If you are a technology enthusiast in India and want to know the new global tech trends, you should attend NASSCOM Product Conclave 2014.
Some terrific insights on how the digital world is helping small startups to reach mass audience in quick time through Content Marketing, SEO, Blogging, Customer Acquistion through Social Media channels by Dhaval Patel of Kissmetrics.com & Pradeep Chopra of DigitalVidya.com were informative.
A session on how SimpliLearn, an Indian digital learning company cracked growth across countries in few years was worthwhile.
Pallav Nadhani of Fusioncharts shared how they built a milliondollar business through lean sales & marketing.
About 1700 participants and 200 odd speakers from various parts of the world to help Indian Tech Product scene to go to the next level. There were about 120 Product Software startups showcased & there were a few more in the form of delegates.
I am here to share my perspective of sessions I attended.
Day 1 - Growth Track
This was an invite only parallel track sessions. I chose the 'Growth Track' because I thought that would be relevant for me & found few workshops on Digital Learning & Marketing.
This was an invite only parallel track sessions. I chose the 'Growth Track' because I thought that would be relevant for me & found few workshops on Digital Learning & Marketing.
Some terrific insights on how the digital world is helping small startups to reach mass audience in quick time through Content Marketing, SEO, Blogging, Customer Acquistion through Social Media channels by Dhaval Patel of Kissmetrics.com & Pradeep Chopra of DigitalVidya.com were informative.
A session on how SimpliLearn, an Indian digital learning company cracked growth across countries in few years was worthwhile.
Pallav Nadhani of Fusioncharts shared how they built a milliondollar business through lean sales & marketing.
Dave McClure of 500startups shared some metrics that any startup should focus on.
Day 2 -
How Israel, a tiny country roughly 8 million in population is the 2nd highest tech startup country after US. This is just mindblowing. Unemployment rate is the lowest of 6%. Tech Startups come out of college in numbers. Indian universities has to seriously study Israel and replicate what they are doing right.
Ramesh Raskar of MIT Media Lab's research works are outstanding. He is an Indian like us but the research funding & ecosystem at MIT enables them to think beyond. The lowcost eyeglasses www.eyenetra.com ( Eye Tests using a smart phone app ) was phenomenal.
Girish M of FreshDesk.com shared how they went on to become a Global Product sitting out of India in a quick time. Very inspiring.
The art of starting Tech Ventures by Mahesh Murthy , Alok Kejriwal & Vishal Gondal was a rocking session. Alok & Vishal shared how they started contest & gaming companies in the late 90s.
Day 3
A lot of spoken about how smartphones have gone through mobile tsunami wave. Caeser Sengupta - VP of Google threw light on their future projects.
HackerRack & myNoticePeriod shared the future of recruiting & talent management through non-traditional methods & innovative strategies.
Bharat Goenka of Tally, the first ever successful Indian Software product shared how it scaled up from scratch with his witty & thought provoking one liners.
Finally, the world's most prolific early stage investor Dave McClure of 500startups who have invested in 900 companies so far finished with a strong answer to a question about Indian Entrepreneurs & their risk appetite, he said - 'It's actually the Indian investors/ venture capitalists who are yet to take more risks, not the Entrepreneurs'
Overall, there were about 120 Software Product companies that were showcased. About 1700 delegates across India and 250 speakers across the globe for various sessions were certainly worthwhile. This is an event if one really wants to know what's cooking new in the Indian Tech space.
Some of the popular jargons like SaaS, IoT, Mobile Payments, EdTech kept on resonating these 3 days.
Now I would like to share my perspective of how this ecosystem has to evolve in the next few years
Initiatives like 10000startups by NASSCOM, ProductNation, Incubators, Accelerators are supporting their bit to build this ecosystem.
While these ecosystems are getting positioned outside, it also needs to really merge with the Universities. Every third startup is worried that they are unable to get good programmers, design thinkers, digital marketers & problem solvers.
While majority of the universities in India still follow the 6 month project in the final years with certain rules that disallows both the student to contribute continuously & also several startups unable to tap these talent.
Here are 5 pointers that I think if it happens in Educational Institutions, can really boost the tech startup ecosystem & talent demands for the future in India.
1. Top Percentile Movement Reduction
Each institution has a few top percentile students in certain parameters like ACADEMICS, RESEARCH ORIENTATION, INNOVATIVE SPIRIT, ENTREPRENEURIAL BENT. These are students who easily get an on-campus job in any one of the SERVICES companies. Some of them may also take up Higher education abroad. In this movement, some of them lose their interest in Research & Entrepreneurship. These are the students who can start-up in colleges or join early startups can potentially build a Google or Facebook out of college.
