Some may recall that around June last year, Anand stepped back from his role as chief evangelist (he prefers the term ‘çurator’) of startup showcase forum Proto.in to work on a new project. The Startup Centre is the second initiative launched this month by a founding member of the startup unconferencing movement that kicked off in India just a few years ago. Last week we talked about the launch of HeadStart Ventures, started by HeadStart Network Foundation co-founder Kallol Borah. Proto.in and HeadStart Network Foundation are now established startup showcase forums here. Their success seems to have begun to spawn new initiatives, led (not surprisingly) by their alumni, to take the development of the startup ecosystem to the next level.

Chennai will be the venue for The Startup Centre’s launch and Anand is currently scouting a suitable venue  and sponsors in and around the information technology corridor there. The focus for now will be on technology-related startups, particularly in the mobile and Internet spaces. Future plans involve going national, starting with Pune, tentatively in the first quarter of 2011. “The centre in Chennai will give us an indication of process, costs and acceptance,” he says.

What entrepreneurs can expect from The Startup Centre:

• Young startups, with as small as one or two-member teams, can use the centre at a nominal monthly fee. There will also be a per day membership fee option.
• Facilities include conferencing and brainstorming rooms, bean bags, wifi and whiteboards — basic stuff one would need to crank out a prototype, as Anand puts it.
• The centre will also host training programmes, Barcamps, technology/design/entrepreneurship workshops and other networking events that would help entrepreneurs.
• The centre will create opportunities for entrepreneurs to interact with lawyers, accountants, venture capitalists and mentors.

There’s more. Entrepreneurs who seek support beyond the facilities offered by The Startup Centre could enter into an equity arrangement with the centre in lieu of fund-raising support or even direct investments. This will probably be on a selective basis and not too many details are available yet on how this would be structured. Equity as payment for support, specifically at the fund-raising stage, is available from several other incubators in the country and is fast catching on as a business model in itself. “Fund-raising hopefully will be the last thing we will do. It requires much closer hand-holding and involvement with the companies,” says Anand. He also says he is not looking at raising a seed fund at this stage.

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1. What does the product or service do? Guy Kawasaki recommends in ‘The Art Of The Start’ (recommended reading for every bootstrapped entrepreneur) that this question should be answered in less than a minute. Which means it has to be simple and precise.
2. Who are you selling to? The entrepreneur should be able to clearly identify the end user, which should automatically illustrate why that person would be using his product or service.
3. How will you make money? Most pitches at the showcase spent the least time on this one.
4. Who are your competitors? Everybody has competition. Knowing the competition implies that you know your market.
5. Why are you better than the competition? This is where the startup finally gets down to explaining what its key differentiators are, what problems it solves that the competition does not.

Hopefully the Bootcamp is going to be a regular feature and will be taken more seriously in future. No matter how much the organizers holler about “venture capitalists being incidental to the event”, ultimately 90 per cent of startups who turn up at an event like this expect to get noticed by investors who may fund them at a later stage. So, getting that elevator pitch right is of utmost importance. The flash and crackle of showmanship is great entertainment but of little use.

Now, on to the 14 startups showcased in Edition 6:

Bankbazaar: Founded in 2008 by Adhil Shetty, Arjun Shetty and Rati Rajkumar. Online realtime loan disbursal platform. Based in Chennai. Seeking venture capital.

eMart Solutions: Founded in 2009 by Aditya Bhamidipaty and Srikanth Chunduri. The product, GoVasool, is an online group shopping and reverse auction marketplace. Based in Bangalore. Seeking venture capital.

Vigyaapan Technologies: Founded in 2008 by Ankush Gupta and Ramayya Krishnan. Mobile (user base) analytics and advertising applications. Based in Mumbai.

Time Vision Infotech: Founded in 2009 by Siddharth Goyal. The product, Conwizta, is a content wizard and testing application. Based in Kolkata.

Vrixx Education Solutions: Co-founded in 2008 by Santhosh Thriviraman and others. Web portal solution for educational institutions that streamlines activities related to academics, administration and communication. Based in Bangalore. Seeking venture capital.

Enterux Solutions: Founded in 2008. The product, English Seekho, is a telephone-based tutor that imparts a course in basic English. Based in Pune. Seeking venture capital.

Compark Education: Co-founded in 2009 by Raju Moza and others. The product, TestMerit, is an online entrance test preparation portal. Based in Ghaziabad. Seeking venture capital/ investment.

ThinkCore Technologies: Founded in 2008 by Narendra Narayana and Santhosh Thrivikraman (he is also a co-founder in Vrixx). Enterprise communication and collaboration solution. Based in Bangalore.

Aerosoft Systems: Founded in 2006. E-commerce reconciliation system. Based in Pune.

HyCa Technologies: Founded in 2006 by AB Pandit, Anjan Mukherjee and Vivek Ranade. Makes reactors (patent pending) that use energy dissipated by collapsing cavitation bubbles to modulate physical, chemical and biological processes. Based in Mumbai. Seeking venture capital/ investment.

Intsolvers Technologies: Founded in 2006. Automated optical inspection system for auto component manufacturers, etc. Based in Trivandrum.

TouchMagix Media: Founded in 2008 by Anup Tapadia. Digital media solutions. Based in Pune.

Vardenchi Motorcycles: Founded in 2006 by Akshai (no surname). Custom motorcycle manufacturer. Based in Mumbai. Seeking venture capital/ investment.

Automotive Robotics: Founded in 2007 by Rajeev Ranadive. Bolt-on-Kits to enhance the performance of existing cars. Based in Pune.