Dear Participants,
In line with PAN IIT efforts to expedite our Entrepreneurship agenda, over 200 participants, including speakers & mentors from a wide platform collaborated on January 26th 2008 at sprawling IIIT-B facilities at
Event highlights:
· Interactive sessions by entrepreneurs and VCs
· Mentoring sessions
· Show-case of selected startups
· Entrepreneurship Awards
Please find below the detailed proceeds of the program.
- Naresh
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PAN IIT Entrepreneurship Mentoring Event in association with TiE and NEN
| Time | Session Name | Speaker |
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Registration & Networking | |
| 09:30 - 09:35 | Welcome address (on behalf of PANIIT) | Rakesh Rajora, President, IITD Alumni Association |
| 09:35 - 09:45 | Republic Day Celebration, Flag Hoisting & National Anthem | Prof Sadagopan, Director IIIT, |
| 09:45 - 10:15 | Talk on ‘What do VCs look for in a Startup’ | |
| 10:15 - 10:30 | TEA BREAK | |
| 10:30 - 11:00 | Talk on ‘Entrepreneurship, Practically Speaking’ | Amar Lakhtakia, Co-founder InfoKnox |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Talk on ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ | Trilochan Sastry, Professor IIM Bangalore |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Talk on ‘Emerging opportunities in high growth areas’. | Mukul Singhal, |
| 12:00 - 12:45 | LUNCH & NETWORKING | |
| 12:45 - 14:00 | SHOWCASE OF SELECTED STARTUPS/IDEAS | |
| 14:00 - 14:30 | Talk on ‘Starting and Scaling Up’ | K. Ganesh, CEO, TutorVista |
| 14:30 - 14:45 | Presentation Of Awards To Startups For Innovation & Excellence | |
| 14:45 - 17:45 | Mentoring sessions of 20 minutes between mentor and the mantees. Talk on ‘How to launch a software product successfully’ by Nagendra Ramaswami, Co-founder, CoreObjects. This will be conducted as a parallel session during 14:40 – 15:10 for mantees who are looking for mentoring in area of IT/Software | Details of mentors is mentioned later in the program details |
| 17:45 - 18:30 | Address by Hon’ble ex-President APJ Abdul Kalam (Live from | Hon’ble ex-President APJ Abdul Kalam |
| 18:30 - 18:35 | Vote of Thanks | Rakesh Rajora |
Venue IIIT
Time : 9 AM – 6:45 PM
Speakers Profile
Ø Samir Kumar: Samir is a founding partner of Inventus Capital Partners, a Venture Firm that invests in entrepreneurs building global product and services companies in the US & India.
Prior to Inventus, Samir led
Samir entered the Venture Capital field in 2001, on the foundation of 15 years of experience in the IT industry in various sales, marketing and product management roles. He started off with Computer Point, and then spent a decade with Wipro Infotech (including being part of Wipro’s Joint Venture with Acer), followed by a 2 ½ year stint with Planetasia – an Internet technology focused software start-up.
Samir is active with
Samir holds a B.Tech from IIT, Mumbai and an MBA from IIM,
Ø K. Ganesh: Ganesh is a serial entrepreneur with four successful ventures in the last 22 years. He has been featured in several International media including The Economist, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BBC World for his unique achievements in starting and scaling
He is currently CEO and Founder of TutorVista. Launched in November 2005, the company backed by Sequoia Capital, raised series A and Series B funding of over $ 15 mn and caters to students in US and
He is also non-executive Chairman, investor and advisor in a Data Analytics BPO firm Marketics. The company in March 2007 was acquired by NYSE listed WNS
Ganesh is a post-graduate from the IIM,
Ø Amar Lakhtakia: Amar is a seasoned executive and has an excellent track record of identifying new opportunities. He has over 20 years of corporate and start-up experience in the IT industry with product management, general management and business development responsibilities. He is currently President of InfoNox
Most recently, Amar was the Senior Vice President of Patni Computers [NYSE: PTI]. Before that, Amar was the Executive Vice President of Cymbal Corporation leading to its acquisition by Patni Computers in 2004. Previously, Amar co-founded Webify Solutions that was recently acquired by IBM. Webify pioneered On Demand Web-services based applications. Before Webify, Amar co-founded AristaSoft Corporation, a leading ASP. Amar is a frequent speaker and has authored several chapters of the book, From EDI to Electronic Commerce (McGraw Hill, 1996).
