initiated their journey with Avataar Venture Partners, a fund dedicated to growth-stage SaaS and B2B companies. Their aim was to address a gap in the market for late-stage funding, particularly for Series C and D rounds. Additionally, they recognized the need for a team of experts with hands-on experience to guide B2B and SaaS companies in their scaling journey.
However, there was a missing piece to the puzzle. The duo returned to the drawing board to understand the precise funding requirements for building a $100 million recurring revenue SaaS company in India. Their findings, extrapolated from the U.S. market, showed that it typically took $1 to acquire 50 cents of revenue and that a $100 million company raised around $150-200 million in funding. Translating these findings into the Indian context led to two significant conclusions. First, for every $1 of revenue, a company should ideally raise a maximum of $1 in capital. For a company aiming to cross the $100 million mark, raising over $100 million was not necessary. This insight prompted Avataar to cut cheques ranging from $30-35 million, which would provide enough capital for these companies to reach $60-70 million or potentially even $100 million in revenue.
The pandemic altered the dynamics further, causing an unprecedented shift in valuations. Kumar shared the experience of evaluating two HR tech companies with similar revenue trajectories, one based in India and the other in Silicon Valley. However, the Indian start-up received an inflated term sheet valuing it at $300 million, an astonishing 40 times its revenue. Kumar’s decision to stay away from this bidding war highlights the challenges posed by excessive capital injection.
While founders should not decline high-value rounds, Kumar emphasized their responsibility to use the capital prudently and meet the heightened expectations. A common pitfall is when founders indulge in unnecessary expenditures and fail to maintain fiscal discipline, leading to potential crises when funding becomes scarce. Excessive capital availability also attracted individuals with limited passion and commitment into the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Start-ups were no longer reserved for the brave and passionate; everyone had access to funding. This ultimately led to a differentiation problem when distinguishing genuine founders from the opportunistic ones.
Returning to Avataar’s mission, Kumar and Rao provided insights into the traits they seek in start-ups at Series C and D stages. They emphasized the value of having a co-founder to share the entrepreneurial journey’s challenges. Building a strong team, including key positions like CEO, CTO, and heads of products, sales, revenue, and engineering, was deemed crucial. Equally important was the founder’s ability to attract individuals more skilled than themselves. This ability to scale the team is often a make-or-break factor. The Avataar journey has been enriched by Kumar’s familiarity with founders from his previous stint at Norwest, which led to successful deals with companies like Capillary and ElasticRun. In the SaaS industry, international market expansion is vital, and Avataar encourages start-ups to move beyond India to achieve scale.
While the Indian SaaS ecosystem is flourishing, Mohan Kumar and Nishant Rao remind us that being an investor is about more than just providing funds. Their pedigree and mentorship can often be as valuable as the capital itself, and with their experienced guidance, the future of the Indian start-up scene looks incredibly promising.
Entrepreneurs
The Power Couple of Instagram: Sara’s Journey to 5.5M Followers
Sara’s growing online fame is marked by her creativity, reliability, and deep engagement with her audience. From comedic sketches featuring her husband Ghaith to aspirational lifestyle imagery, Sara has effectively demonstrated her capability as an artist in keeping her followers interested in her content. With adept use of humour, honesty, and aesthetic sensibility, Sara stands out as one of the dearest influencers in the UAE.
Versatility is one characteristic that best describes Sara. She posts more on Beauty and Cosmetics, Apparel, and Accessories, but often crosses over into areas like Fitness, Healthcare, and Healthy Living. She offers a great deal of value to her audience through beautifying tips, exercises, and product recommendations among other content forms. This variety keeps audiences interested and puts her in the lead position as a go-to partner for brands who wish to create a more memorable impression.
Characterized as luxurious and a dynamic way of life, no destination aligns more with Sara’s fulfilment than Dubai. Through the travels she takes through the Maldives, Seychelles, and Turkey, Sara embodies luxury exploration spirits that epitomize Dubai as the ultimate and highly sought-after destination around the world for glamorous and adventurous characters. The tales are not just inspiring ones for her listeners but also speak to the part Dubai played in unlocking access to the extraordinary destinations around the world.
