Monthly Archives: August 2011

Pune Startup YourNextLeap.com get Series A Funding

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Pune based startup, YourNextLeap.com, whom we covered last November as a company to watch, has just announced that they have received Series A funding from Nirvana Venture Advisors.

YourNextLeap is a website targeting students and provides guidance on what university they can/should apply to after engineering, or after 12th std. They have online tools like University Suggestor and College Suggestor which help students decide which university/college to apply to, to maximize probability of getting admitted, and Branch Suggestor helps students choose which branch they would do well in.

With this round of funding, Amit Patni, from the Patni Family and Rajan Mehra, formerly the Country Head for eBay in India, join the Board of Directors. Nickhil Jakatdar, CEO of VuClip and Alok Kejriwal, CEO of Games2Win are already on the Advisory board of the Company.

See full press release

POCC Event: Exploring North American Market for Indian IT SMEs – 20 Aug

Events, , ,

Parag Khair, an IT consultant with experience in IT offshoring who lives in Toronto is visiting Pune and will give a talk on how small and medium IT companies from India can target the North American market, at 4pm on Saturday, 20th August, at 7th floor, SICSR, (Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, near Om Market, Model Colony).

Exploring the North American Market for Indian IT SMEs

Although the focus is North America, the topics discussed will be, to an extent, applicable to other regions also.

  • Current landscape and key selling points for established players
  • Constraints of scale and how to overcome them
  • What is your target customer
  • Innovative ways of reaching out
  • Today’s hot offerings for this segment
  • Gearing up for exports – inhouse checklist
  • Addendum – Macroeconomics view – will it change the game?

About the Speaker – Parag Khair

Parag has done his Engineering and MBA from Pune and since then has around 20 years of experience in various industries spanning manufacturing, stock trading, IT, etc. For the Last 10 years he has lived in North America, worked with leading Indian IT exporter (Infosys) on various assignments all over the globe including starting and growing the business in Canada. Currently, he is also into independent IT consulting with the focus on revitalizing IT function through the combination of Agile, Offshoring, PLM, Cloud and Social Media.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. No registration required

IPMA Event: PM Journey – From Startup to Billion Dollar Co by Amit Paranjape

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IPMA Pune, the Pune Chapter of the Indian Product Manager’s Association, presents a talk by Amit Paranjape, this Friday, from 4pm to 7pm, at BMC Software, Tower A, ICC Tech Park, SB Road. Amit will talk about his Product Management Journey – from a startup to a billion dollar company

Abstract – Product Management Journey – from a startup to a billion dollar company

Amit will discuss his experiences and learnings in product management – from helping set up the first product management team in a small startup like company, to the team’s rapid evolution as the company grew to a billion dollars in revenue, in just a short span of few years. Will discuss various aspects of product management ranging from customer requirement prioritization, development support, customer support, product marketing, industry focus, strategy, sales support, etc.

About the Speaker – Amit Paranjape

Amit Paranjape is a co-founder of PuneTech. He has been involved with several startups in India and U.S. Formerly Amit worked at i2 Technologies. Amit has over 15 years of experience in Product Management, Marketing and Strategy in the Enterprise Software Industry. He has a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering (IIT Bombay) and an M.S. in Manufacturing Systems (University of Wisconsin Madison). His current interests include consumer internet, healthcare and enterprise software.

Agenda

  • 4.15 pm – Registrations and Networking
  • 4.30 pm – Opening Remarks
  • 4:45 pm – Talk by Amit
  • 6:00 pm – Q&A
  • 6.15 pm – Reserved for some exciting session
  • 6.30 pm – Closing Remarks

About IPMA

India Product Management Association (IPMA) is a not-for-profit, voluntary, grassroots organization. IPMA Mission is to Foster Product Design and Innovation and Catalyze Product Management/Marketing Talent in India across software, mobile, hardware, telecommunications sectors in the IT industry. IPMA organizes knowledge sharing and networking forums such as Monthly Speaker Series, Workshops, P-Camps etc for professionals interested in product management and marketing. IPMA operate chapters in major product hubs across India and for more information about upcoming events, visit indiapma.org

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Register here

Call for Presentations – ClubHack Security Conference – Dec 2011

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ClubHack is one of India’s foremost conferences on Security and is now in its 5th year. As usual, it will be on the first weekend of December (3rd & 4th) in Pune. Last year, [ClubHack ] had Security Guru Bruce Schneier as the keynote speaker.

The call for presentations is out, and if you’re working in the area of computer security, you should submit a presentation proposal.

Why should you submit?

