First of all,the title of the post should have been “Megabucks:Day 2(+2) in a Nutshell” ,since two days have passed by since the event is over and damn,I have still not updated my blog.Jokes apart, let me try to recollect the event happenings on the second day in Megabucks.

Morning-Afternoon innings:
a.
The day started with case study competition and believe me it was very boring and I thought that the teams were very bad.Some of the teams did not even know to frame proper gramatical sentences , which made me think about our educational system for a while

b.
The highlight of the day was a talk/discussion on “Woman Entrepreneurship”, which was spearheaded by Ms. Vineeta Singh,Co-founder of Tenaday.Yes,you guessed it right,she is the one who is behind “The Deutsche Bank controversy”(she is the one who rejected one crore offer from Deutsche Bank to be an Entrepreneur) and she seemed a true Entrepreneneur.Myself and Ashwin managed to interview her and it was our first podcast(which would be uploaded very soon).We also gave her few tips on Blogging and she was quite impressed with us.Who knows,she may consult us for “Blog Marketing” Seen below in the photo are Vineeta,Ashwin and Myself(from L-R).I am looking very serious in the photograph

Afternoon-evening innings:
a.
There was a surprise in the package and we met our old friend(from the unconference circuit) Aditya Mishra,Director of Corporate Innovation,TCS.We three gave a talk on Unconferences,Blogging and opportunities in the mobile space(this is Aditya’s domain of interest).The response from the IITK guys was not good and many of them were not interested in the talk.I just tried to collect feedback from few of them-Some felt talk was irrelevant,some felt talk was too techie and some felt the talk was very boring Finally,I communicated the law of two feet(which is used in Unconferences) which says “If you are not feeling comfortable,use your two feet to go to a more comfortable place”.
Even though,our message to take unconferences to premier institutions like IIT failed or was not taken in a proper sense,still we managed to have a smile on our faces.Seen below in the photo are Ashwin ,Myself(in center) and Aditya

b.
After the sad ending to our talk,we thought of networking with few people.Again a surprise-We met guys from Jobs4Freshers who were interviewed for startups.in . It was the time for them to pay us back and hence,we picked up a free T Shirt from them and also,we had good conversation on the Web 2.0 market along with enhancements which can be made to startups.in
Seen below are the guys from Jobs4Freshers along with myself and Ashwin

c.
Finally,it was time to take dinner which as usual,very excellent .Just managed to borrow “Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki” from Rajiv,CEO of Jobs4Freshers and read one chapter in the night

Bye-Bye Kanpur:
Left Kanpur at around 11:00 AM on the next day(8th April,2007) and carried some good(and bad experiences) from IITK.

Moral of the story:
I have not studied from IIT and after this visit,I learnt one thing:“Every person studying in IIT is not a genius/highly intelligent,may be he/she has a slight edge over normal guys like us”.Would end my article with this learning.

Photo Courtesy:
You can find photos of the entire trip here
This is what Ashwin has to say about the event on 07/04/2007

Reached IIT Kanpur at around 1:00 in the afternoon on 6th April.The lunch at IITK was excellent and guess what happened after the lunch I slept from 3:00 to 9:30(due to the excess heat in Kanpur and also due to the tiredness of the journey from Delhi to Kanpur).

Spoke to some of the organizers here in Kanpur regarding the session on Blogging.There is a change in the plan and we(myself and Ashwin) have planned to have the session,the Unconference way.Yup,we would have an open session which would focus on the topics discussed in my previous post.

The reason for this change was that many IITK guys(with whom we interacted) did not know about unconferences and hence we decided a change in the plan The session is slated at 7:00 in the evening.The other sessions would start at 8:00 in the morning and we hope to go there on time.

We also received the Startups.in T-Shirts and it felt very nice to wear the T Shirt.For the other startup-ers who have missed this event,below is a small glimpse of the Front and Back side of the T Shirt

So,what’s happening for the next two days?
There are business competitions and interesting sessions on Entrepreneurship(check the image for the details) and not to forget our unconference session at 7:00 PM(on 07/04/2007).

Related posts : The CruiseManiac – Day 1 IIT Kanpur

More updates later

There is a good news followed by a slight bad news.The good news is , myself and Ashwin are representing Startups in India at Megabucks(IIT Kanpur).Well,we are planning to give a small presentation on the following:
a. Blogging and its impact on Business
b. Blogging an effective way of marketing
c. Startups in general(this would also include interviews from some of the Entrepreneurs whom we have met during the course of our journey)

Yes,I know it is all in one(but it would work) and we are planning to follow Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule for our presentation.

Now the bad news is I won’t be able to blog might for the next two days since, I would be busy in the event.

My takeaway from the event would be meeting new tech enthusiasts,entrepreneurs and yes,not to forget the VC’s , without whom business would never have been possible.

I wish myself(and Ashwin) “all the best”(I know I am being childish) and hope to reach Kanpur and make this event a very fruitful event for my entrepreneurial career.

I got the opportunity to ask Amit Mathur and Rakesh Barnwal (founders of Vyom Technosoft,Bangalore) about their new venture SirfDosti,social networking site.

You can read the complete Q&A session between myself and Amit Mathur at SirfDosti on Startups.in

My first meeting with Manish Agarwal,co-founder of Bangalore based Picsquare happened at Proto.in in 2006.I got the opportunity to ask Manish few questions on Picsquare,Entrepreneurship and his journey as an Entrepreneur.

