All Posts in Entrepreneurship

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

We had earlier covered about latest edition of ‘Runway To Success”, Season-3. The registrations for the program are now open & startups can sign up before 15 April 2015.

Lufthansa

Registrations for the program can be done here. Irrespective of the industry in which you operate, this program gives a platform for entrepreneurs to get valuable feedback from an elite list of mentors which could definitely prove to be a game-changer for your business.

About Run Way To Success

Runway to Success TV series is an unprecedented reality programme that celebrates the spirit of Indian entrepreneurship. Runway to Success is an inspiring programme on ET NOW that showcases the best of India’s entrepreneurial talent, and helps discover, mentor as well as reward India’s future business leaders.

What is in it for startups

I had a brush with startups few years back & from that experience, I can comment that any word of “Feedback” can be very helpful. That feedback becomes much more valuable if it comes straight from the horse’s mouth i.e. Fellow entrepreneurs, investors etc. This program is a great platform for startups to get “noticed” !!!

The grand-prize is definitely something to watch out for –

  • A seat at Stanford University’s prestigious Design Thinking Boot Camp.
  • A free Business Class ticket to the US.
  • A coveted TiE mentorship.

So as mentioned before, go ahead & register your startup for the program before 15th April.

You can find more information about the program below:

For more information about Runway to Success,Season 3 can be found here.

Startups, fasten your seat belts & give wings to your startup with Runway to Success !!!

Image Credit – lhrunwaytosuccess

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

BITS Pilani’s Annual Startup Conclave – Conquest is back with it’s 2015 Edition. Conquest has had ten successive editions over the past and this year, the model has been revamped to make it even more grand. Last edition of Conquest saw around 2000 applications from all over India. Conquest provided a platform to support our teams raise millions of dollars of investment upon completion of the Grand Finale held at FICCI Auditorium, New Delhi.

Conquest_Conclave

Highlights of Conquest 2015

  • Close to 2000 applicants would be fighting it out to win the challenge.
  • Last year 3.5 Lakhs equity-less cash was handed over to the winners of Conquest. However in this edition, along with the equity-less cash, winners would also get $1 million worth CRM and other support services.
  • Freshmentors, an online mentoring platform that was backed with angel investment of Rs 1 crore in 2014 would  seek personalized mentoring on college admissions and their careers via live video chats. It caters to its customers with the help of over 300 mentors spread across 150 foreign universities.
  • The short-listing process of the top 50 startups would be done by a panel of Investors and mentors.

Some of the jury members include:

  1. Rohit Bansal, Co-founder Snapdeal
  2. Amit Ranjan, Co-founder of Slideshare
  3. Ankur Warikoo, CEO of Groupon India
  4. Alok Kejriwal, Founder & CEO of Games2Win
  5. Dev Khare of Lightspeed Ventures &
  6. Rajesh Sawhney, Founder of the GSF Accelerator & GSF Superangels

For providing comprehensive feedback to all the applicants of Conquest,2015; they have partnered with Applyifi, a private platform for startups to create a comprehensive pitch-book & thereafter apply to multiple investors or accelerators/incubators.

How to apply for Conquest,2015

  • Registrations for Conquest are open from 31st March & would be open through the month of April. Registrations would close on 1st May.
  • The list of 50 short-listed startups would be announced in the month of June.
  • Any startup which was registered after 1st Jan 2013 is eligible to participate in Conquest 2015.
  • Startups can register at Conquest website. Applicant has the option of saving his form & filling it at any time before the registration closes.

The networking sessions meant to connect every startup with their mentor will be held in 5 cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai in the month of July.

Previous winners of Conquest

Some of the success stories of previous editions of Conquest are listed below:

  1. I-Traveller – Runners-up, 2013
  2. Solar Town – Runners-up, 2012
  3. PosterGully  – Finalist, 2012
  4. Phyzok – Winner, 2011
  5. GharPay – Runners-up, 2011
  6. iViz Security – Winner, 2006
  7. Mobile Medics – Winner, 2005

The title sponsor of the event is DCB Bank.

Startups, please make the most of this opportunity & head over to Conquest website for registration & more details.

* We would update this post once we receive more details from the Organization Team of Conquest. Stay Tuned !!! Please leave a comment in case any information on Conquest is required.

