DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

Celebrating the culmination of a year of amazing work, HeadStarters welcomed 2011, resolving to nurture more startups and inspire more entrepreneurs with the Startup Saturday events this year

Bangalore
This edition, based on the theme “Products vs. Services”, was telecast by ET Now on its show Starting Up. It kicked off with interesting presentations from four entrepreneurs- from both products and services background.

Sujay Karampuri from Sloka Telecom, a radio access network solution provider, talked about the inherent struggles associated with product businesses, with vivid examples and anecdotes about his experiences creating and selling base station products. Continuing the product viewpoint, Suresh Narasimha from TELiBrahma, talked about success in business being not just about playing the game, but shaping the game, and determining what customers want.

Audience at Startup Saturday Bangalore, enjoying the spectacular show

Karthick Purushotaman from Chimera Technologies spoke about being prepared for a battle whether one chooses to work with products or services, cautioning entrepreneurs from attempting product businesses too early in their organization’s lifespan.

Vinoth from VINJEY Software Systems, spoke next. He talked about the business behind products and services, clearly differentiating between the two in terms of the cash conversion cycle.

Keeping up with the momentum and bringing a new thrill to Startup Saturday, ET Now hosted an ‘Entrepreneur’s Huddle’. The stage was set for three entrepreneurs who were presenting a unique business challenge. Sean from Babajobs, a job site focused on people in India making less that Rs. 10,000 per month presented his challenge of making mobile services effectively reach the common man in India.

Kumar from OoBI made a quick presentation on their new multi touch interactive surface display table and presented his challenging questions on what type of business model (product or service) and apps should they develop.
Varun from LifeMojo, a company providing nutrition and diet consultation services on the phone and web, presented his problem of getting enough users to sign up for their paid services.

Asif speaking to the audience at Pune Startup Saturday

Pune
Asif Upadhye, founder of Never Grow Up started the event with a presentation. The company is into employee engagement, fun-at-work concepts offering cool workshops and quirky merchandise to corporates.

Manish Kumar and Surojit from IncuCapital then shared their thoughts on entrepreneurship, incubation, mentorship and funding. Sandeep Saxena gave a lightening pitch about his startup DoctorBabu, providing a single platform to connect the entire healthcare industry.

Audience at Startup Saturday Chennai

Chennai
The event started with a talk by one of the Teach For India volunteers, about their noble venture.

Rajasekhar Mamillapalli, founder of Ananafit (that makes eco-friendly clothes from banana plantain’s outer stem) spoke about the production glitch that Ananafit had been experiencing because of unavailability of machinery to automate the entire production process.

Lastly Rammohan, founder of NRC Agro, that specializes in wholesale, frozen and packed vegetables, gave a detailed talk about his vegetable business.

Shilpa Srivastava, speaking about Twitsnaps

Kolkata
With the theme - “Social Media”, Sumit Dutta, founder of Pixlie, started the event with a general discussion on the theme. Aji Issac Mathew, founder of TechShu, then shared some of his views on social media.

This was followed by a presentation of ContextMine by Nitesh Ambuj. Kamanashish Roy and Bibhas Chandra Debnath spoke about Social Mandi, a startup that encourages group buying of software products using social media as a tool. Mr Simarpreet Singh, founder of Compare Infobase, then spoke about his entrepreneurial experiences and shared tips on retaining employees and chasing clients.

This was followed by a presentation on Twitsnaps by Shilpa Srivastava with Rajesh Rana and Krishnendu Paul following next.

Audience at Startup Saturday Hyderabad

Hyderabad
The theme this time was ‘Elevator Pitches’. Raghu Batta from Ojas Ventures was the first speaker. He demystified the common myths that entrepreneurs hold with respect to what investors look for, by quoting examples from the industry and from his personal experiences.

Dr. Baba Prasad, CEO of Vivekin Group gave a talk on innovation and ideation and what entrepreneurs and leaders could and should do to lead from the front.

The session ended with lightening pitches by Nava Saini, founder of EDEDAA, Meher Vijaya, founder of Artjini and Manish from IncuCapital.

Ahmedabad’s first Startup Saturday meet

Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad had its first Startup Saturday in January. The event started with a brief talk on Headstart and Startup Saturday by Nagashri. This was followed by a talk by Manu Midha, VP Planning and Operations, Infibeam about retail businesses, monetization strategies, gaining traffic, closing deals, and various other things. There was also an interactive Q&A where the audience fired questions at the speaker. The session ended with a series of lightening pitches.
_______________________________
Startup Saturday happens at eight cities every second Saturday of the month. Join us there if you have the faintest inclination towards entrepreneurship and startups. We can assure you that these sessions will leave you inspired. The audience comprises of entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, academicians, corporates, students including the curious passerby. Signing off folks, lets create more startups and make existing ones more productive. Join us @ www.headstart.in. Tweet us @headstarters. Contributed by Ramya Rajan, Ramesh Loganathan, Vishwa Vivek, Swaminathan Kannan, Ramanuj Mukherjee, Paresh Mathur, Swati Ramnath(editor)

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed