Bangalore, India, June 2013: Startup City, Asia’s largest startup event culminated in Bangalore on June 22, 2013. The event which gave budding entrepreneurs a rare opportunity to explore new and upcoming genres of idea implementation was a roaring success.
The 14th 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 ‘MOBILE + eCOMMERCE: Instant Gratification, Rapid Growth’; Entrepreneurial keynotes like ‘Against All Odds: From Innovation to Success’ and 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. The power packed day, marked by informative discussions on ‘The Next Big Thing: Technology Trends Shaping the Future’, 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.
Chetan Maini, Founder of Reva and widely considered the pioneer of electric vehicles in India gave away a powerful keynote on ‘Against All Odds: From Innovation to Success.’ Maini gave insights on how important it is for entrepreneurs to surround themselves with right people who share the same dream when threading ones way to the top and be a winner.
Arun Jain, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Polaris Financial Technology advised the startup enthusiasts to listen first, discuss next and then make a decision, while delivering the second keynote on ‘Entrepreneurship: The Journey’
‘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 Sequoia Capital, Kalaari Capital, Canaan Partners, Artiman Ventures, Kae Capital, Venture East Advisors, Saama Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Accel Partners and some of the angel funds like Seedfund, Mumbai Angels, IDG Ventures, Indian Angel Network, Angel Prime 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 2013’ 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.
The winners were Sharemojo.com in internet space, Mahalife in mobile space, SkipTask in product space, Intelligence Node in solutions space and BlobCity in services space.
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. The panel moderated by Shoaib Ahmed, President of Tally Solutions had eminent speakers like Edwin Kolen, COO, CtrlS Datacenters, Sanjay Nayak, CEO & MD, Tejas Networks, P. Srikar Reddy, MD & CEO, Sonata Software, Satish Kumar, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Glopore IMS and Mahesh Ramakrishnan, Founder, & CEO, Nanobi Analytics.
The exhibit area had about 70 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 supported by multi nationals like Tally Solutions, Intuit, .net (Verisign), CtrlS, Blackberry, Amazon Web services, EMC2, Incub@Te (A TATA ELXSI Initiative), eBay, Godrej Properties, Renault and BookMyTrainings.com 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. (Business Wire India)