Image Credit  – Conquest

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated:

Pitney Bowes Inc., a global technology company that provides innovative products and solutions to power commerce, called for entries for the second phase of the Pitney Bowes Accelerator Program in India. The program focuses on startups that leverage software for customer information management, mobile, data analytics, location-based services, E-commerce management & Machine learning.

Selected startups will be informed by April, 2015 and invited to present before a jury panel. After the selection process, the names of the selected startups for the six-month long acceleration program will be announced in May, 2015.

Last year, Pitney Bowes named eight startups to the program.  Participants last year included Audianz, Tagalys, Teritree, RetailNav, Heuristics, Ideata, Yo-app and Brown Tape.

More details about the program

  • As part of the program, Pitney Bowes will shortlist entrepreneurs/startups that will have a choice to be located in the PB offices either in Pune or in Noida for incubation and mentorship.
  • Startups in the program will have access to Pitney Bowes’ software, application programming interfaces [APIs] and data for the duration of the program.
  • Training, technical and business guidance and mentoring will be provided to the start-ups from Pitney Bowes engineering and innovation leaders, and from software industry experts.
  • In addition to these strategic connections, start-ups in the Pitney Bowes Accelerator program will also be networking with prospective investors.

Speaking on the of launch of the second batch, Manish Choudhary, Vice President, Global Engineering and Managing Director, Pitney Bowes Software India said

Pitney Bowes guides its clients through the complex worlds of digital and physical technologies to drive growth and create meaningful impact. Startups are vital to technology innovation and India is a hotbed of startups. The talent fostered through the Accelerator Program has the ability to develop disruptive technologies that can be scaled globally.

Pitney Bowes continues to build its presence as a strong organization in India centered on innovation by becoming an incubator partner to NASSCOM’s 10,000 Start-ups initiative. 

About Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes is a global technology company offering innovative products and solutions that enable commerce in the areas of customer information management, location intelligence, customer engagement, shipping and mailing, and global e-commerce.  More than 1.5 million clients in approximately 100 countries around the world rely on products, solutions and services from Pitney Bowes.  For additional information, visit Pitney Bowes at www.pb.com

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

Every entrepreneur whom we have met or interviewed on this blog has stressed on Mentorship & how getting the right mentor was important for their startup. This video from Phanindra Sama of Redbus shows how mentorship from TiE changed the course of their startup.

Lufthansa in partnership with ET Now & TiE brings an initiative named “Lufthansa Runway to Success”, a celebration of India’s vibrant entrepreneurial base and the extraordinary spirit of enterprise that lies at the very core of our economic success. This is the Season-3 of the series.

Lufthansa_Cover

About the Program

Runway to Success TV series is a reality programme that celebrates the spirit of Indian entrepreneurship. It is an inspiring programme on ET Now where thousands of contestants compete for a spot on a shortlist of 27 SMEs who compete for top honours in the 11 episode series.

The first 9 episodes showcase and interview a business pioneer each, who then selects a winner from 3 SME contestants on the show. The mettle of these episodic winners is further tested in the semi-finals & the top 3 vie in the Grand Finale. 

Lufthansa Runway to Success kicks off with a nationwide outreach inviting small and medium entrepreneurs to mentorship camps conducted through TiE. The camps offer insightful ‘guru sessions’ hosted by celebrated entrepreneurs as well as individual mentoring sessions by experts.

Why should startups participate in Lufthansa Runway to Success

It is a unique platform which brings together Competition, Feedback & Mentorship under one roof. If your startup is looking out for valuable suggestions, then you should definitely reserve your place for this show. For bootstrapped entrepreneurs, the good news is participation is free 🙂

Participation would provide an opportunity to transform your business. Icing on the cake is “Getting Valuable advice from experts” !!!

Startup’s get to win the coveted Grand Prize:

  • A seat at Stanford University’s prestigious Design Thinking Boot Camp
  • A Lufthansa Business Class ticket to the US
  • Mentorship from TiE

Registration information

Registrations are now open for Season-3 & interested startups can sign-up for the program here
You can also visit their Facebook page here

Image Credit : lhrunwaytosuccess

|In: Recruitment|Last Updated:

As per one of the recent aviation report, the aviation sector contributes INR 330 billion [0.5%] to Indian GDP.

