Tag Archives: entrepreneurs

Economic Times wants to know the stories of Pune Entrepreneurs

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The Economic Times, writes articles about entrepreneurship on its page Emerging India, and they want to increase their coverage of entrepreneurship from Pune and bring the city’s entrepreneurs to the forefront. Omkar Sapre, Senior Correspondent, of The Economic Times in Pune is keen to interact with entrepreneurs in Pune and know more about their businesses. The newspaper wants to focus on trend stories about various developments in entrepreneurship.

Omkar is interested in hearing form readers of PuneTech – please write to him at omkar.sapre@timesgroup.com, with an introduction of yourself and what business or startup you are in. Even if you are not entrepreneurs, you are requested to write in to him, with an introduction, where you work, what work you do, and whether you’re involved in anything apart your work. Please write the work PuneTech as the first word in your email subjectline, for easy management.

Any publicity is good for an entrepreneur, and more generally, publicity for Pune’s entrepreneurs is good for Pune as a whole. Hence, this is a great opportunity for the tech community in Pune to raise its collective profile. Hence, I would suggest, get in touch with Omkar, and talk to him not only about what you are doing, but if you happen to know somebody else who is doing exciting/interesting work, then talk about that too.

For more information about Omkar see his linked in Profile. And click here to email him: omkar.sapre@timesgroup.com.

Create a Startups Forum (“Open Coffee Club”) in your locality

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Santosh Dawara, one of the founders of (and the primary driver behind) Pune Open Coffee Club, the very successful forum for Pune Startups, is challenging the entrepreneurs of Pune to create smaller Open Coffee Clubs for each region of the City. The idea being that Pune’s startup ecosystem is big enough that it can support independent events for Aundh/Baner, or Koregaon Park (which is already active), or Kothrud.

The Pune Open Coffee Club (and PuneTech) will support and publicize your initiative, and hopefully this will be the start of something big. This is your chance to strengthen the startups ecosystem in your area, and in the process help yourself by helping others.

Here is Santosh’s message:

The Pune Startup eco-system has taken on a new life and has been growing in leaps and bounds. Startup events have been drawing record audiences of 100+ entrepreneurs and enthusiasts every time. I believe this is a story unique to amchi Pune and credit is really due to those supporting the eco-system by attending events, making useful contributions by speaking, organizing and making monetary donations. A special word goes out to the Startup Saturday folks who are putting together great events besides the POCC.

Here’s an opportunity for all of us to jumpstart an Open Coffee Club in our own way and share in this phenomenon.

For the month of March I would like to invite you to create an Open Coffee Club in your own locality.

Why do this? Originally, the Open Coffee Club was really a small group of entrepreneurs who met up regularly at a coffee shop to network, get to know each other and help each other out. The Pune Open Coffee Club is now just too big to ever meet at a single cafe, or for one person to run. However, the need for a local support group of entrepreneurs has not gone away.

To make it easy for you to get the group started, I am offering to collect all the local OCC’s and spread the word to all the entrepreneurs on PuneStartups.org informing them about the local groups, when and where they plan to meet so that they can select the most convenient or interesting group.

If you are interested in getting an OCC up and running, all you need to do is the following:

  • Select a date + time + coffee shop in your area
  • Add the event on PuneStartups.org
  • Ensure that you have enabled RSVP’s on the event to collect the contact information of all those interested in your OCC
  • E-mail me at [sdawara at gmail dot com] with the link to the new event
  • I’ll make sure the word gets out
  • Just show up at the appointed date and time and be yourself
  • Make sure your personal profile has a clear photograph so people can recognize you!

For example,

Grubshup Cafe Open Coffee Club,

Law College Road,

co-ordinator: “Your Name”

“Date / Time”

Sounds interesting? Look forward to getting in touch with you!

I would add the following tips:

  • Use the Pune Startups mailing list to find other founders in your vicinity, and publicize your event.
  • Use the PuneTech Calendar to ensure that your event does not clash with another important event
  • In my experience, establishing a regular venue is one of the most important things you can do. That allows you and other people to schedule an event with a minimum of fuss. The venue could be a coffee shop as Santosh suggests, or it could be a meeting room in some startup or company that is generous enough to allow their premises to be used. Or you can use an old school or a college.
  • Coffee/snacks/tea etc. are not a requirement for an event. Somehow, I’ve noticed that many people feel that organizing snacks, and creating posters, and other paraphernalia is necessary for holding an event. These things add significant overhead, not to mention expenses, and don’t really add that much value to events. I’ve found that for sustaining volunteer driven forums like open coffee clubs, doing away with all these overheads is the best thing, and reduces the effort it takes to organize the event.
  • Don’t give up too early. The first few events will have only a few people attending. Keep at it, and as long as you’re having meaningful conversations at the events, you will succeed eventually.

