Business leaders everywhere are struggling to adapt to the demands of the digital age, but they all can agree on one thing: remote work has been an unqualified success. However, on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter that he would be reversing his decision to allow employees to work remotely as often as they like. He reasoned that the company’s vehicle needs are more time-sensitive than before due to their ambitious Model and production goals. Elon Musk’s end of Tesla’s remote working policy has experts everywhere wondering if this heralds the end of the remote working revolution.
Elon Musk Tweet: “Come to office or Leave Tesla” took over the internet
Elon Musk Email To Tesla Employees about stopping WFH
However, Musk’s remote work revolution has finally come to an end. After Musk tweeted on June 1 that he had exciting plans for Tesla, that led to a full stop on remote work. To be precise, it’s come to the office or leave Tesla.
As reported by Electrek:
“Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers.” – Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla.
There are many ways we can improve working remotely, but there is one overriding theme: constant communication and frequent in-person interaction are critical to success.
He said in a statement issued by Tesla on Tuesday:
To become world-class manufacturers, we must operate as a world-class manufacturing company. The move comes after months of pressure from Wall Street investors who were frustrated with production delays at Tesla’s Fremont factory in California. – Elon Musk.
How remote work started at Tesla?
It all started with a simple tweet from Elon Musk.
On May 23, 2019, Musk tweeted that Tesla employees could work remotely if they wanted to. The next day, the company announced its new Remote Work Program-and it’s been a success.
This was an unprecedented move, and it was quite a shock to many who had worked with Tesla for years before the outbreak.
The flip side
Remote work is celebrated as a cornerstone of a 21st-century company’s culture. Elon Musk, however, suggests that not only is it time to end remote work — but it may have never worked in the first place. Come to office or leave, he tweeted on Tuesday. Musk believes collaboration among Tesla employees helps break down hierarchical barriers between departments and that fostering teamwork across teams would better serve his company in future exciting endeavours.
Whether or not Musk’s statements were met with praise or scepticism from other leaders who also endorse remote work remains unclear — but one thing is certain: If Anyone has enough influence to spark change, it’s him.
What is going on with Tesla right now?
The electric car company—which has had no shortage of headlines lately, thanks in part to some disastrous crashes and Musk’s Twitter battle with Vern Unsworth, a British diver who helped rescue stranded boys from a Thai cave – is just one of many companies experimenting with new ways of getting work done. Although remote work is still in its infancy, according to some reports, nearly half of all U.S. workers do some form of it now.
But Tesla is taking things further than most: In an email sent out Tuesday, Musk told employees that there would be a dedicated team at HQ for those who absolutely cannot adjust to [an] absence of chaos. He also said he would be too busy manufacturing cars and building future products to hold regular meetings in person. As Wired points out, Musk has previously expressed scepticism about working remotely; he reportedly once said that he thinks people are more productive when they can see each other face-to-face.
With over ten thousand employees (and counting), it’s easier for management and workers to build relationships when they’re all working together under one roof. While remote work may have its benefits for bigger companies like Google or Walmart, having everybody together in person may ultimately lead to better results at Tesla. We’ll have to wait and see what happens!
How leaders are reacting to Elon Musk’s end of remote work move?
Elon Musk Email to Tesla employees to end Remote Working
Some leaders praise him for his leadership, but others are shocked and worried about how he will accomplish such a change. Many companies struggle with motivating their employees and making them feel like they’re making a difference when they work remotely. Is it possible that Musk will be able to solve these issues as well? What do you think? Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comment box!
The latest Elon Musk tweet made a big splash when he announced that he was ending remote working at Tesla. That’s right, in what is certainly a controversial move, Musk declared that only people onsite were permitted to work on projects and develop new products. To be clear, it’s not clear how far Musk will carry his new policy. In fact, many of his employees said they expect it will be temporary or confined to high-level workers rather than rank-and-file employees and managers. Whatever happens with Tesla, managers, and employers everywhere in corporate America need to take note of what happened here.
FAQs
When was WFH started at Tesla?
Elon Musk allowed Tesla Employees to work remotely in May 2019.
What did Elon Musk tell his employees?
Elon Musk makes it mandatory to work from the office for at least 40 hours a week.
What does Elon Musk think about working from home?
Elon Musk considers employees to be less productive when working remotely.
How many hours do Tesla employees need to work from office?
Elon Musk said Tesla employees to work for a minimum of 40 hours a week from the office.
In most businesses today, the sole purpose of operations is to sell products and services and earn profits. What enables more people to know about the products and services is advertising. It helps businesses to market their product well and earn huge profits through sales.
Advertising helps the consumers get the best possible options and also helps them to make wise decisions hence businesses need to apply the best possible advertising strategies.
While many think that advertising is a costly affair because it requires funds and requires expertise. In this article, you will find ways in which you can advertise your products and services free of cost and without spending any money.
Every entrepreneur wants to capture the market, increase sales, and earn huge profits. If the entrepreneur advertises the products or services at the right place, through the right media, and at the right time, he/she may attract many customers and fulfill all the goals. Here are 8 different ways in which organizations and individuals can advertise their products and services without spending money:
The graph shows monthly active users of popular social media platforms in the early half of 2022
Today when almost half of the world is working online it is imperative for any and every business to have its presence on social media platforms. Facebook and Instagram are some of the largest social media networking platforms and setting up business pages on these platforms will help you connect with customers in the best possible way.
You can convert many followers into customers by sharing your business updates, products, and services on these platforms. You need to make business profiles on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and Twitter to leverage your brand its products, and services.
The best part about these platforms is that you will get to promote and advertise your business for free to huge masses and eventually can do paid promotions as well, depending upon the need of your business.
2. Website Blogging And Posting Blogs on Website
Wix Home Page
Publicizing your products and services through a website and blogging is an attractive way of advertising. If you want to make your website or blog flashy you might need to hire a professional, however, if you are tight on budget, you can do it on your own as well.
By just paying for domain and web hosting, you can make a simple website and publish your products and services and market your business. Some of the famous platforms that allow you to make a basic website free of cost with ease are Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy.
Including blogs will mainly serve two functions. It will help you build your presence over search engines and will inform your customers about your business.
3. Focus on SEO for your website
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the setting up of WebPages so that the search engine understands the content of your pages and then may link it to you when someone searches for what you sell or what services you offer.
Today, with the help of SEO many businesses are improving their rankings so that their website appears and ranks on the first page of the search engines whenever the consumers search for a product/service related to their business.
While many companies outsource their work to professionals by spending a lot of money, you can do it for free as well. There are several things that you can do to improve the SEO of your site which include – using a different title for each page on your website; using the right keywords; including the name, location, and phone of your business; using phrases that people generally look out for, etc. With the help of SEO, you can advertise your business on an e-commerce platform most effectively and efficiently.
The level of personalized connection with the customers and masses that can be achieved via emails can’t be achieved through any other forms of advertising and marketing. The people who are on your email list are already your half customers as by sending them personalized emails about your products, special offers, and more, you can convert them easily after on.
Portals like MailChimp can help you send mass emails, design campaigns, and help you understand the customer’s email patterns and different analytics. Sending postcards, offers, wishes, flyers, letters, and other emails is a very effective way of advertising your business without spending money.
5. Giveaways
Everyone loves free stuff. If you can offer a good deal or a giveaway gift on your website or your social media handles, it becomes a great way of advertising and attracting customers. You are not required to offer something big, but offering some small discounts or small items will help you gain customers’ attention. Gifts like coupons, free shipping, some percentage off on any order, etc can be good examples of giveaway gifts.
Google has made it easy for people to get their businesses recognized by making their profiles that appear in the display results. You can easily add business contact details, location on the map, working hours, etc. on Google My Business and claim your listing.
7. Get Reviews
The new way of spreading the word of mouth is by digitally giving reviews on review sites, directories, websites, Google business, and social media platforms. Getting testimonials and too positive ones on third-party websites and platforms maximize the effectiveness of promotions. When your targeted audience sees positive reviews about your business and its products on such platforms, people trust your brand and business and will in turn become your customers.
Many people register their businesses on Internet Directories. These directories usually have top search engine rankings and people who are looking for your business or related products and services will quickly find these links as they end up on the first page of web search results. There are many highly reputed Internet Directories where you can list your business for free. A few famous names include Yahoo, Google, as do Yelp, JustDial, and TripAdvisor.
While these were just a few examples of promoting your business, there are many other ways too. Advertising doesn’t always require money, but all it requires is a little creativity. Running businesses in today’s world and advertising for it has become easy because of the internet and social media. All you need is to exploit these resources to the best of your ability to advertise your business and make your mark.
FAQs
Which are the best digital platforms to advertise on?
Some of the best digital platforms for advertising are Facebook, Google, Youtube, etc.
Some of the best-paid advertising platforms are?
