Publishing this post a little late but this is about a meetup of a small group on 29th, it was essentially a few entreprenuers from bangalore and alok from canaan met up for about an one and half hour for an informal chat at Pecos. Amongst us we decide to do no pitching which meant that there was great and lucid conversation about many things. It also helped an entreprenuer understand how vc’s think and vice versa. Some of the things that got discussed included below.
- What are the hottest startup areas ?
- Why entreprenuers are focussing on certain areas ?
- IS many VC’s in India a myth or realtiy.
- What do VC’s think angel has lot of investment already ?
- Will Indian VC’s put their moolah in startup from a college kid
- How should an entreprenuer understand investor fit etc ?
- Which VC to approach , one who is previous entreprenuer or coming with an analyst background.
and many more questions like this.
The thought to have something like this was triggered by opencoffeeclub but it was not just to emulate it and infact the meet happened in a pub. Due to the informal nature the conversation was very engaging. I have to certainly acknowledge alok sportiveness for taking up this without which this would have not happened. Everyone whom I met there said that they had a great time so maybe we should have more of this instead of talks and summits 🙂
alok (canaan) hooked up with contentsutra this week to organize another pub meetup, this time in delhi. this one was on digital media. pub meetups seem to be getting popular. you might know, do deals with vcs also get done at these meetups? how are they different from barcamps and momo meets? sorry about the barrage of questions, but then thats my job 🙂
hi snigdha,
to my knowledge the one at bangalore was the first and the one at delhi was the second so sure it seems to be gaining traction but to call it popular is little too early. The one at bangalore was strictly not about any deal making, infact it was agreed that there won’t be any pitches. This is slightly different from the open coffee house elsewhere where they put it primarily as a pitch making excercise.
The key idea here in my opinion is that you get a meeting ground where entreprenuer and a VC gets to speak to in a day to day style/language and discuss issues/concerns , trends etc. You don’t have be wearing the formal role of an investor and potential investee in other forum may or may not be the case. The only key/strong difference I see is that this is a VC led initiative (or has been) when compared to others like Barcamp or MoMo.
Though VC’s attend barcamps and MoMo’s but the numbers are extremely small. A VC led initiative might see some more participation from the investor side of the table.
On a second thought this could be an exception and not the norm because I had pinged many VC’s about a ghetto like this and none were interested but Alok instantly agreed. But then I know Alok attends MoMo’s as well.
Not sure if I answered your questions.
Rajan