Updates: The following POCC branches have been created so far. They’re listed below with the date of the first meeting and the person who took the initiative to start the branch.

MARCH 19th:
Aundh Open Coffee Club
to RSVP and to see who is attending: http://punestartups.org/events/pocc-aundh
Pimpri-Chinchwad Open Coffee Club
18 are attending
to RSVP and to see who is attending: http://punestartups.org/events/poccpimprichinchwad-1
MARCH 26th:
Kothrud Open Coffee Club
31 are attending
to RSVP and to see who is attending: http://punestartups.org/events/pocckothrud-meetup
APRIL 2nd:
Tilak Road Open Coffee Club
to RSVP and to see who is attending: http://punestartups.org/events/pocctilakroad-1
Yet to meet:
Kalyani Nagar Open Coffee Club
To join the group and fix up a meeting: http://punestartups.org/group/pocckalyaninagar
Pashan-Sus Road Open Coffee Club
To join the group and fix up a meeting: http://punestartups.org/group/poccpashansusroad

Rescheduled: POCC event “Termsheet Basics #2” moved to 12th Feb

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A few hours back we published information about the Pune Open Coffee Club event Termsheet Basics #2: Negotiating with Angel Investors which was supposed to be on 5th Feb. However, a few hours later comes news that this event has been rescheduled to Saturday 12th feb; the venue has shifted to Persistent. So the final details are: Date: Sat, 12th Feb, 4pm, Place = Bhageerath, Persistent Systems, SB Road, Time = 4pm-8pm).

Please check out the updated event.

Termsheet Basics #2: Negotiating with Angel Investors – POCC Event – 12th Feb

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Update: This event has been re-scheduled for 12th Feb. All other details remain the same

Santosh Dawara writes:

The Pune Open Coffee Club is hosting an informative session on “Term Sheet Basics II: Negotiating with Angel Investors”.

Date: 12th February, 2011, 4pm (Saturday)
Venue: Bhageerath, Persistent, SB Road.

Entrepreneurs who are preparing to raise money from Angels can benefit immensely from a direct one-on-one interaction with attending Angels and experienced Entrepreneurs. The session will cover basic concepts that are unique to Angel investing such as ‘Convertible Debt’, common concepts such as ‘Valuation’, what preparation can help you increase your effectiveness and what to expect when you begin negotiations with an Angel.

This should be an exciting session as Angel Investing has subtle nuances as compared to other forms of institutional finance.

As an entrepreneur – will you prefer an equity round or a convertible note round – which is preferred by whom and why? What does participating preferred mean, and how does the math work in an exit scenario? What kind of anti-dilution protections are there and what are the differences? Do VC’s prefer to offer exits to early Angel Investors?

These and many other questions are encountered by investors and entrepreneurs alike every day. The session will introduce these concepts and considerations in order for you.

Presented by dynamic speakers and active angel investors, with extensive experience in venture creation, this session is a must for those focused on building or investing in new ventures.

The high level agenda will be as follows:

  • 1600 to 1630 Introduction to attending Angels
  • 1630 to 1715 Walk-through an actual term sheet template or memorandum of understanding
  • 1715 to 1730 break for tea / coffee
  • 1730 to 1830 Discussion, QnA between attending entrepreneurs and angel investors
  • 1830 to 1930 Networking

Here are some of the high level topics we can cover:

  • equity types and convertible loans
  • how much should be raised
  • pre-money, post-money, price per share – valuation vs. other incentives, pre and post cap tables
  • liquidation preferences
  • anti dilution provisions
  • protective provisions
  • post funding board composition
  • setting up the option pool
  • some key tips to entrepreneurs and to investors (not necessarily the same tips!)
  • negotiation tips and a mock negotiation if time permits

Note:

Enhance Education: Pune Based startup focusing on Tablet-based education

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Enhance Education (the new startup of founders Akshat Shrivastava and Arun Prabhudesai) is focusing on “tablet” computers (i.e. like iPad, but cheaper) as a primary feature of their eLearning platform that they hope will be used by colleges all over India to significantly improve the education provided to students / trainees. They are partnering with Amplify Mindware (a group of Institutions under Bharati Vidyapeeth) to help deploy this technology/service across a large number of institutions in India.