Being a speaker at a conference gives you visibility and establishes you as an expert in your domain. Plus, as a part of the community, it is your duty to ensure that such events get the best quality of content. And in addition there are the material benefits:

  • 100% Travel reimbursement of economy return tickets for all Indian speakers
  • Accommodation for 2 in Pune
  • Complementary passes for event & party for 2
  • Gift hampers & freebies

Suggested topics are:

  • Cloud Application Security
  • Mobile Security (cellular technologies)
  • Mobile platform attacks (iOS, Android, BB, Win7, Symbian)
  • Cyber Intelligence
  • Cyber warfare
  • Hardware mods
  • Critical Infrastructure Attack & Protection
  • Protocol based vulnerability in networks and computers
  • Firewall Evasion techniques
  • Data Recovery and Incident Response
  • WLAN and Bluetooth Security
  • Cryptography and Cryptanalysis
  • Computer forensics
  • Open source hacking toolkit
  • Cyber Crime & law

But of course, you can submit proposals for talks in other related areas of security too.

See the CFP for more details, and specifics on how to submit a proposal.

Mini DebConf – Conference for Linux Enthusiasts – 13 Aug

Events, , , ,

Mini DebConf is a developer conference for those interested in Debian Linux (which is also the Linux Distribution on which Ubuntu is based). The purpose of the conference is:

  • Introduce the Debian Project to new users and potential contributors.
  • Introduce some of the technologies that Debian uses which could benefit new contributors.
  • Hands on sessions to learn debian tools and processes.
  • Start working on projects with the help of experienced developers.
  • Sharing Skills and discussing how the overall FOSS movement be taken forward.

Mini DebConf conferences are being held across cities in India. This weekend it is coming to Pune. MiniDebConf Pune is scheduled to start on 13th August 2011 at Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Bibwewadi, Pune.

On 13th there will be a series of talks and discussions introducing Debian. Second day will have hands on workshop sessions to teach creating debian packages. Third day will be a practical session of things they have learned on previous days. There will be cricket sessions in the evening. There is also a gpg key signing party on third day.

Sessions start at 10 am and last till 5pm every day. Complete schedule is available from event website

Chamba Mukt Cinema Project and Diaspora Decentralized Social Networking Project will have their booths at the conference venue. Debian, Chamba and Diaspora T Shirts will be available for purchase at the venue.

Organizers

  • VALU (VIT Active Linux Users)
  • COFSUG (COEP Free Software Users Group)

Please check http://wiki.debian.org/DebianIndia/MiniDebConf2011/FAQ if you you have any questions, or send a mail to minidebconf.india@gmail.com.

About Debian

The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of volunteers from all over the world work together to create and maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal operating system.

Fees and Registration

This event is free and open for anybody to attend. Please register here

News of Druva’s funding was inaccurate and premature

Money Matters, News, , , ,

On Friday, based on an Economic Times report, we reported that Pune-based enterprise backup software provider Druva has received $10 million in funding from Nexus VP. Unfortunately this news appears to be inaccurate.

Here is a comment from Jaspreet Singh, CEO of Druva:

Thanks Navin, but this news is not very accurate. This was unethically leaked and then misreported by Peerzada (abrar.shz@timesgroup.com) of ET for some cheap thrills.

Not sure when would people this these grow up and stop screwing lives of entrepreneurs who are already fighting against all the odds.

You have been a great supporter and I would give you a call sometime next week to give accurate information and some more good news.

Basically, Druva is indeed in an advanced stage in their second round funding process, but it is not done yet, and they cannot talk about the details of the amount or the investors involved. The details that came out in the ET report are inaccurate.

We wish Druva luck, and hope to hear the official good news sometime soon.

Backup Software Provider Druva.com get $10 million funding from Nexus

Money Matters, News, , , ,

Update: It appears that the report in ET, on which this article is based, was inaccurate. Please see this update.

Pune-based startup Druva, which sells enterprise backup software, has just closed a second round of funding worth $10 million from Nexus Venture Partners, reports Economic Times.

In April 2010, Druva had raised $5 million from Sequoia and the Indian Angel Network. At that time, these are the reasons we gave for why we liked Druva:

  • Druva is a purely homegrown startup. This is not a company started by someone in the US setting up a development center in India.
  • Druva is a product startup. It is not a services company. Hence, it has a potential for exponential growth and returns.
  • Druva is not done by serial entrepreneurs. The co-founders are all first-time entrepreneurs who quit their big-company jobs to start Druva. This should give hope to all the first-time entrepreneurs in Pune.

Druva has been one of PuneTech’s favorite startups and we have covered it extensively in the past, so, frankly, there isn’t much new that we’ll be able to say about it. Instead, we’ll simply point readers to the older articles:

We also want to point out that Druva is one of the sponsors of PyCon – the International Python Conference that’s happening in Pune next month.

We wish Druva luck, and although getting another round of VC funding is not as good an indicator of success as an IPO or an acquisition, we would still like to repeat what we said in April 2010:

  • We now have in our midst a startup success story that will hopefully inspire a 100 new software product startups in Pune.

