All roads, on Aug 04 & 05, led to IIMB with the school playing host to those who ‘dare, dream and defy’
06 August, 2018: The nation’s largest entrepreneurship summit, Eximius at IIM Bangalore, played host to the biggest names of the industry on the second day as well of its 11th edition. The key takeaways from the two-day extravaganza for all the visitors and IIMB students were not merely inspiration and words, but a concrete set of tools and connections that they could build on while creating their own ventures.
As the future start-up founders got into the groove of walking, talking and living the life of entrepreneurs by the end of the first day, they were introduced to some more serious challenges on the second day. But alongside these grueling set of competitions, they had their regular dose of inspiration throughout with a range of luminaries from all walks of life delivering life-changing seminars.
The two-day event ensured an enthralling experience to the attendees.
The first keynote speaker session on Day 2 had Ira Singhal, UPSC 2014 Topper, IAS, motivating students with her story of cracking the nation’s toughest ‘Civil Services’ examination. Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, President, Venture Catalyst, spoke about how he co-founded Asia’s first integrated incubator and the current start-up funding scenario in India, while Neeraj Tyagi, Managing Partner Venture Catalyst (Delhi-NCR region) described the entrepreneurship culture in India, enunciating the need for more youth-centric startups.
The rags-to-riches story of Rahul Narvekar was presented in the man’s own signature style during his keynote session. He also spoke about the technical difficulties he faced while building his million-dollar venture ‘Sun and Sands Advisors’.
CEO of JustDial, V.S.S Mani, took to the stage at the IIMB auditorium to launch a revolutionary new product and also spoke about the origin stories of JustDial.
Pooja Rai, Co-Founder of the immensely popular new venture ‘Anthill Creations’ spoke about the company’s journey in transforming the way people perceive play through their innovative products and services. Puneet Manuja, founder of YourDost and a member of the Forbes 30 under 30, had a frank conversation with the attendees on mental health in India and how YourDost is helping address those problems.
Contests galore
The event also saw participants flocking to some of the most interesting contests. One of them was Game of Clicks, a digital marketing competition where teams had to compete in real time to ideate and execute digital marketing strategy of a start-up. The teams also got to actually see how their plans pan out in the real world. The winners of the contest were Team Not a Click Bait from NMIMS and the runners up position went to Team Dothraki from IIM Lucknow.
The event, Pitcher Perfect, was for the aspiring social entrepreneurs. The first ever social-driven Shark Tank event saw participation from 10 startups and 6 VC Firms. Investment funding of almost 1 crore was up for grabs. Startups providing products and services that solve societal and environmental problems were given a focus here. With the onset of heavy technological solutions, social entrepreneurs are able to use, create and exchange information to have a successful venture. This competition focused on harnessing the entrepreneurial energy of b-school students to power social change. One of the popular competitions was the Wipro Sustainability Quiz that rigorously tested the candidates about the environmental issues. But the winners, Kavin Adithyan from IIT Bombay and Julian D-Costa from IISC, cracked it to come out on top while Ashwin Subramaniam from Ashwidea bagged the second prize.
Workshops of value
The Start-up Fund-raising workshop, organized by IIMB’s student club ENI, detailed the procedures and key tool-sets required to generate funding for start-ups in the initial stage. The pitfalls of raising funds, how to pitch properly, market-validation and investor-mode of thinking were the major areas covered in the session. Real-life case-studies on fund-raising in the Indian context were also discussed during the workshop. Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma (President), Neerja Tyagi (Delhi-NCR operations), Rohit Barfa (Bangalore Operations) of Venture Catalyst formed the experienced panel who handled the event.
The Srishti workshop detailed the risks and rewards of the entrepreneurial journey for women founders. Malavika Harita, Founder and CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Focus, spoke about how women should articulate their value-adds to the investors as well as customers. The interactive workshop had a focus on tried and tested frameworks and examples by Malvika about her own start-up journey.
