YourStory Exclusive: Vijay Anand-inspired The Startup Centre, “to make a dent in the nascent ecosystem and build kick-ass startups”, set to be inaugurated in May this year at Chennai

The first TSC event, In50hrs, the weekend startup to build a minimum viable product, to be held in March

Vijay Anand, the startup guy and the brain behind Proto.in, is entering the startup ecosystem space again in a rather innovative experiment to help build “out of the world” startups that are born out of creative ideas of entrepreneurs. The Startup Centre (TSC), as it is called, is a creative hub for entrepreneurs with expertise to come, brainstorm, build, and scale. Vijay Anand says, “We believe that most incubation centres in the country today attract a certain degree of entrepreneurs that are rather high-touch. Unfortunately most come into the centres for the sheer need for space and nothing else, and the rest need help on every aspect there is to building a business. No wonder we are not able to see exits happening. The ones that are doing reasonably well, are those who through a vision larger than the centre - the likes of Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala for example - have managed to attract talent that come to the incubation centre for things beyond the trivialities and most of all possess a deep domain expertise in at least one or two aspects of the said business. We believe that's crucial.”

The Startup Centre will be a facilitator in all respects for startup entrepreneurs who are left in the wild to fend for themselves despite possessing domain expertise. Vijay Anand adds: “We also believe, and through our interactions with the larger community via Proto.in, that there are several awesome entrepreneurs out there, who know how to run businesses and even have the necessary experience to build a successful one - but are lacking any sort of support. I am talking about people with significant experience and exposure here in India and in the Valley and they are just let out there to survive in the wild.”

The Startup Centre will also help for some startups that have the potential to grow fast and furious: Talking about the second agenda of the Startup Centre, Vijay Anand explains, “We want to start a residential "Startup Accelerator" to fast track some of these entrepreneurs and startups. But that’s still in the planning stages. We are getting a lot of Angels and early stage investors showing interest to back us on that effort. But we'll unveil details on that soon.”The Startup Centre will commence functioning from May 2011 at Chennai. “And we are planning to open these hubs in several cities across India in the days to come,” points out Vijay Anand. In the meantime, some events are planned. The first event of TSC is named In50hrs, where entrepreneurs, hackers, designers and experienced entrepreneurs are invited to convert an idea into a prototype (in the Mobile and Internet space). On a weekend, the “hackers” will huddle together to build a minimum viable product (MVP) or a prototype of their idea.

The objective of The Startup Centre is “to make a dent in the nascent ecosystem and build kick-ass startups,” as Vijay Anand puts it.

Suresh Sambandam (founder, OrangeScape), Dorai Thodla (founder, iMorph), Narayanan (founder, 20:20 Media), and Subbu Murugan (founder, Ventuno) are lending their expertise to The Startup Centre.

Follow The Startup Centre on twitter at @thestartupcntr and on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Startup-Centre/111369548901185)

YourStory wishes The Startup Centre all the very best and will follow the activities of TSC and spin stories on it from time to time.

--Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy, chief evangelist