Wealth of the forest and other stories...

Last weekend was interesting... it was a weekend of the vana's (forests). Allow me to elaborate...Kathaavana (forest of stories) is the annual children literature festival organized by the Azim Premji Foundation. It is focused on bringing the joy of books to the under privileged children of the state. Rohini is a part of the organizing committee and so I got a chance to be there at the event. I visited a few stalls that were showcasing books for children. The books are a far cry from what I have  seen as a child. The graphics, colors and the content would make you want to go back to being a child. The stories are from mythology to fairy tales to books capturing life around today's kids. I was pleasantly surprised to see a few books (comics) on Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Some of these publishers like Tulika are doing  magnificent job of bringing out these well thought off books for children with great presentation that helps in generating greater interest for reading in kids. Many of the folks I met there have given up very lucrative carers to do what they believe will make a difference. The joy and happiness they experience and share is tremendously infectious.

Along with my schoolmate Mahadev, I also visited Vanashree (Wealth of the forest). It is an 8 acre farm on the outskirts of Bangalore. It is run by Srikanth and his wife Priti. Srikanth designs processors at Intel and Priti is into Neurophysiology. Theirs is an amazing story. An eight acre barren piece of land with three trees nine years back, is today a self sustained farm with 4,500 trees, fourteen cows and  poultry . The farm is certified to export its organic produce Europe. Srikanth told us how people laughed at him when he started, saying nothing can grow on that particular patch of land. Today Coffee, Vanilla, Banana, Mango, Coconut are among the many flora that grow there. He has even managed to grow a few Litchi trees. Parenting and agriculture are among those few skills that every human being is born with is his take when asked on how did he manage this with absolutely no knowledge of farming when he started. There are a lot of us who are always wanting to do many things but don't find the courage or the conviction to make it happen. In the end as Srikanth says it does not matter what other people have said or done..it all simply boils down to what you want to do.

"Only Nothing" break at Destiny Farm

Oh what fun it is to watch the candy floss clouds sail across green rolling hills…..

It is like the beginning of any holiday planning. Let us go to a place where we can do nothing. Let us just be and leave behind everything for a while. As it then turns out, as soon as we reach a place I am the one scanning what to do next. What are the many sights around, must see places and lo the holiday is over. On the way back it is the same story, the next trip we will make sure it will be all about nothing….

Honeymooning couples, large families with kids all over, a lake, one suicide point and a sunset point, it was these cliché that kept us from not looking at Ooty as a destination to go. But then, hills have a strange way of calling you back, and, the Western Ghats are no exception. So Ooty it was for our Only Nothing trip.

Ooty was a tad disappointing. It is massively crowded, narrow lanes and traffic that makes it even more worse. The weather however, was brilliant. It was touching 10 C at night. It is a different experience to have a fireplace lit in your room. The wood burning slowly, warming up the room and the smell of wood..wow..thats the stuff the I have read in books.



We stayed at Destiny Farm. This is about 28 kms outside of Ooty towards Avalanche. This is where our Only Nothing trip seemed like becoming a reality. You drive the last 500 meters in an army truck. Once you are there, you are just immersed in the beauty of the location and the work that has gone into building the farm. 140 acres of farm nestled between the reservoirs of the Avalanche dam and the Emerald dam.  Potatoes, Letuce, Cabbage, Tea grown on the rolling hills are a sight straight out of book. They have a cattle farm, 25 odd cows, there are about 10 horses running around. No TV, internet and handsets become mere paper weights. It takes us back to a time when things were done I am not sure how, anymore. We spent our time just walking around, a lot of time was spent looking at the clouds sail across the skies. It took a while to muster enough courage to get on a horse for ride. Such beautiful creatures they are.One of them is actually called Destiny.

Actual view out of our window

Just like the many people who have visited the place before us, on the way back during the bumpy ride in the military truck I too made up my mind to set up a farm one day, someday… But one thing became certain to me, that doing nothing is not impossible and it can be great fun too.

Communities will be based on shared values...

