Raised in Vancouver and Toronto, Severn has been camping and hiking all her life. When she was 9 she started the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They were successful in many projects before 1992, when they raised enough money to go to the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Their aim was to remind the decision-makers of who their actions or inactions would ultimately affect. The goal was reached when 12 yr old Severn closed a Plenary Session with a powerful speech that received a standing ovation. In 1993, she was honoured in the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global 500 Roll of Honour.

Video of Severn’s speech at United Nations in 1992




She graduated from Yale University in 2002 with a B.Sc. in ecology and evolutionary biology. After Yale, Suzuki spent two years travelling. She co-hosted Suzuki’s Nature Quest, a children’s television series that aired on the Discovery Channel in 2002.

She’s a great person to know if you’re looking for a job in a technology sector : )

Tell us a bit about yourself – your background, profession and organizations/initiatives you are involved with?
I graduated with a degree in history and French language from the University of East Anglia in Norwich. After working at home in Scotland for a few years, I moved down to London in 2000 and worked in IT recruitment in the City for four years gaining lots of experience of helping job seekers to find a new role. I’ve been running womenintechnology for over five years now and am involved in lots of different initiatives within the women in IT space including BCSWomen, Intellect’s Women in IT Forum, Girl Geek Dinners, the City Women’s Network and the Women’s Engineering Society. As the MD my roles includes a wide variety of responsibilities such as building relationships with client sponsors, organising events, creating plans for the website, public speaking and I really enjoy the mix of my day to day activities.

What is ‘Women In Technology’ and how did you come up with the idea?
womenintechnology.co.uk is an organisation committed to increasing the number of women who are working and achieving in the UK’s IT profession. The idea for the website came about after a piece of diversity research showed the distinct lack of women working in technology – the website launched as a simple information portal in March 2005 and over the last five years it’s grown into an online community for women working in IT. We provide a complete recruitment service, offer a dedicated online IT job board, regularly host networking events for our 6000-strong membership, run personal development and career orientated training courses and provide in-depth information about key matters affecting the IT industry and the people who work within it. Any firms looking to hire more female technologists in the UK – highlighting why they are an ideal place for a woman to have a successful technology career – should have a chat with us! And any ladies working in the industry looking for connections, career advice or networking opportunities, should join our free mailing list.

You don’t have a technical background, what motivated you to start a forum for women in technology instead of banking or finance which were more familiar to you?
As I’d been recruiting IT professionals into roles within the banking sector, my expertise really sat more within the technology space rather than finance. I could also see that employers were always interested in female CVs and our diversity research showed that it took women fewer interviews to secure a role compared to men – so it’s more time effective to hire a female in IT! I also feel really strongly that there are loads of great roles in IT that women miss out on them and so, in turn, the industry misses out on a wealth of female talent. The business case for having a diverse team is well proven and we’ve created a tool (through our online job board and recruitment services team) that employers can use to help them hire more female technologists.

We have seen one of the worst global economic turmoil in last 1-2 years. How it impacted the career opportunities for women who are planning to make a career in Technology?
It’s been tough and if I’m honest, things will probably remain tough for a while longer yet. For ladies looking to enter the industry without any previous experience, the competition is pretty fierce and for those already in the industry, the opportunities for moving around have been reduced. But, IT is a growing profession and the European Commission has predicted that there could be a shortfall of 20 million skilled workers in science and technology by 2030 so there’s lots of IT employment potential there!

What advice would you give to a woman considering a career in Information Technology?
The IT profession is incredibly broad and there are so many different jobs that you could embark upon. So if you’re looking into working in this area, you need to do your research into which area of IT you’d like to work in – support, development, business analysis, project management, change management, security, online, databases – the opportunities aren’t quite endless but there is a lot of choice! We have lots of role models online and you can read about their career paths and how they’ve got to where they are which can also be useful when thinking about what you’d like to do and just go for it – IT is a great profession and there are loads of interesting roles working with cutting edge technology that allows you to work directly with the business, positively impact the bottom line and help firms increase revenues and profits.

