Calling Startups and Young Entrepreneurs to connect with leaders of the Ecosystem-YESSS

iSPIRT is happy to collaborate with and encourage YESSS – Young Entrepreneurs & Startups in Soaring Spirits.

08 to 10 December, 2015 ,The Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru,

YESSS is designed in association with various Startup networks. At YESSS, select startups  – with great business ideas offering unique technologies, products or services –  will be given an opportunity to pitch to potential investors. We are on the lookout for razor sharp minds, financial hawks and techie wizards and we will be testing their talent, tenacity, and the team work!!

YESSS invites applications from 

  • Technology Entrepreneurs in the early stage of business (0-3years)
  • Innovative Business Ideas that have a wide impact on society
  • Startups requiring mentoring, incubation and investment to shape and grow their business

Who will attend 

Companies looking for innovative business ideas and technology solutions , IP firms, IT industry captains, angel investors and VCs, government funding agencies and  financial institutions.

How to Participate
If you are a tech entrepreneur with an innovative idea or a budding entrepreneur with a simple business plan, send your application/abstract on or before 3rd December , 2015.

The abstracts would be reviewed by an Expert Committee and you may be invited to make a presentation. The Expert Committee will choose 8 finalists, who would be offered an opportunity to make a presentation during the YESSS session at Bangalore ITE.biz 2015

Screen Shot 2015-11-27 at 11.03.59 am

For Registration and Participation opportunities, kindly contact Prabha – 

Mobile: +91-9916785005 | Tel: 080-41131912 -13

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

CLICK HERE to know more…

Tête-à-tête with Ram Shriram

A mentor and guide to many, Ram Shriram, managing partner at Sherpalo Ventures and one of the first investors at Google, addressed a rapt audience last week at the Bangalore office of [24]7.  Opening the hour long session with his reaction to the start up scene in India, Ram Shriram applauded the dynamic vibe of the IT capital of the country, even as he lamented the lack of infrastructure and the paucity of good Universities to channel the talent of the nation.
A few snippets from the conference for those who missed it.

From India… and going global

Over the last two decades, India has created a number of world leading companies of global scale. Many first scaled in India before taking the first international flight and now many of them are focussing on global markets right from the start – Day One Global.

“Gravity” defying Prime Focus is now Hollywood’s VFX powerhouse and a world leader in the media and entertainment industry. Gurgaon based Zomato is now present in over 22 countries with million plus restaurants in their kitty. Google Capital funded Freshdesk has customers in 145 countries with over 50,000 customers and is closing the gap with its larger peers like Zendesk and Salesforce (Desk.com), InMobi is the world’s largest independent mobile ad network serving its clients across over 200 countries. Starting from its Indian base in 2001, VFS Global ( part of Kuoni Group), the industry pioneer and world’s leading visa services provider, works for 45 governments, operates over 1700 application centres in 121 countries and holds an estimated 50% market share of the global outsourced applications market.

All the above companies are considered pioneers in their market segments globally and are either already the world leaders or are challenging them. Over the next couple of decades hundreds more world leaders are likely to emerge from India.

India Emerging 20 – A Turbocharger for companies looking at global scale

India Emerging 20 aims to discover the 20 most promising global Indian companies and provide them the visibility and that platform to make a mark in the global arena.

This unique programme is led by London & Partners, the Mayor of London’s inward investment company which has a proven track record working with over 2000 international businesses. The inaugural edition of this programme is supported by British Airways, BDO, Newland Chase and UK Trade and Investment.

Program Qualifiers

  • Companies registered in India OR companies registered outside of India having a majority Indian management.
  • Companies should have worked with global clients, and/ or products suited for global markets. Having an international presence isn’t necessary.
  • Established after year 2000 and should have global ambitions.

Selection process and Benefits

The selection process spanning over a period of 20 weeks would assess companies on the basis of three broad parameters- Global Scalability, Innovation+Differentiation and Performance. Companies need to nominate themselves in the programme using the nomination form (link). Valuenotes, the knowledge partner will be using their 3 stage rigorous assessment framework and a robust rating model to ensure a high quality selection of top 50 companies. Once the top 50 companies are selected, each of them will need to submit a brief presentation to a jury panel who would then come out with the final list of 20 companies. The Jury round would be held in Mumbai ( Dec 14th 2015), Bangalore ( Dec 16th)and Delhi ( Dec 18th)

The selected 20 companies will be felicitated and awarded in London besides helping them gain international recognition – critical to global expansion. The awards programme will also offer opportunities to network with investors, business heads, thought leaders and mentors of global repute. Courtesy British Airways, all 20 companies would be flown down to London in World Traveller Plus – Premium Economy Cabin to participate in this special award ceremony in February 2016.

Nomination process has already started and the last day to send your nomination is 20th Nov 2015. For more details visit www.indiaemerging20.com

Guest Post by Gautam Sehgal, London Partners

Early Stage Start-up? Your Chance to Get Market-Ready and Mentored by the Best Brains in the Business!

Celebrating AnthahPrerana – the deep driving desire and self-motivation of an entrepreneur.

