Startup Dialogue 2018F E B R U A RY 2nd - 3rd

About Startup Dialogue 2018Startup Dialogue is one of the prestigious

conference in India which intends to

create an exciting platform for all the

stakeholders like - enablers, social & for

profit startups, VCs/investors, startup

enthusiasts, leaders of the Indian startup

ecosystem to come together and

celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship.

It is organized every year by Sandbox

Startups, one of the initiatives of

Deshpande Foundation.

The Startup Dialogue comes with a series

of exciting panels lined up to

comprehensively enable the ecosystem,

networking sessions for all the stakeholders

along with Startup Challenge: B-Plan

competition, Speed Dating with VCs,

Startup Expo and Developthon.

Startup Dialogue 2018

High

light

s STARTUPS200+

PRODUCT STARTUP EXPO30

VCs / ANGEL INVESTORS20

CSR HEADS5

PRODUCT STARTUP EXPO200+

TECH GEEKS250+

Vision for the startup ecosystem in India

N U T S H E L L

The panel covered various topics centered around building a startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs can take advantage of. The people, the government, and the larger well-established companies, all play a role in the same. Looking back at the growth of the IT sector through the years, they envisioned the setup, growth, and challenges of the new age incubator network, which led them to highlight the importance of collaboration, partnership and thinking of technology as an enabler. They encouraged youngsters to focus on solving much larger problems that persist in society.

Overall, the advice given to startups was - think different, try small but interesting things, fail fast to learn fast, and most importantly have the big picture in mind.

P A N E L

Dr. Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande Founder, Deshpande Foundation

Jaishree DeshpandeCo-founder, Deshpande Foundation

Ravi NarayanGlobal Director Microsoft

Rajendran DandapaniDirector of Engineering, ZOHO

Gaurav GuptaPrincipal Secretary, GoK

MODERATOR

Dr. Aravind ChinchureSandbox Startups

GAURAV GUPTAIT & BT Government of Karnataka

There is a need to focus on addressing the challenges and problems of the next billion people in the world and the new entrepreneurs should focus on addressing those issues.

RAJENDRAN DANDAPANIZoho

With the advent of technology, geography has become history. With high speed Internet available everywhere, one need not go to Silicon Valley or Bengaluru to venture into the field of entrepreneurship. One needs to experiment and fail fast or early to become a successful entrepreneur.

DR. ARAVIND CHINCHUREDr. Aravind Chinchure, Chair Prof. of Innovation, Symbiosis University

We need to create 200 million jobs in India in next 30 years which means 10 million jobs in a year. Startups will play an important role in providing these job opportunities.

RAVI NARAYANMicrosoft

We should be proud that India had been ranked third in the world for having largest startup base. Budding entrepreneurs should understand that along with success there would be failures and one should take them as learning experiences.

DR. GURURAJ ‘DESH’ DESHPANDEDeshpande Foundation

An aspiring entrepreneur should take small steps but he or she should have a bigger vision to succeed.

Entrepreneurial Journey & Successful Exits

N U T S H E L L

This was an insightful discussion, where the founders of RedBus and TaxiForSure shared their entrepreneurial journey and successful exits. They enlightened the audience with the story of how the idea for their business originated. This included the initial challenges they faced during executing and implementing the business and how it would have been different if they had the entrepreneurial ecosystem available at that time. Reminiscing the time when they had to build their business when the term ‘startup’ was mostly unknown, Phanindra Sama brought to light how the TiE chapter in Bangalore helped and guided him in their path. Unaware of the impact that their innovation would have, they advised budding entrepreneurs the importance to think big and to be authentic.

They also threw some light on the challenges faced while expanding their business to multiple cities and how they tackled them. The session ended with both of them advising budding entrepreneurs on a list of dos and don’ts, the importance of authenticity, having a Plan B and dealing with investors and VCs.

P A N E L

Phanindra Sama Co-founder, redBus.in and Chief Innovation Officer, Govt. of Telangana

Raghunandan GFounder, Taxi For Sure

MODERATOR

Manish AnandCEO, Utilis Capital

PHANINDRA SAMAredBus.in & GoT

Anecdotes of raising the first check from investors happens from your own strategy - 1. Micro or Macro finance 2. Important to project yourself - Be you!

RAGHUNANDAN GTaxi For Sure

The things that we don’t do is a part of leadership as a company. The true feedback of a startup lies in the minute simplicity and ground work.

Biggies! Support to Startups

N U T S H E L L

A panel where the startups gained insight into how they can benefit from collaborating with corporates. With corporates wanting to collaborate and not compete, the main requirement from startups is to be agile and unique in the solution that they provide. Apart from corporates, it is also important for startups to learn how to collaborate with the ecosystem, i.e., the other startups. As long as the product is customer centric rather than technology led.

