TableGrabber, a startup incubated under the Microsoft Accelerator program, gets set on a rapid growth path, leveraging the technical expertise and cloud resources of the IT giant By Mehak Chawla
There are many things that right mentoring can do for startups. And if it emanates from the big boys of technology, a startup can indeed go a long way. Perhaps that is why Microsoft’s Accelerator For Windows Azure is already in the limelight even though it’s only running its second term currently.
Elaborates Mukund Mohan, CEO-in-residence, Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure (India), “The program has been around for 9 months and we are currently running our second batch. We had about 230-250 applicants that applied for the first batch. Out of these, only 11 applicants were selected by us. In the first batch no startup had funding prior to the program and at the end of that batch, there were 9 startups that got funding. In the second batch, we had 435 applicants and we selected 12 companies out of that. This time around, even before the batch has graduated, 7 companies have been funded, 2 of them are not looking at all and one firm has been acquired.”
Mohan explains what are the key things they look for in the selection process. “There are three things we look for in every company. One is that we look for a very large market opportunity. Secondly we look for a product that is very disruptive and the third thing we look for is coachable entrepreneurs- people who are ready to learn, listen and take feedback.”
To get more insight into the program, we talked to TableGrabber, one of the startups incubated in the second batch of the accelerator program. Here’s how their world has changed post-selection.
The startup story
TableGrabber offers a restaurant reservation system providing a real time reservation information to customers. It’s much like other conveniences of the day like airlines, hotels, railways and buses: all of which already have well established reservation systems. However, there is hardly any mechanism available for diners today because restaurants don’t have a reservation system in place. That is where the firm is looking to come in. They shall provide the back-end solution for the restaurants, something that has so far been missing from the picture.
“Most restaurants cannot manage reservations because they don’t have a software to manage it. So we developed a back-end software that allows restaurants to manage their inventory in real time. This software is connected to the website so people immediately know if a table is available or not. We also go further and allow the restaurant to be able to offer a deal or discount as per their discretion. For instance, any table being reserved on a weekday evening might get some discount or even a free welcome drink etc. We are already live in some 350 restaurants in Delhi and Mumbai and have just recently launched in Bangalore,” details Pawan Marwaha, Co-Founder & Chief Grabber, TableGrabber.
According to Mohan, one of the key factors behind the selection of TableGrabber was the substantial market opportunity that they were looking to address. “The other thing is that restaurant menus are mostly taken to be fixed entities. With TableGrabber, restaurants somewhat have the flexibility to customize their menu and pricing based on factors such as value, time, season etc. We found this demand based or variable pricing an innovative model.”
Microsoft startup accelerator program also makes clear its focus on startups that are utilizing technologies like cloud and mobility. TableGrabber scored here as well. “We are using a lot of cloud based technology in our technology stack. We are also using Microsoft servers based out of Singapore and U.S. Cloud helps us reduce the cost of deploying the software. Restaurants too, don’t need to invest in extensive hardware and servers at their end,” says Marwaha.
For TableGrabber, it was a well thought of plan to apply to this program. They had been invited by a lot of incubators and accelerators but wanted to choose carefully and certainly Microsoft was at the top of the list. According to Marwaha, “In many cases, incubators are just platforms and they do not have the required manpower or expertise to provide to startups. With Microsoft, that issue was addressed. They have a dedicated team and of course, they come with a lot of brand value.”
After the grab
When TableGrabber came to Microsoft, they had what Marwaha describes as “the minimum viable product,” which was up and running but wasn’t in its ideal state. From this stage, they were able to take their product to something which is scalable and easily deployable. Microsoft not only assisted them with product architecture and deployment but also helped in refining of the product by inculcating customer feedback.
During the program, that runs through four months, startups make weekly commitments both on the product and also on the customer base. “Unlike other such programs, we follow a milestone based approach and measure achievements against preset targets. Every week the startups have to make commitments and they end up paying a fine for the commitments they don’t meet,” explains Mohan.
Another part of this program is that Microsoft gives startups access to potential customers. TableGrabber has got access to companies like SAP, Goldman Sachs etc. Finally, there is the access to mentors and investors who can chart out a growth path for the startups. “We have got about 120-150 mentors from various companies ranging from small investors to seasoned executives,” reveals Mohan.
The technology infrastructure that the startups are using is Microsoft’s Azure on the cloud services which is a pay-as-you-go model. But for all startups in the program, credits up to $60,000 are provided for the first two years, so they don’t have to pay for any infrastructure at all.
Key take-aways
According to Marwaha, once they got into the program, they had full access to senior architects of Microsoft who helped them through the process of setting up a cloud. With cloud technology, came the many benefits that it is known for. “We have been able to make our product much more scalable without any downtime,” says Marwaha.
Thanks to the cloud, TableGrabber now offers its services on a monthly subscription model in order to make it affordable for the restaurants and not give them a high upfront cost. “The beauty of cloud is that we can deploy as many servers as we want based on our demand. Azure’s load balancing lets us deploy as much infrastructure as we need based on the traffic on our site etc. It automatically deploys and scales up.”
Fast sailing has been another key take away from the program. “We didn’t end up spending too much time on product features because we got a lot of technology insight to be able to deploy them quickly,” opines Marwaha.
To top it all, there was the amount of exposure in terms of PR and visibility that TableGrabber got. “We were able to sit down with companies like SAP and Intel to explain our product and even promote it with their employees and get feedback,” Marwaha mentions.
TableGrabber is now working on a mobile app for their product which should be out soon. They have also been selected in the Startup Chile program.
