25 tips to ensure YOUR start-up is a success!

Last updated on: September 26, 2012 18:16 IST

Apoorve Dubey, founder and CEO of Kreyon Systems Pvt. Ltd, an IT and mobile application development company, lists out the 25 things that will help you make your start-up successful.

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint hearted.

While every entrepreneur starts with a dream of making a dent in the universe, most end up discovering that it is more about survival. Skepticism looms large and the struggle is often tougher than expected. The challenge is to deal with the ups and downs. The initial euphoria of a new company subsides and eventually one has to face the real world: a place full of skeptics. An entrepreneur must learn to cope with all these things and still remain focused at work. The equation is pretty simple: you need money to sustain the company but passion to start it. They say money is not the goal but a by product of an excellent product or service. Most entrepreneurs quit when it gets tough, but those who are passionate about their work, seem to hang in longer and triumph against all odds. It is rare to find a successful entrepreneur who does not love his work. It is the joy of work that keeps one going in the turbulent times. It is about defying logic, building dreams and achieving the impossible. In entrepreneurship, things never go in the anticipated direction, almost never. Entrepreneurship is a risky business. But risks can be eliminated with proper planning and by employing a well measured approach. Here are a few things that every entrepreneur must know when s/he takes the plunge. Please click NEXT to continue reading...

25 tips to ensure YOUR start-up is a success!

Last updated on: September 26, 2012 18:16 IST

1. A great team

A great team is a must for any company to start and sustain itself. The team should have like-minded people with
complimentary skill sets. The bottom line is to cover as many areas as possible. A great team also comprises people with deep knowledge and expertise in their domains. One must clearly assess himself as to what he brings to the table. A team of passionate individuals with the commitment to work is what you should be looking for. It is important to have a cohesive team, especially when things are not going good. Passion for work is infectious, a lousy person will never move people. 2. Know your business Great entrepreneurs figure out the most important things that drive their business. They are as follows:

Core values of the start-up The purpose of the company Envisioned future A detailed description of the work involved Team and their roles

3. Assess your start-up Ideas rule the world, but only when they are executed properly. The product or service you are dealing with must have sustainability, and not a me-too approach. Work out the details of executing the plan. A start-up must find out its niche before venturing into the hostile world of fierce competition. Every start-up needs to answer these questions:

What is your product or service? What will differentiate your product and services? Who are your customers? What they want? What is the size of the market for its product/service? Is it global or local? Is the start-up scalable? What is the investment involved in launching the product or the providing the services?

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

25 tips to ensure YOUR start-up is a success!

Last updated on: September 26, 2012 18:16 IST

4. Assess the competition

It is all too easy to say that our product is unique with so many features and a great technical team, etc. The acid test
lies in careful analysis of the competition. Analyse the competition, before you begin execution of the idea. What differentiates your product/service? Is it feasible to compete with the existing players? Everybody has something to promote. It is how creatively one can put his idea in the market that decides how much success it eventually gets. Be creative and promote your products/services to get maximum traction. 5. Swallow your ego An entrepreneurs needs to ask for help, he needs to promote himself, he has to often do what is in the best interest of the company. The best entrepreneurs are driven by the best ideas, not necessarily their own. Egoistic people are repulsive in nature, whereas entrepreneurs need to be magnetic. Entrepreneurship and ego do not go together. It does not matter who gets the credit, what matters is what is established. 6. Integrity Integrity is the foundation on which a company is built. If the foundation is weak, the company cannot sustain. Integrity is the consistency of actions and words, it is how a brand is built. The most influential brands are built with integrity in their actions and that is how the customers develop respect for the companies. Illustration: Dominic Xavier

25 tips to ensure YOUR start-up is a success!

Last updated on: September 26, 2012 18:16 IST

7. Workforce diversity

It is good to have a diversified group of people as opposed to having people of the same culture or background.
People from different backgrounds, culture and nationalities add to a rich team. Each individual with different background brings something different to the team and adds value. 8. Quality of the board members Board members can directly influence the results of a company. They are important because of their inherent networks, experience, skills and mentorship they offer. Great companies are built around great mentors. This includes directors, advisors, and people with technical ability to drive things. For a start-up, it is a must to have a great board member team. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

25 tips to ensure YOUR start-up is a success!

