Proto.in Supports OMCAR 2009 – an Online Marketing Summit

OMCAR 2009, the Online Marketing Summit, is a non-profit initiative, which focuses on ‘empowering businesses to grow by leveraging the power of Online Marketing’, is being held on May 23rd, 2009, from 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM, Amity Innovation Incubator, Noida. OMCAR 2009 will bring together online marketing professionals, sales & marketing people, advertisers & brand managers, entrepreneurs, CXOs of SMBs, web developers & designers and students under one roof to provide opportunities for networking, sharing of views and interacting with the experts from the Online Marketing industry.

The key speakers at OMCAR 2009 include Mahesh Murthy (CEO, Pinstorm), Vivek Bhargava (CEO, Communicate2), Pradeep Chopra (Co-founder, OMLogic) & Alok Mittal (General Partner, Canaan Partners). The major topics on which various thought leaders will provide insights and share their own practical experiences include ‘Reaching out to your customers cost effectively’, ‘Entrepreneurial opportunities in the Online World’, ‘Digital Media Integration – SEO, PPC, SMM & Mobile’ and ‘The Future of Internet Marketing’.

In addition, the summit will showcase 3 successful online marketing case studies on businesses that’ve effectively leveraged online marketing to growth them. To add to the excitement, OMCAR 2009 will be blogged live by OMShare (the 1st from India, Online Events Promotion Platform).

“After the astounding success of OMCAR 2008, we are very proud to present OMCAR 2009. We are sure this event will be an enriching experience for anybody who is interested in or is already associated with online media and want to learn about, discuss and imbibe the latest online marketing techniques and strategies.” said Mr. Pradeep Chopra, Co founder & President, OM Careers.

Register now if you want to be part of this highly awaited online marketing event for 2009.

Proto.in is a Partner for this event.

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admin, May 18th 2009 | Posted in india, upcoming events

Proto.in Pune, Now Calling. Nominations are Open!

Amidst much excitement that is bubbling up at the Proto.in camp, we are happy to announce that the nominations for the upcoming edition are now open! The nominations will stay open till June 15th, and that is just a short stint away. Do race to it, and if you are a startup in the Indian landscape and absolutely believe that you have something to share, then this is the platform you’ve been waiting for. Nominations for Proto.in Pune

Date: July 25th, 2009
Venue: Devang Mehta Auditorium, Persistent Systems, Pune

We are doing quite a few things new this time.

1. Proto.in Pune will be a one day Extravaganza.
We are making Proto.in Pune as a one day event, but it goes on from 9am till 8pm in the evening. The day will be split into two moods. The first half of the day from 9am till 4:30pm will carry talks, sessions and interactive sessions especially aimed at educating, nurturing and supporting the startup landscape of India. There are prominent speakers such as the likes of Bharat Goenka of Tally, Pravin Gandhi of SeedFund, etc who will be talking during the event. Post 5pm, the event will take on a tone of the Oscars. 20 of the best startups – and we mean, absolutely, mindblowingly, best technology startups (includes biotech, healthcare, robotics etc), will take on the stage to deliver a world-class pitch to woo the audience with what they have been working on. Sounds exciting? Read on..

2. Three Day Bootcamp.
For the presenting companies of Proto.in Pune, there will be a three day bootcamp prepped. Day one will focus on diving into the business plan you have for the company, and combing through all the fine details. We are determined to ensure that your focus for the next one year of operations, clients and the market is set during this day. Day two, we teach you and groom you with everything that goes into the mastery of delivering a pitch. We will be bringing in some of the gurus of the advertising world, to make you create words that can sway the hardest of clients, and the toughest of journalists in buying into your story. Don’t forget to add the investors into that list. Day three, is all about the stage. We have had the priviledge of working with one of the country’s Best Event management company “BuzzWorks”. They, along with a team of stage directors will teach you how to handle yourself in front of the camera, what to do and what not to do when in a public forum – and these will help you make the most out of every speaking and forum opportunity you might get in the future – Starting with Proto.in

3. What about those who dont make the Shortlist.
We are a Startup Support platform remember? We get flooded with highly enthusiastic entrepreneurs every year, but apart from those who make it to the stage, what do we do for those who dont? Well, Every year, we ensure that we provide some feedback, especially to those who dont make it. This time and going forward, we want to ensure that we make it mandatory. All the folks who are helping us with the shortlisting are explicitly requested to spend more time with companies that arent quite there to ensure that they are helped in some way to help find the way. In our books, there are no bad companies – just companies that arent ready yet.

