Taking another step in its constant endeavours to catalyse the growth in India’s online travel industry, FICCI recently announced the launch of Travel Tech Launchpad. The objective is to provide a platform that encourages innovation and growth for travel startups. It will be hosted as part of Digital Travel, Hospitality and Innovation Summit which will offer startups to learn from and network with the experts in the industry. Leading investors have extended their hand to support the platform and share their meaningful inputs to the travel startups showcasing their products. The event is scheduled for March 23, 2017 and here are the industry experts and seasoned investors who will be judging and advising the startup pitches:

Dr. Apoorv Sharma

Dr. Apoorv Sharma is the Co-Founder of Venture Catalysts, India’s first seed investment and innovation platform. He holds a PhD in Incubation and has been involved in early stage investment since 2002. He established almost 10 incubators and accelerators. He was also actively associated in establishing various angel networks across India. Having led and mentored more than 50 early stage investments including OYO Rooms, Confirmtkt among others, he is always on the lookout for the next big idea.

Bhavanipratap Rana

Bhavanipratap is Partner at Amadeus Capital Partners and is responsible for sourcing, making and managing investments in India and Southeast Asia. He is a seasoned venture investor carrying experience of working across different geographies including US, India and Europe helping technology startups in their growth. Prior to Amadeus Capital Partners, he has worked as Investment Director with Intel Capital.

Girish Shivani

Girish Shivani is the Director at YourNest Angel Fund and carries close to two decades of diverse experience in IT consulting, Telecom, Media and Financial Services. YourNest is an investor in Wings Travel which acquired Bookmycab last year. Along with this, YourNest has also got portfolio companies providing marketing solutions and AI technologies. Girish has also worked with some of the leading names like Teradata and Bennett Coleman.

Karan Mohla

Karan Mohla is Executive Director at IDG Ventures India and is leading the India sector strategy in mobile and internet space. He has successfully completed 20 M&A and Capital Market transaction in US and India across sectors including technology, media, telecom, education, cleantech and infrastructure. He also led IDG Ventures India investment in leading OTA Yatra.com.

Manish Kheterpal

Manish Kheterpal is the Founder and Partner at WaterBridge Ventures. WaterBridge Ventures released a USD 15 million fund last year to invest in early stage startups and has got portfolio companies in education domain. A private equity veteran, Manish is interested in startups having technology at their core and carries strong experience of working at senior positions with Providence Equity Partners and Actis Capital LLP prior to starting WaterBridge Ventures.

Mayank Khanduja

Mayank Khanduja is Principal at SAIF Partners and has been investing in young, dynamic tech and mobile startups in India. Travel is among his key interest areas and he is an investor in some of the fast growing travel startups like Travel Triangle, Treebo Hotels and Auto Ninja among other companies. He has also worked with McKinsey and Co. India for five years.

Navin Honagudi

Navin Honagudi is the Investment Director at Kae Capital and invests in early stage companies bringing innovative solutions to fill market gaps. He has invested in areas such as Mobile Internet, Online marketplace, Local Services, SaaS, SMB Tech, Payments and B2B opportunities. Prior to Kae Capital, Navin has been associated with Reliance Ventures and has led investments in PayTM among other companies.

Parag Dhol

Parag Dhol is Managing Director at Inventus Capital Partners and actively works with startups in both India and Silicon Valley. Inventus Capital Partners currently has 27 portfolio companies including transportation companies MoveInSync and Savaari among many other startups in different industries. They were also an investor in Redbus before it was acquired by Naspers. Prior to Inventus Capital Partners, Parag was Associate Director with Intel Capital.

Prerna Bhutani

Prerna Bhutani is Partner at India Quotient identifying ideas and companies that don’t seem popular but hold huge potential. India Quotient has got investment across some popular ecommerce and transportation companies. Prior to India Quotient, Prerna has started and scaled her own businesses and leverages her learnings to help the portfolio companies.

The registrations for Travel Startup Launchpad are open for just few more days and the initiative is supported by brands like Agnitio Consulting LLP, Nucleus Partners and Charson Advisory. Travel Tech Launchpad will be hosted as a part of FICCI Digital Travel, Hospitality and Innovation Summit which is scheduled to be held on March 22 and 23, 2017 in New Delhi. You can find more details here.

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The Pune edition of Startup Knockdown+ concluded successfully last evening with some really exciting pitches being presented in front of the judges. Doview Holidays with their product C Cube took the spotlight emerging to be the common choice by the judges’ sheet. C Cube aims to give more power to travel agents by allowing them to create personalised itineraries including travel, accommodation and transits.

C Cube (Doview holidays) was the winner of judges’ choice award

Indian Angels Network and Mumbai Angels also invited C Cube for an elevated pitch session. The event also allowed them to connect with various small scale travel agents and sign them up for the product.

GTX was selected to be a part of Amadeus Next

Amadeus selected Global Travel Exchange to be a part of the Amadeus Next community. It simplifies the process of putting together trip plans for travel agents and also offers another tool for consumers to easily find suitable travel packages. The startup community will help them further fine tune the product and add more value for their customers.

Enrouto has been invited by Pune Angels for an elevated pitch session

Pune Angels selected Enrouto for an elevated pitch session. Enrouto is a platform for solo travellers to connect to travel together by matching them on the basis of their preferences.

The event also served as a knowledge sharing platform. The day started with a really interesting discussion on the angel investment trends in India. The panel members shared their observations and the trends that will be seen in the travel industry going forward.

