TheFind: LifeStyle Shopping (Part 3)

[Part 2] TheFind obviously has identified an exciting opportunity, but is it big enough? The answer to this question determines whether the venture will scale or not. It’s interesting how Siva derives the TAM.

SM: How big is the market for what you have to offer? TAM analysis is essentially what I am looking for here …

SK: Lifestyle goods online sales already have surpassed that of electronics and computers combined. In fact, by 2010 Forrester forecasts online revenues for lifestyle goods to be $99B vs only $33B for electronics+computers.

The TAM for a search engine like TheFind can be estimated as a percentage of the online market – about 5% of revenues – that retailers would spend on Internet lead generation and online marketing.

SM: What is your personal background?

SK: I am first and foremost an entrepreneur. I have co-founded several other venture-funded start-ups in addition to TheFind: Onebox (acquired by Openwave), BridgeSpan (acquired by Hall Settlement Systems), Impresse (acquired by PrintCafe/Creo Systems), Vialto (acquired by Cisco Systems), Scalent Systems and Telera (acquired by Alcatel). I currently sit on the boards of both TheFind.com and SPOCK, and previously served terms as president of Scalent Systems, president and CEO of Impresse Corporation and chairman of Onebox. I am also an advisor to several other startups – Mobio Networks, Buz Interactive and SnapTell.

I have held numerous executive roles – including vice president of marketing at Chromatic Research (acquired by ATI), vice president of marketing and general manager at Frame Technology (IPO and later acquired by Adobe Systems), director of marketing for networking products at Oracle, and product marketing at Apple. I began my marketing career at Intel, where I served as the senior product manager for the 80386 and 80486 microprocessors.

Education: MBA from the University of Chicago, an MS from Pennsylvania State University and a BS from Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India.

(to be continued)

[Part 1]
[Part 2]
[Part 3]
[Part 4]
[Part 5]
[Product Review]

This segment is part 3 in the series : TheFind: LifeStyle Shopping
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