And lastly, how do you keep inspired and motivated? What’s next for you?
To be honest, I have no idea what’s next for me! I very much enjoy running the organisation and I like doing lots of different things every day. I also meet loads of interesting people which is always good fun – I think the networking opportunities have been one of the areas of my role that I’ve enjoyed the most. I also enjoy providing our members with the opportunity to meet and network with other women working in IT and seeing how valuable that is to them, keeps me motivated. I enjoy helping our sponsors to attract more applications from and hire more female technologists – it’s a long term activity and one which gives us a buzz when we can see how we’re helping firms change the gender makeup of their IT teams.

Maggie’s social profiles:

Her new book, The Weight of Silence: Invisible Children of India, follows her journey into orphanages and through the streets and slums of India where millions of innocent children live without families, telling their real-life stories that captivated audiences worldwide in the film Slumdog Millionaire. All five star rating on Amazon say it all about this remarkable book and the extraordinary job Shelley has done unraveling the complex issues faced by the children of India.

Let’s talk to Shelley to know about her book and experience in India.

Tell us a bit about yourself – your background, profession and organizations/initiatives you are involved with?
I am a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas; but I vagabond in any part of the world whenever I get a chance. I have written for National Geographic, Globe Pequote Press, InfoChange India, Austin Woman, the Seattle Times, Washington Magazine and Andrew Harper Traveler among others. My mantra is “travel with a purpose.” My recent book, The Weight of Silence: Invisible Children of India, tells the true stories of some of the millions of children living on the streets or in orphanages in India. They are the real-life kids behind those such as in the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

I have been involved in nonprofit work and social activism almost all my life – particularly around child advocacy. When I was a young teenager my mother began fostering babies for the Edna Gladney Home in Fort Worth, and through the years we were a foster home to over 50 children. My sister, Katie, was adopted during that time – as she says, she’s always known she was special! So at a young age I was aware of child rights and advocacy issues. It must run in the family because both of my sisters, Amy and Katie, work at nonprofit agencies working with children and families.

As an adult I began doing a lot of volunteer work here in Texas, with abused and neglected children. I participated in a mentoring program for at-risk teens for several years, and worked with Child Protective Services. In Austin I have been a Guardian Ad Litem through CASA for almost 5 years, in which I act as a court-appointed advocate for children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect, and have been involved with The Heart Gallery to find forever families for such children.

When did you first go to India? What’s so great about India?
In 2004 I read a story in Tribeza magazine about Caroline Boudreaux’s incredible journey that became The Miracle Foundation. After a trip to India caused Caroline to come face to face with hundreds of children living in hunger and filth in an orphanage, she turned her life upside-down and started the foundation that today supports five orphanages in India. I began sponsoring a child, and in March 2005 traveled with Caroline to India for the first time, to work in the orphanage and meet the children. As trite as it sounds, the experience changed me, too.

I soon came to realize that most of the children living in the homes were not orphaned due to death, but due to poverty. India is home to more than 25 million children living without parental care, and three million more are added each year. As I learned more about the complex, intertwining issues that make children vulnerable to orphanhood, the sex trade, child labor, HIV, or a life on the streets, I began to come up with the idea for my book, The Weight of Silence: Invisible Children of India. My simple goal is to help give a voice to these invisible children.

I didn’t choose India particularly; in fact, I often say that it chose me. It just happened to be where I landed, through personal connections, and from the moment I did the country and its people wrapped around me and refused to let go. The very existence of these children forever altered both the person I am and my view of the world. In some ways I feel more familiar to myself there, like I am now the person I was brought to India to become. I didn’t go to India to change anything about it; instead, it worked a transformational change in me.

Tell us about your book “Weight of Silence”?
By now, everyone has either seen, or at least heard of, the movie Slumdog Millionaire, about the lives of two brothers who come from the slums of Mumbai – made even more desperate after they are orphaned. What many don’t know, however, is that for 25 million children in India, the harsh world depicted in the movie is their everyday reality. Yes, that’s 25 million kids who have been orphaned, abandoned or trafficked. My book, The Weight of Silence: Invisible Children of India, follows my journey over the past four years into the streets, orphanages and slums of India where these children live without families or homes of their own. I became immersed in their world, a witness to their struggles – but also their joys, their incredible hope and resilience that amazed me time and time again. The ability of their spirits to overcome crippling challenges inspired me. My sole purpose in writing this book was to give these millions of children a voice that could be heard by others in the world who, I was convinced, would be as moved by their plights as I was.

