IIM Trichy conducted the inaugural E-Summit on November 13. The Summit was organised to demystify the start-up ecosystem and encourage students to start their own entrepreneurial ventures.
The event brought together various actors in the start-up space — budding and seasoned entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and incubators to name a few. The event saw participation from over 150 students. It was organised by E-Cell (Entrepreneurship Cell) of IIM Trichy.
E-Summit was inaugurated by Sushant Nayak, CEO and Founder of Abbott Rooms, who was the chief guest, in presence of Dr Prafulla Agnihotri, Director, IIM Trichy and Prof V Gopal, mentor of E-Cell and Dean Administration & Accounts. In his welcome address, Dr Agnihotri thanked all the guests for guiding the students. He also reminisced about his experiences and said that he holds people who leave everything to start something on their own in high regard.
In his keynote address, Nayak stressed on the need for action, once you have an idea. He said that one of the key factors to success is to get on ground and do the work that you expect to be done. It is also important not to have “mind blocks”, which bog you down and prevent you from doing what you want to do. He also offered to help the students in their entrepreneurial ventures by guiding them.
The guest of honour was Shajan Ninan, CEO and Founder of Kaizen Tutorials Pvt Ltd, who also addressed the students. He exhorted them to follow their passions and said that the money will automatically follow. He said that it is important to have faith in your dreams and to be humble about success as it is a collaborative effort.
This was followed by a panel discussion on ‘Designing a winning business model’. The panel consisted of Arumugam Muruganandam, MD and CSO of Assigenix Biosolutions Pvt Ltd, Gaurav Agrawal, Founder of Pickmylaundry, Shajan Ninan and Aruna AP, Programme Manager of XLr8AP.
This focussed on how to design a viable business model and how various solutions can exist for the same problem. The panel also stressed on the need to focus on customer needs and how to use technology to do that. Customer base should be built one at a time to understand the ground realities and effectively address customer pain points.
Over 50 teams from all over the country participated in the B-Plan competition. Five shortlisted teams presented their business plans to a panel of judges. After a rigorous round of Q&A, Team Articleships from SIBM, Pune was declared the winner.
Krishnamurthy Vijayan, CEO and Founder of TNIFMC Ltd, ended the E-Summit with an enlightening talk on the financial side of business and what investors look for in a business pitch.