Now we are taking Open House to the next level where geographical boundaries don’t matter anymore. Similarly, the restrictions on time are also easy. What matters is sharing experiences and ideas and then building upon what you get from others. We’ll do this via a Twitter conference.

A twitter conference as the name suggests is a conference on twitter. Use of hash tags separates the conference content from the rest of the twitter stream. So, participating in the conference is as simple as attaching a hast tag to your tweet and following the hash tag. One can follow a hash tag by searching for it using twitter search or tools such Tweetdeck. Tweetchat automates the entire process of tagging and following and gives you the feeling of a chat room. One also need not get restricted by the 140 characters that Twitter gives us. One can always write a blog post and tweet the link with the hash tag. However, do make sure that your tweet gives a reason to click on the link and do link your blog to this post for easy tracking.

We will keep the conference open for an entire day and then summarize the significant bits in a blog post here. The first Headstart Open House on twitter will be on Finding the first customer and will start at 10 AM on 3rd July. Please use the hash tag #HSOH for the conference and also for all tweets about the conference.

RSVP here. See you on the 3rd!

Headstart Open House on Twitter

Why do I tag the experience this way? Well post being there many assumptions, prejudice and thoughts that one had about women entrepreneurship stood head over heels. And why not, when you listen to a sweet voice of a Saree clad entrepreneur just to realize that she is a top notch entrepreneur with a virtual team always online, or an investment banker quitting the rat race and now bathing a 50 KG dog as part of her business, you were in for a BIG surprise! So cutting things straight here’s what happened.

Dr Shalini from Nirvan Life Sciences

The session started with a Business showcase by Dr Shalini Ratan, who has a unique concept of “Patient centric approach” driving her company. Founder of Nirvan Life Sciences Dr Shalini explained why it was very important for a Doctor to have good soft-skills and a Marketing strategy of his own. When she herself found this gap in today’s MBBS generation, she took the onus of filling it by herself. She explained in detail (PPT) how a hospital is no more a dull hospital and how grooming medical services like a hotel has an inert advantage both for the patients and the doctors. A concept as unique as a woman!

Next in as a speaker was Ms Sindhu Nair from SMM-Art. She has been into the

Sindhu Nair from SMM-Art

field of Training and Consultancy for quite some years now and discussed the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs today have. Smm-art develops customized training programs and AV products for corporate as well as startups and help them identify and resolve the challenges that they face. Enabled with a strong team she advocated (PPT) nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit even in your team and colleagues to bring the best out of them.

We all know actions speak louder than words and that’s exactly was the base of the next Business showcase by Nidhi from Studio PluCap. A freelance designer/animator turned entrepreneur Nidhi spoke less and showed more (PPT) of her achievements. A complete new cartoon series called Little Pandavas which has  left the audience amazed by the superb talent Nidhi had. Apart from the challenges that she discussed, what was really interesting was the reason behind why the company was called Studio Plucap. A very Steve Jobsish kind of approach to naming your company, Nidhi read during the early days of her startup that When PLUto enters CAPricon she will have really good time and that’s how Pluto and Capricorn added to Plucap. Cool Name and yes it fits well, isn’t it?

By the way while we are so much into the session, I just missed to highlight the whole session was very well tied together by our special compere Manjari Sharda. She kept the environment alive and the show kickin!

Ruchika from YouPid.in

Next we had the open house, and guess who hosted it. Yes a female compere again. Ruchika from youpid.in managed the complete open house across the topic of Freemium vs Premium approach in having an internet business. A very insightful discussion and summed up well by Ruchika. Great job!

Post a short tea and networking break, the show continued with 4 Lightening Pitches back to back from amazing women entrepreneurs with really interesting ideas.

First LP was from Entrepreneur Sannam Chopra who converted her love for fashion and art to a passionate venture called Archetype deusign. Archetype Deusign provides the Indian customers with jewelery and accessories that have western blend and style. No more jaw dropping when you see your favourite Hollywood star accessorized, Sannam makes it possible (PPT) and affordable for the fans do dress the same. Another point worth noting was the company grooms their executives not just to sell to but also to advice customers about latest trends and what suits well to them. Cool!

Next was an LP from Shivani Chokhani of PD Foundation. Shivani’s story was really exciting as she described how the venture started from nowhere with no big visionary strategies to where it has come today. With PD foundation touching new heights in Training and consultancy business and Shivani trying new avenues constantly you certainly realize that she definitely is a constant follower of the Just Do IT lifestyle. Post she completed her presentation the audience really felt - where there is a will, there is a way.

So still we are on. New stories, new world of women entrepreneurship seemed clear. But No! we were in for another big surprise. Not one but two, with the next LPs.

The next LP was by Prita Agni from Dogaholics. Having a media background, and a good friend Avril Lopez  who was an investment banker, life seems to be real fun. But Passion can drive you crazy. Prita and her friend started Dogaholics a Dog grooming parlor where they bathe and groom your faithful pets.  Now as in her own words when you see “Girls” handling 50kg dogs, well jaw dropping is the least that you can see in the audience. Jive apart! She also highlighted how she was using social media to make people understand the importance of animals and what they can do to make their life better. Well so much of a job! You definitely require a woman to accomplish this feat.

