By : praval

Proto has made us meet some of the most interesting startups as well as entrepreneurs. Rehan was is good example. Rehan Yar Khan is the CEO and founder at Remindo which provides working professionals the web based tools needed to work, organize and communicate across the office effectively.

Remindo provides an excellent interface to check out upcoming events, milestones, news and files, and the conversations happening in an office – all in a single window.

Remindo is based out the U.S. Ashok Kurien, director at Zee T.V. is the co-founder at Remindo.

We had a short interview with Rehan ...

By : praval

We met the the co-founder of Yoplr, a Bangalore based startup which facilitates your travel plans in India while keeping your constraints and requirements in consideration. Amongst a plethora of startups around travel industry, Yoplr has a unique feature that allows you to personalize your travel plans based on various verticals.

Yoplr was one of the finalists at Proto V earlier this year.

Watch out a short interview with the 3 co-founders – Raja, Deepankar and Santhosh;

By : praval

Continuing with the Proto V companies, we have LifeMojo with us. The company is based out of Bangalore. The 3 cofounders – Namit, Himanshu and Varun talked about the startup ecosystem in India and the stand LifeMojo has in it.

LifeMojo provides a platform to the citizens to have an easy access to preventive health care experts and necessary tracking tools. They have some great insights on lifestyle that talks about health, fitness, nutrition and more.

The co-founders of LifeMojo are engineering graduates from NSIT, New Delhi.

We had a short video interview with the 3 co-founders;

By : praval

Today, we have with us Ravi & Shanik, Co-founders of GoLive Gaming Solutions. GoLive aims to turn gaming from a private hobby to a mass event. The startup is based out of Hyderabad, India.

GoLive has conducted several national and an international event of gaming. Watch out the interview of these enthusiastic gamming lovers whom we met at Proto, Bangalore earlier this year.

By : praval

We have two interesting guys with us for an interview! Varun and Prashant are the co-founders of this startup is known as IndiaKhelo.

IndiaKhelo aims to improve the sports culture of India by igniting local healthy competition amongst players and institutes.

The prime difference they make is with them being an offline startup and not an internet based company. They showcased their startup at the last Proto event in Bangalore.

Here’s is the video shootage of the interview;

By : praval

We have had a few education based startup with us. Today, we’re glad to present forth, Mr Shaktivel, co-founder of PlanetTutor.com. Planettutor promises to be a personalised online tutoring company that redefines the learning experience in Maths, Science and English for CBSE students from classes 9 to 12. In India, Planettutor is headquartered at Coimbatore and has a team of 100 plus teaching professionals devoting quality time to online pupils.

It’s Interactive. It’s Personalised. It’s one-on-one. And it’s a Great Way to Learn from Home!

Check out the interview with Mr. Shaktivel;

By : praval

After speaking to Sumit Punjabi, the co-founder of TheHiringTool, we got a chance to meet their regional heads in India - Basu Aggarwal and Bhupesh at Proto – Bangalore edition earlier this year.

The interview targets their views on the effect of recession on companies which work in the hiring arena. TheHiringTool works on a b2b model unlike other hiring companies which have a b2c model.

Check out the video to hear from the 2 regional heads of TheHiringTool in India.

By : praval

Today’s post is a yet another video interview featuring the co-founders of Uniphone, a Chennai based startup that  was incubated out of RTBI, which is a part of IIT Madras. Uniphore did a soft launch of their product – Noddler at Proto in Bangalore, India.

We have with us, Umesh Sachdeva and Ravi Saraogi, the co-founders of Uniphore along with Saras, the head of technology for Noddler team.

In Uniphore’s very own dialect;

Uniphore aims to provide "Relevant Information" with nothing more than voice as the primary interaction medium and leveraging mobiles as the access channels.

Watch the video ...

By : praval

Just as we promised for the video interviews, we’re back with them! The series shall include some industry veterans who have surpassed the initial glitches of starting a company and few of India’s most promising startups which showcased themselves at Proto.in – Bangalore edition, earlier this year.

To start with, today we have the founder of PagalGuy.com, Allwin Agnel elaborating on how he traversed the path to success , what are the changes he saw in the Indian startup ecosystem over the past decade and the importance of event like Proto.in for the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Check out ...

By : praval

Today we have an interesting startup with us called NextBitComputing. NextBitComputing develops and provides Intellectual property and solutions which help drive next generation Audio, video and data enabled Consumer Electronic, Broadcast and Handheld devices. I got a chance to interview the CEO and technical director of NextBitCpu, Mr. Vishal Borker.

