yeah so you guys might have to suffer
that pretty picture throughout the
presentation because I’m not using
slides frankly in hindsight it seems
like a really good strategy to have
employed for self-promotion but that
apart no matter who you are what your
education is what your wealth or Richard
Ness is no matter what your experiences
are if you look back into the entire
life that you have led and if I were to
ask you what what was one or few events
or triggers that really influenced
everything that happened in your life
thereafter there’s a good chance that if
you truly can introspect you would be
able to come up with one or two things
that happened for instance if I were to
take my example in the year 2000 I sold
my first business in the year 2010 I
exited my second business and I did an
analysis for no specific reason about
where did all my money my wealth come
from over these first 18 odd years of my
career and I found that though I had
been working for 18 years and you know
how entrepreneurs work they work all the
time there were not more than three
significant events two of which happened
to me as an I had no these were
environmental events and one of which I
accidentally chose to do which made all
the difference to the money that I had
amassed for the first 18 years of my
career this got very interested that you
know here I was working hard for 18
years to attain a certain wealth outcome
but my real outcomes came from just one
or few specific tipping points that I
encountered in my career so could I have
just avoided the remaining 18 years or
did I have to go through those 18 years
of my life to be able to capture those
three points to understand this better I
started reading about tipping points in
world history and I found some pretty
mind-blowing though in hindsight pretty
obvious facts that are occurred
throughout the world so for instance I
learned that the use of a horse as a
transportation medium was probably the
single greatest thing that advanced
human civilization think about it we
could walk a certain amount
of distance we could you know not return
in time or ever and then suddenly
somebody said you know what this
creatures means to hanging around for a
very long time if I sat on top of him or
her and probably with that horsepower I
could travel greater distances later I
learned that the movable type which is
what creates printed books or printed
materials was another tipping point that
altered the course of human history
right and we can understand why because
you wouldn’t have liked right you
wouldn’t have to recite orally you just
created once and spread knowledge
throughout the world right probably it
would be the single largest force that
enlightened us and that got me thinking
which is what brings me to the topic of
what I am talking today that do you have
to wait for these tipping points in your
life or human civilization whichever is
your frame of reference to happen to you
or can you identify them cause them do
them and that is where having been
entrepreneur twice I don’t know if that
makes me eligible to be a serial
entrepreneur or whether you need to be
answered with more than two times for
that but having been an entrepreneur
twice I decided that I’m going to work
with entrepreneurs who are probably at
that tipping point so for the rest of my
talk I want to give you first an example
which every one of us will be able to
relate to because you’ve probably used
it then move on to the world of angel
investing and venture capital investing
and tell you what that is all about and
how it tries to capture some of these
tipping points and how that leads to
some misunderstandings about how venture
investing works and then if I have
enough time I will tell you what how
some of us can gain from what I’m
talking about today so let me first
begin with an example of uber the taxi
company now you think about it if I were
to ask you what does this taxi-hailing
company do you know having described as
a taxi-hailing company you know what it
does
violently not have something like this
20 years ago it wasn’t because nobody
had imagined it yet it was because it
was not possible 20 years ago maybe even
10 years ago the reason is that though
you might think of uber or any other
such example in India you could consider
the example of Ola though you might
think of them as taxi companies there
surely not taxi companies away I as an
investor look at them and I encouraged
you to do likewise and if you do that
then when my talk is over you could
potentially have a plan as brilliant and
as massive as uber which is today a
fifty billion dollar plus company let me
explain this in more detail all the
dubai did was realized two facts one
open gps allows you to find the location
of a mobile phone or a mobile device
which almost all of us have including
taxi drivers have so that means now I
have a new data point available which
was not as easily available earlier
which is the location of a device and by
consequence the location of a person
what business application can I come up
with if I know the location of several
people very simply if I were to take a
cab a taxi taxi cab it could be that I
am standing at this corner hoping for
there a taxi passes by me and at that
corner which I can’t see there’s a taxi
