The Morpheus » MVP Events

The Morpheus Open Coffee Hours — Chennai

indus — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:54:19 +0000

This Thursday on 8th July, we’ll be hanging out in Chennai @ High-on-Caffeine (Mitsubishi Showroom, LB Road, Adyar) 6p onwards.

No Agenda required. If you want to have a 30 mins 1:1 chat then drop a note below, otherwise just be there.

Four days of Naach-Gyaan: Our 1st startup gurukul

indus — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:49:05 +0000

In the summer of 2007, the moment Sameer & Nandini’s last startup Madhouse got acquired, another one started brewing in their heads. This time the plan was bigger and the idea was beyond running a startup, but kick-starting several of them. One year later after the acquisition, Morpheus was born with Instablogs as the first company in the portfolio, with other kick-ass companies being added to the “gang” in the subsequent 18 months.

Aptly Morpheus was named after the greek god of dreams; to a more real (fictional to some) world captain of Nebuchadnezzar who brings the dreams back to the residents of the last human city.

Then in the 2009 summer, I joined. This summer we are adding another 7-8 startups (names to be announced on 10th June) which brings further variety in our portfolio from automotive, eco-textile, health-care to touch computing.

This weekend from 10th – 13th we are doing our 1st ever startup gurukul on the outskirts of Bangalore, where we are bringing the founders of our portfolio companies under one roof and kicking it off with “Apuroop” — a demo day. At Apuroop, Morpheus companies will be doing 5 minutes show & tell to investors & media.

We are also delighted to partner with Sequoia Capital who are supporting us in our initiative and sponsoring the gurukul.

We have come a long way since our nimble start where we were doing just mentorship to now where we are also investing a small amount of INR 5 Lakhs in each of the startups. There are more exciting things coming out of our bag, controlling my excitement, we would unravel them as time passes.

Thanks for participating with us!

- Indus Khaitan

The Morpheus – Chandigarh Startup Meet

guglanisam — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:32:36 +0000

The Morpheus is organizing the first “Chandigarh Startup Meetup”, in partnership with Lpad (school for entrepreneurs). We would like to invite startup folks and folks who are interested in startups to join us on 21 March, 2010 @ Lpad Campus in Zirakpur.

The meet has no set agenda:

Just drop come in and hang out with a lot cool founders / geeks / hackers / weird startup guys.
The ( non-alcoholic) drinks and snacks are on the house.
There will be many interesting conversations and corners to join

Important Details:

Signup here: http://bit.ly/ChdStartupMeetUp
Or just drop a comment on the post
Day : Sunday, 21st March 2010
Time : - 1800hrs
Address: L-pad, S.C.O. 19, (2nd flr) Kalgidhar Enclave, Zirakpur-Kalka Highway, Near Paras Down Town Sqaure / Big Bazar, Above Chaitanya Hospital, Zirakpur
Lost on the way? Call: 93172-88213

Please spread the word

The Morpheus Open House: Mumbai, 21st March

indus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:58:11 +0000

This Sunday on 21st March, we will be hanging out @ Mocha, Churchgate, Mumbai between 11:00 am – 4:00 pm. Just come over if you would like to chat with us.

To help us manage the time please drop a comment below with your preferred time slot in chunks of 30 mins.

B-plans not required

The Morpheus Open House: Pune, 20th March

indus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:45:19 +0000

This Saturday on 20th March, we will be hanging out at Grubshup, Rachana Trade Estate, Intersection of Law College Road and Canal Road,
(Near Film and Television Institute of India) Pune between 10:00 am – 3:00 pm.

Just come over if you would like to chat with us. To help us manage the time please drop a comment below with your preferred time slot.

B-plans not required

Xtreme Startups Bangalore edition on Saturday 23rd Jan

indus — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:32:21 +0000

Topic of discussion:
“Why am I Entrepreneur?”
* The idea is to share our reasons & anecdotes for being an entrepreneur
* You can follow the twitter discussion here:
http://twitter.com/#search?q=whyamientrepreneur

We have specially invited:
* Mekin Maheshwari. Yahoo, uGenie, Lulu. Currently at Flipkart
* Sameer Sisodia. Yahoo, Ziva. Now taking a break from everything!
* … and few others to be confirmed

Where:
Jaaga, Rhenius Street, Off Richmond Road, Opposite the Hockey
Association Stadium main gate, Shanthinagar. See the map at
http://jaaga.wikidot.com/contact

When:
23rd Jan, 10:00a – 12:01 pm

Format:
* Event will be attended by 20+ start-up founders / entrepreneurs
* The event brings together entrepreneurs to share experiences and
interact with other start-ups in an informal manner
* Guests, like you, will typically be experienced entrepreneur /
investor / a person from the start-up ecosystem
* Please RSVP for the event.
* There is no fee for attending the event
* Chai/Biskit will be provided at the event

What will you gain from the event?
* Opportunity to interact with others in the startup ecosystem
* Share and learn from each others experiences in running businesses
* Potential to meet a business partner, investor, employee, etc.
* Opportunity to build a strong startup community

“Start-up Morning/Evening” is organized under the Xtreme Startups
banner. It is a non-profit initiative to support & promote
entrepreneurship.The events are organized with the support and help
from a lot of friends in the startup community. Previous editions of
the event have been held Mumbai, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Pune. This
edition of Xtreme Startups is supported by Jaaga, Upstart.in, Morpheus
Venture Partners and Startupnews.in

If you have not recieved an email inviting you for the same, please comment/drop us an email and we shall add you to the list.