Another state being carved out is the big headlines, and as usual there are people of both sides of the argument, if it is the right thing to do or not. I do think it is good to have smaller states. It brings administrative efficiencies, especially in a country like India.
But what got me thinking is the concept of native place.. We are in this massive information age, social networks where there are no physical boundaries. I also believe that we in in an age of travel. I am not talking about the camera holding tourist, but migration of people in their constant pursuit of lively hood, love and peace. I am a Keralite, brought up in Karnataka and spend a good portion of my professional life in Andra Pradesh. I am not sure what my native place is, and I am not too worried about it either. My sense of culture, tradition, etc are very different from that of my parents for example. Mine is a potluck that I have picked up from my experiences from the places I have lived, things I have seen there and a little bit of my own being.
Globally, migrating people form a large chunck and it is increasing at a rapid pace. Communities  soon will be based on shared values. Our sense of home will not necessarily be defined by where we are born but more by where we chose to be. This freedom of choice is not about an isolation or withdrawal from our past, it is about a new integration of shared values born out of man's constant pursuit of finding perfection.

The call of the Himalayas

They say if you ever go to see the Himalayas, the mountains then tend to keep calling you back. I have spent the Sunday morning looks at the pictures from our trip to the great mountains. I  like to look at the hard copies of the photos as against viewing soft copies on the pad. It is not that I have anything against the use of technology, I invest in early stage tech companies as a part of my day job. But then, just call me old fashioned.

Ro and me made the trip in September 2010. Its been a while but the memories are so strong of the town of Leh , the Thiksey Monastery and the little Buddhas running around.

The drive to Nubra valley via the Kardunla pass and the mesmerising Pangong lake. We spent about 10 days there driving around along with Andus our local guide/driver.
Being in the midst of the mountains is an humbling experince. Vast expanses of cold desert, with no sign of human life. One could be this rock star person back home, but here one cannot stop from reflecting, it will dawn on you how insignificant one is in the overall scheme of things.
The people live simple yet happy lives threre holding on to the last straws of their culture under the fast approching roadroller of progress.
The most telling memory of the place is this. Ro and me were looking for the world famous Pashmina. Andus promissed to take us to this place where we were sure to get the most authentic pashmina. In the midlle of nowhere he stopped oneday, stopped the Jeep on the roadside and we went hiking to this small hamlet where there was this old lady doing her work. Brief converstaion between Andus and her, she returned with a basket of pure pashmina wool.
We did'nt need to know the language to see the shock on her face when we said we said we dont know how to make anything out of this wool. She was even more surprised when she learnt that we didnt know where we could get this done back home in the big city. The old woman was smiling and said god bless you folks as we walked back to our Jeep.  
It was an amazing experience for us. It is also a Sunday morning well spent looking at these pictures. The exercise has lifted my spirits and filled my heart with joy. As I close the album I hear that call again, without doubt it is the mountains calling.... time to plan another trip to the great moutains.....

Dr. Ashwin Mahesh- Good politics starts with you and me...

This world is full of critics..people who somehow seems to know exactly why something will not take off, how it will be tough to execute, etc. Yet the world functions, pushes forward largely thanks to a few men/women who are willing to take their chances and pursue what they believe.
I have tremendous respect for entrepreneurs for the simple reason that the odds they have taken on are massive. The odds of success are so stacked against them yet their tribe grows... in all fields  because they believe they can make a difference.
I happened to hear one such gentleman today. Now he has chosen a field that is not so common. Politics.. Dr. Ashwin Kumar, President, Loksatta Party, Karnataka. Here is a guy who has a lot going for him. Distinguished career in NASA, IIM, etc yet he has chosen the hard path to make a difference. His message is simple "Good politics starts with you and me"... Now it is not that you and me don't want to make a difference...but how many of us have the balls to go the full distance, to actually test our commitment to making that difference.My heart swells in pride as I stand in the crowd and hear him speak. He has a lot of youngsters who are volunteering in his campaign for good politics and governance (www.ashwin4mla.org). 