which is waiting for a passenger if
somehow we both knew each of those
locations life would be clearly much
simpler and that is all that hooba did
it took the location of two people who
probably wanted to talk to each other
the passenger and the taxi and then said
I won’t create a business model around
it think about it if you really apply
yourself by this evening every one of
you could come up with at least one
application where if you knew the
location of multiple items multiple
people multiple service providers
multiple businesses you could put them
together in a way that allows value to
be unearthed that is all the trooper did
it took one data point it did not even
analyze it too much because you know the
max also were made by Google or other
sis providers who were do not make them
and all it did was say you know I’m
going to connect this one to this one
because if they talk to each other life
will be good right this is the ideal
dream that venture capitalists or angel
investors such as myself have finding
that tipping point company whether it’s
artificial intelligence whether it is a
logistics ecommerce etc finding the
tipping point and then encouraging
people by exposing them to it
sometimes venture capitalists go
overboard very many times they make
wrong bets about how people will behave
but that is what this is all about since
that is the bet they are taking they
sail a lot which is why if you were to
ever visit the website of a venture
capitalist and typically all of them
display their entire portfolio of
investments you will find that it is
full of companies that they gave money
to and that those companies failed and
you know what this takes you to the next
part about entrepreneurship or investing
in entrepreneurs that I’ve discovered
over the last 25 years that there is no
alternative but to go out and try and
the very word try means that you’re
gonna fail very often right so as an
investor when I look at a company and
everybody is starting up right audience
just raise your hand if you’re an
entrepreneur or someday you’re going to
be an entrepreneur fantastic more than
half the people have raised their hands
and I somehow find that when I allow
more time more and more people raise
their hand because probably they make
them dizzy and right then on the spot
that this might be a good thing to do
cool
so often people ask me that as an
investor in restaurant ventures why
don’t you invest in a restaurant why
don’t you invest in a conventional
business that clearly makes revenues and
profits why do all of you fools invest
in startups which are constantly
loss-making
and they have these great numbers but
nothing seems to be coming out of it
that is explained by this entire
motivation of finding the tipping point
investment you already give the example
of uber but that’s not the only one I’ll
give you one or two or investments of
mine though I have over 20 which will
tell you about how I am thinking so
there is this company called pick me
services set up by a founder called
profile ready all car so this guy
discovered an interesting thing he said
that until very recently probably the
late 90s whenever we would go to a
retail outlet to buy something it could
be something as simple as a loaf of
bread or his area of interest was an
electronic goods such as televisions
refrigerators etc you went to the
neighborhood electronics store where you
talked to often the owner of the shop
established a relation and picked up
this item so
at a later point if this television for
instance stopped working or started
malfunctioning you would go back to this
guy and say you know what I bought the
television from you it doesn’t work now
help me repair it or get it serviced in
the beginning of the 2000s we saw that
large format retail outlets got over
open so you’ve heard of all the common
names right so today if you wanted to
buy a television or a mobile phone or a
laptop or a refrigerator or what have
you you would go to these large outlets
with you know these thousands of
sometimes tens of thousands of square
foot of selling area now there was no
relationship between you and the seller
you did not know who the owner was
you never met the owner you wonder that
there was an owner at all right so today
if you bought a television or any such
device and it malfunctioned you go back
to that retailer and say you know what
the refrigerator that I took from you
does not work anymore help me repair it
you find that the retailer believes
today that their job is to retail so
they will typically give you the contact
information of a service center so you
had a Samsung TV you had an LG
refrigerator here is a service center
contact information now go and contact
them so suddenly you feel cheated
because until recently until the late
90s you go went back to the person who
sold it to you and that person took care
of it
now you go back to the person who sells
it and that person says you know what my
job was to sell it go to somebody else
whose job it is to service it either
human beings will get over this need and
requirement or and this is what this
founder of pick many services did say
you know what why do people need to
change their habit why don’t we change
it so what this guy did he identified
