Xpress Pitch makes a quiet debut at EMERGEOUT Chennai

Duleep Sahadevan (founder, Software Associates) was holding audience between him and lunch. The other hall had an engaging Cloud discussion. Despite such distractions, Xpress Pitch, a Pecha Kucha style story session by product companies, made a quiet debut. Such evangelists who think out of the box makes the product space all the more exciting and holds promise to make India a top player. With the services facing stiff competition and reacting to global economy’s ups and downs, many see the next step to leadership in IT is products. There is a whole array of rebels, the eternal optimists, the die-hard enthusiasts who would never let anything come on the way are betting on a revolution in the product space in five years. NASSCOM boasts of a lot of them. The NASSCOM Emerge and Product Group (NEPG) is spearheading initiatives in the product domain.What inspired Duleep to ask some product companies to tell their stories that too in 20 slides in 20 minutes (Pecha Kucha style)? Duleep believes stories are powerful and a way to communicate effectively. The five participants in the inaugural Xpress Pitch came from a wide array of backgrounds: Agilte (LTE product), Cabot Technology Solutions (e-book production system), Deline Technologies (Student Evaluation Tracking System for CBSE schools to help teachers with CCE), LPCube (smipio to improve workplace efficiency), and Zesty Beanz (open ERP). There are enough problems for which solutions are needed. These five are representative of what software entrepreneurs are capable of in terms of identifying a need in vast expanse of domains. Kiruba Shankar, CEO of Business Blogging and TED Ambassador in India, moderated the pitches. Kiruba knows the Pecha Kucha style too well having been involved with a few editions of the event in Chennai.

This storytelling should be made a regular part of such product tech-focused events by NASSCOM and if we dig deep, there are great stories waiting to be heard. Duleep can claim his hall to fame for sowing a seed, which is capable of becoming a tree that stands to deliver benefits for years.

Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy, chief evangelist