Courses & Events

Entrepreneurship in India

Tuesday, Apr 16, 2013

04:15 pm - 05:30 pm

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Entrepreneurs and Opportunities in India: the Ecosystem for Startup Growth

With an impressive pool of entrepreneurial talent, India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.  However, a 2011 Gallup study of 20 economic entities in Asia showed that India ranked in the bottom quartile of a well-functioning entrepreneurial ecosystem.

This panel discussion will explore the entrepreneurial ecosystem of India.  Ms. Paula Mariwala, Executive Director of Seedfund, will lead off the session by providing an overview on the startup ecosystem in India and also outline recent trends amongst startup companies in the region and how it has continued to evolve over the past few years.  Mr. Deepak Ravindran, Founder and CEO of Innoz, and Mr. Phanindra Sama, Founder and CEO of RedBus, will address how entrepreneurs can overcome some of the systemic challenges of business in India including access to capital, long legal processes and complex regulations.  Other topics of discussion will include early stage investing, opportunities and challenges, and exit strategies for entrepreneurs in India.

Seedfund is India’s leading early-stage venture capital fund, with operations in Bombay, Bangalore and New Delhi. In her role as Executive Director, Paula has been with Seedfund since its inception in 2006 and has been working extensively with the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India to source, evaluate and mentor start-up companies for the organization.  An entrepreneur in her own right, Paula has over 20 years of experience with technology companies in the US and India and works closely with portfolio companies to take them to their next stage of growth and has led investments in education, healthcare and the mobile technology sector.  With over 20+ companies in its portfolio, Seedfund investees include AFAQS, CarWale, EduSports, Fetise, Frontier Markets, Healthizen, Heckyl, Ixsight, Jeevanti Healthcare, Level10 Comics, Lifeblob, myDentist, Nevales Networks, Printo, RedBus, RupeeTalk, Sportskeeda, ThinkLabs, Uhuroo and Vaatsalya.  Paula holds an MS in Applied Physics from Stanford University, and she has several publications and patents to her credit in the fields of Astrophysics and Optical Communication.

Deepak Ravindran is the Founder and CEO of Innoz, a leading mobile company in India and creator of SMSGYAN (55444.in), a mobile search engine built to “find instant information on demand” via SMS technology.  Having launched Innoz in his college dorm room at Kannur University with three other roommates in 2008, Deepak dropped out with the novel idea of making the internet accessible to the offline world.  With more than 120 million active users across India, the Middle East and North Africa, Innoz is transforming the mobile device into a learning tool and receives over 5 million inquiries a day through its mobile SMS platform.  In 2010, Innoz was the recipient of the Red Herring Global 100 and Asia 100 award for one of the 100 most promising technologies around the globe.  Following on their past success, Innoz was named as a Finalist in the GSMA Global Mobile Wards for Best Network Product or Solution for Serving Customers in 2012.  In 2011, Deepak was named as one of the Top Innovators under 35 by the MIT Technology Review and is currently an INK Fellow as well as a Rajeev Motwani Fellow.  He was also a TED Talent Search participant in 2011.

Phanindra Sama is the Founder and CEO of RedBus, India’s first online bus ticketing company and has the largest network of bus operators.  Founded in 2006, Redbus sought to solve the problem of getting bus tickets efficiently and with ease after one of the three co-founders was stranded in Bangalore and unable to find a bus ticket home for the Diwali holiday.  With more than 4500 routes across India, customers are now able to book tickets at their convenience via multiple channels, and RedBus continues to dominate the market with a 65 percent market share as of July 2012.  Phanindra recieved his Electrical Engineering degree from BITS Pilani and Post-Graduation from Indian Institute of Science.  Prior to Redbus, he worked at ST Electronics and Texas Instruments. He hails from Nizamabad, Andhra Pradesh, and he became the second entrepreneur from India to join Endeavor in 2009 and has been recognized by BusinessWorld as one of the Top 5 most-promising entrepreneurs in India.

Immediately following the session, we’ll have a short-networking reception from 5:30 – 6:15PM.  This is the third session in the US-Asia Technology Management Center’s ten week seminar series on “Entrepreneurship in Asian High-Tech Industries.”

Presented by the US-Asia Technology Management Center in Stanford’s School of Engineering, with support from the Miner Foundation and major series support from ISI Dentsu of America.

Stanford University | Skilling Auditorium

494 Lomita Drive • Stanford, CA

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 • 4:15-5:30PM