The third edition of SmashUp presented by TiE Rajasthan, is the biggest “unconference” of the year, which was a two day event on 3rd-4th November in Jaipur. It is an event designed for early stage entrepreneurs focusing on peer learning from contemporary founders. But it is not only about the startup journeys of the successful entrepreneurs but also about sharing ideas with them. The event ideas could be pitched and the investors could even fund you! This is what differentiates SmashUp from rest of the startup events.
A two day event began on 3rd November with “speed dating with investors“. You must be wondering what does that mean. Speed dating with investors is basically one on one pitches with investors, where around 600 applications were heard and only 6 of them were qualified for the next round. It was an interesting sight to see people come up with their startup ideas and pitch them in front of the investors.
The second day started with the mentoring clinic by TiE Navigators, where members of TiE Rajasthan were giving mentoring sessions to the young entrepreneurs. The second half started with a welcome note in a hall which was filled with event’s speakers, investors and students with their startup ideas with them.
“Suits intimidate, presentations make you sleep and podium is the thing that blocks the flow between an audience and the speaker” Chirag Patel, CEO, KOOH Sports Pvt. Ltd., started SmashUp. Welcome note was so inspiring that you couldn’t even think of walking away from the event.
“Better doesn’t sell, different does”- an insightful quote by Rehan Yar Khan, the keynote speaker was truly the motivating factor of the event.
It was followed by the entrepreneurial experience shared by Sanjay Agarwal, MD of AU Small Finance Bank. He received a lot of stress balls for his witty answers to audience’s questions. Throwing stress balls meant that you agree to what the speaker is saying and he received a lot of them. 🙂
Next came the open pitches session which was a fun and interesting activity as you could listen to what all new ideas people have already come up with and they can actually solve a lot of problems in future.
The three geniuses Aditya Gandhi, Director of Redwood Tours, Devendra Agarwal, founder of Dexter Capital and Dhruv Khanna, CEO of Data Resolve shared their startup tales and how they learned from their mistakes.
Stories from Pink City with Vishwas Shringi, CEO of Voylla and Prafulla Mathur, founder of WudStay shared their experience and how people should stick to their ideas and work on them.
Next in queue was panel discussion- the investor’s perspective with Anil Joshi, MD of Unicorn India Ventures, Sunil Goyal, MD of YourNest venture Capital and Harshad Lahoti, Founding partner of Ah!Venture.
Smasher Pitches followed from Day1 had second round today and the winner was Brigson Innovations Pvt. Ltd. with a brilliant start up idea.
This event was a huge success, with great entrepreneurs from all walks of life coming and interacting with startup entrepreneurs of today, mentoring and giving guidance to them, and having one on one conversations with them is what makes this event stand out from others.
Jaipur Beat 