Some of the best-paid advertising platforms are Google Ads, Bing Ads, Amazon Ads, Youtube Ads, etc.
Which social media platforms are best for advertising?
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are some of the most preferred platforms for advertisements.
The increase of startups and the interest of young entrepreneurs to start their businesses has led to many schemes introduced by the Government of the country. Several opportunities are given, to pursue the dream of being an entrepreneur to the interested people. Out of so many schemes, one of them is Mudra Loan.
Mudra loan or the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) scheme was launched in 2015 by the Prime Minister of India. MUDRA, which is short for Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency, provides loans up to Rs. 10 Lakh to the non-corporate and non-farming small and micro-enterprises. This also includes enterprises involving allied agricultural activities.
It is known globally that Indians have a great creative and innovative mind, however the majority of them are unable to convert these ideas into profitable businesses due to financial reasons. This is common in almost all the different sections of society. PMMY was mainly to encourage everyone to try and implement their ideas.
What is Mudra Loan?
In 2013, it was found that there were around 5.77 crore micro and small enterprises in India and about 60% of these were owned by backward classes. These units cannot be covered by the formal loan lending sectors. This means that they might have to depend on informal lending sectors which can lead to a lot of issues or manage with their own funds. The Mudra Loan scheme is to support young, budding entrepreneurs and also existing businesses to expand and experiment with their ideas. This is much more secure and the rate of interest is not very high.
The Schemes Under Mudra Loans
Mudra loans have several schemes under them and they are:
Shishu
This is when the amount required by the borrower is less than INR 50,000. This is usually given to entrepreneurs in their early stages. This is basically a working capital term loan. There are a few things that are checked in this case. The checklist here includes the Machinery quotations and the details. The machine details have to be provided perfectly well. The borrower should also provide all the details that the banks ask for. This might include the details of the supplier. This is basically for startups.
Kishor
This covers loans from INR 50,001 to 5,00,000. This is not for beginners but already established businesses when they want to expand their business operations. In this case, they might require tax returns. The lender needs to know all the details of the company. It is also required to submit the balance sheet for the last 2 years, the estimated balance sheet for 1 year, MOA and AOA, and the sales made before the company applied for the loan in the Financial year.
Tarun
This is another scheme that covers loans from INR 5,00,001 to 10,00,000. This is when the business owner meets certain preset conditions. The required documents and details are similar to that of Kishor but there are a few other proofs that are to be included. This includes the caste certificate, Address proof, Identity proof, and other essential documents. The loans are approved only if all the documents are perfect and none of the documents is missing or faked.
Who Can Borrow Mudra Loans?
Mudra Loan Schemes encourage women
There are various enterprises that can borrow under the Mudra loans scheme. This includes individual business entities, partnership firms, public companies, private companies, Proprietary firms and so on. Also, to be eligible to borrow this, the applicant should have a proper credit track record. The proposed activity is properly studied and based on that, the lender might ask for educational qualifications and other basic requirements.
The borrower will be eligible if he submits all the documents and has all the basic requirements listed by this scheme.
Sectors Covered Under Mudra Loans
Food product sectors
Textile
Transport and transport activities
Community, personal service and social activities.
Activities allied to farming and agriculture.
Finance for the equipment in micro-units.
Business loans for shopkeepers.
Features and Benefits of Mudra Loans
The key benefit of this scheme for borrowers is that they do not need to show collateral or security. Also, there is no processing fee for this. Also, there is no minimum amount that you need to borrow. It can be used for various purposes like expansion, modernization, machine purchase, renovation, etc. There is no processing fee involved. Only in the case of the Tarun loan, 0.5% of the loan amount is charged as the processing fee. Mudra loan can also be availed online and the repayment period lies between 3 and 5 years, depending on various factors. The interest percentage for Shishu is nil and for the other 2, it is 10%. Also, the age of the borrower must be above 18 and below 65 years to avail of Mudra loans.
Steps To Apply For Mudra Loans
It is very easy to apply for Mudra loans. You have to have all the necessary documents.
Step 1: Check what are the documents necessary for the amount you need and keep all the documents ready.
Step 2: Approach a financial institution. This loan is available in almost all renowned financial institutions. You can approach any one of them or even check their website out for details. Make sure to check if the financial institution is registered under the Mudra scheme.
Step 3: The next step is to fill out the application form carefully. Almost all the details like personal and business details. The documents have to be attached. Mention the amount you might need. There are different forms for Shishu, Kishore and Tarun. Choose the right form and keep the documents in hand while filling out the form.
Step 4: Wait for approval. Once the loan is approved, you will receive the Mudra card. You can use the card to draw the money you need.
This is the set process in almost all approved financial institutions. It is safe and secure.
Conclusion
Small businesses and entrepreneurs can go for a Mudra loan as it is easy to get approved and also it will help them get the first capital for their company. Since there is no collateral or security required, it can be availed by anyone satisfying the criteria. This serves as an encouragement for youngsters with an idea to get basic funding for their business idea and hence they will be able to put their idea into practice. This is available in various institutions and also can be dealt with online. This makes the entire process much easier than it is. The only major criteria are that all the documents to be submitted must be perfect and the borrower should be within the specified age limit.
FAQs
Who introduced Mudra Loan?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the Mudra loan.
When was Mudra Yojana announced?
The Mudra Yojana was announced on 8th April 2015.
How much loan is provided by Mudra Yojana?
Mudra Yojana provides loans of up to INR 10 Lakhs to borrowers.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Microsoft.
Perhaps the very 1st college dropout success tale is Microsoft, which was established by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Microsoft, a US-based multinational tech giant, was ranked No. 21 in the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest US companies by total revenue in 2020. It was the largest global technology corporation by revenue, as of 2016. Along with Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, it is considered one of the Big Five corporations in the United States software industry.
In 2018, Microsoft was declared the world’s most valuable publicly-traded company. In April 2019, Microsoft has become the 3rd U.S. public company to be worth over $1 trillion, behind Amazon and Apple. As of 2020, Microsoft has the third-highest brand value in the world.
Here’s more about this software behemoth and how it came to be known as “Microsoft.”
Microsoft – Company Highlight
Startup Name
Microsoft
Formerly Called
Microsoft Consumer Products (1980–1982)
Headquarters
One Microsoft Way Redmond, Washington, U.S.
Industry
Software development, Computer hardware, Consumer electronics, Social networking service, Cloud computing, Video games, Corporate venture capital
Microsoft Corporation, located in Redmond, Washington, is a leading multinational tech company that produces computers, computer software, electronics, and related services.
Microsoft’s best-known software products are the Microsoft Office suite, Windows operating system, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. The company’s main hardware solutions are the Microsoft Surface line of touchscreen personal computers and Xbox video game consoles.
The company is organized into three equally sized broad segments: productivity and business processes (legacy Microsoft Office, Skype, cloud-based Office 365, Dynamics, Exchange, SharePoint, LinkedIn), intelligence cloud (infrastructure- and platform-as-a-service offerings Azure, SQL Server, Windows Server OS), and more personal computing (Windows Client, display advertising, Bing search, Xbox, and Surface laptops, tablets, and desktops).
Microsoft – Latest News
“Digital technology is a deflationary force in an inflationary economy. Businesses – small and large – can improve productivity and the affordability of their products and services by building tech intensity,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. “The Microsoft Cloud delivers the end-to-end platforms and tools organizations need to navigate this time of transition and change.”
As of October 26, 2021, in comparison to the same period previous fiscal year, Microsoft Corporation released the following results for the quarter ending September 30, 2021:
Revenues climbed by 22% to $45.3 billion.
Operating income climbed by 27% to $20.2 billion.
Net income grew 48 percent and 24 percent, respectively, to $20.5 billion GAAP and $17.2 billion non-GAAP.
GAAP diluted profits per share were $2.71, while non-GAAP diluted earnings per share were $2.27, representing a 49 percent and 25 percent rise, respectively.
GAAP results include a $3.3 billion net income tax benefit.
“We had a good start to the fiscal year,” Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft, said. “Our Microsoft Cloud generated $20.7 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 36 per cent year over year.”
Microsoft – Industry
The information technology (IT) industry includes firms that produce software, hardware, or semiconductor equipment, as well as companies that provide internet or related services. The three main industry categories in the IT sector are technology hardware, software and services, equipment, and semiconductors and semiconductor tools.
The software solutions industry category includes organisations that provide internet/online and software services as well as IT services. Online services are companies that provide interactive services or online databases, such as social networks or search engines.
IT services are companies that provide data processing services or IT consulting to other companies. Eventually, the software includes all sorts of commercial and consumer software, such as video games as well as business and systems software.
The three industries that make up technology hardware and equipment are Technology hardware, communications equipment, storage and peripherals, and electronic equipment, instruments, and components. Communication equipment includes telephones, routers, and switchboards.
