Proto.in

Proto.in is a two day ecosystem meetup, the only one that is aimed exclusively at startups with a focus on entrepreneurs and by bringing in Entrepreneurs to share practical and vivid clarity on the direction an aspiring or startup entrepreneur needs to take. Growing the ecosystem entails a lot in terms of growing the baseline knowledge that is around in terms of some of the challenges that we face here in India and how folks before us have tackled them.

The first day of Proto.in is aimed towards that, both from a business and technology standpoint and to bring the attendees upto-speed on some of the common knowledge that is essential to survive in this ecosystem, and to grow global businesses.

Please note that registration to attend Proto.in entails both days, the first day comprising of the Startup School, and the second day of rendevous with some of the most crucial elements of the startup ecosystem spanning across investors, M&A heads, corporates, professionals and the media, as we celebrate 20 of the most promising startups from the current landscape. The conference starts on Friday the 18th at 9am, closing at 5pm, followed by a Evening Dinner (On invitation only) with the delegates and the investor community, and on the 19th (Saturday) starting at 9am and closing at 5:30pm.

The Agenda for the upcoming edition of Proto will be unveiled over the next two days, and this is what you can expect for the Business Track on Day One.

The Art of the Start
When do you start? How do you start? When do you know if you are ready to start? What the crucial elements that you need to look for before you leap? This session talks about the first step in starting up.

The Role of a Mentor in a Startup
Mentors – they are the most crucial element in a startup. I absolutely believe so. Where do you find them? Who makes a good mentor? How much time do you need to dedicate for a mentor and what can you expect out of a mentor? Most of all, how to get a mentor to agree to take you under his wings and guide you and your vision. These are all questions that is absolutely essential for those who are serious about starting off to understand.

How to Conquer the World
When you start out as a business, you need to build a product that targets and satisfies a market. How do you pick that market? When do you decided to expand to new territories and what should be your global growth strategy and how should you go about it. There are markets and intermediaries other than India and the US, as answers for both these questions.

India, a technology Leader – Possible?
Will we see a Mercedes come out of India? What will it take to build a Dell, the supply-chain leader, an Apple – which stands for innovation and design, and companies such as that out of this subcontinent and as Asia as a whole? Do we even have the genetic makeup in terms of the ecosystem strength to make it happen? Lets talk about this and understand what the future has for us ahead.

Lets talk about “Bootstrapping”
Whats the first milestone of a startup? If you say “Funding”, you couldnt be more wrong. The correct answer is “Raising valuation”. That can be only done when you can build an enterprise which has proved a concept and has the muscle to grow ten times faster with more capital, which is when investors step in. How do you bootstrap? What is the definition for a bootstrapped business? How long do you need to go on in that mode? How do you manage? Most aspiring entrepreneurs would find this topic quite interesting, and to know that “Lack of Funding” is not an excuse not to start.

Why Do I need a Lawyer? : Creating Global IP
Lawyers are there to protect the Intellectual property that we generate. But there is a lot more that we need to know, in terms of the limitations of agreements, the art of negotiating a contract, and should you grow to find investment how to negotiate your term sheet with investors. This session will also cover the area of how strong the indian IP laws are and if you need complementary protection using other methods. A must-learn session, for the inevitable times ahead.

From Startup to IPO – The Experience.
How does it feel to build an enterprise from nothing to an idea to a startup to an enterprise to a public company. We bring one such founder as he talks about his experience in doing it, the high-highs and the low-lows as he gives you his insight into the journey and the aspiration that follows.

Managing a startup team: Don’t Let Burn rates Burn you.
Finance and Team. These are two hurdles that a startup team will need to juggle with. You measure the length of the leash a startup is in by the number of days it can survive with the cash in the bank – and that too when ‘balance’ means an entirely new concept when you are handling a startup and running an enterprise. We want to talk about two hounding issues of a startup: How to hire an A-team, and how to ensure that it doesnt end up burning your fingers. Also the basic prudence it takes to manage your funds.

Startups: The Worst Case Scenario.
What is the worst case scenario that can happen. If one is not prepared to fail, one is not prepared to succeed either. One who is afraid to die, cannot live at all. This saying holds much more true when you are a startup. When you are afraid of folding, the smell of desperation pretty much covers everything that you do, that ever roll of the dice will only land up in you folding faster. We bring you someone who has been there done that, both the good and the bad and has lived to talk about the good times. You’ll want to pay very close attention to this one.

