THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s leading not-for-profit professional membership association for the project management profession, organized Hatch 2020, The Startup Summit on January 18th at The Hilton Garden Inn, Thiruvananthapuram.
Hatch 2020 is a unique platform created to boost the startup ecosystem in India and its very first event attracted over 50 startup entrepreneurs. PMI’s objective for organizing this summit is to create awareness around how structured project management techniques can become the key to their project success and emphasize why a startup needs to integrate a formal project management methodology into their work ethos.
The purpose of the summit was also to bring together industry stalwarts from the startup sphere across different verticals to share their successful startup stories. The summit provided an opportunity to budding entrepreneurs for showcasing their startup idea in front of angel investors and HNIs and also to network and collaborate with them.
The inaugural session by Vineesh Kathuria, MD at SenseAI Ventures aptly addressed the most dreaded term in startups – Failure. He related the real-life challenges he had faced while launching his own startup, including raising funds, and finding the right partners.
Commenting on the summit, Dr. Srini Srinivasan, Managing Director, PMI India, said, “We are extremely excited to provide a platform for enthusiastic entrepreneurs to share their ideas and success stories in partnership with Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM). Through this initiative, we at PMI India intend to empower startups with relevant project management frameworks and toolkits, which will improve their business agility that being an important element for their success and growth.”
Dr. Krishnakumar T. I., President, PMI Kerala India Chapter, said, “We are delighted with the response and the ideas shared by these young entrepreneurs. We will continue to provide opportunities to them through seminars, open forums and other professional programs that PMI Kerala India Chapter organizes regularly. Also, this initiative will go a long way in establishing strong networks for startup professionals in the future.”
PMI India honoured KSUM team for their recent achievements to support startup industry’s growth. KSUM has been a key facilitator in building the culture of Startups in Kerala, one of the most revered startup ecosystems in the country.
Dr. Saji Gopinath, CEO, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), said, “We are happy to partner with PMI to encourage and facilitate the startup industry in Kerala. With this initiative, we plan to address the typical challenges that startups have to overcome viz. time to market, testing unexplored markets and new products, etc. We believe that in addition to providing the basic amenities, governmental support, and industry connect, the entrepreneurs must be well equipped with project management tools and methodologies to achieve their goals.”
The event’s morning session had startup presentations from Ibis Fresh, Johnson Medicom, Inforich Technology, Significant Online, Jansree, Screen Fuel Productions, to name a few. Post lunch session started with short pitches by startups under KSUM. The startups that showcased their concepts were DaaD.io (Digital Arts Academy for the Deaf), Hirestaar (Kerala’s first integrated job portal), TravelSPOC (One of India’s leading online travel enabler companies). Other exciting startups at the event included pitches from Freelance.DC, Forfit Technologies, Irahloom, Potafo, FlockForge and Dreemsrock.
Another important segment during the event was the panel discussion moderated by Dr. Krishnakumar, President, PMI Kerala India Chapter and joined by panellists viz. Ashok Kurian, Head Business Linkages & Incubation, Nishore C L, Director Engineering Services, CTS and Brajesh Kaimal, Director, Experion Technologies and founder member of PMI Kerala Chapter. The discussion on Startups and Start-ins as the real future encouraged many to clarify their queries on overcoming challenges by startups.
