I am just hearing accounts of E-Summit at the Entrepreneurial Cell of IIT Mumbai and its quite nice to see many of the academia adapting to more of the entrepreneurial ambience, than the usual student-run business plan competitions. These are certainly signs of interesting times ahead.

The sad part though is the re-appearance of the same set of companies in all these forums and the same investor community who are present, making it more of the same for the rest of the audiences and wondering if the ecosystem is evolving and if innovation is still alive and kicking. I am wondering that myself.

For one, I am seriously wondering for the reason that a startup would want to take so many stages. I realize that more than five minutes of glory, which is where it all starts, mentorship (and not the 45 minute speed dating kind) is what is one of the crucial elements that is lacking out there. So if any of these entrepreneurial summits do want to take a stab at solving a real issue, there’s one. The only validity that these “stages” provide a startup is the market traction. If they can’t build it in one platform, re-appearing in multiple forums just tarnishes the image of the company and starts to paint a desperate picture. Is this happening with or without being aware of the consequences, is the second question.

I am seeing activities ranging all the way from the Department of Science and Technology, all the way to universities, to forums such as TiE, taking a firm and upbeat stance in changing things happen. But quite seriously, we need to go beyond networking and being just another “hand-shaking forum”. There are plenty of ways to do that these days, thanks to the online medium, but is anyone with a solid background and experience, willing to lead?