This is the agenda for one of the tracks on the first day of the upcoming edition of Proto. Stay tuned for some of the very interesting topics that are to be spoken about in the Technology track, with applications – nay the possibilities – with smart home computing and the enormous potential that we have yet to explore in some of the very exciting areas in the emerging market.

Excited? You Should be.

Stay Tuned. If you haven’t registered yet, Register NOW!

If there was one thing that I am so sure about when it comes to building the ecosystem, it is the fact that there are some basic know-how that needs to permeate the masses who are even thinking about starting up. The concept of the Startup School was born on this basis and as many would witness was a smashing success. I am proud to say that, there were more people crowded into those sessions than for the second day of the presentations – goes to say that many do value those sessions.

We did learn one thing to: To get bigger rooms this time. And we are.

The format will be the same as last time with two parallel tracks: One on Technology and one on Business. I was kinda surprised and happy to see that there are some recent other conferences also taking on this format. Well, good things spread fast, they say.

The Technology track will see much of a hike in the quality of the topics and the pace at which they move. You can call it a super-sized, intense Barcamp session, for lack of words. Teams that are building technology as a entrepreneurial feat, simply cannot afford to haggle at the basics, nor be comfortable with mediocrity. Technology is one means of achieving differentiation and the key factors to that are sharing of learnings and exposure to new technologies. We plan to offer these two in a graded mix during these sessions.

The Business Tracks are sizing up quite beautifully this time as well. I want to talk about two topics that are of immense interest to me: One of the track is titled “The Role of a Mentor in a Startup”. This is probably the most underplayed theme and topic ever in the startup scene. Very few founders even understand the relevance of mentors. I, for one, have had three mentors and still do keep in touch with them when required. They are the northern star to get you to the right place when things seem fuzzy. It’s a topic that is very close to my heart and hence the interest as well. I am really looking forward to the discussions that follow this one.

The next track that I am very interested in is a topic titled “How to Conquer the World”. The topic is about how a company needs to evaluate the market where it is going to make its entry and the strategy in going global. Believe it or not, we have global competition. To quote the words of President Bush, “if we don’t go to them, they are going to come to us”. So if it is war, might as well plan is out to take them on their own territory when the time is right. The one to deliver this topic is one that has built a very successful enterprise, network, nay almost a legend in the telecom domain and a success story that rings true and inspires me – it definitely does to me.

You might notice that all the speakers for these sessions will be entrepreneurs – actually every speaker during Proto will be either an entrepreneur or a VC who was an entrepreneur. These two days are going to be like going to the school of hard Knox and learning right from people who have been there, done it and are here to talk sense on how to go about it. They had all the questions and they also have the answers that you might be looking for.

Much to look forward to.

Reminder: Early Bird offer closes on Dec 31st after which the regular price of Rs. 2500 goes into effect. To take advantage of the offer, register NOW.

Mentor Partners
Mentor partners, has been in the business of identifying early stage companies for quite sometime now. Ravi Narayan, one of the co-founders of Mentor Partners is also one of the advisory members of Proto.in. With the recent news of a fund that they are putting together, Mentor Partner is a solid early stage fund to go after.

Ventureast
Recently on the news with Google being an LP for their new Ventureast TeNeT Fund II, ventureast is looking to experiment with some new models to understand the Indian Ecosystem, said Sarath Naru in a recent meeting with them. They are scaling across verticals, looking for anything that is new and can cater to the indian market segment aggresively in volumes.

Helion Ventures
This is a fund that needs no introduction, especially after a stirring talk by Ashish Gupta in the last edition of Proto. Helion is known to be “bullish” in this space and knowing Ashish, I’d say that is an understatement. This firm strongly believes on betting on Entrepreneurs and he jokes that he would know the outcome in a few years when its time to look for the returns. But, I’d say “the best bet to make is on good entrepreneurs”. You can look forward to catching them during Proto.

Silicon Valley Bank
Led by Raj Chinai, this fund is looking for a niche of folks to tap into. Ever since our first edition of Proto, this is a firm that has been in touch with us, regularly conversing and talking to us about the issues that this ecosystem is facing and how to make things change. SVB proves to be a solid partner in this landscape and will be present in the upcoming edition of Proto.

Nexus India Capital
One of the earlier funds that the Indian landscape to know about, Manoj will be representing the firm. As one of the senior VPs of the firm, I am expecting him to make some quick decisions, should he find something interesting and to take things to the next level.

