I am happy I attended Exordia’16 conducted by IIMV at YVS Murthy auditorium on 15th, April, 2016.
I heard it was an event planned by Ms Janaki and her students just within one week. But it was a very well planned event.
The speakers who shared their experiences were the best chosen. I though I should put the points I picked up on record and hence this post.
The first speaker was Suresh Bhagavatula from IIMB NSRCEL who shared interesting thoughts on entrepreneurship and startups. Mr Naga, a venture capitalist spoke about the mindsets of startups.
Shiv Kumar of Maple Soft spoke on ” What startups should not do..”. He started his presentation with interesting statistics that India is ranked 3 in the world with respect to number of startups but many of them failing in less than 3 years. It is true that entrepreneurship starts in college or for a few people it starts when people notice a problem that they encountered and solving that problem they happen to make a product. Rightly said, as I could connect to how redbus.in happened.
Another interesting thing that Shiv Kumar quoted was that though entrepreneurship was a french word, it was derived from Anthar prerna which is from sanskrit.
He has suggested to the prospective entrepreneurs to see issues in their organisation while working there. He later shared his story of startup and said there is no short cut to success. He mentioned about two conferences : TIECON and Failcon. TiE is all about networking, education, mentoring, incubating, and funding. Failcon is a conference for technology entrepreneurs and investors. And that except in India, all other places Failcon failed to fail ! It was a huge success.
Ms Vijaya Lakshmi, DGM Andhra Bank spoke on the topic beyond kick start. She advised the youngsters to be mindful and disciplined.
Amit Garg, Commissioner of police emphasized the need for involving government officials in programs like this. He also advised the startups to think on what time they need to approach the client. He shared his own experiences and his opinions on what kinds of vendors he would like to listen to. He requested the youngsters to survey the related products available in the market, clearly mention the new additions that can be done and innovations made in their product. He said every end user is different and that each needs to be trained based on their learning abilities and background knowledge. He stressed on the need for capacity building. He emphasised on the market survey required before approaching a client. He discussed on the incentives that the government is giving for the startups.
He concludes that efficiency and transparency are what people like him would want from an application.
Wilma Rodrigues, CEO of Saahas-Zero Waste spoke on her company and the benefits for the society.
Malini Gowri Sankar who is a travel creek and founder of F5 escapes said her intention was to make India a better place to travel for women. Delhi rape case gave her the idea. Some of the points I could quickly collect are the following mistakes which should not be done during startup.
- Thinking that customers will like you or your product.
- Not pitching right.
A crisp pitch that evokes strong emotions in the audience is required. She emotionally says ‘Fake it till you make it’.
- Not networking enough,
Till your business is famous by itself, you ought to be face of it. Market it till your business grows bigger than you.
- running behind investors not customers.
Customers are kings and queens. You need to run behind them.
- Fear of starting solo.
Choose the partner wisely
- Ignoring accounts.
keep your books right and in place.
- Not having the right team.
The only real asset that a startup has is its core team. Like for instance, Whatsapp has just 50 people.
- Focus on short term profitability. plan long term.
Revenue more important in early days.
- Spending too less or too much.
Decide wisely, consider any money as your money.
- focus on IQ and not on EQ.
Later Madam Sumita Dawra, Principal Secretary to Higher Education, AP spoke on ‘Beyond startups’. She shared her experiences with the Chinese markets. Later she explained her vision for higher education of AP state in the context of incubators, Innovations and startups.
I thank IIM-V for giving me an opportunity to attend.
I am including a few press coverages too here for the interested.
