Yesterday I attended a networking event at DevX – Mumbai. It was named “Startup Growth Networking Meetup in Mumbai”. I decided to join it at the very last moment which turned out to be the great decision I have made in a while. Yeah, for 2 weeks I am making some really poor decisions in life. Anyways, I move.
Many exciting entrepreneurs and Investors came together to network and share their amazing stories. The overall vibe was good. A few of them even offered me to join them on their journey as a co-founder however I have certainly a different vision which made me refuse those offers. The one thing that always inspires me about these entrepreneurs/people working on their dreams is they work immensely hard. Always looking for something like a mad artist looking for inspiration in nature.
eChai Ventures organized this event which was pretty decent. It was free, there were no entry charges so I was more astonished considering the level of the overall crowd I witnessed. There were people from Nashik as well. Investors and Mentors made sure they are clear about what they are looking for.
To my surprise, there was a couple as well who came straight from the USA. Of course, they were on a trip to India but their love of startups made them attend this event. They shared a medical, computer, and astronomical background and that was nothing but a cherry on top for me. I had a brief conversation with them about my blog, ideas, and astronomy even before the event actually began. Certainly, that was one of the highlights of the event as I got some new aspects to ponder about.
I will not lie, very few product-based startups made me a bit upset. I am aware of the Dominance of India in Service Industry however, in recent times, we are also growing some great products here like OLA, Zoho, etc. Anyways the people from the service-based startups were excellent. They had these amazing pitches which are certainly very important for you to acquire customers and retain them. Here are my 2 important key takeaways from the meeting.
1. You are not alone
If you believe in your dreams and work hard to achieve them there are chances that you might feel lonely in the process. However, that is certainly not the case. There are people like you. They can understand you. They will accept you. We are always part of some community. The deal is sometimes we do know, sometimes we do not.
2. Good things take time
After listening to many stories out here, the way people struggle, good things for sure take time to happen. The persistence and patience of some people have been outstanding. There are always reasons, reasons to give up, reasons to accept mediocrity and live life below our potential however if when you are stubborn enough, good things do happen. It may take time but the risk is worth it when it’s your heart screaming you to take a dive.
I was glad that there were no people in the event who were looking to sell courses that consist of nothing but rubbish motivational speeches that go nowhere but dustbin. Indeed there were some people from the art industry as well who were looking for standup comedians.
Life as an entrepreneur is tough. When you have a tough life naturally you become good with sarcasm. I’m not saying this, the people from the art industry had a different vision for sure. They even asked me if I am interested to write for a movie agency however I was certainly not there for that.
It was a great event after all. I will look forward to attending more such events.
Peace.
San.
