‘Should I…?’
‘Should I not…??’
These were the questions playing in the minds of the audience as they geared up for another ‘super-duper’ Startup Saturday on the 13th of July at Yahoo Office, Bangalore. Given the day’s theme, it wasn’t surprising that a sizable chunk of the 90+ sized gathering were aspiring to be entrepreneurs. Just like any other Startup Saturday, the host, Prashant Kumar Sharma, set the stage by introducing the first-timers to Startup Saturday and briefing about Nasscom 10000 startups. What followed was an invigorating session carried on by inspirational entrepreneurs, ensuring that the audience had a stupendous time. Here is a quick recap:
#1 – Demo – Parkd.in – Chandrasekhar, Founder, New World Software
Fatigued by parking woes? Parkd.in offers you a solution. Chandrasekhar, Founder of New World Software, has come up with a unique online based parking slot booking service, which is an attempt to mitigate the time taken to acquire a parking spot by reserving one in advance. Payment is also made online. The service is in Beta and to be launched next month. Good luck Chandrasekhar!
You can contact Chandra at Chandra@parkd.in.
#2 – Perspective on “To be an Entrepreneur” – Sumit Jain, CoFounder & CEO, commonfloor.com
“Entrepreneurship should not happen because you are frustrated with your current job. It should happen because you are excited about solving an unsolved problem”.
-Quoting Mr. Sumit Jain, Co Founder and CEO of Commonfloor.com. He took the stage by storm by candidly sharing his experiences as an entrepreneur. He discussed the initial days of commonfloor and the current growth story. After briefing the audience about his business, he dwelled on the theme of the day. He emphasized the importance of ‘failing fast’; he urged all young entrepreneurs to do so. So engrossing was the talk, that the audience could connect to it at a personal level; the questions session that followed reflected the mood.
Here are a few more of his words:
“I am married to commonfloor. It is my first love.”
“You should enjoy whatever you are working on. You should not work because you have a title.”
“If one can spend time and money on an MBA, one can definitely try entrepreneurship. That actually provides a lot of practical learning.”
The session left the audience with clues on how to answer the unanswerable question – To be or not to be. Sumit can be reached at sumit@commonfloor.com.
#3 – Perspective on “To be or not to be an Entrepreneur” – Amit Singh, Co-Founder, Headstart Network Foundation
This session was crisp, owing to lack of time. Amit quickly ran the audience through his presentation, which was put together based on his conversations with hundreds of entrepreneurs. He listed the typical reasons that people cite to not start up. He also provided insights into the initial, not-so-rosy journey of an entrepreneur, so as to help the audience answer the question for themselves.
Amit can be contacted at amit@headstart.in.
#4 – Demo – Whatfix – Khadim Batti
To be honest, this demo left the audience simply awestruck. Khadim Batti and Vara kumar, have come up with a unique alternative to verbose support documentation – Whatfix. It enables anyone to design intuitive UI flows for any website. Khadim explained his product through a quick demo to add tabs to gmail. He spoke about the potential of whatfix to redefine the way support has been perceived and executed. Whatfix currently works only for online websites; they are working on supporting offline flows too.
So why wait? Go ahead and try it out! If stuck, you can reach out to whatfix at info@quickolabs.com.
#5 – Spark the Rise Pitch – Krizda.com – Vivek Krishna
A family business, turned an online business venture. That’s the story of krizda.com, an e-commerce venture, focused on selling gold jewellery online. The pitch was by Vivek Krishna, one of the co-founders of krizda.com. His experience, working with several start-ups in India and in the US paved the way to found Krizda. He explained how krizda is trying to find its own niche in the online jewellery selling business, as a gifting platform. Good luck, Vivek!
You can reach Krizda at contact@krizda.com.
# 6 – Intro to Start-up Leadership Program (SLP) – Abhishek Patil, Founder, Oliveboard
Abhishek took the stage for a few minutes towards the end to talk about Startup Leadership Program. SLP is a global training program for entrepreneurs, spread across 12 weeks, providing coaching and mentoring. The Bangalore program starts in September; those who wish to apply can contact Abhishek at abhishek@oliveboard.in.
That ended the day’s event and commenced the thought process. If you missed this one, you can join us for the next event on 10th August, 2013. Hope to see you there!
–Malini Gowrishankar