DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

By Aishwarya Thilak         

Well, if anyone believes that the second day of an event is very early to judge its success; it’s high time you change your opinion. It’s just the second day of the second edition of Startup Weekend Bangalore, and its already soaring laps of luxurious favorable outcomes.

A fully fledged and deeply ingrained 54 hours of venturing into ideas is what all registered partakers expected of the weekend. As far as the hours till now are taken into consideration, their expectations were certainly fulfilled.

The atmosphere around the venue was saturated with the highest levels of ideas since the beginning of the weekend.

The first day, that is, the 20th of January 2012, saw the business aspirants expressing their venture ideas to their counterparts, and structured groups of their own. Most of the circles had a perfect blend of Marketing Professionals, Developers and other essential minds that the project required. They sat together, showing high levels of co-operation and team work, all aiming at making a mark at the grand finale due on Sunday evening. It didn’t seem like it supported the “many cooks spoil the broth” idea, as everyone put forth their own self developed scope, trying to get the best from the lot.

The second day, the 21st of January 2012, had to offer more. The day had in store for the aspirants’ three dexterous speakers who hit the stage to share some thought of wisdom.

The Co Founder and CEO of The Fusion Charts, Mr.Pallav Nandhani, refers to himself as the “Accidental Entrepreneur” who ventured into the world of startups just to earn his pocket money. He took a couple of minutes to relive the experience of his undertaking. Focusing on consumer attraction, a few points on the power point presentation that received appreciations were:

“Focus on the “why” more than the “what’s” and “how’s”.”

“Give people more reasons to remember you than just the product”

“Pricing creates a perception of your product”

“Suck initially. Everyone does”

At the end, he received a loud thunder of claps with his climactic sentence, “Work hard, party hard as well”. Well, who wouldn’t like the sound of that?

The next prodigy to address the startup enthusiasts was Mr.Mukund Mohan, the CEO of Jivity. His focus for the day was the main matter of contention most individuals with a startup idea would face. Funding. Raising money. According to Mukund, in order to convince one to fund a project, a large market, good management team and strong educational backgrounds may be points of consideration. But what actually makes a person buy your idea depends on your communication and convincing ability, which he terms shortly as, “Story Telling”! He believes that the story must be expressed in a credible manner, manners through the people instantly believe, not just in you, but your idea as well.

The last speaker for the day was the Developer Evangelist in Microsoft BizSpark, Gowtham Prasad KN. BizSpark was the apex of his vocalizing. The advantages of linking one’s project with BizSpark could lead to the accessibility of the user to Software, Visibility and Support. Nothing comes for free, BizSpark also created certain criteria that need to be met. The company must be a registered private company, with less than three years of existence. The same must also develop software. The repercussion of the BizSpark is handsome much. One gets to retain the software and programs, graduation offers would be provided and production licenses could be met.

We managed to catch up with one of the teams, a group of 7, perfectly blended with professionals with different specializations. Their idea was a society based, very impressive one indeed. They looked at the world as one small community which believed in each other. In the cities, more so to mention, not all exploit their resources and bought commodities to the fullest extent. It goes wasted and unused. Therefore, they are planning on a system, practical enough that would help people exchange their products with each other. This would, in their belief, not just reduce the fritter, that an unused stock would be subject to, but also prove to be useful to the one in need of it. One the members quoted, “We are trying to build trustable communities that are self regulated in a way that they can improve their community standings and also impact the environment.”

Startup Weekend was not just about freedom of expression of ideas. They also had the well appreciated opportunity to put forth their queries and doubts to a panel of esteemed mentors, each of them specialized in a particular field, technology, marketing and other such.

We also managed to grab a couple of minutes from an organizer, who seemed very pleased by the turnout in Bangalore. After all, 65 idea pitches and 15 teams sounds good enough. He insisted on the fact that a youngster, especially a student, gains more out of a session like this compare to an internship experience. Here, they are at free will to express their creativity which is certainly restricted as an intern, as you would still be subject to the company’s will. He also mentions about the factor of exposure, which is incredible. Though getting a funding right at the event needs a lot of luck, but attracting contacts, in the level of a VP, ain’t much of a task if the project is presented well enough.

All said and done, Startup Weekend Bangalore was the ultimate destination target and the perfect platform for all the young aspirants with blooming ideas.

Aishwarya Thilak is a Dare Community Writer

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