And thats just half the story. We already have some nominations from companies that are in the medical space, companies working on hardcore engineering solutions, companies in the defense sector, and they are all lead to just one conclusion – Its going to be one hell of a rocking event, in Pune. You simply cant afford to not be part of it.

There is a team of delegates, including high network individuals, investors, and startups coming in from abroad as well. And this will be the moment to make your mark.

The question now is quite simple. Are you going to let it pass? I surely hope not. Then Why wait. Go ahead, Nominate!

Note: Companies on being shortlisted for selection, have a Rs. 10,000 fee applicable. Nomination is free.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Regards,
Vijay Anand
Curator, Proto.in

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admin, May 18th 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Proto.in Update, india, upcoming events

The Showcase Companies of the Fifth Edition

1. Lifemojo:

Website: www.lifemojo.com

Based on the belief that ‘Prevention is better than cure’, LifeMojo helps you to achieve your fitness goals by helping you keep track of all that you eat and maintain a fitness regimen. Keeping an eye on the calories that you consume and burn, LifeMojo helps you have a healthy lifestyle. A user typically registers on LifeMojo and starts tracking his/her daily food intake and workouts. LifeMojo aims to bring on board a lot of nutritionists with different cuisine specializations that a user can associate with and begin Nutrition consultation.
One can also check the calories that a person is about to consume on LifeMojo, or by simply sending the food item’s name to calories@lifemojo.com using GTalk. They also support a SMS Calorie lookup feature.

2. Yoplr:

Website: www.yoplr.com

Yoplr is essentially a travel planner with extended features. When a user picks a source and a destination, it suggests places to visit en-route and supports with details like time required to cover that place, detours if any, distance covered etc. They also provide the extra cost required for that and also the choice of added luxuries that you can fit into your travel plan. Yoplr also takes into account details like traveling with family, kids or alone while giving suggestions. Currently their services are for Karnataka and Goa only.

3. iFlapp

Website: www.i-flapp.com

Intelligent Flash Application is what the company stands for and they endeavor to provide a complete solution for portable devices. They help making applications like Photoshop, Office, Adobe reader and others portable on any USB drive or hard disk. Their application Apps D needs to be installed on the external storage device and can be ported to any location. It is compatible with any Windows system – 2000 and above.

4. Green and economic fuel kit for two wheelers

Website: none

An initiative by Lords Automotives, it is an LPG fuel kit for 2-wheelers which would be sold to bring in revenues. They are looking at being an answer to alternate fuel systems for two wheelers.

5. Noddler

Website: www.noddler.com

This product is by Uniphore software systems and claims to be the world’s first intelligent voice response system. It aims to provide the services of the internet over a phone through voice. Its “Sandbox” feature caters to online businesses; helping them customize the voice interface to suit their offering. It is a web interface for developing multi-lingual voice based applications for any web service. The Voice User Interface is highly customizable and personalized. The callers can set their preferences on the website and are greeted by an intuitive interface on the call post that. Unlike traditional Voice Response systems, Noddler remembers and learns from each call that a user makes and personalizes on the fly, thereby eliminating the necessity of having to go through long menus each time.

6. IndiaKhelo

Website: www.IndiaKhelo.com

IndiaKhelo is a system trying to empower the grass-root sports structure in India. It promotes outdoor games in schools and corporate environment. The website makes the process of keeping scores and storing them interesting for users, creating a credible portfolio for each player alongside. A representative usually monitors the scores of the other players and ensures the authenticity of it. IndiaKhelo also organizes Indian Regional Leagues and gives local talent an opportunity to showcase their caliber and be noticed.