He is a MBA from Indian Institute of Management and a B. Tech from Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences,
Ø Trilochan Sastry: Trilochan Sastry obtained a Ph.D. from MIT. He also did his B.Tech.from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Prior to joining IIM Bangalore he was a faculty member with IIM Ahmedabad.
He has been associated with various universities as a part of their faculty like International University of Japan,
Professor Sastry has been a consultant to various Indian and International corporations. He has worked with ONGC in the Chairman's Office at
Ø Mukul Singhal: Mukul Singhal is Investment Analyst at Canaan Partners since December 2006. He focuses on the firm's 
Prior to joining
Mukul received a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and an MBA in Analytical Finance from
Mentors List
1. Madan Padki: Co-Founder & CEO of MeritTrac Services Pvt. Ltd.
2. Vaibhav Tewari: CEO of AeNwis, a digital Marketing and Promotions Management Services company.
3. D Ashok: CEO of Gossamer Solutions,
4. Mohan Tambe: Managing Director of Innomedia Technologies Pvt Limited
5. Neelam Dwivedi: Vice President of Marketing for Proteans Software Solutions.
6. Madireddy V Nagaraj: Managing Director of VXL Instruments Ltd
7. R A Narayan: Managing Director of Bhavani Foods Pvt Ltd
8. P Sudharshan: Director of The ‘Art of Living’ Global
9. Ramesh Hariharan: Co-founder and CTO of
10. Nagendra Ramaswami: Co-founder of CoreObjects
11. Samir Kumar:
12. K. Ganesh: CEO, TutorVista.
13. Amar Lakhtakia: Co-founder, InfoKnox
Mentors Profile
Ø Madan Padki: Madan Padaki is the Co-Founder & CEO of MeritTrac Services Pvt. Ltd. MeritTrac is
He completed his engineering from the National Institute of Engineering,
INSEAD, Europe’s
He is an active speaker at many forums specifically on topics pertaining to Talent Pools & Employability Enhancements. He is also the author of several articles on HR & Employability which have been published in leading publications in
Ø Vaibhav Tewari: Vaibhav is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of AeNwis, a digital Marketing and Promotions Management Services company.
Before starting AeNwis, he was President of India Operations for e4e (www.e4e.com)
His prior experience includes launching unsecured consumer durable finance business at Citibank. He has been instrumental in conceptualizing and launching this product across
Vaibhav holds a B.Tech from IIT Kanpur and an MBA from IIM Calcutta.
Ø D Ashok: D Ashok is the CEO of Gossamer Solutions,
He has a B.Tech from IIT,
He has over 27 years of experience in Management and IT consultancy.He has been rated as an outstanding speaker and has been invited to be a key-note speaker at seminars and discussions organised by diverse bodies and to lead panel discussions. He has also published papers and articles in journals, magazines and newspapers. His CRM articles were published under the banner of “Dash Board” in the CIO magazine. He has been interviewed many times by TV channels. He is on the Board of ValueAdd Consultants as well as NGOs Green Foundation & Sanghamitra
Ø Mohan Tambe: Mr Mohan Tambe is presently the Managing Director of Innomedia Technologies Pvt Limited, which he founded in 1996.
Mr Mohan Tambe obtained his B Tech degree in Electrical Engineering in 1980 and M Tech in Computer Science and Engineering in 1982 from the Indian Institute of Technology
Mr Tambe is the inventor of the successful GIST (Graphics and Indian Scripts Terminal) technology which has become a standard package for Indian languages. He subsequently designed and brought out the first commercial ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) in
Mr Mohan Tambe has been conferred with the Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIT Kanpur for his outstanding contributions in the field of Information and Communication Engineering.
Ø Rakesh Rajora: Rakesh is Senior Vice President (Corporate) & Global Delivery Excellence Lead at Accenture. In the past, he has been Global Head - Collaborative Platforms & Knowledge Management Practice at Cognizant Technology Solutions. Prior to this he was Country Manager (Dealer Sales & Service Network) - India & SAARC Nations at GE Healthcare- SA. He is Six Sigma Champion & Master Black Belt - Asia Region at GE Healthcare (Asia Pac.)
He is also region president at IIT Delhi Alumni Association Bangalore Chapter
He has a B.Tech. from IIT
Ø Neelam Dwivedi: Neelam Dwivedi is Vice President of Marketing for Proteans Software Solutions. He oversees global marketing, advertising, public relations campaigns, promotions and consumer research for Proteans, along with other ongoing efforts to make Proteans a strong, relevant and trusted brand of software product engineering services across the world.
