Hello Everyone,

There is a flurry of activity going on behind the scenes of Proto.in January Edition. There is a fair bit of escalated heartbeats and planning going on, as this event seems to be seeing new heights of promise and growth.

To be very honest with you all, all the various “events” that have been happening around in the ecosystem have really helped to raise some very honest questions within ourselves as to what Proto does - do we even make a difference at all. Well, those questions have certainly made us find out areas that we can certainly make a difference and I can tell you for certain that you wont return home this time without feeling a difference in your heart and very solid action points as to how the ecosystem is evolving, and most of all as to how your life is a wee bit easier now. All the way from alternative sources of raising funds, to trying to sort out the talent-hiring problem of Startups, to getting the best of the media coverage for these startups, the team behind the scenes is working quite hard to deliver.

On the venture capital community front, as of now, we have received confirmations of presence from Mentor Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Ventureast, Lightspeed Ventures, Helion Ventures, Nexus India Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, and more of them are expected to be present for the event. Most promisingly, quite a few angel investors from Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and across the borders from the UK and US have confirmed of their presence in the upcoming event. They will be the most crucial aspect for most of the companies who have built their products and are ready to fly.

We will have our SME and Corporate community very well represented from companies such as Cisco (US), HCL, Wipro, Google, Yahoo, Reliance and most of the companies that you shook hands with last time being there to meet and greet the community, welcome the newcomers and to take matters to the next level.

As we close in on the agenda, we are also quite certain that we do want to follow the Startup School track that we tried out last time, on the first day of the event (18th, Friday), with a technology track and a Business Track. We are lining up some of the best speakers - and mind you each and every one of them is a veteran entrepreneur. I personally know that it is much easier to talk about some things and very hard to live them out. I am committed, along with my team to ensure that we bring practical solutions to some of the problems that you face in:

* Hiring Quality Talent
* Handling and Managing Startup Finances
* Deciding on your focus vertical
* Dealmaking with Investors
* Handling your board of directors
* The Crucial Element of a Mentor
* Creating Global IP
* India as a Technology Superpower - Possible?

And also some very interesting Technology Tracks that cover everything from some of the most recent inventions and innovations that are going to dazzle away our life, and expand our horizons in thinking, executing and in bring us upto par on building world class products.

We are nearing and getting quite close to the last dates for the Early bird prices after which they are going up, so please do register at the earliest to avoid disappointments. We have been seeing quite a steady stream and lately bursts of new registrations coming in - to the point where we are not allowing more than four people from an organization to attend, in order to have a spread of audience - so I cannot emphasize more on the need to register at the earliest if you are even thinking about attending Proto.

We have closed in on most of our sponsors for this event. We have been getting quite a bit of enquiries, and we have been very picky in the way we are choosing our sponsors - ensuring that we provide the best value for those who are attending and also for the companies that are sponsoring. There are one or two slots more open for sponsors. So if you are interested, do drop me a note on the same.

The Event is planned to be conducted in the Asiana Hotel in Chennai. The brand new hotel with its luxury and ambience, will be the perfect place to jumpstart your startup. I very much look forward to meeting you all, and I wish all the nominations a very hearty goodluck.

On that same note, we are extending the deadline for Nominations till the end of the year (31st december) as a few startups have requested for some time to polish their demonstrable prototype before they submit. On a fair note we are extending it. As of this writing, we have some 60+ nominations that are coming in, and none of them have been prior returns - all of them, or most have been companies and ideas that have been formed in the past one year and its quite heartening to see the rate at which new ideas are being churned out.

On a very happy Note,

Vijay Anand
Key Organizer - Proto.in