Bootstrap – From Ideas to Reality (Newsletter for Startups) – September

The Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje launched India’s largest business incubator — the Bhamashah Techno Hub — on August 23, 2018 to accelerate the pace of creating a compelling start up ecosystem in Rajasthan.

The idea is to provide an entire support system to emerging entrepreneurs, by helping them to pitch their ideas and get connected with potential investors. The incubation center will offer free space, connectivity, easier funding, mentorship and exposure to the budding and rising start-ups.

It is spread across a sprawling 100k sq ft facility and has a seating capacity for 700. The incubator will provide end-to-end support to startups for free. At the moment 180 startups have already set their base at the Bhamashah Techno Hub.

In addition to the infrastructure, the Government of Rajasthan will provide one of its kind dedicated mentorship support, wherein mentors will work full time with start ups for their overall growth and promotion.

It promotes emerging technological and knowledge based innovative ventures that seek the nurturing of ideas from professionals.

The GST Council approved the key features, new and simplified format of the GST returns during its 28th meeting key features of which are given below:

1. Key features of monthly return-
   • New format: Only one monthly return is required to be filed in the new format which has two main tables – one for reporting supplies on which tax liability arises and one for availing ITC. The return shall have annexure of invoices which shall auto-populate the output liability table in main return.
   • Nil Return: Where taxpayers have no purchases, no output tax liability and no ITC in the entire quarter, one Nil return for the entire quarter shall be filed. In month one & two of quarter, such taxpayer can report NIL transaction by sending SMS.
   • Continuous uploading and viewing of invoice: A facility for continuous uploading of invoices by supplier anytime during the month shall be introduced which shall be continuously visible to recipient. Only invoices or debit notes uploaded by supplier shall be valid document for availing ITC by recipient.
   • Missing invoices: Reporting of missing invoices, whereby such reporting by recipient can be delayed up to 2 tax periods to allow him to follow-up with supplier.
   • Offline IT tool: This tool will help in matching invoices downloaded in excel format from the viewing facility, with the invoices stored in the accounting software by the taxpayer.
   • Locking of invoices: Recipient can lock the invoices before filing the return indicating acceptance of entering into the transaction. Thereafter, the supplier cannot make amendments to the invoice.
   • Rejected invoices: Recipients can report invoices as rejected invoices if they are not the actual recipients of the invoice.
   • Pending invoices: Recipient can keep the invoice as pending when-
     1. Supply has not been received
     2. Invoice needs amended

• Not decided whether to avail ITC or not for the time being

• Amendment of invoice: A facility to file 2 amendment returns for each tax period shall be introduced.

2. Key features of quarterly returns-
   • Payment of taxes and availing ITC: To be done monthly on self-declaration basis.
   • Ease of compliance: No requirement to report-
     1. Missing and pending invoices
     2. Non-GST and exempt supplies

• Details of ITC on capital goods

• Continuous uploading of invoice: Taxpayer is required to upload invoices continuously for recipients to avail ITC.
• SAHAJ return: Simplified return for only B2C sales
• SUGAM return: Simplified return for B2B + B2C sales

Integration with ICEGATE: Shipping Bill details in relation to exports shall be transmitted to ICEGATE. Data shall also flow from ICEGATE or SEZ online for enabling recipients to claim ITC on imports.

1. 6 SEP 2018: Start-up Conclave: Strengthening Indian Entrepreneurs

Venue: MLR CONVENTION CENTRE, JP NAGAR 7TH PHASE, BENGALURU, INDIA
Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
 
Objective: BharatNiti is organizing a grand conclave Entrepreneurship & Innovation in India” to bring everyone associated with the start-up ecosystem together on a single platform.         This event will be attended by over 400 entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers & experts to discuss how different stack-holders (entrepreneurs, investors & Government) can collaborate & work together for the robust growth of start-up ecosystem.

2. 7 SEP 2018: The Super Star Entrepreneur

Venue: THE PLAZA HOTEL, BEGUMPET, 6-3-870, TOURISM PLAZA, GREENLANDS, HYDERABAD, INDIA
Time: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Objective: Santosh Nair, India’s most renowned and most successful corporate & sme trainer, inspirational speaker in the training industry today is conducting a session in Hyderabad for entrepreneurs. It is about Understanding the Difference & Importance between “Running the business”…, “Building the Business”&” Growing the Business”.

