Delhi
“Startup India Initiative” by the Government, claims to redefine and restructure the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem of India. Startup Saturday Delhi, as part of its February Edition, gathered to discuss and debate on, whether the initiative marks the beginning of an era, or is it just another government hoax.
The day started with a talk on ‘Global Co-working spaces’ by Vivek Mohan(CTO, Innov8), followed by a talk on ‘Essential Entrepreneurship Lessons’ by Pulkit Ahuja(Co-Founder, Cabsguru). The third speaker of the day Gaurav Talwar(Felix Advisor) covered several key financial concerns that arise with Startup India Initiative. The Panel discussion featured Amit Mishra(Country Head , F6S), Pulkit Ahuja(Co-Founder, Cabsguru), Gaurav Talwar(Felix Advisor) and Prakhar Agarwal(Mumbai Angels)
Interesting insights from the event:
- Getting an opportunity to come daily and work in the presence of other passionate folks who have embarked upon a journey same as yours is the key benefit of a Co-working space, where motivation and problem-solving comes free of cost
- Mould yourself as per what the user expects – as a startup, always be ready to embrace change
- The best country for your business is subjective. Let the unique requirements of your business decide the preferred country
- Mistakes that kill a startup – Bad space & Spending too much
For a detailed account of Startup Saturday Delhi February 2016 edition, visit: http://goo.gl/3pgSD1
Kolkata
February edition of Startup Saturday Kolkata was on the theme “Business Plan and Valuation”. It was an insightful event with major highlight on ‘Making impactful B Plan’ and ‘Preparing right valuation’ for a startup; and featuring a compilation of knowledge sharing sessions covering various topics such as Business Plans, Funding Strategies and Finding Investors. Speaker for the day included G K Tandon(Founder & CEO of Sattva Consultancy) and Sauvik Banerjee(Founder & COO of Array Consultancy). They were also the panelists for the panel discussion that followed the speaker sessions. It was moderated by Anurag Singal, a finance expert. Four startups that had a chance to pitch that day were Arch the way( Co-founder – Nikhil Bajoria), Fashion Darbar(Founder – Amitava Dasgupta), Hungry Rabbit(Founder-Ankul Jagatramka) and Ocaision(Founder- Himanshu Bhatia).
Interesting insights from the event:
- Entrepreneur market is evolving and maturing every day. One needs to figure out how to scale up, return money to the investors, and pay their employees on time
- Excellent presentation and jazzy presentation do not always make an impact.
- Huge experience is not necessary, but an appetite for risk plays a better and a vital role in entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurs say not to quit, but to start from scratch. Be a beggar before you start
For a detailed account of Startup Saturday Kolkata February 2016 edition, visit: http://goo.gl/2ghaiV
Bangalore
Accelerators “accelerate” the growth of existing startups; while incubators “incubate” disruptive ideas, so they could be built into a business model and a company. To provide further insight into the ways in which accelerators and incubators nurture the entrepreneurial ecosystem, Startup Saturday Bangalore hosted its February 2016 Edition on the theme “Accelerators and Incubators – Fueling Entrepreneurship”. The event started with Amit Singh, Founder at Wow Labz and Co-Founder at Headstart, announcing the launch of Headstart Hackerzone, Headstart’s first co-working space, powered by IKP. Keynote Speaker for the day was Venkat Raju (MD & CEO, Kyron), followed by a talk on ‘Decoding the Startup Action Plan’ by Alok Patnia(CEO, Taxmantra). After the talks, three startups – Aveti, PlaceOfOrigin & Peersome got a chance to pitch and demo to the enthusiastic audience and received constructive feedback. Malini Gowrishankar(Founder, F5-Escapes) moderated the panel discussion featuring panelists – Naveen Asrani(Director, Microsoft Ventures), Prof. Sabarinathan(Director, NSRCEL-IIMB), Santosh Panda(Cofounder & CEO, Explara), and Ganapathy Venugopal(CEO, Axilor Ventures).
Interesting insights from the event:
- The role of incubators and accelerators is to identify at what stage the startup is today in its journey; and how to take it from one stage to another. Usually the journey of a startup comprises of 3 stages: Idea to pilot, pilot to launch and launch to scale.
- Good ideas will find good people. If you bet on people, you will get good ideas.
- The enterprise is the entrepreneur’s dream and business. Accelerators and Incubators just facilitate them.
