Goa Institute of Management hosted the fourth edition of IdeaLAb, a distinguished 2 day start-up conference that cultivates entrepreneurs and assists in the development of start-up ecosystems. An initiative of World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation Young Leaders Network, IdeaLab for the very first time expanded beyond ASEAN to Goa.
As part of the 25 year celebrations at GIM, multiple high-level events have been planned spanning across the entire academic year. With Niti Aayog deciding to setup an incubation centre under the Atal Innovation Mission, that incubates start-ups from all sectors nationwide, GIM’s collaboration with WIEF for this event could not have occurred at a better time.
The event began on an auspicious note with the performance of OxyGim Band and the lighting of the traditional lamp by various dignitaries along with Dr. Ajit Parulekar. Tun Musa Hitam, Chairman of WIEF Foundation and Former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia delivered the opening address for the event. Introducing WIEF Foundation’s Young Leaders Network, he said, “The most important way of developing a country is developing their economy and WIEF strives to achieve this through the Young India leadership by empowering start-ups and providing key benefits to people who wish to do business but not have ability to do so”.
Highlighting Goa as a hub for the development of a start-up culture, he said, “Goa is proclaimed to be one of the top 25 start hubs in the next few years and it would see an increase in technological innovation. This would lead Goa to go great heights and have successful start-up ecosystem in the next 5 years”.
Day 1
Session 1
Opening dialogue: SUPPORTING STARTUPS
The opening dialogue was a panel discussion moderated by Ebrahim Patel (Chairman, WIFE YLN) with the speakers Dr. Ajit Parulekar, Mr. Nasser Munjee and Mr. Ameya Abhayankar. They addressed the actions and policies that needed to be implemented and carried out in order to build a sustainable start-up support system that can make Goa a start-up hub in the next five years. The discussion focused on the topic of how baby entrepreneurs could become the next Elon Musk’s or Jack Ma’s of the world through sheer determination. Mr. Ameya quoted, “Goa government has 40-50 start-ups certified and this helps to create an environment and culture of early age successful startups. Additionally, start-ups are successful when their founders have some sort of prior working experience.” Dr. Parulekar commented, “Business leaders are important for startups as they act as guiding light to create innovation and value chain and give them proper lessons on investment and other integral factors.”
Session 2
The Indian Start up Ecosystem: Bird’s Eye View
This session revolved around the subject of how Start Ups fare in the Indian ecosystem and how they could be supported in a better way. Mr Jatin Chaudhary, Co-founder, eChai Ventures said, “In India we have 20 chapters of EHAI and as many supporting partners in many forums and they give a birds eye view of what’s happening all over the world. They help people get early adopters, stage, audience and online network”. Mr Gourav Jaswal, Founder and Director, Prototyze added that, “Access to information is the main point for enabling start-ups. Aspiration to thrive and survive will give the confidence to people to be a major contributor. At the end of the day, you need to be smart and understand how much information to process”. Mr Jose Manuel Noronha, Chairman, GPSC and Goa State Innovation Council, Government of Goa said that, “In USA, success was always associated to Stanford UC Berkeley in the past time. World-class institutions like that are always required to bring out innovation and also society should support these start-ups in terms of monetary benefits etc”.
Session 3
Angel Investors and Where to Find them
This session revolved around explaining the identity of Angel Investors to the audience. Mr. Sachin Karnik, President, Mumbai Angels Network said, “They are called Angels because they will believe in you at a point of time when no one else will. Most of the people who come to us for seed funding are judged on their weakness, since most people just talk about their success. We like the start-ups who intangibly create that trust, and if you are honest and trustworthy, you will definitely get the funding”. Mr. Rishi Kapal, Global Strategist and Chief Executive Officer, EDUGILD, said that, “First impression is the last impression. There are 4000+ applications/submissions per year so think through what you have done because presentation and quality matters the most”.
Session 4
Start Up War Stories: Fail Fast, Learn Faster
Not every business venture, not every dream is a success and for every great achievement, there are many sacrifices that go behind it. There is a dark side to entrepreneurship – one of failure and rejection – which do not reach the glossy pages of newspapers and magazines
In their session “Startup War Stories: Fail Fast Learn Faster” our panelists Hatim Kantawalla, Chief Product Officer, Prototyze, India and Pratibha Sastry, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, PS: This Matters India, shared with the audience the hardships they faced on their path to success.
Speaking of failure and rejection, Ms Pratibha said, “it’s okay to fail; it’s okay to pick yourself up and move forward because failure doesn’t define you.” Supporting this, Mr. Kantawalla pointed out, “Rejection will happen again and again. You need to learn to handle it; and understand that it is conviction and belief that keep entrepreneurs going, and keeps them in business.”
