The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Pune Chapter in their second edition organised the ‘TiECON Pune’ – an event that I attended on 12th April 2014, at Hotel Westin, Pune. Harbinger Systems was one of the sponsors of this event.
Interestingly, the theme of this event was ‘Gudhi’ – The New Beginning’, which also means the start of the new year according to Hindu calendar. The event began with the introduction of speakers in a traditional, cultural way, thereby building a charismatic atmosphere. After this dramatic take off, the expectation from the conference was already sky high.
The key speakers included K. Ganesh of Growth Story and Portea Healthcare, Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto, Devdutt Patnaik of Future Group and Ravi Pandit of KPIT. They touched upon various topics like innovation, entrepreneurship, brand management, VCs for start-ups etc. K. Ganesh focused on huge opportunities in India for entrepreneurs in almost every field, Rajiv Bajaj brilliantly allied ‘Yoga’ and ‘Entrepreneurship’, and as usual Devdutt Patnaik was simply too good at elaborating the theme ‘Gudhi’ which left audience speechless with the way he connected Indian mythology with business management rules.
On other hand, there was a great line-up of hi-energy young entrepreneurs who shared how they achieved great success in their young age. Aditya Kulkarni, founder of Little Eye Labs, his venture was acquired in just 18 months of its inception by social media giant Facebook. Also, Dr. Abhishek Sen, founder of BioSense, who developed low cost medical test devices for wide adoption in rural and economically weak parts of the country. Another dynamic young entrepreneur Aniruddha Atre, founder of BOPPEI, who has developed a model to generate and promote solar energy for lights while creating local entrepreneurs.
Overall, it was a great pleasure to attend TiECON Pune. It was interesting to gain insights on how entrepreneurs think, plan, remain focussed on the goal even in adverse conditions and execute their unique ventures. Networking with young entrepreneurs, listening to amazing speakers and witnessing unique innovations that permeate our everyday life, was indeed a novel experience.
