Entr epreneurs' Day to Remember Date:   Monday , July 06, 2009 There was excitement, enthusiasm, and a sense of thrill, which created a vibrancy of its own kind all over the venue. The place was packed with passionate entrepreneurs, innovative products, and an awestruck audience. The event looked like a mini Silicon Valley with over 80 startups, 5,000 tech enthusiasts, and 40 investors participating in it. The second edition of Startup City by SiliconIndia on June 6, 2009 was a blend of passion, enthusiasm, and opportunity. Ajit Balakrishnan, Co-founder and CEO of Rediff.com and Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder and CEO of Naukri.com set the ball rolling for the entrepreneurs’ day to remember. Bikhchandani shared his journey of building Naukri, which was launched in 1997 and now one of the top job portals in India that was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange in 2006. “Know your customers, solve an unsolved problem, be an early mover, be frugal with your cost, and don’t get into a business just for making money. Alongside, you need to be persistent when you are an entrepreneur,” revealed the Naukri head. On the other hand, Balakrishnan gave the audience a glimpse into his past, when he was building UNIX boxes in Bangalore. Drawing from the rich experience he has gained from running his own portal that is today the fifth most visited site in India, Balakrishnan said, “Businesses have to keep reinventing themselves.” He also shared about how Rediff was founded in the era of text browsers. It was stunning to hear that its early days, they had no interest in making money. However, over a period of time, Rediff evolved with the evolution of the web, with the introduction of graphical browsers, Javascript and DOM, Object oriented programming and O/R mapping. Sanjay Nayak, MD and CEO of Tejas Networks talked about the marketing aspects and said, “When you have a good solution for the domestic market, a lot of partnerships will open up at the world level.” He also elaborated on the opportunities in the Indian ecosystem for a product company. He exemplified the importance of having a good presence in the Indian market when he added, “Win in India, you can win the world.” Mukesh Prasad Singh, General Manager of Amazon India explained about the cost benefits of using the ‘cloud’ in a technology startup and gave a sneak peak into Kindle, the latest reading device and its unique features. This pioneer of cloud computing took the opportunity to enlighten the spellbound audience on the latest buzzword in computing. Sun Microsystems’ General Manager Bakshish Dutta elaborated on the Startup Essentials Program by Sun, which has been helping in the growth of several startups around the world. When Prakash Sayini, Head of Forum Nokia gave an insight into the sea of opportunities available in the mobile Internet space, the crowd listened with rapt attention. Sayini insisted upon an ecosystem with a wide range of service providers for mobile Internet. The Euphoria There were over 80 startup firms that had already laid the foundation for their million dollar dreams adorned the huge Nimhans Convention Center were vying to grab the attention of the investors, potential customers, and partners who made it to the mega event. The presence whole ecosystem at a one place charged the aspiring entrepreneurs to put life into their innovative ideas. In addition to presenting demonstration of their products, many of the startups conducted a number of activities and created a buzz to attract more eyeballs. For instance, with a crowd struggling for the music CDs by Mast Coffee the contest at the Internet startup’s stall was a crowd puller. In a bid to grab the investors’ attention, the startups were found eagerly pitching towards venture capitalists nattering about their companies and products at the closed-door meeting during breakfast and lunch. Having benefited after interacting with the investors and potential customers, Atul Joshi of VLife Science shared his excitement saying, “The returns on investment we made to participate in this event were by far the best in comparison to other similar events, and overall it was a profitable day for us.” The track presentations, five in all, were the perfect platform for the startups to stand out in the crowd and convince the investors. Startups in the IT spheres of Internet, mobile, services, software, embedded, education, and healthcare had their exclusive tracks. Witnessing these presentations that were judged by a panel of judges comprising of experienced investors and professionals were the competitors and other enthusiasts. “After seeing the presentations, there was a real challenge in judging. The startups not only had an idea, but they also showed their will to execute it,” declared Parag Dhol, an investor with Inventus Capital. Getting awards at an event of this magnitude was an added bonus for the startups. The ten awardees – three ‘best startup’ awards by the sponsors and seven best startups in their respective segments – received due recognition in the midst of several Chief Executives in the CEO Conclave. The Conclave was an opportunity for the CEOs of the startups to interact with bigger counterparts like Sanjay Swamy of mChek, Jeya Kumar of Patni, and Suresh Elangovan of Mindlogicx who have ‘been there and done that’. Many felt that the event was a must to participate for all current and future startups, tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, and investors. “An event that gives the ‘complete picture’ of the startup scenario in India,” recapitulated Maheedhar PV, Founder and Chief Executive of Lytecube Technologies. After attending Startup City the entrepreneurs took home some invaluable lessons from the industry gurus, the investors were able to include some hot startups in their portfolio, and the tech enthusiasts got an insight into some ‘out of the box’ technology products.