I am part of the founding team of fromote and would like to seek the help of this awesome community to expose the truth behind a startup competition called Exhibit 100 Hottest Tech Startups which appears to be fixed as they first selected few startups as top 20 and then changed the list blaming everything on jury (comprising of names like Nasscom, IAN, TIE).
Have you ever heard a judge announcing a judgement and then saying no, I need to revise it. Infact as per law, a judge cannot review his judgement. Source:TOI and https://cbi.nic.in/dop/judgements/lnnov1.pdf
Therefore I call upon people from Nasscom, IAN, TIE to look into this as a magazine called Exhibit and thetechy.com are maligning your names by saying that you as a jury revised the list. Moreover, I also appeal to VCs – Sequoi Capital, LightSpeed, Nexus venture, Saif Partners to clear the air as they are saying that you will be judging the final 20! Are you aware / part of this messup?
Would also appreciate feedback from Alok Sir and other seniors and also their help in getting this message to Nasscom, IAN, TIE because it is important that the startup ecosystem is kept clear of such things. I also invite suggestions as to action can we take to ensure that such a thing doesn’t happen with anyone else
Here is the complete list of events:
In January, my co-founder Sandesh got an email about a startup competition to identify 100 Hottest Tech Startups by Exhibit Magazine. The contestants were required to answer 7 questions in a video pitch.
We complied with it and after few days got a mail saying that we are in top 100 and we should send in our photographs for the magazine:
Few days later, on 10th Feb, we got a second mail saying that we have made it to top 20 out of 434 entries and we are invited to pitch in front of the VC’s on 9th March at Mumbai.
We called up Mr. Jay Bhargav, (who had sent this mail) to confirm so that we can book our tickets. Once he confirmed, we booked our tickets. We kept on asking or event details but they were not shared.
On 26th Feb, out of the blue, we got another mail saying that the final shortlist of top 20 has changed and we are no longer in that list
We find their claim ridiculous that the jury changed the list after publicly announcing it. We asked them to name the people on the Jury and the response we got was that we cannot disclose the names of jury! I wonder that if everything is transparent then why are they hesitant in revealing the names of the jury?
I think there is something fishy here as reputed names like Nasscom, IAN, TIE will not do anything like this.. I am not sure whether they are even aware of this mess created by exhibit magazine. Therefore through this forum I would like to ask these organizations and the VCs that whether they made any of the changes in the list of top 20 or was it done by exhibit magazine / thetechy.com for some other considerations!
Our twitter handle: @fromote
Ishani
asha chaudhry
ishani – aren’t the jury members’ names on the competition page of their site?
Abhishek Srivastava
Ishani,
To be frank , it doesn’t matter if company is top 10 or top 100 or have certificate of recommendation from magazines like “Exhibit”. Media coverage help but I will say move on. They will come back to you.
Vipul Meehnia
Hey Ishani / Asha,
Our startup @thumbbell was selected as one of the 100 Hottest Startups and I did attended the event in Mumbai. Since we were unable to compile the video on time, we didn’t end up in top 20.
Anyways Ishani, I went through @fromote earlier and believe that you guys are doing a great job. Being top 3 or top 20 or even top 100 doesn’t really matters, they are just to bring out your name, simple and free PR. Infact, I personally enjoy showcasing events more than pitching one, at least you get an honest feedback. If pitching to investors was your trill then there are many events going round the year. Truly speaking the adrenaline rush you get when an investor approaches you is much higher than when you chase them around.
Again, @fromote is doing a great job and it will be recognised soon.
Cheers!
Vipul Meehnia
@vipulmeehnia
CEO | thumbbell.com
@thumbbell
asha chaudhry
thanks for sharing this vipul – clears the air a bit!!
ishani – i think this question should’ve been more about why were you shortlisted and then un-shortlisted instead of “the competition appears to be fixed”.
yes, i agree the subsequent email (mentioning 1st round of jury) looks like a afterthought and is sloppy communication. hopefully they too will learn from this…
so just move on….
Ishani
Asha,
This is the exact question we asked them.. that how can they first shortlist someone and then drop? Was it done by jury or by themselves. Since they are putting the blame on the JURY, therefore wanted to know whether the JURY is even aware of such a matter
The reason behind posting it here was to make people aware that such elements are spoiling the startup eco-system. Secondly as this forum is widely read, we expected that atleast the JURY (people from IAN, TIE, Nasscom) and the various VCs named by them would have responded to clear the air, or atleast mention whether they are even aware of anything like this? Sadly there hasnt been any response from them.
Anyway, we have moved on and as Vipul and Abhishek rightly said we do not need any certificate from such magazines. The repeat business and appreciation that we are getting from our customers is good enough to keep us going!