Proto.in Chat: Democratizing Entrepreneurship

Its not a rarity these days to hear talks about turning entrepreneurship into a lifestyle. As a matter of fact, we – everyone of us who are involved in shaping the startup space in India – are quite glad that thats happening, because it just shows that things are changing, very much for the better.

Even as Barcamps, Open Coffee Clubs, Startup Saturdays and several forms of informal support groups are emerging in this country, one of the biggest problem that we seem to be facing is the fact that we are still very urban-centric. All these meets happen in four or five of the major metros in the country – whereas we probably should be a bit more inclusive about it. There are issues such as the lack of experienced entrepreneurs to share from their life’s tale and help out emerging and aspiring entrepreneurs that seem to be stiffling some of the productivity in some of these informal meets.

Well, technology can solve that problem in some aspect, and we are going to give it our best shot.

We are opening up this Chat Application that we’ve had built, and testing in some occassions to see how we can spin this to solve this issue. Every Saturday between 9am and 5pm – and without fail, every week, we are planning to keep the Proto.in Chat [Link here] open and anyone can visit the site, and interact with entrepreneurs from across the country. We understand that Startup Saturdays happen on the same dates, so if possible we will get someone who is attending the sessions to live chat in the sessions so that the wisdom share can be spread to a larger audience if possible.

So, we’ve done and are doing our part to solve this problem. Now the request is that you be a part of this, to be there, spend sometime in the channel, interacting with, and helping out one entrepreneur to another, and in truly making entrepreneurship a lifestyle choice for those who wish for it – even beyond the metros.

Looking forward to seeing you there. And spread the word.

PS: If you dont want to eternally hang out, but keep an alert for whenever the channel gets active, visit the site, or the blog, and you can set an alert to remind you as certain number of people come online.

Regards,
Vijay Anand
Curator, Proto.in

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admin, February 20th 2009 | Posted in Proto.in Update, proto, proto.in, resources, startups

Weekly Reading: Some Nuggets on Starting up, and Scaling Out

These are links to some presentations that were part of Startonomics, a conference for Startups. There are some very good nuggets that most of our companies could benefit from:

These are links to some presentations that were part of Startonomics, a conference for Startups. There are some very good nuggets that most of our companies could benefit from:

1. Moving out of the Garage:

2. Product Development 101 (Fast Track Product Development)

3. Five Questions You Must Answer

4. Pitching and Packaging for Partnerships (The Bare Essentials you need to get right to think partnerships)

5. The startup Process (Basics on Starting up, Venture Funding, etc etc)

6. If you are in the Internet space or have a site, this might be useful. How to grow traffic to your site:

  • Beginners Guide to SEO
  • 7 Ways to Get Traffic to your Site
  • How to Make Users Beg for More

    • 3 Comments

    admin, February 9th 2009 | Tags: , , ,
    Posted in proto, proto.in, resources, startups

    Bloggers! Help us Promote Proto.in Jan Edition ‘09

    Proto.in, the startup event, has grown to be because of the community – there is no doubt about it. It has been the sheer effort, and need of the entrepreneurial landscape that has defined what this platform is able to accomplish for the benefit of the startup community here in India.

    This January, as we come together for the fifth time, we ask for your help; From Bloggers, to tweeters, microbloggers, to mobloggers, to folks who are passionate about entrepreneurial evangelism, we ask for your voice to help spread the word.

    If you are a blogger, or run a website, do feel free to host one, or all, or some of the Proto.in badges here and link it to the main site. Leave the url of your blog or blog post in the comments section so that we can link back to your blog. Could surely use your help in this regard, and do eagerly anticipate your support.

    Click for Larger Versions:

    If there are any questions in this regard, write to us?

    34 Comments

    admin, December 5th 2008 | Posted in Proto.in Update, proto, proto.in, proto5, resources, startups, 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

    ———————————————————————————————————–
    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

    Proto.in Conversations: Bhavin Turakhia on The Game of Business.

    More such Videos every week at the Proto.in Conversations Channel Online

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    admin, September 26th 2008 | Posted in Proto.in Talks, proto, proto.in, proto2008se, resources, startups

    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 Talks : In Slides

    There were two sessions, which used slides and some of the folks had requested for it. So here it goes. As for the the rest of the talks, we’ll be converting them into a format that we can host online and share them. Do stay tuned.