Last LP was from Vanita the owner of HeadStartINC. When you pitch at the end of any session there are chances you might not grab attention. Is that statement really true? Vanita broke the traditional introduction nomenclature and sang a really motivating song in her beautiful voice. You ought to be there to experience that. Vanita via her company HeadStartINC (PPT) provides various competency development services to corporates and other institutions. Right from soft skills to web analytics and SEO the company delivers all with the help of a complete virtual team. If you thought women better be within the four walls; well ventures can be started right from there too! All in all a great presentation.

Last in the list was a showcase by Kavita Mathur who heads Wellness Associates. Kavita showed (PPT) yet another expertise that resides highly with women. Well-organised and well-planned, Kavita utilized her experience as a gym professional and founded Wellness Associates with her partner. A compact studio where the trainer knows the importance of your time and health and ensures that wellness is delivered. Kavita described how she worked out with the idea, took loans and ventured with her passion to create great service that many clients today opt for.

This is how the show went on. But after summarizing the whole experience down to these 1200 words, it seems that much was not told or not transferred. It was enlightening, challenging and definitely inspiring. That’s what the kind of experience we had and you definitely need to be there and feel it yourself.

So do remember to mark every second Saturday as a Startup Saturday on your calendars!

About the Author – Himanshu Chanda is a business blogger and a regular visitor at the HeadStart Saturdays. Apart from the event he also shares his views on his business blog BizDharma.com

With so many unique business models and success stories getting discussed - Social Entrepreneurship seems to be the new gold mine for startups. It has opportunity for new ventures and a clear and measurable social impact. But until recently if you didn’t knew what Social Entrepreneurship is and what it can be, well there were 2 ways to do know about it. The dull way was to Google it up and get confused with so little to learn. Whereas the other super active way was to attend the May Startup Saturday and ignite your grey cells with the opportunities that this field has to every entrepreneur! For those who missed the event (and those who would like to reiterate) here are we with a roundup of the same.

May Startup Saturday was themed around Social Entrepreneurship. It had showcases and Lightening Pitches from Entrepreneurs who were confident and innovative enough to ensure success not just for their ventures but for the society as a whole. You would have already known the agenda from here, this post will try to re-live the magic discussing what was up at Startup Saturday May 2010.

The Lightening Pitches

First and foremost the LPs - The Lightening Pitches started with Culture Aangan which promotes rural tourism and banks on the experience it provides to foreigners and tourists. The soul behind such a venture has to be the pride in how things are in rural India and zeal to showcase the real India to tourists, both of them were aptly visible in Rashmi’s presentation. Taking real example of villagers of Pingolee and their story from being a spy for Shivaji Maharaj for ages; to being the tourist guides of today, Rashmi kept the audience well engrossed in the pitch. If you would like to experience the real rural life - Culture Aangan is something to look forward to.

Next was a pitch by Annkur from OnlyGizmos.com. Annkur presented a new service – OG Price Search, where visitors can get the latest and best price for any Gadget or electronic appliance before buying. This definitely helps all the value and bargain hunters get the best out of their negotiation. This service is available in various ways (Online, SMS, and social media updates). What started with a help to a good friend via twitter is now taking shape of a business model of its own. Finally finding pain areas and solving them is what entrepreneurship is all about.

My Entrepreneurship Journey – by Dr Velumani

Post the two pitches was a session that soon became the highlight of the day. A journey led by Dr Velumani from Thyrocare which made every listener realize that though it is not easy taking the plunge and reaching the stars, it even is not impossible. Velumani has his own style of communication. The zeal with which he conveys can easily make you question yourself whether is he really a 51 year old business man or is he a college pass-out in an old man’s body. Velumani discussed all the challenges that he faced but he precisely termed them as ‘decisions made’ rather than ‘adjustments done’.

His courage to perceive his goals and witty humor to explain how decisions shape your fate was a big take away of the session. He advised Entrepreneurs that adjusting for your dreams is an investment and not an adjustment (Don’t put the cart before the horse). At this age too he was motivated to learn, to change and to innovate every other day. He described how he perceives his vision to provide best services at costs never thought before. A witty quote he said was “Every entrepreneur should spend well. I was bound to value money, that’s why they call me Velumani”. Finally one thing that all repeated even post the session (and tweeted about) was his concept of - Plan to Fail, and you will never fail! It was one of those sessions which will keep aspirants motivated for years to come. Hats off to Dr Velumani!

Showcase – by Jenny from Metta Foot Spa

Post the ignition from Velumani, was another great session by Jenny from Metta Foot Spa. Where in one session the speech by Velumani shook our souls to get started right there, Jenny’s presentation touched the audience’s heart with her journey into social entrepreneurship. For those who are not aware Jenny (Joanita ) is the owner of Meta Foot Spa, a place where you can get affordable massage from visually impaired masseurs.

