Smashers Award : A Reality Show for Startups
TiE Mumbai is hosting an Unconference with co-hosts Mahesh Murthy, Alok Kjriwal, Sameer Guglani and Vishal Gondal on April 27-28 and as a part of it, have an interesting Smashers Award which has a structure akin to a reality show.The structure is such that the four co-hosts will first pitch to the startups and each of them would lead two teams. The selected eight teams would be called the Smashers.
All the startups who'd like to be a smasher have to register before April 18 and while submitting the form, each startup will have to select up to 2 Co Hosts whose team they would like to be a a part of. The Smashers will make a quick fire elevator pitch to the Co-Host panel and the audience followed by cross questioning from the other 3 Co-Hosts.
The Co-Hosts and audience will collectively award points to each on the basis of their performance in the live cross-questioning. The startup with most points takes home the SmashUp award.
The main purpose of the Smashup Event is to bring to fore, the challenges that an early startup faces. “I believe that every startup does one thing right. They go wrong in a few other sectors and that’s why many fail. But if they’re all brought together, they can all learn from each other collectively,” says Kanchan Kumar, Executive Director at TiE Mumbai.
The other problem they’re trying to solve is the lack of insight into hiring. “There are many startups looking for people and there are more people with corporate jobs looking to join a startup but there is no suitable platform. Job listings are there but many senior people would be reluctant to apply for a startup job.” adds Kanchan.
Talking to co-host Sameer Guglani as to why he decided to join the event, he says, “Honestly, I was going to pass this opportunity but a chat with Kanchan changed my mind. These guys actually have the interest of "young startups" at heart & have designed the event in that spirit. I am looking forward to a high energy event where I can meet a good number of promising startup founders.”
More about the event here and a slideshow here.
