Internet Technologies - TiE-ISB Connect 2006

I"m sitting at the Khemka Auditorium attending the Internet Technology Discussion Forum. We have some incredible speakers here. A great mixture of Technologists, Entrepreneurs, Venture Capitalists and Domain experts.

Track Chair - Krishnan Seshadrinathan
Key Note Speaker - Ajit Balakrishnan (Rediff)
Panelists - Sandeep Murthy (Sherpalo Ventures), Sanjay Swamy (mChek), Raghav Kher (Seventymm.com), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Naukri.com), Samir Sood (Google), Probir Roy (Paymate), Ganesh Rengaswamy (Greylock Partners)

Each one of these guys seem to have a different take on Mobile Phone as a medium for e-commerce, and Internet 2.0 as a new source of opportunities. This probably explains why each one of these guys have different kindof start-ups.

I find two of these guys very interesting. Sanjay Swamy of mChek and Probir Roy of PayMate. Both of them offer "pay pal" type services on cell-phones. With my limited knowledge, I am willing to bet that these guys will make it big. Their business model seems pretty robust.. considering that Internet usage in India is still not even 1/10th the usage of cell-phone in India. Heck, sure I'd rather pay through my phone, than through an internet portal in India.. considering security on the Internet isn't that important to most people here :-P. Both these companies have tie-up with banks, through which you can directly pay another cell-phone user. Money moves from the bank account tied to the sender's mobile phone to the bank account tied to the receiving mobile phone. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me! Ease of use! And its as safe as carrying your wallet around.. you carry your cell-phone around too! Ofcourse, if you leave behind your cell-phone, it can be misused just like your wallet's content too!

I find the atmosphere VERY exciting. The Q&A session is happening right now, and it's amazing how many guys are making "elevator pitches" over their so called "questoins" to the VCs :-). I just saw one guy get a "If you're around Bombay sometime, I'd like to talk about your idea over coffee. Look me up!" from a Venture Capitalist! Is this the new face of India? The availability of capital with the opening markets seem to be spawning off so many ideas to provide value services to the mass and make money out of it! This sure does sound like the dot com era of the 90s in the Silicon Valley.

p.s. Talking about Internet Technologies.. I'm thrilled that this is my first "live" post. In a span of 12 minutes, I've taken the pictures, assessed the talk here, and submitted this post sitting right here in the Auditorium. Maybe I'll actually get myself to try out live Internet Podcasts in a future event. Kudos to technology!