Speaker Bio:  

Shoaib Ahmed
President, Tally Solutions
An entrepreneur with demonstrated ability to tackle tough business and management challenges, he has an innate ability to inspire people, and lead through confidence, logic and fair play. Shoaib was Founder-Director of Vedha Automations Pvt Ltd., where he developed a rich, two-decade long experience empowering businesses via the market-leading retail business solution he created—Shoper. He was instrumental in Vedha’s merger with Tally, successfully managing the transition of the team and the domain expertise to Tally Solutions. At Tally, as Vice President—Sales, he brought fresh impetus to the sales organisation, managed all products and services for India, and captained Tallys most successful product upgrade programme, setting an unequalled sales record in the process. In his current role as the President, Shoaib focuses on integrating diverse teams for a positive work environment and optimum output. He’s steered customer management, marketing and communications, partner management, new products—from incubation to launch, strategic alliances, overtures to key market segments including Chartered Accountants, and verticalisation…all as Executive sponsor. Shoaib is an Arts and Law graduate and an alumnus of St. Josephs College in Bangalore. He has completed a post-Graduate programme on Strategic Management from IIM –Calcutta. Shoaib plays tennis and is learning the Tabla.
Manav Garg
CEO & Founder, Eka Software
Manav Garg is the CEO & Founder of Eka Software Solutions, a leader in Commodity Trade and Risk Management (CTRM) Software. He is the driving force behind Eka’s innovative product portfolio and is responsible for its global business strategy and growth. The experience as a trader with G Premjee presented him with a unique opportunity to nurture his inherent entrepreneurial instinct. Employing his in-depth knowledge of commodity markets and insights into the shortfalls of the technology that prevailed, Manav founded Eka in the year 2004, with venture capital funding. Since then, Manav has worked towards his vision of creating a world-class Indian software product company which provides One Solution. One View for the global CTRM space. Today Eka, that serves the global market, has proven its expertise through significant growth in revenues, profitability, customer base and employees. Eka has also received numerous accolades from the industry, most notably the NASSCOM Innovation Award in the “Best Market Facing Innovation - Business Model & Business Process” category at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2010, Nasscom Emerge Products 2009 Award, for two years running (2009 & 2010) listed in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 and Silicon India 100. Born in 1974, Manav earned a degree in Instrumentation and Control engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar. He completed his MBA from IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade), Delhi.
Mukul Kumar
Co-Founder - Vice President Engineering, PubMatic
Mukul Kumar is the Co-Founder & Senior Vice President Engineering at PubMatic. PubMatic, an online advertising company that helps premium publishers maximize their revenue and protect their brands online, has its Research & Development center in Pune. Mukul is responsible for PubMatics Engineering team and resides in Pune, India. Mukul was previously the Director of Engineering at PANTA Systems, a high-performance computing startup. Previous to that he joined VERITAS India as the 13th employee and helped it grow to over 2,000 individuals. Mukul has filed for 14 patents in systems software, storage software, and application software. Mukul is a graduate of IIT Kharagpur with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Mukul is very passionate about technology, and building world-class teams. His interests include architecting scalable and high-performance web-applications, handling and mining massive amounts of data and system & storage architecture. You can reach him at mukul@pubmatic.com.
Rajnish
Founder, Althea Systems
In his 16 year career, Rajnish has been associated with companies such as Microsoft, ESPN, Times of India and AMUL. At Althea Systems, Rajnish drives consumer marketing, monetization, business strategy and biz dev.
Vivek Mansingh
President- Collaboration & Communications Group, Cisco India
Dr. Vivek Mansingh is the President, Communication & Collaboration Group at Cisco India. His prior stints were as the Country Head, Dell India R & D Center and MD, Portal Software India. He holds a Ph.D from Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada and has done his Executive Business Management Program from Stanford University. He completed his engineering from NIT Allahabad, (Awarded GOLD Medal).He is listed as an honored professional in “National Who’s Who for the United States,” in 2000. He is a Charter Member of TiE. Sought after for speaking engagements on “Leadership” at various companies and Universities across the world. He hold 6 US patents, invented an instrument, patented it and licensed the technology to Cambridge Accusense, Boston. He has published more than 100 technical papers.
