Startup Immersion Program In Partnership With Confederation Of Indian Industries (Cii)

Unitedworld School of Business, Karnavati University hosted two-day startup immersion program in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on 26-27th March 2018. The immersion program was inaugurated by Mr. Sanjay Randhar- Chairman CII and Dr. Chandan Chatterjee- Senior faculty EDI and former Director CED, Government of Gujarat. The immersion program focused on inculcating students with required skill sets and knowledge required for undertaking entrepreneurial journey right from generating an idea, testing and validating it.

The first day witnessed eminent speakers such Dr. Chandan Chatterjee who addressed the PGDM students on Idea Assessment and how an Innovative idea is the heart of any start-up and that it should be focused on finding the future gap and demand and filling it. Mr. Swarup Pandya, Associate Startup Support, CIIE, IIMA spoke on Business opportunity and Market Evaluation. He spoke on various government funds available and the ecosystems available for budding entrepreneurs. Mr. Sanjay Chakraborty, Founder & Chief Marketing Advisor of EssKsee Consultancy held an energetic and interactive session on Big Brands and Start-Ups. Comparing well established MNCs as Goliath, he stated that even in a very competitive saturated market a small start-up can be the David who identified the weak point of Goliath and killed it.He also interacted deeply in the area of advertising. Mr. Bhavin Bhagat who is a Co-Founder of IndiaBizForSale.com along with partner Ms. Sana shared their journey with students, stated how start-ups use marketing concepts such as marketing funnel, segmenting, targeting and positioning for idea assessment and for differentiating customers from consumers.

The second day of immersion program was an amalgamation of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. The first speaker Mr. Abhishek Rathi, Co-founder of Schemopedia discussed topics such as Fundraising options and Fundamentals of evaluation. He discussed various case studies related to fundraising and also guided on how to boost funds from various sources to start a business. Mr. Suraj Rajan, a young entrepreneur who co-founded Alluvium IoT Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Focused his session on ecosystems available for entrepreneurs in the recent scenario and also stated the importance of social entrepreneurship in India. The third speaker of the day was Mr. Anand Shanker who is an Associate Investor for GVFL shared his insights on Growth Strategies that are utilised by the start-ups to sustain in the competitive environment and become a scalable organisation. Mr. Mayank Patel, CEO- Cradle EDI delivered a deep lecture on Venture Capital. He also discussed ‘Mezzanine’ financing and the functioning, powers and control of VC on a start-up. Ms. Nikita Maheshwari- our last guest speaker who is the founder of Tilebazzar and Tatkalorry discussed the importance of supply chain in a logistics business. she also stated the importance of investing time in market research, understanding the pain point and look for opportunities to start a business in that area.