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Geeks with Dilli Wallas

Geeks on a Plane (#GOAP) is an invite-only tour for startups, investors, and executives to learn about burgeoning technology markets worldwide. #GOAP is headed to India and after visiting Bangalore & Mumbai the geeks will be visiting Delhi from 27th to 2nd March ’13. We (91Springboard, ProductNation & Moonlighting) are hosting #GOAP while they are in Delhi. Come join us to meet the #GOAP team, most awesome startups & entrepreneurs in Delhi-NCR and other cool folks accompanied with a light lunch on 28th Feb ’13 from 11am to 2pm.

Geeks on a Plane (#GOAP) is program initiated by 500 Startups, a startup accelerator from Silicon Valley. Through this initiative, founders Dave McClure and Christen O’Brien travel to technology markets with geeks and startup enthusiasts. The participants come from companies like GE, Wahooly, XG Ventures, SoftLayer, JESS3, Qualcomm Ventures, SendGrid, Google and more.

Tentative agenda:
1100 – 1115 hrs – Welcome & Introductions
1115 – 1130 hrs – Talk by Dave McClure – Go Local or Go Global (or both)
1130 – 1145 hrs – Talk by Sharad Sharma, Co-Founder, iSPIRT – Surfing the Innovation Wave
1145 – 1245 hrs – Lessons Learnt from Product Startups in Emerging Economies – Ambarish Gupta (Knowlarity), Aloke Bajpai (iXIGO), Kavin Bharti Mittal (Hike) Ketan Kapoor (Mettl), Paras Chopra (Visual Website Optimiser), Rajat Garg(SocialAppsHQ); Moderated by Kunal Bajaj – Advisor, iSPIRT Founder Circle
1245 – 1400 hrs – Networking Over Light Lunch with the Geeks

Venue: 91springboard

Entry free: Rs 500. Register Online. We have very limited seats, please do register online by filling up the form and we will confirm your participation. Here is an opportunity to meet and interact with the geeks. Register now to avoid disappointment. No on-site registrations will be allowed.

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I didn’t have a Job, when I graduated. But, I was clear about Entrepreneurship – The iXiGo Story

It was an early December late afternoon that Avinash and I got together to interview Aloke Bajpai, the Co-Founder and CEO of iXiGO – one of India’s most loved travel websites. Whether you are trying to save an extra rupee by comparing air fares across portals or planning your next trip with that saved money, Aloke’s iXiGO will GO with you.

As I sat in the reception area waiting for Aloke and Avinash, a board with many yellow colored A4 size posters caught my eye. It was actually a timeline that told the story of iXiGO. Starting from 2006, the sequence of posters talked about the many successes iXiGo achieved over the years. It looked easy. Or was it? It was time for the real behind-the-posters story.

Listen to Aloke’s story(Podcast) of perseverance as he describes his tumultuous iXiGO journey in this exclusive podcast brought to you by the good people at ProductNation.

Aloke’s fling with entrepreneurship began in a business plan competition while he was still studying electrical engineering at IIT Kanpur. It took the 2000 dotcom bubble burst to get him onto the conventional job path.  Starting a career with Amadeus – a European technology travel company – Aloke realized in a few years that work wasn’t exciting. He says, he was done with code. And as he puts it, he took the “Indian Solution” of doing an MBA.  It was at INSEAD that he decided to take a serious shot at entrepreneurship taking courses pertaining to entrepreneurship and was lucky to find an iXiGO advisor in his Professor – Patrick Turner.

Aloke’s stints at Amadeus and INSEAD seem scripted, for it is here that he met his co-founders Rajneesh (Amadeus and IIT Kanpur) and Yash (INSEAD).

In the podcast, Aloke talks in a free spirited way about how one fine day – he just left his job. A quick move to Gurgaon was followed by figuring out what to really do and how iXiGO came about. He shares how his INSEAD batchmates seeded the idea on good faith and how a brave trip to Singapore got them their first serious investor – William Klippgen. This after their idea had been politely refused many times over (read as no response) by a number of angels and VC’s. Hear from Aloke the sense of exultation when they did get their first smart money.

Good times don’t last long so much so for the King of Good Times. The 2008 credit crisis and a renegade potential investor almost brought iXiGO to the brink. iXiGO not only survived but grew stronger since none of the employees left after the consensual 50% pay cuts. iXiGO’s business model was validated during that time as travelers were looking for best deals using price comparison.

These days iXiGO is busy with the Travel Planner. Aloke describes how the idea came about and how they leveraged a set of early adopters to fine tune their market offering?

When it comes to team building, Aloke’s been a success. He stresses the importance of being transparent, involving the team in creating and owing new initiatives and gives some sound reasons why each employee needs to read all customer feedback. This man is sure going places.

Don’t miss the podcast. The secret is right there. If you have a 55 minute car drive, look no further, you have got the perfect companion – Aloke Bajpai of iXiGO on your car music system. Just in case, you don’t, check out the iXiGO trip planner for some 55 minute drive options.