Shouvick Mukherjee
VP & CEO, Yahoo India R&D
Shouvick is an internet industry veteran responsible for driving Yahoo!s R&D strategy in India. Under his leadership, India has emerged to become the 2nd largest R&D hub for Yahoo! globally, and the largest outside the US. Shouvick has been with Yahoo! for more than 10 years. After spending initial years at Yahoo!s headquarter in Sunnyvale, he moved to Bangalore and played a key role in leading development of numerous internet products and technologies in the area of - advertising, listings, media, data systems, platforms etc. His penchant for innovation has led the center to now contribute 1/3rd of IPs for Yahoo! globally. Prior to Yahoo! Shouvick worked in large multinationals across US, Europe and India.
Joe Fernandes
Member, Indian Angel Network
Joe joined Total Environment as CEO in July 2006, with the objective of scaling the company, within India (for the real estate construction and development business), and globally.He also served as the Managing Principal of the India office of Everest Group, where he was responsible for directing business relations and consulting in India. During his tenure at Everest, Joe has advised on more than $5 billion of outsourcing and offshoring transactions spanning North America, Central and South America, Europe, UK, China and India. Prior to joining Everest, Joe was a consultant with McKinsey and Company in New York and New Delhi, where he had extensive experience in leading high-impact consulting engagements serving clients in the US, India, Canada, and Europe. Joe started his career as an operations manager, with Eicher, a leading commercial automotive manufacturer in New Delhi. He has completed his MBA (Finance and Systems emphasis), from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India; and his Bachelor of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.
Ankur Gulati
Analyst, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Ankur Gulati is an Analyst at Draper Fisher Jurvetson and focuses on investments in India. Prior to joining Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Ankur worked as a consultant with McKinsey and Co. in Mumbai where he worked with senior management teams of corporate clients in telecommunications, infrastructure and metals and mining sectors. He was one of the lead co-authors of a McKinsey Global Institute publication on India’s urbanization and continues to remain active in the field. He currently acts as an advisor to McKinsey’s Social Sector Practice in India and is a member of Bombay First. Ankur holds a BS and MS in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai, where he was awarded the SD Sharma Gold Medal. Ankur is an avid follower of FC Barcelona and loves to play soccer in his spare time.
Ranjith Menon
Vice President, IDG Ventures India
Ranjith has over 10 years of industry experience including 4 years of venture investing experience. Prior to joining IDG Ventures India, Ranjith worked with Infotech Enterprises, Indias premier Design Engineering and GIS Company. As Manager-Marketing he played a role in conceptualizing and launching new service offerings for the Aerospace vertical, which is one of the largest offshore Aerospace practices out of India. Earlier in his career he has served as a stress test engineer at Infotech Enterprises and also gained shop floor experience at Bharat Earth Movers Limited, Indias largest earth moving equipment manufacturers. Ranjith is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). He holds a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore University and an MBA from the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.
Venkatesh Peddi
Assistant Vice President, IDG Ventures India
Venkatesh has over 9 years of industry experience including over 3 years of venture investing experience. Prior to joining IDG Ventures India, Venkatesh was Deputy Vice President at Reliance Venture Asset Management - the corporate venture capital arm of Reliance ADA Group. Venkatesh was involved in executing multiple end-to-end investments and was a board member at Gradatim IT Ventures and a board observer at Suvidhaa Infoserve and Pelago Inc. Venkatesh was earlier an Account Manager in Investment Banking division of Adventity, a leading KPO player, where he advised deal teams of leading investment banks at various deal stages. Venkatesh later moved to Adventity Inc., New York, to take up roles involving close client interaction, while being promoted on a fast track basis from an Analyst to Manager within 10 months. Prior to Adventity, as Assistant Manager at Blue Star Infotech, Venkatesh helped in structuring deals and M&A activities of the firm. Venkatesh is an active CFA charterholder from the CFA institute, USA and holds a Bachelors degree in engineering from VJTI, Mumbai and a Masters degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), where he was consistently among the top 10 candidates registered for the program.
