Networking: A key word in August fest

Hyderabad: The excitement at The August Fest was palpable. With people coming in from over 40 cities, networking was but obvious as numbers were being exchanged over talks of funding or partnerships. While one hall housed over 70 startups from the city, the other hall had budding entrepreneurs listening attentively. With an expected crowd of over 5,000 for the two days of the event, the third edition of The August Fest is the perfect platform for anyone who’s even remotely related to a start-up. And this year, for the first time, the fest went international as it featured startup ecosystems from Singapore, Malaysia and more.

Whatsapp planning
For those wondering how this large scale event was organised, the answer surprisingly was “over Whatsapp”. While Kiran Maverick, the founder of Eat, Sleep and Drink Start Ups, the organisation behind The August Fest, lives in Europe, the other three live in Hyderabad. “We spoke over Whatsapp and organised the whole event. Sometimes it would go over 10,000 texts a day. Just on Friday we got over 500 emails,” says Kiran.

Talking about the importance of such events, he says, “If you think about one startup event in the whole of India, there’s actually none to name. We want August Fest to be the one everyone talks about, providing a platform for networking and for entrepreneurs to know more about the startup ecosystem. I travel all around the world, attend such events and try to convince the speakers there to attend this fest.”

Totally worth it
In the crowd numbering thousands, there were many who had specially flown in from cities across the country. And it’s all worth it, for here, under one roof, they got to meet investors, VCs and fellow entrepreneurs. “We had Vani Kola, MD of Kalaari Capital, as a speaker. Normally if one wanted to talk to her, it would take just three months to get an appointment,” says Kiran.

The crowd sat in rapt attention as Vani, who spend the first 20 years of her life in Hyderabad, spoke about the right way to start a start-up. There were also funny coincidences where one of the anchors for the event was on his way to Hyderabad from Pune and found six others in the same bus, who were travelling for the Fest. In the crowd, there were two who got everyone’s attention because of their “hats”, which had their startup letsride.in’s name on it. The duo, Averi Choudhary and Raj Kumar Mundel, has come from Pune to attend the event. Averi says, “It’s a great place for networking and to spread the word about your startup. It’s totally worth coming down here as you can meet potential investors.” There were students too, who were seen enthusiastically asking IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan about how the T-Hub will help students. Another student Aradhana George, who’s in her final year of engineering, says, “I just attended a lecture on how to pitch for start-ups. They spoke about how often we pitch an idea in the completely wrong way.”