In the 16th meet of Entrepreneur Café Hyderabad, we had a rich exchange of ideas and perspectives on different marketing strategies employed by startups. The insights offered by industry veterans such as Marketing Consultants and Market Analysts made the discussion even more knowledgeable and interesting.
As we had both B2B and B2C startups attending the meet, we talked about the nuances of B2B and B2C marketing and the differences between them. B2B marketing is more complex and demands a longer marketing involvement as B2B sales involve much higher transaction values and a more complex value proposition than a typical consumer purchase. Although they both need different approaches; at the end of the day, they are both about influencing people and their buying decisions! The startups also talked about the marketing challenges that they faced. One of the major challenges usually faced by early stage startups is identifying the target consumers (especially for B2B marketing). Since significant targeting and personalization is very essential to the success of a marketing plan, it becomes all the more important to get it right. The attendees shared the different approaches taken by them to get more data about their target markets and consumers. Other challenges include getting the right connections with the right people and figuring out the right content to provide. The Market Consultants present in the meeting gave advice on how to cope with these challenges. The discussion moved to digital marketing and how its different forms like social media marketing, SEO, e-mail marketing, etc. can be leveraged by startups. Chakrapani Anumula, founder of iDoneSEO shared his views on some limitations of digital marketing and SEO. Some attendees also shared their views on the benefits of inbound marketing and believe that the conversion rate for inbound marketing is usually higher than that for outbound marketing as it’s more targeted and personalized. It was a great evening full of ideas and stories (of both success and failure!). As they say, what better way to learn than to learn from other’s experiences?! Thanks to all the attendees for sharing their experiences and making the discussion so interesting! Ideas discussed, knowledge shared and horizons broadened! Keep the ball rolling, entrepreneurs!! Cheers! -Akanksha City Mayor, Hyderabad This meet was another milestone in EC Bangalore chapter. Citibank has expressed strong interest to partner with us and we conducted our meet at Citibank conference room on 24th Sep
The meet was attended by more than 25 startups, though citi wanted only 25 due to space constraint. From Citi side, their south India President, Branch Vice President apart from their sr managers attended the meet. It was a great meet with people from diverse domains and verticals including representation from J&K state, waste management, Startup company from Kenya, free online store setup (singlecontact.com). The session was started by City Mayor, Subranil with short introduction on EC, our philosophy, vision and mission , followed by City VC on their partnership and then quick tips on marketing pitch to VC and how finance plan and marketing plan should align. The session was concluded with Q&A and then by future plans by Subranil and then plans with Citibank. Citibank was super excited with the gathering and meet and appreciated the fact that so many people turned up despite rain and bad bangalore traffic due to rains. Networking and discussions though went on beyong 9pm Entrepreneur Cafe Nairobi and Young African Leaders Initiative met in a twenty day old Nigerian
restaurant. One of the strategies of the entrepreneurs behind it is exactly that: to bring the social groups and meetups they are involved in to the place. Not only did we enjoy Nigerian cuisine, we also discussed the challenges and success stories around the venture. One challenge was certainly the blackout that unfortunately struck whole Nairobi that night. But with candles and cups of hot tea we sat outside and made ourselves familiar with each other. Another challenge Zak, who is the manager on the ground, told us about, was his lack of experience in managing a restaurant. He had managed other ventures and people before, but not specifically a restaurant. Especially finding the ingredients for the food turned out to be harder than expected. But as an entrepreneur he struggles forward and uses his network to gain experience. Marketing, he said, was not a challenge, because they opened a place to a ready customer base who had been waiting for such a restaurant. Many people come when they are hungry and can’t think of anything else but Nigerian food. Other customers ask for delivery, and that was something they were not prepared enough for. They would like to invest in a motorbike, but finding a reliable driver is a challenge. Also collaborating with an East African food delivery service might not yet solve all their problems. “You won’t tell a hungry Nigerian to download an app and once more place their order through that,” Zak said. They compete with the few other restaurant in the niche by having better prices and service. Since the city still remained dark, and it became a bit chilly, we opened up the meeting to mingle inside, exchange contacts and share experiences and advice – all that at the romantic light of some candles, phone lights and a strong stand-alone spotlight. The lights went on again to expose empty plates, full stomachs and – most importantly – new contacts or even partnerships made. Thursday is essentially a day that brings us close to Friday. The proximity to the weekend is at best what keeps us sane on the given day of the week. But Thursday, the 10th of September had more to it than just an anticipatory ritual. The ‘Entrepréneurs’ Cafe’ had organised its 16th meet-up in the startup home of Bangalore, Indiranagar.