five of the most commonly used devices
which have this need and he also made
sure he was choosing small size devices
such as cameras laptops DVD players
which right now are probably obsolete
mobile phones etc and what he did was he
pretty much like you buy an extended
warranty
what he did was he told people that when
you buy any of these devices by my
special card or by the special service
having purchased that for the next one
year and that by the way the service
cost only rupees 99 for a year having
purchased that for the next
if your device malfunctions ever
regardless of the number of times that
happens we will come to your home pick
it up
send a semi technical person to your
house listen to what your complain is
that the screen was blank and after a
while it switches off blah blah blah
pick it up take it to the service center
narrate that story get it repaired
regardless of whether it can be done on
the spot or in a couple of days then get
it back to your home at no extra cost
just for 99 rupees for a year per device
now what is did while we thought when we
invested that customers would love it
customers would love it because a huge
pain point is taken away we found that
more than the customers the retailer’s
loved it because they said that the
maximum grief we get is by these
returning customers who find that we are
not servicing them what we’re gonna do
is you will just bundle this you can use
bundle this with everything we sell
thereby increasing customer happiness
with us so I invested in this company
can’t remember the exact date but
probably about three years ago at that
point of time its monthly turnover was
roughly thirty thousand rupees okay
today then it has grown tremendously its
monthly turnover sales are in the excess
of one and a half occasionally in the
excess of two crore rupees I am talking
of monthly apples to apples comparison
thirty thousand rupees becoming one and
a half crore rupees doing this you see
how that has the makings of a tipping
point and I could give you more examples
I can see the clock taking away and you
know my time getting over what is my
message to you today really my message
is twofold one is a broader message
which clearly affects everybody and
second is a business / entrepreneurship
/ venture investing message so broader
messages the greatest outcomes okay I am
not necessarily speaking in the positive
sense the greatest positive outcomes as
well as the greatest negative outcomes
that you will face will come from these
one odd breakthroughs sometimes you
cause these breakthroughs which is what
I encourage you to do drive it and
sometimes these breakthroughs just
happen to you in fact you know the
genetic lottery that means the set of
parents that you were born to has been
far the single biggest influence in what
you have become in life right and you
had no influence over it and frankly
your parents also did not specifically
choose you I think you just happened to
them right especially when your kids are
teenagers as – as I am like who Carmen I
certainly did not choose this guy and my
son is going to watch this video and
wonder which one of those two teenagers
I am referring to but coming back to
what I was saying so the the broader
message is that be on the lookout and
don’t be afraid to embrace these tipping
points because these tipping points of
the characteristic that they are
necessarily different than how life has
been all along so if you play it very
safe if your efforts to change you will
miss out on these life-altering tipping
points more narrowly more specifically
coming from my background if you are
looking to be an entrepreneur you know
they say you can do ordinary you can do
ordinary things extraordinarily or you
can do extraordinary things those are
all slogans I think that if you are
looking for a lifestyle business
something that gives you more than maybe
a salaried job hood there are infinite
is but if you are trying to create this
great enterprise which ordinarily would
have required generations to create and
you want to do it in a very short period
of time I think today technology allows
you to create tipping points and
sometimes with as simple a logic as
there is the prospective passenger
standing and there is the taxi standing
and just by knowing these two and
matching them you could create a 50
billion dollar more than that actually a
50 billion dollar enterprise technology
allows you to scale overnight once you
hit upon the right formula a
technological service or an online
service can scale almost overnight as in
with very minimal additional expense you
can service 1 million customers instead
of one thousand customers that is what I
want you to think about and once you hit
upon a formula even if it is just a plan
there are innumerable people out there
who are lasting to meet you because they
want to participate in your journey they
want to grow with you over the last one
and a half months I have invested in six
companies which has been the most
concentrated period of my investment and
the reason I have done that I have found
some entrepreneurs who seem to have that
idea which is going to change the world
hence therefore to
and hence my fortunes I invite you to be
part of that journey thank you very much [Applause]