    At the Helm of a Fast Growing Business – Bhavin Turakhia, Directi

    The Art of Financing Your Itch: A Bootstrapping Story – Gaurav Bhatnagar, Tekriti Software

    8 lessons in funding your own dreams

    1 Comment

    admin, July 24th 2008 | Posted in Proto.in Talks, india, proto, proto.in, proto2008se, resources, startups

    Proto.in Talk: Reconciling Investors and Entrepreneurs – Sanjay Anandaram

    So, the toughest Act that one could possibly Imagine being an entrepreneur, and especially one if you are to raise funds – the need to find the balance and commonality between your goals, visions and ambitions and those of your investor.

    Sanjay Anandaram of Jumpstartup, did a talk on the same during this edition of Proto.in, and here’s the summary as made by Namitha Jagadeesh on her blog post:

    Venture capitalist Sanjay Anandaram, who co-founded early-stage VC fund Jump Startup in the dotcom era, had an unfortunate post-lunch, drowsy slot but did a pretty good job of keeping the crowd awake with his blunt talk. Anandaram, who along with his co-founders did not raise a second fund with Jump Startup, keeps busy these days “helping some start-ups, advising a couple of funds and teaching entrepreneurship at colleges”. His session was on the near impossible task of ‘Reconciling investors and start-ups’.

    The professorial streak was evident, as he explained the basics of startup-VC dynamics in an interactive classroom session of sorts.

    Lesson 1: Be careful of your expectations

    What do you expect from your VC?

    (Audience answers) – Bring money to the table, add value, help me monetise my product, help with customer contacts and relationships, help with hiring

    If you want the VC to do all this, the VC will ask you what the hell you are going to do for the company. The VC’s job is to write you a check to back your vision. Don’t take check and let him modify your vision and execute it for you.

    Lesson 2: If the chemistry isn’t right, the arithmetic will not work.

    Chemistry with your VC is the most important thing. The bad news is, the VC has the money, is on your board and has a lot of veto rights (such as first right to refusal of stake in future) in his favour, so make sure it’s someone you get along with. Being a CEO/Founder is a lonely job, and a VC should be part-psychiatrist, part good friend, part straight-shooter.

    Read More, right from her Blog …

    1 Comment

    admin, July 22nd 2008 | Posted in Media, Proto.in Talks, proto, proto.in, proto2008se, resources, startups

    Proto.in July Editon ‘08 Comes to a close.

    I think I speak for most folks when saying that we were quite blown away by the response we saw for this edition of Proto.in. We’ve certainly come a long way, and have quite a long way to go as well.

    There has been a lot of requests for the videos that we played during the event, and yep, they will be up on youtube soon and I will post a link to it.

    If you couldn’t make it to the event and want to catch a glimpse of things, do search the blogs for the tag proto4, and there seem to be quite a bit of them floating up. The twitter streams were quite active with proto tweets making it one of the hottest global search trends for the two days – so twitter search should give you a lot of per minute insights as well.

    We do want to get your input on a few things though – starting with the talks on day one, and as we move towards some of the things on the second day. If I may request, can you take a few minutes to fill out this survey and give your feedback – as to whose talks you thought made a lot of sense and were useful? It would surely help to improve things in the future, and as also a constructive feedback for the speakers looking to engage with the startup audience. Feedback Survey

    … And for those of you who liveblogged and tweeted away to glory, the winning announcement is still due. Those who tweeted, can you provide links of all your tweets and leave them in the comment section of the blog post as well? We’ll announce the winners as soon as we can collate all this info and make a decision.

    2 Comments

    admin, July 21st 2008 | Posted in Proto.in Talks, india, proto, proto2008se, resources, startups

    Two Out of Three Questions, You Ask.

    These are the usual set of Questions.

    1. Who are the folks who are coming?
    2. What are the speaker sessions this time?
    3. Who are the presenting companies?

    Well, I sure can’t answer the third one, but we can answer the first two. I just posted the content and update it to reflect the current (apart from a few logos I am still waiting for for the Who’s Coming bit) state of affairs.

    Go Check it Out. Visit the site and click on Who’s Coming and The Fastrack Sessions.

    I’m going to be here, waiting and keeping my fingers crossed that what we have worked hard for, indeed pleases you.

    No Comments

    admin, July 1st 2008 | Posted in Proto.in Talks, india, proto, proto.in, proto2008se, resources, startups
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