Collaborations underpin all of Sara’s accomplishments. For example, in a recently collaborated project with Garnier, one of her social media reels had nearly 4 million views with 130,000 interactions. Similarly, in another collaboration with Temu, such an engagement was conducted in an informative and entertaining manner, thus it gained an impressive 7.7 million views and about 500,000 engagements. These above collaborations represented the potential of marrying creativity with brand messages and finally producing something authentic and relatable. The synergy of relating to her husband, Ghaith, has that effect for Sara. A build-up in her persona comes about through the collaboration bestowed upon her with some quality that makes not only aesthetically pleasing but also emotionally meaningful. While comedy up to poignant moments, the dynamic between Sara and her husband, Ghaith, is something that essentially encompasses Sara’s brand. Their connection to her talents allows her to build a followership that enjoys an impressive 80% credibility score—a notable achievement, undoubtedly, within the realms of influencers.
Amazingly, the engagement metrics attached to Sara’s account average 9.6 million views and 1.1 million engagements per post. For a long time, such performance left in its wake most of her colleagues from the blogging community. Furthermore, she has averaged engagement rates between 4 and 5 percent, which is all proof that she indeed is extremely trusted and interesting for her audience.
Effects of Sara touch the lives of individuals. Her GRWM videos are revealing and inspiring, along with beauty tips and Q&A sessions that make them feel valued and included. This is genuine, and she welcomes each other with her excitement about cementing herself as one of the authentic social media icons in the UAE.
Sara represents a vibrant and dynamic culture about Dubai, full of energy, diversity, and aspirations, but she also keeps her feet on the ground, inspiring her followers through this story to pursue their passions and be true to themselves, but concurrently enjoy all of life’s pleasures.
When the digital world may dismiss trends, Sara’s story continues—logical, funny, hopeful, and full of energy. She has been an inspiration among young aspiring influencers, and a very revered personality among her subscribers, thanks to her capacity to capitalize on entertainment that also harbours heavy content. Through her consistent creation of content that deeply connects with her audience, Sara represents how true enthusiasm and authenticity contribute to a long-term record of success in an area that, from day to day, seems to be constantly changing with each shift in social media trends.
Entrepreneurs
How Varsity Tutors Connects the World through Personalized Learning
Varsity Tutors seems to be one trendsetter in the world of education, doing an edge in leveraging the technological front towards tailoring and making learning accessible. Conceptualized on the idea that every child is as special as his needs, Varsity Tutors connects learners of all age groups with experts in multiple subjects for fulfilling academic tutoring needs, professional skills training, and much more towards assuring that every individual’s unique educational needs are met.
What makes Varsity Tutors distinct is its dual platform approach. While for them, a learner has the option between in-person sessions or online and mobile platforms-most of which take place remotely-award-winning digital tools allow learners to get high-quality instructions from anywhere in the world. Where the finishing school kind of excellence in education is one aspect of the culture of Dubai, the parents and the students here have come to trust Varsity Tutors. Its flexibility coupled with highly advanced methods would dovetail easily into the forward-thinking approach towards education in Dubai.
The academic tutoring isn’t where it ends. Varsity Tutors also deals with professionals who want to up skill or achieve certifications for boosting their careers. Live, interactive learning makes some rather complicated subjects quite digestible, thus making this an engaging and very immersive experience. Online learning is ultimately isolating because with Varsity Tutors, one gets human contact and real-time feedback so that learning is effective but also fun.
Varsity Tutors boasts an impressive record: three million hours of live instruction delivered to date. Its strong showing does, in fact reflect the capacity to be flexible and grow within a highly dynamic educational landscape. The platform offers many different subjects through its extensive network of experts, giving any learner the chance to find an appropriate match for their goals. The reach of the program worldwide resonates with diverse communities everywhere-from students and professionals in multicultural Dubai, all of whom are seeking top-notch learning solutions to thrive in a competitive environment.
