Pre Conference Workshop On Start-Ups

Preconferenceworkshop on start-ups in association with Kanara Chamber of Commerce andIndustry (KCCI) was organized on Wednesday, 19th February 2020 at NethravathiAuditorium.

There weremore than 300 participants in the workshop out of which 96 participants compriseof members from corporates, faculty members and students from institutes in andaround Mangaluru

Objectives: Students should be encouraged to develop an entrepreneurial mindsetthrough experiential learning by exposing them to training in cognitive skills(e.g. design thinking, critical thinking, etc.), by inviting the first generationlocal entrepreneurs or experts to address young minds. Initiatives like ideaand innovation competitions, workshops, seminars, conferences, exhibitions,mentoring by academic and industry personnel, throwing real-life challenges,awards and recognition should be routinely organized. To prepare the studentsfor creating the start-up through the education, integration of educationactivities with enterprise-related activities should be done.  With this objective workshopon startups was organized.

The workshop began with the prayer; Ms. RahasyaPai from KCCI welcomed the gathering, Mr.Isaac Vas, President of KCCIinaugurated the workshop by lighting the lamp. Mr. Kudpi Jagadish Shenoy,President of Womens’ National Education Society (WNES) presided over theprogramme.

Addressing thegathering, Mr. Isaac Vas said that there are three types of entrepreneurs:Those who do business solely for profit, those who believe in giving the bestproducts and services to consumers and lastly those who want to bring aboutchange. “Ideas that seemed crazy or even imaginable just a few years ago arecommonplace today,” he said, pointing to Uber, Ola, and Airbnb as examples.

He advised the delegatesto harbor high entrepreneurial vision. “The world is changing demographicallyand there is enough space for new entrants in business,”

Dr. Molly S. Chaudhuri,Director of MSNM Institute gave a vote of thanks. Mr. Muddassir Khadar, Asst.Professor was the programme compere.

Mr. Ajith Kamath K.,Mr. Naveen Narayan, Mr. Santosh Prabhu, Dr. Madanmohan Rao, and Mr. AvinashKaranth are the resource persons for the workshop. WNES Vice President Mr. ManelAnnappa Nayak and members Mr. Nagar Narayan Shenoy and Mr. Raghav Kamath were present.

Inauguralprogram was followed by technical sessions.

ExpertSession 1: Business Plan

Speaker: Mr. AjithKamath, Proprietor of Ajith Enterprises

 Mr. AjithKamath cited examples from his own journey, such as becoming eligible to bidfor contracts by first becoming a sub-contractor to gain experience. He alsocalled for more exposure about the business and entrepreneurship world forengineering and IT students, and vice-versa.
 Though circumstances may change thebusiness plan helps see broader connections, and holds the founders andemployees accountable to their commitments. The very act of writing things downmakes concepts, marketing, and financials more explicit, Ajith explained.

ExpertSession 2: How to fund your Start-up

Speaker: Mr.Naveen Narayan, Fellow Member, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Funding needsfor entrepreneurs vary across the stages of ideation, discovery, validation,customer creation, and company building. Funding sources for the startupjourney vary during ideation (self-financing, business plan competition prizes,family), validation/seed (angels, crowdfunding, incubators, government grants),early traction (Series A: early stage venture capital), and scaling (growth stageVCs, PE). There are also grants given to new startups, but not to modifiedentities formed by splitting up or the reconstruction of an already-existingbusiness. There are also grants given to new startups, but not to modifiedentities formed by splitting up or the reconstruction of an already-existingbusiness. Mr. Naveen advised founders to research the implications of each typeof investment with respect to risk, repayment, involvement, duration, andreturn to investors, pressure, and decision-making.

ExpertSession 3: Legal Compliance

Speaker: Mr. SathoshPrabhu, Co-Founder Intelex IP Solutions

Mr. SanthoshPrabhu said, the foremost and pretty crucial thing after the incorporation of abusiness entity is to follow up with its compliances. Hence, before youregister your company, you should know whether you would be able to comply withits compliances or not.   But how wouldyou figure out? For the same, you need to find out the compliances of thebusiness entity you have chosen to register with. He also gave the detailsregarding the registration process and formalities.

ExpertSession 4: Business Scalability

Speaker: Dr.Madanmohan Rao, YourStory Media  TiEBangalore

Dr.Madanmohan Rao insisted on the journey from ideation to scaling up businessideas. Founders need to reflect on their journeys and aspirations and decidewhether they want to remain small enterprises or global players. He also gave examplesrange from corner medical shops to large-scale chains like Radha Medicals orCVS. Ola and Paytm are good examples of Indian startups going global.

ExpertSession 5: Native Startups

Speaker: Dr.Lionel Aranha, Chartered Accountant & a Lawyer in consulting practice inthe Finance & Legal Area.

In hissession Dr. Lionel Aranha discussed the different ideas for entrepreneurshipwhile looking at innovation leading to Start-up/Incubator. He discussed thedifferent concepts and issues related to upcoming entrepreneurs with referenceto global examples and challenges in the world economy at large. He alsoinvited students to discuss any of their ideas or business in-process so as tomake it more realistic and opportunistic.

All thesessions were followed by questions and answers session in which students gottheir doubts solved. All the speakers’ encouraged and motivated participants tothink out of the box and insisted the youth to be in start-up and create the successstory of their own venture. The program was quiteinformative and interesting too.

Feedbacks weretaken from all the participants. Positive response was received from major setof participants, with most of them requesting for further such workshops.