7. Inkfruit

Website: www.inkfruit.com

Inkfruit calls itself India’s first democratic product brand. Members registered on Inkfruit get to upload designs for T-shirts, Posters and other products on their website. The community votes on all designs submitted and collectively decide on the products to be included into the Inkfruit range. These are then available for sale. Through this process, Inkfruit empowers students, freelancers and professional designers – their work is showcased and stands a chance to actually enter the market. It is amazing to see that an un-controlled group of designers across the world can come up with really awesome products.

8. OOHA Kiosks

Website: www.oo-ha.com

Founded in 2007, Ooha today is a Free Internet Access provider in Chennai. Ooha’s provides businesses advertising and promotion programs, while providing FREE internet access for users. Ooha will deploy 50 Internet enabled kiosks in Chennai in the next 3 months and plans to extend the same services to the rest of the country. Placed in prime locations like malls and entertainment centers, these kiosks host applications from select providers too. The kiosks serve as advertising platforms for businesses through which Ooha plans to make its revenues

9. Nualgi

Website: www.kadambari.net

A clean tech company, which looks at reviving water bodies which have been polluted. Nualgi is used to grow diatom algae in any water including sewage polluted water. The diatoms produce oxygen, in turn consuming nutrients like nitrates and phosphates. Nualgi is made by a complex process and the same has been patented. Nualgi has been tested thouroughly over the past 4 years and is being used in Aquafarms in South India.

10. Remindo

Website: www.remindo.com

Remindo is a FREE online platform that merges productivity and social activities in offices. It is a collaborative suite of Web-based tools which aid professionals to get things done, socialize and communicate informally across the office.

11. Taroby:

Website: www.taroby.com

Email management in SMEs is made simpler by Taroby with the concept of Team Inbox which would help organizations to work more efficiently. Taroby is a SaaS based messaging and collaboration suite that enables sharing of email accounts among team members. This implies that emails are accessible to all team members working on a particular assignment or project, with the possibility to assign messages directly to individual team members. Using Taroby as a Team Inbox brings in transparency within the team. The entire team knows who is responsible for a particular email. Internal communication within the team is handled by notes which can be added to each message.

12. Fachak

Website: www.fachak.com

Fachak is a content sharing service that connects with existing platforms like Youtube, Slideshare and Flickr, providing the user with one single unified interface which can be used to view, upload and share content. Be it video, presentation, doc or images, Fachak ensures that the user does not have to worry about the format of the content. They believe that the user consumes content and hence should not be encumbered by the format. They acknowledge that while building a multi-format platform was a necessity, providing a front-end for the existing services and not ignoring them was the optimum solution.

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admin, January 30th 2009 | Posted in Proto.in Update, india, proto, proto.in, startups

December: TES ‘08, NEN Hottest Startups, WATBlog Mixer, NASSCOM Innovation Awards

December is seeing a lot of interesting things happening in the startup Scene. The Annual event of The Indus Entrepreneurs, is finding its home in Bangalore this year on the dates of December 16, 17, 18. The lineup of speakers, seems impressive as ever. If you are in Bangalore and do have the energy to network, this is an event you should check out. Visit the site for more details and for registrations.

The People’s choice awards for the hottest startup in the Indian landscape is still going on, and it seems that the initiative has exceeded the expectations that it set out to fulfill. The final 30 are selected and the voting process to choose the final five are going on. Do visit the site for more information on the same.

NASSCOM has been the most active this year, and if this is a sign of things to come, we do have quite some great years ahead of us. NASSCOM is putting together a multi-city showcase of some of the interesting startups and emerging companies in some of the cities across India. There are different categories of businesses showcased in various cities acrossed the country and the details can be found following the link. The Roadshows are planned from December 15th – 23rd.

The Best part, saved for the last comes up in the form of the WATBlog Mixer that is being arranged by WATMedia (The stars behind WATblog, WATshow etc). The mixer is to have a sole focus on the Startup audience, and invites the local entrepreneurs and investors from the region to join for a free evening of socializing and getting to meet and greet. The event is planned on the 17th of December. Visit the site and register (for free), if you’d like to attend. They have limited seats, so please do hurry!

