“A cynic is one who knows the price of everything, but value of nothing.”
– Some wiseacre
It was a meek looking Saturday afternoon. The rain gods were busy pouring their grace all over the city of joy. Lethargy could have been excusable. But as we were to find out, in a room filled with passionate value creators, there is no room for laziness, only engaging dialogues. And thus we kick started our August edition of Startup Saturday, Kolkata. Albeit a little later than the scheduled time, the wait was worth the fun.
After a brief round of introduction from all the SS volunteers and the present guests, Mr. Niel Hirjee, Vice Chair of the Internet Society India, Kolkata Chapter, opened the floor. He discussed at length how ISOC aims at promoting the most fundamental right of freedom on the World Wide Web. He pointed out how we, its users, can protect the interest of the Internet. Governments all over the world have a right to act as policy makers on the use of Internet, but in the process the right of expression and information cannot be compromised. Internet Society is a global organization, that attempts to bridge this gap by engaging in active dialogues with policymakers, and aims at making the Internet a sustainable medium, despite its exponential growth.
Up next was Mr. Pankaj Judge, founder and Chief DNA Officer of ‘Jiyo India’; a food startup specializing in healthy sandwiches and salads. A health freak, Pankaj had a desire to make a mark in the food business. And he enumerated some of his key learnings, which according to him, has helped him to continue on his path. He heavily stressed on the notion of frugality. He realized very soon that he wanted to handle something that was not extensive in capital investment, a characteristic very common in the traditional restaurant business. He wanted to be different, in a good way. And of course, he wanted to spread the idea of a healthy meal. With all of this combined, ‘Jiyo India’ emerged. A kiosk based, corporate sector, healthy and a quick combination of sandwiches and salads. ‘Jiyo India’ aims at reaching out to corporate house cafeterias to provide their over-worked employees a filling and a healthy, value-for-money meal. Pankaj stressed on the value-for-money concept. ‘Jiyo India’ aims at making value for money products, and not overly priced niches food products; and that, according to Pankaj, sits very well with his vision of frugality and efficiency. Today ‘Jiyo India’ has multiple kiosks in Kolkata at multiple IT firms, and is aiming to expand in the Delhi-NCR region. One key aspect Pankaj could not stress enough, was the importance of having a like-minded partner. He strongly believes, that in order to succeed and enjoy your entrepreneurial journey, an intellect/financial equal in the firm can never be a disadvantage. Howard Schultz of the world famous brand Starbucks would completely agree to Pankaj. In his book, “Pour you heart into it”, Schultz states that for any entrepreneur to be successful and grow, it is a must that an equal must be present; and if that equal turns out to be smarter than you, even better.
Mr. Vikram Kumar followed Pankaj’s act with some insightful tips on seeking investment, dealing with investor and company valuation. Vikram is the founder and CEO of ‘DataResolve Technologies’, an IT company dedicated to providing data security solutions. Perhaps the most important aspect that he shed light upon was understanding an investor’s psyche. He believes that an investor would only even consider talking about your business plans if he/she happens to like you. Such investors are of course individual angel investors, primarily the focal point of absolutely fresh companies. Vikram believes, the most important fact is that an investor should be able to relate to a founder, or a set of founders. To put it very simply, the investor should like you. This heavily echoes Aji Isaac’s idea delivered last month, of people ultimately becoming brands. Vikram stressed that ‘the individual’ is the ultimate litmus for a sound investor to get on board. This is not to say that a bad business plan presented by a very likable person will be entertained, but to stress on the fact that an individual must be looking to build personal relations first than just going after the money. He further stressed on realizing the importance of rejection; albeit hard, it is a tremendous learning device. For any rejection will only fix the error you never knew existed in your model/plan. Hence, be thankful for a rejection. Zero expectations will provide zero heartache. Vikram stated on the fact that one should be ready to deal with multiple people and personalities, because at the end of the day, only practice makes perfect. It is difficult to fake confidence, and the only way to actually gain confidence is to fall and get back up. A very apt time for the famous Batman quote, “We only fall so that we can learn to pick ourselves”. Though this may seem a very trite romantic pep up talk, but it comes from a man and an organization that thrived on it.
Mr. Umesh Bhutoria of ‘E-CUBE Energy Trading’ began by completely seconding Vikram’s point of view. E-cube is a roughly 3 yr. old company, that specializes in financing, project advisory and finance managing of energy sector companies. This was the first time that an energy centric entrepreneur had come up on Startup Saturday Kolkata. We were lucky to have Umesh who enlightened us on perhaps the most fundamental product known to mankind, energy. Umesh began by giving a brief overview of the coal-dominated energy sector. And then methodically shifted focus on where India stands in the global arena. Our energy consumption per capita ranks on the 4th spot, whereas as our peak hour energy deficit is at approx. 10%. Cutting to the chase, Umesh made us understand the tremendous value-creation opportunities that exists in our country and how this sole fact was his motivation to collaborate with his brother and co-start a firm that focuses on handling energy assets and commodities.
The rain-laden clouds were still flirting with the firmament by the time we concluded our presentation section, a good time for some tea, samosas and networking. A huge shout out to Niel Hirjee, Pankaj Judge, Vikram Kumar and Umesh Bhutoria for sparing their valuable time for our small little community that we are hoping to expand beyond measures. And a huge shout out for all those in whose company this great evening was spent, and for all you other folks out there reading the post and going green in envy, waiting to attend the next session!
Do get in touch with us on kolkata@headstart.in for any feedback and/or if you would like to join our volunteer team at SS Kolkata! We strive to keep adding value to and learn from the entrepreneur society of Kolkata.
See you at the next Startup Saturday!
Cheers,
Team SS Kolkata
Arjun Jalan is a volunteer with Startup Saturday since July, 2012
When is the next Startup Saturday. I would be really interested to join in. Thanks for the initiative.