EcoAvenue: The Bitcoin Era

The Economics and Finance Society of Manipal, organized the first edition of EcoAvenue, an info session to discuss some of the most trending topics in the world of finance. Bitcoins, crypto-currencies, and startups were few of the areas the session revolved around. The idea behind conducting a session of this kind was to familiarize the budding entrepreneurs in MIT with the art of business.

The first speaker, Abhilekh Tripathy, at 22 years of age was an inspiration to everyone in the crowd from the moment he went up on the stage. He talked about his journey beginning from twelfth grade, through college, to the day when he established his startup, ABROS Financial services, in New York City.

He dropped out of college in his third year, and though he’s not proud of the fact, he said that he always knew what he really wanted out of life, and engineering didn’t fit the description. The interactive talk touched a lot of domains, with the listeners asking him questions that were both personal and professional. When asked about what the driving force during his days of struggle was, he said, “I’d rather have failed at something I loved, than succeeded at something I don’t.”

The event also saw Kartik Mandaville, an alumni of MIT, and a Carnegie Mellon graduate as the second keynote speaker. He’s the founder and CEO of SpringRole, which is his own Startup, and the Senior Technical Advisor at some of the well-known companies all around the world.

Kartik shared his experience of studying at Carnegie, and how it differed from the one he had at MIT. He went on to talk about bitcoins, and the technology behind it – blockchain, patiently walking everyone in the audience through the working of the entire operation. The crowd, couldn’t help but be awed by him. “It’s not easy to have one’s own startup in a place like India, where the stigma attached to failure is so high, but if you believe in yourself, there’s nothing that can stop you”, said Kartik.

After an interactive session that lasted for about two hours, the event came to an end. These two young men proved to be the quintessence of business and marketing skills, and economic fanatic or not, everyone was left wanting for more.

–Gaurangi Gupta, for MTTN