You are what your deep, driving desire is
As your desire is, so is your will
As your will is, so is your deed
As your deed is, so is your destiny

BrihadAranyaka Upanishad (4, 4.5)

AnthahPrerana is a TiE Bangalore initiative that recognises entrepreneurs for their articulation and the path to realising their vision and innovation. It is NOT a business plan competition though the business viability and feasibility will be a factor in this recognition. It is a competition that will acknowledge, and reward, the future potential of the entrepreneur. Think of it as an idea booster. We pick the best unfunded start-ups in commercial and social sectors, mentor them and get them market ready for exponential growth.

Banner SocialWe are partnering with AmazonLet’s Venture HeadStart and NSRCEL, IIM-Bangalore to deliver personalized help to our winners!  We are assembling another high-powered jury comprising of acclaimed IIM-Bangalore faculty, successful serial entrepreneurs, investors and senior corporate execs at TiE Bangalore to select and mentor a new batch of start-ups.

Selection Criteria:

  • 0-3 years old companies
  • No angel or VC funding
  • Financially viable, for-profit ideas

What Do We Offer?

  • Showcase your idea to investors and start-up gurus on the Awards night
  • Get highlighted on the extensive angel investor platform of our partner Let’s Venture
  • 2-day Bootcamp with renowned mentors at our partner NSRCEL       IIM, Bangalore’s campus
  • Automatic entry into our 90-day TiE-EAP programme with the best mentors in town (Hall of fame: RedBus, Just Eat were mentored at TiE Bangalore)
  • $1000 worth of Amazon Web Services credits
  • Continued hand holding and support from TiE Bangalore network of mentors and charter members.

Key Dates:

  • November 5th, 2015: Deadline for applications (Apply now!)
  • December 1st – 5th, 2015: Top 30 Applicants present to the Jury
  • December 15th, 2015: Awards Night
  • January 2nd week, 2016: 2-day bootcamp at IIM-Bangalore
  • February – April 2016: TiE-Turbo mentorship program

Some of the past winners who have gone on to do well are: Channelyst, HeadOut, Something’s Cooking, Kamal Kisan, Discover Dollar, PParke

For more information, visit: www.anthahprerana.org

Guest Post by Kunal Kashyap, TiE Bangalore

SaaSx Chennai Express – Board this Train Now!

I am Amit – running a SaaS venture Interview Mocha, a pre-employment skill testing company. In this blog I am sharing my learning from SaaSx and how it helped me achieve product-market fit and grow my company fast.


As they say, “a startup’s life is a roller coaster with ups and downs”, this ride has not been easy for me either. Just to talk in numbers, in the first 1.5 yrs of our existence, we were able to add only 22 customers and that too mostly from Pune, our home-ground. While in last 6 months, we have been able to add over 100 customers from 11 different countries. Needless to say – SaaSx has played a major role in helping us achieve this. Hence, I would like to share my journey and learnings from SaaSx with the larger community of SaaS people out there.

My SaaSx journey started when Prasanna advised me to visit SaaSx-1 in Chennai and Avinash was kind enough to allow me immediately. I had one more reason to visit Chennai – to meet Krish (my mentor).  I am happy to thank SaaSx, Prasanna Microsoft, Suresh  Kissflow, Krish ChargeBee and Girish Freshdesk who are constantly acting as a source of knowledge and guidance for me.

Interestingly, I found something common about all of them and you know what that something is…They are all from “SaaSx” and they are all from “Chennai” .

So now I can say that “SaaSx Chennai Express” is changing my (Interview Mocha) life completely and moreover this Chennai Express journey is a lot safer than Shahrukh Khan’s Chennai Express as there is no Tanghaballi (villain) here, only heroes :-)  and you still get your sweetheart Meenamma (Success).

Krish has helped us grow our daily leads from 2 to 10 leads a day. Suresh helped me multiply this number by his personal mentorship and playbook on Nuts and Bolts of Marketing & selling SaaS products to US customers from India for First Timers. Girish’s Talks always makes me think – how this poster boy of Indian SaaS knows all my key problems and their solutions. He narrates everything as if he is my personal mentor helping me sharpen my SaaS business skills.

So, here are the key takeaways, learning and some food for thought from my interactions with these SAAS champs:

1. Focus, Focus and Focus.

Focus on customer pain (mother-problem(s) you are solving that customers care about). Focus all your efforts to solve these problems the best way possible.

2. Your Product has to be Superb.

Customer success, Word of mouth and “Mouth of word” are the key for SaaS products and which is not possible without a superb product. Product is the core – keep it in mind.

3. Product Market Fit.

Your product needs to achieve a product market fit for adding customers quickly and scaling further. This is the first good thing that can happen to your start-up. Product/Market Fit is the degree to which a product satisfies a strong market demand. It has been identified as a first step to building a successful venture in which the company meets early adopters, gather feedback and gauges interest.

4. Cold Calling 2.0 doesn’t work.

Cold calling 2.0 won’t suit your economies for B2B companies with less than $ 2,000 annual revenue per customer. Though cold calling 2.0 is a great predictable way for pipeline generation, however it is not suitable to scale when you are charging very less annually.