Technology hardware, peripherals, and storage include computers, cell phones, and printers. Electronic equipment, gadgets, and accessories include companies that make barcode scanners, security systems and transformers, as well as distributors and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). An OEM is a company that develops types of equipment that are used in other businesses’ finished products. Many Dell laptops, for example, have Intel processors and Windows pre-installed; Intel and Microsoft may be called Dell’s OEMs.
Semiconductors are materials that can transmit electricity in some situations but not in others, making them excellent for managing currents. Silicon is a very common semiconductor material. This industrial category comprises both semiconductor manufacturers and semiconductor peripheral equipment manufacturers.
Microsoft – Name, Logo, And Tagline
Microsoft is a combination of the words “micro-processors” and “software”.
Microsoft Logo
The Microsoft logo represents technological innovation that, with his Windows operating system, introduced the computer to the average person. Their logo serves as a constant emblem of quality in an operating system named “Windows,” which gives individuals access to the world of technology.
The new tagline for Microsoft, the world leader in operating systems for more than a decade, is “Be what’s next.”
Microsoft – Founders
On April 4, 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen established the company, Microsoft.
Founders of Microsoft – Paul Allen and Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III is a successful American businessman, investor, author, software developer, and philanthropist. Along with his late childhood mate Paul Allen, he co-founded Microsoft. Gates was the business’s largest individual stakeholder until May 2014, and he acted like the CEO, chairman, president, and principal software architect throughout his time there.
He was the richest person in the world every year from 1995 to 2017, except for 2010 and 2013. He is the founder and chairman of BEN, Cascade Investment, bgC3, and TerraPower, among others. Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s biggest private foundation, he has provided huge sums of money to many humanitarian organizations and scientific research initiatives.
Paul Allen
Paul Allen was an American businessman, researcher, investor, programmer and philanthropist. He is primarily remembered for co-founding Microsoft in 1975 with childhood buddy Bill Gates. Forbes listed Allen as the 44th richest person on the planet in 2018. Apex Learning and Stratolaunch Systems, as well as the Allen Institutes for Brain Science, Cell Science, and Artificial Intelligence, were all established by Allen.
He donated more than $2 billion to a variety of organizations, including education, animal and environmental protection, the arts, healthcare, and community services. With SpaceShipOne, he sponsored the first crewed commercial spaceplane in 2004.
He has earned several awards and distinctions in a variety of fields, and in 2007 and 2008, he was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Microsoft – Startup Story
Before co-founding Microsoft, Paul Allen and Bill Gates were ardent computer nerds in an era when computers were scarce. Even in high school, Gates and Allen skipped classes for spending all of their days in the school’s computer room. They were finally caught hacking into the school’s computer, but rather than being deported, they were granted unlimited computer time in exchange for assisting in improving the performance of a computer system.
While still in high school, Gates and Allen founded Traf-O-Data, a modest firm with the support of Paul Gilbert, and sold a computer to the city of Seattle for traffic counts.
In 1973, Gates left Seattle to attend Harvard University as a pre-law student. However, Gates’ first love, programming, never departed him, as he devoted much of his time in Harvard’s computer room polishing his skills. Allen moved to Boston shortly after, functioning as a coder and encouraging Gates to forgo Harvard so that they could work a full-time job on their concepts together.
In January 1975, Allen brought Gates an article on the Altair 8800 microprocessor from Popular Electronics magazine. MITS, the Altair’s maker, was approached by Gates, who offered his and Allen’s services to develop an Altair version of the new Coding language.
MITS decided to sell and commercialize the software under the name Altair BASIC when Allen and Gates presented their program to them after eight weeks. Gates and Allen were so enthused by the sale that they decided to start their software firm. As a result, on April 4, 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico—the origin of MITS—Microsoft was created, with Bill Gates as its first CEO.
The business opened its first international office less than a year later, in August 1977. ASCII Microsoft was the name of the Japanese branch. In 1979, the firm relocated to Bellevue, Washington, and two years later, Microsoft Inc. was formed. Allen was executive vice president while Bill was chairman and president of the board of directors.
Microsoft – Mission and Vision
Microsoft’s mission statement says, “Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”
Microsoft’s vision statement is “to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.” The notion stated in this vision statement is how the organization goes above and beyond to help its clients make good changes.
Microsoft – Products
Microsoft’s products are quite numerous, and a significant portion of them are aimed at businesses and business customers. Until a few years ago, Microsoft’s products were largely desktop apps. Things have changed drastically over the years, with Microsoft creating a slew of discrete online and mobile apps for individual users.
A few of the products are:
Microsoft Windows
Bing
MS DOS
Skype
LinkedIn
Windows Phone
Microsoft Solitaire
Visual Studio
X Box 360
Microsoft Office
Internet Explorer
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft – Business Model and Revenue Model
Microsoft’s primary revenue and profits come from developing, manufacturing, licensing, supporting, and selling a wide range of hardware and software products, cloud-based services, and services that integrate with them, as well as producing appropriate digital advertising that reaches a worldwide audience, conserving and expand its field of view and foundation.
The following are the three primary segments of Microsoft Revenue Generation:
Business Processes and Productivity – It comprises income from the sale and licensing of the company’s various software products and cloud services for various devices and platforms. Office 365 Suite, Outlook.com, Exchange Email Platforms, OneDrive and SharePoint Content Management Tools, Skype Call Services, and others are examples of such goods and services.
Intelligent Cloud – Revenues from Microsoft’s server products and cloud storage services are included. Sales and licencing of Visual Studio, Microsoft SQL Server, System Center, Microsoft Azure, and Windows Service, among other products, support Microsoft’s commercial strategy.
Personal Computing – It comprised revenue from Microsoft services and products that give developers, professionals, and end-users cross-platform functionality. Microsoft makes money from licensing Windows OS, Windows Phones, and Microsoft patents, as well as selling mobile phones and PC peripherals.
It also makes money from selling and licensing Microsoft Xbox gaming systems, as well as Xbox live subscriptions, transactions, advertising, and royalties from third-party video games. Search advertising on the Bing Search Engine and proceeds from display advertising on the MSN portal is also included in this category.
Microsoft – Funding and Investors
Date
Round
Amount
Lead Investors
Sep 1, 1981
Venture Round
$1M
Technology Venture Investors
Microsoft – Investments
Date
Organization Name
Round
Amount
Sep 29, 2021
Truveta
Corporate Round
–
Aug 17, 2021
Rubrik
Corporate Round
–
Jul 29, 2021
OYO
Series F
$5M
Jun 4, 2021
Intelight
Seed Round
CA$1.5M
Jun 3, 2021
Sibucayi
Pre-Seed Round
$1K
Jun 1, 2021
One Store
Venture Round
₩17B
May 25, 2021
Siemens Healthineers
Grant
$2.5M
Apr 14, 2021
Bukalapak
Venture Round
$234M
Mar 1, 2021
Loggi
Series F
$212M
Feb 1, 2021
Databricks
Series G
$1B
Microsoft – Acquisitions
Acquiree Name
About Acquiree
Date
Amount
Clear Software
Clear Software is an Intelligent Automation platform that protects and extends technology investments.
Oct 22, 2021
–
Ally.io
Ally.io is a strategic goal-planning and execution management software.
Oct 7, 2021
$76M
TakeLessons
TakeLessons is an ed-tech company with a robust, engaging learning platform and community for lifelong learning.
Sep 10, 2021
–
Clipchamp
Clipchamp is the video editing platform that empowers anyone to tell stories worth sharing.
Sep 7, 2021
–
Peer5
Peer5 operates the world’s largest peer-to-peer (p2p) content delivery network.
Aug 10, 2021
–
Suplari
Suplari focuses on leveraging machine learning to help enterprises change the way they manage their suppliers and costs.
Jul 28, 2021
–
CloudKnox Security
CloudKnox develops a multi-cloud permissions management platform that protects critical cloud infrastructure resources and identities.
Jul 21, 2021
–
RiskIQ
RiskIQ is a security company that provides digital threat management solutions for software vendors.
Jul 11, 2021
$500M
ReFirm Labs
ReFirm Labs is a group of IoT security experts that develops a new method for vetting and validating firmware.
Jun 2, 2021
–
Kinvolk
Kinvolk is a software development company with commercial support for Linux, Kubernetes, and consulting across the cloud-native stack.
Apr 29, 2021
–
Microsoft – Growth
As of July 2021, Microsoft reported $46.2 billion in revenue, $16.5 billion in net income, and $2.17 in profits per share for the quarter. The company’s revenues increased by 21% year over year, but its net income increased by a more robust 47 percent.
First and foremost, Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, saw a 51 percent increase in revenue in the quarter compared to the same quarter a year earlier, a number that would drop to 45 percent if currency changes were taken into account, according to the firm. According to preliminary research, the 51 percent rate is the company’s highest Azure growth since the fiscal Q3 2020 period or the first calendar quarter of last year.
