Startup Events This Week: Inc42 AMA With Zoho’s Vembu, NITI Aayog’s Webinar, More

Last week, Inc42 hosted Deskera’s Shashank Dixit in its ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) series, where he spoke about the rising segments in India’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) ecosystem, and the impact of Covid-19 on Indian small and medium businesses (SMBs), and more.

Dixit highlighted that the biggest challenge for a SMB SaaS company in India is that it is pitted against pen and paper, and not against any big brand solutions. He elaborated that most SMBs in Tier II and Tier III are not using any technology.

He also noted that Covid-19 has forced small retailers to use SaaS products as asking an employee to physically get a receipt or maintaining a physical inventory is no more a solution in the current times. He added that the question is no longer ‘why’ a SaaS product is needed for SMBs, but it’s all about ‘what’ and ‘how’.

Dixit also elaborated that horizontal SaaS would work better for SMBs in India, instead of the vertical options. He specified, “Vertical SaaS works better in the US where they have building blocks with large companies and you are filling in the gaps with small companies. You can only fill the gaps if you have lego blocks ready.”

Besides this, TheInc42Show was also hosted, last week, on “Rethinking The Business Of Food In India Post Lockdown”. Inc42 CEO and cofounder Vaibhav Vardhan hosted the session with Ankit Mehrotra, cofounder and CEO, Dineout; Arjun Sagar Gupta, founder, The Piano Man Jazz Club; Rahul Singh, founder and CEO, The Beer Cafe; Nitin Saluja, founder, Chaayos and Ashish Tulsian, cofounder and CEO, POSist Technologies.

The panellists agreed that the Ccovid-19 has brought new challenges in the food industry, while removing the old ones. They explained that food delivery companies have introduced contactless delivery —  essentially delivery at the door and not in the customer’s hands. Besides this, they spoke about cloud kitchens or dark kitchens and raised questions on their hygiene standards and economics.

As we step into a new week, here’s a list of upcoming events :

NITI Aayog Webinar

Building Digital First Business Models

As Indian startups are grappling with the pandemic, Women Entrepreneurship Platform by NITI Aayog is organising a webinar on — ‘COVID and Beyond: Building Digital First Business Models’ to provide insights to women entrepreneurs on the opportunities available post-Covid-19 and how they can leverage technology to repurpose their business models.

The panel will be led by Anna Roy, Senior Adviser at NITI Aayog and chairperson WEP. She will be joined by Anjali Bansal, founder of Avaana Capital and chair, NITI Aayog WEP Investment Council; Sandeep Singhal, cofounder of Nexus Venture Partners; Ananth Narayanan, cofounder & CEO of Medlife.

Talking Points:

• How technology can help overcome the crisis
• Do we have the systems in place to adopt technology
• What is the role of the startup ecosystem in overcoming the crisis
• Digital-first models that are emerging as an opportunity post-Covid

Who Should Attend: Entrepreneurs, Investors
Date: May 15, 2020
Time: 11 AM
Venue: Virtual Event

#StartupsVsCovid19: AMA With Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu

The Reset Of Indian SaaS

Inc42 will be hosting  Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO of Zoho Corp, in Its ‘Ask Me Anything’ series to discuss “The Reset For Indian SaaS”. The Ask Me Anything series is a part of Inc42’s #StartupsVsCovid19 campaign through which we are looking to highlight the efforts put in by India’s startups community to tackle Covid-19 and the change in trend that will follow.

So far, Inc42 has hosted venture capitalists (VCs) like Siddharth Pai, Founding Partner, 3one4 Capital and GV Ravishankar, Managing Director, Sequoia India and other imminent names like Ashish Tulsian, Cofounder & CEO, POSist.

Bootstrapped Zoho Corp is one of the profitable unicorns in India. The company has employed 8,000+ employees, and serves more than 50 Mn users around the world. Zoho, which has been profitable since inception, offers 45+ apps in nearly every major business category.

Talking Points: 

• Can Indian SaaS capitalise on the new digital SMB?
• Horizontal vs vertical models in SaaS
• Why data privacy will change the landscape
• Building a culture that lasts

Who Should Attend: Entrepreneurs, Investors
Date: May 14, 2020
Time: 11:30 AM
Venue: Virtual Event

Startup India Webinar

Rebooting The Economy

In an attempt to address the key challenges being faced by most startups due to the decline in business activity, softening of demand, supply chain disruptions, and curtailment of travel, Indian government’s flagship Startup India is hosting a live webinar to help the startups out of this turmoil.

The panelists would include Cisco Launchpad head Shuthi Kannan, Lockheed Martin India’s VP and chief executive Willian L. Blair, and Infineon Technologies’s VP of strategies, M&A Rohit Girdhar.  The panel will discuss topics such as moving digital, the approach that should be taken, human resources management, and how CovidOVID-19 is leading to changes in the innovation ecosystems.

Who Should Attend: Entrepreneurs
Date: May 12, 2020
Time: 12:30 PM
Venue: Virtual Event

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