Madam C.J. Walker, America's first black female millionaire entrepreneur, once said, "Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come along. Get up and make them!" The April edition of Start-up Saturday seemed very much a celebration of this entrepreneurial spirit. Here are a few snapshots from the event.

The April edition of Start-up Saturday witnessed a variety of start-up teams, seasoned entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts-all driven by the common goal of contributing their bit to the entrepreneurial eco-system of the country. The meets are organised every month by the Headstart Network at Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. And the discussions that ensued threw up many interesting ideas for entrepreneurs.

It's all about an 'idea'!
The seed beneath the foundation of any start-up is the 'idea'. Ratan K K, a seasoned entrepreneur and an HR expert, made that thought the subject of his talk, asserting that if start-ups remained confident and dedicated to their idea for five years, it invariably would start yielding results. He observed, "A start-up begins with an idea, that emanates from passion (P), is driven by motivation (M), and guided by the team's belief (B) in the idea." As long as an idea aligns with a start-up's PMBs, it is bound to succeed, he concluded.

The importance of marketing the idea well
Moving a step beyond the 'idea', many experts felt that the key to a venture's success depended on its business model and marketing strategy. Swati Khole, senior vice president-India Sales, CRP Technologies, shared her opinion that arriving at the appropriate sales pitch for a particular audience was more of an art. Right from researching for prospective clients, to making those dreaded ‘cold calls', to talking about a start-up's value propositions-every step of taking a product or idea to the customer, was important, Khole felt. Milind Agarwal, director-Business Development, SMS GupShup, attributed more importance to impactful marketing. "Embrace your DSA (direct sales agent)," is the mantra that he propounded.

Ranjeet Pawar, head-Marketing for India, TCS, felt that a detailed marketing strategy where an entrepreneur prepared a sales pitch for every person from the client's team, rather than having a generic pitch for everybody, could work wonders.

Strive to be an all rounder
Technopreneurship calls for an understanding of the various functions of an organisation like sales, marketing, HR, legal and accounts, as well. Prof. Balkrishna Parab of JBIMS (Jamnalal Bajaj Institute Of Management Studies) and Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay, suggested that an entrepreneur should not just offload the work of preparing legal documents to lawyers. Since no one knows the start-up and its affairs better than the core team, they must learn to understand the legal issues concerning their start-up and educate themselves on subjects like legal contracts, agreements, memoranda of understanding, etc. Once the documents are ready, they can then consult a lawyer for verification. Kinjal Jhaveri, a chartered accountant, seconded the thought and advised entrepreneurs to equip themselves with the basics of accounting principles as well, for better control on finance.

A critique committee, comprising Suryanarayanan A, COO, N.S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), and Ashish Sinha, product manager, Yahoo!, stressed the importance of constructive criticism while scrutinising the business models of the start-up teams that were present.

And then...there's no looking back
The entrepreneurial journey is a roller coaster ride. Following your dreams often leads to heartbreaks, disappointment and even disillusionment. The decision to take this plunge and set out on this journey is a dilemma that many face-especially those who are required to sacrifice a lucrative professional career on this entrepreneurial altar.

But to all such aspiring entrepreneurs, Faisal Farooqui, CEO, Mouthshut.com, had some advice. "Don't look back" is what he suggested. He supported his argument with his own example, narrating how he himself had left a lucrative job with American Management Systems, in Fairfax Virginia, in order to follow his dreams. He came back to India in 2000 and started Mouthshut.com. Sony Joy, COO & co-founder, MobMe, affirmed that although the journey had its share of highs and lows, yet it paid to remain focused and pursue one's goals single-mindedly.