Volume 1 - Issue 8 - ICTACT.IN

Entrepreneur speakfrom people like Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan,Co-founder of Infosys, who is also theChief Mentor of Startup Village in Kochi,India’s first telecom incubator. The listof mentors include Rajan Mathews,Director General of COAI, Kiran Karnikof NASSCOM, Ganesh Lekshminarayan,CEO of Dell India, and Abhishek Goyal, investor,Flipkart, along with a host of successfulentrepreneurs from Kerala likeK.Nanda Kumar, CEO of Suntec, NavasMeeran of Eastern Group, Jose Thomas ofChoice Group and Murali Gopalan of USTechnology. Famous Hindi poetDushyant writes: “Who says a hole can’tbe made in the sky, but then you have tothrow the stone with full conviction.” Verytrue! Unless you knock the door, it will notopen. Don’t forget Malayalam film legendMammootty gave all the promotion worksof his movies to us and we didn’t have anyprevious business experience, then. Evenconventional businesses can be done inunconventional ways.India lacks a great technology startupecosystem with an appetite for risks.We are trying to do that at Startup Village,which is accelerating the tech startupecosystem in Kerala. Our mission is toachieve 1,000 product startups and startthe search for a billion dollar companyfrom a college campus by 2020. Based onthe PPP model, it will tap student startupsfrom the state’s 164 engineering colleges.India’s Department of Science andTechnology and MobME have investedRs.2.5 crore each in it in the hope thatit will form an ecosystem for startups tocreate breakthrough technologies for theglobal telecommunications industry.Kerala is 100 per cent literate, hasnear 100 per cent tele-density, high IT literacyand access to broadband, making itan apt state to set up a telecom incubator.There is an imperative need to remove thenotion that the entrepreneurial capabilityof Kerala is low when compared to stateslike Gujarat and Maharashtra.Particularly interesting at StartupVillage is its Innovation Zone. Blackberryhas opened an innovation zone calledRubus Labs to promote application developmentin the BB10 platform. It willserve as an experiential zone for studentsto experience the possibilities of mobiletechnology. With 164 engineering collegesparticipating in the Startup Village, thescope of innovations is expected to increasemanifold.There are two ages to launch a company-- at the age of 40 when one has awealth of experience or at the age of 20when there is no experience but then thereis dream in the eyes and fire in the bellyThe choice is to look for the securityof a job or to grab the opportunity.Uncertainty and risk are attendant risksin entrepreneurship at every single stage.You may fail in one opportunity that comesyour way. But there is also the possibilityof creating an enterprise.I personally believe that it is better tostart early in life.The cost of starting up in college is theleast as you are not expecting a salary foryourself. Also, the fear of failure is a bigdeterrent but in college this really doesn’tmatter because even if you fail, life doesnot get shattered as you are still in college.The energy, the enthusiasm, the creativeinstincts are at the maximum whenyou are young. It is the time when you areready to build, break and innovate. If youlook at the Silicon Valley, the average ageof the founders of Yahoo, Google, Apple,Microsoft and Facebook was around 24.Things are now happening at a briskpace in Kerala. Startup Village is the beginningof a revolution for entrepreneurialincubation in the country. Incubatee companiesthat are recognised by NationalScience and Technology EntrepreneurshipDevelopment Board (NSTEDB) of theCentral government’s Department ofScience and Technology will be eligible forservice tax exemption for three years andup to Rs 50 lakh of revenue. They are alsoby default selected to make a pitch presentationto Startup Village Angel Fund.This could fetch them an initial amountof Rs 30 lakh for their venture. KPMG,which will provide high-level consultingservices to the incubatees, will also helpthem in their initial tax support services.Young entrepreneurs are to be alsogiven professional mentorship, physicaland technology infrastructure and financialsupport through programmes likethe IEEE Student Project Programme,Startup Village Scholarships, AcceleratorProgramme and Angel Fund.Startup Village has also been instrumentalin bringing the first StudentEntrepreneurship Policy in the countryin Kerala. The state government has announceda landmark policy that provides20 per cent attendance and 4 per centgrace marks to college students who tryto create knowledge, employment andwealth in the society.The prospects at Startup Village areawesome. Lab-X foundation, a US-basedNGO, has associated with it to facilitate internshipopportunities and outreach programmein the US engineering colleges bymeeting the entire expense for internship.This would give a tremendous fillip to studentswho have the ability and convictionto launch their own startups.MindHelix Technosol, a companybased out of the Startup Village, hasbeen selected by the US-based AlchemistAccelerator Programme for enterpriseproduct startups. The company, which pioneeredTukTuk Meter, a GPS based autofare calculator, has created a cloud computingbased customer interaction application,which has been selected for the accelerator.US-based company Nuance, whichmakes voice recognition software to recognisecustomers through phones andapplications, plans to start its innovationzone at Startup Village. Another venture isParkinson’s research zone which will offertechnology solutions through advancedNo power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.- Victor HugoJune 2013 I 28