Mentoring Entrepreneurs @ IIT Bombay E Summit 09

Posted by Pradeep Chopra

at February 11, 2009

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E Summit 2009 was a unique initiative by The Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Bombay which served as a common platform for aspiring, budding and successful entrepreneurs to interact and help build successful enterprises. It brought exclusive Mentoring Sessions for aspiring entrepreneurs and it was our (for myself and my partner, Kapil Nakra) pleasure to be the Mentors are the E Summit. The visit to IIT Bombay itself was a great opportunity. Being from IIT (graduated from IIT Delhi in 1999), it’s always a pleasure to be at any of the IIT campuses. Incidentally, my previous visit (in 2003) to IIT Bombay brought Eureka 1st Prize (yes, while at Whizlabs, we won Eureka). Moreover, in Dec, as blogging partners for PanIIT 2008 conference, we’d the opportunity to stay at IIT Chennai. I must say that the mood at E Summit was quite upbeat. Given my experience as a mentor at E Summit, I differ with the statement ‘It brought exclusive Mentoring Sessions for aspiring entrepreneurs…’. Why? Because, the set of people whom I’d (the same feedback I got from Kapil Nakra) the opportunity to mentor were already entrepreneurs. So, I must say that IIT Bombay did a great job in attracting quality crowd for mentoring. That made our mentoring experience even more interesting and valuable. During the mentoring itself, an idea stuck my mind - how about asking the mentees to share their experience of the mentoring session. In my view, doing that would fulfill many objectives:

Valuable feedback (for both me and E Summit team) on the Mentoring Sessions
Will support mentees in crystallizing the key takeaways of the session
Will also help mentees spread the word about their startups (again, these guys are already entrepreneurs)
Finally, will help generate relevant content for the blog (UGC - User Generated Content is the buzzword today

So, without further delay, I am taking this space to publish direct feedback from the people, whom I’d the opportunity to interact with as a Mentor.

Jayesh Jagasia (Co-founder, veriCAR) At the very outset, ‘Mentoring Session’ is a slight misnomer. Given the tight (really tight) time constraint, the Mentoring Session at IIT Bombay was more a ‘Get Introduced to Potential Mentors’ session. Looked at in that perspective, the session was incredibly helpful. As a young startup in the big, bad world, there is nothing more budding entrepreneurs need, than an opportunity to reach out to people who they could learn from. The Mentoring Session, at least to me, was that opportunity.

All in all, it was an interesting experience to participate in the Mentoring Session at IIT Bombay. I look forward to being on the other side of the fence in the near future. About veriCAR veriCAR is India’s first buyer-advisory service for used-cars. veriCAR uses its expertise to help used-car buyers make informed decisions throughout the purchase process. veriCAR’s objective is to help every used-car buyer buy the right car, at the right price. I took away invaluable gyaan from this little session with Pradeep – stuff that I would have taken a few weeks (and a few thousand rupees) to get a hang of, on my own. Some practical, immediately workable suggestions came about from Pradeep’s experience – stuff that veriCAR will begin to benefit from almost immediately. Of course, connecting with someone who has been-there-done-that is an added bonus. There are two ways I see that the session can be improved in the future. One, by giving mentors a detailed heads up on the startup they will be meeting – this will save the 15-odd minutes lost to introductions; time that can be well-utilized to actually talk business. Two, by encouraging a startup to discuss only specific aspects of its business that fit in with the profile/experience of the mentor. Pradeep and me got hold of point number two rather quickly, and decided to restrict our discussion to veriCAR’s online marketing initiative – this allowed us to remain focused and discuss at least one aspect of the business in some depth.

Amit (Co-Founder, Saloon Indulgence)

The insights that were shared to me dwelling into various aspects of start ups and funding were truly an eye-opener ! thank you for steering me towards exploring various novel ideas which could be incorporated in moving up the value chain. My takeaway from the session was a self-awareness of the need to rework my business plan and work on my presentation to potential investors. Also on the benefits of having the best team at place and the value of customers. I am sure that these points will help me grow further. About Saloon Indulgence Saloon Indulgence is a full-service beauty salon dedicated to consistently providing high customer satisfaction by rendering excellent service, quality products, and furnishing an enjoyable atmosphere at an acceptable price/value relationship. It is our endeavor to maintain a friendly, fair, and creative work environment, which respects diversity, ideas, and hard work. Overall, I believe it was a great experience for all of us and I look forward to more of such opportunities in the future!

Entrepreneurship

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Comments

Comment by Ashwin on February 17, 2009 @ 9:15 am

Thanks a ton for sharing your views and the feedback by mentees about the Mentoring Session at E Summit 09, with the world. I have forwarded the link to my team and I am sure we’ll follow your suggestions in future.

I am bound to become a regular at OmShare, its a very interesting concept and beautiful initiative.

Comment by admin on February 17, 2009 @ 12:03 pm

You are welcome Ashwin!

I am glad that you liked the platform. Looking forward to taking our relationship with IIT Bombay eCell to the next level!