Pavan Krishnamurthy
Partner, Ojas Ventures
Pavan has over 15 years experience across various industries such as early stage investing, consulting, venture advisory, research etc. In the recent past, he has worked with Nadathur Holdings and Investments (an early stage venture capital firm focused on technology & life sciences ventures), SRW Advisors (an advisory & mentor capital firm that worked with entrepreneurial ventures in areas such as strategy, business model/plan development, finance, mentoring etc) and Syndicated Research Group (US based research advisory firm that provided research advisory services to senior executives of Fortune 500 companies in the domains of Human Capital Strategies and Corporate Finance Strategies). In the past, Pavan has also worked as a CFO for two venture backed companies in the domain of internet applications and media besides stints with Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse in their Assurance and Advisory practices. Pavan is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics, Economics & Statistics. Pavan is a keen student of philosophy/mysticism and is helping couple of not for profit organizations in this space
Amitabh Shrivastava
Member, Indian Angel Network member
Amitabh Shrivastava runs an angel stage investment firm called Rhombus Investments, since 2007. Rhombus Investments has a diverse portfolio of investments, ranging from IT, ITES, Robotic Solutions, Medical Diagnostics, HR, Hospitality and Real Estate. Currently, Amitabh is on the board of some of these companies in exec and in non-exec capacities. Apart from making investments, Amitabh works with the management teams of his investee companies to strategize and develop unique competitive advantage in the market. Amitabh actively looks for new investments and M&A opportunities, and has access to vast network of co-investors, buyers of business, solution providers, human capital, etc. Prior to 2007, Amitabh held senior positions with HCL, Infosys, and Xansa.
Shailesh Lakhani
Vice President, Sequoia Capital
Shailesh is a Vice President with Sequoia Capital India. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital India, Shailesh worked at Redknee’s India subsidiary as the Managing Director and previously was Head of the Global Professional Services Group and held Product Management leadership roles. Previously, he consulted for Microsoft India and Tata Sons. He received an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and a BASC in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Abhijeet Muzumdar
Senior Associate, Bessemer Venture Partners
Abhijeet Muzumdar, a senior associate with BVP India in Mumbai, joined the firm in 2009. He focuses on the financial-services and e-commerce sectors and has been closely involved with a number of investments. Abhijeet was closely involved with the firms investments in Home First Finance Company and Dhanalaxmi Bank, among others. Prior to joining Bessemer, Abhijeet was a senior manager at Edelweiss Capital, where he worked on the investment-banking team. He advised clients on raising private capital and on M&A. During his tenure at Edelweiss, he was one of the key members of the team that advised on Aegis BPO’s acquisition of PeopleSupport, one of the largest Indian M&A transactions in the ITeS sector. Among other projects, he advised SpiceJet Limited, India’s leading low-cost air carrier, to raise private capital and advised Spentex Industries to raise capital through India’s first Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP). Prior to Edelweiss, he worked in New York with KPMGs corporate-finance team and in investment banking at UBS. Abhijeet holds a bachelors of commerce degree from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce & Economics and an MBA from Adelphi University’s Hagedorn School of Business, where he was on the dean’s list. He also holds a masters of commerce from the University of Mumbai.
Vishesh Rajaram
Investment Manager, Venture East
Vishesh is a finance professional, managing Ventureast’s investments from the Proactive Fund. He has been involved in deals in the consumer internet, infrastructure, mobile value added services, industrial enzymes, semiconductors, direct marketing and consumer loyalty management sectors. With Ventureast since early 2007, Vishesh has worked with more than hundred entrepreneurs assessing their business models and assisting them in the process. A chartered account by profession, Vishesh advises portfolio companies in routine and strategic finance matters, mergers and acquisitions, and even in business development. He led the acquisition of Loyalty Rewards by eYantra; played a key role in Vysr, a web services company, gaining access to Indian internet firms and leveraging the India advantage; and routinely helps other early stage portfolio companies like Richcore in their business development efforts.
Rahul Chowdri
Vice President, Helion Ventures
Prior to joining Helion in 2007, Rahul Chowdhri had 9 years of experience working in strategy consulting, business planning, software product management and project execution roles in India and US. Rahul was a Group Program Manager at Microsoft India. Between 2005 and early 2007, Rahul led the Microsoft Dynamics product planning and Office Live program management team. At Microsoft, Rahul also helped develop business strategy to build a web and mobile based business targeted towards Indian small businesses. Prior to this, Rahul was an Associate Director at marketRx Inc., based out of New Jersey. At marketRx, Rahul was involved in business planning & development, running operations as well as managing the product for market research focused business unit. Before joining marketRx, Rahul was a Senior Product Manager at i2 Technologies in Dallas. At i2, Rahul managed product features and handled key customer accounts for Distributed Order Management & Event Management products.Between 1998 and late 2000, Rahul was a Management Consultant at Boston Consulting Group in India.
