Start-ups start dating

27 June 2011 Last updated at 16:31 GMT By Rajini Vaidyanathan BBC News, Mumbai Rajini Vaidyanathan reports

It is 0900 on a Sunday morning, and a group of 15 smartly turned-out individuals are already making small talk and introductions.

An early weekend start might not seem like the most fruitful time to pick up a partner, but that hasn't deterred today's participants.

They're all here to attend one of the country's first "entrepreneur dating" events, designed to help people in start-ups find "the one" to go into business with.

"I'm looking for people who I will click with," says Malay Keria, a business graduate from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai (Bombay).

Mr Keria is here seeking people to help him realise his dream of setting up an online event management company.

"I want to find people who can be part of my team and have some views on my ideas and can help me with the business," he says.

Mr Keria is one of a growing breed of Indians looking to start up new ventures. As the country's economy continues to grow, so does its appetite for entrepreneurship.

"The biggest challenge is getting people who are serious about joining a team," says Viraf Tavadia, 37, who is here to find people to help him expand his online personal fitness company.

The fact that everyone attending today has paid a fee of around 2,000 Indian rupees ($44.40; ?27.80) to attend is a sign of their commitment, says Mr Tavadia.

Breaking the ice

The "entrepreneur dating" event has been organised by a company called Nurture Talent, which aims to train and develop Indians with entrepreneurial spirit.

It is run by Amit Grover, who is today's "matchmaker" chairing the events and also encouraging participants to mingle and break the ice.

Continue reading the main story

In the entrepreneur ecosystem, it's tough to find someone on your wavelength ... to form a team”

End Quote Manish Shukla CEO, Retailscape The day-long event features a number of sessions, all designed to allow participants the chance to test the chemistry with potential business partners.

After initial introductions, speed-dating gives entrepreneurs three minutes to chat to everyone and find out more about each other. And like the relationship concept it is borrowed from, they fill out a form rating each person they have spoken to.

Ideas seminars, described as "group dating", also allow small groups to discuss potential ideas and business strategies.

The sessions are running in various large Indian cities such as Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

This one, in Mumbai, drew a crowd with diverse business backgrounds - students with ideas they want to get off the ground, investors, long-time businessmen, and even a doctor who was looking for help with his anti-ageing skincare business.

None of the participants at this particular session were women. However, Mr Grover says events in other cities have drawn some female entrepreneurs.

Building teams

Mr Grover says that while there are plenty of professional networking sites and events which are focused on connecting entrepreneurs in similar areas of interest, there are very few which work across different sectors.

"There is hardly anything which is focused on team-building," says Mr Grover. "We are trying to get that dating session to be that platform, so they can connect with each other with the specific agenda of team-building."

"In the entrepreneur ecosystem, it's tough to find someone on your wavelength or understanding to form a team," says Manish Shukla, the chief executive of Retailscape, a retail consulting company.

The event aims to foster business matches rather than romance

Mr Shukla, who started his business 15 years ago, is here as a mentor and says there needs to be more support for today's entrepreneurs.

"India's not been too good at entrepreneurship in the past, because business has been more about a survival kind of mode. Now, economic progression means more people are creating something larger than themselves," he says.

So how successful are events like this in helping entrepreneurs as they start on their business journeys?

"I'll definitely be calling a few people afterwards," says Amit Kumar, who was here looking for some partners to join his healthcare venture.

For Mr Keria, the event was useful too. As he hastily swapped business cards and shook hands with two other participants, he said he believed he'd found people who could help him get his company off the ground.

For others, such as Viraf Tavadia, the event was useful and enjoyable, but didn't yield any prospective partners.

The organisers say they hope to hold more of these events and believe they are an effective way to harness entrepreneurial talent.

"We're hoping after today some of the people will take things to the next stage and work together," says Amit with a grin on his face.

Like with any good matchmaker, there's nothing more rewarding than being at the start of something big.

View the original article here

Fuller's makes good start to year

10 June 2011 Last updated at 07:09 GMT Fuller's said beer volumes were 2% higher Brewer and pub operator Fuller, Smith & Turner has reported a rise in full year profit and says it has made a good start to the new financial year.

Pre-tax profit for the year to 2 April 2011 rose 16% to ?31m.

Total beer sales rose 2%, while revenues increased 16% to ?241.9m.

London-based Fuller's said the first nine weeks of financial year had been "unusual", with trading benefiting from the royal wedding, five bank holidays and "generally very good weather".

Like-for-like sales in its managed pubs grew by 6.8% in the nine weeks to 4 June 2011, compared with a year earlier.

Fuller's has 162 pubs which it directly manages and 196 tenanted inns, in which landlords rent the pub and get their supplies from Fuller's.

The group added that it had acquired four new pubs in that time and a major brewery investment was under way.

But looking ahead, group chairman Michael Turner sounded a note of caution.

"With wages in the UK running behind inflation, our customers' incomes are being squeezed and we will have to work hard in the current year and beyond to earn their custom," he said.

The dry weather at the moment would have an impact on barley prices but he said was not overly concerned.

"Barley prices go up and down with the seasons. Clearly there's a drought on at the moment which may make life a little bit harder," he told the BBC.

"But we actually buy our barley about three years ahead, which makes it easier for the farmer to predict his future income and also for us with our purchases."

View the original article here

Equitable Life payments to start

16 May 2011 Last updated at 15:16 GMT Payments will start in June 2011, the Treasury says Compensation payments to savers in the collapsed Equitable Life pension company will start by the end of June.

The Treasury has announced the details of the repayment scheme, which will be run by National Savings and Investment (NS&I).

It will offer ?775m to about 945,000 policyholders, while ?620m will be shared among 37,000 with-profits annuitants.

The payments will be spread over five years, with ?1bn paid by 2014.

The oldest policyholders will be paid first, receiving ?500m during this financial year, while ?300m will be paid in 2012-13 and ?200m the following year.

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban, said: "This is a complex issue, but the scheme has been designed to reflect the principles of fairness, transparency and simplicity."

The timetable was criticised by the Equitable Members' Action Groups (Emag).

"The compensation letters that are to go to victims will be spread out over 12 months - so many people will not know what's happening for at least a year," said an Emag spokesman.

Letters due

About 100,000 policyholders will not receive any money as they lost less than ?10 each - too little to be repaid in the light of the administrative costs.

Meanwhile a further 435,000 policyholders have been judged not to have suffered any losses.

The Treasury said all policyholders due a payment would receive a letter before June 2012.

That will tell them how much they will get and approximately when they will receive it.

However, those not due anything will not be contacted at all.

The Treasury said there would not be any faster payments for those in hardship.

"The scheme will make all reasonable effort to avoid unnecessary delays in making payments," the Treasury said.

"However, regardless of circumstances, payments cannot be brought forward on grounds of hardship."

Although the government said the policyholders had suffered "relative losses" of ?4.1bn, it has decided it cannot afford to repay that sum.

So while the with-profits annuitants will be repaid all their losses, the other savers will be repaid just 22% of their losses.

Relative loss is defined as "the difference between the actual returns received, or expected to be received, from Equitable Life and the assumed returns that the policyholder would have received if they had invested in a similar product in a comparable company", the Treasury said.

View the original article here