The Half Brick's 'Start-Up Connect' Transpired In Bangalore With 30 Investors and 300+ Start-up Participants

The unique event of 'Start-up Connect' undertaken by The Half Brick in Bangalore was the ninth phase of the multi-location start-up connect and the recent one concluded in Singapore. The company Half Brick is the brainchild of Mr. Bala Subramanium, a former marketing head for multiple companies. He decided to begin with The Half Brick Company to support the start-up funding culture in India. The event is well-known for offering a fair platform for both start-up founders and investors to connect under a roof in hopes of infusing further funds into ongoing projects that can deliver appropriate and expected returns ahead.

As per the opening remarks of the CEO, The Half Brick follows the main objective of equal play and celebration for the start-up founders and entrepreneurs who have achieved the initial milestone in their projects. Most of the Entrepreneurs he met expressed that there is a need for a fair play platform today in India, to showcase our raw talents to the world. The awards and recognition in the event are purely on a merit basis for all early-stage start-up participants to enhance their capability & ability building, with a self-dependent and self-sustainable model. Young minds in the start-up industry must not entangle themselves with goals of high achievement such as unicorn status and billion-dollar funding, rather they should focus on ensuring how quickly they can make the returns from the employed fund and let investors exit their targeted earnings for the core founders to run the show ahead.

The efforts by The Half Brick are aligned to build a credible start-up ecosystem for India which is more inclusive and the network built by the company is going to fuel the future start-up ecosystem for India. He further adds, "We want to encourage the younger generation's passion and virtue so that there would be a self-dependent individual with high values leading the organisations. I want the youngsters to inform the world that they are unavoidable."

Many respectable start-up funding companies were present at the event with representatives from Microsoft Azure, Southern Automation, Microsoft for Start-ups, Cisco, Homekhara Group, Sprintcart, Peaceful Progress Fund, Guptaji Investments and Gurukul Ventures. More than 300 Start-up participants from all over the country with great ideas and solutions took part in the event to pitch their creations to investors. Such events allow start-ups to express their fantastic products across industries with unique solutions, access to mentorship, industry standards and leadership exposure that would help them grow over time. A chance to express their ideas, progress and forecast in front of angel investors who might be interested in the required funding and ready to ride the journey with boot-strap founders.

"I am very happy to be a part of this community, in supporting these start-ups through the mentorship and guidance I can provide them. Entrepreneurship is the only key that can help the immense youth of the country to have a better future ahead. The next two to three decades are going to be India's decade as we are surpassing China, and we cannot rely on service-dependent markets for the creation of jobs. We have to converge on the right talent and technology to ride the momentum pushed by AI and LLMs. I am optimistic that the momentum has already started in India and we are in the right direction, we are going to go big with the technology and innovation potential ahead to sail in the same boat and reach a better destination.", says Mr Gurucharan Raghunathan, Senior Product Manager from Microsoft India.

Chances of collaborations are high as Bangalore and Hyderabad are the epicentre for start-ups in India currently. The event offers a significant opportunity for young founders and entrepreneurs who have already begun their initial stages of start-ups with self-sustainment and from tier 2 cities or very remote places in rural India. They gain the opportunity to meet like-minded people and network which is significant for the initial stages of the company. As per the CEO of KSR Educational Institutions, Dr Akila Muthuramalingam, "KSR is the first of the educational institutions to join such a project and students interested in following significant steps in planning or execution of start-ups are as young as the first year of the degree college. This ensures that they undergo early failures in their journey to make them avoid similar mistakes and mould them into better entrepreneurs ahead. Students from 14 associated colleges are interested in following their unique start-up idea and even 150 students from medical backgrounds have come up with plans for dental start-ups.

Regardless of the awards offered to the participants by the jury, the certificate earned through this event is itself a recognition for the early stage, which can help start-up founders gain a connection with investors and an early benchmark that they can push themselves for higher achievements in the future. For a vibrant country like India, a good start-up to identify is not by the current performance, but by how better alternative ideas are undertaken or how well the existing problems are solved by the new company, how they can overcome the challenges that come along the way, identifying and coming up with solutions for complex methodologies. Such events can help the undermined start-ups with positive potential to scale higher. Mr. Vivek Sridhar, Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft For Start-ups says, "Identifying problems and solutions, and how the start-up is growing are the main aspects as investors we look into". Microsoft For Start-ups this year have on-boarded more than 2000 start-up founders and leaders under its umbrella, supporting them with cloud platforms as a part of credits in the early phases.

In early April of 2024, The Half Brick Start-Up Connect is all set to take place in Dubai attracting a higher number of participants across India and angel investors from all around the globe. Although for founders and young start-up entrepreneurs, if the project doesn't escalate for funding rounds, it delivers some of the best insights and intricate details required by start-up founders for their rough ride ahead. Some of the best quotes from the event are mentioned below to encourage and redirect entrepreneur's minds towards challenges that they might face unexpectedly, and in contrast could offer tailwinds for the young generation to find the solutions for those unknown snags:

"There is nothing as failure in start-ups, either you succeed or you learn. Success doesn't teach anything, failure is the one that teaches you the reality." - by Mr. Ankul Nanavati, CEO, Sprintcart.

"The famous quote aligns appropriately for start-ups: If we have to cut a tree in seven hours, we must spend five hours sharpening the axe" - by Mr Bala Subramanium Jayam, Founder, The Half Brick Company.

"Passion is going to drain every day, in a start-up, you can't run out of fuel, even when you run out of fuel"

"It is critical to have an emotional touch with the team we gather, it will ensure the motive/purpose for the organisation is maintained" - Mr Anil Raj, Chairman, Homekhara Group.

"In start-ups, every day is a failure, and every day is a success. Don't forget to enjoy the little success, as well as don't forget to embrace the knowledge gained by failures." - by Mr. Velu Narian, CEO, Hogs Technologies.