Vani Kola
Managing Director, IndoUS Venture Partners
Vani is the Managing Director of IndoUS Venture Partners (IUVP), an early-stage venture capital firm, focused on enabling world-class entrepreneurship in India. IUVP is recognized as a leading early-stage VC Fund in India, with 26 investments across sectors in technology-enabled companies. Vani co-founded IUVP and moved back to India in 2006 to set up the Fund’s operations. Vani’s personal commitment to excellence and integrity influences her approach to building companies, delivering returns and empowering people. Vani serves on the boards of VIA, SeventyMM, Myntra, Jasper, Apalya and India Plaza. Prior to founding IUVP, Vani has a distinguished entrepreneurial background. She holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering. Vani is active in developing the entrepreneurial eco-system in India. She is a prominent speaker at various events, business plan competitions around the country. Vani has been profiled in numerous books. Outside of enjoying building high growth companies and fostering entrepreneurship, her interests focus on raising her two daughters and musing about finding the perfect balance between work and family. She is involved in various organizations focused on fostering entrepreneurship and women leadership
Vikram Shah
President and Director, NetApp
Vikram Shah is the President of Network Appliance (NetApp) Operations in India.Vikram’s management career spans more than three decades. He has worked in India and abroad holding senior management positions with Novell, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata InfoTech Ltd, Tech Mahindra and Tata—IBM. A past Chairman of Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and an active member of American Chamber of Commerce, Vikram has considerable visibility in the Indian IT world. He actively participates in numerous trade organizations. He was a member of Karnataka Chief Minister&rsquot;s Task Force of Information Technology and also a member of Board for IT Education Standards (BITES). Vikram is honorary board member of start up companies, mentoring the entrepreneurs.Vikram’s professional education spans both Indian and U.S. institutions. Vikram has received B.E. in Electric and Electronics engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani.
Samir Kumar
Managing Director, Inventus Capital
Samir has been an early-stage venture investor in India since 2001. Prior to co-founding Inventus, along with Kanwal Rekhi and another partner, Samir led the India venture investing team for Acer Technology Ventures, where he made early-stage investments in the technology space. Prior to his venture capital career, Samir spent 15+ years in the IT industry in India in various sales, marketing and product management roles. He started his working career with Computer Point in 1986, before moving onto Wipro Infotech in 1988, where he spent 10+ years. Samir then spent 2 ½ years with Planetasia from 1999-2001. Samir is an active Charter Member of Tie Bangalore, where he has been elected to the Governing Body. Samir earned his B.Tech from IIT-Bombay in 1984 and an MBA from IIM, Bangalore in 1986, where he was awarded the Best All-Round Outgoing student.
Alok Mittal
Managing Director, Canaan India
With a broad range of hands-on experience founding, funding and supporting early-stage technology companies, Alok Mittal joined Canaan India in March 2006. Alok focuses on investments in digital media and mobile companies, as well as innovators in managed software services and other IT enabled businesses. Prior to joining the venture industry, Alok co-founded JobsAhead.com, a leading web-based recruitment business, which was acquired by Monster.com, the global leader in online recruitment. He also brings strong Telecom experience to Canaan having worked for Hughes Software Systems prior to that. Alok is also a co-founder of Indian Angel Network, and on the board of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) in Delhi. During the course of his association with Canaan India, he advised Canaan Partners in their investment in Bharat Matrimony, iYogi, Cellcast, UnitedLex, Chakpak and MotorExchange. Alok earned a BE in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and a MS in computer science from UC Berkeley.
Sanjay Anandram
Managing Director, JumpStartUp Fund Advisors
Sanjay Anandaram has more than twenty two years of experience as an entrepreneur, investor and corporate executive. As a passionate advocate of entrepreneurship, he is a mentor, board member and occasional angel investor in startups in India and the US. Sanjay is a founding partner of JumpStartUp Venture Fund. Prior to JumpStartUp, Sanjay co-founded Neta, a Silicon Valley VC backed internet personalization software company where he wrote the business plan, drove business development and early customer adoption till it became a part of Infoseek/Disney. He returned to India in 1999 and started Venturekatalyst Indias first e-magazine aimed at entrepreneurs.Earlier Sanjay spent close to a decade in Wipro (NYSE: WIT) by starting his IT career in the 80s in sales in Eastern India. Subsequently, he set up operations in Middle East and Africa for Wipro products and then for OEM businesses in the Far East. He was also involved in the creation and establishment of several pioneering businesses and cross-border business models involving both startup and F500 companies in the US and India. These included businesses in healthcare SI, product engineering, distribution and OEM sales. Sanjay writes for the Wall Street Journal (India Chief Mentor), The Financial Express and various magazines and blogs. He is a Charter member of TiE Bangalore, is a member of NASSCOM initiatives in innovation and entrepreneurship, an advisor to NSRCEL-IIMB.
