There is undoubtedly a lot of excitement here within the organizers as the biggest-ever volunteered team of Proto.in is quickly getting a slew of things in place for the upcoming edition of Proto.in. You might be aware, and if you arent by now – the Registrations for the event are open. Just as last time, there are tickets available online (www.proto.in/register) and also in select outlets in some of the cities across India. If there are any questions you have on this regard, to email us via www.proto.in/contact.
There are two major initiatives that we are planning this time:
Pitchcamp.
I have always found that our entrepreneurs could use a sharper pitch when it comes to explaining to someone “What does your company do?” A pitch is not one that you always use to convince investors, and if possible I’d like to add the tag “Forget the Investors and Pitch”. A very good friend and entrepreneur would rightly say that as an entrepreneur you are constantly selling – as you encounter and network with people, and build professional relationships and the pitch becomes an extremely crucial one. The clearcut agenda for this activity will be up on the site soon, but the brief is as follows:
Startups that are interested in sharpening their pitch need to write to us via contact@proto.in with the name of their company, a small brief about what they do, the names of the founders and a link to the site. Of all the entries that come in, 10 companies will be shortlisted and will be given a hands on workshop on how to improve your pitch – for free. That’s why its crucial that you fire away that email right away. A Panel of marketing experts after a brief talk about what makes a great pitch will work with you to help make a killer pitch, and at the end of the day we’ll try it on the audience at Proto.in and vote for the best pitch. How does that sound? I’m sure excited to see how this turns out.
ShotGun Startups.
I am sure a lot of you are wondering whether its possible to build a startup or a prototype for a product over a weekend. If you are asking that question, the answer is a resounding YES. Shotgun Startups follows the same concept as Startup Weekend. If you are a team of folks with amazing capabilities to build an interesting idea that you’ve been putting off for long, this might be the time to give it a shot. Anything from Web services, to Iphone Applications, to Facebook Applications, or even Embedded Systems, or if your enthusiasm drives you to build robots, we are fine with that too. We will have the right kind of experts to help you, if you find yourself stuck – depending on what kind of ideas come in. At the end of the event, we will ask the audience to vote for the best product, and if you are the right kind of marketer, you could have an audience of 750 sway to the whoosh of your product capabilities. It’s certainly an opportunity to not miss. If you’d like to pitch an idea for this, do send them to us at contact@proto.in with the subject like Shotgun Startups. The microsite for this initiative is coming up in a few days and I will update you on this soon.
Proto.in Conversations:
Now I really do need your help with this one. We are lining up people to talk at Proto.in and we all know that there are several conferences out there which keep sounding repetitive at times. But as a startup there are, and there must be topics that you are curious about and couldnt find answers to. Why dont you write to me, and I’ll make sure that those topics are well represented at the event? Try us, We’ll make sure we live upto to. I am going to expect some emails from you on this regard.
So we are just another three weeks to go and lots of excitement building up. Am looking forward to seeing you all, and I sure hope that this will be an exciting two days and a boom to the startup community here in India.
