Bengaluru: Importance of startups discussed at St Joseph’s Institute of Management

By Alvin Mendonca
Bellevision Media Network

Bengaluru, 15 Mar 2018: Kanara Entrepreneurs (KE), a reputed organization of entrepreneurs from the Kanara region, held a power-packed panel discussion on startups at St Joseph’s Institute of Management (SJIM), Bengaluru, on March 9.

 

The panel consisted of Shoaib Ahmed, former president of Tally, Roshan D’Silva from IIT Mumbai, whose company Tripvillas has received funding from the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office, and Rohit Fernandes, who is the co-founder of Shippr, a logistics company which has received funding from Venture Factory.

 

The session was moderated by Dr Joseph Rasquinha, co-founder of Blueleaf Cyberspace, which has been acquired by a Quarter Billion Dollar group. The panel was joined from Singapore by CK Vishwakarma from IIT Rourkee, who co-founded IOTsg, the largest IOT group in South Asia.

 

Welcoming the distinguished panel, Director of SJIM, Fr Manoj D’Souza SJ, spoke about the importance of startups in today’s world and how it was important for students to understand the startup atmosphere. Prior to the session, a number of important guests were felicitated including David Keynan, vice-chairman of the Indo-Israeli Chamber of Commerce, who also advises on startups having been the first and only Israeli charter member of the international investment group, TiE.

 

The session then commenced with student co-ordinator Sanjana S Amin asking the panel questions curated by students under the guidance of the Dean of SJIM, Prof. Edwin Castelino. Members of the KE also posed questions to the panel. 

 

The first question put to the panel was the business opportunities and environment in India today. The reaction of the panel was very positive with Rohit Fernandes talking about the tremendous support that was offered to the startup ecosphere in India today by the central and state governments.

 

Shoaib Ahmed in his reply mentioned that the Indian market was enormous and had great opportunity for all, but stressed the importance of entrepreneurs designing their products for Indian conditions. Another interesting question put to the panel was how to safeguard a career 10 years down the line! A truly Nostradamus moment!

 

An interesting analogy given by Shoaib was that he graduated out of college with a BA, but went on to become president of a tech company and today advises other tech companies. In his opinion, there are no barriers for anyone become anything if they were so inclined. Roshan D’Silva quoted Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who said, ‘A few things will change and a few things will always remain the same.’. He felt that as long as you maintain your quality of offering, companies will always need your services. Dr Joseph Rasquinha felt that the best way to ensure a security of ones career was continuous skilling. 

 

The panelists’ opinions were also sought on zero marketing, which all of them felt was a fallacy. After all, short of blind luck or hidden sponsorship, zero marketing is something that does not happen professionally, and the consensus was that if you wanted to make an impact, you had to spend on marketing.

 

An interesting question posed were the differentiators used in the hiring process. In this, the panels opinions were diverse. Shoaib Ahmed drew upon his experience in Tally and other companies and mentioned that to get the right people the company had to provide a right perspective to employees to ensure that they join or get convinced of the company’s goals and objectives. Money was not the criteria. Rohit Fernandes had a number of points, but his major focus was on the drive and motivation of the person.

 

Roshan D’Silva, then mentioned that the right candidates would be hired if you had the right leaders in place. In his opinion, they were the ones who made the difference in candidate hiring. He gave the examples of his own company. When new offices were being set up in Sri Lanka or Philippines, senior staff members moved to these regions to mentor and ensure the right people were hired.

 

The panel then included C K Vishwakarma from Singapore who was asked about the opportunities and potential in the Singapore market. As Singapore is an extraordinarily well organised market, the government offers a lot of opportunities for startups and it also acts as a gateway to other countries in the region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In this, CK offered a great insight particularly on the different schemes on offer. 

 

The entire session was recorded live at the St Josephs Institute of Management, Bengaluru, with a live audience of over 500 entrepreneurs and students. A further 1,200 people viewed the discussion on the Facebook page of Bfirst, the media partner for the event.