SSILS 2012
Fearless Leadership..!
Description of start up story telling event.
Start-ups story telling
- A tribute to Steve jobs.
Overview:
An Apple a millennium keeps the “Human Normalcy” away. After the classical Adam and Eve’s forbidden Apple episode, the Sir Isaac Newton’s Apple Eureka moment and the fresh Steve Job’s Apple saga, are you the FOURTH to be smitten by a revolutionary Apple?
Well, come and entertain us with your story!
Sri Shakthi India Leadership Summit 2012 provides you a platform to propel innovation, entrepreneurship, and positive change in the country around the challenges in the realm of Energy, Education, Environment, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Terrorism and Population explosion.
Do you have a Business model solution to the challenges in these domains? Come and narrate the story of your Startup (in concept or pilot phase) or your Business plan. Perhaps, the single differentiating factor that set Apple inc. apart is the ability of Steve Jobs to get people super excited about its super products. We believe the leaders of tomorrow are the ones who go beyond the Return of Investment in a venture or the Functionality of a product and make people willingly buy into their ideas. So, this will be a typical Business plan with an additional focus on the ability of an individual/ team to present the idea packaged with a compelling story.
The Reward
1. Cash prizes
a. First prize winning team: Rs.50,000
b. Second prize winning team: Rs.30,000
2. Get nominated for NSEF Fellow Student Social Entrepreneur
3. Get Funded from Springboard ventures
4. Get your story profiled in The weekend Leader
What do we mean by a ‘Start-up’?
A typical startup is an initiative of an individual or a team to combine business management skills with innovations in technology or services. For instance an attractive technical idea to improve the security of vehicles can be elevated to the next level where the conceiver finds out the ways to implement the idea in mass, to market, to sale, to brand and to sustain the operation. On the other hand it can be a service like catering or transport or anything similar to that which is executed in an unconventional way.
Who can participate in the event?
The summit invites Engineering and Management student teams who are passionate about entrepreneurship. The team may be in different levels of their mission from a basic business idea to a fully evolved business. We welcome the teams from all the levels of maturity for the contest. This can be illustrated by the following sample cases.
1. You are a student team who have conceived an idea and believe that could make a great business opportunity. The idea appears to be unique and no specific predecessor. The entire idea needs to be discussed, analyzed and guidance required from qualified team of experts. As of now, it remains just as an idea and you are looking for nourishing it to next level by identifying the opportunities and challenges. YES, you can participate in the event.
2. You are a student team who has an idea about a startup, drafting down the business plan, studying the market and strong desire to make it happen, but not having started it. For instance you have an idea to build up a catering services point for your institution. You have estimations about the requirements, market, financials and a basic plan to execute. But just in paper. YES, you can participate in the event.
3. You are a student team who has initiated your startup after finalizing your business plan and market analysis. Currently you are concentrating in developing the activities of your startup and want the name of your startup to reach significant places and it needs to be discussed among people. YES, you can participate in the event.
Team Composition:
The team can contain maximum of 4 members.
The members can be from different departments.
The three stages of the event
STARTUP STORY TELLING | |||
Stage | Event | Date | Details |
1 | Executive summary submission | February 3 2012 | The executive summaries need to be submitted online. The results will be announced on February 10 2012 |
2 | Startup story telling – the presentation | March 2 2012 | The Presentation would happen in front of a judging panel and the winners will be selected based on their ability to speak about their startup. |
3 | SSILS-2012 | March 3 2012 | The ultimate event where the winners will get an opportunity to participate in the whole summit and listen to eminent personalities. |
How to participate in ‘startup story telling’?