What follows is a transcript of the interview; 

What is Next Bit Computing all about and how are you guys different from your competition?

NetxBiT was founded in July 2005 by Sameer (my younger brother, who had just finished his engineering) and me. We always had a fascination for electronic ...

By : praval

Just when recession had hit most entrepreneurs, we thought of getting on board a start-up which we thought would be in the toughest of times. I got a chance to interview on of the co-founders of theHiringTool, Mr. Sumit Punjabi.

The HiringTool connects employers and recruitment agencies throughout the world by accelerating enterprise level planning, management of the recruitment function and everything else to do with recruitment.

Co-founders at theHiringTool.

Here is a transcript of the interview;

Can you briefly introduce us to the team behind The Hiring Tool?

TheHiringTool is co-founded by Nupur Panjabi and Sumit Panjabi. Nupur did ...

By : praval

While I was looking for a startup into the education sector, I got a chance to interact with Vamsi Krishna, Director – Lakshya institute.  The startup is based out of Punjab, India and is co-founded by 4 young graduate engineers from IIT. Lakshya aims at coaching students to get through India’s prestigious undergraduate courses.

On choosing the name Lakshya, Vamsi says,

A student dreams of clearing these competitive examinations to achieve his 'Lakshya' of entering the portals of the most prestigious colleges of India. We inspire and teach our students towards their 'Lakshya', hence the name struck.

 Lakshya Directors: Saurabh ...

By : praval

We have on board an interesting startup called “evam” which proudly acclaims to “make the world happier”, by means of Live Theatre shows, Corporate Workshops, Student interactions and Internal Forums and Discussions. Evam was founded in 2003 and is a Chennai, India based startup.

I got a chance to interview Aparna Narayan, Manager HR & PR at Evam Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, one of the top 30 startups at TATA NEN hottest startup in 2008.

Aparna shares her experiences as an entrepreneur and to have an estimate of how they started, she says,

Sunil and I, Karthik, have very middle class backgrounds ...

By : praval

Today we have with us, the Chief Marketing Officer of a2zApps.com, Mr. Abhijit Das. a2zApps.com claims to be India's First Multi-Tenant, Multi-Utility Software-as-a-Service Platform for businesses. They operate into the s-a-a-s realm helping businesses with tailored applications.

The a2zapps team.

Here is an interview we did we Mr Abhijit Das;

Who coined the term a2zApplications? Some background,if you can share with us.

It is not a2zapplications, it is a2zapplications.com. But we have recently changed our brand name to a2zapps.com to make it shorter. As founder’s vision was to make business software as simple ...

By : praval

Gadgets are very in! Ebay has been my favorite place to look out for them, if not buy. However, there are other places to figure out the best deals in the digital lifestyle marketplace. Today we have Sachin Singhal, co-founder and Business Manager at Cafe Gadgets on board.

When asked for the difference in a startup like cafegadgets in the U.S. vis-a-vis in India, Sachin says,

USA is a matured e-commerce market with cut throat competition. It’s difficult for any start up to leave any impression on users unless it has a unique business model or patience to ...

By : praval

This week, I have a yet another promising venture with me. Elements Akademia is a private limited company providing vocational training into courses on Banking, Financial Services, Retail and Insurance. Mr. Vinay Sharma, COO – Elements Akademia shares his views on a few subjects I popped up to him.

What follows is a transcript of the interview;

Can you give an insight about the elements that make ‘Elements Akademia’ so sang-froid.

After spending quite some years in corporate life, objective was to do something which is not only a good business but also serves the larger interests of our country and ...

By : praval

A new year has begun (I know I am late to mention this, but this is my first post for this year!) with some tragedies, controversies and results (Yes, if you thought I was trying to mention Satyam, you got me right). However, the time never stopped. On behalf of this India Startup Scene blog, I wish you a very happy and prosperous new year. For us, I wish I can come up with better reviews, interviews, featured content and more all the year round. Stay tuned!

Today, we have an exiting Indian startup with us – Munificient Ventures Pvt. Ltd ...

By : praval

Targeting the startups who were featured as the top-30 hottest startups at TATA NEN, we have ITCONS, a startup based out of NOIDA, India as our next guest. I got a chance to build up a conversation with Gaurav Mittal, CEO and founder of ITCONS. The startup works on major web services like – BPO, IT services and consulting, Mobile application development, Enterprise application architecture, et al. The most promising of them is the area of software development in the recruitment space.