Jenny who started her career as a nurse and later transitioned into training yoga had seen a very successful journey across years. She discussed about her desires then and how she managed to fulfill them. Jenny as part of her regular trainings got an opportunity to train Blind children and this was when she realized how good they were in the art of foot massage. With a long treasured desire to give back to the society still left unfulfilled, Jenny soon realized that this was an opportunity to empower the blind students to earn their daily bread with pride and self confidence. With this started Metta Foot Spa, where Blind masseurs provide you the best in town foot massage at a price every senior citizen can afford. Jenny discussed the issues she faced in training and operating these employees at the spa and how the blessing of many needy seniors took the Spa to where it has reached today.

We know how professionals have taken this country to the next level and made us a service economy the world looks forward to. If every professional empowers others who are needy, like Jenny did, there will be no word called down trodden in the dictionaries any more. Great going Jenny.

Social Entrepreneurship LPs

Once the Showcase was complete the session continued with the remaining lightening pitches. Next was from Karon who gave a pitch about Idobro. She took the discussion ahead from where other people left and discussed how her venture is looking forward to provide a platform to other ventures in the Social Entrepreneurship and Green economy space to market their products. She took an approach of having just 1 slide in her presentation and discussing in detail about how the whole model works. All in all with international exposure this woman entrepreneur is all geared to raise the bar up.

Between the pitches was a small announcement from the Head Starters, a plan to host workshops for startups (dedicated to pre-decided topics). The idea seemed to have hit the right chords with the audience as there was lot of engagement from them. Once rolled out this will be yet another feather in the cap for the startup community!

Next was a presentation by Harsh from Zopte.com. Harsh seemed very calm but aspiring in his approach and so is his entrepreneurial plunge. Zopte attempts to build an application where anyone can simply prototype the next Facebook. What this really means is that a user can use simple tools like we do in paint brush to paint a picture; Zopte can be used to build an application. Hit the export button on your application prototype and all you have is a ready to execute PHP/My Sql application. Post 2 years of development Zopte is currently under Private Alpha stage.

Last but not the least was yet another innovative product in the Social Entrepreneurship bouquet. Mukut from Distribution 2.0 explained how his team is targeting to sell financial products the same way shampoo sachets are sold at Kirana stores. Mukut believes that retail vendors have build a community of around 100 customers who shop on a  regular basis and policies like accidental insurance can be sold directly via these shops as they do not have much regulatory hassles. End of the day the aam aadmi gets an accidental cover of Rs 50,000 just by buying a voucher of Rs 100.

Summary

With that yet another Startup Saturday concluded successfully, but what was more interesting was to realize the change in thought that the audience went through by attending the sessions on Social Entrepreneurship. It is neither about charities, nor about exploiting the down trodden; it’s an innovative business model where Business flourishes along with the society. Seems the motto of hosting the event was fulfilled largely. Social Entrepreneurship is still at a nascent stage in India and it definitely holds great opportunity for any one ready to take the plunge.

About the Author – Himanshu Chanda is a business blogger and a regular visitor at the HeadStart Saturdays. Apart from the event he also shares his views on his business blog BizDharma.com

It's an un-sustainable world!

This Startup Saturday was turned out to be very interesting for the theme was the clean tech.

So prior to this meet my notion of clean tech was constrained to something like cleaning up Gobar and converting it into clean, odorless and colourless biogas, or harnessing some electricity for street lamps from the scorching heat that we are suffering today. With this presentation my idea for clean tech has completely changed.

Anil Paranjape’s introduction to “Why CleanTech?”:
Anil has worked with Intel for 20 years and then switched to, Intel’s Entrepreneur in Residence when the Entrepreneurial bug bit him. Now he is out of that and managing his restaurants in Pune. He is also an investor, with interests in clean tech.

Anil started with a simple definition of clean tech, anything doing in a cleaner way or a less dirty fashion (may be cleaning your bedroom for starters!). The world is becoming unsustainable place and generations to come things would be worse. One thing Anil was able to thoroughly convince was his motto, ‘Sustainability has to come from heart.’

There was this interesting and interactive way with which Anil presented his thoughts. The presentation started with a series of MCQ like questions regarding the state of our whole eco system and the audience had to take a guess as to what we have made a mess of our ecosystem. There were lots of disturbing questions which made you think for a moment about the sorry state of the world we are living in. One question that caught my attention was “What’s the unhealthiest food for babies?” Quite surprisingly the answer turned out to be, breast milk (Smartly excluded from the answer options). Now with all the campaigning that has been going around to promote breast milk, this was a total surprise. The reason being that women living in poor conditions don’t have access to clean source of water and hence consume lot of unnatural chemicals, which in turn is consumed by the baby in form of breast milk.

Clean tech can be anything no matter how simple it might be, as long as it makes things cleaner than they are. For example saving electricity is more effective than the solar energy projects that we are running in the country. So an effective way to save electricity can also be categorized into clean tech.

My two cents on clean tech discussion:

Recently I had attended a talk delivered by Satish Gokhale at POCC meet. Satish Gokhale is the designer of “Tata Swach”. He mentioned that they are using rice husk ash and silver nanoparticles to purify water. Now Rice husk ash is a well-proven purifier since ages. Also I remember a story about Alexander the great. When Gastro broke into his camp and foot soldiers where dying in hundreds, the top brass was unaffected. The reason being, the top brass drank water from silverware.