Ashwin Raguraman
Vice President, Innovation Fund
Ashwin Raguraman is currently Vice President, India Innovation Fund, an early stage venture capital fund supporting innovative start-ups in the ICT and Life Science & healthcare sectors. At the India Innovation Fund, Ashwin Raguraman is responsible for initiating deal flows, fundraising, evaluating start-ups for investment and supporting portfolio companies. In his earlier role at NASSCOM, Ashwin headed the Innovation Initiative and was entrusted with a mandate to increase innovation in the Indian Information Technology Industry. Apart from playing an instrumental role in the creation and operationalization of the India Innovation Fund, he was also responsible for the creation of a Special Interest Group on Embedded Systems and an Auto Component-Information Technology cluster. He also led the NASSCOM Innovation Awards program, which recognized the most innovative companies in the ICT sector. Ashwin has earlier played business and operational roles at Wipro Technologies and Maersk, Singapore. Ashwin has been a member of a Government committee, the SIP-EIT committee to evaluate start-ups for providing funding for International patents and the CII committee on Security and Imaging. By education, he holds degrees in Mechanical and marine Engineering and a masters in business studies.
Rajan Mehra
Venture Parnter, Clearstone Venture Advisors
Rajan Mehra is a Venture Partner at Clearstone Venture Advisors, where he focuses on identifying consumer focused opportunities in technology, internet and tech-enabled services. He sits on the Board of Directors of a number of market leading Indian internet companies including Billdesk, Games2Win, Motorexchange and Quikr. Prior to Clearstone, Rajan was Country Manager at eBay India and a member of the eBay Asia Pacific Leadership Team. While at eBay, Rajan ensured continued market leadership for eBay in India. He was also responsible for incubating the eBay India Motors Marketplace, Indias first b2b marketplace for used vehicles and for setting-up PaisaPay, eBay India’s proprietary safe payment service. Prior to eBay, Rajan spent a number of years in various operating roles and was a member of the management team of Baazee.com, a start-up that was acquired by eBay. Rajan has been actively involved in industry forums such as the IAMAI (Internet & Mobile Association of India) where he was a member of the Governing Council and was chair of FICCIs eBusiness Committee in 2007. He sits on the Board of Directors of Quikr.com, an online local classifieds start-up. Rajan graduated with a Bachelors degree from the Sydenham College, Mumbai, and has an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.
Kumar Shiralagi
Managing Director, IndoUS Venture Partners
Kumar Shiralagi is a Managing Director at IndoUS Venture Partners (IUVP), based in Bangalore, India. Prior to joining IUVP in 2007, he was the head of Intel Capital India, the venture capital group responsible for Indian investments. As the Country Director, he drove Intels India investments and had a very successful run in making and managing investments and Exits. Notable companies in the portfolio were NIIT, Subex Systems, Futuresoft, R-systems, IndiaInfoline etc. and past Boards he has served on include Sasken Communications, Tejas Networks, Sharekhan, Nipuna, Deccanet, Real Image Media Technologies to name a few. Prior to joining Intel in 2003, he was the cofounder and Chief Operating Officer of Lytek Corporation in Arizona. He has worked in Motorola in various areas ranging from technology development to corporate strategy and investments. After completing his Engineering in Electronics and Communications from National institute of Technology (formerly KREC), Karnataka, he worked in Electronics and Radar Development in 1984-85 in Bangalore. He earned his PhD and MS in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University and an MBA from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management. He has published over 60 papers in international journals and conferences, has 23 issued US patents, is a senior member of IEEE and a Charter member of TiE Bangalore.
Gaurav Saraf
Director, Epiphany
Gaurav launched his fund, Epiphany Ventures, focused on investing in early stage companies in late 2008.He started his career working as a consultant at Diamond Technology Partners Inc. (DTPI), a strategy consulting company, headquartered in Chicago. At DTPI, Gaurav gained experience in a wide range of disciplines and sectors, including retail, e-commerce, knowledge management, merger integrations, etc.After his return to India, in 2004, Gaurav founded a business in the mining sector. He exited the business through a trade sale in 2007. He also serves as the Vice-President, M&A for the Facor Group, which has a turnover of over $250 million. Most recently, he has been actively involved in guiding Epiphanys portfolio companies: iLevel Solutions, a software company catering to large financial institutions, in which he has co-invested with Blackstone - and MotorExchange - an online auto auction and content business, which has sold Rs. 1000 cr worth of automobiles in its first year of operations.Gaurav is a Tie Charter Member, has a B.Sc in Electrical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania, and M.Sc in Finance from City University, London.
