There is a Google "Conspiracy sponsorship campaign" at all entrepreneurial/ startup events in India

Attending the StartupCity organised by Silicon India further reinforced and vindicated an observation that i have made over the last one year... startup and entrepreneurial events' predominant preoccupation today can be summarised in one word... Google.

Aspiring entrepreneurs want to find the next google idea... VC's and PE's want to invest in the next google... sponsors want to partner with the next google... start-ups believe that they have the next google idea... speakers wax eloquence about the virtues of google. There is no entrepreneurship event where google is not talked about.

Google has never participated in any of these events... but it looks like there is what i would term a "conspiracy sponsorship campaign", with all the entrepreneurship associations, event managers, speakers, etc all secretly conspiring together like the grand masters of the priory of sion to ensure that Google gets virtual, omniscient branding presence.

The "whisper campaign" activity by Rolls Royce i used to think was a masterstroke. But at the end of the day "whisper campaign" is still paid for by RR. The Google conspiracy sponsorship campaign is subtlety in its purest form... and the best part is that it is not paid for.

Hey come on you can't tell me that i have made this up... don't ask me to really prove that Google is actually doing such a campaign. The company would deny it... after all which architect of a conspiracy would accept that there is a conspiracy.

Now... the next time you go to an entrepreneurship meet, you know who is going to get more branding mileage than the lead sponsor. Just keep it to yourself... don't tell anybody cause nobody will believe you :)

On a serious note... before Google, the startup inspiration stories were Yahoo and Microsoft. In the Indian context Infosys takes the crown. Who will be the next inspiration... only time will tell. But my gut says that it may not be anyone from the ones who do the rounds of the entrepreneur events.