I have been trying to get entrepreneurship development in Kolkata moving since 1995, when I started my own entrepreneurial career. At the time, I was one of the first to set up a Silicon Valley startup with a development back-end in Kolkata. The environment was hard. The infrastructure was poor. Now, all that has changed. Infrastructure is as good as anywhere else. Last night’s Kolkata 1M/1M pitch fest was attended by a couple of hundred entrepreneurs who came not only from Kolkata, but also from surrounding areas like IIT Kharagpur, Durgapur, Ranigunj, etc. It felt good to see the momentum and the energy level. Things are definitely improving in Bengal.
PwC Kolkata, led by Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta, stepped up to support the event as the main sponsor. PS Group, a leading real estate company in Kollkata, led by Mr. Pradeep Chopra, both hosted the event at their beautiful iLead management institute campus, and stepped up as a sponsor. This event would not have been possible without the leadership they provided. Also noteworthy was the support provided by the TiE Kolkata team led by Hari Balasubramanium. In fact, all Kolkata organizations came together and joined hands last night. Needless to say, we need more of this kind of collaboration, and we absolutely need to keep the momentum going.
As you know, I just returned from Kerala, where I spoke at the inaugural TiECon Kerala conference. My keynote address drew 1100 people – all practicing or aspiring entrepreneurs. I was thrilled to see such entrepreneurial energy bubbling in Kerala.
We need to get Bengal moving. Seriously.
Last night, I introduced the audience to Bengal’s success stories: Abhishek Rungta’s, Pallav Nadhani’s, Bimal Patwari’s, Srish Agarwal’s , and Arijit Bhattacharyya’s stories entail millions of dollars of revenue-generating IT / ITES businesses. Click on these links, and you will get a feel for what miracles they have achieved right here, right now. Without letting obstacles get on the way.
We are proud of them. We hope the local media will cover them on an ongoing basis, and make heroes out of them.
Our goal is to get Bengal on a path so that we can identify 100 promising entrepreneurs in short order, and mentor them through to $1M and beyond in annual revenue. Longer term, we are setting a goal of 1000 such entrepreneurs by 2020. That amounts to a GDP goal of $1B.
Now, let’s look at last night’s pitches.
First, Atul Gupta presented InSynch Tech-Fin Solutions. InSync is software product company focused at building innovative solutions complementing SMB ERP Product Primarily in the eCommerce Vertical. InSync is successfully addressing the integration gap between SAP Business One and Magento, and has already generated $500k in revenue.
Next, Soumya Sengupta presented Nosynotion, a social networking platform concept where people can chat, make friends, get entertained all by pepping up their mood. It is the first mood based networking and entertainment system. Somya’s concept needs a lot of refining. The case for a new social network isn’t clear from his pitch. Why not a Facebook app? Why a full-blown social network?
Then, Nilmoni Basak presented iQeCommerce a hosted eCommerce platform to help small business owners set up shop online. Nilmoni is trying to compete with BigCommerce, Volusion, etc. on price, but needs to pay attention to vendors like Moonfruit. The company needs differentiation in a highly competitive market.
Next, Kamanashish Roy presented Debate.fm, an online debating platform where educational institutes / organizations / individuals can start their own debate club or just start a debate in 3 clicks. Debate.fm simplifies traditional debating process for general users. Kamanashish also presented a four-phase plan which diluted his core positioning for the debate platform, which seems like a differentiated solution without too much competition in a niche market.
Also, Asamanya Mohanty presented Infiflex, a development framework for Google AppEngine called Giffy that helps develop cloud based applications writing minimal code. She had a very difficult time explaining the business, but considering that the company has 20 customers, some careful positioning work could most certainly help them accelerate.
Then, Rohit Singh presented ShopOffice, is an e-commerce company geared to sell office supplies. Simple concept, complex issues like vendor negotiation and delivery logistics, however, Rohit needs to get going. Enough analysis!
Manish Kr. Saraf presented Ujjeewan Healthcare, a tele-health company focusing on the primary and chronic healthcare issues for people at the bottom of the pyramid by incorporating technologies like tele-medicine, tele-pharmacy and chronic disease management. Having started operations in June 2012, it has one center each in Raniganj and Benachatty towns in West Bengal, India. In a much-needed segment, Manish needs to focus his offering to address a specific type of illness, rather than the wide array he currently addresses. While there is broad applicability, the company won’t scale without some focused effort. I liked the concept and the entrepreneur.
Abhijit Das presented i-cee Design Technology, offering Protigi – a new kind of Digital Rights Management system. Abhijit believes post-production studios would be the primary adopters of his technology. However, he hasn’t yet validated this assumption. He needs to. ASAP.
Sourya Ranjan Mohanty then presented Cyberdine Web Services, an online marketing solution for the e-learning industry. The company is generating revenues, and a clear positioning and strategy would significantly accelerate their business.
Pranav Chavan pitched TapEx, a student eCommerce startup from IIT Kharagpur, to deliver food from different local outlets in a single package. They introduced a new concept of Social Fooding in this era of Social Networking. Pranav is a second year student and plans to run the business in parallel with his IIT education.
Last, Dhruv Agarwal, also from IIT KGP, pitched a healthcare service using IPV6, to create a mobile healthcare service to bring basic healthcare and diagnostic services to the Indian masses, especially the remote areas. It’s a complex project, but definitely worth pursuing, and a validation effort needs to be under way. Working with a hospital may be the best way to get there fast.
The judges, Abhishek Rungta, founder of IndusNet, Pallav Nadhani, founder of Fusion Charts, and Pradeep Bhowmick from PwC, along with me, decided that the winners for the night were Atul Gupta, Nilmoni Basak, Kamanashish Roy, Rohit Singh, Sourya Ranjana Mohanty, and Dhruv Agarwal. All presenters, of course, are works in progress.
1M/1M will continue to work with the Kolkata organizers to continue the effort, and bring together a regular program for the region’s entrepreneurs. By 2020, we intend to groom 1000 entrepreneurs and deliver $1B in GDP.
As always, I would very much like to hear about your business, so let me invite you to come and pitch at one of our free 1M/1M public roundtables. We will be holding future roundtables, most at 8:00 a.m. PDT, on:
-Thursday, November 8, 148th 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.
-Thursday, November 15, 149th 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.
-Thursday, November 29, 150th 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.
If you want a deeper relationship with me, you are very welcome to join the 1M/1M premium program. If you have any questions about the program, please, first study the website, especially What to expect from the 1M/1M premium program and the FAQs. If you have additional questions, please email me, and I would be very happy to respond. Please note that I work exclusively with 1M/1M entrepreneurs.
I also invite you to join the 1M/1M mailing list for the ease and convenience of getting updates. This way we can stay in touch, and it will help you to decide if 1M/1M is a program for you.
Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, a virtual incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant, she writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy, and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. As an entrepreneur CEO, she ran three companies: DAIS, Intarka, and Uuma. Sramana has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.