1. Proto.in Mumbai startup list: http://bit.ly/protomum2

2. A short and sweet Proto.in event report on the Starting Up show on ET NOW: http://bit.ly/protomum1

3. Proto.in Success Stories (Presented during the Mumbai Edition): http://bit.ly/protosuccess

We once again would like to thank our sponsors Sequoia Capital, Bharti Airtel Innovation Fund & SINE who enabled us to put up a grand show at Mumbai.

Team Proto.in

We are very happy indeed to celebrate Indian entrepreneurship with our partners at NEN who have been striving hard to promote entrepreneurship at the acdemia.

Like any Start-up before it’s big release, we at the Team Proto have been extremely busy with the big event which is coming to town. As some of you should be aware, Proto.in is taking place on the 30th of Jan in IIT Bombay. For Start-ups, Investors and the Audience alike, we have an action packed day – one like never before at any of our events. If you haven’t checked in for the event already – do register on http://register.proto.in

If there’s one thing, that’s come to the fore during our selection process – it’s that innovation in India is certainly alive and well. Start-ups from sectors as diverse as Solar Power, Logistics, Robotics, Clean Technology and Mobile will take the stage in what I can promise you will be a power packed showcase. For the first time, through our collaboration with both Intellecap and NEN, we will have start-ups from both the Social Sector and a Student Start-up as part of the showcase. ‘Out of this Planet’ does sound like a cliche, but this time around we actually have India’s first Space company which will take the stage at the event. Enough said – register your tickets to meet the 15 start-ups in flesh and blood.

The final schedule will be up by tomorrow but here is quick brief on what you can look forward to:

9:30 AM to 10:00 AM In Conversation with Pradeep Gupta, Founder Cybermedia Group

A start-up from the Media sector discusses the challenges of scaling up a Media Company. Pradeep Gupta discusses his story.

10:00 AM to 10:30 AM In Conversation with Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder, Naukri.com

An Internet start-up takes the stage and brings out Sanjeev Bikhchandani’s story in building Naukri.com

10:45 AM to 2:15 PM Proto.in Showcase

15 of India’s hottest start-ups take the stage, each have 6 mins each to showcase their product to the audience present. This will followed by a round of Q&A

2:15 PM to 3 PM Lunch Break

3 PM to 4:45 PM Special Screening of Movie ‘Pirates of the Silicon Valley’

5:00 PM to 5:30 PM Devil’s Advocate

Legal Counsel Shantanu Surpure of Sandhill Advisory takes on a panel of Venture Capitalists and provides clarity on some of the blackholes in the Fund Raising Process

5:30 PM to 6:00 PM Angels and Demons – A Review of the Angel Investor Pitch

The Angels in a panel discussion – where they iron out the demons in the Business Plan Pitch held earlier.

Parallel Sessions:

3:00 PM to 5:00 PM Mentoring Session with Sequoia Capital

All start-ups attending the event have the opportunity of getting mentored by Sequoia Capital, 1 on 1 for a period 15 mins each. 15 deserving start-ups from the audience will be chosen for this special session.

3:00 PM to 4:00 PM Meet the Airtel Innovation Fund

The Bharti Airtel Innovation Fund will be conducting a session for start-ups across such sectors such as Mobile, Internet, VAS and Software. Start-ups will have the opportunity to meet with the fund and discuss their goals and objectives.

3:00 PM to 4:00 PM Angel Pitch to the Indian Angel Network

8 start-ups chosen by the Indian Angel Network will get an opportunity to make a Business Plan Pitch for Funding. Indian Angel Network will choose 1 start-up which will be given mentoring over the next 6 months till it is fund raising ready.

3:00 PM to 6:00 PM Demo Pit

Start-ups will showcase their demos in the demo pit – and engage and interact with the audience on their growth plans and opportunities for collaboration.

For all those present at the event, we also have a special Innovation Jam which will be telecast on the ‘Starting Up’ show on ET NOW. Clearly, your opportunity to join the fun.

Tickets are running out quick – and before they run out (like they did in our last edition in Pune), we recommend you log on and register on http://register.proto.in

As always, May the start-ups win.

See you at the Showcase!

We glad to announce an exclusive partnership with Sequoia Capital for
the upcoming editions of proto.in. Sequoia Capital has been one of the
most active early and growth stage firms in India in the last several
years, and looks to partner with entrepreneurs from the seed through
growth stages. In addition to signing up as the Platinum Sponsor for
the 2010 proto events, Sequoia Capital team members have volunteered
to engage in one-on-one feedback and mentoring sessions with up to 30
companies at the upcoming Proto.in event in January. While all
companies that will be showcased will get the opportunity to
participate in these individual sessions, the Proto.in team will
additionally nominate other entrepreneurs for the mentoring sessions
as well.

If you are a start-up entrepreneur interested in applying for the
mentoring session, write to contact@proto.in expressing interest to
meet with sequoia capital during the event. To register for the event
go to http://www.register.proto.in

Look forward to seeing you at the event.

Regards,
Ravi Shankar

Ticket Bookings for India’s Hottest Start-up Event are now open. Log on and reserve your ticket by clicking on the link here: http://proto7.doattend.com/

You can also log onto the www.proto.in web-site and click on the Register link.

As many of you are aware, Proto.in will take place in Mumbai on the 30th of January in IIT Bombay. The team has been working extremely hard in ensuring that this edition will be bigger and brighter than any of our previous editions.