ReliScore Tech Talk: Introduction to HTML5 & CSS3 – 6 Aug

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MCUG and ReliScore.com present “Introduction to and HTML5/CSS3” by Vikrant Labde, CTO of CueLogic Technologies, to be held at MIT, Pune, at 3:45pm, on Saturday, August 6th. This talk the first in a series of technical talks targeted towards 3rd and 4th year students of engineering and other computer science degrees that will be organized throughout the year by MCUG and ReliScore. To motivate students to attend, our partner, Pune’s GS Lab is sponsoring a few prizes – including passes for PyCon the Python Conference that is happening in Pune this year, and Crossword gift coupons. In addition, GS Lab is also sponsoring the video recording of this talk using their kPoint software so that it can be put online for the benefit of a wider audience. This talk is free for anybody to attend. Register here

Click here to read more

Write Tech Articles for PING – PICT’s Student Newsletter

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PICT’s IEEE Student Branch publishes a tech newsletter, called PING, that is distributed to various students and faculty of engineering colleges all over Pune. In the interest of increasing industry-student connections, we would like to encourage industry professionals to write some articles to be published in PING.

Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT), which is one of the top engineering colleges in the city, has an IEEE Student Branch which is one of the more active student groups around. Every semester, they hold a big event. In the odd semester, they have Credenz, a 3-day tech event with competitions, and talks and other events, and in the even semester they have Credenz Tech Days, a series of technical seminars. Both these events are attended by students from all over Maharashtra, and also students from other parts of India.

PING is published to coincide with Credenz and Credenz Tech days, and goes to over a 1000 students and faculty from various engineering colleges.

This time, we think it would be a good idea for PING to have articles from experienced industry professionals in addition to student written articles. The students have suggested the following topics in which they would like to see articles from Industry:

-Mobile Application Development
-Cloud Computing
-Ruby on RAILS
-Digital Scent Technology
-Face Recognition Technology
-Quantum Cryptography
-Social Networking Security Algorithms
-Brain Computer Interface
-Cluster Computing
-Nanorobotics
-Linux Kernel 2.6

This only represents the list that the students came up with. But you should spend some time thinking about other topics that students should know about, and write an article on that topic.

Here is why we think you should take the effort of writing an article:

  • To help students: For many students who read PING, this will probably be their first exposure to what people in industry think. It gives them exposure, it gives them ideas, and you might inspire someone to take up an interesting subject.
  • To let students know about the cool things your company is working on. What better way to ‘market’ your company, than a technical article on an interesting topic, to be read by a 1000 students who were motivated enough to attend a tech fest? (But please make the article about the topic, not about your company. The ‘About the Author’ section can contain information about the company.)
  • To establish yourself as an expert in an area. Not only will these articles go in the newsletter, but will also go up on websites that students as well as professionals read. This is a good way to get some visibility for yourself.

Please write an article, and (send it to us)[mailto:punetech@punetech.com] at punetech@punetech.com. If you’re the kind of person who is good technically but not so good at writing article, don’t worry, contact us and we’ll help with the writing part. If you would prefer to simply talk to someone on the phone about the topic you’re interested in, and would like that someone to write the article based on the phone conversation, contact us and we can work something out.

Many industry professionals accuse today’s students of not being interested. Well, here is a bunch of students who are interested – now it is your turn to reciprocate.

Pune Startup launches Vaultize – Cloud-Based Enterprise Backup & DR

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Pune Startup Anoosmar Technologies, has just come out of stealth mode, and announced the public beta of Vaultize, which they describe as:

Vaultize is next generation data protection: cloud-based backup and disaster recovery that also enables collaboration between users, synchronization of devices and sharing over web. Vaultize turns your zero-returns investment in backup into an asset that improves availability, increases productivity and makes sharing easy.

Anoosmar Technoloies has been founded by Anand Kekre and Ankur Panchbudhe, both of whom are Pune old-timers, with an ex-Veritas (Symantec), and ex-McAfee background. Both of them have been in the data protection, security, and storage space for over 10 years, and have deep expertise in enterprise infrastructure software. Between them they have 64 US patents.

Before you dismiss Vaultize by comparing it with Dropbox, or , remember that Vaultize is not a consumer product – it is targeting the enterprise space. In that sense, I see Vaultize as more of a competitor to Pune’s Druva. However, given the backgrounds of the founders of Druva and founders of Vaultize, I would be tempted to guess that Druva is likely to be more interested in enterprise backup, and replication and generally areas more to do with performance and availability in an enterprise, while Vaultize is likely to move more in the direction of archiving, and e-discovery and generally areas more to do with risk management and legal compliance. But that’s pure speculation – I might be wrong.

Also check out the customer case studies page and the management team page.

Druva is one of the few Pune software product companies that has received funding from well known VCs, and hence, Anoosmar, which has a similar pedigree and similar target markets, is a company to watch closely.