The basic idea is this:

  • Enhance Education has subject matter experts who produce high quality educational content, which is put up on their website (as part of their My Open Campus).
  • Educational Institutions (who would be customers of Enhance Education) sign-up for making My Open Campus content to their students.
  • Students are given internet-enabled “Enhance E-Pads” which can access content from My Open Campus over the internet. The Enhance E-Pads are android based touch-screen tablet devices that are expected to cost Rs. 3000 (and are likely to get cheaper over time).

In Enhance Educations’s Management Team, PuneTech readers (more accurately, Pune Open Coffee Club Members) will notice a bunch of familiar faces:

  • Akshat Shrivastava – CEO of Enhance Education. CEO of outsourcing company XanaduTec, and also founder of Alabot. @broadcalling on twitter.
  • Arun Prabhudesai – Head of Technology for Enhance Education. Also founder of http://trak.in, the very popular India Business Blog, and previously CEO of http://hover.in. @8ap and @trakin on twitter.

Vikas Kumar, founder of BrainVisa, is also listed as an eLearning Advisor.

The latest press release from Enhance Education is here. There’s a lot more information about Enhance Education on their blog – check it out.

Overview of mobile products/services startup Omni-Bridge – makers of Pune’s TraffiCop system

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If you’ve been paying attention, you no doubt have seen the newspaper articles about the fact that Pune Traffic Police have been using BlackBerrys to instantly look up information about traffic offenders via the internet. This project has been done by a small Pune startup called Omni-Bridge, and a few months back, PuneTech caught up with founders Amit Shitole and Pritam Hasabnis and found that they have a story that many other tech startups will find interesting.

Like many other tech startups in Pune, Omni-Bridge is a startup that wants to really have their own products, but since that takes a lot of time and investment, they started off doing services in their area of expertise, and slowly started using the revenues from services to fund their product business. Their core expertise is in building mobile apps (mainly BlackBerry, and Symbian, but now branching into Android and iPhone too) for their customers (which are other product companies). They are now building their own mobile apps to market and sell using AppStores/marketplaces.

About Trafficop

This is a product developed by Omni-Bridge Systems which essentially involves digitization of vehicle & license holder’s data, traffic police records and putting them on a server so that it’s accessible from internet, and then building a BlackBerry app that can access the server from anywhere. The idea is that each officer will carry a BlackBerry with him/her and when booking someone for a traffic violation uses the BlackBerry it to instantly look up the records to see if the offender has committed any traffic violations in the past.

Usually, when I see newspaper reports that giddily announce the use of some fancy technology by some government body in India, I am very sceptical. My general impression is that these are usually projects that somebody is using to get visibility or to appear cool, but when you really check, you’ll find that nobody is really using the system.

Due to this scepticism, I approached a few traffic constables and officers (at different times and places) and asked them about Trafficop system. I was surprised (and happy) to find out that:

  • The system is actually being used on a day-to-day basis,
  • The rank-and-file are actually happy with the system, and even impressed with it,
  • The system has been useful in actually catching criminals – once constable told me about how a routine traffic violation stop resulted in them finding out that the vehicle was wanted in connection with a robbery from a few years ago.

Everything hasn’t gone according to plan. Not enough BlackBerrys were procured to give one to every officer, but that hasn’t stopped them from using the system. Those who don’t have BlackBerrys still go and enter all the information into the system at the end of the day when they get to the office.

How to approach a government body as a customer

I asked Omni-Bridge whether it was easy or difficult to deal with the traffic police department, and how did they even approach them. There I found another interesting story that would be instructive to Pune Start-ups.

Omni-Bridge did not approach the Traffic Police directly. Instead they first went to the Science and Technology Park (STP). STP is a central government body, housed in University of Pune, whose mission is to help out science and technology start-ups that can help India in some way. (We will write a more detailed article about STP, hopefully sometime soon.)

So, STP helped Omni-Bridge approach Pune Traffic Police. And one of the advantages of working with STP is that since STP is a government body, other government bodies trust it more than if a start-up were to directly approach them. In this respect, Omni-Bridge found their relationship with STP very helpful.

