The proto.in event that happened over 23 and 24 Jan '09 was something that showcased the huge potential of young Indian entrepreneurs, who need, not years, but few days (48 hours, precisely) to prove their talent to the world. I missed the first day in person, but kept on getting updates through the live blogging going on and from a bunch of friends who were at the event. Still, I could never complain of the good things that I had on the second day! The day began with a talk by Bob Young, the co-founder of Redhat Linux. It had never been this fun with this old a man - the session was really interactive with the audience shooting questions on the fly and Bob answering them all with a twist of humor. The day had many more speakers - Ashish Gupta from Helion Ventures, who talked about the elements of building a winning team; Sandeep Singhal, from Nexus Capital, who emphasized the importance of thinking beyond the mobile and the internet domain; and Prof Ashwin Mahesh from IIMB who filled the auditorium with his humor filled half realistic half sarcastic speech on the effect of incubators on startups!
We had a open discussion with Rajeev Dhingra (Wat Blog) and Shradha Sharma (Yourstory.in) on the importance of having experience before starting up! It was a fired discussion with many folks from the audience chipping in very useful remarks and queries.
We also had a talk on the benefits of and issues with, starting-up in a downturn economy.
There were numerous showcases of startups such as OOHA, Mosambe, I-Flapp, Indiakhelo, FingerPrints Fashions, InkFruit, LifeMojo, Noddler, Parking Systems (Park Assist), PlanetTutor, ReminDo, Artin Dynamics (SPARA), TAROBY, Astuon Networks (traWELLr), and NuAlgi. One great characteristic about each of them was that the idea came from people who were not the experts in that field. For instance, the founder of Yourstory.in is from commerce background and it was his sheer guts and efforts which have resulted in the success of the venture. Similarly, the founders of NuAlgi are CAs.
Another amazing aspect of Proto.in was the contest to do something innovative withink 48 hours. And the results were over-whelming. Could you imagine coding a email to mobile and vice versa code within 48 hours and make it work in front of stranger audience! Or someone coming with an implemented idea of tracing your friend using just GPRS phone, on a map displayed on your phone screen and that too, up to a resolution of 500 m! There was this amazing idea of using LED lit lamps and making a showcase out of it, and using it in a detachable manner anywhere in the house! (Man, you got to see this to really get it!)
I am simply amazed at the energies at display - young India has the guts to do ANYTHING! The future is ours! This was the third time I was with Proto.in and as always, the fire in the startups showcased has been gathering more and more flame!
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