Thought Garage

Morpheus doesn’t bring cash, unlike the Venture Capital firm across the corner. They bring “sweat” capital (read as expertise and IP). The team at Morpheus even call itself as an Accelerator instead.

So what do they want in return? Of course, equity in the startup. If you are a startup or just interested in Indian startup scene, listen to the RWW interview with one of Morpheus team members here.

Is it a fund, an angel network, or an incubator? Are these labels even still relevant? What segments does it focus on? What is early-stage innovation in India like? -  Morpheus: Y Combinator-Like Incubator in India (RWS Interview) – ReadWriteStart

Startups that are in Morpheus portfolio include

Vericar does used-car certification and appraisal, catering to the used-car market in India, which is at a million units every year.

Robots Alive is the second company in India to have manufactured a robotics arm from the ground up.

Quite a novel concept to make money from a startup without actually ditching a dime. And if you remove money out of the equation, there will be many experts that could try to help a startup grow, in return for a small equity.

After all what Venture capital firms bring to startup along with Money is their expertise and network. Isn’t it?

How to rely on somebody that doesn’t have a stake in the business?

If you are looking for funding for your startup, you better check this list by Vijay.

If you are a startup that is product focused, there are quite a bit of funds that are floating around for those looking for the sub INR 50,00,000 range, and with some lenient terms and equity distribution.

Pre-VC Funds for Indian Startups. « Vijay Anand | The Startup Guy.

Quite an interesting  concept of using AI to simulate Human hacker(s) to attack a system to detect vulnerabilities and fix them.

As per my understanding, its almost an impossible task to emulate even a lay man’s brain. Then is it possible at all to think like a hacker?

Hackers hired to help companies discover internal security threats may soon be out of a job.

Just ask IDG Ventures India, which pumped $2.5 million into iViz Tech Solutions, an Indian startup that promises on-demand software that does penetration testing, or simulated attacks on systems, to detect network weaknesses much in the way a hacker would.

Incubated in one of India’s top technology institutes in 2005, iViz develops artificial intelligence-based products that simulate an intelligent hacker to detect the security flaws in a system or network and suggest corresponding remedies.

Company co-founders Bikash Barai and Nilanjan De, graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology–Kharagpur, say that iViz uses an innovative technology that determines the threat in a network, finds the complex multi-stage attack paths that cannot be detected by normal tools and comes up with solutions for such attacks.

iViz Tech Solutions Aims to Put Hackers Out of Work

In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones. And early adopters, not the mainstream’s bell curve, are the new sweet spot of the market.

TED | Talks | Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights (video)