As for actually working with the traffic police department, they found that the officials there were quite helpful, and worked with them to define and fine-tune the product. Specifically, they found, DCP Manoj Patil and PI Surendranath Deshmukh to be knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the whole process.

I think the takeaway message for Pune start-ups is that they shouldn’t shy away from considering government bodies as customers, and they should approach the STP for help.

Right now Trafficop is being used in Pune, and a subset of their software is being used in Bangalore. After the success of the Pune program, Omni-Bridge hopes to be able to convince a bunch of other cities to go for it.

About balancing services and products

Many start-ups have the idea of using services to bootstrap their product businesses, and I have not seen too many successful examples of that model. Persistent, which did have hopes of doing this has not managed to pull this off so far. GSLab, after 5 years of doing services, is now in the market with their own product kPoint – whether they’ll succeed remains to be seen. The biggest success in ootstrapping a product company through a services company in Pune is one that most Punekars don’t really know about – Kenati. Kenati was founded as a network software services company about 10 years ago and after 2/3 years of doing that they switched over to their own products (in the home networking space). Kenati was acquired by 2Wire a couple of years back.

So, coming back to the point, I wondered how has Omni-Bridge’s experience been in this regard? Last year Omni-Bridge reached a stage where their services business could fund their own products, and they do have a few products (mobile apps) in addition to Trafficop. I asked MD Amit Shitole what advice he would give to other start-ups who are planning on doing this and he said that his biggest learning was that the most important aspect that needs to be managed is the cash-flow. The founders need to sit and very carefully figure out how much cash is needed on a month-to-month basis to keep the product business running, and then to figure out where that money is going to come from – on a regular, sustainable basis. The product business cannot really be put on a “pause” once it is started, and becomes a permanent cash-flow sink, so this calculation needs to be tackled upfront.

Co-founders Amit Shitole and Pritam Hasabnis, have indicated that they would be happy to provide guidance to early-stage first-time entrepreneurs who find themselves in a situation similar to what Omni-Bridge was in. You can get in touch with them via their website.

TiE Pune Event: How Pune’s Businesses can Sieze Global Opportunities

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TiE Pune presents a Panel Discussion with Ravi Pandit (CEO, KPIT), Pramod Chaudhari (Founder & Chairman, Praj), Pradeep Chordia (MD Chordia Foods Products Ltd), Partner, Ernst & Young (confirmation awaited). On Saturday, November 20, 2010, At Cerebrum B3, Kalyani Nagar (behind AdLabs)

A few years back it would have been impossible to imagine that auto parts for the world would be manufactured in our backyard, that the city would have the highest number of IT companies servicing the world or that Pune grown companies would buy international giants across the world. But that has happened.

As we get more and more connected, as our factories churn out more, the earth gasps, development zooms at a dizzying space, and as the economy throws up newer challenges, we need to pause and think. In what direction will the global demand move, what products, services will be in demand and what processes will we have to develop to cater to those newer needs. If the West makes outsourcing prohibitive, if our input costs eat away into our competitive pricing, if newer needs outpace our innovation and require our imagination to be more active, can Pune keep pace with such demands?

What are our strengths that we can leverage to seize new opportunities that the world throws up, what is it that Pune’s ecosystem lacks and how do we overcome it? What should your company do to be able to meet such global demands? Can Pune’s entrepreneurs grasp and hold the new world of the future?

Come and listen to Pune’s business icons, leaders and legends share their view of the world in the near future and how Pune can seize such opportunities in the following industries:

IT industry: Ravi Pandit, CEO KPIT Cummins
Clean Technologies: Pramod Chaudhary Chairman and founder, (Praj Industries)
Food and Agriculture: Pradeep Chordia, MD, Chordia Food Products
Economic Overview: Partner, Ernst & Young (confirmation awaited)
Kiran Deshpande, CEO, Airtight Networks will be the moderator.

This event is open to members and non members. TiE members pay Rs 100/- and non TiE members will have to pay Rs 200/- (payable on registration).As seats are limited, please confirm a seat for yourself by emailing namita.shibad@gmail.com

On: November 20, 2010
At: Cerebrum, B3, Kalyani Nagar (behind Adlabs)
Registration: 6.00 pm
Event starts at 6.30 pm

Startup Saturday Pune “Mobile Startups”

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Pune has a burgeoning number of mobile application developer
community. Some of them have been caught the eye of the top people in
the industry in India and abroad. The 13th Nov. 2010 edition of
Startup Saturday Pune is focused on celebrating their success.

