Starting Up has always been a difficult & lone journey. As an entrepreneur, how far are you willing to go to solve people’s problem? Are you willing to reach out to each & every potential customer to ask, if your idea works out or not? That’s actually what the speaker of June edition of Startup Saturday did, prior to starting Sure Taxis, the latest entrant in Kolkata taxi startup scene. Our theme for June – “Market Segmentation, how to find target customers”.

For June, we had an amazing venue in store for our enthusiasts, the flamboyant offices of startup Intelliant. The office space was a treat to every entrepreneur’s eye. The swanky furniture, latest equipment and a caring host Shrenik Bhura. It stood as a model to our attendees, as to how a newly formed startup office should be like.

Powering up, we had a slightly different registration process, logging in every attendee upon their arrival and tagging them with a name-sticker. To acquaint ourselves with others, we had a small ‘Introduce Yourself’ session where people introduced themselves to the crowd turn-by-turn.  I found that many of our attendees came from prestigious colleges like IIT KGP, IIT Bombay, BITS Pilani, XIMB etc. A short & inspiring video clip about Nasscom’s 10000 Startups initiative, was projected to kick-off the event.

The dais was then opened for our theme speaker for the afternoon, the Managing Director of Sure Taxis, Mr. Peter Pudaite. He went on to describe his story behind starting up. Peter holds an MBA from UK & hails from Imphal, Manipur. But as he says, “I chose Kolkata because the city has huge potential for Taxi startups, a target audience of 5 million to start off with. That’s a pretty impressive number for a start.” Sure Taxis is a 24/7 taxi rental service, who arrange for AC/Non-AC taxis at your doorstep, at your preferred time. You just need to call their helpline & Voila!

Peter went on to share his Marketing knowledge about targeting, acquiring & retaining customers. Using interactive slideshows & whiteboard, he explained why User reviews & feedback surveys are important right from the beginning and how startups can take advantage of them. He detailed on how he has segregated his customers based on customer income level (Low paying / High Paying). He also shared the various customer experiences he had while running Sure Taxis. Mixing humor, punch-lines & key insights, Peter maintained pace, interest and enthusiasm in the session. He also charted out quite a few statistics on the whiteboard, for us to remember and follow. The whole session was a very well planed, charted and presented. We were astounded by Peter’s ability to make such complex topics, as easy as air. He then opened the floor for Q & A session and immediately got a volley of questions shot towards him. The 1hrs talk felt like just 15mins, we didn’t realize how fast the time went by. We applauded & thanked him for the wonderful knowledge & experience sharing.

A surprise addition to this event: Lightning Pitch from very own volunteer, Ajay Pandey. He spoke about his latest android app, FIFA World Cup 2014 Tracker. Based on android, the app gives you complete fixtures, daily fixtures and schedule of all the matches in the FIFA World Cup. The Alarm/Reminder feature really sets it apart. It allows you to select matches you want to watch and notifies you about the matches, by setting off an alarm on your mobile. You can download the app here.

The event concluded with a long Networking session over some light snacks. We all listened and talked to one-another exchanging ideas and contact details.

Special thanks to:-

Mr. Peter Pudaite, MD, Sure Taxis

Mr. Shrenik Bhura, Founder, Intelliant

Startup Saturday Kolkata Volunteering Team