E-Summit 2011 Highlights
The Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Bombay organized E-Summit 2011 to encourage budding entrepreneurs and help them on their path to being the next big thing. With the onset of E-Summit, the entire campus of IIT Bombay was abuzz with the entrepreneurship.
The campus was flooded with start-ups from IIT Bombay and outside, exhibiting their business models and in turn getting critical views and vital networking with fund managers, Venture Capitalists and potential partners.
On the other hand, guidance seeking and lecture loving student community got a chance to interact with proven entrepreneurs who were there just to help them out on their quest. There were ample avenues for them too. E- Summit 2011 provided them with expert panels and speakers who explained their own journeys of entrepreneurship and shared their accumulated wisdom with inquisitive audience. These included among others, Mr. Tulsi Tanti of Suzlon and public policy entrepreneur Mr. Sam Pitroda .
Quotes from Shailesh J Mehta
“Key for entrepreneurship is not having a fear for social stigma”
“Single minded focus is important”
“All decisions are imperfect and don’t wait for a well analyzed perfect decision”
Quotes from Tulsi Tanti
“Money is never going to be a problem when you have a good idea and a great business plan. India is growing at an enormous rate. There are VCs, investors, seed funders desperate to put money in great ideas.”
“India is going to witness enormous growth in the next 2 decades and your generation will be in the tail wind of the growth, with an opportunity to tap those enormous resources.”
The Cell also managed to come up with yet another innovative event format which was called as the “Networking Lounge” where established start-ups and industry behemoths were up for grabs. They were open to ‘network’ with students, entrepreneurs and early start-ups and answer all their questions and apprehensions regarding business. Another important feature of the event was that it was divided based on Sectors i.e. experts from similar group of industries interacted with people interested in those sectors.
Speakers in Networking Lounge included among others Mr. Anil Pande of Reliance Communications, Mr. Krishna Gopal from Tech Mahindra, Mr. Taranjit Jaswal of Bank of America, Mr. Rajesh Sawhney of Reliance Entertainment, Mr. Navdeep Narula of Reliance Retail.
Some Quotes from Mr. Rajesh Sawhney:
“It’s absolutely fantastic to make mistakes. Good entrepreneurs have a model of mistakes.”
“Just go dream and execute. Valuation follows.”
Eureka! 2010 Euphoria
Eureka, Asia’s largest B Plan writing competition which was opened on 1st September 2010 attracted around 2002 B-plans across the country. Top 10 teams made it to the finals and the grand finale was hosted at E Summit.
The winners of Eureka! 2010, who received cash prizes of 5 Lakhs, 3 Lakhs and 2 Lakhs were No Paper form, Array Shield and Fermentech. The event was important not just from the point of view of funds that the contestants get but also from the point of view of valuable suggestions, critical analysis and networking that the contestants got from the summit.
- 1st Prize was bagged by a company called “No Paper Forms” for their business idea of a software that will help institutions at all levels to accept admissions online and bring about transparency in the admission process at all levels. The idea was proposed by a set of professionals who had a prior work experience with different firms.
- 2nd Prize was secured by Array shield technology Pvt. Ltd. started by two brothers Pavan Thatha and Rakesh Thata who are the alumnus of IIT Bombay and IIT Madras. The business idea was that of a software which provides internet security solutions thus safeguarding user from hacking, phishing, etc. The proposed technology is undergoing patenting process.
- 3rd Prize was clinched by Fermentech Biologics of Andhra Pradesh which is a Biotechnology based Feed supplements development company that intends to deal in low cost Feeds, feed supplements and feed solutions for dairy, poultry and aquaculture niche markets.
International Training in Business Modelling
For the first time in India, The Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Bombay had organized a workshop in Business Modelling workshop for budding innovators and entrepreneurs as it is most important step to plan the venture and approach capitalists for the project. The Workshop was conducted by Phillipe De Ridder from Board of Innovation, Belgium.
The Workshop was a huge success with more than 300 participants attending it.
Business Mentoring Hub launch
For people who had been already working on their B-plans but were stuck on some critical issue, there could not have been a better platform than BMH at E-Summit. These lucky participants got 30 min one-on-one inputs from the domain experts regarding how to go ahead with their plans.
15 groups were mentored by an expert group of 10 mentors. The speciality of the initiative lies in the fact that those mentored could keep in touch with their mentors even afterwards and leverage upon their knowledge and contacts.
Start-up Expo
Start-up Expo was an exclusive initiative that aimed at providing visibility to some of the most exciting and innovative start-ups by showcasing them at E-Summit. It allowed start-ups to portray an outlined description of their product/service to the wide range of attendees at E-Summit, including Venture Capitalists, aspiring & budding Entrepreneurs, Industrialists, Working Professionals, Students and Media Houses. It also created the opportunity for participating start-ups to get valuable feedback from industry veterans, which could go a long way in building world class products and services. 15 start-ups had participated in Start-up Expo.
IIT-B Start-ups
Start-ups born at the heart of the institute were also showcased with around 12 start-ups from the institute participating in it. It was a huge inspiration for the attendees to see these students start-up at such an early age and enter the world of entrepreneurship.
