With inspirational stories of Dr. Velumani of Thyrocare, blind masseurs of Metta Foot Spa in Mumbai, heated debates on legal issues and startup rules in Delhi, and parable learnings, customer interaction strategies , and lightning pitches and presentations for a full house in Bangalore, Startup Saturday was quite eventful this time.
Startup Saturday Delhi
The first speaker for the afternoon was Ankur Singla from Coraza - Legal Advisors. Ankur had left his corporate legal job in London to start on his own. He is based out of Chandigarh. Ankur came with two topics that he wanted to talk about - Shareholdings inside startups and the legal wrangles of a Joint Venture. Ankur's session was very open and he constantly involved the audience by asking them questions, or just putting up a topic hanging in the air - being debated upon by the attendees. On the JV legal wrangles, he divided the hall into 2 sets – one representing the small startup providing the IP, and the rest representing the investor or the bigger fish in the JV. The discussion was heated up at times, but healthy nevertheless.
Next up was Mohit Bansal from the L-Pad, a coaching school for entrepreneurs. Mohit started with some rules that could be followed to have higher chances of an idea making it to mainstream consumption. There were heated debates on why those rules apply, where they do and where they don't.
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Startup Saturday Bangalore
The May edition of Startup Saturday Bangalore saw a full house with around 130 people, one of the highest in all Startup Saturdays ever. With “Marketing” as the theme, we had two special guests who were the main speakers for the day. Rashmi Vallabhajosyula of Altius Consulting engaged the audience with three parables that startups can reflect on and apply in real life and their marketing efforts. Her stories emphasized the importance of competitive advantage, the use of right information at the right time, and establishing coherence between what you do and what you require. The next speaker was Kaushal Sarda, consultant and Bangalore head at 2020 Social, a Social Business Strategy firm. He spoke about the importance of customer interactions and dialog to help create a strong support community online. He also shared tips on utilizing various online platforms that can help companies listen to their customers and help connect with them. This edition also featured the regular lightning pitches, a five minute quick presentation on startups, products/ services or ideas by new entrepreneurs. It helps them gain valuable feedback from the community and can even act as a sounding board. Two startups, PopABook and Agri Retail, spoke about their ideas. This was followed by a talk on 1M/1M initiative of Sramana Mitra and the Startup Buddies support group that is being formed.
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Startup Saturday Mumbai
May Startup Saturday Mumbai was themed around Social Entrepreneurship. It had showcases and Lightening Pitches from Entrepreneurs who were confident and innovative enough to ensure success not just for their ventures but for the society as a whole. There were lightening pitches by Culture Aangan, Only Gizmos, Zopte and Distribution 2.0. Post the pitches was a session that soon became the highlight of the day.
A journey led by Dr Velumani from Thyrocare which made every listener realize that though it is not easy taking the plunge and reaching the stars, it is not impossible either. Velumani has his own style of communication. The zeal with which he conveys can easily make you question yourself whether is he really a 51 year old businessman or is he a college pass-out in an old man’s body. Velumani discussed all the challenges that he faced but he precisely termed them as ‘decisions made’ rather than ‘adjustments done’.
His courage to pursue his goals and witty humor to explain how decisions shape your fate was a big take away of the session. He advised entrepreneurs that adjusting for your dreams is an investment and not an adjustment (Don’t put the cart before the horse). At this age too he was motivated to learn, to change and to innovate every day. He described how he pursued his vision to provide best services at costs never thought before. A witty quote he said was “Every entrepreneur should spend well. I was bound to value money, that’s why they call me Velumani”.
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Finally one thing that all repeated even post the session (and tweeted about) was his concept of - Plan to Fail, and you will never fail! It was one of those sessions which will keep aspirants motivated for years to come. Hats off to Dr Velumani!
Post the ignition from Velumani, was another great session by Jenny from Metta Foot Spa. Where in one session the speech by Velumani shook our souls to get started right there, Jenny’s presentation touched the audience’s heart with her journey into social entrepreneurship. For those who are not aware Jenny (Joanita) is the owner of Meta Foot Spa, a place where you can get affordable massage from visually impaired masseurs. With a long treasured desire to give back to the society, Jenny soon realized that there was an opportunity to empower the blind students to earn their daily bread with pride and self confidence. With this started Metta Foot Spa, where Blind masseurs provide you the best in town foot massage at a price everyone can afford. Jenny discussed the issues she faced in training and operating these employees at the spa and how the blessings of many needy seniors took the Spa to where it has reached today.
With that yet another Startup Saturday concluded successfully, but what was more interesting was to realize the change in thought that the audience went through by attending the sessions on Social Entrepreneurship. It is neither about charities, nor about exploiting the down trodden; it’s an innovative business model where business flourishes along with the society. Seems the motto of hosting the event was fulfilled largely. Social Entrepreneurship is still at a nascent stage in India and it definitely holds great opportunity for any one ready to take the plunge.
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Ankur
www.coraza.in