The Summit, basically a series of sequential as well as parallel sessions, spanned over a day and saw panel discussions, lectures, presentations and mentoring sessions. The remarkable feature would surely be the vibrant atmosphere that encouraged networking, which is the most vital aspect in starting up.

The event saw successful entrepreneurs and business heads speaking about their successful enterprises, mentors and interactive talks from experts. ‘Sustaining A Start-up’, ‘Aspects of Funding’, ‘Competitive Intelligence’, ‘Innovation and Idea Validation’, etc as the names of the sessions suggest, were exactly what the sessions provided. Indeed, it was a treat for budding entrepreneurs and even novices. And with distinguished speakers like Dr Kanwal Rekhi, Sanjay Anandraman, David Wittenberg, R Balki, Anjali Bansal and the popular social activist, Rahul Bose in a popular tête-à-tête, the treat just got more luscious.

Amongst all this, the biggest take-away perhaps, was, as put by Dr Rekhi, MD, Inventus Capital, who said that, “During recessionary periods, resources get freed and entrepreneurship thrives. So it is the best time to be an investor as well as an entrepreneur because valuations are lower.” So it also comes as no surprise that his Inventus Capital is to invest on around 15 companies. Other venture capitalists on the campus included Tata Capital, Crossover Advisors, Mumbai Angels and Ojas Venture Partners.

David Wittenberg, CEO, Innovation Workgroup, gave out great insights in his lecture concerned with business idea validation. To sum up, some key points from his talk are:

• The best ideas are the simple ideas. Insight comes from observation.
• Nobody can create demand but only assess the value of need. Then selling is eased.
• Don’t expect customers to know what they need or value. For a suggestion on a faster mode of transport, don’t be surprised to get an answer such as a ‘faster horse’.
• Always go for a prototype or alpha launch, it is way better than spending a fortune and later realising it was a mistake.

Wittenberg also said that ‘value’ of a product/service is of prime importance and gave a formula V = B/P (where B stands for benefit to the consumer and P is the price) to evaluate it. If V is more than 1, the product will have potential to become a success.

In another session, Jay Gupta, MD of ’The Loot’, said, “An entrepreneur has to find his way out. Also, Indians find it easiest to deal with things due to their upbringing, value systems and existing conditions. Surely, ideas exist; only implementation is needed. ”

Also, in the true spirit of encouraging entrepreneurship, the event saw a Start-up Showcase wherein young turks exhibited their products/services. The exposure surely helped get wider audiences and potential customers, and of course, VCs, other entrepreneurs and industrialists. Among these were also some student start-ups.

The Investor Pitch and Global Conference of E-Cells

The ‘Investor Pitch’ and the ‘Global Conference of E-Cells’ would easily qualify as the most highlight initiatives of the E-Summit. The Investor Pitch allowed aspiring entrepreneurs to pitch their business plans to experienced venture capitalists for seed funds upto Rs 5 crores. Such a platform is indeed a blessing for those who have business plans with real value proposition.

One thing that the Summit clearly highlighted was what the investors really expect from the businesses they’d consider betting their money on and this event has definitely left a lot of entrepreneurs and freshers all the wiser.