5. Do not rely only on Email and Chat Support for closures.

Talk to signups/prospects over phone. We are 100% inbound till a person signs up. Talking to users helped us increase engagement with prospects and in turn more closures. Also, you get the insights that your sales team needs to understand.

6. Founders – Change the work timings if you are targeting US.

Analytics do help you understand customers but nothing better than talking to customer themselves. Quicker responses means more business.

7. SEO and Content Marketing are compulsory.

Content is King  & SEO is the way.  One or other traction methods may work, you can refer the list of all traction methods – google “Bullseye framework traction trumps everything”.

8. SaaS is Software as a Service.

Focus highly on support activities and customer success. Get immediate reply policy as a part of company’s DNA. Remember “Fast is Success”.

9. Understand behavior of SOHO, VSB and SMB for sure.

Each customer segment has its typicality and common needs. Understand their pain points, where they hang out over internet, how they buy, what makes them happy. Targeting big deals from enterprises in initial days may not happen. One funny thing, we have a few fortune 500 companies as our customers paying us $49 p.m. these are SaaS enterprises (business units) and not classic enterprises.

10. A/B testing is the way for SaaS companies.

What works and what works better – don’t assume much. Try A/B every now and then.

11. Tools help.

Start exploiting Mixpanel, Intercom, Moz etc.  being a SaaS player, trust and adopt SaaS.  These tools are helping us a lot in reaching, understanding and communicating with customers.

I consider the above points as extremely important for any SaaS business. I strongly recommend becoming a part of SaaSx community, if you are a SaaS startup in India. Chennai Express passengers/ drivers (Prasanna, Krish, Suresh, Girish, Avlesh, Paras, Avinash and many more) are easy to strike a conversation with, ask any question and receive immediate valuable responses.

Recently, I attended SaaSx-2 and acquired a new set of learnings. But I’ll wait to write on those learnings till I execute them successfully. And yes, looking forward to add 500 more customers before I board SaaSx-3 :-)

Thanks SaaSx Chennai Express. Wishing All the Best to all Indian SaaS Start-ups!

Product Leaders Forum – Anchoring India to Drive Product Leadership Revolution

We are very excited to share that the city of Pearls – Hyderabad will be embarking its journey towards Product Leadership for the first time ever, at a one of a kind Conference – Product Leaders Forum (PLF) on Oct 30th   2015. PLF – a not for profit initiative has partnered with NASCCOM, PMI, HYSEA, ISB and TIE to organize a one day Conference that cultivates and enriches product mindset and transforms India into a hub of Global Product Leaders.

For details and registration – Please visit http://productleadersforum.org/plf2015hyderabad/

PLF is a volunteer driven initiative by the alumni of the Institute of Product Leadership (IPL). This one day Conference is arriving at Hyderabad on the 30th of Oct, 2015 and promises all product enthusiasts and practitioners, a power packed day to indulge in candid conversations with the CXOs, Executives and Visionaries from various realms of industries. The space of Product Leadership has been traditionally perceived as a forbidden kingdom into which entry is available only for a chosen few who hold specific job titles or for the “Product” companies alone. PLF has cleared these ambiguities and shattered the stereotypes associated with certain roles/titles at its incredibly successful past events @ Bengaluru and Pune that hosted 700+ delegates. Whether a product company or a service industry, an MNC or a startup, an Individual contributor or a People Manager, the rapid transformation in the Indian technology space, is touching everyone and is generating needs to Innovate. Service companies are expanding into platforms and products for newer revenue streams, start-ups have a mission to get bigger and the MNC R&D centers known for engineering excellence now aim to transform into think tanks and global business centers.

PLF-Hyd-iSpiritTo meet the needs of all the ambitious souls at Hyderabad searching for avenues to transform themselves and their organizations into ecosystems to thrive product leadership, PLF has designed this Conference with engaging panel discussions, interactive workshops and a platform to network with like-minded practitioners. Ranging from Product marketing to Data Analytics, The Future of Global services industry to Understanding Prod. Mgmt across industries, Intrapreneurship to Managing Politics at Workplace; all the topics are crafted carefully to engage delegates from diverse fields and roles. Be it Architecture, Project Management, Quality Assurance, Development, everyone has a platter to feel rejoiced and rejuvenated at the Conference.

Businesses are realizing that the time has arrived for their delivery centers to move up the value chain; there is a huge demand to create and nurture product leadership mindset as well as skillset among employees. PLF provides an opportunity to listen to the stories of how firms in India achieved it at the Conference key note that hosts a CEO panel discussion. PLF is bringing together leaders and visionaries from organizations like eBay, ADP, SAP, Infosys, Intuit, Broadridge, CA to name a few and hosting a platform for its delegates to get a head start into product leadership.

Again, we are very excited to share that the city of Pearls – Hyderabad will be embarking its journey towards Product Leadership for the first time ever, at a one of a kind Conference – Product Leaders Forum (PLF) on Oct 30th   2015. PLF – a not for profit initiative has partnered with NASCCOM, PMI, HYSEA, ISB and TIE to organize a one day Conference that cultivates and enriches product mindset and transforms India into a hub of Global Product Leaders.

