ET Sunday Magazine- Startup Gig

(To see all of the articles I have written for the ET Sunday Magazine click on the tab on the side saying 'ET Sunday Magazine')

Ducere Technologies' Lechal: 'Innovated in India' shoes meant to ensure you never get lost

19 Oct, 2014, 0547 hrs IST

By: Jyoti Pande Lavakare 

First came the sleek, fashionable, inclusive and wearable technology with a cause:

Lechal, the innovative, bluetooth-enabled haptic shoe (haptic technology recreates the sense of touch via vibrations).

Then came even greater innovation: in thinking through and deciding upon the actual process of manufacturing that tech-embedded shoe — right here in India — using differently-abled people. When both product and process innovation become so integrated in the overall philosophy of the company that you can't separate one from the other — it's about inclusion as much as about profit — it truly becomes the coolest thing.

But let's begin from the beginning. At an elementary level, Lechal shoes appear to intersect the worlds of sci-fi and magic — with a bit of James Bond thrown in. If you wear these shoes, you can never get lost — even if you're blind.



And while they're doing their job liberating you from ever having to read a map, look at a screen or ask for directions, they're also telling you the distance to your destination, the number of steps you've walked, biked or run, calories you've burnt, fitness levels and other metrics.

Additionally, they can track activities, set customised fitness targets, workout sessions and milestones and motivate you via audio or screen, transferring all this data seamlessly to your smartphone. And because they're on your feet, they're more accurate than other wearable technology that offers similar information.

Lechal came into being for a noble cause — to help the visually challenged navigate with Google maps through the use of haptics and digital mapping. And although it has since become more inclusive — to include those who are not visually challenged — Lechal's original intention remains priority.

Lechal (a rough translation from Hindi would be "take me along") signals the wearer through vibrations, the intensity and duration of which vary to correlate with the distance to an upcoming turn. So, it will vibrate longer the closer you are to your turn. The intensity can be pre-set to custom requirements. It also syncs up with smartphones through an app to provide a variety of other navigational metrics and fitness information.

Innovated in India 

Here's how it works: the insoles are embedded with removable sensors powered by two rechargeable lithium polymer batteries which sync with mobile apps like Google maps. Directions are relayed through haptic feedback through vibrations either in the left or the right shoe.

Now let's get to the innovative thought in the manufacturing process. When Lechal pre-orders opened in February, its founding team of Krispian Lawrence and Anirudh Sharma was still focused mainly on fine-tuning their innovative product and hadn't got around to thinking through the manufacturing process.

At that time, they had 12 different manufacturers and suppliers in China who were manufacturing and assembling the shoe according to their specifications.

"Our initial product only said 'innovated in India'," Lawrence said in a phone interview from Secunderabad, where he has just leased a factory to locate his manufacturing unit. That itself is laudable, as India and China are usually seen as backend sweatshops rather than centres of innovation.

But it was only after they'd tinkered around, fine-tuned and refined the final version of their product that they turned their attention to the manufacturing process.

By this time, they already had 40,000 online pre-orders — which translate into immediate revenues of roughly $6 million at a price point of $150 per pair. For the two co-founders, who set up Ducere Technologies, built the prototype in 2011 and raised $2 million as seed capital, the innovation had just begun.

Last month, they concluded negotiations to lease a turnkey factory for the start-up to begin its own manufacturing right here in India, a timely alignment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make In India' exhortation.

"It (the factory) is around 25 km from Secunderabad," says Lawrence, and they will soon begin the process of modifying it with wheelchair access and other disability aids so that they can hire as many differently-abled people as possible.

Lawrence and Sharma's business plan plays to the strengths of the differently-abled on a large scale — on the assembly line, on the factory floor and in quality control.

There's a sound rationale to these hirings: after all, who can do a repetitive job requiring high focus and precision better than someone on the autism spectrum; and which person's touch would be more sensitive in testing for quality than one who cannot see?

Add to this the social and financial benefits of including a previously non-productive demographic into the workforce along with the dignity of earning their own living, and the decision becomes priceless.

A Fashion Company 

Ducere plans to take advantage of its existing relationship with the LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, which has validated Lechal as a life-altering product for the visually challenged — and will tap into its 1.8 million registered patients in the initial stage of hiring.

It is also tying up with non-profits and eye institutes in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and the US to sell the shoes at a subsidised price.

