Entrepreneurship Development Cell

EnClub

Entrepreneurship Development Cell

Giving your Ideas an Expression

EnClub is an unconference! A novel approach with an aim to provide a common discussion forum to all students, that includes beginners as well; where they can come up with their ideas. We ought not to begin with the Scriptures, but with experiments, and demonstrations. The EnClub sessions apart from discussions and arguments include several presentations by the students among themselves in various Open, Theme-based and Expert sessions.

they are given an opportunity to present their polished ideas in front of Mentors, which include successful entrepreneurs who are experts in their respective fields for their advice and suggestions. This club is open for all and no membership is required, simply because this is your own club. All one needs to have to become a member is an idea and if you are still searching for it to strike, the zeal to pursue one.

The Open sessions involve lots of brainstorming and speed-thinking, on various ideas, topics, their pitfalls and loopholes where as in the Theme based sessions discussions and ideas are restricted to a topic pre-decided by the club-members i.e. the students in the previous Open session. All these help them tie the loose ends of their ideas. Next

We will meet on 27th September at Open Air Theatre (OAT) at 6:30 pm for our first Open session. Join [email protected] to keep yourself updated.

DPP

Deferred Placement Programme

"If you are not 'living on the edge', you are taking up too much room” We just make 'the edge' look far better Deferred Placement Program, popularly called D.P.P. is an initiative of Entrepreneurship Development Cell (EDC), IIT Roorkee. It is a scheme which gives an oppportunity to the budding entrepreneurs to defer their placement for two years . DPP acts as a cushion for those who want to start their own venture after graduation, those who have the vision of producing jobs and not taking one, those who dare to live on the edge. All candidates selected for DPP can opt out of placements in their final year and come back to IIT Roorkee within 2 years of their graduation to sit for the campus placements. Incredible as it may seem, equally incredible is the fact that we are the third college in the nation to implement such a program, after IIT Kharagpur and IIM Ahmedabad.

It has already been welcomed with immense enthusiasm. We have received plenty of queries and interested students have been flocking to us for more about DPP. We are inviting applications for DPP. The candidates are supposed to submit the executive summary of their B-Plan to STEP office latest by 30th October 2008. Their plan would be judged on the grounds of viability and seriousness. Five candidates would be finally shortlisted to be enrolled for DPP. DPP secures your future without compelling you to compromise your dream. It is a one-of-it's kind program that offers you freedom and peace of mind. Where ever you may stand, you'll always find plenty of roads to take. This for the ones who have the courage to take the road less travelled. “You'll miss 100% of the shots that you don't take". We are on the look out for those who dare to shoot.

Dreams have no limits.... then why dream small?

IIT Roorkee Newsletter

IIT Roorkee

Giving Wings to our Ideas

There is a new buzz about Entrepreneurship in the campus and the administration has an equally creditable role to play. Take the case of Rahul Gupta , whose Apparel Designing and Manufacturing venture DANPARC is getting incubation under STEP (Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park), IIT Roorkee. For those who are new to the term, incubation is a process by which a start up is provided with a myriad of services by an incubator . Nearly all incubators offer help with business basics – such as writing business plans – as well as one-on-one business counseling and mentoring, networking opportunities, marketing assistance and shared facilities, equipment, and services such as reception and high-speed Internet access. Most have some mechanism to help their clients fund their enterprises, from links to venture capitalists and angel investors to in-house loan funds Successful completion of a business incubation program increases the likelihood that a start-up company will stay in business for a long time. Incubation is not a new concept , the first incubator was founded in US in the year 1959. Some of the lleading incubation centers in India are NS Raghavan Center for Entrepreneurship Learning (NSRCEL) - IIM Bangalore. Technology Business Incubator - Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani, Cente for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship - IIM Ahmedabad , Nirma Labs and E-Cell of IIT Kharagpur and many others. The idea of doing something different came to the DANPARC team during the end sems in December 2007. Bored with the normal curriculum, they decided to do something different and that's where DANPARC struck them. In January, 2008 their efforts paid off and they got an order of 1000 sweat

shirts .After that success they approached the different departments and sections and got their t-shirts printed .They have our own marketing team in delhi consisting of students from iitd delhi who have been recruited after rigorous interviews. They have a number of colleges on their radar and are on course to getting orders from the biggest engineering and management colleges in India. Start-ups cannot be very successful without the right kind of environment, says Mr Pankaj Sharma, founder , LeadInvent . They need hand-holding and support that an incubator can provide. Interaction with outside environment and business counseling form an important function of an incubator. Mr. Sharma worked at IIT Delhi with one of the Biotech professors on some projects, with the last one most valuable and innovative in the field of bio-informatics, simulating the interaction between the affected protein and the medicine proposed. He started a company with some of his colleagues in the project at IIT Delhi's Technology Business Incubation Unit (TBIU) only and got the technology transferred to his company in the final stage. After perfecting the algorithms for over an year, his software technology is now ready to be used. He is now approaching pharma companies to get their some of their R&D outsourced to his company. Contribution and guidance from the professor on his Board and another faculty has been crucial. Though, he had to give very small license fee for the technology transferred to his company, FITT (Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer) signed the deal with larger royalty fee. But, his business is growing leap & bounds and recently they got a big contract from Ranbaxy. Incubation, apart from all the mentioned support, also give credibility and brand image to get clients in the beginning.

