Bhat's Notes

Rockefeller foundation’s model includes two key ingredients: Momentum and Diversity. T-HUB believes in it. Not only we have the momentum but we are also diverse. Including me, 30% of the T-HUB’s team moved to Hyderabad to work for T-HUB. That’s an example of diversity.

We have 346 Startup incubated so far during the past two years.

Our vision is to make Hyderabad top 10 destinations of the world by 2020. T-HUB is anchored towards this vision through three business units: Incubation and Scaling, Corporate Innovation and International Relations.

Hunger is the difference between entrepreneur and a job holder. Startup entrepreneurs are our customers.

We have three esteemed educational institutions IIIT Hyderabad, Indian School of Business and NALSAR on our board. On top of it we have six individuals as board members.

IT Minister KTR is the visioneer for THUB and IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan is the man of action. Leadership is most critical for any business and it is wonderfully managed by Jay and Srini, proving me wrong about my apprehensions, at the time of hiring them, about how these two great individuals bring collective leadership.

Here is an example on how technology has become all pervading. I returned last night for from holidaying  in Uzbekistan. I have foubd two young kids running around. Two year old boy was trying to take the picture of a two year old girl using iPhone. I have never touched a camera till I was 40. I see that the technology is getting exponential.

THUB needs to build more of the following three.

1) Domain knowledge (Silicon valley happened because of internet (Read book by Alec Ross). AgriTech, Healthtech, Edutech and other verticals must be of focus.

2) Deep Technology (RICH headed by Ajit and more)

These three are important as we move into third year. Two years is too short and we have built a database of 2000 entrepreneurs. More than unicorns, I believe the winners are those who create sustainable organizations.

Two years is already a maturity in my opinion. I remember we did selection interviews that day with BVM Mohan Reddy couple of years ago. When we hired Srini and Jay, we were skeptical but these two made progress faster than the light of speed during the past two years. Niti Ayog talks very high of THUB and that is a testimony itself.

THUB is helping Assam and Goa goverments now.

Ws still need to cover a lot of ground. Well begun is half done and we are more than half way through, I would put it at 90%. Thub incubated Startups are getting international recognition. 5 out of 10 Uber Exchange program’s shortlisted entities are from Hyderabad. Uber does it with  rigor. This is a fitting example of how T-HUB has done so far.

T-HUB learnt through the curve. We started as co-working space. We turned now to be well curated one. T-HUB has everything for everyone now.

Barometer for the success of T-HUB is the number of corporate partnerships. We have crossed more than 20+ such partnerships at the incubation and acceleration level. They chose T-HUB to run their programs. It is not easy to get these profit seeking corporates to be convinced in partnering with T-HUB for different programs.

I am a member of multiple boards. The quarterly discussions that happen during T-HUB’s board deliberations are a learning experience.

We would like all other Hyderabad and co-working spaces to share the best practices and keep the bar high. Raise the bar with minimum services, facilities are assured and do it locally in Hyderabad and then in the whole nation. Every innovation cell in Hyderabad could bring the common minimum norms.

Jay and I have always looked at T-HUB as a STARTUP by itself. The problem we solve: Help Startups get scale.

We are celebrating the growth of the ecosystem in the whole Hyderabad. I think the progress we made in two years is incredible. Board is our strength. KTR is our strength. Funders, academic institutions and corporates too. Every one is a contribution to that journey.

Congratulations to the entire board and team of T-HUB for making T-HUB pride of the state and even nation.

On 4th of June 2014, two days after I assumed the IT Minister role, with so many apprehensions about future of IT sector in Hyderabad, we drove right to IIIT and ISB. We started talking without any agenda. Prof. Aruna and Ramesh were there too. We started talking about what should be done. We wanted to make  sure Hyderabad takes a lead role. We had agreed to setup a space for large Incubator to ensure innovation, supported by government of Telangana.

IIIT gave us the shell. We made it our own. It took longer than I would have liked it but we got it ready in 12 months. On November 5th 2015, we had Ratan Tata inaugurate the building. We waited for him for three months as Tata represented brand india and innovation.

We brought to him our cause as he supported startup India though he is 70+. The day he was in T-HUB, he made a profound statement. He said “This is the new face of India”. That just made our day.

I keep meeting tech czars, industrialists and ministers for the past two years and all of them bring the name of T-HUB to my attention. I don’t bring the name off late in my discussions with any but they do. This is a telling testimony. I have no clue they even visited T-HUB.

I heard AR Rahman say “Is this the building and ecosystem that Telangana government built? Then I like this government.” Satya Nadella said in similar lines. Niti Aayog sees T-HUB as a model worth emulating by the rest of the states to support innovation.

I was part of IFDI event in T-HUB that was co-sponsored by Intel and DST. Mr. Mithul of DST, a compelling story teller, mentioned not about the swanky infra, but said “T-HUB has that catalytic effect.”

Dave of ICRISAT launched their own hub. Even LV prasad eye institute, IITH and Cellular molecular biology of Hyderabad (Innovation for Health Tech) started their own incubation centers. We got 17 vertical-focused innovation centres. IMAGE is another program.

This has been a fascinating story if you go on talking about it. I am happy to share that government of Telangana has thrown its doors open to a number of Startups for market access. One example is a startup named Radical 5 that identified pain points for a common man on Hyderabad streets. Driver’s license, Registration card and insurance card are the ones, with the collaboration of  respective government agencies, they share with citizens of Hyderabad through an app called RTA for any street checks by city police. We have million users of this app now.

Banyan Nations, another T-HUB startup got orders from the TS Goverment to cater two couple of TS Municipalities.

Ever since Katherine of US embassy stepped in Hyderabad, she charmed all of us.

Good to have nine international Startups here in T-HUB as part of T-bridge. We want T-HUB to do social innovations that make positive social impact.

We will be launching the world’s largest Incubator next year here in Hyderabad.