Anisa Hassan (CEO, Joompa, Singapore) the moderator for the session lead the discussion towards the importance of compatibility – both in terms of what you are doing and who you are working with – in leading a successful business. The fruitful session also touched upon the importance of having a reliable support system and peer mentors to effectively overcome storms coming in the way. “People who have walked the talk are good, but people who will encourage you and walk the journey with you are more important”.
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Session 5
Across an Ocean of Startups: Lessons and Opportunities from ASEAN
In this session, the panellists discussed about the growth opportunities existing In Asian countries for start-ups. Mr. Razif briefly explained how the gap between the countries, Malaysia & India, could be bridged because of their diversity & passion towards growth and development. “They are both opportunistic countries” he said. Further, Mr. Norhizam Kadir explained how personality and networking also plays an important role in the entrepreneurship world and discussed the struggles of start-ups, “Start-ups don’t work in fancy buildings, they work in co-working spaces” he stated. Towards the end Becky Kux said, “It’s very important to be focused but don’t fall into the trap of being focused in just one area” while explaining the various reasons why companies fail. She also spoke about different ways to overcome failure and find your way on the path to success. This session gave us insights as to why it is important to embrace failure, take it as another chance to restart and move ahead.
Day 2
Session 1
Start-up Journey and What to Expect
This session revolves around the journey that the Start Ups follow right from incubation and their expectations from the journey. One of the speakers Mr. Chaturvedi said, “The ideation of the startup should begin right from college because such an early beginning would help them gain valuable experience and also the courage to leave well established jobs and follow entrepreneurship”.
Mr Sonpal gave his insights too on the topic and said, “For a Start Up to be successful, first step is customer validation which is the key and all the products have to be made for the customers. Validation plays a major role in fine-tuning these products and customer’s satisfaction makes the validation process viable. So keep your ego aside and be open for feedback because it is a fundamental step. The next step is strategizing the customer management for both B2B and B2C, which would be possible only with proper team dynamics. These team dynamics involve many factors like technology involved and skill of the people”.
Session 2
Starting your business In Goa, India.
This session was conducted by Mr. Ameya Salatry, Founder, Legal Minds, LLP, India. He Spoke about the journey & the struggles of a startup and what it takes to set up a company and take it ahead. “You do not need prior experience or prior turnover for a start-up, just an idea you believe in”, he said.
He explained & informed the audience about the various tax exemptions and reforms a start-up can avail & how government of goa facilitates and encourages start-ups by coming up with various schemes focused on the locals ie. Goans.
He highlighted the Legal considerations for start-ups and said “A lot of people get worried under the pressure of documentations because they feel they are not prepared, but I think we can do even without the lawyers since there is so much information available”
He emphasized on the importance of discipline in an organization that is visible or showcased from day one for any investor to believe in you.
“Discipline is the most important thing, keeping in mind what you aim or target to achieve,” he added.
Session 2
Starting your business In Goa, India.
This session was conducted by Mr. Ameya Salatry, Founder, Legal Minds, LLP, India. He Spoke about the journey & the struggles of a startup and what it takes to set up a company and take it ahead. “You do not need prior experience or prior turnover for a start-up, just an idea you believe in”, he said.
He explained & informed the audience about the various tax exemptions and reforms a start-up can avail & how government of goa facilitates and encourages start-ups by coming up with various schemes focused on the locals ie. Goans.
He highlighted the Legal considerations for start-ups and said “A lot of people get worried under the pressure of documentations because they feel they are not prepared, but I think we can do even without the lawyers since there is so much information available”
He emphasized on the importance of discipline in an organization that is visible or showcased from day one for any investor to believe in you.
“Discipline is the most important thing, keeping in mind what you aim or target to achieve,” he added.
Session 3:
Impact Investing based on Sustainable Development Goals
Quoting Laurence Fink, CEO Blackrock, the speaker for the day Mr. Jan-Cayo Fiebig, General Partner, 3B Ventures, Denmark said, “Every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society” and that is exactly what Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) intend to do. He spoke about how leaders around the world are supporting three broad goals – social, economic, atmospheric; India too, supports SEGs and the same can be seen in Goa too. Therefore, understanding the implications of impact investing is of great import.
Defining impact investing as ‘improving the quality of life profitability’ he said that companies look for much more than financial returns. They are geared towards doing good for society, to make a sociable yet profitable impact. There are vast opportunities in this sector – around a 12 trillion of them. Moreover, the best people want to work for the companies that are doing good.