As the name of the club suggests, the meet was for established and aspiring entrepréneurs and associates. What better setting than the comfortable Starbucks with its caffeinated temptations to get the creative minds talking? The meetup started off with a steady trickle of entrepreneurs dropping into the venue. The customary introductions and networking soon led to the commencement of the pitches. First up was a reputed fortune MNC bank which informed the crowd about their support facilities for carrying out financial transactions. Considering that most entrepreneurs fumble with finances, this was definitely a beneficial talk. Next up was Brand Accelerator, an accelerator company funded by the well-known Times Group. The company had a very useful proposal for startup owners in terms of mentorship. Sevita, an NGO venture, which is a serious platform assisting the revival and retention of Indian traditional art-forms then spoke about their venture. The NGO, co-founded by an artist, gives a living to many other artists practicing Indian traditional art as their primary source of income. Talking about valuable businesses, School Secure was next to speak. Real Time assistance based technology to ensure child safety is useful and commendable. Their product goes a long way in easing the parents’ paranoia about their child’s safety. They shared their experience about how it got shortlisted for incubation by NASSCOM under NASSCOM 10k startup program and they key focus area for incubation preparation. Hungerbox, a startup on fresh food delivery, shared their experience on startup marketing and sales and key factors of the success of their startup. The session was concluded by Subranil (City Mayor) sharing the plans for future meets and workshops in partnership with the fortune MNC bank and plans to leverage the Entrepreneur café group to engage and benefit each other. After a productive listen-session for the attendées, open networking began. Networking, as promising as it usually is, saw cards being swapped, meetings being set-up and deals being made. That brings us to realise- A café couch, a cup of coffee and a clever conversation is as perfect as a work day gets. The 15th Entrepreneur Café Meeting took place on Thursday September 10th 2015 at Starbucks Villa Franklin Roosevelt Casablanca. Entrepreneur Café Meetings are held every 2nd and 4th Thursday of each Month at 6.30pm.
An opportunity for exchange, discovery, learning and Networking organized in Morocco by CasaEducation. Sara OUELD El HACHEMI, co-founder of Entrepreneur Café and the founder of CasaEducation, started the meeting by presenting the concept. Entrepreneur Café exists in more than 90 cities around the world and in 5 cities of Morocco. During every Meeting, the concept offers a package of hope and power for to the young entrepreneur. A horizon of success and adventure transmitted through the pitches rich of advices and potential that the speakers deliver. Thursday September the 10th 2015 was once more a meeting rich of exchange and discovery. Youssef Ghalem the first speaker of the meeting is the Founder of the online educational platform KezaKoo. Kezakoo is a Moroccan platform that offers free online courses and accompaniment to students. This e-learning platform presents courses adapted to the Moroccan educational system in different subjects such as mathematics, physics, languages and programing. Those courses are presented in the form of video Tutorials in Darija (Moroccan Abaric), as well as other languages. Youssef shared with the participants his experience as a startup, and how he took the decision to quite his job at the bank to start the adventure which was a bit hard at the beginning because he did not had much experience, so he committed couple of mistakes from which he started learning. Youssef gave important advices about Startup management that can help young entrepreneurs. His ambition and wiliness are the basic elements that helped him start his entrepreneurial adventure, but for sure, he also based his project on a definite strategy. Reda Chahoud was the second speaker .He is the Co-founder of Startupia a project formed and directed by a group of young Moroccan: Himself, Moncif Okbi and Omar Madi. Startupia aims to develop the Moroccan entrepreneurial ecosystem by offering the necessary accompaniment to the young entrepreneurs in order to fulfil their projects and guarantee their durability. Reda Chahoud shared with the participants of Entrepreneur Café his vision regarding the startups developments .He mentioned the importance of strategic accompaniment for of the development of Startups. He also spoke about the function of creating clusters for startups and the industrialization of creating entrepreneur profiles. During this meeting, we had the pleasure to have amount the participants the group of the Moroccan influencers on the web. We thank all the participants, and especially Dr TARIK BENTOUHAMI who came from EL JADIDA to attend the meeting! Do not forget to join Entrepreneur Café a useful space for your professional career either you are an entrepreneur, an investor or a student? Come and share you experience and gain free effective durable knowledge! 9/11/2015 Public transport and farming: Nairobi Entrepreneurs started putting their ideas into action !Read NowIt is always a surprise who will attend our meetings twice a month. Sometimes we are few, sometimes many, sometimes there are new faces, sometimes we all know each other already.