Although a very scientific research was done on this project for a substantial time, the idea was derived from well know facts to solve a very serious issue at hand. Clean tech need not mean that you have some technology background to address an issue at hand; it can be sometimes plain common sense to solve problems with managerial oriented approach as well.

Another good example of clean tech I came across was about a group of a MIT LBNL scientists and fellow colleagues who joined hands to build a stove which would consume less than half the firewood a normal stove would consume. The stove is cylindrical made of sheet metal, two feet high and 14 inches in diameter and sells for $2.49. So what’s the big deal, you would ask?

There are about 2.2 million refugees huddled in makeshift camps in the Darfur region of western Sudan. In the camps, they are safe but the women folk have to venture out in search of firewood. Once they are out of the camps they are susceptible to physical abuse by Arab Militia. According to Ashok Gadgil key researcher of this project, this stove reduces the probability of women getting physically abused.
You can find more details here. They have won the “Popular Mechanics Award”.

Here we don’t see a path breaking technology, but it really addresses a very serious issue. “Sustainability has to come from heart” - The statement made by Anil from the very beginning of the presentation sounds very apt.

Bright Star Electronics

Bright Star Irrigation system

The second presentation was from Mr. Padmakar Kelkar of Bright star Electronics. So their product is a solar-powered pivot for irrigation.

A brief about the product:
According to Mr. Padmakar, this is a first of it’s kind solar-powered pivot in the world, although there are pivots existent, they are powered by external electric supply.
Their pivot is controlled by microcontroller and is smart enough to calculate the spread and distribution of the field. One unique feature they talked about was their end gun, which sprinkled into the corners of the field when they encountered one.

The advantages mentioned of pivot irrigation over flood irrigations are:

1. Less water wastage.
2. Even distribution of water.
3. Improves cultivation upto 20%.

One of the major advantages they spoke about was that the pivot involves no involvement of human. So this way a farmer is not dependant on the field labours who usually are very inconsistent with their schedule. A farmer can put the pivot for charging during the day and the pivot would irrigate the farm in the night.

Market segmentation:

Currently the pivot is used to irrigate onion farms. They are running a pilot project on farms of Rawat brothers. Interested folks can visit the site and checkout what the pivot is?

Bright star expects the market size of close to 500 units in next three years in India. However they feel the greater potential for lies in the American and European markets, where the farms are huge in size and farmers sound financials to purchase their pivot.

According to their calculations ROI for a farmer purchasing their pivot is close to five years for a farm of twenty five acres. Currently there has been no subsidy offered by the government the reason being the equipment is meant for bigger farmers and government doesn’t offer subsidy for well off farmers.
They also presented a video which had Mr. Bharat Banka MD and CEO of Aditya Birla Private Equity analyzing the business potential of their product. He stated that the product has addressed the pain point effectively for two reasons.

1. The product meant to be used for agriculture and water conservation being need of the hour this product should be valuable to the farmers.
2. It is using solar power, which is a clean source of energy. Also it cuts off the dependability on ever unreliable source of power from the electricity board.

You can have a look at the video here.

Challenges they are facing:
The pivot was built for farms in the range of twenty five acres and above where as the farms in India are very fragmented. Even if a farmer owns fifty acres of land, the typical size of each farm would three to five acres.

So they are trying to target community oriented farming where a group of farmers plan to farm a single homogeneous plot of land. Also they are trying to respond to the market needs with a smaller version of their pivot which is cheaper and can work out well for a small plot of land. Since they have developed expertise in designing the controllers for the pivot, they are planning to sell the controllers to European countries where these can be used in externally powered pivots.

- Written by Chaitannya Mahatme

The only thing constant in the life of a startup is change. Every Startup has to change, experiment and adapt to have an edge for itself. So when startups experiment so much why wouldn’t HeadStart? This Saturday, HeadStart presented a new format specially designed for April Startup Saturday. It had pitches in front of panelists, it had live TV show recorded and it had the real power packed interactions.

The Special Lightening Pitches

HeadStart had a Panelist Lightening Pitch section for this month. Here selected startups got an opportunity to present in front for Panelists who have been there and done that.
We meet many entrepreneurs with varied experience at HeadStart, but this experience was one of its own. We had the first lightening pitch from an ex-service man. Mr Shivaram who has served the Indian Navy in his hey days has now taken the baton forward with his own venture IDACS. IDACS manufactures energy saving products for corporate and residents at very affordable costs. Having served clients like NICE, and Microsoft; IDACS presented its special panelist LP to take some solid advice and seek some funding for the company.

Next to present in front of the Panel was Saptarshi from Robosoft. Systems A regular head starter, Saptarshi with his group of friends has a challenging task. To create more awareness for Robotics and sell products that help corporate clients ease their life. A product called Duct Cleaner Robot was briefed which has already won clients like Blue Star and Voltas. It was quite interesting to find out how Robosoft is trying hard to make people understand the concept of Robotics and how they have derived a business model for sustenance by enlightening many minds across engineering campuses of India.