When asked about the target market segment, Gaurav says,

All of our products are meant for Recruitment industry. Irrespective ...

By : praval

After covering a plethora of startups from the technology and service sectors, today we have an interesting startup based out of Bangalore, India. GoSports was founded in 2006 by an Olympian and graduates of Harvard and Oxford. GoSports helps athletes by providing them training, advisory, monitoring and representation services, sponsorships and other personal development opportunities.

When asked for their agenda, the team was prompt at saying,

We will settle for no less than multiple Olympic gold medals, and all our efforts are directed toward that ultimate end.

The GoSports team

What follows is a short interview with the GoSports team ...

By : praval

Today, we showcase activecubes, a global firm providing Analytics Services with associated Technology Solutions. A yet another top-30 startups at TATA NEN hottest startups, this year.  I got a chance to interview Mr. Anand GCP – Head Sales and Marketing at activecubes. Anand is an IIM-B passout and needless to mention, a dynamic marketer.

activecubes – The 7 founders.

Following is a short conversation with Anand;

“activecubes”, an interesting name! What made you sought this name? Any other names you thought of while brainstorming?

The firm originally had a different name when it was started in Jan 2007…over the next 6 ...

By : praval

Cloud computing, particularly S-a-a-S model has been a buzz word for quite some time now. I thought of interviewing an entrepreneur from this very sector who is a young and has proven himself by his acts and not just words. Sahil Parikh was my immediate choice. The CEO and founder of DeskAway and Synage. DeskAway is one of the top 30 startups at TATA NEN hottest startups this year.

Sahil Parikh at DeskAway

Sahil is a tech enthusiast and an avid thinker. He says it confidently enough,

I have had better luck hiring people who want to learn than people ...

By : praval

Today we have an Indian startup which cares about the waste management. Yes, Daily Dump is a brand, service and a set of products from Playnspeak. A startup based out of Bangalore.

I got a chance to interview Poonam Bir Kasturi, the founder of Daily Dump.  She’s a proud lady running an eco-friendly startup. When asked for her prime intentions, she was quick at saying,

“Our prime focus is on changing people’s behavior towards waste.”

We have an excerpt of the interview here;

What’s the source of inspiration for such a different startup? What is your background ...

By : praval

Continuing our efforts to interview the top Indian startups which are surviving in the times when the U.S. has officially declared it to be a recession; we have another Indian startup which intends to extend banking facilities in unbanked areas using the existing branch network and new technology in combination with outsourcing. Eko calls it financial freedom for urban as well as rural areas.

I got a chance to interview Mugdha Bhargava, the director for communications at Eko.

When I asked her for what do they look out in candidates while hiring, she proudly states - entrepreneurial spirit, ability to ...

By : praval

This time, we have an entirely different startup with us, which is not into technology! We have an artificial grass developing company, FieldTurf on our charts. Mr. Rupesh Tikku, national sales manager for FieldTurf India is here with us to answer a few questions. Rupesh has an extensive experience in launching new products and brands. Rupesh describes how did FieldTurf expand its wings in 4 years of operation across various countries around the globe and not just India. FieldTurfIndia was one of the top 30 companies listed in TATA NEN Hottest Startups this year.

Field Turf India team.

Following is ...

By : praval

We’ve been interviewing a lot of startups for the past few weeks. This has been an interesting experience for us. Knowing about startups in books and websites is no wonder very different than getting in touch with someone who is running a startup of his own.

We have this special interview series for our readers to get the first hand information on how did these entrepreneurs reach where they are. I am glad they’re willing to share their experiences for our readers.

Next in the line, we have a yet another promising startup, PicPorta under the lime light ...

By : praval

I got a chance to interview Kaushik Mukherjee, one of the 2 co-founders of LootStreet, an Indian startup by 2 IIM graduates – Kaushik and Arun Balakrishnan. The venture is about on-to-one bargain on a assorted list of categories.

Kaushik and Arun at LootStreet

Kaushik is a bargain lover and an avid entrepreneur. Following is an excerpt of an interview with Kaushik,

What is ‘Lootstreet’ all about?

Lootstreet is an endeavour to provide online shoppers with the option of haggling and bargaining over the listed price of any product. The underlying idea is to make online shopping as close as possible ...

By : praval

While thinking of whom to get next for the interview, I got a chance to interview Pranav Bhasin from LifeBlob, which according to him is a visual chronicle of life. Pranav along with his enthusiastic team recently got a funding of 1 million $ from seedfund. Pranav is very focused while he says,

Internet companies are not driven by brands. My strong belief is that a social networking service needs to be marketed by its users and that is what we are aiming for.

