Proto.in

Hello Everyone,

Its almost been about three weeks since the dust has started to settle, but in my mind, the memories of the days event still seem to remain fresh – along with it the fatique that had built up for the last four months of preparations and the continuous effort that is still going on in gathering feedback, discussing and debating over them and plotting our next set of actions and aiming at the horizon that we want to go for. Let me talk about a few of those here:

I received news a couple of days back that one of the companies that had presented at Proto.in SE ‘07 has managed to secure funding. Minekey has secured $3mm in funding from NEA-IndoUS as part of their Series A round. The entire team here at Proto are quite proud of this moment, in whichever way we could have contributed and to be part of this. There are a couple of companies that are in serious talks as well, and we will annouce them as the days go ahead.

The Proto videos have finally arrived and they are all in DVD format. There is a team that is working to get the encoding done so that they can go up on the website. We are also just finishing up on the videos of the business and technology tracks that happened on July 21st. They should be ready sometime soon as well. There are some bigger plans with those content. I’ll write about them to you soon.

Proto is expanding. We are very much set to create an ecosystem and not an event. We want to create a platform, not a one day show where we all get together, eat and drink and are merry. We have a hardy task ahead of us in bringing together everything that is crucial to make grassroot and mainstream technology innovations a success story, that we are planning for our next set of activities to carry the momentum.

Chennai in some ways has been the first to annouce its first Open Coffee Club, a weekly get-together for startups and entrepreneurs. Though the initiative doesnt directly come under the umbrella of Proto, it is spearheaded by Siddhartha, whom everyone who was a presenter for Proto this time must be quite aware – as he was heading the hospitality desk. He is leading is and we are very much supportive of initiatives as such. If any such events are happening in any other cities, do let me know and I will be quite glad to make an annoucement either through this mailing list, or through the blog as to the meeting times and such. If you are based out of Chennai and want to be part of the Coffee Club, do mail Sid at sid@proto.in.

The next announcement is pretty much the bigger and best one saved for the last: Proto is putting together an elite set of people, who are prominent and known for their labour and strides in the entrepreneurial community to be part of the advisory panel and to be drenched and involved in taking this momentum forward. These are the first of the many people who will be part of this group:

Ashish Gupta, whose fervent entrepreneurial spirit was quite evident during Proto and inspite his travels, busy schedule and tiring body which finally caught upto him was very much enthused in interacting with everyone. Ashish is someone who has crossed over to the side of the investor community, but he is a rarity among many because of his entrepreneurial background and the experience and perspective he carries along with it. Ashish will be part of the advisory committee of Proto in helping us make some overall decisions in the direction as to where Proto heads.

Next we have Alok Mittal, who is also an entrepreneur-turned-VC. Alok has pretty much been the entrepreneurial wind of the north here in India, being in the midst and spearheading many entrepreneurial initiatives such as Venturewoods, before which there was almost no community to speak of where people could come together. Alok is also the founder of Jobsahead, and has been following the internet movement here in india for quite sometime. He is quite a quality man to talk to about some of these things. Welcome aboard Alok!

We also have Sanjay Anandaram of Jumpstartup who has come aboard in adding to the momentum. I have heard many a things about Sanjay, but everything was quite evident the way he mentored the companies, the passion he carried himself with and the enthusiasm which seemed to spark right out of him during the two days. I am aware of Sanjay being involved with various – actually more than two handsful of entrepreneurial activities, ranging all the way with his involvement with NSRCEL of IIMB, his initiative with VentureKatalyst, an entrepreneurship e-magazine, and has been involved in such initiatives for almost two decades. I am sure we will be drawing from his wisdom and experience to take further on some of the roads that he had already laid in defining this path.

The most recent acceptance and addition has been Laura Parkin, who is part of the Wadhani foundation and is also part of their NEN Global Initiatives. Laura has the experience of an Entrepreneur, a Venture Capitalists, and now the credit of its strong advocacy. NEN is a national network of all the academic institutions here in India who spread the message of Entrepreneurship as a possible option and the support and awareness they have created is quite phenomenal. I had the chance pleasure of meeting her quite recently and what was most impressive with the conviction that she carries (along with her colleage Sujaya – I understood that it must be an NEN commitment) was quite astounding. With more than 100,000 students and new professionals who participate in their overall facilitation of programs, NEN offers a platform that is unmatched to spread the wildfire of Proto and the message of inspiration that new entrepreneurs, and especially the most promising ones that Proto showcases.

Needless to say, this is a very good start to grow the ecosystem here in India. We are in talks with TiE-ISB, TiE Delhi and also with the TiE Chapters in Chennai and Bangalore to actively collaborate on our initiatives and to leverage on the strengths that each of us carry.

We have also had some very interesting requests coming in. So far we have requests from Malaysia (from the team that came in), Singapore, Israel, and even from the Silicon Valley to host an edition of Proto. The momentum that we are riding on, and the inspiration that we are drawing, I doubt that we are too far from crossing the oceans to aggregate these indian entrepreneurs, whichever soil they might be residing at. We’ll keep you posted on the progress of this as the days go by.

I sincerely thank everyone for the kind words of support and encouragement that they’ve been sending in, and do trust in your support and participation in the days ahead.

If you are a company that presented in either this edition or the previous edition of Proto, I would strongly request you to get involved as part of this movement. Proto is very much a responsibility that you must bear, to make it more relevant, successful and far-reaching and I would like for Proto to be community drive (as any movement should be) than a set of team members. If this interests you, do send me an email and I will add you as part of the organizing team so that you could get involved and drive this initiative. I would request more active participation from teams from outside of Chennai, as that is the only way to start thinking about moving this platform across India and around. Be a part of it, own it, define it and drive it!

I look forward to hearing from you.

Some Quotes

“If Proto were a startup, it would be the fastest growing one”, says Rajiv Dingra, the man behind WATblog who keeps a tab on Internet, advertising and technology startups here in India.

“Our belief is fundamentally in this: A strong management team executing a strong business model has the opportunity to create value in a variety of markets. The thing we are concerned about is this momentum – there seems to be a little too much momentum both from the investors’ side and from the promoters’ side. Unfortunately,We are starting to see a lot of strong teams chase poor business models. … there also tremendous business opportunities in business sectors that are emerging, as well as sectors that are considered old and passe” – Atish Babu, Nexus India Capital

The day is about to begin and the key organizers of the event come together for a brief as to what to expect as the day follows with Sudhir Syal, who was playing host on behalf of IndiaInteracts.com. The video gives an insight into the principles behind proto, why it was started and possibly where it is headed.

Introduction: Part 2 Link Here »
Introduction: Part 3 Link Here »

Source Credit: Indiainteracts.com