TiE SmashUp 08-07-2015

TiE Hyderabad chapter organized  flagship event  ‘SmashUp’ for early sage start-ups to enable them to learn the art of building successful ventures from eminent mentors and inspirational successful entrepreneurs. These early stage Startups also got the opportunity to network with the investors including angels and VCs. The Key Note was delivered by Mr. Sri Myneni, CEO & Founder, Knoah Solutions Inc. The day-long event organized interesting sessions on various topics related to the issues that startups face in its early stages. The event also witnessed the startups participating in a couple of panel discussions by eminent experts. The first, session titled ‘Are you defining your product right’? and was moderated by Mr. D V Shesha Rao, MD, Insideview Techlogies (India) Pvt Ltd; the panelists of this session included Mr. Sri Myneni, CEO & Founder, Knoah Solution Inc., Mr. Rama Krishna Raju, Founder & CEO, Pennant Technologies and Mr. Rahul Tamada, Co-Founder, Tamada Media Pvt Ltd. Another session on ‘Going international: Should you? When and How?’ deliberated on when should the start-up’s plan to enter international market. The panelists included Mr. Raghu Bathina, StartUp Advisor, Mr. Ritesh Reddy, CEO O2 Spa and Mr. Amit Prasad, Founder, MD&CEO, SatNav Technologies. The session was moderated by Mr. Seshasai K, Site Head, IBM, Hyderabad.

The highlight of the event was the ‘Startup Heroes’ – an early stage start-up seed funding session where 8 Startups having a working prototype pitched to angel investors. These start-ups were given ‘5 minutes’ to pitch to individual investors for a funding of INR 15 Lacs for tech & non-tech start-ups against 10% equity. At the end of each presentation, the investors talked about their interest in giving principle approval on funding the business idea of the Startup. However, in case, they didn’t find the business idea interesting enough then they provided their feedback on the missing items which didn’t excite them to fund the idea. The organizers shared and clarified the terms with investors and start-ups before the start of the event without leaving any scope of negotiations on the stage. Commenting on the success of the event, Mr. Rakesh Bhatia- TiE Hyderabad Board Member and event co chair said, “TiE’s SmashUp event has been continuously nurturing the early stage startups to move up in the value chain. Through a platform like ‘StartUp Heroes’, we aim to not only mentor these start-ups but also connect them to the investor community. TiE Hyderabad will continue to bring together all stakeholders and play a proactive part in creating an inclusive ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship The event witnessed a participation of around 300 people representing various stakeholders of the ecosystem including Startups, entrepreneurs, etc.

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