Tag Archives: entrepreneurs

Venture Center – Pune’s incubator for startups in biotech, chemical, materials sciences

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Kaushik Gala, Business Development Manager at Venture Center is looking for all innovators in the areas of biology, chemical, and material sciences.
Kaushik Gala, Business Development Manager at Venture Center is looking for all innovators in the areas of biology, chemical, and material sciences.

Venture Center is an incubator housed in NCL Pune, created with this purpose:

To nucleate and nurture technology and knowledge-based enterprises for India by leveraging the scientific and engineering competencies of the institutions in the region.

Envisioned Future: To be the organisation that will be credited with creating, shaping and sustaining a “Pune cluster” of innovative technology businesses with a significant economic impact regionally, nationally and globally within the next 20 years.

To find out more about Venture Center, we interviewed Kaushik Gala, the Business Development Manager of Venture Center. Here are excerpts from the interview:

1. What is Venture Center?

Entrepreneurship Development Center (‘Venture Center’) is a technology business incubator approved by the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. Venture Center is incorporated as a Section 25 not-for-profit Company established under the Companies Act 1956.

Venture Center was setup with support from the Department of Science & Technology – National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (DST-NSTEDB) and National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) (constituent lab of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research).

2. What are the services that Venture Center will provide incubatee companies?

Venture Center provides:

· Infrastructure – Dedicated labs, shared work-benches, analytical facilities, offices, hot-desks, etc.

· Advisory – Intellectual property, business planning, startup nuts-and-bolts issues, etc.

· Fund-raising – Seed stage fund raising from various sources including government agencies (eg. MoMSME), professional investors, etc.

· Technology commercialization program (‘Lab2Mkt’)

· Information and learning center – Library, databases, workshops, seminars, etc.

3. At what stage do you expect innovators and/or startup companies to approach you?

We offer resources and services at all stages of an early-stage technology startup – ranging from idea/conception, to prototype to Series A/B financing.

4. Obviously you are not interested in incubating any and all startups? Can you describe, with some examples, what sectors you are limiting yourself to?

Our focus is on the areas of material, chemical and biological sciences and related engineering / software ventures. However, some of our services are open to all individual entrepreneurs and startups.

Specific examples include startups that have commercialization technologies related to surgical implants, membranes for water purification, CFD and modeling solutions, etc.

5. Are the innovators expected to move to Pune, into your facility, to avail of any of your services?

For startups that need our infrastructure facilities, being located in Pune is obviously preferable. However, for services such as advisory and fund-raising, they can be located outside Pune as well.

6. How is Venture Center funded? What are your long-term funding plans?

Venture Center is funded via:

· A grant from DST-NSTEDB for start-up costs and operational expenses for the first 5-years

· In-kind support from NCL

· Donations from well wishers

After the fifth year of operation, Venture Center is expected to become self-sufficient. Besides generating revenue from a variety of services, our long-term funding plans include:

· Raising capital from governmental agencies and professional investors to set up an early-stage (‘seed’) fund for investment in technology ventures

· Raising grant funds from governmental and corporate agencies to expand our services portfolio

· Partnering with other R&D labs, domestic/foreign incubators, etc.

You can find out more about Venture Center at its website which is packed with a huge amount of detail. Information about the executive team behind Venture Center is here.
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Breakfast with TiE: My Story by Narendra Barhate of SEED Infotech – 11 June

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TiE Pune LogoWhat: A talk by Narendra Barhate of SEED Infotech, and an informal get-together with entrepreneurs from The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Pune
When: Thursday, 11th June, 8:30am to 9:30am
Where: PYC Hindu Gymkhana, Near Deccan Gymkhana, Bhandarkar Road, Pune
Registration and Fees: Anybody can attend. The event is free for TiE members, and Rs. 50 for non-members. To register, send mail to namita[dot]shibad[at]gmail[dot]com.

Details:

This session of “Breakfast with TiE” has Narendra Barhate, Managing Director and CEO of SEED Infotech Ltd, Pune and SEED Healthcare Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

After graduating in Electronics and Telecom and an M.Tech. in Computer Science, IIT Mumbai, Narendra worked for DRDO Labs from 1984 to 1994. He started SEED Infotech Ltd, a company that provides technology training and consulting services in 1994. Since then, SEED has set up 30 centers in India and now even started a small venture in China.

