[Inpycon] Startup Row

[Ramdas S]

On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 5:14 PM, Anand Chitipothu <anandology at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 3:15 PM, Sreekanth S Rameshaiah <sree at mahiti.org>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On 13 August 2012 13:16, Ramdas S <ramdaz at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Yes. I hope we revisit this decision. If you require someone to drive
> >> this, I am willing to volunteer....
> >
> >
> > Then Definite +1. Lets do it.
>
> We can do it, but I'm a bit worried that it may be difficult to manage
> the logistics at the current venue.
>
> * We need to give a table space for startups to showcase their stuff.
> This has to be separate from the main talk slots. It means we need do
> it in the big hall.
>
> * The big hall is a bit far from the rooms where the talks are going on.
>
> * If we fail to drive people to that place, it is going to be very bad.
>
> * We'll have a closing ceremony, followed by IPSS general body
> meeting. Which I guess will happen in the same hall. So, we need to
> take out tables and arrange chairs. It looks a difficult thing
> logistics-wise.
>
>
<my opinion>

Before answering all these questions. Let's answer what we precisely are
trying to achieve. What is in it for a Python company to be a part of the
Startup row? What do we benefit as a communiity if there are a few startups
show casing their ware or trying to hire, or find investors? What are the
real logistics issues which we are worried about?

Let me try answering these questions?

As an entrueprener I have faced difficulties hiring and finding good
talent. I guess for every startup this could be a challenge. But beyond
hiring, any kind of recogniztion, a word of encouragement, some sort of
feedback takes a startup by miles. This I guess is all they can hope for @
Pycon

As a community, we need to keep encourage smaller companies, so that this
would encourage more people to create startups, thus creating more jobs and
acceptance for Python in general.

Logistics--  Logistics comes in when you are demanding a fee for making a
presence. I am off the opinion that 2 registrations  are good enough to be
at Start Up row. I am not for charging a small fee because that does not
really make a difference to our bottom lines. Charging something like 20 K
would keep a real startup ( ie the one without funding) away. Then whom are
we serving.

I guess a bench and couple of chairs are the only infrastructure. The
startup can put a poster or two on their bench. Nothing else comes free, no
logos on site, no banner, no way are we allowing anyone to hijack the
conference which would conflict interests of a main sponsor.

I would like to see a lot of Python startups there. Yes, we do not want
services companies. I personally feel that any limitations in terms of
funding or lack of it also should not be a reason for qualification.

The product the company is driving need to be built on top of Python or
Pythonic framework. So it can even be an open source project where the
author is looking at making some side money, a portal built on top Django,
or a serious product venture which uses zillions of Python code.

It need to have some commercial sense for someone involved. No fun only
projects, however good it may be.

In such a scenario it does not really matter whether we drive people to a
specific location or we have it in a hall. If the hall needs to be
re-arranged, we can also take a word from the startups to help us
re-arrange the room.

</opinion>
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