Hey, suppose an angel investor came up to you and gave you one crore rupees – what would you do with it? How would you spend it over the next 6-12 months? [No, you’re not allowed to say “blow it on a new car”!!]
This is a question I love asking rodinhooders; it gives me an idea where they are struggling (I mean, who isn’t?), what’s their biggest pain point…. It also serves as an exercise for all of us to think about it. I have as well 🙂
So I’ve pinged a few rodinhooders and they scratched their head a bit. Some of them even replied 🙂
So here’s the thing: If you are at that stage where 1 crore could make a world of difference to you, pls share what you’d do with it! Best answers will be featured on the main post.
And yes, if we get some interesting responses, who knows, some investors just might take a fancy to a few and tra la la la la!
Like I say many times… you NEVER KNOW what can happen on trh 🙂
Anurag Adukia (Boxwala @boxwala_)
A crore! Or should I say CRORE! That’s a lot of money!!
So we are currently going through an expansion phase and are moving our unit to Vasai (30 kms from Mumbai). This is going to be an 8000 sq feet facility and we are planning to have all operations in-house for the packaging industry which we belong to. Since it’s a big project we have spent a lot of money on the land and a big deal would go into the construction. After completing everything we would require funds to invest in plant and machinery. Basically we are looking to purchase a 4 Colour Offset Printing machine so that we can come in the list of very few corrugated box manufacturers who have their own printing press. This would help us in gaining business from big corporate companies like Siyarams, Domino’s, Pidelite etc. The same has been on our charts for quite some time and we would take approx 5 years to do it on our own (since we have been bootstrapped). If we manage to get that amount in a short time then it would fast track our growth.
The bigger companies in the b2b market whom we majorly target are always looking for vendors with complete in-house facilities and with a big setup. Since we already have the land in place, the next step for us would be to get the equipment and start full-fledged production.
We would not incur much of a marketing cost as we already have connections in these companies who are willing to give us regular orders if we expand to a bigger setup. Surviving in Mumbai with big players has not been very easy for us due to high overheads and that is one of the major reason for us to move out.
The cost breakup for the same would come as follows:-
One 4 Colour 28×40′ Offset machine: 70 Lacs
One Full program cutting machine: 8.5-10 Lacs
Installation: 5 Lacs
Lamination Machine: 1.5 Lacs
Spares: 3 Lacs
Raw Material and maintenance: 1 lac
Working Capital: 10 Lacs (to be used in the first 6 months till the ball starts rolling properly)
As per my calculations this would be the approximate estimate of the money that we would use. There can be a variation of nearly 5-7% in the above figures.
Also the first thing that I would do is go to the Hanuman Temple and take blessings! It’s all his plan now isn’t it!
Anuj & Aayush (Link You @konnectanuj, @aayushsharma)
Holy Mother Fortune!
Just the thought made me jump like a teenager who got asked out for prom by the most out-of-my-league girl of his high school. One Crore Rupees without having to appear on KBC, and stupidly trying to survive the astounding charm of Mr. Bachchan, is like getting a natural shower in the middle of a cactus-laden Thar.
—-Cut to Reality—-
One Crore rupees is a tremendous amount for that lower-middle-class-family-single-son, who has perennially struggled to rationalize the concept of money, to himself. But then I have also learned, from Master Poverty, how if used smartly, money can help an entire generation leapfrog all its miseries.
In context of my enterprise – LINK YOU – this amount will be invested, primarily, in product development, data science and team building. I believe that Events/Conferences/Gigs that we attend investing our money and time (For which the competitive landscape is rather intense) need to offer more value to us. Allow me to annihilate the current scheme of things, as a stereotypical event today is only about the logistics to deliver an agenda, keeping the sponsors happy and aspiring to create a social mayhem by hiring jokers paid to retweet/like/share pathetic pictures sitting in hardly creative work-stations. The Brand Promise/Experience is a blatant lie, as of now. We want the focus of these events to come back to that so-many-one-persons, who decide to make the whole boohoo successful by burning their money.
Product Development – building a seamless platform for people to connect at, reflect on, and bloody enjoy all the events they attend, to the fullest. Rs. 20-25L go here.
Data Science – Understanding individuals and curating events feasibility and impact insights for organizers. An amount of Rs. 5-7L should sort this to begin with.
Team – Ambitious people who understand and empathize with pop-culture. Hire Less, Grow more. So, Rs. 5-10L for a strong core group.
Essentially, I would allocate 60% of that magic bounty to Link You, i.e. Rs. 60L.
For the rest, there is a different and equally exciting prospect I have to share with you (Assuming you are the person I needed to meet all this while. Hello!)
So, I would like to invest 30% of my imaginary fortune (for now), with this vision.
Two of my dreams en route reality and I still have money left makes me wonder how do rich people manage to stay unhappy. Definitely an art I have no interest in.
But since I have to do something with the remaining Rs. 10L, I’ll share it with my team. I’ll give some of it to my cat-obsessed friend to upgrade his cattery (Purrfection at home boarding, New Delhi), party in Goa with Asha, and you can join in. 🙂
Kunal Sheth (GottaGo @Kunalsheth, @GottagoHelp)
I don’t have my tech sorted out… I would spend some money in getting my product done right.
Hire a good UI/UX guy to make sure the customers are getting a good experience.
Spend some on A/B testing different ads to generate some traction.
Hire some interns to work on social media, be evangelists.
Run a couple of contests, exciting give-aways, generate some traction.
The rough breakup
Hire a social media agency: 40k/month
Hire interns for content/evangelist: 12k/month * 10
Tech Dev: 15 lacs
UI/UX: 2 lacs
Marketing (BTL+ Digital+PR): 3 lacs/month
Shobhit Bakliwal [inkmat and random indie apps (like Streaks!) @shobhitic]
The first thing I will do is quit consulting and work full time on my apps. I would hire a freelancer to redesign existing apps as neatly as they can.
Another freelancer for making inkmat’s Android app, full design and development. I’ll focus on getting deals with printers to support wider range of photo sizes.
After that, I’ll use some money to create video marketing materials for them. Real high quality videos.
Some of the money I’ll submit put in an FD to earn interest and use the rest to test different marketing channels and see which ones work.
Will hire a blogger as well to constantly create high quality content to push out to our users and focus on building our email lists.
After that, it all depends on which thing performs well. Will scale that process up!
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Looking forward to reading what YOU would do with ONE CRORE RUPEES!!
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