NEXT BIG IDEA contest 2016

Do you want to take your startup to North America?

Zone Startups India is launching the 4th edition of Next Big Idea Contest in Mumbai on 1st July and 11 cities across India in the month of July. We will like to invite you for the same. Please RSVP here

NEXT BIG IDEA contest is a joint initiative of Ryerson University and Government of Ontario, Canada. We seek to discover India’s 5 most innovative technology companies who are looking to leverage a presence in North America. Five winners of this competition will be taken to Toronto for an all-expenses paid, 2 week bespoke accelerator program. The program will use Digital Media Zone (DMZ), #1 University Business Incubator in North America in Toronto as a hub where the winners will receive mentor ship, business development advice and valuable international experience.

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Some of our past winners include CitrusPay, AdSparx, Vidooly, Shield Square, Konotor, Light Metrics, Plackal, FlipTech and more.

Please find the registration form below or click here

 

Road Show Dates and Cities:
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Mumbai 1st July, 2016
Ahmadabad 4th July 2016
Pune 5th July 2016
Bangalore 7th July 2016
Hyderabad 8th July, 2016
Chennai 9th July 2016
Delhi/NCR 12th July 2016
Chandigarh 13th July
Jaipur 14th July
Goa 15th July
Kolkatta 16th July, 2016
Kochi 20th July

Angel Funding Opportunity – Aug 2015

GBG Mumbai is the Marketing Partner for the i5 Summit organised by IIM & IIT Indore. We are happy to bring you an unique opportunity.

Here’s your chance to Raise Angel Funding up to $25,000 in 10 minutes

During the summit, they have Venture-I which is the International Venture plan competition. It is a one of a kind platform where entrepreneurs can raise 15 lakh rupees of investment JUST by selling a minority stake(ie 5%) of their start-ups. It’s the fastest you will ever raise money- in just a ten minute duration (7 min pitch+ 3 min Q&A).

Want more? The Winner will also be inducted into NASSCOM 10k Startups’ Innotrek ‘2016 delegation to the Silicon Valley straightaway!

The platform is open to start ups that are less than 2 years old and have not raised more than 50 lacs rupees. If it is a business idea, the co-founders must have a full time team and a prototype.

Registrations for the Venture-I challenge have already begun and shall close on 7th August, 2015. Click here to signup http://bit.ly/venturei

Do spread the word and help a startup grow.
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prashant-mehta-vc-gbg-mumbai-lightbox

Notes from Prashant Mehta, VC at Lightbox Venture

Startup capital is a tricky area for many entrepreneurs, hence we organized a session called – Bootstrapping vs. Fundraising – When & How.

Prashant Mehta, VC, Lightbox Ventures, GBG Mumbai

Here are the notable points from our speaker Prashant Mehta, who is a Venture Capitalist at Lightbox Ventures.

Do read and share with fellow entrepreneurs.

  • Bootstrap and show us the money and we will give you more.

  • Bootstrapping shows confidence the entrepreneur has on his/her venture.

  • At Lightbox, we give 80% weightage to decide to fund or not based on team(s).

  • A team should have ability to attract similar or more talented people than they are.

  • We consider to fund service business if they can show the growth potential without necessarily growing the number of people/resources. i.e if a service business can grow 10x by increasing resource by just 2x, that’s great model.

  • Take tough decisions first and take it deep.

  • Building a right culture is extremely critical, having a DNA and looking for talent with right DNA is imperative.

  • Scaling is a very broad term, just hiring more people does not amount to scaling.

  • Technology and infrastructure such as cloud computing, servers, open source languages, etc are now so much more affordable and makes it easy and cheap to bootstrap.

  • Its OK to think about exit, but do not talk about it to a VC while asking for funds.

  • Last mile delivery is a challenge area in India, if this can be addressed, then a significant positive impact will accrue.

  • If two different teams approach them with similar ideas; the brighter team will be considered for funding.

  • Tech startups requiring funding in India are not assessed the same way like US. This is because of cultural factors like ‘how one takes risk and handles failure’

  • In the Indian Geography, Execution of Ideas/Innovation has relatively more importance than Innovation!

  • If a VC asks ‘why do you need funding? It is completely Ok to say ‘we aim to create wealth for all stakeholder’

  • Level 2 and 3 are very important resources in building a great company, they have to be treated well and given options like ESOP to make them wealthy when startup exits.

See more pictures from the event here.