Startup showcase forum Proto.in will be back in July with its eighth edition. The event moves to Chennai, where the forum’s first-ever showcase was held. The event will showcase 15 startups chosen through a self-nomination process. Some of the highlights of Edition 8: The event’s platinum sponsor Sequoia Capital will host one-on-one mentoring sessions for [...]
In the concluding part of the series, our panelists picked out startups that they particularly liked from the Proto.in Edition 6 showcase. 14 startups were showcased. Here are the seven VC favourites: Vigyaapan Technologies , eMart Solutions, HyCa Technologies, Vardenchi Motorcycles, Vrixx Education Solutions, BankBazaar, TouchMagix Media Panelists: Alok Mittal, Canaan Partners; Sateesh Andra, DFJ; [...]
In the second part of the Startupcentral-Proto.in Venture Capital Round Table series panelists talk about what kind of companies or businesses constitute venture-fundable startups. Panelists: Alok Mittal, Canaan Partners; Sateesh Andra, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Ravi Narayan, Mentor Partners; Rajesh Srivathsa, Ojas Ventures; Rahul Chowdhri, Helion Venture Partners; Sasidhar Nandigam, Gujarat Venture Finance Panelist [...]
Are Indian venture capitalists investing in enough startups? Startupcentral, in collaboration with Proto.in, put together a panel of venture capitalists to talk about their investing strategies. The round table was held on the sidelines of Proto.in Edition 6 in Pune. Panelist Profiles Alok Mittal, General Partner, Canaan Partners Mittal co-founded jobs portal Jobahead, which was [...]
The sixth edition of Proto.in will see, among other things, curator Vijay Anand stepping back and others such as Ravi Shankar and Sudhir Syal taking charge of the startup showcase. Anand is on to something new related to the startup ecosystem. Some details on what to expect from the Pune edition: Ganesh Natarajan, CEO of [...]
Not in Mumbai yet, but Pune is good enough. Proto.in, the startup showcase in its sixth edition, comes to town on July 25 and nominations are now open — nomination form here. The upcoming edition will be a one-day affair with a Sunday brunch planned for alumni and anyone else who would like to stay [...]
BarCamp Mumbai has moved out of the IIT campus. The fifth edition will be held at the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute in Matunga (East). There isn’t much information up yet on the sessions planned. The event is slated for February 1. Proto.in’s fifth edition is coming up this weekend, January 23-24, in Bangalore. What’s interesting? [...]
Here’s the second batch of six companies tracked down after their showcases at Proto.in: Tyroo Founder (s): Manish Vij, Harish Bahl, Mahendra Swaroop, Aditya Khanna HQ: Gurgaon Sector: Consumer Internet Tyroo is an online advertising network which employs 45 people. It was incubated by Smile Interactive with $1 million angel funding. Raised an undiclosed Series [...]
Last month, I embarked on a project to track down the many startups who have been showcased at Proto.in since its inception. I met with limited success. Many of the emails sent to people listed as ‘contacts’ on Proto.in’s website bounced back and some did not write back. Still, I managed to get a few [...]
This winter, as has been with winters for the past couple of years, two kinds of entrepreneur showcase and networking events offer startups opportunities to promote themselves. First up is the old school model — TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2008 (December 16, 17, 18) — which gives young companies a chance to connect with industry leaders [...]
Accelerator to angel to VC flow still struggling to find equilibrium in India
I had fun moderating the panel on early stage financing at India Internet Day. VCCircle has an interesting article. The key issues are as under: 1. Too few deals are progressing from accelerators to angel, and from angel to Series A. Only five per cent of deals going from accelerators to Series A might not [...]
The early ecommerce marketplace pioneers: eBay class of 2000-2005
TechCrunch recently published an article I wrote about how the eBay class of 2000-2005 helped shape ecommerce in Silicon Valley and continues to innovate and move the sector forward. By understanding what shaped this class’ experience and examining where these alums are today, we identified the most important industry trends and start to see a [...]
The founder’s guide to surviving the Series A crunch
The Indian entrepreneurship and venture capital ecosystem is fast maturing. Today we have more early stage funds than ever. This fund availability will only improve, aside from the temporary blips caused due to macroeconomic ups and downs. We are in one such ‘crunch’ today, where even though seed and angel funds are writing cheques with [...]
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