Boot Camp

Krishna Uppuluri has more than 20 years experience as an Engineering, Entrepreneurial and Marketing executive in Digital Media, Enterprise and CAD software industries. Prior to his role as Marketing executive in a few fast growing Silicon Valley startups, Krishna was an Entrepreneur. He was the founder of InterWeave Tech, an Enterprise software company that he grew from scratch to multiple global customer wins in hardware and communications industries. This startup experience motivated Krishna to write a book to help first-time Entrepreneurs. Prior to his own venture, Krishna held engineering management positions at Cadence Design Systems and Daisy Systems. Krishna holds an MS/CS and a BS/EE.

Krishna authored “Engineer to Entrepreneur – The First Flight” to help engineer entrepreneurs quickly learn the basics of business lifecycle including Idea assessment, founding team dynamics, product development, Sales, Marketing and Venture funding. The book is written for people who think like engineers – short book for quick reading, workbook style, with hands-on exercises and sample stories illustrating the concepts.

The ever ideating IITK enthusiasts who had successfully boarded their first flight from an engineer to an entrepreneur were taught the nuts and bolts of taking a raw idea to its first customer. They were made to formulate the blueprint which will provide them with a much needed look ahead in various facets of their business such as the commercial viability of their idea, competition, solution approach, marketing, sales and more.

Target Audience : The boot-camp was intended for those who were interested in learning the process of refining an idea into a blueprint and subsequently a commercially viable business. It was to target those enthusiasts who had a business idea but were confused and didn’t know how to proceed further. It witnessed a participation of 50 shortlisted students divided in 10 teams. Out of the 10 business ideas discussed 5 are being implemented..

Prizes: Most Effective presentation: Rs. 12,500/- , Best Idea: Rs. 12,500/-

Bootcamp Topics:

• Idea analysis – How did you get this idea? What is the commercial viability of your idea?
• Founding team dynamics – Are you a lone ranger or a group warrior? How do you ensure that the business goals, approaches, risks and timelines are consistently understood by all members of your team? What type of company structure makes sense?
• Product development leverages – Whether you are developing products or services, what is your plan for transforming your idea into a sellable solution? Do you need to own and develop everything on your own? Can you leverage some foundational aspects and limit your efforts to your own magic source?
• Sales & Marketing – How do you enable the marketing and sales teams? What materials do you need to have to get ready in marketing and sales? When does it make sense to hire folks in these disciplines?
• Go-to-market check – Are you able to sell to pre-planned target customers? Are you able to sell it to similar customer base to build solid customer traction?
• Venture funding – What materials do you need to prepare for the venture funding effort? What does it take to get venture funding? What are the secrets of getting funded and what are various sources of funding?