For details and registration – Please visit http://productleadersforum.org/plf2015hyderabad/

Guest Post by Samatha Rani, PLF Volunteer & Product Owner at ADP Pvt Ltd

SaaSx2 – The Afterword

SaaSx2 just got over last week, and we’ve been talking to several people who attended about what they liked, what they didn’t, and what they might want more of when we plan SaaSx3.

We have the ratings from the attendees and also several testimonials that we pored through to get these up for you.

Fireside Chat 1 : Aneesh with Ahi & Asha Fireside Chat 2 : Girish with Sumanth Onething Series by Shekhar Kirani Unconference by Dorai Thodla Key Note by Hiten Shah Food and Venue
4.25 4.56 4.02 4.03 3.59 4.23

Positive: I thought it was one of the most relevant events for SaaS startups in India and probably the best one. It was unbelievable how experienced entrepreneurs and VCs were sharing everything from trade secrets to actual numbers. While the main event was great, I am a big fan of the RTs and the Funding RT was very very valuable. I can’t stress that enough. Looking forward to SaaSX3. I know it will be bigger but I hope iSpirt will be able to maintain the quality, personalization, and energy of the event. I found Shekhar Kirani, Karthik (Blume), Girish, Suresh, and Arvind’s inputs far far more valuable and actionable. No wonder iSpirt calls it ‘Playbook’. I think this is what differentiates iSpirt and SaaSX from the all noise on the web. Real SaaS insights for early stage startups. ~Gautam – Scanova

Excellent event. Very well laid out with something of companies at different stages of growth. Enough time and opportunity to engage, network and discuss with participants which often is not the case. Kudos to all experienced and matured entrepreneurs who were gave a very rare peek into their journey with concrete data. Already looking forward to next round of sassyness with more fellow entreprenuers ~Rohan – Evok Analytics

This was one of the best events orchestrated by iSpirt. 10x improvement over the last SaaSx which in itself was very good. Each event and the overall agenda seem to have been very well thought through and I am sure a lot of planning went into it. For me the best part of the agenda was the fireside chat with Girish – simply superb and thanks Girish, for sharing things so openly, things that you would have otherwise never shared. Kudos to the iSpirt team for putting together this very well curated event. Kudos to all the speakers and participants for their dedicated effort and time they put in and who genuinely seem to care about the product ecosystem in general and the SaaS one in particular ~Sanjay Shah – Zapty

A very good event with product centric crowd. The openness with which the speakers put forward their experiences and shared their knowledge was nothing short of exemplary. Great Event. Great People. Hoping for similar event in Bangalore! ~Rishav – RazorPay

 


SaaSx2 rocked :-)

I have read about startup founders who don’t (or stopped) attend events – justifiably so. In ecosystems where there is now an entire industry of events springing up (i.e. it feels to me that some people’s startup in itself is all about organizing events), it becomes very difficult to separate the wheat from the shaft. Overall, value gets diluted in a bid to make profit. SaaSx2 is in its own class by all standards, hey, not because profit wasn’t the motive, but purely because of the value delivered. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Saasy

The journey to SaaSx2 started at the Microsoft Ventures office in Bangalore at around 5:16am. All roads lead to Chennai. For the first time, I decided to take a bus ride longer than 3 hours in India. I couldn’t look away from the opportunity to take a bus ride with fellow entrepreneurs. I thought it’ll be fun; and yeah, it was. To ensure we didn’t sleep, Prasanna of Microsoft Ventures made all of us do a quick introduction. All entrepreneurs got a chance to introduce themselves, their startup, why they launched, lessons learned so far and what they intend to learn at SaaSx2.IMG_20151007_160446

SaaSx2 exposed SaaS entrepreneurs to insights and strategies to capture several segments of the market. From targeting “Elephants” (i.e. big clients) to chasing “Rabbits” (small clients), SaaSx2 had all startups covered. You just have to pick the context that applies to you. From Aneesh’s (cofounder and CEO of Capillary Technologies) fire side chat to Girish’s (Founder and CEO of Freshdesk) session and then to Hiten Shah’s closing session, growth tips were just flying around everywhere in the hall. Badass all through. The panellists were real, the “one thing” sessions were direct and insightful. Emm, my secret admiration for the founder of FreshDesk, “Girish Mathrubootham” just rose to another level.

IMG_20151007_154711

In a buzz word dominating industry, it’s easy to get swamp in grammar instead of reality. So, instead of just using those fancy words like “disrupt”, “pivot”, “grow”, each of the panellists actually went deeply into how to do all of those. From sharing real numbers to walking us through the journey, they couldn’t have delivered more value than that.

At the unconference, entrepreneurs shared some of the issues they have and asked the audience for help. Talk about entrepreneurs seeking help from fellow entrepreneurs.

No sycophancy. No bullshitting. No flattery. SaaSx2 had a floorless execution and is an example of how startup events should be. iSpirt has raised the bar. Beat yourself if you didn’t attend. Rice, Soup Very Plenty (RSVP) – Did I mention that food and beer was all in surplus? Ah, emm, thanks to FreshDesk for the dinner.

IMG_20151007_223214

And thanks to the point man himself, the man who I think prefers to be at the background, Avinash Raghava :-).

Looking forward to SaaSx3.

