If you are in chennai, do touch base. Let’s catch up over coffee sometime.

I am always open to feedbacks, and how we can make this better. Would love to hear from you on that regard.

Vijay

(1) … is an interesting initiator of new ventures
(2) … is capable of coming up with worthy events
(3) … is NOT transparent (Pls don’t try to defend this!!!)
(4) … is NOT non-profit (You can take this as my rant because I’m worried abt the 3rd point above)

So, on the sidelines, will next blogcamp or wikicamp be FREE?

Good Luck in your future ventures and glad to see you are open to encourage other worthy events. Way to go!!!

Best Regards,
Arun

I think there is a misunderstanding here. Something that most people seem to be under. When a entity is registered as a “non-profit society” it means that none of those involved are monetarily profited by any of the money that comes in. It doesn’t mean that the entity either a) exhausts all the money that came into the event, or b) doesn’t raise funds at all.

TKF in most cases does keep an excess fund. We do have some leftovers from the last edition of proto, which is going into the expenses such as the website, the brochures, the giveaways that need to be ordered, the venue that needs to be booked - all the expenses that begin way before any of the sponsorship amount or the participation fees come in.

If you go by the traditional, revenue - cost = profit, then things don’t quite gel here. According to the income tax department, and as per the legal papers and the entities that are responsible for managing entities, “not-for-profit’ means something else.

That is what I meant as “inappropriate to be mentioned in the event announcement”.

Yeah, I think there was a fee taken on Wikicamp, so thats a fault on my part. But the way TKF works is that different people take different initiatives and spearhead them.. apart from proto.in, I am not too much into the finances and day to day operations of other events… except for the regular meets when we go through entire finances - which explains why everyone doesn’t know everything about every event.

Arun, at the end of the day, nobody is financially benefitting out of any of these initiatives. I believe I have publicly stated that I would love for people to take up similar initiatives and run with it in their own circles. I, along with TKF, initiated Proto.in because no one else was catering to that need. If more people do want to… nothing like it. Which is the same reason why I am completely with the effort of Venture intelligence with their initiatives, with the efforts of TiE and similar organizations.

I don’t think we ever competed, nor ever want to be the dominant one. Afterall, this is more to do with passion, than any other vested interests. I returned back from the west, hoping to make some changes, and its is just part of that.

Ideally speaking, I would love it if there are other groups who do the same task that Proto.in is accomplishing, in a better way, so that I could relax on my weekends

Does that clarify things a bit?

“Blogcamp, Wikicamp, the upcoming Podcamp.in, Mobile Monday events, Barcamp, Shoot! (A photography workshop), all of which are free events.”

I think you collected Rs 200 to Rs 300 per person for Blogcamp & Barcamp. How can you say that “all” of these events are free? Quite amazing that you didn’t know you charged for them!!!

I’m not saying its a wrong thing to collect fees for these events. They’re definitely worth it and appreciate the initiatives by TKF. But I’m always amazed at why you procalim to be a non-profit.

“I am smiling here looking at someone qoute 30k as the cost for food for two days.”

Exactly, even if its 60k or 70k, the difference is still very wide (pls come closer to 7L) and you can’t simply approximate the numbers to balance them up. It would be awesome if you come up with the real numbers. Or atleast stop claiming that you’re transparent. Because you’re not

“Why is everyone else involved anyways?”
Because you are doing it as a public event. You’re not compelled to answer. People will know the reality anyway only via discussions such as this. And there is also something called “Right to Information”.

To sum up to the public, I’m personally very happy about TKF’s initiatives and appreciate their initiatives. But the issue is, why are you projecting yourself as a non-profit when you’re not? And I would also appreciate if you stop saying that you’re transparent. I came to this conclusion after you asked “Why is everyone else involved anyways?”

In my honest opinion, claiming yourself as a “non-profit” is a mere marketing tactics on TKF’s part. You failing to agree that is not something people would not be happy about.

We’re happy to spend Rs 10k as a startup. But we’re slightly hesitant about spending that money with a team who are not transparent enough (or who have a different face behind the screens). Also, I would like to see many other teams like TKF to conduct many such events. I think your responses here are opening up chances for other like-minded folks to step in and initiate their own events.

For now, I would work with http://www.aavishkaar.org/ or attend an event in my city as published by actual VCs themselves at http://www.venturewoods.com/

Best Regards
Arun

Your Math is just mind blowing.You should seriously try your hand at career in math Research.

Can i ask you whether you attended the first event?
I did, and can tell you that you have no idea of what you are talking.Please organize a few birthday parties first before you start doing forensic accounting of large scale events.

No offense meant, but you and Mr.Alex are taking through your hats.

Arun, TKF does more than just Proto.in. And not-for-profit, is for the society, to declare that no one is financially compensated for their involvement. It is run by volunteers and by people who are keen in doing something about the things we complain about everyday

And on Amit’s defense, I would say that Amit is only involved with proto.in and not with the other initiatives of TKF, which involves Blogcamp, Wikicamp, the upcoming Podcamp.in, Mobile Monday events, Barcamp, Shoot! (A photography workshop), all of which are free events.

Non-profit is the way the society is registered for auditing purposes of the income tax department. (It was misplaced to even mention it along with the event notice.) Someone who is experienced with the system would know that we are liable to show proper accounts - much more stricter than a for-profit organization - to quality for that. At the end of the day, proto.in will deliver value for the startups, and its the startups that need to be convinced that this is worth the 10K that they are paying.

Why is everyone else involved anyways?

I would strongly advise you to take part in the organization of a barcamp in your city, cause the costs are much different and reality is always different than what people imagine.