TMS2021: The Product Founders Ready To Reveal The Next Big Thing In Their Sectors

This article is part of Inc42 Plus’ upcoming conference — The Makers Summit India’s largest product conference scheduled for 12th-14th March, supported by Netcore, Amplitude and HPE. Click here to know more.

In ancient times, caravans of traders and travellers halted at designated spots to discuss the experiences and challenges of their journeys. Those gatherings served as a valuable source of information that helped stewards navigate the path next day and steer clear of looters and warring tribes.

Millenniums later, business summits are not all that different — leaders and managers talk to each other about the  problems they have encountered on their journeys and how they have triumphed over them.

But in the tech startup ecosystem  that remains in a constant state of flux, the question that interests everyone is ‘what’s next?’ That’s why The Makers Summit which will be hosted by Inc42 Plus from  March 12-14 will be disproportionately biased on the product innovations that Bharat is waiting to see. India’s biggest virtual conference at the intersection of product, design and marketing will ensure  that each of the 12,000+ attendees know what to put on their blank canvases to build the next multibagger product.

As is the case with most things in life, timing is of the essence in the product world as well. The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone in the world and Uber wasn’t the first ride hailing app. Closer home, Flipkart was a late entrant in the ecommerce market, whereas Paytm was a late entrant in the e-wallet space. Yet, these  products fulfilled an unmet customer need better than their peers.

For this reason, The Makers Summit is bringing together founders from the most happening sectors such as edtech, fintech, SaaS and consumer services to discuss what lies ahead- challenges as well as opportunities. These acclaimed founders will talk about the pain points in their sectors and how they faced them head-on. They will also share their thoughts about the innumerable opportunities that are present for the daring and the thinking entrepreneurs in each sector. 

While we have given a detailed breakdown of the different categories of sessions such as Firesides, Masterclasses, Panels and what you can expect from each in an earlier article, here we will take you through what the product-focused founders will be talking about at The Makers Summit:

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Reshaping The Fintech Product Landscape Of Bharat

How to break through the $550 Bn brand moat of legacy banking and insurance players? How to reach out to 750 Mn+ Indians for selling financial products online? How does one go about designing and marketing sachet products for the under-penetrated Bharat audience?

These are only a few of the puzzling questions that Ashish Kashyap of IndMoney, Varun Dua of Acko Insurance, Mukesh Kalra of ETMoney and Deepak Abbot of Indiagold would be tackling. Other points of discussion will include building trust that’s essential for success in financial services, Is there a need for an offline marketing channel to achieve deep penetration in the small towns of India?

The View From The Shoulders Of Edtech Giants

The previous year was watershed for the edtech sector in more ways than one — for the first time, edtech products weren’t just supplements to the physical classroom and showed that they could become what education would look like in the future. Flush with funding, BYJU’S and Unacademy also went out in search of new products to add to their arsenal and augment their capabilities in coding courses, virtual reality and gamification platforms.

As the sector goes into a phase of consolidation after a year of churning, we’ll have BYJU’S founder Byju Raveendran and Unacademy founder Gaurav Munjal with their views on what’s in store? They will be sharing interesting anecdotes about solving their most difficult product challenges and will also shed light on the untapped pools of value in edtech — something that would be of immense help to budding product builders and founders in the space.

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Building Consumer Products For The Next Billion 

The Covid lockdown in 2020 kept kids away from schools, creating an opportunity for edtech companies. It also gave a boost to online gaming apps, creating a huge untapped market for startups. 

While Dream11’s success story is something that every budding entrepreneur would want to replicate, Mobile Premier League- a stone’s throw away from the unicorn tag- is another story that has become the talk of the town. The founders of these two gaming startups, Harsh Jain and Sai Srinivas, respectively, will help the audience understand the secrets of driving engagement and retention — the holy grail of any maker — through the eyes of gaming products. They will also offer a sneak peek into their playbooks for attracting the Bharat user through referrals and sachet products.

And since we are talking about Bharat, Sharechat’s vernacular content game must find a mention. It has captured Bharat’s audience with its vernacular hyperlocal text and short video content. Sharechat founder Ankush Sachdeva will be at The Makers Summit to help you understand the strategy required to tap into Bharat’s social engine. He will also be discussing the nuances of creating a flywheel of features that boost engagement through a feedback loop and the emerging playbook of social media monetisation beyond the big cities.

But Bharat isn’t the only segment that’s looking for a social media platform of its own. Sheroes founder Sairee Chahal will reveal deep insights from  her experience of finding the product market fit while building a social media platform that offers a space of learning, growth and building valuable connections to the urban woman. And while we probe the urban landscape for building products, Urban Company founder and CTO Raghav Chandra will tell you about the intricacies of creating a category-defining product that can stand out in a crowded market.

Decoding India’s SaaS Needs

While consumer products always hog the limelight due to the volume of their user base, it would be a mistake to not dip into the insights of the founders who are building for the builders. That’s why The Makers Summit will have a stellar cast of B2B SaaS founders — Bhavin Turakhia of Flock, Pallav Nadhani of Charts.com, Ashish Tulsian of Possist, Summit Shah of Dukaan and Tanmaya Jain of Infeedo.

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They will not only share the steep learning curves that they have had while selling to small enterprises, but also shed light on the product matrix of catering to the country’s burgeoning MSME sector at the biggest product conference of the country. 

As we make huge efforts in the background to make your experience at The Makers Summit fulsome with vast product learnings and an opportunity to network with the most talented group of product peers, it’s time for you to mark the dates on your calendars — March 12-14 — and sign up for the experience of a lifetime.