Taking a look at the rest of the company’s performance, we may rank the revenue growth outcomes of its three main divisions as follows:
Intelligent Cloud has grown by 30%, thanks in part to Azure’s expansion.
Productivity and Business Processes: 21% increase, with LinkedIn (46%) and the Dynamics 365 CRM solution leading the way (49 percent growth).
More Personal computing is growing at a rate of 9%, with search leading the way (53 per cent, excluding traffic acquisition costs).
Microsoft – Competitors
The top competitors of Microsoft are Apple, Sony, Samsung, Mozilla, Logitech International, Google, IBM, Cisco, VM Ware, SAP, Salesforce, Red Hat, AWS, Oracle Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud.
Mobile – The fact that Microsoft has yet to figure out how to break into the mobile market is, of course, its largest and most obvious weakness. The mobile market share of Microsoft is now at 3.5%. This is a pitiful figure when compared to Apple’s 14.8 percent and Google/Android’s 80.2 percent.
Furthermore, Microsoft’s Surface tablet has only managed to capture less than 3% of the tablet market. As a result, Windows is the only major operating system without a functional mobile component.
Ecosystem – Additional problem for Microsoft would be that their platform isn’t up to par. Of course, there is one exception: Office 365. However, its Windows Store is about a fifth the size of the App Store and Google Play, Microsoft only recently released a free online version of its Office suite, Bing remains a distant second to Google Search, and Google’s Chrome browser surpassed Internet Explorer in total market share for the first time this month, and it doesn’t have a viable iTunes competitor.
Microsoft – Future Plans
For years, Microsoft has preached about the promise of rapid IoT growth via sensors and simple devices, all while creating a cloud empire and covertly acquiring startups that will help it manage these billions of cloud-connected devices.
According to some estimates, there are now 22 billion linked gadgets, with that number expected to rise to 50 billion this year, by 2025, or 2030, depending on whose study you trust. Although there is some debate over how many devices will be linked to the internet and when they will do so, Nadella has rebuilt Windows and Azure to prepare for it.
Microsoft also faces stiff competition from companies wishing to handle the billions of internet-connected gadgets. ARM, Qualcomm, Amazon, Huawei, Qualcomm, IBM, Intel, Dell, Google, Cisco, HP, Samsung, Oracle, and others are vying for a slice of this growing market, however, there is no definite victor yet. If the software titan is to succeed, it will have to persuade competitors and form partnerships with a large number of them. And this was why in current history, Microsoft has partnered with Cortana and Amazon on Sony on the future of cloud gaming, Alexa integration, Walmart on grocery store innovation, Samsung on Android apps, and many others.
Nadella made it absolutely clear that the company is devoting a considerable amount of resources to see what the next big thing is. Simultaneously, they aren’t asserting that this is their way of implying that this one item will consume all of Android, Windows, and iOS. People have generally grasped that Windows has a billion users worldwide, Android has 2 billion, and iOS has a billion. And it’s not like either of them was responsible for the death of another.
Microsoft – FAQs
What does Microsoft do?
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company based in Redmond, Washington, that makes computer software and hardware, consumer devices, computers, and associated services.
Who founded Microsoft?
On April 4, 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen launched Microsoft.
How does Microsoft make money?
Microsoft’s primary revenue and profits come from developing, manufacturing, licensing, supporting, and selling a wide range of hardware and software products, cloud-based services, and services that integrate with them, as well as producing appropriate digital advertising that reaches a worldwide audience, conserving and expand its field of view and foundation.
Who is the current CEO of Microsoft?
Satya Nadella is the current CEO of Microsoft.
Which companies do Microsoft compete with?
The top competitors of Microsoft are Apple, Sony, Samsung, Mozilla, Logitech International, Google, IBM, Cisco, VM Ware, SAP, Salesforce, Red Hat, AWS, Oracle Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud.
E-commerce in India is developing at a remarkable speed; emerging players like Flipkart and Amazon have proven their success stories. Currently, the E-commerce industry seems to be the ultimate winner in the business world. Several E-commerce websites are emerging and taking India by storm. When you are shopping, who doesn’t like discounts and great deals. Thanks to deal websites we have that options. Deals websites are intended to offer exclusive deals and products each time.
Deal websites in India save money and offer great deals while shopping from those E-commerce websites. You know there are numerous great deals online. However, you do not have the time to classify them as good and bad sites. In this article, we will talk about the top deal offering sites. So, without any further ado, let’s get started.
GrabOn is an online coupon and deals website in India that list various offers on online merchants such as Snapdeal, Flipkart, Amazon, Foodpanda, Jabong, and redBus, and updates them on their website. GrabOn declares that there are 4000 coupons from more than 2,000 dealers. It has over 40 million registered customers and receives 25 million page views. It gains commissions from e-commerce businesses for transactions. It is a brand owned and operated by e-commerce commodities company InspireLabs. GrabOn provides genuine and real deals on its platform.
Couponswala
Couponswala Website
Company Name
Couponswala
Location
Bangalore
Founded
2019
Website
couponswala.com
Couponswala offers some great shopping discounts, offers and coupons from some of the most prominent Indian websites like Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm, Makemytrip, and more. It provides coupons for over 1000 E-commerce websites. Couponwala started its journey in the year 2019 and has been offering exclusive and pretty amazing deals to the customers of some popular websites. The headquarters is located in Bangalore. It’s known for providing updated and genuine deals and coupons on its platform.
Mydala
Mydala Website
Company Name
Mydala
Location
Delhi
Founders
Anisha Singh
Founded
2009
Website
mydala.com
This is one of the oldest and most successful deal websites in India for the past six-year. Mydala is offering discounted deals across most of the categories. The company collects a commission as soon as the customer buys or books a deal. After that, the residual amount is paid by the customer at the time of redemption of the offer when he visits the retailer to avail facility. It is targeting over 410 million consumers in over 209 cities in India.
Nearbuy
Nearbuy Website
Company Name
Nearbuy
Location
Hyderabad
Founders
Ankur Warikoo
Founded
2010
Website
nearbuy.com
Nearbuy is a brand owned and operated by Nearbuy India Private Limited, it is a hyper-local online deals website that allows customers and local traders to discover and deal with one another. Giving local merchants and businesses more distinctness and business. It is currently operating in more than 35 cities in India and 18+ divisions and has over 50,000 retailers onboard.
Freekaamaal
Freekaamal Website
Company Name
Freekaamal
Location
Noida
Founders
Ravi Kumar
Founded
2010
Website
freekaamal.com
FreeKaaMaal.com is one of the head deals and coupon sites in India. It is a customer-driven website. Users can post the best deals they find on several e-commerce sites, and then the team selects the best out of them to promote them. Freekaamaal is partnered with more than 600+ online stores including, brands like Amazon, Flipkart, eBay, Snapdeal, Jabong, Shopclues, Myntra, and many more.
MyTokri
MyTokri Website
Company Name
Mytokri
Location
Delhi
Founders
Saurabh Gupta
Founded
2012
Website
mytokri.com
MyTokri is one of the prime online shopping deals gateways in India. Today, MyTokri is a renowned name to find quality online deals and coupons and turn the large industry into an online deals area. It lists thousands of online deals from 200+ e-dealers in India to help you get the most happening deals every day. MyTokri works on the concept of “New day New deals”. They also have a spot on their website where customers can find new and updated deals of the day. It also lists and maintains thousand of active discount coupons for online shopping websites.
DesiDime
DesiDime Website
Company Name
DesiDime
Location
Mumbai
Founders
Mehul Jobanputra & Jimish Jobanputra
Founded
2010
Website
desidime.com
DesiDime is a user-driven community for deals coupons and shopping online. Desidime is created to present a platform for users to cooperate, make friends, and share coupon information to make the best shopping deals. Started by cousins Mehul Jobanputra & Jimish Jobanputra and works as a community-driven social platform where people can contribute to the content, users can upload deals and coupons that they have found on the internet and can help others to save bucks.
Conclusion
There are other sites providing discount coupons and offers for online shopping for customers in India. The deal sites provide coupons for various e-commerce stores such as Amazon, Myntra, Flipkart, and many more for shoppers to get the product/service at a discounted price. With the rise of e-commerce in the country, seems like deal sites are thriving and will continue to thrive in the near future as well.
FAQs
What are deal sites?
Deal sites mainly provide good discounts and exclusive deals while buying products from and services from e-commerce.
Who founded Grabon?
Grabon was founded by Bhanu Raju and Spandan Jaggumantri in 2013.
Which is the most popular deal site in India?
Grabon is said to be the most popular deal site in India.
