 An air of anticipation surrounded the 850 budding entrepreneurs as they trooped in to attend their mentoring sessions, across seven cities, last month. They had come through a rigorous evaluation process which saw over 16,000 business ideas being examined by the Evaluating Panel. Those making it through the first round of ‘The Power of Ideas’ had filled in the ‘Execution Document for Making the Elevator Pitch’, based on which they received feedback from the mentors assigned to them.
Mentoring took place on both online and offline forums, with personal interactions in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune in the period between September 8th and September 12th. With a dual focus on creating a mentoring relationship as well as strong linkages between entrepreneurs and industry, the initiative received a massive thumbs-up from thought leaders, academicians and the investor community.
This year IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) has joined hands with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and The Economic Times for The Power of Ideas initiative 2010 — the largest of its kind across the globe. The DST, with its immense expertise and relationships in the entrepreneurial space, is offering guaranteed funds worth Rs 5 crore while CIIE’s network of mentors and investors have evaluated every idea received in the initiative, apart from powering the mentoring sessions.
The entrepreneurs selected from these 850, who made their elevator pitches to expert panelists, will now be invited over to IIM for a 10 day business planning workshop.
The Start-up sessions of The power of ideas were carried out in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad.
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