Last updated on: September 26, 2012 18:16 IST

9. Test your idea

It requires more than a business plan to validate your idea. Designing and developing the product is easier, selling is
the tough one. Most entrepreneurs with a technology background often forget to ask the most important question: Who cares? Is there someone who is interested in your idea? Is there a market for it? How are you going to sell it? Talk to people before you develop anything. Figure out how many people are interested in your idea. It is important to evaluate the feasibility of an idea before taking it up. Analyse the idea, the basic requirements for it and the factors needed to sustain the idea. 10. Check the source of funding No matter how much petrol is there in the tank, the refueling will be needed at some point. Every entrepreneur must assess the funds at his disposal and figure out how much capital would be needed and when it would be needed. When a company scales, it needs funds. Choosing the best funding option is important to the growth of a company. It is important to know and be aware of the various ways for raising funds like friends and family, self funding, VCs, banks, angel investors, incubators and IPOs going public. 11. Create or cater a need When dealing with products and services, there is no place for mediocrity. Excellence is the need of the hour. It is hard to sustain something that is not world class in the long run. Entrepreneurship needs conviction to try something new, something that does not exist. There are two ways to sustain a business -- either you cater to the needs of the client or you create the need yourself. The iPod is a classic example of a product that created its need in the market, whereas e-commerce is an example of finding a new solution to an old problem. 12. Recruit the right people A start-up is built around the initial people it recruits. Recruit people who are self-driven and are willing to go the extra mile. Hire the best talent to do the best jobs. Never compromise on the quality of people. Find experts and let them take control. Let them have the centre stage and make decisions. Let the best people handle the jobs and drive things. Build a team -- people tend to bring out their best when they are collaborating rather than competing with each other. Illustration: Dominic Xavier

25 tips to ensure YOUR start-up is a success!

Last updated on: September 26, 2012 18:16 IST

13. Work on the exit plan Most entrepreneurs neglect the exit option. They find it difficult to comprehend selling their business or other exit options. It is important to consider your exit strategy when starting-up. The most common selling option is to be acquired by another business, a private investor or management. Some businesses also go for mergers and IPO as an exit option. 14. Working capital and finances How much working capital is required? How are the finances going to be managed?

It is very important to streamline the accounts and finances from the beginning. Most entrepreneurs, especially those with a technical background do not understand finances. However, businesses cannot be run without the understanding of money. 15. Equity of company Decide beforehand the stakes involved in the business. The start-up is a very early stage, but one needs to have a fair idea of how the equity will be distributed. Many of the start-ups fail when there is contention in distribution of the equity. The founders and the board must chalk out everything clearly before the team. A rough guideline that most successful start-ups follow for equity is as follows: Founder/Board/Mgmt: 33per cent Venture fund: 33per cent Employees: 34per cent

25 tips to ensure YOUR start-up is a success!

Last updated on: September 26, 2012 18:16 IST

16. Uncertainty

The route of a start-up is unpredictable, to say the least.

The people on board should be prepared mentally to go through this tough journey and deal with any sort of challenges. Whether it is a complete change in technology, financial crunch, product failure, internal conflicts, damage by nature, or dealing with people loss, one cannot afford to let the situation dictate terms. 17. Encourage failures/success alike Everyone is bound to fail, mistakes are part and parcel of the job. Never discourage a person for failing. Risks, experimentation and repeated efforts pave the way for success of a company. 18. Sense of urgency The clock is ticking ever second. For an entrepreneur, it gets tougher to sustain with passing time. One can never take anything for granted. Each moment lost in a useless activity is a moment taken away from building the company. Everything adds up and matters in the long run. 19. Understand the legal ramifications Sort out the legal issues in the planning phase itself. Know what is needed and when it is needed. Illustration: Dominic Xavier

25 tips to ensure YOUR start-up is a success!

Last updated on: September 26, 2012 18:16 IST

20. It takes time

Even the genius of Edison took more than 25 years to make an electric bulb. It took 20 years to develop the Xerox
machine. The greatest of ideas are not always magic. It takes time to build great stuff. It needs a real big effort to build something that can create an impact. Give sufficient time to try out things. However, sustaining a start-up becomes tougher with time. Ultimately, one must find the time to try new things. 21. Creating a brand Even start-ups need to create brands. There are four stages included in the process namely brand awareness, which means people begin to recognise your existence. Brand quality is when they trust the quality. Brand association is the attitude or feeling towards a brand, call it affinity. Brand loyalty is when they begin to recommend your brand to family and friends. 22. Power distance Communication is the greatest asset of a start-up. When teams communicate and collaborate, great things are possible, but when there is a communication gap, things are messed up. How accessible is the senior management? If the distance is large, it means that there are lot of people involved in the process and at times, this may take longer time for decision making. The need is to enable communication between groups and allow the best ideas to find their way through the ranks into the products and services.

