Catalysing the growth of the ecosystem.
One of the main reasons for many developing ecosystems is their connectedness and inclusivity. If we have 4X events happening in Silicon Valley, 2X events happening in Bangalore and Delhi, we in Telangana are at X. To increase the exposure, it is important to multiply opportunities for people to meet, connect, network and learn. How can this be achievable? Who plays a major role in making it happen? We need passionate citizens and thinkers who have a genuine interest and belief in creating such ecosystems. We are a country that has always functioned on community learning and sharing, it is in our nature to build such ecosystems. A modern method to facilitate this by building a small community of our own; a WhatsApp group. This group has 120+ odd people, who are extremely experienced in their fields and believe in a change that they want to induce.
“We are catalysts in the community, the ones that connect all the dots between the elements in the ecosystem”
T Catalyst: A network of community champions helping community grow through various initiatives and activities in the start-up space aiming at bringing together organisations, networks and groups that enable the ecosystem to foster.
Role of this community:
T Catalyst aims to do the same, by initially involving the people of the state in this network, before anyone else. It helps to have a community where the people have an understanding of the culture of the state, yet come from heterogeneous backgrounds. To have a diverse setting is to allow for better perspectives, which in turn facilitates exponential growth. It is also necessary for this system to effectively function in order to integrate well with the country’s ecosystem, and eventually the global system.
Often ecosystems seem to be dominated by people from the tech and science industries. Even if this is not the case, the popular perception is that a start-up ecosystem (within the country/state at least) is filled with organisations and individuals who are from an engineering, tech or medical background. The Arts community seems to have taken a backseat. However, the community can only flourish for the better if people with an Arts and Humanities background are included. T Catalyst believes that integration of tech with art and design, science and humanities is important and necessary. Combining these elements together brings in the much-needed focus on ethics, customer-centricity and empathy that is often missing in today’s profit-driven world.
Alibaba in China, Apple in the U.S., and tech-driven products like YouTube and Pinterest are all run by graduates from an Arts/ Humanities background.
There is no way we can forget this place when we talk about community and arts. ‘Lamakaan’ has become a very important part of the art culture in Hyderabad. It is the best example of a very well run community place. It offers people a chance to conduct meetups and meetings from literature to entrepreneurship without paying a single rupee. Many thanks to Farhan for believing in community building.
The community plays a huge role in ensuring the sustainability of an organisation. This is usually done through events or cyclic practices, and by community builders. These builders bridge the gap between the ideators, the investors, the customers and everyone in between. How do they do this? Sometimes it’s by a simple communication method; talking. And, sometimes it’s carefully structured ideas that start a wider conversation. TED Talks was such an initiative which started way back in 1984 and is something that we still relate to. The founders understood something that most startups and established firms (still) can’t figure out; the importance of balancing Tech, Entertainment and Design. And it didn’t stop there. We do have our own jewel, INK Talks, Which stands for Innovation and Knowledge, India’s answer to TED started by a community builder Lakshmi Pratury
I remember talking to Avinash Raghava, Community Evangelist from Accel Partners and one of the best community builders we have in our country. He has been helping people and working on various initiatives from the past 20 years to build India as a ‘Product Nation’. My question to him was simple! What’s in it for him? Why does he connect people and initiate many programs? His answer changed my perspective.
“Connecting people makes me happy and I do it without expecting anything in return. I love my work as it is first and foremost about people and relationships, and it is because of these deep friendships that I have been able to learn and grow.” — Avinash Raghava
“We are people that are the stewards of the resources, the shepherds running around keeping things moving and stitched together, the relationship-builders, the curators.”
Modus Operandi:
- Mentoring upcoming enablers: Many people in the ecosystem have the experience, passion and enthu to help the community grow. Assisting and directing enablers in the right direction by sharing the knowledge we have in this space, is necessary.
- Connecting People: Since we have been in the ecosystem from so long, we might have come across many smart people who will benefit by being introduced to other smart people. As community builders, we should be able to connect them without expecting anything in return.
- Spreading the concept of ‘Paying forward’: This area focuses on spreading positivity, encouraging the untapped potential and knowledge that mentors and experts in various fields have. There should be an active promotion in them contributing to the ecosystem.
- Inclusion of different subject experts: Very often we see that a third person’s perspective on a situation helps one have an objective outlook. This is the same with any project within the ecosystem. It is necessary to have “non-native people knowledge” to keep the system more dynamic.
“We are the ones who take a systems-wide approach and think about the impact on the whole network of people, programs, and resources in the community — looking at the cavities and creating new resources to fill those gaps.”
Importance of T Catalyst:
A relatable example of this could be the Humans of New York. Who would’ve thought that pictures with quotes and stories of “regular” people, would bring the world closer? What started out as a personal project for a photographer in New York, is now the reason for a whole community of people sharing their experiences and thoughts with each other.
Another amazing organisation that I’m fortunate to know and want to mention is Headstart, a non-profit organization committed to transforming the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the country. Building a volunteer network in 23 cities over 10 years, it is a case study for many community builders to learn from. Headstart’s volunteers’ contribution to nation-building is commendable and inspirational. One of their programs, “Startup Saturday”, a monthly series has recently completed their 125th milestone; 125 months of execution with a sheer passion and countless hours of work to help entrepreneurs.
“A lot of us can’t see ourselves doing any other work. So regardless of what organizations we work for, we’re connecting and bringing people together.”
Who are the people who are eligible to be part of this community? Are there certain qualifications that are required? Well, yes. However, these are not academic or- necessarily- experiential accomplishments, they are qualifications of character and intent to help. You are a part of the community if you believe that organisations- amateur and otherwise- can grow better when they are interdependent. You understand that the prosperity of one company in a particular space acts as a catalyst to the growth of the other. You also know that trial and error, experimentation, ideation and innovation are central to the beginning and sustainability of any company or start-up; giving them a space to explore is essential to the growth of the ecosystem as well. Most of all your zeal towards revolutionising the community help believe that all of this is possible.
The views mentioned here are my own and I’m not representing any organisation including Government of Telangana
Special thanks to Dhruti Kalavapudi of TSIC & Vyshali Sagar of PWC for helping me write this. All quotes in between were collected from the best sources of google..