Neelam is an accomplished public speaker and is aspiring to become a thought leader and marketing pioneer in the brand-building space. He is known for his leadership and people management skills, and is instrumental in building the leadership development program called "Proactive" at Proteans. Before co-founding Proteans, he worked for Oracle Corporation, where he was in the Oracle 10G engineering team.
Neelam has a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi.
Ø Madireddy V Nagaraj: Mr. Nagraj is Managing Director of VXL Instruments Ltd . Nagaraj is a first generation entrepreneur with over thirty years of experience. He founded VXL Instruments in 1978 as a small-scale garage operation and built it into a leading IT hardware exporter and a Public Limited Company. He has been associated with the setting up of many associate and subsidiary companies world-wide and is now focusing on exploiting the new opportunities for hardware manufacturing in
Nagaraj is a B.Tech in Electronics from IIT, Chennai. He has held many prominent positions in Industry Associations like MAIT, CII, CLIK and has been the President of Electronics City Industry Association (ELCIA) in its fledgling years.
Ø R A Narayan: Mr Narayan is Managing Director of Bhavani Foods Pvt Ltd. In the past, he has been chairman of TALGEA ( Finishing school & PGDMA in entrepreneur Development) and Director of Mindartz Consulting Labs P Ltd (H R Consultant)
Mr. Narayan is a M Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras.
Ø P Sudharshan: Prof Sudharshan is Director of The ‘Art of Living’ Global Entrepreneurship Academy (TALGEA). In the past he has been Director of Turbotech, STRIVE Infoservices, MindArtz, TAO Knoware and Bhavan-SIET. He has been a advisor to PAC and have been a mentor for several entrepreneurships
Sudharshan is a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad
Ø Ramesh Hariharan: Dr. Ramesh Hariharan is co-founder and CTO of Strand Genomics.
Ramesh Hariharan is a Computer Scientist by training. He got his Bachelor’s degree from the IIT,
Much of Ramesh’s intial research from 1989-2000 was focussed in Design and Analysis of Algorithms in a variety of areas. The primary emphasis in his research was on designing algorithms and then proving analytical bounds on running times and performance quality.
In 1999, Ramesh joined 6 other colleagues and fellow engineers to form the Simputer Trust, an organization formed with the explicit intent of developing cheap and relevant computing platforms for developing world scenarios. The Simputer is since being developed commercially by companies which have licensed the Trust’s technology, including one (Picopeta Simputers) co-founded by Ramesh.
In 2000, Ramesh along with 3 colleagues from the Computer Science Department at the Indian Institute of Science founded Strand Genomics, a company with the motto Algorithms for Life. The company theme was provide better decision making in drug discovery by taking into account all applicable data and literature. As part of
Ramesh was selected as one of the MIT TR-100 top 100 young entrepreneurs by the MIT Technology Review in 2002.
Ø Nagendra Ramaswami: Mr. Nagendra Ramaswami drives the research and development efforts at CoreObjects.
As one of the Co-founders, he has played many different roles at CoreObjects, from a developer to an Architect to managing the operations. He has 15 years of experience in the IT industry of which the last 10 years have been at CoreObjects working closely with start-ups & entrepreneurs. CoreObjects has build over 50 products and Nagendra has been instrumental in building & launching few of these products to the market. He has been actively involved in Software Architecture, Product Management, Technology due-diligence, Building reusable software and creating best practices.
Prior to CoreObjects, he was a consultant to Information Management Resources,
Ø Samir Kumar: One of the speakers in the event. Profile is already mentioned.
Ø K. Ganesh: One of the speakers in the event. Profile is already mentioned.
Ø Amar Lakhtakia: One of the speakers in the event. Profile is already mentioned.
Startups selected for Showcasing
| S.No. | Company/Idea | Contact Person |
| 1 | Picsquare | kartik jain/ vipul |
| 2 | Kuliza | Anand |
| 3 | Beacon Advisory Services | amit kumar |
| 4 | Idea (Oscilloscope in a mobile phone, Low cost Artificial prosthetic hand) | Divyajeevan sahoo |
| 5 | Idea (web fraud prevention platform) | abhishek goyal |
| 6 | dhanaX Technologies | siva prasad |
| 7 | Invention Labs | aswin chandrasekaran |
| 8 | Shunya Engineering Pvt. Ltd | anurag pandey |
| 9 | Buzzworks | v c karthic |
| 10 | Sign in Style/PetPooja/Rivals4Ever | abhishek desai |
Startups selected for Award
1. Strand Life Sciences,
Strand Life Sciences was founded in Nov 2000 by four Computer Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science. It is one of the first instances of academic entrepreneurship in
Strand is currently about 100 strong with offices in
Dr. Ramesh Hariharan is co-founder and CTO of Strand Genomics.
