The Power of Ideas

Date & time : April 8, 2009, 4:30 PM
Venue : St. Andrews Auditorium, St. Andrews College Campus, Bandra

The GeekOnNet team was overwhelmed by the invitation it got by The Economic Times to cover their event- The Power of Ideas. The event is an initiative taken by The Economic Times which provides a platform for the new emerging entrepreneurs. They have a tie up with a leading business network-Angel Networks, a group of accredited investors who review companies and entrepreneurs for potential investment.

The event is a platform where new business ideas could be presented to the Angel Network. The participants would have to go through four rounds of presentations and interviews before being declared as the winners. The winners would then be provided with both mentor ship and funding for their business ideas by the Angel Network team. The first phase consisted of sending the business ideas to the network team via email,online etc etc.12,000 entries were then shortlisted to 1000 for the second phase. Phase three is known as elevator pitch where one on one mentorship is provided to the shortlisted candidates. The final phase consists of presenting your business ideas to the potential Venture capitalists.

The introduction to the event was given by Vinod Mahanta,Editor, Corporate Dossier. The seven member Angel Network team was present to share their experiences and listen to the queries of the future entrepreneurs of India. Harish Mehta, Managing Director of Onward Novell Software (I) Pvt. Ltd. and one of the founder member of NASSCOM was the first speaker. His story of successful entrepreneurship did really set up the mood of the session.

But the QnA session was the main show stealer. The questions and doubts on opening up a new venture in the current grim economic situation were ably answered by the Angel Network team present. Reasons and facts were presented which showed that such economic lulls are the best times to invest and start a brand. Rehan Yaar Khan, another member and founder of Flora2000.com stressed on the point of mentorship where mentorship can be equated as having the same importance as someone investing funds on you. Krishna Jha, co-founder ITFinity, one of the first wireless data companies globally was always there to lighten up the mood with his perfect humorous one liners,but had a deep meaning associated with it. One of them being that "Now is the time to launch yourself,irrespective of situation .Never work single,always get a partner even if it means sharing your paycheck"."Most startups dont die because of starvation but due to indigestion". There was one very comic situation where a participant never knew which among the many business ideas submitted of his was selected.

We even interviewed some enthusiastic participants about their business ideas. The preparation and groundwork done by them was really appreciative. One of the guys we interviewed had submitted six business ideas and all of them were selected. This do speak volumes about the bright entrepreneurship brains young India posses. We caught up with the AGM-Brand team, Economic Times Priya Kapadia after the sessions and thanked her for all the faith she had shown on the GeekOnNet team.

Thank you Economic Times for providing us this opportunity to interact and learn from the successful and budding entrepreneurs of India. All the best to all the participants from GeekOnNet Team.

Some links: Pics taken by GeekOnNet.com , The Power of Ideas - blog, List of shortlisted candidates for 2nd round

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