StartupAvenues

StartupAvenues : Offline meet at Delhi

Finally it happened, after too many misses, delayed email responses etc etc and after a gap of almost 3 years, StartupAvenues offline meeting did happen at Connaught place New Delhi and surprisingly of the total attendance, three people namely Umesh Sethi, Nalin Savera & Shailesh were also involved in previous meetings ( held in 2003).

Following is the detail of event which has been logged by Umesh Sethi of CreativeSparks who was kind enough for agreeing to minute the event.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On a bright and sunny afternoon on 30th June, startup avenues meetup was held in C.P . I would like to thank all who made it or RSVPed. Here is a short recap of the meeting.

Event Photograph

There were 8 of us : Shailesh our moderator who works in a private equity funding company, myself and Manish Pahuja running our own web solutions consultancy, Jaspal working in an NGO in handicrafts exports, a gentlemen whose name i can’t remember (my apologies) working in in a software company, Siddarth , an Human Capital consultant with a big consultancy firm, Rakesh running his Property company and Nalin , running a software consultancy.

We first had a round of introductions in Cafe Coffee Day and then when it was getting bit crowded , we moved to Banana Leaf, next to it, on Rakesh’s suggestion , which was a nice and spacious South Indian Joint.

Shailesh told us about his and his partners experiences in starting and running coolavenues which were pretty interesting and humorous. Of how they managed to negotiate with big companies, run the company while working in a fulltime job and keep their expenses low. How they had to finally exit the business on a nice profit . All in all i guess it showed that the company succeded because it was solving a problem and had a revenue model attached to the solution.

We also talked about the fear of some VC’s copying ideas and the fact that this practice is unfortunately prevalant here. We talked of whether funding is needed or not and how seed funding is neither easily available nor at time needed. There were some jokes and we remembered a couple of times we had met 3-4 years back.

All in all, i think it was a pretty nice experience atleast for me., I got to know 2-3 people who i feel may be able to advice and assist me in some future plans . We closed the meeting at 7.00 and i think all of us were happy with meeting once a month. Shailesh clicked a couple of snaps and perhaps we shall see them soon somewhere on startupavenues.

Going forward i would like to put forward some points for open discussion as i felt arose from holding this meeting and other experience i have seen in networking meetings abroad.

1. While meeting in coffee day or restaurants is great, one to one interaction is bit difficult. Most networking events have a group presentation or discussion or introduction then informal one to one circulating and talking to people who you may share area of interest with. Ideal place for that is a small hall or something with snacks and/or soft drinks available on tables. If someone has any suggestion how this can be acheived without bearing any cost for hall etc. in Delhi, wouldnt this be a good option ?

2. I would suggest we have a proper contributory ticket for events like this IF they take-off. I know some people have disagreed with this. But honestly it is a bit embarrasing to either go one by one and order when sitting on same table or let a guy order for all then exchange fifties and tenners on a table or outside or let the guy forget it. Its a professional meeting with bit of food and drink - whats wrong with charging a basic 50-60 buck ticket… if less are spend on a meeting they can go into the meetup’s bank. someone can keep track of bills.

3. In terms of organizer , rather than having a fixed organizer or organizers i think this should be voluntary and by rotation. Reason for this is i believe the organizer comes in contact with multiple people before meeting on phone and is generally first people who the guys meet, so its good if everyone becomes an organizer one so that the whole group feels involved, and more and more contact is generated.

Well, thats my opinion on the whole issue. Networking is a great way to meet new people, share ideas, get domain knowledge. Perhaps we can discuss on see how we can make our networking events productive, interesting and successful.

Regards
Umesh Sethi
Creative Spark Solutions
98680 81408