What led you to write this book?
When I arrived that first time, I assumed all the kids there were orphans in the true sense of the word – their parents had died. Instead I was shocked by how many of them had been “orphaned” by poverty; their parents had left them at the Miracle Foundation home because they were too poor to feed them, which in some ways seemed an even greater tragedy. I wondered when each of them had stopped wanting to go back home, or if they ever had. Many of them had also been affected by other issues such as disease or child labor and trafficking; some had been found living on the streets.

As I bore witness to the harm that lay in each of them because of their pasts, as I discovered the stories behind the faces and the names, there was simply no way to go on with my life afterwards as if they did not exist. So I embarked on a three-year journey researching the issues, traveling throughout India and talking to many professionals and those working in the trenches to uphold these children’s rights and improve their futures. I could see that they were “invisible” children, without a real voice of their own.

What is the best and the worst part of being a writer?
Best: Doing what I love to do – what doesn’t feel like work to me.

Worst: How hard it is to get work and get published sometimes, and how easy it is to constantly keep working to do so. Writing is all-consuming. Although I would be miserable in a regular 9-to-5 job, I sometimes envy those who can go home and leave their work behind at the end of the day.

What are you doing now? What’s up for you in the future?
Right now I am writing a new guidebook about Seattle, for Globe Pequot Press’s Insiders’ Guide series. In 2008 and some of 2009 I lived mostly in Seattle and split my time between there and Austin, and I really love the Pacific Northwest. I also continued to stay very involved with children’s issues, of course, and promoting The Weight of Silence so that more people can hear their stories.

As far as the future, later this year I would like to begin a new book, which will profile 25 people who are truly changing the world with one big idea. I have met so many people, like Caroline Boudreaux, who didn’t sit back and wait for others to do something – but who decided THEY needed to do something. These people are so inspiring to me, and I want to share the hope that change is possible through their stories.

And lastly, how do you keep inspired and motivated?
Lots of ways. First of all, I have to stay focused on what is truly important in life. Having friends and family who care about you, health, enough money to eat and have the basics in life – we really don’t need more than this. I am so blessed simply because I can turn on a faucet and clean water comes out, and I don’t have to worry about where my next meal is coming from.

Mentally and physically, yoga and meditation are really important to me in achieving a mind/body/spirit balance. Without them I am sure I would become far more stressed!

Also, in a huge way I am inspired by readers who contact me to share how the book and these children’s stories touched them. They often share stories of their own, such as adopting a child or changing their own travel plans to India to include volunteer work. I have featured many of their stories on my blog. It’s always SUCH an inspiration and reward to me to get such an email or letter; to know that what I’ve done resonates with someone else and creates some meaning in the world, and affects change for these children. That keeps me going.

Shelley, thank you so much for your time and for the wonderful book.

Shelley’s social profiles:

I have been heavily involved in social entrepreneurship and youth participation matters from an early age. At the age of 17, I became the Founder & Chairman of the English Secondary Students’ Association (ESSA) – the first national student run organisation empowering secondary school students aged 11-19 by giving them a voice in education (www.studentvoice.co.uk)

Since then I have been passionate about promoting entrepreneurship in the UK and beyond. My work in this arena has led to me becoming one of the first Ambassadors for Enterprise UK’s “Make Your Mark Campaign”. My other roles include being a Trustee of UnLtd – the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs; Trustee of the Phoenix Education Trust; a Commissioner on the Carnegie UK Trust’s Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society; Education Advisory Board Member for Channel 4; and an Advisory Board Member of the UK-India Business Council (UKIBC) Next Generation Network.

What is Enternships.com? How did you come up with such a cool and meaningful name for your site?
Enternships.com is a portal which connects students/graduates to start-ups and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) worldwide who provide entrepreneurial work placements (“entrepreneurial internships”). SMEs struggle to find talent and lack the recruitment budgets of “blue-chip firms” to undertake the traditional ‘milkround’. Enternships therefore provides these companies with visibility on campus and serves as a central place for start-ups to reach out to talent.

