The Startup community in India has come a long way. That’s a statement. But there is quite a long journey ahead.
As part of Proto.in, apart from the event and the regular OCC meets and the Startup Lunches that are happening across the country (Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai happening this month), there are a slew of projects that are happening which will radically shift the way startups are perceived here in India.
Our mission is very simple. Do everything possible to make startups succeed and start with the entrepreneur. We believe that most of the activities that we are planning in the future will be geared towards that – networking only solves part of the problem. And we agree.
The Startup Faces Project that we’ve started is one such thing. We are taking the faces of startup entrepreneurs across India and splashing them boldly. Enough of words and faceless ideologies. I think we need to see and flaunt the faces of those who have stepped forth even when the community is nowhere close to being complete. The response to the call for participation has been quite amazing. We need folks to spearhead this initiative.
Proto.in Talk: We have had a couple of very productive meets over the Chat application that is live at http://chat.proto.in. We want to keep that as a regular thing, and have folks volunteer to be there to support anyone who drops in there to ask questions. Anyone game to take that up?
Startup Lunch. There are Startup Lunches happening all over the country. Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai – and thats just this month. More so are the amount of Open Coffee Clubs that are coming up – we are helping out a team of guys do one in Punjab now, and the Kolkatta one seems to be quite spirited. Startup Lunch is just a concept. We dont control how people want to execute it, but the idea of a speed dating model works, and there are people hiring people out of this. Is this something you are interested to take up and spearhead?
The Slew of Top Secret Projects. There are some very interesting projects coming up, all the way from “Putting the entire community just a click away”, to the concept of a Stock Exchange for Startups and SMEs. Rajesh Jain has been a strong believer of that and will possibly guide in that direction. If you do have a background in finance, economics – are a trading expert – and think that it would be a great way to contribute, do pitch in.
So, I think we’ve built an amazing community. and I have no doubts that it will be this community that will be the forerunners for the valley that we are building. Trust me, this one will be robust, vibrant, and full of energy before we know it and daring every other “valley” out there soon enough. Do you want to be part of the origins… thats the question.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Vijay Anand
PS: If you want to be a volunteer for some of these activities, do join the mailing list.