The Panelists advice

There were some really solid ideas that the Panel had for the participants. The panelists were clear that a startup which can sustain and doesn’t have an immediate increase in size on cards should ideally not look forward to Venture Capital. As one of them well said that, if you have a positive cashflow and do not have a vision to multiply the size of your venture as of now, seeking for Venture Capital would simply mean discounting yourself to the max and losing the game in the long run.

Regular Lightening Pitches

Apart from the Special LPs which got a chance to present in front of the Panelists, The attendees also had a chance to experience two other technology ventures that were presented by Ankesh of SuccessNexus and Spandan from MobStreet.

SuccessNexus a startup by Ankesh Kothari takes a completely new look at the affiliate model which Ankesh claims hasn’t evolved since 1998. The business model relies on a win-win-win deal where the seller gets new buyers, the affiliates who put the word out get some commission on sales and Success Nexus which hosts the complete platform takes small % fees. Currently under beta phase Ankesh invited the Audience to sign-up with an invite code (123456) and experience the fun themselves.

Next was a very apt and well thought presentation from Mob Street. Why can we term that apt, read on. While Spandan was starting the presentation the stage was getting reworked for the special ET Now episode on Mobile VAS. Ideally it becomes a challenge to present in a chaotic situation but Spandan had a better idea. He started the discussion talking about how superstitious he is, rolled on discussing the struggle that people in metros have to go through and ended up with an offer no one could reject. MobStreet.in his startup offers best deals on various services like Spas, restaurants, movies, sports etc and other best stuff in your city. And what deal he threw to the crowd? A straight 50% off on any bill at Pizzorama by paying Rs 1 advance to Mobstreet. No need to mention the crowds went pizzazz over the offer!

ET Now Panel discussion on Mobile VAS

Before winding up there was a special segment which was hosted by ET Now. A segment of the very popular ET Now show - Starting Up was shot among HeadStart audience. It was a panel discussion on the state of Mobile VAS. The team included Virendra Gupta – Founder of Verse, Samir Bangara – COO Indiagames, Sailesh Varudkar – AVP VAS, Vodafone, Zubin Dibash – head AVP innovations TATA Docomo, Siddharth Agarwal – Founder Mobicule and our very own host Sudhir Syal.

The panelist threw good insights on how we are experiencing Indianized version of trends like the Apple App Store and VAS applications which were once only talked about in the US and Japan. The team even shed some light on how Business models can sprout considering the demographics, the likes and dislikes and the purchasing power of an ordinary Indian consumer. Many intriguing questions from the audience were handled by the panelist.

Before we bid adieu

We started this post discussing how a startup faces change and we know adaptability is futile without proper feedback. So HeadStart is all ears for your feedback. Liked this onetime special format? Want more panelists to judge LPs? Want media shows? Speak out and HeadStart will do the needful. Apart from commenting on this post you can definitely touch base with HeadStart by shooting a mail to mumbai  [at] headstart.in. So up until the next Startup Saturday, work hard and network harder!

About the Author – Himanshu Chanda is a business blogger and a regular visitor at the HeadStart Saturdays. Apart from the event he also shares his views on his business blog BizDharma.com

Hundreds of Entrepreneurs and aspirants attend Head Start’s Startup Saturday event every month across 6 locations in India. And to satisfy their Entrepreneurial hunger, Head start was back this March with yet another Start up Saturday, aptly themed around “Food and Beverages”.

Things were quite different this month as the regular headstarters got engaged hosting the annual startup event at Hyderabad. Apart from aspiring Head Starters managing the Mumbai show there were couple of new things that this post will try to summarize.

First things first: the theme:

Food and beverages is assumed to be an industry not many are now-a-days interested in and at times it is even thought to be a business where a frugal startup can’t survive. If you too had similar assumptions; this month’s Startup event had pretty good surprises in store. The showcase and talks highlighted Entrepreneurs who proved several times that it’s not industry that drives success but sheer passion and will.

The event started with Lightening pitches (LPs) and had Showcase & Talks segment in the second half. This was a small change in Agenda. If you are in Mumbai, the traffic and climate are the final ones to decide the agenda often. But the change was welcomed, as the LPs this month were very unique. Unique because the ideas driving them are not the ones you think of when you have an average Indian Customer in mind.

Lightening Pitches:

The Lightening Pitch session started with the first presentation on QuestionPapers.com, a startup by Entrepreneur and a regular HeadStart visitor Arun. Taking us down our memory lane he explained how students of any age rely on solving the previous year’s question papers as part of their preparations. Also how solving these, gives a confidence boost to students. The startup idea revolves around students-helping-students by digitizing QPs from various institutes. There were good number of questions and insights shared by the audience which definitely will help Arun.

Next on was a cool pitch by Trusha from ShareUrJoy.com. It was different because rather than talking just about her venture Trusha tried to knit the whole presentation around a story of 2 friends. Raih and Sid. The story concludes with a happy ending where Raih gets what he wants and Sid gifts what he should. Shareurjoy is claimed to be India’s first Gift registry portal and allows people to make their wish lists which can be fulfilled by their friends on special occasions.