Enternships.com started as a simple listing service which I set up as President of Oxford Entrepreneurs (one of the largest networks of student entrepreneurs in Europe). Companies were approaching me to advertise opportunities as they were keen to reach entrepreneurial candidates. Over time it became evident that more and more small companies wanted to reach students and with no proactive marketing, word of mouth led to over 160 placements being advertised. It also became clear that in the current job market with less roles available in large corporations it’s time to look to the ‘long tail’ of industry.

I was very conscious the Enternships would be more than just a ‘jobs board’ – we’re about creating a culture change. Therefore I decided to make up a new word – ‘enternship’ – with the view that it will eventually enter the dictionary!

Has entrepreneurial spirit always been in your blood?
I suppose so; I’ve never been one to accept the status quo and always like to look at alternative ways of tackling problems – something most entrepreneurs do. My parents tell me that I’ve always been a bit stubborn and like doing things my own way – again a classic entrepreneurial trait!

Currently ‘Enternships’ seems to be free service. What is your business model?
Once we achieve critical mass we will start charging companies to list on the site; we will also look for sponsorship deals and advertising revenue as well as white-labelling the portal for use by universities/careers services keen to engage with local small businesses.

What are the challenges to grow Enternships? What are your biggest needs to get your startup to the next level?
The biggest challenge I have faced has been on the technical development of Enternships. I am personally not able to do programming and thus have to rely on our outsourced developers to deliver what they have promised and on time. Bringing the technical function in house would be a medium term objective, but since we’re a bootstrapped pre-revenue venture this may take a bit of time.

Another challenge is communicating to the SMEs and creating the mind-set that students/young people can add value to a firm. There are millions of SMEs out there and many would never have considered taking on students/graduates for short term placements/full-time hires. This may be due to lack of a simple way of attracting these candidates or because they do not see the ‘value-add’ or have the financial resources. We want to encourage them by showing examples of successful placements and the benefits students can add to a firm. Saying that , the initial response to start-ups to Enternships has been extremely encouraging!

You have achieved great success at a very young age. What are the future plans for Enternships and yourself?
Over the next few years I would like the word ‘enternship’ to be widely recognised and become increasingly common parlance to describe work placements in entrepreneurial environments (start-ups and small businesses). I hope that we will become the definitive place for students and graduates around the world to find the hottest work opportunities and just as future lawyers, accountants, bankers etc look for internships I want Enternships.com to be the first port of call for all aspiring entrepreneurs and those who want to learn firsthand about business. I have global ambitions for Enternships but this will obviously take time.

Good luck Rajeeb! I wish that ‘enternship’ enter the dictionary one day.

Rajeeb’s social profiles:

Sheetal is the Founder and CEO of Innovative Social Ventures Ltd, a London based company that provides advisory services to companies in the area of fundraising, technical due diligence and corporate partnering. She recently launched Shanti Microfinance which takes technology and microfinance to entrepreneurs in slums in India.

Tell us a bit about yourself – your background, education and organizations/initiatives you are involved with?
I was born in Uganda and we moved to Canada in 1972 where I spent most of my life. I have always been active in the Gujarati community especially since my family started the organization some 30 years ago. I went to the University of Alberta where I did my undergrad and to the London School of Economics where I did my Masters in Economics and International Relations. My first real job was working for the Edmonton Police Service and I was actively involved at the same time in the Alberta and Canadian political scene. My dream was always to work in villages and slums and to have a career in international business and relations. I am so lucky my parents gave me the opportunity to have exposure to all the great experiences and that they taught me the value of hard work ethics and integrity.

You were a high profile executive at Microsoft. What made you start your own venture?
I very much enjoyed working for Microsoft – it is a flat company with excellent people. After a little over five years of working at Microsoft (in the Silicon Valley and EMEA) I decided to start my own businesses so I could work more hands on with start ups and focus on social enterprise. In essence that means working with businesses that are for profit but also strive to make the world a better place. I don’t think I am employable now – it’s great working for yourself and choosing the partners who you respect and really want to work with.

Tell us about Shanti Microfinance? How can Microfinance help?
Shanti Microfinance is a UK Charity that works with entrepreneurs in slums and villages to provide them with access to capital, technology and training in order to build their local businesses. We currently work with a local partner in Gujarat who have been instrumental in creating an appropriate infrastructure for the loan recipients to be successful in their repayments. The loans are provided in bulk interest free to our partner who then disperses the mini loans to the entrepreneurs. We are in touch with the entrepreneurs and know their businesses. In order to administer the local process, our partner charges approx 10 per cent interest per loan. This interest is used to employ local field workers (who live in the slums) to administer the flow of funds. Once the loans are paid back and milestones are met, those funds are recycled back into the community for deeper reach and scale and for second or third time borrowers.

