Huddle Kerala 2018 – Key Takeaways
As Huddle Kerala 2018 has come to a close, shall we say pixie dust has settled on several attendees? The mood is upbeat, the start-up ecosystem has had a fillip and, several attendees have started giving wings to their dreams.
Huddle Kerala, a part of the State government’s ambitious plan to give a boost to the start-up community, concluded in Trivandrum on April 7th, 2018. It rounded up potential investors who expressed faith in the state’s technological progress and promised to support emerging enterprises with funding and mentoring. With 2000 attendees tuning into 40 speakers across 30 sessions, Huddle lived up to its philosophy of helping next-generation companies move forward. It facilitated entrepreneur and investor meetings and huddled up a commendable start-up community. Talk about it, Huddle had it all: Block Chain, Crypto Currency, IoT, Gaming and e-Sports, Cyber Security, Digital Entertainment, AR/VR, AI, UI/UX & E-Gov/m-Gov.
Sounds interesting? Four of us from Caspar Technologies attended Huddle, and we are happy to share our thoughts with you.
One key insight: The start-up tech world has a lot of empathy
AI and ML are buzz words these days. Stephen Hawking, the beloved astrophysicist who left this universe on March 14th, 2018 warned us about the negative implications of AI while several other renowned technologists have warmed up to the idea. Modern media is adept at chasing these stories and it looks like everyone wants to latch onto the AI/ ML/ IoT bandwagon. With chatbots and AIs dominating our mindscape and media space, we get the feeling that the future is here. At Huddle, several start-ups shared their experience of exploiting these emerging technologies. Needless to say, Caspar Technologies too grabbed the opportunity to talk about its predictive intelligence emails and AI/ ML capabilities.
Amidst this hullabaloo, we noticed an interesting trend in the start-up ecosystem. Guided by empathy and inspired by an identified need in the marketplace, several entrepreneurs have come up with products to help people have a better quality of life. From robots to clean up dirty manholes to automobile-gadgets which would alert a network of ambulances in case of an accident to devices intended to alert fellow boatmen and coastal officers in case of an exigency, Huddle Kerala gave a platform for many empathy-led entrepreneurs to not only showcase their technical prowess but also inspire investors.
One impactful talk
The presentation by Hussain Mohammed Al Mahmoudi, CEO, Sharjah Research & Development, Technology & Innovation Park was impressive. He spoke about the longstanding impact visionary leaders could make. A clear case in point being H.H Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qassimi, the Ruler of Sharjah known for his passion for scientific research and education who impacted the lives of his people by investing in these sectors several decades ago.
One company that struck you
i-Boson is into Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. Their enthusiasm is infectious and we were particularly impressed with their products – loaded with zing, they could change the virtual experience landscape.
One speaker who inspired you
Talk about empathy; Theertha Nirmal, co-founder of the startup ‘Sign NEXT’, envisions to communicate more effectively with hearing-impaired people across the country and make them part of the mainstream conversation. As she said ‘I have a dream’ using sign language with the help of an interpreter, we were in awe of her passion to make a difference.
Scope for collaboration
There is definitely scope for partnerships. As of now, we have shortlisted two and are in talks with them.
Suggestions for making Huddle better
Caspar Technologies was among the first 50 short-listed companies to make a pitch to prospective investors and strategic partners. We were thrilled to make our pitch alongside other enterprising companies that included a perfect blend of start-ups, early stage, and growth sta.ge companies. While we are grateful for the opportunity, it would have been better if we were notified at least a few days in advance. The evaluation process needs clear guidelines and transparency. We would add to our wish-list better- organized opportunities for participating start-ups to communicate with each other and collaborate.
With inputs from Jacob M George – CEO, Denny S Dhar – Partner and Director, Rijo Sam – Head Customer Success and Arun P – Technical Head, at Caspar Technologies.
Founded in 2016, Caspar Technologies is passionate about digital marketing. In a constant quest to help our clients engage meaningfully with their customers, we have developed cmercury, an omnichannel growth marketing suite and cmercury, a powerful lead generator. We are proud of our predictive intelligence emails which have given multifold uplift for our clients, and our AI/ ML capabilities. Cochin is home and we are thrilled to share our insight and understanding with our clientele spread across the country and beyond.
If you are keen to have a demo: https://cmercury.com/contact.html