A lot can happen over coffee. It seems there are more followers to this tagline. ‘Start Up Coffee’, a regular meeting of wannabe entrepreneurs, incubators and like-minded people, launched by My Next Big Idea (MNBI), a technology business incubator focused on mobile and web businesses, is getting bigger. The fourth Start Up Coffee will be held at Cherries & Berries, Vazhuthacaud, at 4 pm on Saturday.
MNBI was set up a year ago by a group of young minds who are passionate about start-up communities. “We are running a company Xminds for the past eight years and have association with over 90 start-ups globally. In Thiruvananthapuram, we do not have much incubators to support the youngsters. That is why we decided to launch MNBI,” said Ram Govind Narayan, one of the directors of MNBI.
“To kick start activities, MNBI launched the first-of-its-kind ‘Start Up Coffee’ on October 27, 2012 in the city. These events are held every two weeks. The networking sessions have proved to be highly valuable for entrepreneurs, investors or everyone enthusiastic about the start-up community. There has been a whole lot of learning, sharing and motivation,” said Ram.
“During the last three sessions, as many as seven ideas were presented by the participants. One that needs special mention is ‘Ente City’ (www.entecity.com) which is a single window service for all the needs in a city,” Ram added.
Start Up Coffee usually begins with an introduction about the session. It will be followed by session on basic fundamentals such as finance, funding, customer development, etc. Selected people will get an opportunity to share their idea in 5 minutes, which will be followed by as Q&A session. The programme will wind up with a fun game.
What happens after the meet? “We will listen to the ideas. Our team will later validate it, and if found good, we will provide mentorship, find investors for them, introduce them to venture capital etc,” he said.
Though the major focus is on mobile and web businesses, MNBI welcomes all kinds of ideas. To register for the event log on to nextstartupcoffee.eventbrite.com or mail in your ideas to ideas@mynextbigidea.com.