New Ventures Graduating from IIMs
At least 20 graduates from Class of
2014 choose entrepreneurship over a regular job
When Tarun Tiwari, Akhil Malik,
Paavan Nanda and Dharamveer Singh Chauhan passed out of IIM-Calcutta this
month, they graduated with an MBA and a fledgling new business. Zostel, a chain
of backpacker hostels for young travellers that the four of them started with
three other friends last year, is fast growing into a fullfledged business. Two
such hostels — offering a bed at less than .
`500 a night — are already open at
Jodhpur and Jaipur. “At least 7 more hostels will come up in one year,” says
Nanda. Zostel is getting good reviews on travel portals.
The seven of them started the
venture with money pooled in from friends and family as well as the .
`20 lakh-odd they won in various
business plan contests.
At least 20 IIM graduates from the
Class of 2014 have stood down from this placement season to launch their own
ventures — everything from express bike washes to alternative investment funds,
agricultural advisory firms and test preparation institutes. To name a few,
Prakhar Bindal, also from IIMCalcutta, has started Axsiom.com, which helps
companies acquire premium domain names and IIM-Indore’s Ashish Jain is in the
final stages of R&D before launching an FMCG product.
Also, IIM-Indore’s Niraj Taksande
has floated an engineering innovations company.
All of them graduated this year and
chose entrepreneurship over a regular job.
The number of fresh IIM graduates
opting to turn entrepreneurs is by no stretch of imagination big. Nor is there
any guarantee that the few that have dared will succeed. Also, IIMs lag IITs
when it comes to fresh graduates choosing entrepreneurship.
Nevertheless, the few new business
ventures graduating from the IIM class of 2014 do need to be taken note of.
Also, with IIMs offering incentives including deferred placement options to
graduates choosing entrepreneurship, their tribe is bound to grow.
Most of the 20 entrepreneurs ET
tracked opted for the policy which will allow them to sit for campus placements
in the next couple of years in case their startups fail.
IIMs are also fostering
entrepreneurship in other ways. Shaunak Chhaparia and Sushil Kumar, who are
setting up a logistics venture, have been offered a co-working space at CIIE
(Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship) at IIM-A. As many as
13 students from the 2014 batch at IIM-A have turned entrepreneurs.
“It bodes very well for both the
entrepreneurial ecosystem and industry in India that some of the best quality
talent from the top institutes wants to be entrepreneurs,” says Abhay Pandey,
MD, Sequoia Capital India. “This trend has been gaining ground, and the change
is very apparent too in terms of the startups that approach us these days
–people have better
backgrounds and better experience.“
Adds Ashok Banerjee, dean (new
initiatives and external relations) and coordinator, Centre for
Entrepreneurship and Innovation, IIM Calcutta: “The existence of an enabling
ecosystem incubators and accelerators, angels and impact investors --has also
encouraged management and engineering graduates to follow the entrepreneurial
path.“
Still, it's not easy for IIM grads
to walk away from an attractive job offer and opt for risky entrepreneurship.
“It's difficult to resist the lure
of hundred thousand dollar salaries,“ says Bindal of Axsiom .com. “But I was
dri ven by this need to build something of my own that people around me would
re member me for.“
Over 150 companies from more than 40
countries have used Axsiom.com's servic es to buy premium do main names, he
says. He started with a Rs 3 lakh investment raised from family and friends.
Taksande from IIM Indore didn't
bother taking the deferred placement option. He has started an engineering
innovations company based out of Mumbai with two friends. They have designed
and manufactured an automatic two-wheeler wash system that can wash any
motorcycle in under 5 minutes. “We are targeting motorcycle service centres,
wash centres, petrol pumps, parking lots at malls/railway stations etc. We
offer this service under the brand name Express Bike wash,“ says Takshande.
“For these students, having their
own start-up is like a self-purification process. It is about adversity and one
becomes stronger,” says Sharad Sharma, angel investor and former head of Yahoo
India R&D. Sharma helped launch iSpirt, a think-tank for software product
companies. “Even if their startup doesn’t take off, these experiences help the
resume. More employers want candidates to have startup experience on the
resume,” he adds.
Money, fame and independence aren’t
the only driving factors. Several of these entrepreneurs are also eager to do
something for society. Snehil Basoya, an IIM-Ahmedabad graduate has set up Gram
Bazaar, a for-profit social enterprise working with farmers and local
entrepreneurs to introduce new crops and improved agricultural practices
through intensive crop planning and extension services. He will soon implement
a pilot project in Alwar district. “We will also enable farmers to get higher
remuneration as well as create job opportunities for rural youth by processing
and marketing these new products,” says Basoya, who has a partner in Arushi
Mittal, a B-Tech in civil engineering from IIT-Delhi.
Basoya’s IIM-A batch mate
Karunamoorthi P wants to help school students learn visually and become more
creative. His venture is to build model schooling systems with a unique set of
learning and teaching methodologies that would prepare students for an
entrepreneurial future. Also starting out in the education space is Alosies
George of IIM Calcutta, who’s started GeorgePrep, a competitive test
preparation institute. Currently, he’s training aspirants only for CAT, but plans
to extend that to GRE and GMAT in the near future.
SREERADHA D BASU & DEVINA
SENGUPTA TNN 140422
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