If we look at the Silicon Valley in the US, the number of startup stories has at least a few Indians at the early stage. Fundamentally, they remain the same individual just that the ecosystem in the US helped them to be a part of university startup culture. If some of the top universities together create some serious startup university culture, then these top percentiles are going to work in this setup. Kerala has become a frontrunner in this experiment in a large scale by setting up www.startupvillage.in that aims to create 1000 startups in 10 years working with local universities. If there can be multiple IITs & multiple IIMs, there can certainly be multiple Startup Village setups. Time will decide.
2. Cultivate Design Thinking
Design Thinking is a way of thinking that has a multi-dimensional approach to solve complex problems with constantly setting newer goals along the path. It's a quick cyclical process that involves Emphathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype & Test. The intermediate solutions is encouraged to be starting points for solving new problems. This encourages greater creativity & better solutions. This will encourage unconventional thinking.
Design Thinking is something to be encouraged to be used by students in Schools & Colleges and well as by teachers. This video will give an understanding of Design Thinking.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7sEoEvT8l8
3. Incentives for FAILED Projects
Thomas Edition quoted ' I have not failed 1000 times. I have successfully discovered 1000 ways to not make a light bulb' . This statement is enough is say for every innovation/invention there are several minor/major failures.
There are several students who enthuse to innovate & try projects that is never tried. A lot of these experiments fail in execution. There should be a forum to discuss & share FAILURES in projects. Is there a constant motivation for these students to try again? There are several brilliant ideas that goes to die because the execution methods was incorrect or the market/ecosystem was not ready. If the ideas or mindset need to be continued, the students should be encouraged, celebrated & praised for their failures.
This is nothing to do with those fail in academic papers. That's a different debate altogether.
Students who work on innovative projects should be celebrated irrespective of the short term results. Events like 'FAIL CAMP' at a regular interval in university campuses will certainly bring a healthy Research & Innovation culture.
4. Multi-Disciplinary Project Groups
This is an important aspect that enables a project to succeed. It is important to allow students of different disciplines to join together while working on projects.
Every product idea needs contributors in the form of Hustler, Hacker & Designer. These are 3 different minds with individual strengths. Hustler is the one who focuses on product ideas & features. Designers is the one who thinks from usability point of view. Hacker is the one who architects the product. Add to this list, a Marketer is also required to present to users & get feedback and understand if people be ready to pay for the product. 'Go to Market' is something we Indians fail miserably.
Several Private Universities in India should use their multiple-stream setup to let some of the bright minds of different disciplines to work together on certain product ideas. This work structure can certainly be streamlined to form an eco-system for brighter ideas within the campuses.
Universities can certainly partner with the startup ecosystem to organise Hackathons to inculcate Multi-disciplinary Projects.
5. Educate Entrepreneurship also as Mainstream
It's quite amazing that India as a country that been fairly entrepreneurial when there was no internet, unscalable atmosphere has not taken in further when the technology revolution happened. The society has acknowledged Doctors, Lawyers, Auditors are self-employed professionals. They are Entrepreneurs in a small way. The same society doesn't allow Engineers to experiment. Every parent wants their son/daughter to join Infosys, TCS, Wipro. 'What if fails?' is the question that is done & dusted. Let them fail & learn. Every success comes after several failures irrespective of the profession. So its important for different stakeholders to educate the society constantly.
While this blog is mostly technology related, but the 5 pointers are certainly extendable to non-tech setups as well. This is just my personal opinion based on my current understanding & limited knowledge. Very open to understand others ideas as well.
Day 2 -
How Israel, a tiny country roughly 8 million in population is the 2nd highest tech startup country after US. This is just mindblowing. Unemployment rate is the lowest of 6%. Tech Startups come out of college in numbers. Indian universities has to seriously study Israel and replicate what they are doing right.
Ramesh Raskar of MIT Media Lab's research works are outstanding. He is an Indian like us but the research funding & ecosystem at MIT enables them to think beyond. The lowcost eyeglasses www.eyenetra.com ( Eye Tests using a smart phone app ) was phenomenal.
Girish M of FreshDesk.com shared how they went on to become a Global Product sitting out of India in a quick time. Very inspiring.
The art of starting Tech Ventures by Mahesh Murthy , Alok Kejriwal & Vishal Gondal was a rocking session. Alok & Vishal shared how they started contest & gaming companies in the late 90s.
Day 3
A lot of spoken about how smartphones have gone through mobile tsunami wave. Caeser Sengupta - VP of Google threw light on their future projects.
HackerRack & myNoticePeriod shared the future of recruiting & talent management through non-traditional methods & innovative strategies.
Bharat Goenka of Tally, the first ever successful Indian Software product shared how it scaled up from scratch with his witty & thought provoking one liners.