that pretty picture throughout the
presentation because I’m not using
slides frankly in hindsight it seems
like a really good strategy to have
employed for self-promotion but that
apart no matter who you are what your
education is what your wealth or Richard
Ness is no matter what your experiences
are if you look back into the entire
life that you have led and if I were to
ask you what what was one or few events
or triggers that really influenced
everything that happened in your life
thereafter there’s a good chance that if
you truly can introspect you would be
able to come up with one or two things
that happened for instance if I were to
take my example in the year 2000 I sold
my first business in the year 2010 I
exited my second business and I did an
analysis for no specific reason about
where did all my money my wealth come
from over these first 18 odd years of my
career and I found that though I had
been working for 18 years and you know
how entrepreneurs work they work all the
time there were not more than three
significant events two of which happened
to me as an I had no these were
environmental events and one of which I
accidentally chose to do which made all
the difference to the money that I had
amassed for the first 18 years of my
career this got very interested that you
know here I was working hard for 18
years to attain a certain wealth outcome
but my real outcomes came from just one
or few specific tipping points that I
encountered in my career so could I have
just avoided the remaining 18 years or
did I have to go through those 18 years
of my life to be able to capture those
three points to understand this better I
started reading about tipping points in
world history and I found some pretty
mind-blowing though in hindsight pretty
obvious facts that are occurred
throughout the world so for instance I
learned that the use of a horse as a
transportation medium was probably the
single greatest thing that advanced
human civilization think about it we
could walk a certain amount
of distance we could you know not return
in time or ever and then suddenly
somebody said you know what this
creatures means to hanging around for a
very long time if I sat on top of him or
her and probably with that horsepower I
could travel greater distances later I
learned that the movable type which is
what creates printed books or printed
materials was another tipping point that
altered the course of human history
right and we can understand why because
you wouldn’t have liked right you
wouldn’t have to recite orally you just
created once and spread knowledge
throughout the world right probably it
would be the single largest force that
enlightened us and that got me thinking
which is what brings me to the topic of
what I am talking today that do you have
to wait for these tipping points in your
life or human civilization whichever is
your frame of reference to happen to you
or can you identify them cause them do
them and that is where having been
entrepreneur twice I don’t know if that
makes me eligible to be a serial
entrepreneur or whether you need to be
answered with more than two times for
that but having been an entrepreneur
twice I decided that I’m going to work
with entrepreneurs who are probably at
that tipping point so for the rest of my
talk I want to give you first an example
which every one of us will be able to
relate to because you’ve probably used
it then move on to the world of angel
investing and venture capital investing
and tell you what that is all about and
how it tries to capture some of these
tipping points and how that leads to
some misunderstandings about how venture
investing works and then if I have
enough time I will tell you what how
some of us can gain from what I’m
talking about today so let me first
begin with an example of uber the taxi
company now you think about it if I were
to ask you what does this taxi-hailing
company do you know having described as
a taxi-hailing company you know what it
does
violently not have something like this
20 years ago it wasn’t because nobody
had imagined it yet it was because it
was not possible 20 years ago maybe even
10 years ago the reason is that though
you might think of uber or any other
such example in India you could consider
the example of Ola though you might
think of them as taxi companies there
surely not taxi companies away I as an
investor look at them and I encouraged
you to do likewise and if you do that
then when my talk is over you could
potentially have a plan as brilliant and
as massive as uber which is today a
fifty billion dollar plus company let me
explain this in more detail all the
dubai did was realized two facts one
open gps allows you to find the location
of a mobile phone or a mobile device
which almost all of us have including
taxi drivers have so that means now I
have a new data point available which
was not as easily available earlier
which is the location of a device and by
consequence the location of a person
what business application can I come up
with if I know the location of several
people very simply if I were to take a
cab a taxi taxi cab it could be that I
am standing at this corner hoping for
there a taxi passes by me and at that
corner which I can’t see there’s a taxi
which is waiting for a passenger if