The Lifeblob Team.

What follows is an interview with Pranav;

LifeBlob is an interesting name. How did ...

By : praval

Continuing our interview spree, I got a chance to be a part of a networking night organized by BBX India, a primer organization which deals in facilitating cashless business transactions amongst its clients. BBX India is a licensed startup of BBX Australia, which was founded by Mr. Michael Touma in 1993. BBX is currently operational in 8 countries world wide with their expansion plans to have Mexico, Kuwait, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Iran & Portugal under their business portfolio.

Michael Touma, CEO-BBX with me at the networking night in N.Delhi.

I could draw a  short compilation of question and answers from ...

By : praval

The next next in our interview series is Storrz, a JustOnDemand initiative which has an impressive social shopping innovation. It was interesting to know about online interactions, thoughts, debates and then buying the product - all at a single domain! Chandan Maruthi, the man who conceptualized Storrz, shared some of his thoughts on a plethora of topics. Chandan has well defined Storrz as an online shopping mall. In his words,

In the real world we saw that shopping malls did this successfully and we wanted to replicate the same for the Internet.

 I would like to share few questions Storrz enjoyed ...

By : praval

Image Courtesy: Matildaben

On starting a business, the right set of customers is a dire need to maximize the profitability potential of the venture. The right kind of customers must be offered the right kind of service i.e. telephone support or email support. It is a strategic decision for a business owner to decide about the kind of services he would like to offer to his customer base. These decisions involve a lot of considerations which are important from a business point of view. Few key concerns may be;

• The Service Mix – The question has to be answered by ...

By : praval

After sharing Arvind's experiences with OrderMonger, we have our next-in-the-series interview with Nithya, one of the two co-founders of Muziboo, an Indian startup which is an online music community targeting audiophiles who love to listen and create music.

The way Muziboo generated a community around a startup did impress me ever since I met the duo at proto. I always wondered how? Answering my question, I found Nithya to be brave at her humble thought,

We believe that in this age of web 'Customer service is marketing' We believe in keeping our existing users happy and letting them spread ...

By : praval

We said we'll have it and here we are - kicking off with the first of the direct interview series.

To start with, we prefer to choose Order Monger - an online food delivery store which closed down its operations, very recently. we got a chance to interview Arvind Krishnan, one of the co-founders of Order Monger on the lessons learnt after closing a startup.

What was the main theme behind Order Monger?
The main theme was to make it easier for consumers to find and procure the services that they need on a regular basis, more easily. Typical examples include ...

By : praval

Flipkart is a complete online book store which keeps track of most books which are available at the bookstore near you. The concept is derived out of Amazon, which is a globally renowned site for its huge collection of online books and related items. The difference being, Flipkart focuses mainly on best sellers.

With the tagline as The Book Store at your door, Flipkart is a promising startup having a potential of a good domestic reader base. Analyzing the specifics, the website is properly maintained and the aesthetics is worth appreciating. It is also neatly classified and categorized.

The Flipkart ...

By : praval

Zoomin, a web service which allows you to store share and print your photographs, has already created a stir among its competitors. Zoomin was launched particularly to aim Indian users, especially NRI’s with an objective of providing excellent services and quality.

HOW ZOOMIN CAN TRANSFORM YOUR PHOTO-ALBUM:

The look, feel, interface and the navigation of the website are pretty impressive indeed. Nice and decent flash work which can be found throughout the website makes it very appealing. Alongside, the entire process of creating your online photo album, uploading pictures on to the album and the ease of sharing it ...

By : praval

The basic motto of a startup that operates in the Internet space is to spread a word about its product. It a common myth that a startup would get its commerce and trade resulting into profits from the online space but to get the word spread, there is no better way than to have a team which looks into the operations of the company in the offline space. It is a very challenging parameter to satisfy for a company and there are not many companies that have implemented it successfully.

The basic necessity that a startup needs are orders to ...

By : praval

Image Courtesy: Will Lion

Hiring scenarios become very different when it comes to hiring for startups. The process of finding the right employee can sometimes become tedious for a startup owner. The challenge lies in searching out the right employee from the large number of applications that one gets. An employee, who is a master of a trade and may be jack of a few.

Here are a few pointers that startups should touch base with;

1. Avoid Job Sites - Avoid searching for resumes of candidates for your startups on job sites such as Monster, Naukri, Jobs Ahead, etc. as the ...