The digital world is more competitive than we could ever imagine, nowadays every business is fighting tooth and nail to be on the top and get visible to their customers and potential customers. SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimization helps you in getting visible, proper SEO strategies can take your business to the top.
Among your SEO strategy, Keyword research should be the very first thing. Before you write content, you need to get ahigh volume of relevant search terms. This is time-consuming work and also takes a lot of effort. However, it is very important to do it right. Keyword research would work as the foundation of your content development. In this article, we will reveal some secrets to make your keyword research more effective. So, let’s take a look at them.
Keyword research is the method of searching for keywords which will rank in the search engines. It is about knowing and finding what the customers are searching for and how. This also includes comparing other keywords to find out the best one that makes you more visible in front of customers than others. The more the keyword research is done properly, the more your chances to get visible increase.
Let’s take an example, if you type “gift ideas” into google, the word “gift ideas” is an example of a keyword.
Why Is Keyword Research Important?
The main purpose of keywords in SEO is to come up in search engines. When people search for keywords that should be relevant to your services. To stand at top of the results, you will need to add these keywords to your website. Keyword searching is a blueprint for online marketing. It drives various decisions you make. It will make everything more efficient and also if you don’t know the relevant keywords that should be on your site. Then it’s not possible to drive traffic, sales, and ROI at your site.
Keyword Research Performed for SEO
Steps to Perform Effective Keyword Research
There are many methods to do this. That can be done either manually or by using a keyword research tool. Besides of methods you choose, there are certain steps to follow and they are:
Know More About Your Topic
Before doing anything for keyword research. This will be the best that you start by learning deeply about your topic. This can give you great ideas and discover different angles to SEO strategy. something might you have not thought of before.
You should talk with your existing customers. Try to know them. Get out of the terms that your customers use to describe your service.
You need to think from your customer’s perspective. Try this way what if you want to share something about the service with your friend. Share it and treat your customer’s the same way.
Try to get include your topic in online communities such as forums and social media networks. Try to read the discussions and note down the important points regarding your topic.
Fill These Topics Buckets With Keywords
Now you got the topic buckets you want to focus on. This is the time for you to identify keywords that fall into these buckets. This is the keyword that you decide that it’s important to rank in the SERPs. The point of the step is not to finalize the list of keywords. It just needs to end up choosing the keywords that you think customers might use to search for content.
However, more keywords are getting encrypted daily by Google. And also if you are getting problems with relevant search terms. You can always go to your customer-facing employees and just ask them what type of terms customers use.
Prepare a List of Seed Keywords
Now you have the main category of different buckets of different keywords. You need to start preparing a list of seed keywords. These keywords should be relevant to your various topics. And the things that your target customers might be researching on google. Seed keywords are also called focus keywords. These are as important as they are the foundation of keyword research. If you thinking about how to find the seed or focus keyword. Then you need to do is describe your service or product simple and clear. And also how other people might search for that on google.
Use Keywords Research Tools to Find Keywords
You might have thought that keyword research should have begun with searching a keyword research tool. There are an advantage and great perspectives to doing so. This will help you to get more clearance about the keywords. It helps you gain a deep idea about your content and SEO strategy.
Once you got your goals, topic, and list of seed keywords. This is the time to use them as research tools to further refine the search terms.
For this, you can use google keyword planner. Sadly, google only gives approx search volumes. you can use other keyword tools. This will give you a lot more detailed ideas on your search terms.
Understand and Analyze the Search Intent
Plugging into high-volume keywords to level up your rankings is used to work easily. However, this is not easy these days. Google’s algorithms compare search terms with the user’s query to know the search intent. Search intent is the reason why people search for a specific term. There are various factors in users’ searches.
They are:
The reason for their search?
The reason is a question or an answer?
The search is for a specific website?
Do they want to buy something?
Put yourself in your target customer’s shoes. Once you own a good idea about the intent of your potential customers, you will get used to fine-tuning your keyword research. Getting the list for high volume keywords relevant to your service.
Recognize Long Tail Keywords
Seed keywords frequently search terms that are closely relevant to your topic or category. Long-tail keywords are more descriptive keywords and relevant to your brand. Matching the customer’s search intent to long-tail keywords is easy as compared to the seed keywords. As compared to the seed keyword “Indian app reviews”. Long-tail keywords get very few clicks. However, as they are focused on a specific topic, so they get a higher conversion rate.
Know Your Competitors
Doing only keyword research on google about your product is not enough. You need to know what steps your competitors are taking because your competitors are some of your best teachers. Take a look at their strategy and understand their analysis. The better you get to know the main idea of your competitor’s organization, the better it will be for you to understand your own SEO strategy and implement them to rank high.
You need to know the competitiveness of keywords. This will offer you the identifying searching terms that would be tough to rank. But you will get the keyword opportunity gaps. These occur when you get relevant keywords that are relevant to your brand. To know these keywords, you should perform a keyword search on the competitors.
Conclusion
A list of keywords is always going to help you focus on the right topic. Plus it will give you some short term and long term gains. Re-evaluate those keywords in a month. Once a quarter is said to be good. Some organizations do it more often. The strategy of Keyword research will get your page to rank high and drag more traffic. With time, you’ll get to know that you can add more keywords to your list and keep growing in new areas on top.
FAQs
What is keyword research in Digital Marketing?
Keyword research is a core SEO task that involves identifying popular words and phrases people enter into search engines -make in an attempt to figure out what to rank for.
What is the best keyword tool?
Some of the best keyword research tools are:
SEMrush.
Ahrefs Keyword Explorer.
Google Keyword Planner
KWFinder.
GrowthBar.
Long Tail Pro.
Majestic.
Keyword Tool
Why is keyword research important?
Keyword research can tell you vital information, such as where you rank for keywords, which keywords are easy to rank for and which keywords your competitors are ranking for. Keyword research can tell you what people are searching for, rather than what you think they are searching for.
The heart of any eCommerce store lies in its landing page. However, creating a high-converting eCommerce landing page can be a real task. In this blog, we will share with you the 13 powerful tips to help you create a winning landing page for your eCommerce store.
An eCommerce landing page is the one on which a visitor arrives as they click an advertisement or other link to the website. The primary aim of this page is to motivate the customers to make a purchase through the website.
The landing pages are standalone web pages and are specially designed to motivate the target audience to become customers. These pages lay the foundation of a website’s customer retention and conversion rates.
Having several personalized landing pages can help an eCommerce website to approach different target audiences simultaneously. As per Hubspot, the leads can be increased by as much as 55% only by having 10-15 different landing pages.
In short, landing pages are an opportunity for any eCommerce store to engage their hard-earned visitor and improve conversion. But, how can you actually make a landing page that is sure to turn a visitor into a customer? This becomes a bigger issue with the marketplace full of so many competitors. But you don’t have to worry about this, as we have got your back.
WIDGET: leadform | CAMPAIGN: undefined
Here we are with the tips that are sure to help you build a high-converting eCommerce landing page.
13 Powerful Tips to Help You Create a Winning Landing Page for Ecommerce Stores
1. Personalization
No, we are not asking you to personalize the content of your eCommerce landing page for every single customer. However, we are asking you to customize your content as per different target audiences.
Does this mean creating several landing pages? Yes. This is what we are talking about. This task can be overwhelming but the results will surprise you for sure.
To do this, you will first have to choose the different groups of target audiences that your website is trying to serve. This can be done based on several factors such as age, gender, occupation, etc.
Now, you will have to create separate landing pages for all these groups. Make sure that every single feature of the landing page be it designs, images, content, etc. should be according to the selected target audience
2. User-Generated Content (UGC)
With so many products available in the eCommerce marketplace mostly the customers get confused and finally end up buying products from their old reliable store. However, including User-Generated Content (UGC) as a part of your landing page is one of the most powerful tools to build a trustworthy relationship with your visitors and convert them into your customers.
UGC works like a social proof which is actually a very strong psychological phenomenon. In this, someone commences an action under the influence or guidance of another person.
How do you do that?
Share the screenshots of the satisfied customer reviews or other forms of content that come directly from users. Basically, these are the earned media or content that is not created by you and comes from a third party. This appears more reliable to your visitors who may directly move on to buy your product after reading a great review. UGC is known to increase eCommerce conversions several folds.
3. Call to Action (CTA)
Yes, we know having a CTA button on your website is basic. But, not every website is capable of creating the urge that compels the visitors to click this button.
To increase your conversion rate, it is highly important to have a clear, loud, and undeniable Call to Action button. An eCommerce website should have minimum friction on the landing page to make the CTA directly visible to the viewer.
This means that your CTA button should appear right in front of a visitor without any distraction. Our aim here is to create a singularity of purpose where the visitor feels the urge to complete the CTA.
Placing a hero image of your product and limiting the clutter are a few ways to make your CTA clear and your landing page convincing.
