Power of Ideas 2012: Creating entrepreneurs for tomorrow

KOLKATA: Even as asphyxiated Kolkatans struggled to hide from the blaze on a day when temperature soared over 40C, the city’s entrepreneurs showed no dearth of enthusiasm when they flocked in droves to the ET The Power of Ideas 2012 Start-up Session here.

Also see: The Economic Times presents The Power of Ideas
From students, who’d travelled all the way from IIT Kharagpur, middle-aged professionals to even the odd senior citizen, the packed-to-capacity gathering was a motley mix of those who have either started up or are planning to launch their own set-ups, and had turned up to get tips, guidance and their queries addressed by those in the know.

The start-up meet saw a keynote session by Anjan Chatterjee, founder and managing director of Speciality Restaurants, followed by Rajeev Mantri, executive director at venture capital firm Navam Capital and Amit Bansal, chief technology officer at eDominer Systems.

Chatterjee gave a stirring account of the key learnings from his own journey from the only catering college grad in a family of academics to the entrepreneur behind India’s largest chain of fine dining eateries, which recently went public.

Stressing on the fact that business in today’s world is all about branding and marketing, Chatterjee said while research was all very well, ultimately it’s about going with one’s gut.

“The biggest mistake in business is thinking that the bank’s money is your own. You have to take calculated risks in business but don’t get into financial indiscipline,” he cautioned. “There is no substitute for hard work, but without Divine Grace, you can do nothing.

Believe in yourself. Have conviction. Money for the business will never be a problem if you have power in your idea,” Chatterjee summed up. Chatterjee’s rousing speech was followed by tips from investor Rajeev Mantri, who elaborated on what VC investors look for in a business.

“Investors like businesses that have potential for high growth; without offering something novel or differentiated to your end customer, a business has no chance of succeeding,” he said. Next up was Bansal, who spoke about how spotting an opportunity had made all the difference to his career. He also emphasised the importance of professionalism and honouring one’s commitments.

“It can make or break your reputation,” he said. After Shashank Rastogi of IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship ( CIIE) took the audience through the Power of Ideas presentation , the floor was opened for questions.

And as the questions came flying thick and fast, the enthusiasm of the crowd was there for all to see as eager entrepreneurs jostled to know about a wide range of issues — from the break-even period for a restaurant to how to project financials to what VCs are looking for to the minutest details about the POI programme.

A 14-year-old boy, Nirman Sarkar, stole the show when he rued his inability to participate in the contest because of the 18-year age cut-off at the entry level. The time, when it ended, came all too soon for the gathering, who continued to throng the panelists for more.