Key Updates

Sequoia Capital comes on board as the Platinum Sponsor for this edition. What’s more – start-ups will also have a separate enclosure at the event where they will be given the opportunity to get mentored by representatives of the venture group.

Proto.in goes social
For the first time, we have tied up with Social Sector Advisory Firm Intellecap. With them – we will be launching for the first time at Proto.in a social enterprise section where a few of the hottest product start-ups from the social sector will be showcased.

We have already received 100 nominations and if the trend is anything to go by – this edition should beat the other 6 in terms of the number of nominations received.

If there’s anything you are specifically looking forward to at this edition – do write in to us here. We will try channelize your suggestions and make the event soar even higher.

May the start-ups win!

Its been about 10 days since the proto.in pune edition happened. There were some truly exciting product demos and some very honest conversations about startups that happened both on and off the stage.

Thanks to our exclusive television partner ET NOW, we can now rewind the clock and watch the key highlights of the Proto.in Pune edition. In their half an hour special on proto.in, as a part of the “Starting Up” show, enjoy the brief and exciting summary of  all the action at the proto.in pune edition. The show has 3 segments and can be viewed at http://www.tv.proto.in

Also, you can read all the blog reactions about proto.in pune on http://www.proto.in/live  under the proto blog buzz section.

At proto.in, the start ups are in the limelight. Every one of them come to proto.in to launch their product, get feedback and network with people who can help them in realizing their dream. Over the past editions, we have been doing this feedback and networking informally and also through forms at the venue. But the section of audience physically present at proto.in is only a fraction of startup community that follows the event otherwise.

This edition of Proto.in, we are launching a new initiative to address this problem – www.proto.in/live, which will be a one stop portal for all you guys following the event, both at the venue and on the web, to interact and understand about the start ups. The portal will have the following:

• Featured content from live bloggers at the event aggregated by the proto.in team.
• Live stream of twitter and Flickr updates
• Forms to provide feedback and network with the startups.

Please follow the event at www.proto.in/live and share your feedback with the presenting start ups. Also, if you are a blogger writing about the startups at proto.in, feel free to submit the link to us on the portal and we will feature it. Look forward to your support.

Note: The portal will go live on July 24th , Friday @ 5.00 PM.

Regards,

Team Proto.in

Given the strong requests from people in pune who missed out on getting a ticket for this edition, Proto.in and MentorSquare present a Unique Hi-Tea Networking event on the evening before the main event.

There will be a panel talk on transforming business environments followed by networking amongst the participants. Since the event capacity is limited to 75 participants only, please confirm and RSVP at the earliest with Maya at maya.m@mentorsquare.com.

Event Details:
Date: Friday, 24th July 2009
Venue: Hall No. 5, MCCIA Trade Tower, ICC Complex, 403, Senapati Bapat Road, Pune – 411 016
Time: 05:00 pm to 07:00 pm
Door Donation of Rs. 100/- to be paid at the venue.

Agenda of the Day:
05:00pm – 05:30pm : Registration and Tea/Coffee
05:30pm – 06:15pm : Panel discussion followed by Q & A
06:15pm and beyond: Networking

Thanks,

Team Proto.in

It has been a quite couple of weeks, no doubt. But wisdom has it that there is always a calm before the storm! There has been a lot of activities going on in the background and its time we get you updated on all the hustle and bustle from behind the screens!

1. The Bootcamp was held at mumbai in partnership with TiE for the presenting startups to prepare them for their product launch. The startups got hands on training in presenting their best to the quite varied audience at proto.in – from the hard core geeks to extremely business savvy venture capitalists. This was followed by 1 on 1 mentoring sessions to help them finetune their business models.

2. The agenda for the proto.in pune edition is up here: http://is.gd/1EpgG . We will have a special note detailing the agenda, a little more closer to the event. Watch out for this space.

3. The registrations will close in another 2 days. We have about 20 tickets left to be sold out. If you dont act fast, you might not be lucky. Register here: http://doattend.com/proto

4. We are really proud to have Microsoft as our gold sponsor and Druvaa as our silver sponsor respectively. Microsoft has been very active in its support to the startup community through its bizspark program and proto.in, as a premier startup event, continues to have their patronage. Druvaa, is a very special sponsor for proto.in. They were once a proto.in presenting startup themselves and have scaled really well post their proto.in showcase and have shown great commitment to the movement by coming back as a sponsor.

5. As announced earlier, the Facebook developer garage at proto.in pune will be happening at 5 PM. You can find more details here: http://is.gd/1Eolb

6. And last but not the least, we are going to have some very exciting group of investors and media at the event. Expect about 15 venture capital firms and 10 active angel investors to be there at the venue. Also, we are glad to announce that ET NOW will be a telivision partner for the event and will enable the startups at proto.in to reach the mainstream TV audience.

Look forward to seeing you at the event.

Ravi Shankar

Team Proto.in

The Garage will be very useful for the web developers participating in the Facebook developer contest with total cash prize worth US$14,000. For more details on the Facebook Developer contest, please visit http://www.facebook.com/developercontestindia. Facebook will also be a gold sponsor at this edition of proto.in.

As a passionate web developer trying to make an impact, you certainly cant miss this opportunity. We have only about a 100 seats left for the event. Register yourself before it is too late. You can register for the proto.in pune edition here: http://www.proto.in/the-event/registrations/