This total comprises:

  • INR 147 billion directly contributed through the output of the aviation sector [airlines, airports and ground services, aerospace]
  • INR 107 billion indirectly contributed through the aviation sector’s supply chain
  • INR 77 billion contributed through the spending by the employees of the aviation sector and its supply chain.
  • In addition there are INR 582 billion in ‘catalytic’ benefits through tourism, which raises the overall contribution to INR 912 billion or 1.5% of GDP.

More details in the report below:

In terms of employment, aviation sector would support total 1.7 million jobs across different sectors & there would be a growing demand for engineers as well in the aviation sector. One of the issues that students normally face is shortlisting of the right colleges. Well, for a student CollegeDunia might come to your rescue !!! CollegeDunia has a wide list of colleges across different sectors & acts as a Helpful Guide for students.

If you are an aspiring engineer in the aviation space, you can have a look at top aviation colleges in India. Colleges are listed as per the rankings & reviews and for a student, this acts as a boon !!! You can use filters like “Full-Time/Part-Time Courses”, Course Duration, Degree etc.

If you are aspiring engineer in aviation space, do give CollegeDunia a spin & give Wings to your dreams !!!

|In: Review|Last Updated:

Information technology has brought with it a revolution in the job sector. Though the recent stint with recession had hit this industry badly, but it is reviving fast. With the government announcing friendly schemes for entrepreneurs, along with entrepreneurship, there would be a rise in number of potential job seekers as well.

As per the recent news, Flipkart alone would create nearly 2 million jobs in 2015. As the economy bids adieu to economic slowdown, more and more opportunities are opening up for those seeking a fast career in the IT industry. Bachelor’s of Computers Application [BCA] followed by a Master’s in Business Administration [BCA] or Master’s in Computer Application [MCA] is one of the favored paths for those seeking a career in the field of Information Technology [IT].

mca_logo

IT has become an integral department in almost all corporate offices and this makes having an MBA/MCA a viable choice. MCA opens gates to a wide variety of careers in the field of IT and ITES. US Bureau of Labour statistics has predicted a 68 per cent increase in output growth rate of the IT industry between 2002 and 2012. Not only in India, there is a huge demand for IT professionals throughout the world too.

With the board exams nearing an end, students would be interested to choose the right career path. MCA & BCA would definitely be on the hit list of many students. CollegeDunia, an online portal is a sort of Yellow Pages for Colleges.

Now, students can hop on to this website & get trusted informaiton on colleges of their choice. This exhaustive list provides information on the Top BCA Colleges in India. If you are looking out for MCA as a career option, you can find the list of colleges offering MCA here & if BCA is a career option, you can find the information about BCA Colleges in India. I remember when I had opted for engineering in 2001, there was not much clarity on the college to choose, course to select etc.

Now students & aspiring engineers can make use of this great choice available to them & make mature career choices. Hop on to CollegeDunia & turn your aspirations into reality !!!

Image Source – Academicarena

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Citrix announced the successful culmination of its Innovators Program, where nine graduating teams completed its Startup Accelerator’s intensive three-month business model validation program guided by Citrix executives and industry experts. The program ended with a Demo Day, where each of the startup teams presented to a panel of industry veterans and potential investors.

The first group included five internal teams & four external companies. Citrix awarded a $10,000USD fellowship seed funding to the four external companies.

citrix-logo

Launched in August last year, the Innovators Program attracted hundreds of company entries of which nine teams were chosen by an Executive Council, to become part of the Innovators Program. Designed with the objective of blending leading-edge leadership, team building, design thinking and lean startup approaches, teams were trained to validate their business models around customers’ needs. Additionally, participants also received mentoring & guidance from seasoned business executives, industry leaders & venture capital investors.

Commenting on the program’s culmination, John McIntyre, Managing Director, Citrix Startup Accelerator said

The core focus of the Startup accelerator program is to enable entrepreneurs create the next wave of disruptive technologies and great new products that will pave the way for the future of the workspace. India is a gold mine of talented startups, and these nine teams are a testament to this very fact.

We are excited for what these teams will achieve & eagerly awaiting the next cohort of the Innovator’s program, what we plan to launch later in 2015.

Rakesh Singh, Vice President and General Manager, Citrix India added

We extend our warmest congratulations to the path-breaking and first ever graduating batch of the Innovators Program. Our aim had been to handpick startups that showcased innovation and potential, and subsequently help them to accelerate their growth manifold through a series of workshops and mentoring. I can safely say that each of the nine teams graduating from the first edition of the Innovator’s Program in India are better prepared to bring great products to the market, and have attracted tremendous investor interest, making us extremely proud of the outcome.