25 tips to ensure YOUR start-up is a success!

Last updated on: September 26, 2012 18:16 IST

23. Know when to step back One needs a good structure to be in place to make people replaceable. It is important to have a system wherein others can take charge when the founder members step aside. A company is never scalable when it is heavily dependent on people. 24. The right pricing strategy Deciding the cost for a product/service can be a tricky job. A lot of start-ups fail because they either put too much or too little cost for their products and services. A careful study of the resources spent for the job, market analysis and time spent on service needs to done before the correct price can be decided. An effective pricing strategy is paramount to the success of the product/service. 25. Be flexible The life of an entrepreneur is about living on the edge. It is a very tough job. Most of them work hard, yet majority of the start-ups fail. All is not rosy. Be honest and assess hard before jumping into entrepreneurship. One needs to have the commitment level to work tirelessly, even without results. Research shows that most business ideas fail. Most companies start with one idea but succeed with some other idea. They gradually find their way to a better idea or sometimes even refine the initial idea. They take a proactive approach, expect problems and find solutions in advance. Be open, be adaptive and don't hang on for too long with the same approach when things are not working. When you try long and hard for anything, eventually, a moment comes, when it happens. The important thing is to keep trying until that moment comes. Illustration: Dominic Xavier

How Startup Village plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

t's raining innovators across college campuses in Kerala. Bringing to the limelight some of the brilliant ideas and

innovative projects from campuses is a unique initiative by Startup Village, India's first telecom incubator. Promoted by the Department of Science and Technology, Technopark Trivandrum and founders of MobME Wireless with Kris, co-founder of Infosys as the chief mentor, the initiative, has launched an ambitious talent hunt. This initiative plans to groom a billion dollar company from a college campus by the turn of this decade. Startup Village, which received more than 200 applications in just four months, has shortlisted 6 innovative projects for incubation. "Startup Village is our small way of contributing back to the startup ecosystem that has given us so much and to help spawn the next 1000 tech startups in India and start the search for a billion dollar campus startup," says Sijo Kuruvilla George, CEO, Startup Village. Lamenting over the inability of India's education system to 'inspire innovative thinking', Startup Village attempts to build confidence among students to build on their innovative ideas. "The curriculum and the present academic setup do not spark imagination and creativity," points out Sijo Kuruvila. Startup Village covered 164 engineering colleges in Kerala in its pursuit of unique ideas that can be transformed into real solutions. Besides partial funding, Startup Village will also provide a slew of perks like platform to incubate the idea and an opportunity to showcase the projects before Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan. Sijo Kuruvila reveals Startup Village's ambitious plans to tap innovators and entrepreneurs from the student community to herald an innovation culture among students in India... We also present the top 6 innovative projects, selected by Startup Village for further tech and financial support. Click NEXT to read more...

How Startup Village plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

What was the idea behind starting Startup Village? Are you looking at projects only from Kerala?
Every startup needs a lot of support in the early days when everything is so vague, ideas are aplenty and the founder(s) just have an idea and the only capital being the fire he carries in his belly. When we (the founders of MobME) started our entrepreneurial journey at an age of 21, it was something not really common in our country but over five years, we've grown, with the support of a lot of people in the ecosystem, to become one of India's top 10 Emerging IT companies. We have not set definitive boundaries in terms of location, we look for innovative and inspired initiatives. It is open to entrepreneurs across India. 1,000 product startups over 10 years: Is this a realistic goal? How will this become a reality? Yes of course, it is a very realistic goal. We have received more than 200 applicants in just four months. We also are in the planning stages of a few initiatives which would systematically bring about these numbers. Click NEXT to read more...

How Startup Village plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

How was the response from students in terms of submitting projects?

Startup Village aims to incubate 1,000 product startups over 10 years and has started the search for a billion dollar company from a college campus by turn of this decade. We have received a very positive response from the young entrepreneur community, we have received more than 200 applications and about 60 of them are incubated. We have also initiated a campus connect program by which we plan to form a network among the various college campuses, and also making them aware of the Startup Village organisation and inspire innovation and entrepreneurship among the youth. How many projects did you scrutinise? How was the evaluation done? As part of the IEEE - Startup Village Student Project Program, we had received over 500 applications of which we shortlisted 25. These 25 applicants made a presentation at Startup Village. After this, the final projects were selected. The selection was done by a 5-member panel comprising of representatives on behalf of IEEE, Startup Village and MobME. Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

What do you think about the quality of ideas?