After some B2C pitches we had a B2B. Saachi from FlexIdea presented - iPaperclip a new Tender management system that they have recently launched. It facilitates easier and clear transactions between Buyers and Sellers, at costs which are peanuts when compared to the cost of tenders. The application seemed much mature and had various features that a domain expert from this field could think of. As per the audience, it seems rather than SAAS a custom deployment for every client is better preferred in this area.

All the 3 pitches were great and so were the questions, doubts and help that audience raised after the session. The unique thing about these Lightening Pitches was that they are quite new and different to the Indian Market. Something of this sort has not been tried at a substantial scale. But never the less, that’s the reason why it has a substantial market. The promoters would have to adapt and tailor this to ensure good acceptance of course.

Entrepreneurial Talks

Next was the time for some solid entrepreneurial advice. The speakers this time were invited basis the theme “Food and Beverages”. The first talk was given by Mr Hari Kotian, owner of DPs restaurant followed by a talk from Mr Suketu, who started BrewCrafts Microbrewery to produce a business which Indians never even knew existed.

Hari described various incidents which any restaurant owner like him has to go through every day of his life. Right from local goons to nagging customers, Hari suggested this is something that one has to live with rather than try and fight. A good thought that he put through was, it is wrong to assume that such incidents happen in India and life would be much easier in other developed countries. He rather opined to try and adapt so that your venture can flourish. Hari also stressed upon the need to have a mentor. He mentioned how his training at Landmark helped him realize his true potential and look his business and life from a different angle altogether. Hari quoted various examples of his life which helped explain how a good understanding of the business and an adaptive mind can help an entrepreneur reach for the stars.

Next in was a talk from Suketu, the co-founder of BrewCrafts Microbrewing Pvt Ltd. He shared his story of how he went about quitting a well remunerating job in Singapore to return back to Pune and start a micro brewery. The audience seemed very charged while he was describing the way he had to convince the excise officers here in India, since there was no license of that sort available which Suketu applied for. He also denied to the assumption that Entrepreneurs do not get support from the state. Highlighting the examples of how he got the required license for his startup via the excise officers and how he was able to fight out the huge investments required, via the loan issued by State Bank of India. He opined that if you are ready to go forth and talk to the authorities; there is help available. After the talk it was quite clear that to give life to your dreams you require more will than wish. The whole environment was charged up post the two discussions.

The Showcase:

Last but not the least, when we talk about Food and beverages in India, how can we forget Mithai? It’s definitely strange to understand that though there is very good demand for sweets, the market still is very scattered and fragmented. Branded Mithai as a concept has not been very popular in this country. Taking all these issues in mind HS showcased a sweet venture Mithaimate. Right from the famous Rosogullas to regional mithais that you might have never heard of, Mithaimate delivers it all. At your doorstep and at a cost which wont bitter your Mithai experience. The talk was very refreshing as Akhilesh the owner was frank and open to answer any questions the crowd was throwing upon. Not only that, he also shared some quick tips on getting good media coverage without having a separate PR department.

Concluding:

Finally it was great to have the appetizing knowledge being shared and definitely we look ahead with more hunger towards the next Startup Saturday. Also as more and more startup events conclude, I do see a very good synergy that’s been built up. Though we didn’t have an open house section separately this time, the energy level and interaction that the audience had in their discussions was something that kept the spirit going.

Looking forward to next month’s menu, while we all cook up more ideas to present!

About the Author – Himanshu Chanda is a business blogger and a regular visitor at the HeadStart Saturdays. Apart from the event he also shares his views on his business blog BizDharma.com

1. Commodore V. G. Praveen from Inland windsurfing and sailing academy.
2. Anita from Templepilots (A paragliding club)
3. Rohan More from Japalouppe (A horse riding academy)

One common thing evident about all the speakers was the passion with which all the speakers spoke about their respective profession.

Inland Windsurfing and Sailing Academy

The session started V. G. Praveen’s presentation. His “Inland windsurfing and sailing academy” is located at Varasgon near Panshet dam in Pune. There they conduct sailing, kayaking and windsurfing activities. They are associated with the Yachting Association of India Praveen has been into sailing and windsurfing for past seven years and started teaching five years back.

How did he start his academy?
Well started Sailing from a club in Pune, which organised a camp once in a year. Later on he moved to Goa to get a formal course in sailing, windsurfing. When he decided to start his academy he looked out for second-hand equipment and he found out quite a few sellers for that. There was a very peculiar associated with the purchase, all the equipment required repairs and the spare parts were not available in India. To add to the trouble the spare parts were not interchangeable and hence he had to go to Thailand to buy new equipments. Currently the equipment is exempted of customs.

When he was asked as to why there aren’t many adventure sports enthusiasts in India, his answer was:

1. The general prejudices in the minds of people, that adventure sports are dangerous.
2. All the equipment required for their water sports activity has to be imported; hence the overall cost for the course is expensive as well.

Where can you organize water sports?

