HYDERABAD: The fourth installment of Startupedia, the two-day start-up fest by the Institute of Public Enterprise (IPE), Shamirpet, which ended on Thursday, turned out to be a special event with participants going back home with key takeaways that will aid them in realising their entrepreneurial dreams.
The agenda of Startupedia was to provide a platform for the young and brilliant minds across the country to kick start their entrepreneurial journey and visualize it with proper understanding under guides. It offers an opportunity to students from various graduation institutions, B-Schools and working professionals across India, to showcase their innovative ideas and launch their business plans.
The participants are groomed and mentored by Industry experts to refine their ideas into viable business plans and they get a chance to pitch their B-Plans in front of a jury comprising industry experts and prospective investors.
The first speaker of day one after the inaugural session, Syed Younis Kabir, Co-founder and managing partner at Barakah Finserve, who is also an IPE alumnus, shared his experience on his journey of becoming an entrepreneur, the highs and lows and the challenges he faced. His insightful talk, which included a lot of case studies, prompted a lot of questions from the audience afterwards. He encouraged the participants to work on solutions.
“The biggest mistake we make is first finishing the product/service and then we try to market it to potential clients. Instead we must first listen to the clients requirements and then finish our product accordingly” exclaimed Kabir. He said this is what not only satisfies the client, but also builds a trust factor. In his presentation, Mr Kabir also explained about various types of funding available for startups. He also noted that most people tend to focus more on funding, which is not advisable for budding entrepreneurs.
The session closed with Vikas Tiwari, founder of What a story, speaking on the importance of feedback. Through his personal experiences, Vikas laid emphasis on how essential client response and feedback is to startups. He also stressed the need for maximum marketing and how one must utilise every opportunity to market their service.
Day two saw various teams pitch their B-plans in front of a jury comprising of industry captains and prospective investors. With ideas ranging from various field, this year marked the most fervor that the event has seen. Winners, of course, definitely stole the thunder.
Winners
1st Prize – Jwala Paper Products
(E Jwala Narasimha Swamy, R Joshua)
2nd Prize – U Decipher (Chidvilas Putta, Satish Kumar, Mallikarjun Reddy, Aditya Varma, Preetham Kumar)
3rd Prize – Sahara (Bharthi Kanodia, Radhe Mundada)