Startup City Asia's Largest Event for Startups held in Bangalore Date:   Monday , July 02, 2012 Startup City, Asia's largest startup event culminated in Bangalore on June 2, 2012. The event which gave budding entrepreneurs a rare opportunity to explore new and upcoming genres of idea implementation was a roaring success. The 11th edition of startup city was an enriching experience for entrepreneurs. It aimed at helping them identify the next steps to success. A powerful keynote, informative panel discussions like 'The E-commerce Wave: Where does it go from here?', Entrepreneurial keynote like 'Concept to Success: Milestones for startups' close knit interactions with successful entrepreneurs made Startup City the perfect event for entrepreneurs to learn important life lessons. They also got the golden opportunity to build lasting connections with the who's who of the entrepreneurial world A power packed day, it was marked by informative discussions on New Paths to Online Revenue: Journey of Internet Entrepreneurs, Meet the VC’s section and CEO Conclave, attracted more than 5000 active participants across the space, star engineers who build cutting edge technology products, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and angel Investors. Ashok Soota, Founder & Executive Chairman of Happiest Minds gave away a powerful keynote on "Beginning a Successful Entrepreneurial Journey" explaining the intricacies of entrepreneurial equation. Soota gave an insight on the 5 important factors for success: creating a strategy, organization building, experience, identifying the weakest links and timing being the key. He also touched upon the three things to avoid. Soota said, "Don’t bet on the company, don’t ever use inappropriate means to get ahead and don't get carried away with early success or get disappointment with early failures." 'Meet The VC' section gave promising startups and aspiring entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch their ideas to venture capitalists and angel investors. Some of the leading VC firms like Canaan Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Indo U.S. Venture Partners, Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, Inventus Capitals and some of the angel funds like Seedfund, Mumbai Angels, KITVEN Funds, Indian Angel Network spent time with entrepreneurs and gave them valuable advice. Best Startup Awards: Startup City had 60 promising startups present their companies in the ‘Elevator Pitch Competition' to bag the prestigious ‘Best Startup Award 2012' under four different categories: Internet, Services, Products and Mobile. The jury comprising of VCs, Angel Investors and eminent Corporate investors evaluated the presentations by startups based on business and strategic elements like company overview, market opportunity, the team, solution value proposition, competitive positioning, growth plans, go-to-market plan, current status and investment prospects that determined the prospective future of an enterprise. CEO Conclave: 'Best Practices of building technology companies in India’ facilitated an informal discussion amongst the panelists about what works, what doesn't work, potential pitfalls and other challenges for startups. "You cannot do it. Every one told us the same thing. But, we ignored them all. And now we have eventually grown from serving 100 ads per day to over a billion ads that we are doing now," said Mukul Kumar, Co Founder of Pubmatic who moderated the panel. Sangeeta Patni, Co Founder and President of Extensio software, who addressed the crowd with her tips about best company practices said, "Evolve your strategies as you grow on from an infant to toddler to a company ready to play with big boys." After their free talks about the specific areas of concerns of a startup and entrepreneurs, the panel which also included Vivek Kulkarni, Chairman of Brickwork India, Manav Garg, Co Founder & CEO of Eka Software and Kailash Katkar, Founder & CEO of Quick Heal Technologies was open to questions from the audience. VC Panel: Budding entrepreneurs are always looking for an insight into a VC's investment decisions. The panel on 'Opportunities for entrepreneurs in 2012 & Best Advice to get funded in current environment' moderated by Sumir Verma, Merisis Capital Advisors tried to bring out the best suggestions for the entrepreneurs from each VC present in the panel. "When we are investing, one of the key parameters for consideration is the team. Their past experiences, how well is it organized and their rapport within themselves must be impressive," said Rahul Khanna from Canaan partners, when asked about his view on the key behind an investment. Ravindra Krishnappa from Indian Angel Network said, "Focus on specific areas that you plan to work on." Mohan Kumar, Executive Director at Norwest Venture Partners and Kumar Shiralagi, MD of IndoUS Venture Partners were among the other panelists who answered questions posed by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial Keynote: 'People in a company will do as per the culture you set. Culture is the unwritten bible which one covey's through one's actions and not policy's", said Vinay Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO of Via in the panel 'Concept to Success: Milestones For Startups'. Gupta was joined by two other eminent entrepreneurs Sunny Ghosh, CEO, WOLF Frameworks and Bikky Khosla, Founder & CEO, Tradeindia.com to talk on the topic. 'Focus on the right problems, make sure they are genuine needs and do not be afraid of taking risks' they concluded. The exhibit area had about 60 booths showcasing live product demos, best-of-breed solutions showcased at the stalls which implemented cutting edge technologies. The booths proved to be the perfect technology transfer and a ‘mingle box’ to get the startup ideas across to the interested attendees. The event was a platform which helped yield some powerful results in terms of deal closures, recognition of Best Startups and bridging the gap between aspiring entrepreneurs and potential investors.