Proto.in is a startup event bringing together startups across India and help them showcase their wares before media, investors and other entrepreneurs. The 8th edition of Proto was conducted at the Great Lakes college of Management outside Mahabalipuram in Tamilnadu – though it was billed as a Chennai event (70 km away). It was in the middle of nowhere and we almost missed it and had to drive back 100 m after crossing the campus on East Coast Road.

The event started on time at 9:30 with a keynote address from Sequoia Capital’s India director  Mohit Bhatnagar. Mohit went through various things that differentiate a successful startup – strong team, entry barriers, profitability at unit level – with apt examples from Indian startup world. He explained how Justdial built up its moat – strong technology and an energetic salesforce that even Google could not match up. Other examples included Vasan eye care’s extreme focus on profitabilty of each hospital.

The best  of the day was a keynote address from InMobi’s founder Naveen Tewari where he took us through his early experiences running InMobi – world’s second largest mobile ad network company – and his learnings. They pivoted twice – dabbling with mobile search and SMS ads before hitting on the current idea, and had to secure funding from silicon valley investors. He took us through his journey of building leadership in APAC and African markets before hitting the developed markets. His story was inspirational to all Indian product startups.

There were 15 startups that were showcased in Proto organized in 5 categories.

In the post lunch period there were parallel sessions:

A panel discussion on early stage investing was done with a few VCs and then there was scaling the product. But, by then most participants started leaving and we left too as we had to get back to Bangalore.

On the whole it was a great event and hats off to the organizers.