HeadStart Hyderabad on 12th March 2010

If you are an entrepreneur, you have probably heard of Startup Saturdays. The entrepreneurial meetups that happen on the second Saturday of every month across 6 Indian cities. The team behind them, a non-profit called HeadStart Foundation now presents their National Showcase Conference- HeadStart at Hyderabad, organised in partnership with ITsAP (The Information Technology and Services Industry Association of Andhra Pradesh).

Those who have taken the plunge, know that there is nothing glamorous about entrepreneurship. There is however, a strong sense of responsibilty and power that stems from meaningful action. It is the result of this meaningful effort that will be showcased and celebrated at HeadStart Hyderabad.

Headstart will have two exciting parts. In the first part, 15 early stage companies chosen through a national selection process by an independent panel of investors and entrepreneurs will take the stage. They will demo their products live in front of an audience that comprises of investors, potential customers, media and fellow entrepreneurs.

In the second part, there would be panel discussions and unconferences between successful entrepreneurs to derive insights into topics relevant for entrepreneurs today. These panels / unconferences are themed on following subjects:

• Indian growth as a driver of Entrepreneurship,
• Unconventional Sources of funding,
• Challenges in social entrepreneurship,
• Indian Products Going Global, and other interesting topics.

Date: March 12, 2010
Venue: Hyderabad International Convention Center
Event Fee: Rs. 500
Registration: [Register here]. If you are a regular Startup Saturday attendee, please ask your city admin for a special 30% discount code.
List of speakers: [Link]

You can expect the event to be filled with

• Entrepreneurs to chat and learn from.
• Investors and angels to pitch to.
• Media to network with and possibly get yourself covered.
• Corporate customers, technologists, early adopters and representatives of various members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Startups always want branding and if we think that your offering is noteworthy, we would like  offer you a demo booth for a nominal fee. Please write to harinath[@]headstart[.]in to learn more.

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Laura A Parkin is the Executive Director of the Wadhwani Foundation, whose mission is to help individuals achieve economic success. The foundation works in two areas: developing business entrepreneurs, and helping the disabled build livelihoods or achieve gainful employment.

Laura Parkin, Executive Director and Co-Founder, NEN

Laura is also the Executive Director and co-founder of the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), the foundation’s flagship program. NEN is the leader in entrepreneurship education in India
She is a serial entrepreneur, having founded four companies, and former venture capitalist at Highland Capital Partners in Boston, Massachusetts. Currently, she is also an Advisor for Acumen Fund’s Water Portfolio, the SIDBI Incubator at IIT Kanpur, and Proto.in. Laura was born and brought up in Hong Kong, and holds a B.A. from Harvard University.

In a candid interview with Amit Singh, she shares her views on Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Indian Startup Ecosystem, Success, Failure and more.

Amit Singh: How Mature is the Indian Entrepreneurial Ecosystem compared to the Valley’s?

Laura Parkin: We can’t compare the Indian Entrepreneurial Ecosystem to the Valley’s. The ecosystem here is different and it is rapidly evolving. For Entrepreneurship to thrive in any ecosystem the driving force is “Change”. And here, things are changing at a rapid rate.

Amit Singh: How are the things changing here?

Laura Parkin: Government Regulations is one big thing. Abolishing the “License Raj” for instance, has had amazing consequences which have led to the growth of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. FDI and Mobile Regulations are other instances where changes in policy have created a lot of opportunities. Another dimension of change is the taste and spending ability of consumers: they have more to spend.  People are willing to spend their money on something that is untested.  There is a basic optimism in the attitude of entrepreneurs here.

Amit Singh: What are the key components that are missing in the ecosystem here, the presence of which will make a big difference in the lives of entrepreneurs? (more…)

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Quite easily the most impressive travel blogging application we have seen, Entrip was showcased at HeadStart and Compute 2009 earlier this year.

Entrip from Headstart Network Foundation on Vimeo.

Alertpedia is a very interesting alerting service that works on structured queries and could be a very useful tool for both online visitors and publishers.

Alertpedia from Headstart Network Foundation on Vimeo.