For kayaking: A place where the water is calm and there is not much wind, like lakes.
For windsurfing: The water body should be more than three kilometres in diameter otherwise it is not enjoyable. Also as the name implies there should be sufficient wind for windsurfing.

How do they promote their academy?

Through their website www.windsportsPune.com and word of mouth. They have taken no effort in doing the promotion for their company since there is a very niche segment of people who have interest in water sports and according to him it’s not possible to attract these people through advertisement campaigns.

Business:

Since this sport is very niche there aren’t many people involved in this business.
Adventure sports enthusiast should be looking forward to this as a wonderful opportunity, since in coming five years there would be a new generation who would want to get involved in adventure sports and they would be earning enough to pay handsomely for adventure sports.

Personal safety:

If a person follows basic instructions o the course, there is no risk involved in water sports. Till date there has been no mishap in his academy.

Templepilots

Anita spoke about Templepilots and was very vocal about two things, their passion for flying and safety measures they practice at Templepilots

About Templepilots

Templepilots is the only registered school for paragliding in India. They started 14 years back. Anita quit her corporate job to help her husband formalise his hobby of paragliding into a well structured course with a good business vision.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying
This is an interesting excerpt about Avi (founder of Templepilots) from their website:

“…his (Avi) being in the top three in the NDA entrance, winning the prestigious Presidents Gold Medal and being chosen for the IAF as a Fighter Pilot came so naturally that it seemed as if he were destined.”

About Anita

“Anita has a background in advertising and pure marketing. Having done her MBA she abandoned her Corporate career as a Senior Brand Manager for TATA Home Finance.” Well Anita testified that she is enjoying every bit of Templepilots and never once did she regret quitting her job.

Looking at their success story and along with their decision to quit their jobs (most people reading would die to get that kind of jobs) for the sheer joy of flying, one would simply say “Keep the Aspidistra Flying”.

Competition:

Templepilots is experiencing competition created by them. Yet since the space is really wide more competition can still sustain without much adverse effect on the business.

Obstacles in scaling up:

There are not lot many instructors willing to take up the job. It takes around two years for them to train a person for the job of instructor. All equipment required for the flying has to imported, also there are no tax exemptions for the imported goods.

Level of physical fitness required for flying:

If you are physically fit to drive a cycle, you can fly. You should not have any back aliments.

How did they promote their flying school?

Anita is the one who does all the promotional activity for their venture. So when they start Templepilots. Anita randomly caught hold of groups in a cafe or any other public tweeting places and told them about flying and Templepilots. The good thing that happened for them wa s that their initial students were influential people of the society and hence the word of mouth publicity was very effective from the very early days.

Their track record has been so far very clean with no mishaps.

Fun trivia:

Is there any scope you running into a tree? Well if you aim for it, for sure you can!

This was a witty reply to the above query by Anita. Moral of the story (in her own words), paragliding is safer than driving on Pune roads (I would like to bear witness once I am done a course of paragliding). Also as promised by any other adventure sport, it keeps you fit.

Japalouppe

Japalouppe is a Horse riding club located in Talegaon Dabhade, an hour’s drive from Pune.It’s a mother and son venture. Started by his mother Lorraine Morey and later on assisted by her sons Rohan and Nikhil.

Japaloppe is into training for horses riding, consultation, breeding and allied services for horses. Right now they are the biggest players in Pune and recently they have started another training school at Ranchi.

Inspiration:

Rohan was born and brought surrounded by horses. His father and grandfather are involved in the business of breeding horse. He is a third generation horseman.

How did he start his business?

So Rohan started his business by borrowing money from his father. At some point of time he did want to quit the business since at an early age (about 25 years) he was not able to manage the business. The only motivation at that point of time was his passion for his horse riding school. Slowly he managed to turned the tide and right now they are doing great business and profitable as well. Currently they are catering big corporates and schools in and around Pune.

Their business:
Japalouppe not only conducts training for beginners, but also grooms up students for competition. They have resorts and

Market segmentation:

So Rohan talked about the different Market segments in his line of business.

1. Single horse owners: Not much of the competition since they own a single horse and their business operations are ad hoc in nature.
2. Riding schools to train riders for competition: So there are a lot of riding schools which exclusively train students for competitions, which is a very niche market segment.
3. Generic riding school: This is the segment Japalouppe operates in. This accounts for the largest pie of the horse riding schools, which has a formal structure to its training. Major portion of their business comes from the camps which they conduct for the students in the summers.

Japalouppe not only conducts training for beginners, but also grooms up students for competition. They have resorts wherein they offer a complete joy ride for the trainees or weekend euphoria for enthusiasts.

Written by Chaitanya Mahatme

Q Can you tell us briefly as to how you started on your entrepreneurial journey?

A: Mahesh Tutorials began as a coaching and tutoring entity in Mumbai in the year 1988 and has now reached the status of a corporate entity as an Educational Service Provider branded as MT Educare, with a wide product portfolio which includes Pre-school and Day Care centres, Language Labs, Test Preps, Centre of Excellence for Training and Development and Corporate Training as its forte which attracted investment from Helix investments, Private equity fund in the year 2008.

