The Indian Software Products Industry Roundtable (iSPIRT), India’s first software product think-tank, has begun its journey to take Indian product start-ups to national stage and then to the global markets. iSpirt today announced the launch of Product Nation Camp (PNCamp), a unique bootcamp for product entrepreneurs in the country.
The first such PNCamp to be held in Pune city, one of the fastest growing product ecosystems in India, will see close to 200 start-ups converging from across India to share their challenges and get mentored from successful entrepreneurs.
“We have been conducting meetings in several cities on India and meeting with start-ups reulalry. These roundtable were generally conducted for four hours and we realized that several start-ups found this helpful. The success of this made us think of a format that would be longer but we certainly did not want a conference where people would come and give talks,” said Dilip Thomas Ittyera, a volunteer at iSpirt.
The bootcamp, which received entries thousands of start-ups, is a by-invite programme. “We do not want to crowd these events. The idea is to be able to mentor these start-ups, and address their challenges. We are not going to discuss technical issue here. The problems that will be brought to the table and discussed are therefore real ones which can only be addressed through collective discussion,” said Kailash Katkar, founder circle, iSpirt and CEO of QuickHeal.
The bootcamp will be spread over two days and divided into 20 groups, each group will have five to six companies. There will be 25-30 mentors who will work with these groups. These companies will not be from the same business model but will be in a similar stage of growth. Day one, will focus on start-ups that have a product prototype but either have no customers or very few. Day two, the firms that will participate include those who now want to scale to the next level.
The bootcamp is being held in Pune to also highlight the growth of product start-ups that the city has witnessed. According to iSpirt officials, Pune has around 400 start-ups. The bootcamp will see start-ups coming from Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. “About 40-50% of start-ups will be from Pune,” said Ittyera.
Some of the mentors for the bootcamp include Pallav Nadhani, Co-Founder and CEO of FusionChart, Ittyera, Katkar of Quikheal, and Bala Parthasarathy.
The first such PNCamp to be held in Pune city, one of the fastest growing product ecosystems in India, will see close to 200 start-ups converging from across India to share their challenges and get mentored from successful entrepreneurs.
“We have been conducting meetings in several cities on India and meeting with start-ups reulalry. These roundtable were generally conducted for four hours and we realized that several start-ups found this helpful. The success of this made us think of a format that would be longer but we certainly did not want a conference where people would come and give talks,” said Dilip Thomas Ittyera, a volunteer at iSpirt.
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iSpirt that was created in February this year, after it broke ranks with software industry body Nasscom, has four major focus area. First to lobby with the government on policy initiative, second, start a software adoption initiative. Third, to provide a platform for merger and acquisition programme for which they have already brought on board Signal Hill as investment banker and finally building and supporting capability by having programmes like PNCamp.
The bootcamp, which received entries thousands of start-ups, is a by-invite programme. “We do not want to crowd these events. The idea is to be able to mentor these start-ups, and address their challenges. We are not going to discuss technical issue here. The problems that will be brought to the table and discussed are therefore real ones which can only be addressed through collective discussion,” said Kailash Katkar, founder circle, iSpirt and CEO of QuickHeal.
The bootcamp will be spread over two days and divided into 20 groups, each group will have five to six companies. There will be 25-30 mentors who will work with these groups. These companies will not be from the same business model but will be in a similar stage of growth. Day one, will focus on start-ups that have a product prototype but either have no customers or very few. Day two, the firms that will participate include those who now want to scale to the next level.
The bootcamp is being held in Pune to also highlight the growth of product start-ups that the city has witnessed. According to iSpirt officials, Pune has around 400 start-ups. The bootcamp will see start-ups coming from Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. “About 40-50% of start-ups will be from Pune,” said Ittyera.
Some of the mentors for the bootcamp include Pallav Nadhani, Co-Founder and CEO of FusionChart, Ittyera, Katkar of Quikheal, and Bala Parthasarathy.