Subrata Mitra
Partner, Accel Partners
Before joining Accel in 2008, Subrata was a Partner at Erasmic Venture Fund. At Accel he focuses on Technology & Internet sectors. Subrata has served on the Boards of Small-device (now a part of Digital Chocolate and Mu Sigma; he is currently on the Boards of Perfint, Chakpak, Flipkart, Myntra and enStage. Prior to Erasmic, Subrata was MD, India, for Tavant Technologies, Inc., a US based Mortgage Solutions Company, which was acquired by privately held Ameriquest Mortgage Capital in 2004 (Ameriquest has since merged into CitiCapital). Previously, Subrata was the Founder at Firewhite, Inc., which was acquired by Ubiquio, Inc., and later merged into Mobile Planet. Subrata started his career at IBMs prestigious T.J. Watson and Santa Teresa Labs, working in the Software R&D groups. Subrata holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Delaware, and a B.Tech. in Computer Science from IIT, Kanpur.
Pallav Nadhani
Co-founder and CEO, FusionCharts
Pallav Nadhani is the co-founder and CEO of FusionCharts, which he started at the age of 17. FusionCharts is the industrys leading charting component, which has over 18,000 customers and 375,000 users across 110 countries, including a majority of Fortune 500 companies. Pallav holds an MS in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He co-authored a book on combining the power of Flash and .NET called Flash.NET and has written several technical articles for international journals ever since. He also holds the position of Chief Gardener at Seeders, an angel fund which he co-founded for seed funding technology companies in India
Param Parameswaran
Chairman, Sulekha.com
Param is Chairman, Sulekha.com. Sulekha is a global, interactive platform for connecting Indians worldwide and serves them through a portfolio of industry-leading services including blogs, groups and social networks, classifieds and yellow pages. Param has more than 20 years experience in a variety of operational, strategic and leadership roles.Param began his career with Mckinsey & Company, Inc, in New York. He served clients in the industrial, service, telecommunications, and financial service sectors. Later, after a short stint on Wall Street as the Director of Corporate Finance of a boutique investment bank, he co-founded and was President of Integra Technology, a database software and application development products company. When Integra was sold to IKON, a Fortune 500 company, it was a technology leader in its space and its products enjoyed worldwide critical acclaim and market presence. Param later served IKON as part of their Mergers and Acquisition team, formulating and implementing their acquisition program. He is also Chairman of Indigo Monsoon Group, an investment firm; and sits on the Board of Fabmall / IndiaPlaza, an eCommerce company and eShakti, an online, customized apparel company.Param is a graduate of St.Xavier’s College of Calcutta University, a C.A., and obtained his MBA from the Wharton School of Business
Krishnan Ganesh
Founder and CEO, TutorVista.com
Ganesh is currently CEO and Founder of TutorVista(now under the UK-based Pearson Group umbrella) a new consumer Internet company in education services space that aims to bring twenty first century technology to education space by combining content, scientific pedagogy and on-line teaching. He is in the panel of Venture Advisors of UTI Venture funds and a charter member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs).His last venture, CustomerAsset was started in mid 2000 to address the international Call Center / BPO Sector. In May 2002, ICICI (NYSE listed, India’s largest bank) acquired CustomerAsset for over $ 22 Mn Post the acquisition, Ganesh headed the Contact Center Business as President, ICICI OneSource handling over 4000 people and annual revenue of $ 30 Mn.The company now renamed FirstSource is publicy listed in India. Apart from founding and successfully growing the three ventures, Ganesh has worked as CEO of Bharti British Telecom – a British Telecom JV in India and in HCL Ltd., where he held several key managerial positions. Ganesh is a post-graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
Kunwar Sachdev
Founder and Managing Director, Su-Kam
When sachdev created Su-kam, the power back-up industry in India was completely unorganized, characterized by poor product quality and low technology. Sachdev first built a foundation of technology, then took a creative leap, guided by his inherent understanding of the consumer’s needs. Today, the company is the unquestioned market leader and Sachdev is genuinely admired for his passion, vision and innovation. Sachdev’s early life was marked by a burning desire to become a successful entrepreneur. He first graduated with Honours in Mathematical Statistics, then completed his Bachelors degree in Law, both from the University of Delhi. He first made a foray in the distribution of cable TV connections, but was soon immersed in understanding how an inverter works. He taught himself physics, delved deep into the technology behind the idea of power back-up, spent countless days with his engineers and ended up as an expert himself. Instead of slavishly imitating products from overseas, Sachdev chose to carve his own path, with innovation as his mantra. He set up a vibrant R&D department, which has produced product after product that his competitors now imitate. He was an early champion of green technologies, having begun research into solar solutions long before anyone else. With a string of patents and awards behind him, Sachdev has proved that a commitment to technology, dreaming big and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge can be a potent mix for enduring success.