He lost the last elections by a 1,000 votes or so, but more importantly he is back again spreading a hope for change. We need more people like him, people with just not the conviction but also the courage to back that conviction. He has managed to attract a small gathering of people to hear him speak on the challenges we are facing as a city. As I walk back my only sincere hope is that the people in that gathering are all registered voters. Good politics starts with you and me and the least we can do is to get ourselves registered so that when someone courageous comes along we can all show our support.

My native town Ottapalam

How I wish I could communicate the strange but pleasant sounds that the birds are making as I type this..but then it is not all romantic...the heat is searing... very difficult to get out of the house in the day time and it is only early March. I have been complaining about the heat in Bangalore..this is something else all together.
I am in Ottapalam, my native town. Ottapalam  is in Palakkad district of Kerala state in India. It is situated on the banks of the Bharathappuzha river (also called the Nila). It used to be a major town of Nedunganad and later became part of Valluvanad Taluk during the reign of the Zamorins of Calicut.


Pulliara Kshetram Lamp

Kathakali in Progress

The sleepy town is changing fast like any other part in our country. But then it still has entrapments of the fast disappearing rural country side of Kerala. The local Pulliara Vishnu Temple is currently having its pooram(festival). It is the biggest event of the year for the local community. The day sees prayers held and the evening has cultural programs such as Kathakalli, Paadagam, a form of stand-up comedy incorporating mythological stories.

I see the temple committee running around managing the whole show. It starts months before with pirive (fund raising). The local community contributes to the annual event. It is interesting to be a part of this event, and join some conversations with the village elders in the evening. Local politics still is the biggest draw, I was not surprised to hear discussions on the latest drubbing AC Milan got at the hands of Barcelona. There was no mention of the ongoing test match between India and Australia.,
Like I said earlier , I don't want to romanticize everything, it is not like they don't have problems and issues here. But, life goes by at a much slower pace, gives you time to sit and have conversations with people about nothing, enjoy the sounds and sights of the beautiful countryside.
I do look forward to coming here only on short breaks.It could be unsettling if one is used to the fast pace of the city, but it can also give you a chance to discover yourself as you stand in a place where life moves slowly giving you time and more importantly the world is not pushing you to run at its speed.
What would you want to do if you were not constantly pushed by pace the known world sets for you? Would you be a different person?? What frightens me is that I do not have answers to these questions.. that is when I pack my bags and leave back to Bangalore, to work, to traffic, to familiar but unknown faces, most importantly to "no time" to think....

The danger of a single story

I must confess the title is borrowed. Two interesting things happened this weekend. One planned and the other not so much. One I watched this Hindi movie called Kai Po Che... and the other watched this TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story .
She has been called "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors that is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature" (Wiki). She also happens to be one of Rohini's favourite authors, explains how I discovered her in the first place.
The talk is about how we are all prey to the stereotype definition of people, cultures, countries, etc. And how, fed on this one single view, it becomes a kind of reality, even when it is rather far from the truth.

Danielle Lee – Studies in Culture & Society
On the movie, we are, in my view witnessing a "breaking away" from a single reality that Bollywood has picturized for us over many years. Movies like Kahani, Barfi, Special26, Vicky Donor and the latest Kai Po Che are in a sort of way moving away from the stereotype of glamourous life, swiss alps to the more real world of India's small towns. Also stories have moved to West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar, Ludhiana, etc. People live here too and their life is not about just falling in love and singing songs. Stories about their aspirations, insecurities, struggles and life in general. The success of these movies also reflect people's ability to connect to these stories. The movie makers are opening to the acceptance of such realities. Like Ms Adichie says there has to be a balance that one must try to achieve when telling stories.
Vulture capitalists is another single story that is dangerous, but then that is a discussion for another time :-)

Zen and venture capital

Once upon a time, a great Zen Master was asked to tell his experiences on the path to enlightenment. He said "When I was young and I didn't know what Zen was, the mountains were mountains, rivers were rivers and clouds clouds. Then I started to practice Zen, and after some time of studying the mountains weren't mountains any more, rivers were not rivers, and the clouds were not clouds."
"Now that I am enlightened mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers and clouds clouds."