You can read the complete Q&A session between myself and Manish at Picsquare on Startups.in
There would be more contributions from my side to the startups community , so keep a close watch on startups

Hey guys, if you remember I had participated in the startups.in contest which was targeted towards “promoting entrepreneurship”and the give away from the contest was my eagerly awaited book “Art of the Start” by Guy Kawasaki

Guess what, Thoughtsprevail was selected as one of the winners,with an overall rating of 4/5 by the elite panel of judges Ashish Kumar of Tekriti Software, Deap Ubhi of Burrp and Preeti Shah of CopperPages

All the contest entries can be found here and my entry is at location#10 in the comments section(see the image below).Do not miss my complete article which was sent for participation here

You can check what the other winners had to say about “Promoting Entrepreneurship” from the startups.in winners post

Also,my heartiest congratulations to my fellow participants Alok Srivatsava and Nigam.Way to go guyz!!!

Before I start,I would say “Three cheers to me!!!!”….Keep on reading to know the reason In my previous post, I had mentioned about the contest on Startups.in where the prize is not money but something more than that since, it is a prize that is a boon to all the young entrepreneurs.Let me unfold the secret, the prize is “Art of the Start” by Guy Kawasaki and whats more is that the winners of the contest would get a personally signed copy by Guy himself.

Being an Entrepreneur is not an easy job and to identify whether you are an entrepreneur is more tougher job.The topic is covered in three sections listed below:

Important steps towards entrepreneurship:
================================

Are you an Entrepreneur?:
This is the most important question that is to be asked.Being an Entrepreneur is not a fashion label and hence,every person is not an entrepreneur.Hence,you should know whether you are an entrepreneur or not.Entrepreneurs not only make money but they are responsible to create jobs for others as well which would lead to economy boom in the country.

When an Entrepreneur thinks he/she is ready?:
One of the main challenges for any entrepreneur is to know when is the right time for him/her to start.As far as this is concerned, it is the gut feeling that would tell that person about that time.And yes, not to forget there should always be a sense of risk taking ability to start up so, be prepared for the same.

Uniqueness of your idea:
Everyone has ideas but it is important to know whether your idea is unique.So being in the entrepreneurial stage, you should always discuss this with some of your close associates to know whether your idea will work or not.This will give an unbiased opinion for your idea.The main point is “If you cannot convince a single person with your idea, how would you convince the masses about your idea”.Also,”Do not start a company for money.In the entrepreneurial stage,it should only focus on innovation and money would automatically follow inovation at a latter point of time”.

Try to be with the right set of people:
An entrepreneur should be in the right company.What I mean is, for the execution of any idea along with the technical team, you also require good experienced people from HR/management etc.This would complete the full circle for you and your team can focus on different aspects of your company.eg. “Mindtree Consulting” was founded by Ashok Soota and co-founded by Subroto Bagchi , similar is the case with Infosys(Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani & others).

Have a proper business plan:
So once you have a UNIQUE idea and you are with the right set of people, you are ready to fire.Than comes the most important aspect of any startup is having a crystal clear “BUSINESS PLAN”.Have a very precise business plan.Your business plan should cover the following aspects:

Brand building:
This is another important step in you product development phase.A successful management team needs support from the technical team and vice-versa.Hence, you should follow stringent steps to make your product a “Brand” since, in todays competitive market only brands can survive and not products.eg. Google is a brand in “Search Engine” market.
One of the simplest and cheapest ways to market your product is through various camps(or should I say unconferences) which happen eg BarCamp,BlogCamp and other shows like Proto.in(which I attended in Chennai recently).

When to approach a Venture Capitalist(VC):
This is also very important stage in the life of a startup company.It is very important to know at what stage of the startup,you want to approach a VC since, the main point is “Once your product has a good market cap, there would be VCs who would be surrouding you”.Also, once you approach a VC,you should know about how much fund you want from the VC,since VCs cannot give you ample amount of fund,without you providing a valid reason.

A general word on marketing:
========================

As I have specified in my “Brand Building” point, different strategies can be followed(in marketing some of which are given below:

Motivation towards Entrepreneurship:
===============================
Being an Entrepreneur is not a simple job.It is not like working for 8 hours a day.Hence as I had mentioned previously, “Every Techie is not an Entrepreneur”.

Passion towards your goals:
An Entrepreneur is a person who is passionate about what he/she does and goes an extra mile to achieve his/her goal.Hence,”An Entrepreneur is a self-motivated person”.

Continuous learning:
Enterpreneur is a continous learner.He/she learns from his own mistakes and also tries to learn from the lives of other entrepreneurs.Hence,”Continuous learning is the key to entrepreneurship”.

Right kind of support:
It is very important that you receive the right kind of support from your family,friends and fellow entrepreneurs.Hence, being an entrepreneur is a clear test of risk taking and facing new challenges.Hence, your family should be supportive to help you achieve your goals.

Booming economy in India:
After the dot com burst,many companies suffered a heavy loss and saw the shutters go down for many companies.But now,the time has changed and especially for India,we can say “Every cloud has a silver lining”.There is a huge economy boom in India and there are more and more people leaving their heavy pay-packet jobs to fulfil their dreams.During my visit to Proto.in there was a statement made(by a Tech Evangalist)-”No would have thought that such a show(showcasing 30 startups and 25 VCs) would have happened in India and this is a clear indication of more and more entrepreneurs being born out of India“.
Events like BarCamps, BlogCamps and Proto.in are examples of emerging globalization and entrepreneurship in India.

More information for starting your venture in India : Startup in India