Author Archives: Amit

Proto IV… India’s best startup showcase event comes to Delhi this weekend

3 Replies

Proto is happening in Delhi this weekend. Scheduled for the 18th & 19th of July, this is the fourth edition for the event and the first time it is happening outside Chennai. The event will feature a medley of startups, entrepreneurs, technologists, bloggers, media, investors etc. The first day is dedicated for the ‘The Startup School‘, a collection of experience sharing sessions. The second day is reserved for the showcase itself and on display will be a battery of 15 startups which will take the stage to tell the audience what they are building.

Check out this promotional video that the Proto team has put together –

A large number of VC firms & angel networks have confirmed their participation for the event- Ventureast, ClearStone Ventures, Canaan Partners, Sequoia Capital, Nexus India Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Helion Ventures, LightSpeed Ventures, Ojas Ventures, Bluerun Ventures. Mentor Partners, Siemens, Upstream Ventures, BAF Spectrum, Band of Angels, Inventus Capital, FootPrint Ventures, Erasmic Ventures, NEA Indo US Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Matrix Partners, Mercatus Capital, TVS Capital Fund, Intel Capital, SeedFund, Capital18, Mumbai Angels.

The sponsors for the event include are Rediff, Webex, IAMAI & Intel Capital.

It must be said that of all the startup showcase events in India, Proto was the first and it has the largest mindshare. The Proto team has worked very hard to make this a regular event. And having this in different Indian cities gives it a pan Indian character.

I was personally involved with Proto’s first edition but have had to pull back my participation due to my own work commitments. Check out the startups that were featured in the first & second edition in the decks below…

Startups that showcased at Proto II

Startups that showcased at Proto I

If you are in Delhi, I’d look forward to meeting you there… and kudos to the Proto team for bringing this to the nation’s capital.

Pitchh… levelling the playing field between brands & agencies

5 Replies

Pitchh is an online meeting ground for brands and agencies that has just got its covers taken off. Conceptualised as a B2B platform, it can help brands (organisations) find the right creative partners- these could be advertising agencies, marketing consultants, PR firms, freelancers, designers & individuals et al. Brands can create a pitch on the website and invite applications from interested partners. Agencies can look through the pitches by popularity, locations etc, reply to them and connect directly once the initial contact has been established.

Pitchh is based on the idea that the brand-agency relationship needs to break out from the shackles of predictability. Whenever brands invite pitches, it is always from the hallowed circle- the same set of big-ticket agencies. Smaller agencies, speciality creative boutiques or even individuals that might do justice to the job on hand never get a call-in. Even the brands that are tied to blue-chip ad agencies with multi-year contracts might sometimes need highly specialised (or short term) creative inputs that the agencies are ill-equipped to handle. Pitchh brings the internet into the equation – its ubiquitous reach acting as a level playing field in this lop-sided relationship.

Pitchh is the brain-child of Rajesh Lalwani, who runs Blogworks, a Delhi based strategic social media consultancy.

The model is similar to Elance (which is for designers) but focused on the brand-agency space. The service is currently free but future monetization will be based on a mix of the freemium model, advertising & sponsorships.

The idea beyond Pitchh is very promising indeed. And while its core proposition is directed at the organised brand-agency setup, I feel its bigger potential may lie with freelancers & individual consultants, at least for a start. It is not hard to imagine a focused online community of creative service seekers & providers.