All Talk and No Action

Proto held it's 7th edition at F.C. Kohli Auditorium, IIT today.

Well known for it's boost to entrepreneurial activities, the event had an impressive line up of talks and discussions.

Pradeep Gupta (of Dataquest, PC Quest fame) and Sanjeev Bhikhchandani (Naukri) were the keynote speakers.

I have to add here, Sanjeev Bhikhchandani came across as an extremely straightforward and witty guy. Not many people can discuss their lives so objectively and colourfully.

Proto's highlight is always the start ups it showcases. We had 15 Start ups who had each been given 6 minutes to present their ideas/products to the audience.

Earlier, some 10 odd companies have benefited and availed investments by talking at Proto events.

This year, 15 companies, belonging to Education, Mobile, Social Enterprise and Software verticals made their pitch.

It was good to know how these companies had caught hold of specific gaps in their specific markets and had come out with solutions to meet consumer needs.

Out of the 15 that made a show today, Panini Keypad and Tara Machines made the atmost impact.

The audiences were in for a treat ! These two companies had awesome products, immense knowledge of and belief in their ideas. While Panini came up with an application to promote regional languages on cell phones, Tara Machines made affordable machines which were used by rural entrepreneurs to make customised bricks. Their machines made sure that carbon footprints were taken care of, while, at the same time rural populace could work in healthier, non threatening environments.

Post Lunch, the audiences were shown Pirates of the Silicon Valley. It was a fun film which traced the lives and careers of two Technology Czars - Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Later, VCs and Angel Investors took questions from the audience and shared their thoughts on start up funding, business ideas, legal contracts, etc.

All in all, a very informative session, with lots of scope to network and pitch one's ideas.

Some key take aways from the session -

• There is safety in numbers - VCs always prefer a team to an individual. In their view, a team is better equipped to build sustainable businesses than an individual who would find himself hassled
• Indian entrepreneurs can no longer ignore the global markets. The outlook has to be "Glocal" when they decide to start up
• Whether a company has an IT/Operations/Finance guy or not, is immaterial. It should most definitely have a Salesman ! Strong customer relations had saved Naukri during it's downturn. Rocket Singh seemed a hit with all present !
• Money is there to take. A lot of good, easy money is lying untouched. Rather, good ideas are hard to come by - so said the VCs
• Almost all speakers agreed that the very first product/idea would almost always fail. So don't fall in love with it. Use the experience to build better products/customise/change the existing one
  
  Now, two takeaways from me -
  
  The food was royally attrocious. Stone like paneer and rotis less elastic than rubber. Just why is food ignored at conferences of this scale? Second, Airtel, alongwith Sequoia Capital was the prime sponsor of the event. We even learnt about its seed fund to support entrepreneurship. Very good. All this while, I just wanted to point out that all network operators, including the great MTNL, had perfect coverage in the closed door auditorium. All, except Airtel. Zero coverage for the entire day. Ahem, did someone say core competency ?