Roadshow: First Stop, Bangalore. (June 16th, 17th)

In the last email update, I did mention that we were planning to visit some of the cities in India, in an effort to meet the investor community, the startups, and the champions behind various other supporting organizations. Our first stop takes us to Bangalore.

We are planning to be in Bangalore on the dates of June 16th and 17th. The Meet will probably be scheduled for Saturday evening and depending on the number of people, we will plan a venue accordingly.

If you are a startup based out of Bangalore, we would definitely like to meet with you during this time, understand what you are looking for and do our best to incorporate those needs into the program flow so that we can cater to you in the best possible way. Do let me know if you would be available during the weekend and can attend so that we can make arrangements accordingly.

If you are an investor based out of Bangalore, you should be getting an email from me shortly with the same information and asking for your confirmation. If there are any angel investors who do find this to be of interest, or are curious about how Proto could benefit the startup ecosystem, do feel free to drop by.

Proto’s Objectives:

In the long run, these are the following goals that Proto would like to achieve:

1. Bring the different stakeholders of the startup ecosystem together – Angel investors, HNIs, Veteran entrepreneurs, Business Analysts, Entrepreneurs, Journalists, Professionals and the new age media (Bloggers & Podcasters).

2. Provide an interface for realistic evaluation of the business plan, by interaction with people from the industry who can provide ground zero reality and opportunities for growth and target

3. Serve as the link between technology focused groups and the investor/industry community

4. Serve as the hub between various supporting organizations such as NASSCOM, IAMAI, TiE, TeNeT and the various incubation centres across India and Asia, in an effort to understand the requirements for startups, provide the support infrastructure and help the government in terms of policy enactment and support via these channels.

5. Bring innovators from across borders in an effort to increase exposure, bring a difference in perspective, enable discussions to help promote depth in innovation.

6 To effectively engage and leverage the various companies, organizations and entities that do provide the base for innovation, development and offer partnership opportunities for startups to be a part of.

We look forward to meeting with you all – especially folks from the media, to the discussions and to the feedbacks to make this platform effective and focused in achieving its goals.

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admin, June 12th 2007 | Posted in proto.in, proto2007se

Planned Discussion Topics During Proto 2007 SE

1. How to Bootstrap your venture without Venture Capital
- Too many startups expect capital to be dropped on their lap before they go work on their idea. The best companies and the most compelling cases are when a group of people come together from varying backgrounds and are willing to do the groundwork and take it to the alpha stage on their own. We certainly need to drive this point across.

2. How to Pitch to a VC:
“You can’t get the pitch right until you understand why you are pitching to a VC. You should never take a meeting with a VC until you’ve determined whether there is a likely fit between the two of you. Where is the VC in its fund cycle – is it at the beginning of a new fund? Is it about to start raising its next fund? Is this VC raising a fund now, and having difficulty? The answers impact your ability to build an investment syndicate (who wants to co-invest with a lame duck fund?), and suggest how you need to adjust your pitch to fit the circumstances.” Enough Said.

3. Startups and Media
We all remember our 45 minute discussion that broke out last time when there was a complaint that the media rarely looks at startups and how desperately they need it. Our PR partner 20:20 would be willing to take this forward, and make it interactive.

4. Entrepreneurs, the Essentials:
There are a fair bit of people who’ve been on both sides of the innovation valley – the silicon and in India. What are the differences? Was there a drastic shift that they had to adopt to, before they could build something that “clicked” with the indian market segment. There are also a fair bit of successful icons of the silicon valley who are struggling to grasp what the Indian market needs. Maybe there is something to it?

We are still finalizing on this and will be adding new sessions and omitting some, depending on the logistics of the day and what the schedule can permit.

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admin, June 7th 2007 | Posted in proto.in, proto2007se

Crossing a Milestone.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Website : There are quite a few unveilings to do, so to speak.

For one, I do hope that you notice that a new website is up. The team has gone through painstaking efforts to come up with a website that can in the best way and form present the mission of Proto, and represent the support of the companies, the investor community, the supporting organizations and the media houses.

We do regret that it might be slightly delayed than the timescale that we aimed for. But I am quite sure that we have madeup for the time loss in the work that has gone into it.

Thank you for your support and feedback in this regard. While we are on that regard, I strongly do request you to go visit the page of the investors who have confirmed their participation and support, both from the VC firm camp and from Angel Investments. We are truly humbled by the support we’ve received. Thank you.

Sponsors: We do have another important announcement to make:

We have finalized on our first sponsor who has agreed for silver sponsorship. The firm specializes in helping companies to iron our their business plan, fine tune their pitch and help companies acquire funding. It is the brain-child and run by a well-experienced persona and her team, who don’t come from an academic perspective, but from one that speaks of experience in the industry and very much in the forefront of creating new entities and introducing technologies for a very well known company – perhaps one of the top successful IT companies that you could think of. We present to you Dolphin Advisory. We appreciate the support that they have shown us, and look forward to the days and years ahead of having a successful partnership. Dolphin Advisory has offered to help out in their role to help the companies participating in Proto, to tweak their business plans, and also make a pitch that appeals to investors – with the right numbers, statistics and market segment background – It should certainly make it easier on the ears of the Investors.

We are close to finalizing the terms and agreement for the rest of the sponsorship slots. Once it has been concluded, I will update you all on that regard.

PR Firm: The one complaint that most folks had with Proto last time was the fact that there wasn’t enough media coverage for the event. Most people came to know about Proto a week before the event and that didn’t help them, to nominate or make plans to attend the event. Some things are meant to be done by people who make a living and career out of it. After due deligence, we have confirmed 20:20 media as our PR firm. In the technology circles, 20:20 almost requires no Introduction. They are the firm representing the PR activities of companies such as Google, Adobe, Acer, Intel, Oracle, Redhat, Ericsson, Juniper networks etc. We are quite thankful for the support that they have provided us and for the exciting activities that are planned for us ahead. We are planning a trip to the major cities in India, hoping to talk to entrepreneurs, investors, and the press from all these regions. If you would like to join us while we visit your city, do drop a mail and let me know.

For links to mentions of Proto by the mainstream media, follow the “Press” Link on the website.

Nominations: Given the timings of the press releases, we have extended the nominations by another ten days, so that everybody gets ample time to submit their information. The deadline for nominations is June 15th, the same date when the registrations for attendees will open. The entry fee for attendees will be Rs. 1000.

Pan-Asian Event: Proto is making its strides in making the platform an asian level one, where companies from around the region can come and participate – resulting in sharing on different perspectives and ideas, that we hope will seed the next level of innovation in the region. We have received confirmations for the participation of TeDD, the malaysian incubation centre – a division of the government, who will be participating, along with their companies which will nominate for the stage of Proto. There are a few more developments on that front, which I’ll update on as they solidify.

We once again thank you for all your support that you have offered to us during the last few months. We are exactly about 40 days left before the big day hits us. I do hope that you have booked your flight tickets to be here in Chennai during the days of July 21st and 22nd. If you haven’t yet, might I suggest trying out Ixigo, who made their launch just a few days ago, and are providing an excellent service in aggregating all the prices across the board and making the comparison and booking quite a simpler task.

Ixigo was one of the companies that presented on Proto in January.

We continue to request for your support and feedback. Do keep in touch and let’s race India to the global innovation front. Thank you.

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admin, June 5th 2007 | Posted in proto.in
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