For a detailed account of Startup Saturday Bangalore February 2016 edition, visit: http://goo.gl/QgXbfn
Jaipur
Headstart joined hands with St. Xavier’s College, Jaipur this month for it first collaboration event “The Launch: X-START”. The event, which was hosted by Headstart Jaipur team on 6th Febrary 2016, was a massive launch receiving a whopping 300+ registrations within a week of announcement of the event. Unlike other regular formal events, X-START started with a flashmob dance by Headstarters and Xavierites. The speakers consisted of C.A Paresh Gupta (Country Lead at HeadStart Network Foundation, SRCC Topper, MBA from London School of Business and Finance, Ex-Investment banker and TEDx speaker); India’s ace cyclist Chirag Singhal who added a bunch of achievements to his pocket by completing a journey of 13,000 km visiting 7 Countries in 7 months on a cycle; and Gopalakrishnan Chandramouli( Director of products , goibibo). The event also included ‘Startup quiz’ with 5 innovative rounds conducted by Headstarters. The X-start event was one of its own kind, building enthusiasm among the students about entrepreneurship and startups, and leaving the college faculty, participants and Headstarters with a sense of satisfaction.
Pune
Startup Saturday Pune’s February 2016 edition was on “BootStrapping – Funding – What next ? Going Global”. Amit Singh (Founder Amiworks & Business Head – WSPOETS) was the speaker of the day. He gave an insightful talk and stated the three most important things : Perception, Focus & Commitment, that entrepreneurs must have to succeed in the journey. Following Amit’s talk was a startup demo by Tanuj Sinha and Swati Jindal (Founder & Co-Founder) of ‘Gourmet Eat’.
Hyderabad
The theme for February edition of Startup Saturday Hyderabad was “Accelerators and Incubators – Defining Roadmap to Success. The event featured talks by Sanjay Enishetty(50k Ventures), Renuka Rathod(SLP), Srini Chandupatla(Hyderabad Angels), Tom Thomas(CIE), Srinivas Aki(BuiltForFree) and Rajiv Lulla(Capricorn Gifting). Manika( 91 Springboards), Monika( ikeva) and Tarun(Co-Karma) presented their co-working spaces and shared how they are facilitating startups in their journey. The panel discussion , moderated by Ramesh Loganathan( Progress Software) featured panelists: Srinivas Kollipara(T-Hub), Dheeraj Batra(D-labs, ISB) and Udhay Shankar( Axilor Ventures).
Interesting insights from the event:
- Incubator is a long term program, whereas an accelerator is a short term structured program
- The moment you have an idea, go to a mentor to figure out if it works. Reaching out to a mentor – sooner the better; Reaching out to the investor – later the better.
- Look at the quality of incubators when choosing an incubator. Find out if the incubator has potential for seed funding, and has proper networking facilities.
- A co-working space is not just a shared office. It also provides access to basic services like accounting, legal etc.
Chennai
Startup Saturday Chennai also hosted its Feb edition on the theme “Accelerators, Incubators & Co-Working Spaces – How They Can Help You Go Big”. KRDS in association with TheWorks@ were the venue partner. The event started with a talk by Luke, the CEO of KRDS India. He spoke about KRDS’s launch in India in 2008, and how, having been a startup not too long ago, it understands the challenges faced by startups and wants to give back to the startup community and offer support in whatever means possible. This was followed by two other insightful talks by Sathish Vaidyanathan, Head of PayPal Incubation India and Hrishikesh Dattar, Founder and CEO – VakilSearch. There was also a product demo by Vijay Krishna, Co-founder of D-Rewards. The panel discussion – moderated by Raja Selvam, Founder & Managing Attorney of the law firm Selvam and Selvam, featured panelists: Kevin William David, Co-founder & CEO of Walletkit Inc., Srikrishnan Ganesan, Co-founder of Konotor, Ashwin Shankar, Co-founder and CEO of TheWorks@ and Pradeep Kumar, Consultant for the Start Tank Chennai Incubation Program at PayPal.
Interesting insights from the event:
- Incubators help in validating the idea. Every startup begins with an idea and the best time to be a part of incubator is when the idea needs to be validated.
- Accelerators come into play when the product has been launched in the market place and when it’s required to take the business to next level.
- Co-Working spaces offer the same things as accelerators and incubators. For instance, they group multiple talents under one roof, they make you part of the community etc. but the difference is that the in coworking spaces these things happen in a more random order than in an organized way.
- When going for funding always remember that capital is not a substitute for customer insight. As founders we can go a very long way without funding
- Team is important. Lots of investors invest for the team not just for the problem that the team is solving.
Coimbatore
Coimbatore HS chapter is all set and ready to be launched in March. As part of their pre-launch activity, they had a innovative event in Feb, called as ‘Startup Payanam’ targeted towards aspiring entrepreneurs and students. True to its name, its a one day bus journey across Coimbatore, where 40 participants meet startups and entrepreneurs which included Icliniq, Getvu, MyPromoVideos, MyLaundryKart, Buddies café, Sharp Pumps, among others.