We see a huge untapped potential in the various projects by the startups. With the right guidance and mentoring we are quite confident that these startups can turn out to be big enterprises in the future. And more strikingly, more than the quality of the ideas, the quality of the talent is what really impressed us. All ideas start small and keep evolving over time and it's the entrepreneurial DNA that makes all the difference. Can these shortlisted projects be converted into viable, profitable ventures? Yes, the innovative ideas that the startups have come up with shows great commercial promise and this is where the role of the incubator comes into play. How long will it take for these products to hit the market? The startups are at various stages in the development process of their projects. Some are even registered companies with several products out in the market whereas some are just starting out and require more time to bring out their respective finished projects. Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

What kind of support does Startup Village offer these students?

Startup Village aims to bring four key elements needed for a robust tech startup ecosystem at scale for the first time in India with the following pillars under one umbrella. 1. A policy change in the education system where students in engineering colleges who pursue entrepreneurship get the current benefits that is being extended to sports or NCC. This in Kerala is 20% attendance and 4% marks in the University exams. 2. An incubator which functions as an idea nursery. a) Hard infrastructure - This includes physical space, power, security, work stations, canteen, conference rooms etc. b) Soft infrastructure - This includes computers, servers, leased line internet, Wi-Fi, Printer, Scanner, Fax, Phone Lines, Photocopiers, Credit Card Facility, Virtual Office services like receptionist, Mail Box address etc. c) Support infrastructure - This includes CAs, Lawyers, IPR Consultants, PR Consultants, Mentors etc. d) Technology infrastructure - This are key technology infrastructure that are supplied to the incubator companies in partnership with technology partners. 3. An accelerator which provides minimum capital and specific support required for the promising ideas that come from the incubator. 4. An angel fund, which can invest in the high growth startups. With respect to the IEEE - Startup Village Student Project Program, we will be extending financial assistance, access to our device labs and technical mentoring Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

How keen are students in Kerala to become entrepreneurs?

About 3 in 5 applications are from young student startups. There are more students exploring the startup route. How innovative and intelligent are students in Kerala compared to other states? We don't have an exact comparison to the other states, but I have to say that the talent and students in Kerala are uniquely poised to take advantage of the next growth wave in India; which we believe is the creation of a knowledge economy led by product companies. Four out of the top 10 Nasscom emerging companies had founders from Kerala. Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

Does our curriculum encourage students to be innovative? We feel that the curriculum followed by the system of education in India is not updated at the pace which is demanded by the advances in science and technology. The student community is not open to resources that are required to inspire innovative thinking. Most strikingly, the curriculum and the present academic setup do not spark imagination and creativity. Majority of students like to join corporates after engineering though they may have brilliant ideas to work on, how can we bring about a change in the mind-set of young students? Ventures like Startup village promote the student to bring out their own innovative ideas and even provide the resources they require to do that, including technical assistance as well as mentoring. The key is to unlock the curiosity in the young minds. And we have realized that exposure, both to markets and technology, is the magic portion. We aim to provide that in abundance at Startup Village. Parental pressure is one of the issues. Since our parents are used to only getting jobs, it is difficult for them to imagine their children being job creators and not job seekers. Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

You have set an example with MobME. How is MobME doing? How has been the growth so far in terms of
revenues, solutions offered? MobME was born out of vision where we believed that it's time for being first generation entrepreneurs in our country, a path less trodden for the vast majority in our country. The backing of media and society was extremely strong and after we took the plunge while being in college to start MobME. Today, there are 136 startups in Technopark Incubator in Thiruvanthapuram. MobME is today rated as one of India's top 10 Emerging IT companies but we are excited to create ripples in the ecosystem that allows for more startups to grow and flourish. With Startup Village, we now hope to hit the critical mass required to tilt the scale of innovation and build an awesome entrepreneurial ecosystem complete with a supportive education policy, an incubator (idea nursery), accelerator (help ideas which have either user or revenue traction) and angel fund (where you invest small amounts of money in return for single digit equity holdings and act more like a co-founder) thus creating an extremely entrepreneur friendly ecosystem that invites you to build, break and innovate. Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

What are the challenges you face? While setting up Startup Village, India's largest incubation attempt, the scale of operation we envisioned for ourselves was colossal. In order to again the flexibility to pursue such an ambition, it is critical to have the right partners on board who understands this.

