Bootstrap at Breakfast: Bhubaneshwar startups who're striving to build a local startup ecosystem
Bhubhaneshwar is the capital of Odisha (Orissa) and certainly not a city which one thinks of when one is talking about startups in India. Rajeev Roy, Associate Professor of Marketing at XIMB wrote an encouraging post about the startup space in Bhubaneshwar about a year ago but the things from government's side seems to be still under 'process'.
But entrepreneurs are not those who wait for things to happen, they're a tenacious lot and always find a way out in their own small ways. One such effort is the "Bootstrap at Breakfast" meetup which is organized by a group of founders in Bhubaneshwar.
Initiated a couple of months ago, this group is gaining momentum and regularly gets together to brainstorm and discuss problems and solutions. A thriving Facebook Group (Bootstrap Bhubaneshwar) is the melting pot for these entrepreneurs and a place for some very engaging discussions.
All these surely indicate a need for exposure that the local entrepreneurs feel (YourStory will be trying to extend TechSparks for this reason). The VC community pretty much ignores the area and there are not much efforts put in other players which leaves the founders to do things on their own. Here, we put spotlight on some of the companies that are doing well and deserve a shout out (please add more in the comments, we can extend the list):
SakRobotix: A robotics startup helping students gain a better understanding into the subject, SakRobotix has received significant traction amongst local colleges and is now trying hard to bring the courses online and take their material to the masses.The founder, Sakyasingha Mahapatra is one of the most dynamic characters in the Orissa startup space.
Muvi: Muvi is a social movie platform and has context based social engagement. It allows users to discover movies, watch trailers, like or dislike them, engage with others on the platform and also brings into picture the reviews from experts. The founder Sanjib Parida splits his time between Orissa and Silicon Valle and believes Orissa to be THE place to startup in.
FounderMates: Probably developed from their own woes, FoundersMate is an effort to create an organized platform that connects entrepreneurs with advisors in a safe, secure and private environment.
SlickAccount: A cloud based accounting software targeted towards small businesses which is still in private beta.
Brogels: A tech and social media blog, Beogels is a media property founded by a bunch of enthusiasts. Dabbling into local content and giving the outside world a real picture might be an interesting pivot.
Mayihelpyou.info and Forelines.com: Founded by Sanjay Mohanty, Mayihelpyou is an effort to make information easily accessible. While Forelines is a manpower consulting portal, specially working for freshers looking for a break in their careers.
Little Steps Preschool - A preschool education start up founded by Sudha Mishra and Devasis Sarangi. Their curriculum "Nipuna" is a happy blend of 9 methods of learning namely Gurukul (value based), Reggio Emilia, Waldorf, Centre Based, Theme Based, Montessori, Food based, Brain based and Inquiry based.
Services companies
Tatwa Technologies: More than a decade old, Tatwa is an established IT services company with more than 5 delivery centers across Orissa.
MindFire Solutions: Again a 13 year old company, MindFire Solutions clearly states- "We do off-shore small-team software development services. Only." That is as straight as it gets.
Discoverture: This is a prominent player in the implementation of Property and Casualty software for insurance companies with Direct Written Premium of $2.5 billion or less. Discoverture develops key partnerships with leading software vendors and jointly develop Centers of Excellence around their products to deliver innovative and business driven solutions to clients.
Many more startups need to come up from the area but these are encouraging signs for things to come. Stay tuned for more from Bhubaneshwar and check out the Bootstrap Bhubaneshwar Facebook Group!