‘The’ TRHS OH – September 2013 – Well if you did not attend it, you missed a LOT.

My friends and Theek Kar Do colleagues always keep accusing me of not being on time on most occasions. So, I promised myself to be on time starting this September 2013. And, it was going all well. I reached NSE at 14:28 sharp (wasn’t the TRHS OH scheduled to start at 14:30). Yes, I was supposedly going to be on time. But when I walked in to the jam packed auditorium, there was pin drop silence. With no familiar faces around, I double checked if I was at the right venue (the number of rodinhooders are increasing at a compounding rate). That’s when Alok shot another question to Sumant Mandal (Yes, you read it right the VC from the US of A).

No Table Q&A

So basically, I was at the right venue but 30 minutes late. I should have double checked the timings man. And after the OH people made me feel guilty of what I missed – a fire brand round of question and answers in the first ever No table Q&A and Asha even termed the session as the ‘hottest stuff’ that afternoon. But thanks to Mohul in this amazing summary I almost picked up the epitome of what was conversed then. To know what I missed and you shouldn’t, read here.

Being a Chartered Accountant and an Entrepreneur, I have met several investors over the last few years, but most of these interactions have been business related. And obviously a lot of bitching about the investor ways of functioning has taken place with my peers from the ecosystem. But probably this is the first time I came across a free and frank flow of words coming from a person of his stature who is there and doing all of that and knows what is right and wrong about it and was willing to disclose all relevant information on what an entrepreneur should do and what they should not. The conversation was not just about raising funds but how a business should run and function even when external money is not pumped in. He also clarified that once an investor gets on board a lot of business equations could change and there is bound to be a regular interference which could make the entrepreneurs life hell. So, if I could pick up so much after missing a good initial chunk of the conversation, imagine the amount of information that was shared in that hour long conversation.

What I love about a TRHS OH? It is not just about getting gyan from the biggies of the ecosystem but where our own peers take centre stage and share their stories – on what’s working and what is not and how the community can help them solve their problems. I did it at the June OH (here is the link to the summary). And these rodinhooders did not disappoint:

There but not there

Sarang Lakare from inTouchid

They have built this amazing app called inTouchApp – you’ll never have to type all the contact information ever again (i.e. name, number, email id, job description, work address, linkedin, FB, etc etc), never lose your contact again and never ever be required to manually update any contact information. They were made it to the top 10 in the BB app world. Isn’t that super cool? So, he spoke about how they built the app, got a million downloads, found an investor but still stuck somewhere.

Himanshu Mody from TeknoPoint

He spoke about how vital technology has become today for the sustenance of any business and how his team works to empower professionals and organizations with technology of tomorrow. He had concerns with the sustainability of his business model, whether they should get an investor on board and how he could scale his business – not having a hard-core sales team is a downside. An interesting insight to a rather non-conventional business idea.

Megha Deokule from i2cook

We have one more Rodinhooder from the food industry. There is Perzen from Bawi Bride who pampers us with the choco mousse and Karan has promised me some food items from Veging soon. But here is Megha who wants to balance the heavy pampering with organic food items such as peanut butter and pink mustard. I plan to lay my hands on them soon. How about you? She spoke about how they started and the rate of growth. But she had concerns with how would she be able to handle logistics once the number of orders increased.

Apurva Kothari from No Nasties

So, we had just heard about organic food and we then moved to organic tees. People are realizing the importance of green earth and doing their bit to save Mother Nature. Apurva spoke about how his venture is helping go green on one hand and helping farmers get their due on the other. His concerns stemmed around the fact that his venture is too small to solve the farmer suicide issue. He was not so keen on making it a funding pitch but wanted to know if No Nasties had made it large, if not then how would he be on the right track.

Launch of Day Halt

I am so jealous of Manish Golchcha and Praba Karan from Day Halt. Well, one has the right to be – after all how many of us have got an opportunity to launch our product or services at a TRHS OH? Times of launching at a star-studded event in the presence of the press are a passé. They click picks and forget you. But when you launch in front of peers – a thundering applause and a pat on the back is just the start – each of them become connected to your venture, directly or indirectly – and the valuable suggestions that flow are just priceless.

So, basically Manish and Praba were the chosen one to launch their day halt services whereby one can book hotel rooms for the time they use during the day and not pay for the 24 hour cycle mandated by various hotels. Many of us travel to Shirdi or Delhi early morning and come back in the eve – all we need is a place to dump our bags and freshen up. Here is the solution – DayHalt.com. (Well they are offering discounts to us RodinHooders. More details here)

The YouTube story by Anand Nair

Talking about ‘the’ YouTube without any videos? Anand Nair made that possible. How the website to upload cats and dogs video has become what it is today. It’s a medium being exploited by everyone from corporate to production houses to entrepreneurs.

So what makes YouTube what it is – creators + curators + community + connectors. He threw insights on how content is the king and nobody uploads video to make it viral. The Gangnam style or the Harlem Shake just happened to go viral. The trailer of Krrish 3 was viewed by millions within days of launch.

Upload content, get subscribers to your channel and monetize from that in the days to come – that is how YouTube can help you earn sitting at home (maybe).

A TRHS OH is incomplete without distribution of The Autobiography of a Yogi and obviously the networking session. But the number of rodinhooders have increased so much that I just couldn’t finish with the old timers. Maybe need to catch up with the newbies over coffee in these interim three months before the next OH in December. And yes, a lesson learnt – be on time or you will not get a seat next time – unless TRHS moves to a bigger place [it better does soon ;)].

And we even had the youngest rodinhooder – #thesixyearold.

This is just a quick glimpse of what happened there and to catch all the action – check out some snapshots here.

It goes without saying that we all rodinhooders are thankful to the three A’s of TRHS for providing us with this amazing platform. More power to entrepreneurs.

More about Me

Hardik is the co-founder of Theek Kar Do  and on the Editorial Board of Mentor Mantra. He is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and previously worked with Ernst & Young. You could connect with him at hardik.shah@theekkardo.com or follow him @simply_hardik or read some of his posts at his Blog.

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