The Marketing Intelligence workshop discussed how intelligence is more important than information. The questions addressed by the workshop included - predicting future demand, the need for gathering data and addressing it in a meaningful and profitable way. The case-study discussed was about how Microsoft had purchased a patent for novel networks worth $300+ million and hedged the risk of the future. The session was handled by Amit Kumar Mishra, Founder and CEO of Dazeinfo Media and Research.
The ‘Mad Over Marketing’ workshop introduced the budding entrepreneurs to the three pillars of marketing – attention, perception and communication, qualities essential in successfully marketing a startup. Everything from the evolution of advertising to the latest trends in marketing, like minimal marketing and ambush marketing, were covered at this event.
Another major event conducted by NSRCEL, the incubation hub of IIMB, was the Hackathon in which 50 participants across 35 teams were given 6 problem statements. Johnson Tellis, Founder, Dreamers, was the host for the event that lasted 12 hours till 7 am on August 5. It was an intensive 12 hours of coding that included some fun games, activities, food and music.
The winning teams were offered job interviews by the NSRCEL startups, they have also received an offer for Launchpad, the three month pre incubation program offered by NSRCEL. With a current portfolio valuation of over $1.5 billion it has helped over 125 ventures, created over 5400 direct jobs. While NITI Ayog and DST are supporting the incubator, its other flagship programs include Women startup program supported by Goldman Sachs, DST, Engineering student ventures by Texas Instruments, and Social ventures backed by Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.
Grand finale
As dusk fell, participants poured into the auditorium to soak in of the essence of the event through the closing ceremony which was graced by Rahul Narvekar. He enthralled the audience with an awe-inspiring story of how he faced the various hurdles in life to get to Harvard University starting from a chawl in Mumbai and how he built an $85 million company in the process. It was indeed a fitting end to the fest that had all the elements wrapped into one – inspiration, information and illumination. Eximius 2018 rightly helped all its participants to dare to dream and defy the odds that come in our way to reach the true potential.
Click here for report on Day One’s events and speaker sessions.
All roads, on Aug 04 & 05, led to IIMB with the school playing host to those who ‘dare, dream and defy’
06 August, 2018: The nation’s largest entrepreneurship summit, Eximius at IIM Bangalore, played host to the biggest names of the industry on the second day as well of its 11th edition. The key takeaways from the two-day extravaganza for all the visitors and IIMB students were not merely inspiration and words, but a concrete set of tools and connections that they could build on while creating their own ventures.
As the future start-up founders got into the groove of walking, talking and living the life of entrepreneurs by the end of the first day, they were introduced to some more serious challenges on the second day. But alongside these grueling set of competitions, they had their regular dose of inspiration throughout with a range of luminaries from all walks of life delivering life-changing seminars.
The two-day event ensured an enthralling experience to the attendees.
The first keynote speaker session on Day 2 had Ira Singhal, UPSC 2014 Topper, IAS, motivating students with her story of cracking the nation’s toughest ‘Civil Services’ examination. Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, President, Venture Catalyst, spoke about how he co-founded Asia’s first integrated incubator and the current start-up funding scenario in India, while Neeraj Tyagi, Managing Partner Venture Catalyst (Delhi-NCR region) described the entrepreneurship culture in India, enunciating the need for more youth-centric startups.
The rags-to-riches story of Rahul Narvekar was presented in the man’s own signature style during his keynote session. He also spoke about the technical difficulties he faced while building his million-dollar venture ‘Sun and Sands Advisors’.
CEO of JustDial, V.S.S Mani, took to the stage at the IIMB auditorium to launch a revolutionary new product and also spoke about the origin stories of JustDial.
Pooja Rai, Co-Founder of the immensely popular new venture ‘Anthill Creations’ spoke about the company’s journey in transforming the way people perceive play through their innovative products and services. Puneet Manuja, founder of YourDost and a member of the Forbes 30 under 30, had a frank conversation with the attendees on mental health in India and how YourDost is helping address those problems.