"We have already reached out to several organisations. They will help us to understand the special needs that we need to address and incorporate into our factory," says Sonia Benjamin, general manager, communications and business development at Ducere. Many international organisations are also interested, and Ducere will first pull in the assembly piece of the manufacturing component from China, and will begin by hiring 20 visually-challenged workers, before installing the machinery and hiring more.

The idea of including the differently-abled into their workforce on a sustainable and profitable basis has been part of their early vision. The two entrepreneurs have identified the challenges of using workers with special needs. "There are no big safety issues in manufacturing and assembling shoes.

We will work with a fleet of companies that provide cab services to call centres so that we can get our workforce with special needs picked and dropped from their homes," says Lawrence. "Every cab will have a supervisor."

They're also very clear that they're not doing anyone any favours. "We are very much a for-profit company — but with the philosophy of inclusion, design and manufacturing in India. We want to build a model that is sustainable," says Lawrence.

Lawrence studied engineering from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, specialising in wireless communications and signals processing before moving to the Silicon Valley, California to work as a patent prosecutor.

A friend introduced him to Anirudh Sharma, and the two hit it off immediately. By 2011, they had created their first Lechal prototype and have several more wearable technology products in the pipeline, which they are working on in stealth mode. Sharma has just completed his masters from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The company declined to discuss future products, but said that they would all be in the wearable technology space — and that Ducere is positioning itself as a fashion company.

According to Lawrence, wearable technology is just a fad. "Wearable technology isn't going to exist. Fashion is. We're a fashion company - we're not in the business of building gadgets," he says.

Ducere has 50 employees, and they are on a sharp growth phase. A group of unnamed high networth individuals provided the initial $2 million that was used for product development.

"Now, we need money for sales and marketing," says Benjamin. "We are on a hiring spree," she adds. Depending on finding the right fit "by the end of 2014, we should be up to 100 employees". This doesn't include the workers in the factory; the company will begin with 20 this year, going up in proportion to the volume of demand for the footwear.

The company is looking for additional funding for its growth plans, but is going to be very picky about where it accepts funding from.

Expects Brisk Sales 

Lawrence discloses that Ducere is looking to raise $5 million by December and, perhaps, another $5 million later. He will resort to a combination of debt-based and equity funding by leveraging the company's order book. But first, they will go back to their existing investors to see if they can keep the equity limited to those who have already invested. "These people already believe in what we're doing. We want people on board who have been on this journey before. We want to get the money from the right people," says Lawrence. He is in talks "with some good VCs," he says.

Ducere expects to get its own cash flows going from confirmed orders by June 2015. "Right now, we're mobilizing all our resources now for the manufacturing process," explains Lawrence. The first Lechal shoe will roll out in February 2015.

Benjamin confirms that the designer shoe won't just sell online; the company will be setting up extensive sales and distribution channels through brick-and-mortar stores and tie-ups with existing retail outlets, whether they are sports and fitness stores or fashion footwear stores.

"We have a very clear pricing strategy and we will hold that firm throughout, whether it's an Amazon, Flipkart or online sales from overseas. We want people to understand what Lechal is. We want to tailor the retail experience. We're using this quarter to finalise our distribution agreements with retailers," says Benjamin.

The only people who will get this sleek piece of wearable-technology at discounted rates will be the visually-challenged. "We will provide it to them at a 30% to 60% subsidy initially, until our volumes of full price sales rise. Then we can increase the discount," says Benjamin.

"India is the blind capital of the world," adds Lawrence, and even trying to integrate that demographic into the mainstream is an ambitious aim. But for buyers to know that a portion of the price they pay for this design accessory is going to subsidise the shoe of someone who is visuallychallenged should itself be motivating.

With the insoles priced at $149.99 a pair, and the shoes marginally higher, they aren't cheap and some buyers will need an extra nudge. But given that it's a global product — the team has received a fair bit of international interest, mainly from Japan, Europe, the US and the UK — the company expects sales to take off very quickly.

"With this footwear, one can belong to any country as soon as you land there. It will be so liberating to walk, run or bike without looking at a screen," says Lawrence. He estimates sales of around 1,00,000 by December 2015, a conservative estimate, he reckons. But what about copycat products?

There are bound to be those, admits Lawrence, but his experience as a patent prosecutor in California has helped him get 24 utility and design patents internationally. Meanwhile, their quality, guarantees, early-mover advantage, online and phone tech support as well as innovative manufacturing plan should be enough protection for now.

