The recently concluded two-day August Fest at JFC Convention Centre turned out to be a perfect platform for the just-launched, buzzing start ups with out-of-the box ideas in store and every zing in their step to take that big plunge towards fame. The crowds comprising young minds — some students and some working, besides a handy group of investors, thronged stalls throughout the event.
While some were also busy heading towards the selfie corner holding interesting placards, a few were glued to the panel discussion happening in the auditorium of the venue asking questions whereas the rest were part of intense, animated discussions over ventures, seed ideas and what not.
A glimpse around the space as the event just about took off, with the organisers sorting out the pamphlets, laptops, readying for the demos, there was good music — a balance of subtle and energetic numbers, a treat to the senses.
One of the event attendees Sai, keen on starting his own firm in the coming year remarks, “I’m here doing my necessary homework and see how various ideas come together for an establishment of a firm. It’s the first time I’m here and going back a happy man with the diverse ideas I saw taking shape.” As he adequately puts it, the quest for novelty didn’t go futile.
The ones with promise Look at the simplicity yet the efficiency of the city based Coyatri.com’s app-cum-website initiative that enables car pooling on a massive scale where the car owner decides the price of his co-passenger’s seat based on the suggestion provided by the website team. This, the founder Pradeep states, will help a customer shell out lesser than public and private transport.
We make sure the group interacts on Whatsapp prior to the trip, which, for now is functional between cities only. This helps ensure comfort, control and as a by product, we know enough about the fuel we go onto save,” he adds.
Meanwhile, if there’s a long weekend and you don’t have a car, but neither want to hire a cab and instead, take charge of the vehicle of your choice, all by yourself, the services of Zoomcar fits the bill right. The rent facilities starting at Rs. 90 per hour inclusive of the fuel, you are provided free fuel up to 10 kms each hour. Already prevalent in places including Mumbai and Pune, this, on the flipside requires the customer to park the vehicle back at the same location they are handed over.
An equally effective idea was the Charging Station developed by B. Srinivas at Solar Expo, which is a pedalling machine that charges devices up to the power of 80 Watts in connection with a motor that generates electricity for the amount of time you exercise.
“In times where we complain of not having enough time to exercise and are looking at multi tasking, this feels a small reward for whatever you work on,” he says. Yataya, also among the start ups that showed great promise during the event, provides a mobile-based vehicle tracking service that helps user track a child/beloved one’s cab or school buses. They set up a system that checks on all possible routes to reach the destination with the use of GPS and have three stages of alerts where the authorities are highlighted of a possible emergency.
“We are planning to tie up with colleges, schools and start ups and plan to monetise the entire process,” the brain behind it, Pradeep Kumar adds. On the lines of an OLX-modelled C2C service, Xamle.in wasn’t behind either. Based in 16 cities, it’s an online rental service where you can rent anything from a mobile to a car to medical equipment, all amongst 20 categories that stretch on to 185 plus services for lease.