Innovation is one of the leading factors for Varsity Tutors’ success. For instance, learning in its mobile app is at the fingertips of the user: a user can schedule sessions, view resources, and interact with his instructor quite easily. This convenience has been a game-changer for many busy professionals and tight-scheduled students. Dubai’s bustling educational and professional scene has found synergy with Varsity Tutors’ vision. The platform aligns with the city’s goal of fostering a knowledge-based economy, equipping its residents with the tools needed to succeed in a globalized world. With its emphasis on personalized learning, Varsity Tutors supports Dubai’s mission to nurture talent and encourage lifelong learning.
The impact of Varsity Tutors goes beyond individual learners. Students will be empowered to reach great academic and professional heights, contributing to the building of a brighter future in communities around the globe. Quality, accessibility, and innovation ensure the firm does not only serve but lead an evolving education sector globally.
Varsity Tutors is a legacy of transformation and change in the face of education through technology potential. The platform combined personalized instruction with avant-garde digital tools that changed the face of learning. From young students to professionals undergoing training, there have been many from New York to Dubai and everywhere in between who have found a haven in Varsity Tutors.
Entrepreneurs
Nomadic Capital’s Visionary Founder: Ziad Ghosn’s Journey of Success
Ziad Ghosn, however, goes beyond being an entrepreneur; instead, he is a visionary who moulds industries in the GCC. Having been around over 15 years and immersed in the intricacies of the UAE market, Ghosn has converted Nomadic Capital into a thriving hub of innovation, incubating game-changing ventures in fields such as technology, food and beverage, and healthcare. Ghosn, along with his co-founder wife, Stephanie Khouri, is on the forefront of debunking traditional business models to herald smarter and more efficient solutions. He is the epitome of innovation and resilience.
Education and corporate experiences formed the base for Ziad Ghosn’s entry into the entrepreneurial world. He graduated with honours from the American University of Dubai, and a Master’s Degree in International Business from London, further helping him polish his skills in the bigger organizations of Wunderman, Y&R, Emirates Lebanon Bank, and Pragma Group. This experience gave him the much-needed knowledge and market insights to create his own ventures.
Ghosn, alongside his wife Stephanie Khouri, has partnered with Nomadic Capital Limited since 2017. Founded on a vision to introduce innovation in the GCC region, this start-up aims to tap into untapped markets by offering services either incu-bating potential ideas or undertaking their own ground-breaking initiatives. Collaboration is what made Nomadic Capital a leader in fostering innovation and tackling modern business challenges. Pushdot was the mobile application which Nomadic Capital produced and which earned the company a place among the top 50 start-ups to watch in the UAE. The app has been acclaimed within the region and has further received international accolades such as the Appy Awards in New York. This recognition has, therefore, underlined the app’s capability to update business needs through innovative digital tools.
Ghosn’s initiatives cover much more than mobile technology. Operating Nomadic Capital, he has done much to create opportunities in the food and drink sector, as, with his team, he was granted the International Business Excellence Award for Innovation in F&B. Among the concepts of the firm, of great significance is the Automat, a fast-food restaurant model whereby hot meals and beverages are dispensed via vending machines. Such a concept not only offers convenience but also addresses efficiency and operational issues in the industry.
Recognizing the potential of technological integration with healthcare, Ghosn has turned his attention to this booming industry recently. The focus of his last efforts has been on providing better patient care and streamlining business operations through advanced digital features. Through these gaps in traditional models for healthcare, Ghosn manages to deliver smarter solutions that are more accessible and promise to redefine the industry in the GCC and beyond.
The entrepreneurial pursuits of Ziad Ghosn reflect the kind of relentless drive for innovation and adaptation to modern business needs. His ability to turn from retail automation towards health care reveals the visionary of an entrepreneur who stands out in today’s competitive landscape. Through leveraging cutting-edge technology and deep market insights, Ghosn continues making opportunities that challenge conventional norms and redefine possibilities.
Through his firm Nomadic Capital, Ghosn gives more than just ideas to life; he creates a culture of innovation that resonates across industries. His entrepreneurial success is a blueprint for would-be business leaders, outlining how strategic vision and adaptability lead to transformative outcomes.
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