Bangalore: Startup City at NIMHANS Convention Center Bangalore on June 2, 2012 turned out to be better as multifaceted platform, allowing entrepreneurs to flex their muscles to warn the corporate biggies that they ought to be counted upon and in the process grab some Awards.
"INKONIQ, SpanIdea Systems, Nudgespot and ProudUmmah" were declared as "Best Startup Company" as part of the competition in which close to 60 startups competed for the title.
Awards were given based on the following criteria: the company overview, market opportunity, the team, solution value proposition, competitive positioning, growth plans, go-to-market plan, current status and investment prospects.
The judges were from well known VC Firms like IUVP, Canaan India, Helion, Accel Partners, Matrix Partners, Mumbai Angels, KITVEN Funds, Indian Angel Network, Indian Angel Network, IDG Ventures India, Inventus Advisors
The event was Inaugurated with an Inaugural keynote on "Beginning a Successful entrepreneurial journey" by Ashok Soota, Founder & Executive Chairman, Happiest Minds.
In the inaugural keynote Mr. Soota advised the budding entrepreneurs "How to Transform an Idea into a Successful Enterprise". He said that "Most businesses are founded on the promises of an idea. The idea maybe a new product, a new service, a new business model or capitalizing on new technologies such as cloud, mobility, social media, analytics , as in the case of Happiest Minds." In his speech Mr. Soota regarded, "Soundness of the entry strategy, Organization building, Decision making based on cash flow, Identifying company's weakest links and Timing", as the most important factors of success.
The keynotes were followed by a panel discussion on, "The E-commerce Wave: Where does it go from here?" Speakers for this panel were renowned names like Ashutosh Lawania, Co-founder, Myntra.com and Ajay Chandra, CTO - Co-founder, Infibeam.
In his speech Mr. Ashutosh Lawania enlightened the crowd about the E commerce trends. "Indian e-commerce is still at a nascent stage with potential to grow the fastest within the Asia-Pacific Region at a CAGR of over 57 percent to reach $8.8 billion by 2016 according to Forrester. Similarly we expect the fashion and lifestyle category in India which is currently estimated at $50 billion to grow up to $100 billion by 2015 - 16. About 5 - 8 percent of this will come from online retail," Mr. Lawania said.
Mr. Lawania also alleged that "Majority of e-commerce firms are currently splurging to acquire customers with key levers being coupons and discounts. In the long run, business will have to look at building trust and improving customer satisfaction levels to truly standout and become successful."
Ajay Chandra from Infibeam was very pleased to see enthusiasm in the participants and the organized way the event was conducted. In his speech Mr. Chandra said "E-commerce in India is growing at a fast pace and the companies that are focused on providing the best customer experience are going to be the winners. This is definitely only possible with a good balance of technology, process and people to solve the basic infrastructure problems".
"With infibeam.com we hope to provide the best customer experience and with buildabazaar.com we hope to be the go to platform for enabling e-commerce for the Indian audience."Mr. Chandra stated.
Following the Entrepreneurial Keynotes "Concept to Success: Milestones" for startups was arranged where speakers comprised of well-known faces like Sunny Ghosh, CEO, WOLF Frameworks, Vinay Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO, Via and Bikky Khosla, Founder & CEO, Tradeindia.com.
Mr. Vinay Gupta from Via pointed out on the basic facts of startup success: "Focus on the right problems, make sure they are genuine needs and do not be afraid of taking risks." and "People in company will do as per the culture you set. Culture is the unwritten bible which one coveys through ones actions and not policy."
The second panel focused on "New Paths to Online Revenue: Journey of Internet Entrepreneur". The second panel speakers were Bhavish Aggarwal, Co founder & CEO, OLACABS, Nitin Agarwal, Co-Founder & CTO, Yebhi.com and Mr Aurvind Lama, Co-Founder, TravelYaari.com acted as a moderator.
Panel 3 discussions were on "VC perspective: Opportunities for entrepreneurs in 2012 & Best Advice to get funded in current environment." Mohan Kumar, Executive Director, NVP India, Kumar Shiralagi, Managing Director, IUVP, Rahul Khanna, Managing Director, Canaan India,Ravindra Krishnappa, India Angel Network were the speakers and it was moderated by Sumir Verma from Merisis Capital Advisors.
Mr. Shiralagi was delighted with the way the conference was conducted. "The conference was very well attended and many start ups were there. Excellent job on promoting it, arranging it and it was well coordinated. Everything ran very well on time," he said.
Sumir says "VCs continue to look for interesting investment propositions - their interest levels are not affected by the economic negativity that is otherwise prevailing. The earlier the deal, the greater is the bet on the team." He also added "Areas that they are all looking at are Internet, Cloud, Mobile VAS, Ecommerce, Education, Healthcare to name a few."
The famous CEO Conclave for Startup City 2012 started after the award ceremony for best Start Up companies. The CEO Conclave functioned as a platform for budding entrepreneurs who wanted to discuss about opportunities and hurdles of business with the established business personas. The CEO Conclave speakers were Kailash Katkar, Founder, MD and CEO, Quick Heal Technologies, Manav Garg, CEO & Founder, Eka Software, Vivek Kulkarni, Chairman, Brickwork India, Sangeeta Patni, Co-founder & President, Extensio Software with Mukul Kumar, Co-Founder and SVP Engineering, Pubmatic as a moderator.
Sangeeta explicated the 3 stages of startups
"The infant state: A Startup is still an infant, when it has less than 3 paying and current customers (Or 100 paying user customer, if it's a on-line business), and till that time, it must simply focus on surviving. Keep costs low, and iterate and iterate till the time they build a product that a customer wants and is willing to pay for. No Indian VC would fund an Infant Start up".
She regarded the second state as "The toddler state: When the startups acquire three customers, they graduate to become toddlers, and then they need fortification in terms of partners, certifications, awards, analyst reviews etc. This adds credibility to them and helps them get to the next stage of maturity, which is 7 paying customers".
She added "The Little boy state: When the startup acquires 7 paying customers, the startup has acquired some muscle and can play with the other boys. It is the time to aggressively invest in growth. Hot-shot sales people, VCs, engineers, channels - this is the time to grow and get to the next stage".
The closing of this grand Startup City Event was done by Mr. Kailash Katkar, Founder, MD and CEO, Quick Heal Technologies who shared his entrepreneurial journey that inspired each person present there.
Overall Silicon India's 11th Startup City Event in Bangalore was a grand success and budding entrepreneurs cannot wait to be a part of its next edition.