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admin, December 13th 2008 | Posted in india, startups, upcoming events

PitchCamp! Coming this January @ Proto.in

Have you ever wondered how to impress an inscrutable Venture Capitalist, convince a doubting journalist or perfect the guaranteed door opener for a partner?

Then this workshop is for you. Learn the inside scoop on how VC’s, corporate partners and journalists think. Hear tips on how you can compellingly explain your business to each audience—whether it’s raising money, trying to close partnerships, or getting attention from the media. Watch as fellow entrepreneurs develop concise, and unique value propositions that generate fever and excitement in their markets. And personally participate with industry experts to find the best ways to position and pitch YOUR company.

This Proto.in, we are having a workshop for startup companies to hone their skills in the art of Pitching. And it will be something to look forward to. This is how it works (Follows the same model as Pitchcamp in Oreilly Conference):

This is a highly interactive hands-on workshop where you will have the opportunity to refine your own company’s message, learn more about how to pitch the people you need to impress, and have fun at the same time – the expert panel will help coach you to success and be judges at the end of the workshop, awarding prizes to some lucky participants.

8-12 Companies will be selected to officially participate. The selected companies will be assigned a pitch coach from a list of highly experienced marketing team. After a general overview of the do’s and don’ts of pitching, the individual companies will go into a break out session with their assigned pitch coach to refine their pitch. Other attendees of the workshop will be invited to participate in the breakout sessions as well. The final hour of the workshop will be the companies presenting their revised pitch to the entire panel of experts who will critique and evaluate the new pitches.

The companies with the top two scores will receive prizes that might include Marketing and PR Services, VC Pitch Consulting or Premium memberships to various networks.

While the team here at Proto.in is busy putting together an elite team of marketing and experienced entrepreneurs to drive this workshop, spanning all the way from the world of advertisement, film industry, technology and pure business, do let us know if there is someone who’d make the perfect fit for this activity.

We look forward to more of your feedback. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Regards,
Vijay Anand
Curator, Proto.in

6 Comments

admin, December 3rd 2008 | Posted in Protofe09, india, pitchcamp, proto, proto.in, proto5, startups, upcoming events

Proto.in Fifth Edition: Change of Dates

Hi Everyone,

Well, we do have a slight change of plans. We had initially planned for the fifth Edition of Proto.in to be held in Bangalore to be in December, but Bangalore seems to be housefull on all the popular and easily accessible venues for the month and we dont want to raise the cost too high and penalize the startup community with the entry fees that might come with other options.

Hence we’ve decided to go with the usual calendar pattern that we follow for the Proto.in event, One being in January and One in July. Yep, the Fifth Edition of Proto.in will be on the dates of 23rd and 24th of January in Bangalore. Wait for a week to get a confirmation regarding the venue as the team is doing the round of calls to finalize on that.

We will be opening sponsorship rounds soon. So if you know of anyone who’d find the synergy and the right balance to support the Startup Community, do get in touch with us. The nomination forms are already up and are doing the test runs, but we will officially open them up in a few days.

There are some very very very exciting plans that we have for the upcoming edition of Proto.in and trust me, it will be very much worth the wait.

Join hands with us, as we grow in numbers, as the startup community in India makes a statement of emerging and going mainstream.

Regards,
Vijay Anand
Curator, Proto.in

1 Comment

admin, October 30th 2008 | Posted in india, proto, proto.in, upcoming events

October, October Here We Come.

Its October, and it seems like this month is full of things happening for the startup community. Barcamps, showcases, talent hunts, etc etc etc – name it and it all seems to be moving in the right direction for the startup folks. Here’s a quick gist of things to keep you all abreast of things.

Barcamps:
Barcamp Hyderabad, , Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai are all happening this month. Barcamp bangalore had closed last week and I guess all the rest of the major cities are going at it this month. Do a quick google search and the results should throw up. If you are a startup, I would strongly suggest and recommend for you to be a part of these groups. It is essentially the one most important place to be at to get the support, talent and notice that you want to – especially in your formative years.