Gaining the support and guidance from the government of India, established industrialists, reputed corporate institutions, and key educational institutions, their startup ecosystems and media has assisted us to gain our current momentum and accelerate forward. It was equally important for Startup Village to have the ideal talent pool for executing its action plan. At Startup Village, we are leveraging on the foundation laid by Technopark Incubator over last six years to accelerate the tech startup-ecosystem in Kerala, to achieve the mission for a 1000 product startups. Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

Do you feel Kerala has a conductive environment for entrepreneurship to flourish?

The people of Kerala from across academia, media, bureaucracy, business, political leadership have been supportive of the Technopark Incubator since its start in 2006. This has resulted in creation of a great foundation over the last six years by networking a vast majority of engineering colleges in Kerala. Kerala is also 100% literate, has near 100% tele-density high IT literacy and access to broadband making it an apt state to setup a telecom incubator. Further, Kerala is home to MobME Wireless and we're indebted to the support and faith that the above cross-section placed in us when we started off as one of the first campus startups in India. What are your plans in terms of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship? We strongly believe that innovation and entrepreneurship are critical for growth. In order to strengthen the ecosystem, we need to reach out to future innovators from as early as 9th standard. Through our campus connect initiative, we plan to expose the young minds to view developments in science and technology. We hope to broaden their perspective and instill interest in entrepreneurship. We will try our best to create technology entrepreneurs in our state to see the 'Dawn of a Silicon Coast' in India. Click NEXT to know more about the SIX projects shortlisted by Startup Village....

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

Project 1: SMS based vehicle locating system Team: Rahul R, Rejin Jose, Venkiteswaran R. Jiffin Tony Thottan, Kiran Raj Mohan, Nithin D Thomas College: College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram Rahul R talks about the SMS based vehicle locating system. How was the experience of building this solution and getting support from Startup Village? The experience was really amazing. We have always wanted to build something that benefits the common man. To get technical assistance for our idea from IEEE ComSoc and support from Startup Village is a dream come true. What do you plan to do next? We plan to take our idea to the next level. We are working on an android application that reduces user effort in locating local transportation. Is it a commercially viable idea? How will you generate revenue from this? What's the USP? We believe it is a commercially viable idea. We have two proposed revenue models in place: Charge a small fixed fee for using our SMS platform to look for an auto. Take a cut from the auto fare so that only customers using the service need to pay. Currently we are doing market surveys and understanding user requirements. We may opt for a hybrid revenue model. Our SMS based service is a low-cost solution supported on all mobile phones How can people actually use this solution? Currently we have set up a prototype using 55444 SMS platform. People can use the app. by sending an SMS to 55444 in the following format: #transit #to They will receive the contact number of auto-drivers near the location. But presently the database isn't maintained and updated in real-time. We are perfecting location identifying system. Users can expect a practically useful version pretty soon. Are you keen on becoming an entrepreneur? Yes, very much. The technological landscape of our world is rapidly changing and infinite possibilities arise for building great things. Many novel ideas remain unexplored in India. We are inspired by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems who said "Freedom to fail is a key ingredient in success. Try and fail, but do not fail to try. Every disadvantage in India is an opportunity to do something big". How keen are students in Kerala to become entrepreneurs? Does the state have a conducive environment for entrepreneurs? There are students in Kerala, who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs. But as of now, their numbers are dismally low. Kerala presently has a conductive environment for entrepreneurs. Initiatives like Startup Village and Technology Business Incubators are supporting the cause. But the general mindset of students and their outlook about entrepreneurship needs to change. Does our curriculum encourage students to be innovative? How can we encourage students to be innovative? It is sad to note that our curriculum is not encouraging students to innovate. The syllabus being taught is outdated and doesn't cover many things of real life importance. Students are often underestimating their capabilities and the opportunities they have. Majority of students like to join corporates after engineering though they may have brilliant ideas to work on, how can we bring about a change in the mindset of young students?

