Glimpses from the two-day Entrepreneurs-In-Residence Workshop

Towards the mid of last month, the Centre for Entrepreneurship (CfE) at Ashoka University organised a two-day workshop for the members of  Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiR) programme. The attempt of the workshop was to give a rounded view of entrepreneurship to various EiRs that run startups in different sectors. It covered diverse topics ranging from the importance of networking to how to make a pitch to investors or prospective clients.

Arpit Jain, Founder, Kappde and a Fellow from last year, who attended the workshop shared his takeaways from the workshop, “A mix of stalwarts from necessary sectors that every company should concentrate on,  several growth hacks and lean strategies-  all in all, enough pump to work for the next few months.”

The first day started with an introduction and keynote from Jairaj Bhattacharya, an alumunus of the YIF and Founder, Convegenius.  He spoke about his entrepreneurial journey and successfully leveraging the Ashoka network. Another highlight of the day was a session with Manish Upadhay, Co-founder of LIQVID, a Soft Bank group funded organization. He spoke about strategic aspects of scaling up.

Aspects covered in the workshop:

1. Early stage funding
2. Govt. schemes and funding for startups
3. Digital Marketing and Social Media
4. Legal aspects of Startups

The day ended with a crucial session by Dr. Shikha Suman, Founder and CEO Medimojo, a digital healthcare platform for storing, tracking and sharing health records on the. Having recently secured a substantial amount of investment for her own venture, she conducted a workshop on the art of pitching to investors. The entrepreneurs were given a day’s time to prepare a pitch which they had to present to Vineet Gupta, Founder and Trustee, Ashoka University the next day.

The workshop, an initiative by the EiR Programme at Ashoka University left the entrepreneurs enthusiastic and geared up for their endeavors. Priyank Narayan, Director, Entrepreneurship Programmes at the University noted the relevance of the workshop in the overall programme, ”EiR is an incubator programme designed to provide a launch pad for Ashoka alumni who have decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge. The programme provides comprehensive support such as – accommodation, office space, continuous mentoring, high quality relevant content and even a stipend to support the entrepreneurs’ initial days.”

Soumit Saha, Founder DINO and an EiR, concluded, “It was a session with the right mix of speakers for the right set of entrepreneurs at the right time given their stage in growth.”

The Entrepreneur in Residence is a five- month program open only to the alumni of Ashoka University.

The underlying philosophy behind the program is to offer avenues of growth to alumni intending to take their entrepreneurial ventures to the next level. Through the program – the Center for Entrepreneurship tries to give wings to the entrepreneurial dreams of Ashoka alumni.

In its second year, the current EiR cohort has 11 members. The program provides classroom sessions, mentorship, networking possibilities and expert opinions to the selected entrepreneurs.