Illuminate: What it takes to be an Entrepreneur
S.P.I.T E-Cell, in collaboration with SP-TBI, took an initiative to bring together E-cells, across Mumbai with the venture S.C.O.P.E. It was launched on 28th October 2017, with the event Illuminate. 11 teams from various colleges went head to head to win and bring glory to their respective colleges.
They say, ‘Ideas are bulletproof’. So, to set the entrepreneurial spirit, the event was started with an Idea Generation workshop. Mr. Viral Thakkar, CEO EBzaar, was the first speaker of the day. He enlightened students with his journey of starting EBzaar, his childhood dream. Through his talk, he gave vital tips on how to identify problems and think on their feet. Following the speech, participants were provided with the day’s newspaper and were asked to generate start-up ideas solving the problems reported in the newspaper. Amongst the 11 teams, a total of 85 ideas were generated. A team generated 27 ideas, just from a single newspaper!
Next up was an elevator pitching workshop, conducted by Mr. Kartik Raichura, CEO Websites.co., a start-up incubated at SP- TBI. Along with describing his start-up journey, he gave valuable tips on how to grab opportunities intelligently and emphasized the importance of having confidence in one’s idea. The students learned the ABC’s of networking and the recipe to make a perfect advertisement.
“We learned a lot from ILLUMINATE! I couldn’t have asked for a better platform for providing a conducive environment for start-up ideas.” Yash Muchhala, participant (FE IT, S.P.I.T.)
Budding entrepreneurs were then provided lunch. After which teams were given total 5 mins,2 minutes for pitching their idea, 1 minute to enact an advertisement and 2 minutes for Q&A. All teams presented their ideas in their own unique way, raising the bar for the teams to come next. The questions asked brought to light the hardships that could be faced during implementation of the idea. While the advertisements thoroughly entertained everyone, with some leaving the audience in splits. The judges, Kartik Raichura and Kaiser Katchi were in a great dilemma.
While the participants were eagerly waiting for the results, they were provided delicious snacks. Later, Samroz, Community Manager, SP-TBI and Aamir Mulani, Founder and CEO, Troplay, interacted with the audience. They acknowledged the impressive energy and effort of the participants and invited all teams to visit the TBI and take advantage of the services it has to offer. They assured support from the SP-TBI in the form of mentorship, guidance and financial aspects on the different aspects of a start-up.
Following which, the results were announced by Prof. Kaiser Katchi. The runner-up team, Aditi Kandoi, Yash Muchhala, Rupal Handoo and Sunit Vaidya won a cash prize of 2k. While Harit Bandi and Vinit Agraharkar, who emerged as winners bagged 3k. Dr. Kalbande, Dean Industry Relations concluded the event, appreciating the enthusiasm and creativity of the participants.
“Organizing Illuminate was a pleasure, we had lots of fun and learned a few lessons along the way. It was an enriching experience.”- Kevin Doshi, Head of Operations, E-Cell.