Exposing them to the industry and inspiring them with the success stories of startups can help. Initiatives like Entrepreneurship Development Cell that was recently started in our college are steps in the right direction. What is your team's ambition? Our ambition is to be India's first major product based software company rather than catering to the service industry. Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

Project: Smartmotive Team: Libin Babu, Akhil Soman, Ranjith Soman College: Government Engineering college Thrissur Libin Babu talks about the Smartmotive project. Tell us more about your team and the effort that has gone into making this solution. We understood the requirement of a modified wheel chair for paralysed people, after visiting a physiotherapy center. The physiotherapist told us that engineers can help thousands of paralysed people, working with the principles we learned and observing the needs of suffering mass. I was thinking about the possibilities and got an idea and shared with my friends .We presented our idea of a standing wheel chair before him. He was impressed and told us this will make a positive impact for thousands of patients. He explained how this will increase recovery chances of the patient. We started working on it. We consulted physiotherapist Dr. Vijesh for studying the patients' needs. We made a prototype using sheet metal and syringes. We have modified its input methods to very sophisticated levels. How was the experience of building this product? The fact that we as engineers are working for the well-being of society instills a sense of pride. We want to make the real working model that can be used by patients. I am looking for a platform to hold our technology and commercialization. What is the USP? The standing wheelchair helps a paralysed person to get up from the seating position. Every operation is controlled

by retina movements, or facial commands or sound. So it will be useful for all types of paralysis. The low cost and extra features of the wheel chair make it very useful compared to other models. How keen are students in Kerala to become entrepreneurs? I feel students don't have a proper platform to develop entrepreneurship. Does our curriculum encourage students to be innovative? The project engineering students do during academic curriculum is pretty good. What is your ambition/team's ambition? We want to see paralysed people live like normal people with the help of our wheel chair. We want to improve their quality of life with low-cost gadgets. Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

Project: S.T.A.R.K (Scientifically Trained Arm - Robotic Kinesis) College: Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology Team: Dainy Daynesious, Sristi Gupta, Benjamin Mathews Abraham, Anna Sony Dainy Daynesious talks about the project. How was the experience of building this product? The product is in its design phase at present. We hope to complete it by January-February 2013. The experience, till now, has been refreshingly exciting, yet full of anxiety, and at times frustrating too, but that thrill of success and attaining new heights is great. We do realise that we may have to face several challenges, as this concept is still in its research phase, but we are ready to face the challenges. A new powered limb offers hope to the physically disabled. Not only will this device enable a paralysed person to regain the use of their hand, in a mechanical sense, but it can also be used to facilitate the retraining process of muscles and nerve connections, and shorten the recovery time for temporarily paralysed people. What do you plan to do next? As of now we are focusing on the successful implementation of this project. Once we are done with it, if time and situation permits, we might commercialise the project into a product for easily availability in the market. Is it a commercially viable idea? How will you generate revenue from this? As systems employed in the product use currently existing and available technologies, or slightly modified versions of the same, we believe that the product implementation can be successfully carried out. Our focus is to reach out to the maximum people and give them a new hope to live life the way they wish to, without having to depend on anybody for support. As mentioned earlier, if everything works out, we may consider going ahead with commercializing the project into a product, but for the sole purpose of making a difference in the society and not for earning profit or generating revenues.

What's the USP? A product like this has not been developed yet for the use of the general public. Even the research being carried out right now is primarily focused on scientific research and development and not on developing a consumer product. Our project aims at implementing this technology on a low cost, user-friendly framework that can be afforded by the general public and is also viable for everyday use. How keen are students in Kerala to become entrepreneurs? Does the state have a conducive environment for entrepreneurs? As per the current trend, entrepreneurship is on the rise. Kerala is known for its innovative youth. We have brilliant engineering minds and. Kerala is slowly realising this vast untapped potential and has started providing opportunities to showcase the same. We are blessed to be students of Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology, which is currently in a tie up with the Technopark Incubation Centre (TIC), a well-evolved and very successful venture that spurs the entrepreneurial spirit among the talented students and professionals of Kerala in the knowledge driven industry. Does our curriculum encourage students to be innovative? How can we encourage students to be innovative? It is a sad truth that the current education system lacks the required ability to evoke the youth and challenge them to bring out the creativity and talent in them. In the present day scenario, majority of the students are pursuing a particular course just for the sake of a degree and not because they want to learn something new. Keeping aside the engineering curriculum, in Trivandrum, a lot of opportunities are being provided to support the students otherwise. The IEEE Comsoc Startup Village project incubation venture has been a source of immense encouragement and motivation. A number of national level project-based competitions are also being conducted on a large-scale, like Spark, that is going to be held in Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology, technical fests like Drishti, organized by CET offers a good platform for students. Majority of students like to join corporate sector after engineering though they may have brilliant ideas to work on, how can we bring about a change in the mindset of young students? This happens mainly because of the pay scale and job security in the IT/corporate sector. To venture out into something new and different is a big challenge. Considering the risk factors involved in this field students prefer to opt for a job. Proper awareness, financial support, right ecosystem and encouragement can help. Examples of eminent personalities who have created landmarks in this sector can also ignite the spark of innovation in the young minds of our nation. What is your team's ambition? We as engineers want to make a difference in the society and help the people by applying our engineering skills to the fullest. Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