Stage 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SUBMISSION |
Rules and regulations |
· The summary should talk about the following basic aspects. 1. How did we get this idea? 2. The way we launched the start up 3. The business model 4. Our strategy towards the market and sales 5. The experience so far and the future plans · The following supporting documents can be added based on the appropriateness to the case. 1. Bona fide certificate from the college. (Mandatory) 2. Proof for articles published, honors received etc., if any. 3. Details about the references, inspired articles, 4. Photographs and videos of the startup. · Necessary diagrams/photographs can be added. · The summary should be a MS-Word document which is not more than 3 pages · The document should be typed using Times new Roman font of size 11. · The name of the document should be the name of the startup. · The names of the team members and their personal contact details should be included in the last page Please refer the sample executive summary at the end of this document |
Selection Criteria |
· The submitted executive summaries will be scrutinized by an expert panel and the finalists will be selected based on the following criteria. 1. The uniqueness or the specialty of the idea 2. The fortitude of the people behind the startup 3. The sustainability factor and the scope for extensibility 4. Possibilities of attracting capital |
The results |
· The selected teams will be intimated by mail on February 10th 2012. The teams will participate in story telling event of SSILS 2012 where they are expected to give a power point presentation and an optional video presentation. |
Stage 2 STARTUP STORY TELLING - THE PRESENTATION |
Format for the presentation / Rules and regulations |
· The selected teams should give a power point presentation during the event where they need to explain the following. 1 The objective behind the startup and the journey happened so far The key learning and experiences. 3 The challenges faced and the achievements done. · The teams are advised to create and present a video along with the presentation which exhibits their vision, mission and the dream behind the startup. · It is advised to prepare the presentation by keeping the selection criteria in mind. i.e., the learning and experiences part of your presentation may address the ‘Entertain’ factor of selection criteria where it talks about innovation and sustainability of the business. There may not be a concrete association of your presentation to the selection criteria, but ensure that addressing the three areas of selection criteria is done specific to your case. |
Selection Criteria |
· The panel of judges will interact with the team during the presentation for evaluation. The teams will be assessed based on the capabilities to 1.Entertain - Innovation and Sustainability. - The potential to improve or impact the quality of life - Areas of application 2.Educate - Market potential and traction 3.Inform |
The results |
Two teams will be selected for the award at the end of the presentation. The teams will be honored during the summit and they might get a chance to present their product in the grand function. |
A Sample Executive Summary
[This is just to illustrate the format and the flow of the expected executive summary. It may be modified appropriately based on your case]
“CLICK ONE”
Introduction
‘Click one’ is the name of our startup, where we transformed our hobby to a business. Yes, we are speaking about Photography and how our interest towards the art and the business changed our life in a span of 6 months and placed ourselves in an exciting territory. In this summary we are sharing our story where we identified our potential through our passion and we believe it would impress you a lot.
The story behind the startup
We are four mechanical engineering students Ajay, Ram, Manzoor and Thilak studying in final year. When we were celebrating the twenty first birthday of Manzoor, we had not known how that day would become an important day of our life. That day he got a presentation from his dad, which was a Digital single lens reflex camera, shortly known as DSLR.
Though we had enough experience with normal point and shoot cameras, operating an advanced DSLR camera had its own challenges. The next week end we had a walk in the evening across the nearby woods just to experiment the equipment. We managed to click randomly without worrying about all the complex settings. It was a digital one and we were able to see the output instantaneously in the small screen. But it was a great disappointment when we observed them in the computer screen.
This experience created uncontrollable curiosity in us to handle the device with more command. We spent next three months aggressively in speaking with experts, downloading tutorials from net, participating in various competitions held in web and most importantly continuously using the camera and to learn out of it.
After a period of 6 months we realized we were able to take near professional quality pictures which could appeal the viewers. Gradually our focus turned towards using our hobby in a business so that we would get more opportunities to explore in our field of interest and it appeared with prospectus to earn as well.
The initial phase
When we decided to shoot professional quality photographs for money, the question was about marketing. Our methodical analysis for a period of two weeks, made us clear about the potential marketplace to sell ourselves. That is to start from students and institutions where we could get considerable opportunities. Initially we spoke with our Head of the department to shoot for a function conducted by our association. Obviously they were reluctant and not ready to take risk with new comers.
To overcome this, we got their permission to shoot the function along with the college appointed photographer. Of course for free of cost. Everyone agreed that our snaps are not bad or unacceptable. But they felt it could be competitive if some more practice is done.
We spent another 2 months in keenly studying the photographs of our family functions and other occasions to understand the nuances of the art. We tried shooting as a secondary photographers to few more functions and finally at the end of 9 months since we started this initiative we had been accepted as photographers. Our first serious assignment was the inauguration of a student’s club where we demonstrated our skills without any disbelief from anyone. This was how our journey started.
The marketing strategy
We were able to win the opportunities for most of the functions happened in our college and every time our quality was seen improving. Our charges were very attractive compared with other professionals but there was no compromising in the quality. When we managed to shoot for most of the occasions in our college we started marketing ourselves in other colleges. The internet was extremely helpful in serving as a platform for our marketing. Our facebook page was made popular in the nearby colleges by word of mouth and mail forwards.
The photographs taken by us were displayed in the public domains like flikr and Picasso, where we use to get hundreds of views and comments which are instrumental in shaping ourselves further apart from gaining us a wonderful popularity. We were able to create a network of acquaintances across colleges, clubs and associations from whom we were able to get business. In most of the situation we proved to be the most appropriate choice for them due to our competitive pricing.
Our achievements:
The achievements in our journey happened so far is
1. The opportunity to shoot the convocation function happened in our college, where we shot the precious moment of 450 degree holders, the pride and happiness in their parents’ faces and the exhilaration of the whole environment. This gave us enormous good will across the departments and the college management.
2. The special occasion called ‘TechNic’ – the inauguration of industry-university association wing- which happened in the university campus won accolades for our work from the vice chancellor of the university and the honorable guests.
Conclusion
We have shared our story in which a hobby was transformed to business due to our continuous learning spirit and curiosity towards mastering an art. The next phase of our activities will be aiming at encouraging more student groups towards entrepreneurship and similar initiatives.
Image courtesy: Internet
Sample start ups for reference.
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