Does India crown its Start-up Capital?

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Bengaluru, which has for long been nurturing young entrepreneurs and their dreams, finally gets its due at the first Start-up Festival, which celebrates the city's go-getter spirit and its appetite for innovation. Young entrepreneurs and would-be-businessmen from all over India are expected to come down to find out first hand about what exactly makes the city tick. “The city was among the top 10 start-up friendly cities three years ago,” says Vladimir Dubovskiy, co-founder of the festival. “It has slipped down the ladder off late and we just want to reinstate its status. It’s really quite simple. Where do you go if you are an aspiring actor? The answer is obvious, right? We want Bengaluru also to be the obvious destination for aspiring entrepreneurs across India. From March 7 to 10, the days are packed with fun events by and for start-ups - from jogging around the neighbourhood with fellow entrepreneurs and festival attendees, organised by the start-up Runner For Life, to various crawls that take you inside the offices of successful city-based start-ups like redBus, Urban Ladder, Just Eat, etc. “The USP of the festival, I would say, is the chance to interact with emerging entrepreneurs, investors and mentors in intimate one-on-one or small gatherings over extended sessions. It’s an amazing chance to learn and to be inspired,” says Vlad. In fact, the events are all sold out and almost one-third of the participants are aspiring entrepreneurs.
Chandan Raj, Operations head at one of many partners of this event, says, “I am most looking forward to ‘Unreachable at Sea’. It’s basically a panel of international entrepreneurs and mentors who have been sailing to various emerging markets around the world and will be putting in an appearance at the event.”
Abhishek Sarda, serial entrepreneur and founder of not one, but two, start-ups in Goa, Beard Design and PPT Salon, is driving down to soak in the festivities. “I am particularly interested in the panel discussions on branding, which I will also be contributing to and the crawls,” he says.