Open Coffee Clubs and Startup Saturdays seem to be going on as usual in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai etc. Do ping your local chapter, or leave a comment on this post and someone will get back to you if you have any questions for those folks.

Proto.in Fifth Edition.
So yep, its final. The fifth edition of Proto.in is slated in Bangalore this time. Yooohoo!. (Okay, that was quite close to some other sound that could have gotten me into copyright issues!) But yep, we are excited to bring the fifth edition of the event, and the community together in Bangalore. The event is planned for the month of December and the nominations open in a few days. Keep an eye on the website (which will go through some massive overhauls in the next few days), and do drop us a note if you need any clarifications or information.

TiECon Delhi : Deal Flow Session.
The Delhi chapter of TiE is organizing a Deal Flow session during the TiECon for companies that are looking for funding. Here are the details:

There is a deal-flow session scheduled as part of TiEcon Delhi 2008 from 22nd-24th October, this is an ideal opportunity for folks looking for funding & wanting to showcase their business plan to over 50 international & national investors.

For more details you can connect with Manish Joshi at
manish@tienewdelhi.org or +91-9971766455.

I believe that’s it for this month’s quite update, but that’s quite a lot happening for the startup space, especially given the economic climate in some regions. In fact, the funding and capital raising activities have infact climbed in the entrepreneurship space and its even more aggressive and the number of deals are climbing, as compared to other times. So take heed, its still a very good time to be building a startup. The time when you head out to make sales, the situation might be tough, but lets hope that the tide passes through before that stage. Hang in there, and as always… keep winning.

Vijay
Curator, Proto.in

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The Blog: blog.proto.in
The Event: www.proto.in
Twitter: www.twitter.com/protodotin

3 Comments

admin, October 5th 2008 | Posted in india, proto, proto.in, proto2008se, resources, startups, upcoming events

A Lesson to Learn. Reflecting on the Mirror of Global Startups.

My mentor oft used to say that everyone had something to teach us. It was all a matter of either what you should do, or what you should never do. If you look back at everyone in your life, that’d probably quite nicely fit the bill.

If you are at all interested in Startups, or are an entrepreneur, its quite hard to not notice whats happening in the Silicon Valley from time to time. And right about this time, it seems to be the humorous series of incidents – or some might call “planned coups” – that are going on in the valley amongst DEMO and Techcrunch, all in the name of “giving startups a platform”. There are 50 techcrunch companies, and close to 70+ DEMO companies going head on today, and amongst all the angry voice of one group accusing, and the other group defending, and then silly bystanders calling all the startups stupid to be sucky, they have all seemed to have forgotten the one reason for their existence – startups. Seems like in an attempt to settle the feuds amongst them, the startups are essentially the ones taking the beating by the supporters of both sides who are trying to discredit the both equally reputed conferences. Both are equally great conferences, which cost equally high amounts of money to pull through and lets not kid ourselves from the fact that both of them have equally made enough money through all this.

I have no interest in all these silly disputes. But it goes to say how even the “valley” can get distracted from whom their customer is. The startups.

We will, and trust me, we will soon come to that point as well – and I doubt that it will be too early when there are going to be a gazillion new startup showcases going on. If its a good thing, people are going to swarm and imitate, and there is absolutely no harm in that – just as long as they remember what the whole ordeal is all for.

I think India is doing amazingly well. Compared to most of the companies that are taking the stage, I am real proud of the kind of companies this country is churning out. We probably still dont have the reach or the spotlight, but there are equally amazing ideas, teams, talents and companies out here – probably better in some cases. I’m lately coming across a host of companies, some in the design space – making of intelligent home appliances, and a company that does design services – and is designing the torch for the commonwealth games (and its said to be quite sophisticated), companies in biotechnology, energy etc etc, that I have no doubts that in a few years, we will be more than what we ever dream, or dreamt to be.

