KOCHI: Thirty one student startup founders from six states are on a week-long visit to Silicon Valley to pitch, network and learn from the tech Mecca under StartInCollege programme launched by city-based Startup Village Collective (SV.CO).
Under the programme, which is being implemented with the help of Facebook, students from various engineering colleges, who have built their startup products while enrolled in SV.CO’s digital learning program, were given the opportunity to visit the Silicon Valley. They will showcase their prototypes, learn product development and skills, and get exposure to the world class startup ecosystem at Silicon Valley.
Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) is sponsoring 19 of the students as part of its international programme for startups.“If we are to build a world-class startup ecosystem in India, as is our goal, our entrepreneurs need to get first-hand experience of global best practices. KSUM’s international programme intends to give promising young founders that experience and increase their level of confidence while in college itself so they get an early start,” said Saji Gopinath, CEO, KSUM.
During their week-long stay until June 24, the students will visit other valley landmarks including offices of Google, Intel, Silicon Valley Bank, Freshworks, Zendesk and Bootup Ventures; and attend startup workshops at the North Eastern University and Google Launchpad.
“The Silicon Valley visit has been planned to give the students, a world class global exposure very early in life so that they can be more confident, motivated and get the ability to dream bigger than ever before as they immerse in the startup culture,” said Sanjay Vijayakumar, chairman, Startup Village Collective.
Meanwhile, the Indian student startup delegation was welcomed by the City Council of Menlo Park and has been housed at Menlo College.
On Tuesday, the founders will visit the headquarters of Facebook in Menlo Park where they will have a pitch session and get feedback from experts at the social media giant. “At Facebook, we believe the student community has a central role to play in helping build a world class startup ecosystem in India. We are pleased to support the Start-in-college program that cultivates a sense of purpose among students and enables them to build meaningful projects right at their college campus,” said Satyajeet Singh, Platform Partnerships, Facebook India.
Leading entrepreneur turned venture capitalist Rajeev Madhavan will share with the students his insights on building two multi-hundred million dollar technology startups.