The last meeting was rather familiar and a small but fun round. The beauty of it was to hear peoples’ progress. While we started out with many attendees still in idea stage with their enterprises, it is now that things are starting to take shape. There are plans for farms, cheese production, apps and venturing into public transport. Entrepreneur Café is also a great place to make contacts, and not only exchange ideas, but actually to come up with collaboration plans – which happened at our last session when some people played with the idea of a combined venture for double benefits. That is one of two key lessons from that last meeting: partnerships are vital and helpful and work best, if the partners know and trust each other – for instance, because they have met several times before at Entrepreneur Café. The second lesson was: Just start. Before you worry about certification and the City Council, you should actually buy that vehicle for public transport and then try to make your way forward. Instead of doubting how you will handle things on a farm, get that piece of land first. Everything else will fall in place and you will know by then what to do. But Entrepreneur Café Nairobi is not always as laid back as it was last session. Next time we might change the venue to a new restaurant in town and listen to the resourceful story of the entrepreneur behind it. Also, we will get the opportunity to meet new people and do some serious networking, because we are teaming up with the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) for a casual exchange of contacts and ideas. Nagpur, India - 5th September, 2015
Resume It Up, in association with Nagpur Chapter of Entrepreneur Cafe & Nagpur Startups group organized a meetup & discussion on 'Developing & Promoting Innovation & Creativity'. Businessmen, entrepreneurs, techies as well as students attended this meetup. The meetup started with networking & introductions moderated by Baldev Singh Rawat, founder of Resume It Up. Shubhada Jambhekar, Lead Trainer at Resume It Up, presented two concepts related to the topic which were 'Innovation Hotspots' by Dr. Lynda Gratton & 'The Six Thinking Hats' by Edward de Bono. (The presentation can be viewed here.) After this presentation, the platform opened for discussion. There were some interesting contributions by a lot of members including the importance of ideation without the fear of failure & mindfulness which have proven to promote innovation & creativity. The discussion ended as per stipulated time with the meetup venue itself becoming an innovation hotspot. The organizers thanked Mr. Saket Chaurasia, Mayor, Nagpur Chapter of Entrepreneur Cafe & Mr. Jayesh Bagde of the Nagpur Startups group for their cooperation & support. 9/11/2015 Can Technology solve the problem of60% deaths in our society due to Non-Communicable Diseases?Read NowMedioctor in association with Entrepreneur cafe launches Cycling Health Initiative. Medioctor is launching its Cycling Health initiative at the J N Tata Auditorium, Bengaluru on September 13, 2015. Pratap Behera, CEO, Medioctor says “We are inverting the pyramid where typically all good things reach from the most privileged to the lesser ones in our societies. Adopting the village of Sathanuru in Mandya District of Karnataka, the promise of creating an Electronic Health Record (EHR) for the 10,000 inhabitants is not just a Public Relations exercise. Cycling Health is an initiative that will also raise funds to address the critical Health Care Issues that are identified from the engagement with the people on the ground. No technology in itself can bring about societal outcomes in any field and healthcare is no exception. Medioctor is out to prove what has eluded the ecosystem until now that an individual can own their health record and be responsible as well. All it requires is a dedicated Change Management Program involving Education, Ownership and Commitment”.