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The August edition of Startup Saturday showcased two of the finest efforts in the domain of clean tech. While the term clean tech is in a lot of discussion, these days, there are a number of concepts that need clarifications, and when it comes to start-ups in clean tech, SSB is always at the forefront with its showcase! In fact, we had rush not just in nominations, but also amongst speakers and the demos in Lightning Pitches - we had more than we could accommodate and till the last minute, this kept us on our toes! So finally, NextGen PMS and AutoBoxx Automation were the ones that comprised the main demos and we had a number of speakers that made us decide about having a panel discussion. The concept of a panel discussion during an SS event was one of the two ‘firsts’ that we had  - the second one being mentioned next.

One of the newest feather in our cap was the concept of live streaming of the event, thanks to mobisy.com. The idea sprung up from the fact that we needed online videos of the event for archiving and streaming over the Net. In fact, our media partners have always been interested in having a copy of the part they have sponsored and live streaming really served this purpose.

Since this was an experimental effort this time, we have further efforts to improve the quality, lighting, timing and other related aspects of the video. View videos

­

The way the volunteers have been supported by the people who attend SSB events was so clear when we faced a hitch in the mobile camera used for live streaming (it’s battery went off!) and immediately, one of the members of the audience offered his phone’s battery to continue the recording. Thanks to this spirit that SSB events have been so successful in Bangalore.

­ NextGen PMS are involved in the entire green chain, and are involved in estimating carbon waste footprints, and providing

(more…)

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The topic for Startup Saturday November was Ecommerce / Online Retail in India. We saw a good combination of startups showing their wares, and stalwarts sharing their experiences. We began with a demo of an energy saving app ‘ENPOWER’ by Creative Riot Software. The Creative Riot team has won multiple awards from Microsoft, IIT Bombay, IIM Ahmedabad etc and they have a simple power saving application that can save energy worth millions (billions probably) every year for enterprises and consumers. The demo by ENPOWER is well summarized by Pluggd.in.

Next, Mr. Sanjay Mehta, Jt. CEO of Social Wavelength spoke about Online Retailing in India. In a previous avatar, Sanjay has been one of India’s pioneering Internet entrepreneurs, with an online apparel retail store, Homeindia.com (a company he sold in 2007). His presentation had a four point agenda:

1. Whats going wrong right now, with online retailing in India
2. Is there hope, and what will it take?
3. Simple questions every online retailer needs to ponder upon and
4. A bonus: An e-commerce business idea

All in all, a thoroughly informative session, about the dos and don’ts of building a successful online retail business! His presentation is

(more…)

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If you are an entrepreneur, you have probably heard of Startup Saturdays. The entrepreneurial meetups that happen on the second Saturday of every month across 6 Indian cities. The team behind them, a non-profit called HeadStart Foundation now presents their National Showcase Conference- HeadStart at Hyderabad, organised in partnership with ITsAP (The Information Technology and Services Industry Association of Andhra Pradesh).

Those who have taken the plunge, know that there is nothing glamorous about entrepreneurship. There is however, a strong sense of responsibilty and power that stems from meaningful action. It is the result of this meaningful effort that will be showcased and celebrated at HeadStart Hyderabad.

Headstart will have two exciting parts. In the first part, 15 early stage companies chosen through a national selection process by an independent panel of investors and entrepreneurs will take the stage. They will demo their products live in front of an audience that comprises of investors, potential customers, media and fellow entrepreneurs.

In the second part, there would be panel discussions and unconferences between successful entrepreneurs to derive insights into topics relevant for entrepreneurs today. These panels / unconferences are themed on following subjects:

• Indian growth as a driver of Entrepreneurship,
• Unconventional Sources of funding,
• Challenges in social entrepreneurship,
• Indian Products Going Global, and other interesting topics.

Date: March 12, 2010
Venue: Hyderabad International Convention Center
Event Fee: Rs. 500
Registration: [Register here]. If you are a regular Startup Saturday attendee, please ask your city admin for a special 30% discount code.
List of speakers: [Link]

You can expect the event to be filled with

• Entrepreneurs to chat and learn from.
• Investors and angels to pitch to.
• Media to network with and possibly get yourself covered.
• Corporate customers, technologists, early adopters and representatives of various members of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Startups always want branding and if we think that your offering is noteworthy, we would like  offer you a demo booth for a nominal fee. Please write to harinath[@]headstart[.]in to learn more.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!