Institute campuses are fast emerging as the most-preferred place for student entrepreneurs to experiment with their ideas, develop their B Plans, and build their companies.
• When Neha Vithaldas of Mumbai’s K J Somaiya Institute of Technology and IT launched her startup product ‘Nail Art’, she started from the women’s washroom in her college. “That’s one place I know my target audience visit at least once a day,” says Neha.
• Eight engineering students have turned fashion designers at Bengal College of Engineering and Technology, Durgapur. They have launched a boutique that operates from the girls hostel. Their fast-selling garments bring in a profit of Rs 100 per sale.
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| Jugal Advani Pune |
• When many of his friends didn’t clear the screening test of a major IT company, Jugal Advani of Pune’s DY Patil College of Engineering didn’t think it was bad news – it was a business opportunity. He teamed up with a trainer and launched Spark Educational Services, an on-campus training centre helping final year students crack their recruitment tests.
If you are a student aspiring to be an entrepreneur, it might be a good idea to follow what the above mentioned entrepreneurs have done – stay put on your campuses. With a growing number of students starting companies, especially in the past two-three years, campuses are emerging as the best place for them to experiment with their ideas, develop their B Plans, and build their companies.
And for good reason too. The business environment is comparatively risk-free; investment is low; team building with fellow students is easier and the faculty and institute often pitch in as mentors and investors.
The recently held NEN First Dot, India’s first student startup showcase, proves this true. Out of the 141 student startups that participated in NEN First Dot, 70% of the companies were co-founded by classmates, alumni and faculty; 40% companies had faculty as mentors and 60% companies were developed from student projects.
Campus: The new customer catchment zone
The intense pressure that entrepreneurs typically face in the starting-up phase is eased off when student entrepreneurs target their own campuses for their products and services. To begin with, with day-to-day challenges dotting university life, there are opportunities aplenty for student entrepreneurs to tap into. Very often, their startup ideas are derived from what they themselves want as students. From cleaning virus-ridden pen drives to posting part-time jobs to running second-hand bookshops for old text books – the simplest of offerings can find buyers on campus.
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| Akshay, Hello Assignments |
Like Aswin Yogesh’s Fluids. The heat of Chennai and hunger of his collegemates at Saveetha Engineering College is bringing in brisk business for Yogesh’s milkshake kiosk. “Students come to Fluids for a quick and healthy drink, which helps to keep their hunger in check till their next heavy meal,” he explains. Yogesh, who was one of the 30 winners at NEN First Dot, plans to expand Fluids to Saveetha’s University and medical college.
Another interesting example comes from Mumbai’s Atharva College of Engineering where two students Akshay Shetty and Nitesh Morazkar, have launched Hello Assignments, a venture that connects faculty and students by means of a portal. On Hello Assignments, faculty can upload assignments and timetables for students to download, and students can ask questions to faculty and get their doubts cleared online. “We only have one notice board for an entire college. Not surprisingly, time tables and exam schedules sometimes get missed. We want to ensure this does not happen by bringing information flow on an online platform,” says Akshay.
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| Medics team |
Classroom lectures aid startups
Many students are translating their classroom lessons into viable business ventures. It’s a strategy that helps cut costs too, as students of Bengal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, Durgapur have discovered. They have applied their knowledge on pharmaceuticals to ‘Medics’, a campus venture that manufactures Aloevera gels, sanitisers, nail thinners, facepacks and even painkillers. “Our college has its own medicine garden, so raw materials are free. By keeping costs low, we can maintain a 20% profit margin on our products,” says Medics member Niladri Bhattacharjee.
Students lend a helping hand
Inspired and excited by entrepreneurship, several students are coming together to accelerate business creation on their campuses. Down south in Chennai, the NEN Entrepreneurship Cell at SSN College of Engineering fuelled excitement for entrepreneurship in February with the ‘32 hour Startup’ - a two-day marathon start-up event. The event saw teams come together to create business plans and basic product prototypes of their ideas over 32 hours. Some of the projects they designed included a book builder tool to help authors build electronic books, an Android-enabled location-based application to calculate auto and taxi fares and a field log application that helps managers track sales/field people and their daily progress. Two ideas have now being developed into startups, reveals Sharat, an E Leader who organized the event. “The demand for such an event is so high that we are under pressure to make it from an annual event to a quarterly one,” he adds.
Faculty become pillars of support
Starting up on campus can sometimes attract support in unexpected ways. When Subrata Biswas of Bengal Engineering and Science University, Kolkata, came up with the idea of remodelling old computers and supplying them to rural schools at discounted prices, it was his faculty Prof Manas Kumar Sanyal who helped him build it as a campus company ‘Recom’. With Prof Sanyal’s mentoring and network, Subrata and his team of 19 students have been able to source old computers from Cognizant Technologies and Capgemini, and supply them to a few rural and special schools in West Bengal. In addition, the institute has also pitched in by giving them rooms to test and develop the computers. “Without Prof Sanyal and institute’s support, Recom would have existed only on paper,” says Subrata.
IMT Ghaziabad student Bipul Kumar is grateful to his faculty Prof S K Singh for the success of his sports solution company Tatsam Sports, one of the winning startups at NEN First Dot. “Prof Singh not only fine-tuned my business strategy and connected me to the right network, but also was instrumental in getting us our first client – our institute IMT,” he says. Tatsam Sports started a lawn tennis coaching program for IMT and partnered with them for its popular annual sports festival.
The Way Ahead
Many student entrepreneurs tend to start companies around the consumer space that they understand: web development, chocolate making, or selling t-shirts. Meeting on-campus demand makes for a good first step, helping them gain immensely valuable skills. However, in the long run, exposure to larger and more challenging opportunities, as well as innovation, can push their energies towards solving critical issues like health care, sanitation, education, and power. Increasing the exposure and support for these student entrepreneurs to tackle serious issues will directly increase the number of young innovators and entrepreneurs, creating solutions and jobs for the country.
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