Liveblog: GdayX 2014 at Park Street Mews

GDayX 2014 is here (and it’s almost caught us by surprise). If you’re a tech geek, if you’re a Google fan, and if you’re even remotely interested in startups, new technology, new businesses – generally all the cool stuff – then Park Street Mews is THE place to be right now.

Up first, we’ve got Dr. Romesh Ranawana, CTO of SimCentric, on hig-tech startups and research-based spinoffs. Gday started off a bit abruptly, due to a wee delay, so we’ll explore a bit of the subject matter. Romesh started off by defining high-tech startups and spinoffs.

A high tech startup is a company set up by an entrepreneur or a group for the purpose of exploring a brand-new intellectual property. A spinoff, on the other hand, is a new company using on brand-new tech developed elsewhere, say like in a university. Based on this key difference, he explored how these different companies do things.

“In high tech startups, usually the core founders are the people who developed their technology and know that tech really well. And remember, the idea behind a startup is not to build a company that lasts forever – it’s to show the world how robust your tech is. The focus is technology, not the product.

High tech companies are very very lucrative. If you have a good IP, you can easily multiply yiur money a hundredfold, even more. There’s also clear exits. One thing we’re seeing is that more and more startups are coming up from universities: we used to have a traditional way of thinking is that after you complete you higher studies you pursue a career. But now we’re seeing people going into universities so that

a) They can learn what they need to know
b) They can find like-minded people
c) They can sit down and work on their technology for 3-4 years without any distractions. Nowhere in the world do you get this kind of environment.”

Want more? Read on. We’ve been blogging what each speaker says – remember, the most recent posts show up just below this post. If you’re starting reading anew, scroll down to the bottom and head up. Cheers!

[liveblog]