This is another one of those things I read that has stayed with me. When I look back at the last 6 years at the fund, there are parallels that I can draw. The first thing that any one will tell you is that investing in early stage companies is all about the team and so it was part of my manual too. I would, as enthusiastic analyst repeat this every where, It is all about the team.

                                                                                                  Dr.Seuss

Fast forward six years and guess what... I still say the same...but then today I definitely believe it. Also the definition of a good team has gained a lot more clarity. Apart from passion, drive, domain, etc three characteristics that I have noticed in the successful entrepreneurs are

Ability to attract talent:Nobody has achieved anything alone. The more one gets smarter people around you, the better the chances of the collective effort seeing success

Ability to attract capital- Everybody has seen challenges, made mistakes. Having enough capital backing you allows one to make a few more mistakes learn and still survive.

Frugality- It is easy to get carried away if there is cash in the bank. The successful ones have been very prudent in spending.

I have been fortunate to be around a few smart people working really hard to build organizations. Each of them have seen varied levels of success. It is also a very humbling experience. Like Zen, venture capital is also a journey of self discovery.

 

The long road to FDA clearance

The holy grail for medical devices in to clear US FDA.  Perfint healthcare and Forus healthcare are working on the process on getting the clearance to expand into the US market. Both of them are at different stages of the clearance process.

Both the companies are working on the 510(k) route. It is based on medical devices similar to yours that have already received 510(k) clearance from the FDA, called “Predicate Devices. The 510(k) process applies to most Class II medical devices sold in the US and a small number of Class I and Class III devices as well.

The Emergo Group performed an analysis of publicly available FDA 510(k) data pulled from the FDA website.

• The analysis has shown that 95-97% of all 510(k) applications cleared by the FDA occur within one year of initial submission date.
• The number of 510(k) submissions submitted in 2011 which cleared within 3 months increased to 42% from 40% and the average number of days decreased to 138 days.

The average time for approval for various devices is as follows.

One important factor to keep in mind is that the FDA does not "approve" medical devices; they "clear" them for sale in the US. One could have a product that has been sold across the world, with doctors using them regularly, but for the product to be sold in the US it has to be cleared first by the US FDA. Given the size of the US market and their focus on reducing the overall cost of healthcare, it is an opportunity that is very difficult to ignore dispite the pain.





 

Regulatory approvals for Med-Devcies across the world

I was at the Perfint healthcare labs yesterday. I am extremely proud and amazed at the progress the company has made since the first time I met Nandu and team in 2007. What I saw there was cutting edge technology in interventional oncology. Technology that can re-create 3D and volumetric data of the anatomy around soft tissues. Th platform can revolutionize the way ablation planing can be done by radiologists using either CT or the Ultrasound. To my simplistic mind what I saw was like ablation for dummies...
The company has had its share of challenges. There are not many examples of high end technology being built out of India that too in medical devices. Given the nature of the domain, various countries across the world have certifications, registrations and clearances that are required before the product can be introduced.
Following is the list of approvals that are required in some of the countries. This will be useful if you are looking to expand into these countries. I have also added the approximate cycle time that will be required for approval.