(The writer is an independent columnist)

Meet Kia Scherr, a peace entrepreneur, whose husband & daughter were killed in 26/11 terror attacks

30 Nov, 2014, 1142 hrs IST

By: Jyoti Pande Lavakare 

What do you do when you are living a peaceful life as a modern meditation retreat presenter on a farm in rural Virgina with your family, and your husband and daughter go to India on a spiritual mission over Thanksgiving and are shot and killed by terrorists?

First, you try not to go insane with grief and rage. You turn to meditation to keep you strong through the horrific challenges you have to face to piece your life back together. You try and make sense of the tragedy, of the irony of your peace-loving family being shot by terror activists, of your life, or whatever is left of it. You try and understand the why of something that seems so senseless.And then,


 If you're Kia Scherr, you turn into a peace entrepreneur. You join hands to co-found a global peace initiative that works to bring tools of peace to education, business and government. You learn about the Global Terrorism Index Institute Peace and you devote your life to promoting non-aggression in every aspect of community from extremist activity down to behaviour in daily interactions.

I met Scherr at a Goan Pub Crawl last week. The event is much more unique than it sounds, not just because it is run by two Brits, Sylvia and Greg Johnson, who have lived on and off in India for almost 18 years, but because it makes almost no money for anyone, is meant mainly for local expats (not for tourists), isn't advertised or marketed and yet refuses to die.

Out on a Mission 

Scherr looked pensive. On that day — November 14 — exactly six years ago, Scherr had dropped off her husband Alan and daughter Naomi to the Dulles International airport after a happy breakfast of eggs, toast and a last cup of coffee, which she mentions in a moving haiku on her blog (see Tragedy in Verse).

Alan, an art professor turned-meditation-proponent and Naomi, their only daughter, homeschooled on a modern meditation sanctuary on the Blue Ridge mountains and readying to go away to a boarding school in New York, were excited about visiting India.

"I dropped them at Dulles. We hung out there together for awhile, reluctant to say goodbye too quickly. Our last words were 'I love you, see you in two weeks'!" says Scherr. That was the last time she saw them alive.

Scherr's calm when she speaks is almost unreal. She is willing to talk about her sorrow, her experiences in India, her work and her life — as long as it helps her mission of spreading peace.

And she has the ability to stare out of the window of the bus we're travelling in for long periods of utter, reflective quiet, right in the middle of a drunken pub crawl, of which she is a willing participant.

This is so much in alignment with her "Letter to a Terrorist," which was made into a short film with her reading the letter in which she says she feels "with each passing day, more alive than I have ever been".

The film was banned in Pakistan and threats were made to those who wanted to show it, says Scherr. Her story was also included in Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu's latest book, The Book of Forgiving, which he wrote with his daughter.

Scherr has developed a foundation programme to increase individual and collective awareness of the benefits of cooperation.

"This establishes an operating system that will shift the way we teach, learn, do business and govern. It creates a new mindset based on respect, resulting in peace and tolerance in everyday life," she says.

She calls this her Pocketbook of Peace. Instead of taking refuge in revengeful feelings, Scherr tried to make sense of the senselessness of what had happened to her.

"When I was in Washington DC last year, I took a class at the Embassy of Pakistan called Understanding Pakistan. Voice of America interviewed me at the beginning and the end of the three-week session. They said this would air all over Pakistan," she said.

"It was aired again this summer and I was contacted by a Pakistani educator who wanted to include the Pocketbook of Peace material into his program for teachers and students."

According to Scherr, acceptance is key. So although she was in Goa with friends at an event last week that could only be rambunctious and fun, she was also very aware of the approaching anniversary of the day she "lost her life", as she puts it.

"I am determined that my legacy from the loss of my life (which it was, to me) in India, is not to shun India. I have thought long and hard about why terrorism — and other forms of aggression even in every day life — happens. Clearly it is utopian to dream that I can change the world but small beginnings reach big ends," she said. This is from a mother whose daughter chose to come to India because she came across Mahatma Gandhi's saying "be the change you want to see".

Step by Step

Between 2008 and now, Scherr has made some progress. She has co-founded One Life Alliance. She has registered its Indian subsidiary and has among its trustees, people like Tushar Gandhi and corporate bigwigs, mainly from the Tata group of companies.

She has won the support of Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria, who is also chief of the anti-terrorism squad and was in charge of investigating the 26/11 attacks. She has tried (so far without success) to connect the Los Angeles police department to the Mumbai police through the US Consulate, which supports and encourages her work.

