[Techsparks Grand Finale]: Questions you always wanted to ask but didn’t know whom to ask

How are cab companies making money? How do you build indigenous apps for a local consumer? And how do you build a global technology product out of India? If these questions have occurred to you at some point, waste no time. Head over to the Techsparks Grand Finale on Oct 17-18 to find out more.

Along with an impressive line-up of speakers, we will also have panels that will try and answer these very topical questions. A sneak preview of the panels we have and what they’ll talk about:

Gone in 60 seconds: the Mobile Strategy of radio cabs:

The companies started as a book-by-phone service for taxis. But, in the last six months or so, we’ve seen an aggressive push towards mobile apps with special discount on rides booked through the app, the ability to track the cab via maps and even payment through mobile. Why this sudden push? What are the economics of the business? And what’s next for these operators? We hope to find our answers with this panel.

Panelists: Anand Subramanian, Olacabs; Aprameya Radhakrishna, TaxiForSure and Neeraj Singhal, Uber India.

How to Growth Hack Global Products out of India.

The thing that will strike you about the line-up of this panel is how different they all are. One provides accounting solutions for small businesses, another provides cloud telephony for call centre operations and a third provides customized advertisement. But they are all startups that made a dent in their marketplace within a year of their arrival. In an ecosystem when 90 percent startups eventually fail, this is a nothing short of a Wow!

How did they do this? How do you identify the one need in your marketplace and develop the solution? And then how do you scale up and build on the early success? That’s what they’ll talk about.

Panelists: Advitiya Sharma, Housing ; Ambarish Gupta, Knowlarity Communications ; Chetan Kulkarni, Vizury and Shriram Krishnamachari , Intuit

Apponomics, today & tomorrow:

Localization is the new buzzword for mobile app makers. A new trend in recent months is apps for Indians by Indians, made in India. What’s even better, some of these apps have, in the process of localization, won new customers and gained traction, money and funding. And they aren’t great exotic apps, but smart ones which identified a gap and filled it. How did they do it? How do you build the business? What should your focus be? One of our panelists runs a global app business, which is used across geographies. How do you strike a balance between universal needs and localization for specific markets? That’s what we’ll ask them.

Panelists: Kari Krishnamurthy, Truecaller; Saurabh Aggarwal, Octro and Virendra Gupta, Newshunt

TechSparks is not just about innovation but also about interaction. Do you have questions in mind for our panelists? Here’s an opportunity for you. Let us know and we will ask them for you at the TechSparks Grand Finale 2014.

Don’t hesitate, because he who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.