IDG Ventures
I first came to know about this firm through Hemir Doshi, and recently met Sudhir Sethi and I have to say, he is a guy who has his head on levelled ground. He has a very strong management expertise, that is sure to leverage any company that needs to scale up quick and needs an expert onboard to guide it. It’s a welcome pleasure to have them onboard.

Lightspeed Ventures
Srini Vudayagiri, is probably a very well known guy in and around the southern part of the country, as he participates and is quite vocal about some of the impending issues of this ecosystem. Having met him recently at a couple of events and also a contributing member of the NASSCOM Product forum, Srini is very well tuned into the ecosystem in terms of requirements and is aggressive in adapting towards the trends and changes that one finds here in the subcontinent. We look forward to having you at the event Srini!.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Mohanjit Jolly, the MD of DFJ will be at the event, and I am expecting a lot of sparks to be up in the air with his presence there. DFJ was also a supporting sponsor for the event last year, throwing a fabulous dinner for all the esteemed guests (read startups, investors and the key participants). A little about DFJ, in Mohanjit’s own words is a firm that has “burned its fingers” quite a lot taking a chance with startups and has made money where it counts. As one who worked with Guy Kawasaki at garage.com, you can expect a lot of his experience to spill into the event and bring in a spirit that makes the valley click.

BlueRun Ventures
Sasha Mirchandani, the man behing Bluerun is someone i judged for his risk taking capabilities. I have worked with him to evaluate and help out a few companies and I have to say that this man speaks less and does more than the other way around. Bluerun has been the firm behind some very successful companies such as Bitfone, Enpacket, Riya, etc. It will be a welcome pleasure to have him back at the event representing the strong need for angel funds and to take a risk with companies.

The Mumbai Angels
Sasha, is also the key element behind putting together the Mumbai Angels to represent the growing need for angel funds and the ability to connect prospective companies with the right people. There will be, i expect, a few present from the Mumbai Angel community – which is quite a strong and aggressive investment community. If there are deals done at the venue, I am expecting it to be from the Angel investors camp to draw first blood, but I am hoping that the early stage firms will prove me wrong.

As I said, this event is starting to get quite exciting.

… and more

If you are looking to meet any of these investors, drop me a mail and we can arrange for meetings at the venue – should their schedules permit.

The Mint, of Hindustan times has an article on Proto.in – quite a nice piece with a good coverage of where Proto has come from and where it is aiming to grow to.

The Excerpt reads:

Proto.in, the start-up showcase event that debuted this January, is going national. Chennai, the city that seeded the event, will play host one last time next month before the somewhat unique showcase event begins its rotation across other start-up hubs in the country. The two editions of the event held so far in Chennai have connected 52 start-ups with venture capitalists (VC) and industry experts.

“We’ve had a great response (to the concept), so we want to standardize the format and move it to different cities. It might be a couple of years before it comes to Chennai again,” says Vijay Anand, chief organizer of Proto. The venue for the January edition moves for the first time beyond the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras campus—Proto’s birthplace.

Over the next few years, Proto could potentially emerge as the signature start-up event in India. In less than 12 months, the forum has seen participation by close to 200 start-ups and garnered the support of several investors and industry bodies such as the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). Twenty-four VCs participated at the event in July this year, including Helion Venture Partners, Nexus India Capital, Matrix Partners India and Clearstone Venture Partners.

The Registrations for the upcoming edition of Proto is open and filling up fast, so do book your seats if you are curious to know what we are planning for one of the biggest editions of Proto.in that Chennai has to see in 2008.

Pluggd.in is an online Partner for Proto and has been a site that has grown quite well over the past few months, thanks to all the slogging that has gone into it by Ashish Sinha. Ashish, as always, has a lot of questions about Proto.in and what to expect in the upcoming edition. Here’s a brief intro and what turned out to be a primer for a more intense conversation to follow.

For the benefit of readers, please share the motto behind Proto.
To create an ecosystem;to make it richer, more perceptive, and more startup-friendly. If a company can grow to a point where it has better valuation, customers, clients and a team without having to raise capital (unless its absolutely necessary), then I believe, we’ve achieved our goal.

Read more>>

Hello Everyone,

It’s been an year of two successful editions of Proto.in, and I am sure you are as curious as me to know what happened to most of the 40+ companies that presented during the last two editions of Proto in 2007. Well, We have some very good news to share.