Contests galore
The event also saw participants flocking to some of the most interesting contests. One of them was Game of Clicks, a digital marketing competition where teams had to compete in real time to ideate and execute digital marketing strategy of a start-up. The teams also got to actually see how their plans pan out in the real world. The winners of the contest were Team Not a Click Bait from NMIMS and the runners up position went to Team Dothraki from IIM Lucknow.
The event, Pitcher Perfect, was for the aspiring social entrepreneurs. The first ever social-driven Shark Tank event saw participation from 10 startups and 6 VC Firms. Investment funding of almost 1 crore was up for grabs. Startups providing products and services that solve societal and environmental problems were given a focus here. With the onset of heavy technological solutions, social entrepreneurs are able to use, create and exchange information to have a successful venture. This competition focused on harnessing the entrepreneurial energy of b-school students to power social change. One of the popular competitions was the Wipro Sustainability Quiz that rigorously tested the candidates about the environmental issues. But the winners, Kavin Adithyan from IIT Bombay and Julian D-Costa from IISC, cracked it to come out on top while Ashwin Subramaniam from Ashwidea bagged the second prize.
Workshops of value
The Start-up Fund-raising workshop, organized by IIMB’s student club ENI, detailed the procedures and key tool-sets required to generate funding for start-ups in the initial stage. The pitfalls of raising funds, how to pitch properly, market-validation and investor-mode of thinking were the major areas covered in the session. Real-life case-studies on fund-raising in the Indian context were also discussed during the workshop. Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma (President), Neerja Tyagi (Delhi-NCR operations), Rohit Barfa (Bangalore Operations) of Venture Catalyst formed the experienced panel who handled the event.
The Srishti workshop detailed the risks and rewards of the entrepreneurial journey for women founders. Malavika Harita, Founder and CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Focus, spoke about how women should articulate their value-adds to the investors as well as customers. The interactive workshop had a focus on tried and tested frameworks and examples by Malvika about her own start-up journey.
The Marketing Intelligence workshop discussed how intelligence is more important than information. The questions addressed by the workshop included - predicting future demand, the need for gathering data and addressing it in a meaningful and profitable way. The case-study discussed was about how Microsoft had purchased a patent for novel networks worth $300+ million and hedged the risk of the future. The session was handled by Amit Kumar Mishra, Founder and CEO of Dazeinfo Media and Research.
The ‘Mad Over Marketing’ workshop introduced the budding entrepreneurs to the three pillars of marketing – attention, perception and communication, qualities essential in successfully marketing a startup. Everything from the evolution of advertising to the latest trends in marketing, like minimal marketing and ambush marketing, were covered at this event.
Another major event conducted by NSRCEL, the incubation hub of IIMB, was the Hackathon in which 50 participants across 35 teams were given 6 problem statements. Johnson Tellis, Founder, Dreamers, was the host for the event that lasted 12 hours till 7 am on August 5. It was an intensive 12 hours of coding that included some fun games, activities, food and music.
The winning teams were offered job interviews by the NSRCEL startups, they have also received an offer for Launchpad, the three month pre incubation program offered by NSRCEL. With a current portfolio valuation of over $1.5 billion it has helped over 125 ventures, created over 5400 direct jobs. While NITI Ayog and DST are supporting the incubator, its other flagship programs include Women startup program supported by Goldman Sachs, DST, Engineering student ventures by Texas Instruments, and Social ventures backed by Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.
Grand finale
As dusk fell, participants poured into the auditorium to soak in of the essence of the event through the closing ceremony which was graced by Rahul Narvekar. He enthralled the audience with an awe-inspiring story of how he faced the various hurdles in life to get to Harvard University starting from a chawl in Mumbai and how he built an $85 million company in the process. It was indeed a fitting end to the fest that had all the elements wrapped into one – inspiration, information and illumination. Eximius 2018 rightly helped all its participants to dare to dream and defy the odds that come in our way to reach the true potential.
Click here for report on Day One’s events and speaker sessions.