What a wonderful Friday (December 7th)!
In the Open House, I came across a fascinating blend of passionate people, brilliant ideas, productive discussions and abundance of capitalistic inspiration right in the belly of capitalism – NSE. I learnt many new aspects of entrepreneurship and met the perfect role model who never gave up on his aspirations – Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda. I learnt to own my work/business to succeed, not simply allotting it to someone else. I re-learnt that people with passion and spirit to achieve go all the way to win and not the ones who quit and lay low.
Picture Caption – We shared our dreams on the white wall.
My takeaways from the Open House:
“Consider entrepreneurship as a career”
Alok welcomed us with the very thought that entrepreneurship is not just another job, but a career that requires our complete attention and sheer passion to succeed. In the process, we might fail and we might win, but the entire journey is worth the effort.
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Refer products & earn rewards
Ankit Arora presented the idea of Dezyna.com where tastemakers can discover a certain product and refer them from various social platforms on the website for users to get entire information on it. People will get reward points for sharing products.
For people who believe Facebooking is socialising
Ever heard that Facebook is not social? At least, Amrendra Kumar believes it to be and to counter this belief he has created iWishApp.com to allow people to give real gifts to their Facebook friends. This FB app is designed to remind people of the birthdays of their close friends and gift out of a wish list created by them via iWishApp. People can also chip-in funds to buy gifts that come a wee bit expensive.
It’s an attempt to make group gifting very easy and hassle free. Now that’s what we call truly social!
Counter cost of fixing Smart Phones
Vinit Gala presented the idea of comprehensive insurance for smart phones at an extra cost through his concept of Phonesurance. He intends to provide extended warranty on smart phones to cover an array of physical damage to the phone. An awesome idea as many spend thousands to get their phones repaired.
Organised second hand smart phones market
Ankit Sawant aka Satan at Winkproposed an organised second hand market for smart phones at sell2nds.com, which is still not available for the Indian market. The site offers cash/vouchers/credits or combo of all to the phone seller after complete verification of their phones’ working condition. These phones will then be refurbished and resold in the market.
An offer born in the Open House suggested that the insurance coverage provided by Phonesurance would be transferred to second hand mobile buyers if the phone were sold through sell2nds.com.
Virtual education for the online fraternity
Studism.com – an initiative by Jay Thadeshwar to bring the entire education network online. He presented the idea of bringing together virtual classroom, discussion portals, Q&A forums and every other aspect of education on one platform. It also allows space for customized groups for every subject, blog space for teachers and students and access to various study materials for students 24/7.
This sounds like education is finally becoming interactive.
Start-up dating
Gargi Shah presented the idea of a start-up for start-ups in one campus. They, at The Playce, offer a peaceful ambience, unlimited wi-fi and copious caffeine to help you brainstorm on your business at a bare minimal cost. They also offer internal networking between the various start-ups to help better outcomes.
She mentioned a special offer for Rodinhoders that will be posted on the Rodinhood website.
Picture Caption – Girisha’s jump of 1.74 metres marked a silver leap in our hearts.
A success story of passion over adversity
India’s first silver medallist in Mens High Jump in the 2012 London Summer Paralympics, Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda enlightened us with his very idea of passion. His most important entrepreneurship advice to us was “There is no reason not to follow your heart.” It was an honour to meet the 24-year- old hero who claims to be in love with sports since his childhood. He believes his winning the first silver for the country in Paralympics has highlighted the event and will enhance the chances for players performing in the next term. He believes that people will pay better attention to the games and will invest in superior training so that more medals do come in.
He has a dream to win Gold in Rio Paralympics in 2016, and we all hope and pray that he does bring even more honour to our country.
Spectacular 2012 – Some Special Rodinhood Moments
A flashback of success stories of 2012 elaborated by the means of three brilliant presentations.
Re-engineering legal education in India
Ramanuj Mukherjee started an excellent initiative with his company iPleaders to teach law to commoners and businesspersons in a systematic way, so that they could make use of the same. The initiative has successfully gained foothold in the year 2012 with a beta version live. They have started up courses to educate people about the necessary laws as many of them are not known and hence, not followed.
Wonder how to run Android on Cloud!
A brilliant idea to run Android OS on browser to grant remote/mobile access was initiated by AppSurfer. Aniket Awati and his founding members met Alok, who opened a world of possibilities for them. Alok rebranded the company from DroidCloud to AppSurfer. The company’s success story includes them getting their finances in place, launching their Beta version in March 2012, and being interviewed on the TV show Techcrunch.
AppSurfer anticipates 2013 to be a make or break year for them. We wish them all the luck for future.
Hail Bollywood with Koimoi.com
A presentation that started with a question: Who rescues an entrepreneur?
“Only an entrepreneur rescues an entrepreneur” was the answer given by Alok, Mukul Kumar Sharma and Rohit Nair. Alok narrated the story of starting up Koimoi with Komal Nahata and later collaborating with Mukul to bring the website to its current position. The current team managed to bring in more content in place and increased the traffic on their Bollywood website from thousands a day to lakhs. Mukul gave an essential pointer that “Content has always been, is and will stay the KING” to make any site rank better and appeal to the customers.
Alok also added, “You may fail throughout your life in business, still you’re an entrepreneur”. I came back with this as a new mantra for my company.
Picture Caption – Magical Rodinhoods December Open House in Mumbai!
The entire evening passed in a tick and it was time to leave the auditorium with a bag full of new learnings and a renewed passion to work on our dreams in the brand new year. It was a remarkable way to wrap the year and take new aspirations home to start 2013.
By Indi-Visual Local Correspondent – Richa Vani