Narendra added SEED Healthcare Solutions in 2006 and has successfully installed Hospital Information and Management software in over 100 hospitals in India and the Middle East. SEED is also the winner of the Maharashtra State IT HRD award.

On Thursday, June 11, Narendra will share his experiences, insights and the path forward for his company.

This will be followed by an informal chat with all present. A truly invaluable morning.

For information about previous TiE events, see PuneTech’s TiE page. For more information about tech events in Pune this week, check out the PuneTech calendar.

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Breakfast with TiE: Ravi Nigam of Tasty Bite Eatables – 14 May

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TiE Pune LogoWhat: A talk by Ravi Nigam, MD of Tasty Bite Eatables Ltd., and an informal get-together with entrepreneurs from The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Pune
When: Thursday, 14th May, 8:30am to 9:30am
Where: PYC Hindu Gymkhana, Near Deccan Gymkhana, Bhandarkar Road, Pune
Registration and Fees: Anybody can attend. The event is free for TiE members, and Rs. 50 for non-members. To register, send mail to namita[dot]shibad[at]gmail[dot]com.

Details:

This month Kiran Deshpande, a Charter Member of the TiE Pune chapter, will host the “Breakfast with TiE” event. At this event, the members and attendee’s get an opportunity to meet each other.

Tasty Bite Edibles, Ltd.
Image via Wikipedia

This session will feature Ravi Nigam, Managing Director of Tasty Bite Eatables Ltd., a professional turned entrepreneur. From being a BIFR company thru the 1990’s, Tasty Bite became a well documented ‘turnaround’ case study, and has now gone on to become India’s largest selling consumer food brand in North America.

Ravi has had a long career in Food and Agri Business and prior to his entrepreneurial stint, has worked in Sales, Marketing and Exports functions in companies such as Britannia and Pepsi.

Ravi will for this round of Breakfast With TiE share his experiences and insights into the processed food business.

Ravi will talk in detail about evolution of Tasty Bite. This will be followed by an informal chat with all present.

The event is free for TiE members. Non-members will have to pay Rs. 50 per head to attend.

Please confirm your attendance by emailing Namita at namita.shibad@gmail.com

Breakfast with TiE will also feature actual breakfast. It’s a sit down fixed menu breakfast – Two items + tea/coffee

This will also be a chance for new entrepreneurs, and wannabe entrepreneurs to interact with successful entrepreneurs for guidance and mentorship.

For information about previous TiE events, see PuneTech’s TiE page.

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PoCC meet: Session with Entrepreneur Coach Manish Gupta of Chrysalis

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Pune OpenCoffee Club - POCC LogoWhat: An “entrepreneur coaching” session with Manish Gupta of Chrysalis, on popular demand by Pune OpenCoffee Club members When: Friday, May 8th, 6:30pm Where: Chrysalis, Beena Apartments, Opposite State Bank Of India, Senapati Bapat Road Registration and Fees: This event is free for all to attend. Register here.

Details:

On the Pune OpenCoffee Club mailing list, Kapil Agrawal, mentioned that he found the ‘Entrepreneur Gurukul’ programme of Chrysalis very helpful in his last one year of being an entrepreneur. This quickly lead to suggestions from other members that a talk could be arranged by Chrysalis for the benefit of members of PoCC. As a result of that discussion, Manish Gupta and others from Chrysalis will play host to PoCC members this Friday, 6:30 pm at their offices on S.B. Road. This presentation is free for anybody to attend, but register here if you plan to go.

For any questions, get in touch with:
Kapil Agrawal, kapil.agl [at] gmail [dot] com

About Chrysalis

Chrysalis is an organisation with a purpose to enable individuals and organisations reach a higher level of thinking, thereby giving a meaning to their existence. Since the time of its inception in 1997, Chrysalis has played a pivotal role in the lives of thousands of individuals as well as corporate companies in creating a deeper meaning to life and achieving much higher results and professional profitability. We are committed to help entrepreneurs become aware of their real intent in doing a business and make them capable and confident to create, consolidate & sustain their enterprises. We begins with first bringing about a transformation in the attitude and thinking of the entrepreneur thereby enabling him/her to see the big picture and drive real organizational and business transformation. Chrysalis focuses heavily on practicality and on the development of a systematic action plan that not only meets short-term objectives but also drives long-term vision and business goals. Chrysalis aims to bring about an entrepreneurial transformation by first addressing the transformation of the entrepreneur and his approach to building business.