Microfinance institutions like Kiva.org achieved quite a success using internet and social media. How do you plan to leverage the power of internet?
Unlike some of the social media platforms that exist, Shanti Microfinance provides 100% of donations into the slums. We are leveraging a technology platform that is currently being created which will allow donors to see where their funds are going. The difference is that we will also visit those entrepreneurs and know them on a 1:1 basis. We prequalify the loan recipients and we monitor flow of funds leveraging a financial software. So our approach is to leverage capital, technology and training to make sure that all entrepreneurs can benefit from a holistic microfinance strategy.

Why did you choose India as a focus for Shanti Microfinance? There are other developing economies with similar needs and issues.
I chose India because I am Indian and I speak the language and understand the culture. In order to make a sound difference, we need to be members of the community and make decisions based on community needs and input from all – this is the only way to develop a deep partnership. Technology helped improve communications around the world but at a grass roots level cultural understanding is key.

What do you think is the problem with the rural credit system in India?
At the moment the rural credit system in India is developing – there are a lot of players crafting solutions for the farmers and rural community but little effort is going into understanding the needs of those rural communities. Without a tailor made plan and a model that is owned by the users of the service, some recipients will never come out of their current situations.

How do you believe the Microfinance sector will develop in the future?
I believe the right type of microfinance models will provide those people who are unbankable at the moment to have opportunities and choices. This vehicle will alleviate them out of poverty over time if the right model is leveraged and then they will be able to make decisions about how they spend, save and invest their funds. Their communities will benefit and in turn society as a whole will benefit in terms of thought leadership in new businesses, mentoring and evolution of new lifestyles.

And lastly, how do you keep inspired and motivated, and not get burned out?
It’s about balance and moderation so I surround myself with people who are positive and fun; I practice yoga and play drums. I try to enjoy simple things in life like hiking and being in nature, cooking and laughing as much as possible. The people in the slums inspire me because they always wear a smile – several of them are on my screen saver just to remind me!

Thanks Sheetal. Good luck with your venture.

Sheetal’s social profiles:

Here, Percy talks about his venture and challenges of starting a business.

Tell us a bit about yourself – your background and education?
My name is Percy Wegmann, and I am a recovering computer programmer. I started experimenting with computers at a young age on a Commodore C64 with the BASIC programming language.

By the time I reached high school, my experimentation had turned into a full-blown addiction that I fed with early IBM PC compatibles, Pascal, various CAD software packages and a job maintaining the computer equipment at my father’s civil engineering firm. While earning degrees in Political Science and Economics at the University of Chicago, I continued to feed my addiction, though only in private and work life, not academically.

After graduating, I joined various communities of similarly addicted individuals and worked together with them on building billing and CRM systems for telecoms (at Accenture), risk management software (at ROME, now Triplepoint), content management systems for financial services firms (at Razorfish) and most recently prepaid transaction processing and mobile banking systems (at MPower Labs).

What is Bidtective and how did you come up with the idea?
As a Millenial who has grown accustomed to being able to conduct a lot of my purchasing and other business online, I grew frustrated with my inability to purchase local services through the web. Lots of websites provide me with the ability to find local services providers, but when it comes to finding out prices and comparing features the way that I would with an IPod or an automobile, I’m left in the dark.

My experience is usually something like this – I get an introduction to handful of businesses, I end up having to take time off work to meet a salesperson from each at my house, I hope that the offers and recommendations I get from these individuals are reasonable and fair and I usually pick the one whose salesperson I liked the best so long as their price isn’t too far out of line. I usually find this experience deeply unsatisfying, even if the final service may be good. By shining a light on the service-based commerce happening in my town and beyond, I hope to give consumers the information and tools that they need to understand what they should be paying, what features they should request (and avoid), and to conduct as much as possible of the buying process from the convenience of their computer.