Sumant Meher, COO adds “India faces tremendous healthcare challenges arising from shortage of Capacity from all quarters including Skills, Talent, Infrastructure and Resources. Our Economy has other related challenges as well. Medioctor’s solution to the problem is to improve the efficiency of the healthcare ecosystem globally that can be compliant”. A recent World Health Organization (WHO) and World Economic Forum (WEF) report indicates: • More than 60% of death is being caused by major Non-Communicable Diseases and 1 in every 4 indian runs the risk of premature death under the age of 70 due to NCDs such as Cardio Vascular Disease, Heart Attack, Cancer, Diabetic & mental disorder. This can be solved by improving the Lifestyle / Habits. India will lose an estimated $4.5 trillion in terms of lost economic output due to prevalence of these NCDs between 2012 till 2030. This can be solved by people being made to take responsibility for their health”. “Our initiative is in line with the Prime Minister’s ambitious Digital India Program. Its an initiative to make health personal to each and every individual. Technology alone cant solve the problem of healthcare in our country where majority of people live in rural India and needs ground level connect to establish health is a birth right of every citizen. Thus our effort is to take the people through an extensive Change Management process of Education, Ownership and Commitment to help them evolve a better healthcare ecosystem; one that relies more on Life, Learning and Living than Disease, Decay & Death. We are inspired by my participation at the BP MS 150 every year which is a 150 Miles ride to raise funds for the Multiple Sclerosis Society in the US says Subbu Iyer, Founder, Chief Mentor & Platform / Product Architect about “Cycling Health”. This event is being designed as World Class cycling event to raise funds for the identified healthcare issues as a consequence of our engagement with the 10,000 inhabitants of Sathanuru, Karnataka. It will also demonstrate to the world how technology can work for the weakest segments of our society and serve as an inspiration for the more affluent and educated to make health personal. The Karnataka health ministry, State Legislators & Administration has already extended their full support to make this a world class event. The Bangalore political Action Committee are actively supporting & participating in the event. The Launch of “Cycling Health” initiative is being attended by eminent personalities from Business, Politics, media, Start-up Health & Medical professionals. Honorable Health Minister Mr. U.T. Khader, Honorable Minister Mr. Roshan Baig, Former Union External affairs minister Mr. S M Krishna, Legislator Dr. Ashwath Narayan, Union law maker from Mandya Mr Putta Raju, Capt. Gopinath, Mrs. Yasmeen Premji, Mr. Narayana Murthy, Dr. K.R. Balasubramaniam, Mrs. Revathy Ashok, Ms. Chitra Talwar, Mr. V G Sidharth, Mr. Sudhir Pai and Mr. Mohandas Pai are the notable leaders who are supporting this initiative and actively participating to make this a huge success. The dates of November 14 - 15, 2015 would be etched in the memories of the participants be they Cyclists, Volunteers or Healthcare Professionals; as a Lifetime experience is how Subbu Iyer envisions the Cycling Event. He says it will be one big partying weekend starting from the Bangalore Palace on the morning of November 14, ’15 leading Sathanuru which is exactly a 100 KM. On this day the inhabitants will receive their Electronic Health Card and will be the beneficiaries of Workshops and Symposiums from eminent healthcare professionals. The event will see a grand finale with the riders doing the balance of the 50 KM on November 15, 2015 at the Mysore Palace. The entire weekend which coincides with India’s Festival of Lights Deepavali will be a Celebration of Life with Healthy Food, Service to Humanity, Camaraderie and Fireworks. Registration for the above event will begin as soon as the event has been launched on September 13, 2015. This transformative approach to healthcare is perhaps what is required to bring a participative approach in societies globally to make health a rule rather than an exception. For more information visit - www.medioctor.com We are here with another exciting #contest for #startups - #MyFirst10Sales. Tell us how you did your first 10 #sales in your #startup & get an opportunity to get an exclusive coverage on Entrepreneur Cafe social media platforms.
## How to enter? ## Tell us how you did your first 10 sales in your startup by using the hashtag #myfirst10sales: https://www.facebook.com/entrepreneurcafe.org/posts/705947152870991:0. Also tag your startup page (use @ sign to link your startup). ## Terms: ## *Multiple entries by same startup is not allowed *The startup need to be in operational mode. *Make sure you use the hashtag #myfirst10sales & link your startup facebook page in your comment. Start commenting. A winner will be chosen in every week of September. That means 4 awesome startups have the opportunity to win. |
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