“My Story” with S.B. Mujumdar, Founder of Symbiosis – 29th April

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TiE Pune LogoWhat: TiE Pune and MCCIA Pune invite you to a session with S.B. Mujumdar, founder of Symbiosis
When: Wednesday, 29th April, 6pm
Where: ICC Towers, 5th Floor, Wing A, Senapati Bapat Road, Map
Registration and Fees: This event is free for all to attend. Register by sending an email to namita[dot]shibad[at]gmail[dot]com

About the speaker – S.B. Mujumdar

In 1971 he established the Symbiosis International Cultural & Educational Centre in Pune primarily to promote friendship, co-operation and understanding between foreign and Indian students and to cater to the needs and difficulties of foreign students studying in Pune, mostly Afro-Asian students.

Since then, under the aegis of ‘Symbiosis’ he has established 34 institutions imparting training in 200 different courses ranging from KG, Primary, Secondary education to Law, Human Resource Development, Foreign Trade, Management, Computer, Arts & Commerce, Mass Communication, Telecommunication, Information Technology etc.

Symbiosis today is the premiere educational institute of Pune and a brand equity in providing quality management education. Presently 30,000 students from 80 different countries and all states of India are studying in various institutions of Symbiosis. About 2 lacs students are enrolled in Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning.

You are invited to hear it from his own perspective.

The event is open to all with no fee applicable. However as seats are limited, it is preferred if you register your presence by sending an email to: namita[dot]shibad[at]gmail[dot]com

For other tech events in Pune, check out the PuneTech calendar.

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Branding and Marketing for your startup: PoCC meet, 18 April

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What: POCC meeting on “Branding your IP: A mantra to global success” and “Hi-Technology Marketing”
When: Saturday, 18th April (today!), 4pm
Where: Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, Atur Centre, Model Colony. Map.
Registration and Fees: This event is free for all. No registration required

Pune OpenCoffee Club - POCC Logo

Branding your IP: Your mantra for global success – Prantik Mazumdar

Prantik Mazumdar, Consultant and Country Manager for StrategiCom, has kindly agreed to take a branding session. StrategiCom mainly deals for brand evaluation and positioning for SME’s around the globe.

He shall be accompanied by Prof Kaustubh, Associate Prof and Faculty for Corporate Training at SIBM, Lavale. The 2 together operate the free weekly brand health clinic at SIBM for SME’s

Abstract of the talk

The brand's social penetration
Social penetration of your brand. Image by activeside via Flickr

They say “Necessity is the mother of all inventions” and it is some of these inventions that empower and transform our world. Some of the grandest inventions that have had a significant impact on our lives today include the wheel, electricity, the light bulb, the automobile, telephones, mobile phones, the internet, etc. But was just inventing these ideas, concepts and processes enough for them to succeed and transform our world?

Just google “why startups fail” and there would be a host of sites proclaiming that about 9 out of 10 startups fail within the first two to three years of business! Is there something that can help increase and insure your chances of success? Something that can ensure and protect your growth? – The answer lies in commercializing, protecting and most importantly branding your intellectual property right from day one!

The session would focus on 7 key steps that entrepreneurs must take to build strong brands out of their inventions and innovations

Hi-Technology Marketing – Abhijit Athavale

Abhijit Athavale shall be talking on identity, positioning, sementation and market analysis, value proposition, messaging, campaigning and measurement.

See the PuneTech calendar for information about other tech events happening in this weekend.

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The world is changing – how should startups cope? PoCC talk by Atul Chitnis

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Atul Chitnis
Image via Wikipedia

Atul Chitnis, has been at the forefront of the software revolution in India since the 80s. He has literally seen this world change multiple times. He will address Pune’s startups on how the world is changing, again, and how to be prepared for this change. This will on Sunday, March 29, 11am to 1pm at Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (SICSR), Model Colony. (Map)

Atul is very active in the Linux and the FOSS community, he is a successful technology trend watcher, and he is also into mobile, wireless, handheld technologies. He would be happy to address any of these topics based on the interest of the audience.