Interesting insights from the event:
- We need to target the market to sell our products. We should visualize who can use our product where and when
- Solve problems with your startup. Cash will be a bi product
- Start small; Think big
- No shortcut for quality and success
- Implement the right idea at the right time
For more details, visit: http://goo.gl/VwU6S2
Kochi
Startup Saturday Kochi as part of its February edition hosted an array of speakers who explored the various aspects of ‘Startup Hiring’. Each speaker shared their perspectives and experiences of hiring employees in their startups. The speakers and panelists included Joby Joseph(Founder and CEO of Freshersworld.com), Prasita Praveen(Sr. HR Manager in MobMe Wireless Solutions), Cinu P Thomas(MD of Intercad Systems), Dijo Joseph(Operations Manager in Uber Kochi), Varsha Menon(Head of Tech Hiring in GreenPepper Consulting)
Interesting insights from the event:
- Always recruit people smarter than you. You need people who are smart, experts in their core competencies; it is they who are going to take your company ahead in long run
- To find employees when you are small, market your startup and hiring in all mediums. Use all possible channels like relatives, friends, startup blogs, communities, forums, social media, events, hackathons
- While interviewing candidates make sure you have good amount of face to face interaction and look for the startup spark in them
Ahmedabad
February edition of Startup Saturday Ahmedabad was on the theme “Opportunities & Challenges in the Logistics Sector”. It was hosted in the halls of CIIE, IIM-A, attended by over 100 people. The speakers included Jay Merja(Muvr.in), Ruchit Surti(Laconix) and Yash Vasant(Vasant Group, ToD:Transport on Demand). The amazing talks were followed by 2 startup demos, Wockito, a professional networking app and FrenBerry, a healthy and nutritious food startup
Interesting insights from the event:
- Good to have a dream, but do not be a constant dreamer. Have realistic targets
- Don’t micromanage. It affects the confidence of employees and displaces their trust
Other Happenings at Headstart
BigB Plan 2016
Headstart has teamed up with Espark-Viridian, an accelerator for early and growth stage startups to organize the BigB Plan 2016, a pan- India Business Plan Competition. Inviting applications from early and growth stage startups, BigB Plan 2016 is providing entrepreneurs with an amazing opportunity to get entry into the Espark-Viridian Accelerator and raise seed funding of upto INR 20 lacs.
More info about BigB Plan 2016 can be found here: http://www.espark-viridian.org/bigbplan2016/
Headstart Co-Work
Headstart in partnership with IKP has come up with a co-working place cum virtual incubator program. Located in Koramangala it provides incubation as well as a DIY Makerspace. The facilities include metal, wood, plastics working shop, electronics, fluidics and medical devices, 3D printers and laser cutting. With the co-working space you are eligible to apply for Headstart Virtual Incubator(details below) and access it for free. Pricing is Rs 6000 per seat, payable to IKP.
You can apply for Headstart Co-work here – http://bit.ly/HSCowork
Headstart Virtual Incubator(ViiN)
Headstart Virtual Incubator (ViiN) is aimed to hand-hold early stage startups and ensure that they win. Your progress will be tracked and you’d receive mentoring as and when required from experts and successful entrepreneurs. The incubator also allows you to access all Headstart initiatives and partnered events related to Co-founder, Hiring, Mentoring, Networking, Pitching, Workshops, Investors either free or at heavily discounted prices. Contribution – Rs. 5000. (It’s worth 35k)
To apply for Headstart Virtual Incubator (ViiN) visit: http://bit.ly/HeadstartViiN
Volunteer Heroes of the Month
Mittu Tigi
“Highly enthusiastic and dedicated volunteer. His creative skills and marketing strategies have brought a new vigour to the activities at Kochi. He has put effort in identifying new volunteers and making the present team more vibrant. Great working with him and proud to have him as a part of the Headstart Kochi team.”
– Yadukrishnan S(City Lead, Headstart Kochi)
Lakshmi Narayanan G
“Lakshmi Narayanan G has been exceptional in driving the social media initiatives of Headstart Chennai in the 1st Quarter of 2016 . Lakshmi has earned the superhero title “twitterman”. He has been at his best creating as many channels as possible to make Startup Saturday a highly visible property in Chennai. A wonderful team member, he is currently initiating the rollout of new properties in Chennai. LN has also reached out beyond Chennai location to support Coimbatore with the social media efforts to ensure the chapter’s successful relaunch. It is wonderful to have him as a part of this awesome team.”
– Jim Tharakan(City Lead, Headstart Chennai)
Written by: Monica Movva, Sahil Verma, Vyomini Katta, Annupreeti, Ankit Srivastava, Amit Rawat, Praveena Bavanari, Zee Nawaz
Edited by: Swati Ramnath