All About Co-founders, #SSBLR

Start-up Saturday is a wonderful initiative from Headstart to foster and develop the spirit of entrepreneurship on a Saturday morning. The meeting conducted on Feb 12’11 was revolving around the theme of co-founders which was held at GINSERV at 10 AM.

Jyoti Ramnath, a senior volunteer with Headstart kick-started the meeting by briefing the audience about Start-up Saturday and it’s initiative. She also aligned the meeting to the theme for the event which was all about ‘Co-founders’. She introduced Ms Daksha from GINSERV to the audience who  spoke to the audience and gave an idea about the Incubation process that it undertakes. She also outlined details about  business plans, process profiles and screening by the panel in order to incubate those ideas.

The first speaker for the day was Mr Siddharth Shastri who is the founder of Phi Tesla. It was founded in the year 2008 with an aim to bring technology to India in the automotive sector. Siddharth, an MS from the USA pursued his interest in the automotive industry which resulted into the formation of Phi Tesla.

Today their clientele has names like TVS, Royal Enfield etc to name a few. He spoke to the audience about various challenges that the company faced and the kind of prospects they churned out during the course of time. The concept of ‘Digital Speedometer’ was his brain child.

Technical knowledge and prowess was his forte and so briefed the audience about how he effectively outsourced ‘Marketing & Strategy’ to carry on various operations. He hinted the audience about the learning curve that he had during his venture in the following bullet points:

  • Have clarity in the venture that you are aspiring to pursue
  • If anything can save you time, it is indeed worth the money
  • View every hurdle as a speed-braker
  • Dont hesitate to do the ground work and get your hands dirty.

After his talk, he took a few questions from the audience and answered them with practical examples.

The second speaker was Mr Zerin Rahiman. He is founder of Indigo Edge. Zerine is an alumnus from IIM-L and he took us through his journey of meeting and finding co-founders to execute his idea. He spoke about various qualities that we need to look for in a co-founder in order to make the venture successful. The three main look-out points in a co-founder  are listed below:

  • Health
  • Abilities
  • Trust

He also spoke about mapping opportunities and competition during a co-founder search to support a venture.

This was followed by  ‘co-founder speed dating’. This is an exciting idea where entrepreneurs get an opportunity to find a co-founder suiting their venture-profile with the skill-sets and abilities.

After this, a general networking session was brought open to the floor where all participants of the event got an opportunity to know others and discuss with them. The meeting ended after the elaborate networking session. Over all it was a wonderful experience!

By Vinutha N

By Annkur Agarwal

Annkur P Agarwal is the co-founder of Pricebaba & SahiGST. Pricebaba is a product research engine that helps you research and shop consumer electronics. SahiGST is a SaaS platform for Indian SMEs to effectively manage their GST compliance.

17 comments

  1. Dear founders,

    I am in the process of becoming an entrepreneur. Luminous Consulting is the name of my company. I want to become member of the Start up Saturday to learn and sharpen my entrepreneurial skills. Please guide me as to how can I become memember of this group.

    Thanks in advance for the support.

    best regards,
    V Seetharaman
    +919886103149

  2. I would like to attend this co_founder event which is In Hyd , La Makaan (near GVK One). Does it require any pass to attend this event.Please give me the details about this , Thanks you .

  3. Feedback from StartUp Saturday, held on Mar.12, 2011

    1. Agenda could be better organized for the 2-3 hrs spent.

    2. One of the folks was pitching his product (consumer
    trend & market analysis) was so boring and dry for the
    duration. We need a short interesting preso, appealing to
    the audience.

    3. we need someone in the venture group to educate and
    provide a highlevel of what the landscape of where the
    funding is happening over the last 6 months, promising
    areas and any local startups in bangalore they have
    funded.

    4. Have an email sent to the audience who attended or post on your website as to who the speakers were and their contact and web address.

    Hopefully the one in March will be better and bring some
    value for the money and time spent.

    Thx

  4. Dear Mike,
    Thanks a lot for your candid feedback.
    May I know which city you attended the Startup Saturday in?

    We will try and work with the companies giving their demos so that they remain crisp and interesting.
    We often have investors coming for our events and would invite them more regularly if there is a substantial demand for it.