I have always maintained that Proto is not about funding. Well, those with money and those with access to capital do come for the event, but most of them are there to serve other purposes than to pull out their cheque books and start signing them away – that only happens when there is a bubble in the making, and I really hope and pray that these are not such days. I strongly believe that a sign of a healthy ecosystem is when a company can bootstrap and get to a comfortable market valuation without having to raise money from investors. If the ecosystem is rich and is keen on growing startups, then there will be means to grow traction, gain customers and expand your markets without having to blow too much of money for the same. That is the environment that we aim for at Proto.

A Lot of folks ask then as to why VCs attend Proto. Most of them are sincerely looking at deals, but not right away. Proto, serves as an initial point of contact for most of these investors, and then through time see how the company grows and validates itself – which is a good alternative for a track record deficient ecosystem. And plus, a VC is probably the most influential person when it comes to word-of-mouth marketing as he sits across various boards and manages his portfolio of companies. There will be opportunities that will arise for partnerships, alliances and perhaps even mergers (fingers crossed).

So here’s the first of the series of the Proto story and what we’ve managed to achieve in the past one year. The number of companies that have actually made it to a stabler ground is more than what I anticipated and I am none more than humbled by it. As always the focus is on the startups, and I salute and give credit for the founders who sit at the helm of these companies to take it to where it was, and for running with all the market traction and visibility that they could get hold of. Without further delay, here it goes:

Tenmiles Corporation, a company based out of Chennai, run by Shalin Jain. He launched and demonstrated Helpdesk pilot, a software that serves of valuable importance for all the backend customer support that happens out of this sub-continent. Post Proto Tenmiles has been able to garner the trust of companies such as Verizon, and Wipro and has grown to a company with customers in 40 countries, and with numerous other products in the pipeline, with a definite agenda “to build a forest”, in the words of Subrato Bagchi. Tenmiles was a company that came in without an intention to raise money, and are still solid on that. What they do want is every means to increate market valuation, grow their presence and change the world through their dreams and products. I say, its a fabulous dream to chase, and Congrats to Shalin for the team and company that he is building.

Vyasa, a banking solution Product that is build by a company named I Create, run by Anup Pai – someone with a team who have a strong background in the banking sector. Post Proto, Vyasa has acquired clients in Europe, South Africa, Australia and the Middle east and are running some Pilots in South Africa. With the revenues that they have made this year, they confidently projecting a million dollars in revenues for the upcoming year – all with a 100% equity holding and without raising a single ruppee in funding. Kudos to this team.
Personally, there are some major issues that these guys are solving. I am personally a bit annoyed by the back that Customer care for most banks are offshored to another entity and no matter what relationship I have with the bank, I am treated as if I am a stranger. The solution that this company offers is one that indexes all personal records in an effective manner that the problem that most banks face can be lifted, resulting in personalized and face to face customer interaction. It’s definitely going to be one of the major pain points that most banks will compete over as more international banks step into this region.

Sloka Telecom, has had my admiration for quite sometime. Sujai, the founder of the company has a valid patentable technology and perhaps the insight to look at a market that is openingup – compact WiMaX base stations. Sloka has been selected and announced as one of the top 100 innovative companies in India by NASSCOM and that is no surprise. Sloka is also one of the companies to do the first WiMAX installation in Europe, in France infact. I am quite proud of this company, as it joins the legions of telecommunication expertise that is coming out of this nation.

Inasra, is a company that manages mid and small segment hotels all across the country. I remember once sitting with a friend in a hotel and him asking if it is possible that every hotel in India could be available online, classified by price range. A week later, I was introduced to Inasra and it was everything we had discussed about. My line for this company was that they would “deccanize” the hotel industry – whatever happened with Deccan and low-cost flying, would be the trend with Inasra’s service. If people who are cost conscious of flying prefer Deccan, I wonder where they stay once they do land. Inasra is a service that allows people to search for hotels, all the way for sub-100 Rs all the way to making a booking in the Shangrila of New Delhi.Proto has and with caution I take credit for the exposure it has given this team in gaining confidence, and in evolving their business model to tweak it to perfection. Yogendra the founder of the company, has the drive that, I am certain of, will turn this into a successful enterprise.

