Startup Saturdays continued to be held across various cities during the month of December. The holiday season did not dent the entrepreneurial spirit of its participants.
Mumbai had a record turnout this month largely due to the topical subject of 'Digital Marketing' being discussed there. Satish Vijaykumar of 2Ergo explained the nuances of what goes into the planning and execution of a mobile marketing campaign. Moksh Juneja discussed the 13 Myths that need to be busted while developing a digital marketing plan. His presentation was minimalist and wacky at the same time. One of his notable myth buster that drew a lot of laughs from the audience - “Using a naked picture of yourself as your Avatar can help increase friends and followers (...on facebook...)”
Vikramjit Roy of Mumbai Mantra discussed on what start-ups need to do while developing a digital marketing strategy; with a keen emphasis on integrating your digital marketing strategy with other media to impact synergies. Deap Ubhi shared his insights on Starting Up. Some of them were on -
- How to figure out the 'need gap' in your defines market space by doing dipstick surveys.
- The benefits of having a small team.
- The overlaying need to understand the peculiarities of the Indian mindset when it comes to advertising in classifieds
- Rigidity of strategy implementation vis-a-vis the suppleness (flexibility) of it.
- The importance of knowing when to let go of an idea in order to change course.
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Other panelists included Rajiv Dingra of WatBlog and Pawan Deokule who is the former Digital Marketing manager of ICICI Bank. The discussions revolving around Digital Marketing and Social Media touched upon the value this medium can add to different types of businesses and even be used to sell a Mixer Grinder or Washing Machine. At the same time participants got a chance to put their queries and issues in front of the speakers and take their advice.
Startup showcase in Mumbai consisted of Amit Bhartiya of Vizisense. He went on to explain in detail the technology developed by Vizisence that helps marketers not only determine the performance of various websites but also compare the popularity of them in order to decide on web media properties for interactive marketing/advertising.
The December edition of Startup Saturday Kolkata, where a bunch of bright young entrepreneurs met at Globsyn Business School, listened to industry veterans who explained their experience in the world of startups, and tried to sell their own ideas or ventures to the crowd present in ‘5 minute lightning pitches’ Udai Singh of eRevMax, a software development company for the hotel industry; discussed on how his company is a game changer in the Hotel reservations segment with use of technology by developing - Rate Tiger - a Revenue Management System. As a result of his persuasions, everyone in the room ended up debating what makes a great startup company, and ended up concluding that it is not merely hard work, capital, knowledge or opportunity that make a great start-up, but there is a certain ‘x-factor’ about startups that sometimes goes on to make brightest stars like Facebook or Alibaba.com.
Arnab Ray from Array Consultancy Services,showcased his services that offered a more technical and formal approach to entrepreneurship than we are used to seeing in India.
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The experts in Dec edition of Startup Satruday Pune were - Vasu Ramanujam, Director, Entercoms and , Girish Narasimhan- cfaw. The startups that presented were CAE package maker Zeus Numerix , represented by Co-Founder Basant Gupta, Browser based internet security tool maker Uniken.com; represented by Business Development head Gautam Jayaraman; and Kanhaiya Kale of Indic Transtech , a ‘community computing’ portal.
All the three companies were well received by experts and audience. After quizzing Kanhaiya on basics, Vasu, who is also a part-time angel investor, rose up and said “Here, take my card. Buzz me soon. I’d like to fund you!”
Gautam Jayaraman was excited about the feedback he received from the community. He said he could now position his browser-based internet security product better in the market.
The startup Saturday December edition at Bangalore was organized on the theme of “Hiring and retaining people in Startups”. An interesting set of startups came and made lightening pitches in 2 minutes given to them to present their idea. The interactive session introduced companies like Interviewstreet.com which is an online interface that connects corporate professionals with students through mock interviews and mentoring
sessions, rentoys.in, a toy rental company and many other interesting business ideas.
The panelists, Sumeet Anand, Founder, CEO at Kreeo.com & Pranav Bhasin, Co-Founder at Lifeblob shared their experiences with hiring resources as they were building their companies. Sumeet talked about how he built a team for a company which was completely bootstraped and Pranav talked from his perspective on building a team for a company which is funded. The panelists addressed questions like:
- What skills to look for in candidates when forming the core team.
- How to compensate your employee.
- How to protect the IP. It was interesting to listen to their experiences and the audience ensured all their questions got answered. Some key learning’s from the Bangalore panel discussions were:
- Ensure you understand the career needs of the person you are hiring and work towards meeting their needs.
- Hiring fresh graduates helps in the initial stages as they are enthusiastic and looking forward to learn & grow in a company. It also helps in managing the expenses when budgets are tight. But ensure hard working and talented freshers are hired and provide them enough guidance to learn and contribute.
- It helps to keep the new hires under a probation period to evaluate their performance.
- There is no specific benefit to have NDA or IP protection agreements with your employee until and unless it is a critical need. In fact it is better to build trust in your team and discuss the business growth and plans with them openly. It helps the team to understand the business on the whole and contribute effectively.
With over 500 participants now registering for Startup Saturdays across the country the entrepreneurial community has support system like none other.
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