Ramesh Hariharan is a Computer Scientist by training. He got his Bachelor’s degree from the IIT,
Ramesh was selected as one of the MIT TR-100 top 100 young entrepreneurs by the MIT Technology Review in 2002.
2. Emergent-Venture, Gurgaon : Mr. TVG Krishnamurthy (Co-founder and Director)
Business Overview:
Since its inception to provide solutions to mitigate climate change, Emergent Ventures India has been expanding as a renowned advisory firm for projects earning Carbon Credits under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The company’s first CDM project was registered in 2005. Till date >20 projects have been registered covering a wide array of sectors. Towards the end of 2006, Emergent Ventures stepped into the voluntary market and achieved its first success. In 2007, the company launched another service – Carbon Neutrality, for organizations to achieve the “zero emissions” goal.
Profile of Founders
Vinod Kala is the founder-director of Emergent Ventures India Pvt Ltd. Vinod has over 20 years of experience in Strategy and Finance areas, and holds a PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad.
TVG Krishnamurthy has top level business experience of over 30 yrs in large Indian, Chinese and MNC organizations. TVG has a PGDM from IIM, Ahmedabad (1969), and graduation from IIT Madras in Electrical Engineering (1966). He is also a director of EVI.
Clients
EVI’s clients are distributed across a wide range of industry sectors, such as Infrastructure, Cement, Pharmaceutical, Steel, Energy, Chemicals & Fertilizers, etc. Some of our clients are Ranbaxy, GMR Industries, Jaiprakash Associates, LNJ Bhilwara Group, Bharat Forge, Sanmar Group, Jubilant Organosys, The Indus Entrepreneurs, World Bank, and Central and State Governments. EVI currently has offices in Gurgaon and
Future Plans
EVI intends to utilize its current expertise in CDM Advisory and Carbon Neutrality to expand its base of operations to other countries as well. Projects are already under way in various Asian countries, such as
Carbon Procurement Business: EVI has begun projects based on a new business model combining financing and technology, involving investments in renewable energy power projects on an EPC model, with quasi-equity investments backed by future Carbon Credit revenues. The aim is to invest in and promote renewable energy as the preferred mode of power in the country and abroad.
Sustainable Social Development: One of the basic tenets of the EVI philosophy is to provide self-sustaining livelihoods to rural and under-developed parts of
3. SherpaZ Founders Anil Garg, Amar Lakhtakia
Transforming Talent Supply Chains for Contingent Workforce
provides innovative Managed Services Solution for complete contingent workforce lifecycle, including demand and supply management. SherpaZ is pioneering a completely new approach of supply-chain focus on all aspects of contingent workforce management; revolutionizing interactions between different stakeholders of the talent supply chain and substantially diminishing it’s complexity through automation and instant visibility.
Our integrated business process services for contingent staffing are based on deep, industry-focused domain expertise in Global Outsourcing. SherpaZ portfolio of Managed Services is enabled by a comprehensive Talent Services Network™ application that is a delivered as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) through a secure, scalable, and reliable platform infrastructure. Our solutions are specifically designed to give our customers access to best-in-class integrated business processes and technology solutions which mitigate risks, reduce time and cost while enhancing effectiveness.
SherpaZ business model is vendor neutral and we take this neutrality very seriously. We neither engage in any contingent staffing ourselves nor create affiliated programs.
Founding Team
SherpaZ is founded by two visionary entrepreneurs – Anil Garg and Amar Lakhtakia -who have spent almost 50 years in the IT Outsourcing industry. Having worked with leading companies such as AT&T, Wipro, Tata Consultancy and Patni, the founders have deep domain expertise in this industry; and are well versed with the best practices of both buyers and suppliers of IT services.
As entrepreneurs, their previous start-ups pioneered ASP and On Demand application services, raised over $100m in high quality venture capital and successfully sold their companies to marquee names like IBM and Patni Computers. Anil is B. Tech from Institute of Technology, Varanasi, India while Amar is a MBA from Indian Institute of Management and a B. Tech from Birla Institute of Technology &
Sciences,
More information about SherpaZ can be found at www.sherpaz.com.