The Big Debate

Big Business Vs Small Business

Often start-ups and especially small businesses face competition from already existing large companies in the same domain of market. The competition from larger companies can be quite daunting, perhaps even intimidating or discouraging. But there are many ways in which small business can consistently beat big business, or at least co-exist without being eliminated. Big companies have an already defined structure for all their goods and services, and since it has quite a big network, every department and person in the hierarchy has a specific role, authority and responsibility, which gives a kind of inertia to the whole system, and flexibility is lost. What a customer wants is that someone should take ownership of the issue and see it through so that it is solved. While big companies do the same, the hierarchical structure may delay it significantly, and time is an important factor. Small businesses can get it done effectively and timely because of their flexibility. Although one may question their expertise and resources, they can be argued to be sufficiently enough for day-to-day

problems. So, a so called small business scores at customer service very easily. In other words, small businesses can deliver more personalized service than big ones.

Qualification An average student with cgpa 6.7-6.9 , a brilliant cricket player(4 times inter-IIT ) and was a part of this institution till last year.

Small businesses have a huge advantage over big retailers -- they are agile. As a small business owner, one can simply make a decision about the strategic direction of the business and act on it immediately.

Why Him? He kicked a 40 lakhs job offer from Schumberger to start his own enterprise ' Dietz Foods’ !

Quality has a cost, and quality conscious people are always ready to pay it. It does not matter from where has that quality come. In market, price is equal to positioning. No one collects cheap massmanufactured items. So, even if a small business offers quality for some price, it will find customers in market. The trick for small businesses to exist in the competition market is simple –“Find your niche and serve it well” -- play the game on your own strengths. While the big retailer won't be driven out of the market, a small business can coexist peacefully and profitably.

Samadhan

Social Entrepreneurship Competition

Our country is progressing leaps and bounds. With rapid industrialisation, our economy is moving ahead at a pace as never before. But the development, to a larger extent, has remained confined to the cities only. The rural India still faces a lot of problems due to the lack of basic infrastructure. Development needs to be done in these areas in the fields of housing, roads, electricity, health & medicine, education, transport and communication. The heart of India still lies in the villages as more than 70% of our population lives there. We can't say ours to be a developed nation until the fruits of development reach our rural population. In the wake of problems faced by people living in the rural areas due to lack of basic amenities, SAMADHAN invites b-plans in the field of RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE. For the first phase, only the executive summary is to be submitted. The shortlisted entries would be given mentoring by industrialists and social entrepreneurs. The final entries are to be submitted alongwith the financial details, market scope and analysis, milestones with stages of implementation, risk and competition & intellectual property strategy.

The Trendsetter Satya Vyas

Incentives: > Cash Prizes worth Rs 60,000 are to be won. > Abstracts of Winning Entries to be printed in recognized journals > Booklet containing winning entries will be circulated in major corporate houses, educational institutions, NGOs etc. Important Dates: > Submission of Executive Summaries: 25th September > Declaration of results of 1st round: 15th October > Mentoring: 18th - 28th October > Final Presentation at IIT Roorkee: 2nd November For further details, contact: Ashish Agrawal (09411500848) Saikat Gupta (09997020405) Website: www.edciitr.com Write to us at: [email protected]

Here's an interview with the freak! Q1. Someone said, Venture Capitalists are easy to handle, compared to your girlfriend who will just refuse to understand your ambitions. What was your girlfriend's reaction when you told her you're leaving the best possible job option on campus? And your parents'? Ans. As far as Aarti is concerned she was a little worried initially and wasn't able to digest it. But when I explained her that it wasn't that risky and this was what I really wanted to do then she got convinced and has supported me(and paid my bills too). Parents got really tensed but again I had to convince them, now they are also supporting me. Q2. How much money do you have in your bank account right now? Did you try for incubation or funding? Ans. Never ask this question to an entrepreneur. When I started, I had nothing in my account, but now from borrowings and some freelancing I have some money in my kitty. I tried getting incubated at IIMB but that was far too costly and cumbersome, so I chucked the idea. Q3. How long have you been thinking about this idea? How did it materialize? Ans. The Idea struck to me when I was in

Chandigarh with my friends and I was trying to find something healthy to eat, but to my amazement I didn't find anything, finally this March I was in Goa where I started to put things on paper. After graduation I took up a marketing job in Bangalore; in a startup(commonfloor.com) started by IITR seniors, I was seeing two startups run in front of me, one in which I was working and the other started by luminaries of IITR like Shayak Sen ( Batch '06) and Himanshu Sahani(Batch '03) and that was where I got really motivated to start my own venture. I still learn a lot from them. Q4. Is this your first tryst with entrepreneurship? Ans. Actually this is my 3rd shot at entrepreneurship, the first one was Venom, the computer gaming magazine, which lasted only one issue(we ran out of funds); then came zabraku.com the site was made live but then I wasnt able to build a team that could take it ahead. Both these ventures were started in my 3rd year. Q5. What keeps you going? Ans. Like any youngster I want to be rich and famous; this is the dream that drives me. I know entrepreneurship is all about making a meaning; true, but at the end of the day, you need to realise your personal dreams as well. I strongly believe in Steve Jobs philosophy " You can connect the dots looking backwards" and I recommend that everyone should read the speech that he made at Stanford in 2005. Q7.Please Describe 'Dietz' in 2 lines. Ans. Through dietz I aim to make people healthy. We would be setting up food outlets in Bangalore, where each food item would be specially designed by dietitians.

“E News

There's a very thin line between a crazy person and entrepreneur. While the former believes in something which the world doesn't, the latter makes the world to believe it as well.

”

Entrepreneurship News

Outside Insti > 46 students from Electrical Batch of IIT Bombay, passing out this year opted out of placement to start out in labs, incubator and from home. > TiEcon Delhi 2008, TiE Delhi’s annual flagship event is scheduled in October 22nd-24th. The theme of this year's conference is "Entrepreneurship Comes of Age"

Inside Insti > Two winners at ISIS - the EDC, IIT Roorkee organized Business Plan Competition have started their companies. This is the second consecutive year that the winners at ISIS have gone on to start their ventures.