Bhopal : Start with what you have in your hand, make your losses affordable, don’t try to do everything on your own, take advantage of changes in circumstances and do not put yourself in the hands of others. Industry experts gave away these and many more useful tips and suggestions to the finalists at the India Finals of the prestigious Global Student Entrepreneur Awards – GSEA. In all 28 Student Teams from across the country are battling it out to win the coveted title and a chance to compete against their peers at the Global Finale in April 2021.
This three day event being hosted by Entrepreneurs Organisation, Bhopal in association with Amazon Web Services and AIC RNTU began here on Thursday. The day one of this virtual event witnessed three bootcamp sessions in which industry experts talked on various aspects of entrepreneurship.
The sessions were conducted by Dr Rajeev Roy, Professor-Entrepreneurship , XLRI on ‘Student Startup, What Next?’; Dr Kaustubh Dhargalkar, Founder, Potentials and Possibilities on ‘Design thinking for early stage startup’ and Ajay Batra, Executive Vice President, Venture Fastrack at Wadhwani Foundation on ‘Understanding Customer, Business Model Canvas’.
Dr Rajeev Roy said if you want to succeed as an entrepreneur you should keep three things in mind. These are belief in the criticality of the task at hand, required skills for the task and grit. He said “There is no fixed formula for what will work and what will not work in any business. But you can definitely make your way with the mindset of perseverance and constantly learning and understanding.” He said that two-three decades ago, the focus of youth was to get jobs but now they are coming forward to become entrepreneurs.
Dr. Kaustubh Dhargalkar said that whenever you think of bringing a product or service to the market, always think from the customer’s perspective. Go out, meet as many people as you can, listen and understand their problems and adapt your product to overcome them. He explained his point of view with examples of Ford Icon cars and plasma TVs, how these excellent products could not fair well in the market.
Dr.Ajay Batra said that 90 percent of startups in India fail. He listed five reasons for this, these included lack of product in the market, lack of qualified team, lack of money, product quality and poor marketing. Startups should spend 60 percent of their time contacting customers and getting to know them.