Narendra Bhandari
Director, Intel Software and Services Group, Intel Asia Pacific
Narendra Bhandari is the Director for Asia Pacific of the Intel Software and Services Group - Developer Relations Division at Intel. In this role he focuses on developing the software solutions market across Asia Pacific. Narendra drives engineering, marketing and business relationships with Software Organizations, Academia and software developers in the region across consumer and enterprise segments. Narendra joined Intel in 1993 and has worked in the areas of systems software, CAD tools and 3D graphics. After returning to India from the United States in 1998, he was the general manager of the Internet Solutions Group, working with e-business solution providers. Narendra also awarded the highest honor for groups, the “Intel Achievement Award (IAA)” for delivering high-performance graphics software. He has written technical papers in IEEE and ACM publications. Narendra earned his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Bangalore University in 1990, followed by a Master’s degree from Arizona State University in Computer Science. He has also undertaken project and research work at Centre for Development of Telematics CDOT and at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chennai in the areas of supercomputing and telecom infrastructure.
Sasha Mirchandani
Managing Partner, Mumbai Angels
Sasha is Managing Partner at Kae Capital, an early seed stage fund. He is a co-founder of Mumbai Angels, India’s first Angel Investment group. Prior to this Sasha was the Managing Director for Blue Run Ventures where he focused on consumer, internet, mobile, media, entertainment and knowledge process outsourcing. Earlier Sasha was at Mirc Electronics (Onida) where he was Head of Corporate Affairs and new business. Prior to that he was CEO and Founder of Imercius Technologies, a BPO focused on Healthcare. Sasha sits on the Board of Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited, Akasaka Electronics Limited, Fractal Analytics, Algorhythm Tech, Gulita Securities and Mumbai Angels Venture Mentors. He is also a past President of EO Mumbai. He is passionate about working with startups and also interested in the development of entrepreneurship in India.He is specialist in Early stage investing, angel investing, business development and deal origination
Sharad Sharma
EIR, Canaan Partners
Sharad Sharma is the Chair of NASSCOM Product Forum and is an active member of Indian Angel Network. His 25 yrs experience involves a turnaround (of VERITAS India ops), a startup (now part of Cisco), and an intrapreneurial setup of AT&T/Lucents R&D in India. He has held a number of senior executive positions with leading technology companies. Most recently he was a SVP at Yahoo! and CEO of India R&D. He is passionate about cloud computing and its potential to create software product winners out of India.
Murugavel Janakiraman
Founder & CEO , Consim Info
Murugavel Janakiraman firmly believes that the Internet’s power lies in its enormous flexibility and reach. He decided to leverage this power to provide a life-changing service and launched BharatMatrimony.com in 1997. What started off with a member base of 4000 is today making waves as the No. 1 Matrimonial Brand with over 20 million members worldwide. The company has been recognized by Limca Book of Records for record number of documented marriages online.Murugavel has been honored by the Asian Indian Chamber of Commerce as one of the Top 5 Asian Indian Businessmen in the United States (US) below the age of 35. He was also honored by the India Today Group as the “Business Icon of the Year” and “Udhyog Rattan” Award by Institute of Economic Studies.Gifted with an entrepreneurial mind & innovative business sense, Murugavel currently heads the Consim Group as Chief Executive Officer, with the portfolio comprising of BharatMatrimony, PrivilegeMatrimony, CommunityMatrimony.com, EliteMatrimony.com, IndiaProperty.com, ClickJobs.com, IndiaAutomobile.com, and IndiaList.com
Platinum Sponsor
Gold Sponsor
Supporting Partners