3. 8 SEP 2018: The Blockchain Masterclass

Venue: RISE BY BARCLAYS, LOWER PAREL, MUMBAI, INDIA
Time: 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Objective: The Blockchain workshop is a 1 day master class that will provide clear view of blockchain basics and use cases. It will help you identify the opportunities emerging in this new field. The workshop will be delivered by some of the best names in the industry along with real use cases deployed or piloted in India.

4. 8 SEP 2018: Startup Manthan Noida

Venue: 91 Springboard, C2, Sector 1, Block C, Sector 1, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301
Time: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Objective: STARTUP MANTHAN, 2018’ a flagship event for startups organized by RaiseMyStartup which is a hunt across Pan India with a goal to boost market visibility for the most promising and early-stage startups. It is an unconference designed for early stage entrepreneurs focusing on peer learning from contemporary founders. The format is conducive to creating an informal yet high energy interactive environment, by keeping the main agenda of startups exposure. The aim is to help bridge the gap that currently exists between the ecosystems in tier I and tier II cities by making the essential resources available to emergent startups in these geographies.

5. 8 SEP 2018: Implementing Product Management Practice

Venue:  ANDHERI WEST, MUMBAI, INDIA
Time: 9:30 AM (IST) onwards

Objective

• To acquaint the participants with holistic frameworks used in product management, discover an understanding of few tools and techniques for effective product management
• To expose participants to all aspects of product management and provide an insight into product evaluation system
• To discuss various aspects related to product strategies, planning, market feedback, and such other topics, lastly create awareness on Product Management as Competency

6. 9 SEP 2018: Product Development for Startups (Workshop) by StartedIndia

Venue: TRIOS COWORKING SPACE – SHARED OFFICE SPACE – VIMAN NAGAR – PUNE, SAKORE NAGAR, VIMAN NAGAR, PUNE, INDIA
Time: 1:00PM – 5:00 PM

Objective: In Product Development for Startups Workshop, one will learn how to build a product from the idea he/she has and start a startup.

7. 15 SEP 2018: Startup Manthan Hyderabad

Venue: 91SPRINGBOARD HITEC CITY, HYDERABAD, JUBILEE ENCLAVE, HITEC CITY, HYDERABAD, INDIA
Time: 9:00AM – 4:00 PM

Objective: Startup Manthan by RaiseMyStartup is a hunt across Pan India with a goal to boost market visibility for the most promising and early-stage startups. The event will bring together prominent startups, founders, influencers, investors, and ecosystem enablers together for an engaging and stimulating discourse.

8. 24 SEP 2018 – 25 SEP 2018: Certified Scrum Product Owner-Training

Venue: THE SURYAA NEW DELHI, NEW FRIENDS COLONY NEW DELHI, 110025 INDIA, DELHI, INDIA
Time: 9:00 AM (IST) ONWARDS

Objective: Training For You offers Certified Scrum Product Owner(CSPO) training and certification courses ensure enterprises and individuals demonstrate in-depth knowledge and know-how of Agile methodologies to transition themselves from traditional waterfall project management to Agile ways. It helps professionals in learning the Scrum terminology, practices, and principles that enable them to fulfill the role of Product Owner on a Scrum team. This adaptive and flexible approach needs to be adopted so that the most appropriate style is utilized for that situation. The two days (16 hour) CSPO course is focused on the Product Owner role.

9. 22 SEP 2018: Connecting Ideas With Money: Investor Series 2018 – Inventus Capital

Venue: LOUNGE47, NGEF LAYOUT, DEFENCE COLONY, INDIRANAGAR, BENGALURU, INDIA
Time: 10:00AM – 12:30 PM

Objective: This is an event which brings Investors and Entrepreneurs face-to-face. Being the 41st of a series of investor talks, guests from a variety of asset classes – Angels, Venture Capitalists, and Private Equity – are invited to chat on a range of funding subjects interesting to entrepreneurs.

Country: Canada

Canada, with nine percent of the world’s forests, an enviable array of natural resources, Canada boasts incredible support for entrepreneurs, both homegrown and international. Many household names, such as Slack, Hootsuite and Shopify hail from Canada, which prove it is capable of delivering on startup success.

Canada was shortlisted as country of the year by The Economist in 2016. The United States’ northern neighbor boasts world-class universities and resources to develop talent and, currently, the Canadian dollar is 0.75 cents to the American dollar. This means a highly educated workforce is available for less capital for entrepreneurs all over the world who are ready and willing to make the leap to Canada.

In recent years there has been impressive growth in the number of people interested in startups. Government tax incentives reward companies for investing in research and development.