The basic formula elucidated by him was “if you have a business model, supported by technology with founders that are just kick ass then you are creating a company that give you both financial and social returns” and he went on to explain each of these
- Business Model: Solution must be accessible, easy to use and affordable
- Technology: technology is becoming more powerful and that is an increasing cost at an exponential rate. The best technology has no manual, is automated and captures data. But u don’t just capture data but also how you access and use this date
- Mass market: easy to reach and digitally enabled. Business to Customers
- Founder – Killer team. What does not change is you, the team. He said, “Nourish diversity in your team – a mix of gender, age, religion, geographic – that’s when creativity thrives. If you have the same person then you are missing out on something
Adding to his thoughts, Mr Akash Bhavsar, Chief Architect, SDG Accelerator, India said that “if we are solving the problems that matter, that is when our businesses will succeed”
Advising the students to look into impact investing on SDGs he stated that, “It is a huge opportunity for you guys to look for real world problems and find ways to solve them”.
Session 4
Blockchain 101:Get with the programme
This session revolved around understanding the intricacies of the recently developed ‘Blockchain Technology’, which is necessary in today’s day and age, particularly due to the increasing relevance that it has been gaining. The session delivered by Mr. Abhijith Naraparaju, was very informative in explaining to guests and students alike about this new innovative technology.
The speaker defined ‘blockchain’ as a type of database that takes a number of records and puts them in a block. Each block is then chained to the next block, using a cryptography. He then went on to differentiate between the two types blockchain technology i.e. private and public and the implications of using both of them. The speaker also touched upon the various uses of blockchain technology and certain issues that crop up in the process. Agreeing that not everything can be implemented through blockchain, he spoke about how the use of blockchain is constantly evolving with even sectors like agriculture using it to a large extent.
Session 5
Startup War Stories: Fail Fast Learn Faster
This session revolved around the topic of survival of start-ups and the ups and down which turn up in the wild journey of a start-up. Ms. Sayed, a young and successful entrepreneur from Goa spoke on how setbacks are just stepping-stones to success. She said, “Start-ups are not for weak hearted people because there is a lot of stress involved. Many people consider Start-ups as their baby and fret too much over failures but the way to go forward is not to put too much stress when things are not working out and think over things calmly and most importantly, be positive in extremely positive in the worst of the situations”. She also narrated her journey from selling mangoes for raising funds for her start-up to winning start up competition and changing her destiny all over.
Mr. Tripathi emphasised on the steps to being a well-sustained Start-Up and the pitfalls that come in the way. He said, “Entrepreneurship is very non-glamorous in nature and involves a lot of risk. So we need to choose the category of the start-up and investors who are funding the start-up very carefully because initially things may seem fine but in the long run it may turn out to be bad. Also a sensible entrepreneur is conscious of risk and challenges all his decisions internally”. He also talked about the importance of data modelling and how being data driven helps in taking effective decisions.
Session 6
Big Data and Government Tech
Jan Lambrechts, CEO, CXS International said “if you fail at school it doesn’t mean that you will fail at life”, because we now have a completely new way of looking at talent. Things and industries are developing at a rapid rate; competencies and one’s mind-set is becoming increasingly important. One’s degree is just the beginning to your learning. 90% of universities believe their graduates are ready to work but only 10% of industry believes the same. You have to match that to you competencies. Learning, he said, is a lifelong process. You have to keep upscaling yourself, keep learning. One cannot remain stagnant with one’s learning; one has to keep at it. Be self-efficient because self-efficacy will allow you to go on a lifelong learning mode. It will let you constantly upscale yourself.
Taking the stage, Mr. Ameya Abhyankar, IT Secretary, Governement of Goa took the session into Big Data Analytics and how it can change the way governments run. He identified five ways in which big data could be used in the government sector:
- In the transformation sector – things are constantly changing. Data, he said, can be used to enact this change.
- In health care – majority of Indians depend on the public health system which is not very robust. In terms of government interventions here, there is hardly anything that’s been done.
- Education – linking the discussion to the thoughts of Mr. Lambrechts, he agreed that companies do not see a readymade workforce due to rapidly evolving technology. Big data can be used to assist in the process
- Water – because of global warming and climate change, water is becoming scarce. Big data ought to be used to find feasible solutions to this rather grave problem.
- Agriculture – India, being essentially a rural and agricultural economy, he believed that big data can be used to increase the productivity
He opinionated that big data is not just about collecting data but also about its actual implementation. He felt that the analytics focus is missing in the design of forms to collect data and suggested that analysts design forms backwards so the data you collect can satisfy the goal, or find the answer you seek. Date should be collected in order to make sense of the data, to use it to get a meaningful solution. Moreover, he said that we need to create a class of data sites within the government, to identify what data is to be captured, how it is to captured, and how that data should be used to solve problems and all this requires a concerted effort – have data scientists to build structures through which data can be processed.
