CHENNAI: There is much more to being an entrepreneur than just starting a business, said Vaishali Neotia, co-founder of Merxius, a virtual reality and augmented reality company, at the inauguration of the National Entrepreneurship Summit — ‘Ignite 2017’ at MOP Vaishnav College on Friday.
“Being an entrepreneur involves taking the initiative, making hard decisions and always believing in yourself,” said Neotia, an engineer-cum-entrepreneur, who has certifications from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and the Indian School of Business. “There are three lessons that I would like everyone to remember — believe in yourself always because if not you, then who? Stand up for what you believe in and never hesitate to stand out. Finally, always put your hand out and not your foot. By this I mean that while healthy competition is good, never trip someone to get ahead.”
In her talk, Neotia explained the importance of not being branded a ‘woman entrepreneur’. “An entrepreneur is an entrepreneur,” she said matter-of-factly. “We are all working towards building a sustainable business. It has nothing to do with gender. The moment you dissociate yourself from the whole by branding yourself as different, people view you differently and it becomes easy for them to discount your achievements. It is our responsibility to normalise it rather than constantly differentiate.”
Lauren Lovelace, Consul for Public Diplomacy, US Consulate General Chennai, and the Guest of Honour at the event, spoke about the need for more women in business. “The economy will be better if more women are put in positions of power and leadership,” she said. “One of the important character traits required to make largescale change is the quality of empathy. Further, for women to do well at work, it has been observed that a supportive family goes a long way. However, there have been cases where women have fought all the odds and emerged winners.”
Among the others present at the event were Manoj Kumar Sonthalia, CMD, The New Indian Express group and the secretary of the college and Lalitha Balakrishnan, Principal of the college.
The two-day entrepreneurship summit being held at the college will have many prominent speakers discussing issues ranging from trends in business financing to whether lineage or new age works in entrepreneurship, whether entrepreneurship is an idea or an opportunity and so on.
Some of the speakers include Vijay Rajagopal of Paypal India, Sanjay Pinto, Lawyer, columnist and author, Sarvesh Shashi of Zorba, Shyam Sekar S of Startup Xperts, Meera Maran of Terra Earthfoods among numerous others.
Apart from panel discussions, workshops, aptitude assessments and competitions will be conducted over the summit on Saturday.