Ixigo. There is barely a week that I go without talking to these two gentlemen, Aloke and Dharmendra who are the brains and the drive behind Ixigo. From a late entrance into the game of online travel search engines, they have come up fast and strong giving most of the online travel portals a scare for their positioning. With more blogs and reviews raving positively about them, and with their visitors counting more than 100,000, I have done the deed in putting them in touch with companies such as Amazon who can help them scale up, before their servers crash of overload!. Ixigo was also one of the companies that was listed by NASSCOM on the top 100 Innovator’s list. What they have done in terms of opening up the travel search space, and making matters more transparent in terms of the hidden charges, will be a trend that is going to get better and better, as we see more and more news with demands raising for transparency in Airline ticket pricing. With Ixigo going International soon, It is a service I am looking forward to.

I thought I’ll start off with these five companies. The interesting point to note is that none of these companies have raised money. But if they had raised money, this is probably what they would have done – build their enterprise. At Proto, our aim is to help these companies postpone their fund raising if possible, so that they can build the initial traction, better their valuation, and then raise capital that will be put to better use. I am sure those from the venture capital community would welcome this move as well.

I have atleast another ten to fifteen such cases of companies and where they stand as of now, which I shall write about, till the days that lead to Proto.in January Edition on the dates of Jan 18th and 19th in Chennai. It will be the last event that is to be held here, after which it will be moving to Delhi in July. So be a part of it, as we set a new stage, standardizing the movement that we hope to cause in the ecosystem to make it richer, more perceptive, and more startup-friendly.

Regards,
Vijay Anand
Key Organizer – Proto.in

Hello Everyone!

The Entire core team came together for an update and planning meet yesterday and I must say that we are all quite pumped to meet, greet and hear about what you have been upto in the last six months. People that we met as aspiring entrepreneurs have become entrepreneurs, and there are others who will be coming to showcase their products. It’s certainly a new milestone in terms of the progress that the entire ecosystem is making.

We have had some very encouraging news, with some VC firms in the US coming down to visit Proto and also some of the technology teams of some very well known companies flying in from the valley to look at companies for possible partnership and merger opportunities. I am humbled by the opportunity that is given to myself and to the team to make this contribution to the India startup ecosystem.

We have had close to 50 Nominations that have been submitted so far. Some very interesting companies have come in, but I am also aware of quite a few other companies which I am hoping would get their prototype ready before we reach the 20th. We would also like to ask the VC Firms to urge some of the young and growing companies in their fold to make a nomination, as those who do take the stage during Proto.in tend to build a lot of traction with clients and the media, apart from funding and exit possibilities. As a reminder, the nominations do close on the 20th. Do give me a call, if you need any help, in terms of clarity.

To get to the main news for which this email was intended for, we will be opening registrations for people who want to attend the upcoming edition of Proto on Monday (Today). Well, if you are a night owl, you might even be able to see the form go live before you head to bed, but I would very much recommend, registering first thing tomorrow morning. Just a small word of caution and a good news. The caution is that we do have limited seats. So we will be filling seats on a first come, first serve basis. If you are keen on attending, I do strongly urge to not wait till the deadline to fill the forms. We had to turn away a lot of people last time on this account. I sincerely wish we would be able to accomodate all the key players of the industry.

The good news is that we will be having an early bird offer to incentivise those who are going to plan ahead. The registration price will be Rs. 1500 till December 31st, after which the regular price will go into effect. You can pay via Credit Card (Paypal), Via Demand Draft or even do a direct Bank transfer. If your require any clarifications on this front, do let us know.

Call for Partners:
We are looking to Partner with the following for the upcoming event. A Print Partner, a reputable newspaper who will be our exclusive Print Media partner for the event; A Television partner, though we are having talks on this regard and will be finalizing soon. Online Partners, of sites which do have a strong online presence, and also Travel Partners, to help us co-ordinate with the 500 or so people who will be traveling from around the country for this event. If you are interested, do let us know.

There are also a few sponsorship spots that are still available. If you are looking to work with emerging companies, we would be quite eager to hear of your plans and how we can work together to enable that.

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, that is it for this short update. I have been lately taking the pains to track down all the companies since the first edition of Proto.in and have some very amazing news to share about what has happened to those companies since they took the stage of Proto. Something that is very encouraging, and is very much worth sharing. Do expect a note on that in a day or two, as I compile them.

Saying Adios for now, and do keep an eye on the registration form, and I look forward to seeing you at the venue.

Regards,
Vijay Anand
Key Organizer – Proto.in