This is also a time when the lack of support for an entrepreneur is probably the least pronounced issue. From capital to mentors, if you are knocking on the right doors, the right support is available and with local support peers such as Open Coffee Clubs and Startup Saturdays, I am really happy at the way we are strengthening this community.

As I am watching the companies at DEMO and TC, there is just one yearning in my soul. If we make better companies, and if we are darn better in hard work, and are more than well aided in terms of talent and capacity, whats it going to take us to the global spotlight. I think its going to take the support of the community as a whole to make that happen. This December as the fifth edition of Proto.in comes together in Bangalore, we’ll definitely take a shot at that – but not without your support. How do we make that happen? Now thats something I want you to help us, nah, ourselves with.

May the startups always win. For a long, long time to come.

Regards,
Vijay Anand
Curator, Proto.in

3 Comments

admin, September 8th 2008 | Posted in india, proto, proto.in, startups, upcoming events

Startup Events This Month

So August, Seems like a fun-filled month, and there seems to be quite a bit of activity happening on all corners of the country. Here goes:

Bangalore:

1. The Bangalore Open Coffee Club meet is happening this coming Sunday in Bangalore. I so far see close to 30 people who are attending the event, and since I am also travelling am quite keen to check out how the folks in Bangalore run the event. If you are from around, this is definitely a place to get plugged in, to be in touch with fellow entrepreneurs and ask questions regarding whatever support you might require in terms of starting up and running a company.

Date: August 3rd, 2008

If you are interested, do an RSVP at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/936234

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NASSCOM is organizing their third Product Enclave, and there have always been a good number of fabulous speakers and talks, and more so amazing people to catch up with in the corridors of this event. This time it is happening on the dates of August 11th and 12th in Grand Ashok in Bangalore.

The event does have a registration fee, but considering that its a two day event, it would make absolute sense to be there if you are a company which is at the cusp of breaking forth into the growth stage of your journey.

Some of the key speakers for the event are, Alok Mittal, Bharat Goenka of Tally, Kiran Karnik, Sharad Sharma of Y!, Subash Menon of Subex Azure and the likes.

Registrations are now open, and More details after the link.

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Chennai

The Chennai edition of the Open Coffee Club has probably been one of the long running ones so far. As usual, and just like clockwork, the group comes together on the first sunday of every month – which will be on the 3rd of August. More information on the get together is at http://chennaiopencoffee.ning.com

Date: August 3rd, 3pm

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Delhi

After Proto.in, I guess the folks in Delhi really have taken up a vow for new heights. After the overwhelming success of the Startup Lunch 2 in Delhi, The folks there are quite interested in putting together the third edition of the Startup Lunch on the dates of August 30th. If you are a startup, or someone who is looking to join a startup – this would be the most ideal place for you to be at.

For more information, do contact Avinash at ,

More Information about the Startup Lunch can be found at http://startuplunch.proto.in

Note:
Is there any other event on the grassroot level happening in your city, or one that you are part of. Do let me know.

3 Comments

admin, July 30th 2008 | Posted in india, proto, proto.in, resources, startups, upcoming events

Proto.in Innovation Jam Session

They said that people need to do a rapid fire round of Idea Generation. Most folks were skeptical, but when it did happen, the line up behind the microphone to pitch ideas, only kept growing longer and longer.

Kudos to Amit Somani and Kiruba Shankar for Fabulously Moderating this session.

Innovation Jam

Summary:

What is this about?
What do you do when you get a bunch of really smart, energetic, passionate entrepreneurs in a room? Well you get them to do a “power” brainstorm to try to identify trends, tough problems to solve and in general how to move the needle in a significant way.

How will this be run?

* Any one who has an idea should describe the pain point, trend, observation with one use case (how will this help someone – a consumer, a business, whoever). Moderator(s) will only validate to make sure we capture the spirit of the idea. Be as specific as possible …
* As soon as an idea is proposed – people can “Build on an Idea” or “Jump to on to a related idea” – hence the Jam :-)

The moderators will facilitate to keep the Jam moving and sort of “on topic” …

Read more…

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admin, July 29th 2008 | Posted in india, proto, proto.in, proto2008se, startups
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