Platform For Entrepreneurs

Proto.in, India's premier showcase event for startups had it's fourth iteration last week. For the uninitiated Proto.in is a platform for entrepreneurs to demonstrate their products to a focused gathering of VCs, Technologists, Media ,Aspiring entrepreneurs and Early adopters.  IIT Delhi played the host. It was stretched over two days and for the first time more than 500 people participated .

Day 1 of Proto.in  was reserved for mentoring sessions by experienced entrepreneurs, VCs and  Industry veterans. Some Participants dubbed it as a " Wisdom Day" and the insights shared by the speakers were directly applicable to problems an entrepreneur faces in his venture.

The first day at Proto.in was kick started by a key note address by Kiran Karnik, former chairman of NASSCOM. He drew parallels between the boom of the service industry and the new boom of creating wealth through Intellectual Property. He advised entrepreneurs to focus on domestic market which thanks to proliferation of Mobile and Broadband is rapidly attaining a critical mass. Mr. Karnik also highlighted availability of government funds allocated towards starting new ventures and technological development.

This was followed by fast track sessions where people who have been a part of the start-up revolution in India shared their experiences with the audience . First of these speakers was Murugavel Janakiram of Bharat Matrimonial who spoke on Building Web services for India . He shared his story of starting his business from his bed room and scaling it to a 1000 people strong team . He stressed the importance of not getting carried away with latest hype but, sticking to the culture of bootstrapping and treating word of mouth as the primary channel of marketing. Audience burst in to applause when Mr. Murugavel mentioned that "as a Proof of Concept I would like of tell you that I found my wife at Bharat Matrimony "

Next was a session from Bhavin Turakhia of Derecti.com. Bhavin embodies all traits of an Proverbial dot com entrepreneur . Young , Easy going , Porsche driving CEO of a fast growing business. He described business as a game, which needs two prime concerns - Getting the right players and Getting your team to think and work effectively and in a way better than your competitions.

The strategy intensive session of Bhavin was followed by a talk on romance of Startup by Sameer Guglani of Morpheus Venture Partners talking about Building products that people really want, where he said that Building a product for investors is a lame thing. Instead, building a product, getting a lot of users for the same and then looking for investors leads to better business results. 

These sessions from entrepreneurs were followed by talks from industry experts who shared their wisdom on various aspects of building a successful business . Narayan of 20:20 Media shared the Branding Best Practices followed by Businesses worldwide to make their Brand standout. Amit Ranjan, COO of Slideshare , a leading Presentation sharing community site shared his learning in nurturing a vibrant community by co creating value with Content Creators, audience and conversation starters .

The fast track sessions also had talks by Sanjay Anandram of Jumpstartup, Gaurav Bhatnagar of Tekriti and Shashank Ghosh, a film director.

The second day at Proto.in was when the most promising start-ups of India showcased their products. The start-ups that were presented were a mix from various industries . 

Among noteworthy Web 2.0 startups there was Lifeblob , a Life streaming service where the user can create a dairy of the day to day event on a time line which is shared with the time line of place ,event and friend. Muziboo, a startup in social media space showed their service for amateur musicians. It allows geographically dispersed music lovers to socialize on the web. PicPorta was a startup in image recognition space which allows you to find and TAG your FACE in a photo set .

Lootstreet, a shopping site launched by two IIM graduates aims to create an online equivalent of bargain basement . Bangalore based startup Storrz aim to create a social shopping destination where you can mingle with the community for shared recommen-dations,  product reviews etc. 

Other promising startups were Lippikar, an Online Transliteration tool which allows you to type in various indic language using regular QWERTY key board. Blink, an interactive shopping cart which helps you to decided what to buy in shopping Malls by providing product info ,pricing details and your purchase history . Blink was one of the most admired startup amongst the audience . another Favorite startup amongst participants was Ferox foods. A next generation health food that sells Makhana flakes and popcorns. LordofOdds is a market based game where users can trade predictions of sports, entertainment, politics, etc. using virtual money. ApnaBill, an online billing service that lets you pay your utility bills, recharge mobile talk time, etc. thehiringtool, an online Recruiting Marketplace. Blinkmagic - an online retail startup that is building a play on online shopping experience. Tiriyo a web-based recruiting software that streamlines the entire candidate management process. EKO, a micro financial service with the backing of a seasoned silicon valley executive aims to provide a platform for Banks to provide basic banking services like saving accounts ,money transfer etc to people who are usually deemed unfit for a regular account due to various issues.

Attending Proto.in was like a two day long roller coaster ride , switching from one idea to another, meeting many young entrepreneurs with the engergy and zeal to make their dreams into reality , sitting through discussions on the viability of ideas and potential of India as a breeding ground for next Google, yahoo, Facebook of the world. 

As a closing remark I would like to address all those skeptics who don't believe in the India Story . Please Attend the next edition of Proto.in and you will realize that its not a Question of "IF" we are going have a great entrepreneurial success stories from india. Thanks to platforms like Proto.in we have all the ingredients in place here in india. Now its just a Question of "WHEN". I have seen the Future. I have seen it at Proto.in  

Compiled by Consulting Correspondent for Businessgyan - Prashant Singh in New Delhi.

Issue BG89 Aug 08