Barcamp Chandigarh (and looking for suggestions)

guglanisam — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:49:55 +0000

The startup ecosystem in Chandigarh, the city beautiful, is buzzing with activity. On 12 November the results of Business plan competition, Enterprize – organized by TIE Chandigarh & Chandigarh Administration, were announced. The winners got place in the EDC setup by the Chandigarh Administration, in the IT park.

Continuing the good news for start-up folks, Fountainhead School of Business is organizing BarCamp Chandigarh – an extreme popular unconference, on 22 November. It will be a day long event that provides you the opportunity to attend some interesting sessions, meet like-minded folks, network and peek into the startup scene here. Barcamp Chandigarh is also inviting folks who would like to conduct a session. Go ahead and signup to attend the event or to conduct a session at the Barcamp.

MVP is a supporting partner for the the event and we are doing our bit to make the event a good one.

I have signed up to do a session @ Barcamp, but have not decided on what all should I cover in the session. I am looking for some good suggestions from you on that, please leave your thoughts in comments or send a message to me on twitter @guglanisam.

What would you like me to cover during my session at the BarCamp Chandigarh?

POCC and MVP present : Startup Roadies

guglanisam — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 06:28:15 +0000

PuneStartups,

The Pune Open Coffee Club (POCC) in collaboration with Morpheus Venture Partners (MVP) brings a new initiative “Startup Roadies”.

About MVP

MVP runs a business advisory and mentoring program for startups. MVP currently has portfolio of more than 10 companies. Some of the companies are: Instablogs, Commonfloor, Lifemojo, Fachak, Crederity, Deskaway, Sutra.

Sameer Guglani and Nandini Hirianniah are the founding partners @ MVP. Both of them are serial entrepenuers and started their first venture Madhouse Media in 2004. Madhouse was one of the first organized movie rentals players. They successfully exited the venture with the acquisition by Seventymm in July 2007. More Info

About POCC

The Pune OpenCoffee Club is an informal group of startup-minded folks and entrepreneurs in Pune. It has the distinction of being the largest Open Coffee Club in India. The club has 550+ members and meets once a month. There is also an active mailing list where members discuss issues and seek feedback from peer startups.

The Startup Roadies Program

We absolutely love to meet passionate entrepreneurs whose ventures are in idea stage (not started, but want to really start) or 1-12 months into the operation. The interaction will be completely informal. Formal dresses are not a must, we want to see you as your natural self, no need to bring any presentations or any financial projections. Just come have a chat with us. Get a demo if possible, get all members of your founding team. Just ensure that you arrive on time as per the allocated slot

The goal of the exercise is to together explore solutions to some of the “tough business problems” you are dealing with. We could do that by offering advice and potential solutions based on our experience. We would also love to introduce you to relevant folks in our network who can add value – potential partners, experienced people in similar domain, potential investors etc.

At our end we are just excited to get an opportunity to meet you and learn from your experience and ideas. Each session will be conducted in the below mentioned structure

Where are we? (Get on the same page, understand the current status of the venture / idea)

Team introduction
Understanding your idea, market size, the problem your solving, how is your product/service different that current available solutions
Figure out the current status of the venture – in development, alpha, beta, launched
How much money is available to the team

Where do we want to go? (what are we looking to accomplish in the coming future)

Discuss, debate and get clarity on the goals & milestones for
- Short term: 3 months
- Medium term: 1 year
- Long term: 3-5 years

How do we get there? (the most critical part where we together come up with the clear and measurable steps which will be taken to achieve the goals/milestones)

Given the current status and various goals, what is the best strategy to get there
How to proceed with execution
Best way to raise funding
Who are the folks to partner with
Make a list of action items out of the interaction

Details:

Date: Saturday, 21 Feb 08
Venue: SICSR, Model Colony, Pune (Awaiting confirmation on the room number)
Time: 10am to 7pm (Each startup gets a separate time slot)
How to participate: Send an e-mail to nandini AT morpheusventure DOT com with a short (less than 300 words) intro of your startup. Please mention your preferred time slot.

Limited slots. Book now!

Startup Evenings: Now in Bangalore

guglanisam — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:16:33 +0000

“Start-up Evening” events are organized by the MVP gang with support and help from a lot of friends in the community. The first startup-evening was in held Mumbai earlier this month. We were more than houseful on the capacity, crowd was good and interesting discussions took place. Read coverage here.

We are excited to announce the first “Startup Evening” in Bangalore:

Guest(s): Founders of Picsquare – Manish and Kartik (More here)

Date: 05 Feb, 2009 (Thursday)

Time: 06:30 pm – 08:30 pm

Venue: South Bangalore

Audience: Start-up founders (MVP and non-MVP start-ups)

Format

Event will be attended by 15-20 founders of start-ups from the MVP portfolio, partners portfolios and other founders
There will be guest(s) of the evening who will share his / her experiences and interact with the start-ups in an informal manner
The guest will typically be an experienced entrepreneur / investor / a person from the start-up ecosystem
There is no fee for attending but participation will be only by invitation
No more than 20 participants will be allowed to keep the focus of the event

Interested in participating ? Want to host a start-up evening? Have more questions? Write to nandini AT morpheusventure DOT com or leave a comment below.

First Start-up Evening: Mumbai 20 Jan 09

nandinihirianniah — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:16:18 +0000

Announcing the FIRST ever Start-up Evening:

Guest(s): Alok Kejriwal, founder & CEO of Games2win (more here) , Deap Ubhi, Founder and CEO of Burrp (more here)

Date: 20 January, 2009 (Tuesday)

Time: 7pm – 9pm

Venue: South Mumbai

Audience: Start-up founders (MVP and non-MVP start-up founders)

Interested in participating? Want to help in organizing a start-up evening? Have more questions? Write to nandini AT morpheusventure DOT com