Curtain Raiser, the 9th November, 2010
The curtain raiser was held on the 9th November, and this was the best part; to start with.
There was Sramana Mitra, who exhorted budding entrepreneurs to take a deep dive into entrepreneurship. She shared her journey as a serial entrepreneur. She also talked about Tyranny of TAM (Total Available Market), the term used by many Venture Capitalists (VCs). There are lot many opportunities to leverage without getting into Tyranny of TAM! So entrepreneurs need not fret or self-doubt, if they are facing Tyranny of TAM! She also conducted the live version of her highly popular weekly Video Conference based workshop. It gave the taste of her insights into entrepreneurship. Her indomitable entrepreneurial spirit was quite infectious!
Prof. Wadhwa from Duke University shared his research on entrepreneurship with the audience. He busted the myth of 'Not-so-great Entrepreneurial Ecosystem' in India. (BTW, Sramana also told that India's ecosystem is good enough (comparable to/better than) to get into entrepreneurship). Prof. Wadhwa, told that Fear of Failure is the main deterrent even for Americans too! He told that, 0.67% Indians in US are responsible for 6.7% of the enterprises in US. Over and above that, he conveyed that the Indian entrepreneurs he meets in US are no different/better than the Indian entrepreneurs he meets in India.
Commenting on the differences, he said that every American student is burdened with huge study loans to payback. Relatively, Indian students generally get their education funded by their parents. Only issue with Indian youngsters is that, the family pressure to work for large IT/ITES companies to get better life partner through arranged marriage. (After this event, it looks like he came across many India based Indian entrepreneurs, who had crossed these hurdles too, visit his post event blog.) He promised to share more details in the event! (and he kept his promise too!)
Day 1, the 10th November, 2010
The plenary session started with Mr. Sharad Sharma's welcome address followed by Som Mittal's address. Amitabh Srivastava from Microsoft shared MS's Azure PaaS Roadmap. Mr. Sahrat Sharan of On24 talked about his journey as an entrepreneur covering the decision forks he navigated.
There was a session on opportunities opened by UID initiative.
The best part of the day was 'Traits of a successful product entrepreneur' panel discussion with highly energetic trio, Prof. Wadhwa, Mr. Vishal Gondal of Indiagames & Laura Parkin of NEN. Whereas Prof. Wadhwa shared some more myth busting facts about typical entrepreneurs especially average age of 39 & 40 and he is an immigrant from Asia (read Indian or Chinese!) Whereas, Prof. Wadhwa, based on his studies, stressed on education & experience for the success in entrepreneurial journey. Mr. Gondal said that he would bet his money on young entrepreneurs! Though they differed on a few points but both highly encouraged the audience to plunge into entrepreneurship! Laura Parkin ensured that the sparks of wit and, wisdom kept on bursting on the audience. This was a great Diwali fire show at the event.
At another panel discussion, the products for India's hinterland were discussed by successful entrepreneurs. There was an exciting open discussion to facilitate the search for partner companies for the start-ups. I should say that the hosts of the show, I call them Men in Black, as they sported black T-shirts, were at their best hospitality to ensure that the audience got the best from the event. And, they are no ordinary hosts, they are stalwarts in their chosen fields!
I, partially, attended special session on Selling Innovation. I was greatly enthused & influenced by Mangotech's Mr. Maheshwari & Orangescape's Suresh's Street-Smart tactics to bag the orders and partnership deals! That was one of the biggest take-aways! (in addition to the many more I have mentioned in the blog).
In the plenary session at the end of the day, Mr. Venkatarama Raja of Ramco shared his insights based on cloud based ERP, they have launched. MRR (M. R. Rangaswami, Co-Founder, SandHill Group LLC.) moderated this session and other sessions so well, I was hoping that he will moderate most of the sessions. He brings great intellect sharp wit and avuncular warmth to get the best insights out of every panelist. Polly Sumner of Salesforce shared insights on client adoption & 'cloud 2' initiatives in her firm.
Proto.in had arranged for five demos by the product entrepreneurs. All the five demos and especially, Pallav Nadhani's Oomph, were simply superb!
Day 2, the 11th November, 2010
I was seated a few inches away from Yahoo's CEO Carol Bartz! and a foot or 2 away from Dr. Frank Levinson of Small World!
Carol Bartz shared her insights with Chief Microlander Pradeep Kar. She basically said how Yahoo is different from Facebook & Google!
Dr. Frank Levinson shared some street-smart tactics to bootstrap & grow big!
Sridhar Vembu of Zoho.com shared secrets of his success in the 3 sessions he spoke. His no-nonsense approaches to marketing, hiring and biases in US are worth emulating for many entrepreneurs.
The biggest takeaway from the event: The Entrepreneurship in India is making Big Waves and the world is watching. The drivers are Cloud Computing, Mobile Apps & Web 2.... .... Web 3.0!
A big thanks to NASSCOM & the Men-in-Black!
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