somehow we both knew each of those
locations life would be clearly much
simpler and that is all that hooba did
it took the location of two people who
probably wanted to talk to each other
the passenger and the taxi and then said
I won’t create a business model around
it think about it if you really apply
yourself by this evening every one of
you could come up with at least one
application where if you knew the
location of multiple items multiple
people multiple service providers
multiple businesses you could put them
together in a way that allows value to
be unearthed that is all the trooper did
it took one data point it did not even
analyze it too much because you know the
max also were made by Google or other
sis providers who were do not make them
and all it did was say you know I’m
going to connect this one to this one
because if they talk to each other life
will be good right this is the ideal
dream that venture capitalists or angel
investors such as myself have finding
that tipping point company whether it’s
artificial intelligence whether it is a
logistics ecommerce etc finding the
tipping point and then encouraging
people by exposing them to it
sometimes venture capitalists go
overboard very many times they make
wrong bets about how people will behave
but that is what this is all about since
that is the bet they are taking they
sail a lot which is why if you were to
ever visit the website of a venture
capitalist and typically all of them
display their entire portfolio of
investments you will find that it is
full of companies that they gave money
to and that those companies failed and
you know what this takes you to the next
part about entrepreneurship or investing
in entrepreneurs that I’ve discovered
over the last 25 years that there is no
alternative but to go out and try and
the very word try means that you’re
gonna fail very often right so as an
investor when I look at a company and
everybody is starting up right audience
just raise your hand if you’re an
entrepreneur or someday you’re going to
be an entrepreneur fantastic more than
half the people have raised their hands
and I somehow find that when I allow
more time more and more people raise
their hand because probably they make
them dizzy and right then on the spot
that this might be a good thing to do
cool
so often people ask me that as an
investor in restaurant ventures why
don’t you invest in a restaurant why
don’t you invest in a conventional
business that clearly makes revenues and
profits why do all of you fools invest
in startups which are constantly
loss-making
and they have these great numbers but
nothing seems to be coming out of it
that is explained by this entire
motivation of finding the tipping point
investment you already give the example
of uber but that’s not the only one I’ll
give you one or two or investments of
mine though I have over 20 which will
tell you about how I am thinking so
there is this company called pick me
services set up by a founder called
profile ready all car so this guy
discovered an interesting thing he said
that until very recently probably the
late 90s whenever we would go to a
retail outlet to buy something it could
be something as simple as a loaf of
bread or his area of interest was an
electronic goods such as televisions
refrigerators etc you went to the
neighborhood electronics store where you
talked to often the owner of the shop
established a relation and picked up
this item so
at a later point if this television for
instance stopped working or started
malfunctioning you would go back to this
guy and say you know what I bought the
television from you it doesn’t work now
help me repair it or get it serviced in
the beginning of the 2000s we saw that
large format retail outlets got over
open so you’ve heard of all the common
names right so today if you wanted to
buy a television or a mobile phone or a
laptop or a refrigerator or what have
you you would go to these large outlets
with you know these thousands of
sometimes tens of thousands of square
foot of selling area now there was no
relationship between you and the seller
you did not know who the owner was
you never met the owner you wonder that
there was an owner at all right so today
if you bought a television or any such
device and it malfunctioned you go back
to that retailer and say you know what
the refrigerator that I took from you
does not work anymore help me repair it
you find that the retailer believes
today that their job is to retail so
they will typically give you the contact
information of a service center so you
had a Samsung TV you had an LG
refrigerator here is a service center
contact information now go and contact
them so suddenly you feel cheated
because until recently until the late
90s you go went back to the person who
sold it to you and that person took care
of it
now you go back to the person who sells
it and that person says you know what my
job was to sell it go to somebody else
whose job it is to service it either
human beings will get over this need and
requirement or and this is what this
founder of pick many services did say
you know what why do people need to
change their habit why don’t we change
it so what this guy did he identified
five of the most commonly used devices