Country registration details
Sno	Countries	Technical Documentation- Preparation Duration	Approval cycle time	Remarks
Import license /Voluntary registration /Notification
1	Malaysia	1 week	1 month	Voluntary registration- Allowed to sell prior to registration
2	Philippines	1 week	1 month	Import license issue needed
3	HK	1 week	1 week	Voluntary registration- Allowed to sell prior to registration
4	UAE	NA	NA	Import formalities
5	Kuwait	1 week	1 Week	Import formalities - Al perfirn product have been included in the notification
6	India	NA	NA	Ready
7	Vietnam	1-2 weeks		Import license needed
8	Thailand	2-3 weeks		Import license and thai FDA registration needed
	New Zealand	1 week	1 week	Notification to NZ WAND
9	Chile	NA	NA	Ready
IEC/EMC/FQC Test certificate required
10	Indonesia	1 week	3- 4 months	Ministry of health registration needed
11	Colombia	4-8 weeks (Translation involved)	3-4 Months after submission	INVIMA registration needed
12	Canada	1 week	2-4 weeks after submission	HC approval needed
Only CE Certificate required- Allowed to sell
13	Netherlands	CE TCF creation		CE mandatory
14	Sweden	TCF creation		CE mandatory
15	S.A	1 Week	1-2 weeks	CE mandatory +41 BM form to be filled
16	Jordan	1 week	1-3 weeks	CE mandatory
17	Germany	CE tcf creation		CE Mnadatory
18	Poland			CE mandatory
19	Belgium	CE tcf creation		CE mandatory
20	Spain	1 month Translation Needed		CE mandatory
21	Portugal	1 month Translation needed		CE mandatory
22	Italy	1 month (Tranlslation involved)	1 week after submission	CE +NSIS registration needed
23	Turkey	1-2 months (Tranlslation involved)		CE mandatory. Can export. (Additional product registration required)+ Bar code
CE/FDA+TCF docs+Approval time
24	Russia	around 8 weeks (Translation involved)	6 months after submission	CE+Notarisation needed+Registration needed
25	Saudi	2 days	One month from CE	CE dependent.Other documents ready+Saudi fda registration needed
26	Australia	2-3 days	Time cannot be predicted	TGA registration needed
27	Israel	1-2 weeks	4 months after submission	Ministry of Health submission needed
28	Mexico	5-8 weeks (Translation involved)	3-4 Months after submission	Expedited route of HC approval COFEPRIS registration needed
29	Singapore	4 weeks	6 Months after submission	HAS registration needed
30	Argentina	5-8 weeks (Translation involved)	6 Months after submission	ANMAT registration needed
FDA
31	US	3 months +Usbaility study	120 days	510K clearance needed
CE Certificate+TCF+ additional testing required
32	Brazil	2-3 months (Testing, Translation involved)	3-4 months after submission	INMETRO Certification+ANVISA needed
33	China	12 months (Testing, Transltaion involved)	3 months	Type testing in china+SFDA submission
34	Korea	2-3 months (Translation involved)	25 working days after submission	Type testing in Korea+KFDA TCF submission+Korean GMP certification process +CB EMC and safet certification waives korea testing
35	Japan	2-3 months (Translation involved)	1 year	No additonal testing+Documentation+Foreign manufacturer accreditation needed
36	Taiwan	4 months	6 months after submission	QSD application and Product certification

The journey to becoming a global med-device from India is far from over, but I am very excited to be part of this journey with Nandu and team.

Entrepreneurs are getting younger

Six years is not a lot of time considering the overall lifecycle as a professional. But to me it does seem the world has changed a lot in the course of that time. I have been a witness to how businesses have reacted to various incidents such as economic slowdown, the jasmine revolution to anti corrution drive in India.But one thing that I have noticed is that in the early days as a VC I would meet a lot of people who are senior to me starting up companies. I am seeing a clear shift in that pattern.

Today I meet a lot more youngsters who are starting up companies especially in the technology side. One obvious thing is the fact that I have grown older in the last six years, but more importantly I would look at this as a reflection of the current times. We are a young population and the youth toady are willing to use technology to address most of their problems.

Technology itself has evolved, stuff like social, cloud, bigdata, etc was not as prevalent even 5 years back. Software will drive productivity, collaboration access and transperency. The cloud, smartphones, connected devices and tablets will drive opportunites that can create both social and econimic changes and it will be driven by the youth who are at the forefront of this tech curve.

It is important for the venture community to understand this change and keep pace. Entreprenuers are not looking for dumb money. Fundamentals of building a good company has not changed however, the rate of change in the way products/services are created, communicated and consumed is mindboggling.

Traditional models are being re-written at a rapid pace. Being young entrepreneurs, they do not carry the legacy of the past.  They are looking to partner with people who have the experience of building business but also can help them adapt to the fast changing nature of business it self. In this context VC's too have their work cut out.