Navi Mumbai Entrepreneur Meet 2017’

StartUp Navi Mumbai, an initiative by Zoom Start India and IEC (Indian Entrepreneurship Club), part of the Navi Mumbai Entrepreneur Meet, was organised to bring together startup entrepreneurs and investors to talk about the opportunities and challenges faced by the businesses, according to a press statement. The illustrious speakers included Dr Vellumani (Founder of Thyrocare), Mohit Gulati, Shaunak De and many more.

Few businesses also got the opportunity to pitch their products and services to the crowd. Serial entrepreneurs shared thoughts on the changing dynamics of Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The gathering addressed at the CIDCO Exhibition Centre, Vashi started the event early evening with opening remarks by Tapaswi, the founder of Tapaswi group venture and Zoom Start India (co-working space in Navi Mumbai) and Nazim Sawant, founder of IEC and co-founder of Zoom Start India. They both addressed their service benefits and how important a role do their services play in helping startup entrepreneurs set up their businesses. It continued with a keynote session by Akhil Shahani (founder of Shahani group). He talked about Indian entrepreneurship, the heroes in this space and the factors influencing the startup culture. “As long as you create a product or service that people can buy and the revenue from your customer is greater than cost of serving your customer, you are a great startup,” says Shahani.

Next to be seen was a panel on stage discussing five hot domains of the future such as education tech, health tech, financial tech, food tech and real estate tech. The panel members included Harini C, Sunil M, Rishi K and Navin H. They answered questions regarding the rapidly growing startups.

The main session was the workshop that answered everybody’s ever-pertinent question ‘How to setup a business?’ by Swanminathan Iyer from Yes Bank.

‘From Startup to Scale Up’ workshop by Hemant Jain, senior executive, vice president and business digital head from Lokmat Media emphasised on the budding startup ecosystem and the ways to scale those up.

“It is imperative for young startup founders to look forward to work closely with someone who has hands-on experience of building businesses,” adds Jain.

This was followed by a panel discussion by investors Nidhi S, Satish K, Shashikant D, Abhijeet K, and Abhishek A discussing  funding patterns seen in the past, funding today and its scope in the future. It ended with a QnA session where investors had a tough time answering the crowd on questions like ‘what is the toughest moment in an investor’s life?’ and ‘why should an investor put money in startups?’. One resounding answer came back: ‘High Risk, High Returns’! The game of startup valuation is a tricky one and Mohit Gulati addressed startups as a judge and gave them a reverse pitch for the same businesses. This became a reality check for a lot of startups and a learning opportunity for all!

‘Your phone knows everything’ said Shaunak De on Deep Learning – IOT & AI. Dr Vellumani, founder of Thyrocare addressed the crowd with his life story inspiring the wannapreneurs and entrepreneurs alike to keep at their passions!

Stay tuned for more such interesting events for learning and networking among the startup communities. Do comment in the section below!