Do not keep waiting for launching the perfect product; Rather, test launch a minimum viable product and iterate for enhancements
Today in Leaders Talk Series in Venture Upbeat, I interview Mr. Sumit Laad, Head of Amazon Launchpad India, on how Amazon is enabling the ecosystem and what are the aspects he sees startups should focus on.
Could you tell us more about Amazon Launchpad and how it would help the startups
Amazon Launchpad is a red carpet program that helps startups market, sell, and deliver products to millions of Amazon customers around the world. We aim to act like a retail accelerator that eases access to market for startups, so they can focus on what they are best at i.e. innovation and product development.
Amazon Launchpad provides startups a series of benefits including onboarding assistance for configuring their seller accounts, marketing advisory aimed at boosting traffic to their selection, and optimising conversions to generate higher business. We also share with them incentives around advertising, cloud services, event visibility, etc.
Once a startup has experience in the domestic market, we encourage them to scale internationally and become a part of Amazon Launchpad in global markets and provide them with the necessary support. Amazon Launchpad is currently operational in India, the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, France, China and Japan.
How do you see the Indian ecosystem growing, and what would you change?
The Indian startup ecosystem is maturing. Entrepreneurs are now more aware and prudent with their business models. There are also many services companies with targeted solutions for startups, be it registration, co-working spaces, fund raising, prototyping, etc. I believe they’ll play an important role as startups don’t have to go through the learning curve for non-core activities.
Above all, the Indian government in actively focussing on promoting the startup ecosystem. There are several incentives available through initiatives like Startup India that offer a conducive growth environment for startups.
What are the typical challenges faced by startups you have interacted with?
New product development has been tough in India. There are challenges around IP protection, perception of quality for service providers, working capital and fund-raising, access to market, etc.
Amazon Launchpad provides startups a series of benefits including onboarding assistance for configuring their seller accounts, marketing advisory aimed at boosting traffic to their selection and optimising conversions to generate higher business. We also share with them incentives around advertising, cloud services, event visibility, etc. We have also partnered with several organisations like StartupIndia, Nasscom 10K, RevvX, Angel Networks, Venture Capitalists and encourage these startups to leverage these partner networks in addressing other business constraints.
Your advice to wannabe entrepreneurs?
At Launchpad, we encourage entrepreneurs who want to build an innovative product to answer three important questions:
- Why this?
- Why now?
- Why you?
‘Why this’ is about whether the product adds value in the life of customers and if there’s a sizeable market out there. ‘Why now’ is about whether the market is ready for this product, or it’s too late/early in the journey. And ‘why them’ is about whether they are best positioned to build/market this product given their skills and experience. Or large organisations in their industry would easily make them redundant.
If they decide to go ahead, they should test their concept early in their journey. They should not keep waiting for launching the perfect product, and should rather test launch a minimum viable product and iterate for enhancements. India is a highly heterogeneous market and they should definitely leverage programs like Amazon Launchpad to reach customers in every part of the country.
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Pavan works as intrapreneur in a Bosch Startup and writes for column Venture Upbeat in e27
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