4. Mobile Optimization
As per a survey, around 50% of internet access comes from mobile phones. Hence, it becomes extremely important to optimize your website content for the convenience of mobile users.
Another survey states that there are around 6.648 billion mobile users across the globe. This counts for approximately 83.72% of the world’s population.
Mobile optimization will make your website accessible to all these people at any moment of the day and increases the chances of engagement multiple times. As more engagement means more sales this is sure to give you an edge over your competitors.
5. Design
Basic design rules are a must to abide by while creating the landing page for your eCommerce website. There is a lot more to a landing page than just looking good. Make sure it serves the actual purpose of its existence.
Certain features such as high-quality images, clear content, organized sections, etc. make your landing page look more alluring.
The design of the page must be chosen considering the psychology of your target audience. For example, if your target audience includes teenagers a bright, innovative, and exciting design would be preferable. Similarly, a sober and steady design might appear appealing to the older audience.
6. Create Urgency
Your landing page must trigger urgency in the audience. It should make them feel to take the desired action at that very moment.
Certain ways used to create urgency, with examples are mentioned below:
Creating scarcity: For example “Only two left in stock”
Setting a deadline: For example “Order before midnight to avail of the offer”
Offering bonus incentive: For example “Free Gift for first 5 customers”
Such sentences are designed based on the psychological phenomenon known as the “mere urgency effect”. It is meant to prompt people to take action. Hence, this can be used on the landing page to motivate people and make them buy your product.
7. Remove navigation
Providing your customers with multiple options on the page can get them confused. There should be only a single clear call to action. Other navigation links present on this page can serve as distractions.
The landing page of your eCommerce website should mark the end of the visitor’s journey. The only thing the visitor should do after arriving on this page is to buy the product. This is why a landing page is considered a standalone page.
8. Benefit Oriented
Your visitors are not your students. So, you need not teach them about every detail of your product. Instead of this, try to introduce them to the benefits that your product can provide them. For example, if you are selling laptops and tell your customers about the high-quality intel core i5 processor and 128GB memory of your product, most people would not notice its importance. However, if you tell them that the laptop is very fast and capable of storing 35,000+ photos, it is sure to attract attention.
9. Extra Benefits
A hotel offering complimentary breakfast or a restaurant giving you a free dessert, are examples of the extra benefits. The impact these simple tips have on their customers does not need to be described. We have all been there.
This example explains the significance that little things can have on human psychology. You can also use a similar strategy to improve conversion rates.
As per a survey conducted by Statista, around 53% of the users prefer to buy products that offer free delivery while 41% of users buy them for coupons or discounts. This percentage even surpasses the percentage of people influenced by UGC, which is around 35%.
Hence, providing your users with extra benefits is an excellent way to improve your conversion rates.
10. Videos
Videos are an excellent way to connect with your audience. If a picture is known to speak a thousand words, we say a video is capable of speaking a million.
With camera phones in every hand, video content has become a part of our day-to-day life. People share interesting videos on their social media every day. Therefore, creating innovative video content is also an amazing way for unpaid marketing. This will help you reach the indirect audience as well.
Also, videos are an amazing way to explain the benefits of products that may not be evident through pictures or mere writing. They provide the customer with a better idea and image of the product.
11. Focus
Make sure that your product remains the focus of your landing page. Most websites make the mistake of providing too much information.
Your target is to make the visitor answer the call-to-action and multiple options can hamper the focus. Therefore, the primary product should be clearly focused on and presented on the landing page. Maintaining focus is the key to a high-converting landing page.
12. Compliment your ads
Most visitors arrive at your website navigating through your ads posted on different platforms. This indicates that your ad was attractive and compelling enough to bring them to your website. Therefore, it is equally important to match the user expectations complimenting your advertisement.
Make sure your landing pages reflect the same energy as your ads through which customers reached the site. This is to provide the users with a smooth and satisfying experience.
Identify the ads that bring traffic to your website and develop an effective landing page that matches the text of the ad. Especially the heading should match the ad content. For example, if the main point of attraction of your ad was a free gift, include the same in your headline as well.
13. Testing
Creating a winning landing page can be a task. It is easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of work and get carried away with the number of colours and designs available. Therefore, it is important to have a baseline that guides the formation of the landing page. The focus of this baseline should be to increase conversions.
Once the design and content are ready, put your page to testing. This will help you figure out the inconsistencies in your page. The testing should continue even after the page has been launched to keep improving it and remain updated.
Conclusion
The primary motive behind creating an attractive landing page is to boost the conversion rate of your eCommerce store. While this blog gave the tips to help you create a winning landing page, you should remember that keeping the needs of your target audience in mind would always help you evolve and perform better.
The most successful websites focus on generating a positive customer experience and optimizing their content to make their customer journey smooth. Following the example and looking at the competition in the market, it has become necessary to create a landing page that is capable of boosting conversions.
FAQs
What makes a good eCommerce landing page?
UGC content, high-quality images, clear content, organized sections, and different landing pages are some of the elements that make a good eCommerce landing page.
How many landing pages should the website have?
On average having 10-15 different landing pages is great as it will increase your leads by 55%.
What is a landing page in eCommerce?
A landing page is a page where your customers first visit after clicking on your website, the main purpose of the page is to convince your visitors to buy the products.
A product’s success depends upon a shared vision that finds its approval from all the internal and external parties involved. If you have ever been a part of the product development process, you will agree with this statement, regardless of your role. There are multiple stakeholders, like developers, users, sales, marketing, and suppliers involved in product development. They all need to commit to a common plan and align their work to make it a hit.
When represented in a visual format, this product plan is termed as a roadmap. In simple terms, it is a plan of action that brings all the teams together around the short and long-term goals associated with the product. An effective roadmap tells the story of the vision, priorities, direction, and product progress. The roadmap acts as a guiding document that the teams track and revisit to stay on the course.
It also helps them understand if there are any gaps from their side and comes in handy in resolving conflicts between the stakeholders. More than anything, the roadmap acts as a reminder of the final goal. In this article, we will talk about how to create aneffective roadmap for your first product. So let’s dive into this.
If you are given a new role as a product manager and have been asked to complete the crucial task of developing a product roadmap. You already have a high-level understanding of the product, what it should achieve, and by when it needs to be delivered. All you need to do is to represent this information in a visual format.
You could be working on the release of a new product or upgrades to an existing one. One thing that you must remember is that product roadmaps evolve over time. However, the underlying vision should not change at any point.
How far out do businesses plan their roadmaps?
These are some steps while creating the roadmap of a product:
Define a Strategy
During the product development and subsequent stages, your stakeholders will often have to reflect upon the “whys”.
At such times, you will have to bring their focus to why you are building the product. It is what will define the strategy and the vision of your goal.
It can help you further to answer the following questions if you are struggling to define a clear strategy:
Why are you building a new or enhancing an existing product?
What are you hoping to achieve through this product?
How is your creation going to help the users?
Prioritize the Ideas
When the initial conversations start and also during the product development stage, multiple ideas will pour in. Moreover, there will also be suggestions from your customers that you would want to incorporate. You don’t have to include every suggestion, but some of these could be worth your time. The best way to incorporate them into your roadmap is by prioritizing and ranking them. This way, you will focus on what matters and make your roadmap and vision more objective.
Define the Product Features
Your product features tell your stakeholders what it is that your product will look like. It is also what aligns your development team with your vision. You can also include other associated information that may help them in fine-tuning the solution.
Plan the Releases
Any roadmap is incomplete without a timeline. It gives direction to all the stakeholders involved. It is advisable to break down the timelines into multiple releases for better efficiency. This way you’ll be aware of the deadlines and it will boost your productivity so that you can finish the work on time.
Presenting Your Roadmap
Your stakeholders have varying interests, and a single roadmap may not answer the questions they may have. To align everyone with your vision, you will want to show them something of their interest. It could mean creating a different view for every party. Here is how you can do it:
The Higher-Ups
The leaders will be keen to know about the high-level vision associated with the product. The leaders will need to understand how the product fits into the larger scheme of things at the organization.
Product Development Team
The development team needs to know every minute detail of the product. For instance, the team will need a comprehensive list of the features, requirements and release dates and others. It will help them in prioritizing their work to meet the given deadlines.
Marketing and Sales
These are the teams that engage the customers and are in touch with the market pulse. They will need to understand how your product will make the lives of your customers easy to create a sales pitch.
Support
Here is a team that experiences pressure after every new release. Since the team will be getting more customer queries, they will need to prepare themselves for the critical features and enhancements. They will be more interested in the dates and the associated training for their staff.
The Evolution Of Your Roadmap
With time, your roadmap will evolve as you may add new features or change the timelines along the way. To incorporate these changes, you must first prepare yourself to embrace them. At times, you will realize that a feature is taking more effort than you had anticipated. At other times, you may receive some information from your analytics team that may need some changes in your product plan. Ensure that you send the revised roadmap to all the stakeholders so that everyone is on the same page. The ultimate goal should be to deliver a high-quality product that brings some value to the customers.