Project Haritha Team: Aravind Anil, Aravind R. Thampi, Prathap John M College: Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering. Aravind Anil talks about the project. Tell us more about your team and the effort that has gone into making this solution. We have been together right from our school days and this strong bond of our friendship revolves around our passion for new innovative technologies, which shall help the common man. Our work nature lies in identifying problems around us and defining the best possible solutions for them. As budding engineers, we feel that it is our own duty to serve the people around us with anything related to technology. Project Haritha is an automated irrigation system, which finds application in both households and large farmlands. How was the experience of building this product? It took us almost one month of dedicated work to develop the prototype. We found difficulties from building the sensors, integrating the GSM module with the microcontrollers and finally implementing the prototype as a whole. But the happiest part of this is that the prototype of the system is highly successful in terms of the results obtained so far. What do you plan to do next? Our immediate plan is to build a real time system of the project. This will definitely invite more technical challenges which needs to be solved before bringing out the final product into the market. After the first product launch, more research would be put into improving the efficiency of the sensors used. This will lead to an improvement in the water conservation rates and also to better durability of the sensors. Better algorithms would also be tried out inorder to improve the energy efficiency of the system. Is it a commercially viable idea? How will you generate revenue from this? The first step that we took after deciding to build a prototype of the system was to conduct a survey among 100 random households in Trivandrum district. The main aim of the survey was to find out how well the system would be accepted among the people. The survey results are inspiring since around 53% of the people responded positively to the system. 10% of the people responded saying that they will make a final decision after receiving reviews of the system are available. Thus, the results of the survey states that the product idea is commercially viable. Revenue is expected to be generated by selling the product in association with the Kerala government along with its various policies to promote household farming, precision farming etc. Further revenue is expected in post sales service of the product as this will be required in timely changing the perishable moisture sensors. Whats the USP? Low cost is an obvious USP of our product. Stress needs to be given to the fact that the device will be so user friendly that even a person without any knowledge in the technical domain can operate it easily. During the later stages, when we make the system compatible with large farmlands, even the not-so-well educated farmer can use it with ease. Are you keen on becoming an entrepreneur? Yes, since we believe that we have the ultimate solutions for many problems faced by people today and we believe that we will be able to deliver the products to the right target group. How keen are students in Kerala to become entrepreneurs? Does the state have a conducive environment for entrepreneurs? Well, as in any part of the world, students from Kerala also have great ambitions to become self employed, to sell off their own ideas, rather than being a part of a "big daddy" company and to work to achieve the targets of the company. Another important fact that needs special mention is the hard working nature of the people from Kerala. Given a conducive environment, the probability of student entrepreneurs from Kerala becoming successful with their startups is very high. Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy has announced a Student Entrepreneurship Policy (SEP) that will be rolled out very shortly. According to us, this will be one of the most bathbreaking decisions from the part of government concerning student entrepreneurs. The students who will be given 20 per cent duty leave from their educational institution and also 4 per cent grace marks during their course according to SEP. Such a policy will give more confidence to budding entrepreneurs as they can concentrate on ideas, get exposed to the world of business.

Does our curriculum encourage students to be innovative? How can we encourage students to be innovative? From the perspective of an engineering student, I don't feel that our curriculum supports innovative ideas or student entrepreneurs. But with the interest that the state government has shown towards student entrepreneurs recently, I feel there will be a major curriculum revision in a very short period of time which makes students to think on how they can benefit the world with the knowledge that they acquire during their course. A huge role also vests on the educational institutions as it is the place where a student spends most of his/her time. Only a very few institutes in the state offer an environment where students can give wings to their thoughts. I believe innovation doesn't come from books. Neither do I believe that innovation comes from classrooms. I believe innovation comes from thoughts. To have thoughts, you need to have exposure to the real world. You need to talk with the society around you. You need to find the problems around you. If you find a solution to those problems, it's an innovation. The students should be encouraged to involve themselves in more social services than in social networks as we feel there is always a huge divide between the real world and the digital world. Majority of students like to join corporates after engineering though they may have brilliant ideas to work on, how can we bring about a change in the mindset of young students? The very first thing that needs to be done is to make the student community aware of the possible benefits of entrepreneurship. I believe that there are still people who ask, "hey, can I start a company without completing my course?" This is the kind of awareness that most of the students in our state possess about entrepreneurship. I would like to quote a famous poem by Robert Frost here, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference". Presently, many colleges in the state have an Entrepreneurship Cell established. However, only a very few of them are active. These cells could encourage the students to take the right path. Teachers play a big role in this process. They should ask their students to think, find out the different problems in the society and define solutions for them. What is your team's ambition? Our present ambition is to convert our project into a successful commercial product, which can be implemented in the households easily at a very nominal cost. Research is also on into improving the accuracy of the sensor system. We also intend to come out with more humanitarian products into the market in the future. Our ultimate aim is to extend our services to the entire globe. Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