Atul is the Chief Products Officer at Geodesic (http://geodesic.com). He has been at the forefront of India’s technology evolution since the 1980s, predicting and driving new technology waves such as datacommunication, networking, the Internet, wireless and mobile computing, and Open Source, among others. A hardcore products man, his focus areas include mobile and hand-held computing, wireless data networks, Linux and Open Source and entertainment technologies – topics he frequently writes about. His popular PCQuest column, COMversations, helped bootstrap Indian users into the consumer datacomm era. Atul is well known for his work with the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community, and is also the founder of FOSS.IN, one of the world’s largest grassroot technology conferences. He is also a member of several Project Review and Steering Committees with the Department of Information technology (DIT), Government of India.

For more info about Atul, see http://atulchitnis.net/bio/

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Flesh out a detailed plan for your startup with Freeman Murray – March 29

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What: 4-hour hands-on workshop on developing your startup idea
When: Sunday March 29, 9:30am – 1:30pm
Where: Seed Infotech, Nalanda building, Opposite Gandhi Lawns, Erandwane
Registration and Fees: This is a free workshop, but open only to the first twenty teams that register. (Hurry, offer open until stocks last. Only 7 slots left!)

Details:

This is a 4 hr workshop for people interested in starting their own technology business. This workshop is for small teams of 2 or 3 people who have a clear idea of an idea they would like to work on. Participants will spend 90% of their time developing this idea.

This is not a lecture, people without their own business idea will be bored.

The workshop will have several segments of 20 – 40 minutes each. I will introduce each segment in about 5 minutes. During the remaining time people will work on that particular aspect of their own idea. Each team will setup a private wiki which they will develop during the workshop.

Segments may include:

  • personal biographies of the founders
  • over view of the space
  • overview of the idea
  • technology
    • what are the high level technical requirements for products
    • what is the proposed technology stack for doing something
    • simple architecture diagram
  • financial
    • budget, financial requirements
    • cash flow projection, when where to get money
  • marketing
    • what are the important websites
    • who are the major competitors
    • who are the luminaries
    • who are the customers
    • who are potential advisors
    • who are potential partners

About the Instructor – Freeman Murray

Freeman Murray has worked in a variety of technology startups in Silicon Valley and India and will be using this experience to guide workshop participants. This summer he will be directing the iAccelerator.org program at IIMA. More information about him is available at: http://iAccelerator.org/people

Other tech events this weekend

Also, remember that there are 6 tech events competing for your attention this weekend, including Dhananjay Nene‘s talk on strengths and weaknesses of programming languages, and Atul Chitnis on How the world is changing, and what startups should do about it. For more see the PuneTech calendar.

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TiEPune Seminar: My Story – with P.P. Chabbria, Chairman, Finolex Group – 26 March

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What: TiE Pune invites you to spend time with P.P. Chabbria, who built the Rs. 3000 cr Finolex Group from the ground up. He will talk about this journey
When: Thursday, 26th March, 6pm
Where: ICC Towers, Hall #4 and #5, Wing A, Senapati Bapat Road, Map
Registration and Fees: This event is free for all to attend. Register by sending an email to namita[dot]shibad[at]gmail[dot]com

Details:
A self made man, Mr. Prahlad P Chhabria started his life as a door-to-door peddler of electrical supplies. As a child he began his professional life as a cleaner in a cloth shop and later taught himself to read and write as he worked as a bill collector. But the future as Chabbria saw it, held greater promise. He followed his dream to create India’s leading cable manufacturer. Today Finolex is a Rs3,000 crore group with diversified interests. Mr Chabbria will share his experiences, insights and trace his path from being a door-to-door salesman to the Chairman and Managing Director of Finolex.

The event is open to all with no fee applicable. However as seats are limited, it is preferred if you register your presence by sending an email to: namita[dot]shibad[at]gmail[dot]com

For other tech events in Pune, check out the PuneTech calendar.

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