Venture Capital in Slow Growth Markets: India, EdTech, Cleantech

There are a number of relatively slow growth markets in which we do a lot of business: India and EdTech are two examples. These are also two markets that I am passionate about, and have covered prodigiously for a long time. In a way, these markets, and many others that have similar characteristics, share very similar trajectories vis-a-vis entrepreneurship, venture capital, and exits. Another market in which 1M/1M doesn’t have much presence, but I have invested in, is Cleantech. The story is somewhat similar there as well. Let’s take a look at these slow-growth markets, and how they will emerge over the upcoming years.

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Featured Videos

Are We In A Golden Age Of EdTech?

John Doerr would like the world to believe yes.

Speaking with Betsy Corcoran of edSurge, Doerr expresses his enthusiasm:

What makes this moment “transitional” for learning, Doerr says, is the fact that so much of the technology now getting applied to learning and schools already pervades the rest of our lives.

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From The Seedy Underworld of Drugs and Prostitution To Entrepreneurial Success: David Sharpe’s Journey with Empower Network (Part 1)

From drugs, sex, prostitution, David Sharpe has seen it all. Hopelessly lost since his teens, a father at 15, jailed in his twenties, David has found his way back to a healthy life through entrepreneurship. Enjoy reading one of the most unusual stories we’ve done in the eighth year of Entrepreneur Journeys.

Sramana Mitra: Dave, tell us where you’re from. Where were you born and raised – what kind of circumstances?

David Sharpe: My name is Dave Sharpe. I was born in Clearwater, Florida which is right outside of Tampa Bay in 1983. I turned 30 last November 17.

Sramana Mitra: Tell me a bit more about the circumstances. Where did you do school? What did you study? What kind of mental set are you coming from as an entrepreneur? What’s your family background?

David Sharpe: The fascinating thing is I don’t come from an entrepreneurial family. My mom was very involved in a lot of what I did, extracurricular wise. I was a sports player. I was an athlete. By the age of five, I was on a baseball field throwing the baseball around. My parents divorced when I was 2-years-old, but my dad always showed up for my baseball games. Then I had a stepfather, still do. My mom and my stepfather are still married.

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Thought Leaders in Online Education: Mike Pellerin, Director, Enterasys University (Extreme Networks) (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Enterasys is experimenting with a concept of corporate massive open online courses (MOOCs). Interesting concept. Read on!

Sramana Mitra: Let us start by setting some context. Tell our audience about yourself and Enterasys. Then, we’ll take it from there.

Mike Pellerin: Enterasys has recently been acquired by Extreme Networks in November. Enterasys Networks evolved from a manufacturing cable company named Cabletron that was founded in the early 1990’s. They invented some nice patents like blinking out with the lights on with the computer equipment and then evolved into the computer network game space. Fast forward about ten to fifteen years, when I joined the organization. My background is in the computer science field and I started out in the quality assurance engineering. After learning the bits and bytes of all the different technologies, I transitioned into running the education team about 10 years ago.

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Thought Leaders in Online Education: Jim Donohue, Chief Product Officer, Cengage Learning (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Cengage is one of the three major publishers of educational texts and materials. In this interview, we explore a range of trends in higher education with Jim Donohue, their Chief Product Officer.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start, Jim, with an introduction for our audience to Cengage and yourself so that we know whom we are talking to and the context of the conversation.

Jim Donohue: Cengage is the world’s second largest educational text and materials company. We are primarily a book company and in our educational division for higher education, we’re still about 70% print based. The goal has been, obviously, to make a rapid change as the industries change.

I think higher education is an interesting animal in that it has been, in the last couple of years, pretty resistant to the kind of technology that other related industries have caught up with. As a result, it’s still very much focused on print and I think that’s going to continue for a few more years. I think, the challenge for this industry is to offer must-have products that will really encourage professors to make that move because their students are demanding it. I think it’s a really interesting dichotomy as I look at it through the Cengage lens.

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The Future of Education: 10 Trends To Watch

It is that time of the year when we tend to pause and reflect. What have we achieved this year? What are the highlights of culture, business, technology, and trends that we have observed around us?

For me, the most exciting and positive movement at present is in the domain of technology impacting education. And it is an impact that is coming from many different directions.

Let’s explore them in further detail.

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For-profit Education Sector Still Under Scrutiny

The for-profit education sector was in the news recently when President Obama mentioned in one of his gatherings [press conferences?] that they were “making out like bandits.” The president has been vocal about how the for-profit industry admits students, gets federal funding but have low graduation rates. He mentioned how the government was going to spend time during the next year to connect with professors, faculty members and students to rate good schools whether they are for-profit or nonprofit.

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1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2013: Omninox, Gainesville, Florida

Omninox develops interactive, mobile study guides called Omniguides™ for high level math and science courses. It aims to consolidate the material that students learn for Advanced Placement (AP) STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) classes by offering built-in software tools such as a calculator, quizzes, and sketchpad with social sharing. >>>

Running A Global Virtual Incubator: 10 Lessons We Have Learned

Further to my earlier post, Mentoring Startups: 10 Lessons We Have Learned, I want to also go over our learnings through running, what is today, the world’s only global virtual incubation program.

1. Reach & Scalability: We have successfully created a virtual incubation program that entrepreneurs all over the world are using. The self-service curriculum is quite rich now, which makes the program scalable. Also, the online mentoring roundtables have been extremely productive, as discussed in the earlier post. We’re also running an active content organization that helps our portfolio companies get coverage, as well as distribution for their messages through social media (reach over 100k currently).

2. Inclusive vs. Exclusive: We have successfully reset the definition of entrepreneurship within the program from Entrepreneurship = Financing to Entrepreneurship = (Customers + Revenues + Profits), Financing and Exit are optional. This has enabled us to be inclusive, as opposed to exclusive. Unlike YCombinator that takes pride in how many entrepreneurs they reject, we take pride in the fact that we do not reject anybody. Over 99% of entrepreneurs seeking financing get rejected. We work with ‘The Other 99%’ irrespective of their fundability, helping them grow to become successful businesses, and to raise financing if appropriate. Also, you don’t have to move to Silicon Valley to get incubated with us, which also gives us tremendous flexibility on whom we can work with.

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Thought Leaders in Online Education: Interview with Shaul Kuper, CEO of Destiny Solutions (Part 1)

Shaul Kuper is the chief executive officer of Destiny Solutions, a company that provides software solutions for higher education management on a cloud-based SaaS. He holds a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and genetics from the University of Toronto. In this interview he gives us a detailed overview of the origins of Destiny and of the education space, in which he specialized at the very early stages of the company.

Sramana Mitra: Shaul, let’s introduce you to our audience. Where are you from? Where did you grow up?

Shaul Kuper: I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. I had a fairly normal childhood: I grew up, I went to school and went to university. I was promised the dream of “make sure you learn math, science, and French, and you will be able to do anything you want in the future.” >>>