With 20 percent of Canada’s population already born elsewhere, the country now offers a startup visa to encourage international entrepreneurs to immigrate, with permanent residence status. This is crucial to Canada’s future success.

There are a lot of bright things to come for Canada’s startup scene.

Vancouver

Vancouver is consistently named as one of the top worldwide cities for livability and quality of life, while simultaneously climbing the ranks as a global startup hub. With more startups per capita than any other city in Canada, Vancouver is leveraging its unique combination of assets: a strong industrial foundation, enterprise data and cloud underpinnings, and a remarkably diverse talent pool.

The Vancouver startup ecosystem is currently comprised of 800 – 1,100 startups and shining success stories.

Notable Startups:

• 500px- The premiere photography community with 12 million+ photographers showcase their talent and make money doing what they love.
• Article- The company is into designing and sales of modern furniture avoiding the multiple layers of showrooms, sales personnel etc.
• Busbud- With their presence in over 63 countries and 10,000 cities, it is a travel app and platform that makes booking buses easy.
• Hootsuite- A social relationship platform for businesses to execute campaigns across multiple social networks from one secure, web-based dashboard.

Element AI- Describes itself as an “AI-as-a-Service” provider, giving organizations unparalleled access to cutting-edge technology related to artificial intelligence.

Name Change – Compliance as per Companies Act, 2013

Companies sometimes may intend to change the name based on the changes in business environment and various other aspects.

Change in the name of the company mainly involves alteration of memorandum of Association of the company. Step by step procedure of the name change under Companies Act,2013 and related forms to be filed is as under –

Swiggy

Swiggy is a food ordering and delivery Company based out of Bangalore, India. Swiggy was inspired by the thought of providing a complete food ordering and delivery solution from the best neighborhood restaurants to the urban foodie. Providing a single window for ordering from a wide range of restaurants, Swiggy has its own exclusive fleet of delivery personnel to pickup orders from restaurants and deliver it to customers.

It being a company with annual revenue of charges between 15-40 percent in commission to restaurants and for smaller orders, customers pay an additional delivery charge between 20 and 50 rupees depending on their city.

Swiggy raised a total of $465.5M in funding over 8 rounds. The latest funding came from a Series G round on Jun 21, 2018. Leading investors such as Naspers, DST Global, Coatue Management and Meituan-Dianpin have successfully pumped in $210 million into Swiggy, after which, their valuation have soared to mind boggling $1 billion+.

Back in 2014, Swiggy was founded in an office space in Koramangala, Bangalore. One neighborhood, six delivery executives and 25 partner restaurants is what Swiggy started off with in the beginning. Almost four years into the field, Swiggy now has a major presence in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. Not just that, they are partnered with 12,000 restaurants and over 13,000 delivery executives.

The reason for success of Swiggy:

• App & smartphone penetration in India: Low-cost smartphone penetration and increasingly cheap internet plans have helped people adapt to the newonline food ordering apps and service
• Seamless experience with hyperlocal options: From online payments to food tracking, food ordering apps provide a single platform to explore and order food.
• Services such as Swiggy Select: Swiggy Access, a new programme which focused on new hyperlocal kitchen spaces. The kitchen spaces are based on plug-n-play model and operate on a commision sharing basis with its partner eateries.
• Logistics: Swiggy got a lot of things right, but the driving force behind its success is in its excellent logistics operations.

Challenges

• Competition:  Stiff competition from rival companies is another factor that challenges the expansion of food startups in India. Big players such as Uber Inc, Ola and Zomato pose a threat to Swiggy
• Cost Price & quality:  Keeping food quality high till it reaches the end customer is another important factor in terms of customer retention.

Road Ahead

• From a cloud kitchen to introducing a new supply chain, Swiggy has been aggressively working to hike up its market share in the food delivery segment. Over the last several months, it has launched a slew of new services such as Access, long-distance deliveries, and Capital Assist, to help restaurants serve consumers in new and better ways.
• In line with its plans to venture into hyperlocal medicines and grocery deliveries, Swiggy is now planning to expand its delivery diversification strategy.
• Swiggy is launching a concierge-like service and will enable buying and delivery of products from any store in the city, including pharmacies, electronics, groceries, and even flower and gift shops. It will also feature a customer-to-customer pick-up and drop service.

Swiggy, which is already going strong, with the expansion of its offerings to the hyperlocal delivery space, is looking to become a multi-services delivery company and is sure to provide tough competition to others in the space.