Conclusion
A carefully-drawn roadmap is not just another document. It is the basis of your product’s success. Getting the best product owner certification can help you build better roadmaps and propel the organization to success. When you make a roadmap after considering all the crucial information, it will help you align your stakeholder and also prioritize more effectively.
FAQs
What is a product roadmap?
A product roadmap is the basic structure of the goal, vision, direction and the progress of a product.
What are the steps of creating a product roadmap?
Some of the steps of creating a product roadmap are:
Define a Strategy
Prioritize the Ideas
Define the Product Features
Plan the Releases
Who creates the product roadmap and releases it?
Product managers are the one who creates product roadmap and releases them.
Advertisements that persuade consumers to buy their products solely depend on touching their viewer’s emotional psyche and this does not come as a surprise. People make brand judgments based on emotions rather than information, according to studies, and emotional responses to advertising have a greater impact on a person’s desire to buy than the content of an ad.
According to Douglas Van, author of Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing wrote, “The most startling truth is we don’t even think our way to logical solutions. We feel our way to reason. Emotions are the substrate, the base layer of neural circuitry underpinning even rational deliberation. Emotions don’t hinder decisions. They constitute the foundation on which they’re made!”
Such emotional sensitivity from brands, on the other hand, hasn’t always been the case. Advertisers were more interested in persuading their consumers through the use of comedy and sarcasm throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. In response to this, ‘Pereira & O’Dell’s‘ chief creative officer PJ Pereira said, “I think what’s happened is that the ad industry has spent the last decade celebrating bitterness and cynicism and being mean to people.
For a while, it was great because it was different from everyone else, and then it became a trend and people got sick of it. It wasn’t funny or interesting anymore. So when things started to pop with an opposite voice, the customers totally reacted.” Here’s a look at the best emotional advertising campaigns that will surely evoke emotion in you.
Advertisement Appeals means the ways of communication strategies used in the advertisement to attract the attention of the customers and affect their feelings so that they can take an interest in the product or service that they offer. Some of the most popular advertising appeals that work properly are:
Emotional Appeal- Sometimes consumers’ purchase decisions are based on emotional appeals. These emotional appeals mainly focus on trust, loyalty, kindness, love, and happiness. These kinds of ads make quite an impact on people when they use some powerful but peaceful music in the advertisement.
Musical Appeal- Music is a universal language. Advertisements take the help of music appeals to make the ad interesting so that it can stick to customers’ minds. Various ad jingles and catchy tunes have led to an increase in the consumption of products and services. It creates a positive impact on the mind of people.
Fear Appeal- Fear can make you do things that you don’t want to do. Advertisers take advantage of this thing for their products and services. They show what can happen if the customer doesn’t possess the product and people often falls for this appeal, thus increasing their consumption.
Favourable Price Appeals- Discounts or lower prices can easily attract the attention of people. There is hardly anyone who doesn’t like lower prices, so favourable price appeals are a good way to increase the consumption of their products.
Let’s take a look at some of the most famous emotional advertisements ever made by Top Brands.
Budweiser – “Stand By You”
Year-2018
Budweiser created this ad by distributing over 79 million cans of drinking water to US cities hit by natural catastrophes. We watch Budweiser employees hard at work getting the job done while listening to Skylar Grey’s moving cover of “Stand By Me”. It ends with one employee’s delight at watching their contribution on the evening news.
This emotional advertisement creates a poignant feeling within the audience, paving a way for them to really connect with the workers and in hand with the company. They have used the emotional appeal to make the ad heart-touching and showed that everyone is working hard to help the cities that are hit by natural catastrophes.
Coca Cola – “The Wonder of Us”
Year-2018
In this inspirational ad, an appreciation for the uniqueness of people is displayed throughout. We watch Cokes being consumed by a diverse group of dedicated consumers, each with their own appearance, activities, background, and tales of their own.
Similarly, the voice-over is done by a wide range of artists, emphasizing the value of variety. Coca-cola becomes a source of intimacy and connection, bringing in people from varied backgrounds and making an amalgamation of a single unit, Unity in Diversity.
The advertisement has used emotional appeal, where it showed that it doesn’t matter who you are, your skin colour, your gender identity, or the person you love, you are unique and that is beautiful.
Nike – “What will they say about you?”
Year-2017
This is one of Nike’s most motivational advertisements in recent times. It starts by introducing a young Arab woman who goes for a morning run. Her voice-over (in Arabic) mulls over what her judgmental neighbours have to say about her as she walks by them.
The voice-over encourages the listener to reach for more as comparable women’s stories (boxing, soccer, parkour) play out. The advertisement’s editing establishes a tempo that escalates to a climactic point that is intended to be the most stimulating.
POV shots are also used in the commercial, bringing us closer to the action and deeper into the commercial. Nike is very well known for its long history of producing effective and inspiring advertisements. An emotional appeal has been used in this advertisement to showcase the strength of people in a world that often judges.
Tanishq – Ekvatam
Year-2020
Although this advertisement by Tanishq made the headlines for all the wrong reasons, we definitely cannot overlook the beautiful message that the ad brings in. The commercial starts with a Muslim family throwing a baby shower for their Hindu daughter-in-law.
As the creative comes to a close, the expecting mother informs her mother-in-law that baby showers are not a tradition in their household. “But isn’t it a tradition for every household to keep their daughters happy?” her mother-in-law counter questions with a smile?
A magnificent convergence of two different religions, traditions, and civilizations, stated the ad’s description, but social media disagreed. After all of the uproar, the video’s creators decided to take it down.
Interfaith ads can be very tricky in these sensitive times, however, such bold and beautiful ads are very essential to constantly remind us of where we stand as a progressive society and how far we still have to go. The emotional appeal has been used in this ad and has shown two different religions beautifully union.
These were some of the examples of emotional advertising. Emotions like Compassion and love are powerful sources that have an impact on us in ways we don’t and cannot simply comprehend. They play with our psyche and cause us to experience a number of feelings at the same time. And this is exactly what commercial designers look for, to grasp that emotional point and make us go through a cognitive process. Although it plays with our minds and persuades us to connect with the band, it also enriches us and maybe even cathartic for some.
FAQs
What is an emotional advertisement?
Emotional advertising is an advertising technique used by brands to evoke an emotional appeal in consumers so that remember and share.
What is an example of emotional advertising?
Coca-Cola’s “Choose Happiness” campaign is a great example of emotional advertising.
How effective are emotional ads?
Many brands witnessed an increase in sales after their emotional advertising campaign.
Growing at a 30% compound annual growth rate, the ecommerce industry is certainly emerging as one of the most popular industries in India. Online marketplaces of varying niches, are rising and dominating the Indian market that was once known for its mom and pop stores. LimeRoad, one of the first women’s social shopping sites, is currently among the most well-known shopping destinations of the Indians.
Dealing primarily in clothing and accessories for men, women, and children, at the end of 2017, LimeRoad claimed to have scaled 150% in terms of revenue, traffic, and more and had also successfully secured the 2nd spot in the online fashion vertical, as mentioned by Suchi Mukherjee.
Suchi Mukherjee is an Indian Entrepreneur, and the face behind the successful online shopping site, LimeRoad. Founded in 2012, Suchi Mukherjee is the Founder and CEO of LimeRoad, who founded the company with Ankush Mehra and Prashant Malik. While Malik has parted with the organisation, Mehra is still serving as the Co-founder and Director of A.M Marketplaces Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of LimeRoad, and Mukherjee is helming LimeRoad.
She aimed at creating the largest women’s-only marketplace in South East Asia. She has been conferred with various awards owing to her contributions in ascending business and comprehending consumer technology. In 2011, Global Women’s Forum voted her No. 1 among 15 “Rising Talent- global leaders under 40” via World Women’s Forum.
So, without further ado, let’s dive into the Life and Career of Suchi Mukherjee and the successful journey that Suchi experienced to date, which starts from her Early Life, and includes Suchi’s Education, Career at LimeRoad, Awards won by Suchi Mukherjee & more.
Suchi Mukherjee – Biography
Name
Suchi Mukherjee
Born
6 July 1973
Birthplace
Haryana, India
Position
Founder & CEO, LimeRoad
Nationality
Indian
Education
University of Cambridge
Profession
Entrepreneur
Awards
INFOCOM Women of the Year (2015), Unicorn Startup Award (2016) & more
Suchi Mukherjee hailed from a middle-class family in Haryana, India. She was a bright student in her school and college. Suchi studied at St Stephen’s College in Delhi, and was then enrolled in the University of Cambridge from where she received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with Maths. She is a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar & Fellow and a Chadburn Scholar. She holds a University record in Development Economics. Suchi is the Elected Member of Newnham Associates from the University of Cambridge in 2008.
