ZiCorp a consultant for startups

After 18 years of work experience in solution sales, business development and account management, V S Praveen experimented by working for a startup. The startup which closed due to various reasons made him realise that the inability to afford high level of expertise leads many such startups to lose direction. Here the idea to provide experts services at affordable cost took birth. Leveraging on expert friends in his network, Praveen founded ZiCorp in April 2018, to support startups in achieving their target.

Registered as ZiCorporate Services, the Hyderabad-based startup stands for zero to infinity corporate services. The startup helps other startups with research and development of product, market, customer response and competition, developing prototype in any vertical, raising funds from angel investors and venture capitalists, market communication, business development strategy and achieving exits.

Speaking with The Hans India, V S Praveen, CEO, ZiCorp, says: "The method of startups getting a job done through consultants rather than hiring manpower which turns out to be expensive and time consuming, is popular in foreign countries than in India." He further informs that startups face budget and fund constraint, which makes a consultant's service feasible as he or she offers expertise and experience at lesser cost.

Till date, ZiCorp has worked with eight startups, each one from Bengaluru, Mumbai and the rest from Hyderabad. The services provided were marketing strategy, business development plan and fund raising. The firm signs up with a startup for a minimum period of three months. Citing the need to move ahead aggressively in reaching out to more number of startups, mid-level companies and students, the CEO has collaborated with K Uday, founder of another startup, as the COO. With this partnership, ZiCorp looks to bridge the gap between an expert's service and the startup through workshops, a YouTube channel and an online magazine.

"We will feature investors, advisor's community, successful entrepreneurs and students seeking to become entrepreneurs in our YouTube channel, which will be on the lines of Shark Tank. Also, we plan to do pitching events, knowledge sharing events, award functions in the next one year, with an aim to make ZiCorp, Rs 1 crore turnover company," says Praveen.

Initially, the firm will reach out to startups in Hyderabad and after six months they will walk into Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Noida. Down the line, ZiCorp will also take its service to Tier 2 and 3 cities. The CEO adds, "As I studied in Warangal, I went back to the colleges there and interacted with students who have built innovative products and ideas. But they lack the information about whom to approach. Also, there are investors here who want to invest but are clueless about how to move ahead or even invest without appropriate knowledge. This is the gap we are looking to bridge."

ZiCorp plans to reach out to college students who are beyond the gamut of incubation centres. After interacting with the students and startups, they will take the idea to their mentor and investor network for further guidance with an aim to increase the success rates of startups. "Lack of knowledge and experience is resulting lot of startups to close down within a year. The attitude of the founder also matters as they do not come with an open mind. Instead, they love their product and company so much that they get obsessed with it to the level of not being able to accept others' advice. Through our workshop, we want to sensitise them about coming with an open mind which is the first key towards success. We will also hold workshops for investors as they need to be sensitised about the parameters to look for before investing," Praveen states.

Informing further he says that one of the reasons for startups to fail is the inability to recognise which market segment they want to cater and if there is a market for it. "In B2C, 80 per cent of business will give 20 per cent of revenue and in B2B, 20 per cent of business will give 80 per cent of revenue, this is the basic permutation and combination that many miss out," he adds.

The founder is in the final stage of raising Rs 10 lakh by the end of this month in pre-seed round. This initial investment will be utilised for branding, marketing, launch of magazine and the YouTube channel. By next year, they plan to raise Rs 1-2 crore of which 40 per cent will be used for branding and the rest for expanding reach across India and for hiring workforce. Till date, ZiCorp has earned Rs 10 lakh revenue at an investment of Rs 50,000, garnering 30 per cent profit.

ZiCorp has partnered with five companies for expert services along with extensive network of mentors and investors in their loop. Based on the service provided, the founder levies a fee of five per cent to 15 per cent, from the startup and vendor. In the next one year, the firm aims to aggregate consultancy service to 15-20 startups.

There are 40 incubation centres in Hyderabad, expensive for a segment of students to afford; 2,000 registered startups in Hyderabad, unofficial 75,000 startups in India and three more years for the ecosystem to further mature in the country, Praveen says. Economy is facing a slowdown and staring at recession, which makes this the right time to handhold startups, he concludes.