By : praval

Social Networking is a buzzword today! Most of the entrepreneurs would opine with me over the fact that the online business is going to explode in the coming years. For an entrepreneur, it is extremely important to have his online connections strong. This is where LinkedIn, a precious business source helping its members to withdraw oodles of wisdom, knowledge, experience and inspiration from their professional networks comes into play. This social networking site is dedicated to the business community and is a much needed boon for the entire online business fraternity.

Omaro Ailoch, an entrepreneur and the founder of OCIT ...

By : praval

It is very important to understand the true potential of your business website and there is not a better place today than the blogosphere to get reviews.

So what is a blogosphere? Just incase you're unaware of;

Blogosphere is a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections. It is the perception that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network.

The vital considerations to get your business reviewed in the blogosphere are;

1. The basic thing that most people forget is to get a well designed website which ...

By : praval

It is common knowledge to every entrepreneur that the good times in terms of profit may not last forever and there are mistakes which cannot be avoided. Business owners should try and convert those occasional flashes of brilliance to consistent moments of brilliance. The business risks can be minimized and it would be an experience on the part of the startup to learn from the mistakes.

Few mistakes that startups tend to make;

• Lack of support – It is highly likely that a startup owner gives all his time to his work. It is well observed that he tries to live ...

By : praval

One of the most important tasks for companies all over the world today is to keep up their sales and revenue in this global recession era.

As a startup, you may have the same thing on your charts. Also, there can be umpteen times in your career when the business operations would not be as good as you would like them to be. It is important to understand and accept the fact that a business does face testing times. It is the maturity of an individual to understand that a temporary slump may not mean the end of the game ...

By : praval

The successful transition from an employee to entrepreneur requires arousing of an entrepreneurial fortitude which is the de facto parameter for all would be entrepreneurs. There have got to be obstacles in the roadmap of an entrepreneur as this transformation is not at all an easy one and requires a lot of courage and determination to succeed.

This transition state deals with a lot of key decisions which have to be strategically thought about. Some of the important considerations are;

• The presence of guts, risk taking attitude and self belief override all the others as these not only shape the ...

By : praval

Common products are made by common startups. If the products you make is a replica of, or almost similar to your competitor's, you've most probably assured a funeral for your startup!

The stress here is on the fact of “thinking out of the box.” Thinking on the roads which may not have been traveled. It is agreeable that such roads are often risky, but otherwise, it's a near certain death, once you're a startup. There is hardly any scope left for "Orkut" of India, "Flickr" of India, etc. You can look at the fate of numerous ...

By : praval

Investors and their investment is the key behind the successful initiation of a startup. It is such a well known fact; unless there is Vitamin ‘M’ (M as in Money) a startup is difficult be setup. Major investments come into a startup either from an Angel investor or a Venture Capitalist and we all know that convincing a person to invest in one's own bran child is one of the most difficult things to achieve. Investors are the only catalysts without whose help the successful transformation of an idea into a business seems extremely tough.

The important parameters which ...

By : praval

Nothing great in the world has ever been achieved without passion.

'Passion' is the hymn that is essential for every personage in a startup to chant. The nervous energy of a person can be well groomed if he/she is willing to work for a startup. As goes the saying “Experience has no substitutes”, working for a startup can provide essential inputs to a person who is willing to start his own entrepreneurial venture in the future.

Though the picture does not always have a happy ending, but it is still crazy (pun intended) to work in for a startup ...

By : praval

Practically speaking, entrepreneurs would know that if there isn’t an Angel Investor or a Venture Capitalist, however grand the Business Model is, the idea often goes for a six, if not always. It is also very true that a great idea doesn’t always fetch a great investor. But, optimism always does well to all. Pitching the right attitude and right words always works in favor of the promoter who is on a mission to convince an Angel Investor or a Venture Capitalist about his Business plan.

The ten most important parameters that decide whether a startup is worth ...

By : praval

By definition,

A startup company or a startup is a company with limited operating history and the phrase ‘startup’ is generally associated with high growth technology oriented companies. “Survival of the Fittest” is the basic hymn that is germane to the success or failure of all entrepreneurial activities in the world.

By : praval

"Barack Hussein Obama has been elected the 44th president of the United States, as the country chose him as its first black chief executive."

Okay, it doesn't make much of an impact as far as launching a startup scene blog is concerned, but for businesses across the nation, it may be otherwise.

According to Wikipedia, a startup is,

A startup company or start-up is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets. The term became popular internationally during the dot-com bubble when a great number ...