Soon after she got admitted to The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), from where she obtained an MSc degree in Finance and Economics. She is also a British Chevening Scholar at LSE.
Suchi started working in a sector that was focused on Telecoms Media Technology (previously financial institutions) at Lehman Brothers Incorporation. She was a Senior Associate, Corporate Finance at the company and worked there for five years (July 1998 to June 2003).
Post that, she joined Virgin Media, where Suchi became the Director of Change & Business Development and worked for 2 years. She was a member of the Consumer Division Management Team of the firm. The company grossed a revenue of $2.5 billion under her leadership. She worked there from June 2003 to May 2005.
eBay Inc was the next company that she joined. Though eBay seems to have already lost the ecommerce war in India, as it looks like at least, it was previously among the ecommerce biggies. There she headed the Business Seller Programs and CS. She was a member of the UK Operating Management Team of the e-commerce portal and was prominently promoted in eBay, owing to her managerial and business skills. After 1 year, Suchi eventually emerged as the Director & Member of Executive Management Team at Skype, which was then a subsidiary of the Pierre Omidyar-founded eBay Inc company. She examined product and marketing, which included planning, product/UI design, payments, brand management, advertising channels, and more. She performed in the same job role from July 2007 to December 2008, before she was promoted again. Now, this time, it was GumTree, in which Suchi Mukherjee became the Managing Director & GM in January 2009. It was an eBay Inc company. She served at the company for over two years and left the job in August 2011. Under her leadership, the company escalated from No. 3 to No. 1 within a few years.
Flaunt your startup with StartupTalky
800+ stories, thousands of founders, and millions of visitors. Want to be the next?
StartupTalky is where founders, entrepreneurs, startups and businesses hang out and look up to for inspiration. If you have the means, we have the medium! Inviting founders and startups who are building sustainable solutions from ground zero! Startups who run the show, StartupTalky will let the world know!
After performing extremely well in her career, and serving at numerous companies in over 5+ job roles, Suchi Mukherjee eventually thought of establishing her own startup that is focused on fashion and apparel for women. Suchi is currently serving as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the e-commerce site, LimeRoad, which was established in 2012. However, what drove her to pursue the life of an entrepreneur is something really interesting.
The Idea Behind the Startup, LimeRoad
The startup story of LimeRoad was kickstarted out of a moment of utter frustration that Suchi Mukherjee experienced. This was just after her second child was born. Suchi was 39 then and on maternity leave. One day Suchi was flipping through a magazine when she suddenly glanced at a very attractive piece of jewellery. However, the jewellery was there in a very small store in Mumbai and it couldn’t have reached her anytime soon. This made her realise 2 very important things that were central to the launch of LimeRoad:
There wasn’t any app/website/portal that helped pretty and interesting accessories to be discovered easily
There wasn’t any platform that allowed people to go through the lists of accessories that were manufactured to be sold outside India
Thus, the aim to create a unique platform where one can find beautiful and affordable accessories and lifestyle products in an easy-to-use interface, was the main idea that drove Suchi Mukherjee to launch LimeRoad, which is now counted among the best female-founded fashion brands in India. The idea was foolproof to the very brim because she was aware of the fact that India was the manufacturing hub for over 21% of the lifestyle products that are sold across the world. This made her realize that it would then be certainly delightful and profitable too to bring all the vendors in the lifestyle product category under a single roof.
“Here is an industry which is our strength. All I wanted to do was to use technology so that manufacturers, designers and sellers could flourish and users could source beautiful products, which currently they were not able to,” said Suchi.
Starting up of LimeRoad
LimeRoad Logo
Suchi found a serious need for a devoted females’ portal where they can find inexpensive accessories and products without any hassles. This is where she found an opportunity to grow rapidly in the market. She kept in mind the needs of the females and knew that the women like to examine other options before being a product. Her masterful understanding of the business led her to get to the root of the real issue of service and product.
Besides, there were plenty of nonidentified vendors who were not allowed to add their products to keep up with the quality. She worked on identifying the right balance between the demands and the supplies. Suchi flew back to India in 2011 with a vision of founding a global brand in the country, after she made all the arrangements, to work on this new startup.
Suchi recalled, “with a passion for driving change and innovation, which is also the core element of Limeroad’s culture, I got together with my co-founders to build something transformational.” Prashant Malik, who worked at Facebook and returned to India to start with something new, and Ankush Mehra, who headed the supply chain of Reliance Hypermarkets, were introduced to Suchi Mukherjee by her common friends when she was evaluating the market opportunity a year before setting up LimeRoad.
LimeRoad was visualised by Suchi Mukherjee and the other founders as the digital equivalent of the 16th century Grand Trunk Road that changed the face of trade in the Indian subcontinent.
Suchi Mukherjee as the Co-founder and CEO of LimeRoad
LimeRoad is hailed as one of the fastest-growing digital shopping platforms in India. It is currently a 50,000+ strong women’s community. From being a startup to the LimeRoad we see today that competes with companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal, and more, Suchi Mukherjee’s contributions are undoubtedly huge. It was also under the leadership of Suchi Mukherjee that LimeRoad, today, boasts of having over 50 million visitors.
Limeroad, just like any other startup, too had to face a whole lot of challenges when it started up. One of the major problems that the startup faced was the difficulty in finding the right people to build a solid team that could help the company get a blend of skill and a can-do attitude. Although LimeRoad could get over this challenge that was imposed, it tends to pop and test the company every now and then.
Getting the right infrastructure with a high-speed and reliable internet connection was also difficult. Suchi Mukherjee also had to confront numerous legal processes to register a company, which she had no previous experience in dealing with, especially in India.
One other challenge was to find the perfect work-life balance. Suchi felt that being a woman it was tough to be an entrepreneur because back then she also had huge familial commitments. However, one thing is certain Suchi was really supported by her family, which included her husband.
LimeRoad and its Team at Present
LimeRoad was founded as an online shopping platform in 2012 by Suchi Mukherjee, Ankush Mehra, and Prashant Malik. The company is currently headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana, India, where Suchi serves as the Co-Founder and CEO of the company.
Ankush Mehra, Suchi Mukherjee and Prashant Malik from Left to Right – Founders of LimeRoad
It is a social-commerce platform primarily made for women with an improbable diameter of carefully selected retailers. It enables customers to discover the best lifestyle products across categories like apparel, accessories, home, and non-perishable food.
Bollywood Actor Neha Dhupia serves as the Art Director of LimeRoad. Dhupia was roped in by LimeRoad back in May 2014, who eventually picked up stakes in the company and is a regular employee of LimeRoad who draws a salary each month. Neha was originally the choice of LimeRoad because of her glam quotient that everyone is familiar with. Ahti Heinla, Founding Architect of Skype and Michel V Swaaji, Ex-Chairman of Skype, serves as the Advisors of LimeRoad and are among the Board of Advisors of the company. The investors of LimeRoad include Matrix Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Tiger Global. LimeRoad was last valued at $108.18 mn (around Rs 838.5 crore) after a funding round in October 2019.
She got married to her long-time boyfriend, Sandeep Kunte, Director Treasury at Barclays Bank. Sandeep and Suchi tied the knot in 2006 and the couple now bears two children, daughter Myra and son Aadit. Suchi first met Sandeep, her future husband, at St Stephen’s College. Until now, no controversies arose against her. Her husband and family are known for being supportive throughout her life to date.
Both Suchi Mukherjee and the company, LimeRoad have been felicitated with numerous awards and accolades. Here’s presenting a list of some of the most prominent ones:
LimeRoad received the Coolest startup of the year award from Business Today in 2015
Suchi won INFOCOM Women of the Year in 2015
NDTV conferred her with the Unicorn Startup Award in 2016
The Economic Times nominated her for the ET Startup Award in 2017
FAQs
Who is Suchi Mukherjee?
Suchi Mukherjee hails from Haryana, India, and is known as the Co-founder and CEO of LimeRoad, an Indian online marketplace owned by A.M Marketplaces Pvt. Ltd.
Where was Suchi Mukherjee born?
Suchi Mukherjee was born in Haryana, India.
Is Suchi Mukherjee married?
Yes, Suchi Mukherjee is married to Sandeep Kunte and has a son and a daughter.
What is LimeRoad?
LimeRoad is primarily known as a fashion ecommerce marketplace founded by Suchi Mukherjee, Prashant Malik, and Ankush Mehra, which was founded in 2012, and helps the users discover, shop, and share a wide array of fashion products and accessories that are above the mundane.
What is the valuation of LimeRoad?
LimeRoad was last valued at Rs 838.5 crore ($108.18 mn) in October 2019.
Archita Mahajan