Graduating Batch of the Citrix Startup Accelerator Innovators Program

  1. Maxerience
  2. Karmasnap
  3. Parablu
  4. Instasafe
  5. Sharecard
  6. Oppcee
  7. Buzzybee
  8. Zipzapdata
  9. 140 Bytes

|In: Bangalore|Last Updated:

Few days back, we had written about Social Media Week that kicks off on 23rd February in Bengaluru. Today, we have received some more details about the event & that creates a “Compelling” reason to attend SMW,2015.

Bangalore goes social again with the fourth edition of Social Media Week [SMW] in India with the theme being Upwardly Mobile: The Rise of The Connected Class. For more details, please refer this earlier article.

SocialMediaWeek_2015

Monday [23rd February] & Friday [27th February] will see the event being hosted at The Leela Palace while the mid-week sessions will be held at venues including News Cafe, Big Pitcher, Total Yoga Oneness Centre, Loft 38, Take 5, and WeSchool Bengaluru.

SMW’15 February edition is scheduled simultaneously across the world in seven cities– Bangalore, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Jakarta, Lagos, Milan & New York.

SMW,15 Highlights

Some of the highlight topics & sessions that will be covered at SMW, Bengaluru are as follows:

  1. Panel discussion on Brand Reputation & Crisis
  2. Weathering Twitter Storm
  3. Internet Of Things [IOT] in India
  4. Big data & Big Brands
  5. Insightful workshops on Social Media for Travel Marketing
  6. Cracking Social Media content strategy
  7. Masterclass on Viral Campaigns
  8. Integrated social media marketing
  9. Inspirational talk on Growth Hacking for Startups
  10. Brand Identity in Digital
  11. Career in Social Media & many more

SMW, Bengaluru highlight speakers include

  1. Mahesh Murthy, Founder Pinstorm
  2. Suhel Seth, CEO Counselage
  3. B. Dayananda, I.P.S, Additional Commissioner of Police
  4. P. Krishna Kumar, Executive Director & General Manager Dell India
  5. Harish Bijoor, Brand-Expert
  6. Sandeep Aurora,Director – Marketing & Market Development
  7. Prem Panicker, Sr. Journalist
  8. Vasantha Kumar, Director Of Marketing & Communications

Alliances & Partnerships

Social Media Week [SMW] has partnered with the Bengaluru City Traffic Police [BCTP] & kick-started an online campaign titled #ImTheChange encouraging citizens to click pictures, shoot videos & share their pledges towards road safety on SMW page. The campaign has already received 3000+ pledges and has created social buzz reaching to more than 1M Bangaloreans.

Speaking about the event, Rohit Varma, Founder R SQUARE Consulting & Director, SMW Bengaluru said

Social Media Week is a platform to share ideas, gain insights & collaborate to innovate. Involvement of the whole industry has made this property unique and that has been the success factor. We have more than 70+ sessions, 150+ speakers sharing their knowledge across 5 hubs. We are very excited to witness the social festival going live in the coming week

SMW Sponsors

Dell, a pioneer in integrating social media into the fabric of its business and engagement with customers, is the title sponsor for SMW Bangalore 2015. Additional partners include Intel [City Support], Wrangler [Style Sponsor], IBM [Event sponsor], Genesis Burson-Marsteller [Integrated Communications], Contract Advertising [Event Partner], BlogAdda [Blogging partner], YourStory [Knowledge], 10,000 Startups by Nasscom, Social Samosa [Partner in Thought], Let’s Venture [Event Partner], Yellow Seed Content Solution [Content Partner], Web Marketing Academy [Event Partner], Culture Machine [Event Partner], Lonely Planet [Event Partner], Digital Vidya [Event Partner] & Uber [Logistics] among others.

Complete Schedule, Registration details

Registration Page

Registrations for SMW Bangalore has started and to register for the event, please visit http://socialmediaweek.org/bangalore/choose-pass/

Schedule Page

For complete schedule of the event, please visit http://socialmediaweek.org/bangalore/schedule/ & to download the schedule, please visit http://socialmediaweek.org/bangalore/download-schedule