Ideas and philosophies ranging from the clichéd to the modern were part of the Next Growth Conclave held in the Capital on Friday.

The event organised by NEXT Venture Corp is Nepal’s largest entrepreneur conference with 22 international and Nepali speakers. Over 30 firms lined up to showcase their products and services and get the chance to interact with investors and potential customers—all under one roof.

Decoding business growth was the theme for this year’s conference. The second iteration of the conclave hopes to plant the entrepreneurial seed in those attending the event. More than 700 attendees absorbed the information like a sponge which highlights the budding entrepreneurial scene in Nepal.

The wealth of experience shared by the guest speakers was eye-opening and sometimes inspiring. The speakers held nothing back and shared their journey of raising their companies from a startup to an established player in their respective countries.

The speakers at this year’s conference included Upendra Mahato, founder of the Mahato Group of Industries; Siddhant Raj Pandey, chairman of Business Oxygen Nepal; Hem Raj Dhakal, co-founder of the IME Group, Nepal; Nitin Sethi, vice-president of Quikr.com, Bangalore, India and Anil Gurung, co-founder of the Backstreet Academy, Nepal.

International companies from Malaysia, India, Finland, Bangladesh, Singapore, Indonesia and US were present at the conference along with Nepali firms.

A highlight of the event was the various panels that explored topics from achieving business growth and the importance of user interface to investing in Nepal. The panelists revealed candid and professional experiences during the discussions.

A common question that the speakers were asked was, “What is the secret sauce behind successful entrepreneurs?”

The answer, in a nutshell, is luck.

It might sound like the most anti-climatic answer, but it was the most common response distilled from the successful entrepreneurs themselves.

Warren Leow, vice-president of the Inmagine Group, explained luck as a factor in business success, “An entrepreneur is someone who can recognise an opportunity at a point in time coupled with the ability to grab it.” He added, “The more you try, the more you learn.”

Other speakers like Hem Raj Dhakal and Upendra Mahato had interesting advice for budding entrepreneurs. Dhakal said, “When you have a crisis, you have a business opportunity.” Mahato simply stated, “Don’t overthink.”

While most startups and businesses can relate to the topics being discussed at the event, design was not one of them. When a speaker asked designers in the audience to raise their hands, less than a handful responded.

The vice-president of Quikr based in India, Nitin Sethi, explained the importance of having a good user interface (UX) which translates into good user experience for the end users. He cited examples like Yahoo Mail and Twitter as digital products that went on different trajectories based on their UX.

At one time, Yahoo Mail was one of the most popular email services, but it was bogged down by poor UX, which ultimately led to its downfall.

Sethi was of the opinion that the reason Twitter exploded was due to its simple UX.

The event also provided a platform for new product launches such as Singha Durbar, an app built for Nepali governmental tasks. It claims to be the first of its kind application, developed as part of a mission to support the governance system. The app received funding support from USAID and is part of the SinghaDurbar Project.