Guest Post by Oluwatobi Soyombo, 1Plify

Freshdesk’s Customer Happiness Tour : Gurgaon – Redefining the Customer Service Experience

In the last few years, a lot of things have changed about the way we do business. For one thing, customer happiness is no longer an accessory to companies. It has become the matter of the hour influencing every aspect of a business, from the way we build the product to the way we support customers. Brands are finding it increasingly important to go the “extra mile” with their customer experience in order to stay relevant. And those that are winning aren’t playing it safe.

The Customer Happiness Tour, a one-of-a-kind event, is an effort to bring together like-minded customer service professionals to discuss strategy, share stories, tips and tricks, and effectively crack the “code” to customer happiness. Fueled by insights drawn from the experience and challenge of being a customer-centric brand, these discussions range over a varied number of topics, covering the entire spectrum of the customer experience. We’ve travelled the world with it, from San Francisco to Sao Paulo and Paris to Amsterdam, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring it to India!

Why CHT:Gurgaon?

The Gurgaon edition will bring together India’s biggest customer-centric brands to talk about why customer service is important in running a business. With a fantastic line up of speakers from Amazon, Flipkart, Urban Ladder, Hike and Myntra, the event will serve as a unique first-hand point of view into the stories of businesses that are rewriting the customer service experience in India.

CHT Gurgaon BannerIf you are a leader or a part of an organization who puts a premium on customer experience, this event is for you. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to meet, talk, network and trade notes with leaders from India’s biggest brands and hottest startups including Zomato, Yatra, CaratLane, PolicyBazaar and the Oberoi Group of Hotels.

How can you be a part of this event ?

CHT:Gurgaon will be hosted at the Leela Ambience on October 9th from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Register for the event here with the discount code CHT25G to avail a special deal exclusive to iSPIRT community

 

 

UXINDIA announces the UX Clinic 2015

It’s an e-world now.

Your website is the first point of contact for the consumer. The brand’s image/identity and positioning are completely dependent on the UI and UX on your website. To get that bit right may not just be necessary, but critical.

UXINDIA, a pioneer of UX in India for over a decade, extends an invitation for the UX Clinic 2015.

The UX Clinic is a platform that helps you get the opportunity to get the ‘user experience’ strategy right, the first time itself. With their expert design panel comprising of highly skilled domain experts and industry leading designers: they are experienced to help startups create desirable, usable, and scalable products.

We invite entrepreneurs, technologists, and designers from startups, to share and showcase their idea/s to the UXINDIA’s expert panel. Shortlisted entries will have an opportunity to partner with UXINDIA, in getting their product/service’s UX strategy right. Thereafter, they will also be able to engage with UXINDIA, for a long-term mutual value, based on pre-decided and agreed terms.

Shortlisted entries will be evaluated based on:

  • Product idea
  • Business case
  • Targeted users
  • Use case/s &
  • MVP product demo

iSPIRT is enthused to promote, partner and support UXINDIA in this unique initiative. We believe that this will not only ensure a seamless and faultless experience for the user, but will also encourage the techies to strut their stuff on this platform.

For more details, please click here.

To submit your startup ideas, register here.

Making the Future

What we see in theMaker addiction, is that a relatively small amount of people can have a big impact. You don’t necessarily need the world’s largest company behind you. – Dale Dougherty- Founder, Make Magazine

4 years ago, I walked out of the elevator onto the 4th floor of NYU’s TISCH building, home to the Interactive Telecommunications program that brought together some of the most diverse bunch of brilliant misfits from around the world to learn, teach, collaborate and make. The arriving Masters candidates, were an eclectic bunch, which included engineers, designers, lawyers, journalists, artists, architects, a masseur, filmmakers, dancers, fashion buyer, and a former drag queen. I was an actress and TV host, who didn’t know a soldering iron from a glue gun, and who, like many in my incoming class, had never written a line of code in her life. Yet, only a month later, I would strip down an old computer for spare parts to make my own galvanic skin resistor from scratch, and program video outputs to visualize the incoming data. My first wearable prototype –the mood gauge, had involved experimenting with different materials, soldering, electronics, programming, designing, user experience and video, all of which I’d known nothing of when I stepped off the elevator that first day of school. When my first device ‘talked’, I was hooked. The Maker addiction had begun.

The maker era, enabled by the Internet, DIY 3D printing, low cost chips/boards, open-source prototyping platforms like the Arduino, shifting business models and payment options have erased barriers to creation and expression and leveled the playing field. Today, if you want to express an idea, you can choose whether you want to employ sensors or film, an android app, performance or interactive sculpture. The Maker movement is sometimes perceived to be synonymous with geek culture, robotics and gadgets. And there is truth to this. Engineers, with their deep knowledge and a love of taking things apart are no doubt the movement’s most ardent mascots. However, making is more than just about the technology. It is about a cross pollination of ideas, the merging of the boundaries between disciplines and philosophies. At it’s core, the maker ideology is about moving from being a mere consumer to participating, influencing and changing the world you interact with- be it objects, people or experiences. It is also about pushing boundaries and experimenting for the sheer fun of it. And to achieve this, we need a variety of backgrounds and perspectives all playing with each other. Making/tinkering encompasses a dazzling variety of creations- including DIY quadcopters controlled by brainwaves, cloned fig trees, bamboo bicycles, environment-reactive clothing, 3D bio-printed organs. It touches every area of our lives and encompasses many different fields- arts and crafts, engineering, urban planning, architecture, theatre, film, storytelling, psychology, education, gastronomy, relationships, health & medicine.