Finally, the world's most prolific early stage investor Dave McClure of 500startups who have invested in 900 companies so far finished with a strong answer to a question about Indian Entrepreneurs & their risk appetite, he said - 'It's actually the Indian investors/ venture capitalists who are yet to take more risks, not the Entrepreneurs'
Overall, there were about 120 Software Product companies that were showcased. About 1700 delegates across India and 250 speakers across the globe for various sessions were certainly worthwhile. This is an event if one really wants to know what's cooking new in the Indian Tech space.
Some of the popular jargons like SaaS, IoT, Mobile Payments, EdTech kept on resonating these 3 days.
Now I would like to share my perspective of how this ecosystem has to evolve in the next few years
While these ecosystems are getting positioned outside, it also needs to really merge with the Universities. Every third startup is worried that they are unable to get good programmers, design thinkers, digital marketers & problem solvers.
While majority of the universities in India still follow the 6 month project in the final years with certain rules that disallows both the student to contribute continuously & also several startups unable to tap these talent.
Here are 5 pointers that I think if it happens in Educational Institutions, can really boost the tech startup ecosystem & talent demands for the future in India.
1. Top Percentile Movement Reduction
Each institution has a few top percentile students in certain parameters like ACADEMICS, RESEARCH ORIENTATION, INNOVATIVE SPIRIT, ENTREPRENEURIAL BENT. These are students who easily get an on-campus job in any one of the SERVICES companies. Some of them may also take up Higher education abroad. In this movement, some of them lose their interest in Research & Entrepreneurship. These are the students who can start-up in colleges or join early startups can potentially build a Google or Facebook out of college.
If we look at the Silicon Valley in the US, the number of startup stories has at least a few Indians at the early stage. Fundamentally, they remain the same individual just that the ecosystem in the US helped them to be a part of university startup culture. If some of the top universities together create some serious startup university culture, then these top percentiles are going to work in this setup. Kerala has become a frontrunner in this experiment in a large scale by setting up www.startupvillage.in that aims to create 1000 startups in 10 years working with local universities. If there can be multiple IITs & multiple IIMs, there can certainly be multiple Startup Village setups. Time will decide.
2. Cultivate Design Thinking
Design Thinking is a way of thinking that has a multi-dimensional approach to solve complex problems with constantly setting newer goals along the path. It's a quick cyclical process that involves Emphathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype & Test. The intermediate solutions is encouraged to be starting points for solving new problems. This encourages greater creativity & better solutions. This will encourage unconventional thinking.
Design Thinking is something to be encouraged to be used by students in Schools & Colleges and well as by teachers. This video will give an understanding of Design Thinking.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7sEoEvT8l8
3. Incentives for FAILED Projects
Thomas Edition quoted ' I have not failed 1000 times. I have successfully discovered 1000 ways to not make a light bulb' . This statement is enough is say for every innovation/invention there are several minor/major failures.
There are several students who enthuse to innovate & try projects that is never tried. A lot of these experiments fail in execution. There should be a forum to discuss & share FAILURES in projects. Is there a constant motivation for these students to try again? There are several brilliant ideas that goes to die because the execution methods was incorrect or the market/ecosystem was not ready. If the ideas or mindset need to be continued, the students should be encouraged, celebrated & praised for their failures.
This is nothing to do with those fail in academic papers. That's a different debate altogether.
4. Multi-Disciplinary Project Groups
This is an important aspect that enables a project to succeed. It is important to allow students of different disciplines to join together while working on projects.
Every product idea needs contributors in the form of Hustler, Hacker & Designer. These are 3 different minds with individual strengths. Hustler is the one who focuses on product ideas & features. Designers is the one who thinks from usability point of view. Hacker is the one who architects the product. Add to this list, a Marketer is also required to present to users & get feedback and understand if people be ready to pay for the product. 'Go to Market' is something we Indians fail miserably.
Several Private Universities in India should use their multiple-stream setup to let some of the bright minds of different disciplines to work together on certain product ideas. This work structure can certainly be streamlined to form an eco-system for brighter ideas within the campuses.
Universities can certainly partner with the startup ecosystem to organise Hackathons to inculcate Multi-disciplinary Projects.
5. Educate Entrepreneurship also as Mainstream
It's quite amazing that India as a country that been fairly entrepreneurial when there was no internet, unscalable atmosphere has not taken in further when the technology revolution happened. The society has acknowledged Doctors, Lawyers, Auditors are self-employed professionals. They are Entrepreneurs in a small way. The same society doesn't allow Engineers to experiment. Every parent wants their son/daughter to join Infosys, TCS, Wipro. 'What if fails?' is the question that is done & dusted. Let them fail & learn. Every success comes after several failures irrespective of the profession. So its important for different stakeholders to educate the society constantly.
While this blog is mostly technology related, but the 5 pointers are certainly extendable to non-tech setups as well. This is just my personal opinion based on my current understanding & limited knowledge. Very open to understand others ideas as well.