which have this need and he also made
sure he was choosing small size devices
such as cameras laptops DVD players
which right now are probably obsolete
mobile phones etc and what he did was he
pretty much like you buy an extended
warranty
what he did was he told people that when
you buy any of these devices by my
special card or by the special service
having purchased that for the next one
year and that by the way the service
cost only rupees 99 for a year having
purchased that for the next
if your device malfunctions ever
regardless of the number of times that
happens we will come to your home pick
it up
send a semi technical person to your
house listen to what your complain is
that the screen was blank and after a
while it switches off blah blah blah
pick it up take it to the service center
narrate that story get it repaired
regardless of whether it can be done on
the spot or in a couple of days then get
it back to your home at no extra cost
just for 99 rupees for a year per device
now what is did while we thought when we
invested that customers would love it
customers would love it because a huge
pain point is taken away we found that
more than the customers the retailer’s
loved it because they said that the
maximum grief we get is by these
returning customers who find that we are
not servicing them what we’re gonna do
is you will just bundle this you can use
bundle this with everything we sell
thereby increasing customer happiness
with us so I invested in this company
can’t remember the exact date but
probably about three years ago at that
point of time its monthly turnover was
roughly thirty thousand rupees okay
today then it has grown tremendously its
monthly turnover sales are in the excess
of one and a half occasionally in the
excess of two crore rupees I am talking
of monthly apples to apples comparison
thirty thousand rupees becoming one and
a half crore rupees doing this you see
how that has the makings of a tipping
point and I could give you more examples
I can see the clock taking away and you
know my time getting over what is my
message to you today really my message
is twofold one is a broader message
which clearly affects everybody and
second is a business / entrepreneurship
/ venture investing message so broader
messages the greatest outcomes okay I am
not necessarily speaking in the positive
sense the greatest positive outcomes as
well as the greatest negative outcomes
that you will face will come from these
one odd breakthroughs sometimes you
cause these breakthroughs which is what
I encourage you to do drive it and
sometimes these breakthroughs just
happen to you in fact you know the
genetic lottery that means the set of
parents that you were born to has been
far the single biggest influence in what
you have become in life right and you
had no influence over it and frankly
your parents also did not specifically
choose you I think you just happened to
them right especially when your kids are
teenagers as – as I am like who Carmen I
certainly did not choose this guy and my
son is going to watch this video and
wonder which one of those two teenagers
I am referring to but coming back to
what I was saying so the the broader
message is that be on the lookout and
don’t be afraid to embrace these tipping
points because these tipping points of
the characteristic that they are
necessarily different than how life has
been all along so if you play it very
safe if your efforts to change you will
miss out on these life-altering tipping
points more narrowly more specifically
coming from my background if you are
looking to be an entrepreneur you know
they say you can do ordinary you can do
ordinary things extraordinarily or you
can do extraordinary things those are
all slogans I think that if you are
looking for a lifestyle business
something that gives you more than maybe
a salaried job hood there are infinite
is but if you are trying to create this
great enterprise which ordinarily would
have required generations to create and
you want to do it in a very short period
of time I think today technology allows
you to create tipping points and
sometimes with as simple a logic as
there is the prospective passenger
standing and there is the taxi standing
and just by knowing these two and
matching them you could create a 50
billion dollar more than that actually a
50 billion dollar enterprise technology
allows you to scale overnight once you
hit upon the right formula a
technological service or an online
service can scale almost overnight as in
with very minimal additional expense you
can service 1 million customers instead
of one thousand customers that is what I
want you to think about and once you hit
upon a formula even if it is just a plan
there are innumerable people out there
who are lasting to meet you because they
want to participate in your journey they
want to grow with you over the last one
and a half months I have invested in six
companies which has been the most
concentrated period of my investment and
the reason I have done that I have found
some entrepreneurs who seem to have that
idea which is going to change the world
hence therefore to
and hence my fortunes I invite you to be
part of that journey thank you very much [Applause]
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