The Successful Failcamp

The event had been a great one, which gave the opportunity to know the great lessons learnt by the risk takers. For those participants who had so far not taken the risk, it gave the impetus on to know about the stepping stones which will lead to the successful destination. So it was really amusing to have seen such a good meet up which had got its initial birth in the mind of an energetic Namma Blogger Kiruba.
I started my trip to the Failcamp with Virupa giving me lift in his car. We went for the event at 9.00 a.m. The venue is at 6th floor of P.T.Lee Building situated exactly opposite to the great land mark of Chennai, the LIC. The P.T.Lee Building houses more than 5 offices and all of them except the 6th floor is occupied by Government Departments.
Me & Virupa arrived and met Kiruba at the parking area. Starting our way to the Tenth Planet's office, Virupa suggested to avoid the lift and go up by the stair case. Humpf, lazy me had was to take the hardest task of climbing nearly the 100 steps. But we got the chance to see all the government offices upto the 5th floor, which had its traditional look of shabby desks and dirty files lying on the tables. If not for Virupa we would have not got the chance to see these awesome things... Finally reached the 6th floor of the building.
The scene is different here with a tidy entrance and a security person handing out a register to have our details registered.


We filled up the register quickly and eagerly went inside the tenth planet's office to see the attractive office.


The interior speaks out on par with a Five Star Hotel and I needed to turn to left after much gazing of the nice reception hall. On seeing the computers and work tables I happened to recall that I am at the office of a software company if not a five star hotel.

A nice design on the wall...

I understand that much of sweating has gone out from the team @ Tenth Planet to ensure that those participants get the warmth feeling during the meetup.


I think by seeing this you will not believe that this is an art work on the walls which leads to the rest room.


A restroom in par with that of a 5 star hotel.

During the meetup since the talks given by different CEOs were so much interesting.I really delayed going to the rest room for peeing since doing so will make me at loss of missing the session. But this tiny aspect was already taken care of by tenthplanet's CEO Mr.Kumar Mani, he had designed the restroom to include the Public Address System.


Thats the speaker box blasting out the session going out at the main hall of the office.

Astonishing to know of how their work environment will be.

Ohh I really forgot to tell about the Failcamp.
Okay., Now lets see about the meetup...


It started with a breakfast. We had it at the conference hall of the Tenthplanet office. The art work on the walls of the hall was really nice.



The failcamp started with Kiruba addressing the crowd. Came to know from him that this is the second failcamp in the world.


Suresh Sambandam the CEO of Orangescape.com. He gave a nice talk and the participants were astonished to know that he had started his venture in Cuddalore Town at an early age of just 19 years with just only a 12th Standard qualification. He has failed in his first venture and gone for a regular job to learn. After that he has started his own successful company called Orangescape.com.
I am proud that he hails from my town Cuddalore and we both had our schooling at the same premises.
His company Orangescape has got recognised as top IT innovator by NASSCOM for two consecutive years and boasts of being one of the 3 companies showcased as EMERGING companies in the NASSCOM Product Conclave.


Thats Kalyan the founder of quadsgroup.com. His initial experiment has failed since friends were the partners in his company and that those friends had spent more time in flirting with their girl friends than mending for the company. After 7 months of journey he dismantled the business and also lost two of his close friends. His second experiment has come out successfully since he had got a lesson and concentrated more on marketing .


Thats Deepak the founder of Ensemble Technologies. His story is that after finishing his Engg Degree at his native place Erode, he started his business in partnership with one of his friends. Though he was one of the responsible persons in the placement cell at his college he had decided to not try for an employment. His father had supported his wish of starting the business with the condition that he will be given only one chance to experiment, if it fails, Deepak has to then walk on the track which will be shown by his Dad.
He has lead struggling days in his initial 4 years. Though he had not known what is what in business he had the perservance to develop it by any means. After 4 years, he decided to shift his Embedded Solutions to Chennai.
The initial days for him is rather hard with no known persons to give support. With just 1 Lakh Rupees in his hand he had landed up in Chennai and started in setting up a minimal office. He had had the worse case scenario of implementing cost saving right on the daily consumption of his drinking water at his office. To save on the expenses incurred on water can, he used to drink more water in hotels during his break fast and lunch. Thus he had would not drink water from the water can at his office.
Indeed a smart idea on part of Deepak, but its really a hard thing to see that these kind of bitter struggles had gone into the bricks which were used to make Ensemble Technologies into a now wonderful castle.


Thats Deepa an employee of Tenth Planet asking a point to the entrepreneurs. I am envious of the employees of Tenth Planet that they speak out of their desire to be an entrepreneur just in front of their own CEO.

Later I got astonished when the CEO Mr.Kumar Mani himself expressing that he recognizes his employees as an individual entrepreneurs by themselves.
Awesome.
Hats off to you people. Its really a Tenth Planet.
Thats the CEO's artistic cabin. Awesome...


Some of the cubicles had really interesting stuff pasted inside them, which made an interesting thingy.




Virupa the founder of HomePlanGuru.com making a point. The interesting aspect between us is that he is born in my native Cuddalore and now living in Nanganallur, Chennai. I was born @ Nanganallur in Chennai and now living in Cuddalore..

He stresses that most of us FAIL to say NO when we need to say NO. This is an important aspect due to which many of us FAIL to SUCCEED.


Its post lunch session. I forgot the name of the dude giving the talk. He is also from Cuddalore. The more theory he gave out made me more sleepy indeed. Any how the topic was interesting but since its post lunch session, the sleepy tunes set in forcing me to yawn.


Chanced to capture the Chennai's landmark the LIC at its full view on my little camera phone through the glass pane from the Tenthplanet CEO's cabin. The top left corner what you see is a bee hive. The dots are due to the dirt on the surface of the glass pane.


Thats Arvind who dared to innovate while he was doing his college. He started his business with friends as his business partners. Though he was offered US$ 12 Million by a venture capitalist from Hyderabad, due to the problems between the partners, he ejected out of the partnership. Dumbfounded to know that with such a huge sum of money waiting for his disposal he has ejected out of the partnership. Really a great thing that such young people are churning out interesting things on Earth and had taken such a strong decision to be a noble man to make his strings straight rather than taking the money for a ride.






Yep, I was there...


Awesome guys,
Thanks to Kiruba, Kumar Mani, Kalyan ...... You, You & You for making the day a wonderful one.

An unforgettable memory in my life...
Few more pictures at my flickr