There were several workshops organised for the students to provide them with insights on how to start on a successful journey of entrepreneurship
Workshop : Team Building
This was an engaging and highly informative workshop conducted by Mr. Ebrahim Patel, Chairman, WIFE Young Leaders Network and Managing Director, TransAfrix Holdings, South Africa.
This session revolved around the importance of a team in an organization and the essentials to build a strong team for any company.
This session gave us insights as to how communication plays an important role in team building and why is it important to create a diverse team and have different minds in a team, how different perspectives can help in team growth and development.
He also mentioned that it’s not just the performance or output that can comment on efficiency of the team but also the competitors, customers and other external factors in the market that can judge the team’s effort.
Mr. Ebrahim stated, “Without a salesperson, you might not have a job” while explaining the significance of a salesperson in an organization. He also emphasized on the importance of every person in the team and how it’s necessary to share your goals and targets passionately with your team so as to build trust and belief in you.
“To succeed, you need a team who have trust in you, who believe in you and are loyal to you, everything else can be learnt”.
WORKSHOP: Founders Anonymous – Entrepreneur Mindset and Innovation
“Through my journey from being the guy who sat quietly in the quadrangle in school and spoke to no one to being here today, in front of you, there is one thing I learnt that an entrepreneur has to do, and that is to have fun!” – Ebrahim Patel, Chairman, WIFE Young Leaders Network and Managing Director at Transafrix Holdings, South Africa
Sharing his thoughts on what he believes is on the mind of an entrepreneur Mr. Patel identified a few key qualities a person starting his own business venture ought to have.
- The most important of those, he said, is the ability to see an opportunity in every conversation, the ability to pivot it, use it and adapt with it. An entrepreneur must have a 360-degree view – look at things from every angle, understand where your business is moving and react when necessary.
- Adding to the aforementioned qualities, he spoke of the importance of the integrity value system and ethics in being an entrepreneur. One ought to be someone who can give back to society.
- An entrepreneur should be determined – determined to grow, succeed, make money, and change the world. He said that if you are not passionate, not determined, not living the life of your business – thinking, eating and sleeping your business, you are not an entrepreneur.
- Take responsibility and do not every shy away from it. Your word is very important – if you give your word, you have to do it. Elucidating a personal experience of his, he told the story of him venturing into business. Brought up on his grandfather’s words “if you need to buy something for 100 rupees but you have only 99 rupees and have to borrow 1 rupee, you cannot afford it” his father refused to allow him to ever borrow money. It was only when he promised to repay a 3-year loan in 12 months that his father agreed to let him avail of the loan. That is where keeping one’s word becomes important. Had he not paid the loan within 12 months, he would’ve lost his father’s support into other ventures.
- Lastly, he pointed out that being an entrepreneur is no cakewalk. It is a very difficult job because no one understands you. What you see in success stories is at the top of the iceberg; no one sees that entrepreneurship is the hardest thing. During difficult times, an entrepreneur should be able to sit back and say that, “I need time to myself – to think”.
Workshop : Branding : Tanmay Modi
This was an extremely engaging and informative session conducted by Mr. Tanmay Modi, Chief Executive Officer, Private Unlimited India. His session revolved around Branding, its significance and the best practices to engage into and multiple methods to strengthen your brand awareness. “Your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room” he quoted explaining how branding and positioning works, the key aspects or touchpoints it affects. Further, he spoke about the role of storytelling in branding and concluded, “We are living in a stage where storytelling is overrated. If the product is good enough, story becomes less important”
Very often, Branding and Marketing are assumed to be the same thing and so he explained very competently the difference between them while breaking the mentioned myth. Moving ahead in the session, he illuminated the essentials to create a good brand namely, Differentiation, Relevance, Esteem and Familiarity. “Your biggest competition is actually indifference” he stated while explaining, with numerous examples, ‘The theory of Impulses’.
Mr. Tanmay imparted a great share of knowledge in a joyful session and advised the audience to “Create cause not Business”.
The event ended off with a note from Dr. Ajit Parulekar and Mr. Ebrahim Patel who appreciated the students for attending the talks and workshops and turning the event into a huge success in terms of value creation. Mr. Patel also praised Dr. Parulekar for reaching out to WIEF and providing them with the opportunity to showcase the IdeaLab event in India. Dr Parulekar reached out to the organising committee and the volunteers for tirelessly working to ensure a hassle free event, thus signing the event off on a high note.
