Awaiting New Breed of Indian Entrepreneurs
The organizers of Proto, the first of its kind in India to showcase new products, technologies and companies from India will be releasing its Final list of Companies that will show case their products in this premier event any time now.
Before the clock strikes midnight tomorrow (02 Jan 2006), the initial 45 companies that are selected for Proto will be announced. 30 companies from that list will be presenting their product, team and company on a timeslot of 8 minutes on the 21st of January 2007 in IIT Madras, Chennai before an audience of VCs, Media, Entrepreneurs and Technologists.
The list of the 30 companies that will be presenting will be announced on the 5th of January 2007. The remaining 20 companies of the first shortlist will be profiled as elaborately as possible and will be included as part of the kit that will be given to all the attendees and VCs for the event, to ensure that they receive attention as well.
Who will make it in the Final List?
Proto team haven't yet disclosed how many companies have sent their nominations for the event, but in an earlier communication mentioned that they were infact overwhelmed by the number.
We have been a little overwhelmed by the amount of nominations that have come in
I am not quite sure what kind of screening process they are following and what exactly they are looking in a company to be showcased. But I am sure, they do their best possible. I expect that Proto team release the full list of Nominations so that it will serve as a first database of its kind, of the new breed of Entrepreneurs and their dreams. Who knows, there may be some one looking for what these companies have on offer.
What to Expect?
My expectations on the final list of companies will be in the following areas or domains.
- Mobile : Solutions that can unleash the power of Mobiles in the domestic markets. We still lag a lot behind in Mobile penetration and Internet subscriptions alike. But Mobiles in India can penetrate lot easier than traditional Internet and leveraging this will be the key for our growth. So I love to see some solutions that work directly on SMS.
- Social Networks : There will be due representation from Localized Social networks. There may not be any thing NEW to offer, but I hope that they will be targeting Indian audience. Mostly Photo, Video sharing networks and a slew of pure Social networking applications.
- Ajax Powered Office2.0 & Web Worker Applications targeted for Small Businesses in Developed Markets and
- a few Mashups.
- I love to see some Solutions that target upcoming thunder:Travel Industry and Health sector.
- I will be surprised to see any on Content Creation, Aggregation & Distribution side. And in Finance and Retail. The solutions that address Indian domestic market.
I wish I am wrong in my expectations and I will be surprised with many new and different solutions. So, I am eagerly waiting to see the list of companies.
What and How can I learn from Proto:
I wish I could attend the conference. I hope that Proto team will release enough podcasts and videos such that I can understand the gist of Proto and key aspects of Entrepreneurship and how these Companies are doing it.
Mean time, I will try to study these companies and probably put a profile of each of them, by answering a few questions. And probably I will try to talk to them, if possible with whatever communication channel feasible. The following are the key questions I would like to get answers to from each of these finalists and those who haven't yet made it into the list.
- Can this Solution inspire Silicon Valley? Last thing I want to hear about a solution that is showcased in Proto is, hey this is a localized version of X application that Silicon Valley/another part of world cameup 6 months back. (more on this in the upcoming posts?)
- What is the Key Problem they are trying to solve?
- What is the Value they are trying to bring to the table?
- What is the Targeted Market and Why?
- What are the Revenue Prospects and Model? Do they have a Binary Revenue Model or an organic/incremental transaction based revenue model? I hope not many will be counting eye balls for their revenues.
- How are they Promoting their solution? Entering into Proto is a definite yardstick in this direction. But I love to see more such avenues.
- Strategy on Evolution and Taming their competition.
- What are other opportunities for Revenue and Growth in that domain.
The wait is just a few hours from now. We will know the Face of New Breed of Entrepreneurial India and what we all are up to.
Lets just wait and see then.
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