You come from a technical background, what has pushed you to make this change and start a business?
As with most of my decisions, this one involved multiple motivators. That way, no matter how it turns out, I’m sure to get something out of it! Primarily, I’m passionate about empowering consumers of local services to be informed shoppers and bringing open competition to this market–no one else seems to be doing it, so that leaves me to carry the torch. Secondly, as a technical contributor, I have often been far removed from what matters most to any successful business – the customer. Finding my own customers is a very effective (though challenging!) way to remedy this. Lastly, programming really is an addiction for me, and I find it healthy to involve myself in business activities outside of the technical realm from time to time.

Encountering and overcoming the difficulties faced by marketers, product managers and executives gives me a perspective that makes me a more productive member of any team, no matter what hat I choose to wear.

What makes Bidtective different from those of your competitors?
Bidtective aims to put consumers in the driver’s seat by combining accurate and detailed pricing information with ratings and reviews, all provided within a simple and satisfying online user experience. Some of our competitors give you ways to find highly rated vendors and some of our competitors give you ways to find bargain-basement prices, but we know that most people are looking for good value–which means a good product at a fair price. By bringing together prices and ratings, we hope to give consumers a tool that they can use to find the balance between price and quality that’s right for them.

What is your business model? How do you plan to earn money from your site?
Since Bidtective follows a very inflexible core mission of exposing market prices in the local services sector and helping customers find good value, we have to be somewhat flexible in our business model until we find something sustainable. We believe that businesses that already focus on providing their customers with a good product at a fair price will do well in the Bidtective marketplace, so we can become an important source for new customers. Some of these businesses face surprisingly high customer acquisition costs, so it’s not a stretch to think that there’s some value to be extracted here.

What is the single piece of advice would you give to someone planning to start an online business?
Make sure that you launch with great content and then keep that content fresh and useful. Unless you have an astronomical marketing budget, performing well in organic search results is absolutely critical for a web-based B2C offering, and the tried and tested way to do that is to make sure you’ve got content that speaks to what people are seeking. Great design, great functionality, great product, great price, great name – none of these matter if people can’t find you.

Thanks Percy. Good luck with your venture.

Let’s talk to women entrepreneur Anu Parthasarathy, Co-founder of NeedGrub.com.

Tell me something about your venture?
NeedGrub.com is essentially an online dining guide for various Cities in India. NeedGrub unlike a typical city guide does not illustrate all about the community, entertainment, fashion, commerce or other details. It rather exclusively features, the geography’s eating options. NeedGrub highlights and thus specializes in providing just restaurant and dining information. And of course, while specializing in the stated endeavor, all of it is covered. There is hardly anything about the eating places, NeedGrub would miss.

The most suitable substitute for food publications or city directories, NeedGrub extends updated restaurant details, which if not available can seriously irritate. Special occasions minus good food, no longer remain special. Only a perfectionist would know the importance of knowing it all before hand. And with NeedGrub to assist, the job is much easier. Just logging on to www.NeedGrub.com eliminates the tedious requirement of navigating through various dispersed websites which talk about anything but the much required restaurant info. And then of course, NeedGrub is one portal, for very many different cities. Nothing as comprehensive and convenient as NeedGrub’s online food guide is available as an option. Almost all cities and areas are being covered and the expansion drive, to cover yet another, is always underway.

NeedGrub.com team profile?
NeedGrub.com – A startup a small enthusiastic team from various backgrounds.

Online food/ restaurants guide in India is still in its nascent stage. How you guys are convincing restaurants owners to be on NeedGrub and users as well to take a look before going out for food.
NeedGrub provides a platform to help both users and restaurants to communicate and reach other. Users need an online platform to express their views about a place they go out to eat to.

Restaurants have the fair chance to promote their business to the right customer base. NeedGrub is just right for doing just this. With over 30 million online users in India and with this number growing at an enormous rate, I think it has become more of a necessity for businesses to promote online. There is awful lot of competition among restaurants. Restaurants and eating out is such an important area that is growing faster than ever in the metros of India. Eating out has become a very common part of the culture, especially among the young. NeedGrub constantly works on reaching out to the restaurants to help them take advantage our platform and increase foot traffic.

NeedGrub helps promote the business for the restaurant owners, by providing a lot of online and offline methods, especially the innumerable number of restaurants that do not have the means to go online to do marketing themselves. Our users are fantastic, and they help to pass around the word around as well. It is a mutually benefiting platform, and is catching on well.

