DreamCatchers! Call to Action

I am very grateful to you all for the response to my previous article: Funding for Real Innovation in India ! Unavailable. Many of you wrote to me as well as extended action/offers to the DCE AUV team. What was however in my opinion the best outcome, happened right in the beginning: Bharat (Delhi/VIN Industries) and Sameer (Mumbai/Nomura) reached out quietly and fast and helped the team with what they needed – a small cash infusion and a 15 day marketing outreach that brought up a sane view of where the vehicle would make commercial sense – and all of that without any contract, without a termsheet!  I understand now that the DCE team, very depressed, when I wrote then, is again energized and for that let me take back the last word in that headline! Hats off to you Bharat and Sameer. What I gained during my three trips to DCE so far is an enormous amount of goodwill, a deep sense of personal aha and a large number of new friends and fellow travelers!

We need a billion entrepreneurs. One of the things we discuss often in forums of young IITians like me is the idea that we must act on an issue if we are able to act, as the capability for action is a responsibility.

One Billion Minds is not a VC firm and I am not an Angel Investor. But when I spoke to some of you who wrote to me, I realize there is a need for a tier of support specially designed for early stage innovators. This tier is not about funding. It is more about helping them because we can. We brainstormed about young entrepreneurs like Bharat and senior executives like Sameer to come together in a group and help early stage innovators in small, simple ways without looking at returns at the start and in the typical way.

I have now spoken with a few friends while in Delhi and Bangalore and we are putting together DreamCatchers – a fraternity of entrepreneurs who would help early stage innovators with mentoring, access to funding and more importantly, a pilot client, working within and beyond the DreamCatchers network.

What is an early stage innovator? A simple qualification – a team that can change the way we work or live and is less than one year old as an entity.

Some of us are meeting early stage innovators in Bangalore between March 1 – 5. If you are one with a dream in your eyes email me: sanjukt.saha@onebillionminds.com

If you are an entrepreneur or senior executive and wish to join us and have fun, write to me and let us start a fire. Remember, make your money elsewhere!