She has collaborated with the Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research on a 'Global Peace Initiative' to spread the message of peace and harmony to the world, which included walking a 'Peaceathon' with students of various schools and colleges well as an annual "Walk the Ramp."

With this much already under her belt, she recently brought in Valerie Bowles (who has worked in India for four years as COO with law firm Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co) to help her consolidate her gains.

This year, in addition to the fashion show with Welingkar, Scherr will moderate a panel discussion on the business of peace. Scherr believes violence has an economic cost, and when she discovered the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP), a non-partisan, nonprofit think-tank working to shift the world's focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress, she was delighted. India stands at 143 out of 162 in peace ranking, and one of Scherr's goals is to improve that ranking.

"Research shows that countries with higher levels of peace tend to be more resilient to external shocks, whether economic, geopolitical, or natural disasters," says Scherr, quoting IEP's Pillars of Peace. To support this thesis, the IEP has calculated the cost of aggression through its Global Peace Index.

This establishes the direct correlation between countries that have poor economic performance and high levels of violence.

Funding Challenges 

Scherr realises she needs to do much more to build on her mission to grow a more peaceful culture across the globe, and currently funding is one of her challenges. One Life Alliance aims to create community projects and events run by young Indian adults and college students, supported by local business and government. The objective is to raise awareness and participation around the unified goal of peace to prevent violence in all forms at an early age.

Scherr already has schools such as the Don Bosco chain and the Millennium School, Meerut, incorporating and improving her basic peace curriculum. A Teach for India (TFI) scholar has informally incorporated her Pocketbook of Peace in her classroom in Delhi with excellent feedback, which has encouraged Scherr to approach TFI to get them to add it to their formal curriculum. "We're planning to get in touch with TFI directly — so much needs to be done," says Bowles.

In the meeting with Mumbai police commissioner Maria, in the first week of November, Scherr gave him a copy of her Pocketbook of Peace. She proposed a project to Raise the Mumbai Peace Index for Safety and Security by introducing peace practices from the book into police training. His response: "Yes, we need this. Let's do it," has encouraged her further. "He said we could do a test programme in south Mumbai. This is perfect since that is where the 26/11 attacks happened," she says.

According to the 2014 IEP report released last week, which captures how 162 countries of the world rank according to the impact of terrorism, India ranks at number 6 on the Global Terrorism Index (GTI). India was at number 4 in the earlier ranking.

"The GTI shows that the impact of terrorism in India has increased over the past decade, peaking in 2010. Efforts to counter this violence should target the factors associated with terrorism, such as group grievances, criminality, and state-sponsored violence, along with inclusive political processes," said Michelle Breslauer, vice-president, IEP, in an email from New York.

"Looking at the charts, graphs and statistics on the GTI, we are forced to recognise that this is a reality that we are living with — and we are part of that reality. This research inspires me all the more to be more committed to be the opposite of a terrorist — to love like an extremist. Aggression will breed aggression. Kindness will breed kindness, respect will breed respect," says Scherr. "My family died in India, which is rated number 6 on the GTI. They spent the last 10 days of their lives here and those 10 days were happy days full of excitement and new experiences, says Scherr.

"India did not terrorize my family. India gave my family some of the best experiences of their lives, especially my 13-year-old daughter who was travelling outside of the US for the first time. For this I will always be grateful to India and for that reason I am determined to give something back that will be of lasting value."

(The writer is an independent columnist and writer)

How Wishberry, a crowdfunding platform, has positioned itself at the intersection of creativity & commerce

9 Nov, 2014, 0300 hrs IST

By: Jyoti Pande Lavakare 

They sell you dreams. Your own dreams, actually. And then they help you fund those dreams, to make them a reality.

Wishberry, a crowdfunding platform cofounded by two high- energy, articulate and intelligent entrepreneurs, is an unashamed knock off of an existing, successful idea that international platforms such as Indiegogo (founded in 2008), Kickstarter (2009), Pozible (2010) and others captured early. Many similar Indian funding platforms have spawned from the originals — including Wishberry in its current avatar (2012).


But what makes Wishberry stand out from others is not just its focus on the creative spaces (Australian crowdfunder Pozible has a similar model) but how its co founders — Anshulika Dubey and Priyanka Agarwal — have tweaked the international Do It Yourself (DIY) model to fit into the Indian ethos of handholding and tutoring.

