July 2015
Bootstrap Weekend's IITK-Prefest held on Sunday, 19 July 2015 saw the maximum turnout in a Startup Event of Lucknow.
But first things first, we at Bootstrap Weekend would like to extend our sincere thanks to Mr. Jatin Srivastava - Chairperson, Center for Entrepreneurship Development, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow for providing the best facility on such a short notice. We are grateful to Jatin Sir, Dr. Reena Agarwal and Jaipuria Inst. of Mgmt. to felicitate the StartUp Ecosystem of Lucknow.
We are also grateful to Mr. Alok Soni (Chief Editor, YourStory.com) who took the pain to fly (Oh Yes, he can fly, he is a Superhero!) from Bangalore to Lucknow for this particular event, and not to forget the hard work put by Team from IIT-Kanpur Entrepreneurship Cell. Cheers to all of you!
It was an exciting Sunday morning in Jaipuria, entrepreneurs were meeting other entrepreneurs, laughing, joking, discussing with each other.
The event started with the beautifully worded introduction by Dr. Reena agarwal from Jaipuria - CED about why Jaipuria Inst. of Mgmt. is facilitating StartUps and Entrepreneurs in and around Lucknow and other cities.
Mr. Vinit Kapoor, everyone's favorite, then piloted the event by giving a fantastic introduction to Bootstrap Weekend's origin and its current endeavours. He called upon Mr. Alok Mishra (friend, philosopher and guide of Bootstrap Weekend) to welcome Mr. Alok Soni (Alok to Alok) by presenting him a nice bouquet of flowers.
After an energetic description given by Snehil from IITK-Ecell about IIT Kanpur's Event to be held on 28-30 August, Mr. Alok Soni took all of us on a superb journey which had all the flavors ranging from history to chemistry to technology to agriculture to Bangladesh to old values and what not.
Here are few highlights:-
* Delhi got the maximum funding deals in first half of 2015 which is a good news as people have started looking north and every thing is not happening only in financial capital of India.
* Govts of our neighbouring countries like Bangladesh are focusing on infrastructure development for business and these could be the new avenues for Indian Startups.
* Discussion over 'Be in love with Govt. but Don't marry them' - Jack Ma.
* Freedom, Quick Money, Cool Factor, Fame should *NOT* be the reason for starting a venture.
* Lucknow's ecosystem is evolving and it is the right time to start a venture in Oudh region.
The environment went electric when Mr. Alok Soni shared a post from 'Quora' stating some misconceptions/incomplete arguments about Lucknow's Ecosystem.
The juice came out from the discussion was that much is happening in and around Lucknow but everyone is doing it in their silos, the stories are not coming out and we should take the collective responsibility for it.
It was also decided that Bootstrap Weekend may serve as a channel to share startup stories from Lucknow to YourStory.com
All the members felt very positive and motivated after the event and many were excited to know that they are not alone in their StartUp journey. The event ended with presentation of a beautiful memento to Mr. Alok Soni and discussions were continued in cafeteria.
Here are few photographs from the event for you