“Technology is a means to an end; the end is people” – Red Burns, Founder, ITP, NYU

The industrial revolution concentrated the means and power of production in the hands of a few. Even the entertainment and news industry was a one-way street, with a clear delineation between producers and consumers. There was no way of “talking back” or dissenting on a scale that had any sort of impact. The internet and the subsequent democratization of tools and access changed that. Today, a lone individual with a You Tube channel can command more viewers than a major news channel. As an example, PewDiePie’s, a Swedish gamer’s You Tube channel has 32 million subscribers and more than 2 billion views. All he needed for that was a video camera and a subject he was passionate about. The rise of cheap 3D printers means many more people can create physical objects designed by them quickly and cheaply. The most exciting aspect about the maker culture is that it endows the maker with personal power. Where once, we grumbled about the lack of government initiative in solving certain problems, today, we have the means of creating our own solutions.

This is where makerspaces and Maker Faire comes in. Around the world, maker culture has emerged, founded on the ideas of collaboration and learning to learn. Innovation is a happy byproduct of this culture. From the Bay Area to Bogota, Istanbul to Nairobi, maker cultures are blossoming, driven by a spirit of collaboration and learning to learn. In India, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Kolkata have their own makerspaces, driven by a global sensibility, but also grounded in locally relevant approaches. One of these spaces, Bangalore’s Workbench Projects, operating out of an inspiring space in the Halasuru metro station, has been at the forefront of some exciting maker initiatives, one of which is the Bengaluru Mini Maker Faire, which it is hosting in collaboration with Nasscom.

Maker Faire describes itself as “the greatest show and tell on earth”. People from all walks of life come to show what they’ve made and to learn from each other. The open, playful nature of these events are deeply conducive to cross-collaborative projects and innovation.

“The Walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds” – Theo Jansen, Dutch artist, creator of kinetic sculptures.

“Maker Faire is primarily designed to be forward-looking, showcasing makers who are exploring new forms and new technologies. But it’s not just for the novel in technical fields; Maker Faire features innovation and experimentation across the spectrum of science, engineering, art, performance and craft” – Maker Faire website

The First Maker Faire was held in 2006 at San Mateo and attracted 20,000 people. Today, Maker Faires are held all over the world, with 151 events taking place in 2015 alone. Aware of the global shifts towards a maker driven economy, and eager to maintain their innovative edge, bigger corporations are now increasingly part of the Maker Faires. Companies like General Electric, Autodesk sponsor and, as in the case of Motorola, even collaborate with hardware startups like Makerbot.

The Bangalore Mini Maker Faire aims to be a community based learning event celebrating the Indian maker culture, with it’s unique perspectives, aesthetics and challenges. Be it robotics, games, gastronomical innovation, sustainability, textiles, apps or video, the Mini Maker Faire is a chance to climb aboard the Indian maker bandwagon and be a part of a global movement, one that Kevin Kelley has dubbed the “Third Industrial Revolution”.

If previous industrial movements were about creating silos and competition, the maker movement emphasizes and engenders collaboration. A fashion designer collaborates with an engineer to create a responsive dress, a homemaker and a 12 year old biology enthusiast work on bio-fabrication projects, the local police team up with security specialists, designers and android developers to create apps and devices for a safer city. The possibilities are endless.

If you’re a maker or think you might like to try your hand at being one, apply to participate before the 15th of September by sending an email to info(at)workbenchpojects.com

If you would like to support the maker community as a volunteer, sponsor (be it individual/ organization) feel free to email to info(at)workbenchprojects.com.

The Bengaluru Mini Maker Faire will take place on the 15th of October 2015 at the Taj Vivanta, Yeshwantpur.

Guest Post by Suvarchala Narayanan

Next BIG Idea Contest – Your Gateway to North America

Most of the tech businesses today, look at a global reach and expansion. However, it is difficult to achieve this without a strong network, and finances. Also, it does not help if you are an early stage technology startup from India, with a limited customer base – no matter however great the product is. The Next BIG Idea Contest provides an opportunity to tech startups from India, to tap into the most tech-savvy economy i.e, North America. While the US is always the big dream of several entrepreneurs, it is difficult to get there. At the same time, Toronto, Ontario, Canada presents an easier gateway to the larger North American market – being at the heart of the 300 Million strong Mid-West region. Being multi-cultural at heart, Ontario, Canada is open to businesses and entrepreneurs. Also, the cost of doing business is much lower. Abundant with talent, and having a strong pool of tech companies and startup incubators in the Greater Toronto Area, the region provides a great support ecosystem for tech startups to scale.

NBI 2015The Next BIG Idea Contest is a joint initiative of the Government of Ontario, Canada and Ryerson University, Toronto. The contest was conceptualized in 2013, with the objective of identifying promising tech startups from India, and showcasing them in Toronto; largely to provide a platform in North America for these startups, as well as to change the perception that India produces only IT services companies.

