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Aimed at fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the brightest minds of our country, the most awaited two-day event of the year, i5 Summit began at IIM Indore on August 21, 2016. With an opportunity to ideate, innovate, inspire, induce and invest, the event is been held together by the Student Activity Council (SAC), IIM Indore and Student Entrepreneurship Support Cell (SESC), IIT Indore. Day one of the event witnessed more than 1000 footfall, including various renowned speakers from different industries and the students, who attended fascinating workshops, panel discussions and guest lectures.
The inauguration took place with the formal lamp lighting ceremony by Mr. Mohandas Pai, Ex-CFO, Infosys, Chairman, Manipal Group; Mr. Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Bank of Baroda; Mr. Joel Michael, Chief- Global Operations, Hyperloop and Professor Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director, IIM Indore.
Professor Rishikesha T. Krishnan welcomed the guests and congratulated the students from IIM Indore and IIT Indore for magnificently conducting the second edition of the i5 Summit at a grand level. ‘IIM Indore and IIT Indore always look for opportunities to work together and will look for the same in future’, he said. He also mentioned that IIM Indore would be launching an ‘Incubator’ in the coming year, which would act as a support center for the young entrepreneurs guiding them for their ventures.
This was followed by a Keynote Speech by Mr. Mohandas Pai, whose talk revolved around disrupting business globally. He noted that India is in a situation with the largest disruption of the history right now and youngsters are lucky to take ahead their career in such a scenario. He discussed how technology has evolved since the World Wars and what impact it has created on human lives. ‘Internet is the major disruption today, as it has provided a platform for every individual to stand alike, at the same level. It has provided a common path to gain knowledge in a similar way, without restriction, at lower cost. With this advancement, every sector is blooming at such a high speed that today everyone can be on the top and gain power, so one needs to decide and move ahead in that direction’, he said. He concluded his talk congratulating the students for organizing the event in a smooth manner.
Mr. Ravi Venkatesan then shared his views about how one should decide a career path and how it can be managed considering the trends in the current scenario. ‘The world has changed tremendously in the last fifty years. Fifty years ago, the best job position was being a government employee, which was then taken over by graduating from IIT/IIM and getting a placement. This was then followed by leaving India and working abroad considering the lack of opportunities in India. Scenario keeps on changing and you now need to decide what career would matter to you right now’, he said.
This was followed by the most highlighted event of the summit- TATA i5, the social venture competition. The competition aimed at giving a platform to young entrepreneurs to share their ideas and ventures that aim to bring about a positive social change. Out of more than 200 applications received for the competition, 8 teams were shortlisted, who presented their ideas to the jury. The judging panel included Professor Tarique Mohammad Quershi, TISS, Founder, Koshish Foundation; Ms. Smita Agarwal, Director- Investments, Omidyar Network, Professor Abha Chatterjee & Professor G. Venkat Raman, Faculty, IIM Indore. After amazingly interesting session of various teams giving their mind-blowing ideas, Team Peco Labs, FMS which came up with an idea to design smart hardware to improve the yield of various crops suitable to Indian farmers, and Team Cfem, College of Vocational Studies, University of Delhi; which aimed at recycling plastic waste through a unique method of tagging and advertising via providing discounts wont the competition. Both the teams received Rs. 1 Lac as the winning amount.
Day 1 also had four workshops by experts from various field. The first workshop was on Graphology, a complete scientific apparatus for shaping HR potential, conducted by Dr. Abhinav Kumar Shrivastava, CEO, Shubhaaksharam. He discussed how graphology speaks a lot about a person and how a person’s handwriting changes according to his/her mind.
The second workshop was on the topic Lean Startups conducted by Mr. Sudhama Bhatia, Co-Founder, Muzenly. He noted that the success mantra for young entrepreneurs would be: innovative idea, to be followed by customer engagement and satisfaction, finding the problem and then focusing on the solution. He discussed how lean startup favors experimentation over elaborative feedback, customer feedback over intuition and iterative design over traditional designs.
The third workshop was on the ABC of Funding by Mr. Ajeet Khurana, Advisor, Kalaari Capital, Ex-CEO, SINE. He discussed how funding is achievable and what are the factors which can help a new venture get funding.
The fourth workshop was conducted by Mr. Balaji Chakravarti, Founder, Scovelo. He spoke on the topic How to Get Your First Few Customers. He discussed the strategies which a new venture can work upon to grab customers.
The second half of the event witnessed three talks under the i5 Speaker Series. The first talk was by Mr. Anand Govindaluri, Founder & CEO, Govin Capital, Singapore, who shared his experience as a student and how he started his career. Degrees and qualifications do not matter that much, he said; what matters is what you actually are and what you believe in. ‘If you want to make money in any startup, the most important thing you need is your team and your discipline’, he said. He advised to always have a mission and a vision in life to attain success.
The second talk was by Mr. Abhishek Sanghvi, Co-Founder & Director, Swan Angels Network. He spoke of the initiative that led to the creation of his company. A major part of his discussion revolved around the challenges a company faces and seed-funding.
The second day of the summit would witness another exciting International Venture Plan competition- Get Funded, where entrepreneurs can raise capital by selling a minority stake of their startups. Workshops on e-Commerce & Digital Marketing would also be held. Two panel discussions on Mobile Wallet/ Mobile Commerce and Is VC Funding a Kiss of Death for Startups would also be conducted.