Highlights of Startup Knockdown+ Pune

Bhargavi Desai, Founder of Enrouto shared that the highlight of the event for her was the interaction session that followed the pitches. The session enabled startups to engage in one-on-one discussions with mentors and gather vital feedback on the product roadmap. Enrouto decided to use the opportunity of Startup Knockdown to launch the product beta and this allowed to get useful feedback and suggestions specific to the product to improve the user experience and drive user growth.

We would like to thank our partners Amadeus, TTF, Indian Angels Network, Investronaut, Frootrip, FunStay, Pune Angels and Mumbai Angels for supporting this event and the judges for sharing their knowledge with us. Stay tuned for more stories from the event.

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Another iteration of Startup Knockdown was successfully concluded yesterday and it received great response similar to the Kolkata event. This time Startup Knockdown was hosted as a part of TTF Hyderabad. The event brought together experts from the industry and some really interesting travel startups from the region. During the session, five travel startups from different sectors of industry pitched in front of an expert panel of judges to win the title and many other opportunities that accompany the title.

Routern gets to be a part of Amadeus Next

Amadeus selected Routern to be a part of Amadeus Next. Routern offers a simple intuitive platform for travellers to customise their travel plans. It has a map interface that allows one to easily plan the trip, include different activities and experiences and book.

India Outtabox was the common choice of judges

India Outtabox emerged to be popular choice getting maximum points by the judges’ sheet. India Outtabox is a travel provider focussed on offering highly customised authentic travel experiences to international travellers coming to India. This is provided with the help of well trained host families.

Guidezie has been invited by another round of pitching by Hyderabad Angels

Guidezie has been invited by Hyderabad Angels to an elevated pitch session. It is an on demand platform that allows travellers to find expert guides when they are at tourist destinations. They can look a guide in real time or schedule for the date when they will be travelling.

India’s travel market has largely been driven by offline players like travel agents however with the increase in adoption of internet, the online travel market is growing fast. The online travel industry in India is predicted to grow over USD 10 billion in gross bookings (Source: Phocuswright) and around half of that will be driven by young travel startups. This offers huge opportunities for travel brands and room for young startups to enhance the experience of travellers by leveraging technology.

The response we received from the startups as well as the audience was highly encouraging. The participants discussed the finer details of their businesses during one-on-one conversations with the judges and everyone had something to take back from the event. We would also like to thank our partners again for supporting the event. For details on all the upcoming events, visit startupknockdown.travhq.com.

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After all that hard work to get the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) of your travel startup rolling, you get a sense of soul satisfaction and inner happiness when you see your product live on the Play store (Alright, we mean the App store for all the iOS fans). You were always waiting for this day, right from the moment when you had initially thought of the idea and were going through those milestone marathons with your dev & design team.

As one would agree, releasing an Alpha or a Beta of your product is just the beginning of a long journey and a battle half-won. While on one end, you work on continuously improving your product, the challenge on the other end is to get the product in-front of your users, investors and the media fraternity.

Image Credit: Flickr/Sonia Su. Fall 2013 Pitch & Pizza Competition

You might have a killer idea but at the end of the day, it all comes down to nothing if you can’t put the message across about what you do in a clear & concise manner. So whether you are presenting in-front of a packed house or simply meeting a group, here are some helpful tips to overcome that communication challenge:

#1. Passing that 1 minute test

In an age of 140 characters, perhaps even 60 seconds might appear big to many. But when some one asks about your travel startup, can you explain it to them in under one minute? I have seen many entrepreneur pitches where after the end of the presentation, they are asked the fundamental question, “So in a nutshell, what is it that you do?”.

If you don’t have a 60 seconder pitch, it’s time to get working on one

#2. Those first few words

No points for guessing this one – But the beginning of your presentation is very crucial. While you are presenting with an aim to leave an everlasting impressing on your audience, those first few seconds are vital in setting the rhythm of the entire discussion.

With so many things at the back of your mind, focus on how you want to start right from the very beginning. Is it your introduction (if so, why will people care about that?) or your startup’s introduction or or the industry problem you are solving.

#3. If you are presenting, look into the eyes of your audience

So who should be more comfortable when you are pitching in-front of a packed audience? Don’t try to lean on the podium or let your hands hide in the pockets, even though it feels more relaxed for you that way.

Irrespective of the number of people who are listening to you, look into the eyes of your audience. It will make them feel special and connected to your talk.

#4. Answering that eternal question, ‘How are you different?’

Be honest to yourself, there is a strong probability of your travel startup operating in an extremely competitive space. Especially, if you look at crowded segments such as Budget Hotels Aggregators, Trip Planning or Itinerary management.

So when it comes to the question of being different, think about that little difference which separates you from all others in the fray. It could be your approach on the front-end or a back-end problem or you could be looking at a completely different market all together while solving the same problem.

Image Credits: Flickr/Tech Cocktail | Tech Cocktail’s Chicago Mixer and Startup Showcase and Sessions Event | 07.25.13

#5. One last thing, Rehearse & Rehearse

Be it the genius Steve Jobs or CEO & Co-founder of Liquidity, Victor Hwang, there is one thing common across all generations of great entrepreneurs. They all used to practice and rehearse their talks. According to a Forbes story, “Steve Jobs made presentations look effortless because he put in a lot of effort to get everything right”.

No matter how good you are when it comes to talking, always make it a point to rehearse, what you want to say. It will give you great confidence before you step on the dais or meet a bunch of  potential investors.

If you are from the travel industry and have any mantras on cracking the communication bubble, we would love to hear them out.

Feature Image Credit: Flickr/EpicBets EpicBets at Startup Weekend Vancouver 2011

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