Sukshma

In every Pune OpenCoffee Club meet, you can’t help but notice the energy that Entrepreneurs bring with them. It is exciting and infectious. However, the Pune OCC is proving to be more than just about youth and learning. On July 3rd, Neeraj Arora of Google’s Corporate M&A wing, Neill Brownstein and Anjana Kaul of Footprint Ventures spoke about their respective organizations and philosophies. Over 50 Pune OCC members turned up for the event.

Boundless energy and enthusiasm are part of the Entrepreneurial profile. Of all the faces in the Pune OCC, of the founders pairing up to start, you just can’t tell which company is going to be the next big one out of India.

The newer Pune OCC members have been asking if the OCC was working with a blueprint or a plan. It does not. Just like the other OCC’s (especially Chennai), the Pune OCC was started to accelerate networking and so far it has worked incredibly well.

Our real-world regular meetups help build trust and familiarity between the attendees and guests. This in turn serves as a foundation for more meaningful interaction down the line. There are other organizations, like the recently resurrected TiE Pune that will provide the structure, discipline and other necessary characteristics for the rest of the startup eco-system to work.

Thank you Navin for covering the details of the event on PuneTech.

~ Santosh

When I started the Pune Open Coffee Club in March 2008 on the suggestion of a friend, Vijay Anand (Founder, Proto.in), little did I know that in a short span of three months, the Club would attract over 200 members.

Anjali and I used to brainstorm ways of marketing POCC, and one of the ideas that really helped was coinciding our first major POCC meeting with the VC Circle conference in Pune in April. Since the conference was filled with investment bankers, the VCs who wanted to meet entrepreneurs came to the POCC event

It’s exciting for us to see new members joining the Club every week, especially with all the action they’re bringing with them.

Here are some of highlights of June and July in case you’ve missed something.

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The Pune OpenCoffee Club meetup was an unqualified success. Over 70 POCC members made it to the networking meet. Pune’s startup eco-system is undoubtedly buzzing with life.

Some of the startups that attended are 42, Aftek, ApnaBill, BookEazy, Business Gateway, Career Vidya, Desicrew, Dial-a-meal, Druvaa, GlobalLogic, GridLogic, Hover.in, ImageLogic, Komli, Lipikaar, Mobikon, Niyuj, Omni Bridge Systems, ProductDossier, Pringoo, SpringComputing, Sofomo, Tastykhana, TechZemplary, and Zmanda.

Our guest list included Niren Shah, MD Norwest Venture Partners (India), Mukul Singhal, Canaan Partners, Anand Deshpande, CEO Persistent Systems, Chetan Shah MD Synygy India, Hemant Joshi and Shirish Deodhar of nFactorial who took time off to make it to the event and interact with other entrepreneurs. (more…)

I’ve been helping the Pune OpenCoffee Club bootstrap itself here in Pune. The community is designed to help Tech. Startup Enthusiasts, Entrepreneurs, Developers, Advisors, Investors and everyone else.

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As we go about our daily lives we all come across stuff that others may find useful or interesting. This hyperlocal information may range from a small local activity to a great find on the TV or even a rare opinion on a current topic. The way I look at it, if you think you’re witnessing something that holds relevance beyond your family and friends, it’s hyperlocal!

For example, here’s a peek at my last three hyperlocal conversations.

As I am writing this post, Ishan Sharma takes the wicket of Matthew Hayden in India’s ongoing Adelaide test match against Australia. This event instantly became the subject of conversation. (Relevance: india wide)

After TATA’s Nano for the masses, there’s now a laptop for the masses - HCL’s MiLeap at a price of Rs. 13,990. I hear it’s available at the local Croma electronics store in Pune. Do you think it will gain traction? (Relevance: india wide and local)

The Save Pune Traffic Movement (yahoo group: sptm-sunrise) has started an experiment with the Kothrud Traffic Police. They need volunteers to hold a “follow all rules” sign at Athavale Chowk near Nal Stop from 8:30 am to 8:45 am, for a week or so. My mother reports that last weekend the SPTM volunteers along with the police caught close to 150 violators over 2 hours! (Relevance: traffic fearing residents of Pune)

Well, that’s from me on one Saturday morning.

If you’re stopping by this page, give us a peek at your last hyperlocal conversation.

Cheers to the era of an hyperlocal Web!

Aneesh and Badal bring you all the action on BookEazy’s blog

DAY 1

DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

From what I hear, the short student films by Whistling Woods are a great catch!