Announcing InTech50 – A showcase of 50 Innovative Product Companies to Global and Indian CIOs, Product Company executives, Investors and Analysts

InTech50 is a showcase of some of the most promising software products created by entrepreneurs from India. A panel of Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Venture Capitalists, and Product Leaders from previous successes will decide the fifty companies that make the cut to InTech50 selection criteria. These chosen companies will receive advice, on-going mentoring, product marketing support, and funding to scale their offering to the global markets.

So Why InTech50?

The founders of InTech50 truly believe that the Indian start-up ecosystem is on the cusp of explosive growth—in innovating for the enterprise, society, and for social causes that will alleviate the quality of human life. We bring global experience, wealth of knowledge in dealing with global markets, and true enterprise-level insights to help these companies scale their vision.

InTech50 provides these entrepreneurs with a platform to showcase their innovations to folks who are visionaries in their own way and have the knack of seeing possibilities very quickly. The platform will create possibilities that we can think of but more importantly it will create a network that will evolve in ways that we cannot predict in any way!

Why apply?

InTech50 will help software product companies enter global markets through our network of early adopters, partners, co-innovators and investors. Our platform helps your company with exposure to these powerful members of the ecosystem in your geography—India!

Winners of the InTech50 are acknowledged as the most promising in their space, and receive every effort—from product strategy, UI, product marketing, sales and global partnership—all designed to help them succeed in massive scale.

Please visit www.intech50.com for further details on who can qualify.

When and where will it be held?

Intech50 will be held on Apr 9th and Apr 10th @ Bangalore, India.

How much does it cost?

It is absolutely free for applying. 50 companies will be shortlisted by the Advisory Board comprised of global and Indian CIO’s, product company heads, venture capitalists, and analysts. The selected companies will need to pay a fee of Rs. 25,000 to cover expenses for two attendees. Only the 50 shortlisted companies will get to attend the event. So what are you waiting for, go ahead and apply, the last date is 31st Jan 2014.

Paritosh Sharma

I appreciate the initiative!

Though if these are top 50 innovative companies from India: why will they need to pay up such a hefty fee for a “rapid-fire pitch”?

Shouldn’t they be invited to pitch, coz they are TOP 50?!

Its due to them that the initiative will become successful. Not due to the platform that is being provided. Many such platforms exist for discovering amazing companies/ startups/ products/ innovations.

If these folks are innovators, they can simply go and get discovered massively by being featured at a crowd funding website. It gives press, funds, adopters!
- Amarinder Singh
  
  Hi Paritosh
  
  Which are the other platforms available to discover amazing companies / startups / products / innovations. I am curious. Please share. Thanks!
  
  Best
  Amarinder
  amarinder.singh.76@gmail.com
- productnation
  
  Hey Paritosh,
  
  Thank you for your feedback. It is more than a “rapid fire pitch”.
  
  Here are some benefits for the short-listed 50 companies:
  – Companies are getting to be part of a 2 day event where you will have 50 Global CIOs as part of the event + Some leading investors from valley & India.
  – Startups get to attend 2 Networking Dinners/Lunches
  – Some Folks who will help in refining the pitch for startups..
  – Getting a demo pod where startups can demo their products to the potential attendees.
  – Awards ceremony + Certificate for all companies
  – Visibility through ProductNation & other platforms in media.
  
  We will offer real value for each & every penny spent by the startup. Also, remember this event is only for 50 companies who get short-listed…we will not have other companies as attendees.
  
  I would also love to hear from platforms in India which are doing the same thing?
  
  Thanks.
  Avinash
Rajan Chandi

We’re really innovative and not applying.. this fee will result into companies which are not actually innovative but have cash =) Honestly, It doesn’t make sense in the concept stage… come up with better ideas if you can!
- productnation
  
  Rajan, the choice is absolutely yours. I just replied to Paritosh on the value add been offered by us for the short-listed companies.
  
  I would be happy to call you up and understand more. do write to me at avinash(at)product nation.in
  
  Thanks.
  Avinash
  - Rajan Chandi
    
    It seems like an enterprise product play as i mentioned in my comments above. Not a value for consumer tech companies in Education like Classmint. Thanks anyway.
- Manjunath M Gowda
  
  Rajan, manju here from i7 networks. In my view, if you have a product that sells into say IT department with CIO looking into such purchase, such enterprise sales are long and hard but that is where the real action is. Also high-touch products requires high-touch sales many a times and if you are selling into global/US companies, your presence is required over there and for longer periods of time and is very expensive to say the least. If the US CIOs are coming to our door steps to achieve the same, I would love to go there and suddenly that few 1000s of Rupees looks very less. Again talking from my experience running two companies selling services as well as products now globally including US. Strictly my opinion. Having said that, I would love to here if there are other easier and inexpensive routes to reach to Global CIOs – I am all ears.
  
  Regards
  Manju
  - Rajan Chandi
    
    I totally get the value of this for companies like yours.The name of the list is misleading! Ideally, this should be named as Top 50 Innovative Enterprise Product Companies in that case =)
    - productnation
      
      Rajan, Thank you for your feedback and we will definitely update the listing and add Enterprise there.
      
      Thanks 🙂
      
      Regards,
      Avinash
    - Manjunath M Gowda
      
      make sense. very true – it should be “enterprise product companies” – thanks!!
Piyush Singh

Rajan, I understand where you are coming from. However one of the objectives of keeping this as Product and not industry specific is to allow the open-mindedness of folks to see across boundaries that are artificial.

Enterprises are getting more consumer centric and boundaries are there for traditional companies only, not for the innovators –

gaming two years back was the domain of gamers, now enterprises put in platforms with gaming capabilities;

>>social networks were the domains of college students, now enterprises spread their news and monitor social networks for news/events;

>>instagram was the domain of personal pictures, now companies use instagram for feedback;

>>social service was the domain of NGO’s, now large companies have larger workforce than NGO’s and do CSR

Also keep in mind:

>>facebook started as a way to rate girls

>>dropbox started as a way to stop carrying files everywhere.

>>83% of companies that are successful have deviated from their original path as they discovered new worlds

So where does your path lead you don’t know. I can give you a million other examples..

So from a CIO standpoint what is more important is good concepts and an open mind to think of possibilities. Products should not be siloed anymore under different brackets just like we DO NOT want your mind to only think in small silos – think different and be different.

My two cents on the topic
Sharad Sharma

In light of the comments, I just want to clarify what kind of enterprise product companies this is for. As Manju pointed out this is for wannabe iFlex, iCreate, Eka, Manthan type enterprise software product companies. These companies focus on key account selling and each account is worth several hundred’s of dollars.

It is not for wannbe Practo, ApartmentAdda type enterprise software companies. These don’t sell to global customers (yet) and have low value per enterprise sale.

In other words, Intech50 is for B-2-BigB product companies and not for B-2-SmallB product companies.

Typically, a B-2-BigB product company would travel to US to meet a CXO prospect. After all, getting in front of these CXO is not easy. This is the first time so many CXOs are coming to India to meet product companies. This is a big deal!

One of the challenges that we had in the past is poor followup by the startups. B-2-SmallB product startups have thousands of prospects and can occasionally drop on the ball on one of the followups without too much pain. But B-2-BigB product companies have few hundred prospects and the penalty of poor followup is much much higher.This event is meant for those companies that understand this difference.

Please feel free to ask more questions..
Jagruti

Hi. Just wanted to know if a product which is not launched yet can participate in this award?. Thanks.
- productnation
  
  Jagruti, You can apply and if the advisory board members like the product, we will invite you to present. Thanks. Avinash