Project: Tarang College: SCMS School of Engineering and Technology Developed by Anugrah A K Anugrah talks about Tarang and its uses. How was the experience of building this product? Tarang is a new type of electricity generator. The experience of developing something new is challenging. One cannot expect much support from others as it is 'new'- only you know about it. It is painstaking process as I have missed out on class-internals. On one side, people admire you while on the other hand people criticize you for not being successful in the routine work. Since I had already proved my theory, the focus was to making a real working model with all the conventional engineering standards! As per theory, the specimen should be commercially not only viable, but economically much cheaper than the conventional devices. If things go hand in hand with the theory, it would surely surpass the conventional device in all terms. I would like to take a patent for the same and sell it to a suitable company. Are you keen on becoming an entrepreneur? I would definitely like to be an entrepreneur. But being one involves lots of risk too. It is not always secure in this field, if no other means of income can support you. How keen are students in Kerala to become entrepreneurs? Does the state have a conducive environment for entrepreneurs? I have seen an observed two traits in the students of Kerala. There is one class of students who just tries to get through. All they want is to earn a secure job and for that they specialise in science as a subject, or rather as a tool to make themselves eligible for the competitive exams. They are not bothered to raise questions in the field- just try to study it and reproduce the same where ever they are asked to! A minority still does not bother about job security. They simply raise questions every now and then, try to apply what they have felt is true in science in every odd situations and make out something innovative. The environment in the state was not favorable for entrepreneurs for quite a time. The scenario slowly changing, yet, there is a long way to go. Does our curriculum encourage students to be innovative? How can we encourage students to be innovative? The CBSE curriculum and the NCERT textbooks, without doubt, does its best, or rather the best, to bring out the entrepreneur from the student community. But, no school, no teacher follows either of them. The aim of all the schools and its staff is simply to feed the students, in varied means, the bare 'topics of interest' to the students. No school tries to make the students try the activities and miscellaneous experiments given in the text book. No school tries to abide by the method of teaching prescribed in the CBSE books. So the current teaching style must change. Further, students must be encouraged not to agree with what is proved as science, but to find ways to disprove all theories- in the process, they will not only come across all the necessary topics (thus getting familiarized with them) but also 'feel', why the particular arguments were wrong, or how well the existing theories are fitting!

Majority of students like to join corporates after engineering though they may have brilliant ideas to work on, how can we bring about a change in the mindset of young students? Majority of the students (sadly even me) would love to join corporate. One cannot blame the students as it gives a secure life. There is no mechanism to support the innovators, in case of a project failure. Projects must fail- and when

they fail, especially if they are innovative, they lead to losses. It is this fear that discourages innovators to be dedicated entrepreneurs. Here, it is the turn of the government to try out various methods to counter this trend. What is your ambition? Honestly, my sole ambition is to serve the society, my nation to the best of my levels. I don't believe in selling knowledge. If any government agencies are keen on developing my idea, I would happily donate it to the government! My dream is see people using a device or service that I have developed, in front of me, without knowing that it was me who developed it! Click NEXT to read more...

How StartupVillage plans to tap 1,000 tech innovators

Last updated on: September 27, 2012 12:28 IST

Project: Intelligent Wheel Chair College: Sahrdaya College of Engineering Technology Team: Nirmal T M, Nimi Vincent, Maryin Varghese, Stephy Samson, Vincy Vincent V The movement of this unique wheelchair can be controlled by eye-movement, voice and lever control. So it is easy for handicapped people to use it. It can be changed to a semi sleeper bed according to user's wish. The hazard sensors will detect the environmental problems like flame, gas leakage, overheating of room/ humidly and if these parameter reach a certain it will inform (send SMS) to person concerned. Besides this, the device always monitors the human conditions of the user, and if there is any change in the patient's heartbeat or brain functions it will immediately inform the doctor/concerned persons via mobile. The device has an intelligent robotic arm, which can be used to help the handicapped to take food and medicines.