3:00 – 3:15 Over view by Jignesh Jain (www.xercestechnologies.com)
3:15 – 3:30 Samir Khadepaun (www.mobikontech.com)
3:30 – 3:45 Sachin Murgunde (www.savvyinfocenter.com)
3:45 – 4:00 Sagar Bedmutha (www.optinno.com)
4:00 – 4:15 Shardul Mohite (www.weboniselab.com)
4:15 – 4:30 Surojit Nandy (www.incucapital.com)
4:30 – 5:00 Samir Patel from iPIN (world’s first open scalable mobile
payments platform)
5:00 onwards … Networking

Please register and Mark your calendars for:

Date: 13th Nov. 2010, 3:00 – 6:00 pm. See you at:
Venue: Centre for Management Research & Development (CMRD), Near
Patrakar Nagar, Off Senapati Bapat Road, Map

For more information, contact Arpit (99207 20764) or Vishwa (9766-243-789)

This event is free for all to attend. Register at:
http://startupsaturday.headstart.in/event.php?eid=68

Workshop on commercialization of science & technology ideas

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Normally, PuneTech does not promote events that have an entry fee, unless the fees are nominal or very low (below Rs. 1000). This Venture Center/Accelerator India workshop for science & technology entrepreneurs, with estimated costs of Rs. 55000 is definitely not free. However, some of the applicants will not only get the workshop fees waived off, but even their travel costs might get funded. If there's one thing we like more than free events, it is paid events where there's a chance to get in for free! 🙂

Venture Center (technology business incubator affiliated to NCL/ CSIR)  and Accelerator India (a spin-off of the University of Cambridge, UK) are organizing a workshop titled  Accelerated Commercialization of Technology and InnoVation or ACTIV workshop.  The workshop seeks to transfer the experience and key lessons learnt in science-based entrepreneurship from Cambridge, UK (which has now become a leading center of science entrepreneurship)  to India. Run over 2-days, the ACTIV workshop has a sharp focus on science & technology entrepreneurship and the nucleation and creation of new enterprises. Faculty from Venture Center and other guest speakers shall provide India-relevant experiences and context.

 
The ACTIV – EE workshop seeks to equip science/technology entrepreneurs with key skills and practical insights to help take technology based ideas to market. The workshop will be held on Sunday, December 12, 2010 and Monday, December 13, 2010 at Venture Center, Pune. More info on the ACTIV-EE workshop: http://venturecenter.co.in/activ/entrepreneurs.php
 
We are keen that the groups attending the workshops be a focused and determined group so that the workshop also ends up creating a community of cohorts who support, inspire and challenge each other. It is for this reason and the fact that seats are limited that the faculty plans to select the participants carefully. 
 
To apply, please visit http://venturecenter.co.in/activ/apply.php – the last date to apply is November 21, 2010.

Meet the Investors – Nexus Venture Partners

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Team Nexus Venture Partners Invites you to ‘Coffee with Nexus’ (Networking event for entrepreneurs, investment bankers and start-ups to connect with Nexus team)

On
Friday, November 26, 2010
3 to 5pm

Venue:
Pubmatic India Pvt Ltd, 8th Floor, Amar Apex
Next to Food Bazaar
Baner Road
Pune 411045
Agenda
3 – 3.30pm – Networking over coffee
3.30 – 4.30pm – Nexus Venture Partners: Introduction, investment thesis and opportunities in India
4.30 – 5pm – Q&A/Discussion

RSVP: registration@nexusvp.com

About Nexus Venture Partners
Nexus Venture Partners (www.nexusvp.com) is India's leading venture capital fund, founded by successful entrepreneurs in India and Silicon Valley. It has $320m under management and an active portfolio of over 20 companies across technology, media, consumer, business services, energy and agribusiness sectors. The Nexus team plays an active role in helping entrepreneurs and management teams build market leading businesses. Some of the companies that Nexus has invested in include Komli (Internet advertisement network), Suminter (Organic farming), Dlight Design (Solar Lighting), DimDim (Open Source Web Conferencing), Mapmyindia (Digital Navigation), Deccan Healthcare (Nutraceuticals), Gluster (Open source storage), WhatsonIndia (TV Guide), Cloud.com (Cloud infrastructure), Pubmatic (Publisher Ad revenue optimization), Prana (Animation services) and Netmagic (Internet Infrastructure).

Investors in Nexus include leading university endowments, foundations and sovereign funds.