Encouraging startups to adopt a global concept and customise it for the local market, they encouraged startups to take a leap of faith and experiment with interesting solutions fast. In respect to funding, they were made aware of the fact that money is easy to get but credibilities, hard to receive, hence not to chase just funding initially. Find a mutually beneficial area where the solution that you provide is adjacent to what the corporate does, so that it complements rather than making the situation complex. Most importantly, they were advised to focus on reaching out to a corporate in the same vertical and find a balance between scaling up and sustaining. The panel wrapped up the session by answering questions from the audience.

P A N E L

Rajendran DandapaniEngineering Director, Zoho

Sandeep AgarwalSenior Vice President CoE and IOT, Happiest Minds

Naveen AsraniDirector-Startups, Microsoft

Rama KSenior Director, Ola

MODERATOR

C.M. PatilCEO, Sandbox Startups of Deshpande Foundation

NAVEEN ASRANIMicrosoft

The Corporate needs you as much as you need the corporate. When it comes to startups - Small is the New Big.

SANDEEP AGARWALHappiest Minds

The entrepreneurs should have a clear idea about what to do and what not to do. And always have a Plan-B, in case we fail in Plan-A, keeping substitute ready will go a long way in overcoming failures and walking towards the path of success.

RAJENDRAN DANDAPANIZOHO

We can become successful entrepreneurs only if we have leadership quality, marketing knowledge and vision.

Secret to Succeed in Our Ecosystem

N U T S H E L L

A panel discussion about the secrets to succeed in the ecosystem from the ones who’ve ‘Been There, Done That’. The panelists shared tips and tricks they learned with the help of ecosystem for doing business in second tier cities. Acknowledging the challenges that they faced, they threw light on the biggest turning point of their journey.

They also shared the experience of how much institutes likes Deshpande Foundation have helped them to be successful. Contrasting life in Bangalore and life in Hubballi, they shared the positives and the negatives and how to use the ecosystem to overcome the negatives. The importance of the ecosystem and association with relevant institutes was a major highlight that was mentioned by all the panelists. The discussion ended with a Q&A session with the audience.

P A N E L

Sunil NalavadiCFO, VRL

Vivek PawarChairman, Sankalp

Semiconductor

Jayant HumbarwadiMD, Ashok Iron Works

Sasisekar KrishCTO, NanoPix

MODERATOR

Raj BelgaumkarChairman, KLS IMER

SUNIL NALAVADIVRL

One of the reasons why VRL is a top Logistic brand is the non involvement of family members in the daily affairs of the company. Apart from various technical, operational and marketing fields, which are the key elements, VRL is always on the lookout for experts and not the involvement of family members.

JAYANT HUMBARWADIAshok Iron Works

The skills have to undergo change for sure now. The expectations of customers and market are different in today’s world. The types of products available in the market now as compared to some twenty years back showcases a huge gulf and all this is because of the technology. The challenges are manifold, hence the capability of people and technology setup requires changes.

VIVEK PAWARSankalp Semiconductor

Hubballi too has an excellent quality of education and an amazing ecosystem where you could find great talents. Hubballi is more heavenly than any metro cities, where you get good amount of time to think on professional and personal front.

SASISEKAR KRISHNanopix

Because of Deshpande Foundation we got a huge reach which we didn’t even get in Bengaluru. The Foundation is a great support system for us. The delegates who participate in Development Dialogue visit us and enquire about our products and services and because of Deshpande Foundation we have explored various other platforms of business and services. North Karnataka is a source of medicine for the success.

Presentations by the Legends

N U T S H E L L

Startup Dialogue was full of entrepreneurial inputs, networking opportunities and examples from real-life experience. Another attraction of this conference was the presentations by the legends like - RamG Vallath, Ex-COO Airtel & Motivational Speaker on ‘Power of Resilience’; Venkatesh P, Advisor to Health and Glow/Foodworld on ‘How to Build Scalable and Sustainable Ventures’, Niket Karajagi, CEO, Atyaasaa Consulting Pvt. Ltd. and Certified Marshall Goldsmith Coach on ‘Hiring the Right Way!!! & Getting Behind the Perfect Business Pitch for Investors’ and Shesh Rao Paplikar, CEO, BHIVE Workspace on ‘ The Great Indian Jugadu Founder’.

RAMG VALLATHMotivational Speaker

Resilience is the ability to bounce back quickly from a very difficult situation. Individual leader should have resilience and perseverance to make an organization succeed.

NIKET KARAJAGIAtyaasaa Consulting Pvt. Ltd

If you are achieving your ideal self in life you are an entrepreneur and first lesson of entrepreneurship is make your product or service idea so simple that people are just able to understand it in the first go.

VENKATESH PHealth and Glow

The success of Health & Glow is a result of focus on customer benefit and disciplined execution. And we did let go when we did not know enough or felt it was out of our control.

SHESH RAO PAPLIKARBHIVE Workspace

An entrepreneur should see opportunity in every problem, opportunity to solve the problem with a sustainable idea. I felt there is an infrastructure problem in my country and came up with co-working space concept through BHIVE.

Investment Fundas for Startups

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Peer venture capitalists engaged in an insightful discussion on the investment scenario in India as in 2018. The common thread that connected them was the opinion they shared on capital availability for startups. “There is investment”, they said, and what is required for the startups to rise to the next level to be worthy of it.