The contest is an application based process, where entries are evaluated on the basis of clarity of concept, innovativeness of the idea, development feasibility and the marketability of the product. The winners get selected based on 2 rounds of screening, further to which they are provided a soft-landing in North America, by spending 2 weeks at the DMZ, Canada’s No.1 startup incubator. The winners get exposed to Toronto’s startup ecosystem, get to meet potential partners, do corporate visits, interact with the investor community, business development support, and of-course a lot of startup meets.

The first year saw a minimal outreach, which led to only 23 entries coming in. While the competition was meagre, the winners we got were really good. CitrusPay was then a 15 member team, and was yet to raise its first round. Today, they stand at 180 employees and have raised a couple of rounds of venture funding from renowned firms. The other winners included Sokrati, an ad-tech startup from Pune (which incidentally chose not to go at the last minute), and Digital Ingenuity, a video-indexing startup from Ahmedabad. So, CitrusPay and Digital Ingenuity spent We didn’t even have a back-up for Sokrati because the entries were so poor! This was a massive learning for the contest, going forward.

In the 2nd year, having realised shortcomings from the previous edition, the contest adopted a strategy to work with partners. After all, it is an initiative for the ecosystem – so, collaboration was the way forward. We got great partners in CIIE-IIM Ahmedabad, Kyron Accelerator (Bangalore) and InvestoPad (Gurgaon). Additionally, IBM Global Entrepreneur Program coming on-board as a sponsor partner and the alliance with the NASSCOM 10,000 Startups Program & YourStory, made it a very strongly branded contest. The contest was launched in Mumbai, and roadshows were held at all partner locations. The results were there to see – 227 applications! A 10X jump over the previous edition. After 3 rounds of evaluation, we were left with the top 20 startups, and it was extremely difficult to choose the top-5. The ones that eventually made the cut were AdSparx (Pune), ShieldSquare (Bangalore), Konotor (Chennai), Flip Technologies (Kochi) and Vidooly (NCR). A really great bunch of promising startups. Vidooly recently raised $2.2Million from Bessemer Venture Partners, while AdSparx, ShieldSquare and Konotor have jointly raised in excess of $1.5Million. Flip Technologies went on to get selected by a hardware accelerator in Abu Dhabi. They are fantastic ambassadors for the Next BIG Idea Contest.

In 2015, Next BIG Idea Contest is back bigger than the last year. From 3 partners in 2014, the contest will be launched across 9 cities, with 7 city-based accelerator partners this year. The city-partners are CIIE (Ahmedabad & Pune), Microsoft Ventures (Bangalore), PayPal Start Tank (Chennai), IIIT-H (Hyderabad), Startup Village (Kochi), CIBA (Goa) and 91 Springboard (NCR). NASSCOM 10,000 Startups continues to remain the ecosystem partner, and YourStory as the startup media partner. AWS has replaced IBM as the sponsor partner.

This year, we look forward to an even stronger response from the startup ecosystem in India, and a multifold increase in the entries coming-in. We are excited to showcase the great talent and products emerging from India’s startup ecosystem, to North America; and become the contest to look out for, to startups wanting to enter the North American market.

Oh yeah, and by the way, the contest and the winners trip is fully sponsored. You just need to apply, and show up for the visit, if your startup is selected as a winner.

Guest blog post by Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Zone Startups

Three Things To Do Before You Launch Your SaaS Startup To Get InBound Leads

There are 3 items you should do quickly, if you are going to launch your SaaS startup or a new product that caters to a new audience.

First, get listed on SaaS marketplaces, Cloud Brokerage Services and Cloud listing providers.

There are over 120 SaaS marketplaces from telcos – AT&T,  T-Mobile and others, to large Cloud Service Providers (AWS, Google, Microsoft, etc.) and other large technology companies (Samsung, DELL, etc.) I would spend at least a few days making sure your SaaS solution gets listed in all these marketplaces under the right categories.

There are between 30 to 40 Cloud Brokerage Services, including Appia, App Carousel, AppDirect, Jamcracker, Appirio, Cloud Nation. Here is a more comprehensive list.

Then ensure that you list on Cloud listing providers such as Capterra, G2Crowd, GetApp, etc. Here is a comprehensive list of Cloud Listing Providers.

Second, focus on Marketplace Listing Optimization (MLO). Like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and App Store Optimization (ASO), MLO will help you rank higher, which drives leads.

How do you Optimize for marketplace listing: Get real customers to review your products, ensure that you are listed in the right categories, Use the right keywords in your description, show screen shots of your application and showcase a good video for demos. I will detail this more in tomorrow’s post.

Third, optimize your customer on-boarding process for these providers. Find out their rake, the incentive cut-off structure and renewal discount rate. Ensure that a customer coming from these solutions is able to be measured, can setup their account quickly and can easily get the first few “tasks”done on your platform.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it!

India is interestingly poised today. About half of India’s 1.25billion people are under the age of 25 and by 2020, India will be the world’s youngest country with an average age of 29. According to the World Bank, India’s will overtake China to become the world’s fastest growing big economy by 2017-18. The scale of opportunity – and of course the challenge – in India is unprecedented. Millions of jobs have to be created in the coming years. Wealth has to be created. At an increasing pace and in   an ever changing world.