"Wishberry is a risk- free way to bring creative, innovative ideas to life," says Agarwal, freshly energized from having raised funds from around 40 investors in the past three weeks.

It was only after many iterations from a crowdgifting site around weddings to a charitable crowdfunder of marathons that Wishberry finally found its identity. The fact that it was agile enough to reinvent itself again and again until it found its niche is the reason why it hasn't ended up disappearing into the abyss of Internet history, the fate of many similar sites. "Wishberry will democratize funding for every Indian youth yearning to follow his or her dreams," Agarwal said.

Rescuing Creativity 

Wishberry's own dream — to attract more money from investors to scale up the venture — came true last week when it closed on its desired amount of Rs 4 crore in exchange for 27% of its equity. Of this, around Rs 3 crore came from well -known investors such as Rajan Anandan, Sharad Sharma, TV Mohandas Pai and Deep Kalra on LetsVenture, a curated, online deal-making platform, and Rs 1 crore from seven investors in a dramatic, reality-television -type event called "TiE the Knot" on October 17 at TiEcon 2014, a conference organized by The Indus Entrepreneurs.

Of course, it wasn't as easy to 'TiE the Knot' as it sounds. Before committing to any funds, grizzled, greying heads grilled the ex-McKinsey duo about their revenue model, existing projects, regulatory risks, valuation, market size, competition, entry barriers, exit plan, risks and rewards and other financial indicators.

Agarwal and Dubey answered effortlessly and confidently, throwing out comparative data, financial numbers, startling statistics, attention-grabbing ploys (screw it, lets do it) and saucy taglines (go fund yourself!) with equal ease. Their idealistic claim? "Rescuing Indian creativity since 2012," on their website pitch video.

"Our coaches help project creators pitch their ideas to online communities in exchange for exclusive rewards and recognition — there is no charity or financial returns involved," Dubey said at TiEcon. Wishberry charges a fee (less than 10% of amount raised) for providing its platform, coaching and other help. "Funders turn into early adopters, mentors and partners, thereby validating the idea and facilitating growth," she added.

This focus on training creators on communication, social marketing and stringent project curation has resulted in a 75% funding success rate, which is three times the industry average. Locally, Wishberry has mobilized Rs 3.75 crore, more than 10 times its largest competitor, from a community of 8,500 funders, 8% of whom have funded more than once on Wishberry, the founders say.

Even Indiegogo has mobilized less than Rs 1 crore in creative projects coming out of India with success rates of less than 10%, said Agarwal, a bachelor in business & engineering from UPenn (University of Pennsylvania). The idea of a startup functioning at the intersection of idealism and commerce is especially attractive to the millennial generation, which is known to do -good -while- doing- well. And what Wishberry does is access the inner dreamer and idealist resident in all of us and sell that dream back to us.

Platforms like Wishberry not just greenlight innovative projects that would likely have withered without the oxygen of monetary validation, they also give ordinary people the permission to participate in an extraordinary journey, whether their own or someone else's, making creative dreams possible.

India's crowdfunding platform space is itself crowded — from IgniteIntent to Start51, Catapooolt, Fundapeer, Fundlined, Pik A Venture, Pitchhike, Make it Now, the list of idealist mercenaries who believe in the ability of people to turn ideas into reality and want to empower them to do so is unending.

Making Dreams a Reality 

But of all similar online crowdfunding platforms, I found the Wishberry model closest to Pozible. The Australian platform is developed for artists, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, designers, entrepreneurs, inventors, event organisers, software developers and all creative- minded people "to help you make great things possible". Agarwal admits that Pozible also offers some help to its creative community, like Wishberry does.

"But we are able to help our creators much more than them (Pozible). Everything from labour to services is cheaper in India, so we can afford to give more help for the same price," she said. For example, Wishberry has aggregated a prenegotiated, economical student videomakers community which can help make "pitch videos" for those looking to fund their projects on their platform and is currently looking for content writers. "This also helps build a marketplace of affiliated services," she added.

With project sizes in the creative spaces much smaller, risks are more palatable and success rates tend to be higher, she says. "We can cultivate funding behaviour in the creative space by curating projects for our funders," Agarwal said, adding that Wishberry's traction and success rates are their biggest assets today. And once they are able to dominate the urban, English- speaking market, they're looking to go regional "in a big way," she said. Wishberry is betting on unlocking creativity in a population of over a billion, not necessarily helping people make money. As Dubey's visiting card says, "It's not about the money, honey!"

(The writer is an independent columnist and writer)