Karthik Ramkumar and Zishaan M. Hayath present a snapshot of our business
competition and discuss the feedback we received from several of our
visitors during the show.
We all know what Eureka is. We know the rules. We know what is expected. We
know what the rewards are- an incubation program (for the uninitiated that
means office space and help, both Venture Capitalist funds and more
importantly Venture Capitalist fundaes) and a lot of cash.
But how many of us go for the gold? Pointless rhetoric. Well read on. We hope we can change your mind. This year Eureka saw 135 teams from all over the world. Through a rather comprehensive selection procedure, this number was cut down to 6. The judging panel numbered a whopping twenty five. These final 6 teams presented their Business Plans on the 23rd of March.
Interestingly, the team which walked away with the jackpot this year was Theranova Inc. from Duke University. Theranova conducted their presentation of their product, a device to reduce arthritic pain by tele-conference. That gives you some idea of the facilities provided. The 2nd prize went to XCentric (IIM-B) and the third prize to an IITB team, eRT, from the KRESIT Incubator.
Eureka winners have built the reputation of a good track record. Myzus.com, the winners of Eureka 2000 was listed in Business Today's "Top 10 for tomorrow" (net worth - 6 million dollars !). Tibraw, Winners of Eureka 2001 are starting up in the Silicon Valley.
This year, with the economic slowdown, the Eureka prizes were a step down from last year. But the DOSA, Prof. UB Desai put it perfectly when he said,"Prize money is nothing but pocket money. A free trip to the US. Eureka's aim is to start companies." With this as the focus, Incubation programs will be provided to the top 3 teams. The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE) and TEN in the Silicon Valley have offered their services. This includes Quality Testing, Web Services, advice from a Chartered Accountant, Legal Consultancy, Consultancy from venture...associates all for free. Truly, a competition with a purpose !
But more than the money, the undisclosed plans, what we enjoyed the most that day was meeting this rather eclectic bunch of "entrepreneurs" - from professors to businessmen - and hearing them speak about their passion.
Rahul Patwardhan, CEO of Indiaco Incubator (Pune) was the Chief Guest. The prizes were sponsored by him and he said that he looked forward to working with the young and innovative lot of this competition. Mahesh, founder of Passionfund.com was here as well. After making it big in the US, he has returned to India. A hard core entrepreneur, he feels that though a lot of business plans come up, very few actually convert into a successful start up. He felt that although the 'business' plans were technologically very good, very few of them actually understood business from an entreprenial point of view. He was rather disappointed that we, the best brains in the country, lag behind in the race when it comes to business (The IITian team could manage only the 3rd place in Eureka 2002). When told that the students from technological institutes would not be able to match the skills of business school students, he dismissed it as a lame excuse and said that people in IIT Bombay had the advantage of living in the commercial capital of India and emphasised the potential of the e-cell here.
Rajiv Vaishnav, the Director of TiE-Mumbai was on the judging panel. He was rather impressed by the initiative taken by our e-cell in taking entrepreneurship to new levels and said that much more can be done on the same lines, while reassuring that IIT Bombay and e-cell have support of TiE in all such activities. On the note of participation and the level of business plans, he said that although there were very innovative and technologically sophisticated plans, they lagged in the way they could convince the consumer to buy their product. He also suggested that the students here can be given exposure to business by holding some courses on entrepreneurship. Rather than just writing a business plan, according to him, we should first learn to write a business plan.
Mr. Rajeev Bhatia (CEO, Beemanagement) also had some interesting remarks to make regrding the competition. He said that the younger lot was the best to work with as they can bring about dynamic changes in any company. On ideas for business, he said that rather going for 'Pain decreasing product' and playing safe, we should give a shot at 'Pleasure increasing products' for they have no boundaries to the amount of profits they have in store.
Professor Lagu, one of the backbones of the e-drive on campus, points out that we IITians very rarely tend to look beyond our closed areas of interest and believes that the role of E-cell is to encourage students (and to a lesser extent faculty) to set up their own companies. Towards this goal Eureka acts as a launching pad helping us get feedback about the feasibility of our ideas. Prof Lagu is playing a pivotal role in conducting the lecture series on entrepreneurship for students and faculty of IIT Bombay.
But, all is not well with entrepreneurship in IIT. To quote Pravin Gandhi (Infinity Ventures), "One of the teams came up to us and said we have a project, but we don't know who will buy it. Considering that Eureka is a Business plan competition, that is appalling."
At the risk of sounding preachy, we'll ask you this. People from all over come to Bombay to take part in our fests. They unanimously agree that we conduct great competitions. But. Are we great competition?
Zishaan M. Hayath is a second year DD student in the Civil Engg. Deptt
(d0zmh@civil.). Karthik Ramkumar is a second year BTech student in the Elec.
Engg. Deptt (karth0ue@ccs.)