Mon, 06/29/2009 - 01:52 — nsrcel
The reason I title this blog this way was to highlight one of the many startups in this field, that made it big in the online print and publications arena. Although we have big giants like Adobe leading from the front in this, but it is invigorating to find people start small and make it very big. The company that I am talking about is VistaPrint.com. They have started right from the bud stage and are now an asset to any online marketing program in picture. From documents to Business cards, to websites, envelopes, rubber stamps, invoice templates, VistaPrint is a good example of innumerable innovations at work. And do remember that over the last decade, this growth to $500 million has been organic.
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From Startup to $500 Million
More than five years back, there was one edition of the program 'Turning point' where I saw a young CEO in his office, which boasted of being completely paperless. Today, his aim is more true than before, with everything from invoices to taxation being online, and in a far more secure way. The issue of online documentations, version controls, change prohibitions, search ability, and ease of access have added far more ease of operations than with conventional paper based methods, and contribute to a cleaner environment.
The reason I title this blog this way was to highlight one of the many startups in this field, that made it big in the online print and publications arena. Although we have big giants like Adobe leading from the front in this, but it is invigorating to find people start small and make it very big. The company that I am talking about is VistaPrint.com. They have started right from the bud stage and are now an asset to any online marketing program in picture. From documents to Business cards, to websites, envelopes, rubber stamps, invoice templates, VistaPrint is a good example of innumerable innovations at work. And do remember that over the last decade, this growth to $500 million has been organic.
We have a number of startups that are focussing on specific areas like online book publishing (such as Pothi.com), stationery design, marketing campaign designs and other aspects of this vast field. It may take a few years time before Indian startups take up things on a bigger scale. Believe me, if you are enthused about this topic, it is one of the easiest and most creative ways to startup, and will give you a great high - apart from the satisfaction that you are contributing much less to the environment being affected in a negative manner. And speaking about the money involved, the market size in developing countries are estimated in around $2 Billion if you consider only the major cities taking up these things, and considering that governement policies are favoring these efforts.
The main reason that government agencies are intially sceptical about these things is the security aspects, and the lack of understanding of the technologies involved. Even cases such as online letter pad design can be replicated easily if things are not secure and the only thing that supervisory bodies want to ensure that such security loopholes should be fairly eliminated before we are completely online with our paperwork!
Apart from paper work, being online, there has been a lot of focus on online garment designs, and personalized urban wear. We recently had a small startup at the March Proto.in event in Bangalore that easily went beyong INR 1 Crore in their turnover in just 1 year of operations - they design T-shirts for you and allow you to participate in the design. But here as well, you need to take care of the legislation and copyright issues - we had Tantra designs object to a local company trying to imitate their innovative quotes on T-shirts.
Apart from paper work, being online, there has been a lot of focus on online garment designs, and personalized urban wear. We recently had a small startup at the March Proto.in event in Bangalore that easily went beyong INR 1 Crore in their turnover in just 1 year of operations - they design T-shirts for you and allow you to participate in the design. But here as well, you need to take care of the legislation and copyright issues - we had Tantra designs object to a local company trying to imitate their innovative quotes on T-shirts.
As we strive for better legislations, we should equip ourselves with the best technologies, not forgetting about the innovations at home.
What are your thoughts!?
What are your thoughts!?