1. Interaction with Successful Serial Entrepreneurs ? ? ? Kentaro Toyama Microsoft Research TiECon Bangalore 2004

2. Caveat From TiECon Bangalore 2004 program: • “Inside India” • Entrepreneurs • Serial entrepreneurs • Successful serial entrepreneur

3. About me… • Japanese, raised in Japan and U.S. • Research scientist • AB in Physics; PhD in Computer Science • Serial attempts at technology transfer • 6.5 years at Microsoft with no direct impact on product • Face detection, tracking, and recognition • Semi-automatic video editing • Multimedia (Interactive Images, http://wwmx.org) • Successful tech-transfer • 7th year: Digital Image Pro ships with automated image-editing utilities • Now: research in computing technologies for emerging markets

4. Great Opportunity in India! Source: Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Solution, 2003

5. But, beware…!

6. Beware! Competing with Free Stuff • “Sales of font software [and] the font business have been adversely affected in recent years by a growing supply of free font software via the Internet…” – Precision Type • “[Stiff competition, Tower Records] says, was compounded by the growing problem of digital downloading and file copying which has been plaguing the music industry” – BBC News

7. Beware! Large-Scale Production • Hard to beat Moore’s Law: “you have to deliver twice as much to the customer every eighteen months in order to just stand still” – James Woodward, MIT Enterprise Forum • “handhelds from major makers such as Palm and HP have gained in features and dropped in price, factors which some have said undermined the reason for the Simputer's existence” – CNET Asia

8. Beware! Passive + Interactive • “[Interactive TV] has had an unenviable reputation for torching through investors' cash. Some of the biggest names in broadcasting and telecommunications - BSkyB, Granada, Channel 4 and BT among them - have burnt their fingers trying to enhance the power of the handset.” – Financial Times

9. Opportunities around…? • Mobile phones: • 2.5M new subscribers per month in India • E.g., “Ringtone sales were at $3.5 billion worldwide” • Ultra-cheap computing: • E.g., Fisher Price Power Touch

10. Serial Entrepreneurs • “…are driven by the need to create something from nothing” – Seattle Business Journal • “…sees success as a reason to launch a new venture” – Stephen Berglas [UCLA] • “…are our economic artists - bringing together economic resources rather than putting paint on canvas"– William Dennis [Nat’l Federation of Independent Business Owners] • “…may be the best bet for job creation” – Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

11. Thank you! kentoy@microsoft.com