Nagpur News: Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT Kharagpur has sought to undertake a business model competition titled ‘Empresario’. Empresario is the Annual Business Model competition where business ideas in all fields ranging from Product and Service, Product Design to Social get equal opportunity to win the prize and incubation money to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore. The prizes and services for the winners as per the last year are worth Rs 15 lakh. Previously, Empresario was launched in association with TiE Kolkata, Mahindra Spark the Rise and Dell Social Innovation Challenge.
Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur is a students’ organisation established with the aim of fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship among college students in India. Considered a very successful entrepreneurial organisation in the country with over 50 start-ups incubated within 8 years of its inception, it is playing a vital role in developing the upcoming start-ups into successful companies by taking a great initiation of conducting flagship competition namely Empresario, the Annual Global Business Model Competition, open for students across the globe.
Founders go wrong when they start to believe that their business plan will materialize as written. As any seasoned entrepreneur and investor will tell you, the reality of the market will always be different. The direst of consequences follow when the start-up fails.
With an aim for more dynamic methodology for entrepreneurship than static business plans, the Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur has sought to undertake a business model competition entitled ‘Empresario’.
This year, Entrepreneurship Cell IIT Kharagpur & IBM will present the new prestigious Empresario 2015 in association with International Business Model Competition (IBMC). The best entries in all categories will get an opportunity to participate directly in the semi-final rounds of IBMC 2015, which will be conducted abroad.
For the first round of Empresario, the participants are required to fill up a questionnaire asking in brief about their business idea and submit it. This questionnaire can be found on website www.ecell-iitkgp.org/
Entrepreneurship Cell provides the shortlisted entries immense help in terms of mentorship and winners also get a much sought after chance to pitch their ideas in front of some of India’s biggest.
Empresario participants are mentored and supported by organisations like TiE, NEN (National Entrepreneurship Network) etc.
VCs and Investors.Startup Services like legal advice, taxation, financial, technical aspects of running a startup, co-working space, HR needs, incubation opportunities, etc. are provided.
One of the winners of Empresario’14, Betaglide also secured the largest funding among all the startupspresent at Rice Business Plan Competition.
Some of the past student startups who were winners of Empresario are:
• BetaGlide: A startup by students of IIT Kharagpur, is a mobile app testing platform that allows developers to gather information in real-time about the system usage and the behaviour of their app to improve its stability and performance. It has recently won the Tech Transfer Prize (Mercury Fund Prize) at Rice Business Plan Competition and became popular internationally.
• Roof For Two: A startup by a team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a unique concept that can help solve the age-old problem of two-wheeler riders who ride daily through rain, sun and the cold. Roof for Two eliminates travel irritation with an affordable and stylish riding canopy.
Entrepreneurship Cell conducts flagship event — Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), the largest collegiate entrepreneurial summit in India every year in January. The final rounds of Empresario 2015 will be held during GES’15.