Whom do you think as your competitors?
Frankly, there are so many online city guides and local search engines out there for India now. It is hard to say if any of them should be considered competitors. I think with the internet community being so big, there is enough pie for everyone. I don’t see others as competitors, I see them all working towards the same of goal of providing a more enriched internet to the growing online users of India. We are focused more on taking NeedGrub further everyday, and listening to our users and customers, to provide what they need.

What are the killing features make it different from others?
The uniqueness of NeedGrub is that it focuses on restaurants only. We are not trying to overload and overwhelm our users with all the information about a city. I think this saturated focus on restaurants makes us distinct, simple and to-the-point. We are excited about every little detail that goes into NeedGrub.
The business listings include Name and Address, integrated maps, user and expert reviews, ratings, events and much more. Every feature is a killer, in its own right.

Any difficulties you are facing?
I guess there are no easy routes to doing business as a startup. There are always challenges, and it is always fun and exciting to tackle these challenges. We learn as we go, strive to get better everyday.
There is always something more to learn, something more to do, improve. I cannot think of any major stumbling blocks I can quote at this point.

Your suggestion for young entrepreneurs?
Give your idea your best shot. Stick with a venture that is strongly based of your experience. Do not assume you can find someone to do the work for you.

User innovations are by far the most successful, you be the user of your product, work on it till you are satisfied with it, then the world will be ready for your idea as well.

I think the success of an entrepreneur is directly proportional to the passion they have towards the idea, and the work they put in to it. Nothing comes easy!

A great idea is only great when it is transformed into a great product. And, with a fast paced growth pattern in India, the sooner you get your ball rolling, the better.

Thanks Anu! Good Luck to NeedGrub.com

Tell me something about your venture?
BuzzInTown.com is a product of Wortal Inc, a US based company, focused on Internet and Mobile technologies, with present operations in 8 cities of India including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. The portal includes listings of events, venues, artiste profiles, groups, producers and other stakeholders of the event industry. We cover a wide range of categories of events & entertainment such as Cultural programs, Concerts, plays, exhibitions, movies, sports, and much more. For us, restaurants, food promotions and food festivals are very important, and we also cover and feature them on the portal. We also provide an eCommerce platform for ticketing and merchandizing sales.

Are you satisfied with the response BuzzInTown.com have received?
Yes. We have had an overwhelming response so far. We are getting well over a million page views a month. This indicates that there is a huge need for event and entertainment options in India, and we are filling the gap. We have a list of activities planned through the coming months, both online and offline, to increase our reach, and spread the “BUZZ”! Are You Buzzin’ Today? – that’s our motto!

Who are your main competitors in this space in India?
In India we are #1 in the online event listing space, and don’t see any specific portal competitors. There are some portals that have synergistic offerings – we know them and are infect working together with them. India requires a collective movement in the Internet & Mobile “Application” space and we are doing it together as a community.

What are the killing features that makes BuzzInTown different?
User generated content: Free listings of events in your city but you decide what you want to see, or show to the world. We realize that a sarangi recital in Lucknow is probably as important to people there as is Sting performing in Bangalore!
Collective Intelligence: Ratings of events by a larger audience rather than an editorial team that could be biased. Register to get your own account, and be heard.
Ratings of Venues: Its high time we knew a little more about the places we go to – directions, maps, Parking facilities, child or senior citizen friendly, neighbourhood and restaurants around.
Like-minded Communities: Not-yet pro´s learning sitar for over 6 years; Fans of Lilette Dubey or DJ Nikhil; People who follow bands like Aryan; People who like to run marathons; People who prefer single malts… Register and join the fun.
Online Ticketing & Passes: Buy tickets online, get free passes, signup for alerts when an event/artist of your choice is announced for your town

What difficulties you have faced after the launch?
None that are unplanned or previously unknown… maybe the fact that the response we have got so far has been monumental and we are constantly gearing up to tackle it.

Your suggestion for young entrepreneurs?
Observe (everyone sees, very few observe); “Develop” an idea (don’t just state it); Follow a business plan (if YOU had to fund it, would you put YOUR money in it?); and very very importantly – Listen!

Thanks Amitabh. Keep India Buzzing… Good Luck!