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This summer definitely is the worst on record. Seems like only yesterday that I was playing cricket at 4 p.m. in Delhi. I’d go up like a vampire sprayed with holy water if I tried that now.

Now, over the last couple of years, I have quietly and, sometimes anonymously, attended quite a few startup events in the country. Some really big ones claim to have showcased a million startups—with the moneybags attending, of course.

My question to the people who organize these startup events and, more importantly, the ones who attend them is just one—what the heck are you thinking?

Let me tell you entrepreneurs what happens at these startup events. First up, expect to see the same people over and over again across all events. I am talking here about industry “experts,” once-successful-still-boasting entrepreneurs and, of course, the near-gods for entrepreneurs—VCs. The first two, I must say, are harmless freeloaders.

But the VCs! Ladies and gentlemen, these are the rockstars at these events. A few hundred e-mails, 50-odd phone calls, paid tickets and five-star accommodation are what it takes to get them there in the first place. They are usually accompanied by a constant bickering about the hospitality, the organizers, the food and the startups they are seeing.

What they are doing there in the first place is beyond comprehension. Everyone and their fifth cousin know that VC firms in India stopped investing in startups around the time Mrs. Indira Gandhi was the PM. Well, not exactly, but you get my drift. They are not going to invest in any of the participating startups. In fact, I bet most of them do not even take proposals back to their offices.

Organizers should wise up. Stop calling these VCs who claim to be interested in the ecosystem. Instead, call those investors who are under the radar, but are really knee-deep in the game. VCs are in it for the razzmatazz and the free ego massage. They are not serious about doing any business at these events.

Here, I would like to tip my hat to a few angel investors who really do attend these events in earnest and have been known to invest in the startups they meet there. And they do that without asking to be the keynote speaker.

Perhaps it would be prudent to bring in institutions that are mandated to fund startups. Would it not be better to call people from the government’s Technopreneur Promotion Program at a tech startup event, for instance, rather than a VC whose last investment was in a company almost the size of Wipro?

AUGUST SHARK is a once-failed, second time successful bootstrapper who resides in Mumbai. He can be contacted at august@stumpspeak.com.

©Entrepreneur June 2010

Tags:
August Shark, event, startup, VC