ATL Tinkerpreneur Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5MCkFAFQ6s&t=1s
In December 2021, Atal Innovation Mission(AIM), NITI Aayog partnered with the prestigious Indian School of Business (ISB) to curate a special program – “Atal Catalysts @ISB” with the goal of nurturing the Top 100 Business Venture Ideas that emerged from the ATL Tinkerpreneur Bootcamp.
The Tinkerpreneur bootcamp was a first of its kind initiative by AIM to teach students entrepreneurship during the summer break. Students learnt various skills such as latest technology skills, building a product, business models, marketing, branding, business finance, building an online store and finally how to pitch their venture. ATL Tinkerpreneur witnessed participation from over 9000 students and leveraged the knowledge and hands-on involvement of over 650 Mentors of Change to build a complete digital business venture at the end of the bootcamp. The Top 100 Students/teams were mapped to ISB to nurture their ideas further.
I-Venture @ ISB, which fosters all entrepreneurial activities for the Institution and nurtures start-ups, took over the charge of developing, designing and executing the 2nd stage of the students’ journey towards becoming entrepreneurs. Since then, the students/teams with the 100 most promising ideas have gone through a variety of Masterclasses and mentoring sessions that have added value to them and to their products.
No less than six Masterclasses were conducted, each of them taught using case studies and real-world examples. The topics covered a wide range:
1. Entrepreneurial Ecosystem & Mindset
2. Competitor Analysis & Market Research
3. Idea Validation, Product or Idea Development
4. Digital Marketing & Branding
5. Finance & HR
6. Investor Pitch & Pitching Techniques
While the Masterclasses added to the knowledge base of the students, the highlight of their journey at Atal Catalysts @ ISB was the customized mentoring experience that was curated for each of them. More than 65 mentors were part of the program, each of them an alumnus of ISB. Each of them came from different backgrounds and fields and brought different capabilities with them. The Atal Catalysts @ ISB team carefully analysed the areas of improvement for every idea and mapped it to the expertise of the right mentor. This ensured that the students got the most appropriate guidance they needed to enhance their product and develop the necessary entrepreneurial/business skills. The mentoring sessions were conducted one-on-one so that they provided personalized attention to each of the students/teams.
Once the products and pitches were refined, the difficult task of selecting the most promising ideas began. The Big Pitch, an event where the teams showcased their ideas to a panel, was conducted over two weekends. The sponsors at The Big Pitch were I-Venture @ ISB, PKF Sridhar & Santhanam, and Prasad Medikonda. The panellist said that they had a tough time shortlisting 10 out of the 20 ideas pitched.
With the sponsorships, the selected students/teams will work on developing the app or website before taking them to market.
These are the 10 most promising ideas that emerged from The Big Pitch:
Press Release: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1827009