The Himalayan Startup Trek is the annual flagship program of IIT Mandi’s Catalyst – the first technology-incubator in Himachal Pradesh. The incubator hosted the 3rd edition of the Himalayan Startup Trek on 14th and 15th September 2019, to pull in passionate entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors across India.
The primary vision was for the entrepreneurial community to engage and interact on various technical and innovative ideas around themes like agriculture, waste management, climate change, renewable energy, road safety, and disaster management. I find this event to be of great value to entrepreneurs – both budding and seasoned ones alike – because it brings together the important stakeholders of the Indian startup ecosystem, and provides young entrepreneurs with a platform to pitch their innovative ideas for incubation and fundraising. I have participated in every edition of this program, and it has been a great experience each time. This time, I also had the opportunity to moderate a panel discussion.
Mandi is a small, almost pollution-free town in Himachal Pradesh. It is far away from the noise and hassles of big cities. However, it is also far away from the major cities of India, not to mention the hilly terrain that makes it difficult to access. Hence, it was heartening to see that eminent people had travelled long commutes from far-off places like South India to participate in this two-day event.
As a meeting ground for budding entrepreneurs and innovators belonging to a diverse array of fields, it was attended by several technology leaders who shared their experiences during the initial stage of their startups to inspire the young leaders. This time, I was a panelist along with 30 other speakers/mentors/investors and was incredibly excited to get this opportunity to connect with young minds and peers.
At the outset, the participants were warmly welcomed by Prof. Timothy A Gonsalves, the Director of IIT Mandi. He emphasized on understanding the key features of a startup and set the tone for the interactions and discussions to follow. The whole session was abuzz with keynote speakers and investors like: Anshu Gupta (Founder of Goonj), Samir Shah (Managing Principal, Sattva Capital), Amarjeet Singh (CTO, Zenatix), Saurabh Jain (Vice President, Paytm), Gitanjali JB, Founding (CEO of HIAL), Swapna Arora (CMO of OLX), Bhavesh Manglani (Co-founder and COO, Delhivery), and Anuj Sharma, (Founder and CEO,Alsisar).
Anshu Gupta’s keynote speech on the topic ‘Look Beyond and See the Invisible’ was a deeply inspiring one that focused on sharing several insights on finding solutions to problems of the startups. Samir Shah delivered an insightful talk on the ‘Opportunities in Water and Solar Sector’. To quote him, “We need more startups to work on problems related to core sectors including water, energy, and agriculture. I am happy to see many startups here at IIT Mandi which are focused on these sectors.”
Dr. Amarjeet Singh’s highly informative session on ‘Emerging uses of IoT, Automation and Analytics’ greatly enriched my understanding of technology. He said, “After connecting people, the next wave is to connect things. Connecting physical infrastructure can generate a large volume of real-time data which can then be leveraged by businesses to improve their top line and bottom line.”
The two-day event was followed by panel discussions, speed dating sessions with the investors, and a one-on-one meeting was held between the entrepreneurs and the experts. I had the opportunity of moderating a panel discussion on ‘Technology led Innovation and Entrepreneurship,’ along with my co-panelists Prashant Warier, Co-founder and CEO of Qure.ai, Kumar Bagrodia, Founder, CEO of NueroLeap and Vivek Venugopal from Fantain.
After a quick round of introduction, I opened the floor by asking the question, “What does innovation mean to you?” Several insightful responses came in. Prashant Warier, for example, said that solving a problem in a new way is called innovation, while Vivek Venugopalan emphasized that solving any problem, big or small, requires innovation. Kumar Bagrodia leaned towards the use of technology to solve any type of problem.
Next, I initiated a follow-up question around whether technology should always be a part of business innovation. To this, Kumar Bagrodia shared the thought-process that though there are various business models, the intervention of technology is essential. He went on to explain this by giving the example of the health sector, where every illness is detected by a digital device. For instance, fever is also measured by a thermometer, which is found in every home. Vivek Venugopalan put forth the idea that technology solves the problem, so being an entrepreneur, he is dependent on technology. Prashant Warier added to the discussion by saying that he uses technology to solve problems. Deep learning algorithms are necessary for recognition of radiological images, for example, which are further augmented by artificial intelligence.
The next question I asked was how they have scaled up their businesses. What are the problems they have faced in acquiring a team and setting up the technology? Vivek said that though he used the technology, he didn’t always get a 100% accurate result. So, sometimes he had to carry out some of the work manually to maintain the accuracy and the budget. Prashant shared that he just lacked enough data for AI to work accurately. Getting that data was a big challenge for him. Kumar said that a single black box solution should not fool anyone. No professional or company can claim to have all the parts. So, the best way is to partner with the best companies. He believed that the benefit of the customers should always be in mind before investing in any technology.
The next question was how they had timed their entry in the market. Kumar Bagdrodia opened the conversation here saying that there is no exact notion of time. The motive should be clear. Though technology is evolving every day, it depends upon the product. Vivek clarified his opinion by saying that a problem should be picked up, and then one should just go for it. Prashant said that if any new technology is solving the need of the end-user, then it should be approached.
The next question was on funding – what challenges did they face in raising the necessary funds? While BookMyShow funded Fantain, Kumar self-funded Neuro leap. On the other hand, a company called Fractal Analytics had incubated Prashant Warier’s previous business. Now, he has been raising money for the past six months. He shared with the audience that raising money takes a huge toll. Finally, the discussion was handed over to the audience to ask questions. The house asked them various questions around their technology, their user experience and how innovative they were.
Apart from the panel discussion, another interesting part of the program was the plantation session. Dr. Shyam Kumar Masakapalli, an eminent biologist from the School of Basic Science was guiding this plantation program with great enthusiasm. The most attractive part of the program was that a barcode was attached with each tree we plant to help us follow up. This was then followed by open networking and in-person discussions.
More than 270 teams had applied for Himalayan Startup Trek 2019, and out of them, 60 startups were shortlisted. The theme of the program was finding technical and innovative solutions for the contemporary problems and challenges faced by people every day. 25 best ideas were handpicked from the program and were given an on-spot offer to join the Catalyst incubation program. I was a part of the jury panel and we were all awake till 2 a.m. on the first night listening to the pitch sessions. Even though it was exhausting, we were all back up at 8 a.m. to continue with the pitches.
The prosperity of a state depends upon the industrial growth in a state, which in turn is dependent upon the entrepreneurs of the state. However, in developing states like Himachal Pradesh this entrepreneurial culture among the youths is lacking. People focus solely on the tourism sector but there are other business and technology opportunities in horticulture, IT, agricultural domains, herbals, medicinal plants, etc. Sometimes the entrepreneurs are just ideating but they are unable to bring it about because they lack training. Or, they are unable to pitch their ideas and business plans.
Thus, events like these need to be organized to mentor the youngsters of Himachal Pradesh so that they can keep pace with the entrepreneurs from metropolitan cities. Even seasoned entrepreneurs could join hands together in organizing various startup accelerator and incubation programs to lend support to these youngsters of Himachal Pradesh.