    The point about sharing a post event writeup is very apt. Unfortunately we have not succeed in doing so in some cities.
    I agree that its important. So far we have refrained from sharing anyone’s email ID, but after your feedback we realize that this makes sense.
    In future we’ll share the person’s details in the post event email sent to attendees, with the speaker’s permission of course.

    Once again, thanks for taking out time to write this email!
    Really Appreciated.

    Regards,
    Amit Singh
    Team HeadStart

  5. Hi Seetharaman,
    You can just meet any of our volunteers in the event thats closest to your city.

    Warm Regards,
    Amit
    Team Startup Saturday

  6. Hi,

    I am working with a foreign bank currently and would like to register for the April 9, 2011 event. However, am not able to do so on the website. Request if you could please help me register for the event.

    Regards,

  8. dear start up saturday team, i’m planning a venture and i’d like to attend this event of april, does it require any pass or entry fee… and i’m still in devlopement phase so how would this start up event help me..
    warm regards murtaza

  9. Hi Murtaza,

    The events in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai have a nominal entry fee of Rs. 100 while its free in rest of the cities.
    No pass is required. But you need to register on the event page – http://www.startupsaturday.in
    The fee can be paid at the venue itself.

    Regards,
    Amit

  10. Thank you amit,
    i’ve registerred myself, but is there any age limit,
    what if a under graduate, still pursuing educations willing to start a venture right now wants to join this??

  11. Dear amit, also let me know do you people have any theme for this, I mean a guy pursuing a start up in IT should or should’nt join the mum. start up meet???
    well if it has any theme than please let me know when do ypu people are having a saturday start up related to IT or internet??

  12. Dear sir,
    thanks for you reply but can i know what is the theme or topics which will be discussed on 9th april,
    i wanna attend the start up event related to IT or interenet…

  13. Hi Murthuza,

    Thanks for your questions. Here are the answers:-
    1. No age limit. We have had 16 year olds and 76 year olds attend our events. Interestingly both have started their ventures.
    2. While the themes are not IT centric, a majority of product demos in Startup Saturdays across India are IT related. So you might get a lot of relevant information for your IT related venture too. And I would highly recommend posting your specific queries to our Google Group – http://groups.google.com/group/headstart-network

    Regards,
    Amit

  14. Hi
    I have started my venture in year 2010 and just completed one year. I want to attend event at delhi and part of team.

    Thanks

    MANUJ

  15. Hi Amit,

    I’m keenly interested in the Saturday Startup in Bangalore and also have registered my details in http://www.startupsaturday.in. Can you kindly let me know the exact address/venue and timings for Bangalore.

    Thanks,
    Sriranga R
    Bangalore

  16. Hi Amit,

    I was in Bangalore for some time and now moved to Kochi permanently and would like to have start-up Saturdays organised at Kochi too. Any suggestion about how to go about?

    Best Regards
    Dintis

  17. Hi Dintis,
    Thanks a lot for asking! Kochi has long been in our radar.
    We’ll have to do some ground work on how suitable it is to have a Startup Saturday happening on a consistent basis.
    I am aware of a good amount of startup activity happening there.
    To get started we need a team of 3 people. 1 city lead, and two volunteers.
    The city lead should be someone passionate about helping entrepreneurs and nurturing the local ecosystem. He/she should be well connected with local entrepreneurs and will directly interact with Annkur and will get all possible support from HeadStart as and when required. The city lead’s main role will be to locate good speakers and spread the word about Startup Saturday especially with the help of the local media. Its a very responsible role and hence “passion for supporting entrepreneurs/entrepreneurship” is a pre requisite.
    The other two team members will not have as much accountability but their role will be critical in building the activities.
    Please mail me on amit at headstart dot in and I’ll send you my number, we can talk about the details. I’ll also give you necessary documents to understand more about HeadStart as an organization and also Startup Saturdays!
    Once again, thanks for your interest!
    Regards,
    Amit

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