Sanjay Bajaj, CEO of Yonyx, discusses his experience at SmartCamp Bangalore, emerging trends in tech entrepreneurship, what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

What was most interesting about the SmartCamp event in Bangalore?

The five mentoring sessions we went through were the most interesting. In each session, we got to meet with four or five folks from the industry. Their feedback and the opportunity for networking was invaluable. It was also encouraging to see widespread enthusiasm in these meetings for the Yonyx solution that is geared towards helping organizations move from Call Centre(ic) support to Web-based Guided Self Service for their customers!

What do you see as some of the emerging trends in the tech entrepreneurship space?

1. Cloud has really lowered the cost of starting software products companies. When we did our last startup in .com days, ASP (Applications Service Provider) was a new trend … you still had to rent a rack at a data center, buy servers and software – and then have some IT staff to maintain things … you needed a few hundred thousand dollars to get started! Now you can get virtual servers for the price of a meal! I see lot more innovation coming up in this space …
2. While the hot trends continue to include Social, Mobile & Cloud, I see lot more “relevance”-driven innovation in this space. The days of just taking a legacy function and making it available through the Cloud or a Mobile App are transitioning to an overall customer experience that utilizes the right devices and naturally leverages social capabilities to deliver value to customer at an attractive price point!

What does an ecosystem need to be successful? Big business, government, academia, location, tech people?

It starts from the moral support of your family & friends. That is the most important part of an ecosystem you need. Beyond that, you need financial and knowledge support. Financial support can come from government, investors & most importantly customers. Knowledge support can be the hardest to assemble – this includes having the right talent in your core team, the right advisors from industry, academia, tax, legal & business perspectives. Location can play an important role in having access to these – but as far as customers are concerned, increasingly entrepreneurs are starting out with global markets in mind!

If you were to give one piece of advice to up and coming entrepreneurs, what would that be?

Be prepared for the long haul, entrepreneurship is a journey with its ups and downs. Enjoy the ride!

Congratulations to Sanjay Bajaj and everyone at Yonyx for winning SmartCamp Bangalore, and much continued success in the future!

To find out more about Yonyx, visit their website at www.yonyx.com.