Gone is the euphoria surrounding venture capitalism and now startups need to focus more on solving persisting challenges rather than focusing on profit. They need to be aware of the market requirements, and be innovative with their solutions.

P A N E L

Manish AnandCEO, Utilis Capital

Sunil JainMD, Sprout Ventures

Rema SubramanianCo-founder, Ankur Capital

Thirukumaran NagarajanCEO, Ninja Cart

MODERATORChiranth Patil

MANISH ANANDUtilis Capital

Capital availability is on the rise. To attract investors, startups must have a clear idea on how to scale, how to grow, and how to manage their operations and sales.

REMA SUBRAMANIANAnkur Capital

The idea of an effective revenue model is not always to have a product cost cheap but the quality, and people would opt it even if it were set at a certain price.

SUNIL JAINSprout Ventures

Startups must envision ahead. Investors are more intelligent now and they will want to know where the road is leading. Startups might burn but it must lead to a scenario where they’ll earn.

THIRUKUMARAN NAGARAJANNinja Cart

Startups have to move their focus away from making money and start to focus on existing pain points. Once a startup evolves into a value creation company, the tables will turn and the investors will be chasing them.

Startups! Then, Now and in Future!

N U T S H E L L

An interactive session with a couple of big names in the industry, who started small and made it big. Audience had their questions answered on some of the burning questions about startups. How do you start? How do you graduate? And how do you grow from there? Do you really need professionals to run your company? Can someone else sell your product better than yourself?

The answers contained the principles and guidelines on not just running a business but on believing in yourself to be able to do it.

P A N E L

Kishore BiyaniChairman & CEO, Future Group

Amit ChandraMD, Bain Capital

MODERATOR

Dr. Gururaj ‘Desh’ DeshpandeFounder, Deshpande Foundation

KISHORE BIYANIFuture Group

We founded the company with our own values, values of positivity, introspection, Indianness and we are very ethical whoever we deal with. If you look at the culture and origin of India, every truth is subjective and contextual here. We follow the spirit of the law.

AMIT CHANDRABain Capital

I chose fields like banking, private equity where I did not have to compromise my ethical values. At the same time I do agree, unfortunately manufacturing is a field where entrepreneurs may have to compromise. Because there is a reality of working in that market place which makes life really difficult for folks.

It took a bit for me to cope up with emerging digital world and technology. I understood how technology is helping in reducing space, time and increasing social interaction. Once you understand what technology does it becomes easier to deal with it. This is definitely helped to adopt new things and grow more.

Glimpses from

STARTUP Dialogue 2018

Organizing CommitteeDD Chair

C.M.PatilChief Executive

Amrut PatilManager

Meghana MoreyIncubation-Lead

Siddu POperations-Lead

RajuSocial medial-Lead

SharanuIT- Lead

NikhilAccounts-Lead

Manjunath GStartup Evangelist

Naveen JhaDeshpande Foundation

Media Coverage

Startups: Government’s role is catalytic, says Gupta

Hubbali celebrates the spirit of entrepreneurship

Startups number: India is at 3rd position

Don’t loose hope, be strong to start again

Big problems can be solved with believe

Money doesn’t confined success

FEEDBACK FROM PARTICIPANTS

RamG VallathMotivational Speaker

This is one of the best events I have gone to and there is so much of energy around the place. It is commendable that Hubballi is hosting such a huge event. It proves the future of India is not just the metros. Every development has to come from tier 2 and tier 3 cities and Hubballi is definitely one of the examples.

Naveen AsraniMicrosoft

First of all congratulations to Deshpande Foundation and Sandbox team for organizing such a fantastic conference. This conference is scaling year by year and I really like the diversity of thinkers, speakers and doers coming here. This is one of the few conferences where you see the ideas meet execution. I take back so much of learnings from this conference every year.

Raj BelgaumkarKLS IMER

I am very happy that this conference has been held. It is a wonderful platform to network, more importantly to share ideas and to learn from real life experience and success stories of the legendary entrepreneurs. The startup ecosystem Deshpande Foundation has set here allows the entrepreneurs to taste and nurture their ideas.

Shesh Rao PaplikarBHIVE Workspace

I was not familiar with what is happening in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. But I am positively surprised by what I experience today in this conference. I feel so glad to know about the kinds of companies exist here and the kinds of work have been done here in Hubballi.

Jain ThumbawadiAshoka & Group

Startup Dialogue is an inspiring conference for entrepreneurs. There are lot of new ideas, experience stories, advice for entrepreneurs by the entrepreneurs. I feel very positive about the ecosystem is getting build here.

STARTUP DIALOGUE 2018

Sandbox StartupsAkshay Plaza, Shirur Park Road, Phase 4, Akshay Colony, Hubballi, Karnataka 580021

http://www.startupdialogue.org

https://www.facebook.com/deshpandefoundation

https://www.facebook.com/Thesandboxincubator/

https://twitter.com/DFstartups

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