IIMB expert on starting up in the virtual world
The eighth episode of the series, on October 25th featured a conversation with Prof. Suresh Bhagavatula, Professor in the Entrepreneurship area, at IIM Bangalore. Prof. Bhagavatula shared his thoughts on starting up in the virtual world, in times of the pandemic, with changed rules of meetings and collaborations.
The podcast focused on the new rules of starting up in the virtual world connected over video conferencing platforms such as Zoom and others. Prof. Bhagavatula brought his insights from his work on entrepreneurial networks to educate on how collaboration, serendipitous encounters, and other start-up characteristics stand changed in this COVID world. He cited numerous examples of start-ups, mostly incubated at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore, that have successfully evolved and adapted to the new setting. The podcast revolved around questions on various legs of starting up, such as finding problems to solve, ideation, team building, hiring and raising funds, and how they stand impacted because of the changes induced by COVID-19. Prof. Bhagavatula discussed why sticking to the problem rather than the solution remains a stronger way of going for entrepreneurship. He gave various examples of start-ups who have managed to identify gaps around us and have built their business in bridging those gaps or solving problems. He also provided various other stories of entrepreneurs who started during the COVID period to look at failures because of the virtual mode of working.
Listen to the podcast on