The inspiration to start Mahesh Tutorials was towards taking up a bigger cause and making a difference with the ability one possessed - “Passion for teaching”.

Contributing towards a competitive education environment and creating success stories among future generations was the dream and the focus was to create, nurture and maintain the highest standards of teaching delivery.

Today, MT Educare has a strong presence with 172 centres across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, internationally in Dubai and approximately 2-lac alumni, all over the world.

Q You are one of the very few entrepreneurs who took the plunge before 1991; can you tell us how you felt about the changed business environment post 1991?

A: In 1993, when the Government of India liberalized the economy, a multitude of avenues were created.  As capital norms, licensing issues and demand for trained human resources were brought to global standards, the decade ensured that education was clearly seen as the ladder of growth and a leveler by the common man, which has lead to a spend of 33% of middle-class household income in formal and supplementary education.

Q What are the fundamental organizational drivers which you identified that are needed for a startup in the educational market?

• Competent Faculty

The key factor being ‘Quality Teachers’, a systematic approach is adopted at the various centres for the development of teachers, which begins with careful selection and thorough induction, followed by grooming through teaching workshops, training on proprietary methodologies of content delivery and compensation as per industry norms, which in turn creates growth opportunities and succession planning for contributors.

• Mapping Consumer Needs

MT Educare has assumed the position of being ‘Academic Parents’ as an answer to the emerging nuclear family trends with both the parents at work and the students educational aspirations to better their lives in today’s competitive environment.

• Infrastructure

A conducive learning environment, backed by technology as an enabler, has facilitated result-oriented content delivery.

Q What are the key drivers fueling the boom in innovation and entrepreneurship in India today?

• Emerging work ethos and commitment to excellence
• Adherence to corporate governance and best practices
• Flair for entrepreneurship
• Continuing adult education
• Creative and lateral thinking
• Increasing globalization and easy access to various markets
• Government policies supporting growth and privatization

Q What are the new avenues in education that MT Educare will be pursuing in the near future?

• The education industry in India is booming because India’s youth, often referred to as its demographic dividend, accounts for over 50 per cent of its total population.
• There is a greater awareness to get an education, among the masses, but the majority of those who receive education are catered to by the state-run schools where the quality is generally not up-to-the mark. Constraints in creating infrastructure and improving the quality of education are forcing the state to revisit the existing policy of not permitting the private sector “for profit” model.The Government has finally accepted the inevitability of involvement of private sector in education in order to provide access to quality education at affordable cost to all sections of society, with Public-Private partnership, the supplementary education players like MT Educare are poised to enter mainstream education.
• In addition to this, MT Educare is exploring the possibility of delivering Higher Education, Vocational Training, Distance and Online learning and tie-ups with foreign universities.

Q Any plans to fund/mentor new startups in education?

• MT Educare has not only grown organically but has always followed a model of inorganic growth by way of acquisitions of small players in the same sphere of operations.
• The product portfolio has also widened due to Joint Ventures with education entrepreneurs. The growth strategy includes strategic acquisitions and expansion in allied products.

Q Do you believe privatization will lead to better opportunity, more inclusiveness in education?

• It is notable that not just affordability, but also quality, has improved in sectors, which have witnessed liberalization and privatization, like Telecom and Aviation.
• In such cases, the financial burden on public resources is reduced, thereby freeing up the education budget for the government to provide basic amenities. This has led to private players ploughing the resources to create state of the art educational infrastructure and globally accepted standards for content delivery. Thus, the opportunity is created across the sectors for inclusive education.

Q Technology transforming education. Your comments.

MT Educare has introduced Technology-Aided-Teaching (T-A-T) and evaluation in the classrooms to promote engaged learning.

• Teaching is more efficient as it promotes curiosity and inquiry-based learning, making it a fun activity and recap being result-oriented.
• Students experience multi-sensory learning, which motivates them to self-learn and increases their comprehension, resulting in their being effective at the examinations.
• Use of technology supports all learning styles and facilitates dynamic scoring with instant results.

Presentation by Mr Shetty at Startup Saturday:

Interview by Saptarshi Chatterjee

The complete list of selected startups - This time we had a similar format as the previous Headstart. The on-stage demo and demo-pit were provided free of cost to the startups (We only charged for registration of the startups). The startups made good use of the demo-pit space. A few startups generated quite a bit of buzz including Notion-ink (makers of the Adam Tablet PC), Robosoft Systems (Makers of duct cleaning robot), Sysblitz (on-demand Business applications), Youpid (Tapping into the marriage market using social networks), Go-live gaming (Educational products using gaming) and Innoz (A student startup from Kerala that makes mobile applications for filesharing).

Two of the panels “Unconventional Sources of funding” and “Business Plan mistakes” were well received by packed halls. The questions posed to the panelists and the conversations with the attendees during the conference pointed to the fact that the startup scene in Hyderabad is still nascent and needs to mature as compared to Mumbai and Bangalore. We were happy to help connect many people in Hyderabad through the Headstart event and our regular Startup Saturdays there.

Originally posted here by Vinayak Hegde (co-founder & Director, HeadStart Network Foundation).

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.