It is clear to all, including the government, that technology will play an ever more important role in the future. The inevitability of that fact is slowly but surely seeping into the consciousness of all decision makers at all levels. That technology needs to be embraced and leveraged in improving the lives of Indians.

New technologies and platforms are rapidly emerging – e.g., IoT, Mobile/Smart phones, Cloud, Aadhar, Payments – that can and will have profound impact on how we as a country think about the next 5-10years. Our future.

It is clear that continuing to do what we’ve done since 1947 isn’t going to get us far into the future.

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it” and “Change is the only constant” are two popular adages usually bandied about in seminars, corporate-speak, by VC s and successful entrepreneurs! What’s left unsaid are – how do I invent the future? How do I deal with change? And from there on to, what are the possible futures? What are the possible changes? What’s causing them? How will different industries like Financial Services, Retail, Healthcare be likely impacted?

These are the tough questions. Successful entrepreneurs, investors, corporations, academics and governments spend – or, need to spend – a lot of time thinking about such issues.

What are new ways of framing the potential and overcoming these challenges? What is unique about India and what solutions and resources can be shared from around the world? How can India utilize the enormous, young and entrepreneurial energy to craft scalable solutions to impact lives? What are the emerging global megatrends that can be harnessed that will enable India to leapfrog decades of inefficiency and empower people?

We have done this before: From mainframe computing to client-server. From land line to mobile. From paper based to digital identity.

Can we do this again across multiple areas? What will it take?

Answers will be found through debate and discussion by various stakeholders invested in the India of a new India– government, thought leaders, practitioners, entrepreneurs, executives among others. A forum for learning, discussing, debating, sharing of ideas of a future impacted by technology would be very impactful. To catalyse conversations, connections and collaborations that would help provide the answers to the questions.

A journey of a million miles begins with a single step. It is time for that 1st meaningful step to be taken!

LeapFrogTIE LEAPFROG. AUGUST 21ST 2015. ITC GARDENIA BANGALORE. http://www.tieleapfrog.in/

The first 5 steps to building your own SaaS application

This post is for non developer founders who want to build a SaaS application.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a relatively small market – at $19 Billion in total revenues, it seems large, but compared to $250 Billion of the overall software market it seems minuscule. It has grown from nothing to this large number in the last 10 years. Similar to the eCommerce market, which seems large but is less than 15% of overall retail, the opportunities will start to be in the niches is my prediction.

The big question is when and how will it grow and where are the opportunities. While there are many specialist firms focusing on SaaS alone, the incumbent software companies (the largest of who are Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, etc.) are also making their own investments to move their businesses from selling licensed software to services.

One of the key opportunities I see is that ability for smaller, niche markets to be targeted using SaaS. Since the deployment model, time to value and cost are so much lower now than 10 years ago,  it is easy to build a niche product that can gain rapid fan following among the target customers and *if that customer base* does grow and end up having more budget it can be a lucrative market.

I do get the question often about the steps to build a SaaS business. Even if you dont intend to build a Venture funded business, the economics of SaaS are determined by cost of customer acquisition (CAC) and cost of servicing the customer (developing, operating and maintaining the software).

What I am increasingly starting to see is that most prototypes are either built by a developer founder, or outsourced (by a non technical founder) to “prove that the market exists“.

1. The first step I’d recommend before you start development, is to sign up 15-20 beta customers. Target people you know well who will stick through your crappy alpha, beta and version 1, so you can convince them that the value does exist when you iterate quickly.

For early beta customers, there are many techniques you can use including: a) setting up a launch page and promoting that launch page on social media b) setting up a launch page and buying Google adwords to drive signups and following up with signups via email c) blogging about the topic to share what you know about that market d) interviewing influential users before you launch or e) setup an email newsletter of great content for that industry and have many potential users subscribe to that newsletter.

2. The next step is to create an activity model and user flows.

This step is to ensure that you can know exactly what are the top 3 features you need to implement first which will make your product “must have” to solve the problem for your users.

In fact if you can identify the top feature (just one) that people will come back and use everyday, you should be good to go to the next step. Validate the top feature with your beta customer list, so you are building what they will use.

3. The next step is to create a mockup using wireframes. These are typically good to show the screens your user will go through and the experience as well. I would get a lot of feedback on the list of steps and screens before I build the prototype.

Typically in your first pass stick to under 7 screens would be my suggestion. That’s enough for a 45 second to 1 min “demo” and should give your users a feel for what the app will do. If they ask you for “one” feature that matters more to them than the ones you have, dont mock it up yet, but put it on your list until you have enough users interested.

4. Design your database schema. A database schema is good to share with your developers entities that exist in your application and what their relationship are. I tend to use DB Schema or just Freemind to show to fields without the datatypes.

5. Understand and select your “stack”. Even if you want to outsource your application development I’d recommend you talk to a few developer friends who can educate you on the stacks they use – what the front end languages and libraries would be, what the back end language would be and the database options. You will be more confident when you talk to your outsourcing company and also be able to help make tradeoffs when you need them.