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Ray Newal is a Canadian entrepreneur and early stage investor, currently serving as the Managing Director of Techstars India, located in Bangalore, India where he leads the Techstars Bangalore Accelerator, with a focus on emerging markets.

Before joining Techstars, Ray was a co-founder and CEO of Jigsee Inc., a leading mobile video platform in India which operated the mobile applications for many of India's largest brands including Sony Entertainment, Indian Idol, UTV/Disney, and Reliance. Prior to Jigsee, Ray spent over a decade leading sales and business development at DoubleClick, MSN, and Yahoo.

01. What are the key elements you look for when sourcing startups for the Techstars Bangalore Accelerator?

We look for founders who have a deep empathy and knowledge of an emerging markets customer segment (could be consumer or business), and well thought through, less widely held ideas of how they can be better served. We value thought that has been put into channels and distribution models, as well as unit economics and how they might evolve at different stages of the business. But perhaps most important is a strong and compelling vision.

02. What are some of the biggest learnings from your career and entrepreneurial journey that you bring to being a Techstars MD?

The most impactful lessons I have to offer come from the mistakes I’ve made as an entrepreneur, employee, and even just a plain old human. I’ve learned that growth comes from discomfort, and my choice of being an entrepreneur is the most uncomfortable decision I have ever made. It was also the the part of my life that resulted in the most growth I had ever experienced in my career.

My journey as an entrepreneur ended up taking me to a country I had never lived in, to serve a customer I knew very little about. I wouldn’t recommend anyone take the path I took, but I learned the importance of having a deep understanding and empathy for one’s customer. I also gained a lot of insight along the way on the importance of understanding signalling when building a startup. Storytelling, whether it be an elevator pitch or a Series A investor pitch, is really an exercise in understanding how to emit signals that will positively resonate with a specific audience.

03. Why is supporting emerging markets entrepreneurs so important to you?

Being an entrepreneur is tough anywhere in the world, but in the emerging markets it’s sometimes tough in different ways. Because these markets are less developed, the problems are larger and messier. Distribution channels are often less apparent. Unit economics at scale means margins are sometimes made on pennies, not dollars. Navigating these challenges requires strong mentorship, which I lacked in my experience as a founder.

Learn more about how Techstars mentors work: read the Techstars Mentor Manifesto.

04. Describe a moment/situation with a startup founder or team where you felt like you made a difference.

The difference I make comes from my ability to sometimes see the unique strengths of an individual or team that they may not see, or may have a hard time articulating. I saw very clearly in a solo entrepreneur from Jaipur, India, an empathy for developers in countries like India who lack access to laptops and desktop computers, and a clear vision for how a whole workforce of these kinds of people will eventually be able to write software relying entirely on the mobile devices they can afford. While the vision was there, the founder had trouble believing in his own ability to pull it off. His disbelief in himself affected his pitch, and undermined his confidence. He avoided talking to his users because he was afraid of what they would tell him about their experience. Ultimately he overcame these fears, and started speaking to his users every day. He developed ways for his users to provide feedback through his application, and he found the courage to position his application as an essential tool for even experienced software developers, on par with premium developer tools available on laptops. And then we helped him tell the story in a way that captured the power of his vision and the strength of his product. The company is called Dcoder, and Ankush Chugh is the founder and CEO. Here is his demo day pitch.

05. What is your favorite thing about the Bangalore startup scene?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words…

Learn more about Techstars accelerators and see which ones are accepting applications now.

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